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It was cold, there was no questioning that. Where a light dusting of snow had once been was currently being overtaken by an ever-growing blanket of the stuff. And it wasn’t a thin throw type of blanket either, No, this was already a full-on quilt and only seemed to be growing with each passing minute.
In years past, Shinsou wouldn’t have really complained about the idea of a possible snow day. It’d been a good excuse to curl up with his cats, Suimin and Yume, and try to catch up on the ever-elusive pleasure that was sleep. But now, with Aizawa’s help, he’d finally taken the first step to achieving his dreams by making it into the hero’s course. Any down time now felt like wasted time. And, with chronic insomnia by his side, Shinsou found himself having a lot of down time.
Normally, this time would’ve just been used for studying or training. But, as far as studying went, Suimin had fallen asleep atop Shinsou’s book bag while Yume was curled up on his laptop. Gazing at their peaceful states, he just couldn’t bring himself to wake or move them. It was times like this he found himself cursing their cuteness and the soft spot they nuzzled and kneaded into his heart for them. Along with this, Aizawa was on patrol for the night and it wasn’t like anybody else would be awake at such an ungodly hour to spar with. So a lat night training session was out of the question.
Letting out a frustrated groan and dragging his hand down his face, Shinsou sat up and swung his feet over the side of the bed. Laying there and there and thinking about all the things he should’ve been doing but couldn’t do in that moment was just aggravating him. Insomnia was rough enough as it was, he didn’t need need to spend the night stewing in his annoyance as well. And the view from his room was pretty and all but Shinsou was quickly growing tired of just watching it through his dorm window as he lay in bed. So, donning a pair of fluffy socks and shoes and grabbing a light blanket to drape over his shoulders, he quietly made his way out of his dorm room.
It was quiet as Shinsou padded through the halls of 1-A’s dormitory. Most might have called it erie to see such a normally lively area so empty. But he’d spent more nights like this than not at this point and had found that he was slightly more fond of the quiet hours of night than those in which everybody was awake and rushing about their business. If nothing else, it was the only time he got to venture to his favorite place this time of year. And it meant there wasn’t anyone trying to distract him from his goals with their attempts at friendship.
Honestly, Shinsou didn’t see why most everyone seemed to be so bent on acting all buddy-buddy and trying to become friends with him in the first place. Besides the fact of it being so out of the norm from the treatment he’d grown up with, it seemed like a huge waste of time and energy. They were all supposed to be training and studying to be future heroes, not goofing off and going out for ice cream socials. Friends were a waste of time and he was all too aware that he still had a lot of catching up to do. He was here to become a hero, not make friends.
Mulling over these insecurities and stresses, it wasn’t long before Shinsou had become lost in his own thoughts and oblivious to the world around him. So, when Kaminari came careening around the corner at full speed, it wasn’t all that surprising that the two of them had suddenly found themselves on the ground.
“Shit!” the energetic blonde exclaimed, bolting to his feet and reaching out before Shinsou even had a chance to fully realize who he’d run into. “Sorry man! I didn’t think anyone else was up!”
Sitting up and glancing at the now outstretched hand, Shinsou looked up with a blank expression. Kaminari stared back with an embarrassed and yet somehow still enthusiastic grin, his balance looking to be swaying ever so slightly. Lowering his gaze, Shinsou had been somewhat taken aback to notice that Kaminari was, not only fully dressed in his day clothes but also sporting a pair of, admittedly adorable, Pikachu themed roller blades.
Honestly, it was kind of impressive how quickly Kaminari had managed to stand up but Shinsou had little faith in Kaminari’s ability to stay upright while helping him up. A slight sigh and eye roll escaping, he chose to avoid the well-intentioned but rickety offer of help and stood up on his own. Picking up his blanket, he brushed himself off as Kaminari quickly moved past the rejection to help and began rolling about the hallway as he talked.
“Honestly, it’s cool to see that I’m not the only one who’s up this late! I figured everyone else would be asleep by now and thought, why not pull out my old roller blades and have-!”
As much as a late night training session would make the sleepless night feel like it wasn’t a total waste, Kaminari was the last person Shinsou wanted to deal with. He’d been one of the most obnoxious and persistent in his efforts of friendship, barely pulling past Midoriya and Kirishima in that respect. So, tuning the excited chatter out, Shinsou turned around and began to head back to his room. But it wasn’t too long before Kaminari had caught up and was rolling beside him while continuing the one-sided conversation.
“Oh, heading to bed so soon?” Kaminari asked as Shinsou opened the door to his dorm. “You sure you don’t want to hang out? I think I have another pair of skates in my room! What size-!?”
Suddenly finding the door shut in his face, Kaminari stood awkwardly as he tried to process where exactly to go if he had any chance at saving this attempted friendship. “W-well, have a good night!” he said, beginning to back away from the door. “See you tomorr- er… see you later!” Nodding in self-affirmation, Kaminari skated away and did a small fist pump as he muttered, “Totally saved it!” under his breath with a grin.
On the other side of the door, Shinsou sighed and rubbed his eyes. So much for being the only one awake. Looking towards his bed, he found that Suimin and Yume we now both sitting atop it as they stared at him expectantly. Shaking his head, he walked over and sat down. Before long, the room was filled purrs as the three laid, cuddled together in the bed with Shinsou petting his two loveable yet needy fur babies.
Does this guy ever shut up?
This was the only thing Shinsou could think as Kaminari continued to chat away between bites of, what Shinsou had deemed to be, some sort of overly sugary cereal. It had been almost a week since the rollerblading incident and Kaminari had continued to plague Shinsou’s no longer quiet, insomnia induced outings. Whether it be talking Shinsou’s ears off or constantly asking Shinsou to partake in the dumbest sounding ideas imaginable; Kaminari was relentless in his attempts to befriend his classmate and fellow late-nighter.
The thought of using his quirk to make Kaminari shut up for the night and go to bed had crossed Shinsou’s mind, but he refused to sink to that level. He was not going to abuse his quirk and use it like everyone had whispered and assumed he had as a kid. If anything, he’d been doing his best to look at the situation as a test of his resolve. A hero needed to be able to keep going even in the toughest of situations. Though not life threatening, this was one of the most mentally draining and annoying situations he’d ever dealt with, so he was trying his hardest to just ignore and roll with it.
“So, I told Bakugo that, even if he had made me look like a burnt chicken nugget, I still love myself!” Kaminari said before downing the last of the milk in his cereal bowl. “Welp, looks like this bitch empty, YEET!”
Before Shinsou could even try to stop the impending tragedy at hand, Kaminari had stood up and thrown the poor bowl across the room. And, it was as said bowl landed and shattered a few feet away from the sink that Shinsou felt his already waning patience beginning to disappear completely.
“Whoops… thought that one was plastic…” Kaminari winced as Shinsou took a couple of deep breaths in a last ditch effort to keep his cool. “Oh well, it really do be like dat sometimes.”
Was it the nonchalant grin that did it? Maybe it was the carefree shrug? Or possibly the millionth meme that Kaminari had quoted that week. It could’ve been one of a million other things that finally broke that last string of patience. But, as his self-control crumbled, Shinsou suddenly found himself standing and having slammed his hands against the table top.
“What the hell is wrong with you!?” Shinsou snapped, his right eye twitching in aggravation. “Do you ever talk about anything that isn’t related to stale memes that even Recovery Girl would have ruined by now!? And that stupid shit you’re always doing! Does it ever crossed your mind that, hey, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it!? Or is that too much to expect from someone as oblivious as you!? And, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL MIGHT, would you just go to sleep leave me alone for a single night!?”
An awkward silence hung between the two as Shinsou trembled, his chest heaving as he glared at the boy in front of him. Truthfully, he’d immediately felt bad as soon as the words had begun tumbling out of his mouth. It was the first time in his life he’d experienced word vomit to such a degree, and he was now feeling worse than when he’d just been ignoring the dumb stunts and never-ending ramblings. He knew that Kaminari hadn’t meant anything by this behavior. Kaminari had been being genuinely friendly and welcoming towards him despite Shinsou’s open annoyance towards him. And Shinsou hadn’t been able to even try to extend the friendliness nor to stop himself from railing into Kaminari. He’d misdirected all of his stress and frustration to all pour out either. Some hero he was turning out to be.
Sighing, Shinso straightened his posture and glanced away as he scratched the back of his neck. “Geez… look, I-”
“Damn Daniel…” Kaminari pouted, crossing his arms and dramatically sighing as he slumped down in his seat. “Good to know we have yet another Bakugo living here.”
Eyes narrowing, Shinsou crossed his arms and contemplated on how to respond to such a comment. True, Kaminari was one of the members of Class 1-A that had been dubbed the Baku-squad, but the tone attached made it clear that this was by no means a compliment. Beside all of that, Shinsou didn’t really like the idea of being compared to someone who’d wanted to choose the name King Explosion Murder for theirself.
“Wha-what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, you know,” Kaminari said with a shrug as his posture seemed to continue worsening into what should have been inhuman levels of slouching. “Just that you have a stick up your ass and no sense of humor.”
A scoff escaped Shinsou. “Just because my vocabulary isn’t made up entirely of dead memes-!”
“Classics,” Kaminari countered with a pointed look as he straightened his posture and smirked.
“ Stale , dead memes,” Shinsou drawled, sitting down and looking at Kaminari with his own small smirk. “Doesn’t mean I don’t have a sense of humor.”
“But you admit to having a stick up your ass?” Kaminari asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“Striving to succeed in life is not the same as having a stick up your ass.”
“But, always refusing to do stupid shit ,” Kaminari said, giving the best worst impression he could muster of the boy across from him. “Or have any fun is.”
“I don’t sound like that ,” Shinsou cringed. “And I do too have fun. It’s just not the obnoxious, stupid stuff that you seem to think is fun.”
“Prove it.”
This was not what Kaminari had had in mind. Comics or video games? Yea, he could get behind that. Surfing the internet for shitty memes? Abso-freakin-lutely! He even could have understood going to pet or play with the cats he’d always heard meowing from within Shinsou’s dorm. But... this?
“This is what you consider fun? Sorry not sorry, but his seems borrrring ,” Kaminari said, dramatically yawning out the last word.
“Sorry,” Shinsou said. “I couldn’t hear you over this.”
Glancing over, Kaminari smirked at the sight of of Shinsou flipping him off as he opened the door in front of them. “Buy me dinner first and then maybe we’ll talk.”
Rolling his eyes, Shinsou led the way as Kaminari followed. Stepping out, Kaminari felt his breath catch at the sight. The sky was littered with innumerable sparkling lights, all of reflecting off the snow to create a field of shimmering diamonds on the dorm rooftop. Waving his hand, Shinsou smirked and beckoned Kaminari to follow. Slowly, Kaminari made his way to the fairy-light littered fence at the edge of the room and found himself even more awestruck. The entirety of UA not only had its own sea of starlit, diamond studded snow but there were also countless waves of bright colors due to all of the Christmas lights that had been put up all over campus. It was the most beautiful thing Kaminari had ever seen.
Glancing at Kaminari, Shinsou couldn’t help but find that the normally stunning view suddenly seemed to pale in comparison to Kaminari. Between the awestruck look on the blond’s face, the light snow landing in his hair, and the fairy-lights bathing the two of them in a dreamy sheen; Shinsou suddenly found himself grateful that the cold air was already causing his face to appear rather flushed. Frowning, he shook the thoughts from his head and forced a smirk.
“Speechless?” he asked. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
Tearing his own gaze away from the sight before him, Kaminari looked over at Shinsou and found himself also being rather grateful for the cold induced blush that was already adorning his face. The fairy-lights were shining brighter in Shinsou’s lavender eyes than any of the stars or snow gems that surrounded them were. If that wasn’t enough, this whole location and view felt rather romantic. He knew there was now way Shinsou could’ve meant bringing him up there in that way but… it was a nice thought all the same.
“Wh-when did you- ...HOW did you find this?” Kaminari sputtered, trying to expel the butterflies that had suddenly begun occupying his tummy,
“I dunno,” Shinsou shrugged, glancing away and scratching the back of his neck. “I have trouble sleeping so I just kinda started exploring. This made for a good late night training area when I’m alone. It’s quiet and I don’t have to worry about accidentally breaking stuff or waking anyone up like inside. But then… winter hit.”
Nodding, Kaminari let out a thoughtful hum as he looked around the roof. “So you just come up here and look at this all night? Alone?”
“Not lately,” Shinsou sighed. “Why you always up, anyway?”
“Doctor said something about my quirk having electricity constantly running through my body making it hard to calm down enough to sleep,” Kaminari said before waving his hands around as if to push the idea away. “But, really, there’s just so much fun stuff to do in the dorm when Aizawa sensei’s not around to stop me and so little time that that’s even a possibility!”
Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Shinsou nodded. The former hypothesis sounded a lot more logical than the latter but if that was how Kaminari wanted to rationalize it for himself, Shinsou wouldn’t argue it. But, it also made a lot more sense why Kaminari had been so persistent lately. Shinsou knew how lonely those late night hours could get and Kaminari seemed to be a social being at heart. He felt even worse for blowing up at his classmate now.
“Do you uh- want to go inside and maybe watch a movie or something?” Shinsou asked.
Eyes widening, a massive grin spread across Kaminari’s face. “Hell yea, man! Does this mean we’re friends now!?”
Shinsou cringed, still uncomfortable with the idea of wasting time of being friends when he still had so much to prove to the world. But, at the same time, he genuinely felt for Kaminari’s struggles with sleep and, maybe it was just the atmosphere around them but, he felt a warm sort of fuzziness in chest. It was similar yet still distinctly different than the warmth he felt whenever Suimin and Yume were with him. It was more akin to the happiness Aizawa had brought to his life yet still very different. He couldn’t quite explain it but he knew he light the feeling, whatever it way.
“Y-yea,” Shinsou said with a smile. “Sure… friends.”