Kaminari tried to convince his friend group to attend Shinsou's party the next weekend, but they all declined, whining about how his party wasn't any fun. Kaminari knew they didn't have 'fun' at his party because there was nothing that happened to make fun of Kaminari for, and that seemed to be their main form of entertainment. Kaminari was starting to see this and distance himself from them; it was happening naturally just from how much he really enjoyed spending time with his other, newer friends, but he was also consciously widening the distance between himself and his previous friends. Still, he wanted what was best for Shinsou, so he had to do something to make his party a hit. It might hurt his feelings that he invited the whole class and only Kaminari would show up.
Great minds think alike, so Monoma was also up to his own tricks for making Shinsou's birthday party the best one ever.
"This is everyone!" Shinsou declared to his foster parents as Monoma and Kaminari arrived.
He knew that all of the other kids threw away their invitations at school, not even bothering to take them home to their parents or even think about it when he handed them out. It didn't hurt as much as he thought it would. Partly, because he was used to being the outcast because of his quirk, but mostly because his soulmate and best friend would be there. Monoma's party consisted of only the three of them, and it was so fun, so Shinsou did not have any regrets or hesitations about it only being the three of them for his party as well. He did feel a little bad that his foster parents went all out for this, and only two guests showed up for all of the hard work they did. It was bittersweet; he never had a birthday party before because he never had anyone to invite that he would know for sure would show up. Plus, previous foster parents seemed to always be short on cash and couldn't actually get any party supplies anyway, even if they wanted to throw a party for Shinsou, which also wasn't always the case. His current foster parents weren't rich by any means, but they were savvy savers and would spend the money when it mattered, like for throwing their new foster son a birthday party for his 13th birthday.
When a knock came at the door, Shinsou turned, confused. Did someone from school actually keep the invitation and decide to show up?
"Happy birthday, Hitoshi!" multiple voices blasted as soon as Shinsou opened the door, followed by confetti poppers going off and sprinkling the doorway with colorful paper and glitter.
On his doorstep stood Momo, Kyoka, Ochako, Izuku, and Tenya, arms overflowing with presents and bright smiles on all of their faces.
Shinsou turned to face his soulmate, who looked just as surprised as he felt, so his eyes shifted over to Kaminari who was sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and looking anywhere but at him.
Shinsou pulled Kaminari into a quick hug, whispering a thanks in his ear, before he turned and greeted his impromptu party guests with a smile. They all immediately noticed the change in Shinsou from the shy, soft-spoken boy on Unit Beta to this warmer, laidback, confident boy, so they also felt better and less anxious about crashing his birthday party.
Momo was hesitant when Kaminari called her out of the blue, asking if she knew anyone else from Unit Beta who was there when Shinsou was there and if they would want to be surprise guests for Shinsou's birthday party the next weekend. Momo was hesitant, but Kaminari is persuasive, so she gathered up all of the kids that were there, including Izuku and Tenya, who only arrived a few days before Shinsou and Monoma were discharged. Kaminari insisted that the more people she could round up, the better, and she took her task seriously.
Shinsou's foster parents, Hamabi Genori and Hamabi Hanisu, about fainted when they realized that the Yaoyorozu family was included in the mixture of kids at their front door. They about had heart attacks when Momo's father exchanged numbers—personal numbers—with them in case anything was to come up during the party that would need his attention. Then they found out that Pro Hero Ingenium's little brother was in attendance, and they had to go collect themselves in the kitchen and have a quick and quiet discussion about where Shinsou had gathered such friends.
The kids all gathered in the living room, pushing furniture out of the way so they could sit in a circle on the floor. All at once, presents upon presents were being shoved in Shinsou's direction. After opening a few amazing gifts in a row, he started to tear up. He paused and took some deep breaths, and his friends started asking if he was okay. His friends. His friends. Shinsou had friends.
"I hope I didn't cross a line—" Kaminari whispered to him but was cut off when Shinsou pulled him into a tight, quick hug.
"Thanks so, so much, Denks. I owe you one," Shinsou assured.
The truth was, he had never had so many nice things, and the idea of these gifts being for him, and him alone without the expectation to share with other kids, was overwhelming.
Shinsou wiped at his eyes and addressed the group, feeling safe among these kids who had all shared their feelings and emotions and stories with one another while in the mental hospital. It was a completely different feeling being surrounded by these kids than the ones at school. He felt warm and trusted that anything he said would be listened to and taken seriously. No one would talk about him behind his back, call him a crybaby for whining, or spread rumors about him. He was truly in a safe space surrounded by these people, and he couldn't have wished for a better group to celebrate his birthday with.
"Did Neito ever tell you about when I wore long sleeves every day?" Shinsou asked the group.
Shinsou almost teared up again when everyone made a conscious effort to verbally answer his question before he had a chance to rephrase. Honestly, before everyone was already answering, he didn't even think about the fact that he had asked a question. It was a non-issue around Kaminari and Monoma, and he was around at least one of them for the majority of his days, so there was never the pressing need to rephrase questions into statements instead to make sure that he didn't make someone uncomfortable and to protect himself from being ignored if they decided answering wasn't worth the risk of potentially being caught under his quirk. He had never felt so trusted before.
"A lot of people get weird around me when they figure out my quirk. Neito, though, tried to copy it and try it for himself, so I started dressing in long sleeve shirts with high necks to try to limit any skin available for him to touch," Shinsou explained.
"He got really good at dodging, too," Neito huffed dramatically, pulling out a laugh from the group. But Monoma was just as entranced as everyone else. He knew the story from his point of view, but never talked it over with his soulmate before. He just remembered being kind of hurt that Shinsou never seemed to trust him, even after he stated that he would not touch him during the heat wave. It never really made sense why he trusted him so easily and quickly after they found out they were soulmates when he wasn't trusted at all before that.
"A heat wave happened, and the school's electricity cut out for a week. They relaxed the dress code, but still required attendance," Shinsou informed.
Shinsou dared a glance in Monoma's direction, knowing that this would be new information to him as well.
"Being in foster care, I only got a certain allowance every few months for clothing, and I used it all on long sleeves and pants to try to cover as much skin as possible. There was nothing left over to buy any relaxed clothes for myself, even after Neito promised that he wouldn't try to copy my quirk during the outage," Shinsou murmured, embarrassed about his situation despite knowing that it was completely out of his control.
"I'm so sorry," Monoma whispered, taking Shinsou's hand in his own as tears pooled in his eyes. "I didn't mean—"
"I know I didn't show it, but you were my favorite classmate, Neito," Shinsou admitted, running a thumb under Monoma's eyes to wipe away the tears. "Everyone else treated me like a threat, and you treated me like a challenge instead. You never flinched away when I spoke, and even tried to get me to answer you or ask questions. It scared me at first, because I didn't know what your end game was. I thought you might have been trying to get me in trouble."
"I would never…" Monoma whispered, eyes desperately seeking Shinsou's to make sure that he understood that that was never his intention.
"I know that now. It didn't take me long to figure it out then, either. After being scared of you, I started being scared for you. If you had managed to touch me and copy my quirk, our classmates could have turned on you and started to treat you like an outcast like I had always been treated. It's one thing to know that you're capable of copying my quirk, but it would be too real for them to actually see it in action," Shinsou explained.
Monoma let out a self-depreciating laugh before disclosing, "I'm the new outcast anyway. I didn't want to tell you because it's really not a big deal, but I think you deserve to know. They see me as your soulmate and think I might be storing your quirk. They won't answer me or talk to me but being seen as a potential villain is way better than being seen as useless, so it really doesn't bother me."
"Why would they see you as useless?" Kaminari questioned softly, not wanting to disrupt the delicate mood, but also wanting answers.
"My quirk," Monoma explained, turning toward Kaminari to find him paying rapt attention to him and Shinsou. "They say that it's like I'm quirkless if I don't have anyone around to steal a quirk from, and they're right."
"I am quirkless," Izuku supplied, with a shrug and a carefree smile. "And I still want to be a hero someday."
"My quirk makes me sick," Ochako supplied. "Everyone thinks it's so cool that I can basically fly, but it isn't so cool anymore when I vomit all over them."
The group laughed, and others started chiming in, trying to show that no one's quirk is perfect and brightening the mood of the group.
"My quirk is just like my whole family's, so I'm scared I'm never going to live up to what they have already done, let alone surpass them like they expect me to," Tenya admitted. "How am I ever supposed to live up to let alone surpass, Ingenium?"
"My quirk is too strong for me to handle, and I'm scared that I'll never be strong enough to withstand it," Kaminari admitted. "You've never seen it before, but if I go too high with the voltage, my brain short-circuits and I'm basically useless until my brain's electrical signals can get back to normal. I could be a huge liability as a hero if I can't get this under control. I could electrocute other heroes by mistake, or even become a hostage if a villain gets to me while I'm out of commission. I don't know how I'd ever come back from that if it happened."
The group sat in thoughtful silence for a moment, and Kaminari was relieved. That proved that they were taking his fears seriously. Previously, his friends from school might have 'consoled' him by telling him that he would never make it as a Pro Hero anyway, so that it was nothing that he had to worry about. This group of friends sat in quiet solidarity with Kaminari as they considered his words and really understood just how bad that situation would really be for him, imagining themselves in his shoes and what it might feel like to mess up and cost the heroes a mission, and maybe even put more lives in danger, doing more harm than providing actual help to the situation.
Shinsou's foster father appeared around the corner from the kitchen, prompting the kids to hurry to the cake before the candles melted all the way down. Everyone stood up and rushed to the kitchen, making sure to pull Kaminari along physically as well as pulling him mentally from the fears and doubts that he had just been sharing with the group. Kaminari was grateful. Shinsou and Monoma were grateful as well that they could count on others to be there for Kaminari and take him seriously. They could let their guard down for once and not have to constantly monitor what was being said and done like when Kaminari's school friends were around.
"Okay! Time to sing!" Hamabi Genori prompted, taking a deep breath to start, once all of the kids were in the kitchen, standing around the table that had a cake with 13 candles flickering atop it.
"Wait! No!" Shinsou quickly cut him off before he could start. He hesitated, reaching for an excuse, but remembered that everyone in attendance was already aware of Kaminari's schizophrenia diagnosis, so he went with the truth. "Denki doesn't do well with singing voices. They tend to overlap in his head and can disorient him. So, no singing, okay?"
"Hitoshi, I'm fine! I swear—" Kaminari started but was cut off by Shinsou shaking his head adamantly.
"My day won't be perfect if I can't be your hero in this way," Shinsou insisted, knowing that phrasing it that way would make Kaminari give in instantly, and it did.
Shinsou was learning more and more about Kaminari all of the time, and he felt that he had a good understanding of Kaminari's inner thought process, even where he struggled before. Kaminari would not want to be a burden in any way, especially not on Shinsou's birthday. But, if Shinsou insisted that letting him take care of Kaminari in this small way would make him feel heroic, Kaminari would give in easily. They all wanted to be heroes and they all knew that feeling of something going really well in training, like the week before when they had all pinned their tails perfectly on the donkey poster at Kaminari's party, or when Monoma smiled nonstop the day after Shinsou would sing his alert song because he felt heroic and helpful to his soulmate who had turned to him for comfort after having a nightmare. Shinsou phrased it in such a way that Kaminari could feel like he was giving a missing piece to Shinsou's perfect day by allowing him to be heroic, and he knew he would not be able to refuse or even fight him on it.
Just like he predicted, Kaminari gave him a small, appreciative smile and nodded his affirmation. Smiles were shared all around the table; no one was upset about the singing being skipped and no one made it awkward, which was quickly becoming one of Shinsou's favorite things about having a friend group full of previous psychiatric inpatients.
With Hamabi Genori's blessing, they all took their plates of cake and ice cream back into the living room to continue talking in a circle. The Hamabis took turns walking past the entranceway to keep supervising the group, but also didn't hover, wanting to give Shinsou his own space to spend time with his friends. The more they saw of the group having fun and Shinsou genuinely smiling and laughing, the less they popped in to supervise and the more they popped their head around the corner just to catch the smile that was frequent on Shinsou's face.
"So…" Monoma drawled, a smile growing on his face. "I was your favorite classmate, huh?"
"Too bad Denki takes that spot, now," Shinsou teased, causing Monoma to pout playfully, bumping his own shoulder into Shinsou's with an eyeroll. The soulmates didn't miss the blush that quickly took over Kaminari's cheeks at the comment, though, and they shared their own charged glance when Kaminari wasn't looking.
"How about a game?" Kaminari suggested, shaking his thoughts away and trying to cool down his cheeks at being declared Shinsou's favorite anything.
"Truth or dare?" Momo offered, smiling when everyone readily agreed.
"Izuku, truth or dare?" Momo started off, causing Izuku to look up at her with wide green eyes, surprised that he was chosen to go first.
Izuku quickly swallowed his bite of ice cream before responding, "truth."
"What's the hardest part about being quirkless?" Momo asked.
The group sucked in a breath collectively. Momo really was going straight into the heavy stuff, wasn't she? But Izuku didn't look phased in the least, humming as he held his chin in thought.
"Probably that my friends are growing apart. They are so busy with their quirks and learning what they can do with them and how far they can take them that they're kind of leaving me behind," Izuku admitted. "My best friend, Kacchan… he has an amazing quirk. I can't tell if we're not close anymore because I can't keep up with him, or if I didn't try hard enough to spend more time with him because deep down inside, I'm actually jealous, and maybe he picked up on that. Even if I had a small quirk, at least it would be something that I could count on, but I have nothing."
Kaminari knew that he felt pretty bad for Izuku. It was one thing to have little control over your powerful quirk and another thing entirely to not have a quirk at all. Even as young as he was, he knew all about quirk discrimination and how it made the quirkless people's lives so much harder than it had to be. Even if you were born with a small-time quirk, like the ability to change the size of your ears or something, that would open up many doors for you that would be closed to quirkless people. Even jobs that didn't require the use of a quirk would still hire someone with a quirk over someone without. He knew that right now in Izuku's life, the hardest part was losing his friendship, and while that was terrible, he hoped that it never got worse. He hoped that Izuku got into the best high school, and never got jumped or mugged because he was quirkless, and landed a good job well-suited for him despite not having a quirk.
Izuku looked up to see sad eyes from all around looking at him, so to move on from his sad, pitiful story, he moved the game along. "Hitoshi, truth or dare?"
"Truth," Shinsou answered easily, willing to give Izuku the out he was looking for.
"What is the hardest part about being in foster care?" Izuku asked, truly curious as he had never met anyone in foster care before.
"My quirk," Shinsou answered automatically before pausing to collect his thoughts to explain his answer. "My current foster parents are great, really," Shinsou said, a smile growing on his face as he thought about how kind they have been to him. "And the ones before were okay, too."
"Just okay?" Tenya asked. The group gave Shinsou their undivided attention.
"They didn't go out of their way for me like the Hamabis do. I'm sure if we had a power outage, that they would be willing to buy me some lighter clothing without having to wait for the seasonal clothing allotment to kick in. But they weren't abusive or anything. They weren't scared of me, I don't think, because they never put the muzzle on me," Shinsou divulged.
"Muzzle?" Izuku repeated in horror, regretting asking such a loaded question in the first place.
"Yeah," Shinsou sneered at the idea. "The placement agency always makes sure that my new foster families have a muzzle for me and that they know how to put it on. For safety, they say, even though I've never done anything to…"
"Does it hurt?" Kaminari asked. "To have the muzzle on?"
"Not if you don't struggle," Shinsou answered with a shrug.
"I want to try it on!" Kyoka declared.
"Kyoka—" Momo started to scold, but Shinsou interrupted her by shrugging and calling for his foster parents.
The Hamabis huddled in the doorway after hastily wiping their traitorous tears away, trying to act like they weren't listening in to Shinsou's experiences. Truthfully, he had never really opened up to them about his previous experiences, and it was probably because he was afraid of giving them any ideas, now that they had heard a little of his past with other foster families.
When he asked them for his muzzle, they faltered, and Shinsou's heart squeezed in his chest because he assumed that they did not trust him with the muzzle that they might need to use some day. He was about to promise that he wouldn't break it or anything when they admitted that they had gotten rid of it.
"You—what?" Shinsou asked, unable to comprehend what exactly they were saying.
"The first day you arrived here, when your caseworker showed us how to put the muzzle on… your face just went blank, and you stayed that way all day until it was time to go to sleep, barely muttering answers to our questions and not asking any questions of your own. We became foster parents to help kids like you, not to put you through more trauma. After waking up to the sound of you screaming in the middle of the night, we threw it away," his foster mother explained matter-of-factly like it wasn't a huge deal.
And to them, it wasn't a huge deal. To Shinsou, it was everything.
"What if you need it someday?" Shinsou asked in a whisper.
"We won't need it. We pass people on the street and talk to people every day who might have quirks like yours without fear. You're not evil just because you have a powerful quirk, Hitoshi," Hamabi Hanisu stated.
"We're your foster parents, not your puppet masters. Our job is to protect you and help you grow in the place of your birth parents, not to control you and traumatize you further. Besides, we trust you," Hamabi Genori stated, pulling his wife into his side to form a united front so that Shinsou knew he was speaking for both of them.
"But… why?" Shinsou asked, tears gathering in his eyes at this new feeling bubbling in his chest.
"Look around you, Hitoshi," Hamabi Hanisu commanded. "All of your friends trust you. Your best friend trusts you. Your soulmate trusts you. We haven't known you for very long, but the way you treat other people and the way they respond to you shows that you are a good friend and a good person."
When the tears overflowed Shinsou's eyes, and he let out a sob, the group immediately closed around him, holding him tightly and grounding him. His foster parents took their leave, giving Shinsou's friends the space they need to help Shinsou through his feelings. At that point, they knew that Shinsou just needed time and there was nothing else they could say. They would just have to show him, over and over again, that they had meant every word, and eventually, they knew that Shinsou would grow to trust them.
"Woah, wait. What's wrong, Toshi?" Kaminari demanded, holding Shinsou's face and forcing him to look at him directly.
Kaminari had noticed Shinsou's breathing quickening instead of slowing down, and his happy tears started to turn into panic tears.
"I—" Shinsou started, but stopped, his breath catching in his throat. He tried again, "If I get moved again, my caseworker will think that I stole the muzzle and that my foster parents are covering for me. I'll be in so much trouble."
"I don't think they'd let that happen," Ochako reassured, thinking back to how kind and caring his foster parents seemed.
Kaminari and Monoma shared a glance, knowing that reassurances wouldn't get Shinsou out of this mindset, but at a complete loss of what to do except help him work through his feelings on the matter.
"Well, I could always just make you one," Momo suggested light-heartedly. "It'll be a good challenge for my quirk!"
That caught Shinsou's attention, and he focused in on what Momo was suggesting.
"You would do that for me?" Shinsou asked, touched by how far his new friends would go for him.
"It will be good practice," Momo repeated, trying to avoid another round of tears. She tossed her cell phone his way, "find a similar model, I'll research it, and I'll see what I can do."
At that, Kyoka stood up from the circle and left toward the kitchen, only to come back with the remaining cake. She plopped back down next to Momo and shoved the cake in her direction.
"Eat up!" she commanded with a smirk. She was truly excited. She loved to see Momo's quirk in action.
Shinsou passed the phone back to Momo with the correct model on the screen, and Momo dug into both the research and the cake while the game continued. If Shinsou's foster parents had peeked in again to see Yaoyorozu's daughter scrolling intently on her phone as she shoveled cake into her mouth as Kaminari demonstrated his electric quirk on a dare, they didn't say anything.
Sooner rather than later, much to the delighted surprise of the group, Momo was handing a prototype of the muzzle over to Shinsou. Shinsou inspected it thoroughly before looking around the room. It looked right, but he wouldn't be able to tell for sure until he made sure it felt right. So, with a shrug, he slapped it onto his face and started strapping it on, adjusting the individual mechanisms for customization as he went. He gave it a wiggle against his face to test the fit and gave all of his wide-eyed friends a thumbs up.
After a pause, when Shinsou had started to wonder if everyone was okay, Kaminari finally spoke up to relieve the awkward silence.
"I want to try!" Kaminari declared, jumping to his feet, and raising his hand like he was waiting to be called on.
Before Shinsou could take it off to hand it over to Kaminari, Momo was already handing yet another one over. To the astonishment of the group, she started handing them out to everyone.
"I never saw your quirk in action before," Neito muttered in amazement, leaning forward to receive a muzzle as she passed one his way. "It's amazing."
Monoma didn't even try to make physical contact to copy her quirk. Ultimately, he didn't have the knowledge necessary to make something with it, even if he could copy it, and he didn't have the time to research something so thoroughly while there at the party. Monoma planned on talking to Momo before the party was over, though, and asking where she started with her quirk to see if he could pull off the same thing in the future, if she was willing to let him have a go at it. It would probably be one of the hardest physical quirks that he would ever get the chance of attempting to master, and he wanted to try so bad. Just not right here in front of everyone just in case he failed the first few (thousand) times.
"A compliment from Neito? Is it my birthday, too?" Momo teased, smiling good-naturedly at Monoma, who sneered back playfully in return.
If Shinsou's foster parents poked their heads in to see a bunch of kids sitting around in a circle, taking turns helping strap each other into muzzles, they did not say anything.
"Okay, yeah, this sucks," Kyoka exclaimed, being the first one to take hers off.
Ochako let out a sigh of relief, quickly following her lead. "I'm glad I'm not the only one. It's pretty claustrophobic."
Shinsou shrugged to express his agreement while simultaneously giving off a what-can-you-do vibe. He knew just how claustrophobic it could be. Truthfully, he either panics or shuts down when someone puts the muzzle on him, but there was something liberating about putting it on himself and knowing that he could simply take it off and speak up whenever he wanted. He actually didn't mind it like that; it was almost sort of comforting having that kind of control over something that he had never had control over previously.
Kaminari tried speaking, but it came out a muffled mess. He ripped the muzzle off and rubbed at his cheeks and nose.
"Ouch," he complained sadly.
Shinsou took his muzzle off, then, actually grateful to have one in his possession in case his caseworker were to show up unexpectedly to move him to a new foster home. He was safe. He was okay.
"It doesn't hurt if you don't fight against it or try to talk," Shinsou supplied.
What he thought was a helpful tip made everyone's eyes linger on him just a little to long with just a little too much empathy showing through. Shinsou let out a shaky breath and refocused; now was not the time to get choked up at the unlimited understanding his friends consistently showed him.
Monoma and Kaminari were spending the night, but everyone else was going home. Before Momo left, she handed Shinsou another muzzle. He gave her a confused look because he—and everyone else at the party—already had one, but she just pushed it further into his hands when he gave her a questioning look, and she was gone before he could question her verbally.
Kaminari was timing himself to see how quickly he could put the mask in place, demanding Shinsou check to make sure that the straps and measurements were done correctly. Shinsou laughingly agreed. It was just like Kaminari to find the best in every situation and lift spirits, even in this one.
As Kaminari struggled with the adjustments, Shinsou looked over the muzzle. It looked the same, but it felt different somehow. Maybe the weight? Or the shape?
Curious, Shinsou started strapping it on. It felt like a regular muzzle, so he wasn't sure what made him think it was different.
Mumbled murmuring came from Kaminari who was excitedly jumping up and down and pointing to the muzzle on his face, trying to get Shinsou's attention to come check it. Shinsou did a diligent job, checking every strap, and making a few adjustments where they were needed, but overall, Kaminari did an excellent job and he was learning quickly.
"Do you feel the adjustments I made? Do you feel the difference?" Shinsou asked. "That's what it should feel like every time."
Kaminari nodded, fingers already fumbling at the straps to reset and try again. As he pulled the mask from his face he turned to Shinsou and his smile suddenly dropped.
"What?" Shinsou asked, extremely concerned. Looking over at Monoma, he wore the same stricken expression, making Shinsou's heartrate spike. What was wrong?
"How are you talking with that muzzle on?" Kaminari asked, taking a step closer to get a better look.
Shinsou's hands automatically went to his face, and after a thoughtful moment, it finally clicked. Monoma and Kaminari quickly crowded Shinsou to see, demanding him to keep talking, and singing Momo's praises at her ingenuity.
"This will keep you safe," Monoma stated with tears gathering in his eyes, so thankful that Momo gave such a wonderful gift to Shinsou.
Shinsou's own eyes were watering and overflowing, amazed that Momo trusted his character so much to give him something that would trick the foster system into sending him into foster homes without the protection they thought a muzzle would offer.
That thought also made him pause. Now was the perfect time to try a theory he had had since he was first placed in foster care.
He switched out the muzzles for one that actually worked and strapped it on quickly and correctly. He opened his mouth and fought against the panic rising in his throat at the edges pressing sharply into his cheeks and the bridge of his nose at the restricted movement. This is okay. This is fine. I can take it off whenever I want. I am in control.
Shinsou mumbled through the muzzle, and the question was indecipherable.
What he had said, though, was "do geniuses say 'what'?"
"What?" Kaminari asked automatically.
Kaminari's gaze unfocused and he was under Shinsou's quirk, quick, seamless, and easy. Shinsou immediately dropped control and started undoing the straps keeping the muzzle firmly against his head. He was trying to go too fast and not taking his time and he started hyperventilating when it wouldn't come off, so Kaminari and Monoma both stepped in and had it off of his face in seconds.
Shinsou looked frantically between the two.
"Do you know what this means?" he asked, looking down at the muzzle still in Monoma's hands.
"You're safe, even with the muzzle on, as long as you can get someone to respond," Kaminari whispered, eyes sparkling with so much happiness at the discovery that you would have thought it affected him directly.
"You can never tell anyone," Monoma spoke aloud as he realized. "We can never tell anyone."
Shinsou was completely mesmerized by how instead of them thinking that no one was safe from Shinsou's quirk, that they focused on how Shinsou was safer by being able to rely on his quirk, even when muzzled. He was amazed that how, even now, they were planning on keeping this secret of his because they were concerned with his safety, and not concerned at all, or even considering that Shinsou could use this to his advantage and hurt someone someday.
When Shinsou lied down between his friends that night to go to sleep, he cried. That was not exactly rare, but what was rare and special about it, was that they were big, fat, grateful, happy tears.
A/N: Okay! I'm curious! How did each of you find me and this story? Did you come across a different story of mine first or did you find this one by browsing? Did someone recommend it to you? Did you see one of my TikTok videos or comments and rushed over because someone did a good job hyping me up? Let me know!