Work Text:
Mineta’s Alphabet
Class 1-A sees the little things that make up Mineta.
A is for artist
Mineta Minoru was a weirdo, and the class had learned to be very wary of his intentions in every situation.
Where he sat? Probably to get a good look up a skirt.
Oh, he was in the library? Well the girls had a study group he was definitely perving on.
He was in the kitchen at 3am eating goldfish again? Probably to wait for a girl to come around in her sleep clothes so he could ogle.
Maybe they were paranoid, but Mineta was an easy kid to jump to conclusions about. They weren’t always right, but they weren’t always wrong either. Mineta did everything with a tiny bit of perversion, with roving eyes or quiet comments sometimes, not just his blatant staring or wandering hands. How were they to trust any of his actions, no matter how innocent they seemed?
Like the notebook.
Mineta had a spiral bound notebook held together with duct tape and willpower, always with a mechanical pencil hooked in the spiral and always in his bag. He would sit silently, something very strange for him, and just write in that notebook. During class, or free time, or hidden up in the bleachers and watching the students run or talk, pencil always moving.
“He probably keeps data in there, like cup sizes and creepy stuff like that.” Mina peeked around the corner, blowing her curls out of her eyes.
“Or stalker stuff, like hair?” Jirou shivered, touching her hair as if to look for an uneven lock.
Momo sighed, crossing her arms and looking at them like they were ridiculous, even as she looked a bit unsettled by their theories.
“I’m sure it's nothing. Maybe he likes to write.”
“Let's ask Denki!” Hagakure burst out, totally disregarding Momo’s input as the girl huddle slunk off. Momo shared a look with Tsuyu, who had an amused smile.
“You know what's in there, don't you.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
Asui just smiled, a twinkle in her eye as she walked away.
-
“Denki, come on!” Mina whined from her place sprawled on his lap. The blonde had been minding his own business in the computer lab and was more than a little grumpy about getting mauled and having his character die in whatever game he was playing.
He just shoved her off and rolled away in his spinny chair, looking at the lot of them suspiciously.
“Why don’t you guys just ask him? I don’t even know what's in there, but he’s super protective of it. Leave it alone.” He crossed his arms, trying to remain stoic under four stares.
“Would you look in it for us?” Uraraka asked nervously, shoving her hands in her pockets. They knew that Denki was fiercely loyal, but this was a matter of national security!
Denki looked offended, but before he could snap Mina cut him off.
“I’ll give you a kiss?” She seemed unfazed by her friend's judgment as Kaminari sputtered.
“Dude! You're like my sister!” He threw an eraser from a nearby desk at her, which she caught and melted.
Mina sighed, thinking hard for a long moment before getting a wicked grin.
“What if Jirou kisses you?”
Denki turned bright red, falling to compute while Jirou covered her face and stabbed Mina blindly with her earjacks.
-
“So that was a bust. What now?” Mina asked as she carefully applied her third Hello Kitty bandaid. Jirou was still sulking and had left to listen to heavy metal with Fumikage, leaving three girls left on the mission.
“What about Aizawa? If we say we’re concerned then he’ll have to take us seriously and check!” Ochako looked proud of herself, high fiving Mina.
Toru’s outfit shifted as she fidgeted nervously, tugging at her skirt.
“Didn’t Mineta just get off probation? He had to clean the boys room for a week, I don’t really wanna get him in trouble again.” Mineta got punished a lot with minor cleaning duties, which he always did without really learning anything. His grades were still good, but he wasn't allowed to tutor in order to get his service hours. Something about the danger of an unfair power dynamic? Listening through a wooden door made exact details iffy. He got in significantly less trouble now than he did a few months ago, but a leopard couldn’t change its spots.
“He peeked into the locker room, he deserved it. Besides, if there’s nothing in the creepy book, there's nothing to punish.” Ashido looked confident, squeezing both girl’s shoulders before starting off in a random direction. “Let’s find our teacher!”
-
They eventually hunted down Aizawa in the teacher lounge, nursing a cup of tea and looking about as happy to see them as a doctor is to see a staph infection. They blatantly disregarded the ‘No Students Beyond This Point’ sign that he’d been using as a shield.
“We are here to file a complaint!” Mina yelled, a wide smile on her face as she and the other two girls sat down. The other two, from what she could tell, looked like they were regretting letting her talk them into this, but Mina had enough confidence for all of them!
“Oh joy.” Their teacher sighed with all the pain of a man that had never felt joy in his life. “What did he do now?” Because there was really only one student that got complaints for. He didn’t have to guess too hard to figure out who they wanted to complain about.
“He, uh, actually hasn’t done anything.” Toru said hesitantly, lowering the hand she had raised on habit.
“That we can prove.” Ochako interrupted, brimming with nervous energy.
“That we can prove.” She amended softly, picking at her sleeves.
Aizawa just gave another rattling sigh, motioning for Mina to tell her tale.
“We’re worried about his creeper notebook.” She said with total confidence.
Aizawa stared at her, eyebrows slowly climbing. “Creeper notebook?”
“Yeah! You know, that ratty one he always has open? We think he has creepy stuff in it. He’s not even supposed to have it in class.” She crossed her arms, the picture of stubbornness. It was true that he had banned all non school notebooks from homeroom, if only to stop Midoriya from obsessing over his instead of paying attention, but Aizawa never cared about breaking rules, even his own.
Immediately the tension in Aizawa’s shoulders was gone, and he gave a humorless little snort.
“That thing? He's allowed to have it, Hound Dog bought it for him.” He watched the girl’s faces scrunch up in confusion, but he didn’t care. “As for what’s in it, that's between him and Mr. Inui, and if any of you take it from him, I will make you clean the bathrooms. Understood?” His tone left no room for argument as the girls slunk out.
“Harsh.” Nemuri sounded impressed and amused as she sat next to him with her own tea, watching the students retreat.
“Well, if they get in the way of the only thing keeping the little weirdo from getting into trouble, I’m going to make them suffer.” Aizawa growled darkly, definitely not looking at the sticker of his cat StudMuffin drawn digitally and stuck to his mug.
Nemuri just laughed, her own mug decorated with little cartoon whips and chains.
“You’re such a softie.”
-
Ochako had broken off from them after getting into trouble became a factor, leaving a determined Mina and hesitant Toru.
“If it was bad, why would Hound Dog let him have it? It’s probably a diary or something.” She tugged on her pink friend’s arm, trying to slow her stride.
“All the reason to peek! He’s probably planning something with how good he’s been lately, Denki’s probably in on it.”
Toru made an annoyed sound before jabbing her friend in the side hard , standing with her gloves firmly on her hips as Mina hunched over with a wheeze.
“Just admit you’re being nosy! You’re bored and so you are being nosy, just admit it!” She was entirely done with the ‘righteous mission’ bullshit. “You miss Mineta causing trouble and so you’re making trouble.”
To her credit, Mina did look properly scolded as she straightened back up, rubbing her side with a wince.
“I don’t miss it.” She pouted, because she so did not miss how interesting the little shit made things. He was just so boring now! Always with his head in his ratty notebook, not cracking jokes or doing anything worth paying attention to.
“You are such a tsundere!” Toru threw her sleeves up in exasperation, storming off as Mina scrambled after her.
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
They continued to bicker as they walked, effectively giving up on their campaign as they traded bards. Their friendship would be fine after a day to cool off, but they were too absorbed in their cat fight to care.
Mineta watched them go in confusion, headphones blaring pop music and drowning out whatever girl garbage they were arguing about. He just went back to his drawing, tongue peeking out as he very gently tried to get the curve of the female form just right.
-
“The girls are being kinda nice, but I think they’re shunning Mina?” Mineta settled into the worn cushion of the chair in Hound Dog’s office. He held his ratty sketchbook to his chest as the counselor took his seat across from him. These weekly visits became a mandatory clause for not getting suspended, but he’d actually grown to like them. Mr. Inui was actually pretty neat, and he didn’t have an air of superiority or judgment to him.
“Anyways, I did what you said and made a drawing for everyone in class. Toru was the hardest, but I drew her a water lily since it’s her favorite flower. Koda was the easiest, I drew his bunny.” He flipped through the worn pages and showed the drawings with pride. They weren’t perfect, mostly scratchy with a bit too much graphite, but he was improving! It was his only real hobby aside from anime and collecting merch, so he cared a bit more about people’s opinions regarding it.
‘And your other notebook?’ Hound Dog asked calmly, watching Minoru tense up in the way he always did when they brought up the secret sketchbook.
“I'm still using it as an outlet for my..uh, issues? It’s a lot more tame now honestly, mostly just naked girls.” He shrugged, muscles still tense as started to roughly sketch with his pencil. He was definitely pushing too hard and he wouldn't be able to erase properly, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
The secret notebook was his own personal bad place, full of his nightmares and worst desires portrayed with smeared charcoal and red ink. There hid the drawings of Shigaraki’s hand coming towards the viewer, of Aizawa bleeding and dying, of his mother sick and frail. That book never left his room, knowing one peek would probably send his classmates into hysterics.
‘Very good, keep using it. Aizawa has told me you’re doing better with your peers.’ Inui was gruff and proud as he gave Minoru a pat on the head.
“I mean, I guess. I’m making Denki put the drawings in their lockers though, I’m a coward at heart.” He loved the idea of the girls fawning over his hard work, maybe he’d even get a kiss on the cheek or something! Still, they would probably like them better if they didn’t know he made them.
‘It’s a start.’ Mr. Inui smiled behind his muzzle as he tacked up the drawing of him Minoru had nervously handed over. Mineta had a long way to go before he could healthily cope on his own, but his art was a good place to work from, a private place to let out all the negative emotions and fears plaguing him.
At the end of the day, Mineta was just a child. Just a fifteen year old kid who got nightmares and an abhorrent coping mechanism, that had an unhealthy view of women and a libido. He wasn’t a bad kid, and Hound was sure that he’d make a fine hero one day, but for now, they had work to do.