Chapter Text
There’s something to be said for nighttime. The moonlight glides across grass that’s getting close to needing to be cut, spearing through a cloud so thin it could be fog on its way to obscure my sight and make it even more like a pocket of the world no one else can touch.
I reach out my hand upward and silently ask for a tiny cloud to cover just a sliver more of the night sky. The weather immediately answers and, as I had expected, several clouds, just as thin and filmy as the one that had already been there, now hang with the stars, suspended above me.
It took a significant amount of trial and error before I learned that calling for what might seem like the smallest change in weather can cause an abrupt shift in the entire hemisphere. Now, rather than calling I have to ask, more like a patient request than a demand, otherwise my desire to have more clouds over here might result in a typhoon in the Indian Ocean or a tornado in Kansas.
Truthfully, my quirk is incredible and that’s one of the reasons it was so hard for me to grasp it and regulate it. In many ways it resembles my emotions, not just by being affected by them, but in how important they are and how much they affect the things around them.
People are heavily influenced by what they see around them and even frequently mirror the emotions they see on strangers’ faces, any kind of stimulant in a crowd of people will produce a mass effect that may or may not be predictable. The weather is just as unpredictable and just as reactive.
Something that’s been immensely helpful while I’ve been learning to better control the power behind my quirk is nothing other than training at night. Without the added regulation of the freaking sun, it turns out everything else is more manageable. Like asking for a few thin clouds that, to be completely honest, will probably all but disappear by the time morning comes anyway.
I hear a small snap, like a dried leaf or a twig and sit up straight, leaving the clovers behind and I get ready to stand up. Even if it ends up just being a squirrel, I control the weather not woodland creatures and I’d rather they stayed well enough away from me. But when I twist around to look behind me, my hand bracing against the soft ground, I don’t see a squirrel, or a chipmunk, or a little deer, I see a pair of boots.
A little ways away, where he must have been walking on the path that runs right through this area, stands a boy with purple hair, looking confused by my presence but not enough to put energy toward asking me any questions.
“Shinso?” I hiss into the night air and he startles. Maybe he hadn’t seen me and what I thought was his confused face was really just his face.
“Nakamura?” Now I’m startled. I didn’t think he knew my name, whether we’re in the same class or not. Actually, I thought he actively avoided me.
I stand up and shove my hands in my jacket pockets. We’re dressed surprisingly similarly, comfortable pants, a t-shirt, and a worn jacket. The only real difference is his black combat boots and my beat-up sneakers.
“What are you doing out here?” I ask quietly. We’ve both been whispering, it just feels right with the time of day and the atmosphere.
“Walking.” He says simply and I want to smack myself in the face. I’ve already somehow given my new classmate a bad impression, I don’t need to make it worse by sounding stupid. Maybe I can work towards being friends right now, judging from the situation we have something in common.
“It’s just easier at night.” I say and he tilts his head to the side.
“Walking?” He asks.
“No! I mean. . . using my quirk.” Even though everyone in the hero course knows about my issues controlling my quirk and therefore the weather, it’s still not exactly easy to admit it out loud. “At night, I don’t have to bargain with the sun.”
“‘Bargain with the sun’?” He repeats slowly.
I sigh. “Forget it. Enjoy your walk.”
I turn my back to him and sit back down in the space I cleared out. It’s never been a problem before that I chose a spot right next to the trail, most people don’t even go through it. I know Bakugou does in the morning and sometimes Kirishima joins him, Deku does at twilight and his group of friends occasionally follow along, but I’ve never been found tweaking the weather at four in the morning. For some reason, it feels like an invasion of privacy and I can feel my cheeks getting hot and frustration growing behind my eyes but I try to keep any of it from reaching the surface, from reaching the weather.
Then I hear footsteps coming towards me, one at a time, each far enough apart that I can tell he’s being careful, until he’s right beside me and then sitting down. We sit side by side in silence and cold night air for long enough that we breathe in synchronicity before either of us speak.
“Did you do all this?” He asks, his voice still low. I turn my head to look at him sitting there right next to me.
I know what he’s talking about, the fog that lies low among branches of the trees surrounding the little clearing, the gentle breeze across us and the grass that never seems to stop or get too cold, the way the clouds all fall perfectly on the horizon, close enough to see and give a sense of comfort, but not in the way of proper stargazing. But I’m not looking at all of that.
Shinso’s eyes are just as purple as his hair, dark under the night sky but sitting here in the moonlight in the company of stars, they’re glinting pools of violet. Then they shift to me and I bring myself back to his question.
“I did.” I look away and up to the sky, unsure of what to say next.
“Seems clear to me that you’ve got a handle on it now.” He whispers and a surge of pride courses through me, giving me extra confidence and convincing me to extend my hand in front of both of us and ask, gently, for a warm whisk of wind.
Instantly, the cool night air is met with a soft warmth that brushes past us and shifts through the clovers. It might look like showing off, and it could technically be that, but I mean it as a little celebration, a way of proving him right. I think he takes it the right way because when my eyes meet his he’s still looking at my sideways, the ghost of a smile playing across his lips.
After a moment he breaks eye contact with me and seems to shake off the warmth that I’d brought, moving to stand up and then turning back toward the path.
“I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” He tells me quietly and I just nod, letting him walk away and hopefully get some rest. It’s probably about time that I head back too but I’m not about to walk with him.
When the sounds of his footsteps disappear and the warm breeze stops completely I stand up and zip up my jacket. I never would have thought I’d see Shinso out here at night. It’s rather obvious that he doesn’t sleep often, or at least not well, but I didn’t guess that he’d find comfort in the nighttime the same way I do.
I make my way back to the dorms and, just as I’m about to slip inside, I notice that the clouds in the distance are dissolving as the first glimpse of a less dark sky, not bright yet, the warning signs of the sun, appears on the horizon. Sometimes the weather can be trusted to right itself.