Kaminari couldn't sleep. After a while of tossing and turning, he finally wandered down to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

He rounded the corner and his foot collided with something solid. He slapped a hand over his mouth to keep the shriek in as the light from his phone illuminated the kitchen.

When his eyes adjusted to the scene, it was nothing like what he'd expected.

Shinsou, sitting in the dark on the floor in the kitchen- he heard a crunch and looked closer- eating a bowl of cereal.

When his heart calmed enough to form words, he asked, "Whatcha doin down there, hot stuff?"

Shinsou's eyes lazily wandered over him, a little unfocused. "Enjoying the view."

When it was obvious Kaminari didn't know if he was joking or not, Shinsou gestured with his spoon toward the windows where the stars were out.

"You're welcome to join me," Shinsou mumbled around a mouthful and used his spoon to gesture vaguely to the floor.

Kaminari shrugged before pouring his own bowl of cereal and sank to the floor next to him. He could appreciate a midnight meltdown that ended in the kitchen. We've all been there.

He ate a few spoonfuls before he quietly spoke up. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

"Well I don't usually find you on our dorm kitchen floor in the middle of the night-" he looked to his own bowl- "eating cereal." He reached out to trace his fingers down Shinsou's arm and felt how tense he was under his shirt.

"It's not as unusual as you might think," said Shinsou as he subtly leaned into the touch.

"Yeah?" Kaminari hummed, indicating for him to continue.

"I have insomnia and an added bonus of somnambulism."

"You sleep walk?"

Shinsou raised a curious brow at him. Not many people recognised the word unless they had a reason to.

Kaminari told him how he had been a sleepwalker as a kid but he'd grown out of it. He still remembered the unsettling feeling of waking up not in his bed.

He remembered how his mom would sit with him and talk until he felt sleepy again so maybe he'd do that for Shinsou.

"It doesn't exactly explain why you're still here though?" he prodded.

Shinsou's eyes flicked away from him before he answered. "I got over here fine because I was asleep but I don't have a light and I am not going out there without a light."

Kaminari considered this while he ate another spoonful of cereal. "We're inside UA, babe, it's totally safe."

"Yeah, maybe in the daytime."

Was he...

"Tosh, are you, afraid of the dark?"

The dark had always held a safe kind of appeal for Kaminari, like a blanket of sorts.

Shinsou released a deep breath and his silence was answer enough.

He was quiet for a long time before he spoke again, the words catching in his throat. "Dad's training me to be an underground hero like him. He works in the dark and I assume I will too." He turned his head to look at Kaminari and the look on his face made Kaminari's heart clench. "What kind of hero doesn't want to go out at night on their own?"

That's the thing about talking in the dark, the dark coaxed secrets out, letting you say words you wouldn't want the light to hear.

"The fact that you're going to try anyway shows just what an amazing hero you'll be." Kaminari squeezed his arm as he said it.

Shinsou's lips hinted at a smile but it didn't reach his eyes. He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. "How am I supposed to save the world if I'm afraid of the dark?"

Kaminari rest his head against Shinsou's shoulder and spoke quietly into the dark. "We all want to save the world. That's why we're all at UA. But it's okay if you only save one person." He reached for Shinsou's hand and laced their fingers together. "And it's okay if that person is you."

Kaminari stacked their empty bowls into the dishwasher and noticed his socked feet. Of course he'd walked over here with no shoes on, he must have been freezing.

Kaminari knelt in front of him and put his hands on his knees. "Come to bed with me."

Shinsou a raised an eyebrow and the side of his mouth ticked up and Kaminari scoffed. "Glad to see you're feeling better."

As they stood, a thought occurred to Kaminari. "Wait, your room, won't the alarm be tripped because you left?"

Shinsou looked at him out the side of his eye before replying. "No, Dad knows about my sleep walking and he didn't want me setting off the alarm all the time so my room isn't alarmed like everyone else's."

Kaminari's feet halted. "You've been holding out on me!" he accused with a laugh. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because you'd use it to do the wrong thing," Shinsou said easily.

"Yeah, obviously! Imagine what we could have been getting up to!"

Shinsou huffed a laugh and said, "That's exactly why I didn't tell you."

Kaminari grinned, glad he was feeling better.

When they were safely tucked beneath Kaminari's doona and the blond had curled himself into Shinsou's chest, Kaminari asked, "What is it about the dark that you don't like?"

The fingers running through Kaminari's hair paused. "I think, because it's full of possibilities. At least in the light, I can see the monsters."

Kaminari contemplated this for a minute before he spoke. He could understand that, uncertainty was scary. Then he remembered something, "But you said you like the stars," he said, letting the question hang there.

"I do," Shinsou replied and turned to meet his eyes. "I've always had a thing for stars. They've always been there for me." He turned to look at Kaminari's curtain as if he could see through it and spoke quietly. "They're the one thing that always remained constant."

Kaminari hummed in agreement, he could see how that would be so important to him.

"You know when you look at the sky and feel like you're part of something bigger? Like some of your problems don't matter so much anymore."

"How can you hate the dark then?" Kaminari asked softly. "Without it we wouldn't get to have that."

Shinsou smiled faintly. How could he ever have thought this boy was dumb? He kissed the top of his head and when he looked back up, for once he didn't see the monsters in the shadows.

Maybe if he thought about it like that, the dark wouldn't always be so scary.