Chapter Text
Oboro stepped off the train and was relieved to find Nemuri already waiting for him on the platform. He felt bad for lying to his friends about having a family thing; but he knew he needed to get his thoughts together before he could talk to them.
“So,” she said, greeting him with a brief kiss on the cheek, “What’s the emergency that I had to come out and meet you for?” She took a step back and crossed her arms under her boobs. Even in her puffy winter coat, the move didn’t help Oboro’s current state of mind, which could be best summed up as ‘very confused and horny.’
“Something happened last night, and I need your help figuring it out.” The two of them started walking towards a nearby park, and Oboro took a breath. He’d spent the whole train ride here trying to think about how to explain this. “Shouta and Hizashi were fooling around while they thought I was asleep. At first they were just kissing, and I was pretending to be asleep cuz they deserve to have a little make-out time. Then they started doing a little more than kissing, and…” he trailed off, since that was the bit where things got complicated.
“And what?” Nemuri asked as they found a bench and sat, pressed together to fend off the cold air of early January.
“And I was gonna let them know I was awake,” he said, scuffing his toe against the ground as his gut churned, “I moved a little and I was gonna pretend I’d just woken up or something so they wouldn’t be embarrassed. I know they would have stopped, and it would have been fine…”
He knew he had to keep going, but the words were stalled in the back of his mouth. After he was quiet a little too long, Nemuri prompted him, “But…?”
“But I didn’t!” Oboro exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air, so frustrated with himself. “I just kinda lay there and watched them - not that I could see much, it was dark in the room; but I knew what they were doing and I could hear them even though they were being really quiet. And I feel really bad about it, because first of all I was basically spying on them, which is bad enough; but second of all because I didn’t want them to stop cuz it was really hot. I’ve never thought of either of them like that, so I don’t understand why I got so hard watching them.” Oboro had always been a simple guy, he wasn’t used to being this confused about himself.
“Woah, slow down, take a breath, and back up,” Nemuri said, putting a hand on his cheek and gently steering him to look at her. “First of all, please acknowledge that you have the greatest girlfriend in the world. Cuz I’m about to help you get yourself sorted out.”
Relief surged through Oboro as he began to babble, “You are amazing, Nem. I knew I could count on you, and I’m so lucky to have you. You really are the best girlfriend in the world.” He meant every word of it. Nemuri was something special, just like Hizashi and Shouta were.
“Good boy. Now, there’s nothing unusual about having a voyeuristic streak,” she said, very matter-of-factly. “As kinks go, that’s pretty tame, so I wouldn’t stress too much about the fact that you got aroused while watching them.”
Oboro had always appreciated Nemuri’s complete lack of shame around sex and sexuality, but this was the first time he could remember being so acutely thankful for it. When he had felt the doubt and questions starting to spiral inside him this morning, he knew that Nemuri would be able to help him figure things out, without anger or judgment. She’d focus on the heart of the problem.
“What I’m really concerned about is the way you decided to secretly spy on your friends,” she said, “There’s a whole lot more to unpack there.” She covered her mouth with her hand for a moment, and Oboro could see the wheels turning as she thought about what piece of the puzzle to tackle next. “Why didn’t you tell them you were awake?”
The guilty twist in his gut was back. “Cuz they would have stopped.”
“And you didn’t want them to?”
“No.” Even with what Nemuri said about voyeurism, it had to cross a line if Oboro wanted to keep watching his best friends fooling around like that, right? Kissing was one thing, but-
“What if they didn’t stop?”
Oboro blinked in confusion, tipping his head. “Huh?”
“What if,” Nemuri said slowly and clearly, “They knew you were awake and watching and they kept going anyway.”
The thought of it sent a thrill through Oboro… and something soft and warm as well. Not that it mattered, because, “They wouldn’t. Hizashi was freaking out about kissing in front of me, he wouldn’t-”
“Yamada was freaking out that you would be bothered by them kissing in front of you. He doesn’t seem to have any problem with it now that he understands you’re not.”
“There’s a big difference between kissing and a handjob or whatever, though! They wouldn’t keep going, that would be weird.”
“We’ve already established that the three of you are weird,” Nemuri countered. “So, what if they knew you were watching, knew you were turned on, and they kept going anyway.”
He took a breath and let himself imagine it. He imagined them touching each other. If they knew he was awake, they wouldn’t have had to be so quiet and careful; he might even see and hear more… and he would have an even harder time not touching himself.
“I’d prolly really want to jerk off, and that would-”
“Be weird?” she finished for him, and he nodded. “What if they were ok with that?”
Oboro gaped at her. “Why would they be?” he asked, stunned that she would even suggest it.
“Why would you be ok with them jerking each other off right next to you? It doesn’t have to make sense.” She sighed, cupping her cheek in her hand and looking at him fondly. “I’m not suggesting you three start a ‘friends with benefits’ circle jerk, but I am saying that it wouldn’t be that weird in the grand scheme of things. But it is something that Aizawa and Yamada would need to be allowed to make a choice about. So you’re gonna need to think about having a conversation with them, preferably before the next time they think you’re asleep and start fooling around.”
“I know.” Oboro sighed. “I still don’t get why I reacted so strongly to what they were doing, though. It doesn’t make sense! I know I’m not into dudes; I thought about it a lot when Hizashi told me he was bi, and then when the two of them got together. I know my brain got scrambled and everything, but I know what gets me going and what doesn’t. Dicks just don’t do anything for me the way boobs do, so… why?”
Nemuri’s eyes got soft as she smiled at him. “Cuz you love them,” she said.
Oboro huffed. “I do, but I’m not in love with them, though, so-”
“Are you sure?” Nemuri wasn’t angry or jealous. It was just a question.
“What? Of course,” Oboro said earnestly. “What I feel for them is different than what I feel for you, and I’m definitely in love with you.”
Nemuri raised her eyebrow at him, and her cheeks, already pink from the winter air, grew a little more flushed. It wasn’t the first time Oboro had said that he loved her, though she hadn’t said it back to him yet. That didn’t bother him. They both knew that life was short; but they still had time, and she’d say it when she was ready. He didn’t want her to rush herself, he wanted it to mean something. He wanted everything with Nemuri; but he wanted it to come naturally.
“I don’t want them, not in the way I want you,” he said. “I don’t sit around daydreaming about kissing them.”
“But you are comfortable with the idea of kissing them,” she pointed out.
“Platonically!” Oboro knew he was comfortable with forms of affection that most people weren’t. People tended to assume that because he was such a friendly and easygoing guy, he had tons of good friends… and he did! All his classmates were great! But… most people weren’t ok with the depth of affection he always found himself looking for. Even something as simple as using someone’s given name had caused so many people to back away from him over the years. So, he’d learned to hold himself back, to walk the lines that allowed everyone to feel comfortable. He genuinely didn’t want to offend or upset the amazing people around him… but he wanted so badly to be close with people, to really connect…
So few people were ever willing to get as close as Oboro wanted to be. Sometimes, he’d wondered if there was something wrong with him; if the things he wanted were really that out of line. But then he’d met Hizashi and Shouta, and somehow with them he’d found not one, but two friends who were not just willing, but seemed happy to share the kind of intimacy that let Oboro really feel seen and known and loved.
“I guess you three have established that what you’ve got is something different and… weird.” Nemuri paused for a moment, thinking.
“Are you jealous of what they are doing with each other?” she asked. “Not because you want either or both of them for yourself, but because you’re not part of it?” Oboro flashed back to the whole conversation about kissing, and Hizashi being worried that he would feel left out.
Oboro thought about it. He and his friends loved each other, but now Shouta and Hizashi would have a sex life, a whole piece of their relationship that he wasn’t part of.
“I don’t know.” He tried to wrap his head around what he was feeling, but it didn’t quite make sense. “Not jealous, but…” he sighed, then looked up at Nemuri. “But what about you?” He couldn’t risk losing Shouta and Hizashi, and he couldn’t risk losing Nemuri either. They were all far too important to him.
“What about me?” Nemuri seemed genuinely puzzled.
Oboro rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous gesture he was pretty sure he’d picked up from Shouta. “I knew I could trust you to help me figure all this out, but I wasn’t really expecting the conversation to go the way it has. I don’t want to ever do anything with Shouta and Hizashi that would upset you.” His friends and Nemuri had already given him so much more than he thought he’d ever be able to have in his relationships with the people in his life. He didn’t want to risk that by asking any of them for more.
“Occhan, as long as you don’t hide it from me, or lie about it, I won’t be bothered by anything you do with them. You can even join in with them if everyone is on board; and frankly, I wouldn’t mind an invitation to watch,” she added with a smirk and a wink as Oboro felt his face heat, thinking of all the images she’d just conjured up. “You,” she said, cupping his chin in her hand and running her thumb along his lower lip, “Are something special. Part of that is whatever weird thing the three of you have going on with each other.” She leaned in and kissed him, soft lips brushing against his own, and he sighed with a mix of frustration and relief.
“So what do I do?” he asked, sitting back.
She shrugged. “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. I want to talk to them and be honest so we can figure this out,” he said, “But I’m worried that’ll make things awkward between us. Assuming they don’t get pissed off at me for spying on them,” he added, the guilt still gnawing away at him “Cuz I still need to apologize for that.”
Nemuri sighed. “You should apologize, but they probably should too. The way I see it, you’re all equally to blame for what happened. If they hadn’t been fooling around right next to you, you wouldn’t be in this position. And if you had spoken up, it might have made things more awkward anyway, because they would have been literally caught with their pants down.”
“Not literally,” he corrected, “Their pants were up.”
“Occhan,” she sighed.
“Ok, ok, not the point, I know!”
“Look, it sounds like they got caught up in the moment between them. You got caught up in the moment too.” It sounded so reasonable when she said it like that. “Be honest about it, or pretend it didn’t happen, it’s up to you; but you can’t spy on them again. If you’re gonna be honest, you need to be ready for the possibility that it will open a bigger conversation. It could make things uncomfortable… or it could open up new… opportunities.”
“I don’t know when we’d all even have time to have that conversation,” Oboro sighed, tipping his head back, gazing up at the haze of gray clouds that covered the sky. “School starts tomorrow, and the schedule is gonna be even crazier with the end of the year, between work studies and classes, plus Shouta still has his job at the shop. Maybe, at least for now, I should just pretend that nothing happened?”
“Do you think you’ll be able to act normally around them? Well, as normally as any of you ever do.”
He nodded slowly as he thought about it. “Yeah. If things get weird, I’ll find a way to talk with them about it; but right now, I’d rather keep things simple. Everything is good, I want it to stay that way.”
Nemuri nodded. “Well if that’s sorted out, since we’re already here, you might as well take me out for lunch.”
Oboro grinned at her. “It would be my pleasure.” His smile got a little more sly. “I also wonder if you might have some idea what I can do about this pent up sexual frustration I’m currently dealing with.”
The two of them were taking things slow, but that didn’t mean they weren’t fooling around at all.
“Hmmm,” she purred. “Lunch first, then I think I might have an idea of how we can handle that.”
~*~
Shouta felt ready for the start of the semester, even if he was dozing off on the train Monday morning. He’d stayed at Hizashi’s house later than he should have last night, so once he’d gotten home, he’d had to stay up finishing the chores he’d neglected over the weekend; but it was worth it. After all, they were going to be even busier starting today, so it might be a while before they could really spend time together like that again.
As tired as he was, though, something prickled at Shouta’s awareness as the train rumbled along the track, pulling him out of his bleary haze enough to take a look around the train car. It was full of the usual morning commuters, adults and students alike, most of them reading, looking at their phones, nodding off, or gazing off into space.
But there was one boy, maybe eleven years old, staring at Shouta.
It happened sometimes; it was almost inevitable, since the UA school uniform had a tendency to draw attention from children and adults alike. But there was something… unnerving about this kid.
Shouta didn’t have any time to think too deeply about it, as the train arrived at his stop and he got off, putting the creepy kid out of his mind as he turned his focus to the new semester. After all, he himself had been thought of as a creepy kid for most of his life, so he wasn’t about to let himself be bothered just because a boy had stared at him on the train.
The classroom was buzzing with noise when Shouta walked in. Unsurprising to anyone, Hizashi was the primary source, exclaiming, “Only three more months until we’re third years!”
“Assuming you pass,” teased Oizuchi.
“Says the guy who still doesn’t know the difference between ‘there,’ ‘their,’ and ‘they’re,’” Hizashi retorted, pointing around the room and at their classmates to indicate which one he was saying, and Oizuchi flipped him off.
“English is stupid,” Oizuchi groused.
“I can’t argue with that,” Hizashi conceded. “Yo, Shou! Whaddya know?”
“That you’re way too loud for a Monday morning,” Shouta sighed, plopping down in his seat. Hizashi just laughed louder, and Shouta couldn’t contain a tiny smile, so he ducked his head forward, letting his dark curtain of hair hide it from view.
When the door opened again and Oboro walked into the room, Shouta thought briefly of Hizashi’s concerns from yesterday, that Oboro had been ‘off’ somehow; that maybe he’d woken up and seen them fooling around and was upset about it. The bright smile Oboro flashed them, even twisted by the scar across his face, settled Shouta’s mind. Everything was fine, and Hizashi was, as usual, worrying about nothing.
The day went smoothly, and by lunch time, even Hizashi seemed to have let go of his irrational concerns. During afternoon battle exercises, though, Shouta found himself faced with a different kind of worry about Oboro.
Since he’d returned to school, Oboro had been doing his practical exercises with teachers, rather than being thrown into the melee with their classmates, in order to assess his progress in a more controlled manner. Today, though, it had been decided that he was ready to get back into the thick of things.
In the past month or so, Oboro had rebuilt a lot of the muscle that he’d lost while he’d been recovering from his injuries. He had gotten faster, stronger, and steadier. He could use his Quirk reliably. As Shouta had watched Oboro’s improvement, he’d gotten much better about quieting his own worries about his friend; but he couldn’t fully shut down this whisper of irrational fear that it was too much too soon. He couldn’t quite shake that queasy feeling that Oboro was going to get hurt again, and that next time would… have a worse outcome.
The class took to the training grounds and was divided into four five-person teams. Shouta’s team and Hizashi’s team were facing off against each other first, while Oboro was with the crowd waiting for their turn after. Shouta glanced back towards Oboro, but he met Kamata Sensei’s eye instead. Their teacher crossed his arms as he met Shouta’s gaze, and Shouta knew that Shirakumo had been separated from Hizashi and himself on purpose.
Shouta huffed and the horn sounded to begin the exercise. Right away, all his attention was focused on the battle, barely dodging Yasukawa’s blades as she snuck up behind him with a wicked grin on her face. The blades produced by her Quirk weren’t nearly as durable as forged ones like the tanto in Shouta’s belt, which he was able to use to parry her strikes. It was her skill at wielding those blades that made her one of the most dangerous fighters in the class. The way she was able to force Shouta to move while dodging around him made it hard for him to keep her in his line of sight and keep her Quirk erased. He had already needed to ask Power Loader for more strands of his capture weapon to be made after a few match-ups with Yasukawa, so he wasn’t about to take foolish risks with it now.
By the time the horn sounded ending the match, Shouta was more than a little battered and bloodied; but Yasukawa wasn’t any better off, covered in dirt and scrapes and a few cuts of her own. Shouta was pretty sure that her job had been to keep him occupied so that he couldn’t use his Quirk on her teammates, and she’d done well at that, which was frustrating.
“You’re getting quicker, Aizawa,” she said wryly as she dusted herself off. “You and Shimada are the only ones in class who pose any challenge one-on-one. We should spar more often.” Shouta blinked in momentary confusion, then hummed a noncommittal noise. He was still never quite sure what to make of it when his classmates seemed to think his skills were worth pitting themselves against. He’d certainly come a long way, but he could still clearly see how much further everyone else had progressed.
“Ask me again once I’ve stopped bleeding,” he said drily, and Yasukawa cackled.
Both teams cleared the field and headed to the waiting area while the other two teams swapped places with them. Oboro gave them a jaunty salute as he walked past, then returned to chattering with Kobayashi.
Shouta and Hizashi gravitated towards each other as they crowded in closer to the monitors that would let them better see the action on the field.
The horn sounded and the battle commenced.
It was chaotic and difficult to follow, but Shouta did his best to keep his eyes on Shirakumo. It was irrational, but he felt his legs tense beneath him, his weight shifting from foot to foot, ready to take off running onto the field at the slightest indication that Oboro needed help. A brief glance at Hizashi told Shouta he wasn’t much better off; his usual smile twisted into something tight and worried while his hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, body hunched forward as if ready to leap.
Shouta hated to admit it, but keeping Oboro in the other group, away from himself and Hizashi, was the most rational decision. Both of them were far too likely to focus on protecting Shirakumo instead of their own tasks, which could put everybody in greater danger.
And, as Oboro zipped around the battlefield crouched low on a cloud, dodging and weaving and wielding his bo with painful precision, Shouta began to realize that they would have gotten in his way.
Oboro didn’t need help or protection. He wasn’t just holding his own; he was crisscrossing the space like he owned it. Every now and then, the camera caught a clear image of Oboro’s face…
He was smiling every time.
It wasn’t the same goofy, carefree smile that he always wore while they were hanging out, though. It also wasn’t the gleeful, battle-hungry smile that Yasukawa had directed at Shouta earlier.
It was pure confidence.
Next to him, Hizashi flinched as they watched Katasugi tackle Oboro, wrapping him in elastic limbs and grappling him to the ground. Oboro’s smile didn’t falter as he fought back, somehow wriggling free. The fight got hard to follow after that, with Oboro’s clouds obscuring the view. When the horn sounded and the air cleared, Oboro was on his feet, scuffed up but still smiling.
Triumphant.
Shouta tried to ignore the dark streak of muddy dirt that covered the right half of Oboro’s face, and the way it made his chest feel a little too tight.
“He’s really back,” Hizashi said quietly next to Shouta as they watched him high-five his teammates.
He knew it was true.
He hated that it didn’t make him feel any less worried.
After school, the three of them went to the gym for Shouta’s additional training, and Oboro insisted on taking the first turn being the target. Up until now, he’d mostly been doing Shouta’s calisthenics routine with him and then doing some other exercises on his own while Hizashi ran around as Shouta’s target. It had been working well for all of them, letting Oboro focus on rebuilding strength while Hizashi used his speed and stamina to really challenge Shouta…
But there was no rational reason to deny Oboro his turn at being the target. He needed the cardiovascular exercise too, so Shouta tried to shove away the uneasiness that wormed around inside him at the thought.
They took off, with Hizashi watching from the sidelines. His eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses, but his eyebrows were knitted tightly together despite the smile on his face.
As he chased Oboro around the gym, Shouta wondered if he was worn out from dealing with Yasukawa earlier; because no matter how many times he tried, he simply couldn’t catch him. Every throw he made, the capture weapon was always just a little too slow or fell a little too short, never quite managing to snare whatever he was aiming for. Shouta wasn’t sure who was getting more frustrated with his pathetic performance, Shirakumo or himself.
“Come on, Shouta, no more half-assing it!” Oboro taunted, jumping and rolling and dodging away from Shouta’s attempts to catch him. “Is that all you’ve got?”
“Maybe the binding cloth knows that you can’t afford to have your brain scrambled again,” Shouta retorted, throwing another length of cloth which Oboro easily spun away from.
“I dunno, sounds like an excuse for the fact that you can’t keep up with me!”
Shouta knew Oboro was baiting him, but his words still poked at that piece of him always fighting to prove himself.
“Oh yeah?” He focused in, eyes tracking the pattern of paces and side-steps as Oboro ran, the times he rolled, the times he pivoted… If Shouta came at him from an angle, but threw off to the side…
The capture weapon streamed through the air, its path true.
“Oof!” Oboro toppled sideways, calves bound together.
Time hung frozen in the split second before Oboro hit the mat, panic welling up inside Shouta, choking him as Oboro slammed into the ground with a sickening thud that echoed in Shouta’s head…
Oboro was so still…
And then he wasn’t. “About damn time!” Oboro laughed, pushing himself up and rolling onto his butt.
Shouta drew a sharp breath. “Are you ok?” he asked, shaking the binding cloth loose.
“I’m fine,” Oboro said, taking Shouta’s proffered hand to haul himself up off the floor. “Are you ok?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Shouta snapped.
“I dunno, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. It seems like you’re both still worried about me, which I sorta get,” he added with a glance over at Hizashi, who was watching them both intently, “But I really am good now, fully cleared for everything! I can take care of myself and take the hits.”
“Repeated head trauma isn’t good for anyone,” Shouta grumbled…
But it’s not like he’d quit training after he’d been concussed; which had happened a few times, even after that chaotic night in the woods at the training camp.
Of course, ‘mild concussion’ versus what had happened to Oboro was hardly a fair comparison.
Oboro didn’t seem to have an interest in arguing the point, though, electing to change the subject instead. “Hey, how fast can you climb up that thing?” he asked, pointing to the binding cloth now coiled back around Shouta’s neck.
“Uhh, I dunno, I haven’t timed it.”
The grin on Oboro’s face grew wider. “I bet you can’t beat me up to the ceiling!”
“You fly on a cloud, while I have to power myself with my arms,” Shouta said, unamused. “Obviously you’re gonna be faster.”
“Cool! Let’s race! Hizashi, you time us!”
Shouta scowled as Hizashi trotted over towards them, but something in him whispered ‘you have to be fast, you need to get faster.’ He was competitive, but it was himself that he needed to beat. It just so happened that Oboro was the one goading him right now. Besides, climbing with his support item was an important and useful skill that he needed to improve… and it didn’t involve knocking Oboro down.
“This is stupid,” he said, throwing the cloth up so it wrapped around one of the exposed metal ceiling joists.
“Stupid is what we do best!” Hizashi said, pulling out his phone to start a timer. “Ready, set, GO!” Shouta began hauling himself up the cloth, hands gripping tight and one leg wrapped loosely in the slack strand that dangled below him. It was much harder than climbing up a thicker rope; he’d done it a few times, though it had a tendency to tear his hands up.
It felt like slow going, his hands and arms screaming at him that this was a very poor decision; but Oboro was floating just above him, probably matching his pace on purpose, which only irritated Shouta more. He huffed and kept climbing.
When at last he reached the top, he locked his leg firmly in the slack tail and took a moment to catch his breath, shaking out each arm in turn.
“Holy shit, dude, that was faster than most of the class did on the rope climb last year!” Hizashi called out from the floor below.
“Pretty impressive!” Oboro cheered from a meter away, smiling broadly. Shouta only nodded, still letting his breathing even out as he glanced back down at Hizashi and started preparing for his descent. “Oh hey, wait, check this out!” Oboro said, and Shouta looked over at him, wondering what ridiculous thing Oboro was planning.
Except when Shouta looked at where Oboro should be, he wasn’t there. Hizashi’s panicked shout from below drew Shouta’s eyes down, and there was Oboro, freefalling, halfway to the floor.
In the time it took Shouta to realize what was happening, Oboro was cradled again on a huge white cloud, and was sailing back up to where Shouta was trying desperately to get his pounding pulse under control.
“What the hell was that!?” Hizashi yelled from below them, giving voice to the thought frozen in Shouta’s throat.
“Come on, let’s head back down,” Oboro said, slowly spiraling down along the trailing end of Shouta’s cloth. After a heartbeat, Shouta loosened his leg and began his descent, his shaking hands forcing him to go much slower than he normally would. Down on the floor, Hizashi’s face was dark in a way Shouta had never quite seen it before, and he stalked over to them as their feet hit the mat. Before anyone could say anything, Hizashi hauled back and punched Oboro in the shoulder, hard, and Oboro stumbled back a few steps.
“Yo, what the fuck, Kumo? You tryin’ to give me a heart attack?” Hizashi shouted, and Oboro put his hands up in front of himself in surrender.
“I don’t know how else to make you both understand that I’m fine. I know I’m probably not back to where I was before I got hurt; but I’m ahead of where I was at the end of our first year-”
“You’re better than you were before you got hurt!” Shouta snapped. “You’re already faster than you were. Even without all your muscle back yet, I think you’re stronger. Your control over your Quirk is better. You’ve worked harder and focused more seriously on training over the last few weeks than you did over our whole first year!”
Oboro huffed in frustration at them. “So why do you both keep acting like I’m gonna fall apart at the slightest touch? Why don’t you trust that I’ve got this?”
“Cuz we remember it!” Hizashi’s voice echoed around the gym like thunder. “You don’t! You didn’t see yourself covered in blood, you don’t have any idea how dead you looked!”
Oboro blinked, clearly taken aback.
“It’s… not rational,” Shouta admitted. “I know you’re fine. I know you’re capable. But-” He cut himself off, eyes closing tight, as if that could keep the images from that afternoon away. They didn’t haunt him often anymore, but they were still vivid.
He heard the rustle of fabric as Oboro moved, but he didn’t open his eyes as he and Hizashi were pulled into a tight hug.
“I try not to think about it,” Hizashi said quietly. “Most of the time, I don’t. But sometimes, I close my eyes, and I see it.”
“Sorry. Sometimes I forget that my brain wasn’t the only one that got scrambled that day,” Oboro sighed. He squeezed them tight, then took a step back so he could look at them, and Shouta met his eyes.
“We do trust you,” Shouta said. “But don’t scare us like that on purpose anymore.”
“Deal,” Oboro said solemnly.
There was no way any of them were getting any more training done after all of that, and time was already almost up anyway, so they decided to pack up and head home. The three of them slipped easily back into their usual banter as they gathered their things and left campus. In fact, despite the blow-up, things felt… normal.
Shouta thought again of Hizashi’s worries that Oboro was acting oddly after the sleepover the other night, and was glad to see further proof that they were unfounded. The three of them had their bumps and their problems, but they weren’t actually that bad at communicating.
“I’m meeting Nemuri at the agency to go over some paperwork,” Oboro said, waving to them as he peeled off down another street, “I’ll see ya tomorrow!”
“Paperwork, suuuure!” Hizashi called after him with a laugh as they continued towards the station, and Oboro flipped them off over his shoulder.
“See, I told you things were fine,” Shouta said as they got on the train and found seats. “Not him giving us a heart attack, that’s got nothing to do with what happened the other night. But if he had a problem, he’d say something.”
“Yeah, ok, he seemed cool,” Hizashi agreed. “But we prolly shouldn’t do that again.”
Shouta nodded, but his attention wasn’t fully on Hizashi.
The same eerie feeling from that morning was setting the hair at the back of his neck on end. He felt the urge to activate his Quirk as he glanced around the train, but obviously that was out of the question. Besides, Hizashi was chattering away as if everything was normal, so maybe the feeling was just in Shouta’s head? His mind playing irrational tricks on him after the incident that morning?
The train pulled into Hizashi’s stop, so Shouta said his goodbyes; but he kept his eye on the passengers disembarking. Nothing seemed amiss, but the feeling just wouldn’t ease up.
When the train started moving again, he was able to look around more carefully…
And there, in the back corner of the train car, was the same kid as this morning. He wasn’t staring at Shouta right now, looking down at his phone instead; but something about him still felt… off. The train made another stop, and Shouta kept his attention on the kid. It wasn’t too much longer till Shouta’s stop, and he wanted to see if the kid got off the train before him.
That was when the boy looked up from his phone and turned his face towards Shouta.
His stare was empty. His eyes were definitely focused on Shouta, and yet seemed unseeing at the same time. There was no malice there, no confusion, no recognition, no joy, no sorrow, no… nothing.
A shiver of dread ran through Shouta. It didn’t matter how irrational it was, there was no controlling the surge of adrenaline that had his heart pounding in his chest. Maybe it was the boy’s Quirk, maybe it was something else; but whatever perfectly reasonable explanation probably existed for it made no difference at all in that moment. All Shouta knew was that he needed to get away from that kid immediately.
The train pulled into the station before his own stop, and in the bustle of other passengers getting on and off, Shouta quickly shouldered his bag and slipped off the train just before the doors closed.
The platform cleared, and there was no sign of the boy.
Shouta took a deep breath of fresh air, and the overwhelming feeling of unease dissipated quickly… so quickly that for a moment, Shouta questioned whether it had really been that bad in the first place, or if he’d gotten himself worked up over nothing.
When he considered waiting for the next train, though, a flicker of that feeling flared back to life. He decided that, if it meant keeping off the train for the rest of the day, he didn’t mind a longer walk home.
~*~
January turned cold and rainy enough as the weeks passed that - as much as Hizashi hated surrendering their special space on the rooftop - the fact was, the cafeteria was warm and dry and didn’t leave him with his hair wilting around his ears.
There were other advantages to the cafeteria, too. Hizashi always enjoyed talking with other people, like Kobayashi. But unfortunately, sometimes, other other people would intrude into their group.
“I heard you’ve been doing really well, Shirakumo,” Iida said, and Hizashi’s smile got bigger and wider as he grit his teeth. Stupid Iida, with his stupid genuine niceness. He didn’t even sound condescending, just kind and supportive and friendly.
It irked Hizashi.
“Yeah, he’s been kicking serious ass! Better watch yourself at the next Sports Festival!” Hizashi said, not-so-secretly hoping that someone would knock Mr. Perfect off his pedestal.
“Have you guys noticed anything odd lately?” Shouta asked, the first thing he’s said since they’d sat down. Everyone turned to look at him, and he immediately looked back down at his lunch.
“What do you mean?” asked Oboro.
Shouta frowned, nudging his rice around with his chopsticks. “It sounds stupid, but for the past three weeks, I keep seeing this kid on the train. Not every day, only about two or three times a week, but… it’s like he’s watching me.”
“That’s creepy,” Kobayashi said, her voice overlapping with Kayama who asked, “An admirer?”
“A lot of people recognize the UA uniform, maybe the kid is just a hero hopeful?” Iida suggested. “If he has a destination near either your place or the school, his schedule might just be similar to yours.”
“As if Aizawa wouldn’t have thought of that,” Hizashi grumbled.
“He looks like he’s eleven, or maybe twelve?” Shouta said. “Dark hair. When he’s just sitting there, he looks… normal. But…” he huffed in frustration. “There’s something about him that feels… unsettling. And his eyes… they’re- there’s something off about him.”
“Maybe it’s his Quirk?” Shimada suggested.
“I thought of that,” Shouta said, “But it’s not like I can just try erasing his Quirk to see what happens, since he’s not actually doing anything.”
“Have you tried talking to him?” Iida asked.
“Great idea, talk to the creepy stalker kid,” Hizashi snarked.
“I did,” Shouta said. “Last week.”
“Why did you talk to the creepy stalker kid!?” Hizashi blurted, suddenly finding himself questioning his boyfriend’s sanity.
Shouta shrugged. “We’re training to be heroes. What if he needs help?”
“Or what if he’s trying to murder you?” Hizashi squawaked.
“He’s a kid,” Shouta said, though he sounded unsure about the safety and wisdom of his choices. “But it didn’t do any good either way. No response, not even a blink. He just stared at me.”
Hizashi frowned. “You should tell the police, or the teachers.”
“What, that there’s a kid on the train who stares at me?” Shouta scoffed, then sighed. “It’s stupid, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“If your gut says something’s off, you should listen to it,” Iida said. “You’ve got good instincts.”
Hizashi couldn’t really object, since Iida was right; but he had wanted to be the one to say it.
Lunch ended and they got through the rest of the day, including Shouta’s extra training. Hizashi and Oboro shared a glance that cemented their unspoken agreement that they were both riding the train to Shouta’s stop that afternoon.
“I don’t need babysitters,” Shouta grumbled as they stood together on the crowded train while it pulled away from Hizashi’s station. “The kid might not even be here today.”
“Who’s babysitting? I wanna get a look at the elementary student that could freak out Aizawa Shouta,” Oboro joked. Shouta just huffed. Stop after stop, they kept alert for the mysterious boy.
“Is that him?” Hizashi asked, seeing a kid about the right age sitting halfway down the car, swinging his feet as he scrolled through his phone.
Shouta followed his gaze and shook his head. “You’ll know him if you see him.”
Well that sounded fucking ominouis.
The train pulled into the next station, still three away from Shouta’s, and the passengers shifted in their dance of disembarking and taking abandoned seats. The crowd was finally starting to thin out enough that Hizashi could see to both ends of the train car…
There he was. Halfway down the car, Hizashi wasn’t sure how he’d missed the kid earlier, because Shouta was right. There was no mistaking him. Something about him was just wrong.
Hizashi elbowed Shouta and Oboro, not taking his eyes off the boy who was staring vacantly off ahead of himself. Nobody sat on either side of him, despite the number of passengers still standing.
“I didn’t know what you meant,” Oboro said under his breath as he got a look at the kid, “But now I completely understand.”
Hizashi swallowed. Shouta had already been seeing this kid for weeks, so Hizashi and Oboro confirming his existence didn’t make for front-page news; but if they were gonna figure out if this kid was a danger to Shouta, they needed more information. Shouta had said that he’d tried talking to the boy; but as much as Hizashi loved his boyfriend, Shouta’s people skills were not exactly his strongest suit.
Unlike Hizashi.
“Wait here, I’m gonna go say hi,” Hizashi told his friends, not waiting for them to respond before he quickly walked over to the boy. Shit, the horror movie vibe rolling off the kid only got more intense as Hizashi got closer to him; but he took a breath and kept his smile wide. If Shouta was being haunted by some demon child, no way was Hizashi letting him deal with that alone.
“Hey there buddy,” Hizashi said brightly, “You ok? You’re lookin’ a little lost.”
The boy tipped his head to look up at Hizashi. His eyes were empty and lifeless, like a doll’s eyes. Fuck, a creepy possessed doll-child was stalking Shouta, and now it was staring at Hizashi, probably casting a curse on him that very second. The best case scenario right now was that Hizashi was gonna have nightmares for a month. The worst case, of course, was that this creepy kid was just gonna murder-
The boy blinked, and his eyes came to life. He smiled brightly at Hizashi.
“I’m fine!” he said cheerfully. “My dad and I just moved here recently, so I’m still learning my way around, but I’m not lost or anything.”
“Oh. Uh. Ok. Glad to hear it,” Hizashi squeaked out. He didn’t know what switch had flipped to put the kid back to his ‘human’ setting, but it was somehow creepier than if he had jumped up and tried to bite Hizashi. At least Hizashi would have known how to deal with a feral biting monster child. “Have a good day,” he said, wincing internally at how awkward he sounded.
“Thanks, you too!” the kid said. Hizashi scurried back to Shouta and Oboro, where Shouta was staring wide-eyed.
“He spoke?” Shouta said. “I swear, he’s never- I’ve seen him more than a dozen times, he’s always been-”
“No, he was absolutely still super creepy,” Hizashi whispered. “It’s like he was empty one second and then too normal the next; and it didn’t do anything to improve his spooky vibes. I don’t know what his deal is, but it’s not good.”
“What did he say?” Oboro asked.
“That he moved here with his dad recently, so he’s still learning the area.”
“It sounds plausible,” Shouta admitted.
“No way. Something is up with that kid,” Hizashi insisted. The squealing of brakes announced their arrival at the next station. Hizashi looked back over at the kid, and the boy gave a cheerful wave and smile.
“Where does he usually get off?” Oboro asked.
“He doesn’t,” Shouta replied. “Sometimes I get off the train at a stop or two before mine, sometimes I stay on till a stop or two after. Maybe he gets off further down the line, but I don’t know.”
“We’ll get off at the stop before yours, just in case,” Hizashi said. Shouta and Oboro nodded. The train jerked into motion again, and, taking a breath, Hizashi glanced back over towards the boy.
Except he was gone.
“Where’d he go?” Oboro asked just as the words were forming in Hizashi’s mouth. “I didn’t see him move.”
“Me neither,” Shouta said.
“I’m telling you, Kumo, that kid is super creepy,” Hizashi muttered.
Even with the kid gone, the three of them decided to get off the train at the stop before Shouta’s anyway. The walk to Shouta’s place took a while, and they couldn’t stay to hang out very long before both Hizashi and Oboro had to head home.
Before they left, Hizashi pulled Shouta close and gave him a long kiss, and he could feel Shouta relaxing into it. Reluctantly, Hizashi finally pulled away, and he and Oboro headed to Shouta’s normal train station, each heading home on a different train heading in opposite directions.
Over the next few weeks, none of them spotted the mysterious boy again.
Hizashi figured that had to be a good thing.
Right?