Chapter Text
Class was relatively boring, as expected. The only thing out of the ordinary was Monoma staring at his hair like he wanted it to catch fire. As soon as class ended, I turned to Monoma, who hadn’t even started packing his stuff away.
“Why were you staring at my hair? Is something wrong with it?”
Monoma looked surprised at my words (gestures?).
“Uh…yeah...”
I raised my eyebrows
“Yeah?”
Aaaaaaaand Monoma panicked
“Oh! Wait, I didn’t mean- ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I mean- nothing’s wrong with it! It’s just so fluffy! Like a cat, and then I was thinking if I patted it down, would it stay down? Or would it spring back up, and I’m just gonnaaa stop.”
Somewhere during that…..thing, Monoma’s face had flushed and his eyes looked anywhere away from Shinsou.
“..Oh.”
“Heh, yeah.”
“…do you….”
Monoma’s eyes flicked back, and suddenly he was too nervous to finish that sentence. So instead, he just changed the topic.
“..Come on, let’s go.”
Monoma’s flushed face morphed into one of confusion.
Is he serious? Its lunchtime...
And then it dawned on him, Monoma had probably been joking. Of course he wouldn’t want to eat lunch with him, he had just met him! He felt like an idiot.
“Oh! It’s lunch time! C’mon Shinsou, we don’t want to miss lunch now do we?” Monoma had exclaimed cheerfully, walking towards the classroom door.
Shinsou just stared at him, bewildered. So, he didn’t mean it as a joke? Well, that just makes him feel worse for assuming. Fuck. But it seemed Monoma was awaiting a response, so he shook his head and went to follow the blonde.
They walked out onto the rooftop, and wow, it was windy. Monoma led them behind a wall where the wind wasn’t as bad.
“Wow, the roof huh? I feel like I’m in a cheesy romance anime.”
Monoma’s eyes widened with a hint of worry, and he rushed to make amends
“Oh, uhm, sorry...if you don’t like it up here we can move-“
A small smile stretched across his lips,
“No, I was kidding, don’t worry about it.”
“Oh! Well, then let’s eat.”
Monoma took out a bento and a wine glass. He fished around in his bag until he found it. Shinsou watched as Monoma retrieved a bottle of…….what was that?
“What the fuck is that?”
Monoma merely chuckled
“It’s ribena, I had it imported from the UK. Apparently it’s really good or something.”
“And why do you have a wine glass? Do you carry that everywhere?”
“Well it would be a shame if I were to need a glass and not have it with me wouldn’t it?”
I just looked at him exasperatedly.
Wow, this guy is so extra.
“Soooo anyways, what’s your quirk?”
And wow, he expected this question, and he should have expected it sooner but he still wasn’t ready. Fuck, what if Monoma decided to leave too. He didn’t need friends, or people to talk to, but it was nice. Especially because he knew sign language. Fuck, fuck, fuck. It had only been a day, not even that, and he already didn’t want to lose him. Shinsou was dragged out of his thoughts by Monoma waving a hand in front of his vacant eyes.
“Hellllooooo? Shinsou? You there? All I asked was what your quirk was, but if you really don’t wanna answer, it’s totally fine.”
“Brainwashing.”
“Huh?”
“My quirk is brainwashing.”
“…”
There was an extended silence
I knew I shouldn’t have told him
He should be leaving now
“I bet that got you bullied a lot as a child huh?”
My head whipped around so fast it could have given me whiplash.
“What?”
“You got bullied for that huh? Well so was I, my quirks copy.”
What’s so bad about a copying quirk? Did people think he was useless?
“I know what you’re thinking, ‘what so bad about that?’ But you know, people are really afraid of losing their quirks. And no matter how many times I tell them it won’t actually take it away, it’ll just copy it; they don’t seem to hear me. In one ear and out the other, the imbeciles don’t listen to a single word.”
And yeah, that sounded a bit harsh, but it was true wasn’t it?
“So they turned their fear into rage, and they started bullying me. They called me useless, because if no one’s around, I’m basically quirkless.”
Shinsou, who had gone back to staring at the ground, turned his scowling face towards Monoma. He tapped Monoma’s knee to get his attention.
“It’s horrible what they did to you. You know they’re wrong right?”
Monoma’s face softened, “yeah, I do now.”
“Good.”
Monoma just smiled gently and turned back to his lunch. What else did they do to this boy? He looked so sad. And though all he saw was a downcast boy now, Shinsou couldn’t forget the angered alpha he met at the beginning of the day. It was really fucking scary now that he thought about it. He just met the guy; he shouldn’t be here with him.
“So, did you get bullied?”
The voice cut through his thoughts like a knife.
“yeah..” he looked away again,” they used to muzzle me when I was in my old foster home.”
Just mentioning it brought back horrid memories, memories filled with pain and tears. If he concentrated hard enough, he could still feel the metal rubbing against his skin. Over the past few years, the memories had faded, but they never went away, not completely. They never would.