Eijiro was feeling a little lost at the moment, standing in Shinsou's room kind of unsure of what to do now.
Should he put Shinsou down on his bed? Or maybe he should sit down himself and keep holding onto Shinsou Eijiro considered as he ran his lip between his teeth.
He hadn't seen Shinsou like this before and very much wasn't sure what his friend really needed right now.
If he was being honest with himself Eijiro was wildly out of his depth right now.
Usually when Shinsou was nervous or upset he would just wave Eijiro and his concerns off or tried to brush him off, not ask for him or cling to him like an octopus.
Not that Eijiro could blame Shinsou.
Deku-Sensei wouldn't tell him everything, but he did explain a little of Shinsou's situation given Shinsou wasn't in a mentally in a place where he'd remember everything on his own.
And knowing his friend likely had brain damage was a scary thing to hear, Eijiro tried not to think about it though, mainly because Shinsou clearly needed him right now.
So, he tried to comfort himself knowing that Deku-Sensei knew about this, and he'd be working with the rest of the staff on trying to help Shinsou, and that there were things they could do to help Shinsou.
Feeling some burn in his arms Eijiro decided to try and set Shinsou down before his arms gave out, walking over to Shinsou's bed and at first Shinsou seemed fine with it.
Unwinding his legs from around Eijiro's waist and his hands coming to rest in his lap.
The only problem was when Eijiro stepped back.
Shinsou's arms shot up and he grabbed Eijiro's arm very hard, his mouth open to say something with panic on his face, but just as fast as Shinsou jumped, he recoiled in on himself.
Hands buried under his crossed arms and Shinsou turned away from him with his jaw clenched so tightly, Eijiro was worried about his teeth.
Eijiro couldn't stop his heart from sinking even deeper in his stomach.
"Bro don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Eijiro promised as he sat right next to Shinsou and wrapped his arm around Shinsou's shoulders to have him lean against him.
Shinsou didn't say anything but some of the tension did leave his friend, Eijiro knew he was still tightly wound up though.
Eijiro really wished he knew what to do to help Shinsou, however he had no idea what he could even say to him right now.
He… knew things weren't great for Shinsou at school, shamefully it was one of the reasons he kept to his insane cross-prefecture runs at first, because he was worried about the purple-haired boy.
But Shinsou was genuinely nice to hang out with and the rare times Shinsou would talk were awesome, even if a lot of the time it was to make jabs about him, they were never mean-spirited.
And it made the fact that Eijiro knew so little about what was actually going on in Shinsou's life even harder to swallow.
Eijiro meant it when he said he wanted Shinsou to talk with him at his own pace, and he'd never press for more than Shinsou would ever be willing to tell him.
It just… killed him inside that Shinsou hadn't felt comfortable sharing how bad things were for him.
Because something big had to have happened for Shinsou's brain to have damage from whatever happened.
Eijiro couldn't know how recent it was, but Shinsou probably wouldn't of had a break down over it if it wasn't new news.
Well, maybe he would, Eijiro didn't know.
He wouldn't ask though, no matter how much he burned inside to ask Eijiro would bite his tongue.
He was Shinsou's friend, and making sure Shinsou had the space to process everything in his own time took priority over asking invasive and probing questions he had no business asking in the first place.
And it was clear from the way Shinsou had been acting since Deku-Sensei first asked him to come in that Shinsou wanted to just bury his head in the sand or something.
"Want me to look up some cat videos?" Eijiro offered, silently hoping that his friend would appreciate the distraction.
Shinsou thought about it for what felt like forever, then nodded rather stiffly.
Eijiro, with some difficulty, fished out his phone, and after maybe five solid minutes fumbling with his phone single-handed unlocked his phone and set up his phone to play one of the many cat playlists he could find for Shinsou to distract himself with.
They got about ten minutes into the first compilation when there was a knock on the door, and any of the tension that Shinsou had lost was back and his back became straight as a pole.
"Hey, it's me and Koda, we brought Yuwai-Chan. Is okay if we come in?" Uraraka asked from the other side of the door.
Eijiro looked to Shinsou, waiting for him to make a choice.
Shinsou, after a very tense silence signed 'ok', then moved to scoot away from him.
Part of Eijiro wanted to tell him he didn't have to do that, or let them in if he didn't want them here but Eijiro chose not to question Shinsou's decision.
"Yeah, you can come on in guys." Eijiro called back to them "The door's unlocked." He added a moment later, just in case.
Uraraka and Koda walked in, both in causal clothes and in Koda's hands was a small looking white bunny rabbit who he had to assume was Yuwai-Chan.
"Hey, brought Yuwai-Chan, if you want though Koda and I would go see if we could bribe a local stray cat for you to cuddle with." Uraraka offered motioning to Yuwai-Chan.
Shinsou looked over to the rabbit and then raised his hands, pausing for a moment before he signed his answer.
'It's fine.'
Then Shinsou moved to sit on the floor, probably not wanting to get pet hair on the new sheets he got.
Koda walked forward and gently placed Yuwai-Chan on Shinsou's lap, Shinsou's hands moving almost automatically.
One arm wrapping around the bulk of the rabbit and the other softly petting down the animal's back.
Koda and Uraraka both sat on the ground too, outside of arms reach so Shinsou still had plenty of space.
"Thanks for this, I know you were worried about stressing Yuwai-Chan out with the move." Eijiro told them.
Koda gave him a… smile he thought and brought his hands up to finger spell for him.
'N-O P-R-O-B-L-E-M, Y-U-W-A-I W-A-N-T-E-D 2 H-E-L-P O-N-C-E U-K-I T-O-L-D U-S W-H-A-T W-A-S U-P.'
"Really, well give Yuwai-Chan a 'thank you' for me then, Shinsou really needed some cuddle-time with a furry friend." Eijiro replied, looking down to see how much more relaxed Shinsou was now.
'N-O N-E-E-D, S-H-E Q-U-I-R-K-E-D, H-E-A-R U-S F-I-N-E.' Koda explained to him.
"Oh wow, that's cool." Eijiro replied.
It must have cost a lot of money to get her then, quirked animals usually cost way more than normal animals did and that wasn't taking into account the quirked animal handling license fees.
"Hey Shinsou, Bakugou's making supper for everyone do you want us to bring you and Kirishima plate?" Uraraka softly asked.
Shinsou frowned, shaking his head.
Uraraka nodded "Okay, that's fine I'll text Jiji to put your plates in the fridge for later then, any allergies I should tell him about?" Uraraka asked, taking out her phone.
"Not on my end." Eijiro answered, Shinsou just shook his head.
"Got it." Uraraka said shooting off the text then focused back on Shinsou.
"Do you want either of us to go? Koda said he's fine leaving Yuwai-Chan here until he goes to bed if you need her for a few hours." Uraraka asked.
Shinsou's hand stopped and Eijiro could hear Shinsou's teeth shift against each other as he thought.
Shinsou signed something next, but Eijiro wasn't sure what since he was angle and couldn't catch what was said.
Uraraka just nodded.
"Bakugou will be pissy I'm not down there on time, but he can suck it up." Uraraka said and Eijiro stared at her surprised she'd curse so causally, Koda also flinched a little but remained focused on Shinsou.
Shinsou signed again and Uraraka nodded again then turned to him.
"Shinsou asked me to stay and relay what he says for you." Uraraka quickly told.
Oh, Shinsou probably noticed he was confused.
Well, it made Eijiro feel better that Shinsou was making sure that he was still included in what was going on.
Shinsou that began signing again.
"Shinsou said he knows that you and Deku-Sensei talked about what was going on with him." Uraraka said.
"Not much, only the barest bones of the… thing and that he'd be coming by later with the meds he was going to prescribe you. It wasn't his place to tell me anything else." Eijiro explained, hesitating on accidentally blabbing about his brain damage again.
Shinsou's shoulders drew up a little after hearing that.
Oh, maybe he was hoping that Eijiro could explain it for him, it hadn't been the first time Shinsou had asked him to speak for him.
Usually, it was for when they were getting food but still Eijiro should have considered that.
Shinsou moved on though and was signing again.
Uraraka's eyes softened while Koda looked shocked then sad, Koda immediately signing something back to him, Eijiro was pretty sure it was an apology though since he caught the 'I'm sorry' part.
So Shinsou probably had explained about his brain damage to them.
Eijiro wasn't surprised when Shinsou took to leaning against his leg as he stubbornly refused to look at either of them.
Eijiro was tempted to place a hand on Shinsou's head but thought better of it.
He should probably ask if Shinsou was comfortable with that first, pulling hair was a common thing for bullies and he couldn't be sure that Shinsou would be alright with it.
Shinsou started signing again after a few more minutes.
And whatever he saying this time, it must have been bad, cause the reactions from both Uraraka and Koda were like a sucker punch to the gut.
Both sat up much straighter, though for entirely different reasons.
Koda went a few shades paler and though his features weren't easy to map, the horror in his eyes was very clear.
Uraraka's near apocalyptic rage from whatever Shinsou said wasn't hidden at all.
"Your school did what?" Uraraka hissed and Eijiro's heart might as well be in her tightly clenched hands with how his heart skipped.
What did Shinsou say about his school?
Shinsou, took a minute before he answered Uraraka, again with his hands so Eijiro was still left in the dark.
Uraraka then honest to God growled as she shot to her feet and started to angrily pace the length of Shinsou's room.
"Those- Those-" she darkly muttered to herself.
"Uki?" Eijiro hesitantly called.
Uraraka stopped and dragged her hands down her face, taking a very deep breath before she turned to him.
"Shinsou apparently, wasn't allowed to use his quirk during his quirk classes because no one volunteered to let him use his quirk on them." Uraraka explained through gritted teeth.
Eijiro's eyes widened.
His old school wouldn't let Shinsou use his quirk? That… that explained why Uraraka and Koda were so worked up.
That was straight up illegal if what he remembered from his mom's rants correctly, and she should know as a lawyer.
"And as a result, Shinsou almost never used his quirk. His mental quirk was only used annually at best. A mental quirk only used yearly!" Uraraka ranted, stressing every word of her second and third sentence.
Eijiro knew that he was definitely missing something big.
But he was sure that Shinsou, having a mental quirk that went unused had to have something to do with why Shinsou had brain damage now.
That was probably why both Koda and Uraraka reacted like this.
He'd look it up later when he was alone.
Eijiro looked down at Shinsou and pushed his leg more firmly against Shinsou.
Shinsou seemed stunned by Uraraka's reaction given he watched her pacing back and forth.
Koda brought his hands up to sign something to Shinsou, Eijiro didn't catch it unfortunately so had no idea what he said.
Shinsou grimaced, but nodded.
Koda looked even more miserable and Eijiro wasn't sure if he wanted to know what Koda asked Shinsou.
Then Koda brought his hands up and began a much longer conversation with Shinsou in sign.
With Shinsou blinking surprised at whatever Koda told him, signing something quick and Koda nodded and launched into an even longer conversation.
Which Kirishima didn't catch most of it since Uraraka was too busy with her angry pacing.
Well, if Shinsou or Koda wanted him to know then they would tell him later.
For now, he'd just be glad that Shinsou would have someone else other than him to turn to, maybe he'd be willing to talk with Kaminari about it too.
Yuwai-Chan is quirked here, having a basic comprehension quirk letting her understand humans around her regardless of the language they are speaking.
Also, what do you think that Koda and Shinsou are talking about? Would love to see what you think.