Every Rose Has Its Thorn || ShojiNeta

Prologue||The Real Motive

Girls.

That's what everyone thought Mineta's motive for becoming a hero was.

Just to get girls to like him.

Nobody knows how wrong they are.

The motive everyone believes is true, isn't Mineta's at all. He only wants them to believe that. He only wants his father to believe that.

So then what is his real motive?

It's simple, really.

Homophobia.

Mineta has dealt with it before, and he doesn't want to do it again. He also doesn't want anyone else in the LGBTQ+ community to endure it, either.

That's right.

Minoru Mineta - Mr. I-Perv-On-Women-On-The-Daily - is secretly gay and put up a (very convincing) pervy act to hide it.

Why would Mineta act in such a heinous way to hide this secret?

Simple.

His family is homophobic as hell. He was raised to believe it is a bad thing and that it is extremely wrong.

His old man had also taught him that women are objects.

Mineta disagreed with the latter, though. He had a deep respect for women, especially his mother for tolerating the abuse she went through every day.

But Mineta concluded that if he acted like his father (minus the abusive side) he'd be left alone about his sexuality. He kept the act up his entire school career.

There were times he debated coming out.

But then he realized that coming out could also mean revealing the type of household he lives in.

And if his father found out that he spilled...

He didn't even want to imagine the consequences.

However ... this year just might be different. Especially now that they're living in dorms. He's away from his family. Perhaps this is the year Mineta can finally open up about himself.

But will his classmates accept him?

Will his ... crush ... accept him?

Yes, Mineta has a crush. He'd nearly let it slip one time. After that moment, he decided to hide his sexuality.

Mezo Shoji.

Mineta had first met him with Sero during the Quirk Apprehension Test.

"Oh, an octopus?" Sero had suggested, gawking at Shoji's strength.

"Octopuses are sexy...." Mineta had murmured to himself. He immediately shut up after that, realizing his secret might have been spilled.

Nobody seemed to have noticed, though, much to Mineta's relief.

However, after that, Mineta kept an eye on Shoji, curious about the much taller, muscular boy.

Do I like him? Mineta asked himself one day, after getting to know him. He's so caring and protective. Plus, he's not bad looking. That's a plus.

He felt like he did. He wanted to get closer and he found that opportunity at the Sports Festival, during the Cavalry Battle.

He told Shoji that none of the girls were willing to team up with him. This was only an assumption. He just wanted an opportunity to show Shoji what he could do. He had also come up with a game plan.

Unfortunately, Shoji had started walking away. So Mineta quickly spit out the idea of hiding in his arms, which won Shoji's agreement.

Tsu ended up teaming up with them as well.

Huh. Guess there was only one girl willing to team up with me.

The strategy was good, but wasn't foolproof.

After getting their headband snatched by Shiozaki, Team Mineta had no choice but to watch the Tournaments.

Mineta sought this as another opportunity to get closer to Shoji. He took a seat next to him.

It ended up being a smart decision.

When Deku and Todoroki went head to head, the two managed to stir up a huge gust of wind. Everyone was blown back in their seats.

Except Mineta. The wind picked him up and he nearly went flying.

But then he felt a hand grab his ankle and hold on, preventing him from soaring.

That hand happened to be Shoji's.

Right then and there, Mineta's thoughts were officially confirmed - he had a crush on Shoji.

But did the octopus man like him back? Did he like guys at all? Mineta had no idea.

He tried looking for a sign or something when he peaked under the mattress for "porno mags" but came up empty handed.

As the days went by, Mineta's feelings for Shoji had only gotten stronger. It was slowly driving him crazy. He tried to get closer to him, only to seem like he was just a friend.

And even if he and Shoji DID get together, how would his family react? Surely they wouldn't know, right? Now that they were living in dorms? Mineta was scared to find out.

But at the same time, he wanted to come out to his classmates. To Shoji.

But he was terrified to even do that.

Little did he know, things were about to turn in his favor.

This is just an impulse decision I decided to do one day. Sorry it's short-ish. Hopefully the chapters will get longer. Anyway, you're welcome for this rare pair.