"Senji!"
A small, white-haired girl bounced over to Senji, who knelt down to share the big hug she was wrapped into. Eraser lingered nearby, tapping away at a laptop while Izuku and one of the Big Three of the third years smiled warmly. The third year was Nejire Hado, the most energetic of the group.
"Have you been good, Eri?," Senji asked the girl, breaking away from the hug and being tugged over to the table in the middle of the room.
"Look!," Eri pointed at several drawings, scribbled out in crayon. Senji smiled at them and sat down on the couch opposite the table. Eri and Izuku talked for a while, with the third year girl leaning over the couch to talk to Senji.
"Hey, hey! I saw you at the culture festival, too. I didn't recognize you at first!," the bubbly girl rambled on. Senji remembered her winning the beauty contest, and congratulated her.
"It was like, just, really different! You always dress like a boy, and that does look good. I almost thought you were a boy before, and thought about asking you out," the blue-haired girl continued, with Senji's energy quickly withering away.
"But! You're really pretty, y'know? Should've entered the beauty contest, it would have been fun!"
"Well, I was busy with the class prep and stuff," Senji found an opening and took it, hoping to end the conversation there. Her assailant wasn't close to finished yet, though, and played with Senji's tail while talking.
"Oh? What a shame, really though. You first years have done a lot of modeling stuff, it's not fair. Hey," she paused to catch her breath. "You could enter next year! You and that Yao-momo girl. It would be really fun to see how you three all stack up!"
"Modeling?," Eri turned toward them, tilting her head cutely.
"Um," Senji shriveled up, unable to deflect such an honest inquiry. Izuku tried to come to her rescue.
"Senji's, um. They did some work for a clothing company, wearing their clothes and taking pictures," the freckled boy explained hurriedly. It wasn't a detailed explanation, but it covered the gist pretty well.
"Here's some pics! Oh, it looks like this one is super recent," Hado had pulled up some of the ads on her phone that featured Senji. Eri's eyes lit up while the two scrolled through them.
"You're still working, on top of everything else?," Izuku's voice cracked a little. He looked at his classmate worriedly.
"Uh, yeah. Sometimes, and it's just modeling when they have work. I can change my scales around, so the last one was super interested in showing how they make accommodating uniforms," Senji explained.
"Wow," Izuku and Eri said in unison. The small girl looked up at Hado and Senji with sparkling red eyes.
"You're so pretty! And cool!," she gushed at the two girls. Hado took the compliments far better than Senji, who blushed heavily and searched for a distraction. Eri's bright demeanor shifted in an instant, amid her stream of compliments.
"I wish I could grow up to be a model," the girl shuffled to her feet, and held her arms in front of her.
"Hm? What's stopping you?," Senji and Hado shared a glance at that statement. Eri fidgeted nervously, and Hado blurted out something without thinking.
"Is it the scars? A lot of companies don't like to show those, right?"
Eri flinched and her eyes teared up a little bit. Izuku panicked and Senji admonished her senior harshly. Eri wasn't so easily consoled, and Senji's gears turned in a rush to find some way to change the mood around.
"What's wrong with scars, anyway?," Senji ruffled the girl's hair, forming her plan of attack.
"Ah, well, it's sort of…," Hado trailed off, feeling bad for her careless comment. Izuku, covered in scars himself, couldn't find a good argument either. Senji sighed, and unbuttoned her uniform shirt to remove it. The other two students grew flustered and astonished, but Senji continued to remove the shirt.
"Look, I have scars too," she said, while sliding off the couch and kneeling down in front of Eri. She had an undershirt on under the uniform, much to everyone else's relief. It had an exposed back, which revealed two long scars going down the girl's back. They were covered in slightly darker scales than they were used to seeing. Eri's eyes widened, and the room grew silent.
"See? And," Senji turned to face Eri, and released the scales forming her left arm. This made the room grow even more silent, taking a different turn than Senji intended. She continued, while pulling the uniform shirt back over her shoulders and reforming the arm, "I still get modeling work, even like this. So you can, too. You know what I think?"
She looked around the room, gauging the response. Hado tilted her head, and Izuku's expression was hard to read. She looked back down at Eri, who shook her head to indicate that she couldn't guess where Senji was going.
"I think scars are cool! Nothing to be ashamed of at all. For heroes especially, it's a way to show how hard they've worked to save someone," she wrapped up her one-sided discussion and returned to her seat.
"That's..a lot," Hado finally spoke up, recovering from the shocking revelations faster than the other two. "You first years really are getting all kinds of experience in a hurry."
The room's atmosphere slowly calmed down, with Eri asking more questions about modeling and hero work. Izuku was stuck in place for quite a while, his face burning crimson from Senji's dramatic show. Hado teased him for it, and he finally snapped back to reality. After another hour or so, Hado left the first years and Eri. The small girl curled up beside Senji on the couch, where the high schooler combed through her hair and hummed a tune until the girl was asleep.
"You really act like a big sister, for Eri," Izuku finally spoke up as they were leaving for their own dorm building.
"Hm?"
"I mean. You act really different around her? Like, softer? No, um," the boy struggled to get to the point.
"Our situations are…pretty similar I guess," Senji interrupted his stammering and explained in a vague way.
"Similar?"