𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐄 | 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧 | ✓

𝔗𝔯𝔲𝔰𝔱 𝔜𝔬𝔲

 In the end, Class B won the Laser Tag skirmish, and Monoma was triumphant as he mocked Class A.

Kirishima sighed in defeat, looping his sweaty arm around Tetsutetsu. "You win, man."

Monoma cackled in glee.

"I'm gonna head home," Tetsutetsu said.

The sun was setting, even though it was only 5:30 pm. It was winter, though, so the days were getting shorter.

"I'll come with," Kirishima said.

Kendo eye-balled Tetsutetsu. "Remember, I'm your neighbour, so don't make too much noise tonight."

"Monoma-kun, want to hang out for a bit longer?" Shinso asked.

"Sure."

"Let's go for a walk."

The two of them started walking away from the Laser Tag centre, waving goodbye to their friends.

They strolled in comfortable silence until Shinso asked, "Are you hungry?"

"No, not really."

"Yeah, me neither."

The sun disappeared behind the horizon, and the sky went dark blue, the first few stars appearing in the sky like silver freckles. The light from the street lamps cast a glow on the footpath.

They came to a medium height brick wall. Monoma hoisted himself up to sit on top of it. Shinso climbed next to him.

"I—"

"Tha—"

"Sorry, you first," Monoma chuckled.

"Um. Thanks for today."

"Hmm?"

"I mean," Shinso started, "I really don't hang out with friends. Like, ever," he admitted. "So it was really nice to just play around with everyone."

"Oh..."

"Um..." Shinso hesitated. "Can I tell you something kind of big?"

"Go ahead," Monoma said carefully. Warnings were blaring inside his head, like, Shit, tragic backstory coming up.

"I feel like I can trust you enough to tell you this," he confessed. "It's just that... Everyone's kind of scared of me? I've been told countless times that I'm destined to end up as a villain. Because of my quirk. A lot of people at school don't even dare to talk to me."

"Um..." What should Monoma even say to this? "You know... we're not so different... My quirk relies on me basically stealing from others. I can't function alone. It's been implied that I would work better if I joined a villain organisation... So, we both have to work even harder to prove that we'll be the best heroes, right?"

Shinso smiled gratefully. "You're right. But sometimes I don't know if it's worth it, you know? Um... my dad's dead."

Monoma winced. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thanks. But my mother took it worse. She doesn't have a job... she just sits on the couch and drinks herself into oblivion every day."

Monoma's eyes widened. "Oh..."

"Yeah," Shinso bit his lip and sniffed. "I work almost every day to pay the rent and the bills... and I try to take care of her. Then, I barely get any time to study, let alone sleep. If I ever got transferred into the hero course — I'm being hopeful — I'd have too much on my plate to function. It all gets to be so much sometimes..."

Monoma stiffened when he saw the glisten of silent tears on Shinso's cheeks. He wanted to be comforting, he really did. But he definitely didn't sign up for this emotional baggage when he accepted the dare. Unsure of what to say, he put an arm around Shinso and pulled him into an awkward, side-ways hug.

Shinso leaned into Monoma and rested his head on the other boy's shoulder. "Thanks for listening to me."

"It's okay."

Shinso lifted his head from Monoma's shoulder and looked up at him. He leaned closer and pressed his lip's onto Monoma's gently.

The kiss was bittersweet, and tasted faintly like salty tears.

Monoma kissed back, but inside he was torn. Did he actually like Shinso, or was he just messing around? The line between the two was very, very blurred. He didn't even know if he liked guys romantically.

On the one hand, he'd never really been interested in anyone past a little crush. He couldn't remember his feelings for anyone enough to define them.

It didn't exactly bother him that he was currently kissing a boy, but he wouldn't mind kissing a girl either... or anyone else. Did it even matter, the gender of a person? It didn't define them. Personality was more important, right? Ugh.

He really did not want to have this internal war right now. So he focused on kissing, snaking his arms up Shinso's back and through his lilac, cotton-candy-like hair.

Shinso groaned against Monoma's mouth and leaned forward, pushing Monoma almost onto his back. Monoma stuck out a hand to balance himself on top of the brick wall but to no avail. He fell half-off the wall.

"Oh, shit, are you alright?" Shinso asked worriedly.

Monoma brushed off his shirt and hopped down from the wall properly. "Fine."

Shinso giggled.

Monoma shot him a look.

Shinso tried to turn the giggle into a cough but failed miserably. "S-sorry," he snorted.

"Sure, laugh at me, go on ahead," Monoma grumbled.

Shinso was doubled-over laughing, and it was contagious, because soon Monoma was chortling right beside him.

"Why— why are we even... laughing," Shinso gasped.

"I can't even... remember," Monoma stopped to wipe his eyes. He sighed and tried to regain calmness.

He caught Shinso's gaze out the corner of his eye and they both simultaneously started laughing again.

"C-calm do-down," Monoma hiccuped.

"Okay, okay... okay," Shinso heaved a breath to relax. "I'm calm."

"I'm calm," Monoma repeated. Another giggle twitched at the corner of his mouth but he quenched it.

"It's really dark out now," Shinso commented, even though he didn't want the day with Monoma to ever end.

"Yeah, I should go home."

"Me too."

When Shinso got home, he walked straight to the bathroom and pulled out his razor. And he threw it in the garbage chute.

Whith Monoma around, he didn't need to cut himself to feel something.