Chapter Text
On the bright, spring day one Shinsou Hitoshi matriculated into the “nightmare class” (according to the local news), Class 2-A, members of the self-proclaimed Bakusquad held an emergency pack meeting just two hours after the teen in question settled into the dorms.
“Alright!” Mina clapped her hands as she stood before the five members of their pack. Two of their pack-adjacent—Momo and Jirou, who preferred to drift around as a couple—were elsewhere, and thus couldn’t join in. “Let the pack meeting commence~.”
“Didn’t we just have a meeting last night?” asked Hanta, raising an eyebrow, as he looked up from his phone.
“Yes,” said Mina, placing her hands on her hips, “and now, we’re having another one!” Before anyone could ask more questions or interrupt, she quickly added, “It’s about Shinsou!”
With that, she had the immediate attention of the rest of the room. If she were anyone else, she may’ve startled at the intense gazes—but her name wasn’t Ashido Mina, the Alien Queen, for nothing, after all! Besides, as she was the head alpha of their little pack, she was quickly becoming used to the weight of everyone always looking to her for guidance.
In the beginning, it caused her to have many nights wide awake, stomach rumbling with anxieties that felt like a snake coiling tight beneath her ribs. Now, with much more experience than any other second-year hero trainee (thank you, League of Villains – but not), she doesn’t waver. Her stomach doesn’t quake with nerves (okay, maybe a little bit, but who could blame her?).
“What about Shin-chan?” came Denki’s eager question. If he had a wolf-quirk, fit with the ears and all, they would be wagging like crazy right now. Out of all of them, Denki was definitely the most . . . eager when it came to Shinsou. Not that they could blame him, though. The teen yelped a moment later from Katsuki’s flick to his forehead. “Ow, Kacchan, the hell!?”
“Let her fucking speak, and we’ll find out,” Katsuki barked out, though they could all sense that there wasn’t any real bite to his words.
Denki pouted dramatically, but he soon settled and returned an expectant gaze to Mina, who only chuckled at their antics.
“Right – well, before we really get started, is there anyone who doesn’t want Shinsou to be in our pack?” Mina questioned since it was important to know, after all. This meeting would primarily be about how to properly court Shinsou to join them. As expected, no hand rose nor were there any negative comments—though perhaps that had something to do with the expression on Denki’s face was that ‘if anyone says no, I will wither away from the heartbreak alone.’ Or Katsuki’s rather impressive glower. Mina snickered, but another genuine smile tugged at her lips. “Okay, great!” She clapped her hands and jumped from the excitement. “Let the brainstorm begin~!”
They all broke out into chatter immediately.
“I think we should go old-fashioned or something—?”
“—How about Shin-chan and I go on a date—!”
“—do you think we’ll scare him off or something because he’s a bit—?”
“—think a date would be AMAZING, and—!”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Katsuki’s left eye twitched. Some innocent sparks popped from his palms, though merely a stress relief rather than any intent to use his quirk. Mina hoped they could get through this meeting without quirk use—her rug was still charred from last week. “I CAN’T HEAR MYSELF THINK.”
“Well, we can certainly hear your voice,” snarked Hanta, always one to have the last word when it came to their loudmouthed pack member.
As expected, Katsuki snarled and turned towards the only omega (so far) of their pack. No one batted an eye at the apoplectic expression. By now, they knew the worst Katsuki would do would be a wrestling match or something similar. “I will fucking kill you, Tape for Brains—!”
“Watch your blood pressure, Kats!”
Eijirou entered the scene like an avenging angel, wrapping an arm around Katsuki’s waist and dragging him back down to the floor. Nothing caused Katsuki’s rage to sputter out than a snuggle by one of his partners. It was a loophole they all lovingly exploited any chance they could.
“Fuck my blood pressure—!”
Mina burst into laughter at their antics, curling her arms around her abdomen. She had to lean against Hanta, who was closest to her, for support. Once her laughter had faded, and she managed to regain control over her breathing, the fervor had gone down to a low simmer.
“Seriously, though,” Mina said after another fading chuckle, reaching to wipe some tears from her eyes. “Let’s actually think of a plan or something—and no, Denki, we’re not going to publicly serenade him with Pre-Quirk 80s music.”
Denki deflated at the rejection, leaning his face against one of Mina’s textbooks that were on her coffee table, whining like a pup, “But it would be so romantic—!”
“It would make him run away,” said Hanta, though much kinder than Katsuki would’ve been, and reached over to pat the blond on his head. “Literally.”
“He’d probably transfer schools,” said Eijirou.
Katsuki snorted at that. “After he fought blood, tooth, and nail just to get here? No way in hell—but he would avoid the fuck outta us outside of class.”
Which, of course, would be the opposite of what they wanted.
Mina hummed for a moment, her own thoughts swirling with a variety of plans. There were many ways they could court and bring someone into their pack—but they weren’t just bringing someone into their pack. They were bringing in a potential partner. Not all packs were polyamorous, of course, but the Bakusquad was. It was just how things fell in line, all those months ago, when, much like the rest of the class, they were figuring out where they belonged and what roles they had to play with one another.
As the self-proclaimed Bakusquad (even though Katsuki vehemently denied the name), there hadn’t really been a need for a courting period. They had all just – fallen in with each other, and all those pieces clicked. Sure, there were some ups and downs, especially with Katsuki as he struggled with no longer being in a leader role like he had back in middle school, but they made it work. They made it easy.
Thus, they were all way out of their depths.
“What ideas do you got, Hanta?” Mina asked their resident omega.
He wasn’t the ‘pack omega,’ despite being the only one of that dynamic in their pack. Back when they were still solidifying their roles and places in the pack, Hanta had made it adamantly clear that although he was an omega, he didn’t have the patience to be the pack omega, and they’d just have to ‘deal with it.’ Neither of them minded, of course, and Hanta seemed to fit perfectly in his role as both a mediator and her Left Hand.
People often thought Katsuki or Eijirou were her Left Hands—but it was Hanta. Sweet Hanta whom no one would ever expect to get his hands dirty for their pack.
Hanta adopted a considering look and placed his hand under his chin, pensive. “I think . . . we should go a mix of slow and fast,” Hanta said after a moment of quiet. “We should go traditional, especially since we don’t really know much of Shinsou’s history with other packs. All we know is that, currently, he’s, well . . ..”
He trailed off, but they all knew what he would’ve said.
Stray.
It was a common word to describe someone who didn’t have a pack or weren’t even considered pack-adjacent, like how Yaoyorozu and Jirou were to their pack (they were considered drifters). The more polite term would be “Wanderer.” Some people would use it as an insult whereas others wore it as a badge of pride. From what Mina observed, Shinsou wanted to be part of a pack, but he likely believed he didn’t deserve to be in one.
Any alpha (or delta, even) worth their salt would be able to sniff that out.
“Sounds good to me,” said Denki even though, just previously, he had been an ecstatic advocate for jumping right into things, feet first and no plans whatsoever. But—that was just how Denki worked. He leaned over to Hanta, pressing his cheek against Hanta’s head, rumbling softly in his chest. “That’s our Hanta~.”
Hanta purred and leaned into the touch. Hints of their scent—the rain and lightning of Denki, the quiet citrus and vanilla of Hanta’s—dribbled from their glands as they scented one another. Mina, never one to be left out whenever a scenting was going on, reached over to rub the pads of her fingers and inner wrist along their hair, coaxing along her own strawberry and basil pheromones.
“Perfect idea,” she praised because as they had learned from Midnight-sensei’s very informative lectures on pack dynamics and roles, praise was important for omegas. For any of the other dynamics, really, but even more critical for an omega. “Where should we start, though?”
It was a question for all of them, not just Hanta.
Katsuki leaned more against Eijirou’s side, not that the redhead complained, and huffed. “Start with a courting breakfast, duh.”
Mina blinked owlishly. “Courting breakfast?”
Katsuki rolled his eyes, but there was no heat behind it. Mina playfully chuffed in response, though her smile and scent showed there was no rebuke on her end. She wasn’t like one of those old-fashioned Head Alphas who believed they should have complete authority, and pack members should always show their deference regardless of the situation.
“It’s one of the oldest courtship rites that a head alpha— or any pack member, really— could do for a prospective pack member,” Katsuki explained, his tone launching into his ‘Shut Up and Let Me Explain Shit’ tone he always tended to use during their many tutoring sessions. “Basically, one of us makes breakfast for the pack as usual except we make and offer a plate to Shinsou before he’s eaten anything.”
Hanta perked up, then. “Ooh, I remember learning about that from my grandpops—something about showing how the pack would be able to provide for the member and take care of them.”
Mina rubbed her hands together like some comical B-rate villain in a terribly made horror film. Ooh—idea for one of their movie night dates, but—not the time, Mina! “Amazing~ -- wait, do we even know what he likes for breakfast?”
“Pancakes,” Denki answered immediately, and the brief silence that followed caused him to awkwardly cough and blush, burrowing his head behind Hanta’s neck. “Don’t give me those looks!”
“God, you’re obsessed,” muttered Katsuki.
Denki poked his head up and blew a raspberry in Katsuki’s direction. Katsuki, still being cuddled against Eijirou’s side (even though he would deny they were cuddling), only flicked Denki off.
“Let’s keep things civil, babes,” Mina snorted, and then started to look for her whiteboard and markers. She had many, just for these purposes in fact, and soon returned to her table with one whiteboard and a purple marker. “Alright – step one . . . make Shin-chan breakfast . . .” she scribbled it down in her best penmanship. “What else?”
“Giving food aside from breakfast seems doable,” added Eijirou as he rooted through his mind for ideas and knowledge about traditional rites. They could probably just goggle it, but sometimes, it was just better to put their heads together first. “Er – maybe inviting him to do things with us, like our movie nights or game nights?”
“Love it!” Mina added them to the whiteboard, and then made an excited noise as she thought of an idea.” OMG – wait, would it be weird if we gave him gifts?”
“Nah,” said Hanta, shaking his head—well, as much as he could with Denki right at one of his scent glands. “It’d be weird if we didn’t get him any gifts, y’know?”
“Okay, sweet. What kind of gifts though?”
“Well, I don’t think any of us can afford, like, Versace or something,” Hanta chuckled out. Perhaps Katsuki could, given his parents were both fashion designers, but the teen was quite frugal with his money. “But, like, small things that Shinsou likes—.”
“Like mystery thriller and fantasy books, anything with cats on it,” interrupted Denki, no longer embarrassed by his treasure trove of knowledge when it came to one Shinsou Hitoshi. “Pokémon, too, but only of Rowlett or the Alolan Vulpix, and—.”
“Hold on, hold on!” Mina yelled out, trying to jot everything down. “I can’t write that fast!” Thankfully, Denki quieted and patiently waited for Mina to give him the go-ahead. Which she did, just a few moments later.
Denki began to count down from his fingertips. “Let’s see – anything purple and ‘cute,’ like plushies or cartoonish stuff, and also lip gloss—speaking of, he took my cherry one, I need to get that back, it’s expensive—”
“Focus, Sparky!”
“—Right, right, um . . . anything related to Studio Ghibli merch he would kill for, any Aizawa-sensei or Mic-sensei merch—but Aizawa-sensei merch is key, since it’s like so limited and rare—um, also vinyl records of Pre-Quirk R&B, though there’s only one store in Tokyo that even sells those, and it’s not even Kyouka-chan’s—.”
Hanta laughed. “Of course, you know that.”
“Oh, shush, like you’ve never stalked a crush before,” Denki refuted with a huff, pouting so dramatically he reminded Mina of a chipmunk with stuffed cheeks.
Unable to resist, she cooed and teasingly pinched those squishy cheeks as god intended. “Pouty baby~,” she teased.
“More like, pouty menace,” said Katsuki, and they all laughed.
Denki’s pout became even more dramatic. Mina hadn’t thought that was even possible. “Stop teasing me! I’ll complain to corporate!”
Mina giggled. “I am corporate!”
Pretending to melt against her carpeted rug, Denki protested. “Illegal! Where’s your paperwork, madame?”
“In my ass,” said Mina.
Quiet, and then—
Denki laughed and wheezed so hard that electric sparks sputtered from his nostrils. Her lights flickered in response. Hanta couldn’t even make a noise given the hard laughter shaking his body. He hit her table multiple times as if to regain composure, but it certainly wasn’t working. Eijirou was doing one of his high-pitched cackles that made him sound as though he were a mad scientist, further spurring along more laughter just from the mere sound alone, and even Katsuki couldn’t resist laughing.
Mina herself was also on the floor, laughing almost uncontrollably. What could she say? She was hilarious, and anyone who thought otherwise just didn’t have a funny bone in their body.
They were loud enough that Mina was mostly surprised Iida hadn’t come over demanding them to be quiet. Then again, their Class President likely knew those reprimands were a lost cause when it came to their group and gave up. Understandable, really.
“Alright, alright, let’s – let’s calm down,” Mina managed to say after another round of laughter, reaching for one of her lavender-scented tissues. Laughter really was the best medicine—but god, it made her ribs hurt sometimes. It took another few minutes for them to regain their composure. “Okay, so – we’ve got breakfast, snacks and gifts, and hangouts . . . anything else to add?”
Eijirou and Denki both shrugged.
“Not sure,” Hanta said. “I guess, just – go with the flow?”
“Good to me,” Mina chirped out, and then looked at their resident bombshell. Literally. “Kats?”
“Scenting,” he said after a moment of quiet. “Not like being obnoxious with it—subtle ‘n shit like that . . . but not right away. Well,” he amended, “Sparky might be able to get away with it, since he’s closest to Shinsou than the rest of us.”
Denki fist-bumped the air. “Yes! I love being me!” He then sputtered as Katsuki reached for one of her many decorative pillows and threw it at his face. “Foul!”
“You’ve got my seal of approval,” said Mina, not even batting an eyelash at Denki’s protests nor the way the teen threw the pillow back. It managed to hit Eijirou square in the nose, instead. “Okay – we start our plan tomorrow—meeting over!”
Once those words had been spoken, Katsuki immediately launched onto the offense and lunged for Denki. Attempting to shuffle out of range, but hindered by his laughter and squeals of protest, Denki soon found himself in a scuffle. Hanta only scooted away from the wrestling pair, likely not in the mood for a play fight. Eijirou, always supportive, just cheered them both on.
Mina only snickered and tucked the whiteboard away, not wanting it to get smudged. Then – when the scuffle nearly tipped over her lamp – she barked out, “Don’t break my shit!” and then decided to join the fray when Katsuki decided to flick her off, needing to defend her ‘honor.’ Teasing snarls, growls, nips, and flailing limbs were soon all she could see and hear.
Denki somehow managed to yank at one of her horns, causing her to kick against the small of his back. In response, some of Katsuki’s harmless sparks skidded across her skin. She rolled over the teen and straddled him, leaning down to give a teasing nip to his ear.
. . . Shinsou wouldn’t even know what hit him.