"Remember Sine is the opposite side length from theta over the hypotenuse of the triangle."
We had moved to the ground sometime ago, while working through the geometry problems. We needed more room to spread out all of the notes and papers that Shinso seemed to have an endless supply of. The boy apparently has a cumulative exam coming up on Tuesday over the last three units... the only problem with that is that he keeps forgetting it all as soon as he seems to learn it. He's not dumb by any means, but he hardly seems to sleep, which makes focusing hard.
"So this would be tangent then, right?"
"Correct." I nodded my head lightly, still being careful of the almost healed wound on my neck.
I watched the purple haired boy smirk seemingly triumphantly as he stretched his arms above his head. We'd been working on this for a while now, him taking pride in his accomplishment was something that was allowed in times like this.
Seeing the other boy stretch, I thought about doing the same, but that took too much effort. In the end, I decided that the ground was much more appealing, flopping down onto it instead. It wasn't long before I heard another small thud at my side. When I looked to my left, purple eyes burrowed into mine, a proud yet tired smile still on the other boy's face.
We laid there for a few long moments, neither of us truly wanting to move as we let the exhaustion take over our bodies instead of getting up.
"You look like you're dead," I commented, not really caring if it was rude or not. The other boy knew nothing about me, he had no reason to hate me just yet. He didn't know that I'm quirkless. I'm sure once he does, his eyes will never be this soft when looking at me again, if I ever see him again after today. The other boy had dark eyebags pulling his eyes down, with skin pale enough to make him share a closer resemblance with a vampire than a middle school boy.
Shinso's body shook slightly in what should have been laughter had we both lived different lives, ones that didn't manage to turn our hearts cold. "You can't talk, broccoli, your eyebags are worse than mine."
I rolled my eyes at the other boy. I know that my sleep schedule has never been the best, but there's no way that my eyebags are worse than his. I was about to respond when the office door opened, making us both pause.
"...What exactly is going on in here, boys?"
We glanced at the source of the noise, barley pulling our heads off the ground to do so. I put my finger to my lips, making a small shushing noise while laying my head back down. "We're corpses," I told Shinso's mother, just loud enough for her to hear. I saw Shinso's body shake lightly again out of the corner of my eye as her laughter drifted through the room.
Her voice was light when Shinso's mother responded. "The corpses need to go back to their tombs, we're closing up."
We dragged our bodies up from the comfortable ground before collecting all of the paper that were piled up around us. I handed the purple haired boy my stack of loose papers, letting him clip them back into his school binder while I went to grab his text book.
"Corpse one," Mrs. Shinso said, I glanced up slightly to see the woman looking at her son while he was trying to cram the book back into his bag," why don't you walk Corpse two over here home?"
I looked at the two, realizing that she meant me. I couldn't help but shake slightly at the idea. We're safe here, where no one else knows who we are, knows the shames that we keep tucked away. If we went back into the real world together, Shinso was sure to find out and there'd be nothing that I could do. He'd think that I tricked him into being nice to me.
"There's no need for that-" I started to say. I don't want to be alone again. I don't want to get attached to another friend only for them to hate me.
Maybe it's just better to be alone from the start. To not get your hopes up.
The two ignored my interjection. "Take my bag then?" Shinso asked, holding out the overstuffed contraption. His mother gave him a disbelieving look as she stared at the bag and the boy attached to it, but eventually took the black bag. Shinso started walking to the door before looking back at me. "You coming?"
"I..." I thought about just bolting, or trying to argue further, but the time for that passed a while ago, back when I first stepped into this room. "Yeah."
We walked out of the now empty building together, his mother not far behind us. While she went to the left, leaving us with a small wave, we went to the right, heading towards my apartment. I took the lead simce out of the two of us, I was the only one who actually knew where it was. We walked tighter, side by side, taking in the night and holding small meaningless conversations that neither of us were likely to remember tomorrow. It was peaceful, but when does peace ever truly last?
Shinso's body went stiff as two new voices joined ours.
"Hey, Mindfreak, that your new minion or something?"
"Nah, Maybe it's Mindfuck's boyfriend."
Two boys about our age stopped in front of us, bringing our conversation to a halt. They were both taller than us, though I guess that wasn't really saying much in my case. They both started to stretch out their hands and crack their knuckles in a way that was supposed to seem menencing to those on the receiving end of the image. When I looked at their knuckles, I could see layers and layers of bruises on them from previous beatings. They're fighters, or at least beaters if nothing else.
It's like something out of a bad pre quirk movie.
I tried grabbing at Shinso's sleeve, planning to get his attention so that he'd follow me when I started to bolt. I knew this area better than any of them, having grown up in it and run from countless bullies within the neighborhood, but before I could make contact, the other boy moved. Shinso stepped in front of me, blocking me from the view of the other two boys.
They're bigger and stronger than us, but all that strength seems to have made them slow, both physically and mentally. If we ran now before they could get their hands on us, we could make it. Shinso has to know this, so why is he doing this?
"Oooh~, protective I see," the taller of the two boys said, stepping closer to us. Shinso grabbed my arm when the boy started to move. "Maybe you're right, maybe he is this little freak's boyfriend."
I could just barely see Shinso's face as the two started to talk about us. A sly smile seemed to be forming on his lips as a dark look took over his eyes. He looked about ready to kill the other boys, or at least ready to do something extremely stupid.
"Are you two done yet, or is there still too much testosterone for you to think straight?" Shinso asked. His voice sounded strange, wrong almost. It was as if there was a type of power behind it that hadn't been there before.
The two brutes looked at each other, matching smiles on their faces. They didn't respond to Shinso's provocation like most bullies would, instead choosing to keep their mouths shut. I watched as a wave of panic flashed over Shinso's face. Whatever he'd been planning, it didn't seem to have worked.
The boys stepped forward, advancing on us. Shinso finally started to move back, but it was too late to run. One boy lunged at Shinso while the other grabbed my arm, yanking me out of the purple haired boy's grasp. They dragged us into the alley that they'd come out of before. I watched the boy with Shinso throw him up against the alley wall, but when I tried to go to him, my boy dragging me threw me to the ground.
"Wait your turn, pipsqueak." My boy growled before going to join his friend.
I heard Shinso's muffled pained groans as one boy kicked him and the other held a hand over Shinso's mouth. I staggered to my feet quietly. Being thrown around like this... it was something that I was all too used to. I looked outside the alley, but there was no one there that could help us. Shinso caught my eye while I was looking around. He seemed to be telling me to run, but while that would be the smart thing to do... I've never really done the best in school.
I continued to look around until I found something that would work. Laying on the ground not far away was an old baseball bat with some of the top broken off. The wooden thing was useless for baseball, so I guess it's a good thing that I didn't need it for that.
I layed to the side and stretched out my arm to the bat, moving it towards me with my fingers until I could grab it all the way with my hand. I moved stealthily, making sure that none of the people in the alley knew that I was even moving at all. I made my presence small, something that I'd learned to do when I was small and didn't want to be found by my classmates. That was how I managed to sneak up behind the boy beating Shinso. I tapped the boy on the shoulder, watching him startle as he turned around. I waited until the boy was facing me before I swung the bat in my hands, getting the boy in the head with a loud thump.
The other boy threw Shinso to the side as he stood up with an angry smile on his face. "I thought I told you to wait your turn?"
"I've never been good at doing what I'm told."
I lunged at the boy, swinging what was left of the bat at an upward angle, striking the under the chin and knocking his head back. Shinso laid there, watching this all happening, a look that I don't know how to classify lining his face.
I dropped the bat and held out a hand to the beaten boy. He didn't hesitate when he took it. I helped the purple haired boy up before looking at the other two, they were both moving around groggily, but I knew that wouldn't last. I grabbed Shinso's sleeve and dragged him out of the alley. I started to jog without looking back at him. We ran until we reached my apartment building only stopping when we reached the stairs.
"Midoriya, I-"
I gave him a look that stopped him from continuing to speak. I jerked my head, indicating that he should follow me. We climbed the stairs, going to the third flight. I didn't say a word to him as I took out my key and let us into the apartment. Mom wasn't home yet, so there were no questions when we went into the kitchen. I left Shinso in the middle of the small room while I grabbed a ziplock bag and shoveled ice into it.
"Midoryia," he called out.
I turned to the boy and placed the ice bag on his face, waiting until he grabbed it to move away.
"Midoryia, talk to me," he pleaded.
I looked the boy in the eyes, there was worry there. They looked like how mine must've looked in the alley. I raised my hand as if to cup his hand but before I touched him, I drew my hand back and swung it forward, slapping the stupid boy in front of me.
"Idiot... All you had to do was run."
The boy looked at me with hurt in his deep purple eyes. "I know..."
Even still... it was the first time that I ever fought back to help someone else.
I pulled the boy down, fitting my head into the crook of his neck. "Never again. Got it?"
I could feel him nod as he used his free arm to hug me back. My mind was to scrambled for me to notice that the normal disgusted feeling that came with people touching me wasn't there.
"I'm sorry for hitting you."
"I'm sorry for scaring you."
We pulled apart.
"Why did they call you Mindfreak, and why did you try to talk to them instead of running?"
I think I already knew, but I wanted to hear it from him.
It was his turn to look away. "It's my quirk... I can control people's minds when they answer my questions."
I nodded, it was as I thought.
"It's a useful quirk," I told him.
I watched the contempt take over his previously vulnerable expression. "For a villain?"
"For a hero." I don't know which Shinso was more surprised about, me actually answering his question, or the answer I gave. I didn't really have it in me to care which it was. "Hostage situations, robberies, villain attacks, they'd all be done with a single question."
"You... don't think it's villainous?"
I shook my head no. "A quirk isn't heroic or villainous, it's a weapon. It's the person using it that decides how they wield it."
A weapon that not everyone has the luxury of being born with.
A small smile formed on the other boy's face, but it was the brightest that I'd seen out of him all day. "I-... thank you."
I nodded at the boy, unable to really feel happy that he was doing better because I knew what was coming next.
"I never asked you," Shinso started, "but what's your quirk?"
"I..." I looked at him, savoring the last few moments of kindness that I could find in them. "I don't have one."
The other boy's face fell. I watched him raise his hand to me, I felt my body go still as it always does when someone's about to hit me. The faster it happens, the quicker he'll be done as just leave, there was no point in fighting it.
But the hit never came.
Shinso's hand went to my throat, his fingers tracing the bandages lining it. "Someone hurt you because of that, didn't they?"
I nodded.
He didn't say that he was sorry or any of the other stupid things that people do when things like this happen in movies. It wasn't needed. The people in movies only say that because the hurt is one sided, the other had never felt that kind of pain. He only looked at me with the same understanding that he had earlier. It was better than any apology could be.
He left not long after that, only staying around long enough for us to exchange numbers. I was sitting on the couch when I got a text.
Corpse one: Thank you for saving me earlier
I looked at the message in disbelief.
Saving? I just cut the beating short.
Don't say things so strange
Despite it all, I learned something about myself that day. I learned that I wasn't content with just surviving like I thought I had been. I learned that I still wanted to fight, to save people, to help them.