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“Family only.”
Those are the words the receptionist at the hospital say when Denki arrives about 30 minutes after the ambulance.
Her Lyft may have taken her to the wrong hospital in her panic to get there...she blames the driver, not herself. Her memory isn’t that bad... yet.
Kaminari wants to throw up, partly because her partner on this mission just collapsed in a pool of their own blood...that partner being her roommate Bakugou Katsuki. The other reason is that she is suddenly very much a she when she’s been in a he mindset for most of the day and the sudden, polar shift in mindset is dizzying. The more important of the two is the first one.
“But I’m his girlfriend!” She says with the conviction of someone doing something far more intelligent than pretending they’re romantically involved with their roommate just to visit them at the hospital. Denki is desperate, of course she is, Katsuki is her friend, she can’t just not see him.
The nurse looks her up and down, clearly skeptical that she could in fact be a girl let alone someone’s girlfriend.
She sighs, “Are you telling me in the year of our Lord and Savior 2238 we are still transphobic pieces of shit?”
Woops, she hadn’t meant to say that last part out-loud, but the nurse’s panic was useful at least, “I’m so sorry, Miss...um…”
“Charge Bolt.” She replies, if she sounds like she’s being passive aggressive, that’s because she is. “I’m technically still on duty.”
“R-r-right, Miss Charge Bolt. Ma’am.”
“I’m 21. No need to go so far as to call me ‘Ma’am’...Ma’am. Just take me to my boyfriend.” Being a bitch is fun...it would be more fun if she wasn’t worried about Bakugou, but still, she can see why Jirou likes it so much.
The nurse leads Denki down a sterile white hall. Denki tries not to think about how much she hates hospitals and more of their focus on seeing Bakugou. She needs to be kept as calm as possible, panic itches just beneath the surface of her skin just from being in a hospital. She needs to see Bakugou now.
Bakugou is trying to get out of the hospital bed when Kaminari arrives in his hospital room, half-pouty and sad and half on the verge of grinning maniacally at the very anxious nurse who stutters out some sort of last minute apology before rushing out of the room. It makes Bakugou feel like he’s missed something but he puts it aside for later because Denki’s arms suddenly fling around his shoulders, nose buried into Bakugou’s neck.
“I swear I should just start calling you Baka gou.” If he didn’t know better, he’d swear Kaminari was crying. He’s known Kaminari for a long time and therefore he knew Kaminari better than most people did. This was part of why he’d been trying to get up and leave the hospital before she got here. He didn’t want Kaminari to see him lying in a hospital bed. “I told them I was your girlfriend so they’d let me in to see you, so I know they won’t discharge you get.”
“Ah, damn,” Bakugou sighs, he doesn’t want Denki to have to be here anymore than necessary, and he definitely doesn’t want Denki to have to go back to their apartment alone. Denki doesn’t handle being on her own very well these days.
“Katsuki!”
“Ma’am no more than one visitor at a time... his girlfriend is already with him!”
“What do you mean his girlfriend!?”
“Shut up you damned old hag!” Bakugou screams, trying not to flinch from pain and definitely trying to ignore the way that Denki flinches back from him, he gently pulls her closer in apology for startling her when she was clearly off-balance emotionally.
“Ma’am you can’t be back here.”
“I really need to remember to change over my emergency contact info one of these days, Sparky, remind me to do that when I get the fuck outta here.” It’s a ruse, of course, he doesn’t expect Kaminari to remind him of anything, their whole business partnership is based on things being the other way around. He looks his mother dead in the eyes as he presses a kiss on Kaminari’s cheek, something they’ve done casually in private since that time at the start of their second year when Kaminari had accidentally come out as genderfluid to Bakugou during a rather awful panic attack.
“And you...you know Sparky and I live together!”
“I didn’t know you were a couple, brat!”
Because we’re not, Katsuki thinks, not for lack of interest on his part. It just never felt like the right time, what with all of Kaminari’s gender identity struggle and all of her quirk-based medical problems and the limitations the hero commission put on her because of them, there always seemed to be too much going on in Denki’s life for Katsuki to make a move without feeling like he was taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability.
Honestly, he hates hospitals as much as she does. Hates how often hospitals are the main place he sees his friends anymore. Hates the memory of the day the doctors told Kaminari about the chances her memory was going to get progressively worse over time, how she would have episodes of forgetfulness that would become worse and more frequent the more she uses her quirk.
“-see you then, don’t forget.” Huh? Why was his mother leaving already?
"Yep! We'll be in touch about dinner as soon as Katsuki is released, Mrs. Bakugou." Is Kaminari's reply. Bakugou feels like he's being sent to his doom.
"This is revenge for almost bleeding to death in your arms, isn't it?"
"Yep!" Says Kaminari, vindictively.
Bakugou's stay in the hospital is relatively short but he won't be cleared for hero work until the stitches get removed from his abdomen...and even then they'll probably give him a week or two. Unless Recovery Girl gets back from her overseas mission.
Kaminari takes the time off work as well. Mainly because they aren't allowed to patrol alone and Bakugou is the other half of their hero duo.
Bakugou walks into their shared living space in nothing but a towel and Kaminari has to ignore the blush creeping up their face...as per usual.
"You're mom called. She wanted to know when we're finally coming over for dinner." Bakugou says nothing. Kaminari takes that as confirmation that they were supposed to be aware of this. "Katsuki, when did I agree to go to dinner with your family?"
"When I was first taken to the hospital, Sparky." Bakugou isn't normally patient about many things, but he always seems to find the ability when Denki's brain forgets things and then precedes to tell them what they've forgotten as if its not a big deal that Denki's brain is defective. "Remember? Your dumb ass thought it was a good idea to pretend you were my girlfriend when they told you I was only allowed visits from family members, and then, unlike most people when my mom is having a hissy-fit, we decided to double-down on the lie and you told my mom we'd have dinner with them."
Denki's feels the sudden urge to melt into the sofa and disappear forever. "Riiiight. Well I told her you'd get back to her to arrange it."
"Of course you did." Bakugou sighs, leaning over Denki from behind the sofa and placing a kiss to the top of their head. "I'll give her a call, and tell her tonight or tomorrow works. I just wanna get this shit-show over with."
"Or you could just call her and tell her what I did…" Denki says half-heartedly. They really aren't that fond of the thought of spending time with Bakugou's parents...especially not if they had to perpetuate a lie they don't remember starting.
"Have you met my mother?" Unfortunately, yes, Denki had met Mrs. Bakugou before...more than once but most notably durring the UA graduation ceremony. it had been...enlightening...enlightening and traumatizing and Kaminari hadn't really realized just how intense secondhand embarrassment could be...until they'd locked eyes with Katsuki's dad as Katsuki and his mom had a shouting match on national television.
Kaminari can still see the look of defeat on that man's face even after two years.
Denki shivers at the thought.
"Yeah," Bakugou laughs humorlessly, "unless you want to die, we're in this for the long con."
Kaminari pouts, "you're saying you wouldn't protect me?"
"I can only protect you if I'm alive , Sparky."
Mitsuki wonders where she went so wrong as a parent that her son didn't feel he could mention he was dating someone...let alone dating a sweetheart like Denki.
"Does he think we have issues with him being gay? We told him about our dating history right? He couldn't possibly think we wouldn't accept them?" Mitsuki rants and she and Matsaru cook dinner.
"I don't know, dear."
"Is he embarrassed of us? Is he embarrassed of Denki ?"
"I don't…"
"He can't think we'd have issues that he's dating someone who's nonbinary...we raised him better than that…" Mitsuki paused midway through breaking down a chicken, "we did raise him better than that...didn't we?"
"I...I would hope so."
When they arrive at his parents place Denki looks kind of anxious. "What if they don't like me?"
Of course Denki is feeling insecure. Why wouldn't she be, there are two things that make her feel particularly awful at any given point in time: her gender identity and her memory problems. In the course of the day both of them had been pretty hard for her to ignore. After all she'd arranged this whole thing and then forgotten it entirely. While Bakugou had found a way to talk about things that she didn't remember doing or saying that didn't upset her too much, this was at a larger scale than her memory loss has been so far. It makes sense she doesn't feel her best right now.
Plus Kaminari had been ready to walk out the door in a stylishly androgynous outfit only to slip fully from being them into being her , and decided to change. Bakugou's attempts at telling her it was fine and they weren't even running late so there was nothing to worry about weren't quite enough this time it seems.
"My parents have always liked you," Bakugou says decisively, pulling Denki's hands away from where they were playing with the hem of her skirt, "so if they suddenly like you less 'cause we're dating their opinions aren't worth crap, Sparky."
Denki blushes prettily beneath her makeup and allows him to pull her close in a comforting hug.
"Mmm." She hums into his chest, "love you."
Bakugou feels his heart lodge itself in his throat. Kaminari says stuff like that all the time, sure, but he'll never get used to the fact that it's not meant in the same way he's loved her since they were second years in high school.
"Right." He says.
Kaminari never feels pretty enough as a her... but sometimes Bakugou can make her forget that for a moment. Like the way he holds her hand as they knock on his parent's front door or the way he can make her forget she's not actually his lover. She accepted it a long time ago, that one day Bakugou would meet someone else and would stop kissing her head when she was stressed, stop walking around their shared apartment, she really had. It doesn't mean she has to like it. It doesn't mean she doesn't want to shatter at the idea of Bakugou actually falling for someone…she's human after all and humans are selfish creatures. So while she's accepted the reality that he'll never return her feelings, she can't bring herself to do anything but try and cling to him and their shared history as long as she can.
When Katsuki's mom opens the door she's surprised by how welcoming his parent's are. Kaminari can't really imagine her own family being this way if she showed up dressed like this with a boy next to her that looks like he's permanently pissed off. Yet Mitsuki Bakugou grins at her genuinely. As if she's truly happy to see both Denki and Katsuki. If either of Bakugou's parents where put off by her outfit, it wasn't obvious and that makes her feel alive.
Dinner is surprisingly calm considering it's the Bakugous. Katsuki only yells twice and that's because he feels his mom is being ridiculously pushy when asking about their "relationship".
"So." Matsaru interrupts, "when did you realize Katsuki was-how do you kids say it these days?- 'boyfriend material'?"
Denki laughs, genuinely laughs, "are you asking when we started dating or when I realised I wanted us to?"
She feels slimy, using words that she genuinely means to fuel an impossibility of a lie.
"How about both?"
"We started dating shortly before the 'incident' where you first found out...but I've known I wanted to date him since...was it second year I accidentally came out to you in the middle of a panic attack?" Katsuki nods in affirmation, "yeah, I've know I loved him since about then."
All three Bakugou's seem stunned, though Katsuki plays it off well, "hard to believe we had feelings for each other four years before we actually got our shit together."
Kaminari can't tell if Bakugou is being honest of just making that up. Worse, she can't tell which one she wants to be true. On one hand, if Bakugou genuinely loved her back that would be a dream come true… but then, if he did, why hasn't he asked her out before? Had he asked her out before and she'd just forgotten? Wouldn't he tell her if that was true?
The rest of dinner is relatively uneventful and the evening ends without major incident. They watch a movie with the elder Bakugous after they finish their meals and then Katsuki and Denki head back to their tiny apartment
"I'm tired." Katsuki says, yawning. "I'm gonna shower then crash. You don't mind taking you're shower second right?"
Denki shakes her head, she too is tired...just possibly not in the same way. "Its fine."
It's not fine...well she's fine with taking second shower but she's not fine over all. "Katsuki wait."
"Huh?" He looks at her confused. She can't blame him. She's contradicting herself. She does this when she panics.
He walks over guides her to the couch, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She lies, you know, like a liar, "its nothing, I'm just being stupid."
"Okay." Bakugou says. He doesn't look like he believes her but at least he's waiting for her to be ready. "Then...can I tell you what's on my mind?"
She nods.
"Did you mean it?" He asks, "When you said you've been in love with me since second year?"
Oh. She thinks, I had not considered that he might read into my words.
"Did you mean it when you did?" She counters, biting her lip nervously.
"I asked you first."
"I asked you second."
He laughs, "So...and by all means... tell me if I'm reading this situation wrong...we've literally been dancing in fucking circles around each other for four goddamned years ?"
"Uhuh." She says, feeling as dazed as the day she accidentally came out and he'd gone and gotten the perverted grape boy expelled from UA for making her cry.
"God," Katsuki laughs, wrapping her into his arms, "we're stupid...like really fucking stupid."
"Uhuh." She says, because what else do you say to something so painfully true as that? "Why didn't you ask me out ever, if you liked me that long?"
"You had so much shit going on, ya know? I didn't wanna be the asshole who was like 'wow you're going through a shitty time wanna date?' Like I couldn't just fucking take advantage of you or some shit."
"I thought you didn't like me." She blurts out almost involuntarily, "you never said anything so I figured you just...didn't see me that way. I kinda gave up on us ever getting together."
"If you gave up then why…"
She cuts him off mid-thought, "Why didn't I move on? Because I love you dumb-ass. Because no matter how resigned I was to the idea you would never feel the same way I couldn't bring myself to let go of you either."
"Oh."
"Yeah o…" he kisses her, but this time it's on the lips. This time all the words he had pressed down and buried in tiny gestures of affection all the years suddenly had a frame of reference.
"Be my girlfriend?"
She rolls her eyes and kisses him back, "Obviously."