✰keep your cool!

✰Chapter Seven: USJ? More like US-GAY

"I tend to speak what's on my mind. Midoriya-chan, Kanazawa-chan, are you two dating?"

Jun blinks owlishly at Asui before lurching forward in their seat and groaning in despair. They feel Mina pat their back comfortingly as Jirou cackles, the traitor she is. Izuku sputters from where he's sitting in between Momo and Ochako.

"Well? Are you?" Asui prods with a head tilt and a little ribbit. Jun peeks up at her through their bangs and glares without much heat.

"Not yet," they hear Jirou mutter under her breath, and they immediately sit up for the sole purpose of spitefully poking her in the cheek.

"N-no, Asui-san, we're not, um, dating," Izuku manages to gurgle out, his cheeks so red that his freckles almost blend into his face. He ignores Asui's attempts to get him to call her Tsu. "We're just. Really Good Friends! Yup!"

"Trauma bonding makes for strong friendships," Jun's unfiltered self agrees before they realize what they just said and bury their face in their hands. "Jirou, can you do me a favor and fucking kill me?"

Several of their classmates laugh at their suffering, and Jirou snorts and pokes them with one of her earphone jacks. "And lose my greatest source of entertainment? Pass."

"Minami?" Jun asks hopefully.

"Nope!" Mina shakes her head with a grin. "I still need to meet your pets, so I can't put you out of your misery just yet."

"No mercy killings," Aizawa calls dryly from the front of the bus that's currently taking them to a Mystery Field Trip. "Now, get ready; we're pulling up to our destination."

When they arrive, Jun almost gets trampled due to their classmates' eagerness to get out of the bus. They can't help but think that the outside of the USJ is pretty dull, but it's a whole different story once they all get inside. Jun is a bit in shock, honestly. There's . . . a literal fucking mountain? Just sitting inside this facility? What?

Then Jun's mind goes blank other than the sounds of excited screeching as Pro Hero Thirteen (!!!) greets them. They try to listen to the Hero's speech, they really do, but they're just so happy to finally meet one of the only (confirmed) genderqueer Heroes. It doesn't help that Thirteen is so freaking cute and friendly, too! And their voice sounds really nice . . .

That's it, Jun's going to die of Gay before the end of this trip, it's confirmed.

Suddenly, they're pulled out of their Gay Brain™ by Izuku grabbing onto their forearm. "Sensei," he says, voice audibly shaking, and Jun's eyes snap to where he's staring with panic in his gaze, their previous thoughts left behind. "What's going on?"

Jun can't tell what the swirling, purple mass in the center of the USJ is, but when Aizawa looks, he clearly recognizes it as . . . something. A bad something, to be precise, judging by how he curses and shifts into a fighting stance, alarming Jun and the rest of the students.

"Thirteen, protect the students," he barks out. "Those are Villains. Real Villains."

Aizawa then jumps down into the mob that has just poured out from the purple thing, which Jun now realizes is a portal. As they all watch their teacher take on dozens of Villains alone, Ochako presses her hand against her mouth, and Momo's hands tremble at her sides.

Jun's vision blurs dangerously, and for the first time in years, they feel pinpricks of pain explode across their face, the stinging concentrated in their scar. Their breathing picks up speed, and they feel like they're nine years old again (NONONO), and suddenly blood is rushing down their face, their throat is hoarse from crying, their mother's still warm corpse (she's-dead-she's-dead-whydidsheleaveme--) is weighing them down.