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Tokoyami likes the dark. They love the shadows cast in low lighting, exaggerating the features of the object until it looks totally different. They love how everything seems calmer in the dark, the world quiet and still. They love it when it is night time, the sky clear and black (or is it a very dark blue?) and sparkling with billions of stars. They like the dark because that is where Dark Shadow thrives, their power the strongest without light. And they love it in bed at night under the blankets, lying there in the dark shut off from the world and totally safe.
People used to call them a goth form liking night time and darkness and basically shying away from anything bright and colourful, but Tokoyami isn’t a goth. They’re just not a fan of light and bright colours. They never have been, and they probably never will.
Shouji has always liked bright colours. As a kid, he wore bright clothes and loved making a mess with brightly coloured paint (finger painting is especially messy when you can turn your tentacles into multiple hands and get paint literally everywhere). Even as a teenager, an age where he tries to act more mature and conform with the other kids his age, Shouji still likes bright things. His bedroom has neon green curtains and bright blue walls and his bedding is patterned like rainbow, and he loves to go out for walks on sunny days and just admire how beautiful the world looks in the sunlight.
And when he comes out as polysexual, Shouji happily buys a badge with the bright, beautiful pride flag on it and pins it to his school bag, subtly showing his pride for his sexuality as well as his love of colours. And he doesn’t care what people think; he’s been different and eccentric his whole life, and he isn’t going to stop now.
Tokoyami and Shouji don’t have much in common, other than their fascinating Quirks and rather bizarre appearances. Yet they are totally in love with each other. In the common room of Class 1-A’s dorm, they sit together on the coach, holding hands. They recently discovered that it is very hard to kiss when one of you has a beak and the other constantly covers the bottom half of his face, but they still love to spend time together. And even though they can’t kiss in the conventional way, they have their own way of showing affection: Shouji turns one of his tentacles into a mouth and presses a kiss to Tokoyami’s forehead.
“I’ve got an idea, you know,” Shouji says, looking behind him with an extra eye and trying not to laugh at Kaminari as he trips over his shoelaces. “Do you want to go to pride with me next week?”
Tokoyami stares at him. “As in… LGBT pride?”
He nods. “Yeah, that’s it. We can get you a nonbinary badge and I can wear my poly one and we can have fun. What do you say?”
Tokoyami looks at him, but then shrugs. “Why not?”
So the next week, Shouji takes his datemate to their local pride parade. Tokoyami is dressed in all black, but has a small nonbinary badge pinned to their shirt. Shouji wears a shirt in the colours of the polysexual pride flag, and happily has a rainbow flag painted on his forehead.
They hold hands as they walk through town, looking at all of the people and merchandise and just feel so relaxed to be out in public like this with no one caring. And when Tokoyami actually starts smiling, clearly enjoying this in their own way, Shouji smiles too and gives them a kiss.