I throw my papers in my bookbag before walking into the kitchen to grab some toast. Hawks grabbed my bag over the weened one day during his patrol. I don't know how he did it, but I decided not to ask.

"You know you don't have to go to class today. You can just stay here in the apartment and wait until I can explain the whole situation to your teacher after I finish my patrol today." Hawks rushes into the kitchen after me. He's already in his hero costume and I'm in my school uniform. Ethan left pretty early today, but apparently Hawks was the one to take him because neither of them went to sleep last night. He hasn't explained what that was all about either but it's not like I questioned him about it anyways. Once the toast pops out of the toaster I make my way to the door.

"Even though I never want to see my classmates again, I still have to go to school." I chuckle. It's only semi true. I just don't want to face Jirou or Kirishima today. My phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull away from Hawks eyes to check at the notification. My eyes widen at the message.

Sero: 'Can we talk during lunch?'

I don't answer it at first. Maybe he texted the wrong person. Or it's a prank. It's like he can sense my hesitation because he quickly types the next text.

Sero:  'I promise Jirou or anybody else wont be there. You can bring Bakugou if you want, I just wanted to speak to you alone.'

"You aren't obligated to go to school you know! Look I never went to school and look how well I turned out!" Yeah that sentence doesn't sound right no matter how hard he might justify it. I would comment on how similar it is to Ethan's situation, but he is a pro hero. A smart one at that. Maybe he was just homeschooled?

"Yeah and now you're like an older and more traumatized version of me. No offense but that's not looking so great." I look back down at my phone.

me: 'okay'

"Ouch, that hurt. And once I tell Aizawa the full story on what actually happened and not their bullshit version then he'd understand your absence I'm sure of it. Just Denki. Please don't go to school today. I don't want to see you hurt and crying again. It really does become awkward when you do that." He rubs his neck.

"Aww you really sound like you do care, maybe you are a good big brother." His face brightens up after that. "But you have to understand that my grade is on the line here, I'm almost failing out of U.A. as it is. I can't afford to miss a day just because my classmates were kind of asses.

"Fine, but at least promise me this." He walks up to me.

"What?" I look at him in confusion.

"You'll stay at Bakugou's side today. He's not afraid to call someone out which I know you wont do. Which brings me to my other point, try not to talk to your other classmates. Unless it's an apology I don't want to come home and hear a thing that they've said to you today."

"You know you're really protective."

"That's what happens when you care for someone. Now let's get out of here before we're both late."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 When I walk in the classroom there's only a few students here and no Jirou. It calms my nerves a bit, but they spike back up when Kirishima and Sero walk up to me.

"Where were you? You just disappeared Saturday. We were worried when you ran away!" He places his hands on my shoulders and it reminds me of when he restricted me of leaving the dorms. I shrug them off.

"He's right." I look up at Sero who's hugging himself. "I got worried that we weren't going to see you today." I raise my eyebrow at him and he just looks away.

"I uh." I look behind Kirishima to see Bakugou practically growling in his seat. I hum before brushing past Kiri and Sero. I walk up to Bakugou. He looks up at me in annoyance.

"what."

I pass him the note Hawks gave me. And yes I feel embarrassed that Hawks gave me a note to give to Bakugou because he did not believe that I would actually talk to him willingly. I feel like some little kid giving their teacher a note from their parents.

"damn bird." He grumbles before pocketing the note. "Who does he think I am? I'm no damn babysitter." Why didn't he question the note being from Hawks? I don't know what he put in there so maybe he explained the situation?

"I well, he just told me to stay by your side today because you're scarier and would mouth off anyone who talked shit about me. Plus you actually believed me when I said I wasn't the traitor. There wasn't a lot of people who did." I was worried Bakugou would believe them since he was the one the league targeted at the camp. Why should he believe someone who is suspected to be the traitor.

"Course I did. These extras don't think shit through, they just accuse and point fingers. If anyone tells you you're the traitor I'll kill them. They have no right to say you're the traitor. They don't know shit. You're not the type to do shady shit. I should know."

"You should know? Do you know what's happening?" Just what did Hawks write in that note?

"Yeah." He scoffs. "Maybe you should've told your brother to stop moving his hands so much whenever he's nervous and maybe I would've never known." Oh Haru. I always wondered what they talked about during their hangouts. I just kind of assumed they sat in silence with some sort of understanding of each other. Guess I was wrong.

"What did he tell you?" I'm almost too scared to ask. Haru was the first of the kids to come. He knows a lot more than they do.

"Nothing I didn't need to know." Why does he have to be complicated with his answer? Maybe I can ask Haru about it later. He doesn't even want to talk to me anymore. 

"Come on!" I whine. He rolls his eyes before opening his mouth. I wish I could've heard what he said next but he gets interrupted.

"Well what do we have here?" Jirou walks up to Bakugou's desk. "He's back guys! The U.A. traitor is back in our class to once again ruin our lives!" She throws her arms up in the air before turning around to look at the rest of the class. I bring my head down.

"Shut up lobes. Just because your whiny ass life isn't going as perfect as you wanted doesn't mean you can talk shit about other people you don't even know." Bakugou fires back.

"That's rich coming from you Bakugou." Wasn't she defending him Saturday? "Wow I'm impressed Kaminari, you got yourself a bodyguard now. And it's the guy who you got kidnapped, this is hilarious!" She laughs. "I know you're ignoring me dumbass. I can hear your heartbeat, it's speeding right now. What, are you scared I'll do something to you?" She raises her hand and I shut my eyes. "Wow you're even shaking. Poor little defenseless Denki. Should I be pitying you at the moment? Sorry, but I don't see how I could pity a traitor."

This was a bad idea. Why did I ever fight to go to school. Hawks was right I should've just stayed at the apartment and waited until he talked it to the school. I look at the clock on the wall. Aizawa-Sensei isn't here yet. Maybe I can leave now and go home.

"I-i I think I'm going to go." I mumble quietly so only Bakugou would hear.

My hands tighten on my bag strap as I speed walk towards the door. Before I can reach for the handle the door is swinging open. I look up to see Aizawa-Sensei in his yellow sleeping bag. He looks tired of me already.

"Going somewhere Kaminari?" He looks down at me.

"W-well you see." I try to laugh it off.

"In your seat." He tells me before walking over to his desk.

"Yes sir." I rush to take a seat in my chair. I try not to pay any mind to Jirou and Mina who sit right next to me. Mina is throwing me pity looks while Jirou just glares. I hate this.

"Now listen up. I've been informed by multiple people even those who do not attend U.A. that there was a certain situation that happened this weekend without my knowledge or permission." He stares us down. "Now since I learned about this I've been furious. So would you like to explain yourselves or can we just skip the bullshit and I tell you what your punishment is?

Iida quickly raises his hand. "Sir I will gladly take the punishment for my peers. We did not inform you of the situation beforehand and decided upon ourselves that we had it handled. It was my mistake as class president and I will make sure this will not happen again."

"Why do we have to get punished anyways? I get what you mean, yeah we didn't tell you what we were doing but we did end up catching the traitor. Shouldn't' he be in jail right now or at least restrained if you already knew about this?" Jirou pipes up. I glance at her to see she's still looking right at me.

"Oh so that's what's going on." He sighs before stepping out of his sleeping bag. "When I was informed by a certain pro hero that one of my students was being targeted by his classmates I thought that maybe he was exaggerating because he tends to do that. Yet now that I'm standing here I can see why his usual light hearted demeanor was gone when he spoke to me with a straight face. Would you guys care to explain why?

Murmurs could be heard around the room. Everyone is confused because there was no pro hero there that day. Dammit Hawks what did you tell my teacher? And when?! He was running late this morning, when did he have the time?

"Sir?" Momo raises her hand.

"Yes Yaoyorozu?" He acknowledges her.

"If you don't mind me asking, who was the pro hero? Even though I'm not happy with the outcomes of the events myself, I'm positive nobody here informed a pro hero that wasn't apart of the school staff of what happened." 

"That's where you're wrong Yaoyorozu." He shifts his gaze towards me with a questioning look on his face as if he's asking for me to continue. He's asking for my permission. I give a small nod back. "Though Kaminari certainty didn't mean to tell him, he bumped into the 3rd ranked pro hero, Hawks, while leaving U.A. grounds."

The room would've burst into confusion but since Aizawa-Sensei seems thoroughly pissed there's only quiet gasps.

"And since Hawks is Kaminari's mentor, he would surely wonder why the blonde boy was crying right?"

"you little liar." Jirou whispers so I could hear her. It only makes me shrink into my seat more.

"Now who here would like to explain to me why Kaminari, your fellow student inspiring to be hero, was crying on a Saturday morning?" He crosses his arms. At first it seems as though no one raises their hand but Aizawa-Sensei raises his eyebrow before speaking again. "Go on Todoroki."

"Thank you. Our class had a meeting the night before when Kaminari was at his parent's house to discuss the suspicions. Not many spoke against him, but they also didn't deny the claims. Other than Bakugou who openly denied our actions, we are all to blame since we still carried out the plan. Jirou was the one who came up with it. We were to corner Kaminari Saturday morning and force the truth out of him. It wasn't until the middle of the dispute where some of us finally started to defend Kaminari, which I am deeply sorry for."

"Thank you Todoroki. Jirou was there something you wanted to say?" This won't be good.

"He's the traitor I swear! We talked it over as a class beforehand, we all agreed. Yes some people were iffy about it but we still did it. I don't regret what I did. Because of him we're all going to live with this trauma." I should've stayed home. Stay with Ethan and order random things using Hawks' card.

"And why do you say that?" I don't know what Aizawa-Sensei is planning. I can't tell if he's on my side or not.

"He's always smiling! Come on you've all seen it! Him and his damn fake smile!" Fake smile? I grip my legs harder. "I was in the hospital for weeks and he showed up once to see me. Everyone else in this class came every single day, but my best friend showed up only once! Not only that but he lies his way out of it too. 'Oh I was working', 'Oh I had to watch over my siblings', he can't even think of a good enough excuse! And don't get me started on those little brats. e brings them over for practically a whole week without even thinking about how everyone else in our class must feel. Not to mention the fact that he just up and leaves and makes us watch them during the day! And guess, just guess what his stupid reasoning was, he was 'working'!"

She's right. I should've called out for work that week. I should've never forced my classmates to watch over the kids for me. I never even asked, I just left them in my room.

"Jirou did you know that Kaminari Denki has two jobs?" I look up at Aizawa-Sensei.

"He told me about it though I can't tell you if they're lies or not." She crosses her arms.

"Well he also informed me about these jobs when I visited his house before you guys came to the dorms. He said he couldn't quit them and that he usually returns home from work rather late. To verify this I called his places of work and had them verify his hire there." 

"So?"

"So, he has a reason to be leaving the dorms right after school and coming back at what you might deem 'unreasonable' times. He has jobs that he works for. Just because you can't find yourself work outside of annoying everyone else here doesn't mean he can't." Aizawa is sticking up for me. That means he doesn't believe the traitor theory right?

"Aizawa-Sensei I know you don't want to believe me, I mean who does? I didn't believe myself at first, but it's akk true. His siblings are in on it too. They're spies! Are you trying to tell me that him having 'foster siblings' isn't the biggest load of crap you've ever heard? One kid can't hear and can barely speak, and two can't be separated? Yeah right." She scoffs.

"Did Kaminari tell you the reasoning as to why his siblings are like that?"

"Yeah, he said it was because of their quirks." Sero pipes up.

"That's correct Sero. I've met them myself during my visit to his house. He told me that he's usually the one who watches over them and I was the one who told him he could take them to stay at U.A. whenever it was needed." He looks directly at Jirou. "Funny isn't it Jirou? Because I don't remember you being the teacher of this class nor a member of the staff who has the authority to be kicking a student and his siblings out."

"w-well."

"And as for their quirks and disabilities, I'm sure if Kaminari is okay with it he won't mind retelling you as to why they can't do some things?" He gestures at me and everyone turns to look in my direction. I nod back at Mr. Azawa and he gives me a small smile. "And if you could explain a bit more this time? Some people just don't understand." 

"I-um sure." I stare back down at my desk. "I have 5 foster siblings. Koji is the oldest, he's the one that looked like Bakugou. He has an emotion quirk. Basically if he's feeling sad then you're feeling sad, it only works with you being in a certain range from him. Haru is the second oldest. He's the one that's deaf. It was because of a quirk accident when he was younger so I don't know the full details. He started forming selective mutism before becoming apart of our family. His quirk is all over the place and I've never seen it myself so I can't really explain it. Sumie is the youngest and she has the needle and thread quirk. Sorry girls if she's always hesitant around you guys, but she's talked about Momo before." I see her smile from the corner of my eye. "She has a needle and thread quirk. She can turn anything into thread and use it for sewing. Lastly are the twins, Kai and Toshi. You should never separate them because they have joint quirks. Kai releases these violent tremors constantly and Toshi is the opposite and causes things to 'calm down'. When they're separated Toshi could accidentally stop his blood from flowing by stopping his heart from pumping and he'll stop breathing. Kai would violently start convulsing which can get worse and he could have a stroke. They can't just turn off their quirks so it's constantly on. That's why they're kept together because they just cancel each other's quirks out." This is fine. This is exactly what I told Yamada-Sensei.

"Did you hear that better this time Jirou? Maybe if you paid attention to his reasoning then you would've asked a question as to why before you started accusing innocent children."

"I just know he's the traitor, there's no one else who could be it." She grumbles, but Aizawa still hears her.

"And how do I or anything for that matter know that you're not the traitor?"

"what?" She looks up at him in shock.

"You say that you were knocked unconscious during the villain attack at the camp but that's only what you claim right? Where are your witnesses? Oh that's right they were also knocked unconscious. Who knows you could've faked it until you saw them all fall down. There's no one to prove your story. But there was one for Kaminari. He was there with a teacher the whole duration of the attack. Not once did he leave that room." He looks lazily at her before stepping back in his sleeping bag.

"But I would never do something like that to my class, to my friends."

"And he would? Before you start pointing your finger around and start spreading rumors on one of your fellow students maybe you should actually think. You are in the highest school in Japan so I would assume you would have more common sense than that." He zips up the bag before turning his attention to the rest of us.

"Now for the rest of you. You will all be writing an apology to Kaminari and his siblings not to mention Hawks as well. He didn't deserve how you treated him this weekend. This is just the beginning, you will need to make yourselves up to him in other ways as well. I will tell you your punishment later and for the first and probably last time ever I can say follow Bakugou's example. If I catch any of you doing this again to anyone especially Kaminari expect to be expelled. Now do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Sensei." Everyone answers.

"Now get to your other class." He flops down on the floor.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The moment something goes wrong, you call me and I'll blast his ass into next week." Bakugou and I are walking down the hall. I told him about Sero's text this morning about him wanting to see me during lunch today. And of course Bakugou being overprotective as ever decided to tag along. I'm happy that he did, it puts me more at ease. 

"Awwww Bakugou you do care!" I pull him into a hug which gets up weird stares from some other students passing by.

"Shut up. I just don't want to see you crying because of some dumb prick." We walk up to the classroom door. This is where Sero wanted to meet.

"I'll be care I promise. Plus it's only Sero right?"

"Yeah the earphone bitch is in the caferteria. Probably spreading rumors and shit." He grunts.

"oh." I chuckle sadly. I don't want other classes hating me now. And if Aizawa finds out he'll get them expelled and if Hawks knows he'll kill them.

"Don't worry about it. I'll beat any loser that tries to accuse you of shit. They're all bark no bite anyways." He punches my arm lightly.

"Save the fighting for villains." I rub my shoulder before smiling at him. I reach for the handle and open the door. Bakugou agreed to stay outside and though he can't hear everything, he did say he'd rush inside if he heard anything funny. I keep that in mind when I walk inside and close the door behind me. I see Sero pacing around by the windows before coming to a stop once he sees me.

"you came." He breathes out.

"..."

"no like you actually came." He laughs a bit. "why'd you come?"

"well. you asked." I shrug.

"you should've never came." My eyes widen.

"w-why?" I look around the room. Did he pull a prank on me? Is this another trick? I don't see anyone here. Maybe I should call for Bakugou.

"No!" I whip my head back at him. "I mean no one is here. You were looking around anxiously. I just- I didn't trick you or anything."

"Then why?"

"Because I don't deserve it." I raise my eyebrow at him and he sighs.

"Look Den-" He pauses. "Kaminari. I did something shitty. 100% shitty and irreversible. What we did on Saturday, what I  did was inexcusable."  He walks over to one of the seats in the front row and sits down. I look at him for a second before opting to sit down in the chair next to him. He drops his head to the desk and I stare at the board as he continues. "I don't know why I ever went along with the plan. I never believed it. Not a word Jirou said. Todoroki didn't know about this part but she didn't go to the class first. She went to Mina, Kirishima, Bakugou and I before anyone. She said if there was something sketchy going on then we'd be the first ones to know because we're the closest to you. No one said anything at first. We just kind of stared at her in awe. Then Kiri shared his opinions on the matter, and you know Mina follows him and whatever he does. Bakugou got pissed when he said that and stormed out of the room. Which left me. They asked if I'd help prove that you were the traitor by convincing everyone else in the class. At the time I just shrugged. I don't know why. I knew you weren't the traitor. You're Kaminari Denki. You're the guy who stayed up with me when I found out my grandma died. That night you listened to me cry and go on and on with stories about her even though you were running on two cups of coffee that day and no ADHD medicine. After hearing what Aizawa-Sensei mentioned in class today, it would also mean that you skipped work and had to find a babysitter for your siblings." He chuckles. "Who in their right mind would think you're the traitor? I can't believe it." My eyes widen when I realize that he's crying. Sero who I've heard cry only one time before this. I'm not looking at him. I can't. I haven't even looked at him since I've sat down. So I opt to continue looking at the board in silence while he talks.

"I couldn't do it anymore. The whole faking thing. When I did that Saturday, when I tied you up with my tape you looked at me with so much fear. You didn't know what was going to happen. You were so scared. I never want to see you with that expression on ever again. You shouldn't ever have to look at your friends, or classmates now, like that. What if Jirou and the others told Nedzu before telling Aizawa? What if they believed us? You could've gotten expelled and brought to jail. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I caused that." He sniffles. "When you ran out I felt so many emotions. Anger towards Jirou and the others, happy that you left, yet sad too."

"Ser-."

"No nope. Don't accept my apology. I haven't finished talking yet. And yes I know what you were going to say because you're Kaminari Denki. Well I don't deserve your forgiveness. I broke a bond. More importantly I broke your trust. I can't just say sorry with a pathetic apology and get that back. I just can't. I have to earn it. And I will."

"You know that you're my best friend." I mention.

"Yeah and your so called best friend has been a huge dick lately. Even before the whole traitor thing, I was listening to the others instead of just being usual Sero. I called you dumb! I know how much you hate being called that and yet I still did it."

"You did not say that I was dumb." It's true. He never said that.

"Yes but I implied it Denki. I was making up dumb excuses like you playing video games or you not caring when I know that you study daily. You worked hard to get into this school. What a shitty friend I am." He sighs.

"Everybody makes mistakes Sero." I want to cheer him up. I never expected to come here and get an apology. I feel like I don't deserve it, but it's nice to hear. It's nice to hear how my friend actually believes me.

"Fuck if this is what you call and mistake then do you understand how big it is?"

"Did you mean any of the things you said or did to me?" I ignore his question. I don't think he wanted me to answer it anyways.

"No! Not even a single one! You wouldn't believe it but I even forced Bakugou to spar with me when you left Saturday. I felt so bad seeing you down like that that I had to be beaten down myself. And damn can Bakugou throw a mean punch." He laughs.

"D-did you make him beat you up Sero?"

"Uh yes. It hurt like a bitch and Aizawa-Sensei was beyond pissed with me, and so was Recovery Girl. But you know what? I deserved it. My bruises and burns got healed easily with one kiss, but yours can't. Not to mention I can't even see them."

"What are you saying? I don't understand."

"Well, I'm not saying that you should come to me when you're down like you used to because I haven't earned that level of trust again. B-but if the others are giving you a hard time you can come to me. I know Bakugou could beat them up and curse them out in a heartbeat, but you know he's not really good with his words. And I'm sure Midoriya or Momo would talk to you if you needed, not Todoroki though because he's oblivious at times, but they're not as close as we are. Or rather as we were."

"Sero why are you telling me all of this now instead of the weekend or before that? Are you only saying this because of what Aizawa-Sensei said in class today?" I really hope it's not. I really hope he's being genuine about wanting to be my friend again.

"No. Though what he said did make feel worse than I already did, but he's not the reason why I wanted to talk to you. I texted you before class even started remember? I know I should've said something sooner, but I wanted to think about it. I had to go the right way about this. It's just, I kept following and listening to the others because I was scared of what they'd think of me. It's stupid I know. I'm the real dumb one. It took the whole ordeal Saturday and Bakugou knocking some sense into me for me to finally realize. I'd rather lose them as friends than ne a shit friend to you for no reason. So, I'm sorry Denki. I honestly don't know how to make it up to you." I finally look at him.

"Would you talk to me?" He looks confused when I ask.

"I am talking to you?"  

"No. Like, during lunch or in the common room. You won't leave me this time, will you?" I'm hesitant to ask. I don't want him to say this was all a joke.

"All Might no."

I chuckle at his response. "Then that's all I want."

Ring

That's the lunch bell. We should probably head out to our next class now unless we want to be late and have to face a grumpy Aizawa.

"Cone on let's go. Sorry for making you miss your lunch." He apologizes as we walk towards the door.

"Bakugou will make us something when we get back to the dorms I'm positive of it." He's like a mother hen. He won't let us go without eating for a day.

"Yeah right after he chews us out for not eating before afternoon training."

"He's a mom." We both laugh.

The door swings open before any of us could even reach for the knob.

"What did you losers just say?!" Bakugou yells.

"Bakugou we'll be late for our next class, come on let's go." I push him further out the door.

"Finally you guys made up. I thought you'd take hours." We finally start walking towards our classroom.

"Did you actually beat up Sero?"

"Hell yeah I did." I punch his arm. "What! He asked me to!" Sero and I laugh at him before he explodes.

Things are looking up.

I feel a buzz in my pocket and I reach for my phone to check the message.

Hitoshi:  'I'll see you after class'

I stare at it for a few moments before placing it back in my pocket.

Or not.