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It was during class when the topics of their costumes had come up. Aizawa was well versed in what happened when they did, many spoke as costumes were revealed at the beginning of the year, but only once they began to properly get to know each other did these things stand out to them.
For example, Momo's costume. He'd seen many people with costumes similar, and many different reasons for having them. Some perverts out there may believe that she designed it for attention… or people may be concerned that the costume was designed by the support department to sexualise her.
But she really had picked the costume, and it made sense for her quirk, replacing clothing wasn't an issue either with her quirk.
Aizawa was slouched by the wall as usual when the topic had come up, many questioning Midoriya's rather obvious inspiration from All Might, or some of their classmates' blandness, or Minetas costume that looked… strange to say the least.
All normal questions and responses, that was until the conversation moved to someone he didn't expect to have a deep personal connection to a certain part of his costume.
“Kirishima! I wanted to ask, what's up with your costume?” Mina asked, leaning over to him.
“Huh? What do you mean? It's inspired by Red Riot!” The spiky red haired boy spoke happily, clenching his fist in front of him in confidence.
“But likeeee, you took some bits and changed them!” Mina said, waving her hand.
“Indeed, much like myself you took inspiration from a role model and changed your suit to match, but I believe she is wondering, why did you change certain bits and not others?” Iida asked, crossing his arms in interest.
Kirishima seemed slightly embarrassed. “I mean… I only really changed the mask a bit.. and a couple other tweaks.” Kirishima said, rubbing his neck nervously.
“Any reason why? For appearance or is it a support weapon? Kero” Tsuyu asked, interested too.
“I uh… it's not really a… happy reason, I don't want to bring down the mood” Kirishima said, seeming to shrink back on himself rather flustered.
Aizawa opened an eye at that, not like anyone would notice that he did. Kirishima was known for being confident, but Aizawa and some others had begun to pick up that he wasn't always like that, even now, there were still signs of how shy he may be used to be. Aizawa had wanted to get to the bottom of this for a while, I guess he may soon get his wish.
“Nonsense! If it is important to you, we would be honoured to hear it!” Iida said, waving his hand before continuing. “If you're comfortable with us knowing of course!”
“...I think so, you guys sure though? I really don't want to bring down the mood-” Kirishima said nervously, scratching his cheek.
“Of course!” Ochaco replied, Midoriya was clearly eager to hear, probably wanted to ask for a while for his notebooks.
No one else seemed to notice, but Aizawa had, and Bakugou seemed to actually be listening rather intensely to his friend, but was keeping his eyes and mouth shut to make it seem like he didn't care.
“So uh… when I was like- super young, and my quirk first came in, my hardening was like super weak. It's actually what gave me this scar when it first emerged!” He said casually smiling as he pointed to the small scar above his eye. “But despite that… uh, my teeth still came in extremely sharp. And y'know kids play fight a lot-”
Aizawa could see where this was going, or at least he thought he could. Kid hurt someone, but he wasn't sure how it correlated to his mask.
“During a small fight, I accidentally bit the boy I was fighting… and it hurt him really badly-” He looked embarrassed, and also upset with himself as he looked down at his hands. “After that.. my school started forcing me to wear a muzzle… my mum and dad tried to get them to stop, but they didn't listen.”
That made the class go silent, Kirishima noticed, but continued, shutting his eyes in hope of not noticing their concern.
“They took it off after Elementary School, feeling like I had stopped enough for me to be considered safe again..” Kirishima paused, looking down before looking up to see the various expressions on his classmates' faces.
Minas eyes were wide, her mouth covered by her hand, as was Momo. They both looked heartbroken to know their classmate went through that, and it was just considered normal.
Izuku and Shoji both had similar expressions, concern mixed with a slight look of familiarity, as if quirk discrimination was familiar to them. Aizawa would have to ask them later.
Bakugou's eyes were wide, staring at his best friend in shock.. and anger. He was pissed. Pissed that he hadn't known about this. That his best friend, who was always confident, or at least tried to be, was hurt by the exact type of person Katsuki knew he used to be.
“So uh… the mask is meant to be like a sorta broken muzzle, to show I won't be held back by my past anymore!” He said, smiling softly. “It's nerdy I kn-”
Kirishima didn't get to finish he sentence before Mina burst into tears, running forwards and hugging him tight, crying into his shoulder.
“I'm sorry!” Mina sobbed into his shoulder.
“Huh?- Wait, why are you sorry?” Kirishima asked, his hands going to her shoulders to pull her off slightly so he could see her face.
“I-I didn't know!- I'm so sorry that happened to you!-” She sobbed, hugging him tightly again.
“Mina- Of course you didn't know, I didn't tell you! Don't feel bad for something you couldn't have helped with even if you did know.” He said, hugging her back.
“...Kirishima.” Aizawa spoke, standing and getting out of his sleeping bag. Kirishima flinched, obviously not realising Aizawa was awake. “What Elementary School was this?”
“M-Mr Aizawa, it's alright- My mum and dad already tried to sue them, we didn't win so- I don't want to make more of a fuss.”
“The school will provide lawyers.” Aizawa glared at the boy.
“It's fine- I was fine-”
“If they will treat a child like that for a small incident, I don't believe it's safe for them to continue in the care of children.” Aizawa glared slightly at Kirishima, waiting for a name.
“B…Bakan Elementary.” He said quietly, Mina moving back slightly to give him space.
“If it helps, the Iida Family would surely be on your side during the case!” Iida said firmly, placing his hands on his hips, Momo nodded, her expression going more stern.
“As would my father.”
“G-guys you really don't have to make such a big deal out of this!” Kirishima said, smiling nervously.
“Shut it Shitty Hair.” Bakugo threatened glaring at him before elbowing him. “Just let them deal with this.”
Kirishima looked surprised at Bakugo actually agreeing with them, before smiling softly, a small blush creeping up his cheeks.
“Now! Group hug!” Mina yelled, hugging Kirishima tightly, making him wince slightly. It wasn't long before they all joined, minus Aizawa and Bakugo. Bakugo was looking away, before he felt someone grab his hand.
“Hey- get in here!” Denki grabbed Bakugos hand, pulling him into the group hug.
“Get off!-” Bakugo yelled, but joined in begrudgingly.
Kirishima looked around, his eyes trailing over his friends faces, all looking at him with smiles. He was so grateful he met them.
He closed his eyes, and the smile that had caused him so much pain when he was younger came out, loud and proud.