False Heroes

You Haven't Thought About Kissing Your Best Friend?

It was a week later, on a cool Thursday afternoon, that Shinsou realized he had never kissed anyone before.

Well, obviously, he hadn't kissed anyone. Asui was his first girlfriend. He hadn't even really thought of kissing anyone before-- besides from Kaminari, of course, but that was totally different. How, Hitoshi had no idea. He just convinced himself that it was.

But that also brought him to another thought: should he kiss Tsuyu? Just thinking about it made him internally cringe, but that was what people who were dating did, right? He frowned. He didn't really want to kiss her. Not like how he wanted to kiss Denki. But his thoughts should not have been going there right now.

Maybe kissing Asui wouldn't be that bad. Maybe Shinsou was just overthinking this all.

"Uh, Shinsou?" a voice asked, pulling him from his thoughts. He snapped his head up. Oh, right. He was supposed to be eating lunch with the Dekusquad. "You've kinda just been staring at your food." Hitoshi looked back down at his untouched soba, his appetite long gone. Maybe Todoroki would eat it.

He muttered out an apology, shoving his meal away. "I was just lost in thought."

"What were you thinking about?" Uraraka questioned, and Shinsou absolutely did not feel his face heating up. Nope. Either way, he turned his head away, staring at his lap.

"Nothing important," he said, though his mood obviously betrayed him and he couldn't quite school his furrowed eyebrows in time.

Iida was the first to comment, saying, "If it were not important I do not believe you would be having this kind of reaction, Shinsou." The others hummed in agreement, nodding.

"Uh--" he stuttered.

"You sure you're okay, Hitoshi?" Asui asked with her signature head tilt and finger to her cheek.

Technically, Shinsou was absolutely fine. Just a little confused and out of it. There was nothing really wrong, he just tended to overthink things, exactly like this situation. That was the only thing wrong. Right? Hitoshi thought so. But seriously, he should want to kiss his girlfriend, shouldn't he? It didn't make sense. Or maybe it did. He didn't like Tsuyu in that way. He still barely even saw them as dating. More like best friends helping each other get over their crushes.

So why did he feel like they should be doing things that made him uncomfortable?

The logical thing in this situation for him to do was probably just talk to Asui in private. She would understand, he knew she would.

But Hitoshi wasn't always very logical.

"I'm fine, I just--" He wracked his brain for a somewhat believable excuse, one that his friends might internally question but not ask him about, "--I just think I need to go get a drink of water. I'll be right back."

He stood up from his seat, turning to walk away. He didn't even stop when he heard Uraraka call after him, "But there's water already on your lunch tray!" Maybe he should have used a better excuse, but he still kept walking until he was out of the cafeteria doors.

He closed them behind him, groaning. He wished his thoughts would just leave him alone.

Deciding he needed some fresh air, he ran back to the dorms. He really wasn't hungry, and there was still quite a while until lunch was over.

Shinsou opted for taking the stairs, which left him completely breathless when he managed to finally reach the top of the roof. It was the perfect place to go to be alone. He sighed a breath of relief when he saw that no one else was there. He really needed some peace and quiet to sort out his thoughts; if he wanted to be able to pay attention during the rest of his classes and training, that was.