Chapter Text
The sun was in peak golden hour as Shinso walked the paved path to one of the newer buildings of UA high school. Lots of new construction had been done after the war last year, including a new fine arts building. Parents were worried kids at UA were feeling left out from normal high school activities. So Principal Nezu added an art, theater, and musical studies class that can be chosen by students to participate in throughout the course of the school year.
It was already the second term of the school year and Shinso had started to get an idea of how most things worked in the Hero Course, he even made some friends which he definitely was not expecting from himself.
The Hero Course dorms were definitely different from the General Studies dorms, last year his afternoons usually consisted of quiet studying in his room and late nights alone. Now it was the opposite, his classmates would form study sessions in the main living room and their laughter would echo throughout the building, Shinso himself even was a part of one of these study sessions not too long ago, somehow Kaminari convinced him. That’s who he seemed to find himself spending most of his time with nowadays, Kaminari and his girlfriend, Kyoka Jiro. Shinso had been there for Kaminari when his girlfriend was hospitalized for her earjack that was broken by All For One, somehow in those cold and bleak hospital days the two seemed to find each other's company comforting.
The door to the Music Studies hall quietly opened and Shinso made his way inside, the air smelled like paper and dusted wood. The place was huge, a great big hall with a practice stage in the very back, rows of chairs in front of it taking up most of the space, eight doors lined the hall, each a seemingly sound proof room for students to practice in without worrying others with the noise.
A buzz vibrated from his phone. Kaminari texted him saying they were in the third room on the left. Shinso had to lift up both of his hands in an L shape to make sure he knew where to go. It was offputting the way everything echoed in the building, each of his steps announced to anyone else there.
Most of the practice rooms were empty except for two, one of them being where he saw Jiro’s purple guitar propped up in the corner. The other being directly on the other side of the room. In the third room on the right side Monoma was sat at a piano bench, his fingers dancing over the ivory keys, Shinso watched him slowly swaying to the melody he was making through the glass window
“Hitoshi!” He snapped out of his bewitchment to see Kaminari peeking his head out of their practice room door.
“Oh, coming.” He said, glancing one more time in the other occupied practice room before turning on his heels and walking into theirs.
There was an electric keyboard, two electric guitars, and a microphone in the corner. Jiro was scribbling music notes in her notebook prior to looking up at Shinso. She was sitting in a cushioned chair, legs crossed on the fabric. With her coat on the floor and her beanie almost falling off her head. She must have shed her autumn clothes after walking into the heated room.
Kaminari plopped down in the chair next to her and grinned while looking down at her notes.
Shinso set down his bag and took off the headphones that were resting on his shoulder.
“Did you work on those chord progressions I sent you?” Jiro looked up at him with a small smile on her face. Shinso sat down on the couch in the corner of the room.
“Yeah I did, only worked with it on acoustic though,” he replied and reached for his bag he set on the floor that contained his written music sheets.
Jiro, Kaminari, Mina, and Aoyama have been working for the past week on this year’s School Festival, which was in about a month, and Shinso had to admit, if they wanted to top what they did last year they were gonna have to work harder than anyone else. Shinso was simply a backup guitarist, he shared a position with Tokoyami, they both weren’t very committed to the role but Shinso would have felt bad if he didn’t try to help his best friends with this.
Kaminari finished tuning his guitar and struck some chords into the air.
“So I was working on the chorus for the song right? Even though the lyrics are still in the works,” he nudged Jiro playfully, “so tell me what you guys think.”
He placed the metronome on a sideledge and began strumming, it wasn’t a particularly hard song to learn on guitar, besides the small shredding solo Kaminari begged Jiro to let him play near the end. Shinso tapped his foot to the rhythm of the metronome, Jiro half hummed half murmured whatever lyrics she had in the works to the melody.
After he finished they each conversed about parts they should leave in and parts they should get rid of, Jiro was adamant that this year’s performance was going to be nothing like last year.
“I mean don’t get me wrong I liked the peppiness of it. I just think people will be wanting a different tone this time around, y’know?” She fidgeted with her earphone jacks, pushing the end of each together
“Yeah totally I get it, I think it’s great you’re branching out.” Kaminari agreed and the comment made Jiro smile.
Shinso had his head down writing out notes and tempos for each part of the song, both Jiro and Kaminari were used to him going quiet like this, but they didn’t mind because they usually filled the empty silence themselves.
The window of the practice room that once glowed gold was replaced with a dark blue that shined in through the glass. Kaminari yawned
“Well, I think we should give it a rest for now.” He patted his knees as he stood up from his chair and stretched. Jiro closed her notebook and slid it back in her bag.
“Will you be here tomorrow, Shinso?” She asked before standing up and slinging her backpack around her shoulder.
“Can’t promise anything, I’m doing training with Aizawa tomorrow afternoon I think.” He looked up in thought.
Kaminari nodded and picked up his stuff, setting his guitar back in its case before zipping it up.
“Well we will see you tomorrow in class then.” He smiled, waving before opening the door and sliding out with Jiro in tow, yelling at him to slow down.
Shinso sighed, he didn’t yawn though, which was good because he still had things to do that night.
Walking back to the dorms in the brisk autumn breeze was a nice change of pace than the hot sun bearing down on him months before. He could finally pull his favorite sweaters out of the back of his closet and put them to use. Halfway down the sidewalk to the class 2-A dorm building Shinso reached inside his bag to grab his headphones, but he was met with only the notes and pages of music he had been practicing hours before, he hurriedly took off his bag to search further.
“Dammit.” He cursed to himself, he must have left them on the couch in the practice room.
He took out his phone and let out a disappointed sigh. The clock read 9:03, all facilities except the dorm rooms were now closed to students. Now he would have to wait until tomorrow morning to get them, which wasn’t going to be an option because Shinso couldn’t operate at night without his noise canceling headphones. How was he going to study?
He started picking up his stuff and ran straight to the dorms. Unlocking the front doors with his student ID, he passed Kirishima, Bakugo, and Sato playing video games sitting on the floor in front of the TV, bags of chips and sodas at their side.
“Wonder where he is headed off to?” Kirishima asked the other two as Shinso sprinted through the common room. Bakugo looked at him and scoffed before turning his attention back to the screen.
Luckily the teacher’s dorms stayed on the first floor so Shinso wouldn’t have had to wait in an elevator. He knocked on Aizawa’s door and watched it open a few seconds later. His dad, or Mr. Aizawa opened the door in a plain graphic shirt and sweatpants, Shinso had been wondering where his Marvel t-shirt had gone.
“Da-, I mean Mr. Aizawa,” Shinso greeted him with a small smile to make up for bothering him so late in the night.
“What do you need? Hitoshi.” He asked with an exasperated sigh and put two of his fingers to the ridge on his nose.
“I uhm, I left some of my stuff in the music hall, I was wondering if maybe I could use your card to get back in…?” Asking this much even from his own adopted dad was a lot, definitely stretching his luck but it was worth a try.
Aizawa groaned before walking to his desk in his room, Shinso still standing in the hallway watched from the open door, he picked up his teacher ID, the sides of the card were faded and in the photo Aizawa looked much younger, a small smile creasing his lips.
“Back in ten or there will be a punishment.” He said before handing the card to Shinso. He smiled and thanked him before running out.
Back outside it was pitch black beside the overhead lamp lights reaching over him. Stuffing his hands in his hoodie pockets and covering the top of his head with a hood to keep out most of the cold. Leaves slowly fell off trees and crunched beneath his feet. It was only early October, the School Festival approximately a month away and Halloween coming even sooner. Shinso remembered the haunted house General Studies had put on last year, he had to admit it was a lot of fun being festive this time of the year.
Once he was back at the entrance of the music hall he pressed the ID card against the scanner and once the green light flashed he was let inside.
All the lights were turned off except for lamps surrounding the stage, before, when it was only golden hour, the place looked alive and noisy, now with the darkness it gave off an eerie feeling, like he was being watched.
Doing his best to open the practice room quietly he walked inside and found his headphones exactly where he thought they would be sitting on the couch inside. He picked them up and set them back resting on his collarbone.
Shinso walked out of the practice room and shut the door, but before he could fully put his headphones over his ears, he heard the faintest noise coming from across the room. Looking in the direction of where he thought it was coming from was the same sight he had seen that afternoon. Monoma was still sitting on that same piano bench, this time he seemed less concentrated, yawning between notes and stopping to scribble down something new on the music sheet in front of him. Before Shinso could stop himself from staring too long, Monoma had noticed he was there.
Shit, he thought, they locked eyes for uncomfortably long, Monoma looked wide eyed like Shinso had caught him in the act of some sort of crime. Shinso watched him slowly stand up from where he was sitting and slowly open the door to the practice room he was in.
“I uhm, I’m allowed to be in here after hours, Mr. Kan gave me permission.” He said silently before pursing his lips.
Oh so that’s what he was worried about, that I’d snitch in him.
“I didn’t know you played?” Shinso gestured to the piano behind him, it was extremely awkward given their distance, the echo seemed to carry one's voice to the other.
“Oh- I… yeah, it’s nothing really.” He could tell Monoma was uncomfortable at the subject, his shoulders tensing as he tripped over words. Shinso honestly didn’t know what to think of him after all these years, but the boy standing in front of him now, was not the rude and arrogant student he usually saw at school.
“Okay well… I’ll see you around then.” Shinso tried to smile to ease the tension. Monoma waved and he took that as his cue to leave.
He walked back to the dorms in even more unbearable silence. He looked behind him to see no one so he assumed Monoma had gone back to playing, he couldn’t shake a feeling, a feeling in his stomach, it weighed him down as he walked and he knew if he didn’t figure out what it was soon it was only going to grow.
===
Shinso pushed the front doors of the 2-A dorm building open. A clock mantled on the wall read 9:10. He walked back to Mr. Aizawa’s room and knocked.
He waited for a moment but no response, he knocked again.
“Gimme a minute!” He heard being yelled from inside before the door opened. Aizawa stood in the doorway and in the corner of Shinso’s eye he saw his other dad sitting in a chair in front of Aizawa’s desk.
“What is it-, oh right.” Shinso held out the teacher ID card and Aizawa took it back.
“Is that Hitoshi?” He heard Yamada ask before standing up, Aizawa rolled his eyes as he walked to the door.
“Hi pa-,” before he could finish he was already engulfed in a hug.
“Hey kiddo.” He smiled and planted a kiss on Shinso’s head.
“Hizashi, he needs to sleep.” Aizawa said, it was too late in the night for him not to have a sour tone.
Yamada smiled before letting him go, “yeah, yeah, get some rest kiddo,” He placed a hand on Shinso’s head and teased through his hair. “See you in the morning, love you.” He said and Shinso smiled.
“Love you too.” He muttered while running a hand through his hair trying to tame it before leaving.
Sometimes Shinso didn’t know which was weirder, having two dads, or having both your parents be teachers at the school you go to. On weekdays he practically had twenty four hour surveillance on him, except for the weekends when he was able to leave the dorms and spend his nights at their actual house. Not like he wanted to go out and do illegal things without his parents watching him, but being constantly surrounded by both of them plus his little sister made things in his brain feel a little loud at times.
He turned the doorknob to his dorm room and collapsed on his bed. He quickly pulled off his shoes and threw them across the room. He eyed his desk and chose against studying that night, it got too late too fast and now he didn’t want to be productive. Moonlight peaked in through his curtains, while the swaying of tree branches shadows danced on his walls. He took off his headphones and set them on his desk, as well as his backpack.
Shinso’s eyes drooped up and down, visions of his room sliding in and out of view. He moved onto his side and pressed his head against his pillowcase. Somehow, even after all of his other senses had retired for the night, he couldn’t get the melody he heard Monoma playing out of his head, it played over and over again in his head until he finally fell asleep.