An anon requested for this on my MHA tumblr and who am I to resist a request? Or even a little angst ;)
"Are you excited for the Sports Festival?" I swings my legs on the bench, sipping my carton of juice.
Shinsou crosses his leg over the other, leaning his arms on the back of the bench. "Yeah, can't wait to face off with that loud-mouth idiot." He scoffs. "Who does he think he is? His head's stuck far up his ass. I can't believe you're friends with him."
I roll my eyes. "We're not really friends, Kirishima's attached to him at the hip, they're a package deal."
His dark purple eyes glance over me for a moment. "I see."
The expression on his face is unreadable. Not that it's out of the ordinary since he's the quiet type, but it makes me uneasy. Lately, our relationship has become distant ever since both of us made it to UA. I was accepted into 1-A and Shinsou didn't. Though he tells me he supports me wholeheartedly and assures me otherwise, I know he's hurt about it. And it doesn't help that I've had to split my time between him and my classmates after school.
I scoot closer to him, grip his large hands, and lean my head on his shoulder. "You're stressed, aren't you? I really want you to do well so you can transfer into my class. You deserve it."
Shinsou's head rests on mine in response. "I hope I can make it in."
"Hey," I call softly, a faint nagging creeping into my mind. "We're keeping competition between us friendly, right?"
"Afraid you're gonna lose, sweetheart?" he chuckles. I can't hear the smirk on his face.
I shove his shoulder with mine. "Shut up."
Red flag, my mind immediately thinks as I stand there dumbfounded by what he's just said. "You want to what?"
Shinsou crosses his arms over his chest. "I need full control over everyone on my team, that includes you."
My body grows cold and my knees start shaking. He's not joking. There's not a hint of lighthearted joking or teasing in his cold eyes. He's never even joked about it before because he was afraid of what I would think of him if he ever used his quirk on me; he would never forgive himself if he did.
I look down at my shoes. I trust his strategic mind to lead us, but it hurts to think he doesn't trust me enough to help him without control. He just wants to win like you do, I rationalize. But is that enough to relinquish total control to him?
A hand on my shoulder scatters my thoughts and I stare up into Shinsou's concerned gaze. "I know I promised before, but these are different circumstances, I'm sorry. I promise you, we can make it to the next round if you trust me."
Though I still feel torn, I sigh in surrender. "Okay."
He removes his hand, eyes blank. "Are you ready?"
A hint of hesitation persuades me to reconsider, but the thought of letting him down and pushing him away overtakes me. "Yes."
As soon as the words leave my mouth, my breath hitches and my mind goes blank. All stiffness leaves my limbs but I can't move, a numbing cold sensation takes over.
It feels strange, having no control over your body; it moves though you don't will it to, and all you can do is watch. It's almost like you're playing a 4D game, but you're the character and you can still feel everything, but you can't react. Your quirk almost feels fake for a moment until you realize it's your body. As Shinsou maneuvers our entire team to stealthily steal the other teams' headbands with the help of my chain-creation quirk, I feel out of place in my own body.
But I made this choice to trust him, and I will. I just hope I don't have to feel this again.
When I saw our names lined up for the first match, I thought it was some cruel joke my eyes were playing on me. But it wasn't. Shinsou stands across from me in the ring, hands casually stuffed in his pockets like this is the most normal thing, like I'm his enemy.
"So much for keeping competition friendly," he smirks, looking down his nose at me.
I try to match his attitude to mask my uneasy nerves. "Yeah, like you can hurt me more than I can hurt you."
I breathe, thinking of a strategy to beat him. Fortunately, my quirk is pretty offensive while his isn't. I just have to close the distance between us, grab him with my chains, and throw him out of the ring without responding to anything he says. Simple.
"AND START!!!!" Present Mic's voice booms throughout the stadium.
I run to start closing the distance between us. Admittedly, I can't make very long chains that reach all the way to him very quickly, so I have to get closer to my target.
Shinsou knows this, retreating the other way. "I guess you haven't trained enough to extend your quirk." When I don't answer, he continues, "It seems they don't teach you much in that Hero class."
The urge for me to yell at him to shut up is on the tip of my tongue, but I bite it back. If he catches me, it's game over.
"I guess the only thing that class is good for is nurturing hot-heads and stealing your time from people who're supposed to matter."
I slow down a little, my breath heaving. His words have a dark undertone to them. I understand taunting me with petty, good-natured quips, but is he digging deep?
The smirk on his face starts wavers a bit. "If I knew being a hero means abandoning the people you care about, then maybe some of us good guys aren't cut out for such a job."
Are you implying I'm a bad guy then? I want to taunt back, but I know I can't.
"But I guess you got into the hero course because you have a 'heroic' quirk," he goes on. "Too bad you can't use it to its full potential yet."
He knows how frustrated I get about my quirk. Which is why he's using it as canon fire against you, I remind myself, picking up the pace again. Damnit! Just slow down already! When did you get so athletic?
"But it's fine, as long as you have fun with your new friends, right?" He suddenly comes to a stop, his back to me.
Though I'm confused and my first instinct is to stop, I rush forward, chains growing out of my palms in preparation.
"Well, I guess you always had the more heroic and useful quirk."
The pain in his voice stops me dead. What-
He turns around, hurt, pain, and anger mixed into his expression. "You must've realized the difference between our quirks, right? That I'm more suited to being a villain?" His eyebrows furrow into more anger. "I knew this day would come, I knew you never really cared about my feelings and you would eventually leave me alone like everyone else!"
Shinsou shouldn't be like this. The way he's trained with his quirk naturally made him more blunt and willing to share his opinion, but he's not like this usually. Getting the brunt of that bluntness doesn't make me feel that great. My silence became less about me staying quiet to avoid his quirk and more me being appalled and dumbstruck by the accusations he's throwing at me. I know he's only saying things to get me to respond, but when did he cross that line between playful chiding just to win and an actual fight between us? I don't even know how to feel about his words.
"You know, I never fully trusted you," he points a finger at me. "Especially when you were chosen for the Hero class and not me. I knew you would eventually shut me out of your life and avoid me because I don't fit in with your 'hero' friends. You're just like everyone else!"
My mouth gapes open, the words not coming. His apparent pain and frustration urges me to comfort him somehow, but how do I respond? Where do I even start?
Shinsou bites his lip, his features softening up into melancholy. "If you're sick of me, just leave me for Shark Teeth already, okay? Don't string me on like this!"
My chest feels heavy with guilt and I want nothing more than to run to him and throw my arms around him. "Hitoshi-"
The numbness grips me before I can register Shinsou's face relax from agony into a smirk of victory. No...
"OH MY GOD!! SHINSOU WAS FAKING A LOVER'S QUARREL TO TRAP HIS OPPONENT WITH HIS BRAINWASHING!! HOW WILL THIS END?!" Present Mic screams through the speakers.
He was faking. My heart sinks, overcome with varying degrees of fury and self-loathing.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this." Funnily enough, he doesn't sound very apologetic. "But now that I've got you, we can end this. Go walk out of bounds and lose for me."
At this point, I don't even care about losing, or that I'm walking against my will out of this stupid ring. Shinsou said all those things to hurt me intentionally, and when he realized I can ignore his taunts, he took advantage of my feelings. And everything he said, he had to have meant them somehow. I know he's bottled up all those complaints and used them against me now.
Midnight declares Shinsou the winner of the match after I take my final step out of the ring and the feeling returns to my body. When I turn around, he's grinning for his triumphant win, but it falters when he sees me. I'm not in the mood to be a good sport or even offer a smile, I just walk off and let him have his moment.
I walk up to where the rest of Class 1-A is sitting, fists still clenched into white knuckles.
"Nice job, Extra," Bakugou scowls at me, leaning back in his seat. "You got beat by that General Studies loser."
"Shut the hell up, Pomeranian asshat, I'm not in the mood." I slump down a few rows up. I just want to be alone to think. There's the fear in my mind that I didn't show off my quirk enough and I might get replaced because I was eliminated so early and that I'm still weak at my quirk, but those are the least of my worries. How am I supposed to confront Shinsou? A part of me wants to be angry and beat him into next week, but I can't bring myself to.
Kirishima slides into the seat next to me. "Hey, don't be so upset. You tried your best."
I sigh. "Thanks, Kiri. I don't care about losing though."
He puts a hand on my shoulder sympathetically. "That was a pretty nasty fight out there. Is everything okay between you guys?"
"I thought it was!" I burst out, almost laughing at my misfortune. "Apparently I was wrong and oblivious to everything!" I bury my face in my hands. "I just... How did it get to this, Kiri? I thought I knew him enough to know when something's wrong. Instead I let him deal with all those pent up emotions alone. God, I'm so stupid!"
Kirishima takes in my clearly disgruntled state and rubs the back of his neck, appearing uncomfortable. "If I'll be honest, Shinsou would be an idiot to do that to you intentionally, and he's probably kicking himself for what he did. I know he really cares about you, he was just caught in the moment."
I turn my body to face my best friend. "Kiri, I know you're resisting the urge to beat his ass, you don't have to defend him."
"Of course I wanna beat him up! He made you sit here all upset, that's not manly!" He punches his fists together, suddenly fired up before he relaxes. "And at the same time, it wouldn't be manly of me to come between you guys."
I offer him a sad smile. I already know about Kiri's crush on me, he told me a few weeks ago after class when he didn't know I was already taken. Thankfully, he never made anything awkward after that and we've stayed best friends.
"Which is why I should help you guys patch thing up instead!" He flashes a shark-tooth grin. "You guys should really talk it over, clear the air once and for all! I think he would really appreciate it if you gave him a chance to explain his feelings."
I nod to myself. "Yeah, it wouldn't do us any good to let this blow up." Swinging an arm over his shoulder, I ruffle his gelled hair. "You would make a great boyfriend, Kiri, giving great advice like this."
"Hey hey! Don't mess up my hair!" The red-head struggles in my grip. "Don't you have any idea how long it took me to do this morning?!"
I stretch out my sore muscles as I walk out of the changing room, ready to go home after a long day. In the distance, Shinsou's waiting near a bench, hands in his pockets as usual.
"Hey," I greet him with a neutral tone.
He's surprised to see me approach him first. "Hey..."
To avoid too long of an awkward pause, I say, "I'm sorry you didn't win. I guess Midoriya found a way to overcome your quirk."
"Yeah, that was shocking to me." He avoids my gaze, rubbing the back his neck awkwardly.
I swallow, gathering my wits. I've rehearsed what I wanted to say while I was sitting around idle during the day and I'm ready to let it all out. "I-"
"I'm really sorry for everything I said." Shinsou beats me to the punch. "I want to take it back and say none of it was true, but my feelings are still there." He shuffles his feet together. "I know you were still trying to make time for me, I was just selfish that you were spending time with Ashido and Kirishima and...their friends. My own insecurities got in the way." His hand lands on my head, a sign of his affection. "You made it into the Hero class by your own merit. And I do trust that you wouldn't leave me. You're the best thing that's happened to me and I almost screwed this up. And if you're still mad, I understand-"
I cut him off by enveloping him in a hug, squeezing him with my arms around him as I bury my face in his chest. "It's my fault too. I should've been more aware of your feelings and addressed them."
His arms timidly wrap around my frame. "So, you're not mad?"
"I mean, I still want to slap you for using your quirk on me twice when you promised you'd never do it."
His body rumbles as he laughs at me, petting my head. "I'm sorry for that too. I won't do it again."
"You better not," I threaten, though I know it's empty. "It really didn't feel good. If you do it again, as soon as I'm out, I'm whipping you with my chains."
He's silent for a moment. "Should I be excited or scared?" A girlish scream escapes his lips when metal collides with his back.
I had to, I'm not sorry :)