Shinsou's POV

Before I could even think, my legs were quickly carrying me into the cat café. I heard a couple voices behind me as I ran, but goddammit all I wanted to see right now was the cats. But, I'm not a completely reckless, I have like 2.3% common sense up here in this rotted brain, so I reserved our table first.

I sped over to the front counter and stopped abruptly in front of it, startling the cashier at the desk. She jumped slightly but recovered quickly and faced towards me with a smile on her face. I was kind of surprised as I looked around inside the café and saw there were... quite a few people. I mean, of course it was going to be busy, who doesn't love cats? But gee.

"Hey! Sorry, you startled me, so you need to be seated?" She says cheerfully.

"Hello, sorry for scaring you and yes I do. Do you have a table for... 22 people? Or two tables you could put together..?" I ask a little nervously, now noticing just how ridiculous the request sounded. She literally did the 'blinking white guy' meme at me, looking up from her writing pad on the desk completely shocked.

"Um... yes, we currently have an entire vacant party section with two 12 seater tables. We can put them together for you, no problem!" She says quickly.

"Would you also like extra cats-?"
"Yes."

She laughs a little at my quick response before writing for a while on the pad, then grabbing 22 menus and telling me to follow her to the room. I nod quickly and follow as she walks.

"The rest of your party is showing up soon, yes?" She says, still looking ahead of herself. I say a quick "Yep." As she leads me to a large room all the way in the back. I feel tons of eyes on me as we walk, making my anxiety spike the more steps I took. The more anxious I felt myself get, the more I remembered from earlier with Takachi. What if she finds a way to get to me at the dance? What if I'm completely alone by the end of it? She seems kind of aggressive, would she hurt me or anyone else? Is she that vengeful??? Wh-

"Here we are, sir!" She says with a regular bright tone while setting down the menus in front of each of the seats from both of the two, large tables. I shake my head slightly to momentarily be rid of my thoughts and to focus on reality. All I do is give her a small smile and a nod as thanks, she smiles and nods back, walking out of the room back to her station.

I let out a held breath and sit down on a floor seat closer to the middle. I take a couple breaths to calm myself down.

This is a cat café. You're with all your friends and crush. You're safe and fine.

I officiated to myself that I was okay, and slowly felt all the troubles from before melt away, then, suddenly, CATS!

A whole herd of them just ran in from the door. Ginger cats, black cats, white cats, and, my favorite, munchkin cats.

As soon as I saw all the little munchkin cats wobble in on their little stubby feetsies like seesaws, I knew today was the day I would die.

"You're welcome!" The worker girl from before waves at me.

"YOU'RE AN ANGEL!" I say while scooping up one of the cats and letting them lay in my lap.

"I know, but thank you!" She smiles and walks out once more. I think she was sent to bless me, honestly she probably is an actual angel.

I also think I'm some sort of cat whisperer, because the majority of the cats immediately trotted up to me and began to rub themselves against my legs, my arms, some of them jumped up and rubbed against my cheeks and my hands in my lap. Oh my god this is heaven. Or is this hell? I mean... I don't have enough hands to pet all of them at once. I'm trying my best to distribute the pets equally, but fuck man, I feel so bad. What I wouldn't give to have Shouji's quirk right now... he's so lucky, he can pet all the cats.

At this point I'm kind of... laying on the floor, completely covered by the cats. You can't even see my body, it's just a big lump of cats on the floor all meowing and purring. They're kind of restraining me as I pet them, wrapping around my legs and arms, clinging to my wrists and plopping their faces as close to my hands as they can get. A lot are curled up on my chest and just sleeping. Then, I hear the shoji screen door slide open again.

"Uh... Shinsou?" I hear Ojirou's voice. Oh, wonderful, I'm now surrounded by my two most favorite things in the world.

"Hey." I see, my voice intensely muffled by the cats, Ojirou lets out a little yell. I start laughing almost uncontrollably, but I can't move too much because cats.

"Oh Jesus Christ... I didn't even see you!" He laughs along with me and I hear his footsteps walk up beside me, splitting the sea of cats.

"Help, they've piled on top of me."

"I guess you could say you're caught in a...catpile. Like, a dogpile, but with....cats."

"Ojirou, I can't breathe."

"What? Cat got your lung?"

"Ojirou this is not a laughing matter."

"Why can't you just lift them off of yourself?"

"I mean, physically I could, but emotionally? Imagine the toll."

"Fiiine.." I hear a more clear voice as the cats are slowly stripped and peeled from my body, most of them, once they were removed, go behind Ojirou to immediately play with his cat toy-like tail. The only one that stayed with me was a white and blonde munchkin kitten. They had occasional little spots of lemon over their white fur, mostly on their chest, top of their head and stomach, and the entire tip of their tail was blonde. They remind me of someone, but who...

"I could use this as a weapon." Ojirou says and lifts his tail in front of my face, revealing that it, too, was covered in cats. Like a fluffy war hammer. Then, I respond without missing a beat, but I really wish I did.

"I'd let you beat me with it."

"....Shinsou-"

"wAIT nO I TakE it BaCK."

"You can't take back what's already been said! You're kinky!"

"nOOOo-"

"We should probably tell everyone we're back here."

"Yeah."
-----------------------------------------------------

Ojirou and I sat next to eachother at the table, the cats playing with his tail and occasionally biting or scratching at it, you could see the tears hold back on his face, It was kind of funny. No Shinsou that's sadistic and bad. Lmao fuck your opinion inner voice.

I still had the white and blonde kitten laying in my lap peacefully as everyone else in the class walked in. Todoroki sat next to me, Midoriya seating next to him, then came in Hagakure and Mina, Hagakure sat next to Ojirou and Mina sat next to her, and the cycle continued.

(A/N: The seating chart)

Everyone piled in, just enjoying the cats for a while. I feel really bad for the staff, they have to write down all of these orders and deal with teenage disaster. You're a fool if you think we're going to be calmed down by just Edgeshot and Kamui. Oh hell no, sisters.

As soon as everyone arrived, the whole room erupted in fits of different conversations at different volumes, different moods, but still, each had a whole lot of laughter.

I don't know why, but I was feeling very... isolated, and secluded. Not because of them talking around me, I was just all of a sudden feeling really... bereft. There was a weird bubbling in the pit of my stomach, but it wasn't hunger, or nausea, it was somehow more of an... emotional bubble?

I'm looking up and seeing everyone take their orders, I watch the order they go in, the way their mouths move even though I hear nothing that's coming out. all I hear is something fuzzy and the faint pound of my heartbeat. I watch with a blank stare as Ojirou orders, the bubbling in my stomach gets worse and worse the more I look at him. I feel like I've just swallowed lead and it's still caught in my throat. My entire body tenses up and tightens.

"And for you, dear?" I hear the waitresses voice gradually become apparent. The waitress looks at me and I look back at her, the blankness on my face evident and my voice was hollow and empty, since I've joined the class I've become a lot more vibrant, but now, it feels like I was my old self, no, worse than my old self. She most likely wouldn't notice, but either way, the thought hurt me.

"I'll get a Nutella milk tea and the chocolate covered strawberry crepes." I say in the most dull manner. She just nods and carries on, leaving me to be stuck in my previous thoughts once more. From the corner of my eye, I see a really worried looking Ojirou, making the fizziness return. Of course him of all people would be worried. I also see a slightly worried Todoroki. Overall I ignore both of their looks, and continue to question myself.

This bubbling emptiness only happens when I look or think of Ojirou. I fully accepted my feelings for him, so I don't know how this ties into that. Maybe... maybe it's me subconsciously telling myself.. that not telling him.. is slowly killing me. It's eating me up from the inside and goddammit, it hurts. It physically hurts, and it hurts myself to know that my cowardice is causing me to go back to being this lonely, suffering kid that I was not even a couple months ago. I sigh quietly to myself and continue to robotically stroke the cat in my lap, I feel like a husk. I'm not even myself, not even my old self, I'm not even a self. I'm just some cumbersome and burdening body.

I don't even dare to look to either side of myself at Ojirou or Todoroki. I feel too weak and vulnerable. I'll talk to Todoroki about whatever decision I come up with later, Ojirou... he just can't know. As childlish as it sounds, and as awful it makes me feel, I'll have to... avoid him, at least until I work up my courage to confess and ask him out.

...

Private messages between Kangaroo Jackie-Chan and Icy T H O T

Icy T H O T: Do you know what's wrong with Shinsou?

Kangaroo Jackie-Chan: No, he was completely fine earlier. I don't know what's wrong.

Todoroki thinks he may know exactly what's going on with Shinsou.

Icy T H O T: Any ideas?

It was the same thing he went through with Midoriya.

Kangaroo Jackie-Chan: None at all, but he looked at me slightly. He looked like he was in actual pain.

The exact same thing. He knew that Shinsou was ready now.

Icy T H O T: Just give him time. I think I know what's happening with him, I'll talk to him about it later.

But he still felt bad for Ojirou. He knew what Shinsou was thinking of doing. It would hurt the both of them, but...

Kangaroo Jackie-Chan: Can you tell me what it is??

Shinsou needs time. Then, the both of them will be happier than before.

Icy T H O T: I'm afraid not. It's a little personal.

Kangaroo Jackie-Chan: ..ok

...

"So, Iida! Aoyama! How was the shopping?" Hagakure looks at the two of them, the fork and food floating in front of her as she almost finished eating. I take out one of my earbuds to hear them more clearly.

"It was fine! Everything went smoothly!" Iida confirms as he takes his last bite of food. Aoyama nods.

"Definitely~ Iida here even took moi out on a date~" Aoyama winked at her, Mina slid closer to Hagakure, immediately interested.

"Really?! Did you??" She looks excitedly at Iida, who was now completely red in the face.

"I-It wasn't supposed to be at first! I just bought us some food from a kiosk as a nice gesture, but I guess along the way... it sort of became a date?"

"Ooooh~. Well, would you ever go on another date with him again?" Mina asks. Iida thinks for a second.

"Yes, I suppose so!"

"And would you go on another date with Iida, Aoyama?"

"Most definitely~"

"Have you ever thought of just dating eachother?" Hagakure pipes up. The two look at eachother in thought.

"I have always liked you to some odd degree.."

"I know how that feels, mon ami~, or should I say, mon amour?" Aoyama says and Iida's face turns red once more.

"I.. I guess we're dating now!"

"That we are~" Aoyama says and kisses Iida gently on the cheek. The girl's awe and I see Ojirou awe at the two for a moment.

"First of all, that's adorable and I'm really happy for the both of you, second of all, HOW?? DID YOU DO THAT???" He says, completely confused. Now that those two were together, the only single ones were him and I.

"Do what?" Iida looks at him.

"You just.. confessed! Like it was nothing! I've been pining after my crush for months and you two just walk up here and be absolute goals in under 2 seconds??" He smiles brightly and laughs at the two. As I look at him brighten, I feel the pain start up once more and I forcefully look down at my barely touched crepe.

"..and who is this crush of yours, Ojirou?" Iida says with a smugness in his voice that I didn't even think he was capable of conjuring up. Although I can't see him, I can sense that Ojirou got tense and blush's right next to me.

"...no one." He clears his throat. I can feel the smugness radiate off of both Aoyama and Iida.

"Uh huh... we'll interrogate you later~" Aoyama says and I can just tell he winked at him. Ojirou's tail thumps hard against the ground, startling some of the cats. The people around us laugh at him as our waitress walks in to give Kamui the check. She walks out quickly, as if she wasn't there in the first place.

"Quiet down, kids." Is all he says, he's about to pull out to wallet and pay, before he's stopped by Iida and Yaoyorozu.

"Oh no, please sir, let me pay for it!" Iida says, also reaching in his pocket.

"Don't be ridiculous! I'll pay!" Yaoyorozu gets out of her seat and walks to the two of them. They begin bickering about who would pay, Kamui watching in surprise.

I block out the two and look at the box my food was now in. Did I box it? Already? I don't even remember doing that... I don't remember her even handing me a box! God I'm so fucked.

I look down lower at the sleeping cat on my lap. They haven't left since I got here, they're soft and nice... maybe I could adopt them, if I let dad visit the cat regularly, I'm sure he would let me keep it. Also, if I just adopted the cat, then he wouldn't have the heart to make me put them back up for adoption. So either way, I'd have the cat. Mwahaha.

I pet their head gently, they have the happiest little cat face on, and they keep pressing themselves into my hand and purring. I feel special.

As Iida and Yaoyorozu finally come to an agreement of paying half, I let out a sharp exhale. I'm going to talk to Todoroki. Right now.

I tap him lightly on the forearm. He looks at me curiously and I mutter so only he can hear.

"Can I talk with you in the bathroom?" I ask, somehow even more lifeless than before, and he nods briefly. I nod back to him and look over to Midoriya, not paying any mind to Ojirou, who's gaze is burning holes in the back of my skull.

"Hey, Midoriya, can you watch this kitten for me while Todoroki and I are gone? I plan on adopting them and I don't want to lose them. They're kinda sleepy." I look at him and he lights up, nodding immediately.

"Sure thing! I'll go get you too if you end up taking too long." He says and I pick up the kitten gently, handing them over to Midoriya and he cradles them gently in his arms while they continue to nap. Hm... heavy sleeper... once again, reminds me of someone.

I get up quickly with Todoroki, but I walk at a moderate place out of the room to not raise suspicion as Todoroki tails behind me. We go to the bathroom and I completely ignore some looks I get along the way.

We walk in and I close the door behind him quickly, then speedily walking over to the sink and leaning against it, feeling the gravity pressure down on top of me at the weight of the situation I'm putting myself in.

"Hey hey hey, Shinsou, what's wrong?" Todoroki says gently, noticing my tense and vulnerable figure.

"I'm going to do it... I'm going to confess to Ojirou at the dance..." I say with a trembling voice, there's not tears coming out, just the shakiness from my fear.

"...Is that why you're not even facing him?"

"Noit'sbecausehefuckedacat- Yes, that's exactly why I'm not looking at him!" I snap back with him, unwanted hatred lacing my tone. His expression is unchanged, still blank. Still, I felt awful.

"I'm sorry... I'm so.. unstable right now... I can't even stand looking at him, it hurts me. It makes me panicked, goddammit I hate him for it but I still love him! I love him so fucking much and that's the worst part! I've never had feelings like this before and I'm fucking scared!" I start shouting, Todoroki gives me a look of pure sympathy, nothing more, nothing less. Then, he leans in for a hug which I accept immediately feeling the most touch starved I've ever been.

"He loves you back... I can tell..."

"But he shouldn't... I'm a complete mess... and I can't even handle a confession!"

"Shinsou... calm down... it's alright, even if you think he doesn't love you back, he still loves you as a friend, and that won't change. He's not that kind of person."

"How can you be so sure...?"

"Have you seen him?"

"Yeah.. true." I laugh painfully into his shoulder.

"I just... I can't even look at him, there's this fizzing in my stomach... and everything gets so tense and... Unbreathable... it feels like death..."

"Yeah, well you two of all people would know what death feels like."

"Especially him."

"Especially him..."

"...thank you for this, Todoroki."

"I'm here anytime you need me, Shinsou."

We pull away after a few minutes of just hugging, just.. being there. But, soon after we pull away, we're interrupted by Midoriya coming through the door with the kitten still in his arms.

"Hey guys, we're leaving now." He smiles gently at the two of us and we both nod at him, the three of us walked out together. I see Ojirou waiting outside as well, maybe for me... either way, I don't look at him, and instead I take the cat from Midoriya.

"Thank you, Midoriya. I'm going to go fill out the papers for them and then we can go. You don't have to wait up for me." I say and he nods. I wave bye to the three of them (Ojirou only briefly), and walk to the adoption center.

...

Ojirou's POV (Momentarily)

"What happened??? He won't even look at me!" I say, tears beginning to form at the corners of my eyes. Todoroki just looks at me sympathetically.

"He's going through some things right now, he'll work through them, and soon, but he just needs time."

"...I'm ok with giving him time... but it seems like he's ignoring me especially.... did I do something wrong?" I look at him pleadingly. He looks like he's thinking, hesitating.

"You didn't do anything." He accentuates the word 'do'. What's he trying to insinuate??? Am I just a nuisance to Shinsou? It's not what I do, it's what I am?

"Is it just... because of me? Myself? I just existed?" I ask and he hesitates for even longer.

"... I don't know how else to say this to you, but I can't say anything more. He'll tell you when he's ready, and trust me, it'll be soon, just... whatever he does, or doesn't do, he doesn't hate you. Just remember that." He explains, and right on cue, Shinsou walks back, the cat from earlier now had a pastel yellow collar around their neck.

"You're back! What's the kitten's name?" Midoriya pipes up after presumably listening in on our conversation.

"His name is Tenshi."

"Aww, that means Angel, yeah?"

"Yep. He's a little angel." Shinsou smiles lazily... insincerely at him. He then kisses the top of the cat's sleeping head.

"Well, it's time to get going." Todoroki said, immidately grasping Midoriya's hand and the two of them walk ahead of us. While they walk on with the rest of our class, Shinsou and I tail behind them all.

We walk in an awkward 10 minutes of silence as we walk to the train station for Kamui and Edgeshot to drop us off at campus. It's excruciating, and it makes my heart hurt. Is Todoroki really sure he doesn't hate me? I trust him and all, but what if Shinsou lied? Or he misread him? That last one is a little outlandish... Todoroki is great at reading people... but still, what if Shinsou lied to him? Would he lie to his best friend?

"I just want to know... are you okay?"

I spoke up finally, and he instantly turns rigid, facing completely away from me. For some reason, it seems that it takes.. a lot of struggle for him to even speak.

"...yes. I'm alright."

That's all he says, and we don't speak again for the rest of the night.
-----------------------------------------------------

Shinsou's POV

I immediately run onto my floor, and lock myself into my room. Luckily, we don't have the same floor.

I turn on the lights and set down Tenshi. He ventures around the room for a little while, getting used to the environment and I strip off my shoes and jeans, flopping onto my bed and curling up into a ball of despair. The tears come flowing out, but I don't make a sound. I'm trembling almost as I pull the covers over me. I won't be able to sleep tonight. I know it. The paranoia creeps up my spin and implants itself into my brain like a bullet, I'm shaking, I'm nauseous, I'm awful. Why can't I just look at him? Why did I start having to act up now? I love him, I love him so much but I can't even be near him without being so tense.

While I close my eyes to try and forget about today, or force myself to sleep, I suddenly feel a nice, soft warmth up against the bridge of my nose. I open my eyes again and look at Tenshi, he's staring at me with big eyes. Big, dark, innocent eyes. It makes me feel soft, more calm, the way Ojirou made me feel whenever I was panicking, or nervous, or just when I felt alone. He was there. And he never left until I was okay.

I smile at the memories playing in my head, and Tenshi's eyes close. I place my hand on top of his tiny, curled up body, feeling his silky fur slip through my fingers like something so familiar from before... something I've pet... felt safe with... something purely soft.

...

...

I remember who Tenshi reminds me of now.