"He said if I moved he would kill me- that if all five of his fingers touched my throat I'd disintegrate. He-he said he'd see me again soon. That the next time he did, he'd probably have to kill me... Me and whoever got in his way."

Deku sat in the far corner of the room, a concerned expression on his face, his scarred hands clasped together in anxiety.

There was a cataclysm of emotion in the whole of the room actually.

Aizawa. Who was listening to Deku attentively for any information on Shigaraki he could obtain. Though he hid it well, there was a certain anxiety in him as well.

Todoroki. Who was upset to once again find himself in a police station. Even if he wasn't at the mall, he heard what happened to you and he came as soon as he could, panic stirring in his veins.

Bakugo. Who heard you collapse to your knees in the middle of that crowd. Saw you grab your ears and start to recoil into yourself. He didn't waste a second- ran and slid to his knees, put his hands atop your ears, held you against him tightly as he could, kept you from scratching, from tearing at yourself.

The pain that resounded in your winces and your whimpers as you struggled to make the infernal ringing stop, it hurt him deep in his chest like he couldn't describe.

Now, he was probably the most fearing out of any of them.

"Thank you, Midoriya." Aizawa said, bowing his head to him in acknowledgment of his struggles.

"He was in pain." Deku interjected, standing to leave.

"Hm?"

"Right before he let me go," He explained. "He looked up and I think he saw someone or something and he-" Deku stopped, side-eying the one person in the room who'd yet to say a single word about the incident. "He started to wince and then he let me go and ran away."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Aizawa said again, leading him out, no longer thinking it was beneficial to him or anyone else that he keep speaking about something so traumatic. "You can go home now."

After the door shut and Deku had taken his leave, a silence drew out between the four people still inside.

You were there too.

You just had nothing to say.

You sat in a chair against the wall, elbows on your knees as you stared at the ground. Your eyes were tired, still red and irritated from the blood flow earlier. Bandages were put over your ears. Apparently Bakugo hadn't gotten there on time to stop you from clawing at your ears so badly you almost tore them off.

There were shadows beneath your eyes too, ones the others hadn't really noticed given how vibrant you'd been earlier.

There was none of that vibrance now. None of that relaxed joy you were foolish enough to let yourself fall into before. There was just a blankness. And it hid from everyone whatever was going on in your head as you remained completely silent.

"Bakugo, Todoroki-" Aizawa said, clearing his throat as the two of them stood there, the quiet only making them more anxious. "I'd like to talk to Y/n alone if that's okay."

Considering Bakugo was the most emotionally reactive out of the three of you, asking him to leave your side probably wasn't the best idea.

"You want us to leave her alone after all this!? Did you not hear what happened in there!?" He asked, Aizawa nearing him and Todoroki.

"I did." He said, standing in front of his students. "And she won't be alone. I'm here and you can wait outside."

The teacher looked down at the quieter of the two. The one who was just as worried as Bakugo, but unfortunately was never very good at expressing it past the worried gleam in his eyes.

You were his sister in his view, right? Whenever you were in danger of anything, it was easy to tell how tense he got.

"Todoroki. Make sure your siblings and father are aware of this much." Aizawa said, trying to give him a sense of control. "Her doctor spoke to me and may have an idea as to why she's been so tired lately. Might be a sickness or an infection of some sort. They're still figuring it out, so in the meantime-"

"What do you mean, they're figuring it out!?" Bakugo yelled, impatient about the whole thing and really ruining Aizawa's plan to have you not hear this conversation. "What's wrong with her?! Tell 'em to fix it!"

"They're doing more tests now." He assured him, motioning with his hands to keep it down as he looked back over his shoulder to make sure you weren't listening. "Because her quirk still acts as a protector to any living cell her body makes it's tricky to get results, you understand? Nothing's definitive yet. But make sure she eats and drinks. Make sure she stays awake during the day, the both of you."

Todoroki nodded, Bakugo grumbling under his breath and then asking, "Why me?"

Aizawa wouldn't have said anything, he really wouldn't have, but this was turning out to be a trying ass day, and he wouldn't have his student think of him as an unobservant moron.

"Don't treat me like an idiot, Bakugo." Aizawa warned, his student's eyes going a little wider. So he did know. "I'm a lot older and a lot less stupid than you think."

"Does she need any medicine? Anything I should get for her before we go home?" Todoroki asked, genuinely, looking at you past Aizawa with worry.
You were just staring at the ground. Not lost in anything in particular, just... lost.

"You can speak to the physician if you want, but she didn't mention anything to me." Aizawa said.

"Thank you, sir."

"Mm?" He hummed, nodding to the door. "Now. Go on. The lot of you."

Todoroki proceeded towards the door, laying a hand to your shoulder and tapping three times- his little signal ever since you were kids that he was there if you needed him. Then he was out the door, sitting himself right outside and taking his phone to call Fuyumi.

Bakugo took a little longer, was a little more stubborn to take his leave. You didn't even look at Todoroki. Didn't even look at him. It pained him again to see you like this. To see you fall whenever...

"Y/n." Aizawa said your name after the door shut, slowly walked up to the chair you sat in.

"I don't get sick." You said, voice flat, speaking only the truth with nothing else behind it.

Aizawa sighed, understanding why you became this closed off whenever you saw Shigaraki. You were the same way at the USJ. If Bakugo and Todoroki hadn't been there back then, you might've stayed that way.

"You could hear from there?"

"I hear anything I want to hear." You responded too quickly, your neck twitching slightly as your quirk crawled up your spine, assessed the damages to your ears, began working. Of course with the medicine they shoved down your throat, he couldn't work as quickly as he wanted to.

You sniffled, continuing, "Including what that doctor said to you in the hall- I don't get sick. I never have. My quirk can control subatomic particles without me telling it to, you think it'd let something like a virus get at me?" Finally, you gave a seemness of yourself, looking up from the ground and directly into your teacher's eyes. "She's wrong. I don't get sick."

Aizawa sighed at that.

There was no doubt in his mind something was wrong with you. Whether it be in the body or mind.

And now with villains running amok in public places in disguise, ambushing his students?

He needed to protect you.

"Are you sleeping at all?"

"Respectfully sir, you're not a doctor." You said, wrapping your arms around your stomach and leaning forward. "Ask me what you want to ask me that has to do with your job then I'm going home."

"Respectfully, this is my job." Your teacher responded, a more disciplined tone in his voice. "I'm your teacher. I ensure your wellbeing and you don't talk back to me just because you're scared-"

"I'm not scared." You retorted, images of Shigaraki's eyes flashing before you. There were so many memories buried deep in your mind, ones that you had trouble explaining, ones that made his betrayal all the worse. It made you breath heavy, made your fists clench, before you made it clear, "I'm angry."

"Good." Aizawa said. "Learn to control that anger. Learn to let it drive you without letting it become a want for revenge. You'll have plenty of time to let it out at camp anyways. Now are you sleeping at night?"

You swallowed, your face starting to soften as the fear you felt earlier that never had a chance to be let out began to surface as you bit your lower lip.

You nodded your head yes in response to his question.

"Do you have any idea what could be causing this... exhaustion?"

You shook your head this time, eyes starting to feel heavy as Aizawa sighed again and put his head warmly on your shoulder.

"Maybe it's simple and we're just missing it, okay?" He whispered, trying to comfort you perhaps. "Maybe it's your quirk still growing again or residual from training for your practical."

"Maybe." You said, just barely, hoping he was right.

"We'll figure it out, okay?" He assured you, his eyes reaching for yours with more sympathy than you first realized. "We always do."

You nodded, suddenly not feeling so corner as before.

"Thank you."

"Mm." He hummed, the black of his hair gone greyer at the edges, you noticed. He probably hadn't been sleeping much either. And now that the villains were becoming a bigger problem.

"I know how much they hurt you. And I know the pain you go through when you see him." He said, truly meaning it, stuttering over his last words.

You'd never realized how much you actually meant to Aizawa. Yes he was a teacher and he couldn't show favoritism, but you were a part of his past.

"I still remember it you know?" He said, still holding your shoulder, his voice a tad rough at his own exhaustion. ""When I first found you in the street."

A small, albeit real smile crept to your lips when you said that. A little chuckle of reminiscence at the memory you shared.

The dark street, the dust still in the air, the sheer amount of loneliness and fear and anger back then that couldn't be compared to now.

The whole word felt like it was falling apart.

And then, he handed you something as silly as a scarf.
Something to lead you away from all that alone.

Aizawa chuckled too, thinking back to it.

Although how could you know...

That memory you held close to your heart wasn't one you shared at all.

"You were so little back then," He said, thinking back to own recollections of that night. "I picked you up, brought you to safety, when you woke up, you-"

Aizawa stopped then.

Because your brows were furrowed, your head cocked to the side. Like you were confused, like his words didn't make sense.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"That's just-" You shook your head. "That's not how I remember it."

Aizawa thought back to when he first found you in the wreckage of that fallen building. You were lucky to not have been killed by those crumbled ceilings. You were dead asleep when he found you, blood trickling from your ears, your hair a paler grey than any child's should've been.

You were so bony, underfed, swollen around the joints probably from not being given water for at least a day or two. When he picked you up, brought you to the hospital in the ambulance, it was the first time he'd ever truly saved anyone.

"Didn't you give me your scarf?" You asked, reaching out, barely grazing your fingers over his spare, since the other had been deftly destroyed in your exam. "Didn't you walk me down the street cause I was scared?"

"No, I-" It was Aizawa's turn to shake his head. "I gave you my scarf in the hospital so you could sleep." He said, just as confused as you were."You were unconscious when I found you, Y/n. You didn't wake up till the doctor's got a look at you. I stayed with you that night cause you didn't wanna be alone."

Something about this didn't feel right.

You remembered. You actually remembered him from that night. You remembered his hands giving you the scarf, you remembered the fear in your blood as your feet bled from walking on rubble and shattered glass. You remembered when he told you not to be scared, when he said you weren't alone anymore...

It was one of the only memories you thought you could be certain of, unless-

"Oh." You said, not really sure how to interpret what he was telling you.

Aizawa's hand finally dropped from your shoulder.

"It's alright." He whispered, knowing that after what you'd been through, "Sometimes memories get fuzzy." He said. "Especially ones as traumatic as those. Hell, sometimes people subconsciously rewrite their own memories."

You nodded, not really agreeing with him, but realizing that was the case for many people. You even told Bakugo about it once. That night he threw up from his nightmare, when you had to calm him back down.

"I read about that once, I think." You responded, remembering how you told Katsuki about people who forced themselves to forget what they could no longer handle living in their nightmares.

"Sometimes fear and guilt are too heavy a burden for the mind to bear." Aizawa said, referring to exactly what you knew he was referring to.

He'd never judged you for what happened to your parents.

He understood the manipulation and the monsters that drove you to commit that act. But he was also aware that, "Sometimes it's easier for it to just forget. Fill the mind with comforting twists in the truth to ease the pain."

"Thank you, Mr. Aizawa." You said, both grateful and wanting to end the conversation.

"Mm." He said, patting your knee and raising himself back up straight as he started to walk out the door, leave you and your friends to return home. "Bus leaves at 8 am tomorrow morning, alright?"

"Okay."

"And Y/n?"

"Hm?"

"You and Bakugo..."

Your eyes got a little wider at that. You'd heard what he said to Katsuki in that corner, used your quirk to sensitise yourself and eavesdrop, but-

Well, you didn't expect him to actually confront you about it.

And from the look on his face, maybe he really would tell you too it was too early. That you should break up and remain nothing but classmates.

"Keep him in line, would you?"

But then again, maybe he had a soft spot for the two of you. And maybe he realized that whatever was going on- it did more good than harm.

"Yes sir." You nodded, watching him walk out the door and hearing it close behind him.

And though camp was something to look forward to, you still thought, over and over in your mind before Bakugo and Todoroki brought you home...

That wasn't a twist in the truth...

What happened with Aizawa, that happened...

But if it wasn't Aizawa...

Then who handed me a scarf...

And who saved me before him...

***

That bus ride was infernal.
Not for you. You slept most of the way.
But for Bakugo, it was hellish.

His friends were all loud and no one would pipe down, which was annoying for him and because he wanted you to get your rest.

You sat next to Jirou the whole ride- your reasoning being that she was quiet and very comfortable as you laid your head in her lap. She was happy about it too considering she genuinely enjoyed your company and would just laugh and pet your head when you fell onto her.

Bakugo sat right behind you next to Todoroki, who frankly wasn't his first choice, but he slept the whole ride too so it wasn't as annoying as he expected. Whenever your ears started ringing, Katsuki was always the first to notice considering every two seconds he looked over the seat to make sure you were okay.

To remedy the situation, he'd just take the headset he always kept handy for you (considering your forgetfulness) and smash it down on your head.

Jirou would always glare back at him when he did that or whenever he'd peak his head out while you were asleep, fearing he'd wake you with his volume. To her surprise though, he stayed silent the whole ride no matter how many times he annoyed her by checking on you.

Your arrival at camp was less than welcoming.

Instead of proceeding to camp and unpacking your bags like normal people, no- your teacher had to put you through a test right away.

Considering you just wanted to sleep, the whole having to fight big dirt monsters made you cranky.

But you were the one who figured out they weren't actually living things and could kill them mercilessly in order to both get through the forest and get your crankiness out.
So.
Silver linings.

Once you did get to the actual camp, covered in dirt, everyone beyond exhausted, just wanting some food, you met the Pussycats.

Nice group of heroes.
A bit weird, but nice nonetheless.

One of their members was a tad flirtatious, apparently 'at the age for a mate'. It was funny when she went after Deku, Iida, and even Shoto, but when she got too close to Bakugo, you got less than friendly.

Of course, there was a child there too.

A little boy named Kota who seemed less pleased than anyone else to be in the forest.

Midoriya, who always liked children, was the first to go up to him, introduce himself. It was a kind gesture, but unfortunately for Deku, that little boy didn't think so and let him know with a swift punch to his no no square.

Though your laughter came at the cost of poor Deku's comfort, it was a nice distraction from the day's trials. Even Todoroki and Bakugo smiled at the sight.

"Precious Brat." Bakugo said with a seeming smile, the hilarity only increased by all the dirt on his face and uniform.

"Isn't he kinda like you?" Shoto asked him with a straight face, probably attributing Kota's anger and physical use to show it to Bakugo.

"Heh!? What the hell are you on about Icy Hot, you needa shut up right now!"

"Okay."

"Well I like him!" You said with a smile, to which Shoto quickly rolled his eyes, because of course you did.

Later that night, when you all had dinner, Aizawa made it clear to Todoroki and Bakugo both that if you tried to go to sleep before it was time to go to the cabins they had his full permission to shake you back awake.

Your eyes closed a few times, your head feeling heavy as you always fell against the table.
Each time, Bakugo would put his arm out to keep you from falling and push you back gently upright. Todoroki would put rice in front of you, force the chop sticks into your hand.

Felt like you were in a nursing home.
Made you even crankier.

Sero and Kaminari asked if you were okay a bunch, the circles under your eyes and the fact that you didn't want to eat and were more than grumpy sort of making them jump to conclusions.

"Kirishima." Kaminari whispered from across the table, the poor kid just trying to enjoy his food and go to sleep. "Is Y/n like... ya know?"

"Expecting a delivery in nine months?" Sero interjected, raising his eyebrows.

Kirishima's palm flattened over his eyes as he shook his head and waited for Bakugo to accidentally overhear and murder those two morons before any other stupid shit flew out their mouths.

"That's not an answer, Kirshima. You're his best friend, c'mon. I don't want Y/n to be sick!" Kaminari said, probably actually concerned about you.

"You'd rather she be carrying one of Bakugo's demon spawn?"

"Would you two shut up!?" Kirishima said, slapping them both across the face with his napkin.

Though you didn't hear any of that conversation, it would've made you laugh. Too bad you didn't know what was really wrong with you.

If you did have a baby, your quirk would've been able to tell. It would've been in overdrive, protective mode, wanting to defend whatever you were carrying that contained your genetic material.

Thankfully, after that dinner, you slept the whole night. Woke up the next morning, Jirou, Momo, and Mina all having to pull you out of bed since you refused for the first ten minutes.

Once you got your gym uniforms on and were out the door, the sunlight and the air of the forest gave you some energy.

The walk to the fields where Aizawa explained what training at this camp would entail actually made you appreciative.

You strolled behind the rest of the pack, a bit in your own head, hands in your pockets, looking up at the trees, feeling the ground beneath your feet. The wind passed through the leaves, ruffling them, casting moving shadows across the path.

It really was peaceful. A place that you realized was actually a beautiful sort of quiet. Undisturbed by the business of cities and uncrowded by the pollution that was an assault on the senses.

Aizawa gave his little speech when you reached the clearing. About how for the majority of you, your skills and mindsets had drastically improved. You'd learned not to hesitate. To analyze your enemies. To fight without too much emotional backdraw. Even your techniques improved.

But, also for the majority- none of you had even begun to unlock the true capabilities your quirks held in store.

Of course he said majority for a reason. Because from that first day when you threw that softball 700 meters, there was no doubt in his mind that your quirk could throw it a mile now.

For everyone else, exercises were in order. Bakugo had to plunge his hands into hot water. Thankfully his skin was heat resistant for the most part, especially around his palms. It was to get his sweat glands to expand and regress, make his explosions more powerful.

Todoroki sat in a tub of water. Practiced cooling and heating hit in intervals till he was panting breathlessly.

Essentially, everyone had to push themselves to their limits to get their quirks to increase in control and power.

And they were all working alone, yet beside each other, some even working with 1B.

But Aizawa had other plans for you.

Instead of letting you train with the others, have you control reactions over and over, he thought of something once he had a chat with your doctors.

Apparently, your power was a tad different than everyone first perceived it. Since it didn't really show up on scans, figuring it out was complicated, but now that you'd had tests done on your blood, even with still inconclusive results, things became a bit clearer...

"Define your quirk." Aizawa ordered.

He'd taken you to a small clearing just a little ways from where everyone else resided. Trees surrounded the circular space, a cliff a few hundred meters away.

You stood at the center as Aizawa circled you, slowly, scarf in hand, as if he was ready to use it- fight you with it again.

"Atomic." You answered, standing still, obeying his order. "The manipulation of chemical reactions through a third nervous system- Ah!"

You stopped feeling something whip you slightly on the arm, his scarf maybe, which was too quick for you to catch now that you weren't actually in combat with him.

"No. Incorrect."

"Uh, excuse me," You said, a tad annoyed. "I'm the one who's body it's in."

"Then define it correctly." your teacher ordered, not phased still walking.

He didn't tell you what your quirk strengthening exercise would be. Just said to follow him and do as you were told.

Sighing, you tried again.

"Atomic: The manipulation of atoms, subatomic particles, and their attraction to one another other through a third nervous system- ah!"

He hit you on the other arm.

"Incorrect."

"Why don't you define it if you know!?"

"Shut up. Go again."

You growled, grumbled something under your breath, your quirk not really bothered considering he wasn't actually hurting you. Sometimes you wished it wasn't as perceptive as it was.

Ever since the festival, quirk basically understood that not everyone in the world wanted to use you. It liked Shoto. It liked Bakugo. Liked your class. Basically anyone who brought out positive emotions in you.

Although right now, you were kind of pissed off that it liked Aizawa enough to ignore that he was being annoyingly strict.

That made you think though. Because the reason your quirk had grown in the first place was because of your own realizations. Your own ability to break out of your originally stubborn and destructive way of thinking.

So maybe you had to think of it differently than before too.

"Atomic:" You started, "The decay and recreation of states in matter."

You cringed, waited for the scarf to hit either one of your arms, but it didn't. Instead, when you opened your ears your teacher was still walking, motioning with his hand as he ordered, "Keep going."

You swallowed, thinking again.

"It operates both at will and autonomously."

"Mhm."

"Through a third nervous system?-Ah! Stop that!"

You shouldn't have expected to have been right for more than a few sentences. Although now Aizawa thought you'd received enough negative reinforcement and just started walking faster, with more urgency before he began to explain.

"Number one:" He said, raising his finger, "You cannot think of your power as manipulating anything. You alter what already exists in the world to your will. Manipulation connotes it with selfishness."

"Uh, duh, my quirk is the definition of selfish- Ah!"

"It isn't. You just think it is." Aizawa corrected, obviously knowing more than you about this which was seriously starting to piss you off.

"Number two:" He said, raising a second finger. "Do not try and bend your quirk's existence to our knowledge of anatomy. We call it a third nervous system because of how it functions, but that's not it. If that were true, Monoma would've never been able to steal your quirk during the festival. He would've died."

"That's joyful." You said with sarcasm, crossing your arms and pouting like a child.

"Listen to me." Aizawa warned, because maybe this was more than just a quirk philosophy lesson afterall. "Your quirk has a mind of its own. An existence of its own inside you. What does that mean?"

You sighed, shaking your head, trying to think, but honestly you just didn't know.

"That it can do what it wants?"

"No."

"Well just tell me then!"

"Think!" Aizawa said, loudly now, not like he was frustrated, but like he was anticipatory. Like getting you to make this realization was more important than anything.

Standing directly in front of you, Aizawa crossed his arms, mimicked your stubborn posture and looked down at you.

"Your quirk has the power to feel and dictate destructions as well as recreations of physicalities like a brain. Yet it, itself, is not strictly physical. What does that mean you do with it!?"

Your eyes went a bit wide at his volume. Heck, he was so authoritative, it felt like even your quirk sat up to pay attention.

Swallowing, you loosened your posture, stopped seeming so tense and avoiding. Looking at your teacher in the eye, you actually tried to think it through, tried to put the pieces together.

Bottom line: Your quirk was its own being. It simply existed in the want to protect you. And though it worked at your command, sometimes without it just to keep you safe and alive, it worked on its own.

Which meant-

"It's transferable." You said, half to yourself, half to Aizawa, blinking down at your own hands as you skid your fingers from the base of your palm and back.

"Go on." Aizawa said, relaxing too now that you were getting somewhere.

"If..." You started. "If I can detect another living thing's already existing nervous system, then maybe, since Monoma was able to take my quirk into his, I don't know-" You rubbed the back of your head. "Maybe I can transfer my quirk into other living things."

But that was too dangerous.

Monoma could barely handle its existence for more than five seconds.

In fact, your quirk hated being stolen from you so much that when it did exist inside his nervous system, it tried to blow him up. No wonder he was in so much pain.

The thought made you anxious. Technically, it was possible, but-

Aizawa started walking away then, moving his arm to signal you to follow.

You did, the whole time scratching the back of your head, worrying about nonexistent scenarios in which you would try to put your quirk into someone else and having them break into a seizure or some shit because your quirk was as stubborn as you were-

You stopped walking then, because so did Aizawa.

Then, he pointed to the tree right in front of you.

It didn't look like a very special tree. Was kind of the same as the rest.
Although it's branches were positioned nicely for shade and though trees don't have faces, you cocked your head to the side and swore that this tree was happy.
Afterall, you could hear the water flowing from its roots and its leaves performing photosynthesis.
Made you smile. Want to give it a name, before Aizawa hit your head lightly and told you to pay attention.

"Plants don't have brains." He said. "But they do have?"

"Glutamate." You answered, looking back at the tree you were considering naming 'happy'. "They use it to communicate with one another like a network."

"Mhm." Aizawa agreed. "And what is glutamate secreted by?"

"Nerve cells." You said with a realizing tone.

Your power, who too had been just as tired as you the past week or so, sprang upwards. He was ready for this challenge, way more than you were anyways.

Aizawa didn't want you to transfer your quirk into a tree's nervous system so you could kill it- which was seriously your biggest concern at the moment.

He wanted you to practice letting your quirk into another organism so you could feel through its senses. Your power wasn't just something that could control matter- it was also a beacon of information most people could only dream of obtaining.

So if you could hear and take in information through other lifeforms- even one as simple as a tree's...

"Alright, Strata." Aizawa said, taking a step back as you took one closer to the tree awaiting you. "Show me what you can do."

***

Nighttime came quickly at camp. You'd all trained for hours, exhausted to the bone, returning to the cabins without so much as the will to keep your eyes open.

Everyone gathered around tables once they'd changed out of their uniforms and into their own clothes. Todoroki's muscles were sore from hitting that barrel over and over and Bakugo was frankly just angry he couldn't get his explosions to go any higher up than he wanted.

Nobody was as frustrated as you though.

Aizawa actually had to send Mina and Jirou had to go get you since you'd lost track of time.

When they found you, you were touching a tree with your hand, your eyes closed as you tried to focus so hard it looked like it made your head hurt.

Thing was, apparently, nervous systems don't like being invested with some weird quirk. So, your trees' wasn't exactly just gonna let you. And if you forced it, you were scared the thing was gonna die, so of course the whole challenge of trying to get it to accept you was hard enough.

"Urgh! Happy, you stubborn bastard! I'm not gonna hurt you! We're friends! Let me in, damnnit! I promise I won't kill you!"

That was an odd thing to hear someone yell at a tree at 7 a'clock at night.

Anyways, you were back now and Mina and Jirou understood (sort of), once you explained the thing to them. Plus, they considered that your exhaustion might've had some part to play in your craziness.

"Stay awake." Shoto said once you reached the dining tables where everyone was starting to light fires in order to prepare dinner.

You grumbled some things under your breath falling onto his shoulder as your eyes shut.

"Can't I just pretend?" You asked, wrapping your arms around one of his and using him as a pillow even as you were standing. "Hold me upright and put some sunglasses on me, nobody'll be able to tell."

Shoto shook his head, patting your head and trying to push you off him.

"We still have to make dinner and go to the springs. Then you can sleep."

"Mmmm..." You whined, hearing the clanging of pots and pans and Iida ordering people around and everyone trying to gather ingredients.

It was cruel enough they made you train all day, and now you had to cook as well? You sucked at cooking anything that wasn't ramen anyways.

Before you even had a chance to actually fall asleep however, somebody grabbed you by the collar of your shirt and tugged you backwards and off your brother's comfortably warm left side.

You recognized those hands once one of them was holding your waist and the other was still on your shoulder.

"You fall asleep before it's time to go back to your cabin, I'll kick you across the field, got it?" Bakugo said, and though he wasn't yelling-

"Shhhh," You said, turning around and doing the same thing to him, grabbing his arm between yours and nuzzling your head into his shoulder. "Threaten me more quietly please."

Bakugo grumbled some things under his breath too, looking around to make sure nobody was looking.

Since Aizawa knew and basically the whole class, it really wasn't that big of a deal. But one of his biggest fears was that if you two really did make it so obvious that you were together, Aizawa or another one of the teachers would say it was against school policy for students to date and make you two stop seeing each other.

In fact, if he wasn't so worried about you and your state of constant laziness and the aftermath of the mall incident, he would've only spoken to you through text during camp. Everyone was just in too close proximity, it was too risky.

"Y/n?" Shoto said, looking down at you and Bakugo.

"Hm?"

"If you stay awake, I'll give you my ice cream."

"Oh dear god." Bakugo muttered angrily, teeth bared in an ugly way at how annoyed he was.

But-

Well.

That got you to lift your head off his shoulder and let him go.

After a second of blinking at him, a smile slowly crept to your lips. Putting your hands on your hips, you nodded and said, "Okay, deal."

Which honestly confused Bakugo as to what your priorities were exactly. You were all sweaty, smelt like tree bark for some reason, were still healing mentally from what happened at the mall, had some unknown cause for borderline narcolepsy, and you were causing his hair to go grey- But nope, ice cream was the most important thing right now.

Whatever. He thought, plating his hands in his pockets and following you and Shoto to the stoves so that you could help everyone prepare the food. If it makes her happy I guess...

"Hey." You whispered to Bakugo, slowing down to match his pace.

He was all grumpy now- but when was he not in public. His face was all frowny, cheeks pouted as he stared at nothing in particular.

"What?" He asked, quietly, but sort of annoyed.

He couldn't really kiss you or wrap his arms around you or anything which was particularly irritating. He didn't even get a chance to hug you and take you back to his house after you went to the mall the night before camp. He'd never admit or even say it, but after anything happened like when you fought or got hurt, it really did reassure him to just hold you for an hour or two. Just remember that you were both okay and together and everything was fine now.

At the very least, it comforted him that you were smiling again. Making jokes. Being you despite having seen that villain from your past.

"Did you know you're pretty?" You asked, smiling with closed eyes as you gently played with the back of his sleeve so no one could see you were touching him.

Bakugo thinned his eyes at you. The only time you ever called him pretty was when you wanted-

"I'm not having sex with you." He said, definitely, without a change in tone, and thankfully you were still out of earshot.

Instantly, your face turned to a pout.

"Why not?" You whined, Katsuki rolling his eyes.

"You're exhausted and hopped up on thinking about ice cream." He clarified, pushing your face with his hand gently away from him. "Plus we're at camp."

Shoving his palm away and standing close to him again, you laughed, reasoning, "We could do it in the woods."

"We're not doing it in the woods! Have some class!"

"Party Pooper." You mumbled.

"Um guys." Oh yeah, so not everyone was out of earshot. Shoto blinked over his shoulder back at the two of you. "I didn't bring you condoms this time."

You started to laugh so loudly, even Shoto started smiling then, Bakugo growling at the two of you.

"Would you both keep it down?!"

And that made you laugh even harder.

So what, you were a little tired?

As night fell and you ate with your class, your Shoto and your Katsuki at your side, everyone telling you about their experiences training under the stars-

Camp didn't seem so bad after all.