A/N - I just wanted to say thank you for the 1000 views on for this story! It's awesome that you guys are interested in the story!

Chapter 11 - The Media Swarms! Treetop Hideout!

"Excuse me! You are a student here, yes?"

Tokoyami glanced sideways at the large conglomeration of press reporters that were all gathered outside of the U.A. High School gates, his feathers bristling in annoyance. One woman, a dark brunette with her hair tied back in a ponytail, was extremely persistent. This was her fourth day standing outside of the gates harassing the students for interviews and it was the third time she'd tried to approach him.

"What do you think of All Might as a teacher?" She cried out, slamming her microphone in front of his beak.

Without speaking, he nipped at the microphone with his beak, pushing it away. "I have class to attend. Don't make me late," He warned, pushing through a few news reporters who were holding large cameras.

"We only need a few words on All Might! What is he like behind closed doors?" She persisted, moving in front of Tokoyami to block his path. "Just a few words and we'll let you be on your way."

"A few words," Tokoyami said, a grin playing across his face. "Alright, fine."

"Ah finally! So tell us! What is All Might like?" She asked excitedly, shoving her microphone right at his face.

Tokoyami paused for a moment, letting the silence wash over them as they eagerly anticipated his response. "All Might is..."

"Is what?" They all asked with bated breath.

"None of your business," He snapped, pushing past the reporters before they even had time to register that he'd feinted them out.

The reporter whirled around, a fire lit in her eyes as she angrily scowled at Tokoyami. "You lied to us!"

"And you're trying to bully a fifteen year old about his education," He countered, stepping through the U.A. gate. "You may as well give up while you can."

He left the scowling news reporters behind at the gate, knowing they wouldn't be able to enter without any form of ID. Those reporters had been camping out there for ages, trying to get some sort of scoop on All Might that could lead to a national scandal. But no matter how many times Iida told them that All Might was amazing and perfect, or how many times Aizawa had told them to get off the property, they would not be discouraged.

It was a wonder that they hadn't tried to trail the students as they headed home for interviews. The last thing he needed was to be hounded by the media after a long day of work. He was already tired enough as it was adjusting to U.A.'s schedules and while he had finally found a routine that worked, it was still a struggle when the media was involved.

"Can you believe they've been camping out there for days?" Kirishima exclaimed as Tokoyami entered 1-A's classroom. The red head was unusually loud today and he could see the boy look almost flustered.

"And they keep going after you Kirishima, bro," Kaminari jeered. "Especially that brunette in the blue jacket. She's been after you for days."

Mineta had perked up at that, his face beginning to change in earnest at the subject matter, "At least she tried to interview you. None of the cute girls would interview me," He cried out in anguish.

"That's cuz you're creepy and weird," Jirou pointed out, brushing back her audio jacks as she looked up to see Tokoyami. "Did they get you too?"

He nodded silently, making his way to his desk with a grumble before sitting on top of the table. "They wanted the scoop on All Might. I told them to mind their own business."

"That's not like you," Kirishima noted with a grin. "Did the media actually manage to make you break your whole dark mysterious act?"

Tokoyami glared at the red-haired boy, feeling a flush creep down his neck, his feathers bristling with anger. "It is no act, Kirishima. At least I don't dye my hair."

"Hey, how'd you know I dye my hai-" The boy paused as Tokoyami simply gestured behind him, his hand pointing towards Midoriya who was sitting on his desk, scribbling notes into one of his many booklets. As Izuku noticed they were looking at him, he gave a sheepish wave. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Hey Midoriya, how'd you know Kirishima dyes his hair?" Ashido asked curiously. "I thought only I knew that since we went to middle school together."

Midoriya's eyes widened with understanding as he finally was clued in to what was going on and quickly replied with a, "I saw a bottle of hair dye in his bag once while changing."

Well that was anti-climactic.

"Move it bastards!" An angry voice roared, matched by the blonde Bakugou bombshell that almost exploded into the room. He stormed over to his seat, slamming his bag down, ignoring everyone else. Tokoyami noted that his hands were smoking which meant he'd used his Quirk recently. "Those fucking punks think I'm weak! Damnit, fucking sludge villain bullshit..."

"Sounds like Bakubro got hit by the media too," Kirishima howled with laughter.

The aforementioned "Bakubro" span his head around so fast, eyes boring into Kirishima's direction. If looks could kill, Bakugou's now famous catchphrase of "Die" would certainly take a whole new meaning and probably raise the body count. "What? You don't like the nickname?"

"What do you fucking think?" He spat out irritated.

Kirishima shrugged, "I thought it was pretty creative."

"I am going to deck you so hard in the next training session," He snarled.

"Bring it, I can take whatever you can give," Kirishima chuckled, some of the class giving him perplexed stares at his choice of words. But if either of the two hot heads seemed to notice, they definitely didn't show it.

"Anyway, where's Iida," Tokoyami asked, looking around the room. Some of the class still hadn't arrived, probably accosted by the media, but the distinct lack of the glasses wearing male, who constantly tried to get him to stop sitting on the desks, was interesting to note. "Actually, now that I think about it, don't you normally come in with Iida and Uraraka, Midoriya?"

Midoriya gave a nod, pointing to the door, "Iida left earlier to make sure everyone got inside safely. I think Mr. Aizawa gave him the job of keeping us away from the reporters."

At that moment, the class door opened revealing Iida's tall figure along with Uraraka, Shouji, Kouda and Tsuyu. He gave a quick wave to the group, Shouji replying with a nonchalant wave of his own while Kouda timidly smiled in his direction. Tsuyu nodded in his direction before heading to her own desk.

"Those reporters were too much for Kouda," Shouji explained as he leaned on his desk next to Tokoyami. The boy in question was nervously fidgeting with his hands on his desk, looking rather frazzled. "Iida, Tsuyu and I had to get him inside before they caused any major problems."

"Are you alright Kouda?" He asked, looking over at the other boy.

Kouda looked up at them nervously. He seemed to be shaking quite a bit from all of the attention he'd gotten, but Tokoyami was used to talking with Kouda at this point and quickly leaned over towards the boy. "Just give me a thumbs up if you're feeling good or a thumbs down if you're still a bit unsure."

The other boy hesitated for a moment before nervously raising his thumb, Tokoyami giving Kouda small nod and smile before taking his own seat at his desk. "Alright Kouda, I'll leave you to it then."

As the class all began to settle into their seats, still chatting among themselves, Shouji slid one of his arms over to Tokoyami's desk, forming into a mouth to chat with him. "You're a good friend to him, Tokoyami."

"Don't give me all the credit, Shouji," He replied, pointing to the door of the classroom. "You were the one who helped to get him inside."

"But I don't have the gift of talk that you have," The taller boy replied.

Tokoyami glanced over at Shouji's actual face, raising his brow incredulously. "Gift of talk? Surely you must be mistaken."

"Anybody that knows you on a more personal level gets it," Shouji explained with a sigh. "Of course, you'd never admit to being good at that sort of stuff, what with your dark and mysterious persona."

He felt the feathers on his face ruffle, looking away from Shouji with a mortified look on his face. He always hated it when the other boy teased him about his image. It wasn't that he was embarrassed, but pointing it out made more people notice and then the questions. Oh god, the questions. If he heard Kaminari ask if he shopped at Hot Topic one more time...!

"Seriously though, Kouda looks up to you," Shouji finished.

"Um... I can hear you, you know," A soft voice whispered, both of them turning to see Kouda sweating nervously behind them, a rose tinted blush on his cheeks. "But um... He's not wrong. You're like really cool Tokoyami. Like a big brother..." The boy turned away, hiding his head in his hands as he admitted that.

The bird in question could only splutter and squawk out a, "Thank you Kouda," before looking away. A big brother? He had no idea he was having that effect on the boy. He had to admit though, Kouda definitely did have the characteristics of a younger brother, sort of like the baby of the whole Class. In fact, the whole class already felt a bit like a seriously dysfunctional family.

He had no idea just how close they would become over the next few years, but for now everyone was still a little bit wary of each other. Maybe it was from their sparring matches, but everybody was still very much stuck in their own little cliques with only a few members of the class actually moving in between each group. Tsuyu and Ashido were perhaps the best at that, able to move around to whoever they wanted without much trouble.

Tokoyami had a good relationship with a lot of his classmates but he had his preferred group. Shouji, Kouda, Tsuyu and Midoriya were the main group. And of course, with Midoriya came Iida and Uraraka. He got on well with Momo and Jirou thanks to their interactions in those first few days and he found that both he and Jirou were into similar rock bands.

But he found it much harder to fit in with the real boys of the class. Sero, Satou, Kirishima and Kaminari were already forming extremely close bonds and they certainly weren't his first picks for people to chat with.

Shouji had somehow taken a brief shining to Mineta, if only because he was the only person capable of keeping the miniature boy away from all of the girls in the class. It was truly an admirable task and everyone else appreciated his sacrifices made to make sure the creepy child was kept at arm's length, but sometimes it irritated Tokoyami how he'd often want to talk with Shouji, only to see Mineta causing another scene.

Shouji was definitely his closest friend next to Midoriya and Kouda though. Tokoyami and Shouji still both walked home together after school, trying to shave off precious minutes of their walking time while chatting about whatever came to mind. Even Dark Shadow was taking a liking to his regular group of friends, having tried to beat Shouji in arm wrestling a few days prior and often bumping into Kouda with friendly playful jabs to keep the boy happy.

Little did the Class know that by the end of the day, their lives would be changed forever.

"So explain to me why you don't want to eat in the cafeteria today?" Shouji asked, trudging behind Tokoyami as they walked across the grass outside of the main building.

Tokoyami had been planning on skipping lunch that day, since he'd packed his own food specifically so he could be outside. Just a few days prior, he'd seen a really tall tree on the school grounds where some students liked to sit under and relax. But looking up was his actual goal. The tree's branches were extremely thick and could probably support the weight of a group of students.

"I want to climb a tree," He called back. "And I need your help if you're willing."

"Climb a tree? You want to climb a tree?" Shouji repeated, giving his friend a concerned stare.

"Yes Shouji," Tokoyami exclaimed, pointing at the large tree he had spied some days ago. "I want to climb," He pointed at the tree's branches, "Up this tree!"

"And you need me because...?" It seemed his friend just wanted to eat his lunch.

Tokoyami huffed. "Isn't it obvious. You need to lift me up."

"L-Lift you?" Shouji stammered, his arms tensing up in surprise. "Like, lift lift?"

"As in, you grab me and push me up high enough to reach one of the branches, yes," Tokoyami explained, hands on his hips as he waited for Shouji to get on his wavelength. "I don't want to use Dark Shadow since I'm saving him for training later on today."

Shouji considered his options, eyeing the branches wearily before looking over at Tokoyami. And promptly finding his resolve to abstain from this activity melting as he noticed his fellow's feathers begin to droop. "Fine!" He grumbled. "Just this once!"

"Thanks Shouji," Tokoyami smiled, face lighting up as waltzed on over to the tree's trunk. "If I can just reach one of the sturdy looking branches, I should be able to climb it a bit of the ways up."

"Alright, you ready?" Shouji asked, Tokoyami giving a small nod in response. The taller boy focused on one of his arms, wrapping itself around Tokoyami's waist just like he had done during that day in the Entrance Exam, twice. Only this time Tokoyami was actually prepared and was able to keep his balance as felt himself being weightlessly lifted off of the ground.

"You need to lay off the white rice," The tall boy huffed as he lifted Tokoyami up to one of the lower branches.

Reaching out, Tokoyami wrapped his hand around one of the large branches of the tree and quickly scrambled up, Shouji still holding him for balance as he pushed himself up into a standing position. "I think I can climb on my own from here," He called down, giving his friend a thumbs up before moving to climb higher up into the tree's thicket of leaves.

Clambering further up into the branches, he could spot a rather large branch near the top of the tree. It looked abnormally large though, like it had been fashioned on and added to the tree at some point. Perhaps someone had already had the idea to climb up here before? It was like a small wooden platform, large enough to fit a group of three or four people.

He was just a little ways below that platform but he'd need to stand upwards to reach it. The problem was that the branches got thinner the higher up the tree he went and there was a chance that his weight could cause the branch he was on to snap.

He'd have to jump for it. If this went wrong, he'd fall out of the tree and likely have to use Dark Shadow's power to stop the fall. It wouldn't hurt him per say, but an impact of that height could do a number on Dark Shadow's power, not to mention he didn't want to fall out of the tree after Shouji had helped him get up.

"Alright, steady Tokoyami," He whispered, calming himself as he raised himself into a standing position on the branch. He could feel the tree wobbling and his legs were shaking from the lack of balance. But he was determined to make it to the top. He pushed off of the branch, leaping upwards, feeling his hands grab the rough wooden platform.

And then one of his hands slipped. Crying out in surprise, he felt his body weight all shift to the one hand holding him up, which combined with his fairly average physical strength, meant he'd slip if he couldn't find something to grab a hold of.

"Tokoyami!" He heard a voice call from close by. His head snapped to the tree's trunk, where he could see Shouji slowly clambering up the tree towards him. "Hold on! I'm almost there!"

"It's not like I want to let go!" He snapped, panic filling his voice as he felt his arm beginning to slip.

And then he felt his grip on the board falter, his arm letting go from the aching pressure that had slowly been filling his arm. For a moment, he fell into free fall, feeling the wind rush around him as he realized he was falling.

And then as quickly as he'd dropped, he felt something familiar wrap around him, changing his momentum and pulling him straight back up towards the spot where he'd slipped from.

Shouji was glaring at him as the taller boy pulled him onto the wooden platform that he'd managed to clamber up to, shaking his head angrily as he brought Tokoyami over the side before dropping him right next to him. "Idiot," He grumbled.

"Sor...Sorry," Tokoyami replied sheepishly, breathing in deeply in an attempt to calm himself down from that small rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins.

"Next time you ask to climb a tree, an idea might be to wait for me first," Shouji irritably muttered, giving Tokoyami a disappointed look with one of his duplicate eyes.

"I didn't think you were actually going to climb up with me," Tokoyami admitted, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as he left off a nervous chuckle.

"You thought I was going to leave my best friend dangling from a tree?" The other stated bluntly, catching Tokoyami completely off guard with his words, the bird letting out what seemed like a squawk of embarrassment. "What?" Shouji asked, now pulling out what looked like a sandwich from his backpack.

"N-Nothing," Tokoyami muttered, doing the same. "You just called me your uh, b-best friend, is all."

"Well you are my best friend, Tokoyami. I thought that was pretty obvious."

"Not to me!" The smaller admitted. "I haven't had a best friend before, you know."

Shouji chuckled, one of his mouths beginning to eat while a duplicate formed to continue the conversation. "You mean Dark Lord Tokoyami hasn't had a best friend?"

With a grumble, Tokoyami playfully nudged the other one away from him, letting out a few small grumbles of "Dark Lord" and "Edgy" and a distinct sentence that sounded like, "Of course I've had friends."

"You know I'm kidding right, about the Dark Lord thing," Shouji replied, suddenly very unsure as to whether he may have taken the joke a little too far. "Tokoyami, I am kidding you know." Tokoyami looked away, as if upset and Shouji could only look down in dismay.

Until he heard Tokoyami's chuckling just a few moments later. Before he knew it, Tokoyami's chuckles had turned into actual laughter.

"W-What's so funny?"

"It's just," Tokoyami laughed. "You actually thought I was upset."

"How is that funny? I thought you were angry at me!" Shouji countered.

"I don't even know," Tokoyami cried out laughing. It was rare for him to even smile, let alone get into a fit of full blown laughter. In fact, he couldn't even remember the last time he'd just full on laughed out loud. "Seriously, I don't even know."

He imagined Shouji was thoroughly confused, and he definitely looked it. That confusing glare that the taller was throwing towards him definitely gave it away. But after almost falling out of a tree, he was thoroughly amused by his escapade and hopefully Shouji could see the lighter side of things as well.

"Have I ever told you, you're a weird one, Tokoyami," Shouji said as Tokoyami's laughter began to wind down.

"Weird is good right?" He chuckled, turning his attention back to his friend, a smile plastered across his face.

"In your case, definitely."

Tokoyami felt himself lay back onto the wooden platform, taking the moment to just stare up into the afternoon sky. It was a sunny day, there were a few clouds in the sky, everything felt calm and tranquil up there. Had he not been at school, he might have drifted off there and then, content with having a nap in the trees, but he was still at school and they did have classes in thirty minutes.

He took a glance over at Shouji who had taken up a similar position laying down, looking up at the sky. His arms were resting and it seemed he was just using his two normal eyes to look up at the world around them. Content with the quiet, he felt his eyes shut for a moment, relaxing and just basking in the afternoon sun.

"Thanks for convincing me to come up here," Shouji whispered softly, breaking the silence, but not in a bad way.

"Thanks for saving my ass on the way up," He replied crudely. If Shouji was surprised by his choice of words, he didn't say anything, content in the both of them just laying there.

And then it happened. Suddenly, across the entire campus, a large bell began to ring.

"Lunch doesn't end for another twenty-five minutes," Tokoyami muttered, sitting back up.

"That sounds more like an alarm," Shouji hissed, his arms in the air, eyes and ears looking out for any sign of what was going on. "What the hell?"

"What do you see?" He asked, looking over at his friend who was watching something with intense interest. "Shouji, what do you see?"

"The school gate's been ripped open!" His eyes darted around their location, Tokoyami wondering what was going on before suddenly feeling himself being pushed back down onto his back. "Stay down!" Shouji hissed.

Tokoyami was about to ask why when he heard the sound of tons of footsteps running just a little ways away from the tree. "It's the media, they broke in!"

"B-But that's illegal, right?" Tokoyami replied.

Shouji nodded. "Whatever is happening, it's best that we stay here. If we drop down now, they'll see us and probably corner us for an interview."

That was definitely not the desired outcome. "Hopefully everyone else will be alright. I imagine there's a lot of panic over the alarm."

"Mhm, I can see through the windows. Students are worried. That alarm probably only trips when there's an intrud- What the heck is that?"

"What's what?" Tokoyami hissed.

"There's a man that's veered away from the rest of the media. It looks like he's heading around the school building to the windows near the Teacher's Lounge. Light blue hair, wearing a dark black hoodie." Tokoyami could barely contain himself hearing this. And they were trapped in a tree unable to do anything. "Damnit, he's just entered the building. I've lost him."

"The media are getting desperate, jeez," Tokoyami whispered.

For the next few minutes, Shouji's tentacles became the duo's only way of knowing what was going on while in their hideaway. "The teachers are now outside the Main Entrance. It looks like the press is being sent away."

"Are they gone yet, we need to check on the others."

"Hold on Toko," Shouji grumbled. Tokoyami felt himself go bright red and it seemed Shouji had realized what he said as well, adding a, "I meant Tokoyami, of course. We're just in a hurry, is all."

"Of course," Tokoyami stammered.

"Anyway, it seems the media's gone. We should be abl-"

"You two! How long have you been up there?" A familiar voice suddenly shouted from the base of the tree.

"Oh god," Tokoyami groaned, recognizing the tired, yet stern voice of their teacher, Aizawa, whom was looking up at the platform where the two of them were sitting with an agitated look. "How the hell did you not spot Aizawa?"

"I was more focused on the media group." They heard their teacher call again and decided this time to call it quits. However, "Grab hold of me," Shouji hissed.

Without another word, Tokoyami wrapped his arms around his friend, before Shouji suddenly leaped from the platform they were standing on, rushing down to the ground. He quickly spread out his arms, using the excess skin to slow the fall significantly.

When they landed with a soft thud, it had not been as brutal as either had been expecting. "Why didn't you tell me you could do that?" He asked surprised.

"You never asked."

Cough.

Reminding the two of why they jumped down in the first place, they quickly turned to their Homeroom Teacher, who was looking at them concerned. "So, how long have you two been up there?"

"Ever since lunch started, Sir," Tokoyami quickly replied. "It was my idea."

"I don't care who's idea it was. I'm not telling you off. I wanted to know if you two had seen anything unusual seeing as you were so high up." Aizawa crossed his arms, looking around at the rest of the school concerned.

"I saw someone from the media move around the side of the building. Light blue hair in black or grey clothing," Shouji explained, trying to recall the man he had apparently seen near the teacher's lounge.

"We caught him and chucked him out with the rest," Aizawa stated. "Now, I won't punish you for being up there in the tree. It's part of the campus and the wooden platform at the top was actually built by my class. But next time you decide to skip lunch, let somebody know. In the case of an evacuation, we must be aware of your locations at all times."

"Of course, we'll make sure to do that next time," Shouji stated.

"Alright, now get to class. This incident changes nothing about your lesson this afternoon. And it's an important one," Aizawa drawled, pointing towards the school building.

The two boys quickly nodded to their teacher before heading off towards the main building, Tokoyami adding in a, "Next time?"

Shouji notably tensed up as he said this, replying with a hurried, "Of course, I mean, I just assumed. It was nic-"

"Next time," Tokoyami stated, now a statement, not a question.

And so they headed back into the school building, leaving Aizawa out standing by their tree. Brushing off a few leaves from the base of the trunk, some small initials were engraved there. A.S, H.Y, N.K and K.I.

"A new generation found this tree then. Good for them," Aizawa muttered before turning away from the old oak. There was work to be done and his class would be busy today.

A/N - Pure fluff and world building this chapter. I wanted to sort of specify the current cliques and start working on a few of the characters. Kouda got a lot of focus and will for the USJ arc since he gets warped with Tokoyami. I also wanted to sort of solidify the friendship between Tokoyami and Shouji there which I hope I did well enough.

Canonically, I've deviated from the manga in terms of time. USJ happens just a few days into their school year. Here, I let two weeks pass to allow for natural friendships to form. USJ will obviously strengthen those bonds, but I wanted to add the timeskip for the sake of growth in general.

The tree hideaway is also going to be returning at points in the story. One thing I love about the fics I write is that I can give the characters an area where they can be comfortable. Currently, it's just Tokoyami and Shouji's area. But I could easily expand upon that when the story calls for it.

Anyway, make sure to leave a review if you enjoyed!