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Case 1 – A headache
Hitoshi was no stranger to headaches. Migraines were a nearly unanimous experience among those with mental quirks, and not just there was one stuck in the back of his throat, as he had lived with dozens of others throughout his years in the foster care system.
The second Sero entered the classroom with his eyes half-closed, alarms went off in Hitoshi's mind. Perhaps it was the nature of years spent on the edge of narrow bunk beds, carefully covering small, teary eyes with cold cloths in the hope of relieving some of his foster siblings' pain, but he immediately realized that his classmate had a headache.
There was something strangely familiar about the trembling in his footsteps, his shoulders hunched forward, and the fresh dark circles beneath his deep-set eyes. Hitoshi wasn't particularly close to Sero, truth be told, but concern still tightened his ribs. He bravely spent half of the first class of the day (which Aizawa had given them off to work on their Heroics essays) ignoring the way the brunette hid his face in his arms, his body slumped over the desk bare of any study materials, his voice muttered in the few moments he chose to intervene in the conversation happening around him.
It was the whole-body tremor in reaction to the sound of a phone ringing that pushed Hitoshi to the other side of the thin line he would draw between the problems he would interfere with as the hero he wanted to be, and those that were none of his business. There was still the issue of lack of closeness, of course, but fortunately, extroverts liked to adopt Hitoshi, and one of them was close enough to Sero to intervene on his behalf.
hey
whats going on with the sero?
sero?
nthng
just slept badly
as far as i know
do u want me to ask?
dont tell him i asked
say you noticed he seemed a bit unwell
ok ok boss
i have migraine medication if he needs it
Hitoshi often complained about Kaminari's tendency to try to drag him to parties, meetings, conversations, and events of all kinds. It was undeniable, however, that there were some advantages to being close to the blond, if not for his remarkable tact in not meddling too much in Hitoshi's life, then for his connections.
A few rows in front of Hitoshi, Kaminari dropped his cellphone and leaned over Kirishima to speak softly near Sero's face. The brunette shook his head, then shuddered, before muttering something that must have been an affirmation, because a second later the blond skipped over to Hitoshi, a hint of concern behind the joy in his golden eyes.
Hitoshi didn't wait for him to say anything before pulling his backpack onto the table, opening the worn zipper to rummage through the bag's contents. Kaminari rolled his eyes, but didn't ask why he didn't offer the medicine himself, if he was so sure it would be accepted.
"Remind me to ask about migraines next time he don’t sleep well" he said, instead of asking any question. See? Remarkable tact. Much more than Hitoshi expected from him when he first slid over to his desk before class started to make small talk. "Even if it's just to offer some medicine."
Hitoshi wanted to ask how he was supposed to know that Sero hadn't slept well, but he didn't ask questions, even if for a very different reason than Kaminari. To avoid giving in to the temptation that tickled his throat, he focused on the contents of his backpack. Carefully, he took out the change of clothes he always carried in a small Ziploc bag wherever he went, and placed it on his lap so it would stop obstructing his view. Kaminari didn't ask about that either, or about the toiletry bag that was also quickly removed from the , or about the folder with documents that was clearly visible in the absence of Hitoshi's only notebook, or about the amount of different medicines that piled up in the blue case (including an asthma inhaler that clearly did not belong to the teenager who rode his bike to school every day).
“To offer my medicine," Hitoshi finally said, fishing two different painkillers out of the small case, which was also not a question. Kaminari gave him the same sidelong glance he always gave him whenever he made one of his strange statements.
"As if you were going to refuse," he smiled, accepting both pill bottles and turning his back to Hitoshi before he could answer.
Hitoshi stuffed the clothes and toiletries back into his backpack, keeping the case on the table while Sero swallowed a single pill of the weaker of the two painkillers offered. The dark-haired boy smiled at him when he caught him looking, and Hitoshi simply nodded stiffly in response.
When the bell rang, announcing the start of math class, Sero barely flinched.
Case 2 – A family crisis
Hanta barely noticed Shinsou excusing himself from the study group to take a phone call, too focused on interpreting a poem older than his great-grandparents to waste brainpower on anything else. He was a little harder to ignore when he marched back through the library, phone still pressed to his ear.
"I understand… of course," he said, pulling the textbook from under Kaminari's and throwing it into his backpack without even seeing Kirishima's name scribbled on the cover. On the other side of the table, Mina blinked, Shinsou's textbook in her hands. "Yes, yes. I'll be as quick as I can...Hm, an hour? If the trains are on time."
"Dude, what's going on?" Kirishima said, getting up from his chair as if he were about to run out or leap at the problem. Across the table, Kaminari was already gathering Shinsou's pens for him, because that was the kind of friend Kaminari was.
Hanta hesitated for a second, then took the notebook that Mina was offering Shinsou without response and exchanged it for Kirishima's, receiving a grateful nod in response, or the closest thing to it that Shinsou could manage while holding his cell phone with his shoulder so he could throw his half-empty pencil case into his backpack and grab his keys on the side pockets at the same time.
"I can't get here any faster than this... One second," he murmured into the phone, pulling it away from his ear. "My foster parents couldn't pick up my sisters from school, I have to go, they've been waiting for hours."
He slung his backpack over one shoulder and turned to leave without picking up his water bottle. His shoulders were stiff, and his face expressionless in a way that suggested practice rather than apathy.
"And can you pick up your sisters from school?" Kirishima asked, somewhat absentmindedly. "I thought only adults could…?"
"Do you want a ride? Would that help?" Hanta asked over Kirishima, standing up. "My brother has my parents' car today, he's at the mall nearby waiting to pick me up. I can ask him to come get you, and we’ll take you to their school or something."
Shinsou froze mid-step. Shoulders stiff, face expressionless, and no sign of conflict anywhere except for something like panic in the depths of his eyes that Hanta could only recognize because it was the look he assumed when his plans went awry during training exercises.
"I don't want to get in the way," he said, a slight falter in his voice.
"My brother loves driving around," Hanta replies, already typing a series of messages to Haruto, a mix of explanations, requests to hurry up, and concerns. "That's why he decided to come pick me up instead of me taking the subway home. It's no problem at all."
Haruto, as Hanta expected, said he would be at the U.A. gate in about 5 minutes and ignored all the explanations given. Hanta, in turn, ignored the few questions he managed to type while walking to the car, stuffing his cell phone into his sweatshirt pocket.
"Ah... If it's not a problem, I think..." Shinsou said, a bit of his inner conflict leaking into his voice, and only then did he realize he was still on the sisters' school call. "Hello? Yes, I'm here, sorry for the inconvenience. I..."
He made eye contact with Hanta while someone was speaking on the other end of the line.
"I'll be there in 20 minutes," he finally said. "Sure. Sure… Thank you very much for your understanding. See you soon."
"Here," Mina said, handing Hanta his backpack, with all his things already packed. Kaminari walked around him to put Shinsou's pens and his water bottle in the outside pocket of his bag. "Let me know if you need anything else."
When she offered help, Mina always sounded like someone who was just waiting for a call to commit murder. Hanta smiled at her, a "thank you" popping from his lips almost before he could process that she would gather his things while he and Shinsou argued.
"Let's go! My brother is on his way," He said to the other guy. His cell phone was vibrating in his pocket, which could mean two things: Kirishima thought he needed advice on how to handle the situation, or his brother was no longer driving. If he had to guess, Hanta would say that the notifications were all from Kirishima, but he still decided it was best to hurry. "See you Monday guys."
"Thanks again," Shinsou said, still with that tense-shoulders, expressionless-face, and panicked-eyes posture. "It's not that far by car, but I'm still very sorry for getting you guys involved in this mess."
"Nah, don't worry about it. Haruto would drive for hours for anyone who needed it." Hanta shrugged, distractedly glancing at the enormous, almost empty hallways to avoid scaring Shinsou even more. "Do you know why your adoptive parents didn't pick them up or notify the school?"
"My adoptive mother has a chronic illness. She never said exactly what it is, but sometimes she just... can't get up, or the medication puts her to sleep and things get a little off track." Shinsou sighs through the clearly rehearsed explanation, even in his pauses. Under the fluorescent lights, he sounds like a good actor who is tired of repeating the same lines. "The school knows about these things, so usually if my adoptive mother doesn't pick up the girls as soon as classes are over, they call my adoptive father and he sorts it out. I think he's at some important meeting at work, so he doesn't even see the school calling."
Hanta wants to ask more questions, but he doesn't want to hear any more rehearsed answers, so he spares them both the torment of explanation. He and Shinsou leave the building, stepping onto the paved path illuminated by the late afternoon sun, just before his cell phone vibrates again in his pocket, which can only mean that Haruto is no longer driving.
"I hope your adoptive mother feels better soon", he says, replying to his brother and viewing Kirishima's messages without reading them.
Ultimately, the school of Shinsou's little sisters (a 9-year-old girl with mint green hair and a chipped tooth named Teruko, and a younger 6-year-old girl with long blue hair arranged in braids named Kimiko) is in the same neighborhood as Hanta's house, so Haruto offers to take the siblings to their foster home. Before Shinsou can refuse, Kimiko thanks him politely for his kindness, with the voice of someone who has been taught to do so, and recites her address with the perfection of someone who has been forced to memorize it.
Shinsou's house is a small building painted faded orange with no plants in the yard, 20 minutes from the school where the girls studied.
Hanta spends those 20 minutes listening to Shinsou ask pointed questions about his sisters' day and laughing at his anecdotes. He remembers the names of their friends and knows who each of their teachers are, and he smiles like Hanta has never seen him smile before.
It's stranger to hear Shinsou asking questions and see him smiling than to believe he would remember the names of his 6-year-old sister's classmates. Hanta tells his brother this as they wait for the trio to close the front door before starting the car.
Case 3 – A bad grade
Hitoshi was more staring at the icy water running through his hands than washing them. The previous night had been one of the most sleepless since he began training to exhaustion, and the day was proving longer than he would have liked. Perhaps it was fatigue, or perhaps distraction, but he nearly jumped out of his skin when the bathroom door suddenly opened. In the doorway, Sero stood frozen, red eyes and tears slowly streaming down his face.
The two stared at each other, perfectly still, except for the tears that streamed persistently, until the faucet stopped spouting water. The bathroom light (as always happened when the motion detector was confused about the presence of people) flickered, turning off, on, and then off again.
"Do you want me to leave or stay with you?" Hitoshi finally asked, in the silence of the empty bathroom. Sero's cheeks flushed bright red and the bathroom lights came back on. "No judgment either way."
"It's nothing serious," he muttered, finally stepping into the bathroom to reach for the paper towels that did little to dry his face. "I just... My grade on the Ectoplasm test wasn't good enough, so I have to stay for remedial classes..."
"Ah," Hitoshi nodded, not quite sure what else to say. He looked away from the brunette, glancing momentarily at his wet hands, before deciding to continue postponing his choice of words, reaching over Sero's shoulder to grab a paper towel. The other boy's lips trembled, curving into a pout, and he took a step forward, arms open. By the time Hitoshi realizes that Sero had interpreted his advance as an offer of a hug, he had already taken a step back. "Hm?"
"Oh, damn, sorry." He backed up until his back hit the paper towel dispenser, then took two steps to the side and out of Hitoshi's way "I thought... Sorry. I didn't mean to."
"It's okay," Hitoshi replied, quickly grabbing some towels and drying his hands. "I don't mind. I'm an older brother, I'm contractually obligated to hug younger siblings who need hugs. Do you want a hug?"
"I..." Sero bit his lip, more tears streaming down his face "I'm a middle brother."
"You're younger than me", Hitoshi shrugged. "The adoption system makes us flexible with titles like that."
Sero laughed, still tearful. Above them, the bathroom light flickered off briefly, leaving them in dim light, illuminated only by the sun peeking through the small window nestled near the ceiling. Sero waved his hand above his head to secure them a little more fluorescent light.
"Do you want a hug?" Hitoshi threw away the paper towels and opened his arms. Sero nodded, slipping back into Hitoshi's personal space and snuggling his way into a proper hug. A second later, their arms were wrapped around each other, Sero's face buried in the crook of Hitoshi's neck as sobs racked him. "There, there, it's okay now. Sh..."
"I don't know why this is affecting me so much," he murmured in a trembling voice. "It's so silly..."
"It's part of life", Hitoshi said gently. "You tried really hard, but you didn't get what you wanted, and now you need a moment to recalculate your route. There's nothing wrong with that."
When the lights went out again shortly after, Hitoshi began rocking them both back and forth as he did with his little sisters. Sero laughed, tightening his arms around Hitoshi. The lights stayed on until the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch break.
Case 4 — A move
Hanta staggered under the weight of the box of clothes he was carrying. Moving into the dorms had been a complete mess, and he just wanted to throw himself on the floor and sleep. Or maybe kick and scream like a little kid until someone gathered all his things and put them away in his dorm room.
He stopped in the middle of the common room and rested one foot on the opposite knee so he could put the weight of the box on his thigh instead of his arms. He hadn't felt this weak since the entrance exams.
"Do you want me to carry that?" Shinsou suddenly appeared to ask. Hanta almost lost his balance and dropped the box on the floor, but she skillfully pulled it away from his leg. "I'll take that as a yes. What floor are you on?"
"Fifth..."
The other nodded and disappeared up the stairs, even though the dorm had an elevator. Hanta sat down and didn't follow him. As expected, Shinsou was back before he had even managed to catch his breath.
"Do you have anything else you need help carrying up?" he asked Hanta, simple and easy, despite taking a suitcase from Denki's hands without bothering to ask if he needed help with it.
"Don't you have your own stuff, man?" Kirishima asked, two 20kg weights in his arms. "Not to be ungrateful, but..."
"I move around a lot, I don't have much," Shinsou shrugged, turning to drag Denki's suitcase to his floor. "If you want help, just bring it to the common room."
Hanta nodded and stood up, despite feeling his legs tremble. He didn't see Shinsou without something in his arms or running down the stairs once for the rest of the day, but he also never had to drag his boxes for long, so he would call the mess a victory.
Case 5 — A sleepless night
Hitoshi lay down on the kitchen floor, which was cooler than the floor in his bedroom. The hallway light was on, seeping in over the marble countertop, but the kitchen light was off.
He thought about getting up when he heard the beep the elevator made when the doors were opening or closing, but he didn't do more than lift his face enough to see Sero passing on the other side of the counter and continuing on to the living room. He should go there to keep him company, but the tile was cool against his hot skin and fatigue weighed heavily on his bones, even though sleep eluded him.
Fifteen or twenty minutes later, Sero found his way to Hitoshi without him having to look for him. The kitchen lights come on, white and bright, and Hitoshi turns over onto his stomach.
"Christ the Redeemer!" Sero shouted, jumping into the air, one hand pressed against his chest and tape dripping from his elbow without any intention "God, you scared me."
"Good evening," Hitoshi muttered against the floor, unaware of the other's terror. "Doing what we agreed?"
"Too hot to sleep well", Sero replied, cutting the tape and throwing it away before opening the freezer and reaching for the ice tray. "What are you doing?"
"The floor is cold", Hitoshi replied, his forehead pressed against the
tile. "Are you sucking on ice?"
"Uh-huh," Sero nodded, an ice cube between his lips. "Want one?"
"Sure"
They sat together on the kitchen floor, talking and sucking on three ice cubes each before the sky outside the window became so bright that they both agreed they should go to bed. Hitoshi gave Sero a painkiller without being asked the next morning.
Final case – A friendship
A gentle and calm breeze rustled across the rooftop of the U.A. dorms, and Hanta watched the approaching sunset. He rested one elbow on the low wall that bordered the edge of the terrace so he could better poke one of his tape dispensers with his fingernails, which he had been putting off cutting for too long. He had forgotten to buy nail clippers to bring to the dorms, and didn't want to use someone else's, so he kept saying to himself that he would cut them when he got home, even though he knew he would forget once he was home. Knowing his mother, the next time she saw him, she would take one look at his uneven nails and cut them herself.
Behind Hanta, the door to the terrace creaked open. Shinsou approached him with soft steps and no words to say.
"Are you alright?" Hanta asked, his fingers digging into the slot of one of the tape dispensers, a gesture that most people found somewhat disturbing, but never bothered Shinsou. "I don't see you around here much."
"Midoriya was being annoying." He shrugged and leaned on the low wall next to Hanta, his chin resting on his folded forearms and his back arched. "And you always say the sunset is beautiful from here."
Hanta had never said anything about the sunset to Shinsou, but the comment wasn't all that surprising: long ago, everyone in the groups Shinsou orbited had realized that he absorbed all the conversations happening around him, no matter how distracted he seemed. So even though Hanta had never invited Shinsou to his special moment, the mere fact that other people had been invited in front of the lilac-haired boy already meant that he was more than welcome on the U.A. terrace in the late afternoon.
"Watching the sunset is always refreshing", he replied simply. "It's a great time to leave the day's problems behind."
"I think the fact that we still have hours awake before the real end of today kind of distorts your trip," the other commented, without taking his eyes off the horizon. "But it's one of your hippie principles that I don't mind pretending are true."
Hanta laughed. Shinsou liked to pretend he thought all of Hanta's beliefs were very silly, but every month he said yes when Hanta asked if he could burn incense in his room. It was kind of cute that he wanted so badly to maintain his facade as a serious, skeptical man, but couldn't deny a little bit of the divine whenever it was offered.
The sun continued to set, coloring the sky with oranges, pinks, and beautiful yellows that danced together like a little reminder that the day had actually been beautiful. The few clouds glided across the sky along with the cool breeze, letting the last of the sunlight seep into their fibers and illuminate them with rich coral tones that persisted even as the purple and infinite blue of the night cooled the rest of the colors in the sky. Hanta stopped fiddling with his tape dispenser and rested his chin on the palm of his hand. Shinsou didn't bother to move a single muscle.
"The night has its own issues, we don't need to carry the day's as well", Hanta finally replied. Shinsou snorted, which was his way of laughing. "Some burdens don't belong on shoulders."
"Who are you quoting?"
"My godfather" He laughed, and the sun disappeared completely in the seconds that his eyes closed.
"He seems like a strange man" Shinsou commented, finally standing up, two small cracks running down her spine as she straightened up. "It suits you."
"I'll tell him you said that."
"He'll take it as a compliment" The boy replied, as if he knew Hanta's godfather. He wasn't wrong. Hanta laughed again "You think I'm very funny, don't you?"
"Of course"
They left together, leaving behind the problems of the day and the first glimmer of moonlight. Neither of them realized that something would change that day, but that's how these things usually happen.