"That's it for class today. Go home." Aizawa said, ending the class.

Almost immediately Mina, as well as the rest of the girls, huddled around Tokoyami.

"So who is she?" Mina asked.

Tokoyami was surprised but his face didn't show it. "How did you know-"

"Dark Shadow used the group chat and told us you were out all day with a cute girl," Jiro said.

"DARK SHADOW!" Tokoyami shouted, cursing his quirk.

Dark Shadow wisely decided to stay inside of Tokoyami's clothes.

"So spill who is she?! What did you do!? Did you kiss!? What's it like kissing with a beak!?" Mina asked, relentlessly.

Momo stepped in and put a hand in front of Mina. "This isn't an interrogation Mina, you can't just ask endless personal questions like-"

"Did you fuck?" Helena asked, interrupting her sister.

"Helena!" Momo exclaimed as both she and Tokoyami's faces went red.

"She just helped me with some errands," Tokoyami explained. "That's all."

"They also shared a pizza and the time before, they shared edgy poetry." Dark Shadow said.

"I'm going to throw you into the void," Tokoyami said.

"I am the void!" Dark Shadow laughed.

"Aww, that's so cute!" Toru said. "I'm guessing she's an edgelord like you."

"I am not an edgelord." Tokoyami defended.

"Yeah you an edge king." Helena, Jiro and Dark Shadow all said before high fiving.

"You are all dead to me." Tokoyami deadpanned.

"You love us," Mina said. "Now what's her name! We need to add her to the group chat!"

"Yeah, we added Helena's girlfriend to the chat after all." Jiro mocked.

"My sister and Toga are in no such relationship!" Momo said. "If they were they would have told me."

"Yeah, we're just friends with benefits," Helena said.

Momo's eyes widened and her head turned quickly to her sister and her face went pure red. "W-wha-wha-wha-what!"

"You didn't know?" Helena asked her sister. "We've been doing it for a while now."

"Yeah, she's not subtle about it at all." Tsuyu said.

has crashed.

As the girls tried to bring Momo back to reality, Tokoyami received a text.

It was from Raven, they had exchanged numbers yesterday and this was the first text he had gotten from her.

"Wanna hang out?" The text said.

"Yes." He texted back instantly.

"Don't text back too fast you'll make yourself look desperate!" Dark Shadow said.

"Silence!" Tokoyami responded.

"So where should we go?" Raven texted.

Tokoyami thought hard about his answer, but before he could come up with one Dark Shadow snatched the phone out of his hand and started texting.

"Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami shouted. "Give that back!"

"I'm doing you a favor!" Dark Shadow replied.

"That's it! It's time to suffer the wrath of the cruel unforgiving light!" Tokoyami shouted.

He then pulled out a high power flashlight out of his backpack and shined it at him.

"AH! My eyes!" He shouted, dropping the phone as he went to cover his eyes.

Tokoyami was about to catch the phone but suddenly it stopped in mid-air. Or rather, it landed in the hands of Toru.

"So her name is Raven," Toru said. "An American girl huh."

"She's Japanese," Tokoyami said. "Her name is just weird."

"Really?" Toru said. "Huh. Weird. Anyway here's your phone back. Have fun taking a girl to your house."

"What?" Tokoyami asked before looking at the phone.

Dark Shadow had sent the message. "Come over to our place it'll be great!"

Tokoyami gave Dark Shadow a dirty look, and Dark Shadow gave him a thumbs up before Tokoyami immediately started flashing him with the light.

Suddenly Tokoyami got a new message.

"Guessing Dark Shadow took your phone?" Raven texted back.

Tokoyami breathed a sigh of relief and texted back. "Yes. He is currently being punished."

Raven texted back but all she texted what a question mark. Probably wondering what he meant by punished.

"I'm flashing him with a really powerful flashlight." Tokoyami texted.

"Nice." Raven texted back.

"But honestly, I don't think it's a bad idea." Raven continued.

Tokoyami stared at his phone, wondering what he should say. Should he invite her to his home? He'd never invited anyone to his home before and inviting a girl there seemed...embarrassing. But at the same time, it would be rude to just take back the offer sooooo.

"It's a fine idea." Tokoyami texted, sweating nervously as he did so.

"Cool. Text me your address." Raven said.

"Nice," Toru whispered behind him.

Tokoyami ignored her. He had to mentally prepare for all the blushing he was going to do.

Later, At Tokoyami's house.

Tokoyami took a deep breath as he approached his home. To say that he was nervous would be an understatement. He had never, in all his life, invited anyone to his home. Partially because of his social awkwardness, mostly because he didn't have any friends before he came to U.A.

Don't mess up. He thought to himself. Don't mess up, Don't mess up, Don't mess up! Don't-

"Hey."

Tokoyami blinked, realizing that he hadn't been paying attention and that he was now in front of his house. And Raven was already there.

"Oh. Greetings." Tokoyami said, swiftly regaining his composer.

"How was U.A.?" Raven asked.

"Pleasant," Tokoyami answered. "Our instructor is a rather strange man. He's tough but fair. He's a good teacher."

"That's nice. I wouldn't know. I've been...homeschooled." Raven lied.

"I see," Tokoyami said.

There was another short awkward pause before Raven spoke up.

"Are we gonna go in?" She asked.

"Yes," Tokoyami answered, already blushing from embarrassment.

Tokoyami took out his keys and opened the door, allowing them both inside.

His house wasn't anything too special, just a typical modern, two-story family home.

"It's really...normal," Raven said, looking around.

"Well, my parents prefer me to keep my...personal items in my room," Tokoyami said.

"Hmm," Raven said as she continued looking around.

Suddenly, her eyes landed on a picture of what looked to be Tokoyami's parents, holding a peculiar looking bird.

"I've never seen that kind of bird before," Raven said.

Tokoyami turned to see what she was talking about, and when he saw the picture she was looking at, his face immediately flushed.

"You know there's really nothing to do here." He said quickly. "Perhaps we should go to my room."

Raven gave him a look of curiosity and suspicion. Now she really wanted to figure out what was up with this bird.

"What is the bird-like a childhood pet or something?" Raven asked.

"It's...not important." Tokoyami lied, his body language instantly giving him away.

Knowing she wasn't going to get any answers for Tokoyami, she decided to take a closer look at the picture.

The closer she looked at the picture, the more familiar the bird looked.

"You know...actually...the bird looks a little like you," Raven noted.

Tokoyami froze.

Seeing Tokoyami's reaction, Raven's eyes widened, as she had a revelation. "Wait is that bird-"

"It's me," Tokoyami revealed. "That is me as an infant."

…

"Oh," Raven said after a brief silence.

She wasn't really sure what to think about that. It didn't really change anything but it was still really weird to think about.

"How...how?" Raven asked.

"My mother, as you can see, has an avian quirk. So when it came time for her to reproduce…" Tokoyami paused. "She...laid an egg. I was born a bird, and when it came time for me to develop my quirk I had a sudden transformation into what you see now."

"Oh," Raven said. "That must have been...shocking."

"Imagine waking up, on the floor, surrounded by pieces of a broken birdcage. You are much larger than you were before and your whole body doesn't work the same way it did before. All you can do is flap your wings and try to fly away, only to find that you no longer have wings anymore, and you keep hearing a fearsome noise coming from someplace you can't see, and that's because it's coming from yourself." Tokoyami said, his pupils getting smaller and smaller as he recalled that traumatic day.

"That sounds...traumatizing," Raven said. "I'm sorry."

Tokoyami took a deep breath, and another, taking breaths until he managed to calm himself down. "You have nothing to apologize for. It's only natural you would be curious."

There was another long, very uncomfortable pause as Raven desperately tried to get rid of the discomfort and tension she accidentally created.

Lucky for her, Dark Shadow came in for the save.

"Hey, why don't we go up to our room!" Dark Shadow said.

"Yeah, that sounds great," Raven said quickly.

"Great let's go!" Dark Shadow grabbed Tokoyami and lifted him into the air. "Follow me!"

How does that work? Raven wondered.

Raven followed Dark Shadow upstairs until they reached a black door.

Oh my god, he actually painted the door black. Raven tried not to smirk.

"Welcome Raven, to our den of the dark!" Dark Shadow said dramatically after putting Tokoyami down.

Tokoyami sighed and opened the door.

The room was...exactly what Raven expected from him. Everything was black, with the only source of light in the room being dim purple lights. It was filled with edgy, cool-looking trinkets.

"Yeah, this is about what I expected," Raven said.

Meanwhile, Tokoyami was sighing in relief. He was so, so glad she wasn't laughing.

"So what exactly did you want to do in here?" Raven asked.

"We have games!" Dark Shadow said, pulling out a few video games from under the T.V.

"I've never really played video games," Raven said.

"What!?" Dark Shadow said. Tokoyami didn't say anything, instead giving her a curious look.

"You've never played video games!?" Dark Shadow said. "How have you lived this long!?"

"I just never had the time or money," Raven said. "Besides, if I had anything that nice then my dad would have made me smash it."

"He would have made you destroy it yourself?" Tokoyami asked. "No offense but your father sounds rather…"

"Like a dick!" Dark Shadow chimed in.

"Dark shadow!" Tokoyami shouted. "You shouldn't say something like that about-"

"No, he's not wrong." Raven interrupted him.

Tokoyami turned to Raven, giving her a surprised look.

"My dad is...he's the fucking worst," Raven said, unable to hide her contempt. "Trust me, calling him a dick, is the understatement of the century."

Tokoyami looked careful at Raven. Her body language, her furious expression. It all reminded him of the few times Todoroki spoke about his father before the abuse was found out.

If there was even a chance that the same thing had happened to her…

I won't be blind again. He thought.

"Raven are you...being abused by your father?" Tokoyami asked.

Raven's eyes widened, as she realized she'd given away too much. Shit. I forgot that his classmates with a victim of child abuse. I must be giving off red flags. I can't tell him the truth but I doubt he'll just let me go without an explanation, he's a hero after all...and one of the good ones at that.

Raven winced slightly, as she was reminded of Tokoyami's good nature, and how she was taking advantage of it.

She shook her head. Focus! I need to make something up. Maybe insert a bit of truth so he can't tell the difference between those and the lies.

"I know we haven't known each other long. But...you can trust me." Tokoyami said. "I know being a hero doesn't mean much after Batman exposed all those fakes, but-"

"He's already in jail." Raven blurted out.

Tokoyami fell silent.

Raven sighed and gave Tokoyami a serious look. "You said I can trust right?"

Both Tokoyami and Dark Shadow nodded.

"You won't say a word about this to anyone else?" Raven asked them. "Not even you Dark Shadow."

"No." Dark Shadow said. "Not a word."

Tokoyami nodded. "Neither will I."

"Good," Raven said.

She took a deep breath and prepared to start her story. Here goes nothing.

"My dad had a quirk, that would allow him to take control of me. Cause me to lose control and attack others with my quirk. He'd use it on me whenever I disobeyed him. He made it impossible for me to make any friends or even get close to anyone." Raven explained. "Every time I went berserk, we'd have to move. This went on for years until one day...he made me hurt my mother."

"Is...is she?" Tokoyami hesitantly asked.

"She was alive the last time I saw her," Raven said. "But she was in a coma. My father was arrested after that. I was put into foster care. I didn't care for it, so I left. I went from place to place, living on the streets, working under the table jobs to get what little money I could. Eventually, I found some...nice people who took me in. And now here I am. I swear I can still hear his voice in my head even now."

After Raven was done, there was a long, long pause, while Raven prayed he wouldn't dig any deeper.

After what felt like forever, Tokoyami spoke.

"When I was younger, back when I just transformed into a human. I had difficulties adjusting." Tokoyami said. "I had to get rid of old habits that I once used every day, while also learning new things that were never even possible for me before. For a month I was unable to talk and walk, whenever I tried to eat or drink anything I would often end up breaking the plates and cups while also getting the food everywhere. I was five years old but I might as well have been a toddler. I received private lessons from government officials, under the A.T.H.A.A."

"That what?" Raven asked.

"The A.T.H.A.A., it stands for the animal to human adjustment agency," Tokoyami answered. "They are an organization that helps people who were formerly animals adjust to being human. They helped educate me for about two years before the government deemed that I could attend school normally. But in truth, they were very, very wrong. All they had done was progress my mental state from that of an infant to a toddler. I would mess up my words and my walk was strange, and I still had a few lingering birdlike habits. As you can imagine, I was very popular in my new school."

"Yeah." Raven almost shuddered as she imagined the intense bullying that must have occurred. "At least you had Dark Shadow."

Tokoyami shook his head. "Not quite. Dark Shadow was not the same as he is now. Back when I had first developed my quirk, he was nothing more than a small, shapeless shadow that would come out of me, not able to talk or even stay around for very long. For a while we had no idea that he was even sentient, perhaps he had not even been sentient at that time."

"It's kinda iffy." Dark Shadow said.

"I did have my parents, but they were often busy with their respective jobs. Meaning that I was alone for long periods of time. Whenever I wasn't being beaten by the other children that is." Tokoyami said. "As I said, Dark Shadow was just a shapeless shadow, at most he could maybe hit someone, but he was no better than having a third arm. After about a year of that, I had had enough. I decided that I would change myself. I would learn how to speak, and walk, and act without issue. And I would become stronger so that no one could prey on me again. I learned two things that could make my quirk stronger. Darkness, and negative emotions. It was then I fully embraced the darkness. I removed the lights from my room, and replaced them with dimmer ones, while at the same time getting rid of all the bright colors. I replaced all my clothes with darker versions. I had even changed my behavior to reflect my darker outlook. I spent all my free time in my darkened room, festering in my own negativity, while I studied on how to improve myself. By the time I was in middle school, I had achieved my goal. Dark Shadow had become something reminiscent of what he is now. I was powerful enough to ward off any foes that would dare attack me. But what I didn't know at the time, was that the more powerful Dark Shadow became, the harder he became to control. Before I knew it, Dark Shadow became uncontrollable, attacking anyone who showed even the slightest aggression towards me, or anything that made me even slightly irritable. It came to the point where I had to be taken to a special school to contain people with dangerous, uncontrollable quirks."

"Wait, Dark Shadow doesn't seem like the aggressive type though." Raven pointed out.

"Over the years I was able to control Dark Shadow's rage and power to an extent eventually bringing him to his current state," Tokoyami explained. "But if I ever lose control, and Dark Shadow gains too much power, then there is a risk of him taking control of my body and running amok, destroying whatever is in his path."

"Yeah, I get a little power drunk." Dark Shadow scratched the back of his head.

So he was forced to rampage against his will to. Raven silently sympathized. It looks like we have more in common than we thought.

"But back when I was in middle school, I had little to no control over Dark Shadow. I had gained power, but had neglected control." Tokoyami said. "I was almost completely isolated for a long, long time. The only people I was able to speak to were a few instructors. At that time I hated my quirk, my hatred only fueling my lack of control, making the situation worse."

"I would have never guessed," Raven said. "You two seem like friends."

"Eventually I came to the realization that hating Dark Shadow was pointless. As not only is he forever a part of me, he also feeds on the negativity. After that realization, it became much easier to control him, granted that there was enough light." Tokoyami explained. "Eventually I found myself excelling with my quirk and with my studies so when I graduated, they not only said I would be able to rejoin society they also recommended me to the best hero school in japan."

"Did you want to be a hero?" Raven asked, wondering when in his life he decided to be a hero.

"Not really. I had spent so much of my life adjusting to things that I never really got to figure out what I wanted to be in the end." Tokoyami said. "So when they suggested that I be a hero, I just went along with it."

Raven stared at him for a moment before saying. "You know...you and I are pretty similar."

"Like birds of a feather." Dark Shadow said.

"I knew you'd say that." Tokoyami groaned

Raven smiled slightly, glad that tension had been cleared. "So now that we've all revealed our tragic backstories, can we play some games now?"

"Yep!" Dark Shadow said picking a game out of a box. "First up! Super Hero Bash Ultimate! Side note if you pick Batman we aren't friends anymore."

Tokoyami rolled his eyes. "She has never played a video game before. She can pick any character she likes. No matter how cheap."

"Thanks. I'm picking Batman." Raven said without hesitation.

Raven proceeded to beat Tokoyami, nine to one.

Many hours later

Raven walked into the L.O.V. base, filled with conflicting emotions.

On one hand, this was probably one of the better days in her life. Just sitting around playing video games with FRIENDS! Something she's never really had before.

But every time she walked back to this damn bar, she was reminded that she was going to have to betray those friends.

She quickly walked past Kurogiri and Tomura, who didn't even attempt to greet her anymore, and into her room.

She fell onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

After a few minutes of contemplation, she heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." Raven sighed, already knowing who it was.

Clayface slid into the room with a concerned expression on his face.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Like a terrible person," Raven responded bluntly.

"So you got close to him huh?" Clayface asked.

"Not only...is he just a nice guy, we also have a lot in common." Raven groaned.

Clayface cringed. "Well...if he's such a nice guy then maybe he'll understand. I mean...you gotta do, what you gotta do. It's not really your fault. If you don't help free your pops then he'll never leave you alone. And you'll never have a chance of living a normal life."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure he'll understand. Hey, sorry about this but I've been trying to trick you into giving information on your boss so I could give it to villains, all so that way we can break out my bad, who is a mass murderer, out of jail. But it's ok because I have a sad backstory. I'm sure that'll go down well."

Clayface sighed. "Well you have to stay optimistic in situations like this, otherwise you'll drive yourself insane."

"Whatever," Raven said.

Clayface got up to leave, but as he was leaving he said one more thing. "Oh, they also wanted me to tell you, the attack is going to be next Sunday."

Raven's eyes widened. Next Sunday. That meant she only had eight days until she probably became a wanted criminal.

"Fanfuckingtastic."

Ok real quick, a few things I need to say.

So I heard that apparently Tokoyami was born I bird, not 100% sure if that's true but screw it I'm going with it. Also since I don't know Tokoyami's full backstory so I made one up, if it differs from what his canon backstory ends up being, then you can just chalk that up to this being a different universe.

Anyway, Please Review, and thank you for reading.