Chapter Text
The restaurant was loud, their table was crowded, and the food smelled amazing; Denji was having a great time.
While the drinks were strictly off-limits for Denji, he didn't mind and was happy to stick to tea for the night.
And in any case, he was more focused on how one guy with glasses and a nasty facial scar kept calling out more food orders for the table. Aside from the plates of food closest to Power which she hoarded with a fierce protectiveness, anything else was fair game. Still, with so many people, the food was going just as quickly as it was being served.
Noticing the way Denji kept scrambling to grab random bits of food within reach before they were gone, the buff man to Denji's left dumped a menu in his lap before patting his back hard, lurching him forward. "Hey!" The man yelled over the many overlapping voices to be heard. "You're young, so order more! Eat!"
He flashed a quick grin, leaning his body to the side a bit as Himeno entered into his personal space while throwing back the rest of her beer. They'd barely been here 20 minutes, but Denji was pretty sure that was already her third.
He tried to keep focused on the menu opened on his lap, but it wasn't easy, what with how small the font was paired with the way Himeno's knee kept bumping against his thigh. He narrowed his eyes, tracing a bit of kanji with one finger as he pieced together the word sashimi . Denji could feel the heat of Himeno's skin through his pants.
There was no helping the blush that crept onto his cheeks.
Denji hadn't seen Himeno since the incident at the Marino Hotel, and now that they were both here, it was suddenly all he could think about. Not the 'being sacrificed to a villain' part or the 'almost getting stabbed' part, no - he couldn't seem to get his mind off of that promised kiss.
As Himeno laughed at something and then hiccupped, Denji leaned into her ear, whispering as loud as he could to still be heard. "Hey… About my kiss."
Confusion flicked over her face one moment, then filled with realization the next. Leaning in close with a teasing blush on her cheeks, she tapped his nose. "I'm too shy to do it sober. I'll kiss you when I'm drunker, 'kay?"
Denji grinned something feral.
A large hand slammed once again into Denji's back, causing him to choke on his spit accidentally. The owner of the hand, the man beside him, spoke up. "This is a party for you and the other new kids! Newbies, stand up and introduce yourselves. State your name, age, and Quirk!"
Without missing a beat, Aki lowered his beer and raised his voice. "You're government representatives now. Don't discuss your Quirks so freely in public spaces."
"You're always so stiff," the man huffed out in response.
Boozy breath puffed out warm and hot on Denji's cheek as Himeno leaned herself partially on top of him, arm draping comfortably around his shoulders. Held tight and close, Denji couldn’t help but lean into the embrace, happily ignoring the stink eye that Aki fired his way. With a light hiccup, Himeno waved off the man beside Denji. "Awww, it's fine!" She turned her torso to flag down a member of the staff. She refused to dislodge herself from where she and Denji were entangled as she turned, mindlessly dragging him partway onto her lap. He didn’t mind this one bit. "'Scuse me! One draft beer, and… and edamame!"
Another girl farther down the table raised her hand casually, chiming in on the order. "Another beer here too! And I wanna know the rookies' hobbies. Hobbies tell you a lot about a person," she explained, tucking a loose strand of short brown hair behind her ear.
Himeno shook Denji, fingers dancing lightly, almost as if considering tickling him. Taken in by her infectious happiness, he chose to speak up first. "I'm Denji! I think I'm 16 years old, and my hobbies are… eating and sleeping." He concluded this was a bright, fanged smile.
"You're 16?!"
"Oh my god, that's so young."
"Denji!" Himeno spat out, suddenly spinning him to face her, noses almost touching. She scrutinized him with one eye, narrowed in a hazy attempt to focus. "You haven't had alcohol, right?"
"I got tea."
Himeno released a sigh of relief before ruffling his hair and backing away.
Both Arai and Kobeni were far more professional in their introductions as they rose to their feet one at a time to address the group. With his stiff-backed posture and loudly annunciated words, Arai unintendedly made most of the group laugh at his expense. Meanwhile, most of the group got caught up ignoring Kobeni in favor of discussing her cute dress.
"Hey Fushi," the brunette suddenly called out. "Where's your newbie?"
The man beside Aki, Fushi apparently, responded with a despondent shrug. "They already quit, actually."
"Aw, boo!" Kobeni called out.
"You're already drunk."
"Um," Arai interjected, a bit hesitant in comparison to earlier. "Why did your rookie quit?"
Fushi paused mid-drink, lowering his pitcher to the table with a resigned look. "We got sent out to locate a villain with an Acid Quirk, but it didn't go well; turns out permanent scarring from acid burns was enough of a turn-off that they decided to quit then and there."
Arai's eyes had blown wide. "Does that kind of thing happen often?"
A somber air had suddenly fallen over the table, most of the conversation dying down. "The kinds of villains that get passed to us are the ones the Hero Commission wants to keep out of the media to avoid mass panic. You can't expect villains like that to be easy," Fushi responded.
"Mhm," the brunette girl added with a careful sip of her beer. "Either from quitting or dying, people in our job drop like flies. None of the people who started at the same time as me are with the Hero Commission anymore, either."
Arms squeezed tight around Denji, a flushed cheek squishing against his own, and he couldn't suppress his content grin. "But Denji won't die 'cuz he wants to kiss me!" Himeno shouted gleefully. So close, her chest was pressed flush against his side.
"Yes, ma'am!"
Leaning over with a furrowed brow, the man beside Denji spoke to him. From his raised voice it seemed that he didn’t care whether or not Himeno could hear him as he began to talk about her. "When Himeno is drunk she starts kissing everyone."
"…Huh?" Denji cocked his head, trying to push through the distracting trail of the girl's touch to process the spoken words.
"Besides you new recruits, everyone here has gotten kissed by Himeno," the man continued to explain, watching her with a sudden wariness. His face contorted with a sort of disturbed edge, a shudder making its way through his body. "There's no escaping her."
…So Himeno kisses everyone? The girl in question let out a soft sigh, leaning in to nuzzle against Denji's shoulder. Denji smiled in response. "I'm totally getting my first kiss tonight!"
"A kiss?" Denji's heart shuddered before coming to a grinding halt. It was as if all sound and motion had ceased until nothing else remained by Makima's glowing presence as she slipped off her jacket and settled in at the head of the table. He watched as she raised one dainty finger, somehow commanding the attention of the entire room with the simple action, and requested a draft beer.
"Denji," Makima asked, her voice reminiscent of ringing bells. "Are you going to kiss someone?"
Breaking out into a cold sweat, he shoved Himeno away, frantically hunting for a platitude to offer. "Hell no!"
"Wuuuuh?" Himeno drawled, frowning big and dramatic, her eye growing big and watery. "Denji, you're not gonna kiss me?"
"Hell yeah!" He'd shouted the words before he'd even realized.
Oh, shit. He was so screwed.