Unravel (My Hero Academia) [Indefinite Hiatus]

1.2 Rambunctious

A/N: The art is my own work, and for my own use.

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"Why do you play with him at recess?"

I look up from my addition and subtraction problems, a scowl already present on my face. I don't have to pry for anymore details to know who exactly he's talking about when he says "him".

"Because I want to. Because I like him and he's nice. Why do you always bully him?" I retort, solving another problem and clicking the back of my chubby mechanical pencil to expose more lead.

"Because he's a quirkless waste. He's useless in this place without a quirk like us," Katsuki responds just as easily, erasing something vigorously on his paper as he moves on to the next problem assigned.

...

The benefits of my own quirk come to my mind, prompting me to compare my abilities to Katsuki's despite Mitsuki's and our teacher's constant assurances that I have equal potential.

"...And I guess I'm human waste with such a shitty quirk..." I mutter under my breath, parroting one of the bad words I've heard Mitsuki say to herself once when she does something unfavorable and thinks she's not within our earshot.

Katsuki straightens up in his seat suddenly, looking in my direction with a sharp expression.

"What was that?" The blonde boy demands pointedly, making the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. Katsuki shivers and slaps a hand over the back of his own neck. His expression gets sharper and he makes a face. "Will you quit that?! Are you trying to play some kind of joke on me or something?!"

He didn't hear me, I think, before replaying his words in my mind and cocking my head slightly to the side in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Katsuki lifts his pencil and jabs it pointedly in the direction of the area of his neck he's covering with his left hand. "Surprise! Shivering! Emotions that aren't mine! You get it yet?"

My eyes widen in surprise, but I make a point to repress and smother it from accidentally setting Katsuki off a third time in a row. "S-sorry! I didn't-!" I start to say, only for Katsuki to cut me off with a snort of malcontent.

"What good is having a quirk you hardly know how to control...?" He grumbles, turning back to his work irritably and continuing his furious scribbling and erasing. I turn back to my own work, biting on the end of my pencil as I try to dissipate the negative emotions his words evoke.

Whatever... I think to myself.

"...Why bother being friends with someone like him?" Katsuki huffs from his desk, emotions already calmed down to a certain degree.

I frown even more, despite knowing my words could set him off again. "Mind your own beeswax," I respond, flipping my finished page over and grinning only a smidgen smugly as a blank page greets me. Just like that, my bad mood evaporates and I turn to look back at Katsuki midst him pausing to erase. Doesn't seem like my response has aggravated him, so... "I win! I finished all the problems first!"

Katsuki rolls his eyes, visibly playing off how annoyed he truly is by his defeat. He tends to forget that I can sense all his emotions all of the time, but I don't go to press his buttons by telling him that this time. Instead, I pretend not to notice.

"Whatever," he grunts, tossing me a chocolate bar from his secret candy bag stash behind his desk. I fumble to catch it, nearly missing it entirely, but managing to grab a hold of it at the end with a mild smile of relief. Katsuki makes a face. "What was that? I would have tossed you a Butterfingers if I'd have known you were so bad at catching."