Sometimes, Neito was astounded by the fact that he’d been living in the same foster home for almost two years. Ever since his older sister died and his parents ‘gave him away’, the longest he’d been in one place was half a year. He knew it had everything to do with the power hungry nature of mama and papa, them not wanting to let go of one of their two future heroes. He was extremely thankful to the student dorms because of them, one of the very few reasons he was thankful to the shenanigans class A got up to, as that had been the final reason for UA to make the dorms.

 

Another was of course his new sister, Mina. He hadn’t admitted to her that he thought of her that way though, she’d be insufferable about it. Noi called him her brother when signing though, so he wasn’t hesitant to admit that Noi was his sister when he was at home. She was the only reason he went back to the home most weekends, otherwise he never would have gone back there except for when he had to.

 

Now, they were close to summer vacation their second year, and he knew that he had to let people know about how he and Mina lived together. Maybe he could avoid hanging out with his friends without them asking questions; they’d gotten used to him not talking that much about his family, and when they hung out it was always at someone else’s house or out on the town. Or at UA, but during the break that wouldn’t be an option. But Mina constantly spent time with her friends, and they were well aware of her living situation. He couldn’t avoid being there for 40 days straight. Their first year had been fine, as they’d only been at UA for a few months at that point, but this time she knew so many of her classmates (and some outside her class) too well to not have them over.

 

He’d reached a point of no return. He had to let people know he was a foster kid and he lived with Mina. He’d been mercilessly bullied for being in the system before, and while he didn’t think his current classmates would treat him any different for it, he couldn’t help but get anxious.

 

Neito and Mina had talked about it at length the night before, and while she was excited about finally getting to introduce him as her brother, she understood his hesitation. She was a tiny bit worried about it too, given his strained (to say the least) relationship with her class. It had improved wonders since school started, but it still wasn’t very good, aside from with Kaminari, who had stuck by him since their recently solidified friendship. And of course there was Shinsou, who had ended up transferring to class A at the start of the year.

 

When he came to the class, he decided that he’d start off by just telling Kendou. She was his closest friend, and he was 99% sure she wouldn’t be weird about it. After all, she’d been accepting of his sexuality when he outed himself on accident, so she had a good enough track record when dealing with his ‘issues’. He spent English and Math class making a plan in his head, having good enough grasp on the material in those subjects to know what was going on despite focusing on something else. And if things went wrong he would just never leave his room again.

 

️

After school, he tried to make his way to Kendou’s room look as normal as he could, despite all the nerves making him want to vomit. He must have done well enough, since no one stopped him. He failed to notice the concerned look given to him by Rin and Tokage, slipping into his best friend’s room before either of them could strike up a conversation.

 

Kendou looked up from the book she was reading, and seeing the look on his face, she earmarked her page (which drove Neito up the wall when people did) and put the book down. “What’s up?”

 

Sitting down next to her in an attempt at being casual, he opened up his phone, scrolling until he came to a specific folder. “I wanted to show you some cute pictures of my sister that I took.”

 

The look on her face was one of surprise. Neito never talked about his family, so having him do so wasn’t something she had expected. On top of that, having it be something so normal paired with the look on his face when he came in was even more so. “I didn’t know you had a sister.” She scooted over so she could see properly. After the initial oohing and aahing that one hoped to get at showing a cute photo, there was a moment of silence while she processed what the child actually looked like. She saw the long snake body wrapped around a big stuffed animal, her skin bright green with white specks, her hair white and long teeth visible with how huge her smile was. “She’s adorable.”

 

He could see she was thinking it, so with some hesitation, he told her. “I’m in foster care. She’s another kid there who’s pretty much my little sister at this point. I uh, was moved to that home when I started UA.”

 

With a thoughtful expression on her face, she looked at him. “You never told us. Were you worried we’d react badly?”

 

“Everyone always did before. Other kids already disliked me for my quirk, so they loved having another reason to… dislike me.”

 

He’d never outright told Kendou he’d been treated badly for his quirk, but his initial reactions to them not bullying him for it had spoken for themselves. This was only a confirmation of what everyone in class already suspected. Still, it saddened her to know people got treated poorly just because they were different. “No one in class would ever judge you for something like that. Besides, you’ve got the cutest little sister I’ve ever seen. What’s her name?”

 

“Noi. She’s four. There are others there too, but she’s the one I’m closest to. And… uh… Also Mina.”

 

“Mina?” He could see the gears turning in her head, realisation, and then doubt. “...From class 2A?”

 

He nodded, handing her his phone and telling her to scroll. There were several pictures of Noi, several other kids, some teens, someone’s 18th birthday party, and there she was. Ashido Mina, in the pink flesh. There was even one where Mina was hugging him tightly, cheek pressed against his as she smiled, Neito looking embarrassed. He could see on her face that she struggled not to burst out in shock. “You’ve never shown a single sign that you know her outside of school, why would you be toward her class like that if you knew her?”

 

“You know exactly why I’m like that, my sister being in that class doesn’t change that!” He covered his mouth so fast he practically slapped himself in the face. He’d never admitted to anyone that he thought of Mina like that, not a single soul. He hadn’t planned on telling Kendou that much, it just slipped out without his permission. Neito lowered his hand slightly so he could talk, his face burning in embarrassment. “Dont… Don’t tell her I called her that, she doesn’t know.”

 

“Oh. Um, of course. I gotta ask though, you have a better relationship outside of school, right?”

 

“Yeah. We’re pretty close, I just wasn’t comfortable with people… knowing I’m a foster kid, and since Kirishima knew Mina was one already we had to keep us knowing each other a secret.”

 

“I’m surprised she’s been able to keep a straight face when you were mocking her friends like that.”

 

Neito groaned, falling back onto the bed. “I know. We’ve gotten into some fights about it, but we’ve sorted it out. She was really mad at me after the sports festival. She didn’t know what my quirk was until then.”

 

He could tell that Kendou was fighting the urge to smack him when he said that. “Why wouldn’t you tell her?”

 

“When I say people hated me for my quirk, I mean they really hated me. She was nice to me, I didn’t wanna ruin it right away.”

 

She couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes this time. “She would’ve found out eventually, you know that, right?”

 

“Yes, but this way I could at least use it to my advantage. She might’ve tried to warn Bakugou or something.”

 

Kendou lied down next to him, looking him in the eye, a serious look on her face. “Do you want me to keep this a secret or do you plan on letting the rest of the class know?”

 

“I…” He stared into the ceiling, thinking about Mina and her friends. She was so open with them, and he wanted that with his own friends too. Fear had held him back a lot in his life, he didn’t want it to have such a death grip on his heart whenever the topic of family and home came up. At least if they knew some of it, he wouldn’t be quite as nervous when they talked about it, even if he would never in his life tell them about his biological family. That was a whole different can of worms he didn’t even want to think about. “I’ll tell them. I don’t want them to find out because Kirishima told Tetsu he saw me over there. I know I can’t avoid seeing her friends all summer, they’re going to come over. I know they will.”

 

“Okay. Just let me know when you want to tell them and I’ll be there for you.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

️

Neito almost chickened out of telling his class. It was no way close to telling someone about your family organically, because most of them had stopped asking him questions about his home life at this point. He knew several of them though he was some spoiled rich kid, but none of those things were correct. At least not anymore. His original family might have been rich, but he’d been anything but spoiled. Who could be, with parents like that?

 

But after a quick conversation with Mina over text, he took a couple of deep breaths and spoke up to the people in their common room. It was close to dinner, so most of them were there. Even Tetsutetsu was back from the gym, about to head to the showers before they all headed down to the cafeteria. “Hey uh, everybody? I wanted to tell you something.”

 

Tokage looked over at him where she sat with Komori’s head on her lap, fingers running through her girlfriend’s hair while the brunette looked up at her with one lovestruck eye, the other hidden behind her bangs. It was a cute image. Tetsutetsu dropped into the seat next to him, sweaty and smelly. No, focus, now is not the time. Awase, bless him, did tell Tetsutetsu that he reeked though, with no hesitation before turning his attention back to Neito. “What’s up?” The similarity between his and Kendou’s response to wanting to tell them something made a small smile tug at his lips.

 

It dropped when he noticed he actually got everyone’s attention, and he anxiously bit his nail as he glanced over to Kendou, who gave him a thumbs up where she sat by the table. “You know how I don’t… talk about my family.” It was a statement rather than a question, since everybody knew. “I wanted to… tell you about it.”

 

He had everybody’s attention now, but he tried to only look at Kendou, who was a supportive rock at the moment. She had a gentle smile on her face, and he looked between her and his own lap when he continued speaking. “I’m in the foster system. I didn’t talk about it because I’ve been hated for it before.” There was something about the word ‘bullied’ that made him unable to say that’s what it was. He wondered if there was something wrong with him for having an easier time talking about how people hating him than about how he used to get bullied. There probably was.

 

The room was silent for a while, before Tetsutetsu threw an arm over his shoulders and spoke. “That’s a dumb reason to hate someone.” After that, the room filled with conversation and words of comfort that eased his nerves in a way not many things had. One of the worries that kept his shoulders heavy was lifted. There were a lot of them left, but one secret was out, and it was a relief.

 

“Uh, there’s one more thing.” It took a minute for everyone to go silent again, as they’d thought that was all he wanted to say, but in a while he had their attention again. “Ashido Mina is also in that foster home.”

 

Again, Tetsutetsu was the first to react, a loud “WHAT” yelled right in Neito’s ear.

 

Chaos ensued for a full few seconds before Kendou managed to get everything to calm down again.

 

️

After dinner, he called Mina on the phone to ask her to come over. The excitement in her voice was contagious. She readily ditched the video game she was playing with Kaminari, Sero and Jirou in the electricity boy’s room to come over to class 2B’s dorms, greeting him in the common area where it was now only him, Kendou, Rin, Tokage, Komori and Kuroiro. Komori was sound asleep with her head yet again in Tokage’s lap, this time her face buried in her stomach and arms around her waist. Tokage was playing a video game on a switch she’d borrowed from Manga, Rin was half heartedly reading a book and conversing with Kendou at the same time. Kuroiro was drowsily leaning up against Rin’s shoulder and doing his best to keep up with the conversation.

 

The pink teen slid into the open space on the couch right next to Neito, making the space cramped so she had to swing her legs over his lap. “Hey guys, I heard he told you. Just so you know, if any of you piss on him for being in foster care I’ll beat you up. Capish?”

 

Neito buried his face in his hands in embarrassment. “Minaaaaa-” she cut him off with a ‘shush’ and her serious expression turned into a bright smile a second later.

 

“Anyways, what’s up? You wanna see the cute photos I’ve got of Neito?”

 

The blond threw his head back against the couch with an embarrassed groan.

 

️

Telling Shinsou had been surprisingly easy. Maybe it was because he’d already done it twice in short succession, or because of the weight telling his entire class had already been lifted. Shinsou ended up telling him that he’d been in foster care when he was younger too, but had been adopted early in middle school. It was a similar story of abandonment as a lot of the inhabitants of mama and papa’s foster home shared. Quirk and mutation discrimination was seeping into many parts of society, and not even children were spared.

 

He expected that Mina telling the rest of her class would make him feel more awkward again though. He liked most of them a little bit now, but that didn’t mean they knew that. He still didn’t like Midoriya though. He’d decided to die on that hill (not really, but if anyone asked, that’d be his response) no matter what.

 

Moments after she told her friend group, his phone buzzed. He was in his final detention of the term at the time, and Aizawa, who was in charge of the current ordeal, had his phone taken away until the end of detention. Aizawa fell back asleep right after, but there was no need for Neito to wake him up and anger him by trying to take it back. Koda was also there, in detention for hoarding wild animals in his room or something, and Neito hesitantly started to sign at him. The boy didn’t really speak, but maybe he knew JSL. With how wide the other’s eyes got, he’d understood when Neito asked “Do you sign?”

 

Koda nodded enthusiastically, but got hesitant when he remembered who he was talking to. Still, detention was boring, and there was nothing else to do. “I didn’t know you knew sign language.”

 

Neito considered his reply for a moment. He knew sign before he came to his current home, but if he told him that he’d have to tell him why, and that wasn’t something he was comfortable with, and honestly, it was a flat out bad idea. So, he settled for a half truth. “One of my sisters is mute.”

 

The conversation was surprisingly easy after that.

 

️

When he got his phone back, there were several messages from Kaminari, and two from Mina waiting for him. He’d heard it buzz every time a new message was received, Aizawa giving it a glare before asking him to shut it off. He’d have to remember to just straight up mute it next time. Because he knew this definitely wasn’t the last detention of his high school career.

 

He looked at the message from Mina first, already knowing part of what she would say.

 

     Pink slime uwu

               i told them. denki was rly shocked and is deffo gonna b spamming u

 

               sry about that, hes a puppy

 

He said bye to Koda, who gave him a shy wave before they parted to go to their respective dorms. He sent a quick ‘you were right’ to his sister before opening the messages from the electric blond.

 

     Kaminari Denki

               dude

 

               bro

 

               homie

 

               y didnt u tell me

 

               iv been 2 minas house like tons of times

 

               i nvr saw u

 

               bro?

 

               nvmind mina told me ur in detent w zawa

 

               ttyl

 

 

Neito rolled his eyes at the barrage of messages, only to stop when he reached his own corridor. Bakugo Katsuki was standing outside his door, leaning against the wall. Their eyes met, Neito frozen in place.

 

Here it comes, he thought. The looking down on him for being a foster kid.

 

But when Bakugo stomped up to him, that didn’t happen though. His face was threatening, sure, but it wasn’t mockery that came out of the other blond’s mouth. “Hey extra, if I find out you hurt raccoon eyes I’m gonna blow the shit out of you! Got it?!”

 

After a moment of shocked silence, Neito started laughing. Bakugo’s eyebrow twitched, and he leaned in to seem threatening. “Hah?! You wanna fight, asshole?!”

 

Neito wiped a tear that had gathered in the corner of his eye from laughing maniacally, composing himself enough to answer. “I just- that’s what Mina said when my class found out.”

 

Bakugo stared at him in surprise, eyebrows still knotted together, but eyes wide. “Uh.” Mina was cheerful and excitable most of the time, but when she threatened people she could be the most intimidating person in the world, only to be sunshine and rainbows a second later. That’s what made her threats so scary. She could flip her mood at the drop of a hat. “Fuck, I wish I’d seen that.”

 

Neito knew that Bakugo had seen her threaten Mineta once, and the grape boy had never been quite the same after that. He’d actually toned down the perviness a tiny bit after that, which was a shock to everyone. Bakugo, who’d been in the room when it happened, had asked her out then and there. They had recently broken up when Mina had realised she was a lesbian, but their friendship was stronger than ever.

 

“It would have been amazing had it not been thoroughly embarrassing for me. Anyway, the same goes to you. if any of you hurt my sister I’ll kill you.”

 

Bakugo levelled him with his chin turned up, looking him up and down. To Neito’s shock, he stuck out a hand, open palm. “Deal.”

 

They shook hands, forming an unshakable bond, if only for the sake of the pink girl they both cared so deeply for.

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