"You never called!" Shinsou turned to see the eldest sister saucily pressed against the door frame, wearing a too tight tank top with breasts that looked like they were doing their best to escape her. Shinsou understood the feeling.

He also understood that the best way to deal with any of the Kaminari siblings was to keep quiet and let Denki handle it.

"Because he's dating me ! I'd guess you were spazzing but you aren't strong enough to short circuit yourself."

Low blow. Nice.

Akari huffed and turned her gaze to her nails. She wasn't focused the way the rest of them were.

The entire Kaminari clan was busy plotting, while camped out in their eccentrically decorated living room, sitting around a table like it was the war room of a fort. Well, most of the Kaminaris. The twins took off after having gotten bored and Akari, while technically present, was either whining or was busy playing with her phone- occasionally taking a selfie with that awful duck lips look. She had even snapped a photo of Shinsou who looked a perfect mix of miserable and surprised. Hitoshi had a feeling that Denki would be asking her for a copy of it later.

"Okay, let me summarize. My son gets a creepy letter from a stranger- and don't think I'm not scolding you two for not telling me about that later- warning him about trusting someone. Then later, he's in the gym when that nice red headed boy gets hurt by the floating girl, but Shinsou is either in his room or the infirmary during this time, yes?" Mrs Kaminari asked.

The two boys nodded.

"Okay. So, while my son-in-law is at the nurse he deals with an annoying kid with a copy quirk. I mean really are we pretending he isn't the most obvious suspect?"

Hitoshi's face was blank as he answered, "He was our first guess, but he wasn't around for the second attack, and the M.O. was exactly the same. So it's not a foolproof theory. Yet."

Mrs. Kaminari shrugged and flapped a hand at him, clearly disregarding his opinion, before continuing her recap. "And then you stick together...even while sleeping? I thought I raised you to be a little less easy than that, Denki-"

"Mom!"

Hitoshi blushed. "I swear when I mentioned having, uh...relations with your son, during our last visit, I was joking."

Shinsou notices, while speaking, that Mr. Kaminari appears to be remembering it with a mix of fondness and concern.

Mrs. Kaminari gives an exaggerated ahem, that Hitoshi knows he's heard Denki do countless times, and goes back to speaking. "So you sleep together and then later you have a bitch fight with- oh, don't give me that look, you know that's exactly what it was- the monkey kid who later ends up getting thrown out of a window during a battle, by the bird headed boy's demon thing. Right?"

Akari replied without looking up from her phone, "Gee mom, you have such a way with words."

Mrs. Kaminari leans over and flicks the girl on her cheek in a practiced manner.

God, Mic would love it here.

"So, our only real suspect is the copycat-"

Shinsou butted in, "Mrs. Ka-...Mom, that is an insult to cats and I will not stand for it."

The woman turned to her husband with gleaming eyes, "He said mom!" Mr. Kaminari returned the sentiment with a side hug and kept his hand around her waist after it was over.

This family is so...loving? Expressive? Affectionate? Dadzawa would lose his mind.

"Well, my money is still on the copy- not -cat." Shinsou nodded at her thankfully as she spoke, "Who's to say he wasn't at the scene the second time and you just missed him?"

Denki hummed, "I thought the same thing, but we were all there and the room wasn't that big. If he was present he'd still have to talk to Tokoyami and get an answer and we'd definitely have seen that."

"We still haven't found out if the quirk used was the same as mine," Shinsou added, "but we're going to test that shortly."

Mrs. Kaminari nods sagely at that and then places a finger on her chin in an exaggerated thinking pose. "Is there anyone who holds a grudge against you?"

Hitoshi looked at her with subtle sheepishness, "Pretty much everyone in General Education? They made it clear they weren't happy about my getting into the hero class."

Denki reached over the table and squeezed the purple-haired boy's hand, giving him a soft look that reminded him he was loved.

Mr. Kaminari brought his own hand up to his face and fell into the exact same chin holding pose that his wife was doing. "If this person wanted the other kids dead they already would be. Which means someone is deliberately only injuring them. This has to be somebody you really upset."

"I know I'm not exactly popular but I think I'd remember if anyone hated me that much."

Akari broke the mood by taking another photo of herself, and this time Denki was the one to flick at her. It seemed like this family had it down to an art form. She stuck her tongue out at her brother and Shinsou could finally see the family resemblance between them as the shorter blonde did it right back.

"Either way," Mr. Kaminari continued, "this person is clearly trying to either frame you or mess with your head. It seems like they've accomplished a bit of both."

The table began to lightly smoke under Mrs. Kaminari's hands. She looked very frustrated and Shinsou was touched that this family was willing to ruin furniture on behalf of his feelings. Both Denki and Akari reached over to grab her hands and pull them off the scorched wood. It was easy to see why the house had little burn marks everywhere.

Mrs. Kaminari smiled at her children, and the tiny sparks from her fingers stopped. It seemed the entire family had that ability to go all soft and lovey eyed. Denki certainly had it mastered. Shinsou would do nearly anything to get that look directed at him. Luckily, he rarely had to go out of his way. Kaminari gave him that loving gaze all on his own.

"Well, I guess we haven't really gotten anywhere. Should we make a list of the General Education students that were the worst to you?" Mrs. Kaminari offered.

"As suspects?" Shinsou asked.

"No," Mr. Kaminari replied, "We're just going to shame them at the next Parent-Teacher Association meeting and we need names." Mrs. Kaminari nodded happily beside him.

Alright, maybe Dad would like them after all.

The two boys had a big lunch, Mrs. Kaminari's famous smoothies included, before realizing they should get back to the dorms. Overall, the trip hadn't been for naught. Shinsou had a renewed sense of being cared about and a new perspective on why the culprit might be giving him trouble. All in all, a good day.

Denki and Hitoshi were escorted to the door by their, now essentially mutual, 'mom' with leftovers to bring home.

"-And put a scarf on before you go! Denki, grab two from the closet and wrap them tight. We can't afford to buy any new electronics this year." Mrs. Kaminari chirped.

Shinsou raised an eyebrow in question.

Denki shrugged, "A couple of years ago I had a cold and I short-circuited my laptop while sneezing."

My boyfriend is the cutest quirk-accident-having kid in the world.

Denki opened the nearby closet door and pulled out a long blue knitted scarf and a hideous bright orange one. Which upon closer inspection had a maybe-coffee stain on it and looked unfortunately handmade.

Kaminari held them both up, "Guest gets dibs. I'm assuming you want the blue one?"

Shinsou felt that it was high time to confuse this family as much as they had confused him. "No. I'd like the ugly one."

Kaminari looked as though he'd shocked himself. "Dude, my dad made this monster. You don't have to take one for the team."

"Raiji tried his best! Sadly his best was horrible, but it's the thought that counts!" Mrs. Kaminari added.

This fucking family...

Shinsou was the picture of confusion, "Your father? What kind of person rides motorcycles and knits?"

"Probably Present Mic?" Kaminari answered without pause.

"Touche."

Denki grinned. "You have to admit they'd probably get on really well."

"I adore you but I think it would be best for the planet if that never happened."

Mrs. Kaminari laughed the same chuckle her son had inherited and fixed their scarves carefully around their necks. She hugged them both, a bit too tightly, and dramatically waved goodbye from the door like she'd never see them again. Denki really was the spitting image of her in both action and appearance.

The walk back to Height's Alliance was filled with mindless chatter. It felt like the two of them wanted to enjoy their time without it being all about the mystery villain. Shinsou updated Denki on the most recent battle between Aizawa and his cats for possession of his famous sleeping bag, and Kaminari told him about the time he tried to convince his whole family to learn how to do the electric slide- "We're obligated!"- but outside of Denki, and the twins, it never caught on. It was nice to have time to be together and just be kids instead of heroes in training with a hidden enemy. They held hands the whole way.

The two were still clasping hands when they slipped into the large doors and past the common room, where they were greeted by a gruff, "Welcome back, fuckweasels."

"Aw, I missed you too Bakugou!" Kaminari cooed, which brought a disgusted look to the ash blonde's face.

Kirishima sat on the couch beside him, and Mina and Sero were sharing headphones across the way while a pop song played way too loudly. Sero perked up at the sight of them, "Holy shit that's a fugly scarf. Did you lose a bet?"

Denki snorted while Shinsou pretended he didn't hear. He found himself getting somewhat attached to the hideous thing.

"Did you find out anything good?" Kirishima looked hopeful, an amusing contrast to the distaste still present on Bakugou's face.

"Sorta kinda," Kaminari set down the bag of leftovers on the short table nearby and pulled Shinsou over to sit near the others. "We spoke about how guilty Monoma seems-"

"I fucking told you."

"-but we agreed the second attack couldn't be him. We also agreed that whoever is doing this has deliberately not hurt any of the others too badly, so he has a motive more complicated than just injuring 1-A."

"I fucking told you that too."

Kirishima elbowed Bakugou in the ribs, as only he is allowed to do, and played mediator. "Sounds like we're on the same page! It's reassuring to hear your folks agree with us. Now we just need to test your quirk against Tokoyami and Uraraka. Bakugou called his mom but she was mostly just amused that he 'managed to make another weird friend' more than anything else."

From what Shinsou knew of the Bakugou family that certainly sounded right. He wondered if 'fuckweasel,' and his many other colorful terms, were originally his mother's or if they were his own creative exploits.

"I'm not gonna be there while you're talking with shitty Deku," Bakugou added. "You're on your own."

Mina finally pulled the earbud away from her and wiggled her eyebrows, "So you're going to leave Kirishima to hang out with your precious childhood playmate? Sure hope he doesn't decide he wants a greener boyfriend."

Sparks immediately flew into the air.

"I'll fucking MURDER you, you pink bitch!"

She cackled, "you didn't deny the boyfriend part!"

Sero tsk'd at him. "Only 'Pink Bitch'? Two out of ten, at best. You're better than that insult, Bakubro."

"Would you rather I tape your ass to the street and rearrange that plain face of yours before making your mother wish she had gotten better health insurance?" Bakugou spat.

Sero looked incredibly pleased, "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

All the while Kirishima watched the angry blonde boy with a certain dreaminess in his eyes. The two were so lovesick for each other that it was painful. Is this what he and Denki looked like not too long ago? Shinsou sure hoped it wasn't this bad.

There's someone for everyone, I guess.

Kaminari must have noticed it too because he intertwined their fingers, and shifted just a bit closer to the boy beside him. "I missed this. I like us yelling at each other and dodging explosions a lot more than I do creepy letters and injured classmates."

The group fell quiet in agreement. They were all tired of this mystery and the dangers had only grown since it began.

Shinsou broke the silence, "Let's confront Monoma."

Kirishima cocked his head, "but didn't we just say he couldn't have done it?"

"No," Hitoshi continued, "we said he couldn't have done the second one. He's still very suspicious for the first. The two could even be isolated incidents, with the second one styled to look like the first. Either way, If after we test out my quirk with the others, and it turns out it was mine, I think we should at least see if he has an alibi."

"I am 110% for giving that kid some shit. He's super rude to Mamagou and his hair is dumb," Mina ran a hand through her own pink locks as she thought on it.

"Me too. He owes us an explanation whether or not it is your quirk. Being in the nurse's office with you that day is way too sketchy." Sero nodded, seemingly in agreement with himself. "It wouldn't take much for him to just tap your shoulder, right? Do you remember him doing that?"

Shinsou looked down in thought, rubbing small circles on his boyfriend's hand with his thumb. "I don't remember that, but if it was subtle enough I wouldn't have known anyway. He only has the quirk for a little while so he'd have to have left almost immediately after I did if he was to make it there in time. Then he'd also still have to have spoken with Uraraka during the blackout. There are still a lot of loose ends."

"Don't give up hope, babe." Kaminari nuzzled into the taller boy's shoulder, giving him the same lovey eyes he watched the blonde's parents exchange earlier that day. "We're going to figure this out for sure, and when we do we're going to subject this guy to Dadzawa's super angry parent feelings," he paused, "after we get our own hits in, of course!"