apathy

you are now a hero!

Uraraka sits tense in her chair, biting the edge of her thumb as she stares at the back of Iida's head.

During the tournament, when everyone had been distracted, the Hero Killer villain had attacked her friend's brother, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Iida had left in the middle of the tournament, and Uraraka had only found out about the Stain attack when she had seen a news report on the way home.

Since yesterday, though Iida still shows to school, he's been curt and cordial whenever someone talks to him about it. Uraraka can understand if he wants to be left alone for now, but he hasn't even been talking to her about anything. He's totally holed up in his own head and it really concerns Uraraka.

The door at the front of the classroom opens, causing most of her fellow students to straighten up, expecting Aizawa-sensei to step through. Instead, the third place winner of the tournament, since Bakugo had refused his medal for some reason, stands there. He has his hands in his pockets and such a grumpily blank look on his face that Uraraka can't help but contrast it to his friend Midoriya's.

"Hurry up and get a move on, kid." Aizawa-sensei says, appearing behind Shinsou. The class, who had relaxed in the face of a fellow student, sits at attention again. Aizawa-sensei gives Shinsou a little push and he moves out of the way, coming to stand next to Aizawa-sensei's desk. Aizawa-sensei collapses in his chair as usual and gestures to Shinsou. "New student. Supposed to be two, but—"

"I don't think he's coming." Shinsou finishes when Aizawa-sensei gives him a look. Their teacher sighs.

"Fine, whatever, just introduce yourself or something." Aizawa-sensei leans back in his chair and closes his eyes, leaving Shinsou to face the rest of the class alone.

"I'm Hitoshi Shinsou, and my quirk is brainwash." He announces, eyes lingering on Oijiro when he says it. "I have no intention of making friends with you all."

Uraraka frowns, and the rest of the class bursts into noise. Even Iida finds it in himself to mutter something about Shinsou being unheroic with that attitude. Aizawa-sensei shifts as if to get up and calm them all down, but the door opening stops everyone before he has to.

"Hey Shinsou, I brought snacks." Midoriya announces as he enters with a cup of coffee, holding up a shopping bag that's hanging from his other wrist. There are deep bags under his eyes. Somewhere to the side a soft explosion goes off, and Shinsou turns to look at Midoriya with a surprised frown and light blush, which all of the girls latch onto immediately.

"Izuku? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, sorry." Midoriya closes the door and walks over to stand next to his friend. "Did I interrupt your edgy proclamation?"

"You're late, Midoriya." Aizawa-sensei speaks up from behind them, eyes still closed. Midoriya leans over and places his coffee on Aizawa-sensei's desk, and the hero opens one eye to glance at it. "Fine, problem child, do your introduction and both of you get in your seats."

"I'm sure they know who I am." Midoriya sighs, handing over the bag of snacks to Shinsou. He would come off just as cocky as Bakugo if it weren't for the tone he uses, like the thought of them knowing him is terrible, and for the fact that he's right. He's infamous now for being the quirkless student. After Monoma's quirk didn't work in their match, Present Mic had announced it to clear up confusion. Uraraku supposes Mic was just doing his job, but she still thinks that it was a little rude of them to just put Midoriya's quirklessness out there like that. Especially without permission.

"Then take your seats, problem duo." Aizawa-sensei picks up the coffee Midoriya brought while the two new students move to do just that. The only free seats are right behind Bakugo—which is a recipe for disaster if Uraraka has ever seen one. Shinsou obviously thinks the same thing, because he takes the seat directly behind Bakugo, all but forcing Midoriya into the other free seat. Uraraka leans to whisper to Iida, but draws back when she sees that he's staring intensely at his notebook.

Right. That problem...

Maybe she'll give him a little pep talk later? It won't hurt to remind him that he's not alone in this and that she's there if he needs to talk. He needs all the support Uraraka can offer! Wrapped in her plans, Uraraka misses what Aizawa-sensei says and only zones back in when Iida turns halfway around to hand her a whiteboard and a mark.

"Huh? What?" She questions, quietly and a bit frantically. She thinks Aizawa-sensei notices that she was a little distracted, because he says something vague and ominous about being stuck with their hero names once they choose. Hero names! That's what they're doing! Excited, Uraraka peeks up over Iida's shoulder to see what he'll choose. 'Ingenium' stares back at her and she deflates a bit. "Um, Iida?"

"Yes, Uraraka-san?" Iida replies, turning his head towards her. She fidgets with her hands under his gaze.

"You know that..." She pauses, considering her words, then plows on. "I'm here for you, alright? I might not understand all that you're feeling or going through, but I'm here if you want to get anything out. Okay?"

Iida takes in her hopeful, understanding smile, then nods once. 

"Thank you. I'll let you know if I want to talk. It means a lot." He says, and then turns back around. Uraraka still doesn't feel completely at ease with the situation, but she needs to trust that Iida will come to her if he really needs to. He's her friend, after all! Still, while jotting down her idea for a hero name, she makes a quick wish that everything turns out alright.

"HEY! KING EXPLOSION MURDER IS A GREAT NAME YOU SHITTY NERD!" Bakugo roars from his side of the room. When Uraraka turns to look, he's standing on his chair, snarling down at Midoriya, who is leaning back on two chair legs and staring at the ceiling. In between them, Shinsou is just repeatedly knocking his head against his own desk.

"He sounds like he's planning a genocide or something." Midoriya sighs wearily, not directly responding to Bakugo, which seems to make him even angrier. Midoriya looks instead at Shinsou and lightly kicks his seat. "Shinsou. Name yourself Yoshi."

"Over my dead body, you piece of shit gamer." Shinsou answers, finally just laying his head down on the desk. Uraraka glances up to see if Aizawa-sensei is at all concerned with this, but finds him drinking his coffee like it's the first water he's had after a week in the desert. 

"DON'T FUCKING IGNORE ME!"

"You be Yoshi and I'll be Waluigi. C'mon." Midoriya goads Shinsou in his still flat voice, continuing to ignore Bakugo. Shinsou just flips him off, and Bakugo basically screams in rage. Uraraka looks away, deciding that this is enough chaos to witness for one class period. As if things weren't interesting before, she has a feeling it's about to get a whole lot worse.