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The kids of Class 1-A were all under a lot of stress lately, so Yaoyorozu invited everyone to a party at her family’s huge manor in hopes of helping them relax. Half the students had already gone home once it started to get late, but the other half remained and were relaxing in their own ways in the main room: Ashido was competing with Kaminari in a video game; Tokoyami and Asui were discussing their favorite book series; Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka were debating what the coolest possible quirks were; and Yaoyorozu herself was sitting and resting her head on her girlfriend Jiro’s shoulder while Jiro listened to music on her phone. Mineta was also still there, and began to flip through the channels on the TV in search of any show with sexy women. When nothing interesting came up, he sighed and switched to the news.
“The Space Hero Thirteen has done it again!” shouted a loud news reporter. “Using their amazing black hole quirk to disintegrate the rubble, Thirteen came to the rescue of two kids who were trapped under a destroyed building. Thirteen certainly is an inspiration to us all with their bravery and—“
“Ugh,” Mineta groaned, “why does everyone have to say ‘they’ and ‘them’ all the time as if Thirteen is two people? He’s one guy, so just say he!”
Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Mineta. It was a well-known fact that Thirteen used they/them pronouns because they were nonbinary, as in not a guy.
“I’m sorry, what was that, Mineta?” Uraraka said in a deceptively sweet voice, ready to defend the pro hero she most looked up to.
“I said Thirteen is just one guy,” Mineta repeated, “so everyone should stop calling him ‘they’ like he’s two people!” He hadn't meant to say that out loud at first, but now everyone had heard him anyway.
“Stop it! Don’t you know you’re misgendering them?! Thirteen isn’t a guy at all, they’re nonbinary!” Uraraka shouted.
“Nonbinary?” Mineta laughed. “That’s not a thing. Everyone is either a boy or a girl and that’s it.”
"That's.... that's ridiculous, of course being nonbinary is a real thing!" Uraraka's voice was shaking and Izuku could hear her about to cry.
“What the hell, man?! You know that Tsu is a trans girl and Ashido is genderfluid and you think it’s okay to say shit like that about your classmates?” Kaminari closed his game and stood up defensively, while Mina was suddenly too lost in her anxiety to defend herself.
“Woah, calm down, dude, I’m just telling it like it is,” Mineta replied. “All transgenders are messed up in the head, pretending to be the gender they’re not, but the kind of freaks who go around just making up nonsense genders and saying they’re nonbinary or whatever to get attention are even worse! You’re my friend, so don't you see what I'm saying?”
“You mean I was your friend,” Kaminari yelled, “until you told us all what you really think about people like m—“
Kaminari cut himself off, and began to feel a knot twisting in his stomach. He wasn't even sure what his gender was yet—he only knew he wasn’t a cisgender boy—and in his rage he’d almost come out to half the class at the worst possible moment.
"People like my real friends, Ashido and Tsu!” Kaminari said, hoping no one had caught his almost slip-up. “I’m sick of putting up with you, Mineta!”
“Hey, come on now!” Mineta cried, “I didn’t mean Asui and Ashido specifically! They’re not really like that, they’re probably both just going through a phase or something!”
“Nope!” Tsuyu said. “I know who I am, and now I also know you’re a disgusting bigot.”
“No excuses either!" Iida added in. "You must support the identities of all trans people, and all nonbinary people, or you truly support none of them!”
“I... I can’t believe someone who wants to be a hero would think things like that!” Izuku shouted, choking out the words. “People of all different genders look up to heroes, and to call yourself one while looking down on everyone who isn’t like you... means you're not really a hero at all!”
The room had pretty much exploded with almost everyone there telling Mineta off for his ignorant, hateful words.
Everyone except Mina, who was still frozen up and sitting by themself; except Izuku, who had now gone silent; except Ochako, who with quiet tears on her face and a strange pain at her chest, had taken advantage of the chaos to slip off into the bathroom unnoticed; and except Denki, who, having said what he needed to say, took Mina's hand to get them to stand up and brought them into another room away from the fighting.
“Hey, Ashido,” Kaminari said with a smile, “listen, I just wanted to make sure you know that like... you’re a super strong, badass... whichever gender you are today! You can’t let that straightie grapey asshole ruin your confidence!”
“....Oh my god,” Ashido laughed, looking up at Kaminari, “can we always call Mineta 'straightie grapey' from now on, because that’s amazing." And then she paused for a second, and smiled warmly at her friend. "And... thanks for cheering me up, dude.”
“Not a problem,” Kaminari replied. “Now, do you wanna come help me beat up the straightie grapey jerk?”
“Hah!" She pumped her first in the air. "Let’s do it!”
Back in the main room, Dark Shadow had grown huge with Tokoyami’s rage—Tsuyu and Shoji were the only ones who knew they were agender, and their blood was boiling at the discovery that someone in class 1-A was secretly transphobic the whole time. Momo, who knew that her girlfriend was questioning her gender, listened and backed up every word as Jiro loudly and angrily told Mineta all about why transphobia is wrong and the gender binary is bullshit. Ashido was slowly dissolving the chair that Mineta sat on, Tsuyu had him tied up, and Kaminari was ready to electrocute him if needed.
“Come on, guys, this is ridiculous, you should all know there are only two genders! It’s just scientifically correct!” Mineta said in an attempt to explain himself, but nobody wanted to hear it and now everyone was attacking him in various ways—except for two other students who were still not participating.
When Iida realized there were people missing from the group, he looked away from the chaos and could focus on nothing else but the sight and sound of Izuku curled up on the couch and softly sobbing. But when he looked for Uraraka he didn't see her anywhere in the room. He had a guess as to what was going on with both of them based on his crying and her going missing from the room, but he knew it would be impolite to make those guesses out loud. Most importantly, he knew he needed to help his best friends.
Iida approached Izuku and knelt down to his level. "Hey..." he said as softly as he could, "Midoriya, do you want to get away from all of this?"
Izuku sniffled and nodded, forcing himself to sit up. "Okay, but where's... where's Uraraka?" he half-whispered, still crying between his words. "I... think I need to tell her something."
"I don't know," Iida admitted. "I doubt she'd leave without saying anything to us, though, so she must be in another room. Would you like to help me find her?"
Izuku nodded again and stood up. "Th... thank you, Iida. I... I really need to get out of here."
"Of course. Hopefully we can find Uraraka soon."
Soon enough, Izuku and Iida heard the sound of someone crying in one of the bathrooms and knew it could only be Uraraka. Izuku knocked softly on the door and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her open the door.
"S-sorry if I was hogging this bathroom.... I'm done n—Deku? Iida?"
Izuku embraced Uraraka in a hug that he desperately needed. "Uraraka," he sobbed, "are you okay? We were wondering where you were."
"I... well, not really, and I was kinda hoping I could talk to you and Iida about something in private." She gestured for both of them to come inside the bathroom and then locked the door. "It's really important... but first, why are you crying too?"
"I—" Izuku shut his eyes tight and tried to stop his tears before he spoke again. "I'm a trans boy. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I wanted to tell the whole class soon because I saw how supportive everyone was of Asui and Ashido, and I thought I might just go ahead and come out to everyone who was still here tonight, but then Mineta said that and I just—I couldn't—you guys don't hate me, do you?"
"Midoriya, that's what you were so upset about?" Iida replied. "Of course we don't hate you! And with the obvious exception of Mineta, no one else in our class would hate you if you told them either. I'm glad you trusted us enough to talk to us, and I'll do anything I can to support you as your friend."
"Oh, Deku," Uraraka cried, "there's no way we'd ever hate you for that! And no way we, or anyone else in our class, would ever agree with Mineta either."
Izuku started crying again, but this time they were tears of joy from having the support of his best friends. "Thank you both so much!" he exclaimed. "I was so worried you'd be mad at me! What did you need to talk to us about, though, Uraraka? You said it was really importa—"
And with that, Uraraka was sobbing again too. "This probably sounds really weird but it's actually a huge relief that you're trans because I've been so confused and I thought nobody would be able to help me and—"
"Woah, woah, wait!" Iida shouted. "Slow down! Uraraka, are you saying you're trans too?"
"Are you a trans girl?" Izuku asked. "Or, wait, sorry if that's wrong, are you a boy, or maybe—I'm sorry, you should probably just tell me yourself what you're trying to—"
"Stop!" Uraraka shouted. She felt like everything was spinning and she couldn't make it stop; she felt like something about her was fundamentally wrong and she didn't know what it was, or why she was so painfully aware of the word "girl" being used to describe her, or why she kept feeling like her chest didn't belong on her body, and it was all just too much, too much to think about at once. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you, but I just.... don't know! I'm sorry, I shouldn't be bothering you two!"
"You're not!" Iida and Izuku both said in sync.
"What do you mean by you don't know?" Izuku asked calmly. "We're here if you want to talk to us."
"Uh..." Uraraka took a moment to gather the words in her head, and then they all came out at once. "Well, I'm not a boy, but I also don't think I'm a girl, except sometimes I do think I'm a girl, and sometimes I think I'm just nothing? Sometimes getting called a girl is the most frustrating thing ever and I hate my chest and I wish my hair was way shorter and I hate this stupid skirt but I don't want to be a boy, I just wanna be completely genderless."
She took a brief pause and then said, "So I thought at first I could be nonbinary like Thirteen. But then sometimes I'm totally happy with the way I look and I love being called a girl, and that doesn't make any sense, because I can't be genderless and also be a girl, can I? And I thought maybe I'd ask Ashido if it could work that way since she's genderfluid, but after what Mineta said... I just got scared."
They all stood in silence for a minute, Izuku and Iida both attempting to process everything that Uraraka had said.
"I admit that I am not the best person to talk to about this," Iida said, "as I have no experience with it myself, but I want you to know that whatever you figure out, I'll be here for you every step of the way, Uraraka!"
"Thank you, Iida," Uraraka said, a genuine smile appearing ever so slightly on her face. "It means a lot. I still don't know what to do, though..."
"Uraraka, you—" Izuku started to say something, and then suddenly he jumped when another knock came at the bathroom door.
"Midoriya?" Momo called, "Iida? Uraraka? Are... all 3 of you in there?"
The three of them glanced at each other, and silently agreed it was okay to open the door. When they did, they were greeted by both Momo and Jiro hand-in-hand.
"Hello," Momo said, "I'm not sure what's going on in here, but everyone has been looking for you three. Are you all okay?"
"Yeah, we were all worried about you," Jiro added.
"Oh, Yaoyorozu and Jiro! ...Is Mineta still here?" Uraraka asked quietly.
"Nope, I kicked him out. Literally," Jiro said with a smirk. "Everyone else is still here, though."
"Were you all hiding from him in here?" Momo asked. "The hiding is understandable, but the bathroom is an odd choice..."
"No!" Izuku exclaimed. "I mean, yes, I mean, not exactly, uh, sort of, I mean..." He glanced over at Iida, who seemed to catch what he wanted to ask. Iida and Uraraka nodded at each other.
"Since Mineta is now gone," Iida said, "Uraraka and Midoriya were wondering if they could both talk with everyone about something important to them."
"Oh? Well, I don't see why not! I'll just get everyone gathered together, then!" Momo then sprinted off back to the main room with her girlfriend following behind.
Back in the main room where Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Ashido, Kaminari, Tokoyami, and Asui all sat, Uraraka, Midoriya, and Iida went and sat together on the opposite side of the room. Midoriya was feeling much more confident after talking with his two closest friends, so it was much easier than he thought it would be for him to come out. "Everyone, I'm a trans boy," he said. "I would like to tell the rest of the class as well—except for, you know—"
"The straightie grapey jerk!" Ashido and Kaminari both shouted.
"...Right," Izuku grinned. "I'd like to tell the others later, but after everything that happened tonight I thought all of you who stuck around and dealt with Mineta deserved to know now. So thank you very much for listening... it's Uraraka's turn now, though!"
For a minute, Uraraka just didn't say anything. Everyone was looking at her and she didn't know how to start. "I, uh..." she paused, glanced at Iida and then Midoriya, and took a deep breath, "I just wanted to say that I don't know what my gender is, and I've been really confused about it for a while, but I wanted to tell you all because I trust you and I just can't keep it a secret anymore!"
"Hey, that's awesome!" Kaminari blurted out.
"...Huh?" Uraraka looked at him in confusion.
"I don't know what my gender is either," Kaminari explained, "and I've been way too nervous to say anything about it, so that was super brave of you!" And he high-fived her.
And then Jiro spoke up. "Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to say that I'm questioning my gender too!"
Uraraka was so shocked she had no idea what to say next. She wasn't expecting anyone else in her class to be going through the same thing, and she couldn't express how happy it made her feel not to be alone.
"Not to interrupt you," Tokoyami interjected, "but since everyone is being so open right now, may I say something as well?"
Uraraka nodded at him. "Yes, go ahead, Tokoyami!"
"I'm agender," he said. "Asui and Shoji already knew, but until now I was too afraid to tell anyone else. Seeing the rest of you open up about yourselves made me feel that I should as well. You can still use he/him pronouns for me if you wish, but I also like to use they/them."
"So his gender is basically—"
"Tsu," Tokoyami rolled his eyes, "please don't tell them my gender is darkness or the void or something like that."
"I wasn't! ....I was going to say 10 birds stacked up in a trenchcoat," Tsuyu replied in a completely serious tone, giving everyone a much-needed laugh.
"...Um, I was also wondering, though..." Uraraka said, struggling to find her words, "could any of you help me figure out what my gender might be? I think I'm genderless sometimes, but I'm also still a girl, and I just don't know if that even makes sense!"
Mina skipped over to Uraraka's side of the room and smiled at her. "Hey, I'm a girl and I'm also agender, and even a boy depending on what day it is! That's what it means to be genderfluid, or one version of it, anyway! So of course that makes sense!"
Uraraka was still uncertain, but what Ashido said made a lot of things seem so much clearer. "So I don't have to go between being a boy and a girl to be genderfluid? It can be if I'm a girl and agender too? And agender, that's what it means when I feel like I don't have a gender? And wait, I like the label 'nonbinary', can I use both nonbinary and genderfluid at once if I want?"
"Nope, yes, yes, and yes!" Mina replied cheerfully. "Your identity is completely yours, and whatever it turns out to be we're all just really glad you came to us for help!"
"Please remember that you don't have to figure all of this out right now, however!" Iida pointed out.
"Right! You don't have to decide on a label immediately," said Izuku, as he had wanted to before being interrupted in the bathroom earlier. "All you have to do is be whoever you are and we'll all support you."
"Be whoever I am... Yeah, I can try to do that!"
"Do you know what pronouns you want us to use for you?" Tsuyu asked.
"Hmm..." Uraraka thought for a minute. "I think I still like she/her pronouns, but maybe you could also try they/them?"
"Ooh, I'll try it out for you, then!" Izuku offered. "This is my best friend Uraraka, they go to school with me and they're super amazing and brave!"
Uraraka blushed as Izuku hugged her once more, and everything felt right for the first time that night. Nobody knew what they might do about Mineta's transphobic attitude, or when they'd tell everyone who'd gone home earlier about what had happened tonight, and they also knew it had to be well past midnight, but none of it mattered yet because in that moment, everyone there was finally free to be who they were. For these nine kids, Yaoyorozu's attempt at getting the class to relax had definitely been a success.