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Denki is extremely fiery in his affections: He loves or hates with his all, there are never in between.
For example, Denki loves his boyfriend, Hitoshi’s peaceful personality, dreamy gaze, and fluffy hair are his weakness. Denki adores him knowing he is smart, sarcastic, and has a secret fascination for cats, and is overjoyed by the fact he is tall because his hugs are so comfortable.
At the opposite end of his spectrum is Shota Aizawa, his Physics teacher. Denki hates him with all his might. Aizawa's not a bad teacher and maybe that's why Denki cannot stand him because he's not bad and Denki cannot use that as an argument against him.
Why does he hate him? Because he teaches the most boring class of his semester: Physics II. His teacher’s face is always tired causing Denki to want to sleep every time. Nobody can blame him since the class is at seven in the morning three times a week.
Fridays are the worst -it’s a double hour- and Denki is always looking at the clock waiting to go back to his bedroom where he can take a nap and return for the fifth period in the morning.
It doesn’t help that every Friday Aizawa gives them an exercise booklet to deliver on Monday. A booklet of fifty problems that Denki despises. This booklet is the reason why he cannot go out on Fridays or Saturdays. He learned that if he doesn’t work in the damn booklet then he’ll failing the test, not because the teacher cares if he delivers or not, the damn booklet serves as a review for the test and if you do it, you’ll approve.
It's an unspoken rule and Denki has had to learn the hard way -Physics I is the example-. In conclusion, Denki hates the booklet but he needs them to improve, therefore he hates the teacher for being good and forced him to work on weekends.
Thus, there are two people in this world who orbit at the opposite ends of his spectrum of love and he never thought he’ll have them sitting at the same table at the same time.
But there he was and he wants to die.
He has wanted to die since he knocked on the door and the person who opened was his teacher… but maybe we should rewind a bit to see how he ended in that situation.
[...]
Sitting on the bed, Hitoshi asks, “when are you leaving?”
Denki rummages through his closet for a clean sweater. “Leave?” he says smelling his clothes.
“To your home? Vacations?”
“Oh ... I won’t go, my parents are traveling to see my sister. They will spend Christmas with her and will return for the new year”
“Will you stay here?”
“Yeah, my parents wanted me to go with them, but the trip takes six hours and I have the Physics test on Friday and homework for the holidays. If I leave, I won’t do anything, so I’m staying”
“Oh, well, what do you think if you come to my house?”
Denki's smile blossoms as a beautiful flower.
“Could I stay for the night?”
Hitoshi's response is a lazy smile, then he is dragging Denki to the bed, all their plans are forgotten.
[…]
Hitoshi goes home on Thursday and Denki promises to reach him on Friday, but the Physics exam is so awful that Denki ends up going to his room to sleep feeling like his head has been squeezed.
He sends a message before falling asleep: 'The exam has been horrible and I still have to deliver my biology project. I know I said I would be leaving today and that you would pick me up at the bus station, but probably I won’t leave until Sunday. I'm not sure. Send me the address and I will let you know as soon as I get there.
[…]
It takes almost an hour by bus to arrive at Hitoshi’s home. On Saturday afternoon, after finishing with his assignments, Denki buys a ticket and sleeps during the trip.
Once they arrive, he makes a stop at the plaza to eat and buy gifts for Hitoshi's uncle and for Hitoshi himself. Being that this is the first time he visits his boyfriend's home Denki is determined to make a good impression. As far as he knows, Hitoshi's parents died when he was very young and since then he has lived with his uncle.
Denki doesn’t know him, he knows he's a professor at the university, but the only time Hitoshi tried to talk about him Denki stopped him.
“Don’t tell me”
“Why?”
“Because if he is one of my teachers it will be impossible for me to look at his face without thinking about all the things we have done”
“We haven’t done many things”
Denki had smiled, “We can fix that”, before bending over to kiss him.
The identity of Hitoshi's uncle had been put on hold while both enlarged the list of things that made Denki daydream during Physics classes.
Being invited to Hitoshi’s house makes Denki believe that his fantasy of finishing school and renting a small apartment with his boyfriend was not, after all, an outlandish idea.
Everything seemed perfect. Idyllic.
Until that afternoon when the person who opens Hitoshi's apartment door was his Physics teacher.
[…]
In the future, Denki will laugh every time he would think of that moment. It will be one of those stories that are told with friends and family, an event so extraordinary and unusual that it’ll raise smiles and happiness.
But that will be in the future. In the present, the words that Denki had carefully prepared were rotted in his mouth and he can’t say anything.
Worse, he cannot stop looking. He has the vague -the eccentric- idea that the nightmare will disappear if he blinks. So he does. Once. And then twice. And a third one. Until he gets dizzy.
But the nightmare is still there. Worked face with the pale complexion of those who don’t usually go out in the sun, beard of days and red eyes worn from reading a lot of numbers. His frown is visible as if he was wasting precious seconds of his time there. It is the same expression he puts when asks a question in class and none of his students raises their hand to answer.
“Hm?”
And his voice is still that calm paralyzing sound. Unconscious Denki squeezes the bottle of wine in his hand and babbles, exactly as he does in class.
His brain thinks ‘My mistake, I'm sorry', but his mouth only manages to mumble something like 'maisteak, sowy’. He retreats and is ready to run when he arrives.
“Denki!”
Hitoshi appears in front of him and his presence prevents that Denki would become a puddle of shame in the door.
Denki doesn’t pay attention to the introductions, he delivers the wine to Hitoshi -or rather he releases it when he feels the pull in the bottle- he greets -or rather he mutters something that could well be 'nice to meet you’ although it sounds more like 'tu mit'- and he gets carried away while Hitoshi asks him about his trip.
Shota Aizawa disappears into the kitchen and they move in the opposite direction; as soon as the door of Hitoshi's room closes Denki reacts.
“Aizawa? your uncle is Aizawa?”
Hitoshi's embarrassed expression is adorable, but fright prevents Denki from appreciating it in all its magnitude.
“I wanted to tell you, remember? But you said-”
“It doesn’t matter what I said-, oh shit, all the times I've spoken badly about him, oh, why have you never said anything?”
“If it's any consolation, he knew you didn’t know, and it was fun to hear you”
“Fun?” Do you think I -? Oh, shit, Oh, SHIT!”
“What happened?”
“He saw it, oh god, he saw it”
“What?”
“I like to write your initials in the corners of my booklets, but sometimes I like to put your name. Next to a heart- No no no nonono! He’ll believe that I’m a lunatic. He’ll think-, shit, shit. What if he can read the mind? What if he knows that I think of you when we are in class? Can he hear me think? There are many triple-X scenarios in my head, what if he had seen them? Oh shit, what if-?”
Whenever Hitoshi laughs it is a sight worthy of see, his expression relaxes, his eyes shine and the sound that comes from him is calm and vibrant. His laughter stops the spiral of panic that grows in Denki.
Hitoshi's fingers are warm when he slides them down his cheek until he reaches his ear.
“Breath, Denki”
And Denki obeys because it’s as if his brain has shut down and all he sees, hears, and feels is Hitoshi, his voice making eco in his ears and his smile turning his legs in jelly.
Hitoshi has many types of kisses, but Denki's favorites are the slow ones, those that seem to extend for decades and slowly but incessantly spread the fire within him.
Hitoshi's tongue is warm and Denki feels it go through his mouth savoring each corner when he pulls back Denki's tongue follows it until they both take turns to explore each other.
When they break the contact Denki’s mind is full of cotton and his whole body seems like jelly. Denki’s smile resembles a cat that has eaten a plate of milk. Satisfaction and delight.
“Better?” Hitoshi asks with his lazy smile
Denki answers him with a vague 'hmmm' extending his arms-
“Hitoshi, dinner is ready”
Denki jumps back as soon as the door opens, and although he tries to put on an innocent face, he knows the effect is lost by his flushed cheeks and disheveled hair.
After a short inspection, Aizawa gives him what is in his hand and then leaves leaving the door open.
The paper is his test; as soon as he sees it Denki's humiliation comes back to full force. He buried his face in his hands. The note -an 81 circled in red- is right on the top edge, written in the only available space, the only space that is not filled with the name Hitoshi written repeatedly.
“Well,” says Hitoshi by his side “at least this will be the last semester with him, right?”
But I'll see him when we visit your house.
Denki doesn’t say it out loud, but the thought shakes him. Lifting his face, Denki squares his shoulders and breaths.
“Denki?”
"For you, Hitoshi," he says with what he hopes will be a resolute and steady tone. He arranges his hair, his jacket and moves decisively towards the door. Then he stops and turns around. "You don’t have another relative who is my teacher, right?”
“Well, about that…”
At that moment they hear a door opening and a greeting.
“I'm here!”
The voice is unmistakable; just in case Denki comes out and tries not to run away when he comes face to face with a familiar face. Blond. Tall. Noisy.
“Eh! I know you, you're in my literature class! I remember your poem, you called it Hitoshi, isn’t it?”
Three pairs of eyes look at Denki, two voices rise at the same time.
“You wrote a poem?” Hitoshi says
“Apparently it's something he often does,” says Aizawa
The only reason why Denki doesn’t turn into a ball of humiliation is that he is used to laughing at himself. He smiles and says:
“When we get married I’ll recite the poem at our wedding, please don’t mention it again”