Chapter Text
“Kaminari Denki. Hero name, Chargebolt.”
Kaminari read aloud. It had taken some time for him to find the right page in the charred notebook. Not only was there no index, but he found reading his friend’s entries too interesting to pass up.
“Quirk: Electrification. Quirk Type: Emitter. Quirk Range: question marks? Ohh, unknown. Wait, unknown?”
This struck the boy as odd. It’s obvious Midoriya was thorough with his research. He knows Kaminari’s hair is natural, he listed body type as lithe, heck he even drew a second picture to show Denki in his Jamming-Yay mode. How doesn’t Midoriya know electrification is a close-range quirk?
His eyes spot an asterisk next to the eyes on his portrait. A note describes them as ‘sparkling, electric eyes’, and a line links it to the next page.
“Summary: Kaminari’s quirk generates mass amounts of electricity, but generating too much over a short time short-circuits his brain for about an hour. Ugh, tell me about it.
“Range is.. variable?” His voice perks up. “as electricity travels according to physics. An alternate application causes idiopathic craniofacial erythema with prolonged eye contact…”
“Wha?”
Midoriya writes about everyone’s quirks. You can’t keep the boy from pens whenever he meets someone new. When he’s not writing about powers and theories, he’s mumbling about them instead. So when Mina told him to ask Midoriya for help, and Midoriya gave him the notebook, he expected some useful new tactic or something.
“But this.. this is wild. How did I not notice an entire power?? This is seriously a game changer, I gotta ask-“
“Kaminari?” A small voice is heard from the door, followed by a few knocks.
“Oh! Come on in, it’s unlocked!”
Midoriya opens the door, stepping inside. “Hello Kaminari! Sorry I wasn’t able to help you right away. I hope my notebook was useful.” He shuts the door behind him.
“Useful?? You.. I can’t even. Look!” Kaminari holds up the notebook.
“I.. I know?” Midoriya chuckles, “I wrote it. What’s got you so excited, Kaminari?” He takes a seat on the bed next to the blond.
“So this thing with my – you can call me Denki by the way – with my eyes is.. Can you talk me through that? Because I’ve got no clue, but dude it sounds awesome!” Kaminari passes the notebook to Midoriya, who takes it gently.
“Oh! Alright.. Denki.” He beams, his face heating up. “Then you can call me Izuku. So let me get this right.. you really didn’t know about this?”
“No! I’m not even sure what this is.” Kaminari leans close, reading more down the page. “I’ve got no clue how I survived this long with such a random power just chilling there.”
He heard Midoriya cough, prompting him to look up. And there he was, his face inches from the greenette’s own. The hair, coupled with the aggressive red on his cheeks, reminds Kaminari of Christmas.
“H-how.. do you not know… about it..? Y-y-you’re doing it r-right now..”
Kaminari blinks, pulling away frantically. “Izu! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!”
“It’s fine!” Midoriya squeaks, facing away and taking a deep breath. “Phew. It’s.. I’m not used to being this close to you, so I think I’m getting hit by the super move I made up.”
“Oh?” Taking the book back, Kaminari scans down the page. “Oh! I didn’t even get to this stuff yet.”
“Really? But I gave it to you in class, a few hours ago.”
“I.. got distracted.”
Midoriya giggles, scooting closer. “That’s fine, don’t worry about it! Let me know what you think about the speculation area.”
“’Lightning Redirection’?” Kaminari reads aloud, “using electricity to juice the muscle groups, providing strength and speed- Wait.. No, I tried this before.”
“And? What was it like?”
“I broke my hand lmao. Tried to do that kung fu thing where you chop a board in half, and I DID, but I broke my wrist. Had to wear a cast for forever after that stunt.” Kaminari grimaces at the thought, rubbing his arm tenderly.
Midoriya cringes along with him. “Lets move on then, I’m the only one allowed to break my arms.”
“Pfft.. If you say so, Izu.” Kaminari ignores the blushing boy in favor of the next line. “Electromagnetism: running a current through metal creates a magnetic field, redirecting metallic objects. So.. Magnets? How do they work?”
In an instant the greenette perks up, beaming. “It’s actually really simple! I read the whole electromagnetism wiki before I came over here, I’ll show you after training tomorrow!”
Kaminari grins back, “I’d love that! It’s a date then.” His grin falls as Midoriya flops back onto the bed, covering his face. “Izuku? Izuku!”
“D-Denki! You did it again!”
“What?? The thing? But I didn’t even- I’m not activating my quirk! Izuku I’m so sorry, I- What am I even..” He trails off, worried.
Midoriya shakes his head, “I need a sec.. just keep reading! It’s the next one, I call it-“
“’Fluster’?” Kaminari frowns, reading further. “Focusing electrification through the eyes causes idio.. ICE, with symptoms of hyperhidrosis and nausea after advanced exposure.. Izuku, I don’t know what any of this is. Well, nausea I get.”
Taking a deep breath, the flustered boy sits up. “Idiopathic craniofacial erythema is”, he stops to cough, “a condition where you blush uncontrollably. Hyperhidrosis is often diagnosed with it, it makes you sweat a lot for no reason.”
Blinking, Kaminari looks away timidly, “Izuku.. what are you saying? What’s this all mean?”
Midoriya sighs, hugging his knees. “Whenever we lock eyes for too long, I get all red and ‘flustered’.” He bites his lip. “The other day we were in the common room, I happened to catch your eye. And it.. I don’t know. I started to sweat, my stomach got all weird, my knees got wobbly. I could barely think straight after a while.” He sighs, burying his face in his knees.
“You’re saying I.. caused all that?” Kaminari blushes a bit. “I don’t know what to say, Izuku.
“I’ve never heard of a power doing that!”
The other boy’s head snaps up, grinning ear to ear. “I know! It’s so cool!”
Kaminari matches his grin with a smirk. “Ahh, this is so awesome! Imagine Shigaraki’s face if we ever fought!”
“Imagine Dabi’s!”
“Imagine Stain’s!”
“Stain’s in jail. But there’s Spinner!”
“And Toga!”
Midoriya cringes again. “I.. I don’t think she’ll notice, honestly. She’s always making those weird faces.”
“Oh”, the blond hesitates, “well.. still! I can’t wait for practice tomorrow! Zuzu, I really can’t thank you enough for this.”
He giggles in response, “Watch it! We don’t know what that’s capable of yet. And don’t mention it Denki! I’m just happy to help. We heroes gotta stick together, the better we help each other the easier things will be.”
Kaminari laughs, soft and melodic. “I think I know someone who will disagree.”
“Do we have to talk about him right now?” Midoriya shoots back, frowning. “Although..” he continues, his face morphing into a cheeky grin, “if you just so happened to use your fluster powers on him, and got a pic, I’d love to see that.”
“Now now Izu, with great power comes great responsibility.” Kaminari puffs out his chest, wagging his finger in the air.
In response, Midoriya scrunches up his face like All Might, raising his fist in return. “The most inflated egos are often the most fragile.”
Both heroes-to-be erupt in laughter, succumbing to the ridiculousness of each other.
When they finally calm down, Midoriya speaks first. “Well, I should really get back. It’s getting kinda late for me. But uhm.. keep my notebook, ok? It might help.”
The blond shakes his head, pushing the book into the other boy’s hands. “No way. I’m not gonna learn anything between now and training, and besides..” Kaminari grins, “I saw your eyes lighting up for like our whole chat. If you want to update your notebook, go right ahead.”
Midoriya looks at the notebook before back at Kaminari, nodding and clutching it tight. “I’ll show you what I have tomorrow, ok? I promise.”
Laughing, Kaminari pulls him into a gentle hug. “Deal. Thank you again for all your help. This.. I can’t thank you enough, I feel so hopeful.”
Midoriya can do nothing but lean into his arms. And blush. “A-anytime, ok? I’m more than happy to help.”
Kaminari feels the stronger boy’s arms circling around his waist, hugging him like a board in a vice. It’s endearing, if a bit painful. Laughing, he pats Midoriya’s back and the two pull away from each other. “Sleep well. Keep your arms intact along the way, ok?”
“Pfft..” Midoriya covers his mouth, taking a moment before replying. “No promises, Denki. Try not to.. uh, short-circuit while I’m gone.”
“The only ‘short’ here is about to leave, I’d say.” Kaminari smirks, sticking out his tongue.
“Denki! Low blow! You’re barely-!“ Midoriya freezes as Kaminari’s increasing smirk tips off his poor word choice. Both hands shoot up to his ears, protecting them. “Nope! No way! I’m not giving you the satisfaction of another height pun. Good! Night!”
Before the door closes he hears the other bid him sweet dreams, followed by a chorus of amped laughter.