It had been a few weeks since they had started at U.A. High, and, so far, they have had decent conversations with everyone. Well, except for Bakugou. He always exploded at them whenever Ginger snapped back at him. It's like he wasn't aware that other people had a temperament just like his. Or couldn't take the heat from other people.

Ginger sighed as the bell for lunch rang, slowly packing up their books and writing materials from English with Present Mic. Present Mic was loud, but he did understand that, since Ginger is from America, they will more than likely pass the class even without notes. Ginger grabbed their uniform jacket that they took off during the lecture and slipped it on when Iida gave them a look. They don't like Iida all that much. He was loud and a stickler for rules, which was the exact opposite of Ginger.

They trudged to the lunchroom, keeping their eyes forward as they dug their hand in their pocket for their phone. Ginger pulled out their phone, looking at the screen, not paying much mind to where they were going. They grunted as they bumped into someone tall, their phone falling to the ground as they hissed at the person, their shock collar going haywire at the high heart rate that Ginger had. The person turned around, glaring down at Ginger.

Fuck, it was Bakugou. Ginger scrunched up their nose, backing away from him, ears flat on their head. Bakugou looked down at their phone, looked back at Ginger, and rolled his eyes. "Watch where you're going next time, dumb cat," he said, bending down to pick up their phone. "I'm not dumb, hot head. Give me my phone," they spat out, snatching their phone from his hand and rushing away from him, entering the lunchroom.

It was too loud. It was always too loud. They hated the fact that their ears had such an effect on them. They stepped into line, trying to tune out the noise. They sighed, wishing they had earbuds to listen to music or block out some of the noise at least. They eventually got to the front of the line, grabbed the meat-heavy meal, and sat at an empty table, pulling out their phone to scroll on as they ate.

They heard footsteps approach them, and looked up towards the noise. It was a male student that had golden eyes and blonde hair. He smiled softly and said, "Hi, do you mind if I sit here?" Ginger shook their head, looking back down at their phone. The male shifted in the seat in front of Ginger, and mumbled, "U-Um... my name is Akagi Kin, my quirk is Gold. I turn things into gold when I touch them. I'm from the Support class 1-F. Who are you?" Ginger raised a brow as he introduced himself, wondering, 'why in the world are you talking to me?'

Ginger cleared their throat and said, "Name's Ginger. I'm from the hero course, class 1-A. Is there something you need?" They flicked their tail out from the walking aisle when a kid almost stepped on it, keeping it on their lap. The curse of having a 5-foot long tail, they supposed. "Um, I just saw that you came in 2 weeks ago and I have been meaning to introduce myself to you..." he mumbled, putting his palms together. Ginger flicked their ear in annoyance.

'Obviously, there's more if you're sitting here.' Ginger sighed and nodded, eating another mouthful of food. Akagi sighed and said, "I-I was also wondering if you would like to be my client for an upcoming project in the support class. We work on your guy's upgrades on your costumes, a-and I noticed that you haven't come in... You don't seem to be the talking type, so I wanted to talk to you myself to see if I can help."

'There it is.' Ginger hummed in acknowledgment, thinking for a second. "Actually," they started, smirking at the very convenient timing the student had. "As you can see, my ears are very different," they gestured to their pierced cat ears, flicking in correspondence. "They are very sensitive to sound and are delicate in comparison to normal ears. I've been wanting a pair of earbuds that I can wear that can cancel out sound but won't damage my hearing. Do you think you can do that?" Ginger asked, putting down their chopsticks as they finished eating.

Akagi's eyes widened at the request, a big smile coming up onto his face at the prospect of being able to work on something. "Of course! I won't let you down!" he responded, standing up from his seat. "Meet me after school at the support class workshop, I'll take a look at your ears and we can work on further specifications on what you want!" He said quickly, running off. Not soon after, the bell rang, signaling lunch was over.

'What a weird kid. Oh well, at least I'll benefit from it.' They thought to themselves, picking up their tray and placing it on the conveyor belt, heading back to class. They heard somebody call their name, making them turn around. It was Uraraka. "Hey, Ginger!" Ginger stopped in their tracks, letting the bubbly girl catch up to them. "Hey, who were you talking to?! You never talk to anyone outside of the class!" She said, walking with Ginger back to the classroom. Ginger shrugged, replying, "A support student from class 1-F. He offered to make some earbuds for me."

Uraraka gasped, saying, "Oh my god, do you think he has a crush on you?!" Ginger sputtered, choking on their spit for a moment. Uraraka patted their back, guiding them to the hallway wall to get out of the way of the bustling students. "A c-crush? Who the hell would have a crush on me? I'm not attractive in the slightest. Quit joking." Ginger got over their coughing fit, continuing their walk to the classroom. "That's not true! I think you are very pretty! Besides, it's not that crazy of an idea," Uraraka pouted, crossing her arms over her chest, making Ginger chuckle.

They brought their hand up and ruffled her hair, saying, "Well, you may think so. Thanks for having some faith in my romantic life." They laughed as Uraraka hit their shoulder in response, entering the classroom. Ginger sat in their seat, noticing Bakugou coming into the classroom with Kirishima, Sero, Denki, and Mina. 'They seem close. I'm glad that Bakugou has friends that like him.'

The bell rang again, signaling that class had started and everyone scrambled to their seats as Aizawa walked into the room. "Good afternoon everyone. Today we'll be discussing internships. Here is a list of people with the amount of offered internships that they received from different agencies. The results came from the U.A. sports festival, so, unfortunately, Ginger will not have any. However, since everyone is required to participate and get an internship, we will send out a tape of you in training to the available agencies who are taking interns," Aizawa spoke, showing a projection with everyone's names. To be expected, Bakugou and Todoroki had the most out of the entire class.

Ginger raised a brow at how Midoriya did not even have one, hearing the mumbling about it. Meanwhile, Aizawa handed out a sheet of paper that was titled 'Internship Acceptance Sheet' with the person's corresponding list of offered internships. Ginger hummed, knowing that most of the training sessions are recorded so the students can look at their techniques to improve what they tend to fail at. Ginger looked back at Bakugou when Aizawa climbed into his sleeping bag after he announced the due date, which was in a week, and started talking with Bakugou, knowing it would push his buttons. "So, mister popular, who are you going to choose for your internship?" Bakugou rolled his eyes and said, "Best Jeanist, he's the fourth top hero in Japan," he simply stated, making Ginger raise an eyebrow. "...is that all?" He nodded, refusing to talk to them as he wrote down his choice.

Ginger shrugged, turning back around in their chair and pulling out their phone. They looked up all the agencies in Japan, and one stood out from the rest. The Wild, Wild Pussycats. Obviously, their hero suits were after cats, and appreciated that, but, after much research, their quirks were very unique. They did not know much about how their quirks worked but can figure it out. Maybe they will take them in as an intern? A rescue mission in the mountains would be quite nice.

Then they remembered their quirk. They frowned deeply as they knew it would be a pain to explain why they are wearing a collar that has two lights on it. It would be much easier if they went to an internship with someone who would not require them to use their quirk at all. They heard footsteps approaching them, and looked up, seeing Uraraka. "So, who do you want to give you an offer?" she asked, standing in front of their desk as she held her list of offers. "I'm not sure. I was hoping I could maybe work on more combat training. I don't want to do more quirk training," They said offhandedly, looking at other pro hero agencies. "Well, if you want, you can come with me to the Pro Hero Gun Head! He has a dojo that is dedicated to hand-to-hand combat! I think you would enjoy it!" she said excitedly, wiggling around.

Ginger looked up the pro hero, reading the short excerpt on him and seeing the dojo website. Uraraka was right about the dojo. Maybe it would give them a chance to get some frustration out. "You know what? Sure, I'll have Aizawa send a few more tapes to his agency in particular. Thanks for talking to me about this," Ginger smiled softly at Uraraka, who blushed a little bit at the cute smile with sharp canines. She nodded and walked back to her chair, a blush still evident on her face.

~

Ginger walked to the support class workshop, chewing on a piece of jerky. The brand that Nezu decided to get for them was super chewy and they appreciated it. They opened the door to the support classroom, spotting Kin. They wandered over and waved at him. He waved back, grabbing a pad of paper and a pencil. "Alright, let me talk with the teacher real quick so I can get some equipment to look into your ear," Kin said, walking over to the support course instructor, then going over to a station that looked to have basic doctor equipment.

He grabbed an otoscope and a one-use cap to look into their ear to sketch out the structure to fit the earbuds comfortably. Ginger sat still while he looked into their ear, looking away every minute or so to sketch on a sheet of paper that showed the internal structure of their ear. After he finished, he put the otoscope away and threw the one-use cap into the trash, sitting next to them to talk about details in the earbuds. "Alright, we already know that you want noise-canceling earbuds. Do you want them to be bluetooth or to connect to a headphone jack?" Kin asked, continuing a sketch for the front and back of the earbuds. "I would like bluetooth, if that's alright," Ginger said, looking down at their black claw-like fingernails and tapping them against the table they were sitting at.

He scribbled that down, and said, "I'll give the option for a headphone jack with these and make an area for a charging port." Ginger nodded, looking over everything. "Is it too much to specify a color? I would like it in black and maybe purple if that's alright." "No problem! I can do that! Come back in about a week, I'll be done with these by then!" Kin said, smiling at Ginger, who just nodded and left.

They left the classroom and saw Bakugou standing against the wall outside of the classroom. They stood staring at each other for a full minute before Ginger started heading towards the stairs to exit the main building. "Wait," Bakugou said, running after them. Ginger turned back towards him, raising a brow. "What do you want?" Ginger crossed their arms over their chest, shrugging their shoulders to readjust their backpack.

"..." Bakugou glared at the cat quirk person, shoving his hands into his pockets. Ginger rolled their eyes, continuing to walk. "Whatever, I need to do research and you're wasting my time," Ginger spat, tail swaying in annoyance, getting out of Bakugou's sight. Bakugou gritted his teeth kicked over a trash can and looked toward the support classroom. "Whatever, that extra doesn't have a chance with them..." He started storming towards the exit of the building, slouching somewhat.

~

Ginger sat in their dorm room, keyboard keys clacking quietly in the room. Music from their phone was playing as they focused on doing research on all sorts of agencies throughout the district. They leaned back in their desk chair, looking over at their desk lamp that glowed purple instead of the standard white or yellow. They replaced the lights with LEDs so they can change them so their eyes are comfortable while it was still somewhat dark in the room.

A knock sounded at their door. They looked at the clock on their phone while they paused the music, noticing it was around dinner time. 'It's been almost 4 hours already? I should have already chosen some agencies... This is so difficult.' The knock sounded again and they said, "I'm coming, I'm coming." They opened the door, seeing Deku. "Hey Deku. What's up?" "Uh, dinner's ready. Bakugou has cooked some Nanban-zuke and noodles." Deku said, stepping out of the way so Ginger could get out of their room. They could smell the fish from the fourth floor, which means it was pungent fish. They hummed and walked towards the elevator, pressing the button to go down. The two sat in silence while going down, making Ginger a little suspicious of the greennette.

"What's wrong?" Ginger asked, looking toward Deku. He jumped, looking toward the brunette with purple-dyed hair. "Um... I wanted to ask a few questions about your quirk. It's just like the Pro Hero Hound Dog, but I can see it's a little different as well. You have lots of features like a cat and you have a collar. I'm not sure what it does or if it's just for aesthetics, but I would love to know. I can also see that you haven't upgraded your costume at all and I have a few suggestions based on what you normally do and-" ''That's enough, Deku. My collar has a purpose. It's a shock collar. Just like any animal, I can be feral, which is dangerous in some people's eyes. It's for everyone's safety. Now, if you excuse me," Ginger said, getting off of the elevator and starting for the kitchen.

Ginger wandered into the kitchen, noticing that everyone had a plate already and sitting at the table, except for Bakugou. He stood near the food, a knife and tongs in hand. He looked up, noticing Ginger, and started prepping a plate wordlessly, giving a more generous helping of fish than noodles. Ginger thanked him for cooking and taking the plate, sitting at a table, and began eating. Deku looked like he already had a plate as well since he sat near Uraraka and his friends that had an extra plate.

Ginger zoned out and kept eating, not noticing the thinning of the crowd as time went by. A hand slammed on the table, making the cat jump, hissing at whoever did that. Bakugou stood at the table with a raised brow, sitting down in the chair in front of them. "What's wrong with you?! You scared the shit out of me!" Ginger exclaimed, picking up a little bit of food that landed in their lap from the scare. "Sorry..." Bakugou mumbled, leaning back in his chair, watching Ginger. They sighed and shook their head, ears staying laid back on their head. Their tail flicked in annoyance as they quickly finished up their food, standing up to wash the dishes since they were last to finish eating.

They started to package the remainder of the food sitting on the counter, putting the dishes that were used into the sink. They placed the packaged food in the fridge after putting a date on a sticky note for when it was cooked. They focused their attention on the dishes when Bakugou started to speak. "So, what's with the collar? Are the scars on your neck from it?" He was so blunt when he asked this, it made Ginger freeze for a second before continuing. "Yeah. What about it? You want to make fun of me for them?" Ginger growled, ears going back on their head, showing their displeasure.

Bakugou chuckled bitterly and said, "Not in the slightest. It just looked uncomfortable. Why do you wear it if it hurts you?" Ginger looked back at him to see the neutral expression on his face. No smirk, no glare, just neutrality. Ginger sighed, turning back to the dishes, and said, "I'm required to wear it. I don't have a choice on whether or not I can take it off. I can't turn it off or on either." "Who is making you wear it? I'm sure I can blast it off if you want," Bakugou offered, making Ginger chuckle as they turned off the water, wiping their hands on a cloth as they began the dishwasher. "Yeah, no. I'm going to have to decline that offer. The collar is made of some pretty tough stuff, it's super difficult to even put a dent into this thing, let alone blast it off. You could hurt me more than this thing hurts me," Ginger rolled their eyes, starting to leave the kitchen. Bakugou followed, seeing that they were heading to the elevator. "Right... so, what do you do about it then? Is it always on? What does it do while it's on?"

Ginger looked at him, raising a brow. "You're acting like Deku. Why do you care so much about this? Did someone put you up to this? If so, just stop, I don't have time for someone who's being dubious." They pressed the button to go up, crossing their arms as their tail flicked in annoyance. "I'm not acting like the damn nerd! And I'm asking because I'm asking! God, don't be so pretentious!" Bakugou barked, crossing his arms over his chest, a nasty snarl on his face.

Ginger rolled their eyes at the dramatics, a small smirk making its way on their face. "Alright, alright, boom boom boy. Chill. It is always on. It senses my heartbeat and if it gets too high it shocks me. Depending on the heart rate, the shocks either are very subtle or very brutal. I have to keep my emotions in check and what I do during training and exercising. That's why I'm also a bit chubbier than what I should be," Ginger answered, stepping into the elevator with Bakugou. They had to lie a bit about the collar. They can't say it's controlled by higher-ups in the United States who gave a prototype controller to the school for training and training only.

Bakugou nodded, staying quiet for the rest of the ride up to the fourth floor. Ginger said good night, going into their room. They shut the door and sighed, wandering over to their bed and flopping on top of it. They pulled out their phone, going into their email to see if they were contacted by their higher-ups. They didn't see anything, sighing quietly as they closed the app, going onto Nstagram. They scrolled through many photos that their classmates had taken and uploaded, memes, relatable posts, shopping, and reels from their favorite creators. They hummed as they turned off their phone, getting up to go back to their computer.

Aizawa had given Ginger permission to send out their training videos to any agency they wanted and so they compiled a list to give to Aizawa tomorrow to send out their best training videos. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.

Ginger sat in the living room later that night. It was probably 2 AM if they bothered to look at the clock. Ginger was watching TV with subtitles so the sound didn't bother others. They were watching some documentary about monkeys... they think. The film cut to a bunch of different animals that were all monkeys and the subtitles never gave the name of the species. So they assumed it was all different. Ginger heard footsteps and looked over their shoulder towards the hallway that led to the stairs and elevator, noticing it was Kirishima. "Hey-"

"AHHHHHH!" Kirishima screamed a high-pitched scream, more than likely alerting the whole building. Ginger looked at him with a face that said 'really?' and looked back to the TV, ready to see everyone run downstairs. The feet that they heard coming from the first floor made them sigh and say, "Did you seriously not see me?" Ginger asked, glaring at Kirishima, who turned on the living room lights. "I saw the light and only the light... sorry. Now I woke everyone up... so not manly." Kirishima whined, walking to the kitchen, probably getting a snack. The ding of the elevator meant that whoever is awake is now there.

There were 14 sets of footsteps that were quickly making their way to the living room. Iida, Uraraka, Tsu, Kaminari, Bakugou, Koda, Sato, Sero, Mina, Jirou, Momo, Deku, Tokoyami, and Ojiro came into the room, spotting Ginger on the couch and sounds coming from the kitchen. "What was the yelling about?" "Is everyone alright?" "What happened?" A flurry of questions was thrown to Ginger who got up from the blanket cocoon on the couch. "Why don't you ask Kirishima? He's the one who got spooked by a person who was obviously watching TV. Go back to bed everyone, everything's fine." Ginger said, ushering everyone back to the elevator after grabbing their blanket and turning off the TV.

'So much for trying to pass the time.' Ginger sighed to themselves, letting Deku, Tokoyami, Mina, Jirou, Sero, Momo, Sato, and Kaminari on the first elevator, getting on the second elevator with everyone else. While the others were talking amongst themselves, they stood next to Bakugou, glancing up at him. "I thought you were a deep sleeper. Guess I'm wrong," Ginger tried to muse but was met with an empty look. They looked away sheepishly, sighing to themselves. 'That's what I get for trying to do small talk.'

The elevator stopped at each floor for everyone, until they finally got to the top floor with Uraraka and Bakugou. Ginger said good night to the gravity quirk holder and wordlessly walked down the hallway with Bakugou, their blanket hunched over their shoulder. The two got to their dorms and looked at each other. Ginger's tail swayed side to side as they curiously looked at Bakugou. He huffed and opened his dorm room and stepped inside without another word or a wave.

Ginger's shoulders, ears, and tail sunk at the very cold interaction and stepped into their own room, deciding to try and sleep until their alarm went off.