IMPORTANT: This entire chapter is a sort of prologue explaining the nature and background of the plot, seeing as it's pretty damn complicated and difficult to follow without a shit ton of explanation. The explanation and backstory is interesting though, so please be sure to read it all the way through, otherwise you won't understand the story!!

And lastly, for the first time ever, I am going to be doing a regular update schedule for this fic!

NEW CHAPTERS COME OUT ON MONDAYS AND FRIDAYS.

I have had this idea for over a year now. It's been sitting in the back of my mind for so damn long that it feels AMAZING to finally let it out. I really hope you enjoy it, this story is the product of endless hours spent watching and waiting for the right set of characters to come along for me to unleash this plot upon.

The first couple chapters are written in Kirishima's POV, but afterward it'll be done in switching POV's, mostly between Mirio, Tamaki, Kirishima and maybe even a couple done from Midoriya's perspective. Enjoy!!

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Kirishima POV

If you had told me six years ago that I was gonna lose my parents at only eight years old and be put up for adoption, I wouldn't have believed you. If you had told me six years ago that I'd be adopted by a single pro hero going by the name of Fatgum, I probably would've laughed at you and called you crazy. And lastly, if you'd told me that same parent would adopt a second boy the same age as me who would eventually sink into a terrible, terrifying mental illness, I would've kindly asked you to never speak to me again because you'd have sounded absolutely insane.

Although all those things I just listed would've seemed impossible to eight-year-old me, they still wound up happening in the long run. I wouldn't have believed it, but that was when I had my parents and everything was absolutely fine.

Now they aren't.

And now I know better than to assume some things are impossible.

My step brother's name is Tamaki Amajiki. He's the same age as me, maybe six or seven months younger. Fatgum adopted him just two weeks after he adopted me, and I'll admit I was extremely grateful to finally have someone my age to play with.

Even though I was young, traumatized and stupid, I could tell right away that something was different about my new brother.

Tamaki was extremely... odd. Not only did he avoid people like the plague, but he claimed that he saw things that weren't actually there, like flickering, dancing, colorful lights suspended in mid-air, ghastly people with pale faces, translucent legs and bloody, open wounds slashed viciously across their lithe, wiry bodies, or beautiful winged, feathery creatures that trotted to and fro, exploring with an insatiable curiosity.

Being as young as he was, I assumed those were just his "imaginary friends". Fatgum thought so too, and told me that Tamaki was just a little more creative than the other kids and had an extremely overactive imagination.

That's what we both believed, all the way up until Tamaki and I were twelve and those imaginary friends of his hadn't gone away. He'd never grown out of them like other normal children did. Surely he was old enough by now to know that all those things he "saw" weren't real?

That was when I first started to worry, because now even I was old enough to understand that something might be seriously wrong with my brother. We'd grown into preteens together, and despite all his oddities, I still loved him to death and felt responsible for him. I didn't want for anything to be wrong with him, because he was so very special to me. He'd been there for me during the most difficult time of my life, cheering me up and encouraging me to keep doing my best in life.

When I was thirteen, Tamaki and Fatgum disappeared for half the day. I had no idea where they'd gone, I'd slept in that morning and woke up to an empty house and a vague note written in Tamaki's neat, pretty handwriting telling me that he and our adopted father had gone out and would be back soon. Being a premature teenaged boy, I didn't care at all. I just shrugged it off and wandered into another room to go play video games.

But when the two came back, I was immediately aware of the fact something was horribly wrong.

Tamaki came inside a few seconds before Fatgum did, and I could tell just by looking at his pale, tear-streaked face and his haunted dark eyes that he was hurting. Badly.

I tried to ask him what was wrong, but he refused to talk to me. He pushed past me, slapped my hand away when I tried to stop him, and stormed upstairs to his room, slamming the door behind him. He'd refused to come out for the rest of the day, not budging even when I tried to lure him out with cookies.

Fatgum pulled me aside that night and told me what was going on. He'd taken Tamaki to see a psychiatrist that morning, and the psychiatrist told them that Tamaki had schizophrenia. For those of you who don't know, schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that causes you to see, hear, feel, and sometimes even taste things that aren't there.

It was hard to accept at first, but at the same time it all made sense. That was why Tamaki's imaginary friends hadn't gone away.

Fatgum reassured me that terrible night, promising me that it was treatable and there were certain medications Tamaki could take that would help him with the hallucinations and what not. I was grateful because although there was something seriously wrong with my brother, it was something that could be managed.

But... Tamaki never got better. For six months, Fatgum took him to see several doctors and they tried several different treatments, but nothing worked. Nothing made the hallucinations stop. His imaginary friends were still as prominent as ever. That was when Fatgum pulled him out of school and started homeschooling him. I kept going to school like normal, while Tamaki had to stay home and do his lessons there.

Fatgum didn't do this to hide him, you see. He'd done it because the other children, being bratty middle schoolers, started harshly bullying him both physically and emotionally, calling him a freak because of what he saw and experienced on a daily basis. It was better off for him to do his schoolwork at home, where there was no one around to bother him.

Not everyone was cruel and bitter toward him, though. There was a sweet, gentle blonde kid with sky blue eyes that lived across the street, named Mirio Togata. He was such a kind, gentle creature. He and Tamaki had been friends for three years now, he was only a year older than him. Those two were so very close I could tell that there was something else going on between them. But I didn't care.

Mirio was a special person to Tamaki, perhaps the most special in the world. Whenever Mirio was around, Tamaki would smile and his eyes would sparkle with happiness. I knew he needed that happiness in his life because he was a mentally ill boy with no parents, no friends outside of his family, and near-constant hallucinations that couldn't be fixed, couldn't even be managed.

Tamaki was a naturally quiet person. He preferred to keep his intelligent ideas to himself and remain silent most of the time. But whenever Mirio was around, Tamaki wanted to talk about any and everything that popped into his head. As far as I was concerned, Mirio was capable of making my brother feel like a normal, happy teenager. And that was priceless. If protecting Tamaki meant letting this cheerful blonde guy into my life, I was more than willing to do so.

I'm fifteen now, Tamaki's fourteen but his birthday is next month. He's already making plans to spend an entire day eating cake with Mirio... Or at least that's what he says is gonna happen. I know for a fact that Fatgum would never allow such a thing. But it still makes me smile, seeing how excited my brother is.

Sometimes I wonder what it must be like to be Tamaki. What's it like, constantly seeing and hearing things that aren't there? What does it make him feel like when these weird, ghastly, bleeding apparitions come to him in the middle of the night and talk to him? And how is he still so certain that nothing's wrong with him?

Yep, that's right. Tamaki is still blissfully ignorant of the fact he's been consumed by a serious mental illness that can't be cured. He doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact all the doctors he's seen can't help him one bit.

And whenever I try to talk to him about it, he brushes me off and insists that it's not a mental illness. He says it must be something else, like the quirk he doesn't have.

That's also entirely accurate.

I was born with a quirk that allows me to harden my entire body, making me invincible until I get too tired to keep it up. Fatgum has a quirk that allows him to convert any and everything he eats into thick, impenetrable layers of fat that coat his entire body, protecting him from physical harm.

But Tamaki was born quirkless. He's a part of the twenty percent of the entire world population that don't have any sort of special superpower.

He says his imaginary friends must be his quirk. But he doesn't have a quirk.

He's extremely mentally sick, so sick that there's nothing anyone can do for him, yet he believes he's fine. I wish I knew the secret to being as delightfully oblivious as he.

Perhaps he's just in denial. Maybe he knows exactly what's wrong with him like the rest of us do, but he just doesn't want to admit it because it's eating away at him. That would make the most sense. I refuse to believe my precious, innocent brother is insane enough to really and truly believe he's okay. Because he's not, and he never will be.

I also don't mind that he's obviously attracted to males, specifically Mirio. So what if he's gay? That's pretty normal nowadays, and if that's who Tamaki is, I'll still love him just the same.

I myself have a bit of an embarrassing crush on one of the boys in my class. I'm just a freshman so it's too early for dating and crushes and what not, but I can't really help it. His name's Kaminari, and he's a cute blonde with an electricity quirk that sits right in front of me in class. He's a sweet, charming character with the most lovely golden eyes I've ever seen.

Having a crush on someone makes me feel normal. Sometimes I feel... Pretty damn low... Because I've got a mentally ill step brother and dead parents. I certainly don't have a normal life and a normal family. I spend a lot of time taking care of Tamaki, looking after him. That's why I actually like being at school. It's a chance for me to get away from my life and just be myself for a little bit. Kaminari makes me feel normal.

I guess I understand why Tamaki likes Mirio so much, in that case. Finding someone who makes my heavy, exhausting problems seem weightless has made me a better person.

Fatgum doesn't seem to care that both his stepsons experience attraction toward the same sex, which I really appreciate. I'm not sure my biological parents would've approved of it. That's something I'll always wonder about.

That reminds me, Tamaki's never told me anything about what his parents were like. I have the sneaking suspicion that they didn't die, though. Given the way he flinches whenever anyone, including me and Fatgum, make a sudden movement in his general direction, I'm guessing he was physically abused and eventually abandoned. Mirio's the only person exempt from the whole flinching thing, though. Tamaki's perfectly at ease around him.

That's just my theory as to what his parents might've been like, I might be entirely wrong. But it does explain why he never talks about them, and why he doesn't trust easily. He also doesn't let anyone touch him unless they're close, like me and Fatgum... And Mirio, of course.

I think that deep down, some small part of me is jealous of Mirio. He's this awesome guy with good looks, a powerful quirk that allows him to walk through walls, and the ability to make Tamaki the happiest person alive. Sometimes I wish I could be the reason my brother smiles the brightest and laughs the loudest, but I'm not. Mirio is.

I think I'm okay with that, because as long as there's someone out there who can make Tamaki feel okay for a little while, I'm happy for him.

Mirio visits every day around dinnertime and stays until long after the sun's gone down and most everyone has gone to sleep. On weekends, he stays from morning til evening. It's been this way for about a year now, and I must admit I've grown to enjoy his company. He really is a nice guy, and I consider him to be a friend of mine, though he spends most of his time with Tamaki when he's around.

I think he's good for Tamaki, but at the same time, I wish he'd stop pretending to believe him when he insists he isn't crazy.

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I'll have you know that I posted the first chapter immediately after publishing this prologue and the fic itself, so go ahead and swipe or click your way over to that. It's available to read right now. I hope you enjoyed this prologue and I hope you enjoy the first chapter just as much!