Chapter Text
It's no secret that Monoma Neito hates class 1-A. It IS a secret however, that Monoma is very very gay, and a bigger secret still that he has a crush on Shinsou. So how did Kaminari end up coming to him of all people for advice on how to ask out Shinsou? Well, Monoma didn't really know either.
He supposed it had started with that stupid month in English when Present Mic had been in the hospital, recovering from wounds he'd gotten while out on patrol and Class 1-A and 1-B were forced to share an English class since Class 1-A didn't have time to find a replacement. And it was just Monoma's luck that he happened to be seated next to the most energetic and annoying person Class 1-A had to offer - Denki Kaminari.
By almost everyone's standards, Kaminari was by far one of the loudest people of Class 1-A, except maybe Bakugou, but for the most part, as long as he remained unprovoked, he could easily be dealt with. And while leaving people unprovoked wasn't necessarily one of Monoma's strong suits, he at least knew when to shut his mouth because learning was more important.
Kaminari on the other hand, had taken it upon himself to be the class clown. Always interrupting class with a witty comment that would get at least a small chuckle from everyone else around him, and would set their progress back by at least a solid two and a half minutes. Not that Monoma was counting or anything. And Kaminari's comments as class clown didn't just end there, no, when Kaminari wasn't making a joke loud enough for the the class to hear, he'd turn to the person next to him to whisper something funny in their ear, and it just so happened that Monoma was the only person close enough to hear him.
At first, Monoma had been... Angry about this to say the least. Did he think it was funny wasting their valuable learning time like this? Class 1-A always thought it was so high and mighty resting on their laurels, high up on their pedestal where they they thought no one could touch them. Well Monoma would show them, he'd get better than them all and put Class 1-A in their place, even with Kaminari's incessant mocking.
By the end of the first week, Monoma was beginning to realize that maybe ignoring Kaminari wasn't the best option, as pretending like he didn't exist at all only made Kaminari repeat his comments until he was sure Monoma had heard him.
"Why do you keep repeating yourself?" Monoma had hissed under his breath one time.
Kaminari blinked, staring at him. "I thought maybe you had trouble hearing me," he responded, matching Monoma's tone of voice so the teacher wouldn't overhear them talking. "Bakubro has hearing issues because of his quirk, and I have to repeat stuff for him to hear me sometimes, so I thought maybe it was the same for you."
Monoma just stared at the student next to him for a few moments before turning around and glaring down at his work. Maybe he'd been wrong abou- No. Even if Kaminari wasn't purposefully doing this to mess with him, it was still causing an interruption to his learning, and Monoma would be damned if he let Class 1-A get ahead of him in anything, even English.
The next time he showed up to class, Monoma snatched Kaminari's pencil case off of his desk while he wasn't looking. Maybe if the other man spent his time looking for his pencils to take notes, he wouldn't have enough time to make stupid jokes that interrupted Monoma's learning.
But somehow, that backfired on him too, as it turned into a game of sorts when Kaminari had realized what he'd done. Instead of getting mad at him, Kaminari had just smiled, and promised to get him back later, and it wasn't until after the bell ended and class was dismissed that Monoma stopped to consider what that actually meant.
Every day for the rest of the week it went back and forth between the two of them, something getting stolen, the other finding out and being handed back the item that had been taken. Nothing too serious and nothing for too long, if the other person didn't notice then no matter what had been stolen it would be given back by the end of class, and they'd been even. It wasn't until Monoma was walking down the hall one day and watching Sero and Kaminari play keep-away with Sero's phone charger that he realized that Kaminari must have assumed that Monoma was doing all this out of what? Friendship? Did the blonde think the two of them were friends??
For the rest of the month this little game of theirs went on, and instead of funny comments being whispered in his ear, Kaminari had started to ask him questions about the lesson at hand, and whenever they had a little extra time at the end of class to work on the homework, the two of them would work together, and Monoma had to admit, they made a pretty decent team.
So when the month ended and Present Mic was fully recuperated, and Kaminari asked Monoma if he wanted to study in the library together, Monoma had said yes. They worked together well enough didn't they? And maybe the blonde wasn't quite as annoying as Monoma had thought at first, and besides, it was even... Kinda nice to have a friend. Not that Monoma would ever in a million years ever admit that he and Kaminari were friends, even if it was plain enough to see that they were.
As their English class returned to normal, Monoma was reminded once again of why he'd been so upset over having to sit next to Kaminari for the past month. Because normally, Shinsou sat right in front of him. And while Shinsou was admittedly a lot more of a distraction than Kaminari had ever been, Monoma couldn't deny, even to himself that Shinsou was a very very welcome distraction.
***
Ever since Shinsou had joined Class 1-B, Monoma had become enamoured with him. He admired the man's drive to become a hero, his passion for saving people despite the seemingly evil applications his quirk could have, and the fact that he didn't buy into the glory that supposedly came with being part of Class 1-A. The first day after Shinsou had been moved from the General Ed classes, Monoma had welcomed him into Class 1-B, and Shinsou had thanked him, which... Wasn't something people normally did to Monoma, given his sometimes harsher than necessary personality.
Over time, the two of them had talked about how their quirks didn't always feel like the strongest ones out there, and how they felt the need to be able to defend themselves physically, with more than just their quirks and that was how they started going to the gym together to work out. If Shinsou couldn't get anyone to respond to him and there weren't any quirks around for Monoma to steal, well then both of them were going to be screwed, and so the two of them agreed that even the training sessions they were given in class wasn't going to be enough. And they'd developed a routine where the two of them would work out together three times a week, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening to train their bodies to make up for where their quirks were lacking.
That was probably when Monoma had fallen in love with him.
Shinsou had a dry sense of humor and Monoma could appreciate the subtle causalities of his sarcasm, and at first, Monoma had thought that he'd finally discovered what it was like to have a friend. And then he realized that the heart racing, breath quickening, cheek flushing feeling that hit him every time he thought of Shinsou wasn't just friendship. It was a crush.
There was a lot of panicking after that as it took Monoma a while to accept the fact that he was gay, and the fact that Shinsou was most assuredly straight, and that he would have to come to his senses and accept the fact that all he was ever going to get from Shinsou was friendship and that he'd have to live with that. And he was fine, he would be totally fine, he was Monoma Neito for pete's sake and he could over come something as simple as a crush easily. It wouldn't even take that much effort, he would be fine.
Except for the fact that Shinsou was seated directly in front of him in English, and he was so pretty it made Monoma want to cry.
It didn't help that when the light from the window hit Shinsou's hair in just the right way it seemed to make the whole room shine with the most gorgeous shade of purple Monoma had ever seen and-
No, Monoma reminded himself. Shinsou is straight. He's not going to like you back, and it's better to get rid of these thoughts now before they come back to bite you in the ass because the more you think about him the worse it's going to get. So just think about something else, literally anything else, and get over this silly little crush before you get hurt for real.
***
Unfortunately for Monoma, getting over a crush was not nearly that simple, in fact, it wasn't simple at all, it was just about the most difficult goddamn thing Monoma had ever tried to accomplish in his entire life because no matter how hard he tried or what he did he simply could not make his feelings go away.
So Monoma did what he'd been doing for the past few weeks whenever his heart was so heavy with his feelings for Shinsou he felt like he was going to burst, and went to the library to study with Kaminari.
Being around Kaminari was a breath of fresh air in comparison to being around Shinsou. Where being around Shinsou caused Monoma to clam up and overthink his words, and to make sure he was phrasing every sentence in a way that would guarantee that his affection for the other man wouldn't accidentally come out, around Kaminari, Monoma felt like he could jut relax. It was just the two of them and there were no pressures or expectations of him, it was just the two of them working on English together and that was it. There were no nerves or butterflies, just an easy casualness that Monoma had never really experienced with another person before.
Except, today, something about Kaminari seemed... Different. More anxious and figit-y than normal, and Monoma couldn't figure out why. Had he done something? Was he just imagining it?
"So uh," Kaminari began, more hesitantly than Monoma had ever heard him before. "You're friends with Shinsou right?"
That question had came out of absolutely nowhere, but Monoma nodded anyways. The sting of being friendzoned was much more manageable than the hororr that would've come with explaining the complicated tangle of feelings he felt for Shinsou.
"Do you know if he likes anyone right now?" Kaminari asked.
Monoma's heart stopped beating for a solid five seconds. Or maybe it started beating in his chest so fast that he could no longer feel it anymore, he didn't really know at this point. "I uh- Why?" he managed to stammer out. "Does Mina have a crush on him or something?" he asked, trying to think of any other girls Kaminari was close enough to to be willing to ask on their behalf.
What was he doing? Monoma Neito didn't stammer, he wasn't the kind of person that tripped over his own words, he was confident and self assured and assertive, although right now, he felt like he was anything but.
"No," Kaminari said, looking away, his cheeks tinging pink. "I uh, I do, I'm bi."
Everything in Monoma was screaming at him to find a way out of this situation. There was no way his heart could handle this, it was ridiculous. Kaminari, who was quite possibly the only friend Monoma had ever made, had a crush on Shinsou too? What were the odds?
"Sorry, I know it comes as a shock to some people, I didn't mean to just dump that on you, I was just thinking about it, and you two are friends and we're friends so I thought maybe you could give me some advice or something on how to get him to like me, but I get it if that's weird, I didn't mean to put you in an awkward situation, I just-" Kaminari continued to babble but, Monoma was no longer paying attention.
Oh god does he think I'm homophobic or something? Monoma thought to himself, freaking out a little bit. He needed to say something before Kaminari shifted into full on Midoriya mode.
"No, no, it's fine Kaminari," Monoma told him with a sincerity he didn't really feel, hoping his small smile didn't come across as a grimace. This was fine, it was totally fine, Shinsou was straight anyways, it wasn't like either of them had a chance so there was no need to feel so- Jealous? Is that what this was? "Like you said, we're friends, so of course I'll help you."
Monoma couldn't believe the words that had just come out of his mouth. He was going to help Kaminari ty and date Shinsou?? Even though he himself had a crush on Shinsou what was he thinking?
But the smile that lit up on Kaminari's face helped to untie the tight knot that had already formed in his stomach. "Really? Thank you so much man, you're a lifesaver, I don't know what I would do without you."
And then Kaminari leaned forward and wrapped his arms around him.
Monoma hesitated for a moment before wrapping his own arms around Kaminari, wondering how the hell he'd gotten himself into this situation, and even more so, how he was going to get himself out.
"Yeah... Of course."