Part 45

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Kaminari coughed quietly into his hand, pausing to see if anyone had noticed. It was the middle of the night, and he was playing video games in the pitch black. He groaned as he lost yet another life, sighing quietly at the fact he still wasn't tired yet. Earlier that day- or maybe yesterday, he's been up a while- right after training he had passed out, and hadn't gotten up until Bakugo screamed that dinner was ready. Somehow, he had slept almost a full night's rest in just a nap.

At first, he tossed and turned, trying to fool his body into thinking he was tired and hopefully not wake up until morning. Then, he tried the patented melatonin route. When that didn't work, he gave up and came down here. He would probably just play video games until three in the morning and then go to sleep. Maybe.

Most of the time he had a harder time getting to sleep anyway. His brain was always moving too fast for him to calm down, so he would just lie there for a while. It was strangely peaceful, except when someone from his class was walking outside his door. Seriously, some of his classmates were committed night owls.

"Kaminari?" He bolted up and fumbled with the controller in his hands, heart beating fast from the shock he had just gotten. Shinso was standing there, watching him with an imperceptible look on his face. Kaminari cleared his throat.

"Uh... hey? What are you doing up at," he checked his phone. "12:30 at night?"

"Insomnia." Oh. He really should have guessed, with those deep eyebags always present, but he was a lot more focused on Shinso's eyes. His gorgeous, deep purple eyes that made him want to look at him forever and-

Seriously, brain? You can't betray me like this!

"But that's not the real question. The real question is what are you doing up this late? I've never seen you down here before." So this was a recurring thing, then.

Kaminari shrugged. "Just not very tired. I was going to go to sleep and then I couldn't, so I'm just going to hang out down here for a while."

Shinso nodded. "Just don't let Iida know you did. For some reason, he really doesn't like it when you stay up past curfew. I'm pretty sure he would blow a gasket if he knew that a quarter of us have come down here at one point or another."

"Yeah," Kaminari snorts. "Wait, how do you know how many people have been down here? No one talks about it."

"In fear of Iida, yes. But," Hitoshi rubs the back of his head in that anxious way he did almost every day. "I'm also down here almost every night." Kaminari coughs a bit. "Yeah, insomnia's a bitch."

"I... how much sleep do you get?"

"Enough." At Kaminari's raised eyebrow, Shinso rolls his eyes. "Ugh, fine. It's like, around four hours most nights. Sometimes I sleep through the night without a hitch, and others I'm down here four times."

"That's... that's why you take so many naps in class! Todoroki said it was because you and Aizawa were related, and he took lots of naps in class too."

"Wha- I can't... we're not even related by blood!" Shinso sputters. Kaminari can't help but giggle a little at the helpless expression on his friend's face. "I give up. Not even gonna try anymore."

He drops down on the sofa next to Kaminari and throws his face into his hands. The blonde stiffens for a moment. Their shoulders were almost touching, just mere inches apart. Gahhh.... No shorting out, no shorting out.

"Well," Kaminari chuckles nervously, "At least you're not being tailed by him anymore."

"He was trying to tail me?!"

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