Chapter Text
Boys nights were an…. Interesting time.
Most of the boys (or at least boy-aligned) members of the class ended up in the common room of the dorms. They hadn’t been able to coax Iida out of the (understandable) depressive funk he’d been in lately. And Katsuki never came to boys’ night(few could guess why). Sometimes Tsu would show up if the gender aligned with the schedule, but alas today was a girl day so she went to Girls’ Night instead.
Often it was just hanging out. The usual stuff they’d do anyway. Games, food. Maybe a movie if they could all agree.
Sometimes though….. someone had an…. Idea.
“Is it bad my first thought was ‘wow those simulator games are getting out of hand?” Sero asked.
“I…. wouldn’t be surprised, actually,” Denki replied. “But no. When I say ‘period cramp simulator’ I mean strapping this baby to us!”
He was already opening the box. Pulling out a device and some sort of wires. Skimming over the instructions while the rest of the boys stared.
“That looks like an actual torture device,” Ojiro said.
“It’s a tens unit,” Shoto said. “It sends electric impulses into the muscles. I’ve seen my father use one.”
“As a torture device?” Aoyama asked.
“Pain relief, actually,” he said. “It’s not like he can use a regular heating pad for sore muscles.”
And Izuku had somehow procured a notebook from the Aether to write that down. Despite this, he was able to see Koda signing something in his peripheral vision.
“I don’t think this is ‘making fun’,” Izuku answered. “At least I hope none of us are doing the ‘surely girls are just whining about it’ thing.”
Everyone paused to look at Denki, who was still fiddling with the controls. Eyes focused and tongue poking out of his mouth. At the silence he glanced up.
“I know it hurts,” Denki said. “I just don’t know how it feels so like. Morbid curiosity or whatever, right?”
“Good to know you’re a masochist,” Shinso said, causing Denki to focus very intently elsewhere.
“I think you have to be a masochist to be a Hero,” Sato said. “Think about it, how often do we get thrown around?”
“We could consider this Hero Training,” Tokoyami nodded.
“Like ‘what if a villain turns us into girls and we get unlucky on where in the cycle we are’?” Sero asked.
“I think he meant more ‘resisting torture’,” Shoji corrected.
Tokoyami nodded, which sent most of the group back to staring. Kirishima, however, rolled his eyes. He then yoinked the device from Denki, earning an annoyed ‘hey!’.
“We can do this on two conditions,” Kirishima said. “Firstly, I have to record this to send to the girls later. They need to see this stupidity.”
“That’s fair,” Izuku nodded.
“More than fair,” Sato agreed.
“Secondly,” Kirishima said, already sticking the wires to his abdomen, “As the only one in the room who knows what actual period cramps feel like, I’m gonna be the one in control of this experiment.”
He kept clicking buttons on the device. Trying to find just the right intensity and pattern. Entirely straight faced. Despite the fact that the device was presumably on as he did that.
Surely if he was able to not react, it meant it wouldn’t be that bad, right? Right?
“That’s about right,” Kirishima said, grabbing his phone to record. “Who wants to try first?”
“It was my idea so I’ll go,” Denki said. “Light me up, boys!”
Kirishima took the wires off himself and put them on Denki. Despite his grin, there was a touch of nerves. However, it was Kirishima who was frowning more and more as he fiddled with the controls.
“You’re not feeling that at all?” Kirishima asked.
“It’s tingling a bit?” Denki replied. “Why, what’d you set it to?”
“You weren’t reacting so I turned it up,” he said. “A lot.”
“You know,” Izuku mused, not looking up from his notebook. “You already handle so much electricity in your body that something calibrated to be not actually harmful to normal people isn’t going to work on you.”
“Aw damn it,” Denki groaned, flopping onto the couch. “What was the point of this if I don’t get fucked up!”
“You truly are a masochist,” Tokoyami said.
“Maybe if we get more electricity,” Sero said. “I’m sure we can ask Hatsume-”
“We’re not hooking him up to a car battery,” Sato vetoed.
“Take all the fun out of it,” Denki muttered, taking the wires off. “Who wants to try next?”
After a moment’s pause, everyone hoping someone else would pick it up, Sero did sigh and grab it. He adjusted the wires on his abdomen and have an incredibly hesitant thumbs up
The moment Kirishima hit the button, you could see his expression shift. In the next moment, he as hunched forward, arms clutching his stomach.
“Okay that-” Sero tried to say, his voice cracking. “You can turn it off now!”
Kirishima hit the off button, and Sero was left breathing heavily. He was very quick to rip the wires off and throw them at the nearest person. Which happened to be Tokoyami.
To his credit, Tokoyami at least kept a brave face as he took his turn. Slowly attaching the wires to his stomach. But, just like Sero, as soon as it was switched on he was hunched over. Hands braced on his knees and breathing heavily.
“Dark forces have summoned tiny demons to stab me,” Tokoyami managed.
“How dramatic,” Aoyama sighed.
Tokoyami glared until another wave of pain hit him. At that he just tore the wires off entirely. They got handed over to next in line, along with a quiet apology. Shoji reluctantly took the wires.
“Actually I was wondering,” Izuku spoke up. “You have some ability to create new organs, as you can make extra mouths and eyes and the systems to make them functional and such and theoretically you could grow other organs. But could you grow organs you don’t naturally have like a uterus?”
“I’m not sure if-”
Shoji’s answer was cut into a bit of a strangled gasp as Kirishima flipped on the device. His mask may have provided a good poker face, but they could see him getting quite twitchy. The pain seemed to activate the reflexes of his Quirk, as the muscles in his arms flexed. As if his Quirk was trying to figure out a way to stop the pain.
He held out longer than the others did, but eventually caved and ripped the wires off. Almost immediately the twitching stopped.
Without a word, he held them out to Aoyama. The blonde was far more hesitant than the others had been, but complied with the shenanigans presented.
The wires had only been on for a moment before-
“Nope!”
And he dropped to the floor. Curled up and taking it until Kirishima took pity on him and turned it off.
“And you called me dramatic,” Tokoyami huffed.
“In all technicalities I wasn’t wrong and-” Aoyama paused. “I would prefer to not think about what it would be like to also use my Quirk during that, actually.”
With that terrifying thought filed away for later, the wires were handed to Sato. He only sighed and put the wires on. He handled the pain a lot better than the last guy, though Aoyama had set the bar for bare minimum. Still froze and looked ready to double over, but at least stayed standing.
“Is feeling like I’m about to throw up normal?” Sato asked.
“Absolutely!” Kirishima replied, a touch too chipper. “Of course you’re only dealing with the nausea from the actual muscle cramping bit. There’s also the ‘all food is bad’ nausea, the ‘I haven’t eaten in so long it’s looped into nausea’ thing, and the ‘all I’ve eaten today is an entire bag of chocolate and it’s making my tummy hurt’ thing.”
“That is horrifying,” he said.
And now it was Shinso’s turn. Once again, almost as soon as Kirishima hit the button, they had someone doubled over. This time with a high-pitched whine from the back of his throat.
“And that just-” Shinso took a shaky breath. “That happens at random?”
“Oh no it’s like all day for like a week,” Kirishima said. “Sometimes you can calm it with pain meds and nearly burning yourself with a heating pad. But other times you get extra stabs!”
Everyone looked suitably horrified. Shinso took off the wires and held them out to Koda. The boy only shook his head and signed something in response.
“Still early on the sign language but I’m guessing that’s a no?” Shinso asked.
“He says he’s chickening out,” Izuku translated.
“Coward,” Denki gave a joking jeer.
Koda was entirely unbothered by this. He is confident in his place as a coward and not going to fall to peer pressure.
“It’s hard to call him a coward when you couldn’t feel it,” Tokoyami said.
“But I wanted to!” Denki insisted.
“Masochist,” Sero said.
“Speaking of masochists, it’s Midoriya’s turn,” Kirishima said.
“How am I a masochist?!” Izuku wondered.
“”Oh Kacchan~!’!” several of them mocked.
“I assumed this was about the bones,” Shoto said.
While Sero quickly covered Denki’s mouth to keep him from making a joke out of that wording, Izuku turned red and refused to offer an argument. He did take the wires though.
When the device was turned on, Izuku almost didn’t change. But everyone could see the subtle shift in his expression. Green eyes having a thousand yard stare.
“That’s…. technically not as bad as breaking all my bones,” Izuku said. “But it’s sending off more ‘oh god oh fuck I’m gonna die’ senses and-”
The stare suddenly looked more focused. Switching between two points. Most of the group stayed still, except for Tokoyami and Aoyama. The former kept looking at the same points Izuku glanced at, as if he expected something to appear. The latter took a few steps closer to Izuku.
“What?” Izuku shook his head. “How did this summon two- Familiarity? Danger Sense? What? That’s- that’s fascinating actually but-”
“Poor dear has gone delirious from the pain,” Aoyama said, putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
The physical contact jolted him out of his confusion. Remembering he was in a crowded room of people who, as far as he knew, didn’t know any secrets.
Izuku took the wires off, handing them over to Ojiro. And he looked like he was debating whether to take his turn, or to throw that infernal torture device out the window and make a run for it.
Though he took the pain like a champ, the fur of his tail was standing on end. Bristling at each pulse. And, of course, nothing could stop Izuku from writing that down in his notebook. Not even ‘pain induced hallucinations’ asking him questions.
After Ojiro took off the wires, Shoto was the last to ‘compete’ .He wasted no time in getting it over with and sticking them to his stomach.
And they were back to people doubling over in pain. Shoto dropped onto the couch, head between his knees.
“How’re ya feeling, buddy?” Sero asked, patting his back.
“Vindicated,” Shoto answered. “My younger self was perfectly justified in thinking that Fuyumi was dying. I was not, in fact, ‘freaking out over nothing, you dumbass’.”
No one wanted to unpack that.