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"Hey, who's birthday is it Tuesday?"
Several pairs of eyes belonging to Midoryia, Ochaco, Tsuyu, and Kaminari looked over at Mina's statement as she looked over at the calendar. Sure enough, there was a birthday marked for October 8th, with a purple 'M' for an initial.
"We just celebrated Momo's a few weeks ago…." Tsuyu mused, poking a finger against her chin in thought. "And Shouji's is in February, right?"
Midoryia nodded as he looked at the calendar intently; it wasn't Mina's or Ojiro's for sure, so that could only leave… he snapped his fingers.
"Mineta."
The following reactions were… varied. Mina and Ochaco reflexively grimaced, Tsuyu's face looked even more blank and emotionless than it normally did, while Kaminari all but leaped from his spot on the couch. "What?! Why didn't he say anything?! I would've saved up some yen in advance!"
"I know he's been getting better Kaminari, but he's still a gross pervert at times." Ochaco admitted reluctantly; despite the classmate in question, she still wasn't fond of talking down on others, especially behind their backs. "I really can't bring myself to wanna… actually celebrate his birthday…"
The rosy-cheeked brunette had her hands in her face in both disappointment and embarrassment, sending her floating around the room. Asui was more than happy to pull her back down with a flick of her tongue, though. "It wouldn't hurt just to throw something simple for him though; not like we did anything extravagant for anyone else's birthday, gero gero."
"I'll see if I can convince Satou to bake him a cake; he likes fruit-flavored frosting right?" Mina asked, looking at the resident Pikachu for an answer. Kaminari could only shrug helplessly as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.
"He… never really told me what foods he likes. Actually, he doesn't talk much about what he likes outside of girls…"
An awkward pause soon followed as the group slowly realized that this was going to be a bit harder to execute than they realized.
….
Two days later and a small yet quite humble surprise birthday party was being arranged. While a good chunk of the class had hesitated somewhat (With, Jirou, Toru, and Momo in particulary expressing a considerable degree of hostility) they were still willing to throw their grape-headed classmate a decent 18th birthday… Except Bakugou, who couldn't give a shit, but that had long been accepted by his classmates that that was just par for the course with him. The dorm dining room table had a small pile of presents around a wonderfully baked cake; a fudge chocolate batter topped with a coating of grape jelly for frosting, and a nicely written 'Happy Birthday Mineta!' written by Kaminari himself, who had somehow managed to pull a miracle out of his ass and managed to conjure up the money and passes needed to get into a nice 18+ strip club. (Nobody dared to ask how.) Fortunately, it had been rather easy to keep everything a surprise from the purple pervert himself, (Except when Mineta had wandered into the room just as Momo and Satou were pulling out a cake. Neither of them were willing to talk about why they had to make a second one or where the first one had ended up.) who had seemed rather… quiet and distant the past two days. Everyone eventually just chalked it up to him simply being nervous about his upcoming birthday, though. Now just came the coup de grace of pulling Mineta out of his room to give him a warm birthday.
…Which, everyone seemed rather hesitant to do as Izuku and Tsuyu stared rather awkwardly at the door to Mineta's room alongside Mina and Kaminari; nobody really wanted to be the first to lay eyes upon whatever perverted horrors their midget classmate held within his room.
"Are we really just going to… go into his room?" Mina asked nervously as she stared at the door handle like it was red-hot.
"Of course we are!" Denki proudly declared… only to wilt like a dying flower mere seconds later. “…I just don't want to know what he decorates his room with."
As the group fidgeted on the spot for a good thirty seconds, Asui would finally take the initiative and all but yank the door open, with the other three instinctively flinching and attempting to cover their innocent eyes… of course, this turned out to be rather unnecessary.
“…Well, at least it's somewhat tasteful, gero gero."
And so it was, to a degree: Various posters of many a scantily-clad female Pro Hero adorned the walls, although none of them showcased full on nudity; Miss Joke, Cow Lady, Pixie-Bob, Mandalay, Ragdoll, Miruko, and Ryukyu all had posters with them either in their signature costumes or in bikinis; even Bubble Girl had a small poster tucked into a corner wall. (Although there was a large gap where a particularly large poster had been seemingly torn down rather abruptly.) There was a small bed in the left middle of the room, with a basic desk and computer standing opposite, right beside a large bookshelf dedicated towards hundreds upon hundreds of manga comics, all neatly organized in alphabetical order. It was nice, tidy, yet still carried that Mineta-grade pervertedness to it. And speaking of which, the tiny terror was sitting on his own bed; evidently he had been fumbling with a coil of rope in his hands, but the sudden opening of the door caused him to drop it onto a tall stepstool just in front of him, sending it clattering to the floor.
"Oh, erm, hey guys…" He managed to stammer out as four pairs of eyes rested firmly on him. "Wasn't expecting company… at all, really."
"Is… is everything alright man?" Kaminari asked with an equally nervous tone; his eyes never left the coil of rope, even as Mineta hastily stuffed under his bed. Izuku stared at the stepstool in dawning horror, but quickly noticed his classmate’s action and all but dove under the bed to go and retrieve it, much to Mineta's stammered protest. The green-haired boy’s eyes widened in shock as he peered underneath the bed; aside from the coiled bundle of rope, there was also a small pillow and blanket neatly folded atop a plain dog bed; perfect for someone Mineta's size; alongside it was a large box of Pop-Tarts, almost gone already. Mineta himself looked like he wanted to just sink down to the center of the earth as Midoriya pulled out the rope and dog bed, eliciting various expressions of shock and even more confusion from the other three.
"Mineta, bro…what's going on?" Kaminari asked softly as he knelt down next to his perverted friend. Mineta didn’t reply, but his shoulders were shaking, even as he blinked away tears forming in his eyes. Mina tried sitting down on the short boy’s other side… only for Mineta to scoot away from her as quickly as possible and closer to the blonde boy.
"I figured… I figured…" He swallowed hard. “… figured you'd all be better off without me."
Kaminari felt like someone had just plunged their hand into his chest and crushed his heart into a pulp; inwardly, he was kicking himself for never paying closer attention to Mineta. He had always just assumed that the grape head took the various insults and demeaning comments from others regarding his perverted nature in stride; just letting them wash off him harmlessly like water off a duck's ass. Yet here he was… about to hang himself. Tsuyu couldn't believe what she was hearing herself; despite her inability to really give off strong facial expressions, she couldn't stop the tears from flowing down her face as she tried to process what was going on. Mina’s hands were covering her mouth as she looked at her classmate in horror, while Izuku just looked mortified, a haunted look filling his eyes.
“…Why, man?" Kaminari breathed out.
"...Call it self realization. All I wanted was to become a hero so that girls would like me… but, well, what girl is going to like my freaky ass? Short, ugly, perverted, and with one of the dumbest Quirks around to boot. I don’t even get how I managed to get to this point…e-especially not when I don’t even deserve to be here." He managed to get out before letting out a sniffle and wiping at his eyes. "I'm always cowering in fear when shit goes down; while everyone else pulls their shit together and saves the day against real, genuine Villains, I'm just hiding in a corner somewhere, crying my eyes out and pissing myself in fear."
"That's not true!" Mina protested; She would fully admit to not liking Mineta all that much, but she never meant to actually hurt him with her occasional jabs. "You made it to U.A. all on your own to become a hero, just like the rest of us did! I'm sure there's plenty of girls that-"
"Name one."
"Huh?"
Mineta looked up her, his eyes drained of life. "Name one girl in this school that likes me for who I am and would be genuinely sad if I just vanished… or for that matter, name just one person who’s my friend, not just bonding over girls like with you, Kaminari."
Mina felt herself wilt like a flower at that, fidgeting on the spot as she struggled to come up with an answer. That's when Asui took a deep breath and pulled him into a tight hug, much to his stuttered protest. Kaminari blinked in surprise at the frog girl's forwardness before taking the chance to hug him from behind, while Izuku and Mina came in with their own hugs from the side.
"Just because you're a pervert, doesn't mean we hate you." Asui muttered to him. "You're going to be a great hero with plenty of fangirls...you just gotta restrain yourself better."
"And we're willing to help." Kaminari continued as he smiled sadly down at his sticky 'haired' friend.
"We've all got your back!" Mina chirped as she forced a smile onto her face. "We may think you're a pervert, but this whole class is pretty much family!"
"We don't hate you." Midoryia assured him.
Soft sniffling soon followed as Mineta eventually just sank his way into the hug.
"...Ok, but why the dog bed though?" Mina asked nervously.
"...I didn't feel like I deserved my own bed at times. I mean come on, look at m- hurk! "
Mineta proceeded to have the wind knocked out of him as everyone proceeded to squeeze him harder at that. He proceeded to just shut up and just sink into the collection of arms.
….
The party itself was a quiet affair, with Mineta trying his best to put on a smile; a daunting task in of itself, made harder as the purple midget realized that Class 1A actually did care about him, if the small party was any indication. The cake was good, and the presents, although not exactly numerous, were still of a quality one could appreciate: A small 18+ manga collection from Kaminari, a handcrafted Miruko body pillow from Momo and Shouji, (Momo provided the material while Shouji knitted. She didn't question how he knew to knit.) a special slingshot from Izuku to throw his balls farther, a frog plushie from Asui, and...well, nobody really knew what Mina had gotten him. It looked like a plate of fresh-baked cookies, but the glowing green glow they gave off said otherwise. Upon eating one, his face turned every single color of the rainbow before settling on, surprise, puke green. He managed to give off a weak smile though.
After the cake was sliced apart and eaten, Kaminari all but dragged Mineta away to go have their own fun.
….
(Hours Later)
Mineta just had the biggest grin on his face as he laid on his back across his bed; who knew having a lizard tail could make dancing so…. erotic . Not to mention the, admittedly, surprisingly hot spider lady not many wanted to go near; she was hot and he didn't give a shit about the spider parts, so more room for him to enjoy. He swore that she winked at him at some point.
...But, his birthday was coming to an end as the night drew on, and the high of having an actually enjoyable day was dying down. He sighed as he looked over at the window.
"Back to business as usual…" He remarked with a sigh, his thoughts already lingering back to the rope…
Knock Knock Knock!
"...Who is it?"
"Asui. Can I come in?"
"...Sure."
The door opened up and the froggy heroine in training slowly entered the room. Mineta glanced at her for a brief moment before turning over in bed away from her. "You wanna talk, gero?" She asked.
"About?"
"...You can be a better person if you just try to you know. And some of us are willing to help you out; anything to avoid a repeat of today."
"How willing?"
"...Turn over."
Confused, but ultimately nodding, he did as she said and turned to face her...and was met with a kiss on the lips. It was incredibly brief, but sent the message across; she had a light blush on her cheeks while Mineta's own face was slowly turning more red than a tomato.
"Some of us care more than others. You good for the night?"
"...Yea…"
"See you in the morning than."
As Asui hopped out of the room, Mineta pondered back on what the hell had happened just now. He eventually managed a weak chuckle.
"Well...how about that?"