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The explosion rocked the dorms and shook everyone awake in a second, causing Shinsou to fall out of his bed.
He scrambled to his feet instantly and flew out the door, nearly colliding with Midoriya. Looking around now, he saw that everyone on the fifth floor was in the hallway.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asked frantically. His question was soon answered by Nedzu’s voice over the P.A. system.
“Students, villains have appeared and are attacking on UA property. Do not engage unless you are attacked and evacuate immediately.”
Shinsou and the rest of his floor mates wasted no time heading downstairs, taking the stairs just in case. They reached the bottom floor and saw the rest of the class all waiting.
“That’s everyone, let’s go now!” Iida’s commanding voice said.
“Be on guard, we could be attacked at any moment,” Yaoyorozu added.
Just as the front half of the class walked through the front door, another explosion hit, startling everyone.
“Fuck it, we’re taking out the ones outside and then evacuating,” Bakugou growled, charging forward, everyone else following behind. Shinsou took a step forward but turned around. The backyard door was open, which was strange because it was closed when he came downstairs. If a villain managed to get inside, then they could attack them from behind.
He made sure everyone was outside at the front of the dorms before heading towards the backyard door, looking around for the inevitable surprise attack.
He made it all the way to the door without anything happening, and quietly creeped outside to see if he could spot anyone hiding. He crouched down once he heard two whispering voices.
“What the fuck is this? I pretended to lose all my id cards to help you sneak in, not attack in the middle of the night!”
“You know I’m not the one calling the shots here, take it up with Shigaraki.”
“This is a pointless attack, you and I both know he’s smarter than this.”
Shinsou’s heart dropped the more he listened. He covered his mouth with his hand to prevent any sudden sounds, not trusting himself once he realized just who exactly one of the voices were.
“Don’t you have a class to help?”
“I’ll just short out or something, I’m more concerned with making sure you don’t fucking kill anyone.”
“Aww, has little Denki gone soft?”
“Fuck off, Dabi.”
The sound of footsteps became distant as Shinsou finally got up and moved from his hiding spot, freezing when he saw Kaminari looking right at him.
“Hitoshi…”
“Don’t, I already heard it all. Just… just why, Denki?” He knew Kaminari wouldn’t answer him. If he was smart enough to fool everyone, then he was smart enough to realize the trap, but Shinsou’s eyes widened when Kaminari began to speak.
“I don’t think any answer will help me out here.”
Kaminari’s eyes widened when nothing else happened. He looked at his hand and and back up at his boyfriend. Shinsou shut his eyes and looked down towards the ground. “Why did you answer me?”
“Same reason you didn’t brainwash me.”
As much as Shinsou hated it, he was right. He was being weak when he was supposed to be doing his job. Kaminari should be standing there in a trance but instead, Shinsou couldn’t even look him in the eyes.
“Okay, since you’re not afraid of answering me, tell me, how much was a lie? Did you think you could convert me or something? Did you only do this to get information on my parents?” The prolonged silence finally made him snap his head up. “Answer me!”
“They don’t know about you, or Eri, or that they’re married. Hell, they don’t even know about the cats,” Kaminari softly said, his golden eyes turning glassy. “I played favourites. I was selfish. It wasn’t that I didn’t love you, it was that I loved you too much. There’s so much they don’t know about you, or everyone else for that matter.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
“If there’s one thing you know about me, it’s that I don’t lie about how I feel, or did you forget who said ‘I love you’ first?”
Shinsou wanted nothing more than walk up to Kaminari and punch him in his stupid pretty face, but his legs were rooted to one spot as he stared at his pained expression, knowing he had the same one on his own face. The ongoing battle at the front of the dorms was just white noise to him. He was in his own world inside of a bubble, and for better or for worse, Kaminari was in that bubble.
“You’re lying.”
“Hitoshi please belie-” Kaminari was cut off by the paralyzing wave of Shinsou’s quirk taking effect. Shinsou shut his eyes before asking him his questions, not wanting to see him standing there helplessly.
“Being the traitor, did you agree to it? You agreed with what you were doing?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like it though?”
“No.”
“If you could fix this all, would you?”
Kaminari wasted no time answering. “In a heartbeat.”
He was hesitant to free Kaminari, not because he was afraid of him now, but because he didn’t want to hear the betrayal in his voice, no matter how ironic it was. Before he could, a whistling sound from is right caught his attention as one of the many explosions, probably from a villain’s quirk, came over the roof, heading towards the backyard.
Heading towards Kaminari.
His once frozen legs sprinted forward before he was even aware of what was going on. He dove forward and pushed Kaminari out of the way, hitting the ground just as he felt a burning and blinding pain run through him.
He blinked away the dark spots in his vision, wondering why one spot wouldn’t go away before he realized that it wasn’t his messed up vision, but the black streak in Kaminari’s hair.
“What the hell was that!?” Kaminari’s voice cracked as his voice went higher. He was panting and cradling Shinsou’s head in his lap, failing to keep his tears from falling onto Shinsou’s forehead. “Not even Recovery Girl can fix this, Hitoshi. Why would even do something like this?”
Shinsou tried to sit up to check the rest of the injuries on his body, but even staying still was too painful to him. He gave up on moving, choosing to look back up at Kaminari.
“I honestly don’t know. Maybe now you’ll be indebted to me, so you have to make things right now.”
Kaminari shook his head and let out a mirthless laugh. “It’s far too late for that.”
“I’m not so sure about that, you’ve always managed to do the impossible.”
He was feeling more and more tired with every passing moment, but it wasn’t the exhaustion he was familiar with when he sat in class everyday. It was like a weight was pressing down on him, but he wasn’t sure if it was the broken ribs puncturing him or the inevitable demise he was trying to familiarize himself with.
“You can still fix this, you’re still good.” Shinsou pushed through the pain and mustered what little strength he had left to grasp the front of Kaminari’s shirt. “Don’t let me die while you still believe so many lies.”
“You’re not going to die on me,” Kaminari choked out. “You’re going to live, and you’re going to go tell everyone what I did because you’re so stupidly honourable, and you’ll be the hero who found the UA traitor while I’ll be somewhere else being who I am.”
It was Shinsou turn to let out a pathetic laugh. “What did I say about lying to me?”
“You’re being inappropriately optimistic.”
“You’re being annoyingly pessimistic.” Shinsou was doing everything in his power to take deep breaths, but every breath in felt like a knife in him. “It’s not blind optimism if it’s a known fact that you can turn this around, either by telling others or doing it on your own. If you do anything else for me, let it be this, Denki.”
The edges of his vision were getting more and more hazy as he realized the pain he was feeling was getting more and more numb. His grip tightened on Kaminari’s shirt, bringing the blond’s upside down face closer. “Actually, one more favour before that.”
“What is it? What do you need?” Kaminari franticly asked.
“Can you smile again? One more time?”
Kaminari’s face turned from a sheer panic to a bittersweet expression. He brushed the hair from Shinsou’s eyes and gave him one last smile, teeth and all. Shinsou’s grip slackened and his arm fell to the ground as his last breath is drawn, the last thing he saw being the only thing to outshine the sun.
“You’ve always been so bright, Lightning Bug.”
The battle came to an end at the front of the dorms, but Kaminari refused to move an inch, his mouth shut as tears spilled down his face. He didn’t even move when he heard footsteps approach from behind him.
“Kaminari? Are you- oh my god,” Ashido breathed out.
Kaminari finally spoke, his voice hoarse and barely above a whisper. “Go get Aizawa and Mic. They need to know.”