Chapter Text
Coming back from short-circuiting is always a crappy experience for Denki. When he gains the ability to think clearly again, it’s always like his brain is catching up for lost time and shoves all of his insecurities in his face. Generally, Denki likes to think that he’s pretty good at pushing away the negative aspects of life and forcing himself to be positive. He’s always been very adept at putting forward the image of himself that he wants people to see; a regular teenage boy with a stupid sense of humour who doesn’t mind at all being the subject of his own, or other people’s jokes. And to be fair, it wasn’t hard since he was those things. The only hard parts were pushing down his pain when his quirk got out of control, and playing up the aspects of his character that made people feel at ease around him. Usually, this made everyone happy, and Denki had lots of friends because of it, but things were different at Yuuei. He went over his wattage limit more often because of hero training, and his classmates started to see him as someone stupid, who’s humour came from just how ridiculous they were. He found himself playing up the ignorance as he’d always done, but this time, it didn’t make him happy. And he didn’t realize until it was too late to change everyone’s minds about his personality. And it made him think things about himself that definitely did not help his self-confidence.
To be completely and utterly honest, Denki is surprised that he’s made it so far at Yuuei without getting expelled, especially after hearing just how cruel Aizawa-sensei had been to his past classes. What with all the expelling he’d done in his past.
Now, Denki knows, realistically, that he’s improved a lot since entering the hero course, but he also has an awful habit of comparing his every move to everyone around him, which makes it hard to do anything productive when he thinks too much about it.
He knows his quirk is a pain; hard to control and harmful to himself and others when it gets out of control. He knows that nobody’s aware of the fact that it hurts him to go over his wattage limit, or of how scary it is to not be able to control your body no matter how hard you try, but it still makes him feel awkward and unwanted whenever it happens.
It was part of the reason his crush on Jirou had been stamped out so quickly - she laughed at him so often that he’d felt that she thought he was her personal comic relief rather than her friend. The fact that he’d been labelled a flirt and had gone along with it didn’t help his case either.
He really has to find a way to stop going over his wattage limit so much. Coming back to himself after a forced disassociation always makes him feel ten times worse than usual. He’s glad that its Friday, giving him the rest of the weekend to rejuvenate.
He sneezes, sparks rising from his skin, and dancing along his arms, lighting up the dark room. His desk lamp flickers on with the accidental discharge, and he sighs, sitting up in bed. His brain is still fairly foggy from earlier, and his headache worsens when he forces himself to stand, but he manages to get up and walk over to his desk. He makes slow work of unscrewing the lightbulb, and his fingers prove to still be delayed responding, as if he’s trying to control a limb that doesn’t exist anymore. Fairly soon, the lightbulb comes away in his hand, and the room is plunged back into inky blackness. And now his head’s aching because his eyes aren’t used to the dark anymore. Maybe some tea will make him feel better.
He stumbles over to where he knows his bed to be, and searches around for his phone, finding it vibrating quietly from within his blanket nest, the screen alight with a message, which he ignores. The time reads 3:07 AM. He grabs his phone, disconnecting it from the charger, and fumbles around for a bit, getting irritated with his fingers again, before turning on his flashlight. The sudden bright light makes him flounder a bit, muttering a small, throaty “fuck” as he catches himself at the last moment on his desk. He shakes his head, only managing to make his headache worse, and walks over to the door, throwing it open, and forcing himself into the wall of light that is the hallway. He shuts off his flashlight.
Being outside of his bedroom after curfew always feels dangerous to Denki, no matter how safe he knows Yuuei is. The faded yellow of the mechanical lights casts longer shadows, and the building is altogether darker and feels emptier with the absence of conversation. It’s so quiet that Denki can hear the quiet padding of his thoroughly fluffily socked feet on the carpet as he makes his way down the hallway to the stairs, passing the elevator completely. He doesn’t want to disturb the quiet any more than he already has, with the dinging the elevator chimes out when it stops on a floor.
The stairs are worse than the hallway. While the light in the hallway had been a thick, almost mustard shade of yellow, the lights in the staircase are more spread out and have a hospital-esque feel, the light white and impersonal, creating large shadows that Denki’s imagination takes creative liberties with. Electricity crackles nervously across Denki’s skin, illuminating the shadows for a second, and the figures his mind created disappear as he forces himself to get a grip, god, aren’t you supposed to be a hero?
Denki forces himself forward, quickly descending the stairs and blocking out the loud echoing of his footsteps. The nervousness in his chest transforms into anxiety, which quickly changes to panic as the silence gets louder, his footsteps get louder, his heart pounds louder, and suddenly it’s all too loud and Denki is running down the stairs, taking them two and three at a time, rushing towards the kitchen on the bottom floor. He skids to a stop outside of the ground floor door, whips open the door, and rushes through it, forcing himself to close it gently behind him. He stands outside the door for a moment waiting in mounting frustration for his heart to stop beating so damn fast. Just as he’s starting to get his panic under control, his phone buzzes in his hand, and he jumps, staring around wildly before realizing what it was.
“Chargebolt: Dumb-Ass hero,” he mutters to himself, or, he tries to. Apparently, his tongue is still behind on the times from going over his limit, and it comes out muffled and jumbled. He just sighs and turns on his phone.
It’s a message from the group chat he’s in with Hanta, Eijirou, Mina, Kyouka, and Katsuki. Surprisingly, some of them are still up and texting. Denki resolves to check the messages once he gets the kettle on, and makes his way down the dimly lit hallway, towards the darkness of the main foyer.
Just as he’s reaching for the kitchen light switch on the wall at the end of the hall, he sneezes again, and lightning sparkles down his arm, making him twitch. The lights flicker when he turns them on, but they stay on. At least they still work.
It’s probably going to storm tomorrow, with all of the extra static charge Denki seems to have picked up. And that means locking himself in his room all day so that no one gets shocked when he accidentally discharges some of it at random intervals. After shocking his mother as a child, he’s spent every thunderstorm alone, but that’s not something he wants to think about right now.
pushing the thought from his mind, he strides quickly towards the kitchen, already feeling safer in the brightly lit space, with the gentle hum of the fridge to remind him that time hasn’t just stopped and left him behind in a frozen moment. He grabs the kettle from the counter, and slowly fills it with water before placing it back on its stand and flicking it on. Its calm rumble adds to that of the fridge, and he feels a lot more present and grounded with the noise. He grabs his favourite mug (which looks like the ‘who’s that Pokémon’ screen and fills in to show Pikachu when hot liquid is poured in) and a bag of cinnamon tea out of the cupboard, setting them both on the counter, and clicks on his phone while he waits for the kettle to finish boiling. He opens his messaging app, and taps on the group chat labelled “Lord Farsquad”, swiping on the screen to see the earlier messages.
5:02
tapin my way downtown: yo denk can you come look over my eng hw plssss
dude plssss
do any of y’all know where m’boy *tips m fedora* is???
pet rock: any of y’all
on acid: any of y’all
jacked up: any of y’all
king explosion murder lord: any of y’all
taping my way downtown: let me f u c k i n g live
king explosion murder lord: no
on acid: whoooah even bakubabe responded!!!
king explosion murder lord: fuck off
jacked up: yeah fuck off mina, the only one who can call him babe is eiji
pet rock: s H U T
king explosion murder lord: ,,
i,,
sT O P
UP THE FUCK SHUT
taping my way downtown: yEAH KYOUKA U P T H E F U C K S H U T
— The group chat has been renamed “UP THE FUCK SHUT” —
king explosion murder lord: FUCK YOU ALL
jacked up: no thanks, i think eiji would get jealous
— king explosion murder lord has signed off —
pet rock: k Y O U K A W H A T T H E F U C K
taping my way downtown: k. now that he’s gone.
@pikachu-social-experiment
wHERE THE FUCK ARE YA BITCH
I NEED YA HELP, B I T C H
pet rock: dude he might be sleeping
he was pretty wiped after he went overboard in the hero simulation
on acid: yea hes prob sleping
pet rock: sleping
— on acid has changed their name to sleping —
sleping: i am become my mistakes
anyway do y’all wanna have a group study session while denki sleeps away his afternoon?
taping my way downtown: sigh sure
denk’s the best at eng tho, so im officially d e d dead
jacked up: hanta u typed out dead 2 dif ways
pick one and fucking commit, scrub
taping my way downtown: fuk off kyouka ur not my dad
jacked off: f U K U 2 H A N T A
and sure i’ll come i guess
— jacked off has signed off —
pet rock: katsuki and me are coming!
— king explosion murder lord has signed on —
king explosion murder lord: N O I ‘ M N O T , S H I T T Y H A I R
pet rock: :(
sleping: U MADE THE BOI SAD, KATSU, GET READY TO CATCH THESE MOFO HANDS
— king explosion murder lord has changed their name to bakubabe<3 —
bakubabe<3: WTF RACCOON EYES
HOW THE FUCK DID YOU EVEN DO THAT
sleping: ;)
— sleping has sighed off —
pet rock: ;(
bakubabe<3: ...
pet rock: ;((((
bakubabe<3: no s t o p
pet rock: ;((((((((((
bakubabe<3: fUCKING F I N E YOU S H I T
— bakubabe<3 has signed off —
pet rock: :))))))
taping my way downtown: keep your grossness out of the fucking groupchat, ya nasties
pet rock: >:(((
— pet rock has signed off —
taping my way downtown: understandable, have a nice day
d(￣ ￣)
— taping my way downtown has signed off —
3:06
— sleping has signed on —
sleping: @everyone
yO GUYS KYO AND I WERE TALKING AND WE SHOULD HAVE A FUCKN S Q U A D B E A C H T R I P
— taping my way downtown has signed on —
taping my way downtown: BEACH TRIP BEACH TRIP BEACH TRIP
man its so weird being on here in the middle of the night without denk here
sleping: the weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow! maybe we can take a bus to Takoba? I don’t think anyone’s doing anything!
Denki sneezes. He can feel the sparks racing along his limbs, but he manages to reign in control before they shoot out into the room. Yeah, it’s definitely going to storm tomorrow. But will they really care if they’re going to be swimming anyways? It doesn’t matter, Denki won’t be going. He can’t be going.
He grabs the kettle, which has finished boiling, and pours the hot water into his mug. He watches as the empty space gains colour and Pikachu appears, looking as though it’s going to leap into his tea. Denki sets a timer to steep his drink on his phone, before switching back over to the messaging app.
— pikachu social experiment has signed on —
pikachu social experiment: nt so sure the weathers gonna be that nice, mina
don’t think i’ll be able to go anyways, sorry guys :(
i’m a bit behind on the math hw!!
sleping: denki!!!
taping my way downtown: where were u dude!!!!
pikachu social experiment: was just sleeping lol
y’all know how stupid i get when i go overboard
taping my way downtown: are u feeling sick??
u in the kitchen??
pikachu social experiment: yea kind of
nd yea im in the kitchen
late night snacks wait 4 nobody ;)
taping my way downtown: mind if i join? i wanna some hot cocoa
pikachu social experiment: yea sure,,,
see you soon
— taping my way downtown has signed off —
Denki puts down his phone, sighing, and looking around the bright kitchen. Does he want anyone to see him like he is, all drained and upset and ultimately ‘not acting like himself’? Not really. But is he relieved that its Hanta and not anyone else? Definitely. Because Hanta is always kind. He doesn’t tease him about how stupid he is. He razzes him about other things, yeah, but Denki can always tell that he’s not serious.
The alarm that Denki set for his tea goes off, his phone vibrating sporadically on the counter creating a light buzzing noise, and Denki jumps slightly, sparks making his hair stand on end. He awkwardly pats it down, and heads to his mug. The warm, cinnamon aroma makes him warm, and he feels at peace.
Then the elevator dings loudly from the hallway, and the moment ends. Denki can hear Hanta’s quiet footfalls from the hallway, as he removes his tea bag and tosses it in the compost bin under the sink. He’s just finishing putting a tablespoon of honey and a dash of milk in his tea, when Hanta walks in. The dark-haired boy is wearing the most insanely fluffy onesie that Denki has ever seen; all royal blue bunched up around his huge elbows, and covered in images of the Arachnid Hero: Spiderman’s iconic mask, and Hanta’s wearing two different coloured (pink and yellow) spiderweb socks to match. His silky shadow-black hair hangs around his face, framing it perfectly, and Denki has never seen Hanta look so soft. Denki kind of wants to hug him. Only a little bit. You would have to be a monster to not wanna hug something that fluffy, he reasons with himself.
Hanta smiles, perfectly white teeth on display when he sees Denki, walking over to the counter to grab a Minnie Mouse mug from the cupboard. He fills it with milk from the fridge, and carefully sets it down in the microwave with the gentleness of a parent holding their newborn child for the first time. He sets the microwave to run for two minutes, presses start, then turns to Denki with a calculated look on his face. Denki immediately feels nervous. He knows that Hanta can tell when he starts biting his bottom lip slightly, with those straight white teeth. Hanta sighs.
“Denk, are you okay?” he looks at the light-haired boy carefully as he does so, paying close attention to his expression.
“I’m fine,” Denki gives a tired smile. His words still sound a bit slurred, but at least his words are legible now. “Still a bit out of it, though, from earlier.”
Denki schools his expression into one of quiet content, and ‘woe is me, I’m stupid and messed up again’. Hanta nods slowly, seemingly accepting his answer. Denki lets out a mental sigh of relief, despite the fact that he knows his years of practise acting how people expect him to won’t let him down.
He carries his tea over to the breakfast bar, and sits down on a stool, facing Hanta and the microwave. Hanta pulls his milk out of the beeping machine, and adds a couple tablespoons of hot chocolate mix to the hot liquid, stirring rapidly. Denki sips his tea. It brings feeling back into his body, steadily, as it drips down into his stomach, warming him from his head down to the tips of his toes.
“If you’re fine, then why don’t you wanna go to the beach?” Hanta asks next, slowly stirring his hot cocoa. He doesn’t look at Denki, and instead turns to the fridge, grabbing a large can of whipped cream. “I know for a fact that you finished those math questions early for once because you wanted to surprise everyone.”
Denki pauses, mug held in front of his mouth, hiding his expression, and uses the time it takes Hanta to fill the top of his drink with the whipped cream to plan out a response.
Hanta’s created a literal mountain of whipped cream atop his drink by the time Denki’s ready to speak, and is sprinkling cocoa powder and sprinkles on the top when Denki opens his mouth. He decides to diverge half of the truth.
“I’m kind of scared of water?” he says, tone lifting towards the end like he’s asking a question. He knows Hanta would be super understanding if he told him the entire reason he didn’t want to go, but as Denki’s good old mom always says, “don’t bother other people with your problems, you asshole”.
Katsuki reminds Denki a lot of his mom.
Hanta looks up from his mountain of calories, dark eyes glinting with humour. “Scared, or don’t know how to swim?” he says teasingly. Denki forces out a chuckle.
“A fair mixture of both,” he lies, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.
Hanta’s teasing smile loses some of its bite. “I can show you how to swim,” he says, his smile taking on a softer note. And Denki kind of wants to grin back, because Hanta always knows when to back off and be genuine. Now he really wants to go, just so he won’t let Hanta down, but he can’t. It’s not safe for anyone to be around him in the water. Especially during a storm.
“C’mon, Denk!” Hanta pleads. “What if you just stayed out of the water? Could you come then?”
“Even if I did,” Denki says slowly, “It’s supposed to storm tomorrow. It wouldn’t be a very good day for everyone to go,”
Hanta pulls out his phone quickly, tapping in his password at record speed, and finding the weather app. He scrolls through the feed until he finds what he wants, and shoves the screen in front of Denki’s nose.
“See? It’s supposed to be like 34 degrees out tomorrow, and it’s not supposed to storm until after dinner! We’ll be in and out in time, and even if we’re not it’s just water!”
And the look that Hanta gives Denki next makes him realize he can’t say no.
“You’re our friend, Denk, we really want you to come,” Hanta says warmly, giving him a desirous look. And Denki really wants to say yes.
It should be fine if he just stays out of the water, right? And staying out with all of the extra electricity in the air could be good practise for his quirk. He could just ground himself if he gets too overloaded, right? He takes a long sip of his tea, letting the strong taste of cinnamon calm him down a bit.
“Fine,” Denki mutters, feeling all of the fight drop out of him at once. Hanta walks over with his hot cocoa and stands beside him, grinning ecstatically.
“Really?” he cries out, excitedly putting a hand on Denki’s shoulder. Denki jerks at the contact, sparks travelling loosely across his exposed skin before he can reign in control of his quirk, and Hanta yelps, ripping a smoking hand away from Denki’s shoulder. Denki immediately freezes, a horrified look on his face.
“I-“ he cuts himself off, face going pale as more flickering lines of electricity dance across his skin. “I have to go.” he grabs his mug before Hanta can say anything, and takes off, jogging towards the elevator.
Half an hour later when he’s hiding in his room, blankets surrounding him like a cocoon, his phone buzzes, announcing a direct message from Hanta.
taping my way downtown: i know u didn’t mean to do that, denk
just wanted you to know
you seemed really upset earlier, if there's anything going on that you need to vent about, i am completely down to listen
night
Denki doesn’t know what to say, so he doesn’t respond, leaving the message on read, and huddling back under his blankets. He stares at his Pokémon mug on his bedside table. He doesn’t think that even cinnamon tea could chase away the funk he’s gotten himself in to.
—————
To Denki’s surprise, he actually slept quite well that night despite all of the emotions he had tumbling around his head. He guesses that it was because his body was still kind of out of sync with his mind or something. Whatever it was, he’s not going to question it. He wakes up suddenly, though, not quite understanding why he’d woken up so abruptly. He still feels warm and sated, doesn’t need the washroom, isn’t hungry, not - “Denki!” Mina’s voice screeches from right next to his ear. Electricity spikes along his arms wildly, shooting off in different directions, and the ceiling light, which Denki guesses Mina had turned on, goes out with a faint pop! Everything’s quiet for a couple seconds, and Denki groans, snuggling back under his blankets. Mina starts giggling hysterically, as if giving Denki a heart attack and almost dying is somehow hilarious. Denki stomps down his anger as quickly as it’d risen. Mina doesn’t know how much less control he has on his quirk during stormy weather, and he wouldn’t expect her to notice since he’s never told her, or anyone else for that matter, anything about it. He slithers down deeper into his cocoon, pulling his pillow over his head, and desperately hoping that Mina will just get bored and leave. Of course, that’s too good to be true and another light goes on, lighting up the orange of Denki’s blanket. A crack of thunder rings outside, and Denki can just feel the electricity underneath his skin, fighting to get out. He suddenly feels as if he’s been pulled underwater and pushes against it, fighting to keep it inside. When he resurfaces, it's to a ringing in his ears, and sweat on his face. He’s shivering when he notices that Mina’s been talking.
“-and we were going to leave around 9, but I said ‘why wait?’ the earlier we go, the more time we’ll have! Hanta didn’t really agree, but in the end Katsu was all like ‘let’s just get out of here so that we can get this over with sooner’ and I was all like ‘thank you wifey!’ and you should’ve seen Eiji’s face! It was so great. He looked so incredibly pissed off-“
“Mina,” Denki interrupts with a rough voice, after getting his quirk under control. “What did you want to tell me that couldn’t wait another-“ his phone reads 7:02 AM, “-3 hours? Come on, man!”
Mina just giggles. “Dude, we’re goin’ to the beach! I was just explaining it to you! We’re leaving earlier to try and avoid the storm!”
Denki buries his face in blankets for a minute, and takes a breath. He flips the switch, and sits up, smiling.
“Sounds good! What time are we going for?” he asks, winking.
“Probably around 7:45,” Mina grins, poking him on the cheek. “If that’s enough time for you. Katsu woke up at 5, but I think he does that every morning.” she shrugs. Denki sends her a thumbs up.
“7:45’s probably fine, lemme just force myself out of bed,” he says, shooting finger guns at her.
She shoots them back, and turns to leave. “Ugh, I have to go wake up Eiji now,” she says in disgust. “His room always smells like sweat! It’s so gross!”
Denki chuckles as she leaves, slamming the door in retaliation to his laughs. He slowly lays back in bed, smile slipping off of his face as a shudder ripples through his body, and sparks crackle along his arms. He forces them down, and it takes him a few minutes to be able to think clearly again.
Maybe he should ask Yaomomo for an insulated towel or something.
—————
An hour later, Denki’s on a bus towards Takoba beach, wearing an English band shirt and a pair of Iron Man flip-flops, with a new insulated, yellow towel under his arm. He sits there nervously, electricity scuttling along the surface of his skin every so often, despite his attempts to control it. He’ll probably be staying far, far away from the water, wrapped in a towel all day. Good thing he brought his copy of The Chrysalids to keep him busy. Katsuki, Eijirou, Mina, Kyouka, and Hanta sit around him, all loose shirts and beach cover-ups, sunscreen and baseball hats, deep in conversation. Well, everyone but Katsuki, that is, as Eijirou is trying embarrassingly hard to involve a scowling Katsuki, who can’t even look at him without blushing. And Denki can understand. The red-head has his hair braided back into a bun, with a few pieces falling around his face. Denki knows he needs to calm his pan-ass down, but Eijirou looks so adorable, he can almost understand why Katsuki likes him so much despite how constantly he forgets to shower, leaving him smelling like BO a good 70% of the time. To be honest though, all of his friends are pretty attractive, with Katsuki’s defined jawline; Mina’s rosy cheeks; Kyouka’s charcoal lined, dark eyes; and Hanta’s silky hair. Denki wonders how he fits in with them.
Denki is pulled from thought when a sharp pain pricks his temple, and his head suddenly feels like bursting. He schools his expression into a more neutral one, and tries to shove against the electricity attempting to escape him. The most he shows physically is a small flinch, but his head hurts like someone drove a knife into his skull. He reaches into his pocket and subtly pulls out an Advil, which he swallows dry, and settles back against the seat. It takes a bit for the pain to fall to a more manageable level, but Denki doesn’t think that anyone around him will be very happy if he discharges enough electricity to fry an elephant. He looks to clue back into the conversation, but instead makes eye contact with Hanta, who is looking at him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion and maybe a little bit of worry.
Denki’s headache spikes for a moment with his sudden rise in stress, but he manages an easygoing smile at Hanta, who halfheartedly smiles back. Crap. Denki tries to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach, and he turns back to the rest of the group.
“So what are we doing at the beach, other than swimming?” he asks, once there’s a lull in the conversation. Kyouka smirks.
“Whipping your ass at volleyball,” she says nonchalantly, and Denki can see Katsuki’s fierce grin starting to form out of the corner of his eye. He can also see Eijirou go to punch him in the arm, scowling slightly.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Denki laughs, grinning. Mina giggles.
“Don’t worry Denki,” she says, voice loud and excited. “We’ll crush them!”
“Mina, I appreciate the support, but you’re worse at volleyball than me,” Denki watches the pink haired girl frown good-naturedly. His smile widens when she huffs in mock offense.
“Fine!” she declares obnoxiously, “Watch me worry when the only person willing to be on your team anymore is Hanta!”
Denki spares Hanta a quick glance, to see him still watching him curiously, and looks away quickly, aiming for a small chuckle. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing!” If Denki didn’t know any better, he’d think that Hanta’s cheeks darkened a bit.
Eijirou takes over the conversation after that, telling a story about his dog that his mom had emailed him about that morning, and Denki slowly stops listening, halfway through. His nervousness comes back, little by little, and he starts to feel residual panic from the night before rising in his lungs, taking physical form in the lightning that crawls over his skin every so often. He looks outside the window to distract himself. The scenery skating past is lush and summer green in the golden rays of the newly risen sun, but all Denki can focus on are the dark purple clouds in the distance. He hopes that they’ll make it back to the dorms in time for the storm to break, because no matter how hard it is to control his quirk near a storm, it’s always a hundred times worse while the storm is actually happening. Denki sneezes again, and the lights in the train car flicker. Mina’s laughter pulls him away from the window.
“Isn’t that the second time that’s happened today?” she asks, still chortling. Kyouka’s smirking again when he looks.
“My quirks harder to control when I’m excited?” he says, almost like a question.
“Me too!” Eijirou grins. “Sometimes when I’m surprised or excited my spine gets all hard! Like when you have a shiver going up your spine! But it’s just, y’know... hard.”
Katsuki snorts fondly, and it drives Denki’s aching head spinning with how confusing it is to witness. “Yeah, because you’re a dumbass.”
“No flirts on the train!” Hanta says in his ‘mom voice’.
“Yeah, Denki, get off the bus.” Kyouka says, smirking again. Denki shrugs, smiling shortly, suddenly feeling a bit awkward.
Thankfully, Denki is spared the confusion of coming up with an answer, when a recorded announcement comes over the trains loudspeaker, announcing their arrival at the station they’re getting off at. Katsuki’s the first on his feet, scowl back in place as he stomps off the train, with Eijirou following close behind him yelling about how manly it is that he’s so excited to go to the beach. Denki thinks that Eijirou might be a bit delusional. He gets up, all the same, carefully fitting a smile on his face, and follows everyone off of the train.
—————
Going anywhere with the Mina-dubbed ‘Bakusquad’ (named after their most reluctant member), is always an excitable occasion, and when the six teenagers make it to the beach, Eijirou and Mina are running ahead chanting ‘Beach! Beach! Beach!’ at the top of their lungs. On a normal day, Denki himself would be with them, but he’s too distracted by the slowly approaching storm clouds to be bothered to put in the energy. He knows it’s uncharacteristic of him, but he hopes he can just blame his lack of excitement on his fear of water when he Hanta inevitably approaches him later. The group picks a spot close to the water to leave their bags and towels, and Kyouka somehow barters them further back from the shore, to Denki's silent relief. She also seems concerned that ‘someone’s going to dump her in the water', something she says while looking at Denki. He smirks back, inwardly squirming at the thought of getting in the water in the first place.
“Let’s go!” Mina shouts in his ear, pink hands wrapped tightly around his wrist. Her hair and skin look almost red in the morning light.
Denki gives her a small smile, and fluffs her hair with the hand she doesn’t have a hold on. Max floof.
“Maybe in a bit! I have a little to read for English first!”
Mina’s smile turns into a pout. “C’mon Denki!” she whines, dragging out the vowels in his name, “The book can wait!”
Kyouka rolls her eyes. “He’ll come when he’s ready,” she says, grabbing one of Mina’s arms and dragging her towards the ocean. “He’s probably scared of sharks or something stupid like that.”
Denki rolls his eyes at her, and she sticks her tongue out, and Denki watches the sun glint off of her dark hair as she turns her head and trots away.
Eijirou and Hanta follow the girls towards the water (Katsuki being dragged the entire way), leaving Denki to set up his towel and grab his book. He knows Hanta must have told Eijirou something for him to leave so fast without trying to convince him to come with them.
Denki settles himself on a black towel, and wraps the yellow, insulated one he got from Yaomomo earlier tightly around himself. Better to be safe rather than sorry. He pulls out his book.
He reads for a while, going slower than usual, keeping one eye on the approaching dark clouds. He keeps losing his place because of the electricity dancing along his spine, and one time he drops the book entirely when his migraine starts pulsing on the insides of his skull. He picks back up though, and releases a bit of electricity into the dry earth beneath him, instantly feeling a bit better. He wraps the towel tighter.
And then suddenly, there are two huge, rock-like arms lifting him from his spot on the ground, and his hair stands on end with the electricity he lets out in shock. He struggles frantically, and his arms suddenly burn as if they’ve been scratched. Bright red blurs around him and he hears laughter, bright happy laughter. He sees the water getting closer, and suddenly his limbs feel heavy.
The laughter turns light, young. It sparkles on the ocean. Denki feels like he’s hearing a ghost. Then he sees a little girl, barely five years old, playing along the shore, dancing in the sand. She smiles, dark hair rippling like hot cocoa, evening sunlight glinting off of it. She grabs another small child’s hand, and oh – Denki knows what he’s seeing.
She pulls her cousin into the water, laughing hysterically when he falls, head first into the surf. He resurfaces, sputtering water, and grinning madly, golden eyes flashing with humour. And he looks so happy in that moment, so excited to be alive and playing with the friend he rarely sees anymore. And then she’s screaming. The blond thinks she’s just laughing at first, but Denki can see the moment the boy realizes what’s really going on. He can feel it. The fear, the confusion, the overwhelming knowledge that she was in pain and it’s his fault, doesn’t matter that he didn’t know what he’d done at the time, it’s his fault, and it’s his guilt that he’ll carry with him for the rest of his life. And he’s being dragged closer and closer to where that little girl lays, floating absently in the water. He clenches his eyes shut, but he can still see her, formerly pale skin all burned and covered in stark red lines like tree branches. Her dark eyes stare up at the sky, and her cocoa hair fanning out in the water around her. And it hurts.
And then the arms let go.
The moment he touches the water, he’s screeching and shaking, his electricity struggling to get out, and he clamps down on it, teeth grating, eyes leaking, the only thing he can hear is the sound of her screaming in his ears and not again please not again I didn’t mean to.
And someone else picks him up, and oh, the arms are long and thin, it’s Hanta, and Denki relaxes too much all at once. The screaming evaporates like water, like her memory. All of the static he’s been holding in since yesterday comes flooding out of him, and he’s falling.
He closes his eyes.