shark bait / bnha

quirks

Now it's a few days into the school year, and (Name)'s back in the lunch room with Shinso. They're definitely friends. ( She really needs to stop mentioning having a friend; she shouldn't be this excited. )

They don't know each others quirks yet, that had been a topic Shinso seemed to be avoiding. They never really talked much at lunch either. I mean, they already knew what had happened in their classes earlier, so there really was nothing to talk about.

( (Name) really wants to talk to him though, and quirks are the only real conversation they have left. Should she though? He seems to avoid the topic, and she doesn't want to force him. That'd just be mean, she could lose her friend. You'll also lose your friend if you sit there like a coward and not do anything, the other part of her says. )

Her throat feels clogged up, even though she already finished her food. Shinso is still eating.

She clears her throat, the scratchy noise catching the boy's attention as he raises his eyes to her.

"So uh—," she starts awkwardly. "—What's your quirk?" He stares at her for a moment afterwards and her hands feel clammy. 

He blinks before turning back down to his food. "It's a mental one, when I'm talked to directly, like after I ask a question or sum, I can control a person's actions,"

She hums at it, a mental quirk like her own, nice. "Oh, cool! I have a mental quirk too, I can't do fancy puppeteer work though,"

His eyes widen for a moment before they return to their previous state. It's like she has more of his attention now.

"What's it called?"

"Oh, well my grandma used to always call it Know-It-All, so that name sorta stuck,"

Shinso hums. "What does it do?"

"Basically I retrieve random information about other people's uh, mental state I guess? It's kinda of difficult to explain but I can figure out mental disorders someone has, or know about traumatic events that have happened in their lives,"

"That's..a personal quirk,"

She laughs awkwardly and her hands feel gross and sweaty again. She knows it's personal, she knows that it's awful, she doesn't like it, she doesn't like it at all—

"Yeah, I guess. Sometimes I receive information involuntarily which uh, kinda makes you guilty I guess. But that's just another thing to add to the mental quirk stigma, right?" Shut up, you're ruining this so much.

Shinso nods. "Yeah, I was sorta isolated because of my quirk too. Just a lot of people villainize and demonize you for something you can't control, it sucks," She nodded in response.

"Mhm, but it's not really the quirk that makes someone a bad person," She says, picking at the lint beneath her nails. Shinso raises his eyebrow at her and she explains.

"Well, with my quirk, I could be a really good psychologist, y'know? With being able to figure out what kind of mental trauma someone has, I'd be a pretty good counselor. But at the same time, I'd be a pretty scary villain, because I can use the past against people,"

Shinso nods, his brain seemingly falling into deep thought at her words. It's quiet again and she continues to fiddle with her hands. It feels weirdly comforting to know that someone else has gone through the same backlash as you. I guess that's a given though, it's always comforting to know you're not alone.

They don't talk for the rest of the lunch hour, even when they're walking back to class together. It's a more comfortable silence now though; it's changed from before.

( Shinso gives her his number at the end of the day and it makes her happy. A friend, a friend, a friend, someone understands a bit of you. ( He'll turn away though, another part of her says, just you wait. ) )