Okay so maybe the medication started working.

Like it was working overtime or something because Kaminari's anxiety went from 'holy shit my tummy hurts really bad ow' to 'I'm freaking out'.

FYI the 'I'm freaking out' is way better.

In a few days, their classmates are going to start going back to the dorms. Kaminari is both excited and dreading it because, well, school starts the following Monday.

Thank fuck for the new anxiety medication because he might have died of anxiety.

Can you even die from that?

Probably.

Kaminari doesn't know.

His appointments with Arai are getting more annoying for him. She's talking a lot more about the rape and stuff, and bringing up the topic is freaking him out and making him jumpy.

He decides to bring that up at their latest meeting and she relents, letting go of the topic until he's gotten settled in the school year.

Instead, she brings up his mom.

Great.

She talks about how Yukako's lack of support has had him looking for a stable parental figure AKA Aizawa.

Like wow he had no idea he was doing that.

No shit it was obvious. He didn't need Arai pointing that out. It was embarrassing and he hoped it would go on without being put on a spotlight at therapy.

Okay maybe he's also gotten a little angry lately.

He blames the stress.

It's also not like he's taken it out on anyone.

That's something he's making sure not to do because he'd had an angry phase in middle school due to all the trauma or whatever and his mom called him out on it.

Of course he lied and made up a story about being sad that maybe he was losing one of his best friends because of other people.

She believed him of course.

He was just angry and it was annoying.

The nightmares died down, but he waited a few days before letting Smushy stay out of the restroom when he went to bed.

She loved it, staying next to him all night. He'd be lying if he said he didn't miss it, too, though, so he can't blame her for that.

He misses the occasional sleepover with Shinso, though.

He just didn't know how to communicate about that so well. Sometimes it was just hard, but he's done it before. He's been able to confide in his boyfriend. It's nothing new, but he can't help but find it hard to talk about this with him.

It's something he has to do, though. Well, if he wants his relationship with the other teen to stay in a good spot. Communication is everything, so this should be something that Kaminari should tell him.

So he does.

It takes him a while to build up the courage to do so, but when he does, he walks to Shinso's room with Smushy in his arms.

Once he's there, he knocks and waits for Shinso to open the door.

As soon as he sees Kaminari, he smiles, letting the blond in.

"And why do I have the pleasure of having my boyfriend here right now?"

Kaminari rolls his eyes, setting Smushy down once Shinso pats the bed next to him for the blond to sit.

"I have to talk to you about something," he explains.

The blond grabs Shinso's hand and squeezes.

"I've been having nightmares recently. And they're bad, so sometimes my quirk goes off."

He looks over at Shinso to continue and when the teen nods, he does.

"That's why I don't sleep in the same room with you anymore. I've had to put Smushy in the bathroom, too."

He's quiet for a moment to let Shinso talk.

"Have you talked to Arai or Aizawa about it?"

Kaminari nods. "I told Arai and they put me on new meds. The nightmares went away."

Shinso turns to him.

"New meds? You didn't tell me that? Are they okay?"

The blond nods again. "The nightmares were caused by anxiety, so when Arai and a few other doctors said I would take new meds, they went away. It took some time, though."

Taking Shinso's reaction in made him realize he should've brought this up a long time ago.

"Thank you for telling me. You should tell me sooner next time. I thought I did something," Shinso tells the blond.

"Shit, sorry. I will. Arai says it's good to communicate. I just let my anxiety get the best of me."

Kaminari the lies down, face-first on the mattress and screams in annoyance at his brain before sitting back up with a smile.

"Let's do something."

Shinso looks at him curiously. "Okay. Like?"

The blond is still smiling as he gets closer to Shinso. Shinso's smiling at him, too, but once they get really close, Shinso's smile falls when he sees Kaminari looking at his lips.

Kaminari looks up into his eyes when he sees the look on Shinso's face. He looks excited and nervous.

"Can we kiss?" Kaminari whispers and Shinso's heart stops.

He swallows thickly as he looks down at Kaminari's lips. The whispering felt appropriate for the mood and because of how close the blond was to him.

"Do you wanna kiss?"

Kaminari nods eagerly, but there's a flash of nervousness in his eyes that makes Shinso ask more questions.

"Are you sure?"

Kaminari gets closer and nods again, more sure, and Shinso smiles.

"Like how sure?"

Kaminari just leans in, making Shinso laugh into the kiss before letting their lips move together.

It's clumsy and just so perfect.

"Can I put my hands on your face?" Shinso asks, making sure not to do anything that the blond doesn't expect or approve of.

He could accidentally trigger him.

"Yeah," Kaminari breathes and reconnects their lips, moving so that he's sitting in Shinso's lap.

Once Shinso's hands are on his face, Kaminari's hands grip the front of his shirt, pulling him closer.

When Kaminari introduces tongue, the blond gasps and pulls away, tensing up.

Shinso let's go of his face but Kaminari's hands are still fisted in the front of his shirt, hiding in Shinso's neck. They're both breathing a little harder than regular, and Shinso is red.

They just made out.

But Kaminari pulled away.

"Hey, what happened?"

"The feeling of our tongues touching-" Kaminari cringes and shakes his head, "I guess I wasn't prepared for that. I'm sorry."

Shinso shakes his head. "Hey, no, it's okay. I'm glad you pulled away when you needed to. I'm not mad and I'll never be mad if you're not comfortable. Okay?"

Kaminari pulls away and looks up and nods, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Can- can we try again?"

His face heats up, and Shinso feels his face get warmer.

"I want to. Do you?" Shinso asks.

When the blond smiles shyly and nods, Shinso smiles.

"Okay, then yeah. Remember we stop when you want."

Kaminari nods and leans in again. "Okay," he whispers and as soon as the word leaves his lip, he moves forward, pressing them to Shinso's once again.

Kaminari's lips feel soft against Shinso's and Kaminari thinks that Shinso's feel bigger than they look.

Maybe they're just puffy from before.

When Kaminari introduces tongue again, he's ready for the feeling, and it. Doesn't bother him or send him down a spiral. He shuts the flashbacks from rushing to the front of his mind and let's himself enjoy this.

It feels good, and his heart speeds up when he pays attention to how hard they're both breathing.

"You're so," their lips reconnect, "handsome," Shinso breathes out heavily as they break apart from kissing.

Kaminari's face absolutely burns at the compliment, smiling and hiding his face in his hands.

"You're so embarrassing."

Shinso smiles and pulls one of Kaminari's hands towards him to uncover his face, but he also presses a kiss to his knuckles.

A cute laugh escapes Kaminari's throat in embarrassment at the gesture, and he hides his face in Shinso's chest as said teen laughs at the blond.

"I hate you."

"No you don't, Shinso calls him out.

Something falls and the noise is loud and unexpected, so they both jump and gasp at the noise, heads shooting at the source of the noise.

Smushy is on Shinso's desk, sitting from where she knocked down his pencil holder. There were pens and pencils thrown in the floor and they both laugh, Kaminari feeling giddy because he was able to make out with his boyfriend.

~~~~~

They'd started waking up earlier and earlier as school got closer, so now they woke up at 6 to start their routine, and Kaminari started taking his medications that early, too.

The times of their routines were made to be followed once school started back up.

Kirishima was back at the dorms along with Iida, Momo, and Koda.

Iida was shocked at the presence of the cat, but didn't comment on it other than to compliment how she behaves.

Koda looked like he was going to explode with how he looked when he saw Smushy.

Kaminari almost laughed.

Kirishima hadn't taken Kaminari's mental health state very well. Kaminari didn't even know it was noticeable until Kirishima pointed it out.

It was just them two in his room with Smushy and Kaminari had been lying on his side with Smushy laying next to him, head rested on his neck..

"Yo, man. Are you good?"

Kaminari's mental health dropped at the beginning of the summer but he's been feeling good lately, kind of, so he didn't think he looked bad.

He guesses he dropped a little bit too much given how good he feels in the moment.

He's not on cloud nine or anything, but he feels better.

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"You seem very... not yourself."

When he blinks, he feels the heaviness of his eyes when he does and be becomes more aware of how he feels.

Okay so maybe not doing great.

"Oh. Maybe once school starts I'll be better. This summer was a roller coaster."

"Wanna talk about it? I'm curious," Kirishima says.

Kaminari laughs, jostling Smushy slightly and she meows unhappily before settling back down, purring.

"Just a lot of emotions and my brain being stupid. Really took a toll on me. I've been feeling pretty good recently. Guess I still need to get a bit better."

Kirishima frowns. "Did something happen?"

Kaminari shakes his head before stopping abruptly. That's a lie.

"Well, I had a run-in with my dad," he says, closing his eyes.

He hears Kirishima's sharp intake of breath.

"The others were there, though, so even though I checked out, I ended up being fine. It also helped that my meds were working overtime."

"Meds? Like medication? Okay, well no duh like medication, but really?" Kirishima sounds shocked, and Kaminari realizes he didn't tell his other friends.

Like Arai said, being open and having stuff out there will benefit him and others, so why not?

"Yeah. Got some for depression, anxiety, and insomnia. The whole works."

Kirishima is Kirishima and has his mouth open in shock.

"That's so great man," he breaks out into a smile and smacks Kaminari's foot.

Kaminari smiles at his excitement for him.

"You're getting the help you need. Holy smokes that so cool," Kirishima says, absolutely beaming.

"And they're working?" He asks.

Kaminari smiles. "Yeah, they do. The anxiety one had to be replaced cause I got bad since school is starting. My new ones help."

Kirishima nods as he takes it in. "How bad was it?"

"Stomach aches and lots of anxiety attacks. Couldn't stop shaking either. It sucked."

Kirishima frowns before smiling again.

"I'm glad the new ones work. Agh you're so manly, man. I'm really happy your meds work. This is so great."

"My therapist said to be more open cause of my past or whatever. It's weird, but it does help."

~~~~~

"Yeah, so I told him about the meds, and he was so excited for me. It was so nice and refreshing. Kirishima is just so positive. He's such a good friend," Kaminari rants as they try to learn something new on the skateboard.

They'd dropped it for a while since Shinso went out of town, and since school was starting back up, Kaminari needed a distraction. Something to take up more of his time.

"I swear Kirishima was literally birthed from the happiness of all living things," Shinso comments and Kaminari laughs, almost falling.

"Denki."

The voice made him lose his balance and almost fall, barely catching himself as his skateboard rolled away. You could hear it go further as he faced his mom.

"Ma."

She looks happy to see him and he doesn't know how to feel about that as his throat tightens up, taking a step closer to Shinso who glares at Yukako. He'd stepped forward, protective of the blond.

"Come here," she says, opening her arms and the sight has him longing, so he steps forward, opening his arms to her.

He's been wanting to hug his mom.

So bad.

And now here she is, offering a hug to him.

He practically runs the rest of the way to her and hugs her so tightly. "Hi, ma."

He missed her so much. This is his mom.

He's so focused on his mom, he jumps when Shinso moves. "Ma, this is Shinso. I told you about him before."

She smiles, nodding and waving at the other teen.

"Hello," is all Shinso says, plain and dry.

Kaminari frowns, but he understands why. He should be mad, too, but it's only for right now. He just needed this.

"I know we didn't tell you we moved. I didn't know how to. Please don't be mad," she says and he's angry now.

She should have told him.

At least contacted his teacher so that Aizawa could pass the message.

"That's not fair. You can't tell me not to be mad. I thought you left me," he says, voice cracking embarrassingly at the end as he musters up the will not to cry.

"Oh, baby, I'm so sorry," she says, reaching out to touch his face, but he pulls away before she can.

"No. You can't- you don't get to just hurt me like that and then do this. That hurt me. More than you know. It broke me more than when you said I had to find somewhere else to stay for the summer. More than when you told me to get a girlfriend to make it more believable."

He walks backward until he feels Shinso's arm brush against his.

"How are you even still allowed on this campus? Leave," Shinso says, all for kicking Yukako out.

She frowns, and there are tears in her eyes. Kaminari doesn't know if they're real or not, but it still hurts.

"I really missed you and I needed that hug, but you need to go," Kaminari finalizes, and the woman leaves without a word.

They watch her go, and once they can't see her anymore, Kaminari walks away to get his skateboard.

"I wanna go inside."

He's mad.

Really mad, and Shinso doesn't blame him.

He's mad, too.

Kaminari takes his helmet off angrily and throws it on the floor with so much force, they both hear it crack. He takes off his elbow and knee pads, doing the same.

"That's not fair. She's not being fair," Kaminari grits, looking up at Shinso as he points in the direction she went.

"She can't just do that," the blond continues, angry tears welling in his eyes, so he looks away, picking up the stuff he just threw along with the skateboard.

He doesn't yell this at Shinso, just angrily says it.

"Can we go inside," he whispers when he gets closer to Shinso. He's looking down and his shoulders are slumped together.

~~~~~

After their shower, Kaminari feels better. Shinso walks into the room. In his sleep clothes, and Kaminari pats the bed next to him.

He'd texted Aizawa what happened and after a few back and forth texts, Aizawa said he'd speak to her for him. He was so grateful.

"How are you?" Shinso asks, joining him under the covers.

"Mad," he says, annoyed as he angrily cuddles up to the other teen with a 'hmpf'.

Kaminari wraps his arms around his boyfriend and quickly pulls away, just slightly to angrily peck his boyfriend's lips before burying his face into his chest.

Shinso is going to melt.

"She's such a bitch," Kaminari says, muffled into his shirt.

"Yeah, she is. You take your sleeping pill yet?" He asks, petting the top of his head.

Kaminari nods, already relaxing into the other teen.

"Goodnight, Kami."

"Goodnight."

***
Word Count: 2781
in honor of mothers day i had to bring in Yukako🤪🤪 my mom's not even here and i got her smth for mothers day. I was gonna give it to her today, but maybe I'll just do it tomorrow or on Mexican mother's Day which is on Tuesday. Idk yet. Idek if I should've gotten her anything when I could've bought this cool shirt instead. I just got her chocolates, but wtv. She's with my dad rn 🤪🤪. I've decided to end this on chapter 54. And then an epilogue ofccc 😋 i hope yall liked this chapter. Next one will go up next Sunday at 8pm central time. I love you all and tysm for reading<3