Family

Asui Tsuyu
Honenuki Juuzou
Iida Tenya
Jirou Kyouka
Shiozaki Ibara
Todoroki Shouto
Uraraka Ochako
Yaoyorozu Momo

-

 Todoroki is relieved when Iida stands up, family group schedule in hand, to gather the members and make their way to the counseling office. He was afraid he'd have to ask someone for directions, but now he only had to follow them.

He trails behind the group as Iida leads the way through the halls, keeping his eyes on the floor. He almost regrets checking that box for family, but won't let himself. He doesn't need to get anything out of this, doesn't need to spill his life story to more people than he already had. It was okay to just sit and listen to other people's experiences. He didn't have to do anything. If people wanted to ask personal questions, he didn't have to answer them.

But god, why did he choose this?

There's already a kid sitting in the corner chair when the Class 1-A procession enters, playing with some sort of slidey puzzle in his lap. He doesn't look up or meet anyone's eyes. Todoroki notices his white-blond hair, the dark outline of his eyes, and his teeth, teeth that are large and on his face instead of in his mouth and remind him of a bare skull. He's pretty sure he'd seen him before somewhere. There are three other open chairs, a low-set couch with teddy bears, and a blue exercise ball around a coffee table. Behind the couch is a standing computer station, and all around on the walls are inspirational posters with quotes and pretty landscapes.

"Dibbs on the exercise ball, ribbit," Tsuyu chirps, leaping over the back of the couch to reach it before Uraraka, who makes a strangled sound of protest along with Iida. She quickly recovers and plops down on the couch, sticking her tongue out at her. Tsuyu rolls the ball closer to Uraraka's armrest and settles there. Iida shakes his head defeatedly and sits on the middle cushion.

Jirou makes herself at home in the big chair next to the skull guy and Yaoyorozu in the one next to her. Todoroki seats himself next to Iida on the opposite end of the couch as Uraraka, who had found a wrinkly dog plush and is now fawning over it with Tsuyu observing amusedly. He accidentally sits on one of the stuffed animals, and sets it between him and Iida.

"Oh my god. Todoroki, toss me that yellow thing." Jirou says, making Todoroki jump. He picks up the bear he'd been sitting on, which does, in fact, happen to be yellow, and throws it to Jirou. She catches it and stares at it intently for a few long moments before presenting it to Yaoyorozu. "Yao-momo," she starts slowly, "this bear is violating the dress code." She fakes tearing up at the sight of its horrid red crop top. "Not only is he wearing an incredibly revealing crop top, but it says a bad word on it too."

It takes Yaoyorozu a second, but she buries her face in her hands when she gets it. "And they had the audacity to spell it wrong!" Jirou finishes, close to actual tears. "Yeet!" She chucks it back to the couch, unfortunately nailing the class president in the face. Todoroki's mouth twitches and the girls burst into laugher.

"That was rude." Iida says simply, extracting his face from the poop bear. Todoroki smiles and sees the skull guy shaking with controlled laughter. The girls howl.

The counselor shows up maybe five minutes after the scheduled time for the thing to start. They have dark skin and chort curly hair in an undercut, and their ears are pointed. The only possible hint at their quirk is the flower tattoo taking up their entire forehead.

"Hi, I'm probably the freshly employed school counselor at U.A, Shirushi Moguru, and I'm here to make yall right in the head. Or your," They pull out a paper, which seems to be an exact copy of the student's schedules, "families right in the head? Yeah."

"Are you sure you're being paid for this?" Iida asks suspiciously. The counselor shrugs.

"I'd like to think so," they shrug, making themself at home in the one empty chair and surveying the people present. "Ah, dang," They referenced their paper again. "Honenuki, did you happen to see Shiozaki in class?"

The skull dude, now identifiable as Honenuki, shook his head no. "Home sick." He said quietly.

"Well, she's missin' out." The counselor leans back in the chair and crosses their legs. "Green haired kid, grab the toilet paper there on that table and pass it around. Everyone take a bit." Tsuyu takes a long piece and goes to give it to Uraraka, grinning, but tosses it to Honenuki, who's to the left of her, on the other side of the toilet paper table.

Uraraka makes an exaggerated expression of betrayal. "You meanie--" Tsuyu cuts her off by ripping her own long piece in half and draping a part over the dog plush on her friend's lap. Uraraka's face brightens, and she wraps the dog into a mummy with gusto, relentlessly thanking her.

Shirushi hands the toilet paper roll to Todoroki. He rips off a couple squares and passes it to Iida. "How many do you recommend?" He asks. They shrug.

"Everyone got some though?" They take a look around and deem the answer a yes. "Alright kids, for today's ice breaker we go around and say facts about ourselves, one toilet square at a time." The girls groan, Iida politely nods, and Todoroki wonders what the hell an ice breaker is. "I suppose I'll start." They pause for a moment. "Let's go for one yall've probably been wondering about-- my pronouns are currently they/them." They take one of their own squares and slap it on the table like a winning hand of cards. "Now you! Kid with the fun eyes."

Fun eyes? "Um, I like cats?" Todoroki tries. Miscellaneous heads nod in agreement. He rips off a square and sets it on his right knee.

"My favorite color is rose gold!" Iida declares and folds down a square.

"One time in primary school I accidentally levitated the class pet." Uraraka smiles at her own expense.

"My grandmother comes to visit once a month to ask if anyone needs a haircut. She was an engineer but just really enjoys cutting hair, ribbit."

Honenuki thinks for a while. "My quirk didn't develop until I was six years old?" Uraraka makes an 'oh' sound and multiple people raise their eyebrows.

Jirou slices one off with a karate chop. "I'll listen to anything by Deep Dope!"

"Really?!" Everyone looks at Shirushi. "Me too! I have a shirt!"

Jirou gasps. "The tank top or the sweatshirt?"

"Tank top!"

Jirou jump to her feet and leans over the coffee table to give the counselor an enthusiastic high-five.

Yaoyorozu smiles and speaks up when the two fans sit down. "The first things I learned to make with my quirk were Matryoshka dolls."

"Alright, for mine..." Shirushi delayed, "All of my tattoos aren't actually tattoos. They're part of my quirk."

Jirou said just loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Yeah, I was wondering why you had an iPhone 6 tattooed on your shoulder."

Shirushi bites their lip to stop themself from smiling. "On that note, let's postpone our next squares and go around and show and tell our quirks. I was in America during the Sports Festival, so I don't know what yours are."

"America?" Yaoyorozu and Uraraka's eyes bulge.

"Were you visiting family?" Iida inquires.

"If I was visiting family, I'd've been in Australia," their tone seems to be rolling its eyes. "Now come on, let's go around the other way. You first." They say, nodding towards Yaoyorozu and ignoring the curious glances.

Yaoyorozu blushes and looks at her hands. "Um, I'm Yaoyorozu, and I can create anything out of my skin that I know the chemical structure of." She holds up her palm and visibly concentrates. A Matryoshka doll slowly rises out of her palm, and Todoroki knows that she can create things much faster, so she must be going slow for effect. It works.

"Huh, that's sorta like mine," the counselor muses under their breath. Todoroki looks at them questioningly, and they catch his eye. "Not my turn," they whisper, shaking their head.

"I'm Jirou! My quirk is Earphone Jack and my earlobes are earphone jacks." She taps them together and does the wave with them.

"Wait, so you, like, can listen to any device?" Shirushi's brows draw together.

"Well, yeah, but I can also send out sounds, like my heartbeat, and make 'em really loud."

"Huh." The counselor looks like they're mentally taking notes now. "Skull kid?"

Honenuki winces. He mutters something like you seriously knew my name not three minutes ago. "I can make things soft."

"Cat soft or squishy soft?" Shirushi asks.

"Sink-into soft." He mumbles. He looks at the completed puzzle in front of him for a few seconds before determinedly sliding the pieces and scrambling it again.

"I'm Asui Tsuyu, but I prefer to be called Tsuyu, ribbit. I can basically do whatever a frog can." She sticks out her tongue and smiles at the counselor.

"I'm Uraraka! My quirk is zero gravity. If I touch something with all five of my fingers, I can make it levitate!" She makes a show of picking up her dog plush she's basically adopted at this point and laying it to rest in front of her in the air. She lets go and does jazz hands. Shirushi, charmed, claps for her, and the rest of the kids join in.

"My name is Iida Tenya. My quirk is Engine," he awkwardly lifts up his pant leg to display them, "I have engines in my legs that boost my running speed."

"Oh, are you-" The counselor seems to have been back in Japan long enough to catch wind of Ingenium's fall and catches themself. Iida grimaces, but looks thankful in his eyes and nods at them.

"Uh... my name is Todoroki," he starts, fidgeting with his ripped-off square of toilet paper, "Mine's Half Cold Half Hot. I have ice on my right and fire on my left."

"Well, you got the hair for it," Shirushi comments good-naturedly. Todoroki blinks.

"Alrighty! I am Shirushi, and my quirk is Storage Unit. I can put things in my skin and take them out later, and while they're in there, I've got a tattoo of the thing." They tilt their head towards Jirou pointedly and hold her gaze as they pull their iPhone out of their shoulder. They smirk and wiggle it in the air, turning it on. "Perfectly functional!"

"Interesting," Iida says, leaning forward. "Can you put living things in the unit too?"

Shirushi points to their forehead, at all the entangled flowers. "Back to toilet paper, who wants to start again?" Uraraka's hand shoots up but both Iida and Tsuyu try to stop her. Todoroki assumes neither of them have ideas. "Go, gravity."

"I've never had my ears pierced!" She says. Shirushi points at their ear piercing and sticks their tongue out at her, winking. Uraraka makes a show of puzzling over which way she should pass the baton and ultimately elbows a sweating Iida.

Iida flounders for a moment, but- "I'm autistic!" blurts out, seemingly of its own accord. "Oh, oh my gosh-" He covers his red face and bends over, "this is very embarrassing." The room is quiet for a moment.

"It's okay, Iida," Tsuyu offers. "I'm autistic too, actually, ribbit." She smiles and holds out a high five if front of him across Uraraka. Iida looks up, startled, and sees her hand. He looks between her and the invitation. He manages a shaky smile and high-fives her. Uraraka looks close to happy tears, and now that Todoroki looks, so does the counselor.

"That... was truly touching." Shirushi wipes their face. They grab a kleenex box off the coffee table and takes a few tissues for themself. "Uraraka?" They offer.

Uraraka's busy hugging Iida and apologizing for putting him on the spot because he clearly wasn't ready to share that. Tsuyu watches on with a rare, genuine smile.

"Okay, that was fun. Everyone, give their toilet paper to Gravity so she can finish her puppy mummy." Shirushi announces. For the last few toilet paper turns it was just pinballing between Yaoyorozu and Jirou because they'd taken the most squares. They stand up, slapping their hands on their knees decisively and walking around their chair to a filing cabinet on the wall.

Yaoyorozu still looks pretty immobilized by Jirou's final square, which revealed that she absolutely hates the word pants. She'd tried to get her to explain, but she didn't have a legit answer for her. Now she was holding a one-sided staring contest with the side of Jirou's face.

Shirushi returns to their seat and tosses a Ziploc bag full of toy dinosaurs of various sizes like a raptor returning with a prosperous kill onto the coffee table. Tsuyu snags the kleenex box out of the dino's line of fire with her tongue and deposits it on the table at her side instead. She looks up and meets Shirushi's eyes. "Are quirks allowed in these sessions?" She croaks.

Shirushi shrugs. "It's alright with me, long as you don't break my room."

"If you come across a guy that looks like an angry dandelion, you might want to tell him otherwise." She warbles.

"Angry dandelion. Should be easy to spot." Shirushi mimed writing on a clipboard. They set down the invisible clipboard next to their chair and scoot forward. They open up the Ziploc and let the dinosaurs tumble out. "Now, we're gonna do the first thing I could think of," They pick out a couple figures and move them around like chess pieces, "making a model of our families out of a rainbow assortment of dinosaurs. Sound simple enough?"

Todoroki mentally picks out the red mammoth to be Endeavour. He remembers reading something about them somewhere, how they lumber around without a single care for what went on around them until something pisses them off and they make things ugly. Uraraka gets off the couch and sits on the floor, reaching to stand all the dinos on their feet. Shirushi continues to pick up a chosen few to pose in front of them. They reach for one and inadvertently knocks over the red mammoth. Uraraka doesn't notice. Todoroki tries not to grin too wide.

Shirushi presents their little dinosaur family.

"This is me," they say simply, tapping a red one with huge vaguely threatening triangular fans down its back. "Because I like to show off. And I'm not... particularly aggressive. Looks like herbivore."

"I don't know who've you been talking to lately, but you do not look like a vegan to me." Jirou says. Shirushi scoffs and rolls their eyes.

"...thought it was an okay choice. Here's my mom," they have to reach across half the table to bop the purple saber-toothed tiger on its back. "She's an asshole. Nearly murdered my dad when she left him, dragged me along with her. As you can see, I don't think of myself being very close to her." They sit for a moment to reevaluate the distance between the Obvious Herbivore and the purple saber, unaffected by the stunned stillness in the room. They lean and push the saber farther away. "Yeah, now next to me is my bro. He's trans and my roomate, and we're still pretty close even though he ran away when he was eleven. Always had a common enemy," they position a low-set dino with a sort of spiked turtle shell between their own and their mother's. "He hates mom even more than I do and isn't afraid to give her a taste of her own salty, salty medicine at family gatherings. He only goes to those because he takes joy in lethal passive-aggressiveness, otherwise known by myself as one-sided thinly veiled flyting."

"Flyting?" Uraraka whispers to herself.

"My dad's way back here. As you can see he's a t-rex, so he's more of a scavenger who takes what's left for him. I've done my research, yeah? He hardly ever shows up for holidays and stuff but when he does he's pretty quiet and sorta hides behind me and my bro. Never really relaxes around Mum, and understandably so. My gramma on my dad's side, who's this one," they point to a purple velociraptor looking thing next to their and their brother's dinos, "she always babysat us, played nice with Mum, kept in touch with my brother when he ran away. She's dead now, though. Villain attack." They flick the velociraptor on its side. Everyone around the table is silent.

"...Well, Okay, you don't have to tell your life story or anything personal," they wave their hands in front of them, "you can just, like, position them and say who's who or something. Whatever. Who wants to go?"

"I think I will, ribbit." Tsuyu volunteers. She dismounts the blue exercise ball and plants herself on the floor. She reaches forward and plucks four green and one yellow figure, not looking like she's paying attention to what she's picking up, or she'd planned out her own while Shirushi was presenting theirs.

She staged the five toys in a tight circle, all facing the middle except the yellow one who was facing outward. "My family's pretty close, and has been for most my life, but the yellow one's my little sister, and... ribbit, I don't know. She's... separating herself from everyone, and hasn't talked to me for real in a few months." she slides the yellow dino a little farther away, and then folds her arms on the coffee table and rests her chin on them. She looks up at Uraraka with her big eyes. "Your turn, ribbit."

"Yeah... yeah, sure." Uraraka shakes herself. Todoroki wonders if Uraraka has met Tsuyu's little sister before. She looks concerned, so maybe. She reaches to the cluster of figures and picks out three, one by one- a green and a blue t-rex and the only saber-toothed tiger, purple. She positions them like a hand fan, facing away from each other and covering each other's backs. She then reaches over them at the spare ones and arranges them like an army closing in on her little family.

"My mom's the blue one and my dad's green," She says when everything's in order, "I'm the saber. I'd probably be more of a cub, though," she laughs, "it's always been us against the world, but I'm trying to be ferocious and make my way for them." She smiles shyly. "That's it for me. Iida?"

"Yes, I'll go." He nods, looking a little excited, to be honest. "I feel that I'd be this blue triceratops, because they have a strong charge, an obvious pun because of my quirk. Also, none of these are in rose gold." Uraraka and Jirou laugh, Yaoyorozu snickers. "My parents would be over here a little." He scoots them about two inches away from his own, but side by side with each other. "They're good parents." He says. "...And my brother would sort of hover over here." The four dinosaurs make an isosceles triangle.

Todoroki's turn. He leans forward and dismantles Iida's dinos. He takes the red mammoth that'd been knocked over and reaches over to set it on the far corner of the table. A few people make 'oooh' sounds. Todoroki stays quiet. He puts a yellow herbivore near the closest corner to him, and put all four blue velociraptors vaguely in the middle, cut off from the mammoth by the extras. "Yeah, that's it. Yaoyorozu,"

Yaoyorozu doesn't smile all the way and places three different-colored triceratops in an equilateral triangle, all facing the same direction, away from her body towards the center of the table. "My family shares a very big house for three people. We don't see each other a lot of the time, so... yeah."

Jirou uses a different three dinosaurs, a yellow velociraptor, a purple velociraptor, and a blue t-rex. She explains that she's friends with her dad, but... her mom's a little out there.

Honenuki is quiet as he arranges three t-rexes, spiky turtle herbivore, and spine herbivore... around. Spiky turtle is a little closer to the edge of the table than the others, but other than that, they seem to be strewn about randomly. He doesn't say anything, like Todoroki.

"Nothin'?" Shirushi makes sure he's not going to speak for himself before they get up, stretch, and start stuffing the figures back in the ziploc bag. "Alright then, that's sorta it for today, so like, if you want to someone can pick up that grey ball on the table there, nail your friends in the face or something until next class."

Tsuyu snatched the ball first and put it in Uraraka's lap, only for her to chuck it at Yaoyorozu. She splutters and makes a show of being offended and sneakily tosses it at Iida. Glasses askew, he aims for Yao-momo again but throws toward Honenuki. It knocks the slidey puzzle out of his hands and he stills.

After a moment, he stands up.

He retrieves the ball.

"Oh, it is on." He grins.

"Get the pink ball too! Get the pink one!" Uraraka screeches, climbing over Tsuyu. Todoroki grabs Pooh for ammunition, just in case.