Work Text:
Kaminari is the first to notice Shinsou’s weird sleeping habits.
Well, technically it was Tokoyami. As an insomniac himself, he sees Shinsou often at early hours in the morning, phone suspended over his head while he wills his brain to sleep with hero documentaries or nature shows. Tokoyami himself haunts the balcony when he can’t fall asleep, while Shinsou stays in the common room. They pass each other twice, once when leaving their rooms originally, and again when they head towards their rooms, long before anyone else (even Bakugou) is awake. Other than that, they don’t interact. The insomniac’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and all.
Kaminari is different, although that could be seen a mile away. Him and Tokoyami are as similar as a bird and a lightning rod.
Kaminari is no insomniac, crashing most nights at midnight and staying out like a light until Sero has to drag him out in the mornings. Once he’s awake, though, he’s up for good. The second his eyes open, the restlessness takes over and he has to get up and do something.
One fateful day, a month after Shinsou replaced Mineta in class 1-A, Kaminari finds himself conscious after a whopping 3 hours of sleep.
“Figures,” he mutters to himself, rolling off his bed. He never sleeps well the night before an exam, although he usually does better than three hours.
Pulling on his slippers, he stretches his back and decides to study in the kitchen. Bakugou made curry last night, and if he only takes a little bit of it then he probably won’t even notice.
Instead of finding the empty study haven he was looking for, however, he stumbles upon Shinsou, who seems to be brewing... coffee?
“It’s decaf,” he explains with the long-weary tone of someone who knows what they’re doing is wrong, but doesn’t want to defend themselves anyway. “Want some?”
“Nah, coffee makes my head pound, decaf and all,” Kaminari yawns, still trying to take in the whole scene. There’s Shinsou, brewing his coffee. Over there is the couch, which already has a blanket and pillow on it and a laptop paused on Netflix. And behind Shinsou, already out on the table, is Bakugou’s leftover curry. “Aw man, I wanted some of that.”
“Take. I won’t tell if you don’t,” Shinsou says with a shrug, and Kaminari needs no other invitation. He takes a plate and sits across from Shinsou, who adds neither cream nor sugar to his coffee (which Kaminari is starting to suspect might not be decaf after all).
“So what brings you ‘round these parts?” Shinsou asks, reminiscent of a wild west gunslinger. Kaminari is out of it enough that somehow it fits right into the scene. There’s Shinsou, making himself comfortable in the common room at 3 in the morning with a cup of coffee. Why wouldn’t he talk like an American western movie?
“Woke up. Thought I might as well help myself to Bakugou’s food,” Kaminari responds, taking another serving. It’s unfair how good at everything Blasty is. “What about you?”
“‘Bout the same,” Shinsou says, even with all of his stuff scattered around the area like it’s his own house. “I can’t sleep, so I come here. Explodokills makes a mean curry, too.”
Can’t sleep, not couldn’t sleep. This must happen often.
“Heh, that he does,” he says, putting his plate in the sink and leaving it to soak. “Are you staying here all night?”
“More or less. It’s easier than coming back and forth when I can’t sleep.”
Kaminari makes an executive decision then. He rushes off with a, “be right back,” retrieved his camping futon that he keeps under his bed, and drags it back to the common room. Shinsou watches him set it up beside the couch with a single raised eyebrow, but doesn’t say a word.
“There! Now you won’t be lonely, pretty boy,” he says, panting a little from all the running.
Now both of Shinsou’s eyebrows are raised.
“I’m probably not going to sleep for a while,” he says, crossing his arms.
"Neither am I! Come on, it'll be like a sleepover."
Shinsou isn't about to kick Kaminari out, especially since it's been his common room longer than his. Plus, he can't deny that the electric blond brings a certain light to the darkened room.
Kaminari settles onto his futon, leopard print bedspread wrinkling under him as he tries his math homework for the third time under the light of his phone. Shinsou climbs back onto his couch, about to resume his documentary, but sighs out loud.
"Do you need help with that question?" he asks stupidly, because of course Kaminari needs help. Bakugou won't be up for hours, and he has a rule about helping people the day that the assignment is due: he doesn't. The way Kaminari is glaring at the paper, you'd think it personally insulted him.
"Uh, yeah, if you can," Kaminari says, holding up the workbook. "Just 5. Then I can do the rest myself."
Shinsou uses his own flashlight to read the problem, following Kaminari's chaotic work in the margins. "Oh, I see it now. You have to divide first, then carry the number, then factor it. You tried to factor first."
"Ohhhhhhhh alright, I can work with that. Thanks man."
"No problem." And their silence resumes.
Then Shinsou's computer dies, like it usually does around 4. He reaches for the spare charger he keeps in the couch cushions, but Kaminari stops him before he can plug it in.
"I can charge it faster," he offers.
Shinsou squints at him. "I feel like I know what you're going to do, but how safe is it? Will it short out my computer?"
"Almost definitely not!"
After a short game of pros and cons, Shinsou relinquishes his precious laptop to Kaminari, who sticks the back end of the charger into his mouth and closes his eyes.
"Just gimme like a minute," he says, muffled around the charger.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?"
That brings a snort out of Kaminari, causing him to almost drop the computer. But he doesn't, and that's the important part.
"Here you go, nice and charged," he says a minute later, passing it back up. Shinsou powers it back up, satisfied at the result.
"Thanks," he says, settling back down. "Do you charge everybody's stuff?"
"Only my friends and Yaomomo because she's nice," Kaminari says off-handedly, shutting his book. "I'm all drained now, so I'm gonna go to sleep. See ya in the morning."
His even breathing a minute later proves he's out, but Shinsou stays awake for a little while longer, clicking listlessly between tabs. That's my first friend in 1-A? Surprising, but not too shabby of me.
Kaminari wakes up the next morning, still on the futon but now surrounded by most of his classmates. A single glance up to the couch tells him that Shinsou made his escape long ago. Lucky him.
"Kaminari, bro," Kirishima starts, not even knowing what to say.
"Why the hell are you sleeping on the floor?" Bakugou helpfully supplies, nudging his futon with his toe.
"Not to mention class is beginning in five minutes," Iida harrumphs, pacing back and forth. "Your actions make no sense."
Shinsou sends him a lazy smile over his breakfast bar, perched on the kitchen counter. "Yeah, Kaminari, why did you sleep on the floor?" On one hand, he feels slightly guilty putting Kaminari through all of this, since it was partially his fault in the first place. On the other hand, the boy's bedhead is spectacular.
"I just wanted a change of atmosphere," Kaminari says, rolling up his futon. Shinsou's insomnia feels too personal to talk about in front of their whole class - even if he is being kind of an asshole right now. "You can stop staring now. I'll be in class in a minute."
The crowd disperses, Iida herding them to homeroom. Only Kaminari and Shinsou remain.
"You could've woken me up," Kaminari grumbles. "Would've saved me some trouble."
"You didn't say to," Shinsou replies. "But alright. If you ever decide to camp out in the common room again, I'll wake you at seven." He checks his phone with an exaggerated motion. "I better get to class. Don't want to be late."
"Hardy har, asshole," Kaminari huffs. "See you there."
Kaminari shows up to homeroom ten minutes late, a comb still in his hair. Aizawa doesn't even look surprised.
"Did you oversleep, Kaminari?" he asks, and damn it, he's probably in on the joke. Kaminari can almost see the hint of a smirk on his face.
"Something like that, sensei," he says with a sigh, and sends Shinsou an extra mean glare his way. Shinsou only snaps a picture of Kaminari's bedraggled hair and winks.
Kaminari's half-assed excuse about him sleeping on the floor may have worked on the majority of his class, but as his friends surround him during lunch, he finds that the truth is begging to be revealed.
"Give us the truth, bitch," Ashido chants, stealing his apple. "Why were you sleeping in the common room?"
Kaminari is currently feeling a little less sympathetic towards Shinsou, who's smirking at him from Tokoyami's table, and decides screw it, he might as well tell them what happened in a hushed whisper. They're trustworthy enough, even Blasty knows how to keep a secret.
"So he sleeps there every night? How dismal," Jirou says with a shake of her head. "I couldn't imagine it."
"If you're so wrecked after one night, imagine how he feels," Sero adds, nudging Kaminari with his shoulder and stealing a piece of broccoli. At this rate, Kaminari's just going to have rice left to eat.
"That's what I was thinking! And he's probably super lonely all of those nights by himself. That's why I stayed until morning," Kaminari affirms. "He didn't have to not wake me up, though. That was very uncalled for."
"You would do the same for any of us," Kirishima reminds him, and he has no choice but to agree. Passing up that opportunity to embarrass his friends in front of the whole class? Wouldn't miss it for the world.
"I know! We should all sleep in the common room tonight," Ashido says excitedly, snapping Bakugou into the conversation for the first time.
"Why the hell would you do that?" he asks, wrinkling his nose. The thought of getting less than ten hours of sleep must disgust him. "You saw what happened to Sparky. You all want to be late for homeroom?"
"It's an act of solidarity. We're showing him that he's not alone," Jirou says, warming to the idea. "I'm in. I have a sleeping bag in my closet that I never use."
"If we set an alarm for ourselves, then we should be totally solid. I'm down," Sero adds.
"Count me in. Bakusquad sleepover? Hell yeah," Kirishima bumped Sero's fist.
That leaves just Kaminari - they know trying to convince Bakugou would be a waste of breath - and they already know his answer. "Why are you looking at me? I'm the one who did it in the first place. Of course I'm in."
"Tonight. Midnight. We ride," Ashido whispers, and they all nod seriously. Shinsou doesn't know what's coming.
"I see you liked waking up late," Shinsou says, watching Kaminari drag his futon back. "Already back for more?"
"Not just me," Kaminari pants with a smile. "I brought the whole gang with me."
"The whole gang" consists of Jirou with her sleeping bag, Ashido and Kirishima with futons, and Sero with an entire hammock.
"What?" he asks, frowning at their stares. "I like to sleep in comfort."
"What," Shinsou says with a pained expression, "are you guys doing here?"
"We're keeping you company!" Ashido exclaims, a little too loud for midnight. "That way you won't have to be stuck in the common room alone."
"I'm not stuck, I just-"
"No need to protest, Purple," Kaminari shushes him. "We're just here to hang with you. We'll be quiet, we promise."
Shinsou looks from him to Ashido to Sero, who's still trying to untangle his hammock. With a huff and what could be the beginnings of a smile, he returns to his coffee. "Do whatever you guys want," he says. "You can all be exhausted tomorrow."
And exhausted they are. Even before Sero's seven AM alarm goes off, Shinsou is standing over Kaminari's futon, gently kicking him awake.
"You wanted this, remember?" he says, right next to the grouchy boy's ear. "You're welcome."
"I will restart your heart with a single zap," Kaminari says under his breath, not a morning person, but he gets up anyway.
The rest soon follow, with Sero flailing his hand around to find his phone, which blasts waterfall sounds on repeat. It's only seven in the morning, but they're already done with the day.
"You might've been right, bro," Kirishima says to Bakugou over breakfast, yawning into his oatmeal. "I can't feel my head."
"Are my eyes crossed or am I going blind?" Ashido asks, turning to Jirou, who affirms that her eyes are indeed crossed.
"You get what you deserve," Bakugou says, jollier than usual. He eats his fish with gusto, stopping every so often to snort at their exhausted faces. "You guys look like shit."
"My thoughts exactly," Shinsou says, sliding into the seat next to Kaminari. "I hope you learned something."
"Yeah, that your blood must run on caffeine or something," Sero complains. "How the hell are you so awake all the time?"
"See these guys?" Shinsou points to his eye bags, darker purple than his hair. "I've had them since I was in primary school. You get used to it."
"I don't wanna get used to it," Ashido mopes. "Am tired."
"Please, by all means, sleep in your own beds tonight at a reasonable hour," Shinsou says, and there's a hint of genuineness in his voice. "I'll be fine sleeping on my own, I swear."
"I'll sleep in my bed when you do," Kaminari says stubbornly. "It's do or die, baby."
"Enjoy dying then," Shinsou snorts, and Bakugou looks on approvingly. It's strange how the two boys with opposite sleep schedules somehow agree that they're the ones being idiots.
Another night passes of the Bakusquad occupying the common room, and they have their whole system down. Bakugou stays with them until nine, leaving despite their pleas for him to bring a mattress and stay with them. Sero and Jirou play video games, Kirishima rummages for snacks, and Ashido hangs out in Sero's hammock until he inevitably kicks her out.
Kaminari stays by Shinsou's side, interrupting his documentaries with unnecessary commentary and puns.
"Are you enjoying yourself enough?" Shinsou deadpans, pulling on his flannel pants. There's a cat print on them, a recurring theme with Shinsou's pajamas, Kaminari is now noticing. Dude has guts.
"Eh, could be better," Kaminari says, waving a hand in the direction of the astronomy lecture. "For one thing, you could watch something less boring."
"They help me fall asleep. God knows I need it."
"Do they really though? I don't think your insomnia is something that can be cured even with the most boring of narrator voices. Like god, did they just wake this lady up from a thousand year nap?"
"A thousand year nap sounds nice," Shinsou muses, then reaches out and messes up Kaminari's hair for no reason other than it makes him scowl. "Don't worry so much, Sparky. Just focus on the fact that you're getting as little sleep as I am willingly."
"You can try, but you can't send me away, Shinsou," Kaminari says, patting his hair back down.
"Yeah, I know that now."
Kaminari isn't the only one he can't send away. Despite how tired they are, the Bakusquad minus Bakugou refuses to give up their new habit. And soon, other people start to notice.
"Do you all sleep in the common room every night?" Hagakure asks one day in the lunchroom. By now, Shinsou is already part of the Bakusquad, Bakugou approved, and he sits as one of them. Kaminari can't help but preen. Yes, you're welcome.
"Yeah, it's Shinsou solidarity," Jirou says, not skipping a beat. "You should join, it's fun."
She should've known that by telling Hagakure she was essentially telling the whole class, but by the time night comes around, almost the entirety of 1-A is gathered in the common room, futons and mattresses and sleeping bags tucked under arms.
"We might need a bigger common room," Shinsou says softly, looking around at all the people who gathered to keep him company in his restlessness. Something Kaminari once said rings out in his mind: Once you're in 1-A, they're all your family. Even Blasty!
Somehow, they all manage to fit in the cramped space, and it turns into an entire class sleepover. Nobody even thinks about bed before two, and Shinsou returns to his documentaries comfortably, only pausing every so often to join a conversation with Shouji and Satou, or give Uraraka his opinion on dogs or cats, or nudge Kaminari off the couch where he keeps trying to climb up.
"There's no space down there!" he complains, holding onto a cushion with white knuckles. "Just let me sit for a little while."
He falls asleep five minutes into the movie, of course, because that's so Kaminari of him, worming his way into Shinsou's space and then making it impossible to kick him out. Shinsou only sighs, nudges him to the side, and tries to make himself comfortable.
At some point later, Tokoyami comes in from the balcony, perching himself on the edge of one of the kitchen chairs.
"Quite a party you've amassed, Shinsou," he says, looking over the sea of asleep or half asleep teenagers.
"Eh, I'm not the one who amassed them," Shinsou retorts, jabbing a thumb at Kaminari, who's head was wedged between the couch cushions. "It was all him."
"Still a party on your behalf, right?" Shinsou has no answer for this.
The entire class is sluggish the next day, minus Bakugou, who takes extra joy in kicking all of their asses in training. Even Iida is drained from spending the whole night trying to get people to go to bed.
"What, Deku, did you suddenly lose your quirk?" he cackles in sparring, landing a series of consecutive blasts while Midoriya yawns.
"Shut up, Kacchan," he mutters, which stops him in shock, but only for a second.
"Even Midoriya is overtired," Yaoyorozu observes quietly, making herself a handkerchief to yawn in herself. "It would be unwise to stay up so late again."
"But we're supporting Shinsou," Hagakure argues, (presumably) crossing her arms. "We don't have to go to sleep late, we'll just sleep in the common room. No biggie."
And thus begins the biggest series of sleepovers that class 1-A ever had. When someone complains about their sleeping bag not being comfortable, an entire set of futons is delivered to UA, courtesy of Endeavor's credit card. Satou bakes them whatever recipe he's trying out, and even though Bakugou still doesn't join them, they always find a big container of leftovers from him in the fridge.
"It's bribery," he explains bluntly. "So the idiots will stop trying to drag me to your dumb parties." Kirishima and Kaminari both send him a thumbs up and a pat on the back.
Shinsou's insomnia stays constant, not any worse but also not any better. He drinks Yaoyorozu's tea, he listens to Todoroki's weird whale music, and it doesn't do much more than make him have to pee and also really wonder what's going on in Todoroki's head. But when the whole class is clumped together in the common room, futons and heavy breathing overlapping, it's like being in a family. Shinsou stops bugging Kaminari about starting the whole movement, and Kaminari keeps his spot next to him on the couch.
But with a homeroom teacher as observant as Aizawa, it is only a matter of time before he interferes.
”It has come to my attention that the majority of you are now sleeping in the common room,” he drawls one day, a week after they all started sleeping there. “If your dorms are less comfortable than a futon on the ground, we might have a problem.”
The class looks towards him blearily, searching for a spokesperson to defend their actions. Asui steps up.
”It’s not about the dorms,” she says. “It’s about standing with Shinsou.”
Aizawa raises his eyebrows. “Do tell.”
”Shinsou sleeps in the common room, so now we all do,” Ojiro says with a shrug. He was originally against the whole thing, being rather tense around the mind controller, but joined at Hagakure’s insistence.
”And who originally decided all of this?” All eyes in the room travel to Kaminari, who ducks his head a second too late. “Why am I not surprised.”
Aizawa graciously drops the topic for the rest of homeroom, sparing Shinsou any more attention. He already regrets getting out of bed in the morning.
When the class is dismissed, Aizawa keeps Kaminari and Shinsou back, unsurprisingly.
”Kaminari, next time you start a movement, please make sure it doesn’t interfere with the well-being of my students,” he sighs, and Kaminari nods eagerly. “You’re dismissed.”
That leaves just Shinsou, sitting awkwardly on the edge of someone’s desk.
“I didn’t put them up to this—“ he starts in a rush, but Aizawa cuts him off.
”I know you didn’t. You’re not the type of person to burden the whole class with this. It reeks of Kaminari.”
”Sir?”
”You’re the selfless type, right?” Aizawa continues. “That’s why you sleep in the common room. So you don’t wake everyone up with your insomnia.”
Shinsou doesn’t know how to respond to being seen through so easily. He continues staring at Aizawa, waiting for his punishment or scolding or something.
Instead, Aizawa sighs again, leaning back in his chair. “Have you sought medical help for your insomnia?” he asks.
“Um, no sir,” Shinsou says. “It runs in my family, I figured it was just something that happened to some people. Should I go to Recovery Girl...?”
”You don’t need a healer, you need medication.” Aizawa reaches into his bag, pulling out a pill bottle. Ambien. “There isn’t any cure-all to insomnia, but there are certainly things you can do besides having to deal with it.”
He puts the bottle back in his bag with a rattle. “Call your mother, tell her to schedule you a doctor’s appointment for this Sunday. And please, stop sleeping on the couch.”
”Yes sir,” Shinsou says, shaken. “Thank you.”
”Don’t mention it,” Aizawa says simply. “You’re dismissed.”
Shinsou’s doctor prescribes a beginner’s dose of Sonata with instructions to come back if it doesn’t have any effect. Shinsou’s mom smiles at him the whole way back to school.
”I’m glad you’re taking steps to help yourself,” she says when asked. “Put that pride away.”
It takes about a week, long nights filled with waiting, but Shinsou finds himself able to sleep hours earlier. He still can’t shut his eyes before one, but it’s heaps better than three or four. He stays out of the common room, using the mini fridge UA provides for him in his room.
Of course, there are still long nights. And on one of those nights, he gets a visitor.
”Come in,” he whispers to the quiet knock, since it is three am after all. The person must not hear him, since the doorknob doesn’t move. With a drawn out sigh, he gets up to open the door.
Standing in his doorway, a futon tucked under his arm, is Kaminari. Judging from his droopy eyes, he hasn’t been up long.
“Come in,” Shinsou repeats after staring for a full minute. Kaminari trails in after him, shuffling his feet.
”Why are you—“
”Can I sleep here?” Kaminari blurts out, fingers curling in on each other. Shinsou pauses, enough for Kaminari to continue in a rush. “I share a room with my two older brother at home—“
”A youngest child. Why am I not surprised?”
”—and I think it’s hard for me to sleep alone in my room in the quiet so that’s why I keep waking up—“
”As good of an excuse as any.”
”—and I saw your light on from under the door, otherwise I wouldn’t come by—“
”Oddly polite of you.”
”—so can I please sleep on your floor?” Kaminari is out of breath from his run on sentence, and he squeezes his futon tighter against his side. “I’ll be quiet, I swear.”
”Yeah, why not?” Shinsou says, kicking some half-unpacked boxes to the side to make room for him. “I don’t believe that you’ll be quiet, but I’ve slept through worse.”
”Todoroki’s whale sounds?”
”Todoroki’s whale sounds.”
As Kaminari spreads out his futon, Shinsou says, “Just to be clear, this invitation is just for you. Please don’t bring the entire class to my room.”
Kaminari snorts. “You’re such an ass.”
”I could always mind control you to go to sleep now. You talk enough for me to do it.”
”Yeah, but you wouldn’t. You’re too good for that.”
As Kaminari drifts to sleep - Shinsou having nothing to do with it - he mumbles, “Go to sleep, Purple.”
”When the sun rises,” Shinsou responds, and Kaminari is out before he can respond. As his snores fill the room - sounding oddly like a zap of electricity - Shinsou finds himself growing tired as well, despite his words.
Maybe he does benefit from having someone there after all.