Hitoshi is… he's… he doesn't know. He's confused, mostly. He goes through the school day in a daze and for the first time in a while is happy that teachers are too scared of him to talk to him, otherwise he'd probably get a reprimand for not doing the schoolwork.

He's just nearly passively replaying the memories he'd seen in Midoriya-kun. (And isn't that a weird sentence to think.) Like… the difference between how Bakugou treated him when he was a little kid and now, and how aggressive he could really get. And… how tender and nice Midoriya-san could be. How understanding. Understanding and tender enough that Midoriya-kun can lie to her freely about the treatment he is receiving, brushing off any sign of abuse as just rough play or an accident. And she believes him endlessly, he is her only child after all.

There is also other stuff, like how genuinely neutral bordering on positive Midoriya-kun is about being force-fused. He just… doesn't care much. It's all an experience for him, just another type of fusion. Hitoshi wonders where such a position came from. After all, the stigma about force-fusing ran deep for several generations. He wonders and wonders, and looking through Midoriya-kun's memories, and he's no closer to an explanation than when he started thinking about it.

And then there's his quirk. Midoriya-kun doesn't think a single negative thing about it either. It's like the boy is made to only see positives. At least in quirks.

And, another thing, is that he's very skilled in analysis. And it seems that this analytical mindset is what can explain his thought process from other stuff. He doesn't see right and wrong, rather how things can benefit those close to him. And apparently Hitoshi is close to him, has been since he stepped into the house that he now gets to call home.

It honestly makes him want to tear up a little, and he isn't one for crying often. The past day being an outlier that should not be counted.

Eventually school finishes, and Hitoshi doesn't think much about his actions as he comes up to Midoriya-kun and catches his hand to lead him out of the classroom as fast as possible.

And then he hears it, "Can ya faggots keep it to yourselves?" someone—Takaki?—mutters. It takes Hitoshi a good fifteen seconds, when he's well away from the classroom, still holding Midoriya-kun's hand, to realise that it was directed at them.

"Are those guys insane?" he mumbles under his breath, letting go of Midoriya-kun's hand. "I don't need to be gay to hold another guy's hand, for practical reasons, at that."

"Exactly, what's wrong with being gay anyway, it's the twenty third century!" Midoriya-kun agrees, then takes his hand again. The bold move makes Hitoshi almost, almost blush. Before he can ask, Midoriya-kun smiles at him and says, "Besides, it's nice. No homo."

"No homo indeed my dude." Something in his insides stirs and he is left wondering what exactly is that feeling.

"Allllllright…!" Kimura-sensei says as she closes the door to a private room, not leaving them wondering why for long. "I didn't want others to interrupt us with needless worry. I want you to show me how you force-fuse."

Hitoshi swallows nothing, his throat feeling like sandpaper, and turns to Midoriya-kun with a silent question. The boy nods with a smile that just screams 'You can do it!'

He force-fuses him from a distance, and Kimura-sensei whistles. "You must have trained a lot." It doesn't sound like an accusation, but Hitoshi is wary as he answers.

"Midoriya-kun urged me to get the best control I can on this technique."

"And good. You most likely specialise in force-fusing if you can do that with ease. Keeping it under wraps is the worst thing you can do with your chosen ability, you need to use it or you'll never progress with fusion in general." He nods, and Kimura-sensei continues. "If you want to, I can teach you a few techniques connected to force-fusing but—unfuse first—I have a training regimen for both of you."

It's phrased weirdly, but Hitoshi releases Midoriya-kun and nods at Kimura-sensei.

She extends a finger and wiggles it at him.

"You mentioned mind-reading and emotion-reading Midoriya, right?"

"Yes, sensei. I suspect empathy fusion is my specialisation."

"Then I'm going to teach Shinsou how to cut you off during fusion, and I'm going to teach you how to break through a cut-off connection."

They both blink at her bewildered, because… what?

"You want privacy in your fusion, don't you?" she asks with a smirk. "I can teach you how."

"Ano, sensei… Diana is pretty monolith. Is it really possible?"

"Besides," Hitoshi adds, "We don't hear each other when we're her. We just… disappear. Puff."

Kimura-sensei looks… distressed. Hitoshi can't really put a finger on what gives off this feeling, maybe it's her eye doing the tic thing? Or a slight change of her posture? Either way she looks distressed, and Hitoshi gets a distinct feeling they're about to be scolded.

"Okay, that's it. We're sitting down and you're telling me everything about your fusion habits, because we've known each other for months now and you just now tell me that?"

They do sit down and talk and it's… nice, being able to tell her everything. About their 'room' method, about the frustrating lack of emotional privacy that's kinda been fixed with the two-way mind reading, the urge Hitoshi has to just keep Midoriya-kun force-fused because it just feels so nice. And, you get it probably, he's kinda worried about the last one, but Midoriya-kun just jokes that it would be nice to disappear and take a long nap every once in a while. They tell her about Joukan too. Kimura-sensei looks at both of them like they grew second heads, but moves on.

And then she starts asking questions. And a surprising amount of them have a 'no' answer.

Kimura-sensei is baffled how they figured out how to fuse from the distance before they figured out how to share memories as a fusion, or just, you know, exist at the same time as their fusion.

"It's like fusing 101," she tells them. "It's the first thing you learn in the fusion class after you fuse for the first time, how to share yourself into one, because the default is to be separate, even when you create a new person and not a mishmash of two."

"Well sensei, we've always been weird," Hitoshi tells her. She does not appreciate the joke.

"Yeah, I'm definitely teaching you about privacy," she mutters and puts her face in her hands. "How did you guys survive for that long like that?"

"With a great deal of embarrassment," Midoriya-kun informs her. Hitoshi disagrees, there wasn't that much embarrassment, at least on his side.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do." Kimura-sensei claps her hands. "You're gonna fuse with me separately and as Diana, and I'm going to show you the techniques I mentioned. And then you're gonna practise being separate in your fusion, and hopefully you can even achieve that."

"Osu!"

They quickly settle that Midoriya-kun is gonna go first, with a quick round of rock paper scissors, so Hitoshi sits back and watches as he and Kimura-sensei dance for a moment, before erupting into colourful light.

The effect is a little mismatched, the fusion looks like an uneven mix, but it's not disjointed, that much Hitoshi can tell. He waves lazily at them and mouths 'Hi'.

The fusion nods at him, then closes their eyes and sits on the floor. On the outside nothing looks amiss, but Hitoshi can tell there's a lesson going on on the inside.

After a few minutes the unnamed fusion opens their eyes and splits. Midoriya-kun bows slightly at Kimura-sensei and thanks her.

It's Hitoshi's turn.

He's a little awkward in his dance but the feeling of fusion starting appears and he forces it out so it overtakes him, and boom, he stops existing.

Or rather… He's still there, but he's not really in control of the body he's in. He's taller, stronger, he can tell that, but very much not in control. The thought freaks him out for a second, before he feels another presence in the body, one that is clearly in control of the situation and knows what they're doing. Kimura-sensei expertly directs the body to sit on the floor again, and closes their eyes.

'Okay, can you feel where you end and the fusion starts?' she asks.

'Yeah, it's weird.' He focuses on the feeling and tries to extend his influence a little so it's equal to what Kimura-sensei has.

'What are you doing…?' Kimura-sensei asks after a beat, and he stops.

'Trying to push some equality here? I can't move the fusion.'

'Well that's weird. You're weird.' Kimura-sensei wriggles in the fusion. 'It never occurred to me to do that. I'm gonna quickly show you how to put up a barrier and then… do that thing again.'

He 'nods' and knows Kimura-sensei can feel it. And then suddenly he isn't so sure because there's just… a blank wall between them. It's a mental equivalent of it being polished, because he can feel his presence being mirrored back at him. He feels… alone. Thankfully the barrier goes down after a few seconds.

'This is the barrier I mentioned. You couldn't feel me or hear me, did you?'

'No, I couldn't,' he replies, thrilled. 'How do I do it?'

Kimura-sensei guides him through visualising a wall and pushing the fusion energy into it so that it cuts off all connection. It doesn't take him long, thankfully, even if his first attempt instead of isolating himself isolates Kimura-sensei, who immediately breaks through the wall and tells him that it would be an excellent technique to use on a villain, but please don't do that again on me.

And then it's the time to 'do it again', whatever that was that he did. He focuses on the feeling of being and tries to shift it, extend his influence further and further and…

Suddenly he's himself again. The fusion dissolves. Except… he can still feel Kimura-sensei in his mind… Oh.

Oh fuck.

'Accurately described, Shinsou,' she says and he can acutely feel her presence being agitated and longing for being freed. He releases her the moment the shock wears off, but still, he just force-fused his teacher by accident. Holy fuck, he didn't even know going from a normal fusion to a forced fusion was possible! He's so fucked, now she'll surely stop teaching him or worse, report him to authorities, and— "Woah, woah, woah," he hears her say, "I don't need an empathy link to know exactly what you're feeling right now and let me tell you, blind panic is not a recommended feeling after fusion."

He raises his head to look at her, and only then realises that he is still on the floor, kneeling, on the verge of a panic attack, and almost hyperventilating. Fun combo, his brain manages to spit out, before he tries to calm his breathing.

"Nothing's wrong kid, accidents happen," Kimura-sensei crouches to be on his level, and touches his shoulder. "Now, try to follow my breathing, in and out, in. Out." He takes in a shaky breath and chokes on it, but a bit of following the instructions makes him manage to breathe evenly. Only then he notices that Midoriya-kun is also on the floor, watching him worriedly.

He extends a hand, Midoriya-kun meets him in the middle, and…

They're Joukan, they can tell. There's still panic lingering in their heart but they feel instantly calmer. It's like… Like they can feel the emotions more clearly, but also distance themselves from them.

Kimura-sensei watches them with a hawk eye for a moment, before speaking, "Does that help you?"

"With processing emotions, yes." They take a deep breath and release it. "Although I'm mostly sure that if I release right now, Hitoshi is just going to panic again. Or maybe not? We're unsure."

"Could you try something for me?" Kimura-sensei asks, still eyeing them suspiciously. "I want you to try becoming Diana without unfusing."

They make a face at that. Diana is no doubt gonna inherit the panic from Hitoshi and they're gonna have to exist again, on the other hand they don't want to disrespect Kimura-sensei's expertise, so they focus and grab onto their very core and try to figure out where Joukan ends and Izuku and Hitoshi begin.

It's… hard. Harder than it should be if they were truly disjointed. But they're not. Not really. It feels like they're evenly meshed just not… hm. It's like they're water and oil and lacking an emulsifier.

"I don't know how," they eventually say to Kimura-sensei and she gives them a nod.

"Fair enough, I can't expect you to do everything on the first try." She stands up and they follow, thinking. They tilt their head.

"Tell us how?"

"The exact same process Shinsou-kun used to force-fuse me but a little to the left." She smirked. "I'll be surprised if you figure it out just from that, but… you've surprised me before. If you don't, I'll explain it better."

Okay… that didn't tell them much. Hmmmm…

They focused on their core again and tried to recall how Hitoshi did it. They never really… accessed memories like that. They feel like they tapped into a well. It's… almost overwhelming. But not quite enough to split them.

They manage to pin down the memory and view it, re-feel the emotions Hitoshi felt… Aaaand that doesn't apply to them. There's no Diana in their fusion, they can't just tilt the fusion power from one person to another, because they're already using up fusion energy from Hitoshi and Izuku, Diana doesn't exist at that moment.

Hm…

Back to the drawing board.

They're like a non-emulsified mixture, they need an emulsifier. Emulsifier…

What if they unfused just a little? Kimura-sensei surely wouldn't notice…

They let go, just a little, little enough that Hitoshi's leftover panic doesn't hit them, and then they're… there's two of them and before they can fall apart they latch onto each other again, fusing properly.

Diana looks down on Kimura-sensei and smiles.

"I did it!" She feels proud. She did it.

"You did, congrats," sensei pats her on the shoulder. "But don't think I didn't notice you unfusing."

Ack!