His So Called 'life'

"rough night?" Serena asked from the nearby kitchen attached to the common area as she spotted Atsushi waking up, she was in the process of making food, but had avoided waking Atsushi and let him sleep "I gotta say, I prefer this hardworking version of you to the one avoiding putting effort in at all I met half a year ago... but you look like you're barely holding together... are you alright?"

Atsushi looked up and, focus finally come back to his brain, he noticed Serena. . . Lord that sports festival felt like, and might as well have been, a life time ago. "Ah, h-hey. uuh. Not so much rough as, making up for lost time. Have been since our talk. So how have you-"

His polite question cut itself off as a woman he was not familiar with came in and seemed to snuggle up close. He was going to ask 'how have you been?' slightly to be polite, but also because, what he had hard of everyone else's year had really been rough for her. He honestly did want to know the details, first step to make up for not being there to help when she was part of his own righting himself...

"Hooo, seems like you're moving up in the ladder of adolescence rather impressively. Evening, senpai. Atsushi Shachihoko, 2A. Thank you for, no doubt, taking care of Serena during my half-year of self correction." He gave, as a joke, a sitting bow, both hands on his legs, much in the same manner you'd see a criminal thank one for saving their lacky in a movie or TV show.

"Sorry hun, but you know it's my obligation to make you flustered~"

Lauren teases Serena for a bit more, before she just lets herself slip onto the couch, with Serena joining her not too far behind as she just lets her snuggle into her side and enjoy her fur. She'd reach up to stroke over Serena's head a bit, before nabbing a piece of the food and munching on it. She seemed like 'casual' incarnate, with how chill she was for having basically just intruded upon a conversation in the making.

"What, you complaining? Your cooking IS great, hun. Don't ever sell yourself short."

She'd firmly pat her head a bit. Both in playfulness, but also as a bit of a 'stern' reminder to not talk down on herself. But eventually, she'd turn to Atsushi.

"Been a busy-bee lately with school life eh? Can't say I'm too unfamiliar on that front. I was a bit of a delinquent when I first got here. Got placed in 1B 'cause I got a bit out of hand during the entrance exam, got another student real hurt from one of the bots I trashed. But don't let nothing keep you down, y'hear? Just keep at it, bud."

Serena fell quiet at Atsushi mentioning her hard year, emotions flickering across her face. Lauren knew better than anyone the kind of stuff she'd been through last year... she'd grown a lot from it, but it had been painful growth.

"Yeah, I had stuff from my past I had to face down. Back when we talked at the sports festival I hadn't even begun doing that. For as much as I lectured you... I was being pretty hypocritical." Serena said "I just ran from my issues and my past in a different way is all. But they caught up to me and it turned out my approach was no less self-destructive. You might've seen just how bad it was in my fight with Ryoken, I nearly killed myself in the name of constantly progressing towards some nebulous redemption. Luckily I had Lauren here to support me through it starting not long after that. I'm... better now. Or at least getting there. It's a process."

Serena sighed, it felt weird talking about this stuff again all of a sudden. But as uncomfortable as she was, she could face her demons head on now and not run away.

"But anyway, you don't need to be saddled with my baggage when you're dealing with you own struggles" Serena said, bouncing back to cheerful again quickly. "you mentioned your quirk training, how's that coming along? If you were activating your quirk wrong I guess that means you do it right now? Has that helped?"

Atsushi put his plate of food down, debating if he should show his improvements first or... He swallowed, and rolled up his sleeve. Hold out his arm, he mostly effortlessly shifted his arm from human to tiger, from his fingers to his shoulder, then down to just his hand, to just the fur on the back of his hand, to arm transformed up to his elbow, and back to normal, controlling it as naturally as anyone with a quirk should. In place of the loud 'crack' that used to result even from simple transformations, came instead smaller 'pop' sounds, like one might get from cracking a joint in their finger. Putting his arm down he closed his eyes, as his human ears slipped away and replaced with cat ears on top of his head, whiskers from his face, and eyes more like a cat. Just as quickly as they appeared, he closed his eyes again, and everything was back to normal on him. "... it, helps to know one's human to begin with. That said."

While a touch dramatic, he felt it was important as he moved his plate, and bowed his head down on the table, as well as his hands. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry I was in no fit shape to help. I know you'll say something along the lines of 'that's not necessary', but given that our talk is how I'm here now. I owe you."

Well, that was quite a rad quirk to have, she had to admit. Lauren just watched for now as Atsushi effortlessly shifted his arm around, changing various parts of it, or all of it, into that of a tiger one, just keeping it up effortlessly without a hint of discomfort. Then his head and facial features were switching too! She gave an impressed whistle at the end of the display.

"That is actually pretty fuckin' cool, dude. I'd say you're well on your way to becoming a Pro in no time."

Though, her focus did shift, if only for a second's notice or so, when Serena was getting visible discomforted at the bow given to her, as she'd just sigh playfully and lean in to kiss along her collarbone, just leaning her head against Serena's cheek for a moment.

"And yet you don't seem to mind the praise I've been giving you~"

She'd playfully tease her girlfriend in a low whisper, before just chuckling and looking back up to Atsushi.

"Well, I would return the favor and show off my quirk since you probably don't know about it... but I'll refrain from a physical demonstration, since I don't know how well you handle seeing blood. My quirk basically lets me freely control my own blood outside and inside of my body. So if I get a cut or bruise on me, that is just basically a catalyst for my powers. I can shoot blood at people, I can form stuff and weapons out of it, and I can even use it to give blood donations on site. My blood type is O negative, so it's considered a 'universal donor'."

Serena blushed lightly at Lauren's tease before playfully shoving her away "yeah yeah, hush you."

As Astsushi began to talk with Lauren his trademark awkwardness kicked in almost immediately, Serena could practically see the gears turning in his head as he tried to backpedal on the hygienic comment and play it as a joke. As a mercy to him she forced a chuckle as well to ease his shifting into talking about internships and stuff.

"push comes to shove you can always go with one of the school sponsored ones or a teacher. I hear the number 5 Momma Bear took Alain in, maybe she's still open to taking on more? Plus with her you could probably be in the public eye as a hero doing charity work instead of fighting while you work on your quirk more" Serena mused aloud "I know a 3A guy who work studies with Moonbeam too, he's a big dude but the personality of a sentient teddy bear, you could probably convince him to help you try get into Moonbeam's agency. I'd offer a recommendation to Nocturne's but he's grumpy enough with just me and Lauren. I think if we added you he might actually snap"