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Fumikage has considered Shojin to be one of his friends for a while now, though they don’t talk often. He doesn’t talk to many people often; it’s just the way he is, and when Izuku and Tsuyu first start to find their way into his life, it’s a very strange and very new experience. The three of them end up dating, and he’s very happy with that arrangement, even if it isn’t something he ever would have expected for him.
But most of his time is either spent with them or alone, and he doesn’t think much about his friendship with Shoji. The other boy seems just as content to be distance, and so there’s no need to face anything... different that might be there. That is, until the night Izuku begins scheming to try to set up Mineta with Tsuyu- revealing his own interest in their shorter classmate- and Fumikage finds himself talking with Shoji for quite some time.
He isn’t sure what it is making him behave so boldly; even going to a dance is so very unlike him that the fact that he’s here at all is strange, but he can at least blame that on Izuku and Tsuyu. But, when he has the chance to ask Shoji to dance, he knows that it’s very out of character for him, and yet, he does it anyway, and the other boy accepts, and that is how things begin.
Perhaps it is knowing that the other two want to bring someone new in that encourages him to try to bring in yet another person. Either way, it’s not long before his crush on Shoji becomes apparent enough, and, at the same time that Mineta begins hanging out with them, Shoji becomes a regular part of their group as well.
He doesn’t notice at first that Shoji likes Tsuyu, or that Mineta likes Shoji, or that anyone really likes anyone; for the most part, he follows along, but soon, their dynamic becomes more apparent to him and he understands that, partially because of him “the three of them” has become “the five of them”, and a fourth of their class happens to all be in the same relationship. It’s funny how they don’t have to do as much talking now, as when it was just the three of them figuring things out, but he doesn’t mind. Talking about this sort of thing has always been difficult, and if the other two can just sort of end up dating them without any issue, then that’s all the better.
But, eventually, there comes a time where he and Shoji have to talk about things. It is during a time where everyone is mostly preoccupied with Mineta’s place in things, and his continued adamant denial that he is dating anyone but Tsuyu, even though it’s incredibly obvious that he has quite the crush on Shoji and Izuku both. Fortunately for Fumikage, he can mostly watch that from the sidelines, amused at the way the other four behave.
He does ask Shoji one day what he thinks of everything, and that is how their conversation begins.
“Mineta is a handful,” he says.
“Lucky you have so many, then?”
Fumikage can’t actually tell, but he thinks Shoji cracks a smile at that one. “I guess it is. It makes handling the rest of you easier too.”
There are a lot of things Fumikage finds that he wants to say in that moment; he wants to comment on the fact that it might be Tsuyu that all of them initially gravitated to, or that she and Izuku are the ones who hold everything together, or that he has no idea what he’s doing, but that isn’t what he says. Instead, he says, “We’re a pretty weird bunch, aren’t we?”
“I’m probably the weirdest.”
“Look at who you’re talking to.”
“Then we’re both the weirdest,” Shoji replies.
“Though I wouldn’t exactly call the rest of them completely normal.”
“Maybe Midoriya?”
“Maybe.”
There is a pause before Shoji speaks up again, saying, “Do you ever think of yourself as a monster?”
“Just because of how I look?” asks Fumikage.
“Just...in general. I kind of realize now how stupid of a question that was.”
“I thought you’d already know the answer to that,” he replies. “Though my appearance does play a bit of a role sometimes, I suppose. I’m not the weirdest looking person I know, at least, but even if humanity is drifting further from the norm, I do still get stares from time to time.”
“So do I,” says Shoji. “Believe it or not, the mask actually does help.”
“For what it’s worse, I don’t think of you as a monster.”
“Right back at you.”
It’s an awkward exchange, to say the least, as it doesn’t feel like much of anything has changed between them, but when Shoji’s hand brushes against Fumikage’s, he takes it. That alone says more about their relationship than either of them have been able to yet, and it’s enough evidence that there really is something between the two of them, and that there probably has been for longer than either of them would admit.
~X~
Their group becomes slowly more inseparable, though they still each have their own friends- and honestly, Fumikage realizes during this time that Shoji has always been one of his closest friends, even if he usually spends most of his time alone- and everyone becomes more aware of the strange group of five students who all happen to be dating each other.
He gets more stares at school than he used to, but it doesn’t really bother him, and when they all hang out, it feels so natural. Between Mineta and Izuku, things can get more noisy than he’d prefer, and yet, that just becomes like part of a routine, and he finds it more amusing than anything else. At least, he finds that he prefers the time he spends with everyone to the time he spends without them, and that is certainly something.
There’s still the issue of Mineta’s adamant denial that there is anything more than friendship between him and the other two boys, but that isn’t Fumikage’s battle, thankfully, and he has a feeling it will work itself out, sooner or later. What with all the time they spend together, it’ll have to, he thinks, and they have Tsuyu, who seems to have a particular talent for making them all get their shit together.
She even tells him one day, “You and Mezo have gotten a lot more comfortable together. I’m glad.”
“You’re the one who’s already on a first name basis with him,” he replies with a hint of a smirk.
“You’ll get there soon, I’m sure,” she says. “I’m glad everything is working out.”
“Well, you’ve got your hands full, so I had to make something easier on you.”
He thinks back to the day at the aquarium, when he was so worried about what might happen between he, Izuku, and Tsuyu. It wasn’t something he ever thought he would worry about, but he knew that he liked the both of them, and hoped that the fact that they were spending so much time together meant that something like that could work out, as unusual as it might be.
Now, it’s grown beyond that, and grown more unusual all the while, and he is the happiest he’s ever been.