Work Text:
They’re at the very end of a training session that has stretched well past sunset. Every last one of them is sweaty and exhausted and Jirou is no exception. All she can think about is a hot shower and collapsing into bed for the next twelve hours, dragging her heavy booted feet out of the training arena and toward the locker rooms. Everyone else is doing the same, tired groans filling her ears that thankfully aren’t ringing because she mostly practiced amplification attacks today instead of training her hearing. She, along with everyone else, has only 4 things on her mind as she drags her tired body back. First, water. Then, shower. After that, food and sleep. Their training sessions had been growing longer and more difficult after All-Mights retirement, not that she didn’t understand this. All Might’s hero days ended at Kamino. Ragdoll had resigned completely. Best-Jeanist is on the brink of life and death. Night Eye is gone. The League of Villains have been quiet for awhile, but they won’t stay docile for long. Soon a battle will break out, and it’s more than likely UA is going to be dragged right into the center of it.
Another step, and then her jacks pick up on something, a soft noise droning on in the background, and she recognizes instantly. Jirou glances over her shoulder and spots Kaminari. He’s far off, still lingering in the secluded area he’d been training in. His yellow hair was in more disarray than usual, lifted and mussed from the static his quirk caused. and he’s got smudges of dirt all over him, which turns him grey from this distance. He was the only one still in the training area, and one glance at him made it obvious why. He was pale, placid grin on his face as he swayed gently on his feet, drooling and giving two thumbs up to nobody in particular, incoherent babble tumbling from his lips. She watches him twitch slighty, and even in his fried mental state, he seemed worn out, movements slow and body heavy.
Jirou sighs softly, feeling a pang of sympathy for her friend. She’d seen this happen to him enough times now and she was so exhausted that it didn’t immediately make her laugh. It actually hadn’t happened in quite some time, his improved support gear allowed him to carefully control his electrical output- but today had been long and grueling and they’d all pushed themselves, so of course this would be the outcome. She wondered where Aizawa was and why he wasn’t helping the blonde back to recovery girl to rest like usual, scanning the arena for their teacher.
He was currently tied up, helping Kirishima break free from the wall he’d accidentally gotten his arm stuck in.
Resigning to her fate, Jirou turns back around and heads for Denki, her body aching, but it’s not like she could just leave him there.
He sways gently, babbling, rooted in his spot until Jirou is upon him.
“You overdid it again, dummy.”
“whe~ehe~uwehhe,”
he says in her direction, causing a small smile to spread on Jirou’s lips. She’s several inches shorter than him, so she tips her head back to glance at him, giggling softly at his face.
I guess it’s still kinda funny after all.
“uweehh.”
“Yeah, yeah. Come on, Jammingwhey.”
She grabs his sleeve, pulling him gently along towards the nurses’ office. They can skip the locker rooms for now, Jirou supposes, because it’s not like Kaminari can properly dress himself at the moment anyways.
She stops for a second, pondering. Kaminari didn’t really need to see recovery girl, right? That’s just where Aizawa always took him because it was closer than the dorms. He could sleep it off anywhere, it didn’t have to be in the infirmary.
“whyeyehuh, ehehhwyeh?”
“Right. Lets just go back to the dorms, so you can sleep it off.”
She informs him, not that he could comprehend it. Or maybe he could, she didn’t really know. She starts pulling them in the direction of Heights Alliance, legs overworked and muscles screaming. She’s so tired, the quicker she gets Denki in bed the better.
-
They make it back to the dorms long before the rest of the class, the two of them having skipped their usual change of clothes and shower. Jirou tugs Kaminari by the hand up the elevator and to the floor his room is on, the two of them quietly padding their way through the hall with only the sound of the tallers’ ‘wheeeying’ trailing behind them. She’d pulled her heavy speaker boots off and left them by the door, along with Kaminari’s shoes. She would go back for them later and properly put (at least her own boots) away, but right now…
“whhhhheyyyeehh”
“Ugh, your room hurts my eyes.”
She squints as they enter, Kyoka shutting the door behind them. The space is as cluttered as always, random and mismatched decorations and possessions littering every corner. His bed is against the wall, layered with patterned blankets that were crumpled into a messy ball on top of the mattress.
She lets go of his hand and stretches, her spine audibly cracking.
“Fuckkkk”
“fweehhhhhh…”
“yeah.”
She agrees, inwardly laughing at the exchange, when she feels him bump into her softly from behind. She turns around, his thumbs are up once again.
damn, i’m tired…. she thinks.
“Okay, go to bed.”
She instructs, planting her hands on her hips.
“weehhhhh.”
“Bed.”
She points to the mattress, but he doesn’t react, instead taking another step forward and bumping into her again.
She laughs, taking a step back.
“I’m not your bed.”
She says, grabbing his shoulders and spinning him around towards his bed, giving him a slight push in that direction. He takes a few unsure steps in that direction, but doesn’t lay down, instead staring at the blankets.
Jirou turns him around again, pushing him by the shoulders so that he sits down on the mattress.
“Here…”
She plucks the sunglasses that are part of his costume off his face, setting them down on his desk. she does the same for his choker. After that comes his support gear, comprised of the bulky Pointer and Shooter he’s wearing on his right arm, the belt with chargepacks, and his communicative headgear, and then she slips his leather jacket off of him. She carefully places all of these things on the floor on top of his black and white jacket, and when she turns around he’s clumsily trying to straighten out his covers so he can get underneath. He’s toying with them as if they’re the most confusing thing in the world, so she gets up and does that for him too, grabbing the first two and tucking them under her arm before pushing him down onto the bed. She then lays the blankets on top of him, and he looks so comfortable laying there and wheying softly and contently to himself.
And Kyoka is so tired, her limbs feel like lead, and she really should shower and everything because she’s gross right now, but….
“Five minutes….just five minutes.”
She tells herself as she crawls onto the bed, laying on her back as she shoves Denki over for room.
“Wwehhyyyhehh~ehehe~!”
“Shut up, it’s not like you’ll remember this anyways.”
She sighs, letting her heavy eyelids fall shut, lazily pulling off her head gear and setting it on his nightstand.
When Kyoka wakes up again, she’s surrounded by warmth, and the girl instinctively shuffles closer to the softly buzzing heatsource beside her, nestling into the blankets more. Somewhere in her sleepy brain, she asks herself why her blankets are suddenly ugly and cheetah-printed, but she dismisses this question and rolls over, adjusting the arms around her so she can get closer to the warmth. Jirou lets out a contented sigh, nestling her head underneath Kaminari’s chin and curling up into his chest.
Closing her eyes, she smiles softly and decides to drift off to sleep again.
But…
Wait.
Arms?
Warmth??
Cheetah Print???
Kaminari---!
With the all too sudden realization of the current situation she was in, her mind is immediately awake, and she sucks in a gasp.
She’s cuddling.
With Kaminari.
In is room.
In his bed.
His arms are around her, his chin is on her head, his warm chest is slowly rising and falling and she instantly feels her cheeks heat up as she rips herself out of his embrace and nearly stumbles off his bed.
“Jesus--what-”
She notices he’s still sleeping, and opts to keep her voice down.
I just have to get out of here, and nobody will ever know-- fuck!
She thinks as her eyes drift to the digital clock. They’d been sleeping all night and through the saturday, it was already 11 in the afternoon. There was no way people weren’t wondering where she was.
So now the question was, what would she say?
She glances back down to make sure he was still sleeping, and he was. He had a peaceful expression as he slept deeply, rays of sun poking through his blinds and illuminating his golden locks. He usually slept for quite a while after short-circuiting, so she wasn’t particularly worried about him stirring.
Jirou smiles softly at him before it drops from her face in embarrassment, and she felt her chest constrict when the thought of getting back into bed with him passes through her, and just how much she’d actually enjoyed being in his arms.
No, no, it’s not that. It can’t be.
Still, the boy looked so comfortable and calm, and his face was oddly beautiful when it was so relaxed. His soft breaths filled the room, and Jirou found herself unable to want to leave.
She stood there awkwardly, watching him and not realizing that she was being kind of creepy until Kaminari moved his arms, as if gripping something that wasn’t there, and his face scrunched up in disgruntlement when he didn’t find it.
Panic bubbles her chest when he cracks his eyes open, blinking sleepily and revealing lovely golden irises which she never noticed were lovely until now, and fuck, her cheeks are so warm.
Okay, so he did stir after all.
Denki hums and groans softly, sitting up and rubbing his eyes before he actually notices Jirou there, sleepily blinking at her.
“Jirou..? what are you--”
“Nothing!”
She wacks him with an ear jack, mentally cursing herself when the sleepy boy before her recoils and throws his hands up in defense.
“Owie…”
He tiredly complains.
He’s probably still a little out of it, if the headache hasn’t set in by now. He doesn’t seen fully awake...
Kaminari yawns, collapsing back onto his bed, Jirou letting out a small sigh of relief.
“M’sleepy. Goodnight. Please don’t wack me again.”
He says softly, and Jirou just exhales, grabbing her coat and headgear and quietly exiting.
Thankfully nobody saw her as she scampered to her own room, depositing her things and grabbing her shower tote and a change of clothes, heading back down the hall to the girls’ baths.
The shower feels amazing because she’d spent all night all sweaty and gunked up, which was like, gross. But she’d also had the best sleep of her life, so it was alright in the end.
She takes a moment to let the water run over her, relaxing under the warmth and letting her mind drift away with the steam.
And it drifts right back to him.
He’d been so warm and comfortable, and it felt so... right , to be fitted against him like that. She didn’t know why, and she ignored the nagging feeling that was now growing in her heart. What the hell….he’s just comfy, and his quirk makes him warm, so what?
It’s not like she wanted to finish her shower and go cuddle right up with him and touch his chest again and wear his hoodie--
Wait, wait, wait! No!
Her face is warm again and she tells herself it’s the heat of the shower.
She finishes up quickly and gets ready, throwing comfortable clothes on and drying her hair out with a hairdryer. And she’s definitely still not thinking about Kaminari and his dumb face, no sir.
When Jirou drops her shower tote back in her room, she heads to the common room, yawning. She was starving, having skipped dinner last night.
He’s probably gonna be hungry too, when he finally stops snoozing like a lazy ass. Should I bring him something…?
Kyoka spots Yaoyorozu at the bar chatting with Ojiro and Midoriya, drinking coffee with empty plates around them.
Psh. No. I’ve done enough for that idiot already.
“Hey, sleepyhead.”
Her best friend greets her, and Kyoka smiles and waves back.
“Want some breakfast? Midoriya made some but everyone’s slept in. Well, except for Bakugou...somehow he mustered the drive to do his morning workout. Should be back in a bit.”
Momo points to the stove, where there are plenty of eggs and sausages and toast waiting, and Jirou immediately beelines for the plates and starts piling on food.
“Yeah. Thanks, Midoriya.”
“For sure! You must be hungry. I didn’t see you or Kaminari at dinner last night.”
Izuku answers, and his words send ripples up her spine. She tries not to let it show that she’s flustered, though.
“Oh, y-yeah. I don’t know about him, but I went straight to bed in my…in my own room, cause I was so tired. Who knows, maybe that whey-face is still out at the training grounds drooling like an idiot.”
She turns around, forcing a laugh and twirling her earlobe, ignoring the small glances the three of her classmates share with eachother.
“I’m sure Mr. Aizawa took care of him.”
Ojiro offered, sipping his coffee.
“So he short-circuited again…? It’s been a while, ever since her got that new support gear.”
Midoriya muttered, scratching his chin.
“We were all going pretty hard yesterday, I suppose it makes sense.” Ojiro states.
Momo nodded, as Jirou slid into the seat next to her and started in on her breakfast.
“Yeah, he’ll probably be out for the rest of the day. He was fried pretty bad.”
Jirou says absently, around bites of scrambled egg.
“I thought you said you didn’t know where he was?”
Ojiro asked simply, but it caused Jirou to nearly choke, coughing and reaching for water as Momo rubbed her back.
“Woah, you okay? I know you’re hungry but--”
“No! I mean, I don’t know where he is, but, I...I saw him after training, that’s all…”
She stops coughing taking a gulp of water.
“Poor Kaminari. I know he hates short-circuiting, must be rough on him.”
Midoriya says, thankfully bringing the attention away from Jirou.
“Yes, but we all have drawbacks we must deal with. Overuse of one’s quirk is just like overusing a muscle, it’ll be sore for a while but come back stronger. You should know better than anyone, right Midoriya?”
Yaoyorozu states and takes a sip of her tea, the green boy next to her nodding.
Eventually Kirishima wanders sleepily into the room, yawning and asking where Bakugou was before devouring the mountains of food Midoriya made. Jirou wasn’t sure he was actually awake, because as soon as he was done eating he sprawled out on the couch and started dozing again.
After that, Iida emerged, offering to help make more food, and he and Midoriya got to work. Tsuyu came after that and helped out as well, and the smell seemed to rouse everyone else because eventually Satou, Aoyama, Shouji, Tokoyami, Kouda, Sero, and Hagakure joined as well, and the common space was alive with sleepy chatter and compliments to the chefs. Bakugou also returned, shaking Kirishima awake and scolding him to move over and let others use the couch before heading to change and shower.
The only people still missing were Mina, who was probably still sleeping, and Todoroki, who was also probably still sleeping, and of course Kaminari who may or may not wake up soon.
Jirou checks the clock, seeing that 2 hours have passed while everyone ate and chatted, Iida saving plates for the 3 sleeping students and Bakugou, while Midoriya cleaned everything up and collected dishes.
Jirou yawned, still feeling a bit sleepy, listening to Yaoyorozu as she talked about the new book series she was reading, but her mind kept drifting back.
She thought of how nice it was, to be near him, and not just in the bed. She made fun of him often, and pretended like she didn’t like him or his presence, but it just wasn’t true. He always brightened the room when he walked in, and always made her feel warm inside, but she hadn’t exactly realized that she felt that way until now.
She liked him.
Jirou didn’t know what to do about it, suddenly it made sense why he occupied so much of her headspace all the time. It wasn’t because he annoyed her--that’s just what she told herself because she was annoyed at herself for being so emotionally vulnerable. She understood why she always got a bit nervous around him, and why she always felt undeniably better after hanging out with him. He was like a ray of sunshine- or rather, he was the lightning to her thunder.
God, what am I gonna do about this? I’ve been so mean to him, it’s not like he’ll ever like me back. Besides, he likes girls with good-looks, and I…..
“Kyoka, is there something on your mind?”
She nearly jumps out of her skin when Momo addresses her, placing delicate fingers on her shoulder. How perceptive, her best friend was.
“Huh-no, Momo. It’s nothing.”
“Really? Because you’re blushing, and all i’ve been talking about is my book. Are you thinking about Kaminari?”
Jirou nearly falls out of her chair. Did Momo have 2 quirks or something?! How could she have read her mind? And there were other classmates around, how could she talk so loudly like that?!
“N-no?! Why would I be thinking about that idiot?! Geeze, Momo…..”
She averts her eyes and starts playing with her earphone jacks, and tries to ignore the way she sees Yaoyorozu’s lips curl upward. Her friend looks at her with knowing eyes before leaning in.
“Y’know, I have a crush too, so I can tell.”
Momo whispers with a little chuckle, which only causes blood to seep further across Jirou’s face.
She knows Momo’s heart is in the right place, that she was just trying to make friendly conversation- but this was all too new to Jirou, and it felt almost like an attack. A crush ?!
“S-so? It’s not like...It’s not...I don’t have a crush. Especially not on him. And keep your voice down, what if someone hears you?”
“Oh? So then, what were you thinking about?”
Kyoka shifts her eyes around, trying to think of something, anything, and she can tell Yaoyorozu didn’t believe her, but her mind is going all staticky and then it happens. She hears Sero’s voice from the couch.
“Hey, dude! Finally awake, huh?”
No , it had to have been Mina or Todoroki that just came in, but why would Sero talk to Todoroki like that? Okay, so it’s Mina, it has to be Mina, Please god--
“You feelin’ better? You haven’t fried out in a while, man. Need anything?”
Kirishima adds, and Jirou wants to hide from the world. She knows one of two things is about to happen- either Kaminari doesn’t remember spending the night wrapped up with her, or he does, and he’s gonna tell everyone. There’s a 50/50 chance that her life is about to be ruined forever--
“Nah….got a killer headache.”
The boy sleepily responds, making his way into the kitchen and straight to the medicine cabinet where they kept painkillers, taking 4 of them dry. Kyoka steals a glance at him, and he really does look tired, his hair a mess and dark circles under his eyes. It sends a pang of sympathy into her heart.
After he eats the pills, he turns back around and starts heading back toward his room to sleep some more, and Jirou thinks she’s probably safe, until he spots her at the bar and flashes her a smile which she pretends not to see.
It doesn’t work though, because next thing she knows, he’s ruffling her hair and smiling at her.
“Thanks for helping me out, Earphone Jack.”
He says with a grin and a wink, and she feels her heart explode, and doesn’t get a chance to respond before he’s gone again, trudging back down the hall to his room.
She wants to hide, because Yaoyorozu is giving her a look now.
“What was that? ”
Her friend says with a smirk.
“Nothing.”
“What did you help him with, Kyoka?”
“Nothing! Sheesh, he’s probably sleep-talking.”
“Okay, whatever you say.”
Yaoyorozu can’t quite conceal her giggle, but to be honest Jirou was just thankful that Kaminari hadn’t said anything more.
Still, it begged the question-- how much did he remember? She would never know.