Purple Band-Aids (ShinKami)

Chapter Thirty-Three

Kaminari's mind is back and forth the whole night.

He tries to focus on the good, but his stupid mom's words keep coming back to him. And they always come back to the front of his mind when he's having the most fun.

Mr. Aizawa taught them how to play poker and how to bet. He'd also eaten a few desserts and dinner with them all before telling them not to stay up too late and leaving, messing up Kaminari's hair with a head rub.

It was so nice.

And Aizawa didn't want anything from him.

Didn't do anything to take advantage of him.

It made him feel good.

Shinso had bugged Kaminari about his present from Mr. Aizawa all night, and now that everyone was in their own dorms, minus Shinso who was in Kaminari's, Kaminari gave Shinso the bag with his presents to look at.

"He gave you money and snacks?"

The blond nodded, smiling widely.

"That, an offer for me to make money, and gave me permission to have a cat here," he smiles, tears building up.

Shinso smiles at Kaminari. "No way."

He nods. "Yes way."

Shinso laughs in disbelief and nods his head once in a sort of prideful way. "You deserved this. I didn't want to bring it up, but your mom seemed not so happy with you when we went downstairs. How- did- what happened?"

Kaminari bites the inside of his cheek nervously until Shinso puts his hands on either side of his face, squishing his face together.

"Don't do that. Aizawa got you gum, here," Shinso says, giving the blond a stick of gum.

Kaminari takes a deep breath and nods, taking the gum before unwrapping it and chewing nervously.

"I-"

"Sorry to interrupt, but remember, you don't have to tell me. Say you don't wanna talk about it, and we're good. Just definitely talk about it with your therapist."

The blond huffs a laugh.

"She basically told me she didn't believe me, that I lied, and that she knew I was gay, but my 'fake' story about what my dad did should have encouraged me to get a girlfriend instead to make it more believable," he says, laughing a bit at the end.

"Oh," he quickly adds, "then she left me crying in front of the dorms where Aizawa found me and made my day better."

He scratches at his arm as he chews anxiously to prevent himself from spiraling.

Before Shinso can even say anything, Kaminari speaks up again. "But, it's okay. My day started off great, with the date and all, and then I woke up miserable because I missed my mom, you know? And then it got better because fucking- you are so great to me, but then my mom showed up and made my day worse instead of making it better like I was hoping. And then it got better again because of Aizawa and he made things so much easier for me. I was just up and down today but it ended great."

Shinso takes all of that in as he watches the blond scratch at himself in the same spot.

"That doesn't mean you can't still feel bad about the bad parts. She's your mom, Denki. It hurts, and that's okay. You can hurt."

The blond nods, looking down with tears in his eyes, letting his arms fall to his sides. "It really does hurt," he pauses before saying, "A hug."

"What?"