Chapter Text
The whole thing had been Denki’s idea, because of course it had. There was no one else in Class 1-A who came even close to his level of event-planning genius.
“Genius my ass,” Hanta had mumbled when Denki tried to get his best friend to appreciate the sheer intellect he was observing, “You’ve just got so many ideas rattling around in that head of yours and no filter to stop ‘em from coming out. A couple of ‘em are bound to be okay, at least.” Denki slapped Hanta with the magazine he was reading. “What’s that saying…” Hanta continued, “If you’ve got a bunch of monkeys typing random letters on typewriters, they’ll eventually write Hamlet, or something like that. Your thoughts are the monkeys.”
“You’re a monkey,” grumbled Denki.
“That’s actually a mathematical concept,” interjected Midoriya, who had been sitting on the opposite couch in the living area making flashcards with Uraraka, “I think it’s called the infinite monkey theorem.”
“Why do you know that?” Uraraka asked, disbelieving. Midoriya just shrugged.
“Okay, we’re getting off-topic with the monkeys, no matter how much the idea of giving a monkey a keyboard and waiting for it to type ‘boobs’ intrigues me,” interrupted Denki, ”I was saying that the reason I’m such an event-planning genius is that I’ve come up with an idea for a new class bonding activity: a karaoke night. We could do it right here in the living room, all it would take is some mood lighting. And, well...a karaoke machine. Whadaya think, guys?” He looked around at the rest of the class, who’d been scattered about the main level of the dorms doing homework and other things.
Most people either nodded or gave a small verbal assent, having been drawn into the conversation by Denki’s showmanship (and sheer volume, he admitted). Uraraka turned to Deku and started rapidly whispering ideas for songs.
“You are not forcing Yaoyorozu to make a karaoke machine!” said Iida, standing up from the table he’d been sitting at and putting his foot down (both literally and figuratively), “I know she was kind enough to acquiesce to the golf balls and clubs last month, but a karaoke machine is far more complicated in structure. I insist that you allow her to rest after the exhausting training exercises we did today!”
“Judging by the way she’s currently scarfing down leftover cookies, I don’t think Momo will be able to make much of anything right now, no matter how simple,” Tsu put in helpfully.
“Yaoyorozu! Those were meant to be shared!” shouted Sato.
There was a muffled “Sorry!” from the kitchen in response.
“Oh, we don’t need a machine,” said Eijiro, standing up confidently, “You can get instrumentals for almost any track you’d want on the internet,” he said, hooking up his laptop to the TV and quickly clearing ‘Crimson Riot Fancam Part 23’ from his search history (But not before Denki made a mental note to tease him about it later).
“So? Who's going first?” Eijiro asked, cursor hovering ominously over the search bar.
“Wait, we’re just like, jumping straight in?” asked Uraraka, worriedly. “I thought we were planning this for later, or that we’d at least get a little time to prepare.”
“We need to be organized about this!” came Yaomomo’s voice from the kitchen. Evidently, she’d finished off the plate of cookies, gotten her lipid count up, and was ready to step back into a leadership role. “Let me just grab a piece of paper…” she glanced around the kitchen, looking for something to write on. Eventually, she just pulled the grocery list off the fridge (pulling it out from under the magnet Mina had bought that said ‘be gay do crime’ where someone had crossed out ‘do’ and written ‘fight’). She scrawled something across the top of the page in pen and then turned, expectantly, to her classmates. “Okay everyone, give me your song requests. I’ll write them down and put them in order.”
“She’s so efficient…” muttered Ojiro under his breath.
“I know, right?” Kyoka sighed dreamily.
Quickly, the class abandoned their homework and other pursuits in order to brainstorm song ideas.
Almost everyone in the class either signed up enthusiastically to sing or was wrangled into it by someone else. Bakugou, of course, had refused point-blank. Shoji had volunteered himself to run the computer instead, Kouda committed himself to being the person to keep Shoelace the cat from attacking the microphone cord, and Hitoshi, bless him and his beautiful purple soul, had agreed to sing one lyric of Denki’s choosing but nothing beyond that.
Despite a great sense of enthusiasm among most of the class, no one was eager to go first. Eventually, they collectively decided that the lead singer of the class band, with the most experience with performing, should bite the bullet and go. Kyoka grumbled a bit, but allowed Yaomomo to pull her up onto the makeshift stage (a collection of cushions pulled off the couches and taped together by Sero) and announce her to the crowd.
“Hello, Class 1-A,” Yaomomo boomed into the microphone. Denki didn’t know how she’d become the evening’s MC rather than him (it had been his idea after all) but she seemed to be enjoying it so much that he wasn’t going to complain. “Welcome to our first bi-monthly class karaoke night!” she paused for applause, which Mina, Hagakure, and Uraraka were glad to provide. “Now, for our first act of the night, it is my great honor to present to you, all the way from the third floor: headliner of both the UA Culutral Festival and my heart, the most beautiful, talented, and special woman in the world, my girlfriend; Kyoka Jirou!”
“All of my training with Mic-sensei has led up to this moment,” whispered Kyoka seriously as she approached the microphone stand.
“Woo! Go bestie!” Denki shouted encouragingly. Kyoka glared at him over the mic, so he shut up.
The song began. Denki faintly recognized it from one of Kyoka’s playlists, a pop-punky kind of sound with an ear-splittingly loud drum part and scorching guitar riff, which she began to mime playing.
Her performance was inspired, clearly the exact sort of thing she’d practiced in her bathroom mirror dozens of times. Denki clapped and wooed along with the rest of the class, and threw in a wolf-whistle at the moment Kyoka dramatically took off her leather jacket (she took advantage of her newly expanded range of motion to flip him off affectionately).
After Kyoka left the stage, Mina got up to sing ‘Fergalicious' , to everyone’s great amusement. Then she brought Hagakure up on stage with her and the two of them dueted that Lady Gaga and Beyonce collab song which Denki guessed was called ‘Telephone’ based on how often they repeated the word. Eijiro did the famous rap from the Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson song, which made Bakugou almost leave the room (“I can’t be your boyfriend while you embarrass yourself like that.” “Aw, come on babe, I’ll dedicate the performance to you!”). Hanta somehow convinced Todoroki to sing a Naruto opening with him, and their rollicking performance of ‘You Are My Friend’ brought the audience to tears (tears of laughter, of course, but no one was going to admit to Todoroki that they hadn’t found the song deeply emotionally moving). Throughout the whole thing, Yaomomo announced every act with the same gravitas of a circus ringmaster speaking to a crowd of thousands, rather than a high school student talking to her nineteen classmates.
During Yaomomo’s own song, Denki noticed that Iida was sitting off to the side of the room, at a table by himself. He still considered himself the evening’s host despite Yaomomo’s interference, and as such, took it upon himself to check in on his friend.
He sidled up beside Iida, plunking himself down in a chair. “Aw, come on, class prez, get into it!,” He said, “Don’t you like this song? It’s so romantic!”
Iida frowned at him, and Denki quickly realized his mistake. “I don’t quite…get it,” Iida began, before Denki could stammer an apology, “But yes, I suppose you’re right. It’s...sweet.” They sat in silence for a moment, watching Yaomomo croon her heart out to Kyoka through an ABBA song. “In a very...strange way,” Iida finished. Denki nodded. “I suppose it’s all about expressing your feelings in a way that you simply cannot through regular speech.”
“Exactly! Now why don’t you get up there, Iida?” he asked.
“Oh no, I couldn’t.”
“Why not? You’ve got to have some emotion you want to express,” Denki prodded, poking Iida a few times in the shoulder.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Iida, very sincerely.
“Oh,” Denki faltered, “Well, you’ve got to know at least one song, right?”
“Not unless you count the Periodic Table of Elements set to the tune of the Can-Can,” Iida joked half-heartedly.
A grin spread across Denki’s face. “I want nothing more than to see you perform that. I would give anything.”
Iida stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Would you do your homework the night before it’s due rather than rushing through it in class?”
“For a whole week, class prez. I’d do all my homework on time for a whole week,” Denki promised solemnly.
Iida sang the Periodic Table of Elements song. It was the best three minutes of Denki’s life.
After Aoyama had performed a nearly 20-minute long selection of all of Madonna’s greatest hits (Denki had no idea how he’d pulled that off, because he hadn’t seemed to stop posing to breathe for even a second), Tokoyami had been blackmailed by Shoji into singing ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ by My Chemical Romance with accompaniment from Dark Shadow, Midoriya had sung the theme song from the 4th All Might movie, and Uraraka and Tsu had dueted that famous Spice Girls song about getting with someone’s friends before you became their lover that he didn’t remember the name of, Yaomomo announced dramatically that it was now Denki’s turn, as final performer of the evening.
He sprang up from the floor and practically ran to the stage. He’d had this number in mind since before he’d started brainstorming karaoke night, and was quite literally shaking with anticipation to perform it (although that might have just been a side effect of his ADHD meds wearing off). He slid onto the stage, as well as one could slide across a stack of cushions while wearing socks, popped his collar, and then pulled his favorite yellow-tinted sunglasses out of his pocket. Right before he slipped them on, he caught a glimpse of Shinsou burying his head in his hands, no doubt overwhelmed at how lucky he was to have a hunk of a man like Denki as his boyfriend (or maybe he was just embarrassed for him. yeah, that was probably more likely.) He shot a finger gun Shoji’s way, signaling him to press play on the computer. A funk-pop bass track burst out of the speakers and Denki immediately began grooving along with it, clapping on the beat. Bakugou groaned audibly when the guitar joined in and he realized what the song was. Denki chuckled to himself and sprung into the first verse of what had long been his dream karaoke song; ‘Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars’. He hit every bit of choreography, long memorized from watching the music video what must have been hundreds of times. Then came his favorite part:
“I’m too hot!” he exclaimed, and then pointed the microphone down to where Hitoshi was standing in the front row.
“Hot damn,” Hitoshi deadpanned.
The whole class erupted in laughter, and even Hitoshi himself cracked a small smile, which Denki considered a major victory. They repeated the exchange several times as the song called for, Hitoshi’s smile gradually growing, until by the last line he was practically beaming, cheeks pinched and eyes crinkling. It was such a beautiful sight that Denki was nearly distracted from his performance. Nearly. He’d been planning this for too long to let anything, even a boyfriend with an obscenely kissable face, get in the way.
He finished his performance exceptionally, and brought the house down, if he could say so himself. “Thank you ladies, gentleman, and Tokoyami!” he shouted into the microphone after the song finished, “You’ve been a great audience!” Everyone clapped and cheered again. “And let's give a big hand to the MC of the night–Momo Yaoyorozu!” The clapping and cheering got louder, while Yaomomo blushed and hid her face behind her hands. Denki had to admit, she’d done a better job hosting than he probably would have done, and she deserved recognition for that. While everyone thanked Yaomomo, Denki climbed off the stage and took advantage of their distraction to give some attention to his boyfriend's obscenely kissable face. Hitoshi pretended to grimace, but couldn’t stop himself from smiling into the kiss.
“Now will you admit that I’m an event planning genius?” Denki asked Hanta a few minutes later as the class turned the lights back on and began slowly setting the living room back to normal.
“Well, it was no minigolf,” Hanta snarked, and Denki hit him with the pillow he’d just picked up.
“Jeez, okay, yes Denki, you’re an event planning genius. I tremble before your majesty and hope to learn from your wisdom,” said Hanta, with a mocking bow. Denki smirked.
“I knew you’d see reason in the end,” he said, “Now for next week? I’ve got an even better idea. Now, wait for it-” he paused dramatically, “School wide paintball.”
“Eh. It’s been done. Try for some originality next time.”
“There is just no pleasing you, is there?”