Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/13326294.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      僕のヒーローアカデミア_|_Boku_no_Hero_Academia_|_My_Hero_Academia
  Relationship:
      Kayama_Nemuri_|_Midnight/Sero_Hanta
  Character:
      Sero_Hanta, Kayama_Nemuri_|_Midnight, Aizawa_Shouta_|_Eraserhead, Yamada
      Hizashi_|_Present_Mic, Tokoyami_Fumikage
  Additional Tags:
      im_sorry, she_doesn't_even_use_her_quirk_in_this, midnight_is_ooc, now
      with_a_second_chapter!!
  Stats:
      Published: 2018-01-09 Completed: 2018-02-18 Chapters: 2/2 Words: 7812
****** Well After Midnight ******
by thephilosophah
Summary
     sero injures himself in the dead of the night so he seeks medical
     help, runs into midnight and ends up hurt worse. please read the
     tags.
Notes
     i am,,, so sorry
***** Chapter 1 *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Sero absentmindedly rolls out tape, awake but not so much that he can be
bothered to move. He puts a finger in front of the opening, his tape splits to
two. He puts his hand down, his tape rolls as a single piece. He rolls tape out
of his left elbow until it runs out, then he yanks the last of it off.
That always hurts but he grits his teeth and lives with it. It's fine.
Except... it's not, this time, his elbow stings something fierce. Sero sits up
in his bed, looks his arm over. Did something get in? Did it get infected
somewhere, and got worse when he made a wound by ripping the base of the tape
out?
He doesn't find anything more than the regular bleeding that comes from
literally tearing a part of himself off. It worries him more, that there's
nothing obvious causing the pain. He checks the time - two in the morning.
The infirmary is always open, it has to be. Recovery Girl is surely not there
at this hour, but Sero likes the night nurse. He gives Sero the impression that
the wellbeing of the students is genuinely the nurse's concern. Besides, unlike
Recovery Girl, the night nurse never looks like he's tired.
Sero tries to put a jacket on and immediately regrets it. His elbow burns when
he tries to unbend it.
Okay yeah, this definitely needs a medical professional.
He awkwardly drapes the jacket across his shoulders and shuffles downstairs
while holding his hurt arm to his chest with his other one. Damn, a sling
would've been great right about now.
Tokoyami is having a late-night snack in the kitchen, and he and Sero nod at
each other as Sero passes by.
Sero walks out and curses. The cold biting at his skin is bad, but his left
elbow reacts so violently to it that he loses feeling in most of his forearm.
He hurries across the yard and into the main school building, letting out a
deep sigh once he's inside.
The halls aren't well-lit at this hour, but they're lit enough that whoever's
on patrol can navigate. Sero starts for the infirmary, and in a corner of his
mind that isn't occupied with the flesh-tearing pain in his quirk, he wonders
who has patrol tonight. Homeroom teachers don't patrol, since they have the
fullest schedules. Present Mic has another couple of jobs so he doesn't patrol,
either. Last time Sero was here so late it had been Lunch Rush's turn, but he's
not sure how the turns get determined, so he can't know.
"Who's there?"
Sero jumps in his skin. "Sensei oh gosh, you scared me. It's me."
Heels click closer as Midnight approaches. "Sero! You're out late.
Sleepwalking?"
"Nope, injury", Sero says, lifting his left elbow up with his right hand. "I
was going to the infirmary."
"Let me see", Midnight says, pulling him to one of the better-lit corners of
the hallway.
Now that he looks, Sero can see that the skin around the slit of his quirk has
taken up a violent red, while his fingers are steadily turning white enough
that they look blue in the scarce lamplight.
"Eesh", Midnight says, lifting Sero's elbow a little higher, her other hand
holding his wrist to his shoulder. "How did you manage this so late?"
"I wasn't sleeping - not for lack of trying - and I was just. I dunno, pulling
tape out until there wasn't any more, and once I pulled the last of it out, I
couldn't straighten my arm anymore."
"Yeah, this looks bad", Midnight agrees, taking her eyes off the injury so she
can look at Sero, but keeping his elbow in place. "Do you want me to walk you
there, in a while?"
Sero blinks. "I was... gonna go right now? You don't have to walk me, it's not
like I'll get lost."
She laughs. "No, I'm sure you won't, but I can't let students walk around
unsupervised, I'm sorry." The hand she had under his elbow slips up his arm, to
his chest. "Besides, what's the hurry?"
Sero pulls back. "It hurts, sensei, I'm in a bit of a hurry to stop it from
hurting."
Midnight's other hand stays fixed on his shoulder, holding his numb wrist
captive. "Does it hurt, now? How much does it hurt?"
"Like I twisted the joint? Like I got stabbed. Uh, it burns, sort of. Can you
let go?"
She licks her lips and lets his wrist go, but keeps hold of his shoulder. "You
don't look in pain, much."
Sero clutches his arm to his stomach. "I pull my tape out all the time, I'm
used to it. It just hurts a hell of a lot more than usual now, and I really
don't think going out in the cold was a good idea."
"Do you need something warm, Sero?"
His stomach is somersaulting. "I don't know what I need, I'll go to the
infirmary and they'll tell me."
He takes a big step back, and as soon as her hand slips off his shoulder, his
jacket falls off on that side. Midnight strides into his space and runs her
knuckles down his cheek.
"Aw, you don't know what you need? I think you need something to warm you up -
I can help you." She licks her lips again as her hand falls to his shoulder.
Sero wishes he could say he doesn't know what's happening, but he does, and
he's terrified. He says the first thing that comes to mind, desperate to buy
more time and figure out what the fuck he's doing. "My jacket's falling off."
Midnight pushes the jacket off him, takes the excuse to put a hand on his other
shoulder as well.
He refuses to look down. Midnight's wearing a proper shirt and skirt for once,
her skin is covered-- but her hands are right at his throat, and isn't that
close enough for her quirk to work? Is that enough skin?
He must've looked down, because Midnight laughs and rolls her eyes. "Relax, I'm
not gonna sleep you for this - where's the fun in that?"
"I don't--" he starts, but shit he really needs to pick his words, last time he
opened his mouth, he lost his jacket. "I'm hurting, I won't relax, I don't care
to have fun, I just want to go to the infirmary."
"Ooh, what a stubborn young hero", she teases. "Do you--"
Sero shoots tape out of his good side and lugs himself away from her, to the
stairs with the blessed railing he managed to wrap tape around.
Something cracks and his tape is whipped cut. With a second crack Midnight
snaps her whip around Sero's good arm and tugs him back, and since he wasn't on
his feet, he goes flying into the wall behind her. The impact doesn't worry him
as much as the hand that wraps itself around his throat.
"Oh-- you're bruised", she says, thumbing at his faded hickeys. "Now how did
that get here?"
"How do you think?" he growls before he can think better of it. He shoves a
forearm across her chest and shoves her away.
She grabs his left elbow and squeezes.
"Fuck!" he yells, "Stop, stop!"
"Don't cuss at me", she snarls. Her hand goes to his chest, and dread settles
at the back of his neck.
"Why the fuck not? What-- is it not appropriate? Is it improper? Fucking tell
me, sensei, what are you doing that doesn't warrant a cuss?"
He aims to shoot and fly again but she grabs his good elbow and forces two
fingersinsidehis joint.
Sero screams. "Stop-- you're hurting me, stop that! Sensei you're hurting me!"
Her nails dig around in his elbow and slide into the roll of tape there. She
drags it out against the inside of his arm and he howls.
"You're really loud", she says, not bothered, but not very interested in the
fact, either. She pulls tape out of his right arm and it hurts to try and keep
it in so he wills it cut.
He straightens his arm so the slit is too narrow for her to attempt the same
thing again.
"That hurts", he says, and his voice breaks.
"Now we're getting somewhere", she says, licking her lips. She slams his
stubbornly-straight arm against the wall and curls her pinky and ring finger
against the opening. "You say you're hurt, and you just sounded it a little,
but you don't look very hurt, do you, Sero?"
Sero feels like telling her Plus Ultra is the wrong answer. He kicks at her
instead. "Let me fucking go, sensei! Leave me alone!"
"Why are you so rude? Seriously, I never noticed that about you. Have you
always been so rude?"
Sero bends his arm and her pinky slips in it, and while it hurts, it does give
him the opportunity to close his arm around her finger and yank it down.
She stumbles. She takes him down with her, and shit, that was a mistake,
because Sero only had his height for an advantage and now that she straddles
his leg, it's gone.
"Jeez, alright! The floor then", she says, as if that's what's wrong here. She
keeps his good arm against the wall and slips her free hand under his shirt.
Her nails are long and they scratch at his stomach and something cold crawls up
his spine.
"Stop stop stop", he hiccups, terrified at the suddenly too real prospect of
getting raped by his goddamn teacher. "Don't-- stop!"
"Don't stop?" she purrs. "Please, I know already, you think you boys are subtle
when you look at me?"
Sero spares a moment to think of his friends, but doesn't have enough time to
worry about them before Midnight shoves his shirt up and pulls at his pants.
"Aw, you're bruised here too", she coos, fingers ghosting over his hips. "I
can't even tell if this was a grip or a love bite."
It was a grip, but Sero feels bile at the back of his throat for associating
that with this. "Let me go!"
She puts her hand around his throat and drives her thumb up his jaw."Now you
sound hurt", she says, and bites his mouth.
Sero screams, thrashes against the wall.
"So noisy", she purrs. "Show me your hurt face, boy." She tugs his pants down
and pulls his hips lower so he's more lying than sitting.
He tries to kick under her, to sit back up.
She folds her skirt up into its own waistline and of course those weren't
tights, of course she has nothing else under that, of course she doesn't waste
another second before she sinks down on him.
It hurts.
It actually hurts.
He didn't think it could hurt.
He grits his teeth and shoves his free, hurt arm at her, but all that
accomplishes is shoot pain up his arm. Midnight laughs at the attempt, even,
and pushes the now numb and limp arm to the side where it won't be in the way.
"If you'd behaved, I'd let you touch me", she says. She goes up on her knees
and sinks down again - Sero sees black spots. "But you haven't been very good,
have you?"
"Stop", Sero cries, "Stop, please, I don't want this."
"Well, a little too late now", she huffs. "Go beyond, right?"
Sero bites his lip.
"This is where you say Plus Ultra."
"Fuck off."
"What did I say about cursing, Sero?"
"Get off me, leave me alone, stop, stop."
Midnight makes a sound that damn near makes Sero throw up. "Mmm, now you're
starting to look the part. Let me look at your face, let me see those tears."
Sero keeps his eyes shut and his chin to his chest, which works just fine until
Midnight shoves a hand under his jaw again. She tilts his head to the side and
bites his neck, his ear, pulls at his shirt to bite his collarbone.
Sero opens his eyes. His vision is blurry for multiple reasons. He sees his
arm, sickly red and white and blue on the floor, he doesn't feel it at all.
Midnight sits back.
Sero can't even look, he turns his head and slams his cheek to the wall so he
won't look.
"Oh no", Midnight says, and she turns his head ahead and down.
Sero scrunches his eyes shut. She won't try to open his eyes, right? At least,
she can't do it one-handed, and she can't take her hand off his right elbow or
he'll be able to use his quirk.
"Look at me, Sero."
"No, piss off, stop this."
"What a mouth", she moans. "Who taught you to speak like that? I mustget my
hands on them."
"Stop, sensei, please, you're hurting me!"
It hurts even more when he says that, and he keeps his eyes shut tight through
it, wailing until Midnight finally stops moving.
"You did good", she purrs.
Sero doesn't open his eyes. "Get off me."
She stands with a laugh, smooths her skirt out. Sero looks and he hates it,
hates that she looks perfectly fine after that when he's sure he's an absolute
mess. He's bruising where she'd bit him and her lipstick has left smudges
everywhere and both his elbows are hurt and his crotch is still wet where she'd
come on it.
He pushes a hand against his face, curls up against the wall. He just got raped
and he looks it.
"Come on, then", Midnight says. "Stand up. Your arm really looks bad."
Sero struggles to pull his pants up. "Fuck off. Don't talk to me."
"Aw come on, I'm just offering to walk you to the infirmary like you wanted."
"I could've gone on my own! Without any of this shit!" He stands wobbling and
pulls his shirt down. His own skin is uncomfortable to be in.
Midnight huffs. "I'm seriously not supposed to let anyone walk around alone."
"You're not supposed to rape your goddamn students either, but look at you", he
growls, taking off to the infirmary.
Midnight rolls her eyes. "You sang a different song before. Have been singing a
different song for a pretty long time now, Sero."
"Don't even say my name."
"Don't you fucking think you can boss me around, boy", Midnight says, cracking
her whip to the floor, making Sero flinch. "Know where you stand."
Sero flips her off as he goes into the infirmary.
"Good evening?" the night nurse says. "Are you aware of the time?"
"Yes, I'm hurt", Sero says, offering his left arm to the nurse, who of course
tries to unbend it and sends Sero cursing into his other hand. Does he tell the
nurse? Can he trust the nurse? Midnight didn't seem to have any qualms about
getting to the infirmary, so is the nurse on her side? Sero had trusted
Midnight before, before. But he's not sure he can trust the nurse, now. Who can
he trust then? Aizawa? Aizawa. Sero is gonna tell Aizawa first thing in the
morning.
"This does look terrible, but I have something for it." The nurse rattles
around in a drawer and comes back with a small bottle. "This should help it
heal, and help a little with the pain. A few drops are enough - do you want me
to do it, or do you want to do it yourself?"
Sero grumbles and takes the bottle. He drops some drops into the slit of his
elbow, and immediately the pain eases off. He hands the bottle back. "Thanks,
doc."
"I'm not a doctor, you know that", the nurse sighs. "What is the matter with
your neck? Do you want to tell me?"
"Midnight-sensei just raped me."
Midnight crosses her arms. "He was bruised when he walked in."
Sero looks elsewhere. "That's irrelevant."
The nurse sighs. "Okay you two, you know that accusation is very serious and I
can't take it lightly. I'll have the principal look into this in the morning,
alright?"
Midnight shrugs. "I don't care."
Sero keeps his eyes to the floor. He has to tell Aizawa before the nurse does.
"Fine, then", the nurse sighs. "Now get out of here. And, boy, look after
yourself, okay? Your elbow is seriously hurt, make sure it heals properly. I
hope you get well soon."
Sero doesn't think he'll ever be well after Midnight.
Chapter End Notes
     i don't know
     midnight here is the most ooc i've ever written any character, ever,
     so don't take this seriously, this is all for the sake of the
     scenario and not an actual estimation of what her actions would be.
     midnight of all people wouldn't ignore someone yelling at her to
     stop. @midnight fans don't come for my head
     @sero fans i have no excuse bc i'm with you. i even thought of making
     a comfort chapter to follow this up with but like,,, i literally
     can't think of any way that midnight would do this, so the furthest i
     got in that direction is 1-a comforting sero then absolutely nothing
     on midnight.
     ETA - YO I GOT THE PERFECT COMMENT ON THIS SO THERE'S THE SECOND
     CHAPTER
***** Chapter 2 *****
Chapter Summary
     listen i know i said i wasn't gonna do a second chapter, but to be
     fair, i also said i'd wanted to do it, and then i got that glorious
     comment that gave me the perfect plot device for this to happen
     BUT in the time between posting this and adding this second chapter,
     i've also posted some other words and changed my mind about how this
     chapter would go, so you know, shrug emoji
     plus i got to write the second half of that pun on the title i did!
Midnight checks the time. A little past two, and she called the police at two
on the dot, so they shouldn't be long. She gives one last puff of her quirk to
make sure the group of three she's just arrested don't dare to wake up, and
then eases it down to avoid hitting anyone else with it.
Red and blue lights spin around the corner, and she flags the car down.
"Morning, officers!" she greets.
"Ah, morning miss Midnight! Or is it be evening?"
She laughs. "It's well after midnight. It's morning."
The drivers of the car and the motorcycle both stay in their seats, but the
other policemen approach the tied-up group. "Is this all of them?"
"Yes", Midnight says. She kicks at the guns at her feet. "And these are their
weapons. One of them didn't use his quirk so he's only a criminal, not a
villain, but the others did."
One of the officers huffs. "That sounds complicated. You wanna give testimony
now, or take it back to the station?"
Midnight shrugs. "Let's go to the station. It's freezing out here. By the way,
I don't suppose one of you kind officers would be willing to lend me a jacket?
These clothes are mighty breezy."
The officer in front of her laughs. "We'll get you hot coffee at the station,
don't worry."
"Mm, police coffee. The best of its kind."




It's only when Sero stumbles back into the dorm building that he realizes he
lost his jacket. Not when he left the infirmary, not when Midnight escorted him
out of the school building, not when he was out in the cold and freezing his
skin off, but only when he manages to close the door of the dorm behind him.
Warmth seeps into his bones. The dorm's heating gives feeling back to his feet
and tired arms, and he notices two things.
One, his arms are naked past the shirt sleeves of his sleep shirt, ergo he left
his jacket back there.
Two, he's shaking.
He's shaking so much that if he takes his weight off the door he's sure he'll
collapse. He tries anyway, and the sound he makes when he meets the floor is
less of a thud and more of a series of painful whumps.
Tokoyami pokes his head out of the kitchen. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine", he wheezes. "Don't I look it?"
Tokoyami frowns. "Can I help you?"
"No."
"Can I do something to ease your pain?"
"No."
"... Do you want some water? A snack? Do you at least want to go to your room?"
Shit, his room. Surrounded on all sides by classmates. "... I changed my mind,
can you get someone else here?"
"Who?"
Sero finally manages to crawl to the couch and curl up there. "Denki. Baku.
Eijirou, Mina, fuck, I don't know! I don't fucking know! I don't want--"
Tokoyami leaves the light in the kitchen but doesn't turn on that of the living
room when he goes over to sit on the coffee table in front of Sero.
Sero looks elsewhere. He wipes his eyes, but he knows there's nothing there.
"You have, uh", Tokoyami tries. His hand comes up to his own neck. "Um."
Sero can't open his mouth, because if he does, then he'll start sobbing.
"... Do you want to talk about it?"
He just frowns deeper.
"Do you want a hug?"
Sero finally makes eye contact and, well, breaks.
Tokoyami startles, sits next to him on the couch and hugs around his shoulders.
"I'm sorry", he says. "I'm sorry, you're here, you're in the dorms, please
don't..."
"Midnight just raped me", Sero mutters as softly as he dares. "She just raped
me and the night nurse didn't give a shit and fuck, Tokoyami, they don't teach
us this shit in class, what was I supposed to do? What did I do wrong?"
"Nothing", Tokoyami says, rubbing Sero's back now, "You did nothing wrong, this
wasn't your fault. None of this was your fault."
"I could've fucking gotten away", Sero says. "I could've gotten away if I was
more careful. I wouldn't have even been there if I'd been sleeping like a
normal fucking human being. And even if I couldn't fucking sleep, I could've
stayed the fuck down instead of injuring myself like a fucking tool."
Tokoyami rests his beak on top of Sero's hair. "I'm sorry."
"What are  you  sorry for?"
"I'm sorry that you had to go through that. That I couldn't do anything. That I
can't do anything now to help you or even ease your pain."
Sero hides his face into Tokoyami's chest, lying on the couch now. "I want to
scream about it as loud as I can, to everyone I know, and I also feel disgusted
in my own skin and I want to erase the fact from existence."
"I'm sorry."
"I want to report it to everyone, to authorities, to the teachers, to the
principal, to Midnight herself, to our classmates, to the night nurse and
Recovery Girl and my family and the earth itself, I want, shit, I don't want
anyone to know. I want to report it but I don't want anyone to know. I'm upset
that even  you  know."
"I'm sorry."
"And I'm upset that I'm upset about you, because you're actually calming me
down, I mean what the fuck! Can't I be glad to get some comfort? I just, fuck,
she got a hand in my elbow, Tokoyami. I mean right inside my quirk, right up in
my joint. Who the fuck does t-- are you preening me?"
"Yes."
"... It... it feels good."
"That's the point, yeah."
"Tokoyami would you mind if I slept on you like this? Am I heavy?"
"You're fine. Rest."




"Aizawa-sensei?"
Aizawa chugs the last of the coffee in his mug and refills from the pot, still
warm from the morning's first brew. It's still too early for anyone to be in
class, hell, not even all the teachers have made it to the lounge yet.
He turns around to look to the little voice that called him, surprisingly finds
one of the taller kids at the door.
"Sero. Do you want something?"
Sero steps in and looks around. He waves to Present Mic and Snipe, and to Vlad
King a moment later when he spots him hunkered over his paperwork.
The kid takes another look around, as if to make sure he didn't miss any other
teachers passionately marking papers mere hours before they have class.
Aizawa sips on his coffee, sits sideways at his desk. "Grab a chair."
Sero finds a chair and drags it over to sit by Aizawa. His hands fiddle in his
lap.
Aizawa takes another sip, then picks up a pen. "Is there something you have to
say?"
Sero makes eye contact for a brief moment, looks away again. "I have a crime to
report."
Aizawa raises his eyebrows. He turns to throw a glance to Mic over his
shoulder, then grabs an empty paper to write on. "Okay. Tell me."
"It was a rape", Sero says. His hands grip his knees. "On school grounds."
Aizawa jots it down. "Did you see something?"
"I was the victim", Sero says, head tilted down so far his face isn't visible.
Aizawa takes a moment to remember how to breathe, then writes another note.
"When did this happen?"
"Yesterday, um. Sometime around two, maybe a little after it."
"In the morning?"
"Yes."
Behind Aizawa, Mic has stopped moving entirely and is staying perfectly silent.
It's making Aizawa more alarmed than he should be while taking someone's
recounting of a crime. "Can you, or do you want, to describe what happened?"
"Not..." Sero meets his eyes again for just a moment before looks to the side.
"Not in detail."
"Before? After? You said this was on school grounds, do you mean at the dorms?
Outside?"
"In the main building. Somewhere between the entrance and the infirmary. I'm
pretty sure my jacket is still there."
Snipe bolts from the room. Sero turns his head to look, and on his now exposed
neck Aizawa can see the edge of a bitemark peeking over the collar of Sero's
uniform.
Aizawa scribbles another note. "How did you get there at that hour?"
"I couldn't sleep and I rolled all my tape out, but when I did, it hurt way
more than it usually does, so I wanted to take it to the nurse." Sero bites his
lip. "Midnight was patrolling the school and she, uh. She raped me."
Mic makes a sound, finally. A sound like a bird choking for a moment.
Aizawa's pen hovers over the paper. "Midnight?"
Sero frowns at him, looks elsewhere.
Aizawa jots it down. "No, no, Sero, I believe you, I'd never assume you're
lying about something like this."
Sero exhales. "Thank you, sensei." He manages to hold eye contact, finally. "I
don't think I could've handled it if you did. I mean, I trust you, but... I
also trusted Midnight, before."
Another note. "Did you notice anything about her? Anything unusual?"
Sero shrugs. "I dunno, I was a little busy trying not to throw up. She was
wearing clothes, if that counts. I mean, actual clothes, an actual shirt and an
actual skirt. And, uh." He breaks eye contact again. "Really tall thigh highs
under that. I thought they were tights but." He furrows his brow. "Maybe tights
would've bought me some time."
Aizawa jots it down. "That's unusual indeed, thank you. She usually wears her
hero costume when she patrols."
"That's what I thought too."
"You said you left your jacket there?"
"I had it over my shoulders because I couldn't put it on with how my elbow was
hurt. It wasn't hard for her to get it off me."
Aizawa swallows thickly. "Which of your elbows was hurt?"
Sero lifts his left one.
"Did you get it treated?"
"Yeah, the nurse gave me some painkiller drops, or... I dunno, it doesn't hurt
now, but I still don't have tape. And when I tried to get away with my other
one, Midnight dragged me back and got her hand into my quirk."
Aizawa's pen snaps. "She did what."
Sero touches his fingertips to his elbow, where the slit of it is under his
sleeve. "She shoved her fingers in my joint."
Aizawa snaps his eyes away from the mime, but the visual stays in his mind. He
looks to the ink on his hand. A couple of drops made it to the paper.  He
throws the mess to the floor, wipes his hand on his pants and grabs a new pen.
"And this all happened before or after you went to the infirmary?"
"Before. I even told the night nurse and he said he'd report it to the
principal first thing in the morning."
Aizawa checks the bottom-right corner of his monitor. It's not six yet. "So,
you're reporting it to me, before that."
Sero looks down. "He. He seemed to care more about my busted elbow than about
the fact that I got raped moments prior to talking to him."
Aizawa notes that, too. "And what about after that?"
"Midnight walked me out of the building. She kept--" Sero swallows, tries
again. "She kept cracking her whip on the way out."
Another note. "I think that's all the questions I have. Is there anything else
you can think of to add?"
Sero brings a hand to his tie. It's impeccable like the rest of his uniform,
but he straightens it anyway. "... We have Art History today."
Midnight's class. "You can skip the whole day if you want", Aizawa says.
Sero blinks. "Really?"
Aizawa puts his pen down. "Yes, really. You look unwell, but I can't pass
judgement for that. If you feel like you won't be able to pay attention in
class, you can skip. If you feel like you don't want to talk to me or any of
your other teachers today, stay in the dorms. If you feel like you don't want
or simply  can't  face your classmates today, get some rest. Take care of
yourself. You can only do your best when you're at your best condition." Aizawa
copies Sero's posture, back straight, knees together and hands gripping each
other. "Even if you do make it to class today, I won't make you sit through Art
History."
Sero's eyes water. "Aizawa-sensei..."
"I told you, UA pretty much lets us do whatever we want. And especially in
these times, the students' safety,  your  safety, is what's most important."
Sero wipes his eyes, stands, and bows. "Thank you. Thank you, sensei. This
means a lot."
"Get some rest", Aizawa says. "You look like death warmed over."
Sero lifts the chair he was sitting on, then puts it back down. "Wait. What am
I gonna tell the others?"
"That you don't feel well", Aizawa says. "Is that not true?"
Sero slowly drags the chair back where he'd found it.
"Lying by omission is the easiest kind of lying", Aizawa says, biting back the
urge to bundle this kid up and give him some warm chocolate. "Please remember
that no one has any right to demand anything from you, even your friends. You
don't have to tell them if you don't want to."
"... Won't  you  tell them?"
"I wouldn't say anything about this if you held me at gunpoint. The only people
who'll know are whoever's already heard about it, and the authorities that deal
with it."
Sero chews the inside of his cheek. "Tokoyami knows. He was in the kitchen when
I made it back to the dorm, I-- I don't think I want  him to know. But he
does."
Aizawa takes a slow breath. "That happens sometimes."
Snipe comes back in the lounge, right then. He has a jacket in one hand. "Hey,
kid. This yours?"
Sero takes it with a polite bow and not a single word.
"Someone get me a map", Snipe says, walking to the other side of the lounge,
and through a door.
Sero folds the jacket in his hands. "Is there surveillance in the halls?"
"Some", Aizawa nods. "But not everywhere. I'm guessing he wants to check if the
spot he found that in was a blindspot or not."
Sero takes another bow and leaves.




Sero can't comfortably lie on his back. Everytime he closes his eyes while
facing up, there's a figure over him and a weight on his hips and a terrible,
terrible sound in his ears.
He spends at least two hours in the shower.
Another couple of hours tossing and turning in his bed, eventually coming to
the conclusion that he feels the best when he's lying curled on his side with
his blankets cocooned around him.
He tries to watch a movie and text his classmates, but both of those happen
distractedly.
He's startled when he gets a call.
"H-?" He clears his throat. "Hello?"
"It's Present Mic. I'm about to head into your class for English. How are you
feeling?"
"Better. More like myself."
"That's good to hear! Eraser said things are moving on his end, so I just
called to warn you that you might get called in to talk to an officer or
something."
"That's incredibly helpful, thank you. I appreciate the warning."
"Hey, I'm your teacher too, you know? I care about your wellbeing too. And
listen, uh, when she came in today, she was... I think something's wrong. She
says she wasn't even in the city last night."
Sero frowns. "Huh?"
"Exactly. I don't know what's happening, but something is definitely not as it
should be. Hey, I've known her for a decade and a half, and she'd never... I am
by no means distrusting your word, but she's practically an advocate for
consent."
"I thought so too", Sero says, brings his knees up to hug them. "That's why I
thought... I thought I didn't have to react. I didn't think worse would come to
worst."
Mic takes a moment. "I'm sorry. I should've noticed something being wrong with
her."
"It's not your fault, sensei."
"You can't say that to a pro hero, listener. It doesn't matter if it's not my
fault - I could have done something and I didn't. I'm sorry."
"Thank you", Sero says. "You shouldn't keep my classmates waiting."
"Okay. Eat something, yeah?"
"Yeah. Thanks, sensei."




"Sero?"
"Yeah sorry I didn't pick up right away, I was mid-chew. What is it, sensei?"
"I have Midnight and two police officers in a break room. They'd like a direct
testimony from you, and also to see how your account matches up to hers. Do you
think you'll be able to do that?"
"Yes! I mean, yes, Aizawa-sensei, I'd love to report it to an actual officer.
You, um. You'll be there too, right?"
"I'll be sitting between you and her."
"Oh god. Thank you. I'll be over in ten minutes or so."
 
Sero finishes his shitty meal and decides that seeing Midnight while wearing
sleepwear again is a horrible idea. He puts on jeans, a clunky belt, sneakers
that squeak loud in hallways. He wears a shirt with sleeves short enough to
show his injured elbows if he has to.
Kirishima's left a Crimson Riot hoodie-jacket in Sero's room. He picks it up
and puts it on, zips it up, pulls the hood over his head to hide what he can of
his throat.
It's Kirishima's. If anything is gonna feel like armor, it's gonna be something
from him.
Sero grabs his phone and wallet and leaves.
Even with the sun up, it's still pretty cold, but Kirishima's hoodie is large
and warm and  Kirishima's,  and Sero feels safe in it. Its sleeves are just a
tiny bit too short, only managing to cover Sero's wrists because of how loose
it falls around his shoulders.
Most of the school is out of class. The hero course has combat training. Sero
doesn't run into anyone on his way there.
He knocks.
"Come in", Aizawa calls, and Sero does.
There's a pair of officers in uniform on the couch, a few papers on the coffee
table. Across from them, in one of the armchairs, is Midnight with a blanket
thrown over her lap. Aizawa sits on a stool between the two armchairs, and
gestures for Sero to take the empty one. He does.
 "This is Sero Hanta", Aizawa says to the officers, just to confirm that yes,
this is the kid.
Now that he's seated, Sero notices Midnight's whips on the couch between the
officers. Yet Aizawa's scarf is still around his shoulders... are the officers
carrying? Sero can't tell. It's still something that he can see where those
whips are.
"So, Sero-kun", the officer on the right says. "What happened?"
"Midnight-sensei raped me yesterday, around two in the morning, on school
grounds."
"And, Midnight, where were you yesterday at two in the morning?"
"I was at the outskirts of the city, pursuing a group of villains", she says.
"Five officers arrived a little after two to arrest them after I had captured
them."
"I was among the five", the officer on the left says. "I did see Midnight mere
minutes after two, and she came back with us to the station for the paperwork.
She stayed until almost three."
"So either one of you is lying, or Midnight was in two places at the same
time", the officer on the right says.
Sero whips his head to the side.
Aizawa scoffs. "There is video surveillance that shows Midnight patrolling the
school. She doesn't show up anywhere between one-fifty and three, though."
Sero blinks. "The night nurse. He saw Midnight with me. There's surveillance in
the infirmary, right?"
Aizawa turns to him. "There is, you're right. There's a camera that covers the
door, at least." He pulls out his phone, shoots a couple of texts. "I'm asking
Present Mic to bring the footage over, okay? Between two and three."
"There are plenty of transforming  and illusionary quirks out there", the
officer on the right says. "It's entirely possible that someone took on
Midnight's form. That would explain this duality here."
"We just need to figure out which Midnight was which", Aizawa says.
Midnight audibly chokes on her spit. "Eraser, please, you have to believe me.
It wasn't me!" Sero doesn't - can't - turn to look at her, but he hears her
mortification. "You know me, please, you know I'd never-- if nothing else, if
not all you know of me, then please, I'm a teacher too." She sniffs. "I'd never
hurt a student."
"But I have a hurt student", Aizawa says, not looking at her, "who claims you
did."
Midnight turns to her witness then, desperate. "Officer, you were driving the
motorcycle, yes? You heard me talking to your colleague. Ask me anything, I can
prove I was out of the city."
The officer on the left considers. "How was the weather?"
"It was cold", Midnight says, immediately. "It was so cold I asked if any of
you could lend me a jacket. Your colleague laughed and offered coffee back at
the station."
The two officers exchange a look. The one on the left nods.
"We'd like to believe that you were doing hero patrol, Midnight, and that the
person who hurt Sero-kun was someone who merely looked like you. All the
evidence we have points to that direction", the one on the right says. "Sero-
kun, did you notice anything unusual about Midnight last night?"
Sero shoves his hands into Kirishima's pockets, wills the warmth of it to give
him strength. "She was wearing civvies instead of her hero costume, even though
she was on patrol."
"Anything else? Her mannerisms? Her posture?"
"She." He looks at his feet. "She was trying to make me make a hurt face."
"Oh my god", Midnight whimpers, covers her mouth, looks away.
"Sero", Aizawa says. He reaches over, touches his fingertips on Sero's arm,
gently at first. When Sero leans into it, Aizawa puts his hand on his shoulder
more heavily. "You don't have to say anything you don't want to."
"And I'm not going to", Sero says. "But I got raped, sensei, and I'm
terrified."
"It's okay, Sero-kun", the officer says. "We'll get whoever is responsible to
justice."
Sero blinks.  "Sero-kun."
"Huh?"
"Midnight-sensei always calls the students with the proper honorifics, but
yesterday... She didn't, she didn't use any honorifics."
Midnight brings her feet up to her chair and rearranges her blanket so it's
around her shoulders, only her head peeking out.
There's a knock on the door and Mic doesn't wait to be called in before he
barges through, tablet in hand, barely bothering to close the door behind him.
"I got your footage, Eraser!"
"Give me", Aizawa says, stretching an arm to take the tablet.
Sero already misses the hand on his shoulder, but he hunches together with his
teachers over the tablet in Aizawa's lap.
Aizawa lets it play fast, skimming through to avoid watching an entire hour of
the night nurse pushing paper. He backtracks and has the video play in normal
speed when he finds the right time.
"Two-thirty-four", he says. One of the officers writes it down.
On the screen, the infirmary door opens and Sero rushes in, arm still high
enough for the camera to catch the middle finger he gave Midnight. He walks to
the nurse and exchanges a word.
"There's no sound", Midnight says when she sees herself walking in the
infirmary.
"I told him I was hurt", Sero supplies. His image on the screen offers his
elbow to the nurse, and even in the grainy footage it's visibly discolored
around the slit. The nurse offers a bottle, and past-Sero applies a bit of it
to his quirk. "It stopped hurting right here, when I used that, so it must've
been a painkiller."
The night nurse gestures to past-Sero, who startles and grits an answer out.
"He asked me about my neck", present-Sero says. He points to himself looking
away on the screen while past-Midnight shifts her weight, gives a cocky flip of
her hair and speaks a word or two. "I told him that Midnight-sensei had just
raped me, and she said my neck had already been bruised when I walked into the
building." His hands drop to his lap. "I didn't have anything to argue to
that."
"What was wrong with your neck?" the officer on the left says. Aizawa pauses
the footage.
Sero hooks his fingers to the side of Kirishima's hood and pulls it back to
show his throat without taking it off his head. "The bitemarks are from
Midnight. The rest, I had beforehand."
Midnight looks away.
"And she", Sero pulls the hood forward again. "She, um. Her lipstick smudged
all over." He points to the paused image of himself. "You can sort of see that
better than the bites."
"That wasn't me", Midnight says, breathy and shaky. She rubs her hand across
her mouth. "My lipstick doesn't smudge. I haven't had smudging lipstick since
before I was a pro." She offers her hand, and indeed, it's clean.
Aizawa plays the rest of the video, but the night nurse is alone in the
infirmary again.
"I don't even own that kind of clothes", Midnight tries, growing less composed
by the minute. "I mean the shirt, maybe, I could have something like that even
though I don't. But the skirt? Eraser, Mic, please, you guys know me, I don't
own orange clothing."
"I believe you."
Sero feels five pairs of eyes on him. He keeps his trained on the wall, away
from everyone. "I believe you, sensei. I believe that it wasn't you, last
night, who-- who was patrolling the school. That you were doing hero patrol out
there."
No one answers.
"I'm not comfortable", Sero says. "Even if that wasn't you, sensei, it looked
and felt and  sounded  like it was you. I can't... trust you, not like I
trusted you before."
"I'm sorry", Midnight says.
"I don't feel safe with you", Sero says, finally turning to look at her.
"I can't expect you to. I can't ask you to", Midnight says, covering more of
her head with her blanket. "I'm sorry that my image was used to get to you. If
it'd been a stranger, you wouldn't have trusted them."
"I wouldn't have", Sero nods. "Just like I can't trust you anymore."
Midnight nods back. "That's fair."
Aizawa takes a long breath. He puts his hand back on Sero's shoulder. "Okay, I
think that's all we have to ask of you. You can leave if you want."
"I can take you back", Mic offers, gingerly touching Sero's other shoulder.
Sero leans into the touch. "But you're still going to talk? Maybe there's more
I can help with."
"There might be", the officer on the right says, pulling out a device too big
to be a phone and too small to be a tablet. "Now that we have a near-
confirmation that someone else was using Midnight's appearance to commit a
crime, we need to find them and apprehend them. Did the Midnight from last
night use her quirk at all, Sero-kun?"
"She didn't", Sero says. "She said she wouldn't sleep me, that that wasn't any
fun."
"Oh my god", Midnight covers herself entirely with her blanket. "I'm gonna be
sick."
"Did her voice sound like what you know Midnight's voice sounds?"
Sero tries and fails not to think of the things she said, the noises she made.
"Yes. As far as I could tell, it was Midnight. She didn't have anything obvious
about her."
Mic leans over Aizawa to point to the tablet. "What about that hair flip right
there? Midnight doesn't do that, right?"
"Right", Aizawa says, playing that bit of the footage again. "I can't remember
her doing that. It doesn't look natural, it looks..." He squints at the screen.
"It looks like whoever flips their hair like that has shorter hair than
Midnight's."
"So, it was most likely a transformative quirk, rather than an illusionary
one", the officer on the right says, tapping on his device. "One that can't
copy quirks, most likely." He turns the device around to show them the screen.
"Do any of you know any of these three people?"
Sero doesn't.
"I've seen that one before", Mic, says, pointing to the picture in the middle
of the screen. "Didn't he move away? I thought that was one of his terms to get
out of jail, or something."
"He was supposed to", the officer says. "But we have no guarantee."
"None of them ring a bell", Aizawa says, finally.
"I think I've met that one", Midnight says, pointing to the one on the right
with a deep frown. "In a shop or something. I don't remember, but I remember
that scar."
The officer on the right turns the screen back around to tap at it. "Yeah, that
sounds about right. This is a quirk that lets the user take on the form of
anyone. We don't know much. Our best guess is that all they have to do to
transform is stay in contact with a shed hair of their target."
Midnight's hand flies up to her head. "Hair?"
"Yes, that's what we think. As long as they maintain contact, they maintain
their form. Really, all they'd have to do is tape a single hair somewhere on
their body that they can cover, and they could hold a form as long as they
wanted."
Sero turns to the side and dry heaves. Mic rubs circles on his back.
"I'm sorry", the officer says. "Did I say something?"
"My quirk is Tape", Sero wheezes. "You're right, I should go. Sensei--"
"I'll go with you", Mic assures him. "Come on."




Kirishima's hoodie feels like armor. He's safe in it. He doesn't strip of it
when he gets back, nor when he finally manages to hold a semi-normal
conversation with his classmates.
The only thing that feels more like armor than Kirishima's hoodie is Kirishima
himself, curled around Sero, thick arms thick skin thick everything safe and
warm and trustworthy. He's comfortable on his side, surrounded on all sides by
a literal wall that would rather go down screaming than let harm come Sero's
way.
Sero rolls over to give him a kiss, and finally manages to lie on his back.
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