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Ojiro is one step away from Hagakure's room when he hears it.
"I know."
It's a deep voice, and it's coming from her room.
He wracks his mind to place it to anyone in the school to the voice.
He already knows it's no one in the class; if it was, he'd have recognized it immediately. It's also not a staff member, because it's too high and undeveloped to be a grown man's voice.
It couldn't be a family member because the school is on extremely seclusive lockdown due to an uprising in violent villain attacks around the area.
He does the first thing he can think of, then, having outruled anyone who should be there, and throws the door open.
A boy sits on Hagakure's bed, a phone in his hand and a mortified expression on his face.
Ojiro goes to attack, only to have the boy's head, hands, and feet disappear. His clothes and the phone scramble away from him on the bed.
"I gotta go, Mom!" he says to the phone. His voice wavers awkwardly between high and low, and then the phone turns, gives the beeps of hanging up on FaceTime, and sails across the room.
"What the hell, Ojiro?" Hagakure's voice screams in the same place as the boy.
"Where are you?" he asks, studying the bed for any wrinkles of weight or a lump underneath.
The only wrinkles lead to the boy.
"Learn to fucking knock, you asshole!" Hagakure redirects.
"Wait, was that you?" Ojiro asks.
"I mean seriously, I could've been doing anything and you just barge in- I was talking to my mom! She thought I was being killed! She's probably worried sick!"
"Hagakure?"
"What?" she exasperates.
"Can I see you again?" He closed the door.
"The hell are you talking about?"
"I... saw you. Or someone."
Hagakure's silent for a beat too long. "No you didn't."
Ojiro smiles. "I did. Can I sit?"
Hagakure nods—Ojiro recognizes the way her shirt pulls from the motion.
He sits on the bed next to her. "You can trust me, you know. If you're shy or whatever, I'm not gonna make fun of you or anything. I've got a tail."
Hagakure laughs, just for a second.
"You don't have to if you don't want to, obviously, but I think trying to remember the two seconds of what I saw will agitate me for the rest of my life if you leave me hanging," he jokes.
And then a hand touches his knee.
He sees all five painted finger nails, all the masculine veins and bones and wrinkles, and he follows the arm up the sleeve just to find Hagakure looking at him.
Her face is flushed red and her eyes are wide and glassy with fear.
She has short black hair that curls just slightly, black eyes that shine pink with the reflection of the rest of her room, and dark skin that's dotted with pimples and blemishes.
Her nose is big on her face and just a bit crooked. Her chin juts, and Ojiro thinks he sees the memory of stubble along her jaw. Her adam's apple is large and juts out notably from her throat.
Ojiro just smiles and kisses her cheek. "I can't believe you," he teases and places his hand over hers.
Immediately, tears gather where his nose bumps near her eye. He pulls away and immediately holds her face, concerned. "Hey, hey, what's wrong, Tooru? Talk to me."
"I-I th-thhough y-y-you would be- be- be mad," she weeps, tucking her face against his hands. "I'm a b-b-boy."
Ojiro shakes his head and lets out a heavy breath. "You're not. You're my girl, always. It doesn't matter whether you're invisible or not, or what you look like when you're not. You're beautiful and you're perfect, Tooru. Besides, this?" He squishes her cheeks just to make her laugh. "This is all I could ask for. You really are pretty, Tooru."
Tooru yanks him into a hug and wails against his shoulder. "Thank you," she cries.
Ojiro rubs her back and smiles. "Thank you for trusting me so much. It means the world."
Tooru nods, and Ojiro doesn't have to rely on the way her clothes tug to recognize it.
"My pretty girl. I'm so lucky. I'm sorry for scaring you so bad."
Tooru just shakes her head.
Later, she tells him about how kids used to make fun of her for being darker. Then it was her acne. Then, when she came out, it got so much worse.
She doesn't go into detail until a few months later.
"It was the year before our first year. It's actually the reason I decided to become a hero."
She doesn't look nostalgic; her face is drawn and her eyes flick back and forth.
Ojiro rubs her arm.
"I'd been out for just a week or so. These two kids followed me to my house and attacked me a block away. I um- I-I couldn't move and the police had to come get me. Apparently my mom called them because I was late, b-but..." she trails off, and Ojiro can see the way her eyes shine and fill with tears before she starts crying. "Um... when they brought me h-ho-home, my- my m-mm-mom, she- she yelled at m-me... She said these two k-kids my age c-c-came to th-the door and told her I w-was- was trans. She, um... She..."
"It's okay," Ojiro soothes when he sees her stop breathing. He pulls her into a hug. "Just breathe, sweetheart; you're okay now. I've got you. We've all got you. We'll keep you safe, darling. You don't have to say anymore."
Hagakure tucks her face into his neck and just cries.
It takes an hour or so before she can talk again. She explains that her mom refuses to talk to her unless she acts and looks like the perfect son, which is what Ojiro saw when he first saw her face.
Ojiro just holds her and tells her she's beautiful. He can't stand to imagine that happening to Hagakure, or imagine feeling the way she must have. He can't believe anyone would treat her like that. He just can't.
She's perfect. She's always been perfect.
Their first kiss, Ojiro can hardly stand to close his eyes. To make up for it, he holds her face and rubs her cheek and pets her hair.
He's certain he's not doing it right, seeing as he's never kissed anyone, but he's also certain that no matter what, Hagakure is doing it right.
When he pulls away, it's because she took his breath away, although he can hardly breathe when he opens his eyes so close to her, anyway.
"You're so pretty," he whispers and kisses her again just to be close again.
More often than not, Hagakure calls him to her room while she FaceTimes her mom. He's not sure if it's for the comfort of him being there, the praise he gives her afterwards, or if it's just to show off that he uses her correct name and "sneaks" kisses when the camera is angled away. Either way, he doesn't mind.
His only problem is holding back the rage her mother induces in him.
Hagakure melts it away with ease, though.
When they're with the rest of the class, Hagakure stays invisible.
Ojiro doesn't push her to show them or to come out, because it's not his place. What he does push her to do is stop thanking him for such things.
"Tooru, it's just what I'm supposed to do. Don't thank me for not being a bad person," he says one day after she almost cried thanking him for shielding her from Aizawa's line of sight.
She agrees, but Ojiro isn't surprised when she doesn't stop.
It's endearing, but it also stands as a reminder that he's the only person to make her feel completely safe and comfortable in her life thus far.
Everything goes wrong one day at training.
First of all, Kirishima hits Ojiro a bit too hard and leaves him disoriented on the sidelines.
Then, Bakugo and Aoyama, of all people, get in a scuffle over Aoyama's quirk shaving off part of Bakugo's gauntlets while Bakugo had been in the way of him blocking the "villains."
Aizawa ends up having to use his quirk and, well...
Hagakure's in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ojiro stares in horror as she begins to appear. "AIZAWA!" he yells. "STOP!"
Aizawa hardly acknowledges him.
Ojiro climbs to his feet and stumbles over to her as fast as he can with his injury, but by then it's too late—Shoji, Iida, Ururaka, and Tsu are already at Hagakure's side, and-
They're shielding her.
They stand in just the right spots to cover Hagakure's body.
"Tooru?" Ojiro calls when he's close, slipping between Shoji and Ururaka to look at where he knows she is.
He can see the tears beading in her eyes and sliding down where her cheeks would be, and he can hear her crying, even if she tries to hide it.
"Hey, hey, you're okay, no one can see you anymore." He cups where he knows her cheeks are and holds her, wiping away tears as he sees them.
After another moment, Shoji and Ururaka turn around, reaching for her shoulders based on where Ojiro is touching her.
"Ribbit, you're okay, Hagakure, ribbit, it's okay now," Tsu soothes from behind Ojiro.
"Hagakure, are you okay?" Iida asks with genuine concern laced in his voice.
Hagakure nods, but Ojiro can see even more tears and he's sure Ururaka and Shoji can feel her shoulders shaking.
"We're the only ones who saw you, darling, you're okay," Ururaka tells her.
Ojiro isn't sure if that's true; Sero stands a few yards away, looking concerned but keeping his distance, and Tokoyami glances at them every so often. Aizawa's looking at them, too, but that could be for any reason, and he's sure there's more that are minding their business.
"Ribbit, you can talk to us, Hagakure. You're our friend," Tsu says.
"Y-you- you're n-not gonna mm-m-make fun of- of m-me?" Hagakure stammers through her tears.
"Of course not, why would we?" Iida asks.
"Because I'm a b-b-boy," she spits.
"Ribbit, no you're not, ribbit. Not if you say you're a girl. If you say you're a girl, then you're a girl, ribbit."
"Exactly," Shoji assures.
Hagakure starts openly sobbing then, leaning against Ojiro while she cries. "Th-thank-"
"Uh-uh, what have I told you about thanking us for things like this?" Ojiro teases, rubbing her back with a grateful smile directed at the others.
Hagakure giggles through her tears. "Yeah, yeah."
Others start coming up to them eventually, with Sero first, then Aoyama, then Yaoyorozu, until the entire class is gathered around them telling Hagakure they support her. Ojiro is certain Kaminari, Mineta, Kirishima, Sato, Koda, and Ashido didn't even know what had happened until Hagakure told them.
Everyone is very accepting and understanding though, embracing her identity with warmth and support and kindness, and that's all Hagakure can ask for.
Kaminari does, at one point, ask to see what she looks like, and when Hagakure says no, Yaoyorozu and Ashido reinforce her.
Ojiro couldn't be happier than he is seeing Hagakure having more support than just him, especially from the stronger people like Yaoyorozu and Shoji and Sato, who could easily protect her from someone if they try to hurt her.
Even Bakugo is accepting, although he plays it off like he couldn't give less of a shit.
Ojiro is most grateful for Todoroki, Midoriya, Kirishima, and Bakugo, though; they're easily the strongest in the class, and if any of them tried to hurt her or make fun of her, he couldn't be certain he'd stand a chance against them to defend her—because he will defend her, even if she might not need him to. He won't stand for anyone making her feel the way she'd felt when he'd first seen her, or the way her mom makes her feel.
At the end of the day, they find themselves in the common room piled on the couches.
Ojiro's on the very end, and Hagakure's practically wrapped around him, although no one else can really tell unless they're staring. Shoji sits next to her, and Yaoyorozu is on the other side of him with Jirou almost in her lap.
On another couch, Bakugo sits on one end with Kaminari at his feet, Kirishima next to him, and Ashido next to him with Sero at her feet.
Koda, Tokoyami, Todoroki, Tsu, and Ururaka are all piled on a third couch, and on the fourth sits Midoriya, Mineta, Iida, Aoyama, and Sato.
They're supposed to be watching a movie, but now there's an ongoing argument about what the best kind of pizza is, all because there was a pizza stand in the background for all of five seconds.
"Hawaiian is obviously the best, you goddamn dweebs," Bakugo snaps. "It's got everything you could want on a fucking pizza."
"No way! Meat lovers will always be elite, none of your opinions even matter," Jirou argues.
"Haha, meatlovers," Kaminari mumbles to himself, earning a few laughs out of Ashido, Mineta, and Sero.
"Nah, supreme is supreme, obviously," Sero says. Koda and Sato nod silently.
"Nuh-uh, Bakugo's right, Hawaiian is phenomenal," Ashido argues, to which Tsu agrees.
"Exactly!" Bakugo yells.
"I agree with Jirou, personally," Iida says, and Shoji and Kirishima mumble their agreement.
"Fucking how," Bakugo grumbles.
"I, for one, cannot believe any of you would even enjoy such greasy foods," Aoyama puts in.
"Shut it, French Fry, your opinion isn't even marginally valid," Jirou snaps.
"But I agree with him, pizza is really gross," Yaoyorozu says with a nervous smile.
Jirou's eyes blow wide before narrowing until she sighs and says, "Don't do this to me, Momo."
"I think cheese pizza's pretty good," Midoriya says, "only if it's got thick crust and a lot of sauce, though, because otherwise it's just hard to eat and digest and it's just not good-"
"No one cares!" Bakugo groans. "You're all wrong anyways!"
"I agree with Midoriya, actually!" Hagakure says, and Ojiro smiles at the way Midoriya smiles at her.
"Same, cheese pizza is really good," he agrees, and Bakugo scoffs.
"You only say that because you like her, Tailboy."
Ojiro shrugs. "If you say so."
"Ribbit- aww," Tsu cooes in time with Yaoyorozu and Kirishima, who adds, "so manly!"
"Pepperoni hits different though," Kaminari says. Mineta, Tokoyami, Todoroki, and Uraraka all give their various signs of agreement. "Yes! I win."
"Why the fuck do you win?" Bakugo barks.
"'Cause most people agree with me!"
"No way!" Jirou says.
"Mmhm!"
"Let's take a vote by hands," Iida settles. "Votes for pepperoni?"
Five hands go up.
"Hawaiian?"
Three hands go up. Bakugo scoffs.
"Meat lovers?"
Four hands go up.
"Cheese?"
Three hands go up.
"Supreme?"
Three hands go up.
"And none?"
Two hands go up.
"Suck it, Katsuki!" Kaminari shouts with a smug grin, only to have Bakugo reach down and blow his face up.
"Shut the hell up, dweeb."
"Bakugo!" Iida scolds.
Ojiro tunes out his rant to focus on Hagakure. Based on the way her hoodie shifts, slowly rising and slowly falling, she's fallen asleep.
While everyone is distracted, he picks her up and carries her upstair and to her room.
He lifts her blankets with one hand and places her gingerly under them with his other before tucking her in, switching off her light, closing her door as quietly as he can, and going back downstairs.
When he slides back into his place, no one seems to notice, now engrossed in a completely different argument that he doesn't bother joining.
Hagakure's okay is all he can focus on, so much so that he can't notice the smile on his face. She's got eighteen of the strongest people he knows (aside from the pros he's met in his time training to be a hero) on her side, not including him—there's not a single universe where he wouldn't be by her side.
Shoji nudges his shoulder and cocks his head with a thumbs up, probably asking if Hagakure's okay.
He nods, the smile staying strong on his face.
Hagakure's okay.