Archive of Our Own

It wasn’t unusual for the dorm to awaken to the boom of an explosion or seven. The first time it’d happened, everyone had rushed outside, thinking there was a villain attack. Midoriya had jumped from his balcony in nothing but a pair of boxers, Iida had barely found the doors without his glasses, and Kaminari had caused a blackout from the shock. 

But no, it was just Bakugou. 

What was unusual about today, however, what the shrill scream that accompanied the sound. 

At first thought, Kaminari thought it was Midoriya. He and Bakugou fought plenty enough, and he had quite the set of lungs on him, but no, this shriek wasn’t his. It was too girlish. 

After hauling themself out of bed, Kaminari pulled on a shirt and deliberately oversized hoodie. It was too early to bind, and plus, they still ached from the attack yesterday.

It seemed they weren’t the only one who’d been curious. The sound hadn’t come from Bakugou’s room, but the ground floor. Had an intruder run into the worst person in terms of retribution (besides Aizawa)? Was Bakugou having a go at one of the girls? 

Whatever it was, Kaminari was sure he’d find out soon. 

There were already a few people congregated in the common area - Kaminari could see Mina’s pink curls and Kirishima’s red hair huddled up on one of the sofas, and Tsu was talking animatedly to Todoroki, if the half-tone hair was any indication.

It wasn’t until Kaminari actually joined everyone else that they saw something was very, very wrong. Wrong enough to take their mind off the Bakugou situation.

“Kami! Dude, how’d you escape?”

Who they’d assumed was Yaomomo— given the messy half-bun of long black hair— turned to them, and they almost dropped their cereal. 

“Sero? Bro, what happened?” Because that was Sero’s grin, his lanky limbs, and rounded elbows, just… with long hair and boobs.

“It was the villains yesterday!” Tsu came up beside Kaminari, but once again, it wasn’t Tsu. 

Because Tsu didn’t have freckles or curls, and Tsu didn’t launch into scarily in-depth analyses every second minute.

“Remember how there were three of them? There was the one with the phase quirk, the one with the rhinoceros quirk, and the one we couldn’t work out? It seems their quirk’s effects were delayed, and swapped all our genders, giving us conventional characteristics of the opposite gender, partially regardless of our pre-existing characteristics. Of course, it’s kept base physical characteristics like eye colour, hair colour, body type, but even though Mina never had typically girlish hair in the first place, it’s been almost styled in a masculine way now. The same for Sero, he-”

And that was when Kaminari stopped listening. A simple ‘we all got hit by a genderswap quirk’ would’ve been plenty, but it was Midoriya answering, so he just had to be unnecessarily verbose. 

“Kirishima?” Kaminari wove through the furniture, settling on the couch beside him. “Hey Mina. Nice horns.” 

“Thanks, they’re pretty sick, right?” She reached up, brushing the appendages. They were far bigger than usual, curling right over her head and hooking back up again. Her hair was shorter than usual, but it suited her.

“How you doing, man?” Kaminari bumped his knee against Kirishima’s lightly, genuinely concerned.

Kirishima exhaled, shakily, nodding. “Yeah, it’s…” he waved a hand at his general chest area, “not great to have them back ya know? Just gotta get used to them again, I guess. This can’t be permanent.” 

Mina gave Kirishima a squeeze, her arm already around his shoulders. Kaminari could tell she knew exactly what was running through Kirishima’s head—after all, she’d known him since childhood.

“I guess Bakugou didn’t take …all this that well?” Kaminari changed the topic, not out of their discomfort, but because they knew Kirishima would probably want a distraction right about now. 

“Heh, what gave it away?” Kirishima laughed, hooking a strand of hair behind his ear. 

“Oh, he was livid!” Mina gushed. “He didn’t actually notice until he came downstairs, somehow. Guess he’s used to having tits.” 

Kaminari snorted at that, almost inhaling their breakfast. It was a running joke in their group, one that Bakugou loathed. But then again, he loathed most things. 

“Where is he?”

“Bathroom. Or, what’s left of it. Wanted to see what he looked like.”

“What does he look like?” Kaminari kicked their legs up on the sofa, leaning against the armrest.

“Not bad, actually. Long hair - dead straight, same tiny waist, but more bust.”

“Yeah, that basically sums it up. Most of us didn’t change that much, just got different hair and chests. But you look the same! That’s unfair!” Mina reached over, flicking at Kaminari as best she could with her fingers.

“Yeah, how come you’re fine? You were there with us, unless that was Toga or that clone dude’s clone. What was his name? Double? Twice? Something like that,” Kirishima joked, nudging at Kaminari’s feet.

“Nah it was definitely me, at least, I’m pretty sure it was. But yeah, I guess I just- 

“Kaminari!” 

“Ow! What was that for?” A familiar small projectile had whacked them round the head, and Kaminari turned to see half the class looking at them, Jirou’s earlobe quickly retracting. 

“We’ve been trying to get your attention for like a minute bro! We have questions!” Sero deposited himself into Kaminari’s lap, the rest of the class gathered taking that as an invitation to occupy the remaining seats and the floor. 

For a moment, Kaminari just sat, trying to match names to faces, looking at how everyone had changed.

Sero’s hair must’ve been hip length, and he’d bundled it up in the lamest attempt at a bun ever, just a ponytail that he hadn’t pulled through all the way. 

Todoroki’s features had softened a little, his hair down and brushing the bottom of his shoulder blades. His waist was slimmer, but he was built pretty similarly, and even his chest hadn’t changed much. 

Uraraka was still all smiles, though her face had lost some of its roundness, her hair short and fluffy. Next to her was Tsu— the real Tsu, since Midoriya was cross-legged next to Tokoyami, her hair looking fundamentally wrong without enough to make her signature bow.

Tokoyami looked… basically exactly the same, but his feathers were longer, drooping down and brushing the hood of his hoodie. He was hunched in the corner of the other sofa, almost drowning in his clothes, arms tightly around his chest. Dark Shadow was at his shoulder, nestled into the crook of his neck, crooning softly.

Lastly, of the few assembled, Yaomomo was perched on the table, still with the side bang, Jirou at her feet. If anything, Jirou’s hair had grown , her fringe all but covering one eye, though it was shorter at the back. 

Everyone looked really rather good, actually. 

“So why did y’all’s want me?” Kaminari asked, passing their bowl to Yaomomo to place on the table lest they spill it.

“Well…” Yaomomo began, clutching her hands at her chest— her nervous tell. “Since you were part of the attack yesterday too, and you arguably got closest to the villain in question, since you were the one to take them down, we were just wondering about why…”

“Why you still look the same, dude!” Sero finished the sentence for her, batting Kaminari’s chest playfully. 

Kaminari could see the moment he realised. 

“But- your hair, you still- and I couldn’t- what?”

“Guys, I’m non-binary,” Kaminari said matter of factly. 

There were several gasps, mostly from the girls— Yaomomo, Uraraka, and even Midoriya inhaled sharply.

“What? I did tell y’all’s at the beginning of the year.”

“Aahh, I’m so sorry! Please forgive us!” Uraraka leaned forward, arms out as if she were reaching for him. 

“Forgive you for what?”

“I’m not sure any of us retained that fact, and I know at least I have assumed your gender and pronouns incorrectly. It was wrong of me, I deeply apologise.” Yaomomo bowed her head, looking ashamed. The rest of the room began their own apologies, words overlapping until they were just gibberish.

“Literally no one here has done anything wrong, guys. I would’ve told you if you had.”

“But… we’ve been using he/him pronouns for you the entire year, man! You coulda said something!” Kirishima said.

“I literally just said it’s fine!” Kaminari laughed, as they were the only one who wasn’t uncomfortable in the situation. “I use any and all pronouns, that includes he/him. I tend to come off a lot more masculine so it’s what most people assume, and I’m chill with that. It’s not like I try to hide being non-binary - I mean, I have the whole-ass flag above my bed - but I don’t broadcast it every second of every day either. I’m just me, I’m still Denki.”

“So… do you use she/her?” Tsu’s question was hesitant, but curious.

“Yep! They/them too. But don’t feel pressured to stop using he/him, I literally do not care.”

“So the reason you’re the same, is because you’re non-binary?” Midoriya was clearly connecting the dots in his head, though instead of just two, it would probably be two thousand. “Thus it’s a gender-based quirk, not sex-based, meaning it could be used very maliciously to out anyone genderqueer unwillingly. We’re lucky there’s no one in the class like that, at least, not that we’ve seen, because— sorry.” he stopped when he realised everyone was staring at him.

“But uh…” Sero looked incredibly uncomfortable, noticeably avoiding meeting Kaminari’s eyes, or even looking in their direction. “Why do you have …boobs?”

“Afab, baby.” Kaminari snapped his fingers, pointing a pair of finger guns at their friend, a strand of yellow electricity jumping between their points.

There was a movement in his peripheral vision, Tokoyami’s head snapping up.

Kirishima sat up straighter. “Really?”

“Yahuh! But I don’t think imma get top surgery. It’s expensive, and I’m not too fussed about having boobs. They’re not that big, either, which is a bonus. And the reason none of y’all’s’ve noticed them before is because I’m usually in a binder, and if I’m not, I wear something baggy. So yeah, I’m non-binary. Aizawa knows, all the teachers do.” They shrugged, still trapped under Sero, and slowly losing feeling in their legs. 

“Which one of you FUCKERS did this?” 

And cue the most explosive member of the class.

“Bakubro!” Kaminari stretched back, looking around the edge of the couch. “You’re looking fine as hell, I dunno what you’re complaining about!”

“Dunce face!” he snarled, quickly catching onto the fact that they were the only unchanged one in the class. “The hell did you do?” Bakugou stormed forwards, sparks popping in his palms. 

Kirishima had described him pretty aptly— long blonde hair, hourglass figure, furiousness radiating off him in waves. 

“Woah dude, chill! It’s not just you, we’re all pretty weirded out by this.” Kirishima was quick to his feet, intercepting Bakugou’s path and holding his ground when he tried to push him out of the way.

“It’s not Kaminari’s fault, don’t blame them for it.” Todoroki shook his head, frowning when a strand of white fell into his eyes, trying and failing to blow it aside. 

The pronoun made Kaminari squeal, and it was only because of Sero that they hadn’t launched himself across the room to hug the guy. 

“Mhm!” Midoriya confirmed from the couch, notebook in hand, legs now in Todoroki’s lap despite how socially cold the latter appeared. “It was the villain yesterday, the one with the pinkish hair.”

Bakugou sneered at nothing in particular, shoving Kirishima’s hand off his shoulder. But at least he didn’t try to attack anyone. “Then how the hell is fuckin’ sparky fine? He’s the one who zapped the damn villain’s face off. Like hell he escaped.”

“It’s because-” Midoriya began, but Kaminari was soon to interrupt.

“Wait, Midoriya, I’d like to tell him,” Kaminari cut in.

Midoriya’s eyes widened, and he flailed, apologising profusely. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t even think, it’s your identity I’m so sorry for disrespecting you!”

Kaminari just shook their head and turned back to Bakugou. “I’m non-binary. Again.”

“Yeah no shit, Pikachu. I’m not blind.”

Most of the group seemed rather shocked by that, several people were wide-eyed and gasping.

“Dude what?!” Kirishima was the most comprehensible of them all, giving Bakougou’s shoulder a hit to emphasize his point.

“He told us on the first day, not my fault you shitty extras all fucking forgot . And he has the fucking flag in his room, do any of you have eyes ? Move it, reindeer.” As he spoke, Bakugou had stomped across the room and was now attempting to upseat Mina.

“Oooh that’s a new one— I’d say… seven and a half out of ten for creativity, three out of ten for accuracy, and point five for actual insultingness. But no, get your own spot.”

“Fuck you.” But Bakugou settled on one of the poufs nonetheless. “No one’s answered my question yet. The hell does he look the same for? Surely he’d have fuckin’... long hair ‘n…” He gestured to his chest area aggressively. 

“Believe it or not, I do indeed have…” Kaminari copied the movement, grinning. “But they’re not new, I’m just not binding this early in the morning. So yeah, the quirk didn’t change me. Midoriya told us it must be gender-based, not biological sex-based, and the opposite of no gender is still no gender. Thus, I remain the same, and my little bi heart is going mad over all the hot people in the room.” 

Mina and Kirishima laughed at that, but there were a few who looked… shocked. Kaminari could feel Sero tense on top of them, and Jirou was pointedly avoiding anyone’s eye contact.

It was all forgotten when there was a sudden crashing noise from the other side of the common area, followed by incredibly quick footsteps that could only belong to one person.

“Class! I see many of you have already congregated and thus must have noticed the effects of the unknown villain from yesterday’s attack!” Iida was as authoritative as ever, though there was a genuine note of concern in his voice. 

From their position on the couch, Kaminari had a pretty good view straight up the class representative’s nose, but not of much else. 

“Wait, Kaminari?” Iida looked down, frowning, long blue hair perfectly combed and parted.

“Yo.” They nodded, flashing a peace sign. “Lemme guess— confusion noise, confusion noise, ‘why do you look the same?’, ‘weren’t you the one to get closest to them?’, etcetera, etcetera?”

Iida just blinked. “How many times have you explained already?”
“You’ll be the third.”

“We need a class meeting.”

-- -- --

Thanks to Iida’s efficiency, all twenty members of Class 1A were soon assembled in and around the sitting area within fifteen minutes. 

Kaminari had regained feeling in their legs, since Sero had moved to occupy the spot next to Mina, and had finally finished their cereal. It had, admittedly, gone very soggy in their neglect.

The rest of the class had taken up the remaining spaces, some dragging chairs over from the dining table, some joined Jirou on the floor.

Ojiro was backwards on a chair, still with short hair, but it still reached down to the nape of his neck, a bob not much unlike Jirou’s regular haircut. Otherwise, he looked pretty similar, just a little curvier.

Satou and Shouji had claimed the poufs across the table from Kaminari, the former’s features softened noticeably, both boys’ hair swept back into ponytails. Satou’s stuck straight out, but Shouji’s was long enough to pull over his shoulder. Two of his hands were fiddling with the silvery ends.

Aoyama seemed to be reveling in his new-found woman-hood. He and his very long, very golden hair were draped across the table, his new curvy figure on display to everyone. He seemed to be the only one happy about this whole deal.

Mineta was entirely predictable. He’d seemingly decided to ignore the essential doubling of his usual head balls to form what seemed to be pigtails in favour of his boobs. Kaminari paid him no mind.

The only major difference Kaminari could see with Koda was his chest, and Hagakure looked arguably the same— invisible. Though, her shirt did hang differently now. 

Everyone who didn’t already know was staring at Kaminari. They gave them a little wave as Iida re-entered the room and began speaking.

“Class! I have gathered you here to discuss the aftereffects of the battle yesterday! As we can all see, the third villain’s— the one with the pink hair— quirk has a delayed reaction time for whatever reason, and has effectively swapped our genders. According to Midoriya, it is a gender-based quirk, not one that operates upon the basis of biology. I assume this is significant be-”

“Cut to the chase, four eyes.” Bakugou grumbled.

“This is significant because,” Iida shot a look at Bakugou, “as we can all see, Kaminari has been unaffected. I do not know why, so I shall let him speak. Kaminari, if you’d like to explain to us all, hopefully, we can have a better understanding of this quirk.”

“Of course Iids! So uh yeah, the quirk didn’t affect me. I know what you’re all thinking, at least the ones I haven’t already told— I was the one who jumped onto the villain’s back when they were doing that weird like pink heat haze thing, which I assume was their quirk? But yeah, I got close, I was definitely hit by the quirk. But…” Kaminari took a breath. They’d done this before— hell, they’d done this twice today already. 

“I’m non-binary. As Bakugou remembers, I did tell everyone at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t put much significance to it, so it was more a passing comment that most people forgot. I use any and all pronouns— she/her, they/them, he/him, they’re all fine. Don’t worry about having misgendered me or anything in the past, I would’ve told you if you were doing anything wrong that I noticed. So yeah. Gender-based means I don’t change because I’m already the opposite of myself.”

In contrast to the first time they’d come out that day, the room was silent as those who didn’t know processed the information. 

“If you have any questions just hit me up, so long as you’re not like, blatantly homophobic or whatever. Oh! Also— you don’t need to know this and it’s usually personal information that people don’t share, but I feel like I should tell you since A— I already told everyone else, and B— we’re heroes-in-training and something’s bound to go wrong at some point, but I have boobs. I’ve got female anatomy since I haven’t had any surgeries, but I’m also afab, as well as non-binary. I usually bind. I think that’s all I need to tell y’all’s for now, but if I think of anything else I’ll let you know.” They shot finger guns at the group with a wink. Everyone looked rather overwhelmed.

With a clearing of his throat, Iida adjusted his glasses and resumed his role as an overly invested class president.

“Thank you for that, Kaminari! You have cleared up many questions for me, and I am glad you trust us, your class, enough to let us know about your identity in such a personal way! I shall take care to respect said identity in the future, and ensure that others do too!” He punctuated the sentiment with his signature hand slice. 

“Now, we must discuss how we will deal with this quirk! Yaoyorozu and I-”

“Please, Yaomomo is just fine. I have told you that multiple times already,” the class’ vice president interrupted.

“Sorry, Yaomomo and I have already had a short discussion regarding this matter, and I shall fill you in on our plan!”

Kaminari wasn’t the only one who shifted in their seat, getting comfortable for what they expected was going to be a long and somewhat tedious lecture. You had to love Iida’s thoroughness, no matter what the situation.

“First, we assume Aizawa-sensei has been affected by the same quirk, as he was present in the battle too. I have attempted to contact him via his mobile, but since it is a Saturday morning, I do not expect to receive a response until at least 10 a.m., which is still two and a half hours away.” 

Kaminari thanked Bakugou for the early morning wakeup, and by the looks of the side glares from a handful of their classmates, they weren’t alone in the mindset. Uraraka even had the gall to stick her tongue out.

“In the meantime,” Iida continued, not having noticed what was going on around his feet, “we think it is best that we remain in the dorms.”

Bakugou was not blind, and shot Uraraka the finger, ‘tch’ing.

Iida didn’t look amused at the sound, but didn’t stop speaking. “We do not know the nature of this quirk yet, or if we risk ‘infecting’ anyone else.”

Uraraka shot him the finger back and Kaminari sucked in a breath. There were only a select few who could get away with doing that and not dying.

“It is assumed the effects are only temporary, but there is always the possibility these forms will remain permanent.”

Bakugou launched himself off the pouf and at Uraraka, who deftly blocked his incoming strike and retaliated with her own. 

“Thus the conclusion is that we as a group need to stay where we are and wait for someone with experience to arrive. I am aware this is not a plan that many will like, but when dealing with unknown quirks that affect our own bodies, it is always safest to-” Iida finally looked down, eyes landing on the tussling pair right in time for Uraraka to grab a fistful of Bakugou’s newly long hair and pull.

“FUCK!” Bakugou shrieked as his head was yanked backward, obviously not used to how much the sensation hurt.

“This is not a time to fight! We have serious matters at hand. Uraraka, I expected better from you.”

“Ooooooh, you’ve disappointed class dad now!” Sero japed, earning himself a pillow to the face.

Dusting off her hands in her double victory, Uraraka flicked her bangs out of the way with a toss of the head. “Lighten up, Iida, no one's hurt! We can still have fun!” 

“On the subject of fun!” Mina leaped to her feet, pointing straight in the air. “I’m pretty sure most of you boys have no experience with long hair or how to style it, judging by the various attempts I’ve seen this morning. Cough Sero cough.” 

“Hey! I did my best! It’s not usually this long, I didn’t know it would get knotted around the hairband!”

“I had to use scissors, Sero. Scissors! Just to find the hairband!”

“Yeah, after you ripped half my hair out!”

“Not my fault you suck at it! Anyways,” Mina turned back to the class, grinning. “If you don’t wanna be subjected to the sharp end of my scissors when you inevitably fail, I’m sure me ‘n the girls’ll be happy to do you boys’ hair! Iida, you’d look so cute with plaits, and Todoroki! Just imagine him with a messy bun! Ahh!”

“Mina you’re a genius!” came a voice from the table, seemingly connected to the empty t-shirt and shorts that were bouncing up and down.

Yaomomo raised her hand a little. “I’d be happy to help.”

Jirou shrugged and Uraraka nodded, but Denki was speaking before Mina could say anything else about the impending makeover session.

“On a similar note,” they began, sitting up a little straighter, “I uh, have a couple of spare binders in my room. I’m happy to lend them out to anyone who’s feeling really dysphoric because of all this, because I’m like 85% sure there’s at least one of you, but I don’t wanna out anyone by saying names.” Still, their eyes flicked to the dark bundle of feathers on the other sofa as he lifted his head in curiosity. “I know the feeling, I know it sucks ass, and I wanna help in any way I can. I just have to say, though, you’d need to have a similar general chest size to me, because if you’re bigger you could seriously hurt yourself, and if you’re much smaller it probably won’t work. So yeah. Lemme know if you want one.”

“That is incredibly considerate of you, Kaminari.” Yaomomo smiled at them as Mina and Uraraka ‘aww’ed in eerie synchronism. “I would offer to make binders so we have a larger supply to go around, but I am afraid it would take too long to properly understand their construction so I can produce them without risking anyone being hurt while wearing them.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Kaminari agreed, nodding.

“I have spare bras!” Mina called. “Any of you boys not getting a binder will need one ‘cuz it’s not comfortable going all day without one.” 

“Hey bro,” Kirishima gave a quick wave from back beside her, toast in hand. “Can I grab a binder? Everyone already knows, it’s not like I try to hide it. I mean, I’m shirtless half the time, you can see the scars.”

“No problem bro! You want it now or..?”

“Now would be great.”

-- -- --

Pulling a shirt over their head, Kaminari didn’t realise it was inside out until they joined Kirishima in the mirror. 

“Looking good dude,” they said, even though they couldn’t currently see at the current point in time.

“Man, it’s been a while.” Kirishima smoothed his hands over his chest, standing sideways to admire the flatness. 

Kaminari managed to get an arm through the correct hole, struggling momentarily with the material. “You gonna do anything about your hair?” Ah, there. They got the shirt on the right way this time, the chunk of tiny text actually visible. If you got close enough to read it, you’d realise it was the entire script to the bee movie. 

Sero had bought it for their birthday.

“I dunno.” Kirishima ran his fingers through his hair, stretching his arm out so he could reach the end. “Binding is one thing, but I dunno if cutting my hair now’ll do anything to my actual hair. I don’t wanna accidentally be bald when this is all over, y’know?”

“Very true.” Kaminari adjusted the placement of the straps of their own binder before reaching over and grabbing a black plaid overshirt from where they’d slung it over their desk chair and pulling that on too. 

“At least it’s red, though.” Kirishima remarked, bundling his hair back up with a hair tie. “I mean, you can see my roots bad, but for the most part.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda weird.”

“Well, I’m not complaining.” Kirishima flopped his arms back down and turned to face the mirror front on. “Thanks so much for this, by the way.”

Kaminari nudged him with their elbow. “It’s nothing. Dysphoria fucking sucks. Don’t wanna see my bro in pain if I can do anything about it.”

“Still.” Kirishima pulled his own shirt back on, sighing with contemptment as he once again ran his hands over his chest. “You coming downstairs to the ‘Ashido Hair Salon of Greatness’? To her credit though, she does know what she’s doing.”

“Gimmie a few minutes— still need to brush my hair because I think I’ll electrocute anyone else who tries, given the amount of static buildup it can hold.” It had happened before, and Kaminari was pretty sure it was an experience neither they nor Mina wanted to repeat.

“So that’s why it’s always so stick-y out-y. See you, man.” Kirishima closed the door behind him, leaving Kaminari to root about their drawers for their hairbrush. 

Man, maybe they should take Iida’s advice and tidy up sometimes. It would certainly make it easier to find things and wait- was that the homework Aizawa had set last week that they swore they handed in? Well, too late now.

There was a knock at Kaminari’s door not much later, when they had finally located their hairbrush and were attempting to brush out the static, sparks of electricity jumping from their hand to their head as they tried.

“Yeah?” they called, still looking in the mirror. 

There was no answer for a moment or two, prompting Kaminari to turn and look at the door. “You can come in, y’know. I’m not naked or anything.”

The door creaked open— or, it would have had the hinges not been in a good condition— and two heads peered in.

“Tokoyami! What can I do for you?” 

Their classmate and his demon edged into the room. Dark Shadow didn’t look any different, only concerned for Tokoyami, the soft whooshing sound creating a rather nice ambient white noise, actually. Maybe Kaminairi should ask Tokoyami to come upstairs when they couldn’t sleep.

“Um, I… I was wondering if…” Dark Shadow swooped to the other shoulder. “If you had a binder I could borrow?” Tokoyami exhaled shakily, eyes fixed on the floor.

“Of course!” Kaminari put the hairbrush down, running a hand through their hair to collect up the remaining static. “Come in properly, you don’t need to be scared. This is a safe space, for everyone. Human or not,” they added with a wink at the demon.

“Thank you.” Tokoyami nodded and pushed off the door, venturing a little further into the room, eyes wandering tentatively. 

“Yeah, that’s my hat collection.” They gestured over their shoulder with a thumb, seeing where Tokoyami’s gaze landed.

“Where are they all from?” Kaminari watched Tokoyami’s shoulders fall, glad he was able to relax at least a little. 

“My sister Hotaru, mostly. It started as a kinda joke, kinda not joke.” They moved over to the rack, picking one up. It was a bowler hat, some glossy black feather stuck into the band. They twisted it around in their hands.

“When I was younger, when the whole dysphoria was really at its highest, I’d often put my hair up into a ponytail and flip it over my forehead as if it were a fringe. I’d keep it in place with hats, and I used to steal them when they were lying around. My sister started buying me stupid hats for my birthdays and Christmases and any other celebrations, and then I came out and told people about the hats, but it’s become a bit of a tradition now.” They chuckled and put the hat back, brushing the tops of the rest of them. 

“I came out, and the next day Hotaru came to my room with a hat— a cap this time— since she’d mostly gotten me beanies and stuff like that.” Kaminari picked up the cap in question, a faded yellow one with a nonbinary flag pin and a lightning bolt on the side. “She said it was because I didn’t have to hide anymore. I didn’t have to hide my hair or my identity, so I could have a new hat that wouldn’t hide anything. I cut my hair that weekend. Or, got it cut.”

Kaminari was pretty lost in thought and didn’t notice Tokoyami moving about until he appeared beside him. 

“She sounds like an amazing sister.”

“Yeah.” Kaminari smiled fondly at the hat, before pulling it over their hair and adjusting their bangs. “Every time I achieve something or do something difficult, she gets me a new hat. I got two for coming to UA— one for just doing the written exam because I was so nervous, and one for getting accepted. That’s those two.” 

They pointed at the hats in question. One was a thrifted top hat she’d decorated with gold stars, and the other an earthy coloured, striped panama hat. 

“But anyways. Binder.” They clapped suddenly, trying to remain focused. “Are you wearing a shirt under that?” Kaminari asked Tokoyami, referring to his oversized hoodie.

Tokoyami looked understandably confused. “Yes?”

“Great. Could you take the hoodie off? I’m pretty sure you’re about the same chest size as me, but I can’t really tell when I can’t properly see your body. I just-” 

They’d reached out, taken a tiny step closer, but all of a sudden there was a louder than usual whoosh , an angry caw , and Kaminari found themself on the floor, having narrowly missed whacking their head on the corner of the desk, an unhappy-looking demon only centimeters from their face.

“Dark Shadow, no!” Kaminari couldn’t see Tokoyami but they could hear his voice well enough. “He— They’re only trying to help, you can trust them.”

Dark Shadow looked back at Tokoyami, arms still outstretched and pinning Kaminari’s shoulders down.

“I’m not gonna hurt Toko, I promise. Sorry for not warning you,” Kaminari apologised.

Hesitantly, the pressure on his shoulders lifted and Dark Shadow flew back to Tokoyami’s side, wrapping around his body and resting his head on his shoulder. Despite the reassurances, Kaminari was still getting thoroughly glared at.

“Sorry about that. Dark Shadow’s just… protective.”

“Nah, it’s all cool. He’s just looking out for you, it’s sweet. Having a friend like that must be really nice.” They picked themself up, dusting off and grabbing the cap from where it had fallen, putting it back on their desk.

“It is actually. Even though Dark Shadow doesn’t always understand privacy, especially around others.” Tokoyami’s tone was teasing, and Dark Shadow harrumphed as best a bird demon could, turning their head away from Tokoyami.

“He seemed to understand it pretty well just now,” Kaminari said, but his words held no venom. “So with warning this time, Imma come a bit closer, and I might ask if you can like, pull your shirt back so it’s tighter. I won’t touch anything, I just need to make sure you won’t get hurt.”

Tokoyami nodded, reaching a hand up and scritching Dark Shadow’s head, presumably to reassure him it was okay.

Kaminari did a round of Tokoyami, indeed asking him to adjust his shirt for a moment, before deciding that yes, their binder would fit him. And they didn’t get any more advances from Dark Shadow, unless you counted more glaring. 

But hey, they were a proud part of both the Bakusquad and class 1A, Kaminari was very used to getting glared at. That was Aizawa’s whole quirk.

“Rightio, try this on for size.” They fished their second spare binder from their drawers, chucking it at Tokoyami. “Have you bound before?”

Tokoyami caught the binder effortlessly. “Uh. No, actually. I went straight from puberty blockers to T, so I never had… a bust.”

“Oh man, this can’t be fun.”

Tokoyami shook his head grimly. “Indeed it is not.”

“Okay, so, binder safety. Since this is your first time wearing a binder, you really shouldn’t wear it all day.” They started counting off on their fingers. “Start for like, an hour, have a break, rinse, and repeat. If you’re needing it for more than just today, work your way up, but don’t wear it for longer than eightish hours if you can help it. It should be tight, but it shouldn’t be painful. If it is, tell me, you might’ve put it on wrong or something, or it might not be your size. Don’t persevere if it’s painful because you could genuinely injure yourself.” Kaminari locked eyes with Tokoyami to really drive the point home, before continuing.

“Uhh… if you can’t breathe properly or anything like that, take it off, or just undo it. If you need to come somewhere to sit without it on, my room’s always open. And don’t do exercise in it, not yet at least. I think that’s about it, but if you have any questions, just ask. I’ll leave you to get changed in here, just stick your head out when you’re done.”

Once Tokoyami was comfortable and happily flat chested once more, the pair— no, trio— headed downstairs to see how the hair salon was going. There hadn’t been any minor disasters that’d reached Kaminari’s room, so it couldn’t’ve been too bad.

“So… does anyone know?” Kaminari asked as they entered the stairwell.

“About?” Tokoyami was walking with more confidence now, and Dark Shadow looked happier, too. 

“About you. Being trans. At least, I assume you are, since you said you were on T.” 

“Ah, yes. No one knows. Except you, now.”

“I thought so, but I just wanted to make sure.” Kaminari shrugged. “Don’t worry, I won’t out you or anything. You can still feel dysphoric and not be trans, you get me?” They nudged Tokoyami gently.

“Yeah. Thank you. You’ve made us both feel far better about myself.”

“I told Kirishima and I’ll tell you— it’s really no problem. I have the spares, might as well lend them to those who need them.”

-- -- --

The quirk was, in fact, not permanent. 

The long-range fighters were the first to change back— Sero no longer had to fear Mina’s scissors, Todoroki seemed completely indifferent, and Aoyama mourned his luscious locks after only a day of having them. 

By Monday morning, it was only the melee fighters who were left genderswapped, and only those who had really been in the thick of things. Kirishima had declined the offer to spend the day in the dorms, walking proudly into school accompanied by the rest of the squad. Mina was awaiting the inevitable shrinking of her horns with much displeasure, and for once, Bakugou was glad he’d hung back.

Kaminari, as ever, was the same. 

And they were happy with that. Their class knew now, properly knew, and they’d received many promises that various peers would beat up anyone who disrespected their identity.

Seeing female Aizawa— although only for a short time that Saturday— had made them laugh and wish the effects could’ve lasted longer, but ultimately, they were glad it was over.

“Class.” Aizawa looked just about as tired as usual. “I didn’t get the opportunity to tell you last week, but you all deserve congratulations for how you dealt with the villain attack.”

Well, that was a first.

“Iida, Sero, Asui, we had no civilian casualties because of your quick thinking and reactions. Bakugou, Satou, Ojiro, Midoriya, you all played significant roles in detaining the first villain, and did it without any major injuries.” Turning to each student in turn, Aizawa expressed his praise.

“Hagakure, Jirou, Todoroki, it is because of you that the second villain was unable to escape. Aoyama, Shouji, Kouda, Mineta, the flexibility you four showed with switching between battles to offer support when it was needed was vital, and that is incredibly impressive. Kirishima, Mina, Tokoyami, Uraraka, you managed to fight effectively against a villain with an unknown quirk, a skill many pros lack. Yaoyorozu, your leadership skills have come a long way since the beginning of the year. And Kaminari, it is purely thanks to you that we can call the battle a victory.”

“Hell yeah!” Kirishima whooped, leaning forwards in his seat and holding out his hand for Kaminari to high-five. They did, grinning.

“Everyone had their part to play, and I hope you all know that without your actions, the attack would not have transpired as it did. As hero course students you rarely receive the praise you deserve, because you are still children and are still learning, even though it is because of this that you deserve the acknowledgment. As your teacher, I am aware I do not give you the praise you deserve, but in my defense, I do not want to coddle you.” 

Aizawa eyed the room, but Kaminari noticed a significant lack of annoyance in his gaze. 

“Lastly, I need to congratulate you all on how you dealt and are dealing with the effects of the genderswap quirk. It came as a shock to us all and yet you kept calm and took the challenges as they came. You worked as a team, offering support where it was needed and being incredibly understanding of each other’s situations. I rarely show it, but I could not be prouder of my class.”

Almost everyone ‘aww’ed at that, and predictably, Iida leaped to his feet.

“Aizawa-sensei! As class representative, I thank you on behalf of myself and my peers! We are only able to be as good as we are because of your teachings, so thank you !” He bowed quickly, but Kaminari was pretty sure it was half because he had tears in his eyes.

“Alright, you can sit down, Iida. We have lessons to get to, and if any one of you becomes overly soft or lax after this, I will expel you.”

“We love you too, sensei!”