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Another feud between designers! Do they ever rest? Denki sighed and closed his phone, throwing it a few feet away from him, before burying his face in his pillows. He wasn't mad at the trending Twitter topic of the hour, just a little tired of his little petty and empty jabs and the ones he received being such a wild concept despite them happening pretty much every other day.
When his phone buzzed again, he was expecting another @ by a fan about the topic, but was greeted with a DM from none other than the man of the hour, Todoroki Shouto.
Hey, I have an idea if you're interested.
if this is about a collab 👀👀👀👀
No, it's not. Don't worry.
aight whats up
Would you like to hang out at some point? I believe it would be quite something for our respective fans.
have u not seen whats trending? bro it sounds fun but like, ya know
Yes I see where you're coming from, but still. Even if it's just once. Plus we've never seen each other outside of work-related things and would like to get to know the Kaminari outside the fashion industry.
kay fine ig it sounds a lil fun
How's this Thursday? Maybe around 11:00? at the cat cafe in Shinjuku?
sounds like fun! see u then!
Denki put his phone down a little gentler after sending his last message, a small bit stunned at the idea of going to a cat cafe with Shouto. His driving point of wanting to know the Kaminari that wasn't focused on work or sending meaningless jabs was something Denki wanted as well, but didn't fully realize until he read Shouto's message. He said "hang out" but couldn't this be classified as a date? Denki flushed at the thought, hiding his face in his hands even though there was no one around to see him blush.
It was only Tuesday then, but Denki already was looking through his clothes trying to find something to wear. Everything he owned looked good—he was a fashion designer, after all, he knew what was good and what wasn't—but nothing was right for the occasion. He considered wearing something of his own design, but thought it would give Shouto the impression he was too full of himself (even though he's worn his own clothes in front of Shouto before, he just hadn't cared then)
Literal hours passed before Denki was satisfied to any degree with his pickings. It was a relatively casual outfit; light blue skinny jeans with a few thigh holes,a plain white shirt, a red and black striped flannel for around his waist and black. He didn't know how Shouto was going to dress, and Denki crossed his fingers that what he picked wasn't too casual and underdressed. Sure it was a cat cafe, but still. Denki dramatically sighed, throwing himself onto his bed for the umpteenth time that after All he could do was wait and that was seriously bugging him.
When Thursday finally arrived after what felt like a couple millennia, Denki was hopping around his room, haphazardly knocking nik naks from their place in attempts to alleviate at least some of his nerves. It was much too early for him to be getting ready, but he couldn't sit still and wait another hour to start getting ready to even least his house. Yet there he was, on his fourth try at getting his jeans on without his foot getting caught on one of the holes, his significant lack of attention paid to what he was doing impossibly apparent. His mind wandered to wondering if Shouto was even a fraction as anxious as he was. Denki kept thinking he was going to accidentally insult the other as he had at past competitions—which led him to begin planning out what he was going to say.
Denki ended up arriving at the cafe 17 minutes early, despite his efforts to be slower in getting there. Letting out a heavy breath, he walked inside. He decided that he was just going to get a coffee or something and wait until Shouto got there. It was near the middle of the day on a Thursday, so the cafe wasn't as busy and overwhelming as it would be on the weekends, thankfully otherwise Denki would've turned around right then no matter how long he took preparing for the outing.
To his surprise, Shouto was already in the cafe in the back corner, sipping on a drink of some kind. He'd brought his attention to the door after the bell rung, sending Denki a small polite wave that was returned with a small smile. In the few seconds his eyes were on Shouto, he glanced over his outfit. Black jeans, white v-neck, light blue collared jacket and green-blue shoes. Denki let out a small sigh, he wasn't dressed wrong.
He quickly got a coffee and sat down across from the other. "I'm glad I wasn't the only one early. How long have you been here for?" Denki asked, glancing at Shouto's quarter-empty mug over the rim of his own.
"I don't know, maybe five-ish minutes. I didn't want to be late which resulted in an early arrival." Denki nodded, placing his mug in front of him.
The pair sat there a bit awkwardly, mostly finishing off their drinks in uncomfortable silence.
"Are we doing ok? Usually, we'd be insulting each other until we're blue in the face," Denki joked, finishing off the last of his coffee.
Shouto shrugged. "Maybe it's because we're at a competition those times. Now we're on what could be classified as a date."
Denki choked on his own spit and blushed a deep pink. He covered his face, trying to subtly clear his throat without turning it into a loud coughing fit. His conversation run-throughs had not prepared him for this.
"Your face is a little red," Shouto commented, smugness shining through his deadpan expression.
"Yeah, noted." Denki coughed once more, before lowering his hand but shook his head, making his hair to fall and cover a portion of his face.
"I thought it was cute. Wanna go see the cats now?" Shouto said nonchalantly, picking up the two empty mugs and bringing them to the dirty dish rack. Denki took the time he was away from the table to silently scream, rubbing his cheeks, trying to eradicate the blush.
When they entered the cat room, Denki was relieved that there was no one else inside, to say the least. The cafe itself was pretty dead, but the noise was getting to him. The quiet cat room was like a wave of relief washing over him. He muttered a small "thank god," to which Shouto sent him an odd look, but didn't say anything.
"Ya know, we've technically known each other for years now. Yet know nothing about each other. So, tell me about yourself," Shouto said sitting on the floor next to one of the cats, petting it softly.
"Dude, that's a pretty loaded question. Be more specific."
So Shouto was. He asked why Denki became a designer, answering the question himself afterwards. Then Denki asked a question. They went on like that for a while, completely losing track of time.
Denki took a few pictures of Shouto holding a cat that had jumped onto him, posting it to Twitter and Instagram, captioning it with "the little shit has a soft spot for cats ig". Shouto told him his phone might actually blow up, to which Denki laughed and agreed, promptly turning off the device. Shouto took a picture of Denki playing with one of the cats with one of the toys and posted it with a similar caption, turning off his phone right after as well.
When they left, Denki was telling a story about how at a family dinner when he first started his career, pretty much everyone at the dinner was trying to coax free designs out of him because "they were family and deserved it or something. I tried explaining to them I was trying to make money off the clothes I was making but they wouldn't take it! You know how annoying that is? It was at my mum's house but I just had to leave after that, ya know?"
Shouto nodded understandingly. "My siblings tried to get me to design them some shirts for free as well, but they weren't as bad as your family. They actually took no as no."
"You're so lucky, dude, I'm jealous. I wish mine understood even a fraction as well. Sounds like a dream." Shouto silently agreed.
Their walk around was filled with small anecdotes about their life.
"Oh damn, I live here. How did we manage to get all the way—it felt like we were walking for not even five minutes!"
"I guess enjoying yourself does that to you," Shouto shrugged.
"You walked me home like we're in some western teen romance movie without even realizing. I'm touched," Denki joked, smiling brightly.
"Does this mean our 'date' has come to a close?"
"It seems to be that way. We could walk around a bit more but my feet are starting to hurt..."
"Until next time, then?"
Denki gave a crooked grin. "Until next time."
The pair said their goodbyes, waving to each other as Denki walked into his apartment building.
Right as he closed his door, he found the nearest pillow and screamed into it. "Next time! Next time! He said next time!" He squealed into the fabric. He let it fall back down onto his sofa before jumping around the place happily.
A few months passed, and the pair were still hanging out, intent to screw this their fans as much as humanly possible. They were sat in a bookstore, sipping on their Starbucks they'd got a few minutes before, books in hand. They decided on picking books for each other to read, and just enjoying each other's company. Over the time they'd spent together, they were less ill-mannered and more relaxed, like actual friends. Their fans, however, were not used to the outings, they exploded whenever either one of them posted a photo from one, or an indirect about said outings. They still ridiculed each other's designs like usual, but the insults were sandwiched between their 'date posts.'
About an hour into them reading, Shouto closed his book, saving his page with his thumb. A wave of sudden serious energy hit Denki like a tsunami, causing him to close his own book in a similar fashion, staring partially wide-eyed at the boy beside him. Instantly the worst-case scenarios started running through his mind at a mile a minute.
"Kaminari," Shouto started, seriousness radiated from his tone.
"Yea-" Denki's voice cracked. "Yeah?" He said, voice still a little shaky. He looked away from Shouto, taking a sip of his drink, studying the cover of his book, trying to rid himself of some of his pent up anxiety by putting down his cup and running his fingers along the 3D cover.
"Would it be wrong of me to tell you I believe I may've developed actual romantic feelings for you? I know this was my idea to mess with our fans, but it seemed to have backfired on me."
"Oh my—" Denki covered his mouth, stifling a laugh as well as covering a bright red blush. Shouto sent him a questioning look.
"I thought you were going to tell me you hated hanging out with me!"
"Should I not have said anything?"
"No! I'm happy you admitted that! Saves me the trouble of working up the nerve to do it..."
"Oh?"
"Yeah..."
"So, would you like to go out? Properly, I mean."
"Like a date date."
"Yes, Kaminari. A 'date date.'"
"I'd love to," Denki lowered his hand from his face, smiling.
Shouto matched the smile, just at a smaller degree.
A shot at an actual date with Todoroki Shouto? Being able to experience a relationship with the dual-coloured boy outside of what came to Denki's mind when he couldn't sleep sounded like fun. Now he didn't have to imagine it and could possibly live out those fantasies if everything went well.
"Hey Todoroki."
"Yeah?"
"Wanna make a collab line?"
"I knew that was coming sooner or later."