𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐄 | 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧 | ✓

𝔄 𝔇𝔞𝔱𝔢

When Shinso woke up on Tuesday morning, he sighed aloud. He was exhausted from staying up till 1 am. He'd done homework after his work shift, but then he'd spent another hour replaying his brief conversation with Monoma over and over. Thinking about it now, it nearly made him smile.

He rolled out of bed and winced as he pulled off the blood-spotted Band-Aids. He didn't bother to re-apply fresh bandages — the bleeding had stopped.

The tired boy shrugged on his uniform and ran a comb through his unruly hair. He grabbed his school bag, slipped on his shoes, and headed out the door.

At U.A., he slid into his usual seat in the second row, just in time for the first class — Literature.

"Okay, class... today is the quiz for the historical biography you were all assigned." The teacher droned on. "Your paper is in front of you, you may turn it over and begin now."

Shinso flipped the sheet of paper over and began. The Japanese characters blurred on the page. Was the answer to this one even in the book? He couldn't remember the date of the invasion... was it July 1912 or 1921? Scribbling his answer, he hoped it was right.

"Time's up. Pencils down."

Shinso had missed two questions... but he should be able to pass. So tired... I need to sleep, he groaned internally.

His next class was Japanese Kanji, which he could basically zone out through the whole thing since he'd taken a lot of classes on the traditional language in middle school, and he could already understand most of it.

Resting his head in his hands, he allowed his thoughts to wander over to Monoma. He'd said 'see you at school'. Was he just being polite, or we he actually talk to Shinso? And he'd called the purple-haired boy by his first name... did that mean anything?

The bell went off, alerting everyone that it was lunch time. Shinso stood up from his desk and headed over to the cafeteria amongst the hordes of other students. Lunch Rush heaped rice and beef strips onto his plate, drizzled with mouthwatering teriyaki sauce.

Shinso wandered over to the teacher's lounge, as usual, knocking on the door. A voice, not Aizawa's, called him in. It was Midnight, draped across the couch seductively. On the other couch, Aizawa sat next to Mic and Principal Nezu, all of them ignoring Midnight's behaviour.

"Oh..." usually the faculty room was empty. Shinso was awkwardly out of place. "Sorry to bother you." He bowed his head apologetically and turned to leave.

"Oh, no, we were just going, actually," Nezu said, getting off the couch and tottering over into the second room, a kitchen, split by a dividing paper door. Midnight and Mic followed the animal.

Shinso felt a bit bad for rushing the other teachers. To Aizawa, he said,"I'll just eat in the cafeteria." He headed for the door, still balancing his tray in one hand, but the raven-haired teacher stood up and grabbed his student's wrist. Shinso grimaced as he felt the freshly-healed cuts re-open.

Aizawa noticed the boy's expression change. "Shinso..." He gripped the student's wrist with one hand and forced his shirt sleeve up with the other. His eyes widened at the row of harsh red slits on the boy's arm. "I thought you'd stopped."

Shinso wrenched his arm away. "I did," he lied.

"Don't lie to me... please," Aizawa almost pleaded.

Shinso's usually calm demeanour snapped. "Why do you even care?" he shot.

"Everyone here cares about you, so why are you doing this?"

"They don't care about me here."

"Is it because of your quirk?" Aizawa questioned, worry filling his eyes.

"Yeah, my quirk sucks, it's a villain's quirk, but that's not all," Shinso said, pained. "Every day I have to come home at midnight to my crappy apartment, and try to take care of Mom, and manage to do my schoolwork, and I'm sick of it! I hate my life!"

Aizawa let go of Shinso's arm. His heart swelled with empathy — he'd known that Shinso's life was difficult, but the stress was obviously too much. "I... can I help you somehow?" Lame, but what could he say?

"You could leave me the fuck alone," the purple-haired boy growled. He stepped out of the faculty room and let the door bang shut behind him.

He started when he say Monoma leaning against the opposite wall. "Oh. Hey."

Monoma tried to make his face look neutral after hearing that argument. Who knew Shinso had it so bad? "Hey... what're you doing with the teachers?"

"Just... getting some extra credit," he lied.

Monoma wasn't going to call the other boy up on the fib, because he frankly didn't care. Time to get that money. He crossed the hall over to Shinso. "Any plans for after school, Hitoshi-kun?" he asked causally.

Suddenly, Shinso loved his own first name. "I have work."

"Right. When're you free?"

Shinso was ready to clear his entire schedule if needed. "I don't work on Thursdays and Sundays. Why?"

"Let's go on a date. Give me your number." Monoma pulled out his phone and hoped he sounded confident and not scared of the guy's brainwashing abilities.

Shinso took the device and punched his info into Contacts. "Here."

"How's this Thursday after school?"

Bringing a hand up to the back of his neck, Shinso nodded, trying not to look overly hyper. "Sounds good."

"See ya," Monoma gave half a wave a sauntered off.

The taller boy's heart banged inside his chest. A date? A date with Monoma?!

At the sports festival, Monoma had piqued Shinso's attention, and the purple boy had fallen hard. They never spoke, but Shinso liked the blond's unique quirk, strong personality, and obvious distaste for 1-A. He almost forgot about his argument with Aizawa. He had a date.