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It was the first day of the new school year at UA. The students in class 2A were buzzing, wondering who their teacher would be this year. There was a school wide assembly in 20 minutes, immediately following the first year orientation, and the teacher was already late. Mineta was also noticeably absent, but after everything that had happened the year prior, his parents had gotten him transferred to a different hero school, one where villains were not attacking first years every twenty minutes.
“Silence, please,” a familiar voice commanded. The students of 2A were shocked to see Aizawa stand up from behind his desk, climbing out of his sleeping bag. He crossed his arms, surveying the room. “Welcome back.”
“Aizawa-sensei, I thought you were only a first year homeroom teacher?” Ashido called out, throwing her hand in the air.
“I cannot, in good conscience, burden the other homeroom teachers with your chaos and dumbassery so I asked Nezu to move me up with you.”
“You guys, I think that’s Aizawa speak for he actually cares about us,” Kaminari stage whispered.
“You kids would be dead without me as your teacher and I don’t want to see students die.” Aizawa shot Kaminari a glare. “I will, however, be willing to make an exception if you don’t all shut up, go get changed into your PE clothes, and get your asses outside in the next 10 minutes.”
“But sir, what about the assembly?” Uraraka asked. “Isn’t it important if the whole school is supposed to be there?”
“It’s just a reminder of the rules for all the second and third years,” Aizawa said. “You all know the rules, considering this class is the reason for at least half of them.”
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“You all remember the quirk assessment test from last year?” Aizawa asked once everyone was standing outside the school. The students nodded. “We’re doing it again. I want to see how far you’ve come over break… or how far you’ve slipped. I won’t make promises about expelling you this time, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try your hardest.”
As everyone else nodded, Satou, who was standing towards the back of the room, discreetly looked down at the app on his phone from within his pocket. It read 299, and there was an arrow pointed sideways.
Satou had missed the last three weeks of the school year, due to being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and having to be in the hospital for a while. He now had a better grasp on the concept than he did at first, and he had a cgm to monitor his blood sugars now, but that wasn’t always helpful.
Sugar wasn’t what caused type 1, and it was carbs he had to be mindful of, but that didn’t mean eating a ton of sugar was necessarily a good idea when his blood sugar was so high. He had left his insulin pen inside, which wasn’t helpful, and it wasn’t like he could go ask to get it or even take a shot in front of people anyway.
Satou had never heard of a diabetic pro hero, and he didn’t want to get kicked out of UA for something he couldn’t control, so maybe he had “forgotten” to tell anyone. And maybe he silenced his cgm notifications while he was in school. Listen, he never said it was a good idea, just that it was better than being kicked out of the school that would help him achieve his dreams.
So he would have to do at least the first part of the quirk assessment… without his quirk. He hoped Aizawa didn’t expel him for this.
‘I’ll just check my sugar again once I get moving a little,’ he thought as the first test began. ‘Exercise lowers it anyway, so it should be fine by then.’
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The universe has funny ways of screwing people over sometimes. Satou learned that when he, the guy with the quirk that relied on eating sugar or sweets, was diagnosed with diabetes. This, however, was just infuriating.
He checked his cgm after every single assessment test. 287. 275. 279. 285. 290. 278. 267. 280. Out of all the times for his blood sugar to remain steady, of course it would be now, and of course it would be when he was in the high 200’s and really needed to use his quirk. Wasn’t exercise supposed to lower blood sugar, not hold it steady or raise it?
He did well enough without his quirk that Aizawa didn’t expel him, at least, but he placed 19th in the class, which was now down to only 19. As the students left the locker room and headed back to class, Satou checked his cgm one last time. 186, and the arrow was pointing straight down. Of course the exercise finally kicked in once it was too late.
And of course, by lunchtime, he was 59 still going down, and he felt it, but he kept telling himself to just hold out for the next minute until Aizawa finished talking and released them to go to the cafeteria.
“Go get lunch,” Aizawa said finally. “Satou, hang back a minute.”
Damn it.
“Do you want me to wait for you?” Kouda asked softly.
“Nah, you can go ahead,” Satou said.
If his best friend hadn’t gotten more comfortable around the people in their class over the past year and Satou was still the only one he really talked to, he might have said yes, just so Kouda didn’t have to be by himself or forced to interact with people. However, while he was still quiet, Kouda was close with everyone in the class now. He had even managed to bond with Bakugo better a few months ago, thanks to an incident where a goat had somehow gotten into the school. Satou wasn’t sure what had happened there, but he wasn’t going to question it.
“What did you need to talk to me about, Aizawa-sensei?” Satou asked, setting a hand on one of the desks and trying to steady himself. That untreated low was really catching up to him.
Aizawa came out from behind his desk holding… a juice box?
“Drink this right now before I say anything.” Satou wasn’t sure why his teacher was forcing him to drink a juice box, but the teacher looked annoyed and it would help his low, so he decided not to argue.
“I notice you didn’t use your quirk during the assessment earlier,” Aizawa said once Satou had drank the juice box. “I noticed that you kept checking something during the assessment, and I also notice that you look like you’re shaking right now after the assessment.”
“I’m just having an off day–” Satou tried, knowing it was a bad excuse.
“No, don’t start that,” Aizawa cut him off. “Listen, you moronic child, this better not be what I think it is. Did you get diagnosed with diabetes and not tell anyone?” Satou choked.
“…How did you even figure that out?” He asked in a smaller voice than even he thought he was capable of.
“Shinso from 1B is also a diabetic,” Aizawa said. “And he’s my son, so I’m used to this bullshit. Seriously, why are my kids all so stupid?” He muttered that last part.
“Wait- Shinso is your son?”
“Yes he is, but that isn’t the point of this.” Aizawa fixed Satou with a glare. “I am your teacher and I’m responsible for keeping you safe while you’re here. You need to tell me these things.”
“It wasn’t that I was low during the assessment,” Satou said before he could realize how bad of an idea arguing with Aizawa was and stop himself. “I was too high to put that much more sugar in my body.”
“Then you go in the bathroom and give yourself insulin. The next time you don’t tell me important information like this, you really will be expelled, do you understand me?” Yep, arguing was definitely a bad idea. Aizawa was mad now. “I am more than willing to make accommodations for the diabetes, as well as help you learn how to balance it while trying to become a hero, but I will not be purposely kept in the dark about things that could effect the safety of one of my students. Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes, sir.” Satou looked at the ground. He knew Aizawa was right. It was stupid to try to hide it to begin with.
“Now.” Aizawa took a breath and Satou braced himself for whatever the punishment for not telling his teacher was going to be. “I’m assuming it was a sensor of some sort you were looking at out there?”
“Yes, it was.” Satou pulled his phone out from his pocket again and showed it to Aizawa. “I have an app on here for it.”
“58? I could tell you were low, but I didn’t think it was that bad, and that juice has probably started to kick in since we’ve been talking,” Aizawa said.
“I was 59 the last time I checked…” Satou said quietly.
“And you decided to potentially risk your life by not doing anything? What was your plan to just let it keep going down if you couldn’t get lunch in time and just pass out?” Aizawa shook his head. “Nope, I don’t have the mental capacity to get going on that right now. Just… that’s a Dexcom, right?”
“The cgm? Yeah.”
“Considering this is my second year being your homeroom teacher, I know you have my email,” Aizawa said. “If you’re comfortable with it, send me the link so I can keep an eye on it and make sure you’re not being a dumbass again. If not it’s fine, but I will be asking periodically, so be prepared for that.”
“I… I’ll send the link?” It came out like a question.
“Good. Now go get lunch. That juice box isn’t going to work forever and we’re going back outside for training this afternoon.” Aizawa basically shooed Satou out of the classroom. “Are you okay to walk down or do you need someone to go with you?”
“I’m okay,” Satou said. He looked at the ground. “Um, I’m sorry for hiding important information.”
“You should be.” Aizawa waited until he could look Satou in the eye to continue, and for just a moment, Satou could see the genuine concern in his teacher’s eyes. “That quirk assessment could have gone so much worse than you just placing last.”
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It wasn’t until a week later that anything else came up. 2A was doing a team training exercise with 2B. Each person would have to partner up with someone from the other class, with the exception of two of the 2B students, who had an extra two extra people. Satou half expected the 2B pair to be Shinso and Monoma considering how few people actually tolerated Monoma and how he was one of Shinso’s only friends.
Satou was shocked when Shinso came to him.
“Let’s team up,” was all Shinso said.
“Me?” Satou looked around. “Why? We’ve never had a conversation before. Our quirks aren’t very similar either.”
“Quirks don’t matter. We all have to get used to working with people whose quirks don’t compliment ours anyway.” Shinso waved the question off. “I just wanted to see where you are learning to balance fighting and this.” He tapped Satou’s stomach where the material of his costume currently hid his cgm. “I’ve been dealing with it since I was 7, so it’s all I’ve really known. I might be able to give you a few tips.”
“Uh… sure,” Satou agreed. “I have a question though.”
“Shoot.”
“How did you know my cgm was on my stomach? Is it that obvious?”
Was it that obvious? If Shinso could see it from across the gym, could everyone else see it too? Were they going to ask questions? Maybe he could convince the support course to make his belt a little taller. ‘To carry more snacks,’ he’d tell them. That might work.
“I can see the shape of a Dexcom right above your belt,” Shinso said. “When you’ve had a sensor for 8 years of your life, you start recognizing the shape of it through tight clothes. Also, I was looking for it on purpose so I didn’t tap your thigh or anything weird like that.”
“You keep yours on your thigh?” Satou asked.
“I prefer it on my arm,” Shinso shrugged, “but thigh and stomach are the easiest places to do on your own, especially when you’re new to applying one.” Satou opened his mouth to respond, but the teachers cut him off at that moment.
“Alright, listen up!” 2B’s teacher called. “Stand with your teammate. Eraser is going to assign each team a number and we’re going to draw from a box for who goes against who.”
“Team 1 will be Jirou and Rin. Team 2 is Kouda and Shishida. Yaoyorozu and Yanagi will be team 3. Asui and Tokage are 4. Team 5 will be Awase and Komori. Kaminari and Tsubaraba are 6. Team 7 is Bakugo and Shoda. Team 8 is Uraraka and Kodai. Team 9 will be Midoriya and… Monoma? Whatever. Iida and Kaibara are team 10. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu are 11. Hagakure and Kuroiro are 12. Sero and Bondo are 13. Team 14 is Ashido and Tsunotori. Aoyama and Fudikashi are team 15. Todoroki and Honenuki are team 16. Satou and Shinso are 17. Shouji and Shiozaki 18, Tokoyami and Kendou 19, and Ojiro and Kamakiri are team 20.” Aizawa wove between the teams as he said the names. “I hope somebody on each team remembers their number because I’m not repeating myself.”
“We’re going to pull teams from a box,” 2B’s teacher explained. “There’s a doll somewhere in the facility. Treat the doll like you would an actual human child. Anything you do to it that would hurt a real child will get you disqualified and give the other team an automatic win. The first team to recover the doll and return it to the entrance wins.”
“Oh, and did we mention the robots that are going to be acting as the villains?” Satou could almost hear the smirk in his teacher’s voice. Next to him, Shinso cursed softly.
“The first team going up,” the class B teacher said, reaching her hand into a box and pulling out a numbered ball, “is team 18! Their opponent will be team 20.”
Both selected teams headed to the entrance of the training facility while the other teams went off on their own, either to discuss strategy, watch the current competition, or just to waste time until their own turn. Satou and Shinso opted to watch until it was their turn. They would strategize when they knew which team they were up against.
“Shinso, Satou,” Aizawa called from the corner when the two entered the room. He made a ‘come here’ gesture with the hand not crossed over his chest.
“What’s up, Dad?” Shinso asked.
“Hitoshi, you’re 90. Go eat something before your turn. Satou, you have the opposite problem. 204, you should probably go take some insulin so you can use your quirk without being 500,” Aizawa advised.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Shinso admitted. “Come on, let’s go in the bathroom or something.”
Shinso stood lookout while Satou did an insulin shot (3 units because he wasn’t sure how much he was going to need his quirk and he could always eat later to make up for it if he didn’t end up needing a lot of sugar), recapping the needle from the insulin pen and shoving it in his belt pocket so he could dispose of it somewhere that wasn’t going to cause a drug search in the school (seriously, insulin pen needles didn’t even look anything like drug needles, why is that always everyone’s first response?).
“Shit,” Shinso muttered, digging through the pockets in his own baggy hero costume (he had finally gotten one that wasn’t the PE uniform).
“What’s wrong?” Satou asked. Shinso groaned.
“I left my glucose tablets in my PE locker. If I give you the combination can you run and grab them for me? I don’t want to go any lower.”
“Or you could just have this,” Satou suggested, pulling a donut out of a belt pocket.
“You need the sugar for your quirk.”
“I’ve got a ton more sugary stuff including little bags of actual pure sugar. I’ll be fine.” Satou held the donut out.
“We better not lose because you run out of sugar.” Shinso took the donut after a moment. “But thanks.”
“The next groups will be 17 and 11,” Aizawa’s voice announced over a loudspeaker. “The people in those groups have five minutes to make their way to the entrance of the facility.”
“That’s us,” Satou said. “Against… Eijiro and Tetsutetsu, I think?”
“Yeah, Tetsutetsu and Kirishima,” Shinso responded, putting his hand over his mouth to cover the donut he was chewing. He gave Satou a weird look as he said it. “They’re both strong, and unless a lot has changed since last year’s Sports Festivals, they’re both a pretty even match for each other…”
“I’m not sure where you’re headed with that but I’d say Kirishima might be stronger now, just based on the fact that my class has fought actual villains so many times,” Satou said. “Plus he was one of the work study group that rescued Eri last year, and a pro hero straight up died there, so the fact that he came out with only a few injuries is also a point in his favor over Tetsutetsu.”
“Good to know,” Shinso said thoughtfully. “I think I have a plan for how we can win this.”
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The two teams stood at the starting line waiting for class B’s teacher to blow her whistle and start the exercise. Satou hoped that if Shinso’s plan failed and they lost, it would at least take longer than it had taken Ojiro and Kamakiri to lose.
“Wait a second. Shinso, Satou,” Aizawa said, “phones. Now. You two don’t need them.” He held out his hand.
“Damn, I really thought I could get away with it,” Shinso joked as he handed over his phone. Satou reluctantly gave his to Aizawa a second later, purposely ignoring Monoma’s comments about how ‘some people think they can get away with anything’.
Satou was worried about going in there and not being able to look at his blood sugar whenever. Sure, he could still feel it if he was going low from the insulin he had taken, but sometimes the shakiness that comes with low blood sugars are hard to feel during exercise.
The 2B teacher blew her whistle and both teams ran into the facility. Tetsutetsu and Kirishima turned left almost immediately, likely not looking for a fight unless they absolutely had to. Shinso and Satou continued straight for about 40 meters before turning right.
A few minutes later, they saw the white training bots guarding a doll that was about Eri’s height. It was wearing clothes that looked like they might also be Eri’s (a black t-shirt with a white picture of a cat and a pair of pastel rainbow leggings).
“And no sign of the walking boner jokes,” Shinso smirked. “Everything goes according to plan.”
“Where are you going to be?” Satou asked. Shinso looked around a minute before pointing to a metal overhang by the building.
“I’ll lay down up there. Give me a boost.”
Satou bent over and Shinso climbed onto his back. He pushed off, pushing Satou back as he jumped.
“Remember, we only get one shot at this. It needs to go perfectly,” Shinso reminded him.
“I think I see the villain bots, bro,” Tetsutetsu’s voice said.
“They’re coming from the right,” Shinso said as quietly as he knew Satou could hear. “Go!”
Satou ran down the left path, trying to keep his footsteps soft. If the other team heard him, it was game over.
“There’s the doll! Looks like we got here first,” Satou heard Kirishima brag.
“Shinso!” Satou called, running back the way he had just come. “Where the hell are you? I found the doll! I told you this was the way we had to go!” He stopped in front of Kirishima and Tetsutetsu. “God damnit, Shinso! We could have had a chance at winning this if he didn’t have to have things his way all the time.”
“You okay, man?” Kirishima asked.
‘He’s too nice for his own good,’ Satou thought.
“My partner kind of abandoned me,” he groaned. “We couldn’t agree which way to go back there, and instead of taking a minute to actually figure it out, he shoved me this way and told me to ‘figure it out on my own if I know everything.’”
“I think he’s used to doing everything alone. He can be kind of difficult to work with sometimes,” Tetsutetsu said sympathetically, though he looked on his guard.
“Tell me about it,” Satou sighed. “I wish I had picked a partner that I got along with as well as you two do.”
“Why’d you work with Shinso in the first place then?” Kirishima asked. Neither him nor Tetsutetsu made any move towards where the doll was being guarded, likely thinking they were going to win easily against an opponent with no partner.
“He asked me to and I don’t really know anyone in 2B.” Satou hesitated a moment. “Hey, Kirishima?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you sure you and Tetsutetsu aren’t actually long-lost twins or something?”
Kirishima laughed. “I’m pretty sure I’d know if we were twi-”
He stopped talking, standing straight up, eyes glazed over.
“Got him,” Shinso said, jumping down from his ledge and pulling his voice modifier down from his face.
“How-” Tetsutetsu started.
“He mouthed the question and I actually asked it. I used my voice modifier to copy his voice,” Shinso explained. “You two fell right into our little trap. Kirishima, go attack Tetsutetsu.”
Kirishima hardened his hands and ran at his partner, who just barely managed to dodge the attack.
“I got the doll!” Satou called over his shoulder as he ran towards the bots.
“Use your quirk! You’ll be fine,” Shinso called back, keeping the fight against Tetsutetsu up. Every time the steel-skinned boy tried to attack him, he would force Kirishima to block it, countering with another attack forward. Satou was right about Kirishima having an advantage over Tetsutetsu; the other boy had to harden his skin completely to avoid being injured by Kirishima’s quirk. It limited his mobility to counterattack, and despite his own strength, it wasn’t enough to get to Shinso.
Satou got as close to the bots as he could without triggering their fight mode. He closed his eyes, resisting the urge to check the phone he knew wasn’t in his pocket. He had taken insulin in the bathroom for this reason, he told himself. He would go low if he didn’t take the sugar anyway. Taking a deep breath, he reached into one of his pockets and took out three cookies and a sugar packet.
He had to be quick so as not to lose stamina. He charged at the bots, not worried about damaging them. The UA support course (or Hatsume, at least) always seemed to love the challenge of fixing and improving them. Once they were all decently out of commission (enough to not chase him, anyway), Satou picked the doll up under the arms, cradling it to his chest. He took a moment to adjust how he was holding it to be sure the only way Kirishima or Tetsutetsu would even have a chance at taking it would be to grab its leg and pull, earning them an immediate disqualification.
“Shinso, I’ve got the doll!” Satou yelled. “Let’s get back to the entrance!”
“I’m going to release Kirishima so I can run. Is it secure?” Shinso asked.
“It’s good,” Satou assured him. “Come on.”
Shinso released Kirishima from his brainwashing and ran the way they had come.
“I can’t believe we fell for that!” Kirishima shouted. He and Tetsutetsu raced after Satou and Shinso, but neither had an opening to grab the doll. They tried, but Satou made sure his arms were tight around it right up until the second they crossed the finish line.
“Good job, you two!” Class B’s teacher said.
“Next up is team 9 vs team 3,” Aizawa droned over the speaker. “Five minutes to get to the starting line.”
“That was a good trick, I’ll give you that,” Kirishima said. “Even if I thoroughly hate being brainwashed.”
“We’ll beat you next time, though!” Tetsutetsu declared.
“I’d like to see you try,” Shinso smirked. “Satou, we should probably go get our phones back.”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Hey, you guys, that was a really good strategy!” Midoriya appeared out of almost nowhere.
“Thanks,” Satou said.
“Good luck to you and Monoma,” Shinso said. “You’re going to need it.”
“What, do you really think we’re going to lose?” Monoma snapped. “As much as I hate Izuku, his stupid strong quirk is pretty hard to beat, especially combined with me in general.”
“Since when are you two on a first name basis…?” Shinso asked, confused.
“It’s a long story,” the two said in unison. Both sounded almost traumatized.
“O…kay?” Shinso shook his head. “And I was just telling you good luck because Yanagi and Yaoyorozu’s quirks actually work well together, but if you two tried to use yours together, Monoma would just break all his bones.”
“You know what? Fuck you, Shinso.” Monoma turned his head dramatically, strutting away.
“He’s such a jerk,” Midoriya mumbled.
“Not really,” Shinso replied. “I mean, yeah, he is a jerk, but not for that. He and I are friends, that’s what we do.”
“Well, whatever. Either way we have a plan for Momo and Yanagi!” Midoriya ran off to join Monoma at the starting line.
“‘Momo?’ Is all of 2A just on a first name basis?” Shinso asked dryly.
“I mean… yeah?” Satou shrugged. “We’ve all been through some stuff together, it makes sense that we’d be close. We should really go get our phones back. I feel like I need to see a number again.”
“Alright, fair,” Shinso said. “Let’s go.”
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After the joint training exercise, Shinso’s presence around the 2A dorms became a common occurrence. Nobody else was quite sure why, or how he and Satou had suddenly gotten so close, but they never questioned it in front of Shinso himself, anyway.
Shinso did learn from these hangouts that yes, 2A was all on a first name basis with each other. They were closer than a normal class of high schoolers would be, but they had all been through more than a normal class of high schoolers would have been too. Like Satou had said, it just makes sense that they would be close.
They never seemed to mind Shinso just coming in basically whenever he wanted, either, as long as someone else was there with him, obviously.
“I’m exhausted,” Shinso declared one afternoon, plopping himself face-down on a couch where Satou sat. The others in the common room gave him weird looks, which, considering his head was literally in Satou’s lap, was fair, but again, nobody said anything. He sat up anyway.
“Why?” Satou asked, unphased by the invasion of his personal space.
“Insomnia was a bitch and I was awake until 2:30, then at 3:00 I got a text that was meant for you because I think he still has the alarm tones the same,” Shinso explained. “It took me another hour to get back to sleep, and then at 4:15 I got another text that really was meant for me, and by the time I was done stuffing my face with sugar, I was awake for the day.”
“I mean, if it’s any consolation, I got your text at 4:15 too,” Satou said.
“He really needs to change the sounds for one of us.” Shinso leaned against Satou and closed his eyes. “I know I’m a sleepless gremlin half the time anyway, but I do like to sleep when my insomnia isn’t acting up.”
The others gave them more confused looks, but again, did not say anything.
The front door of the dorms opened, and Aizawa walked in with… Nezu and the Class B teacher?
“Shinso,” Aizawa said. The purple-haired boy opened one eye.
“Hmm?”
“Sit up a minute.”
“Am I in trouble?” Shinso asked, opening his eyes at the stern tone and doing as he was told. Whispers went through the room, the members of 2A trying to figure out what Shinso might have done.
“No, nothing like that,” Class B’s teacher said. “You’re being transferred to class A.”
“What?” Shinso blinked. “Why?”
“We need to even out the classes,” Nezu told him calmly, “and you seem to spend half your time here anyway. You were also the last one to be put in 2B, so it makes sense for you to be the one moved.”
“I also thought it might be easier with the diabetes and everything if you were in your dad’s class,” 2B’s teacher continued.
“Wait, Shinso, Aizawa-sensei is your dad?!” Ashido’s mouth hung open.
“You have diabetes?” Midoriya asked.
Shinso cursed his teacher and her big mouth. Was it really necessary to tell everyone all that?
“Fine,” he said. “I’ve moved classes once already, I can do it again. Why wait a whole month, though? Like, why not just do it at the beginning of the year?”
“Paperwork,” Aizawa said simply.
“Of course,” Shinso sighed. “Monoma’s going to flip when I tell him. I almost want to go do it right now just to get a reaction.”
“There’s nothing wrong with Shinso joining this class, is there?” Class B’s teacher asked, addressing the other students, who had been uncharacteristically silent besides the two questions.
“Of course not!” Iida chopped his hand. “None of us have any problem with Shinso that I know of.”
“He’s a loser, but maybe not as much as some of the extras in this school,” Bakugo grumbled. It was high praise, coming from him.
“At least he’s not going to be the next Mineta,” Asui said.
“Yeah, he took things too far sometimes,” Kaminari admitted.
“Obviously.” Jirou smacked him upside the head. “We left him out of the group for a reason.”
“Ow…” Kaminari gave her a pathetic look. Jirou rolled her eyes and patted him on the head.
“So it’s settled then,” Nezu declared. “Shinso, you move into the dorms this weekend.”
‘I wonder how Aizawa-sensei feels about having both diabetics in one class now,’ Satou thought.
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That weekend, 2A decided that they were going to have a sleepover in the common room the day Shinso moved into the dorms. They all seemed way too excited to have him in the class, or so Shinso thought.
“These sleepovers are kind of… normal?” Satou explained. “We did one every other week for the last few months of last year.”
“You realize how that is the opposite of normal, right?” Shinso asked. “Like, normal classes aren’t so attached to each other that they’re all on a first name basis and they all have sleepovers every other weekend.”
“A lot of stuff we do is less normal than this. You’ll find that out soon enough,” Satou said.
“I feel like I should be scared. Am I being brought into a cult or something?”
“I mean, Fumikage likes to call us one sometimes…”
“Fumikage?” Shinso looked confused.
“Tokoyami,” Satou corrected himself. “You’ll get used to hearing our first names.”
“Right…”
“Anyway, this is my first sleepover since my diagnosis,” Satou admitted, changing the subject. “I’m not sure what I should do so I don’t go low and have anyone find out.”
“Wait, you still haven’t told your class about your diabetes?” Shinso looked at him like had grown a second head. “So you’re telling me… that you’re on a first-name basis you’re your whole class and you guys have regular sleepovers for bonding time… and you still can’t tell them you have diabetes?”
“It’s… I mean, I can’t just… Well, they’d…” Satou fumbled for an excuse. He gave a defeated sigh. “I’m worried about what they’re going to say, okay? Best case scenario, everyone goes ballistic on me for not telling them before.”
“I mean… they would have every right to. I’m not sure what your weird relationship with them all is, and quite frankly, I don’t care,” Shinso said, holding up a hand, “but what if something happened when you were with one of them. What if you passed out or something and they didn’t know what to do?”
“What did class B do when you told them, then?” Satou crossed his arms.
“Most of them asked me a million questions and Monoma and Kendou stayed up for two days straight researching diabetes so they would know what to do in an emergency,” Shinso said in a deadpan tone.
“Monoma did that?” Satou asked.
“He did, because believe it or not, he actually does care about people besides himself. That, and he’s my best friend, so of course he’s going to want to make sure I don’t die. Now stop changing the subject,” Shinso scolded. “You’re telling them at some point tonight, I don’t care.”
“…fine,” Satou sighed. Someone knocked on the door to Shinso’s room, where they were currently standing.
“Enter,” Shinso called. The door opened and Sero poked his head into the room.
“Are your two coming or what?” He asked.
“We’re on our way now,” Satou assured him.
“Great. Shinso, bring a blanket and a pillow,” Sero told the brainwasher, “because we have a bunch down there, but they all go into a ‘blanket nest’ of sorts, and I don’t think you want to spend the night cuddled up to half the class.”
“I do not. Thank you for telling me,” Shinso said. He grabbed a pillow and a black fleece blanket with sleeping cats on it from his bed. “Let’s go, I guess.”
When they got to the common room, there was, indeed, a giant pile of blankets and pillows on the floor. Asui was already buried under part of the mountain, cuddled up to Todoroki’s right side, for whatever reason.
“Ah, welcome to the sleepover, Shinso!” Iida said when he saw the three come downstairs.
“Listen up, dumbass.” Bakugo got in Shinso’s face. “This is about getting to know each other. If you don’t want to participate, you can go the hell back upstairs right now and we can all stay down here and have fun.”
“Katsuki!” Yaoyorozu chided. “Be nice!”
“I don’t fucking do ‘nice,’” Bakugo snapped.
“Then be civil at least,” Yaoyorozu scolded.
“What is it that you want me to participate in?” Shinso asked.
“We’ve got a bunch of games planned,” Aoyama assured him. “That’s all.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure why Kacchan is making it sound like we’re initiating you into a cult or something,” Midoriya said.
“Alright, I’m good with games,” Shinso sighed. “Let’s get this sleepover started if we’re going to.”
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By 3:30, everyone was asleep. Some of 2A would have stayed up later, but Iida insisted that they at least attempt to get rest. True to what Sero had promised, everyone except Shinso was cuddled up somewhere in the large blanket pile. Even Bakugo was in the pile, though he had chosen a spot towards the edge so he didn’t have to have too many people all over him. The only person close enough to actually be touching him was Kirishima, who was basically using one of Bakugo’s thighs as a pillow.
Satou currently had Kaminari’s head on one of his arms, as well as Ojiro’s tail flopped over his chest. He looked at Shinso, who had chosen a spot near enough to the pile to not feel completely left out of the sleepover, but far enough away to give him personal space.
Satou felt shaky, and he knew his blood sugar was going low. He didn’t want to have his cgm beep and wake everyone up, so he knew he had to get up himself. He did his best to go slow as he slid out from under the two who had parts of their own bodies laying on his. Kaminari immediately wrapped his arms around Ojiro’s tail, needing something to cling to while he slept. He played with Ojiro’s tail a lot while he was awake, so Satou knew Ojiro wouldn’t mind.
Satou made his way towards the kitchen as quietly as he could, opening the refrigerator and grabbing juice to pour for himself. He was careful to shut the door slowly so it wouldn’t make any noise. He did the same with the cupboard when he got a glass for the juice, and with the glass itself when he set it on the counter. He was even careful to pour the juice quietly, paranoid that someone would wake up. Being thirsty in the middle of the night would be easy enough to explain away, but that didn’t mean he wanted to wake everyone up.
Six loud beeps echoed through the room.
Satou’s heat pounded as everyone in the blanket pile sat up straight, looking around for what might have made that sound. They all looked on their guard, no doubt thinking the alarm meant a villain was attacking or something. Satou knew now that he would have to explain the beeping to them, as he had still not told everyone else about his diabetes.
It was stupid, but he didn’t want them to worry or think he was weaker because of it. He was also afraid one of his classmates would think it was contagious or something when it wasn’t and refuse to be around him the same way anymore. Not only would that change his whole relationship with one of the people who he cared about, but it would also put strain on the rest of them. He didn’t want to be the reason the class 2A dynamic no longer worked.
Shinso sat up slowly, pulling his phone to him.
“Oh, shit,” he said with a yawn, “that’s me. Sorry guys, my blood sugar is low.”
That seemed to relax most of the rest of them.
“You should go get food for your blood sugar quickly!” Iida said, entirely too loud for nearly 4:00 in the morning.
“I’m getting myself juice if you want some?” Satou suggested.
“Sure.” Shinso strolled into the kitchen at a leisurely pace. “How come you’re up so late anyway?”
“I was thirsty,” Satou answered too quickly.
“Ah. Right.” Shinso nodded as he poured his own glass of juice. He gave Satou a disapproving look.
“Can we all just go back to sleep?” Tokoyami yawned. Dark Shadow popped their head out from Tokoyami’s side.
“Or can we have food?” The quirk asked.
“Dark Shadow!” Tokoyami scolded.
“What? I’m hungry!” If a shadow could pout, they were definitely doing it now.
“It is the middle of the night!” Tokoyami had a silent glare-off with his quirk. In the end, he must have won because they retreated back into his body.
The sound of another six beeps filled the room.
“Shinso, is there any way to turn that off?” Hagakure asked, leaning back against Shoiji tiredly. “Like, not completely obviously, but until your blood sugar is a problem again?”
“I did that already,” Shinso said, taking a sip of juice. “That wasn’t mine.”
“But that was the same sound your sensor thingy made,” Midoriya said. “Which means…”
“There’s an impostor among us. Who seems the most sus?” Todoroki asked in a serious tone.
“What? No— Who the fuck taught Icyhot how to play that game?” Bakugo demanded.
“It was my older brother,” Todoroki said. “He said he wanted to get to know me and I’m pretty sure he made me play with the League of Villains.”
“Okay, sweetie, we’re not going to unpack all that right now…” Yaoyorozu sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Can we please just figure out whose phone was beeping a second ago?”
“It was mine,” Satou said quietly. He went to grab his phone, completely unsurprised to see this 67 that was on the screen.
“But if Shinso’s phone was beeping because of his diabetes,” Shouji said, “does that mean you also have diabetes?”
“Why the hell didn’t you think to tell us sooner, you goddamn donut?!” Bakugo demanded.
“I didn’t want to be treated like I was weak ,” Satou admitted.
“Honestly I’m just impressed you kept it a secret for so long considering how we all barge into each other’s rooms at random and everything,” Asui croaked.
“…You guys do what?” Shinso asked.
“We won’t do that to you, don’t worry,” Uraraka assured him.
“Rikidou.” Satou turned to see that Kouda had been the one to speak up in a very small voice. He was getting better about talking around his classmates, but Shinso wasn’t really someone he was as comfortable around as the rest of them. He usually stuck to sign language when he wasn’t comfortable with people, knowing someone from his class would interpret for him if whoever he was talking to didn’t know sign language on their own. Whatever he wanted to say must have been important.
‘We all care about you. Nobody thinks you’re too weak to be in the hero course.’ Kouda had switched back to his usual sign language.
“Yeah, what he said!” Ashido threw herself at Satou, jumping up behind him and wrapping her arms around his neck. He stumbled to not fall over.
“And if we try to ‘baby you,’” Shouji put the words in air quotes with four of his six hands, “it’s because we care about you. It’s no different from, say, us reminding Momo to eat after training, for example.”
“It gets annoying at times,” Yayorozu said, “but it’s nice knowing there’s people who care.”
“Thanks, you guys,” Satou mumbled.
“Told you they wouldn’t care,” Shinso whispered from next to Satou.
“Well, I’m not sure what I just witnessed, and quite frankly, I don’t think I want to know.”
Everyone turned around to see Aizawa standing by the door that led to his own room in the basement.
“You both need to do something,” he said, pointing to Satou and Shinso.
“We’ve both got it already,” Shinso said, holding his glass of juice up. Satou nodded, taking a sip of his own glass.
“Drink that and then go to bed,” Aizawa said. “I don’t care if it’s a school night or not, the entire class does not need to be awake at 4:00 in the morning.”
Everyone went back to rebuild their blanket pile, leaving Satou and Shinso to finish drinking their juice.