You wish you'd never said anything to Dabi about the worksheets being boring.
Now the Japanese textbooks and worksheets he gave you were a little bit more difficult, and a whole lot more boring. Kurogiri had to hang over you even more as you tried working on them.
Spinner would come over and help you with the English worksheets and would bring his own textbooks and dictionaries to help you along. You hated it at first, unable to control yourself from staring at him in awe and blushing furiously whenever he praised you for getting anything right. But you grew fond of it after a while, he was the more patient of the two.
You still struggled alone with the math worksheets, unable to find a person around the bar that was any good at it.
And now, you'd been essentially ordered by Dabi to allow Jin to help you train your quirk.
His original idea had been practicing on animals out on the street but the look of sheer horror on your face had made him instantly retract the idea, only for Shigaraki to butt in, calling Dabi an idiot for not thinking of using Jin's quirk to aid you in learning how to use your power properly.
So now you were staring at a clone of yourself, both of you looking equally startled at each other.
Shigaraki was sitting in on this too, which made you feel even more nervous than if it had just been you and Jin. He was just sat there wordlessly, his limp hair hanging over his face and shielding you from the harsh intensity of his gaze.
"Come on, Star. You gotta touch her." Jin encourages, his hands splaying out over your clone's shoulders. It looks friendly enough, but she panics a little, jolting the second his hands land on her.
"It's weird..." You reply with uncertainty. "If I make her sick, will I get sick?"
"You're going to make me sick?!" The other you squeaks, beginning to wiggle under Jin's touch.
Shigaraki scoffs patronizingly behind you, making your shoulders lift a little in reflex.
You didn't like using your quirk, it made you feel guilty.
You also didn't like that out of all the powers in the world, of all the cool, flashy and glamorous quirks that were out there, you were lumped with one that made people ill.
"You won't get sick, I promise!" Jin replies, trying to keep his voice light despite the fact he was clearly digging his fingers into your clone's shoulders now to stop her from wiggling out of his grasp. "You might die!"
You know to ignore the second comment, but it doesn't make you feel any more reassured.
You decide to swallow your nerves, and reach out for her.
But her reaction is completely unexpected as she begins squealing, and violently wriggling in Jin's grasp.
This seems to push Shigaraki's patience to its limit, his hand flying out and connecting with her throat, Jin yelps, letting go of her. That doesn't even seem to matter as she's only there for a second longer, her scream reaching a higher pitch before her body dissolves into a weird mud-like substance.
Your eyes widen, staring at the puddle of goo on the floor.
Jin seems equally troubled, his body frozen in the position it had been the second he let go of the clone.
Shigaraki lazily points a finger at Jin, his crimson eyes narrowed and his brows pulling closer together.
"Make another one." He says firmly, before turning to scowl directly at you. "This time, don't tell it what you're gonna do. Just do it."
You gulp as Shigaraki skulks past you, leaning against the wall again.
Jin creates a new clone obediently, this one just as surprised as the last one to be staring at its mirror image.
The novelty isn't the same for you this time, though, and so you instantly reach out, laying your palm on your doubles arm, activating your quirk.
This was the first time Jin or Shigaraki had seen you use your quirk. The only people you'd used it around were mom, one of her boyfriends, and Dabi.
You felt a little under pressure to make it look more useful than it probably really was. You weren't stupid, and you'd had enough people mock you for your quirk to know it was nothing special.
Your clone's eyes widen, and you see her pupils dilate as she struggles to focus. She stumbles a little, Jin catching her before she falls flat on her face.
"Good job Star!" Jin encourages, one of his hands making a thumbs down motion.
Shigaraki scoffs again, although he does push himself off the wall to get closer to your clone, regarding her curiously the visibly paler she gets.
"You said you can't turn it off." Shigaraki states as he observes your clone swaying slightly. "Try now."
You look panickedly between him and your surprisingly quiet clone. You had no idea how to do that, or even how to begin trying.
The couple of times people had encouraged you to try turning it off, they yelled at you and made you panic even more, which made you struggle to do anything useful.
After a little while of you floundering not really doing much, Shigaraki tears his attention from the other you, capturing you in his hard glare.
"Well?" He asks, a little harshly.
"I don't know how." You practically whimper, causing Jin to pull you towards him and the clone he was holding up, giving you a side-hug and rubbing your arm firmly.
Shigaraki is silent, his eyes sliding away from you as his brow furrows in a look of thoughtfulness for a mere moment before looking straight back at you again.
"Well, what have you tried already?" He asks, his voice leaving him a lot colder than you'd like to think he intended.
Your mouth opens and shuts like a fish out of water as you try to find a way to word the fact you hadn't exactly tried before, just kind of flapped about in a panic.
Although Dabi was understanding about how you went into immediate panic when someone raises their voice, Shigaraki was unlikely to.
"Um, I, I didn't- I panicked." You stammer, like a naughty school kid that had just been caught doing something they really weren't meant to be doing.
"So you haven't ever tried." Shigaraki deadpans.
Your face flushes in embarrassment, and your clone begins clumsily lowering itself to the ground, likely trying to ground itself.
"Try touching her again." Shigaraki sighs, as though this was the most pointless exercise ever. "Maybe it'll counteract itself."
You touch the clone again shyly, patting her head like Dabi so often did to you.
Except this seemed to have the exact opposite result to what you wanted, vomit immediately spraying onto the floor as she whines in discomfort.
Shigaraki just stands over the other you, his hand reaching up to his neck and scratching at it thoughtfully. He whispers something that sounds awfully like 'a level up...' to himself, as Jin moves to comfort your clone instead now, crouching down on the floor beside her to rub her back carefully, his head comically darting between the two of you.
"Kurogiri." Shigaraki lazily calls, before turning to face you again. "Interesting... try again, but change your intention."
You struggle understanding what he meant by that, so you stand just kind of uselessly staring at him blankly.
"He means try again, but try thinkin' about turning it off!" A chirpy voice calls from behind you, making you yelp a little in surprise.
You turn, spotting Toga sitting cross legged on the bar while Kurogiri clears up the sick left behind from your clone. You knew he'd probably get mad at her once he wasn't distracted, he hated it when people sat on the bar or put their feet up on it. Not even Shigaraki was safe from that.
The one extra member makes you feel even more pressured, that was one extra person to get mad at you if you failed.
At least Spinner wasn't here, you think you may have fallen apart by now if that was the case.
You turn your attention back to your clone, who was now crumpled up on the floor, sweating profusely and gagging, clearly fighting back being sick.
You're surprised at how accurate the double is. You'd always hated throwing up, and would desperately avoid doing it, even if it made you feel worse.
You sit beside her, patting her head like Dabi did to you, wanting to offer a reassuring touch as well as being curious about what it is about petting your hair that Dabi liked so much.
You close your eyes, focusing really hard on imagining her not being sick anymore, but when you open your eyes, she's still sweaty and gagging.
You scrunch your face up in frustration.
Shigaraki cocks his head as he looks down at your double, for once not offering a snide comment.
You wait for it, you know it's coming. You sit with your fists clenched at your sides, your shoulders hunched as if bracing yourself for whatever he was going to say.
But the longer the silence stretches out, the more your clone begins to seem to regain composure, uncurling herself, her heaving becoming heavy swallows, and the sweat beginning to ease up on her forehead.
"Oi." Shigaraki addresses her when she finally opens her eyes, giving her a nudge in the ribs with his foot. "Get up."
Surprisingly, she does, although her body still looks a little heavy, and she stumbles ever so slightly as she gets up onto her feet fully.
Toga squeals in excitement as it happens, leaning forwards on the bar. Shigaraki appears to be smirking ever so slightly, and Jin is overjoyed, lunging at you to give you a tight bear hug. Even Kurogiri looks up momentarily from what he's doing, and you kind of wish he had more of a face so you could read his expression, too.
The sheer excitement everyone was exhibiting admittedly does you feel good, and a little smile pulls at the corners of your mouth. You just wish Dabi had been around to see you do it.
"Cooldown time is around ten seconds. Think we could knock it back to around six if we build up your EXP." Shigaraki announces, turning to face you.
"EX...P?" You repeat, completely confused.
"Practice." He grunts bluntly, before walking away, sitting with his back to you all as Jin releases you.
You take this opportunity to stand back up, brushing your clothes down with your hands.
Toga takes over from the hug, despite you taking a step back and shaking your head at her the second you see her beginning to skip over to you.
"Don't go easy on her, Twice." Shigaraki rasps, not bothering to turn as he addresses Jin. "Make clones of everyone. Test her."
*•*
You're completely spent by the end of the day, when Dabi walks through the warp gate again.
You barely have the energy to lift your head up as he comes back, your body laid sprawled across the couch by the pool table in the bar.
Atsuhiro is sat on the arm of the couch, lovingly petting your hair, Spinner is leaning forward on another armchair, nursing a beer bottle between his hands, your feet are on Magnes lap, all of them listening to Toga and Jin enthusiastically recount the tales of your first training session today.
Shigaraki had taken himself upstairs after he had to break a clone of himself after it got a little too enthusiastic about training.
No-one seemed to mind, it was always a little livelier without him anyway.
"Whoof, looks like you've been 'round the ringer today, kid." Dabi teases, leaning on the back of the sofa and moving a stray piece of your hair from your face gently. "Whatcha been up to?"
"Using my quirk with Jin, Toga and Shigaraki." You reply tiredly. "I'm tired."
"Yeah?" Dabi asks, and that sets Jin and Toga off on recounting everything that happened to him as he kneels behind the sofa, his arms crossed over the back of the couch.
Jin tells him about the first clone having to be destroyed because you accidentally panicked it, and about how Shigaraki had told you to try to use your quirk again to see if it would have the opposite effect, and it had just doubled the power of the quirk.
Jin seemed to really enjoy reenacting the moment your clone threw up, sending Toga into a giggling fit. Even Dabi chuckles dryly behind you.
Kurogiri begins passing food around, everyone passing it to the next person until they end up with a bowl themselves.
"So ya managed to figure out how ta stop it?" Dabi asks, passing you a bowl.
You nod, taking the food and slowly sitting up.
Dabi's grin splits his face open, his hand flying to ruffle your hair with a little more enthusiasm than usual.
"Attagirl, Star!" He praises loudly, pinching your cheek and tugging the skin there playfully.
"Dad!" You whine in embarrassment, only to immediately catch yourself, your eyes widening and your face immediately beginning to burn red.
He just continues grinning at you, although he does let go of your cheek, his eyes absolutely shining with pride.
No-one else mocks or comments on your slip of the tongue either, but you convince yourself it's out of the fear of Dabi more than anything else.
They'd probably all laugh about it the second you were out of earshot.
You slump back into the seat, picking at your food, face still burning from embarrassment.