Hero At Last

by thephilosophah

Summary:

Shinsou makes it into the Hero Course, how exciting! He'll have to work to catch up, of course, but the rest of the class is there to support him... and he likes their company ;)

Notes:

this is the last part of this series i cannot BELIEVE we've made it this far. i always knew i'd end this with shinsou's misadventures in the hero course, but actually being here is a whole nother thing.
as always we ignore the canon plot we keep to winkyverse canon... or something. all this to say i've never mentioned what year the class is in, for this entire series, and i never will, because setting a year means i have to keep track of the plot and like *gestures vaguely at the manga* too much plot my guy. anyway hori says shinsou gets into the hero course on his second year but we ignore that, we stay silly, no set year for us. no plot no masters no gods

Chapter 1: Purple boy in the dorms, what will he do

 

At long last.

He's finally, after all that effort, in the Hero Course.

Shinsou didn't think he'd see the day.

On his last night in the GenEd dorms, Shinsou challenges his class to a gruesome game of monopoly. He loses terribly and, as a parting gift, awards the winners with the last of his cigarette packs.

He made a promise to Aizawa, that he'd stop smoking once he was a hero student.

And, well, that is his favorite teacher.

"We'll miss you, Shinsou."

"Speak for yourself, I won't miss him at all!"

Shinsou laughs. "Yeah, fuck the lot of you. It's been real, but you guys knew where I was going from the start."

His former classmates are all smiles, even as they shoo him out the door. "Don't forget us, alright?"

"I couldn't even if I tried."

"Shinsou!"

He turns around at the voice. "Hey, Midoriya."

"Is this all your stuff? Here, let me get that."

"Thanks. Yeah, that's all of it. Let's go."

A couple of his old class boo him as he walks away, but most of them just go back into the dorm and to their own business.

Midoriya looks over his shoulder with a frown. "They're not gonna say goodbye, or?"

"We said goodbye inside."

"I see! I really thought you'd have someone help you move your stuff, not just me..."

"That's GenEd for you."

Midoriya shakes his head. "I don't get it."

"We can't all be like class A. We've been over this, it's your class that's an outlier, not the other way around."

Midoriya gives him a coy little smile. "This is your class too, now, isn't it?"

Shinsou smiles back. "Yeah, I guess it is."

The walk between the two dorm buildings only takes a minute. Midoriya stands in front of his own building's door, smiling.

"Go on," he says, "it's not locked."

Shinsou takes a deep breath. He pushes the door open. His first step into his dorm building as a hero student...

Someone skids past at mach 5, flat on their back.

Shinsou jumps out of his skin.

It's Kirishima. He keeps sliding across the floor with a squeaky noise until he slams head-first into the back of a couch. He scrambles to his feet and launches himself back the way he came.

Shinsou takes another step into the dorms, cautious. Midoriya closes the door behind them.

Kirishima is wrestling with one of his classmates, though Shinsou isn't sure which one. There's like five of them over there, some of them are trying to stop the fight while some seem to be placing bets.

Shinsou turns to Midoriya. "Let me guess, normal day in the hero dorms?"

Midoriya's already stepped out of his shoes. "Hm? Oh, what are they doing? Hey! Hey, guys!"

They stop fighting to turn to Midoriya's raised voice.

"Shinsou is here!" Midoriya beams. "To stay!"

Shinsou barely has time to blink before the entire class is on him.

They crowd him in the doorway and talk over each other, some louder than others, voices blending together.

It's so overwhelming Shinsou fucking snaps into hero mode without meaning to. His blood pressure goes through the roof but at least he can focus on all of this without losing his shit, this way.

"Welcome!" and "He's here!" and "Let's work together!" and "About time, dude!" all get tossed his way by several people. There's even a bit of "I knew you'd make it!" that warms his face, but Shinsou perseveres.

"Thank you, everyone," he says, uncaring if they stop to hear him or not. "I'm glad to be here. Getting into this course has been my goal for such a long time."

"And we're glad to have you!" Iida yells over everyone else. "Please, don't hesitate to tell us if there's any way we can help you get more comfortable in the dorms! As your Class Representative, I will do my best to make sure you're truly one of us!"

"Jeez, you're gonna fuck me right here in the doorway? At least let me get my shoes off first, man."

In Shinsou's defense, it was incredibly funny. Certainly it made the class laugh. Plus, Iida should know better than to make that kind of declaration.

And it's not like anyone can argue against Shinsou. The only "one of us" this class has separate from the rest of the student body is that.

While everyone is busy laughing their whole asses off and Iida is too flabbergasted to even scold Shinsou for what just came out of his mouth, he takes the chance to step out of his shoes and onto the hardwood floors.

He walks up to Iida and puts his hands together. "Sorry, Class Prez. It was funny though."

A soft chuckle slips out of Iida. "Fine, yes, I'll give you that. It was funny."

Shinsou pats Iida's arm. "Really though, I know what you guys are like. Being one of you very much comes with some sort of horny nonsense, whether I'm actually part of it or just witnessing it. Hell, even when I was just visiting I caught some of you in the act."

Iida goes stiff. "I... apologize. The last thing any of us want is to make you uncomfortable."

"Uh, yeah," Kaminari pipes up from the side, "I'm kinda responsible for giving you an eyeful a couple of times, my bad. Didn't mean to gross you out or anything."

"It's not that I'm grossed out," Shinsou assures them. "I'm not really uncomfortable either. I'm just calling you out on it."

"In any case you should never feel pressured into anything you wouldn't want!" Iida continues, picking up pace as he goes. "Please keep in mind that no matter the social interconnections between any members of the class, your place here only has to do with your abilities and your studies, not with us. Don't feel like you have to act a certain way in order to be here! You are officially a hero-in-training, just like us!"

Shinsou takes a step into Iida's space. "You're kinda cute when you get all worked up."

"You're totally messing with him!" someone calls out from the class, prompting another round of laughter.

Iida, for his part, has gone all red. He looks like he his head has nothing but a loading icon in it.

"Sorry, sorry," Shinsou laughs. "Really though, this is too much, you guys didn't have to do this. I had like seven people waving me goodbye from my old class, and this is what, the entirety of class A?"

"Most of us, it looks like," Midoriya nods. "Look, you're right, we kinda jumped you. Let's just get you settled in. Come on, you're on the same floor as me."

"Sweet," Shinsou goes, and absolutely runs out of the situation as soon as he can.

His heart still pounds in his ears.

He makes his bed, first thing. Midoriya helps him unpack a few things, but eventually picks up on how Shinsou is doing and leaves him alone.

Shinsou drops onto his new bed and stays there.

His first morning in the hero dorms.

He's not done unpacking. He'll leave it for later.

All things considered, it's not a bad day. Shinsou has breakfast with the class (not his first time doing that) and walks with them to the school building (first time doing that.) The classroom portion of the day is a breeze to Shinsou, hell he's pretty sure GenEd was harder than this.

It's in Hero Training that things get interesting.

Shinsou hopes to hell they won't make him do any endurance for his first day, and at first he thinks he gets his wish. A Quirk Apprehension Test, it seems simple enough. Apparently they have these a lot in the Hero Course - two or three each semester.

Geez.

"Honestly, at this point, we don't even think of them as tests," Todoroki tells Shinsou when he sees him nervous. "It's more like an exercise. We get scores on them, but they're not graded. Think of it as a way to check your progress."

"Right," Shinsou's mouth says. The rest of his face still says "Doubt."

There's a lot of physical testing, which Shinsou doesn't like. Thankfully each student can choose to focus only on tests they think they've improved in: this, essentially, makes every single test optional. For everyone but Shinsou.

Because everyone has to try every test at least once, and he's the only one who hasn't.

Ugh.

At least once he's done they let him suggest a test specific to his quirk. He's not the only one; Hagakure, Jirou and Kouda all have their own them-specific tests they check their quirk progress with.

The overachievers in the class do those ones, too.

"What about..." Shinsou pauses. Eyes on him. His pulse is in his ears. "Moving someone from one spot to another? Like the 100-meter track."

"Sounds useful for a rescue as well as capture, and you can track it in speed and efficiency! I like it!" Midoriya says. He, of course, is one of the overachievers, and he lines up to take Shinsou's test as well.

But Shinsou has to take it first.

Aoyama volunteers to be the person moved because of course he does. He goes and sits at the start of the 100-meters, smirking like the worlds gaudiest cat.

Question. "Hey, Aoyama?"

"Oui?"

Damn, he didn't even try. Shinsou holds the answer in his mind and uses it to force an answer to everything he says. "Get up and run to the end of the track."

Aoyama gets up and runs.

The whole thing takes less than 15 seconds.

Absolutely no one manages to beat Shinsou's time, because Aoyama sits his ass down for every one of them, and it takes all of them too long to pick him up or stand him up. Bakugou tries to throw the poor guy and Aoyama shrieks like a banshee and uses his own quirk to catch himself. Bakugou has to grab him and launch himself across the track. 19 seconds total.

Hah, get wrecked.

Shinsou survives a whole day as a Hero Course student and, you know what? It wasn't even bad.

Yeah, he can do this every day no problem.

He grins.

 

 

Chapter 2: Fuck, not the eye contact!

Notes:

alright break it up this is a smut verse, we gotta have smut in here

It takes Shinsou a whole week living literally next door to Midoriya before he goes to spend the night in his room. Yes, his restraint knows no bounds, please, hold your applause.

Midoriya opens his door blinking. "Hey Shinsou!"

"Hey. You doing anything tonight?"

"Uh, sleeping? It's nearly eleven already. Unless..." He tilts his head. "...you're offering yourself?"

Shinsou shrugs, smiling. "Yeah, you could do me if you've got nothing better."

Midoriya beams. He catches him around the waist and pulls him inside.

 

And in the morning it seems everyone and their pet rabbit knows Midoriya's tells, because neither of them are in any way disheveled yet they both get teased.

"Ooooooh, he went for it!"

"Well that confirms that, at least! Midoriya, he wasn't banging you just to get into our Course!"

"Took him long enough, huh?"

Shinsou's pulse is in his ears, but it's not a bad thing this time. He's kind of into it. "What, you wanted me to knock on your door first, Kaminari?"

A single bolt of static juts out of Kaminari's hair and fizzes out. "What-- all I'm saying is you were here so often before, I thought you had some kind of Midoriya addiction! A week is a long time!"

"Aww, dumbshit" Shinsou coos, "I don't get addictions, my quirk is a mental one. Then again..." He hums, pretending to think it over. He nods to himself. "Well, if you think Midoriya is someone you can legitimately get addicted to, that's on you, but I can't blame you."

"Will you shut up already! Deku this, Deku that!"

Shinsou doesn't even hesitate, switches targets without a hitch. "Bakugou, there you are, it's just not the same without you here. We're just talking about your boyfriend's Midoriya addiction."

"No we're not!" Kaminari cries.

Bakugou, without breaking eye contact with Shinsou, grabs Kaminari around the shoulders and pulls him into a possessive hug. "Bitch, you don't know the first thing about my boyfriend."

"Oh I could get to know him," Shinsou says, chin in hand. "You know. Biblically."

He braces to have about 80kg of angry teenager launched at him, but no such thing happens. Instead, while the rest of the class hoots and hollers, Bakugou maintains eye contact and slouches until his chin is on Kaminari's shoulder.

Then he turns his head and plants his lips on Kaminari's neck.

Okay, Shinsou cannot have a thing for that look on Bakugou's face. He can't. He refuses.

Kaminari flinches and his breath catches.

Shinsou looks away first.

Alright. Time to put his head down and make a plan.

Flirting with the class at large is fine and all, but Shinsou would like to get some ass while he's at it. Everyone has kept true to their word in that they do their best to make Shinsou comfortable, and lots of them flirt back at him. Hell, some of them even flirt first.

Now he just has to... pick one, and... make a move.

His blood pressure's going.

Fuck, okay, keep calm. Midoriya is conquered ground, pretty much, and he's still the one Shinsou likes the most. Though, maybe that's just because he knows Midoriya the most.

Ojiro and Hagakure, too. Just a couple of times with both of them and none with just one or the other. Shinsou is pretty sure they like him fine, it's just that they're so absolutely smitten with each other that they're not gonna seek Shinsou out when they could be going to each other instead. At least he has a steady source of threesomes, he guesses.

Shinsou has made out with Todoroki a handful of times, but only when Midoriya was there as well. Midoriya's other partners are Iida and Uraraka, so maybe Shinsou should look there?

Then there's Kaminari, he's shown interest since before Shinsou transferred.

And there's that one kiss with Aoyama, but Shinsou doesn't think much of it. He's pretty sure Aoyama didn't think much of it either, but hell, how would Shinsou know.

They're all so cute, too. Fuck. Shinsou shares locker rooms with the boys and so has seen pretty much all there is to see there, and damn. This wasn't a problem in General Studies. In General Studies all the hot people were assholes, and in a fit of self-confidence Shinsou will include himself on that list.

Here everyone's hot and with a sweet personality to boot.

You don't get into the Hero Course and not care about people, after all.

There's an outlier of course in Bakugou, but that only works in singling him out. And boy does he stand out at that. As an asshole, yes, but a hot asshole.

And it just so happens that Bakugou's brand of assholery meshes well with Shinsou's own.

Today Shinsou decides to sit next to Kaminari for lunch, which puts him directly across from Bakugou.

They spend the entirety of lunch hour trading insults back and forth. By the time they're standing up to get back to class, the rest of the table is at their wits' end and, because they're all Bakugou's datemates, decide they'll de-escalate by dragging him by the waist to the nearest out-of-the-way corner they can find.

Kaminari hangs back to do damage control on Shinsou.

"Sorry about him," he says as the both watch Sero duck to whisper in Bakugou's ear. "He's just like that, he doesn't mean it personally."

"Oh it felt personal to me."

Kaminari throws him a panicked look. "He's a good guy, he's just rough around the edges! He can't speak to a normal person to save his life, is all."

"No," Shinsou says. He licks his lips. "I guess he can't."

Kaminari blinks. "Wait. You-- oh you're messing with me, you're not offended at all."

"I didn't say I was offended. I said it felt personal." He looks at Kaminari out of the corner of his eye.

Kaminari looks back. Is he blushing? That's cute. "You're a dick."

"As much as Bakugou?"

"...I guess not. Still a dick, though."

Shinsou grins. He turns back to the corner just in time to catch Ashido take Bakugou's hands and place them on her own hips as she steps into his space. Kirishima is at Bakugou's back, chin on his shoulder, and he reaches around him to take Ashido's hips as well.

Kaminari whistles under his breath.

"I'll let you get to that," Shinsou says. "And also, tell them that they're visible."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Kaminari nods, already speedwalking in that direction.

Cute.

 

That very evening Shinsou is minding his own business, going to the dorm baths to get clean. Granted it's a bit late, but not too much.

He opens the door and before he even has time to register the steam of the room, he hears two hushed voices overlapping.

A pause.

"It's the door," one of the voices says. It's Bakugou.

Well, no need to be shy. "Hello?" Shinsou calls out.

"We're here!" a girl's voice calls back.

Shinsou isn't as good at telling the girls apart by voice alone, but he's pretty sure it's Ashido.

Wow, okay. Let's think, now. What could a couple of teenagers who are in an established relationship be doing together in a shower stall? You get three guesses.

"...I can go, if I'm interrupting," Shinsou offers, because his second guess is, well, they could just be showering. Not likely.

"Or you could come over here," Ashido purrs. There's a hiss and-- yeah, that's a moan. Shinsou's first guess was correct.

A click of the tongue. "Fucking move, Brainwash. Either get here or leave, don't just stand at the door."

Shinsou closes the door behind him. "...You don't mind?"

"You wanna join or just gonna watch?" Ashido asks, her voice low.

Shinsou's fists clench around his basket of toiletries. "Really."

"Really," Bakugou groans. Fuck. "Got room for one more in here. Or there's always-- always the next stall over."

The groan, the stutter, the lack of running water that leaves all their sounds echoing instead of covering them. Shinsou bites his lip.

His bare feet on the tile sound too loud in his ears. There's eight stalls on either wall, each of them as oversized as everything else in U.A. and the doors are open on all of them. There's no indication as to which is the occupied one.

Shinsou doesn't know he's getting there until he already is.

His third guess was wrong. It's just the two of them, no one else.

They're on the left. Ashido has her arms crossed and pressed up against the wall. Bakugou is holding her by the waist. They're on the wall closest to the bath, so they both look over their shoulders to see Shinsou.

Ashido grins. "Hey, Shinsou."

"Hey." He hovers for a moment, then takes a slow sideways step to the stall on the right, across from them.

"Gonna sit over there?"

"Yeah," Shinsou says. His eyes are everywhere. "Gonna... shower, or some shit."

They laugh at him, which is fair. He doesn't even go into the stall he picked, just stands there like an idiot.

Ashido rolls her hips a little, which prompts Bakugou to roll his in counter, and then they're moving again, right where Shinsou can see them.

Ashido isn't bent over all the way - she's just leant far enough forward to get a good angle. She's on tip toes. She hangs her head between her shoulders with a moan, her horns digging into her forearm with each thrust.

Bakugou's hold on her isn't meant to restrain her, but to guide her so they sync up better, or maybe he's grabbing her hips for leverage. Rather than bending his knees like a normal person to get to Ashido's height, he's spread his feet in a wide stance.

Shinsou is taller than Bakugou. It occurs to him that he wouldn't have to tip toe.

His pulse is in his ears.

Fuck, okay, keep it together. He puts one hand on the wall of the stall he's picked, still standing outside it in his stupid towel and his stupid basket of toiletries in the other hand.

It's not-- he's not...

It's not that he doesn't think Bakugou and Ashido are hot. It's not that he doesn't like the idea of walking over there and joining them. He's not dysphoric about his body or anything.

But his chest is flat. His voice is deep, his waist isn't very narrow. There's every chance that these two have no idea that Shinsou is trans. He doesn't think they're gonna be shitty about it, but he's not in the habit of surprising people with it mid-fuck.

Just because there are others in the class that know doesn't mean that Shinsou can assume the whole class knows. He'd rather they didn't. If it were up to him, people would find out only when it's about to get relevant, not a moment before, not a moment after.

But if he goes over there - or even stays over here - and drops his towel, and Bakugou and Ashido react in some sort of way, while they're in the middle of it, Shinsou will just--

He won't like it, is the thing. He knows he won't.

It's one of the very, very few things on this bitch of an earth that can make him dysphoric.

Point is he'd rather not risk it.

So he stays where he is and progressively gets closer to his shower stall until he's standing in it. Almost mechanically, he puts his basket on the little shelf.

Across the way he can see Bakugou's and Ashido's baskets, filled with all kinds of silly products. There's an open condom wrapper right there. Good to know they just carry these around.

Bakugou leans down, folding himself over Ashido. His chest pressed to her back is delicious, but not as delicious as his hand coming up to grab her tit. Ashido throws her head back at that (Bakugou expertly dodges the headbutt and kisses her ear instead) with a loud moan.

Shinsou's hand goes to his towel, holding on for dear life.

Bakugou kisses along Ashido's jaw, the side and then back of her neck, he goes as far down her spine as he can. Which isn't a lot, he's not that flexible, but Ashido apparently hasn't had enough kisses because she twists around and grabs the back of his hair and swallows Bakugou's startled sound. His hand slides back down to her waist to steady them both.

Which really just means that Shinsou has an excellent fucking view of Ashido's bouncing pink honkers.

She's so plump and soft and pink and she's moving like it doesn't even bother her how much work it is to stand there and twist around like that, like it's not tiring to hold up her own weight at an angle and fuck.

Shinsou bites his tongue. He feels the pressure in his nose shift. He is not going to bleed from the nose in a room full of steam, he refuses. There's getting overwhelmed in a hero situation and stressing out, and there's getting a nosebleed from watching his friends fuck. He's not gonna be that one.

There's some anime tropes he has to draw the line on.

Finally Ashido breaks for air and glances over at Shinsou. She smiles at him, then groans just a little more theatrical than necessary.

The dumb thing is that it's not less hot just because he knows she's playing it up. She's putting on a show for him - if anything, that's hotter than if he were being ignored.

Bakugou growls under his breath. He shifts a little and plants a quick kiss at Ashido's shoulder before he picks up the pace again.

He growls, and Shinsou realizes there's words there. He's talking to Ashido.

His grip on his towel is white-knuckled.

Ashido braces herself against the wall better. She looks at Shinsou, watches him watch them.

"Look at him," she says.

And because she didn't specify which one, they both look at each other.

Fuck. Fuck, not the eye contact. Shinsou can feel his pulse in his teeth.

Bakugou grins. "Yeah, I'm lookin."

They both give Shinsou a synchronized once-over. He squeezes his towel harder just to make sure it's still there. His hand hurts.

"I like your hair, Shinsou," Ashido continues.

"I like yours," Shinsou weakly replies.

Bakugou's eyes roll back and he shakes his head. Shinsou can't even tell if it's exasperation or pleasure.

Ashido lets out a weak, breathy giggle. "Of course you do, we have the same hair, baby."

"Do not."

Ashido hums. "Do too."

Shinsou licks his lips. "Yours is curly."

"I guess it is," Ashido says. She flinches, hisses, her fingers tightening around her own biceps.

Bakugou is just about the same. One of his hands leaves her waist to reach around to her front where Shinsou can't see.

Ashido hangs her head again. Her low noises get interrupted with sharper, higher ones.

Shinsou is. Having a time, for sure.

It's Bakugou who breaks first, Shinsou thinks. Or maybe they finish at the same time and Bakugou is just the only one who has to do something about it.

The something in question is, apparently, leaning forward and biting Ashido's shoulder.

And Shinsou does love himself a good bite. Fuck.

He steps back and slams the door to his shower stall closed.

For a few seconds all he can hear is his own blood in his ears. Then they're laughing at him.

They can laugh all they want. Shinsou got to watch them and managed to retreat to the safety of this stall without a hitch. He finally lets go of the towel and turns on the water.

After a moment, he hears another shower turn on.

Shinsou lets the water hit his face.

Fuck, that was so hot.

And now he knows those two are both into him.

Chapter 3: Get Some

"Want some?"

Shinsou lifts his head at the voice. Satou is standing there, holding a cake with a generous amount of whipped cream on it.

"What is it?"

"Lemon cake! Do you like those?"

"Can't remember the last time I had one. Sure, I'll try it."

"Nice!" Satou goes, then makes his rounds around the rest of the common room to tally up how many slices he should cut.

Shinsou goes back to his homework.

The only classes he's having trouble in are hero-related. He's been studying Hero Law on his own ever since Aizawa first started training him, but doing his own study and taking an actual class in it are two different beasts.

"Here you go!"

A small plate with a single slice of cake and a fork is placed right on top of his textbook.

Shinsou snorts under his breath. "Thanks." He takes a bite. "It's delicious."

Satou grins at him with a little flush in his cheeks. "I'm glad you think so!"

For a few minutes the common room is filled with nothing but praise for Satou. He revels in it. At some point Kirishima grabs him by the sleeve and pulls him down on the couch next to himself.

It's a trap. As soon as anyone is done with their cake, they add themselves to the cuddle pile until Satou has no hope of escape.

Shinsou watches them with a smile. Normal day in the hero dorms, it looks like.

There's only a couple of people who haven't joined the cuddles: Uraraka, who is currently nursing a bruised rib and shouldn't get squished, Iida who is studying at the tables like Shinsou, and Aoyama.

Aoyama who is... sitting on the next couch over, his crossed legs just barely toeing the edge of the pile.

Kirishima turns Satou's head to kiss him, and Aoyama pulls his feet back.

Hm.

Thankfully Satou starts laughing soon enough. "Alright, get off of me, I gotta do the dishes."

"I'll do them for you!" several people offer.

Satou tries to argue but it only takes seconds before the volunteers have all the plates and forks gathered up and in the kitchen.

Satou is left sitting there in the remains of his cuddle pile with a dumb smile on his face.

Aoyama stands, finally, and sits himself by Satou's side.

Conversation returns, no one comments on anything about that. Normal day in the hero dorms, then...? The sharing food and the cuddles seem pretty standard, the kissing is class A's trademark, but Aoyama hesitated there, didn't he? Or did he just not like how many people there were? That seems likely. He's fine now, with the numbers thinned.

He catches Shinsou staring and winks at him.

Shinsou ducks back to his homework.

He thinks about it all day, though.

When he has trouble sleeping that night, he sits up in his bed and thinks about it some more. Once his body gets used to the sitting, he lies back down. It's only a quick reset, but sometimes it does get him to sleep.

Tonight is not one of those times.

He tries a few more times, just in case, even getting up and walking up and down the room. Improve his bloodflow, or something. He's familiar enough with insomnia to know not to question the dark magics that might knock him out.

Something must knock him out eventually because he wakes up in the morning, so he must've fallen asleep in the night.

He's still thinking about it.

And Aoyama is like, right there, when Shinsou walks into the classroom.

"Hey."

"Bonjour, dear!"

Shinsou can't help but smile. "Yeah, sure. Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Anything, beloved classmate!"

"Do you, um..." He rubs the back of his neck. At least the class isn't yet full enough for him to feel watched. "You're... with the class, right?"

Aoyama tilts his head. "Hm?"

Okay, from the top. "What I mean is, do you wanna hang out tonight? Just you and me?"

"Like a date?" Aoyama asks.

"Something like that," Shinsou nods. "It's just the dorms, so it's not exactly an outing. But we can hang and stuff. You know. Watch a movie maybe."

Make out, maybe. Fuck, maybe. Shinsou doesn't say those ones out loud, but he thinks them real hard. Thinks them thoroughly. Aoyama looks like the kind of guy who'd be a gentleman in bed - Shinsou wonders if he really wears that belt all the time.

Hopefully Aoyama can pick up on the thought by vibes alone.

He must pick up on something, because he grins his curly little grin. He's blushing. "I'm flattered, Shinsou! It would be my honor. I accept!"

Shinsou laughs.

"My room after dinner?" Aoyama offers.

The movie Aoyama picks is french, and subtitled. Everything about the acting and the direction is over-exaggerated to the point that it looks more like children's theater than what you'd expect from a movie.

All this still doesn't distract from how bright Aoyama's room is.

Shinsou's eyes started to hurt within minutes. They turn the lights off.

Even with the lights off, it's still bright in here.

Jesus.

"Is this, like... meant to be an animation? Everything is so overdone."

"It's based on comics!" Aoyama glitters. "That's why it's so cartoonish! They're a little retro, but I grew up with these movies, you know."

Shinsou nods. "They're very... you."

Aoyama's whole being lights up. "I'm glad you think so!"

Shinsou turns to him, pauses. Starts again. "Can I kiss you?"

"Yeah," Aoyama says.

Then he fucking turns around to pause the movie.

Shinsou manages not to laugh out loud, but it's a close thing.

Thankfully the movie paused at a kind of dark frame, so the room isn't actively blinding Shinsou.

Aoyama goes for the hair first. Figures. 

He kind of kisses like he's not sure how much tongue is too much tongue and would rather err on the side of caution. Shinsou tilts his head to get a better angle and Aoyama matches him, following his lead easily.

It's nice.

Shinsou takes Aoyama's cue to take the lead and drags his hands down Aoyama's sides. They're side to side on the bed, so his hand ends up on the inside of Aoyama's knee without Shinsou thinking about it.

And it's really, really nice. It's sweet. Comfy.

Shinsou breaks the kiss to catch his breath and Aoyama pants like he's been running miles.

He's not sure how long they sit there making out. At some point Aoyama turns in his seat to better face Shinsou, and from there, well, it's only a matter of time before Aoyama ends up in his lap.

Still, it's slow and soft, and Aoyama doesn't try to take the lead once. Shinsou kinda likes that.

Aoyama moves to straddle him and Shinsou has to assess the situation real quick. It seems to him like they're both perfectly happy to make out all night here, but there's a good chance things will escalate. It's class A, after all.

If Shinsou is gonna have to come out, he'd rather do it while they're both still dressed.

On the other hand if they're both gonna stay dressed, then he has no reason to come out, no reason to bring it up.

Aoyama is straddling his hips. One of his hands is still in Shinsou's hair, but the other has trailed down to his shoulder, pulling him close with a gentle touch.

Shinsou takes Aoyama's hips. He runs his hands up Aoyama's sides, down his thighs, back to his hips.

He doesn't do it consciously, but his hands fall to Aoyama's ass. It's just, right there. And it's not like Shinsou can rest his hands on the small of Aoyama's back like he normally would, not with that belt in the way.

Aoyama barely breaks the kiss, but his hands fly off of Shinsou like he's been burned. He moves Shinsou's hands back to his hips.

"No," is all he says, and then kisses him again.

Okay. No. Shinsou doesn't have to come out to him.

Still, just to be sure, he asks, "Above the waist?"

"Above the waist," Aoyama confirms into the kiss.

It's a good kiss, to be fair. Nice, sweet, soft. Their wandering hands remain above the waist and Shinsou gets lost in it a little.

Eventually Aoyama declares his knees are sore and Shinsou sheepishly admits he needs the bathroom. When they return to the movie they sit cuddled up together, Aoyama under Shinsou's arm and with a hand on Shinsou's thigh.

That's... distracting, but there's no intent behind it so Shinsou perseveres.

In the end the movie only has fifteen minutes left. It finishes and with it, their date.

Shinsou ends up standing in the hallway like an idiot for a solid minute.

He stumbles down to the kitchen distractedly. Gets a glass of water. Drinks it. Puts it down.

Shit, that was probably one of the best makeout sessions Shinsou has ever had.

It was fucking amazing because it was a makeout sesh and not, you know. Sex. That's a different category, they can't be compared. In Shinsou's experience, most sex starts with a makeout session - or something like it, at least.

Or maybe that's just how Midoriya likes to do it. He does comprise most of Shinsou's experience in the field.

There he is right now, over by the TV. Some of the boys are having a movie night and it looks like Midoriya is currently arguing with Bakugou about it. Shinsou watches from the kitchen, his hand still around the empty glass on the counter.

Midoriya gestures as he argues and his jacket falls off his shoulder. He fixes it absent-mindedly.

Shinsou is way too fucking focused on it.

It would take maybe six seconds to go over there and invite Midoriya back to Shinsou's room. Then he could resolve this little issue he's having.

But, no, Midoriya is having fun with his friends. He's clearly busy. Shinsou can take care of himself. And, hey, if he's alone, he can replay in his mind the way Aoyama felt in his lap, without distractions.

...He'd like to get fucked, though.

No. Shinsou can handle it. He's just horny, it's not a big deal.

He marches to the elevators with determination.

Todoroki comes out of the girls' elevator and into the boys'.

"Oh," he goes, "hey."

"Hey," Shinsou nods, and because he was thinking about it, he quickly pictures Todoroki fucking him.

"Are you not going to your room?"

Shinsou blinks. He looks at the floor number going up. They've passed Shinsou's floor already - he never pressed the button. "I guess I'm not."

"Okay...? Where to, then?"

"Yours, I think," Shinsou says. "If you're not busy."

Todoroki looks at him, even as the doors open. "Sure."

Todoroki lets them both in his room and sets about getting his futon out.

"Were you visiting the girls?"

"Just hanging out with Yaoyorozu," Todoroki says as he finishes up. He pats down his blanket then sits on it. "We usually have these nights once a week or so, but we missed the last couple of weeks. It was nice to do that again."

Shinsou, for lack of anything better to do, sits down by Todoroki's side. "Like a date night?"

"I guess that's accurate, yeah. Sure. What about you? You weren't watching the movie downstairs."

Shinsou rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah, no. I was on a date of my own."

"Oh," Todoroki goes. A pause. "Who with?"

"Aoyama."

"Ah, that explains it."

Shinsou frowns at him. "Explains what?"

"You look like you're trying to fuck me with your eyes alone."

Shinsou looks away, embarrassed to be caught. "What would that have to do with Aoyama?"

"He's ace, I thought you knew. He's not subtle about it or anything." Todoroki tilts his head. "I figured, if you're looking at me like that after you've been on a date, then you missed out on something you wanted."

Shinsou grits his teeth. He turns back to him. "And if I did? What are you gonna do about it?"

Todoroki raises his brows. "You want me to do something about it?"

"You could."

He looks him up and down. "I could."

Shinsou exhales. "Are you gonna?"

Todoroki nods.

"Sometime today?"

"I wanna blow you, if that's cool with you," Todoroki says, somehow with a straight face.

Shinsou's brain is an amazing thing. The images it can conjure. "Okay. C'mere."

Todoroki kisses just as Shinsou remembers him. He presses Shinsou into the futon and lets his mouth go cold on Shinsou's skin. He moves to Shinsou's neck, and Shinsou turns his head away, covering his eyes with a hand.

Todoroki's mouth goes very very warm for a second, then back to cold.

Fuck, he does like his ice more, doesn't he?

He makes his slow way down Shinsou's body, tugging at his clothes here and there to expose skin where he wants to put his mouth. By the time he gets to Shinsou's waistband, Shinsou is barely holding it together.

"Don't--" Shinsou clears his throat. "Don't do the ice thing..."

Todoroki nods against his hip. His lips warm up.

He tugs Shinsou's pants down, just once, asking him.

Shinsou pushes his sweats down.

Todoroki doesn't try to make eye contact, just glances up at him occasionally. With eyes like his, he doesn't have to hold Shinsou's gaze long to make him dizzy.

He takes Shinsou in his mouth and sucks. Shinsou lets himself fall back onto the futon.

"Fuck," he breathes.

Todoroki doesn't seem to notice how his temperature fluctuates. It's subtle, but he keeps drifting cooler before snapping back to warm. It's stronger in his tongue than on his lips. He licks up Shinsou's slit and Shinsou shudders.

He tries to push himself up on his elbows, but gives up halfway through. He lays there, trying to catch his breath. He puts just one hand on Todoroki's head, holds him in place.

"Todoroki," he moans. "Inside..."

Todoroki listens. Just one finger, warm and careful. It goes into Todoroki's mouth before it goes into Shinsou, and it rubs at his walls searchingly right away. Unfortunately for him Shinsou doesn't have a spot that really does it for him, but the friction is working wonders.

"More," he tries.

Todoroki makes a questioning sound, glancing up with those eyes of his.

Shinsou clears his throat. It doesn't help how he sounds. "I'm-- I'm not even touching you, that's not fair. Wanna fuck me?"

A second finger slips into him. Todoroki doesn't lift his head.

"Fuck," Shinsou curses. His eyes roll back for a moment. "Fuck, Todoroki, I want you in me..."

He brings to mind Aoyama from just a half-hour ago. It then occurs to him with a groan that another way to refer to a makeout is a french kiss.

Of course he fucking would.

Todoroki's tongue dips into him and Shinsou pictures Aoyama's tongue in his mouth and for a blissful few moments he's convinced he's gonna nut right then and there. He doesn't, but only because Todoroki sits up between Shinsou's legs.

"You sure?" he asks, and Shinsou is already nodding.

On top of everything else, Shinsou is dying to know where Todoroki keeps his condoms when he doesn't have a bedside table. The answer is in his dresser. Of course.

He takes the chance to situate himself better on the futon before Todoroki comes back. Shinsou tugs him close by the hips until Todoroki's filling him up, like Shinsou likes it.

They let out matching low groans. Shinsou goes limp on the futon.

Todoroki takes a moment to breathe, then grabs Shinsou by the hips. "Okay?" he asks.

His hands are each leaning heavy to their respective temperatures, but his center is neutral. Shinsou nods.

"Okay."

They fuck.

Shinsou keeps picturing Aoyama and, on muscle memory alone, Midoriya. Todoroki gives a particularly slow thrust and Shinsou figures that he could get Todoroki and Midoriya at the same time. Those two have made out in front of Shinsou plenty of times, and he's repaid the favor to both of them.

Todoroki leans down, kisses Shinsou's throat. Shinsou arches his back.

He gets his hands tangled all up in Todoroki's hair. He likes messing up Todoroki's hair, the two colors like to stay separate, so it's a treat to see them mixed. Plus, if he tugs at it, he can keep Todoroki's head where he likes it.

"Shinsou," he mumble-groans into Shinsou's jaw, squeezing his hips, and Shinsou is gone.

He's not even sure which one of them finished first, but by the time he can take a deep breath to calm down, Todoroki is doing the same.

Shinsou runs a hand through his own hair. "Good fuck," he intones.

"Good fuck," Todoroki agrees, equally flat.

Shinsou lies there, catching his breath, listening to Todoroki fuss about his room. He gets up to go to the bathroom, eventually, grabs his clothes on the way there.

When he comes back out dressed, Todoroki is sat with his phone in hand. He lifts his head.

"...This was fun," Shinsou starts, "but it would be more fun if we got Midoriya in on it."

"Oh good, I was thinking the same thing," Todoroki nods. "Maybe next time?"

"That works for me," Shinsou agrees. He likes that about Todoroki; he's a reasonable guy and their tastes often match. "Alright, good night. See you tomorrow."

"Good night."

 

 

Notes:

aoyama "i like romance but i dont like sex" yuuga VS shinsou "i like sex but i dont like romance" hitoshi: FIGHT

Chapter 4: Right in front of my salad?

Notes:

whatever the hell is happening in the manga right now, im loving it. completely incomprehensible. go bestie go

"There's wires inside," Uraraka says. She demonstrates, spilling a length of wire from her wristband. "It's kinda heavy, but with my quirk that's not a problem."

"I see," Shinsou nods. "That makes sense, yeah."

"Mine is mostly for retaining moisture," Tsuyu says. She taps at the band around her neck. "There's water here, where I need it most. If my tongue dries out it'll be bad, ribbit. And the goggles, they'll keep my eyes safe if I need them."

"Okay," Shinsou nods. He tugs at his capture weapon, showing it in turn. "This is just like Aizawa-sensei's. It reacts to specific small gestures, like this. If I thread it around my fingers this way - it's the most versatile hold I can do right now - it'll move based on which gesture I do. The mask is made of separate plates, I can rotate them around their set positions with these two dials."

"That's so cool," Uraraka says, earnestly.

"Do you have anything offensive on you?" Tsuyu asks, titling her head. "A mask for your quirk, and a binding cloth for capture. Do you have a way of attack?"

Shinsou raises his fists. "I've got leftie and righty."

Uraraka nods. "Sometimes that's all you need."

"You'd know, huh?"

"I'm not saying it because my quirk is in my hands," she laughs. "I'm saying equipment breaks and weapons get lost, but you always have your fists with you." She nods. "Tell me your first aid."

"I have clean bandages and bandaids here, heatpad here, and like five flasks of clean water here."

"Nothing for stitches?"

"I don't know how to do stitches. I can do a bandage, though."

"That's more first aid than I'm carrying, ribbit. You seem just fine to me, Shinsou."

"Me too. I can't think of anything you could ask to have added."

Shinsou rubs the back of his neck. "This is kind of dumb, but... I wanted to get a little more armor."

They're almost at the Support classroom, now. It's Shinsou's first time coming here as a Hero Course student.

He's excited.

"More armor is always smart," Tsuyu nods, her finger resting on her cheek. "What are you thinking? Helmet? Your hair is kind of iconic, I don't know if I'd hide it if I were you."

"I had the same thought, I don't wanna hide my hair. If I really need the stealth, a hood will do. No, I was thinking more along the spine."

The two girls somber up quickly. They nod.

"Always a good spot to protect, ribbit." Tsuyu places her hand on the door. "Brace yourself," she warns.

Shinsou expects an explosion the moment the door slides open even a crack, but it doesn't come. Instead, an ungodly amount of capture net gets launched through the opening and all over the three of them.

Normal day in the Support Course.

Shinsou catches Jirou and Kaminari making out in the kitchen once.

Mind you, this isn't the first time he's walked in on them (in fact it's like his tenth time walking in on Kaminari in particular) but the fact that this is Shinsou's kitchen now, that he isn't intruding, gives him the balls to stand his ground. Before, he'd retreat and pretend he saw nothing.

"Seriously? Right in front of my salad?"

Kaminari and Jirou snap apart like magnets -hah- and give him matching sheepish looks. They shuffle over to the left to let him put down his dirty dishes.

He opens the fridge to grab a drink, and by the time he's turned around they're making out again.

He rolls his eyes. "I can't believe this. Right in front of not only mine, but everyone else's salad. SMH my head, you two."

Jirou breaks away with a smack - Kaminari seamlessly relocates his mouth to her neck. "You're just jealous," she says, grinning at him.

Shinsou grins back. "I could take you."

"What, you're gonna fight me over Kaminari, of all people?"

"No, I mean I could take you two, both at once." He winks at their stunned silence. "But hey, by all means, try to seduce the salad instead. I'm sure that works out fine for you."

He feels like a badass as he walks out the kitchen, only to then make eye contact with Sato and Sero who are both barely holding back laughter on the couch. Then he just feels silly.

Shinsou throws himself into the endurance training with the vigor of a rabid animal. He knows he's behind his classmates on most aspects of heroics, but he's been training on his own for a long time. He should be able to at least run for as long as everyone else does.

Of course, running isn't the only endurance UA throws at them. Gotta be Plus Ultra with everything, god fucking damn them.

Shinsou has to carry weights, climb nearly vertical cliffs, swim, hang from a bar, all this and more, for as long as he physically can, and then go beyond.

At some point they even do a breath-holding course. Based on the fact that literally everyone else gets a better time, Shinsou assumes it's not the first and won't be the last.

It's exhausting.

It's just running with light weights today. Shinsou didn't sleep last night. He's sweating through his gym uniform but he can't put the weight down to remove any layers.

His only consolation is that everyone else is on the same boat.

By the time All Might calls time Shinsou is so past feeling gross that he peels his top off and beelines straight for Todoroki.

Shinsou, though, is not the only one with a sudden appreciation for the ice boy. Todoroki sees that he's about to be cornered by half the class, turns around, and starts running.

Shinsou doesn't even think; he gives chase on instinct alone. By the time his brain catches up to the rest of him, he's running alongside his classmates, so it feels silly to stop running right then.

"Hey!" All Might barks. Blood speckles out of his mouth. "Hunter instinct! Fight it!"

Shinsou watches as the entire class force themselves to stop running nearly at the same time. It's hilarious, on one hand, but on the other hand it speaks volumes of how much training and experience the others have. They've all developed methods to suppress their natural instincts, even relatively benign ones like this.

And Shinsou still can't consistently suppress his fight-or-flight. You know, the one instinct heroes never display. The one that can actually cost lives. The first thing they teach you to control. That one.

He's still weak to his own adrenaline. It's frustrating.

Todoroki comes to a stop at a slower pace, since he's the one who triggered them to hunt him - right after endurance training too, fuck him - and circles back to where All Might is standing.

As if that'll stop them. They crowd around him, desperate to cool off.

"Aside from that last part, everyone did an excellent job today," All Might says, side-eyeing them en masse. "Young Iida, you completed the most laps. As expected! What did you think of today's training?"

Iida fixes his glasses. "I am overjoyed to see everyone's improvement this time around. The lighter weights present a different challenge than the heavier ones, in that it allows us to focus more on running and therefore might forget that we are carrying. I can tell that we all kept focus today. I'm glad."

All Might nods. "Right you are. And looking out for your classmates, as always."

"Of course!"

"And Young Asui, you completed the fewest laps today. As you did last time."

Tsuyu nods. "Yes. I learned from last time, and payed attention to what I had to carry. I can't jump around with my hands full, so it was unwise to attempt it, ribbit. Today I did more laps than I did last time, but still fewer than everyone. It's slow improvement."

All Might nods again. "It's improvement nonetheless. Running upright is not natural to you. It's to be expected."

"I can't make those kinds of excuses when I'll have to carry civilians to safety, ribbit."

"Your self-awareness is admirable, Young Asui. Good job today. Everyone did great, you've shown me a good deal of progress. That will be all for today."

With that dismissal, a pile of students descends on Todoroki.

Shinsou is melted into the couch, chin to his chest, his back bent at the ribs.

"I'm hurting in places I didn't know I had."

"That's a good thing," Iida says. "Better to discover these undiscovered places of yours here, at school, than out there."

"Did I have to discover them by bruising them?"

"You're not bruised, don't worry. You're simply exercising in a way you haven't before, and your body isn't used to it. With time and training, you will no longer get hurt from such exercise."

"Or you will," Midoriya cuts in cheerfully, "and you'll just get used to the pain."

Shinsou closes his eyes. "Horrifying. Never say that again."

"Increasing our tolerance is also part of our training," Iida adds.

"It's just--" Shinsou starts, then stops. He opens his eyes. "It's just that you guys are more used to it than I am. You've done this more times, had more training. I feel like I'm so far behind."

"You are," Iida says, not unkindly.

Shinsou flinches anyway.

"You're behind because you haven't done these things before, or it's your first or second time. It's not something you can pick up quick; you have to do it again and again until it's no longer painful, one way or another."

"I know," Shinsou says.

"You're strong," Iida says. "You're doing much better than we were, back when we were just staring out in this course."

Shinsou nods.

"You're working harder than anyone here. Remember that," Modoriya says. He's wearing an intense look. "Most of us have had a physical quirk our entire lives, and we've had that much time to get used to them. When you're tired, and hurting, keep in mind that most of our hero training here is physical. You're at a wildly unfair disadvantage. Not only because you're new to the course, but because you've never had to work your body into adapting for your quirk."

"You're a good man, Midoriya," Shinsou chuckles. "You're right, you nailed it right on the head. That's why it's so frustrating, because I'm working with that disadvantage. I really thought someone with a quirk as perfect as yours wouldn't even fathom what that feels like, but I guess I was wrong."

"It's not perfect," Midoriya says, just as intense. "You didn't see how I struggled when I first got here. My quirk was too strong for my body. I was so against using it growing up that getting into UA might as well have been my first day with that quirk."

A shudder runs through Iida, and his face sours. Shinsou wonders what he's remembering.

"I got this far," Midoriya says. "And you will, too. You'll make for a fine hero, Shinsou. I know it."

Shinsou grins at him. "I wanna suck you off so bad right now but I can't even get up off this couch."

"Don't be inappropriate, we're in a shared space," Iida says, mostly on autopilot.

Midoriya just laughs.

Shinsou falls asleep at seven on Saturday night and wakes up past ten on Sunday morning.

At least his body decided to do this reset on a Sunday. He'd hate to cut off such glorious sleep for a schoolday. 

"Kouda."

Kouda turns and smiles.

"Your quirk is a mental one, isn't it?"

Kouda tilts his head. He points at himself.

Shinsou laughs. "Yeah, silly, yours. I mean, it has a physical application, but it's a mental one, right? Talking to animals?"

Kouda fidgets with his hands for a moment. When he speaks, his voice is unexpectedly small. "Yeah, at the core of it, it's a mental quirk. It only has to do with one person's mentality though, so I'm not sure it counts."

Shinsou thinks about it. "Because you're the only person involved, right. As opposed to a mental quirk like mine, where I need another person to use it on."

Kouda nods.

"I guess, then, if it's on a technicality, it's about how you think of it. Do you call your quirk a mental one?"

Kouda hesitates, looking away, but he nods. "My mother... I got it from her. When she uses it, it feels like a mental quirk much more than when I do it."

Shinsou blinks. "She can speak to animals too?"

Kouda shakes his head. "She can understand them. She can't tell them what to do, they don't understand her. But sometimes..." He smiles, a small, cute one. "...sometimes it was like she was reading their minds."

Shinsou smiles, too. "That sounds cute."

Kouda laughs behind his hand. "You'd think that, but animals aren't like that, really. Thinking, I mean. They don't think thoughts.They're animals! They want to eat and sleep and mate and that's it."

"God I wish that were me," Shinsou memes on reflex alone.

As Kouda goes on, trying to articulate the difference between animal and human thought, with his soft, small voice, all Shinsou can think is how happy he is that he finally got Kouda to talk to him so much.

He's no longer so new that Kouda's shy around him, huh?

Notes:

like three fics back i said class A didnt have any mental quirks when kouda is RIGHT THERE so now i live in shame.

Chapter 5: Normal Day In The Hero Dorms

Summary:

"normal day in the hero dorms" was an alternate title to this whole fic

It's Saturday night and they're huddled up in the Class B common room. There's two separate movies playing, a dark and gritty horror on one side of the dorms and a lighthearted musical on the other.

Much to the utter bafflement of everyone in Class A, Tokoyami is sitting on the musical side.

Apart from the movies, there's also handful of students cooking in the kitchen, as well as a couple of board games set up in the separate study rooms.

It's a fun evening, the classes hanging out together. There's even one or two GenEd kids, which Shinsou appreciates. One person from Support. No one from Business. Ah well.

It's not like they have every single Hero kid here, either. God knows what horrors they'd have to commit to get Bakugou to hang out with all these people.

Shinsou is in the kitchen, keeping an eye on some pasta, when one side of the common room starts fussing. Their movie must've ended.

They don't come in the kitchen, for the most part, so Shinsou ignores the commotion in favor of trying to steal bits of food from Tsunotori's frying pan. She's a small girl, so Shinsou makes the stupid mistake of thinking he can get close for stealing. Unfortunately her horns are right at eye-level for him. The oil in her pan sizzles and she jerks back at exactly the wrong moment.

Shinsou dodges. His eyes live to see another day, but his cheek is now bleeding.

The funny thing is that Tsunotori doesn't even notice she nearly gored him. She just happens to take a step back after, bumps into him, and turns to look at him - and then realizes that she caught him on her horn.

Shinsou laughs.

"Oh my gosh!" Tsunotori gasps. "Wait, let me get you a paper towel!"

"You better get that pan," Shinsou counters. "I got it, don't worry. It's not deep."

She glances at her food. "Are you sure? We have a first aid kit."

"It's alright," Shinsou assures her. He splashes some water onto the cut and wipes at it with some paper towels. He applies pressure like a good little hero.

Tsunotori goes back to the food.

At some point, Kendou passes by the kitchen, sees the cut on Shinsou's face, and fetches a bandaid for him. That's nice of her. Shinsou didn't want to leave his cooking unattended.

The closer the food is to being done, the more crowded the kitchen becomes. Not everyone is here to steal food, either: most of them want to help plate and serve dinner.

Of course they want to help. Normal day in the Hero Dorms.

Not everyone sticks around for dinner, but Shinsou is determined to stay at least as long as the Support kid. For his pride, or something. He doesn't know the student's name. It's not class A's beloved Hatsumei, so it must be someone class B likes.

Shinsou shudders at the thought of being Monoma's favorite Support student. Yikes.

Their numbers really dwindle once dinner is done. Shinsou cooked, so he feels a little obligated to clean up, too. At least get the plates from the tables to the sink, if not straight-up into the washing machine.

It's nice and quiet.

Shinsou has just delivered the last of the dirty dishes to Honenuki and is about to ask if Honenuki wants him to help or to get out of the kitchen when Tokoyami barges in.

"Oh my god it's happening, it's happening, stay calm, everybody stay calm" Tokoyami is saying.

"What's happening?"

"Kuroiro is about to ask Komori out."

"About time," Honenuki says with a roll of his eyes.

"Wait, he still hasn't asked her?" Shinsou says.

"No way he's gonna do it," Tsuburaba says from where he's putting dishes in the machine. "He can barely string two words together when he's near her."

Tokoyami grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him. "You won't ruin this. It's happening. It's happening now."

"How the hell has he not asked her out yet?" Shinsou insists. "Or better yet, how has Komori not noticed he likes her yet? I mean he's a subtle guy, sure, but this has been going on for as long as I've known you guys."

Honenuki shakes his head. "Good ol' class A. Thinking that if you just feel something strong enough then the whole universe will fall into place to give you what you want on a silver platter."

"He's allowed to have a crush," Tokoyami snaps with more venom than the situation calls for. "He's allowed to try and see if he can do something about it, and you won't ruin this either."

Honenuki nods. "Of course he is, of course he can. I wasn't talking about Kuroiro, I was talking about how you guys think you can turn every social interaction into romance."

"Oh, I'm one of them now?" Shinsou asks, genuinely touched that Honenuki thinks that.

"Of course. You act just like the rest of your class." Honenuki nods again. "You fit right in, Shinsou."

Shinsou laughs bashfully, his hand coming up to the back of his neck without his say-so. He can hear his pulse. "Thanks."

"He just called you a slut and you're thanking him," Tsuburaba says. "You've gotta be kidding me, man."

Shinsou grins at him. "Hey, don't be jealous. If you wanted some of this, all you had to do was ask."

He then gets to watch the hilarity that is Tsuburaba and Honenuki going red in the face while Tokoyami remains completely unaffected. Maybe they're right about Shinsou being part of the slutty class.

"It's not a bad thing," Honenuki says after a pause. "I didn't mean to tease you about it, or anything. I think it's nice how close you guys are."

Another thought occurs. "Oh, wait, it's not Tsuburaba that's jealous, it's you. The universe didn't fall into place for your strong feelings, huh?"

Shinsou realizes how assholish that sounds as it leaves his mouth. On reflex alone, he readies his quirk.

He needn't have worried.

Honenuki's thinking is so flexible, of course he wouldn't be insulted. He just laughs.

"Yeah, you got me," he admits. "Don't tell on me, okay?"

"Holy shit," Tsuburaba says. His eyes are saucers. "No way. You? A crush?"

Honenuki nods, still laughing.

Tsuburaba looks around, as if eavesdroppers will materialize out of thin air. He lowers his voice. "Is it someone from our class?"

"I'd rather not say."

"Is it from our class?" Tokoyami asks.

Honenuki doesn't answer, which is answer enough.

"You're messing with us," Tsuburaba says. "There's just no way, man. Not you."

"Please don't tell. I know it's hopeless, I'm trying to move past it. It's silly. I don't want anyone to hear about it and think I'm gonna try anything."

"For what it's worth," Tokoyami says, "we are lucky that the universe has allowed our class to revel in the darkness of each other. That shouldn't mean that you can't have what you want, just because you're in a different class."

"You have got to be the unluckiest class this school has ever seen. If getting this one thing means I have to go through even half the hell you guys have been through, I'd rather die alone, thanks."

"It's still worth it," Tokoyami insists. "It's worth a shot, even if you think it's hopeless."

"I mean, nothing is truly hopeless," Shinsou adds. "Look at me, finally in the Hero Course, with a quirk like Brainwashing. Pretty sure my chances with that were lower than your chances with whoever this is."

"Thank you," Honenuki says, "but I'm really not going to do anything about it."

"Really?" Tokoyami asks.

"Really," Honenuki says.

"How can you be so sure?"

"It's Todoroki." Honenuki stares at Tokoyami unblinkingly. "Look me in the eyes and tell me I have a shot with Todoroki. Me. With Todoroki."

Tsuburaba tilts his head as if in thought, then nods to himself a few times, his lips pursed. Then he frowns with a hiss.

"Oh, no," he says, side-eyeing Honenuki. "Damn, he's the most passive dude I know, and you're the most flexible person to ever walk this Earth. Literally neither of you would ever make a first move."

"And Todoroki is not one to open up easily," Tokoyami agrees. "I see now. Your struggle is a real one... What a mad bouquet of darkness."

"So keep quiet about it," Honenuki says. "It's gotten to the point where I can talk about it, so it's not as intense as it was, but I still don't want this getting out. Not until it's gone completely, at least. Then I can joke about it."

"Is that what people do with old crushes?" Tokoyami asks. "Joke about it?"

"What else is there to do?"

"...I don't know," Tokoyami admits. "I got to date my biggest crush and my second one still talks to me even knowing how I feel, even knowing it's hopeless."

"Wait, how many crushes do you have?" Tsuburaba goes. "You're with Shouji, right?"

Tokoyami nods. "For the longest time I thought I didn't have a chance with him. It worked out in the end, somehow."

"What about the other one?" Honenuki asks, his voice quiet. "The hopeless one?"

"She doesn't like men."

"Ah."

"It's alright," Tokoyami nods. "Even having lost that chance, it was worth a shot. I'm glad she knows how I feel, it really helped me to start to move past it. Plus, if we do end up being in close proximity or something, I'm more comfortable doing that with the knowledge that I'm not hiding such a thing from her."

"It must be nice," Honenuki muses. "To get close to someone you like."

"I'll cuddle you, dude, don't think I won't," Tsuburaba threatens.

There's a squeal from the common room. The four of them turn to see Komori shuffling in place, pumping her fists under her chin. Another cheerful giggle slips out of her and then she throws herself bodily at Kuroiro, who catches her easily.

She kicks her feet up behind her and buries her nose in his shoulder. Whatever it is she tells him, it makes him grin like a madman. With a giggle of his own, he hoists her up and spins her around.

Tokoyami smiles. "I'm going to go over there and tease the everliving lights out of him."

"Knock 'em dead," Shinsou says.

Tokoyami waits until Komori is back on her feet before he leaves the kitchen. He marches over with confidence and starts talking.

Kuroiro tackles him to the floor and wrestles him. Komori bends in half with laughter.

Normal day in the Hero dorms.

Notes:

after watching the a&b joint exercise in the anime both subbed and dubbed, i have decided i love kuroiro. my boy. my beloved. his little "heeheehee" laugh, both the japanese one and the english one. i love him ur honor.

Chapter 6: Advanced Maneuvers

Summary:

every single time, i tell myself im not gonna write another threesome, then i write another threesome.

It's Kaminari again. In his defense, this is a little more secluded that the common room kitchen.

It's still a shared space though: the stair landing between the first and second floors.

He's with Sero this time.

Shinsou is still only starting to get used to this, so he just stands there like a fool for a second. It's long enough for Sero to lean away from the kiss, look over his shoulder at Shinsou, decide he doesn't care, and go back in.

And that's such a power move that Shinsou is left even more flabbergasted than he was from walking in on them.

Kaminari laughs under his breath, patting Sero's back to get him to back off.

Sero backs off. He leans back, turns so he faces Shinsou. He'd look like he's perfectly willing to interrupt his makeout sesh if not for the hand he very obviously hooks into Kaminari's belt.

"Hey, Shinsou," Kaminari says. He has The Face on. "Whatchu up to?"

"Just going down to my room," Shinsou says. His pulse picks up, but it's not in his ears. Improvement. "What about you guys?"

"Just going up to my room, I guess," Kaminari laughs, out of breath. "Right?"

"Right," Sero agrees. He's looking at Shinsou, but not in the eye. "Took a detour."

"More like a quick stop."

"Doesn't look very quick," Shinsou says. "My eyes are up here, by the way. If you noticed."

"I did notice," Sero says. He tugs Kaminari closer to himself by the hand he has in his belt. "Do you mind?"

Kaminari takes this chance to also check Shinsou out.

"I'd mind less if I could get you to end this stop and take this upstairs."

Kaminari's eyes snap back up. "With you with us?"

Oh, now Shinsou can hear his pulse. Lovely. "Yeah."

"Hell yeah," Kaminari beams. He turns to Sero.

Sero nods, still checking Shinsou out.

Kaminari reaches out and grabs him by the shirt.

Shinsou should have expected it, but a little bolt zaps him right on the mouth before he even gets a kiss. Unfair. He jerks back at the shock, then forces himself to lean down again.

It's not so bad when he's braced for it.

Kaminari fucking tastes like electricity. There's no other way to describe it. His quirk has a taste.

The hand clutching onto Shinsou's shirt relocates to his side, sliding along his ribs. There's another hand hooking two fingers into Shinsou's belt loop and hanging there. Both of the hands are right ones.

Shinsou rests his own hand on Kaminari's hip without thinking, but the other one takes a moment to figure out. In the end he starts at Sero's wrist and works his way up to his bicep.

Sero must take it as encouragement, because now there's a mouth on Shinsou's jaw.

Shinsou steps more into their space. Sero bites him.

...And, well. Shinsou does love a good bite.

"Fuck," Shinsou mumbles into the kiss - he feels Sero take a sharp breath in response. "Can we get outta here?"

"Yeah, let's go." Kaminari takes them both by the hands they had on him and tugs them up the one flight of stairs to his floor.

He has to pause outside his door and unlock it. Shinsou uses this time to crowd Sero up against the wall and drop a quick kiss on him.

They beeline for the bed before Shinsou even has time to take the room in.

"Nice room," he says anyway, only barely looking at it out of the corner of his eye.

"Thanks, get naked," Kaminari says without a hint of hesitation.

Shinsou laughs. "Wait wait wait, before we get there, I gotta tell you guys something, I don't have a dick."

Kaminari frowns. "How do you pee then?"

Like that's the first and only question that would rise up from hearing that someone doesn't have a dick. Shinsou would fall in love on the spot if he were capable of such a thing.

"I sit. You know, like a girl."

"Like a--" Sero starts, then stops. His face clears up. "Ah."

"Ah," Kaminari echoes. He nods to himself. "Okay, no dick, no problem. I gotta switch a couple fantasies around but other than that, it's all the same."

Shinsou grins. "You've fantasized about me?"

"Present tense. I'm fantasizing right now, buddy."

He laughs. "Oh don't let me stop you then. By all means, imagine whatever you like. Hell knows I picture myself with a dick all the time."

"What do you have then?"

"The other set."

Kaminari leans close, practically in Shinsou's lap. "But what words do you like? Or do you wanna avoid it?" He slides a hand down Shinsou's chest and slips it between his legs. "Tell us what you like."

"I'd rather you avoid wording it, just-- just don't think too hard about it. I don't mind male terms for the most part." Shinsou can hear how his voice dips in pitch just watching Kaminari touch him. For fuck's sake, they're all fully dressed. Get a grip. "I know I-- I know I said I don't have a dick but you can call it that. 'Hole' is-- 'hole' is fine."

"I can work with that," Sero says. He crowds in on Shinsou's other side. "So, can I suck you off?"

"He's so good at sucking cock, you gotta try him," Kaminari says right in Shinsou's ear. "He's been called Best Mouth before."

Shinsou nods. "Yeah, yeah do that. You can eat me out, that's fine too."

Sero turns his face and kisses him nice and deep.

Yeah, he can see how Sero would be declared Best Mouth.

"I can suck you off and eat you out at the same time."

"You sure can."

"Good," Sero goes, then tonguefucks Shinsou's mouth again.

Shinsou works his hands under Sero's shirt until he gets the hint and takes it off. Kaminari steals just a quick kiss from Shinsou before he grabs Sero and takes his turn kissing him, too.

They immediately click together.

The noises they make, the way they're touching each other and reacting to each other. The two of them are so responsive together.

It really is different between friends and partners.

Kaminari and Sero have been dating for how long now? Of course they know what they like, each for himself but also each for the other. And they know how to communicate that, can pick up on each other's cues. They're the kind of people who fall in love, and they're loud about it.

Sero's hands go to Kaminari's belt, and Kaminari moans in encouragement, rolling his hips into the touch. Sero pulls and Kaminari half-falls half-goes-willingly off of Shinsou and onto Sero's thigh, straddling it with ease.

And it's little things, a hundred little nudges, but they get into it so fast and so hard that by the time Sero manages to undo the belt, they both have to break away for air with matching drowned gasps.

...Whereas with Shinsou they have to ask him something as basic as whether he likes getting head.

It was like that with Ojiro and Hagakure at first, too. Suddenly he's not so sure he wants to ask Midoriya for a threesome with Todoroki, after all.

It's to be expected. It still sucks, and makes him feel like the new guy all over again, but it's to be expected.

Kaminari's belt falls open with a satisfying clang. Shinsou is overcome with the need to have that belt buckle pressed to his cheek.

"Kaminari, stand up for a moment?"

Kaminari stumbles upright. Shinsou tugs him close by the hips, kissing his abdomen.

Sero curls an arm around Shinsou's waist.

"Take your shirt off?"

Kaminari takes his shirt off.

Shinsou grins. He leans back, just far enough. "Can I get a kiss?"

Kaminari bends down to kiss him, then stands again.

"You're not even using your quirk, are you?" Sero says into Shinsou's shoulder.

"He hasn't answered me yet," Shinsou says, "and I wasn't thinking about it. Now I am."

They both grin at him. He kisses his way down Kaminari's stomach.

Shinsou is too tall and the bed too high up. He can barely get to Kaminari's waistband, even when he leans all the way down. Sero chuckles by his side.

"Okay move back, I'm getting on the floor."

"Wait dude, your knees."

Shinsou is already down there. "Just for a minute."

"Your knees though," Sero says, trying to nudge him up by the arm.

"I just wanna do this first, I'll come back up," Shinsou says. He's muffled with his face pressed to Kaminari's underwear.

Kaminari sucks in a sharp breath.

Shinsou grabs that damn belt with both hands, one on each side, and pulls him close so he can really mouth at him.

"Do you want a condom?" Sero asks in a whisper, like he's afraid to interrupt.

Shinsou purses his lips. "Yeah, I'll take one."

Kaminari nods too. When Sero relocates to put an arm around Kaminari's waist, Kaminari lets his own arm fall over Sero's shoulders without even looking, eyes locked on Shinsou.

Shinsou hooks to fingers into the waistband with a grin. "You good, man?"

Kaminari's free hand comes up to cover his own mouth. He's red down to his chest. "Bro you're eyefucking me, stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"I don't fucking know. It's a lot." Kaminari swallows. "Makes me feel some kinda way."

Shinsou tugs Kaminari's underwear - towards himself, not down. "Good or bad?"

"I dunno. Good." He lets his hand drop to cover Shinsou's. "You gonna do something with that, or?"

"I can think of a few things," Shinsou says, and he finally pulls down.

It would be easier to pull Kaminari's pants down, but Shinsou is determined about that belt. He can work with the limitations of a single pair of jeans. He at least gets the condom on without a problem.

He lifts his eyes to Kaminari's again, and Kaminari whimpers.

Oh, it's gonna be fun.

He winks at Sero before he licks up the side of Kaminari's dick. Sero laughs, leaning his cheek to Kaminari's hip.

"Ah fuck," Kaminari goes.

Shinsou keeps his eyes on him.

He takes him in his mouth and fuck yeah, belt buckle at his cheek. He bobs his head just the once before Kaminari's hand comes to rest on his hair.

He doesn't try to grab Shinsou or anything, just rests his hand there. Runs his fingers through Shinsou's hair a little. Bites his lip.

Shinsou watches him watch Shinsou suck him off. Kaminari is getting redder by the minute.

Sero scoots off the bed and to the floor next to Shinsou. He kisses Kaminari's hip, then, matching Shinsou's pace, goes in and mouths at the side of Kaminari's length.

"Not fair," Kaminari groans.

Shinsou pops off with a chuckle. Yeah, he can share. He mouths at the other side, not taking his eyes off of Kaminari.

Kaminari looks about ready to pass out.

Sero tugs on Kaminari's pants little by little. The buckle knocks off of Shinsou's jaw and keeps dropping lower.

Shinsou pulls away. He wipes the back of his hand across his mouth and finds somewhere else to look.

Sero follows his lead, leaning back, and Kaminari stumbles a couple steps back himself. He props himself up against his desk and on shaky legs. Funnily enough he covers his face. Pants around his knees, and he chooses to cover his face. Incredible.

"Hoooly shit," he goes. "I need a minute."

Shinsou shrugs. "Yeah, take your time." He pulls himself up onto the bed with a wince.

"See, I told you about the knees," Sero says, turning to the side and sitting on his ass. He starts working his way out of his sweats. "You alright, baby?"

"Yeah," Shinsou lies. He stretches out his legs. His knees both make uncomfortable clicks when they straighten.

Sero, now in just boxers, throws his sweatpants towards the door, grabs Shinsou's straightened leg and ducks under it. He sits there between Shinsou's aching knees with a grin on his face.

Shinsou leans back on his hands. "What?"

"You know what," Sero says.

Shinsou lets his legs relax. One of them lands on Sero's shoulder. "Best Mouth, was it?"

"That's me."

Behind him, Kaminari is taking off the last of his clothes.

"Alright," Shinsou says gamely, "let's see it."

Sero kisses the inner seam of Shinsou's jeans. "Trust?"

"Trust," Shinsou says.

"Trust enough to take some clothes off?" Sero asks with that triangle grin of his. "Like, even a little? Just one sock?"

Shinsou grins back. This angle is terrible for his underbite, but he does see the appeal of looking down at his partner. "What, you're not the only one naked."

"You're the only one dressed," Sero stresses.

"Okay. Do something about it."

Sero must take that as a challenge, because he kisses his way up Shinsou's inseam while his hands drag up his abdomen under his shirt. By the time Sero's mouth makes it to Shinsou's zipper, he's grabbing around Shinsou's ribs.

It's. Yeah, it's good. Shinsou forces his breaths to be slow.

Sero's hands track down Shinsou's front with zeal. He only takes his mouth off of Shinsou long enough to open his jeans.

Over his shoulder, Kaminari watches with dark eyes.

Shinsou takes the nudge to lift his hips and let Sero pull down his jeans and underwear, but he feels silly in just a shirt so once he's on his ass again, he tugs off his hoodie. He emerges into the land of the naked feeling watched.

They're looking at him the same way. Sero licks his lips.

Shinsou grins. "C'mere," he beckons Kaminari, opening his arm.

Kaminari comes to sit next to him on the bed, tucking himself to Shinsou's side with ease.

Shinsou puts his weight on him, arm around Kaminari's shoulders. "No but be real, am I gonna have a limp tomorrow just from Sero's head?"

Sero laughs. "I can give you a limp if you want. Not like this, but I can." He kisses Shinsou's bare thigh.

"I volunteer also," Kaminari mumbles.

Sero puts his mouth where Shinsou wants it. Shinsou bites his lip.

Then, just because he's there, he turns Kaminari's head and bites Kaminari's lip as well.

And this-- yeah, this is close to what Shinsou was picturing the other day. Getting good head while his neck is growing a crick from how much he has to turn into the kiss.

Though, in all honesty, Sero's head is much better than Todoroki's.

Shinsou has to let him know.

He tries to break the kiss with Kaminari only for Kaminari to start mouthing at Shinsou's jaw and down his throat. Shinsou falls back on his elbows without even meaning to, lowkey dizzy.

Sero's tongue slips into him and Shinsou makes a-- a noise. That's a noise, for sure, that just came out of him.

Kaminari laughs against his neck. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Shinsou groans. He falls the rest of the way onto the bed, covering his eyes with one hand. "Oh, fuck."

"Tell me about it," Kaminari hums. "Huh. I just thought of something."

Shinsou moves the hand from his eyes up to his hair. "Mhm?"

"You've got like. Options, right?"

"Huh?"

"Like are you more of a front type of guy, or back?"

Shinsou bites back a grin. "Front, but if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, I can do back."

Kaminari grins back. "What do you think I'm thinking?"

"There's--" Shinsou forces himself silent as Sero slips a finger and then two into him. Then he remembers where he is, and he lets the moan come out of him. "There's two of you. And, like you said, I've got options."

Kaminari leans over him. "Uh huh."

Shinsou slides a hand into Kaminari's hair. "Bet I could take you both."

"You ever done that before?"

Shinsou must make a face at that, because Kaminari frowns.

"Didn't work out that time?"

"It was kinda mid."

Kaminari laughs. "Yeah, I bet it was. We do it all the time though, so we can probably pull it off better, right?" He turns to Sero.

Sero, instead of pulling his mouth away from Shinsou to answer, or pulling his fingers out of him to gesture an answer, just smiles with his eyes alone. He sucks on Shinsou hard.

Shinsou curses, his legs jolt.

Sero finally pulls back. "I can get that started for you, if you want."

"Uh, yeah," Shinsou says, distracted by how debauched Sero looks.

Kaminari leans down and kisses Sero.

Fuck, they're trying to kill him.

Thankfully Kaminari disengages and turns to his nightstand. The view of his back is a different kind of attack on Shinsou, but he'll survive that one. He's been ogling the whole class for weeks now, he's built tolerance.

Sero bites the inside of his thigh and Shinsou's attention snaps back to him like a rubber band.

Sero's eyebrows go up. He gives another nibble.

Shinsou's leg twitches.

It's the most shit eating grin Shinsou has ever seen. "You like bites?"

"I do like bites," Shinsou says, because he's not a coward.

"You'd love Katsuki then," Sero says. "Maybe Eijirou, too. How are you on bleeding?" 

"You're really gonna try to pimp me your boyfriends while your fingers are up my hole?" 

"Oh of course, where are my manners," Sero laughs, taking whatever Kaminari passes him. "I'm supposed to be working here, huh?" 

And then there's sticky fingers pressing against Shinsou's backside. 

Shinsou takes a slow breath.

"Here," Kaminari mumbles. He leans over Shinsou and kisses him in a practiced maneuver of distracting a partner while another does prep. 

How many times have they done it, how long have they been together, how much are they holding back on Shinsou? 

He's pretty sure he can feel a condom on Sero's fingers, which he appreciates. Be a shame to have that whole hand out of the game. The other hand has finally slipped out of Shinsou's front only to rub at his dick, slow but persistent. 

Sero's Best Mouth is on him, between his hands. 

It's kind of. A lot. 

Kaminari is doing his part too, letting Shinsou push his tongue up into his mouth and generously covering up whatever noise Shinsou makes. 

He has to remind himself he can make noise here. He's not in the GenEd dorms, with the nosy neighbours who will blackmail even the quickest tryst for a copy of homework or a pack of cigarettes. He's in the dorms of class A, and every single student here loves the entire class to the point of bursting with it.

He has nothing to worry about. 

He can be loud. 

He can let them know what he likes, because they don't know, and their mouths are too full to ask.

He pulls on Kaminari's hair - that gets a good reaction - and keeps making noise, as much as he feels like making, only occasionally repressing it on old habit alone.

Kaminari's hand goes to Shinsou's hair in turn. Pleased noise for that one.

Sero leans away to bite Shinsou's thigh and goes back to sucking him off. Deep stuttering moan for that one.

Kaminari cups the back of Shinsou's neck, supporting his head. No noise for that one, and indeed Kaminari goes back to hair quick enough.

Little things like that.

Sero is really good at giving head though, and Shinsou can't take much more of this. He cups Kaminari's jaw and pushes him back with a long gasp.

Kaminari grins.

"Shut the fuck up," Shinsou says. He knows he sounds fucked out, but he attempts a mean eye anyway. He's pretty sure he fails. "Sero that's good, you gotta stop or I'm gonna bust right now."

"Do it, coward," Kaminari says.

Shinsou squints at him. He squints at Sero.

Sero smiles with his eyes.

"...No. Sero, stop."

Sero stops.

Shinsou pulls himself to sit upright, trying to catch his breath. "Fuck. You really are Best Mouth, huh?"

"Better than Midoriya?" Sero beams.

"Don't push it," Shinsou says.

"That's not a no."

"Man you gave me one blowjob, calm down. I'm not gonna compare your one instance against Midoriya's, like, seventeen thousand."

Kaminari nods, lips pursed. "Yeah, that's what they all say."

"What, you guys been looking for the true best fuck in the class?"

"You laugh, but it's true!" Kaminari says. "Katsuki's so pissed that he and Midoriya are apparently about as good as each other in bed. We just can't seem to find someone who has fucked them both an equal amount of times. An honest judge."

Shinsou thinks. He knows what they're doing, going along with his rhetorical question to give him a chance to catch his breath. He appreciates it. They don't draw attention to it, and it's working, too.

"...It can't be one of you, or one of Midoriya's partners, obviously," Shinsou thinks out loud.

"Obviously," Sero agrees. He's still on the floor, arms crossed on Shinsou's knee with his chin resting on top.

"And it has to be someone who can sleep with them, so it can't be one of the lesbians or the aces."

"Well..." Sero goes, making a so-so gesture.

"What."

"Midoriya's winning with the lesbians and the aces," Kaminari says with a shrug. "But you didn't hear it from me."

Shinsou stares at him. His date with Aoyama plays lightning-quick behind his eyelids in technicolor. "Eh?"

"You heard nothing," Kaminari says sagely.

"Midoriya just has that kind of charm," Sero shrugs. "The point is that Katsuki doesn't. He's like, the least charismatic person ever. But then again that does mean that whoever he does fuck gets a whole treat."

"No, go back," Shinsou says. "Aoyama fucks?"

They both raise their eyebrows at him.

"Awww, Shinsou's got a cruuush," Kaminari coos.

Question. "Hey, Kami?"

"Yeah?"

Shinsou takes the answer and his will with it. Kaminari's face goes blank.

Sero laughs. "Naw, c'mon baby, let him go."

Jesus. Shinsou is using his quirk, his body-controlling, consent-revoking quirk, in bed -without asking first- and Sero has the gall to laugh.

He's not sure if he should be flattered Sero trusts him not to misuse it, or offended that Sero thinks he could take Shinsou if he had to. It's probably a bit of both.

He lets Kaminari go.

"You do have a crush!" Kaminari goes, not even a little bit put off by what just happened. "Aw, don't be embarrassed, it's okay!"

"Aoyama's cute," Sero nods.

"Shut up, oh my god," Shinsou huffs, covering his face.

"Have you made a move yet? I hear he's a pretty good kisser!"

"He is," Sero confirms.

Shinsou peeks at him through his fingers.

Sero just grins back.

"...You're fucking with me," Shinsou asks.

Sero shakes his head. "Nope, he's a good kisser. He's great at frenching, even."

Shinsou groans. "Yeah, I know."

"So you did make a move! Spill, dude."

"It was just one date," Shinsou frowns. "I don't wanna talk about it. Can we just fuck?"

"Aw, did you think you'd get your crush in bed?" Kaminari coos.

Shinsou glares at him. "Worked on you, didn't it?"

Kaminari opens his mouth to keep talking shit, then his brain catches up to what his ears just heard and he bluescreens. He sits there gaping like a fish, his face going red.

Shinsou squints.

Kaminari stutters. "You like me?"

"Yeah, dumbass."

There's a little shock where Kaminari's knee touches Shinsou's thigh.

"Aw," Shinsou coos back, tilting his head. "Too much?"

"I'm-- I'm taken."

"I know, baby. I'm not one for dating, anyway."

Kaminari flusters for a moment more, then finally remembers to say, "I like you too. Just. You know."

Shinsou shrugs. "Cool." He leans in close. "I'm gonna ride you now."

Kaminari yelps when Shinsou pulls him in for a kiss. Shinsou nudges him and Kaminari lies on his back eagerly, with tiny little shocks passing from his mouth to Shinsou's.

It has no right being that cute.

Shinsou straddles Kaminari and presses his palms flat on Kaminari's chest.

"Oh I like what I'm seeing!" Shinsou cheers.

Kaminari is still red in the face, and his pupils are blown wide - it's really fucking visible in his honeygold eyes.

"I could fuck you like this," Shinsou muses.

"Not like this!" Kaminari wheezes, one hand blindly searching off to the side. "Condoms, dude--"

"No I know," Shinsou says. He glances down at where Kaminari's hard between Shinsou's thighs. "But I could." He wraps a hand around Kaminari.

"You could," Sero says from the floor. "Just pull his knees up and go for it."

Shinsou purses his lips, considering it. Then he does it, rearranges himself so he's between Kaminari's legs instead. He lifts one knee to his shoulder.

"Like this?" he says, knowing damn well that whatever comes out of Kaminari's mouth won't be legible.

But Kaminari doesn't even try to say anything, just lies there staring, wide-eyed.

"I broke him," Shinsou concludes.

"Little bit," Sero agrees. "He's fine, he does this. Don't worry, okay? I'm here, I know his tells. He's still with us, he's just nonverbal."

Shinsou rolls his hips into Kaminari's. There's nothing there, he has nothing to fuck Kaminari with, but Kaminari's breath catches all the same.

Shinsou isn't sure what does it for him more: the grinding itself, or Kaminari's reaction to it.

He swallows. He drops Kaminari's knee hastily, and climbs back onto his lap.

Kaminari laughs.

Sero laughs, too, much clearer. "That much, huh?"

"Shut up. Grab me a condom."

Shinsou slots himself onto Kaminari's length with little effort, thanks to Sero's godlike head from earlier. He's not just loosened up, he's wet.

He rolls his hips in circles and is very pleased with himself when Kaminari grinds up into him with a wrecked groan. It seems it's all Kaminari can do to rest his hands on Shinsou's hips.

Shinsou leans down and teases him, playing keep away with the kiss Kaminari instinctively reaches up for.

Kaminari takes him by the back of the neck to pull him down.

When Shinsou sits back up -for optimal grinding range- Kaminari takes Shinsou's hips and moves him so he can really fuck up into him.

"Fuuuck," Shinsou drawls, letting his eyes roll back.

He can't help it, it's just what he wants. He's a simple guy, he likes good cock and he likes his friends. Two and two go together.

"Sero," Shinsou breathes. "Come on up, my guy, or there's not gonna be any left for you." He leans forward, on his hands on either side of Kaminari's head, arching his back to offer access.

Sero crawls up on the bed. "I'm not worried about that."

Shinsou feels a chin hooking over his shoulder first, then Sero's knuckles on his asscheek, then the prod at his ass. He takes a deep, obvious breath, and Sero politely pushes in as Shinsou is exhaling. It goes well enough, considering how long it's been since Shinsou last had anything in there.

Sero moans in his ear. Then he turns and takes that ear in his mouth.

Shinsou attempts to move his hips.

"Let us," Kaminari tells him, his hands tightening on Shinsou's hips for a moment. "Lift up a little -like that, yeah- we'll have room to move, it's good. You might have to tilt to get a good angle, though."

"Oh, I don't care too much," Shinsou says. He lets them move for a moment, gauging how it feels. It's good, just as promised. "If you can move, that's fine with-- fine with me. I don't have a spot or anything."

"What, really?"

"Yeah, I dunno. It just feels-- feels good when it's all over. Little stretch, little friction."

Sero lets go of Shinsou's ear so he can mumble into it. "So is it better if there's two of us?"

"Not sure," Shinsou says. He hangs his head, now that he can. After a moment, he goes down to his elbows.

Sero straightens up behind him. They both change their pace, and Shinsou realizes that they're practiced even in this, enough to know what that change in angle lets them do different, what feels better now that Sero can move more and Kaminari can't.

Shinsou lets his head drop on Kaminari's collarbone with a groan.

"We've got you," Kaminari says. He sputters some of Shinsou's hair out of his mouth. "You're so fucking hot, dude, taking us both."

Shinsou huffs. "You know you're using your quirk? It tingles, kinda..."

"If it doesn't bother you," Kaminari mutters in his ear, "then don't think too much about it, and let it go through you."

Shinsou closes his eyes. "Can you feel it?"

"My quirk?"

"Yeah. When it goes through me. It feels like it... has a path, or..."

"Path of least resistance," Kaminari says with a blissed-out grin. "Always. I can't feel it, but I can tell that it goes into you two."

"He can do it more," Sero says. His voice has gone all strained, up there. "I like it when he syncs us up, it's a fucking treat."

"Oh don't do that," Shinsou laughs, "I'm gonna bust any moment now, you two can have your fun after."

"We're having plenty of fun now," Sero says.

Kaminari's hand leaves Shinsou's hip and goes to his neck, tilting his head so he can meet his eyes. "Kiss me?"

Shinsou kisses him like he'll die if he doesn't. He might.

It washes over him when he finishes, from the top of his head all the way down his spine. He struggles to keep his lips connected to Kaminari's, shaking with it.

He has to break away for the aftershocks, closing his eyes and panting as they fuck him through it.

And then something-- really weird happens. The white hot pleasure rolls through him again, quicker this time. By the time he manages to flutter his eyes open, he's still not convinced he didn't imagine it.

But he opens his eyes and finds Kaminari watching him closely, red in the face and brows furrowed in pleasure, but with enough manners to keep an eye on Shinsou.

"Did I--" Shinsou starts. They both slow down, nearly to a stop. "Did I just fucking come twice?"

"Did you?" Kaminari beams, delighted. "I thought that was kinda long! It was twice?"

"Hoooly shit baby," Sero goes, and if Shinsou hadn't literally just come twice, that sound alone would've done him in. "That happen often to you?"

"It's never happened before," Shinsou says. He rolls his hips just to see where he's at, and finds himself having had enough. "I'm scared to stand now, shit."

"You can do it," Sero says. He pulls out first, then helps Shinsou off of Kaminari.

Ow oof his knees.

"I gotta stop riding Hero students," Shinsou mutters to himself, wincing as he stretches his knees.

Kaminari and Sero, of course, lose it laughing.

Then Kaminari pulls himself upright and wrestles Sero to the foot of the bed. They barely pause long enough to take off the condoms before they're grinding together, Sero's head clean off the bed. It's quick and graceless and nothing like the patient, careful way they fucked Shinsou.

Then again, that was an advanced maneuver they pulled on Shinsou. This is just rutting.

It's not exactly rocket surgery.

Shinsou has to admit, Sero's long legs look fucking amazing wrapped around Kaminari's waist.

They're done in a matter of minutes, and Shinsou notes that they do finish at the same time.

"Was that with your quirk?"

"Yeah," Kaminari says, out of breath. He sits back on his haunches. "You can't just tease me about it and then expect me not to demonstrate."

Sero hangs his head off the foot of the bed with a breathless little laugh. "Yeah. Love it. Love you."

"Love you too, babe."

"Cool beans," Shinsou says, much to their amusement. He pushes himself up with both hands to stand.

His legs don't hold him.

"Nice," Kaminari goes under his breath.

"Shut the fuck up," Shinsou laughs, one hand on the desk chair for balance. "Didn't I ask you to give me a limp?"

"You didn't actually," Sero says. "We just volunteered."

"Well consider yourselves taken up on it." He wobbles over to the bathroom and pauses at the door. "...I'm not gonna eat dirt during training tomorrow, am I?"

"You should be fine," Sero shrugs. "If you're not, like, in actual pain right now."

"You're not getting out of the morning teasing from the rest of the class, but at least the teachers should be none the wiser," Kaminari adds. "There's all kinds of injuries that could give you a limp and have nothing to do with taking it up both holes at once."

Shinsou considers the idea of looking at Aizawa in the eye while his legs are shaking like this and realizes, in a fit of cold sweat, that there's no way that Aizawa doesn't know. And even if Aizawa's mind wouldn't go there, even if he accepts whatever bullshit excuse they give him, there's no way Midnight doesn't know that class A fucks.

Shinsou ponders his life choices. "You know what? I really hope I don't have a limp tomorrow, because if I do, I'm going to strangle both of you."

Kaminari laughs. "You'd really like Katsuki! We should set you two up."

"How dare you," Shinsou grins, and slips into the bathroom.

He doesn't have a limp in the morning. The whole class hollers at the three of them over breakfast, but Shinsou doesn't have to strangle anyone. Kaminari and Sero live to see another day.

Chapter 7: Sun, but the clouds are only in your head

Summary:

we are slowly catching up on my backlog and im getting scared

Shinsou stuffs a bun in his mouth, lays back on the blanket, and closes his eyes under the sun.

He bites off his mouthful, catching the rest of the bun in his hand. He swallows. "And then?"

"And then I ran at the guy," Kirishima says from the side. He has Eri in front of him, and is failing to braid her hair. "He was quick and slippery though, so I couldn't land a clean hit."

Shinsou takes another bite. "Mm."

At the other corner of the picnic blanket, Tsuyu and Hagakure are cracking open cans of iced tea and serving them in glasses filled with ice. They have a whole tray. They're pretty loud about it, but they're listening to Kirishima's story as well.

"I kept him occupied long enough for Amajiki-senpai to find me, at least," Kirishima says. "He's got this really cool capturing move -Kraken- you should see it in action, Eri. He had the guy captured in a matter of seconds! And here I was, barely holding him in the same area for like fifteen minutes."

Eri turns in her seat (further dooming Kirishima's horrible attempts at her hair) and pats Kirishima's knee with a sympathy only a child who doesn't fully understand the issue can offer. "It's okay, Red. You're strong and big and tough. Don't feel bad."

Kirishima's smile is wobbly. "Yeah, I'm big and strong!"

"And tough."

"And tough, of course! Thank you Eri, you're right. I shouldn't feel bad."

Eri nods, satisfied. She sits back down. "I'm glad Suneater could help you with that villain."

"I'm glad, too," Kirishima nods.

Shinsou, pushed up on his elbows, inspects the absolute state that Eri's hair is in right now. It looks like a bird's nest. No, a beaver dam. No, the name of any metal band ever. That's what it looks like.

Tsuyu stands up with the tray and starts making the rounds around the picnic.

There's a lot of them, so it'll take her a while. They've got like seven blankets laid out all over this clearing in the forest along the UA hill.

When the idea for a picnic came into being last night, it was only supposed to be a handful of people. Alas everyone and their shadow demon decided to tag along, so much so that it warranted a chaperone. At least Mic looks like he's having fun at his blanket. He's been jotting down on stacks and stacks of paper this whole time. Shinsou is convinced he's grading essays.

Kuroiro and Komori are cuddled together under a tree's shade, which is cute, but even from here Shinsou can tell that Kuroiro's flustered to sit so close to Komori. For her part, Komori doesn't even seem to notice. Either that or she's determined to brute-force her way out of an awkward date by sheer blabber alone.

Shinsou kind of remembers her being super shy the first time he was near her. At the Sports Festival, was it? She'd been pretty withdrawn. Next time he got near her, she was full of cheer and confidence.

Maybe she's doing it on purpose.

Shinsou smiles. If Komori can be so casually comfortable, Kuroiro will figure out how to do something similar.

It's not until Shinsou turns away that it occurs to him that Kuroiro's discomfort might not be from being close to his literal girlfriend, but from being publicly affectionate.

And the reason it occurs to Shinsou is because he turns his head and Sero has gone from napping next to his datemates to lying across all of them, somehow without waking them up.

At least Kirishima is spared from that.

Or... not. Shinsou turns to look at his own blanket again and finds Kirishima gone. Hagakure is working her way through the knot that is Eri's hair.

Kirishima stops by Tetsutetsu for a quick moment, then beelines straight for his partners. He squeezes himself on a corner of the blanket, practically curled around Bakugou's side.

Hah, losers in love.

Shinsou sits up. He scoots over and takes a section of Eri's hair, starts untangling.

Hagakure is wearing just shorts and flip-flops, so it's next to impossible to gauge her body language, but Shinsou can see where in Eri's hair Hagakure's hands are working.

"I didn't want to say this to Red," Eri starts, thinking she's whispering, "but he's not very good at hair."

"He's pretty good at his own hair," Hagakure offers. "He can do some cool things with boy hair. But he doesn't know how to do girl hair."

Eri nods. "Do I have to cut it?"

"It's not that bad," Shinsou says. "It's just a little tangled. We can even do a proper braid afterwards."

"Okay. Invisi," Eri says with the slow cadence of someone who can't yet pronounce the difficult parts of a hero's english name, "what does your hair look like?"

"It's past my shoulders," Hagakure says. She finishes her section and takes Shinsou's from out of his hands. "It's very thin, and it's not completely straight. I've been trying to grow it out so they can make invisible clothes for me. Like how Lemillion's cape is permeable like him."

"I have a lot of hair," Eri muses. "Can it help?"

"It has to be the hair of the person whose quirk demands it," Hagakure tells her gently. "My hair for me, your hair for yours. I don't think you'd need to make anything out of your hair. They only do that if your quirk affects you, but not your clothes, and having your clothes unquirked gets in the way. Like how my clothes are visible, but I'm not."

Eri thinks for a moment. "My quirk doesn't work on me."

"Have you tried it?" Shinsou asks.

Eri nods. "If I could rewind myself, I could undo these," she says, and holds up her arm.

It's a lovely, warm day out, and they're having a picnic under the sun. Even Shinsou has elected to wear a tank top.

Eri is still wearing long sleeves.

Shinsou glances at Hagakure. He likes to think they exchange a knowing look, but there's no way to tell with her.

"Your scars?" Shinsou asks, just to be sure.

Eri nods, drawing her arm close to herself again. "When I look at them, I remember the bad. Back then there was only bad. My head was full of it. Now I have some good in my head, but if I look at my arms too long, my head fills with bad."

Yikes. Shinsou is suddenly glad his quirk has nothing to do with perceiving someone else's thoughts.

"I'm glad you have good in your head now," Hagakure says. Her voice is steady as she says it, and so are her hands as she starts a proper braid on Eri. "The more good you have, the less room for bad there will be. And then, next time your head fills with bad, there will be so much good that your full head won't be all bad. Even if it feels like it for a moment."

"There's always good in you," Shinsou adds. He's not good at this. He doesn't know what to say to a scared civilian yet. He's barely trained enough to know how to talk to an injured civilian. Never mind a kid.

Hagakure makes it look easy. Aizawa makes it look easy, whenever Shinsou sees him with Eri. Midoriya makes it look easy. Kirishima makes it look easy.

But Kirishima and Midoriya and Aizawa were the ones to save Eri. She's associated them with her safety. Hagakure had nothing to do with the rescue, and can't even offer a comforting smile. How is she so good at it?

How is Shinsou so bad at it?

"Once there's good in you, it never really leaves," Shinsou continues. It sounds like bullshit. He's not even sure what Eri is describing. Shinsou doesn't know enough about child mental health to guess it and Eri doesn't know enough about health in general to describe it. "It's, um, like the weather, right? It could rain for days on end but the sun will always come back."

What the fuck is he saying? That's not comforting at all. There's every chance that Eri has never even been caught out in rain and has no idea how days upon days of rain feels like.

"Everyone has good and bad in their heads," Hagakure says with her calm voice and her calmer hands, carefully braiding their way down Eri's scalp. "Some people have more good, others more bad. For some people it's different every day. Some people's heads are full of bad, but they still do good outside, and some people are the other way around. Everyone's different, but no one is always all good or all bad all the time."

"...I feel like... I was all bad, before the heroes found me," Eri says.

Shinsou wants to scream. It's a child, she's a little kid, she shouldn't be so hurt, Shinsou shouldn't have this much trouble comforting her!

"You might remember it that way," Hagakure counters, "but maybe it wasn't like that, at the time. I don't know. I wasn't there, and I wasn't in your head - no one is in your head. You know your head the best."

They sit in silence while Hagakure finishes the braid, and ties it off neatly.

In the middle of the clearing, Tetsutetsu and Fukidashi have managed to talk Shiozaki into making a volleyball net with her Vines.

Eri turns in her seat to look at Hagakure, like that'll do anything. "Invisi-nee? Does your head ever have bad?"

Jesus christ.

"Yeah, Eri. My head has bad sometimes. Sometimes a lot of bad. Usually I have just a little bit of it, and it's so small I can forget about it, but I know it doesn't go away."

Eri frowns.

"The good doesn't go away, either," Hagakure says, somehow making sense out of Shinsou's earlier nonsense.

Eri frowns harder. "Wouldn't it be better to forget it all the time?"

"It can feel that way, but forgetting can be pretty bad, too. I would be scared if one day I woke up and forgot a whole week."

Eri nods. "That sounds scary." She turns to Shinsou. "Do you have bad in your head too?"

"Yeah," Shinsou says. He's not sure what to say that won't scare her, so he picks his most relatable trouble to share. "My bad makes it hard for me to sleep."

"You look like you don't sleep well," Eri says, pulling down her cheeks so her eyes go droopy. Ah, children.

"Yeah. I lie down and close my eyes and I can't sleep. I'm like the opposite of Eraserhead. He sleeps all the time."

Eri hums, her hand on her chin. Behind her, Present Mic is dispersing the hellvine volleyball game before it begins.

"Eraserhead told me that he sleeps in the day because he can't sleep in the night," Eri says. "It's his... head, but it's not bad, he said."

"It's not the same bad like your bad," Shinsou nods. "Everyone's bad is different. Mine doesn't hurt, but it stops me from resting. Yours sounds like it hurts."

Eri nods. "It hurts me in my head, when it's full of bad."

"Some days I can sleep fine," Shinsou says. "Other times I can't sleep for like a week, then I sleep all at once, for a whole day."

"If the bad gets too much, it has to get out somehow," Hagakure says. "That's different for everyone, too. Shinsou sleeps all at once, but Aizawa-sensei sleeps in little naps, all the time. Yours isn't about sleep, so you'll need to figure out your own way to let the bad out so good can get in."

Eri thinks. "The nurses said something like that. Oh!" She nods. "I think I understand now! This is what the doctor was trying to tell me. I get it."

Shinsou hopes whatever therapist is assigned to Eri can meet her at her level instead of sprouting medical jargon at her. She's a smart girl, but she's still only a little kid.

Mic has managed to negotiate a game of Duck Duck Goose instead of volleyball, and no one's quirk is to get involved. Eri gets up and goes to join the circle. Komori wanders out of the shade and into the sun to join, too.

Shinsou stays where he is, watching as enough people gather to start the game.

"You'll learn this, too."

Shinsou turns to the side. "Hm?"

"You'll learn how to talk around trauma, too," Hagakure elaborates. "Don't look so surprised, I saw your face before. You keep thinking you're not enough. You are. You just haven't had as much experience yet."

Shinsou turns back to the game with a frown. "I'm sure they'll teach me as quick as they can."

"They can't teach you being scared and lost and still having to keep going."

Shinsou keeps looking ahead. But only because he knows he won't see anything if he turns to Hagakure.

"It's experience. I can talk to a kid better than you, but Aizawa-sensei is better than all of us combined. He's an older pro, and more important than that, he's a teacher. He's good at talking with kids, not because it's something he was born with, or something he was taught at school, but because he's been doing it every single day for years now."

Shinsou nods. "That does make me feel a little better. I just have to get out there and experience shit. Yeah, that helps."

"Good. You're no fun when you're grumpy."

Shinsou furrows his brows, but can't help a smile. "Who is fun when they're grumpy?"

"Bakugou, of course! Some of his funniest moments are when he's angry as hell. You're more fun when you're up to no good."

Shinsou raises his eyebrows.

"Yeah, exactly like that," Hagakure says. "What did you just think about to make that face?"

"Up to no good?"

"Yeah! You have this gremlin bastard energy you get sometimes. Like that meme of the cat with the knife pointed at it. That's you."

"You have no idea how high the praise you've just dropped on me is," Shinsou says. This is the best compliment he's ever received. His ego will never shrink back to its normal miniscule size.

"Thank you, thank you. Are you gonna play?"

Shinsou looks at everyone else playing.

Tokoyami has stood up from where he was to go sit next to Kuroiro under the nice tree. Apart from those two and Shinsou's own blanket, the only ones who haven't joined are the Bakusquad, who are still too busy being asleep and in love, and Aoyama, who has been genuinely working on a tan the whole time the picnic has been going. He has a timer and everything.

"Nah, I'm good here," Shinsou decides. "I like your company."

Hagakure giggles. He feels her lean against him.

The thought goes through his mind that this is the closest she's been to him without anyone else around, but he's wrong, of course. There's people around, even now. Just not Ojiro.

He gets comfortable with her weight against his side, and they watch the game for a while. Eventually Shinsou goes to grab an ice tea for himself. In his absence, Hagakure lies on her stomach. Shinsou runs a hand up her back to figure out where the rest of her is: she has her arms crossed under her chin so she can still watch the game.

"Hey, Hagakure?"

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

Shinsou licks the tea from his lips, thinking of how to phrase it.

"...Or you can keep beating around the bush, okay." She sighs. "What's up?"

"It's, um... When Ojiro is around, you two act like you like me."

"We do like you."

"But when he's not around, you act like I'm your classmate that you're still building a friendship with." He looks at where he thinks her face is. "When you're not around, Ojiro acts like he's never been close to me. You two like me when you're together, but not when you're apart."

"Oh," Hagakure goes, then her voice is muffled like she's speaking into her crossed arms. "You noticed."

"If you just want me for a third, that's fine with me," Shinsou says. "But you could at least tell me."

Aoyama's timer goes off in the distance. He flips around and sets the timer again.

"I am... attracted to you... kind of. It's stronger when Mashirao is around, you're right. But it's not like I stop thinking you're hot when it's just you and me."

"Just not hot enough to do something about it," Shinsou nods. "Alright, makes sense. Thanks for telling me."

"Shinsou, no, wait."

"I'm not offended," Shinsou elaborates. "I'm not upset. I don't care what or how much you want to do with me and in what company, as long as you tell me about it. I don't want to have to guess when it's alright to go for a kiss and when you'd rather keep distance."

Hagakure sits up so she can face him. "You can always go for a kiss."

"On you? No I can't. I can't aim."

"Like this, silly," Hagakure says, then Shinsou feels her knuckles at his cheek, her thumb. A soft pair of lips presses over where her fingers touch him.

She pulls back.

Hesitantly, Shinsou reaches up and tries to find her face with the back of his hand, like she did for him. He finds hair first, then her ear, then passes by her eye before he finds a decent spot of cheek. He leans in and presses his chin to his hand so he can give her a kiss just under her eye.

"See, that wasn't so hard."

Shinsou smiles. "Yeah, that's kinda cute."

"Lots of people in the class like that kinda gesture, it's so sweet. You can do it to me whenever. I know things are usually more on the sexy side when we're with Mashirao, but I do like you, Shinsou. You're a fun guy."

He grins. "Just not fun enough to bang without your boyfriend to rile you up, huh?"

She shoves him. "You're the worst, actually," she laughs.

"Only when I'm up to no good," Shinsou teases, poking his tongue out.

She pinches his tongue between her fingers. It's a tongue, so it goes back into his mouth when he startles, but Hagakure just laughs and laughs, poking her now wet finger to Shinsou's cheek.

 

Notes:

i dont actually know how one should speak to a child as traumatized as eri. i assume it goes case by case. don't take my word for it tho
did you know? eri's presence is the last bit of plot i have in this verse. at some point in SNWF i mention the shie hassaikai arc and then, like, nothing else. (spoilers in this work i'll mention that every student other than shinsou has their license so we're at least after the remedial exam arc)

Chapter 8: Glimpses and Other Such Quick Moments

Summary:

little moment collection, as a treat <3

Shinsou goes on another date with Aoyama - this time out for coffee. It's a cute little place he takes Shinsou to. The staff greet Aoyama as a UA student.

Apparently Aoyama likes milk in his coffee, but still finds it too bitter for his taste. Shinsou can't relate. Caffeine works on him about as well as nicotine does, which is to say, it doesn't.

After, they stop at a park to be gay and cute and Aoyama even convinces him to take a date selfie.

And, hell, it's a cute selfie.

Shinsou thinks that maybe Sero is going on dates with Aoyama, but they're not dating. He's not sure.

A brutal game night starts by one of the common room TV sets and ends up outside in the dirt with Bakugou and Midoriya rolling over each other in their scuffle. Their argument is less the kind that is talked and more the kind that is growled. There's grass in their hair.

Kaminari and Uraraka take bets.

Bakugou wins, which earns Uraraka some money, and Midoriya a bunch of classmates willing to kiss him better.

Shinsou ends up sitting on the floor with Todoroki while Uraraka and Iida play nurse on Midoriya's bed. That's not a euphemism, but only barely.

Shinsou catches Kaminari in the showers. He asks to join him, then presses Kaminari face-first to the wall and jacks him off until Kaminari's knees go weak. The whole time, Shinsou can't help recalling the time he caught Bakugou and Ashido fucking against the shower stall wall exactly like this.

He absolutely botches an English essay. In his benevolence, Present Mic gives Shinsou another day to try writing it again.

Shinsou begs the smart kids in the class for help. He gets a decent grade on his second try.

A third of everything Aoyama says is innuendos. He's doing it on purpose.

Shinsou gets him against a wall one day, just out of sheer frustration. It doesn't help - Aoyama's hands in Shinsou's hair, pressing his whole body up against him, his stellar kissing, all of it. A few minutes in, Shinsou bites Aoyama's lip and Aoyama makes a soft little sound that makes Shinsou's head spin.

He pulls himself away and upright and walks to the opposite wall, covering his face.

Aoyama lets him.

Sero passes by Shinsou's room on his way to Aoyama's.

Sero knocks on Shinsou's door on his way back from Aoyama's, a couple hours later.

Sero asks to borrow Shinsou for the night.

Shinsou invites him inside.

Godawful day of Hero training. The class returns to the dorms for the evening and collectively drops to the floor. And stays there.

Shinsou goes three straight days without sleeping in his own room once. The first night sleeps with Kaminari, second with Midoriya, third with Midorioya again but they only sleep, nothing more.

Well, it's technically four days. On the fourth night Shinsou is in his own room, wide awake.

On top of everything else, Shinsou is the only one in the class who doesn't have a Hero license. He has to take the exam. So he'll have to wait until the exams are happening.

Aizawa tells him that students don't often take the exam on their first year in a Hero Course. He only let this class go for it because he saw potential in them as they were together. They're allowed to team up for the exam, after all.

To send Shinsou alone would be illogical.

But Shinsou has been behind everyone else, he's been catching up alone this whole time. So Aizawa will let him take the exam, when the time comes, even though he's only on his first year.

Shinsou could just hug him, he's so happy. He manages to contain himself, but the amused look on Aizawa's face tells him that he's still grinning like an idiot.

Kaminari asks him if he'll spend the night with him and Ashido. Shinsou goes for it.

Later in the week Kaminari asks him if he'll spend the night with Bakugou. Shinsou would rather Bakugou ask him himself.

Bakugou asks him himself within the hour.

Bakugou gets knocked the fuck out at his Hero Work Study.

Ah well, another day.

Ojiro and Hagakure cuddle into each of Shinsou's sides, squishing him between them. The silly game show they've put on the TV plays innocently while Ojiro's hand goes up Shinsou's thigh. Hagakure has her face tucked into the crook of Shinsou's neck for the occasional kiss.

Shinsou turns to drop a kiss to the top of her head. He turns to give one to Ojiro as well, only to find him facing up, ready to catch the kiss with his mouth.

Shinsou won't deny him. He's thoughtful like that.

It's Hagakure that shoots off the text to tell the others to stay out of the common room if they don't want to join in, but Shinsou catches glimpse of her screen. She only sent it to the girls' chat.

Sneaky. Technically within the rules Iida's asked of them, but only barely.

Hagakure slips off the couch and to her knees.

Aoyama has a knack for braiding hair. Shinsou asks him to do his one evening, and Aoyama all but explodes into glitter with joy. He gives Shinsou a pair of lovely (albeit short) french braids that start at his temples and tuck into each other at the back.

Later he is informed that that's Aoyama's favorite style to braid.

Shinsou eventually has enough of teasing Iida and just drags him to the laundry room. It's the closest private area at the time, and Iida doesn't like PDA. Like, severely doesn't like it.

So Shinsou drags him to the laundry room, announces his intentions, then follows through. They're almost the same height - a rare experience for Shinsou. Few classmates are taller than him, and few of them he wants to suck face with.

They very quickly figure out they can't match pace at all. Iida is speed and power through and through, and Shinsou is much more the slow and easy kind of kisser.

Iida hilariously thanks him for the makeouts and asks that they don't try again without someone to act as buffer.

That's a funny way of saying they're both thinking about Midoriya, but Shinsou is used to that by now. Hard to make out with a guy's boyfriends without thinking of the guy himself.

He just has to stop laughing in order to agree.

The one night he tries to pull an all-nighter to study, he ends up falling asleep at his desk. He wakes up with a terrible crick in his neck. Todoroki kindly works it out.

He asks Bakugou over breakfast if he's free tonight, gets a positive.

School comes at them with a baseball bat wrapped in piles and piles of homework. No one does anything but that homework for two days straight.

Ah well, another day.

Shinsou twists his ankle during training and his beloved classmates, instead of worrying about him or helping him to the infirmary, pile on him to practice their first aid.

They do get him to the nurse after some time, but only so they can have their work checked.

The things he puts up with.

Bakugou asks him if he's available - but Shinsou has a thing planned with Aoyama and Sero.

Fine. Another day.

Shinsou asks Jirou's help for a prank. They're not gonna employ it right now, but he needs her help to make it work, it's vital that it's the two of them.

She agrees.

It's gonna be glorious.

Bakugou checks with his datemates before he asks Shinsou if he's available; Shinsou checks with the school schedule before he asks Bakugou if he's available. They're free for the night. It's gonna work.

Someone starts a fucking fire in the dorms.

Fine. Fine! Another fucking day.

Shinsou manages to sleep with Midoriya again before he gets to Bakugou. The stars refuse to align for this one.

It gets to the point where Shinsou waits for Hero Training to end for the day and grabs Bakugou to tell him to hang back in the showers.

They get a quickie out of the way, but it's not what Shinsou was gunning for. It's not what Bakugou was gunning for either, apparently, but at least they got it out of the way. So now they should have broken the curse, right...?

"Hey," Bakugou says, catching Shinsou's damp arm. "Just come to my room tonight, this is getting ridiculous."

Shinsou slicks his wet hair out of his face. "Yeah how much you wanna bet the world's gonna explode before I get there?"

"Don't jinx it," Bakugou huffs. "And if even if it does explode, it won't take me down with it. I'm immune. We're fucking in a bed like people if it's the last thing we do."

"Better be fucking worth it," Shinsou says. "And don't explode anything yourself."

"Fuck you. Don't tell me what to do."

"There's a joke about my quirk somewhere in there. I'm sure you'll figure it out yourself, though."

Bakugou flips him off.

 

 

Notes:

yay we get shinabku finally! next month. see you september lmao

Chapter 9: The bed is cursed.

Summary:

only the bed?

They're not even to Bakugou's door and they're already attached at the mouth with no plan to seperate.

Shinsou grabs at Bakugou's sides and yanks him against himself until Bakugou presses him up against the wall.

He's gonna ruin Bakugou's shirt.

Slowly and clumsily they shuffle their way along the wall and to the door, the sign with Bakugou's name digging into Shinsou's shoulder when they hit it. Bakugou doesn't even turn to look as he unlocks his door. He grabs Shinsou by the front of his shirt and spins the two of them into his room, with himself to the wall this time.

Shinsou takes him up on it. He does like pressing people to walls.

They're not what you would call careful or smooth with it; it's frustrated and rash and, frankly, underlined with the irrational fear that maybe there is some sort of curse to keep them from fucking, so they have to get it while the getting's good.

Shinsou slides a knee between Bakugou's legs - always a nice move at Shinsou's height - and gets nails dug into his hip for his trouble. Bakugou is half mast against Shinsou's thigh and hard at work to get all the way up.

Their quickie from earlier seems fucking stupid right now. They've barely started and already Shinsou is having more fun with this than he did exchanging hurried handjobs in the showers.

Shinsou ducks for Bakugou's neck. He doesn't think about biting, but it happens anyway, and Bakugou's hips buck up against his thigh.

"You too, huh," Shinsou chuckles.

"Man of culture," Bakugou hisses. He pulls on Shinsou's hair. It's not the deterrent he thinks it is.

Shinsou keeps working on that hickey. It's a work of art, really.

Bakugou growls (!!) and shoves Shinsou. Some primal part of Shinsou's being makes him plant his feet and hold his ground without thought. It's silly, he does want to get pushed back onto Bakugou's bed.

Bakugou squints at him for a moment and comes to the same conclusion Shinsou did: no biggie. He pushes again.

Shinsou goes this time.

He sits at the edge of the bed. Bakugou tries to climb on him without straddling his lap, and fails spectacularly. In their rush to get the show rolling and unwilling to stop kissing long enough to coordinate, they trip each other up.

Shinsou falls off the edge of the bed with a yelp. He takes Bakugou down with him.

"Oh my fucking god," Bakugou growls against Shinsou's collar bone. Then he laughs. "I figured it out. It's the bed. We can't fuck in a bed. The showers are fine, the floor is fine, but the bed is cursed."

"Only the bed? And only for sex? And only when it's you and me?" Shinsou says, more incredulous with each addition. He laughs, too. "You know what, this might as well happen."

Bakugou covers his eyes as he laughs.

His gums show when he grins like that. He curls his lip even when he's genuinely amused.

Shinsou can't help but grin back. "Alright, floor it is."

"I am not kneeling on this motherfucker for however long this will take," Bakugou says.

"Well I'm not doing that either."

Bakugou nods. "Good call," he goes, and rolls to his side in the meager space between his bed and coffee table.

Shinsou rolls to his side as well, facing him. "Gonna kill my shoulder like this."

"Better the shoulder than the knees." He looks Shinsou up and down. "Especially for you. When else are your shoulders gonna get killed?"

"Oh, like yours take any more stress than mine?"

Bakugou tugs him closer by the hips, speaks against Shinsou's lips. "My quirk is in my hands, idiot. I fly with it. My shoulders take all of that." A kiss. "I'm not even gonna get uncomfortable lying on my side on the floor."

With morbid curiosity Shinsou reaches out and gropes Bakugou's shoulder.

Mm. Meaty.

"Fucker," Bakugou mumbles into the kiss.

Shinsou's other hand palms all the way up and down Bakugou's torso, feeling him up and mussing his top. Bakugou takes it off.

Not to be outdone, Shinsou takes his own shirt off as well.

Except as he's yanking over his head, arms lifted and pulling, Bakugou's mouth lands on Shinsou's chest, hot and wet and not even a little bit deterred when Shinsou jumps at the contact.

He yeets the shirt to the window and half-rolls to his back to offer better access.

"Nope, not that," Bakugou mumbles against his skin. He pulls Shinsou by the hip until he's lying on his side again.

Alright. Shinsou brings a knee up and hooks his leg over Bakugou's.

A chuckle. "Yes that."

Shinsou chuckles, too. "Shut the fuck up, holy shit."

Bakugou bites.

Shinsou moans, really lets him have it. He catches Bakugou under the jaw and pulls him up into makeout range.

They roll their hips together, just a tad, groaning into each other's mouths.

Bakugou huffs, pulling away. "Okay we're not gonna rut here all night."

"Why not?" Shinsou says, letting his voice go as rugged as it wants.

Bakugou shivers, frowns. "You want to?"

"Hmm..." Shinsou goes, palming at Bakugou's abdomen, watching his muscles jump at the contact. "No, I'd rather get you in me. Bet you'd fit real snug."

Bakugou rolls his eyes. "Let me get my stuff."

Except once he's on his knees and rummaging through his nightstand, he's level with his bed. He gives it a wistful look.

"...One last try with the bed?"

"You're the one who said we're cursed," Shinsou shrugs. He climbs to his feet to undo his pants, then sits on the bed to take them off his legs.

Bakugou puts just one hand on the bed, ready to push himself up as well.

His phone rings.

"I'm gonna fucking lose it," Shinsou says calmly.

Bakugou, meanwhile, is yelling at his cell like it's at fault. He picks up. "What!?"

Shinsou can't hear the voice of the caller. He does get to watch Bakugou go red in the face with rage.

"Denki I swear to fucking hell if you don't cut your shit out right now I'm gonna come down there and shave your goddamn eyebrows, do you hear me?"

Shinsou laughs, he can't help it. Bakugou only glances at him.

"No don't you dare. You're the one who keeps saying this anemic looking ass is a good lay, Sparky, you're the one who's been fucking trying to set us up. Keep being a menace and I toss him out the window."

"Wow, harsh," Shinsou giggles. "At least buy me dinner first."

Bakugou looks ready to pop a vein. "I changed my mind. If I don't give him reason to shut up he's gonna keep talking."

"You wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid."

Bakugou hangs up without so much as a bye.

He pulls Shinsou off of the bed and attacks his mouth. With his own mouth, of course.

Shinsou doesn't wanna be on top if it means kneeling on hardwood, so he rolls to put both of them on their sides again. This time though they're on opposite sides, which Shinsou's shoulder appreciates. He only barely manages to do all this without breaking the kiss. He scrambles at Bakugou's shaggy pants.

Bakugou puts a hand flat on Shinsou's sternum.

Shinsou pauses. He rests his hands on Bakugou's hips, pulls him closer.

Bakugou breaks the kiss first, then just sits there for a moment, working his jaw with his brows furrowed.

"I don't..." he says eventually. He purses his lips and tries again. "I don't really wanna do this if it's just gonna be the showers again, only horizontal."

Shinsou nods. "Yeah, I get you. Feels like we're getting chased or something."

"Mm." Bakugou rubs his free hand across his nose. "I'm not gonna halfass this."

"Me neither," Shinsou says. "Alright. We do this at a normal pace?"

A nod. "At a normal-ass pace." He brings their lips together again.

And it's instantly a huge improvement, the slower pace, the calmer hands. Shinsou manages to lower Bakugou's pants enough that Bakugou breaks away to strip the rest of the way out of them, and now they're both naked.

Without the hurry from before, Shinsou doesn't even feel exposed.

"Here," Bakugou mutters, or maybe it was just a growl - it's hard to tell with him. He pulls Shinsou's knee over his hip.

They're only barely not lined up.

"Where'd you put the..." Shinsou says. He reaches up over his head to Bakugou's nightstand. Indeed there's some lube and condoms right by it. The drawer is still open.

Shinsou reaches his long arm out to push the drawer shut. Bakugou ducks for his stretched throat.

Shinsou curses. He grabs the condoms.

He opens one over Bakugou's head, reaches between their warm bodies to roll it onto him. Bakugou hisses with a harsh bite that makes Shinsou's breath catch.

"Come on, come on," Shinsou mutters. He cups Bakugou's face and pulls him back up into a kiss.

Bakugou lets him and takes himself in hand to line up. Shinsou angles his hips forward.

It's a fine as hell stretch, if Shinsou's gonna be honest.

Once he's all the way in - or rather, as much as he can at this angle - Bakugou wraps his arms around Shinsou and hauls him close. It's a little rib-bruising.

He tries to go for Shinsou's throat again, but Shinsou keeps him in place.

"What, you don't want any hickeys?" Bakugou half-growls into the kiss.

"Wanna kiss you," Shinsou says with a nip. "Is that so bad?"

Bakugou huffs out a laugh, soft and breathy. "Sap."

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you."

"Fuck me yourself, coward."

Bakugou has to break away to laugh at that. Shinsou preens, the cat that got the cream.

"You're fun," Bakugou says, with that quiet growly voice of his, dropping a quick peck on Shinsou's jaw.

Shinsou kisses him again to shut him up. He gets a hand in Bakugou's hair, just to be sure he won't go anywhere.

Bakugou attempts to retaliate by getting a hand down to where he's fucking into Shinsou.

He can't, of course. Shinsou's thigh is in the way.

But Bakugou is nothing if not tenacious, so he switches hands without a fuss. He rubs at Shinsou slowly at first, then with more pressure, until Shinsou is breathless from that as much as he is from the cock in him.

Bakugou's free hand grabs a fistful of hair at the base of Shinsou's skull.

"Oh, fuck," Shinsou manages to say.

"C'mon, Brainwash, let's see it."

Shinsou yanks on the hair in his hand, hard enough that Bakugou's head rolls back with a yelled protest.

"Call me by my fucking name or don't call me at all," Shinsou snaps.

Bakugou bites him hard. Shinsou tastes blood.

A kiss to Shinsou's lip, then they're making out again.

As far as apologies go, it's not the worst Shinsou's ever received.

And Bakugou really is a good kisser, and a good fuck, so he'll take it.

"There," Bakugou concludes, eventually, instead of anything even remotely implying remorse.

"You're lucky you're cute."

"Cute," Bakugou repeats with a disbelieving chuckle. "Speak for yourself, you're fucking adorable."

"Hell yeah I am." He clenches down on him. "And don't you forget it."

A string of curses slips out of Bakugou's mouth. Normal day in the hero dorms.

He shoves his tongue down Shinsou's throat and pulls him closer by the grip in his hair. Shinsou makes a-- a noise, moving so he's holding Bakugou around the ribs.

Chest to chest, it's really not long at all before Shinsou finds himself cresting the hill.

"Bakugou," he manages to get out.

Bakugou hums some kind of affirmative, strained.

Shinsou shudders all over. He has to bite down on his own lip.

Bakugou doesn't fare much better - his breath hisses through his teeth, in, out, done.

The both keep moving for a moment, coming down from it.

Then Shinsou pushes with his hips and sits up, straddling Bakugou.

They just look at each other.

"View's great from up here," Shinsou pants, eventually.

"Bet you wanna stay up there," Bakugou says. He has the gall to cross his arms behind his head.

"On this godforsaken floor? Think the fuck again." He catches his breath quickly. "Credit where credit's due though, your boyfriend was right to set us up."

"Sure was," Bakugou drawls, one hand petting Shinsou's thigh. "He knows what I like."

Later, they climb into Bakugou's bed with trepidation, but nothing happens. Apparently it's fine if they're on it for sleep. Either that or they broke the curse.

Or maybe the curse wasn't real in the first place, but they were too impatient to consider that option.

Notes:

okay now we're REALLY catching up on my backlog *sweats*

Chapter 10: We can't all want to date our whole class!

Summary:

the amount of shit i've figured out about myself while writing fanfiction is hitting critical levels

"Done!" Shinsou declares. He puts his pen down and stretches his arms up over his head. "Whew, finally."

Shiozaki lifts her head from her own homework. "Oh, I'm the last one, aren't I?"

"Take your time, girl," Tokage tells her, patting her shoulder. "You can do it."

There aren't a lot of them here, scattered around class B's dorm's common room, but they're taking up three tables between them.

Kirishima was here earlier, but he left with Tetsutetsu a few minutes ago. Tetsutetsu is back before Shiozaki finishes her homework.

She struggles for another moment before she sighs and turns to Tokage with puppy eyes.

She's not even doing it on purpose. Shiozaki just has some big ol' eyes and is earnest in everything she does.

"Are you stuck?"

"I'm stuck," Shiozaki says, sounding close to tears. Again, this is just how she is and how she often sounds.

Tokage leans over her shoulder and reads her workbook. She flips a couple of pages in Shiozaki's open textbook, and points.

Shinsou rolls his shoulders. He rubs the back of his neck.

Ever since he started training to get in the course, and especially ever since he succeeded, he's been tense all over, all the time. In muscles he didn't even know he had, even. It's started to even out with time, but only where he knows how to stretch.

He brings up both hands and presses down on either side of his nape.

Tetsutetsu pats his back. "You hurting, bro?"

"Ugh," Shinsou goes, descriptively.

Tetsutetsu's hand goes up Shinsou's spine and onto his neck. Shinsou drops his own hands, then Tetsutetsu presses in and--

Yeah Shinsou chokes on his own tongue.

The room laughs at him. Good naturedly.

"Dude laugh all you want, I don't give a shit, just do that again."

Tetsutetsu adjusts his grip and does it again.

Shinsou was expecting it this time, so he manages not to react beyond closing his eyes.

"Tetsu's the best at it, isn't he?" Monoma grins from across Shinsou. "His quirk is good for a massage."

"Yeah," Shinsou manages to get out. "Fuck."

"Eh, it's good for this, but not so much if I gotta do something with a grip," Tetsutetsu says. "Like if I have to pinch something to work it. Too smooth."

"But it prevents a friction burn!" Monoma insists cheerfully. "Really, man, it's so nice."

Tetsutetsu laughs. "What are you doing?"

"What? I'm not doing anything. I'm just saying, your quirk is more suited for healing than some other similar quirk that you keep comparing yourself to, even when you really shouldn't because you're clearly better."

"There it is," several people chorus. Tetsutetsu continues, "You gotta let it go, man. Kiri's a good bro."

Monoma waves a dismissive hand. "Yes yes of course, fraternizing with the enemy as always. Just because you don't see our superiority as a class doesn't mean I can't help you look."

"What about me then?" Shinsou asks, lifting his head to look at Monoma. "Aren't you fraternizing with the enemy by hanging out with me?"

"There's no enemy!" Shiozaki calls from over her homework.

Monoma places a hand on Shinsou's shoulder. "You are not a member of the class A that mocked and troubled us beyond belief within our first weeks here, and then kept proving themselves more and more troublesome as time went on. In fact, quite the opposite! You're survived several weeks in that class without causing a single problem with us. I'd even say you're friendly!"

"Literally their entire class is friendly," Tetsutetsu says, drawing his hands back to himself.

"Not literally," Shinsou corrects. "And I'm for sure on the less friendly side of the class."

"You're plenty friendly to me," Monoma smiles.

"You just want to get all buddy-buddy with the only other mental quirk user in our year!" Fukidashi jeers from his own table, a little "buddy-buddy" kanji in his speech bubble.

Monoma pauses. "I'm not doing that," he lies.

"Kouda's quirk is a mental one too," Shinsou offers.

Monoma frowns. "Who?"

"Kouda, speaks to animals. Mentally."

"But he has to speak out loud, doesn't he?"

"So do I," Shinsou argues.

"But mental's about using your quirk on other people," Monoma frowns. "Actually no, forget that, he's part of the problem class so obviously he's a menace too."

"You gotta be the only person on this whole planet that could possibly describe Kouda of all people as a menace."

“The fact that his quirk is a mental one proves my point more than yours, Fukidashi,” Monoma grins, crossing his arms on the table. “It’s not about my quirk or theirs, I just like Shinsou because he’s proof that their horrid class could be decent, but instead they decide to be terrible on purpose.”

“You are,” Shinsou starts, then pauses, grinning when Monoma looks at him, “so annoying.”

“You’re not all sunshine yourself either, A.”

Shinsou laughs. “Easy, B, you couldn’t handle me if I was all sunshine.”

Tetsutetsu sits in the empty seat to Shinsou’s side. “I dunno, Kirishima’s in A, and all sunshine, and I handle him fine.”

“Yeah I bet you do,” Shinsou says. He’s not quiet about it.

That gets him a couple of winces, and several blushes, including from Tetsutetsu who laughs.

“Eh, I get Noma’s point though. You’re class A, but you’re, like. Different flavor.”

Shinsou raises his eyebrows. “You’re thinking about my flavor now?”

“Shut up, oh my god,” Tetsutetsu laughs, shoving him sideways in his seat. “That’s exactly what I mean, you’re so A. No other class just says stuff like that.”

“We have some manners, unlike you lot,” Monoma adds.

“Where are my manners lacking, exactly?”

“The stuff you say and the way you say it, it’s very forward and quite--”

“What, I can’t flirt with my own yearmates now?”

Monoma blinks, his blush going more flustered now. “Well, it’s not a crime, but it’s bad manners.”

Shinsou frowns. “To flirt?”

“You certainly didn't ask for my consent before you dropped a line on me.”

“It’s—” Shinsou stutters, flabbergasted at whatever the hell just came out of Monoma’s mouth. “Dude, that’s what flirting is. I drop a line and then depending on what you do with that, I drop another one or pick the first one back up.”

“I think he means like actual flirting,” Tetsutetsu muses. “Like, with romantic intent, not just flirting for fun.”

“What the hell is wrong with you,” Shinsou laughs. “Flirting is so much fun. There’s no way every single one of you and every other class ever is so committed to their romantic ideals that they’ll refuse to flirt unless it’s with their datemate or their crush.”

There’s a moment of silence.

“...I mean…” Fukidashi starts, a question mark in his speech bubble, “...why else would you flirt?”

“Because it’s fun???” Shinsou goes. He looks around the room. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Really?”

No one answers, for a moment.

“Holy fucking shit.” He runs a hand through his hair. Seriously, is this the first time any of them has asked this? “You flirt because it’s a fun and playful thing to do with your friends, you flirt to express interest, yes, you flirt to romance and you flirt to seduce. You flirt because someone else flirted first. You flirt because it feels nice and good and sexy.”

Tetsutetsu nudges him in the side. “We don’t really… I mean I guess we do do a little bit of flirting, friend style, but we don’t really swing like that, Shinsou.”

“You flirted with me just yesterday.”

“You were making out with Kami! What was I supposed to do?”

“No but that’s what I mean,” Shinsou says, pointing at him. “You weren’t flirting with me because you wanted to date me, right? I bet the thought didn’t even cross your mind. You did it because you like Kaminari and I was being sexy with him so your attraction to him extended to me for the moment. It doesn’t have to be romantic, dude. You can flirt just to flirt."

“I mean…” Tetsutetsu rubs the back of his neck, glancing at his classmates then quickly looking away. “I wasn’t looking to get anything out of it, but if either of you were down…”

“You can flirt just to fuck, too,” Shinsou says. “I can’t believe I have to tell you guys this. You’re acting like none of you are queer, it’s weird as hell.”

“We can’t all want to date and fuck our whole class,” Monoma says, quietly but with distaste.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who’d want that,” Shinsou frowns. “Hell, I don’t want to date any of my class.”

“Wait, really?” Tokage pipes up from the other table. “No one?”

Shinsou turns and frowns at her.

She frowns back. “I could’ve sworn…”

“I don’t really do dating,” Shinsou says, then hears how that sounds. “Wait, not like that. I mean, it’s just… It’s not for me, alright?”

“Like Satou?” Tetsutetsu says, and Shinsou’s whole world tilts on an axis it didn’t have before.

His pulse is in his ears. He holds the edge of the table, white-knuckled, his breath at a standstill.

Like Satou? Like someone who fucks but doesn’t date? Like a friend who is fine and normal and happy about himself, like a person who just doesn’t feel romantic feelings?

Like aromantic?

Shinsou?

Shinsou gets shaken back into awareness. “Huh?”

“You good?” Tetsutetsu says, brows furrowed. “You just started shaking.”

“I need-- I need.” He swallows. Takes a deep breath. “I gotta go to my own class.”

“Wait.”

Shinsou lifts his eyes.

Shiozaki stands, hands on her unfinished homework. “Wait,” she repeats. “I…”

They look at each other. Like friends who are fine and normal and confused about themselves, just for this moment.

“Yeah,” Shinsou says, “Yeah, let’s go, come on.”

She scrambles to follow him, out the door and down the stairs of her dorm, where Shinsou stops.

He brings his shaking hands up. He sits on the bottom stair, covering his face.

After a moment, he hears Shiozaki sit next to him.

She breaks the long silence first.

“I didn’t know you could simply opt out.”

Shinsou draws a shaky breath in, calmer breath out. “I hadn’t thought it would apply to me.”

“How does one… figure out, whether it applies to them?”

Shinsou lifts his head just long enough to glance at her. “I don’t know.”

“Oh.” She’s disappointed.

“I assume it’s different for everyone. I mean, how do you know you’re in love?”

Shiozaki smiles. “I’ve been told you’ll know it when it happens.”

“And if it doesn’t happen? How do you prove a negative? Maybe I just haven’t found the right person yet.” He breathes to calms himself again. “At least, that’s what I’ve been telling myself.”

Shiozaki hums. “I know love.”

Shinsou doesn’t interrupt, so she keeps talking.

“I know what it feels like. But romance, to be attracted to someone with intent, for the purpose of dating, to be in love… I don’t know that.” She hugs herself, her vines curling around her torso as well. “I don’t know if I ever will.”

“I think I could do it,” Shinsou mutters after a moment. “I think I could date someone, if I thought it was worth it. But I wouldn’t be attracted to them like that.”

She looks at him sideways, her face warming. “But you are attracted to people, aren’t you?”

“For sex,” Shinsou says, then regrets how it makes her look away, hide half her face behind a hand. “It’s-- I like who I like, and when I get to do something about it, all the better. But dating is… I don’t have anything against the dates themselves, I guess. Just seems cheesy. I just don’t think I’ve ever looked at someone and thought that they’d be great in a relationship and I’d want to hold their hand for the rest of our lives.”

“But you have looked at someone and thought you’d like to get intimate with them,” she guesses, and at his nod, continues. She hides her face with both hands. “I… understand.”

Shinsou twists his mouth, only while she can’t see him. He doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable, even though it is obviously helping both of them in their respective confusion to speak this out loud. “You’re the same?” he guesses as vaguely as he can.

She nods behind her hands. “I am… overcome, at times, with the thought of it. I understand the appeal of intimacy, I really do, but I do not wish to engage as far as some of the others seem to.” She lowers her hands, looks out into the treeline. “I like them. I do, Shinsou, I understand the love that your class shares. I’m the same. But I don’t want to be intimate with anyone, and I don’t think I’m capable of falling in love with anyone.”

Shinsou’s heart breaks a little bit.

…Maybe he should have a similar talk with Aoyama.

“That’s okay,” he tells Shiozaki, trying to keep track of what she isn’t saying through what she is comfortable saying. “It’s your own choice who you get to be intimate with, or not, and when and in what manner. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”

She sighs. “So my classmates always say.”

“But there’s nothing wrong with not dating while feeling like that, either. I’m… I’ve never wanted to date anyone. It’s fine, it’s just… you know, gay. Queer. It’s aromanticism.”

“Can you say the word again?”

“Aromanticism. If you want to use that word. You can call yourself aromantic.”

“Aromantic,” she repeats, testing it. “Is that english?”

“I think it is,” Shinsou frowns. “No, wait, the a- at the start means it’s greek, doesn’t it?”

Shiozaki fiddles with one of her vines. “I’m not really good with foreign languages.”

“I was gonna…” He points a thumb to his own dorm building. “Satou is aro, and allosexual. He’s like me, I think. I dunno. I wanna talk to him, like, immediately right now. Do you…?”

“Yes, let’s go,” she says, standing up and dusting herself off.

In class A’s dorm’s common room, sprawled on the same couch and passing a bunny back and forth, are exactly the two people Shinsou wanted to see right now.

Oh and also Shouji is there, because this isn’t a fairy tale so not everything can be perfect.

“Satou! Kouda!” Shinsou cheers, bounding over to sit on the couch next to theirs. Shiozaki joins him. “I need your aro wisdom.”

“Lay it on me, dude,” Satou says, lifting Kouda’s bunny to his chest in a cuddle.

“I like sex, but I don’t like romance. Am I aro? Discuss.”

“Sounds kinda aro to me,” Satou agrees immediately, bless his heart, his soul, his mind and his massive muscles that he’s using to cuddle a cute little bunny rabbit.

“Why don’t you like romance?” Shouji offers.

“Just seems cheesy,” Shinsou shrugs. “I don’t get the appeal.”

“Romance and Romanticism are two different things.”

“Romanticism is an art movement, right?” Shiozaki says. “Popular in poetry and fashion and décor, I believe. It’s not the same.”

“But it affects how people do romance,” Shouji elaborates. “Especially the poetry part. All kinds of cheese in there.”

“I do like the art,” Shinsou frowns, hand on his chin. “It’s cool and all, it’s fine. But it’s not something I would personally appreciate thrown my way, you know?”

“Ouch,” Satou says. “Don’t let Aoyama hear you say that.”

“Aoyama’s a big boy, and so am I. I can handle a little romance expressed in my direction if he can handle toning it down a bit.”

“Match made in hell,” Shouji teases.

Shinsou flips him off with a grin. “So, what’s the verdict? Am I aro?”

Kouda points at him.

Shinsou chews on the inside of his cheek. “I mean, I think so? I’ve never liked anyone that way, so it fits.”

“Yeah, that tracks,” Satou nods. “For me it’s more like I can feel attracted to people that way, but the mere idea of getting into a relationship with someone sounds so repulsive that I recoil immediately.”

Kouda takes his bunny back into his own arms before he speaks. “For me, it’s that I don’t like anyone like that, a little bit on purpose. I’m sure I’ll change my mind in the future, but right now I don’t have it in me to be attracted to anyone.”

“...For me,” Shiozaki starts, then stops, uncomfortable under everyone’s eyes. “For me, I don’t think I’m capable of liking anyone in that way.”

“Like me, then,” Shinsou says.

Shiozaki gasps, lifts her eyes to him. He smiles.

“Nice! Now we have to duke it out,” Satou says. “Shinsou, you’re with me.”

“Wait what?” Shiozaki says. “How is that the first course of action you concluded on?”

“No, he’s right,” Shinsou says, standing. “Square up.”

Kouda laughs. He stands up as well, putting his bunny down in his seat.

Shiozaki stays seated. She turns to Shinsou, bewildered.

“Us versus you,” Shinsou says, beckoning her. “Come on, get up. I thought Hero students love their brawls, don’t prove me wrong now.”

Shiozaki smiles. She stands up. “Very well then. Prepare to be decimated.”

She and Shinsou get their asses beat within the first minute. Kouda and Satou manage to wrestle for another few minutes before Shouji steps in and forcibly separates them.

Big boy behavior.

Normal day in the hero dorms.

Chapter 11: Prank

Summary:

im behind on the manga no spoilers
also i finally got my hands on a game i've been wanting for years so my brainpower is greatly occupied at this time lmaoo

“I’m calling in that prank you agreed to,” Shinsou says, walking into Jirou’s room.

She stands there with her hand on the door for a minute. “Huh?”

“The prank I told you about the other day, remember?” He lifts his bag. “Come on, let’s get it done.”

“The prank-- Oh!” She closes the door. “Right now?”

“Yep, let’s do it. What’ve you got?”

“Right, right, okay.” She goes to her closet and starts digging.

Shinsou takes the chance to upend his own bag on her bed. He fishes out a couple of choice items.

“Alright, here,” Jirou says. She dumps an armful of clothes on the side of the bed Shinsou hasn’t piled his mess on. “You have to wear this Deep Dope shirt, it’s basically my M.O. I think it will fit you.” She looks him up and down. “Can you just like, shrink?”

“No. Fuck you,” he grins. “Here, I’ve got this one, it’s stretchy as hell and barely fits me, you should be able to put it on without being completely swallowed by it.”

She chucks the shirt she had on without funfair and picks up the one Shinsou was offering. It’s a muted purple tee with a cat decal on the chest. It looks small, though Shinsou knows it to be stretched out from use.

He picks up the one Jirou chose for him. It’s a muscle tank, so it has good chances of fitting him. He changes into it.

“How do I look?”

She looks him up and down again, frowning. “Tall. Shrink, perhaps. How do I look?”

“Small, but not like you stole that from your dad or something.” His shirt does reach her thighs, to be fair. The neckline was too tight for his head to fit through so he cut a triangle in the front just last year. It’s only barely a deep enough cut for him to wear it, but on Jirou it drops well below her collar bones.

“Alright, pants,” he picks out what he brought from the pile and shows her. “I am not fitting in any of yours. Which one of these is more your style?”

She inspects them. “You don’t have any shorts?”

“I have the knees of a horse, I don’t know what you want from me.”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine, this one. At least it’s black.”

It’s the one baggy pair of jeans he has. He puts it on while Jirou goes back to her closet.

“What am I looking for?” she calls from over there.

“If you’ve got ripped skinny jeans,” he starts. “Gray or light-wash?”

“Do I look like the kind of nerd who has gray jeans?”

“Hey.”

She steps into a ripped pair that’s… well, Shinsou supposes it does qualify as light-wash, but it’s clearly the kind that was washed out with use – it’s too dark, it must’ve been the standard denim color once.

She tucks the shirt in so it doesn’t look so long and opens her palms. “Well?”

“Yeah, that tracks.” He nods. “Now comes the fun part – hair.”

Jirou barks a laugh.

 

The studded bracelets don’t fit Shinsou’s wrists at all, but with the power of one elastic per bracelet, he manages to make it look like he’s wearing them like a normal person. The earrings Jirou bobby-pinned into his hair are the least uncomfortable thing about his hair right now.

If nothing else, at least she didn’t put much makeup on him. By comparison she’s wearing much more.

They attract attention immediately upon coming into the common room, but it takes them a hot minute to find their actual target. He’s tucked away in a corner drinking soda with one hand while charging a couple of phones with the other.

Shinsou and Jirou look at each other, nod, and sit on the couch opposite their prank target.

Kaminari does a double take and drops the cables. Good thing, too, because his hand sparks for a moment.

“Hello?!” he calls, eyes wide as saucers. “Hello???”

Jirou bites down a laugh. “Hi.”

“Hey,” Shinsou nods. He pulls his legs up on the couch with him, then turns to rest them on the arm of the sofa so his shirt still shows. Well. Jirou’s shirt.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” Kaminari continues. His hair is starting to go up with static. “You look great!”

“What, it’s not anything,” Shinsou shrugs. He goes to fix his hair out of reflex – he’s not used to having it down – and switches to tucking it behind his ear instead.

“Don’t you ‘it’s not anything’ me, look at you two,” Kaminari says.

“Dude, what are you on about,” Jirou deadpans. She can’t make her voice as deep as Shinsou’s is, but she gives it her best shot.

With her hair styled up and her jacks tucked out of the way, she looks more like his sister than she does Shinsou himself. But that’s close enough for the prank.

Shinsou probably looks nothing like her, not even like her brother, but that’s the best they could get without cutting his hair in the choppy style Jirou wears.

At least, and no one can dispute him on this, he’s a better voice mimic than her.

“You fry anything again? You’ve got kind of a stupid face going on right now,” he says, mimicking Jirou’s pitch, her cadence, her timbre. He’s got a pretty good impression, if he says so himself.

“Whatever you’re doing,” Kaminari says, putting his drink down, “stop it right now. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

From the other couch, Sero stifles a laugh into his shoulder. Tokoyami doesn’t even bother with that, just chuckles out loud.

“Stop what?” Shinsou says, tossing over his shoulder the pinned earring that looks like an earphone jack.

Kaminari’s eye twitches. He chokes out a shocked laugh. “You’re wearing each other’s clothes.”

Jirou manspreads and looks down at herself. “Yeah no I don’t think these fit anyone but me.”

“I could give them a try,” Tokoyami offers through laughter.

Jirou shrugs. “Sure, knock yourself out. Lemme know when you want them.”

“Don’t you dare,” Kaminari hisses. “You are not recruiting every alt fashion kid in our year to knock me out, specifically, with your clothes.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jirou says, but she cracks. Her voice goes up to normal, her grin spreads wide.

“What are you doing,” Kaminari repeats. This time it sounds less like a question and more like a prayer. “What are you doing.”

“We’re literally not even doing anything,” Shinsou says.

“That, what the hell is that, how are you doing that without your mask.”

“What mask?”

“Shinsou,” Kaminari hisses.

“Yes?” Jirou answers.

Kaminari gets up and leaves.

Jirou can’t help it, she bends over her lap in laughter. Shinsou laughs too, now that their target’s gone, covering his face with one hand.

“Ah wait, shit,” he goes. He checks his hand, finds no makeup smudged there. But the concealer under his eyes matches his skin color, he wouldn’t be able to tell if he got some of that on his hand.

The triangles on his cheeks were maybe a little overboard, but he had to do something to his face so the most noticeable thing about him wouldn’t be his lack of eyebags.

Jirou looks perfectly normal with eyebags added, though.

“Oh that was awesome,” Sero says as soon as he can get his laughter quieted. “I wish I was recording that, holy shit, did you see his face?”

“It was pretty funny,” Jirou agrees.

“You look great, by the way.”

“Thanks, boo,” Shinsou goes, blowing him a kiss.

“Wow okay no now I get it,” Sero grins. “Kaminari is in the right, actually.”

Shinsou turns to Jirou. “Do you think it would be funnier if I flirted with Yao-momo, or if you did?”

Jirou purses her lips. “Considering Sero just now, I think me.”

“Let’s go get her.”

They find Yao-momo in her room, having pulled several books out of her bookcase and placed them on her bed.

She looks at them, one hand on the open door and one on the door frame. She looks Shinsou up and down, then Jirou up and down.

“Hey, cutie,” Jirou says with her best deep voice.

Yao-momo blinks at her. “Yes?”

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Laundry, I do believe,” Yao-momo says. “You both look very fetching, truly, but I prefer you in your own clothes, dear.”

Jirou cracks immediately. “Sorry, sorry, you should’ve seen Kaminari’s face though.”

“It worked better on him,” Shinsou agrees.

Yao-momo’s brows go up. “Oh! Your impression of Kyouka is excellent! You’re so close to her voice, it’s amazing, I would’ve thought it was too high up for you.”

Shinsou laughs. “Uh, yeah, I can do a high voice. I mean, it’s awlays easier to do a high voice than to do a deep voice, right?”

“That is true,” Jirou nods. “But you’re not even doing a falsetto, that’s all chest.”

“What can I say, I’m a man of many talents.”

 

They go for Ashido next.

She gasps, long and breathless, when she sees him.

“Hey, Mina,” Shinsou grins. “What’cha up to?”

“Stop, stop,” Ashido goes. She scrambles up from where she was sitting and grabs Shinsou by the face to yank him down into a kiss. Their teeth knock together. Ashido is undeterred.

She grabs Jirou next, but they’re closer in height so they kiss like normal people.

“I’m going to be so disappointed in you if Denki hasn’t seen this yet.”

“No, he has,” Jirou grins, face still cupped in Ashido’s hands. “His face was priceless. He just up and left the room.”

“Sero looked like he handled it a little better,” Shinsou adds. “At least, until I flirted with him.”

“Momo was fine though,” Jirou concludes. “She didn’t care much, I think. She was impressed with Shinsou’s voice more than anything.”

“It’s impressive, yeah,” Ashido nods. She turns to hug Jirou around the waist. “Say some more words, funny man.”

“Do you think Present Mic has ever tried to do impressions?” Shinsou says with his Jirou voice. “I mean, he has the range for it, I don’t think there’s a note he can’t hit. But like, his way of speaking is so fucking specific, and he can barely go a full sentence without dropping some English in there.”

“That’s so cool,” Ashido says. “I can kinda hear where you’re straining, but Kyouka’s voice is so flat you don’t have to change pitch much, right?”

“I’m gonna be real, it doesn’t sound like how my voice sounds to me,” Jirou laughs. “But I was expecting that, no one’s voice sounds to them how it sounds to everyone else.”

“I could try to do your voice,” Shinsou shrugs, “but you’re right, I can only do Jirou’s so easily because she speaks so monotone. With you, I’d have to, like—” he clears his throat. Ashido’s voice is only high-pitched when she wants it to be – by nature, she’s an alto. “I’d have to try something like this. I’d need some practice before I got it right.”

“It’s not half-bad!” Ashido cheers. “You were pretty close!”

Shinsou rubs the back of his neck. “Eh, it was fine. I can do the guys’ voices pretty good. At least those notes, I can hit.”

“Don’t downplay it, dude,” Jirou says. She gives him a light punch to the shoulder. “It’s impressive. Act like it.”

“Ah, but if I get a big head about it, I’m gonna get got.”

Ashido pats his arm. “You’re gonna get got anyway, big boy.”

“Ominous! I hate it.”

“Yeah yeah, come give me another kiss you idiot.”

 

Aoyama looks at him. He looks at Jirou. He looks back at Shinsou.

“No,” he says.

“Yes,” Shinsou says, with Jirou’s voice.

Aoyama points at him. “Do not use my dear friend’s voice at me, monsieur.”

“Aw c’mon, babe, don’t be like that,” Jirou says.

Aoyama turns his point to her. “You, don’t do that either. It’s like watching Kouda trying to flirt, mon dieu. What possessed you to dress up as each other?”

“Kaminari’s reaction was hilarious,” Shinsou offers.

Aoyama considers this. His mouth curls into a small grin. “Ah, yes, it would be. I can imagine. What did he do?”

“He didn’t even know what to do, you should’ve seen his face. He just left the room, it was great.”

Aoyama giggles. “That does sound funny.”

Jirou knocks her shoulder against his. “But not you, huh?”

“Non, cherie, no.” He pats her back, hugs her around the shoulders. “Well, for what it’s worth, I think you both look better when you’re comfortable in your own clothes.”

“You’re the first to say that,” Shinsou laughs. “Everyone else thought we looked great, if you even care.”

“Non, non, c’est pas vrais. You look dreadful, I can see you tried, but it’s really obvious you are not wearing your own skins.” He hooks a finger into Jirou’s bangs and tucks them down, where they stay immediately, the traitors. “Look at this, both of your hair is so used to sitting in its specific style. To force it otherwise is an obvious misdeed. And your jacks, oh, isn’t it uncomfortable to keep them up like that?”

Jirou lets her jacks fall out of her hair. “Yeah, it’s kinda tiring. Like keeping your fists clenched all the time.”

Aoyama shakes his head. “And you, cheri? Are you wearing earrings?”

“With bobby pins,” Shinsou explains. He turns when Aoyama reaches for him, lets him pull his hair back to look behind his ear where the earrings are pinned.

Aoyama nods. “I see. I admire the commitment.” He takes Shinsou’s jaw between his thumb and forefinger. “You look odd with concealer.”

Shinsou can’t help but smile. “Yeah, well, we can’t all look as good as you do in it.”

Aoyama laughs. “Stop it, you.”

“Stop me yourself.”

Aoyama puts a hand on Shinsou’s chest and pushes him back upright. “Not while you’re wearing our good friend’s face. And she’s right here.”

“Oh I don’t mind,” Jirou grins.

Aoyama’s mouth twists. He pulls his arm back from around her shoulders. “I’m sure you don’t, dear, but I do.”

“Right, yeah,” Jirou goes. She clears her throat. “Of course. Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Aoyama says. He turns his face away from her for a moment, but Shinsou can see him close his eyes and take a deep breath. When Aoyama turns again, he’s all smiles again. “Well. You might both look uncomfortable, but that aside, I will concede that you do look nice. Your styles aren’t very alike, but they’re similar enough to make this work, at least.”

“Thanks, man,” Jirou says. “Approved by the fashion icon himself!”

“And I would love nothing more than to be of service in this area again,” Aoyama says, giving a little curtsy. “Just please go fix your hair, dears, it hurts to look at. I’m sure it was great when you first styled it, but it’s really starting to come undone now.”

Shinsou looks at Jirou. Apart from the bangs Aoyama just pulled down, her hair isn’t so bad. It’s only starting to fall out of shape a little bit.

...Then again, imagining how his own hair must be right now, he can’t help but frown. Jirou frowns back.

“You know what, you might be right,” she says. “We got everyone we wanted to prank, we might as well go change.”

“Yeah I think that’s everyone.”

“Who was everyone?” Aoyama asks.

“Kaminari, and Momo, and Mina. And you, of course.”

“You didn’t go for Midoriya?” Aoyama gasps. “For shame!”

“Midoriya would do his little mumble-rant about it,” Shinsou says. “It’s cute and all, but it’s normal. He wouldn’t be pranked at all.”

“Yeah I think he’s immune,” Jirou nods. “Remember that time Mina and Ochako did the ol’ switcheroo? He didn’t even care.”

Aoyama nods. “Ah, you’re right.”

“Wait, what switcheroo?”

“They did some kinda…” Jirou gestures vaguely. “Wife swap, or something? They didn’t tell anyone, just invited their respective partners over for the night and went to each other’s rooms instead of their own. For like a week they kept trying to pull it off until they each got all of the other’s partners. I’m pretty sure they didn’t succeed.”

“They were close though,” Aoyama says. “I believe Uraraka was only missing Kirishima, non?”

“Pretty sure, yeah,” Jirou nods. “Mina was having trouble with Iida and Todoroki, too. But, you know, that’s easy to solve.”

“Midoriya,” Shinsou and Aoyama chorus.

“Midoriya,” Jirou nods.

Shinsou glances out of the corner of his eye at Aoyama nodding.

Was it--

Was Aoyama the ace Midoriya had got? Is that how Aoyama knows this? Or was it just gossip? No one has actually confirmed or denied how Midoriya is more popular with the lesbians and the aces of the class. All Aoyama said about it was that he had experience to back up the belief that Midoriya is a gentleman in everything he does.

That’s a little too Aoyama-talk for Shinsou to decipher, and he hadn’t wanted to push at the time.

 

After Shinsou is back in his own clothes and hair, and has washed off the makeup, he goes to find Midoriya.

“I gotta ask you something a little gossipy and a little personal,” he opens with.

Midoriya pauses at the serious look on Shinsou’s face. “...Alright. Shoot.”

“Did you fuck Aoyama?”

“Did I—” Midoriya sputters. “Huh?”

Shinsou runs his hands through his hair. “I know, I’m sorry, I don’t know how to ask him. He gets so uncomfortable so easy, he’s said he’s done stuff with you but he wasn’t specific. Please, I just wanna know.”

“That’s… a little personal, yeah,” Midoriya nods. “But if he’s said as much already, then no harm done. Yeah, I’ve slept with Aoyama before.”

Shinsou takes him by the shoulders. “Midoriya.”

Midoriya shakes his head. “I don’t think it’s ever gonna happen again, sorry.”

Shinsou covers his face, curls over his knees. “I’m in hell. I’m in hell.”

“It’s just one guy,” Midoriya says. He crouches by Shinsou’s side and rubs his back. “There’s other fish in the sea.”

“You don’t understand, he’s such a good kisser,” Shinsou grumbles. “And I love kissing him, he’s so good, and he likes me back, but he’s so quick to—” He covers his face again. “I’m in hell.”

Midoriya pats his back. “Shinsou…”

“I know, it’s so shitty, I shouldn’t be thinking about it if he doesn’t want it, right?” He gives a single humorless laugh. “I’m so mad. I’m in hell.”

“You’re allowed to think about it,” Midoriya says. “Has he told you otherwise?”

“...No.”

“Then you can think about it. It’s not a big deal.”

“I’m worried I might think too hard and then do something I shouldn’t.”

Midoriya looks him up and down. “...You?”

Shinsou peeks at him from between his fingers.

“You, with your quirk?” Midoriya elaborates. “You, with how much you watch your own words? You, with your heroism so strong it got you here?” He shakes his head. “I don’t think you could do anything you didn’t mean to, Shinsou.”

Shinsou lets his hands fall.

“I’m serious,” Midoriya continues, nudging Shinsou’s shoulder with his own. “You’re always so mindful of yourself. I used to be angry that you thought you had to be. Like you couldn’t let your guard down around us? But now I know that’s just how you are. You’re careful on purpose. There’s no way you would ever hurt Aoyama, or anyone else for that matter.”

Shinsou crosses his arms on his knees and hides his mouth in there. “I could hurt people,” he mumbles.

“On purpose,” Midoriya agrees. “Only ever on purpose.”

“I could hurt someone by accident, too.”

Midoriya is quiet for a minute. “Alright. Walk me through it. You think about Aoyama and sex, and then you do something you think you shouldn’t. What happens next?”

Shinsou finds that he can’t even picture it. He knows the words, but he can’t picture it. “He’ll be hurt.”

“Sure, he’ll be hurt. What will he do? What will you do?”

“...He’ll hate me.”

“No, the first thing he’ll do. The very first thing Aoyama will do, when you cross a line he doesn’t want cross, when you know you shouldn’t.”

Shinsou frowns. “What?”

“He’ll stop you,” Midoriya tells him. “He’ll stop you, either by asking you or by forcing you to stop. And then what will you do, when you’re stopped?”

“I’ll stop,” comes out of Shinsou’s mouth before Midoriya is even done talking.

“You’ll stop,” Midoriya nods, and lets a pause hang.

“...He’ll still hate me.”

“He might get upset or he might not think much of it. It depends on what happens.”

“He won’t ever get close to me again for fear of it happening again.”

“Did you stop coming close to me after I dislocated your shoulder?”

Shinsou looks at him stunned stupid for a moment, trying to remember. They’re hero students, they get a lot of dislocations and near-dislocations, even by each other. Midoriya could be referring to anything. But to bring it up in this context, what could possibly, when…

It was several long months ago. Midoriya had been holding Shinsou’s hands over his head, and they were… against a wall, Shinsou thinks. He’d stumbled, or Midoriya had tripped him, and he’d fallen while Midoriya was still holding his arms up. Shinsou remembers the pain more than anything before or after it.

“That was different.”

“I hurt you,” Midoriya insists. “I hurt you by accident while we were fucking.”

“You didn’t hurt me by fucking me,” Shinsou hisses.

“Didn’t I? If I hadn’t been, then you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

Shinsou groans. He sits on the ground. “It’s different! You weren’t going around thinking, oh how great it would be if Shinsou would let me pull his shoulder out right now. It’s not something you wanted. I’m going around thinking--”

He cuts himself off.

Midoriya nudges him in the shoulder. “You should tell him, if it’s eating away at you that much.”

Shinsou covers his face again. “I’m not gonna fuck up everything I have with him over this.”

“No. You’re not. So tell him.”

With his face still covered, as if that will hide the shame, he asks, “Did you ask him? Or did he ask you?”

“Aoyama asked me. He said he wanted to see what the fuss was about.”

“Ough.” Shinsou’s bitch of a brain helpfully provides him with several ideas of just how well Midoriya must’ve shown Aoyama what the fuss is about.

Midoriya pats his shoulder, laughing. “There, there.”

 

Chapter 12: Where the line is

Summary:

fashion advice! ....relationship advice???

Shinsou chews his lunch thoughtfully. Across from him, Aoyama, Tokoyami and Dark Shadow are having a hearty argument over their own lunch.

“Surely not,” Aoyama is saying.

“Surely yes,” Dark Shadow counters.

Aoyama frowns. He chews thoughtfully, swallows, and frowns some more. “All pink?”

“I’ll take the pink,” Tokoyami says.

“All baby blue?”

“I’ll take the blue.”

Aoyama throws a hand up. “Surely not! You look terrible in blue!”

“Anything is better than all white,” Tokoyami counters.

“Looking like a bride,” Dark Shadow scoffs.

“You would not look like a bride,” Aoyama groans. He scrambles for another offer. “All beige.”

Tokoyami opens his mouth, then pauses. “Same shade?”

“No, of course not. Similar shades. Beige shirt, tan pants, cream jacket. Or maybe a light brown…”

Tokoyami considers this – Dark Shadow, for his part, waits for him to reach a decision.

Finally, “I’ll take the beige.”

Aoyama shakes his head. “Now you’re just lying.”

“I understand that light colors don’t look very good on me,” Tokoyami says, “but you have to understand all white is gonna look terrible on me.”

“No-- look, listen.” Aoyama take out his phone and starts scrolling, furiously eating with his other hand. “Like this.”

Tokoyami leans over to look. “That is not all white.”

“It’s as all white as the last thing I said was all beige.”

Tokoyami shakes his head. “That’s gray. If you had asked gray from the start, I’d have said yes.”

“It’s white.”

“I will bite your face off,” Dark Shadow says, very calmly.

Aoyama lifts his phone so Dark Shadow can look as well. “See for yourself!”

“I can’t read this,” Dark Shadow says.

“Dark Shadow can’t parse the contents of a screen,” Tokoyami explains.

Aoyama switches targets to his other side. “Hagakure, dear. What color is this outfit?”

Hagakure, presumably, looks. “White.”

Aoyama stretches across her lap to reach further. “Jirou, dear?”

“Looks gray to me, man.”

Finally he turns the phone to Shinsou. “Shinsou, dear, what color?”

Shinsou looks. It’s very clearly meant to be an all-white outfit, the model is even wearing white lipstick and eyeliner. But the outfit itself is in fact various light shades of gray. The only reason it looks white is because the model’s skin and the background are both very dark.

In Aoyama’s defense, the grays all look very nice and make for a lovely outfit.

“It’s gray. It looks white on the black background.”

Aoyama looks at him like he spat in his food.

“I’d wear that,” Tokoyami finally concedes.

Aoyama turns and beams at him like he hung the stars. “You would?”

Tokoyami shrugs. “Sure. I get what you mean, it’d look nice with my feathers. But it is not white.”

Aoyama takes a pleased little sip of his juice. “I don’t care, you’d wear this. I was right. I knew you’d agree with me.”

“You are a fashion icon,” Shinsou agrees.

“Wait, wait, I had one for you too,” Aoyama says. He scrolls on his phone then pockets it. “Picture me this, right?”

“I’m picturing,” Shinsou smiles, putting another bite of food in his mouth.

“V-neck. Leather jacket. Cargo pants. The biggest boots you’ve ever seen.”

“I’ll be knocking my head on door frames.”

“But you will look so good up there, mon ami.” And he produces his phone and shows it to Shinsou.

It’s the outfit Aoyama just described. The boots are ginormous – the model must be Jirou’s height, maybe even shorter. If Shinsou wore something like that, he’d have to walk around bent at the rib to avoid constant concussions.

It’s gorgeous though, he’ll admit.

More important than the outfit though is the way Aoyama eyes him when he thinks Shinsou is preoccupied with the phone.

The innuendos are one thing. The godly french kissing, Shinsou can handle. He can survive the blushes, the coy looks, even some amount of bedroom eyes; yes there’s been a couple of instances where Aoyama exhibited what could reasonably be called bedroom eyes.

This, though. This looking at Shinsou, unashamed as he’s thinking he’s unobserved, very clearly imagining Shinsou in a situation he is not in…

He’s picturing Shinsou in the outfit, no doubt. Aoyama thinks the outfit looks cool, and he’s into Shinsou, so he’s combining the two in his head.

If it were the other way around, it would not be an outfit. If Shinsou was the one eyeing up Aoyama, it would not be a clothing swap situation that he’d be imagining him in.

Guilt curdles at his stomach. Suddenly he’s not hungry at all.

“That looks great,” he says after what he hopes is a normal pause. “And just my style too, you really know your stuff. Uh, I think I’m done with this, does anyone want the rest…”

“Give it here,” Yao-momo says hurriedly from his side. She’s already taken Todoroki’s side dish and at least three people’s half-finished rice. She puts it all down at impressive speeds.

“Shinsou, are you alright? You look unwell,” Tokoyami frowns.

“Is something wrong with the food?” Aoyama goes, brows furrowed with genuine concern.

“It’s not the food,” Shinsou assures them, standing. “Sorry, I think I’ll head back to class.”

Dark Shadow goes up and looks around, looking for anything Shinsou could have seen to upset him so. He wouldn’t know the most upsetting thing is in Shinsou’s head.

 

He paces up and down the corridor. He steels his nerves, paces one last time, and knocks on Sero’s door.

Sero opens it without even looking, leaves it open as he goes back to lying face-first on his bed.

“It’s Aoyama,” Shinsou starts, without any preamble.

Sero grunts from where his face is buried.

“Have you ever slept with him?”

Sero waves his hand dismissively.

“I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Sero finally deigns to lift his head and look at him over his shoulders. “And what do you want me to do about it?”

There’s an obvious answer, but it’s not actually what Shinsou came here for. Well, he’ll take it, but it wasn’t his intention.

His shoulders slump. “I feel stupid.”

“And I feel exhausted,” Sero shoots back. “So did you want anything or not?”

“I don’t know,” Shinsou admits. “I guess… what do you do about it?”

“What? Aoyama?” He drops his face back onto his bed. “I don’t. I don’t do anything about it. Why are you so hung up about it, man?”

Shinsou huffs. “I don’t fucking know dude, this is exhausting. I keep feeling guilty and I don’t wanna say anything to him cause it’s gonna upset him.”

“So get it off your chest and upset him,” Sero mumbles. “There, problem solved.”

“But new problem created,” Shinsou argues.

Sero doesn’t answer. For a moment, Shinsou thinks he’s managed to pass out.

“What makes you guilty?” Sero asks eventually.

“I’m thinking stuff I shouldn’t.”

At that, Sero pushes himself up on his hands, turns to sit on the side of his bed, reaches across and slaps Shinsou right on the forehead.

“Ow.”

“That’s what you get for feeding the thought police in your head. Get it together. It’s in your head, it’s nothing to be guilty about.”

“It’s nothing, to think of my friend in a way he very much doesn’t want to be thought of?”

Sero just stares at him for a moment. “Did you tell him this?”

“No!”

“Then what does he care?”

“I would care if someone thought I was a girl!” Shinsou argues.

“Why the hell would you care what some rando thinks?”

“Not some rando, my friend. I would care if you or Aoyama or anyone else in the class thought that about me.”

Sero thinks about that for a minute, then nods. “Okay. Say someone does think that. And they never tell you. How does that affect you?”

“It… it doesn’t, right away, but it will affect how they interact with me and I’ll notice. It’ll affect me then.”

“No, they keep acting the exact same. But they think something about you. Never tell you. It never affects you. Do you care?”

Shinsou crosses his arms. “Fine. I don’t care.”

“There you go. Now say someone thinks that, tells you, but keeps acting the same to you. Do you care then?”

“Yes,” Shinsou frowns.

Sero taps his chin. “Hm. Okay, got it.”

Shinsou leans forward.

“I can’t help you and it’s not my problem. Go talk to Aoyama.” And he twists around and curls up in his bed.

Shinsou sits there with his jaw on the floor. To be fair to Sero though, he does have a healing concussion to sleep off, and he did raise a good point.

Shinsou tries to at least greet him on his way out, but Sero is out cold.

He closes the door behind him and leans against it.

This is getting tiring. It’s ridiculous. It’s uncomfortable.

With a frustrated start Shinsou realizes this is exactly the kind of teenage drama he used to tease his GenEd classmates about. For fuck’s sake, he’s in class A now! He’s not allowed to be miserable over something that could be clearly communicated and solved!

Do they or do they not all love each other? Shinsou should fucking act like it!

He marches down to Aoyama’s room and knocks.

...No answer, even on the second knock, so he pulls out his phone and calls him.

“Oui?”

“Hey, it’s Shinsou. Where are you?”

“Just got out of the bath! I’m heading to my room now.”

“Great, meet you there.”

Which is a generous way to say that Shinsou is already there, but whatever. Aoyama’s hair is damp when he arrives and lets Shinsou in.

He immediately starts working on styling it.

“I gotta tell you something.”

“I’m all ears!” Aoyama tells his mirror.

Shinsou waits for a moment, but he knows by now that Aoyama’s hair is hard work. It’ll take a while.

“...It’s about you and me.”

“Uh-huh,” Aoyama goes, frowning now.

Okay. Shinsou’s a big boy. He can be reasonable. “I wanna fuck you.”

Aoyama’s hands flinch so hard he drops the section of hair he was holding. “You what!?”

“I keep thinking about it,” Shinsou admits. “I didn’t wanna tell you cause I know you’re not into that, but I can’t stop.”

Aoyama warily eyes the door. Fuck.

“I thought you should know,” Shinsou concludes, finally.

“Why would I want to know?” Aoyama snaps. “Look, I get it, I’m hot as the sun and with a charming personality as well, of course you like me. I am any man’s dream so I can’t blame you for finding me attractive. But you know I’d say no! And you’re coming here, propositioning me--”

“No, no,” Shinsou cuts in, shaking his head. “I’m not propositioning, I’m not asking you anything. I’m just… being honest, I guess. It’s kind of been haunting me.”

Aoyama pauses. “You’re not trying to get something from me right now?”

“No, not now not ever.”

“Then what the hell?”” Aoyama says. “You know I don’t like all this.”

“That’s the thing, I can’t stop thinking about it, though.” Shinsou says miserably.

Aoyama blinks. “And?”

“And what? I’m doing something you don’t like, so I thought, I don’t know. Had to get it off my chest or…”

“Shinsou, I don’t care if you think about fucking me.”

Shinsou does a double take so violent he actually pulls something in his neck.

“Like I said, I know I’m hot,” Aoyama explains. “And you’re allo, obviously you’d think about me. We make out on a regular basis, cher, I think I have an idea of how into me you are.”

Shinsou fidgets. “It doesn’t bother you?”

“Only if there’s intent behind it.”

Shinsou chews the inside of his cheek. “There, uh, might be. Like if you ever were up to it-- but not if you’re not!”

“Gross,” Aoyama grins. “Don’t even try me, I’ll burn a hole right through your guts.”

“You know how to sweet talk a guy,” Shinsou giggles. “I’m not gonna try anything, I swear.”

“Magnifique! Then don’t fucking tell me that shit. How would you feel about me getting you a promise ring?”

Shinsou scrunches up his whole face.

“Exactly,” Aoyama nods, then turns back to his mirror to continue fixing his hair. “But I can sure think about it!”

Shinsou laughs, a little light-headed. “Okay. I think I get it. I know where the line is.”

“I’m glad we drew it together,” Aoyama says. He smiles at him through the mirror.

Shinsou smiles back.

 

For days afterwards, his chest is lighter, and he breathes a little easier.

 

Notes:

shinsou kept getting angsty on me about aoyama but then i remembered this is the no-angst series so the solution became obvious immediately lmao

Chapter 13: Don't start shit you can't finish

Summary:

it finally happened, i finally wrote an explicit scene between shinsou and midoriya. about time! we're nearly at the finish line here!

It happens when Shinsou is minding his own business, for once. He’s in the laundry room, ironing his clothes. You know, like a normal person.

What isn’t a normal person thing to do is to hurl oneself through the tiny window of the laundry room, roll to land mere inches from Shinsou’s very much burning iron, then stand up and smile like none of that just happened.

“Hey Shinsou!”

Shinsou has his tongue captive between his teeth to kill the initial urge to scream at the intrusion. He unclenches his jaw. “Hey, Midoriya.”

Midoriya leans his shoulder against the wall, all casual. “What are you up to?”

“Laundry,” Shinsou says. He remembers to put the iron down instead of just. Standing there holding it.

“I see, I see,” Midoriya nods. “Can I get a kiss?”

“Sure?”

Midoriya goes up on tip toes to lean over the ironing board. Shinsou still has to lean down to reach him.

It is at that moment that several sets of footsteps go running by the outside of the window.

Shinsou puts a hand on Midoriya’s chest. “Hey, Midoriya?”

“Mhm?”

“Is this an alibi?”

“Only if I get caught here,” Midoriya nods.

Shinsou raises an eyebrow. “An alibi for…?”

“For throwing something off of the roof,” Midoriya admits easily, “which I definitely didn’t do, because I was here with you this whole time.”

Shinsou looks down at his half-ironed shirt. “Right. You were here doing nothing while I was doing laundry.”

“I was helping you with laundry,” Midoriya says, and he goes on tiptoes again, hooking two fingers into Shinsou’s shirt collar, “but then I got distracted.”

Shinsou leans down. Before he can make contact, the door busts open.

He doesn’t let that stop him, of course. He’s getting that kiss. Plus Ultra.

“Hey.”

Neither Shinsou nor Midoriya pull away from each other.

“Hey, Midoriya!”

Midoriya hums into Shinsou’s mouth.

“Stop sucking face for a minute, I’m talking to you!”

Midoriya does stop sucking face. He turns to Jirou with a dreamy smile.

Shinsou goes back to ironing.

“Did you throw Mina’s shoes off the roof?”

“Uh, what?” Midoriya says in a passable enough voice. If Shinsou couldn’t see his face, he might have believed him.

“You’re a terrible liar,” Jirou informs him. “Try saying it without wincing. Why did you throw Mina’s shoes off the roof?”

“That just sounds silly, why did she have her shoes on the roof?”

“She didn’t, I heard her yelling, then I heard you chucking something off the side of the building, then I saw her shoes knock off class B’s building and to the ground. You tell me what happened.”

“Hmm,” Midoriya says. “That’s weird. How do you hear someone throw something? And why would it be me?”

“Things make noise when they move fast enough through the air. And your quirk crackles when you activate it. You made that throw. And I saw her shoes at that exact same time. Quit dodging the question.”

“Uh, um…” He looks to Shinsou for any ideas at all. Shinsou ducks back to his ironing.

“Midoriya.”

“I’ve been here this whole time,” Midoriya settles for.

Jirou looks him up and down. “What, just standing while Shinsou’s doing laundry?”

“I was helping him! We just got distracted…”

“Helping him… by standing empty-handed on the other side of the ironing board.”

Midoriya casts around for any excuse.

The door slams open again, this time with a crowd. First Ashido, then Bakugou, then Kirishima pile into the boys’ laundry room.

“Now it’s a party,” Shinsou mumbles.

“Midoriya!” Ashido shouts. “My shoes!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

She holds the shoes out to him. “You threw them off the roof!”

“That’s a shitty-ass distraction, Deku,” Bakugou snarls. “What’s your game here?”

Midoriya seems to realize there’s no convincing them of his flimsy alibi. “Maybe I just felt like it…”

“Come on man, that was weak, especially for you,” Kirishima says. “You’re so smart, I know you can do better than this.”

“What are you actually trying for?”

“And why my shoes?”

“And what did poor Shishida do to deserve having shoes slammed against his wall?”

Kirishima blinks. He turns to Jirou. “You know which room is which in class B?”

“Nah, I heard him yelp. I think you spooked him.”

There’s a ping, and Midoriya takes out his phone to check it. He grins. “Great! All set. Ashido, sorry about your shoes, really I was trying to get Kirishima and Kacchan. Knew none of you would let me go.”

“Get-- what?”

He pockets his phone. “You should go check it out. Kacchan’s room. Pretty sure even Jirou could join in, if you wanted.”

At the words join in, all four of them shift. Classic class A.

“Midoriya, we’ve been chasing you around for like ten minutes now, are you kidding me?” Ashido goes. She puts her hands on her hips, still holding her shoes.

“Sero just said to keep these two busy as long as I could,” Midoriya shrugs. “I was gonna ask Tsuyu for help if I got in a pickle, but Shinsou was right here, so-- but never mind that. Sero said to keep them busy, but then also Kaminari said his door’s open if extra distraction was needed. So…” He laughs. “I mean. Sorry for your shoes, really, I mean it. Are they damaged?”

Ashido gives them a quick look. “Uh, no, I don’t think so.”

“Then you shouldn’t keep your boys waiting.”

Bakugou points a finger right in Midoriya’s face. “I’m not gonna forget this bullshit.”

But it is very, very clear, that he’s not gonna start a fight right now, not with the promise of his boyfriend having set up some kind of surprise for him in his very room.

“Fuck, now I wanna know what he’s planned,” Ashido mutters. She turns to her boys. “You guys better share the deets after. Kyouka come on, let’s go grill Denki about it.”

They manage to leave without anyone throwing down, which is a rare occurrence in this dorm. It did take them long enough that Shinsou is done with his laundry. He packs away the iron and folds down the board.

Midoriya exhales in relief. “Hoo, I can’t believe that worked. You’re a lifesaver, Shinsou.”

“Me? I didn’t do anything.”

“I just needed another couple of minutes, and you did just enough.” He smiles. “Besides, if you weren’t here ironing, the window wouldn’t have been open, right? I’d have had to run all the way around to the front of the building, and they’d definitely have seen that.”

Shinsou squints. “Wait so. You threw the shoes off, then you… jumped down after them? And ran around trying outrun whoever was chasing you, so you jumped in here?”

“I deny all charges,” Midoriya says sweetly, stepping into Shinsou’s space to curl his arms around Shinsou’s neck. “Am I gonna have to distract you away from questioning me, or are you gonna join me in the showers without excuses?”

Shinsou laughs. He wraps one arm around Midoriya’s waist, the other holding his freshly done laundry. He leans down for a kiss. “I don’t need excuses, no. But how about we take this to my room? I literally just ironed this and I’m not letting them get all crumpled up again before I hang them up.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Upstairs, with Shinsou’s laundry secured, and two shirts hastily thrown off of Shinsou’s bed, the two of them shuffle together, attached at the mouth with their hands in each other’s hair.

Shinsou can feel Midoriya poking him in the hip, but he can also feel his own phone knocking against Midoriya’s in their respective pockets. Midoriya’s hips jut forward, just the once, and their phones actually make a sound together.

They part with the kind of out-of breath laughs that only this can cause.

“I wanna--” Shinsou half-mumbles, digging his phone out with one hand while pulling Midoriya down on him with the other.

Midoriya is in the same boat, apparently, only barely holding up his weight to dig into his pocket. It takes him a hot minute, long enough for Shinsou to start mouthing at his jaw, his neck.

Midoriya’s phone finally joins Shinsou’s on the nightstand and Midoriya’s everything else comes back down to rest heavy on him. He ducks to kiss Shinsou on the center of the chest, then drags the whole of his body up the length of Shinsou’s until they’re face-to-face again.

Shinsou shucks in a deep breath.

Midoriya does it again, some full-body frottage that can’t in any way be comfortable and isn’t focused enough to reach where it would feel good. It’s hot of course, because it’s Midoriya, and it’s Shinsou, and they’re fucking on his bed, but it can’t even be called grinding.

Shinsou grabs Midoriya’s ass to stop him and spreads his legs around Midoriya’s hips.

Midoriya half-laughs, half-groans, his hips slotting into place without him having to do anything. Shinsou likes that in Midoriya; he’s usually so full of thoughts, it’s nice to see him go head empty. It’s nice to know that it’s because of Shinsou.

Midoriya snakes an arm under the small of Shinsou’s back, pulling him into a slight arch.

Shinsou gropes his double handful. His head rolls back on the pillow with a sigh. Midoriya licks a line up Shinsou’s throat.

It’s starting to get noticeably damp in here. He just got done with laundry.

“C’mon, let’s get naked,” he says, his throat stretched out under Midoriya’s mouth making his voice sound weak even to his own ears.

But Midoriya is nothing if not attentive, so he hears him. “Mhmmm.”

We’ve achieved hum. Score.

They both shuffle in place to get their clothes off without disengaging. It’s when Midoriya props his head up against Shinsou’s shoulder -to get both his hands and his hips free to push his pants down- that Shinsou cracks into laughter, dragging Midoriya into it as well.

They do manage to negotiate their way to nudity, somehow, with only minimal disengagement.

Shinsou wraps all his limbs around Midoriya.

“You caught me,” Midoriya hums with a wide grin. He drags his hands up Shinsou’s sides, kisses his chest.

“Oh whatever will you do,” Shinsou says. He lifts his head to get into kissing range, but he can’t reach – Midoriya’s back is too bowed right now. He kisses Midoriya’s hair instead.

“Whatever will I do,” Midoriya agrees. He tries to reach for the nightstand. He can’t – Shinsou has him in a vice grip.

That won’t deter Midoriya, of all people, though. He lifts himself up on his hands and knees taking the whole of Shinsou’s weight with him. He crawls to the very edge of the bed before he lowers the two of them back down. He can reach from here even while Shinsou has him captive.

Shinsou’s face feels hot.

“What?” Midoriya giggles, grabbing supplies.

“Nothing,” Shinsou says, unconvincingly. “Shut up.”

“Mm. Make me.”

Shinsou takes him by the face and pulls him up into a kiss. Midoriya takes advantage of it to shuffle them back to the middle of the bed, the fucker.

Midoriya ducks to Shinsou’s neck. He swings one leg over Shinsou’s and slides a hand up his thigh.

Shinsou’s knee comes up on its own.

“Yeah, fuck,” Shinsou swears, putting both hands into Midoriya’s hair and tugging.

Midoriya bites. They both hiss with pleasure.

Midoriya’s fingers find their target and rub, just for a moment, before he pulls them away quick to lube them up. Shinsou sees more than feels the crackle of Midoriya’s quirk.

He has to laugh. He knows Midoriya’s quirk gives off heat, and to be fair the lube is warmed up when it makes contact with him. It’s still funny, every time.

“Shut up,” Midoriya giggles against Shinsou’s jaw.

“It would take like two minutes to let your own body heat get it, you’re a furnace.”

“Mm, but I don’t wanna wait two minutes.” He slides his less busy hand under Shinsou’s neck and turns his head into a kiss.

Shinsou laughs into it, just because he can. Then he has to moan into it, because Midoriya’s fingers are hard at work.

Shinsou’s lifted knee isn’t listening to him at all. It tilts in, towards Midoriya, trying to get closer to what’s making Shinsou feel caught on fire. In doing so it is, in fact, hindering Midoriya’s movement, slowing him down.

With some concentrated effort Shinsou manages to spread his knee wide until it knocks on the wall.

It twitches. He can’t hold it there.

His voice is a sob. “Come on, come on…”

“Little more, sweetheart,” Midoriya coos. “You look so good like this, let me give you a little more.”

Shinsou pulls on those green curls some more. If only to feel Midoriya’s fingers stutter inside him.

Midoriya tries to distract him back, holding his nape in place so Shinsou has nowhere to be but right under Midoriya’s mouth, kissed so deep he’s practically in his throat.

He might bust just from this. Blindly, he reaches for a condom.

When Midoriya breaks for air, Shinsou quickly gets the damn thing open and onto Midoriya as fast as he can. He gives Midoriya a solid squeeze, since he’s down there. Midoriya’s hips buck into his hand.

Midoriya grins at him, flushed. “That bad, huh?”

“You can make it good,” Shinsou argues.

“Bet!”

And he swings back over between Shinsou’s legs and lifts Shinsou’s knees up.

Shinsou pulls him down. He tries, he really tries, not to claw at Midoriya’s back, but there might be a scratch or two visible.

Midoriya moans. He takes himself in hand and slides inside, maybe halfway.

“Yeah it’s good it’s good keep going,” Shinsou urges, rolling his hips up and tugging at Midoriya’s. No nails, he tells himself, even as he gets a little nails.

Midoriya fucks his way into Shinsou with those shallow little thrusts that Shinsou loves so much, and with a heavy pant of a breath that’s more hum than anything else.

“Fuck yeah,” Shinsou groans.

Midoriya goes up to his knees, lifting Shinsou’s hips to follow with an arm around the small of his back. He kisses him, then stumbles, then finally puts both hands on Shinsou’s hips to keep him where he wants him so he can fuck him good.

And boy oh boy does he fuck Shinsou good.

Shinsou’s hands go into his hair again, pulling him down into a breathless kiss, both of them struggling to breathe. Shinsou crosses his ankles behind Midoriya’s back and pushes his heel into him as if that’ll pull Midoriya any harder than Midoriya can do himself. It’s not like he has a strength quirk or anything.

But it’s not time to rationalize any of it. It’s time for Shinsou to empty his mind, his focus only on Midoriya, mindless in a way he hasn’t always been able to let himself be. He knows Midoriya is similar in that, single-minded and empty-headed when they’re like this.

He loves it. He could do it all day.

Midoriya ducks for Shinsou’s neck again, and Shinsou tilts his head to offer better access. He takes one hand out of Midoriya’s hair to reach where Midoriya is fucking into him, rubbing quick circles.

He must make a noise when he comes, because Midoriya chooses that moment exactly to bite down into him, and Shinsou sees stars. His whole body seizes up and Midoriya’s hips stutter, first the once and then twice, and he buries himself all the way in and stays there.

Shinsou still sounds kind of broken-voiced as he catches his breath. He clears his throat.

Midoriya kisses the bitemark. “Fuuuuck,” he drawls.

Shinsou chuckles. “Yeah.”

Midoriya peppers kisses all over him. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“Speak for yourself! I think I saw stars.”

Midoriya grins at him. He nudges some of Shinsou’s hair out of his face. “Mm, love you.”

“Gross,” Shinsou grins back, then, “Love you too. Don’t let your datemates hear that.”

“You know how I mean it!” Midoriya laughs. He’s giggly as hell, taking off the condom and throwing it away. “You said it back!”

And the truth is, yeah, he knows how Midoriya means it. It’s a good thing too, because Shinsou can handle this – he doesn’t think, in all honesty, that he’d be able to handle any amount of romantic love from Midoriya. He’s intense enough as a friend, and he’s exactly perfect as a bedmate.

Just trying to imagine what Midoriya is like with his datemates, but directed at Shinsou, is kind of a nightmare. He’s glad they are the way they are.

He smiles. “I did. I do.”

Midoriya crawls into Shinsou’s arms and blows a raspberry right on the bitemark he left earlier.

 

Chapter 14: pspspsps

Summary:

almost done almost done were almost there

There’s a cat.

Shinsou looks up and down the street. There’s barely anyone around, and no one looks like they’re walking with this cat.

The cat sits itself down by the side of a building. It has a little black collar around its neck, though it’s hard to see with how fluffy the cat is.

“Pspspsps.”

The cat turns – ears first, then its head – and stands up to approach him itself. It’s friendly! Shinsou’s whole day just got made. He crouches.

The cat gives his hand a little sniff then bumps its little head against his knuckles. He gives it a few gentle pats at the top of its head, then moves to scritches under its chin.

He takes the cat’s name tag in hand.

Its name is Pumpkin.

Shinsou is delighted.

He turns the tag to find a phone number in the back. With his free hand, he starts dialing the number, only for his phone to auto-fill and suggest one of the numbers he has saved. It’s the number on the tag. A laugh startles out of him. He calls the number.

“Hello?”

“Good evening, Aizawa-sensei. You’ll never guess who I just met.”

Aizawa is not one to waste his time on such guessing nonsense, but he is a teacher, and he does have the patience his job requires. Especially towards one of his kids. He plays along. “Who did you meet?”

Shinsou pets his new friend. “Pumpkin.”

A pause. “Like a pumpkin hero, or…?”

“Pumpkin the cat. Orange calico with a black spot on the nose and on one ear.” It’s a beautiful coat, actually. Shinsou’s never seen a calico cat with so little black on it. He tilts his head to look around it, finds one more black spot. “It’s wearing just one sock.”

Well, it’s more of a leg warmer. The cat’s paw is still white.

“Holy shit,” Aizawa curses. “I mean, wow. Where are you?”

Shinsou looks up at the building he’s crouched under. He knows, even though he can’t see, somewhere behind this building there’s a view of the U.A. hill. “I’m just outside that office building across from the electrical shop that’s banned Kaminari.”

“Try not to startle her,” Aizawa says over the sound of a chair rolling and a door opening. “I’ll be right there. Keep eyes on her.”

“She’s letting me pet her. I think I could pick her up!”

“That’s good, that’s great Shinsou, but please don’t lose her. She’s been gone all morning.”

Shinsou curls a hand under Pumpkin and makes like he’s gonna lift her. She doesn’t resist at all, so he does lift her, bringing her to his chest.

She’s purring.

“I’ve got her, sensei. I’m heading back now, meet you at the gate?”

“Start heading to the gate,” Aizawa confirms. “I’ll reach you before you reach the school.”

Some time along the walk, Pumpkin squirms in Shinsou’s arms. He puts her down, but she only winds around his ankles for a minute, bumping her head into his hands. He picks her up again.

Aizawa does find them quick. He has his usual exhausted face on.

“Look who I found!” Shinsou grins, lifting the cat a little.

She’s squirming again, so he puts her down.

Aizawa crouches down with him, reaches out to pet Pumpkin as well. A long sigh of relief comes out of him when she bumps his hand. “Thank you so much, you have no idea. I left her with Mic for five minutes and he somehow lost her. We’ve been looking all over the school all day.”

Shinsou laughs. “Seriously?”

“Don’t even get me started. She’s a menace, always trying to escape, I told Mic to keep a close eye on her. I don’t know how he managed this.”

He picks Pumpkin up and stands. She tucks her head into his chest and stays there.

“Oh now you’re tired,” Aizawa mutters at the cat. “Of course.”

Shinsou stands as well. “Couldn’t Hound Dog-sensei have sniffed her out?”

“It’s his day off,” Aizawa sighs. He pets Pumpkin’s turned head absent-mindedly.

Shinsou grins. “I didn’t know you had a cat.”

Aizawa stares at him. Shinsou’s smile slowly drops.

“How many.”

Silence.

“Sensei, how many do you have.”

Aizawa doesn’t answer.

“Aizawa-sensei.”

“Thanks for finding her,” Aizawa says, then he simply turns and leaves.

“Kouda. Kouda I need to ask you something, this is so important.”

Kouda turns to him, smiling politely.

“Do you know if Aizawa-sensei has any pets?”

Kouda hums for a moment, then shrugs.

Shinsou checks over both of his shoulders, then leans close to whisper in Kouda’s downturned ear. “I found a cat yesterday, and it had sensei’s number on its collar!”

Kouda smiles with a gasp.

“I know! We have to figure out what’s going on there.”

“Oh, Aizawa-sensei has a liking for cats, but they don’t really like him back,” Midoriya says. “I’ve seen him try to approach strays, they just hiss at him.”

Shinsou laughs out loud. “Sorry, sorry. It’s not funny. Poor sensei.”

“I remember one time though…” Yao-momo muses. She’s tucked up together with Midoriya on the couch, a blanket shared over their laps. “There were three cats together, and one of them did come close to him. It even touched his hand, I believe. It left afterwards, though.”

“Huh,” Midoriya goes. “I wonder why.”

“There’s every chance that particular cat was simply friendly in nature.”

“Or,” Shinsou muses, “he has a bajillion cats and the strays smell that on him, they don’t get near him cause he smells like other cats.”

“The uniquely friendly theory stands,” Yao-momo grins.

“I’m not so sure he could have any pets at all, much less multiple of them,” Midoriya says. “I mean, if he did, wouldn’t he know how to approach strays? On the other hand, he spends most nights at U.A, he has the dorm shift for our dorm half the time. If he sleeps here, works as a teacher here, and works as a hero out there, there’s not enough time to go home and take care of a pet.”

“Wait, good point,” Shinsou frowns. “I hadn’t thought of that…”

“Perhaps someone else cares for the cat,” Yao-momo suggests. “And his phone is on the collar because the paperwork is to his name.”

“He’s not married,” Midoriya says with the certainty of a fanboy whose admiration didn’t diminish from being taught by the hero they admire.

“Can you be sure?” Shinsou grins. It’s frustratingly difficult to find any amount of info on Aizawa, Shinsou would know. He’s also a fan.

There is no way for Midoriya to be sure about anything regarding Aizawa’s home life, and they both know it.

Midoriya scrunches his nose at him. “You know what, Shinsou? Fuck you.”

Tsuyu puts a finger to her cheek. “A cat?”

Shinsou nods.

“Hmm, I don’t know. Sensei does like cats. You could just ask him.”

“I asked him and he didn’t say anything.”

“Let me try,” Tsuyu says, and before Shinsou can stop her, she’s already stood up from her seat and is out of the classroom.

Shinsou bolts after her in the hallway to the gentle melody of Iida’s yelling about not running. The bell is about to ring, so Tsuyu is quick to find Aizawa, as he’s on his way to class himself.

“Sensei, do you have any pets?” she asks in what can only be described as an entirely neutral manner.

“No,” Aizawa deadpans.

“Shinsou said he found a cat that belonged to you.”

“Oh, that,” Aizawa nods. “I’m just taking care of her, she’s not really mine.”

Tsuyu tilts her head. “Ribbit?”

They’re getting too close to the classroom, so Shinsou ducks inside and starts sneaking back to his seat, slow enough to remain within earshot.

“You could foster a cat from the shelter too,” Aizawa says. “I only take care of it for about a week every couple of months. For the rest of the time, all I provide is money to the shelter.” He stops at the door to let Tsuyu in first. “I’m not the only one, of course. There are plenty of others doing a much better job than me helping those cats.”

Tsuyu nods. “I see. That’s pretty cute, ribbit.”

Aizawa shrugs. “Think what you want.”

“Is the cat Shinsou saw the only one you foster, sensei?”

“There’s five under my name right now, but I only foster two of them. I don’t have time for anything more.” The bell rings. He steps into the classroom. “Everyone take your seats.”

“Kouda there’s a shelter somewhere around here that lets you foster cats,” Shinsou opens with.

Kouda blinks. He nods.

“What, you knew!?”

He nods again.

“Yeah well apparently Aizawa-sensei fosters cats from there!”

Kouda gasps with starts in his eyes. “Maybe we can foster too!”

Shinsou opens his mouth. Closes it. “Wait. Holy shit you’re right, we could do that. Hell, we should do that. Let’s go do it right now.”

“Let’s go!” Kouda cheers with his soft voice.

“Where are we going?” comes Kaminari’s voice from the door.

“We’re gonna get some cats,” Shinsou grins.

“Hell yeah dude, let’s do it.”

“Now hold on a minute,” Kirishima says as he comes in behind Kaminari. “Where are we gonna put the cats? None of us even live in a house.”

A pause. “Huh. Shit.” Shinsou frowns. “Maybe we can still get a cat?”

“We just don’t tell them where we live, easy peasy,” Kaminari nods.

“Won’t we have to put an address down for the paperwork?” Kouda reasons.

“So put your permanent address,” Kaminari says. “Like your home, not the dorms.”

“I just had a terrible thought,” Shinsou admits. “Can we even foster without like, a stable income? They’ll ask for parent approval or something.”

“We have income,” Kaminari shrugs. “Oh. Wait, you don’t, Shinsou. Damn it.”

Kirishima pats Kaminari’s back, then moves to pat Shinsou’s and Kouda’s. “There there, guys. Calm down for a moment, let’s think about it. We should take that convenient excuse to not go adopt the first cat we see on a whim.”

Kouda pouts.

“Don’t give me those eyes, you know I’m weak. You can go make friends with any cat you like.” Kirishima turns to Kaminari. “And you, you gotta remember what happens when you try to pet something that has fur.”

“I’ll be careful!”

“Like you were careful with Mina’s rug?”

“Fine, I’ll take one of those bald cats.”

“Dude, how easy do you think those are to find?”

Kouda goes to cut into the conversation, but he notices Shinsou.

Shinsou isn’t listening to any of it.

They have stable income. Students, still, but they have stable income, because they’re Hero students, with a Hero license each.

They do Hero work. Work that they get paid for. So they have money to get cats with.

They do Hero work, because they’re Hero students.

They do Hero Work.

Because they’re Heroes.

“I wanna take the license exam,” Shinsou blurts out over whatever nonsense the others were saying.

They stare at him for a moment.

“Alone?” Kouda asks. “If you wait for the next batch, then you can take the exam with other U.A. students…”

“I wanna take the exam,” Shinsou repeats. “I want the license. I want-- I want to be a Hero.”

“Oh, buddy,” Kirishima goes.

“I wanna be a Hero,” Shinsou repeats with a break in his voice.

Chapter 15: Pulse

Notes:

WE MADE IT FINAL CHAPTER ON THE 6-YEAR ANNIVERSARY (of the end of send nudes) LETS GOOOOO

Shinsou’s pulse is in his ears, but quiet enough for him to hear. He keeps his eyes peeled, taking in everything he can about his surroundings as well as the other students taking the exam.

It’s a remedial exam, so there’s not a single full class. Shinsou is surrounded by sole stragglers that know each other a little bit, because they took the remedial classes together.

Shinsou didn’t. He isn’t taking this exam to remedy a previous fail, he’s taking this as his first attempt at a Hero license.

And he’s going in blind, at a serious disadvantage.

He grins. He knows his class is proud just for this. Somewhere in the bleachers, Aizawa is watching, and Shinsou is determined to make him proud, as well.

He can do this.

The man explaining the exam looks even more sleep deprived than Shinsou and Aizawa combined, so much so that even the man himself keeps commenting on it over the microphone for the whole arena to hear. Still, he speaks clearly and covers the points he must cover quickly and comprehensively. Shinsou is left with no questions about his exam.

The first part sounds easy enough, at least.

The room they’re in opens up and several courses crowd around them in all directions. Even straight above, Shinsou notices.

He’s not the only one who notices that. As soon as the bell rings, several students go for the course right on top of them – some flying, some grappling.

Luckily for Shinsou, he can grapple real good. He goes for what he guesses to be the hardest course first, tucking his capture weapon under his arms in preparation. He’s sure it’s visible. When Aizawa does it, none of his weapon shows under his arms, even though it contrasts starkly with the rest of his suit. When Shinsou does it, he’s sure it can be seen.

He can worry about his stealth in the coming years. For now, he needs to run through the hardest course while he still has all his strength. And the mobility the scarf gives him, when it holds him under the arms, is way too versatile to be shunned for something as silly as the fact that it telegraphs Shinsou’s intentions to anyone who pays even the slightest bit of attention to him.

The course he deemed the hardest is over water, which means the single aquatic student also taking this exam runs for it first as well. It’s full of jagged rocks, and bits and pieces of metal scaffolding at odd angles. Several parts of it are fully obscured from where they all start out.

It’s gonna be next to impossible to find and hit every single score point in this one.

He hopes he’s picked up a thing or two from Shouji, at least.

He makes his way through it quick enough, checking all the nooks and crannies he can get to. He finds and hits a whole lot of score points. There’s no way for him to track them – the device they’ve given him just lights up and makes a little beep when he passes it by the point – but somewhere in the bleachers, one of the exam supervisors is keeping careful track of Shinsou’s score, specifically. There’s one for each student.

When he turns to double back on the way back to the center, he sees the aquatic student pawing through the spots he found first, much faster than him.

He dives into the water.

It’s shallow, but not so shallow that he could stand in it and keep his head out. He navigates the water with his capture weapon as fast as he can. He only manages to hit three points underwater. It’ll have to do.

Okay. Hardest part done. Now for the rest of it.

There’s a jungle gym, there’s what looks like a narrow cave. The one right above is modeled like floating debris – he has to wonder whose quirk is keeping them afloat. That one is fairly short, and with his capture weapon, easy to maneuver through.

Sero would be proud. Tsuyu would be proud. They are proud, he knows.

He grins, pulse in his ears and in his mouth.

The jungle gym goes laughably quick. The narrow cave is tricky, he has to be careful how he moves through that. At least the score points are obvious to find here. There are several moments when he has to crawl through on all fours, or pass through sideways because the opening isn’t even wide enough to fit his shoulders.

There’s a moving track, all flimsy and unstable, and it is not helped by the fact that when Shinsou attempts it, there’s another three students right on him. They knock each other off course several times on accident and a couple of times on purpose, but Shinsou, with his quirk, has no such problems.

It is, after all, impossible to not coordinate with Shinsou when he’s using his quirk.

Which is excellent for him for the second part of the exam.

The students who have been in the Hero course for their whole careers are barely out of breath even as Shinsou puts his hands on his knees and pants for dear life. Damp and already tired, it’s not easy for any of them to put all their focus to the next set of instructions.

The man on the microphone calls the end of the obstacle courses part and starts talking about how the math of the points will work. Shinsou recognizes that as a stalling tactic quickly enough and turns his attention to the courses around them, only half-listening.

As such, he gets to notice a small crowd walk into the courses while the rest of the students pay attention to the announcement.

People. There’s people in the exam.

Shinsou could burst into starlight.

It doesn’t matter what they’re meant to do – whether the people are meant to represent enemies, or allies, or even civilians – none of that matters.

Because it’s people, and it’s Shinsou.

It’s what his quirk is for.

And the task? The task they’re being tested on, to pass the exam?

They have to bring the people to the center area, where the students are currently standing.

It’s literally the test Shinsou chose for himself when he got into the Hero course and told to find a way to measure his quirk progress.

He can’t help it: he does laugh, though thankfully the announcer talks right over him so no one hears Shinsou’s slightly manic giggle.

Focus!

The people place themselves where the score points were, so whoever has the most points also has the most locations. They must be brought to the center, but some will be unresponsive and some will actively resist. Whatever the case, none of them are to be harmed in any significant way. They’re even encouraged to keep the people calm, if possible.

Shinsou has to bite his tongue to keep his laughter in. He tastes blood. He can feel his pulse on the cut. His ears are clear.

The announcer counts them down.

The starting bell rings.

Shinsou opens his mouth.

 

Walking up the steps of class A’s dorm building, Aizawa puts a hand on Shinsou’s shoulder and stops him.

“Listen,” Aizawa says. “You know your classmates all care about you very much.”

Shinsou tries very hard not to show on his face just how he’s remembering his classmates caring about him. “Uh huh.”

“And they would be very supportive of you whether you go in there with license or without.”

“Sure. Of course. They even told me they were proud of me just for attempting it, before I left.”

Aizawa nods. “Right. As such, it’s only logical for me to warn you before you return to them.”

Shinsou blinks. “Warn me?”

Aizawa now puts both hands on Shinsou’s shoulders, forcing eye contact. “They will not be calm and rational about this in any way, shape or form. They will attack you and they will crush you and they will be screaming the whole time.”

“Uh.”

Aizawa squeezes his shoulders. “I am not guessing. I am talking from experience. Take it from me, you will walk in there exhausted and bruised from the exam, and you will become doubly so within seconds. They’ll try to keep you from escaping, but hopefully you can manage it with a warning. Shinsou, I am being serious, you’re going to get hurt, and they won’t even notice.”

“Uh, yeah, sensei, I know.” He pats Aizawa’s wrist. “I mean, they’re Hero students, right? It’s par for the course. Dorm life wouldn’t be the same without the daily brawls.”

Aizawa smirks. He lets him go. “You’re the same, kid. Alright. Consider this the final part of your exam. If you survive this, and you can get to class on Monday without incident, then maybe you’ll have learned something from this nonsense, after all.”

Shinsou mirrors the smirk. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ll be mad at them if they don’t crack any ribs.”

“Don’t crack any ribs.”

“It’s not up to me.”

“Isn’t it? With a quirk like yours?”

Shinsou grins wider. “Is it?”

Aizawa matches his face-splitting grin and doesn’t answer.

Shinsou steals a quick hug. While his favorite teacher is still occupied with Shinsou’s quirk.

Aizawa stands there with his hands hovering, dumbfounded.

“You’re the best, sensei,” Shinsou laughs. He puts a hand on the dorm’s front door. “I’ll see you in class.”

He opens the door.

Exactly three seconds of forced, tense silence pass before pandemonium breaks out. Shinsou is only halfway out of his shoes when the first tackle hits him. It’s Midoriya. Todoroki and Iida are hot on his heels, though not quite as feral in their affection.

They’re quick, the three of them – always have been – but the rest of the class are not to be outdone. They descend upon Shinsou within seconds, surrounding him on all sides.

They’re all yelling over each other. They push and shove every which way, trying to get close to him. A pat on his back, a hug, a squeeze to the hand, even a kiss or two. Shinsou can barely keep track of it all.

His ears are clear of his pulse.

He tries to sit up from where Midoriya knocked him flat and then everyone piled on top, but can’t pull it off. He just about manages to toe off his other shoe.

“Shut up already!” he yells, but it’s lost over the lot of them. Question. “Hey, did you hear?”

He gets a few answers – not that he understands any of them with all this noise – and grabs them to force them quiet. Yikes, that’s six people at once. His left temple was already pounding from the exam, now his right one joins in.

“Shut up!” he calls again. This time he’s heard.

A blessed moment of quiet passes. One of the answers Shinsou took was Midoriya’s, so he takes the chance to make him let Shinsou sit up. Then he lets the answers go.

“How did it go?” Midoriya asks as soon as he can make his mouth work.

Shinsou bites his lip. He looks at each of his classmates in turn – of course they all start talking again, over each other and making little sense.

Aizawa was right. They love Shinsou already. Whether he passed the exam or not is irrelevant.

He ducks his head, and starts digging through his bag.

He can’t help but drag it out, pulling out all kinds of random shit. They all fall quiet again, watching him. This is important to them only because it’s important to Shinsou.

He loves them.

Finally he puts his bag to the side and holds out his hand to his beloved class. In it sits his Hero license.

They all inhale at the same time.

Shinsou goes deaf with their screaming.

 

Aizawa was right.

Shinsou got hurt, and the class wasn’t even fussed. They didn’t let him escape. They were screaming the whole time. Shinsou has bruises on his bruises and his ribs may not be cracked but they sure feel like it.

Shinsou is living for it.

Because he was screaming with them the whole time. He didn’t once try to escape. And these bruises are his favorite kind. Shaped like teeth.

He makes it to class on Monday without incident.

Aizawa comes into class, takes one look at Shinsou, nods, then starts the lesson like there’s nothing amiss.

Like Shinsou doesn’t spend the whole day flustered under his classmates’ combined attention. Like Shinsou isn’t sporting a limp and all kinds of bruises he can’t explain away.

No one calls him out though. No one who wasn’t responsible for putting those bruises there to begin with, at least. So Shinsou will count it as a win.

All of next week is spent grinning like a fool.

He’s earned that much.

He earned it.

 

 

 

Notes:

and that's a wrap! thank you everyone so much for sticking with me through this whole ride!
man it's been incredible, what a trip this has been! from the near-daily updates of send nudes while i was in uni and also taking driving lessons, to the double years gaps, this series spans my whole range!
can you believe send nudes was my second ever smut fic, and now six years later here we are? there were two polybakusquad fics total back then. two! mine was the third! we didn't have the bakusquad and dekusquad tags, we didnt have the polyamorous 1-a tag, we were really in the trenches! now look at us!
im so proud of this series, and how far we've all come in this time <3 thank you all for reading, for commenting, for enjoying! love is stored in the fan interaction!
onto the next one!

Notes:

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and you know what? just for you, to celebrate this here fic, i've finally uploaded the winkyverse bakusquad speedpaint i drew like four years ago. every member of the bakusquad has a theme song in this verse, so i set the speedpaint to those songs!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 14 of Winkyverse