What Class 2A had failed to mention to Mr. Aizawa is that their idea of a quiet dinner, was more like Pizza and soda in the common room. With maybe some music playing and maybe a movie or two if they could convince Iida to let them stay a little after lights out.

It wasn't a party though, Ashido assured Shinsou. No, apparently he'd know if it was a party.

This was just dinner. But for Shinsou, who had never shared a meal with more than three people in his life, it sure felt like a party.

Now, Pizza for twenty hungry teenagers was bound to be a little pricey, so Shinsou was kinda surprised when the pizza was delivered and set out, and no one had come to him about pitching in. He mustered up the courage to ask Midoriya about how much he owed, but the boy just shook his head.

"Oh don't worry about it, Shinsou. Shouto, Momo and Tenya are paying."

Shinsou raised an eyebrow at that.

"It's just, they're like stupid rich, and it's like they're always trying to give their money away somehow, so the three of them end up treating us to stuff like this all the time."

Shinsou thought about the three in question. Well, it was true. The names Todoroki, Iida and Yaoyorozu were known all around Asia, so it made sense that their families were wealthy, but still. He didn't know how to feel about leeching off his rich classmates when he had literally just got here.

"We all felt pretty weird about it in the beginning," Midoriya seemed to know what he was thinking, "But they insist, and it's really hard to say no to free pizza, you know?"

That, Shinsou understood well enough. So he just shrugged and grabbed a slice.

And so that's how late that evening found Shinsou on the floor in the common room surrounded by boxes upon boxes of pizza, bottles of soda and an assortment of snacks, with the rest of class 2A, all of them somehow squashed between three couches and the floor space in front of a TV that was on but completely ignored.

People moved around the room like clockwork, while Shinsou stuck to his spot in front of the couch like a lifeline. However, he always had someone next to him. He tried to keep to the background as much as possible, but as was inevitable in this class, he was always someway, somehow, pulled back into whatever conversation was taking place.

Even after the pizza ran out, and the soda bottles emptied, and the TV was muted, the class stayed in the common room, talking away as if they hadn't been in the dorms all weekend already.

At some point, Yaoyorozu went to the kitchen and came back with several pots of tea and popped twenty teacups out of her arms.

Yeah, Shinsou would never get used to seeing that.

He sat with a cup of the most delicious tea he had ever had, and the party (or absolutely not a party according to Ashido) seemed to be finally winding down. Everyone was on the floor now, light blankets draped everywhere. Shinsou found himself wedged between Uraraka and Kaminari, who hadn't moved from Shinsou's side in a while. Half of HItoshi was so uncomfortably hot that he wanted to blond boy to move, but the other half of him knew that he'd kinda hate it if he actually did.

Ojirou lay in front of Kaminari while the other boy absentmindedly played with his tail.

Todoroki and Midoriya were basically on top of each other, covered in a suspiciously small blanket, and Shinsou couldn't even tell which limbs belonged to who under there. Their closeness was only rivaled by Bakugou and Kirishima, with the former leaning back onto the red headed boys chest and refusing to move even to let him comfortably drink his tea.

Aoyama had claimed the table for himself and was draped over it as if he was waiting to be painted. Tokoyami, who had been scolding everyone for using Shouji's arms for hugging privileges, was now the one perched in his embrace, and it didn't look like he was about to go anywhere anytime soon. Sero had his head on Kouda's lap while his long legs spread over Mina and Tsu. Everyone was draped over each other in some way or other, in a way that only people who were unbelievably comfortable around each other could be.

"Are you sure Bakugou and Kirishima are the only couple in this class?" he muttered to Denki next to him.

"Well officially, yeah." he nodded, mumbling back, "But there's tons of others who are either keeping it a secret or just really into each other."

"Huh,"

"Like, you obviously know about Todoroki and Midoriya's 'obliviously pining for each other' situation," he supplied.

"Obviously," nodded Hitoshi.

"Yeah, then there's those two," Kaminari discretely pointed to Jirou and Yaoyorozu who were sharing a pillow on the floor as they talked quietly, "Jirou's totally in love with Momo, I mean, look how she looks at her. And Momo's the smartest person in the class, but she's still dumb enough to think that Jirou's just a really good friend. They'll get there eventually."

"And them," he gestured to Shouji and Tokoyami, "They're absolutely inseparable. Like, it's scary, I don't think I've ever seen one without the other. And Fumikage always likes climbing him or sitting on him or just somehow being on top of him. But he blames that on his bird instincts, but come on. How obvious can you be? But neither of them will ask each other out because they're both totally insecure. You know, Fumi's a bird and Mezou... well I dunno what Mezou's problem is actually, cause he's totally hot."

Hitoshi found himself nodding along, as Denki continued.

"And then there's Hagakure. She has a crush on Ojirou, but apparently she's convinced that I have a crush on him too so she won't do anything. Plus the whole invisibility thing makes her real shy about crushes and stuff. Even though I'm pretty sure she's totally hot under all that light refraction."

HItoshi nodded once more, and then cleared his throat, "So, uh, do you?"

"Do I what?" asked Denki.

"Have a crush on Ojirou?"

He scoffed, "What? No way, he's just my bro. I thing it's cause I'm always clinging on his tail and people get the wrong idea. But it's so soft and so strong, I can't resist." even as he said it, Denki nuzzled his cheek into the fluffy end on the tail in his lap. It was maybe the most adorable thing Hitoshi had ever seen. He had to look away to keep from smiling. He had a fucking reputation after all.

"So yeah, that's basically it as far as I know,"

"Good to know," Hitoshi nodded.

"So uh... what about you?"

Shinsou turned to him "What about me?"

"You got your eye on anyone?" he wiggled his eyebrows, and Shinsou swallowed, looking away again.

"I just got here." he said.

"Oh yeah, true, true." Denki nodded, fluffing the tail.

"Besides, I'm not into any of that."

"Oh!" Denki nodded, "Oh okay cool. Sero identifies as asexual too so-"

"No that's not... I'm not asexual. I just wanna concentrate on school and stuff. No distractions, you know?"

"Oh yeah totally. That's totally cool, yeah. That's great." he was still nodding, "Cool cool cool..."

Denki cleared his throat before speaking again.

"So what are you?" he asked.

Shinsou looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Like if you're not asexual. What do you like... like?"

Shinsou blinked.

"Oh shit, that's a weird question. Sorry, you don't have to answer that I didn't mean to-"

"No it's fine." he rubbed his neck again, "I don't know, I like what I like. Don't have an actual preference. So Pan, I guess."

"Oh cool," Denki nodded a few times, "Cool cool, I get that. Everyone's so hot. Especially in 2A. Like, everyone in this class is really hot. All of you."

Shinsou snorted, "Yeah, you guys are a pretty good looking class."

Denki just kept nodding. He was nodding a lot. "Uh huh, yeah. Totally. Yeah. Coooool."

Hitoshi nodded at his cooling slice of pizza. And the two sat in silence. Hitoshi didn't know why it was uncomfortable. Silence was one of his favorite things. Well, it was before today anyway. He cleared his throat, rubbing his neck, before speaking up.

"And uh.. you?"

Denki's head snapped up to him, "Me?"

"Yeah. You into anyone?"

"No!" he said too loudly, and then cleared his throat, lowering his voice, "Nope, not at all. No I don't like anyone. At all. Why... uh.. why do you ask?"

"Well, you asked me."

"Oh right, yeah I did." Denki laughed shakily. "I forgot."

:::

2A Group Chat

.

Tailman: Holy shit, are you guys hearing this?

Sugarman: I missed most of it, but I got that last part.

Uravity: Are we talking about Denki's attempt at flirting?

Uravity: Cause ouch.

Anima: (ლ)

EarphoneJack: Denki, this is sad.

InvisibleGirl: Oh my god, right?!

Tentacole: We can all hear you, and you are not doing well.

Can'tStopTwinkling: I thought flirting was his forte, cheri. What is happening?

Pinky!: I think I know what the problem is!

EarphoneJack: Well enlighten us, because if I have to watch Denki embarrass himself any more I'm gonna cry.

Pinky!: Flirting is what he does with every random person, but he can't do it properly if he actually likes the guy.

Cellophane: Yeah! Feelings™ has made him dumb.

EarphoneJack: read: dumber than usual.

Deku: Oh come on guys, he's not that bad.

Froppy: Izuku he's opened and closed his mouth about 8 times and nothing has come out.

Deku: Okay yeah, you right, it's bad.

Creati: Someone help him this is making me sad.

Tsukuyomi: No let him suffer like the rest of us, it will build character.

Tentacole: What exactly are you suffering from? You know, besides the usual demons.

Tsukuyomi: ...

Tsukuyomi has deleted a message.

Shouto: This is so sad

KING EXPLOSION MURDER: Once again, you have no right to talk.

Shouto: ...

Shouto has deleted a message.

Chargebolt: wow, so y'all really just gonna call me out like this huh?

:::

Shinsou was on his third cup of tea, and the class was acting as weird as usual. They were all still having their conversations, but they were also all typing on their phone, making him think that maybe a whole other conversation was happening over there. The only one relatively affected by it though, was Denki. His face was red and scowling as he stabbed at his keyboard, looking up and glaring at people at random intervals.

Shinsou was at least grateful for the lull in conversation. Now he could stare into space for a while and recharge his social battery. The battery he didn't even know he had, mind you, but was already woefully overexerted.

He wanted to go to bed. He probably wasn't going to sleep or anything, but just lying in bed in the dark seemed very tempting right now. But he knew that he would feel bad just leaving like that. Maybe it was his lifetime of having no friends, or even acquaintances, but Shinsou didn't really want to disappoint these people. And his leaving early would probably disappoint them. They were weird like that.

They were a very strange group of people, was class 2A. Hitoshi was being reminded of that with every passing minute.

He was dragged away from his thoughts when he felt a nudge at his foot, and he blinked next to him. Kaminari was looking at him with a frown, "You okay, man?"

Shinsou frowned back and nodded, "Why?"

"I dunno, you just looked kinda zoned out."

Shinsou shook his head, "No I... I was just thinking."

"You wouldn't know anything about that, Denki."

"God damn it Jirou, why you always gotta drag me like this?" the boy threw his hands up.

"You're just too easy, dude." the girl smirked.

"What were you thinking about?" Hagakure asked Shinsou from across the room.

And just like that, all eyes were suddenly on him. Dammit.

"Just... stuff," he said, like the true conversationalist he was.

"Stuff?" Ashido tilted her head.

"Yeah," he shrugged, and decided to actually tell the truth, "Just, you guys are a lot."

"They really are, aren't they." Tokoyami nodded his head solemnly.

"I'm pretty sure you're included in this mad banquet of darkness," Shouji scoffed. Tokoyami looked horribly offended.

"How dare you use my own lines against me?"

"Yes, these people do tend to be overwhelming," Iida nodded at Shinsou.

"What were your friends from Class C like?" asked Kirishima, "I mean, we're all just teenagers, we can't be all that different."

"Trust me, you are," Shinsou assured him, "Class C is nothing like this."

"What are they like?" Kaminari joined in. God why the hell were they so curious? How was he supposed to answer these questions? He had no idea what they were like. He was never invited to any study sessions or common room hangouts or movie nights. He spent all his time in his own dorm and only interacted when doing group projects that were forced upon them. And even then, still keeping interaction to a bare minimum.

How did he say all that without sounding as pathetic as he felt?

But still, these people were waiting for an answer, so he sighed.

"Well, I... I don't know what they were like. We weren't really friends."

There. Now drop it.

"Well they seemed to be cheering you on enough at the festival last year," Satou frowned.

"Yeah well, that was because general studies was getting some spot light. But that was basically it."

"Why?" Uraraka frowned. Jesus Christ, what was with these people? Shinsou let out a sigh with gritted teeth.

"They didn't like my quirk. No big deal."

"Well that's stupid, your quirks awesome!" Denki scoffed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's brainwashing." Hitoshi said slowly, trying to get it through theses people's skulls, "I could make anyone do anything just by talking to them. So naturally, people would rather I not talk to them in case I make them my slaves or something."

"Yeah but.. you wouldn't do that." Midoriya frowned, "People actually think you would do that?"

Shinsou looked at the green haired boy, and then the rest of the class. They all seemed genuinely confused. As if people being afraid of brainwashing couldn't possibly be a thing.

"I had to wear a muzzle throughout elementary school and most of middle school before my dad's found out and took me somewhere else." he found himself saying. Why was he saying this? He had no idea. But the fact that this class didn't seem to get his isolation didn't sit well with him.

"Wait hold up, I'm sorry did you say muzzle?" Sero sat up so quickly he spilled his tea. Everyone was gaping at him in shock.

"Yeah well, the kids didn't want me to talk. Villain quirk, you know? And when the teachers found out they just kinda... agreed with them."

"What the actual fuck?" Bakugou spat.

"Oh my god, honey, are you kidding?" Yaoyorozu looked scandalized.

"That is seriously messed up," Shouji shook his head as he spoke through on of his tentacles.

Shinsou, shrank back from the angry, concerned protests coming his way, tightening his hands around his cooling tea as he shrugged, "Hey chill, it's cool. Everyone gets bullied at some point, right?"

"Not like that!" Uraraka slammed her fist to the floor, "That's just horrible!"

The protests kept coming, and Shinsou kept trying to shrink himself, and it would be great if they would all stop concentrating on him now, please and thank you.

"Hey man, kids can be dicks," he muttered.

As if by answered prayer, a voice spoke up over the chatter.

"It's true!" Midoriya said, "The kids at my old school used to practice their quirk on me all the time, since I didn't have one. They said they were practicing to be heroes, and since I loved heroes so much I believed them and thought I was helping. Same as when they'd beat me up and say we were 'training'." he frowned suddenly and let his shoulders fall, "Wow, I was really stupid back then.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Asui's tongue reached out and slapped Bakugou upside the head. To Shinsou's shock, the blonde did nothing, just rubbed at the spot he was hit as glared at the ground.

"Sorry babe, but you deserved that," Kirishima said from behind him.

"Yeah yeah, I know," he muttered.

Midoriya smiled sweetly at Shinsou, nodding a little, and Shinsou realized that the boy had seen him get uncomfortable and had caused a distraction.

He smiled, "Dude, that's fucked."

And Midoriya fucking giggled, "Bullied bros!" he grinned, raising his hand for a high five.

And Shinsou couldn't help his little grin, "Bullied bros," he retuned the high five, albeit with much less enthusiasm.

"Hey, I want to join," Todoroki spoke up, "Does it count if the bully is your father?"

"Sure!" Midoriya grinned.

"Bullied bros," he deadpanned, holding out his hand and forcing Shinsou to join in another high five.

"Okay, this is all very concerning!" Iida cried, "It seems that you people are undermining the seriousness of these situations.

"We're just used to it," shrugged Todoroki, "Besides, I'm pretty sure Endeavor being a bully is common knowledge."

"Yeah but to other heroes, not to his kid," Ojirou frowned.

Midoriya suddenly looked very angry, "Endeavor is the worst person in the world and I think we should all just kill him."

His angry face would have been cute if he didn't look like he was completely serious.

"No murder please, Izuku," said Yaoyorozu.

"Yeah, maybe just a slight beating," nodded Uraraka.

"No, it's got to be murder," Midoriya continued, "Plus, I'm pretty sure Shouto and his siblings would be cool with it, right?"

"We wouldn't mind at all," confirmed Todoroki. Shinsou had to agree with Iida here. This was slightly concerning.

"I didn't know you had siblings Todoroki." Hagakure spoke up, "For some reason, I can't image Endeavor with more kids.

"I have two older siblings," Todoroki replied, "Well, technically three, but-" he shrugged.

The room waited.

"But what?" asked Hagakure after a while.

"Well Touya's probably dead, but I'm not actually sure."

The room suddenly went into a confused silence, and they all looked at each other in confusion.

"Wait what?" blinked Aoyama, "How can you not know?"

Todoroki was still focused on his cup of tea, and hadn't seemed to notice that everyone was frowning at him, "Well I haven't seen him in about eight years. We were pretty close because he's the only one I was allowed to see once I developed my quirk and started training. We trained together because we were the only ones with Endeavors fire, but then Touya would refuse to fight me because I was only five, and the old man got real mad at that. A few years later he just disappeared and Endeavor told us that he died and after that we weren't allowed to talk about him."

The silence was palpable, while Todoroki just kept stirring his tea, "Natsuo is convinced that Endeavor actually killed him, but we can't prove it so guess we'll never know."

Todoroki sipped his tea, and it's only then that he seemed to realized that no one had talked in a while. He finally looked up and went still at all the wide eyes that were staring at him.

"What?" he blinked.

Still, silence. Until Bakugou blinked, "Dude, what the actual fuck?"

Todoroki blinked again, "What?"

"So there's... there's a lot to unpack here," Yaoyorozu set down her cup.

"Yeah, mainly, what the actual fuck-" muttered Jirou.

"What... what did I say?" Todoroki turned to Midoriya for help. Unfortunately, said boy looked like he was very close to crying.

"Is that really what happened? I.. I thought you just didn't like to talk about Touya. Not that he.. he..." Midoriya let his head fall as he sniffed.

"No why are you crying?" Todoroki grabbed his shoulder.

"Your brother just disappeared!" Denki threw his hands up, horrified, "And you legit think your dad might have killed him?! Todoroki, what the fuck, that's not okay!"

"Oh?" The boy seemed a bit lost, "I'm sorry."

No!" Iida snapped, "You shouldn't be sorry! The real question is, how bad is your father that you genuinely believe he might have killed one of his children?"

Todoroki just blinked.

"Why don't you ask your mom, ribbit," Asui blinked, "I've heard you talk about her a few times, maybe she would know."

Todoroki frowned, "Well she lives in a mental hospital and we try not to mention Endeavor when we visit her."

Again, silence fell, and this time Todoroki swallowed hard, "Did I say something wrong again?"

"Dude, what the fuck," Bakugou frowned again.

"What?" Todoroki asked again, seemingly not understanding the fuss.

"Your mom's in a mental hospital?" asked Uraraka quietly.

Todoroki shrugged, "Well yeah, After she burned my face, Endeavor locked her up in there for damaging his best creation."

Again, a haunted silence fell. Shinsou shook his head.

"Do you hear yourself? Why are you talking like this is normal?"

Todoroki blinked.

"That... that's a burn?" Kirishima said softly, "I thought it was just a cool part of your quirk."

Todoroki looked genuinely confused at everyone's horrified shock. he looked to Midoriya.

"I thought you told them."

"Why would I tell them?" he sniffed, "You won't even let me tell Mr. Aizawa."

Todoroki blinked, "I just... I thought everyone knew everything about everyone in this class."

There was a silence as Todoroki made an effort not to make any eye contact.

"Are we just gonna skip over that 'best creation' bit?" Shouji said quietly. Once again, the class was quiet as they processed.

"So... I'm guessing that you being half ice half fire wasn't really an accident, huh." Kaminari all but whispered.

Todoroki looked around at everyone's crestfallen faces. He didn't look like he wanted to talk anymore, but he swallowed anyway.

"Well, no. His goal was always to produce a child with half ice, half fire, straight down the middle. That's why he married my mother. And that's why he kept having kids. He didn't really need her after I developed my quirk so I'm guessing that why it was so easy to send her away."

Silence, once again, enveloped the room. Todoroki swallowed hard.

"Let's talk about something else now." he mumbled into his tea. Eyes darted around the room as they waited for someone, anyone, to say something.

"So I sent my sister that video of me doing a backflip!" Kirishima piped up loudly, "She immediately asked if I had been brainwashed into doing it. She has that little faith in me." he shook his head in disappointment.

"Well... she was right." shrugged Uraraka.

"Yeah, your sister sounds a lot smarter than you," scoffed Bakugou, "Considering she's only nine."

Kirishima slapped his arm lightly, telling him to shut up. From the corner of his eye, Shinsou saw Midoriya hug Todoroki close to him with arm, and Todoroki looked down at him with a little smile. Well at least the distraction was working.

"You're lucky your sister's smart." Shinsou found himself speaking up. "Mine's an idiot. Adorable, but, real dumb."

"You have a sister?" asked Kaminari.

Shinsou nodded "A while ago she wouldn't stop crying because she hadn't been invited to our dads' wedding."

"Well I'd be sad too if I wasn't invited to my dads' wedding." shrugged Hagakure.

Shinsou sighed, "They've been married for ten years. She's six."

"Ah," nodded Asui, "Truly a dummy."

The room snickered as they stared talking about their own siblings. Next to him, Uraraka leaned over, close to his ear "Are you talking about Eri?" she whispered.

Shinsou nodded with a little smile, and Uraraka grinned, "I love her!"

"Everyone does," he nodded.

"Wait, did you say Eri?" Jirou asked from across the room. Uraraka slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Damn you and your super hearing!" she hissed.

Jirou just frowned at Shinsou, "Your sister's Eri?"

Shinsou blinked a few times, and said nothing. He noticed Midoriya's eyes widen, and Bakugou huff out a laugh as he let his head fall back. Like they knew what was coming.

"Wait, Eri?" Yaoyorozu frowned, "Doesn't Eri live with Mr. Aizawa?"

Iida slapped a hand to his head, and Shinsou sighed slowly. No way. Not again.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she does," nodded Satou, "Togota's always asking me to make her some Candy Apples and he gives them to Mr. Aizawa to take to her. He's basically adopted her."

The class frowned as their minds worked. Denki winced as he looked at Hitoshi apologetically, knowing where this was going. And Shinsou just shook his head. You have got to be kidding.

"Wait a second..." Hagakure was the first to speak up, "If Eri's your sister, and Eri's basically been adopted by sensei..."

Nope. No way he was not doing this again. Not today.

Shinsou stood up all too quickly, "Well this has been great. I'm gonna go to bed now, goodnight."

He turned and walked out of the common room as quickly as he could, the voices picking up in volume behind him as the rest of the class came to the realization.

He was aware that his booking it out of there was only making him more suspicious, but at this point, he didn't even care.

On one hand, at least now the class had something else to think about besides Todoroki's horrifying revelations about his family. And on the other, Shinsou might just be at risk of getting expelled tomorrow.

He really shouldn't be trusted with secrets anymore.