Meg Kataoka was a lot like a mother hen of 3-E. She knew when they were sad, or when something happened. After all, they had all become a family, subsequently bonding over the shared trauma of the year as well as their shared grief of Koro-sensei.

It wasn't exactly healthy, and neither were their coping mechanisms.

3-E was constantly worked to the bone, especially the ones at gruesome schools like Shiketsu or UA. Nagisa, Denki, and Karma were at UA while Nakamura, Isogai and herself were at Shiketsu. Not to mention the constant missions.

All in all, 3-E was pretty tired.

They hadn't gotten over Koro-sensei's death and refuse to make any direct mention to him, but hey, that was okay with Meg.

What wasn't okay is how tired her classmates are. She remembers when she met Kaminari Denki, or you know, Amber. Meg thought he was arrogant, stunning, but it turned out to be totally different.

Yeah, Denki was stunning, but merely by being Denki not Amber. After Meg had come to Class 3E, she was a bit scared of making connections.

After all, it was her supposed 'friend' that had pushed her into this situation, Meg was allowed to be bitter. But Denki melted those walls, he melted the class' walls.

It was uncanny yet amazing. The rest of the class could only watch in awe. It seemed as if Koro-sensei and Denki were working together. Denki just melted the walls, but it was Koro-sensei that pushed them. Pushed them to become friends, and eventually, family.

And Meg cares for her family. That's why she had to ask; "Denki, are you okay?"

Denki's lips thinned into a line, "I will be."

Meg didn't know how to reply, but her brain quickly through something out while concern twisted in her stomach, "What happened?"

Screw Meg's bleeding heart, but Denki's behaviour was making her instincts activate.

Denki smiled bitterly, "My classmates happened."

Oh. Oh. Denki did talk about the stress his classmates caused him often. Denki was put into a class of amateurs not once, but twice. Of course he's getting tired. But it was mostly Denki's worry that stressed him out, or that's what Meg understood anyway.

"But it's fine," Denki would say on the days that his eyebags seem a bit more prominent, "I can deal with it."

It just made Meg concerned.

"Want a butterscotch?"

But for now, if it made Denki happy, Meg will take the butterscotches. "Sure."

~~~

Kirara Hazama could remember the day she met Kaminari Denki. Denki came off as closed off and cold, much like her. She guessed that that's how they bonded originally.

She also saw that Denki loved reading. When he can't find a book in Japanese, he just reads it in another language. Hazama brushed it off as another Denki quirk, seeing as he was an assassin before coming to the class already.

Although, even when Denki would study up to 12AM with them, fool around with them, and just do things with Class E after a day of training, he wouldn't be tired. That's what set the alarm bells off when Denki showed up to training looking like a train wreck, basically.

"Denki, you okay?"

"Yeah," Denki answered, "Just stayed up late last night rereading a series, that's all."

"Which series was it?"

Denki smiled, "The Midnighters. You know, that one by Scott Westerfield? It's in English, I don't know if there are copies in Japanese though."

Hazama raised a brow, "Hm, I'll check it out. What's it about?"

Hazama loved when Denki's eyes would light up while talking about something he likes.

~~~

"Denki, we're here to get you for—" Karma quickly backpedaled when he spotted Jirou, "the study session."

Denki looked at them in surprise, "Why are you guys here?"

"Didn't I just say we were here to get you for the study session?" Karma asked. "You would've been late if we hadn't."

Denki gasped dramatically, "Late you say? I neither confirm nor deny."

Nagisa smiled, "Yeah sure, you totally don't know what late is."

"Totally," Karma mocked, smirking at Denki's betrayed look.

Denki signaled Jirou to come over, "Karma, Nagisa, this is Jirou. Jirou, this is Karma and Nagisa."

Karma could practically see the cogs turning in the girl's mind, he guesses that Denki's slipped up a bit lately due to the stress, which was perfectly fine. People seem to forget that Denki was Amber, even if Amber was a perfect assassin, Denki was just a kid.

Karma stuck out his hand, smirking in greeting, "Akabane Karma."

Nagisa said, "I'm Shiota Nagisa."

Denki then began rambling, "I did plan to introduce them to the class one time, but everyone was busy."

Liar, Karma thought, You want to keep Class E and A separate for as long as possible.

"Unluckily," Denki made a weak glare, "They decided to drop by unannounced today."

Karma rolled his eyes, "Unluckily," he repeated.

"Karma!" Denki sighed, "There was absolutely no reason for this wonderful visit."

"Yeah, wonderful," Nagisa muttered sarcastically.

"Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Jirou-san," Nagida said, "I'm afraid we'll have to take Denki now."

"Okay, make sure not to hit the books too hard," Jirou teased.

Karma smirked, "We aren't planning to kill him or anything."

When the 3 walked away, Denki immediately began talking.

"Are you serious, Karma??" Denki asked, "You could've totally revealed everything with the intonation you put on kill!"

Karma merely shrugged, "We're assassins, not killers. We assassinate, not kill. They're different."

Denki sighed exasperatedly but didn't argue.

"You see? I'm right."

~~~

When Karma was informed that Denki was panicking, he immediately sent Nagisa. After all, Karma wasn't good with emotions, and Nagisa, even if he was a little emotionally stunted could at least calm Denki down.

Right now, Karma had to focus on somehow getting Bakugou back. Being the leader of 3E along with their representatives meant that they were immediately contacted to make a rescue mission for the brat.

Of course 3E had to participate to get back a hero hopeful. They're silent, secret, and leave no witnesses. Perfectly perfect to infiltrate a villain base, am I right?

If you couldn't tell, Karma's a bit bitter.

Actually, screw a bit, he's very bitter.

But then again 3E doesn't have a choice or they risk going to jail for killing, even if that's something that was forced upon them.

The government's a bunch of hypocrites, and Karma can't wait to see their asses fall from their high stick. It's going to be hilarious and freeing.

He hopes one day that 3E could share their story.

But for now, they're the heroes behind the scenes, in the shadows.

And Karma has no authority to change that.

~~~

Nagisa Shiota was also one of the ones that could remember first meeting Denki— and inronically, it wasn't in the classroom, but directly outside of it. It was when Nagisa was walking to campus, he ran into Denki. They both immediately apologized at the same time, struck up conversation and became friends.

Nagisa likes to say that he knows Denki pretty well. It's the truth, Nagisa knows Denki more that all of them. He knows what sets Denki off, what Denki likes, what makes Denki uncomfortable—

And most importantly, he knew that Denki's new classmates take a lot out of his emotional and mental health.

"Denki, are you okay?" Nagisa asked Denki, who was currently speed-writing an essay for his English class.

"Yeah," Denki answered, not once looking up from the page, "Everyone's nice. Nothing's happening."

"Then what has you so—" Nagisa gestured to his eyebags.

Denki frowned, "They found out I was, uh, Amber."

Nagisa quickly learned that one thing Denki hated was being Amber, or being percieved as Amber. Amber was something that Denki was forced to become, it made perfect sense that he didn't like it. "How did they take it?"

Denki grimaced, "Not well. But it's okay. They'll forget in two weeks."

"Two weeks?"

"They forgot about the USJ incident in two weeks, when the Sports Festival came up," Denki shrugged, "They'll probably forget about me soon too. After all, we have more important things to worry about."

And Nagisa of all people knew. He was one of the 3 students that was tasked of scouting the traitor, and Denki was tasked of protecting 1A. The villain attacks seemed endless for 1A, and Nagisa pitied him.

Last time a classmate was kidnapped and All Might retired, before that they had gotten attacked at a mall, before that USJ happened—

Nagisa sighed, "It'll get better, Denki."

"I hope so," was his whispered reply.

~~~

Karasuma should've noticed something was wrong with Denki when he suddenly passed out.

A quick check over at the doctor's informed him that Denki wasn't sleeping well. And Karasuma being the dad of AssClass as he is, was immediately concerned.

When Denki woke up, relief washed over him like a tidal wave. "Huh?"

"Kaminari, when was the last time you had a full night's sleep?"

"7 days ago," Denki replied automatically. He looked around, "Oh... i passed out..."

"Mind telling me why you haven't slept in a week?"

Denki looked down as he fiddled with his fingers, "My class— they— they found out."

Karasuma inhaled sharply. Finding out about Amber wasn't exactly the easiest thing. When he found out Amber was a child, he wasn't exactly fond either. "They didn't take it nicely?"

Denki gripped the sheets tightly, "They're avoiding me, Sensei. I don't know what to do."

Karasuma's heart broke in half. Denki had just come to terms that he truly liked the class, that he warmed up to them after the mess of 3E, and now they're avoiding him? Karasuma couldn't imagine how much that hurt.

"I think you should confront them, attempt to fix your friendship," Karasuma said, "In your profession, you need a lot of allies."

"In my professions."

~~~

In hindsight, Irina should've also noticed, but she didn't.

Denki thinks it's okay, but Irina doesn't. "They're socially excluding you?"

Denki nodded, putting a butterscotch candy into his mouth, "It's okay really—"

Irina knows how much Denki opened up last year, the truth is, Denki's a social butterfly. 3E's a family, yes, but they only meet one a week, meaning Denki's deprived from positive social interaction for 6 days, and that wasn't good. Irina's know Amber for two years, and she knows how closed off Denki could get.

She doesn't want Denki anymore closed off.

"Have you told anyone?"

"I," Denki paused, "I think the teachers just noticed, really. Aizawa-sensei did, but he probably doesn't want to put too much attention on me because the class could see it negatively."

That's when Irina realized that it was a tricky situation, "They know that, that you're not a villain, right?"

Denki stayed silent.

"Kaminari, you're not a villain," Irina sighed, running a hand through her long, blonde hair, "You were ordered. Villains do these things for fun."

"Just because they're legal, doesn't mean they're moral," Denki quoted, from what Irina didn't know.

He then continued, "That's what one of my classmates said to me the other day," Denki looked up at Irina, "If Aizawa-sensei intervenes then the class is going to lose trust in him."

"I'm alone in this, B*tch-sensei."

No, Irina wanted to say, You're not alone. But she had to admit that Denki was right. He was alone in this situation, if anyone steps in it could make it worse.

"At least all of you listen," Denki smiled lightly at her, "Thank you for listening."

There's nothing to say thank you for, Irina smiled back, "You can always come to me, Kaminari."

"Thanks, B*tch-sensei."

~~~

"That monster probably brainwashed them," Ashido whispered, "No wonder Denks is all weird!"

It was a regular thing Denki had to do to ignore these now. But it was okay. At least he had 3E. They're really good listeners.

He just couldn't help but get angry, enraged when they suggested something remotely villainous when talking about Korosensei. Korosensei was their teacher, hell, people of the class thought of him as a parent. Korosensei was their family. Denki's pretty sure that no one wants their family to be called villainous.

Why is he suddenly treated differently over something he had no control over? This was pretty messed up, but 1A are kids so Denki has so forgive them.

But he'd be lying if he said that those things don't hurt. Denki looks at his photo album that Korosensei customly made for each student and wonders how people could think of him as a villain. Korosensei was the kindest person Denki had known— one of the first people to genuinely care about Kaminari Denki. Not Amber but Kaminari Denki. And that, that makes a very big difference.

"I feel bad for Denks, he had to be in a villain's class all year," Hagakure said.

Before Denki could stop it, he blurted, "Korosensei's not a villain."

"Korosensei? Korosenai...? Unkillable?" Midoriya inquired.

"Not a villain?! He blew up the moon!" Ashido exclaimed.

"Did it hurt anyone?" Denki asked, "Did it?"

"No—"

"Then he's not a villain. Korosensei was kind, he was a teacher, he cared for every single one of us," Denki was strangely calm. Although deep inside he knew that he was very, very angry, but it seemed that grief took over him instead. "He was like family. I'd appreciate it if you'd stop calling my family member a villain."

Ashido immediately shut up with a click.

Yaoyorozu smiled sympathetically, "I'm sorry for your loss."

"It's fine," Denki looked away. Most people don't tend to care.

"If it's alright with you, I want to know what made Korosensei so special to you guys," Yaoyorozu said, "Do you have any stories?"

Denki smiled the most genuine smile that he's had in a long time, "A bunch."

He unwrapped a butterscotch and began telling the stories. Denki wonders if Korosensei likes Butterscotches too.

~~~
Fin.
~~~