(How To)Forgive and Forget

Allies(Assumptions Were Made)

During a training exercise, Shinsou and Izuku get paired together against Ojiro and Mina.

He and Shinsou are supposed to hide together from the other pair, then vice versa. He follows Shinsou for most of the exercise, occasionally making a suggestion. They end up hiding in the vents of a building, and the enclosed space makes Izuku...uncomfortable. It reminds him a little bit too much of the punishment closet his first-grade teacher would shove him in. But he ignores it, settling in and watching the opening for any sign of the other team.

After a couple of minutes, Izuku's breath starts shortening, and even though he clamps a gloved hand over his mouth, it's still too loud. He closes his eyes, trying to pretend he's somewhere else, but all he can feel is the walls closing in on him.

"—doriya? Midoriya! Izuku."

"Sh—"

A fog falls over his mind, and he recognizes the feeling from the Sports Festival.

Shinsou.

"Calm down and breathe with me, okay? In—" Izuku feels his lungs expand, taking in all the air they can. "And out. Okay. That's it, now repeat that."

After his breathing calms, the fog from his mind clears, and he stares at Shinsou, who seems like he's tensing for a hit.

"...Thank you." His voice is rough from two weeks of no use, and Shinsou jumps at the sound of it, looking surprised.

"No problem. You want to move?"

Izuku nods, and they hide in a dumpster. The other team doesn't find them, and Shinsou has a curious look in his eye every time he looks at the green-haired boy.

___________

"Deku has been acting weird, don't you think?" Uraraka asks, poking at her lunch.

"Uraraka, he was missing for three weeks! Who knows what horrible things he endured. We need to be patient with Midoriya until he chooses to speak with us."

"I agree." Todoroki nods, his expression serious(not much different from the rest of his expressions, but the difference is there).

"...I guess...he just seems like he's...not even here, you know?"

Upon receiving two blank stares, Uraraka drops it.

At another table, Bakugou glares down at his red lunch tray. Round Cheeks is right. Deku has been through worse than some random ass dick kidnapping him(though Bakugou would never admit most of the 'worse' things Izuku had been though were facilitated by him) and he'd never just stopped speaking(except for that one time in their first year of middle school) and avoiding people.

Frankly, it's weird as shit, and he's going to get to the bottom of that shitty nerd's act, even if he had to blast Deku to the fucking moon to do so.

___________

Someone is knocking on his door.

Izuku sits up and peeks through it carefully. When he sees Shinsou on the other side, he opens it.

The tired boy seems surprised he answered the door, then his expression morphs into awkwardness as he subtly looks around the empty hallway.

He sighs and steps to the side, motioning for Shinsou to come inside. The other boy freezes, nods, then wanders in, eyes flickering over Izuku's room.

The green-haired boy gently closes the door behind himself, then turns to Shinsou, who's staring at his arms with a blank expression. Izuku sighs again, bracing himself for any and all annoying comments about his tattoo.