Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

  The junior hallway was substantially less chaotic than the Sophomore or freshman hallway. Though that’s just from his memory, Mirio couldn’t tell you what they were like now. He didn’t roam the school much, not since being kicked off the football team. It wasn’t that he was a bad player; he was honestly amazing. He just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all. A group of guys he used to be friends with were having a party, and things got a little heated. He was lucky not to be a main participant; those other guys got expelled. Mirio only got detention and was kicked off the football team. That wasn’t the coach’s idea, though. Coach Yagi would never get rid of one of his star players. That was more Principal Nezu’s idea; it was one of the first times Mirio had ever seen the man. He was a short guy with a scar over one eye and greying hair. Anyway, Mirio was on his way to class at the moment, and it was pretty early in the morning. He always got to school early so he could sit in homeroom with his friends. His closest friends were Nejire Hado and Tamaki Amajiki. “Hey Mirio! Whatcha doin'?” That one was Nejire, she was… very loud. Lucky for her, Mirio himself was too. 

  “Good morning, Nejire! I’m just on my way to our homeroom, same as usual!” He grinned. Nejire was a good friend; she had blue hair, too, which was cool. 

  “I guess I should have seen that answer coming… well, anyway, come on, we should hurry up!” He nodded and followed her as she practically skipped through the hallways. Nejire had an admirable personality. The door to Mr. Snipe’s room was wide open as usual. Snipe wasn’t his real last name, but nobody knew his real name. So, Snipe it is. He taught chemistry regularly, but he was a junior homeroom teacher. Tamaki was already there when they arrived at the classroom, and Mirio knew he would be. Tamaki always came early to avoid the crowds; he hated people. He took his seat next to Tamaki with a wide grin.

  “Hey! Good morning, Tamaki!” He gave a big thumbs up while talking to his friend. Mirio himself was a morning person, but Tamaki was not.

  “Good morning…” It was probably the gloomiest good morning to ever be spoken, but Mirio would take it.

  “Hey Tamaki! How are you?” Nejire was a curious girl; she enjoyed knowing things about people. Nejire was also a cheerleader, though she didn’t do much cheering. She helped out the cheer coach a lot and was basically an assistant coach. Her goal was to be a fashion designer one day or a nurse. She could never decide. 

  “I want to go home…” That was Tamaki for you. He always wanted to go home. Which made sense when you were home alone as often as Tamaki was. His parents worked a ton, and he had no little siblings. He used to have a friend in his neighborhood, but they weren’t friends anymore. His name was something Kirishima, and he was a sophomore, if Mirio remembered correctly. Anyway, Tamaki liked being alone, which is why he liked being home. Too bad for Tamaki, Mirio was always at his house or dragging him out to do things. If Nejire wasn’t cheering or out with another friend of hers, then she was also with Tamaki and Mirio. Nejire was a curious person, as mentioned earlier, and she enjoyed knowing everything going on with the lower grades. They all had issues this year, but that was just what Nejire said.

  The only underclassman Mirio knew was Shoto Todoroki; Nejire was friends with his older sister and brother. He had met them, Fuyumi and Natsuo Todoroki, the twins.  They were both juniors too, and had an older brother who was a senior. They were both good people, pretty different though. Fuyumi was shy, while Natsuo was loud. Mirio didn’t know any upperclassmen either, but he was familiar with who some of them were. Like Natsuo and Fuyumi’s older brother. Mirio was supposed to help out with the upcoming game; he couldn’t play anymore, but Coach Yagi liked him too much to get rid of him. 

  “Whoa, Tamaki! Why so gloomy? It’s nice out!” Mirio chuckled at Nejire’s comment and nodded, clapping Tamaki on the back.

  “Yeah, come on, buddy, it’s a great day, we should make use of it!” Nejire nodded excitedly, already preparing to make tons of plans for after school. Mirio agreed with them all, head nodding vigorously. 

  Tamaki didn’t understand how two people could be so energetic this early in the morning. He just wanted to go home and sleep, maybe deal with whatever needed to be done around the house first. His parents wouldn’t be home until late, which left him alone. He was fine with it; he enjoyed being alone, preferred it, actually. Though he had to admit, talking to Mirio after school was nice on occasion. When he wasn’t so tired. It didn’t matter all that much to him when Mirio and Nejire came over; it was good to see them. Besides, it’s not like he had many other friends. That Fuyumi girl was nice, but they weren’t like best friends or anything. Same with her twin, Natsuo. He did have one a couple of years back, this kid that grew up in the same neighborhood as him. His name was Ejirou Kirishima; he used to be pretty nice until about Tamaki’s 8th-grade year, which would have put Ejirou in seventh. The guy was a sophomore now. 

  The bell rang just as Nejire had decided on plans for after school. They could all hang out when her cheer practice was over; he was okay with that. It seemed Mirio was, too, since he nodded. Tamaki grabbed his things. It wasn’t horrible here. It just wasn’t home. 

  Natsuo was what you would call a good guy. He was athletic, but didn’t participate in many sports, aside from soccer. He liked soccer a lot, which would make sense as to why he played it. He had good grades, and he wanted to be a doctor. Natsuo’s dad was a big corporate CEO, friends with the mayor, and he had an amazing public face. At home? Enji Todoroki was a horrible father. He only cared about Natsuo’s little brother, Shoto. Shoto was going into college for law, or at least that’s what his dad said. Shoto did everything their father asked, but Natsuo didn’t know why. As a kid, Shoto had been homeschooled for the first couple of years, that’s how much Enji wanted to isolate the boy. It was something from some weird movie; his father was obsessed with Shoto following in his footsteps. So obsessed that he ignored everybody else. Natsuo didn’t remember his mother, but she had walked out years ago; he received the rare text on occasion, but the last time he saw her in person was when he was maybe seven. She lived far away and hated having contact with his dad. He didn’t know what happened there, but he understood. He didn’t want contact with his dad either.

  Enji used to be really bad, like abusive bad, but now he was just neglectful. The only kid he didn’t ignore was Shoto, as usual. Back then, though, not even Shoto was able to escape the pain. Natsuo had scars. It was rare that Enji cared enough to focus on any of his older three, but he still hit. Anything lower than a 100 on a test? You were beat. Make a fool of him somehow? You were beat. It was a gross cycle. He hated his dad, but Fuyumi couldn’t be more different. Fuyumi was his twin sister; she was sweet. She wanted to be a teacher, and she helped the staff out a lot. His only issue with her was that she was way too forgiving. She wanted to forget everything, the bruises, the pain. She just wanted to move on from it. He didn’t understand her, just because the guy left them alone now didn’t mean it had never happened. That was whatever, though.

  Natsuo was in P.E for first period, as a junior, he didn’t have to take it, but it was one of his favorite classes. The coach was a funny guy, too; his name was Coach Yagi. He was the football coach. The gym smelled like sweat and a small hint of floor wax. It was bright from the lights, and others were doing their own thing all around him. A hand was placed on his shoulder, and he nearly had a heart attack. “Hey man, what’s going on?” Hanta Sero, okay. 

  “Jesus dude, you scared the hell out of me.” He looked down at the other, catching his breath. He didn’t even know why Hanta was in here; the boy was a sophomore, and he didn’t play football. Natsuo knew Hanta from soccer; they played together. He was alright on his own, put him with Denki, though, and he wasn’t so great. 

  “Whoa, my bad man, I had to ask Coach Yagi something, figured I would say hi or something.” Hanta placed a hand on the back of his neck, and Natsuo stared at him for a second.

  “Oh, okay, well, give a louder warning next time, please.” Natsuo chuckled just a bit, clapping the other on the back. He grinned a bit, taking a sip from his water bottle and running a hand through his white hair.

  “Yeah, I’ll make sure to do that next time. Do you know where Coach is?” Natsuo laughed it off, rubbing a hand down his face.

  “Right, last I saw him, he was going into his office, good luck, man.” He watched as Hanta said thanks and left. Hanta was a good guy if you ignored the smell of weed that followed him everywhere. Yes, he was a stoner; he even shared it with some people. Nobody knew how he got it, but he did. Natsuo wiped his head again before going back to what he had been doing. He was just practicing drills, even though the boys' soccer season didn’t start until after football season was over, he wanted to be ready. It was a free day in P.E anyway.  He just couldn’t wait until after school. See, his older brother, Touya, had quite a few friends at this other school, KWHS. Touya’s best friend, Tenko, came around all the time. He liked Tenko, the guy was… weirdly pretty. His house was always full after school. Most of the time, Tenko came over, and so did Fuyumi’s boyfriend. Their dad was never home, at least not until late, so it was okay. Shoto was the only other one who never hung out; he had band practice and then never came downstairs when he was home. 

  Natsuo breathed in quietly and began gently tapping the ball back and forth with his foot. The ball itself was an old, school-issue one, ripped on one side and close to deflating. He fixed his stance before driving his leg forward and shooting the ball towards the old goal by the wall. It was one of those you just connected and pieced together; the ball hit the corner of it, and the whole thing collapsed. He groaned lightly; that was probably the fourth time it had done that. He set the goal back up and went again, dribbling a bit before once again shooting the ball. This time, the worn-out ball hit the edge again and bounced off; the goal moved backwards, but didn’t fall. Natsuo went again, and again, and again.

  He grabbed the ball once more, ready to shoot it again. His foot tapped it back and forth lightly. He set the ball in place and drove his foot towards it, slamming into the ball and shooting it to the goal. The ball hit directly in the middle of the goal and knocked the goal down just as the bell rang overhead. 

  Fuyumi Todoroki knew her life was a gamble. She knew that focusing on fixing things wasn’t what she should be doing, but she did it anyway. It wasn’t her fault her dad sucked, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t help. Fuyumi had never been close with her mother growing up; she’d only had four years with the woman after all. Her name was Rei Todoroki, or it was; she didn’t know what the woman had changed her last name to now. She didn’t blame her mom for leaving, even if she wished that wasn’t the case. She was the only girl in a large family of boys; she didn’t have any aunts or a grandma to see. She had spent her whole life learning things herself. Her little brother Shoto was always isolated; she didn’t know much about him, and he was like a stranger in her house. She made him a plate at dinner anyway. Fuyumik took care of herself and the whole family. It was times like these when she felt like herself.

  The door closed behind her as she moved forward through the senior hallway. Fuyumi was a junior, but she had just come from the senior hallway staff room. She was delivering papers to Nezu’s office, but she knew the man probably wouldn’t be there. He was never there when you needed him and always there when you didn’t. It was weird. Fuyumi wanted to be a teacher; she liked kids, and her own experience with one had been ruined long ago. Her brother was supposed to be her baby; she had only been one when he was born, maybe bordering on two. Then something snapped within their father, and her little brother was sent away from her and her other brothers. She’d never been close with Shoto, nor had her brothers been. That wasn’t their fault, even now, after their dad had somewhat changed, Shoto was isolated from them. She tried, but he always ignored her attempts. Shoto was difficult to understand.

  She walked into the office, her view obscured as she glanced around the papers in her hand. She moved around objects and over to the principal’s closed door. She barely managed to open the door and squeeze in without dropping anything, but she did it. Fuyumi set the stack of papers down on the desk. As expected, the short man was nowhere in sight. She left the pacers there, turning around and heading out of the office. 

  Fuyumi was only running errands because it was third period, her free period. She had nothing better to do and enjoyed helping out the staff. However, she was suddenly aware of her existence in the senior hallway when footsteps approached behind her. Two hands, slightly callused and larger than her own, moved over her eyes. A confident, maybe too confident, voice spoke from behind her. “Guess who?” A chuckle left her lips before she could stop it. She grabbed the hands and moved them down from her eyes, taking the callused skin into her own.

 “I believe I might have a guess…” She smiled lightly, finally turning to face the boy, no, young man behind her. Keigo Takami, a dream. He was one of her older brother Touya’s friends and her boyfriend. They’d been dating since the beginning of her sophomore year, so a little over a year. He was a senior like Touya, but he was still seventeen years old. He wouldn’t turn eighteen until December 28th, which was still a little over three months away, but Fuyumi already had a plan in mind. Keigo always claimed he didn’t want anything big; he was a lot like Touya in the way that he just wanted out. Getting out of his parents’ house was the only thing he would ever ask for. They weren’t great people. He chuckled smoothly, no clue as to what she was thinking.

  “Hello, gorgeous, how are you this fine evening?” She laughed, lightly smacking his shoulder. 

  “Ugh, don’t start with that now.” She hugged him lightly anyway, gently pressing her lip balm-covered lips to his for a second. She didn’t let it last long, not while they were at school like this. He smirked, pressing a hand on her waist for a moment before backing off. Even he knew not to push it while they were at school. She saw him all the time anyway; he always came over after school. Her house was always full after school, with Touya’s friend, Keigo, and Natsuo. Occasionally, Fuyumi invited Nejire over, too. Nejire was a lively girl, a junior like her. They were pretty good friends. Keigo smiled lightly, eyes casting over her momentarily.

  “I think we should run away, you can come with me and we’ll move to Italy.” She snorted lightly, rolling her eyes.

  “Oh really? Why Italy?” He grinned widely, nudging her shoulder with his own as they started walking. 

  “Because Italy is beautiful like you, much better than here.” She smiled gently. Italy didn’t sound bad. She shook off the thought; he was joking, obviously. She didn’t need to get out; she had her brothers, Touya and Natsuo. Oh, and Shoto, of course. She rolled her eyes again, speeding up her walking pace just a bit. 

  “Hey now, I’m being incredibly serious. We could run away as soon as I graduate and get married in Italy, we can take Touya and let him cover for us.” Fuyumi shook her head, laughing.

  “What does he need to cover us for Keigo?” Her words were spoken between laughter as she attempted to breathe normally. Keigo went to talk, probably trying to give her some elaborate explanation, but the bell cut him off. Students began filtering out of their classes on their way to fourth period. Lunch. She sighed and shook her head. Keigo didn’t have lunch with her. He had third lunch, and she had second. He had lunch with her brother and one of his best friends. With teachers now in the hallways and students on either side, it was hard to do more than give each other a quick hug, but Fuyumi took it anyway. A student shoved into her side as she tried to move ahead. Maybe Italy wasn’t such a stupid idea after all. 

  He had never been more bored in his life. Well, that was a lie. Plenty of things had been more boring than his history class. He’d sat through custody trials and jail visitor hours too many times. Keigo had to be honest with himself there; visiting his dad in prison was far worse than learning about world history for the seventh time in his school career. He had a good memory, amazing even, he didn’t need to know who controlled a country that no longer existed back in 90 B.C or something like that. Luckily, it was nearly time for lunch. He had third lunch with Touya and Rumi. If only Fuyumi were with him, then it’d be perfect. 

  Fuyumi was Keigo’s girlfriend; she was perfect in every way, shape, and form. He loved everything about her. Not to mention, he was best friends with her older brother. She was exactly what he wanted and needed. He never had to take her home to his family, and she never fought with him about it, which was great, because his family sucked. See, Keigo was adopted. His mother left a long time ago after giving up her rights, and his father was locked away in some dusty jail cell for manslaughter. Keigo had only lived with them until he was like six. After that, his mom decided she didn’t want him and gave him away. He honestly never understood why; he was a smart and talented kid. He always had been.

  Keigo didn’t hold much of a grudge, though; the people he hated right now were his adoptive family. They were perfect on the front of things, like a magazine cover, perfect. They had money and stuff, anything a kid in the foster system might want. Only they got that money for fostering. Keigo wasn’t the only kid they had taken in, just the only one they kept. They kept him because he was smart and probably going places. That, and he took care of the other kids they fostered, so they didn’t have to. It was the main reason Fuyumi hadn’t his family, and probably wouldn’t ever meet them. The moment he graduated, he was out of there. By then, he would be eighteen. He wanted to take Fuyumi with him and go somewhere new, travel places. He wanted to fly to different countries and stuff. Get out. It was his dream; he hated being stuck in this school in this town full of people who had never felt life. BRRRRRING BRRRING. Lunch, finally, thank whatever lord was up there. 

  The lunch room was loud and overly full. The loud part was partially because of him, and partially because of this table of sophomores near the back. It was a bunch of jocks from what he could tell, and he could have sworn he heard a slur or two, but it wasn’t his business. He didn’t worry about stuff like that, he was a senior. They were kids compared to him, and if they wanted to slur at each other, then who was he to stop them? Besides, he really should be focusing on whatever story Rumi was so invested in telling. Or Touya, who was so utterly zoned out that he seemed to be on at least ten different drugs. Rumi and Touya were two of Keigo’s best friends. Touya claimed to hate Keigo and Rumi, but that obviously wasn’t the case since he kept staying around.

  “And so obviously I said no, because I don’t want some creep having my number, and he got all defensive, like just say you can’t take a no. How much more baby can you get actually? Well anyway, after that I tried to walk away and he started actually throwing a fit, so of course, I was confused, because seriously, all of this over a girl’s number is pretty crazy if I had to say-” Rumi was still going on, he honestly had no idea what she was talking about. He decided now was probably a good time to cut her off; she had a bad habit of restating a story twelve times over.

  “Some men are babies, Rumi, I’m surprised you didn’t punch him or something, honestly.” he was being serious; there were some people who just had some gross intentions, and it wasn’t just men. Like that one teacher, whatever her name was. Ms. K or something, she was the cheer coach he was pretty sure, but he’d had her for history in his Sophmore year. She was weird. Always trying to “tutor” him after class even though his grades were great. She always gave him some weird vibe.  Whatever, he put the sandwich he had in his hands down, it was some soggy chicken sandwich with no taste. School food wasn’t great, but UA had some weird rule about Doordashing and stuff. Keigo spared a glance over to Touya momentarily; he was still out of it, not even on his phone. He was just staring at the table, looking emotionally dull like usual. He was pretty sure Touya’s little brother had this lunch too, but he wasn’t sure. 

  “I decided not to waste my time with him, I’m the best I know, but anyway, the rest of the night we were all just sort of walking around and thankfully he didn’t come back. Still, I can’t believe he threw a fit like that because I mean he came up to me and asked for my number then dared to be a baby about it when I said no, can you believe that?” He decided then that Touya was the luckier of them, since he was so zoned out that he wasn’t listening to Rumi’s rambling because he couldn’t hear it. He loved her, but Rumi really was something. She was strong as hell, and, while their school didn’t have a volleyball team, she played on a community team. Keigo found himself glancing out the window, trying to avoid re-hearing her story. He wanted to go somewhere, to fly out. He would take Fuyumi with him, maybe Touya too, and they would go to someplace like Italy. For now, he was stuck here, eating soggy, tasteless chicken sandwiches, overhearing sophomores say slurs, and listening to Rumi’s re-told stories. 

  There were considerably worse ways for his life to be going. For example, instead of sitting in the hallway skipping the last period of the day, he could have been at home, on a Wednesday, worst of all. Thankfully, it was only Monday, and he wasn’t at home. Or in class. That was also good. He was tired, and his hair shagged in his face because he needed to cut it but refused to do so. Partly because his father hated it in his face, and partly because he liked it in his face. His roots were stark white, but the rest of his hair was black. The colors contrasted with each other and still managed to twist together in messy strands.

  His back slumped against the wall; this area of the hallway was seldom used. The only thing back there was a vending machine that didn’t work and a trashcan nobody used. It was the old dusty spot right behind the stairs to the roof, where he always went when he couldn’t be bothered to go to his class. His hoodie sagged on his body, which lacked muscle and a certain noticeability most other guys at his age had. The hoodie itself was this old black one he was never spotted without, and aside from the cologne smell and occasional bleach stain from who knows what, it was a decent hoodie in his opinion.

  He ached weirdly, like his joints were sore without him having done anything to make them that way. His day had been far more than just annoying. It started with the twenty-minute walk to school, he didn’t have to walk. Truly he didn’t, but walking was better than riding to school with his father and his siblings. He also didn’t have his license yet, his father wouldn’t let him get it because “driving is a privilege” and he was “a disrespectful brat.” They both knew it was really because the moment he got a license, he would either buy or steal a car and run away. Which was fair, if you lived where he did. He cracked his knuckles, attempting to make the weird ache go away, but only making it worse. His phone buzzed in his lap, and he glanced down for a second.

  ‘CrustFuck: eating cereal with a fork is just upping the breakfast difficulty level.’ It took him three tries to form a response for the absolute stupidity that was just laid across his screen. By the time he did, it wasn’t even needed anymore.

  ‘The Creature: Tenko what the actual fuck is wrong with you?’  He didn’t actually remember when that girl was added to the group, since he didn’t hang around her all that often, but she did have a way of… not holding back. Then again, none of them really did.

  ‘I actually second that comment.’ He really did; there was absolutely no sense behind anything Tenko said ever. The other girl was a different story. She was weird, and way too overly excited and loud, but she fit. She was younger than he though, his little brother’s age, a Sophomore. Though he was pretty sure she was supposed to be a junior and had just failed a grade.

  ‘CrustFuck: wdym what is wrong with me i’m a perfectly functioning human being’ He rolled his eyes at that.

  ‘We can’t be sure you’re human let alone functioning.’ 

  ‘CrustFuck: okay well fuck you too touya damn’

  ‘The Creature: Literally don’t even Tenko he’s 100% right.’

  ‘CrustFuck: okay bitch you fuck off too’ He turned his phone off right about there. Tenko always found a way of cussing like a 5th grader who had just discovered that nothing was actually stopping him from saying cuss words. It was repetitive and annoying, plus, Touya was attempting to chill. He would see Tenko later anyway. Tenko was one of his best friends. Sure, he had Keigo or whatever, but Tenko was just better. The girl’s name was Himiko, and they both went to KWHS. He didn’t really know much about her other than the fact that she was stupid, overly energetic, and dressed like a witch that fell into a pile of glitter. It was weird how the surroundings affected people, almost everybody he knew from KWHS was some form of alt. Even the football players looked like they’d rather be in a holding cell than on the field. His phone buzzed again, this time it wasn’t his group chat, at least not that one.

  ‘Hoe: Touya why aren’t you in class bro?’

  ‘(248) 434-5508: he’s probably lurking in some shitty dust corner somewhere’

  ‘Hoe: fair point.’ Touya liked Keigo, for all he swore he didn’t, he’d known Keigo for a long time and the guy wasn’t horrible. Rumi, on the other hand, was the most annoying bitch he ever had the displeasure of meeting. He wasn’t sure why Keigo took to her like he did; she was egotistical and didn’t have half the smarts her large head implied. Hence, her lack of a contact in his phone. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with her, and only tolerated her because Keigo kept her around. As long as she didn’t show up at his house, then all was well. He ignored that conversation; he didn’t want to let Rumi know that she had absolutely been correct about his whereabouts. He would much rather continue to be ominous and lurk around.

  He kept his headphones in so he could continue to be nonchalant, though the Block Blast screen loaded on his phone said he wasn’t as ominous as he wanted to be. Touya didn’t have much going for him: a shitty day, shitty relationships with his iblings, like hell he didn’t even know Shoto, and annoying friends. Not to mention his high score was lower than 30,000, which said plenty enough. He did well enough in his classes to make sure he graduated, because if he had to stay in this hellhole one more year, he would absolutely jump off a building. He planned to graduate and get out of town. He wanted to leave everything behind, not necessarily go to some new country, just cut his dad off and get out. He heard the bell ring through his headphones and sighed. At least this part of his shitty day was over.

  The Todoroki house was full, well, sort of. Half the people who lived there weren’t there. Natsuo was away at soccer practice, and Shoto probably had band. Touya was on the couch, though, and Fuyumi was across the room, trying and failing to do homework. Keigo was next to her, being the annoying reason she was failing. Tenko was next to Touya, watching TikTok on Touya's phone since his had died about ten minutes ago.

  The sky looked dull out the window, and the clouds showed that maybe it would start to rain in a while. To every occupant of that room, though, the sky looked better than this town. They were all getting older and wanted out, reasonably so, but for now, they were stuck plotting how to get through a locked fire exit while the building around them burned down. It was like a blurry exit sign loomed tragically above their heads.