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“Do you wanna be friends?”
Were the first words Hitoshi Shinsou heard from the mouth of Izuku Midoriya after his introduction to the class of Hero Students as a new transfer. The freckle faced boy looked up at him with such hopeful eyes that Shinsou almost felt bad for the next words that came out of his mouth.
“I’m not here to make friends.” As soon as the words escaped he could visibly see Midoriya shrink down onto himself, a far away look in his eyes.
“Oh, yeah no that makes sense! Hero classes are super important,” Midoriya said, and then the sad look was gone from his face, a huge, toothy grin in its place, “But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna give up! Friends are important too, you’ll find your place here soon enough!” The excited boy exclaimed loudly.
The bell chimed out, letting all the students know the time for class had started. Shinsou’s eye twitched softly when he realized that Aizawa had stuck his seat next to none other than Midoriya himself, something the green haired boy seemed much too happy about. First day of classes seemed simple enough, it wasn’t all that different, almost just like the Gen Ed classes Shinsou was in. Midoriya talked his ear off all day, Shinsou did his best not to respond, but really the boy was so energetic and passionate when he talked that it was hard not to pay attention to it.
A warm feeling fluttered around in his stomach from being around Midoriya and it shook the purple haired student. He wasn’t sure what it was, he’d never felt it before. Was he maybe getting sick? Just as Shinsou was getting ready to ask Aizawa to head to recovery girl the other sleepy man told them he was done for the day and promptly fell asleep under the desk he sat at with his signature yellow sleeping bag wrapped around him. Shinsou decided that he should probably interrupt Midoriya’s rambling before it went too far.
“Do you wanna spar?” He asked, rubbing at the heavy bags under his eyes with a yawn. Midoriya perked up even more, his forest green eyes sparkling brightly.
“Oh really? Yeah let’s go!” Without another word Midoriya grabbed Shinsou’s hand and tore him across campus, in a rush to arrive at the gym quickly. Shinosu couldn’t help but notice that for some reason he really liked Midoriya’s hand in his, a light flush crossed his cheeks and once they arrived he pulled his hand away from the green boy.
“I mean, I wanna be more.”
“C’mon Shin, let’s get training!” Midoriya called out over his shoulder with a laugh as he jogged in the gym. Shinsou vigorously shook his head to shake away the strange thought he’s got floating around in his sleepy brain. God did he need a coffee after this.
“Let’s use our quirks. We haven’t had a chance to spar since the sports festival last year!” Midoriya said, a small, tepid smile on his face as if he wasn’t sure what Shinsou’s reaction would be. And well, he was right for that. Shinsou sputtered, startled somehow by this statement.
“You actually want me to use my quirk on you again?” He asked, absolutely baffled. Midoriya cocked his head to the side and the tired boy had to rub his face in an effort to push away the blush attempting to take over. He’s not sure how Midoriya could be this cute, or when he started looking at Midoriya in that way.
“Why wouldn’t I?” The other asked, his green locks almost falling into his eyes. His voice made it clear he was utterly confused, and to be fair Shinsou was as well.
“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe because everyone else in the class is terrified of it.” Shinsou mumbled with a shrug, kicking the polished floor of the gym. In a flash of green Midoriya was in front of Shinsou, the former holding the face of the latter in his hands. Shinsou’s heart felt like it stopped, and this time he couldn’t fight the deep flush that wore its way onto his face.
“Maybe they are, but they shouldn't be! I mean, it’s an amazing quirk don’t get me wrong. One of the best in our class! But also one of the least dangerous technically. I don’t mean any offense! Taking control of someone's mind is definitely strange to think about, But Kaachan could blow off someone’s arms if he wanted. He’s scary. You’re…. not.” Midoriya finished with a shrug, and then realized how close he was to Shinsou. A small yelp escaped his lips and he tried backing away, but Midoriya managed to trip over nothing and fall square on his back.
The loud smack that resonated through the gym following Midoriya’s fall ripped a chuckle from Shinsou’s mouth.He slapped a hand over his mouth and reached out with the other to help the other boy up from the ground.
“I am so sorry, I didn’t even think about how close we were and I realized you probably wouldn’t like that. I think I just tripped over my own feet, wouldn’t be the first time but jeeze I thought I was a little more lithe on my feet now. But I am sorry! I shouldn’t have touched you. I just don’t like hearing you talk about yourself, ah no, about your quirk like that. And-” Shinsou clamped a hand over Midoriya’s mouth. Midoriya’s eyes widened and Shinsou pretended not to notice the blush on the green haired boy's face.
“But if friends is how I get to have you
then, sure.”
“Let’s just forget about it” Shinsou mumbled, rubbing his eyes again, trying to wipe away the strange things he’s feeling. “We’re here to spar right? So let’s get moving.” He said and slowly backed away from Midoriya, a smirk on his face. Almost immediately Midoriya flew towards him, fist outstretched. Shinsou managed to narrowly dodged a blow that probably would have knocked him right out.
I need to make him talk, Shinsou thought as he continued to dodge Midoriya’s attacks.
“Is that all you got?” Shinsou called to Midoriya as he dodged yet another kick. They were just in their gym uniforms, which Shinsou regretted highly. He didn’t have his capture weapon and getting into a hand to hand fight didn’t really seem like something Shinsou wanted to do. “Do you think I’m not good enough?” Shinsou asked, taking a chance to throw a punch up into Midoriya’s jaw. Surprisingly it connected, throwing him a few feet back. So, Shinsou kept running his mouth.
“You said my quirk is amazing, huh? Well if that’s the case why aren’t you going all out? You wouldn’t be going this easy if it was anyone else sparring with you, so why not me? Just because my quirk doesn’t help me physically means I'm not good enough for your all?” Shinsou had a fleeting thought that maybe he was pushing a little too far. Midoriya still hadn’t spoken but still kept trying to get within reach to hit the purple haired boy pushing his buttons. Shinsou was running out of stamina fast and knew he needed to do something. He opened his mouth to speak.
“What-” He didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Midoriya interrupted him.
“Shut up!” He yelled and Shinsou reached for the connection pulling at his brain once he responded to Shinsou. Before the connection took place he finally noticed Midoriya’s face and he looked mad. Not just mad, but furious and it caused a strange pang in his chest.
“Take that rope in the corner, and bind your hands and feet together.” Shinsou murmured out, watching from a distance as Midoriya did exactly what he was told. Why isn’t he breaking out of the hold? I know he can do it.
“I’ll be quiet in my pining, I won’t tell you about the pain”
Shinsou looked up from the ground, consumed in his thoughts when he noticed Midoriya was tied up, but still under his control. With a sigh he started towards Midoriya and broke the connection. He blinked a few times, to shake the feeling of Shinsou’s quirk receding from his mind.
“I wasn’t going easy on you. I’m still learning to use my quirk too and I didn’t wanna risk hurting you or breaking any of my bones.” Midoriya finally spoke up, his tone a bit on the snappy side but Shinsou can’t say he blames it. With nimble fingers he undoes the bindings around him.
“I’m sorry. I took it a bit far, I’m still working on how to rile up my opponents enough to make them speak. It’s a bit harder when you know them and don’t wanna hurt them. Not like that anyway.” He says, pulling Midoriya up from the ground.
“Definitely took it too far, but I forgive you! We’re friends after all.” Midoriya teased, his eyes shining and Shinsou snorted.
“Yeah whatever you say, green bean.” Midoriya blinked slowly.
“Green bean? Hey, wait where are you going?!” Midoriya yells and runs after Shinsou who had started walking away.
“To dinner, duh. It’s getting late.” He responds, a small laugh light in his voice. Dinner passed by uneventfully, thank god. Shinsou wasn’t sure he had the energy to try and talk to anyone after such a strange first day. He went straight to his room after dinner and immediately plopped onto his bed. It was only about 8pm, and even though he was exhausted he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep anytime soon. So he pulled out his phone, scrolling through his Twitter feed. A few hours passed, and oddly enough he found himself wanting to text Midoriya. He knew the other had his number, they exchanged them after the sports festival even though they never kept in touch.
“I’ll be silent in the night, when I know that you’re asleep, but I wanna ask you if you’re awake.”
Midoriya and Shinsou hung out a lot over the next few weeks. No reason in particular, but Shinsou found he really enjoyed Midoriya’s company, and the freckle-faced boy with stars in his eyes was ecstatic that he could actually call Shinsou his friend. Shinsou didn’t like however that the strange feelings he noticed on their first day hanging out together, had not, in fact, gone away. Instead they’re growing stronger everyday and Shinsou is struggling to accept that. He knew what they meant, but he also knows he’s not ready to admit it to himself.
“And so we’ll be friends, and I’ll be okay”
Things seemed to be going great, but Shinsou should have known. Great things never seem to last in his life. In the last week or so it felt like Midoriya had been avoiding him, and he knows it shouldn’t bother him, but Shinsou couldn’t figure out what he had done wrong for the life of him. The last conversation the two boys had was literally about cat memes he had found on twitter and decided to text to his green haired friend. Now everytime Shinsou saw the boy in the halls he would turn and walk the other direction with Midoriya’s friend Uraraka in tow. As the week went on Shinsou could feel a growing dislike for the short brown haired girl. Maybe he had been too obvious in his feelings for Izuku? Was this his way of letting down Shinsou without the two having to talk things out?
Shaking his head, Shinsou gathered his books and put them inside his backpack. He had once again spaced out during the end of class.
“Damn it, I’ll have to get the notes from Kaminari again.” He sighed as he stood up, cracking his neck.
“Shinsou, I’d like for you to stay behind. I need a word with you.” Mr. Aizawa’s grave voice called out in the silence of the classroom as most everyone had left by now. It was only him and Midoriya left. Midoriya shot him a look, and a small smile before he practically ran out of the room. A small growl worked its way from his throat and he slung his bag over his shoulder as he walked towards his sensei.
“What is going on?” Aizawa questions, “You’re not yourself this week. Your classwork and field training are being severely affected.” Shinsou winced slightly before steeling his face and looking directly into his teacher's eyes.
“I’m sorry sir, I’ve just had a lot on my mind but that’s no excuse. It won’t keep happening I swear.” Aizawa gave him a strange look, but in the end he just muttered a quiet “good” and waved Shinsou off. The boy stalked quietly into the hallway. Shinsou turned on his heel to head out to the dorms, when a couple outside caught his attention. He dragged himself over to one of the large windows and peered outside, clearly he could see Midoriya walking back to the dorms with Uraraka. A tight knot formed in the boys stomach once he realized that the girl was quite literally hanging off of Midoriya. Shinsou swears he could feel something inside his chest crack at the very sight.
“Huh, I guess he is straight.” He murmured before slowly waltzing to the dorms as to not be seen by the brand new couple.
“So we'll be friends, and I'll be okay, the world won't end if you don't love me, even if it feels that way”
Over time Shinsou learned to ignore the knot growing inside him. Midoriya finally started coming back around, and though he swore up and down that he wasn’t dating Uraraka they seemed to be inseparable. And she was always hanging off the freckle faced boy. Ever so slowly however, things were getting back to normal. Midoriya was coming around more, and thought it hurt Shinsou that Midoriya never told him just why he was being avoided, Shinsou was able to put it aside. Just happy that he had his best friend back in his life. One day though, things got stranger than Shinsou could have ever anticipated.
The purple haired boy lay under a cherry blossom tree outside on the school grounds, his lunch beside him currently untouched. He was waiting for Midoriya to arrive, the two boys had gone back to their old routine of eating lunch together daily. Shinosu cracked an eye open when he heard someone flop down on the ground next to him, and holy shit was he surprised to see it was Ochako Uraraka herself.
“Uh,,, hi?” Shinsou mumbled lamely, and she smiled brightly, a light blush coating her cheeks.
“Hi Shinsou-kun! What are you doing out here all alone?” She questioned, that large smile still sitting on her face. Shinsou was a little creeped out to be honest.
“Oh, uh I’m waiting for Midoriya. We usually eat lunch together.” He mumbled out, his voice low and gravelly as he peered up at her face. A quick flash of anger, or maybe annoyance flashed over his features but it was gone before the boy could even blink.
“Oh that’s nice! It’s good you two get along so well!” She exclaimed and all of a sudden her entire face was flushed pink, “I, uhm, was actually wondering if you’d like to get lunch sometime! Like, maybe off campus?” Uraraka asked softly, a small smile still on her pink face. The question caught Shinsou off guard and he coughed as a breath of air hitched harshly in his throat.
“I’m sorry what?” He questioned, his voice taking on an almost hostile tone. “Are you being serious?” Uraraka seemed taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered.
“Of course! I've had a crush on you for a little bit and I was finally ready to confess,,” She trailed off softly and Shinsou felt his annoyance rise.
“Aren’t you seeing Midoriya?” He hissed out, standing up suddenly. Uraraka looked shocked again, seriously, was that her only emotion? Shinsou thought, bitterly.
“No, I’m not! I’d never ask you out if I was seeing someone else!” She exclaimed, looking a bit angry at the accusation. Shinosou took a deep breath to calm himself.
“You’re right, I’m sorry that was unkind of me,” He muttered out, “I wasn’t expecting this. Could I maybe have some time to think this over?” He asked, shooting a smile at Uraraka. He could hear her breath hitch in her throat, but he couldn’t help but think how fake it sounded.
“Oh, absolutely! Take all the time you need, I’ll be right here when you’re ready.” She beamed at him and skipped away, seemingly happy.
Midoriya seemed to show up right after she left, genuine surprise written all over his face.
“What did Uraraka-san want with you Shin?” He questioned, gazing over at Shinsou with an unreadable expression in his eyes as he plopped down beside him in the green grass
. Shinsou sighed deeply and briefly recapped what just happened. Immediately Midoroya looked violently ill, and he stood up from the ground swiftly.
“I’m so sorry, I’m actually not feeling very well right now I think I need to go back to the dorms” He muttered out from behind the hand clasped tightly over his mouth. Shinsou tried to offer to walk Midoriya back to the dorm, but the boy just shook his head and bolted away from where Shinsou was and in the direction of the dorms.
Exasperatedly Shinsou flopped back onto the ground, he had absolutely no idea what was going on, but god did his fucking heart hurt. The tight knot seemed to be growing by the day, and he just didn’t know what to do anymore.
“I don’t know where the line is, so I’ll stay on my side even when you’re not on yours. I’ll tread lightly, in case I might be breaking a boundary we used to break before”
Shinsou had flat out told Uraraka that he was flattered by her offer, though he wasn’t interested. She took it fairly well, but the annoying thing? She still hadn’t backed off of him. If he wasn't around Midoriya she was all over Shinsou, and if Shinsou wasn’t around them then she’d hang off of Midoriya. Constantly he told her to get off, but the gravity quirk girl just didn’t fucking listen.
Shinsou knew how much Midoriya liked the girl, so at this point he just tried to steer clear of her if the green bean wasn’t nearby. Which, to be fair, wasn’t very often anymore. The two spent almost all of their free time together, so thankfully there wasn’t much time for Uraraka to hang off of him like a damn gorilla.
Today the two boys had decided to stay back at the dorms, while the rest of the class went to the mall. Or something like that, Shinsou realized he never actually asked what they were doing, but he couldn’t bring himself to care about that.
It took awhile, but in the last week Shinsou had finally realized his feelings for Midoriya were way more than platonic, so call him selfish but he wanted all the one on one time with him before the smaller boy realized his feelings and abandoned him all over again.
Currently the two had their feet kicked up, watching some B-List horror movie in the common room and Shinsou was enjoying watching Midoroiya jump and scream at every tiny thing in the movie. He couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped when a clown appeared on screen and Midoriya let out a scream that even a Banshee would be jealous of.
“You know, if you’re that scared we could always change the movie?” Shinsou tried to suggest but immediately Midoriya shook his head, flinging his wild curls everywhere.
“No way! You wanted this and I got to choose last time so it’s fair! Plus, this isn’t really that it’s just-” Midoriya cut himself off as someone on the TV screamed and it caused the poor boy to jump again, quite literally flinging himself into Shinsou’s arms.
And maybe Shinsou was being selfish, but he just couldn’t let this opportunity pass up. What could it hurt? He wondered while slyly wrapping an arm around Midoriya’s shoulders.
“Well, why don’t we stay like this then?” He offered, gazing down into the smaller boys emerald green eyes, “If you get scared you can just hide your face in my shoulder?” Shinsou drawled out and Midoriya’s face lit up brighter than a tomato, he laughed again. Surprisingly Midoriya didn’t have a rebuttal, so that’s how they sat for the rest of the night. Cuddled up together, Shinsou teasing Midoriya and Midroiya playfully smacking Shinsou when the purple haired boy was “too mean”.
Until the rest of the class came back that is. Midoriya jumped out of his arms as fast as he could once he heard that front door jiggle. Slowly, and loudly their class filed into the common room. A couple of them sat down to watch movies with the two boys, but the majority went upstairs. Unfortunately for Shinou, Uraraka was one of the ones that decided to stay.
“And so I’ll be your best friend, simple as that. And when you play pretend that things are the way they were, I won’t flirt back.”
Usually Shinsou could see love in Midoriya’s eyes when he looked at Uraraka, and he almost couldn’t blame him. Disregarding whatever weird thing she was doing to the two of them, she was a sweet girl, and beautiful too. Too bad Shinsou was as straight as a circle in this case.
Tonight, however, was different. Midoriya kept trying to get her out of the way, to continue his conversation with Shinsou. He was literally ignoring the poor girl and Shinsou was beyond confused.
Movies played on late into the night, and almost everyone had gone to bed at this point. Except for the three of them at least. After about the fourth movie though, Shinsou got tired of listening to Uraraka talk Midoriya’s ear off. He bade them a goodnight before slumping off to his room. The boy wasn’t tired enough to sleep, but he couldn’t bear listening to them any longer. He could have sworn that she had tried to kiss Midoriya at least once too, and man, he could handle a lot. But not that much.
So he did the best he could to pass time until he was tired, scrolling his phone, reading manga and eventually taking a shower.
“I’ll be quiet in my pining, I won’t tell you about the pain, I’ll be silent in the night when you text me and ask “Hey, Are You Awake?”
Shinsou stared at his phone for an eternity, it was currently 3am when he got the text from MIdoriya. It was simple, just a “Hey, Are you awake?” and God, did Shinsou want to reply. He didn’t though, just a few minutes ago he could still hear the two of them down in the common room. He didn’t think it was fair to interrupt their “date” even if Mindoriya did text him first, so he ignored it.
For another twenty minutes at least, until he heard Midoriya’s voice screaming from the common room. A panic swelled in Shinsou’s chest, and he was off. Rushing down the hall in his boxers and a plain white T-shirt. A voice however caused him to skid to a stop right before anyone in the common room could have seen him.
“Look! I’m doing you a favor!” Uraraka snarked, her voice filled with venom, “I know you want me! And I want you too, so there's no issue! This childish crush on Shinsou will fade, you could have everything with me!” She exclaimed, and Shinsou’s eyes widened. He,,, has a crush on me? He wondered in awe, almost missing the pure anger in his crush’s voice.
“Uraraka, I never liked you. Not like that, and I never gave you any reason to think I did. All I’ve ever done when we were together was gush to you about him. For fucks sake I’ve had feelings for him since the Sports Festival! I don’t know where you got the insane notion I like you, but at the very least. I’m gay. I’d never like you in any way. You were my friend, but you’re not even that not. Please, get away from me” Midoriya hissed, his voice shaking, and Shinsou panicked. Worried that Uraraka would run to her dorm, but instead she ran right out of the front door, sobbing. And he took this as his chance. Shinsou took a deep breath, hardened his nerves and stepped out into Midoriya’s line of sight.
Midoriya was turned towards the front door, but even from the side Shinsou could make out the incredulous look on his face. Not knowing what exactly to do at this moment, Shinsou cleared his throat and cocked an eyebrow.
“Are uh are you okay Midoriya?” He questioned softly causing the green haired boy to jump a bit.Midoriya whipped around, his face slack and face red as can be.
“Shinsou!?” He exclaimed, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck nervously. “Uh, I’m okay, I guess. How much of that,, did you hear?” Midoriya spoke softly, but Shinsou could hear the anxiety that tinted his voice.
“A good portion of it, honestly. From when Uraraka said she was doing you a favor,” Shinsou mumbled out, playing with one of the many thick rubber bracelets adorning his wrist. “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop or anything! I just heard you yelling from my dorm room and I wanted to make sure you were okay.” He exclaimed, throwing his hands up nervously. Midoriya chewed on his lip for a moment before taking a step closer to Shinsou, he was closely examining his face. Shinsou was sure the bags under his eyes were worse now than ever but they never seemed to bother his freckle-faced friend.
“Did you hear what she said?” Mindoriya asked, still slowly walking towards Shinsou. “What she said about you, I mean?” He clarified, though he didn’t need to. Shinsou knew from the beginning what he was asking, and for a moment he debated lying. Maybe Uraraka had the wrong idea? He was sure Midoriya had feelings for her, not himself. He knew Midoriya looked up to him from the Sports Festival, but it was almost unbelievable to think that he would have had feelings for Shinsou since that time. It had been almost two years since that festival. It seemed unrealistic, but he had never lied to Midoriya before and didn’t plan on starting now.
“I did, yeah. It’s okay though, I’m sure she was wrong. There’s no way you'd ever like me back. I accepted that a long time ago.” Shinsou whispered out, still nervously tugging on the rubber wrapping around his wrist. Finally Midoriya took the last step towards him, they were so close their chests were flush against one another. He took a hold of the hand that was fiddling with Shinsou’s bracelet, intertwining their fingers.
“No, you heard right. And she was right. I do have feelings for you Shinsou, I have for a while now. But I thought you were into her, so I never said anything. It wasn’t until recently that I realized she was trying to push us apart because she wanted to be with me. I told her I didn’t want that but she didn’t get the hint I guess,,,” He chuckled under his breath, still holding Shinsou’s hand. “Do you,,, feel the same way, Shinsou?” He asked quietly, looking up at Shinsou with those big green eyes and, man, he thought his knees would give out right from under him.
“Hitoshi” Shinsou mumbled, and Midoriya cocked his head in confusion.
“Huh?” Midoriya squeaked out, his freckled cheeks turning pink again.
“Call me Hitoshi, my boyfriend should be using my given name.” Shinsou laughed out, squeezing Midoriya’s hand softly. Hitoshi wished he had his phone right now to take a picture of Midoriya. His cheeks dusted pink and his eyes glistened with tears. It was a beautiful sight to behold.
“Then, call me Izuku, Hitoshi!” Midor- Izuku, still spoke quietly to not disturb the other students, but Hitoshi could hear the clear happiness in his voice. Neither could hold back anymore and slowly, both boys leaned forward. It was hesitant, they were both worried about startling the other. Finally though, their lips connected and Hitoshi wished he could savor this exact moment forever. There were no fireworks, or a jolt of electricity.
No, kissing Izuku Midoriya felt like coming home for the first time after being away for years.
“Do You Wanna Be Friends?”