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Traumatic doesn’t even begin to describe how it felt to go through a war. They won, but nonetheless it didn’t feel good. Not even decent. They lost a lot of great heroes that day. Kaminari can still feels all the anxiety creeping on his fingertips.
It is unpleasantly vivid how he remembers the way that villain he never learned the name of charged millions volts of electricity to stunned the heroes. Before it even happened, Kaminari already dashed his way to the front line, he had to stop him. He knows how deadly it could be to the others before it even hit them, he can feel it surging in the air. He didn’t even know how he could. Take note how charging two million volts of electricity is completely different than absorbing them, for all he know he could’ve been the first one to die, because he sure never been trained to do something like that.
What kind of bullshit did Midnight sensei told to give him such courage to dive in headfirst like that?
Stay strong, Chargebolt.
Oh, right. That.
Gosh. How much lower can he downplay that event? Reducing the pro-heroes sacrifices that day to a memory about a girl.
It’s okay, Kaminari. It had been gloomy and depressing in the dorms lately. Keep your morale up, just think about anything else. You’re the mood-maker in this class, don’t fail them. Kaminari thinks to himself, unconsciously tapping his feet on the ground continuously.
“Kaminari, are you okay?”
The sudden voice startled Kaminari, he was already jittery to begin with and now he’s jumping on his seat.
“What are you doing out?!”
“I should be asking you!”
Jirou tightened the jacket wrapping her body. She had come out to the pantry to get something warm to drink when she heard noise outside.
Kaminari scooted over to make space for Jirou on the bench he’s sitting at, signaling that she could sit down with him. “I just had a lot on my mind,” Kaminari muttered as he does so.
Jirou considered his unspoken offer a little bit, she glanced back inside to look at the tea she was supposed to brew. “Want some tea?”
They ended up sitting side to side on the bench at the veranda, drinking the black tea Jirou just made.
“You sure Yaoyorozu won’t questioned where her expensive teas are going?”
Jirou brushes that question off. “She let the girls take all the teas they want.”
Sipping on his hot tea, Kaminari watches Jirou’s fingers clutching on her cup, taking in the warmth of the drink. He noticed her frequent sigh on the last few minutes. “What’s up with you?” he asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
“Hmm? What’s with me? Nothing,” her reply was plain. She took another sip of the tea before putting it down on the space between them on the bench. “Why hasn’t anyone come at us for hanging outside at 2 am?”
“Just because we’re always under surveillance doesn’t mean we’re always under watch,” Kaminari answered, he finishes his tea in a few gulps and sets it down on the bench. “Let’s just not risk it. You’re cold anyway, let’s get back in.”
“No, I’m fine. I’m kinda digging this,” Jirou confessed, her eyes are watching the skyline.
Kaminari, not really understanding what she was addressing specifically, blushes because of her remarks. “Uh, yeah. The constellations are… vi..sible.”
“I’m not talking about the sky?”
“What?”
“What?”
Kaminari felt that Jirou’s eyes lingered a little too long. What if she noticed his flushed face… worse, what if she starts asking about that day?
Maybe Kaminari was making an odd expression, because Jirou turned away and quickly drank the remaining of her tea as it already simmers down. “Do you do this often?” she asked, silently putting the empty teacup under the bench. Kaminari unknowingly followed suit, moving his teacup. Jirou observes how he seemed giddy and stifles a small laugh.
“Not really, this is probably the third time.” Kaminari replies. “And stop laughing at me.”
Jirou raised her leg up and wrapped her arms around it. “I’m not laughing at you.”
“Doesn’t seem like it,” he remarked.
“I’m just a tad bit happy than usual, Denki. Don’t spoil the merry.”
He was startled to hear such words coming from Jirou, not to mention that she had clearly called him by his given name instead. Something that just simply never happens. Kaminari ponders on what could be the best remarks to what she had said but come up with none.
“So, why are you up and out at 2 am?” Jirou asked the obvious question, slightly turning her head to look at the expression his face is making.
Kaminari eases back, trying not to dwell or deep-dive-into too much of the short and sudden fondness from Jirou. She’s just being a friend.
“Nothing, just have trouble sleeping so I came out here. It gets boring after staring at the ceiling for two hours.”
“I see…”
“What about you? Seeking for dark bitter midnight tea to fill the void?”
“Ha, ha, I’m not Tokoyami,” Jirou gave a fake laugh. “My head is just too noisy.” Ended up being her final answer. It raises questions for Kaminari but he doesn’t want to invade her privacy. Yet. He doesn’t really know if Jirou would be as comfortable as he is if she’s the one asking invasive inquiries.
“Stop making those weird faces at me,” Jirou said, she checks on Kaminari’s features as he was being quiet for longer than he usually would.
“Huh? I’m not making faces?” Kaminari retorted, but his tone just makes him sounds unsure.
“Yeah, you look at me like I’m an algebra mock test Yaomomo gave you.”
“Uh, I—don’t, I—“
“Seriously, just get it out with if you have something to say.” Jirou clasps her hand together as if she’s some sort of sage and shifts her body so she’s facing Kaminari. “Dude, I intentionally make my answers ambiguous so you’d ask follow-up questions, you’re embarrassing me.”
“Oh… OH!” he exclaimed, but after a few seconds he looks back at her and tilted his head. “Oh?” he repeated in confusion.
“You’re insufferable.” Jirou turned away to her original position and hugs her legs again.
Kaminari knows if he starts talking again immediately, he’d probably get one of those earjack pierced into him so he decided to comply with silence.
Not even a minute passed before some rustling some from the bushes near them. Jirou instinctively pierced her earjack to the ground to check the source of noise. On the other hand, Kaminari didn’t really react at all.
“Oh, it’s a cat. I think,” Jirou said with relief. Sure enough, a kitten suddenly jumped out of the bushes. When it sees Kaminari and Jirou, it immediately bailed though.
Kaminari carefully scans Jirou’s face, she was definitely spooked for a second there.
“What were you hearing?”
“Uh, small animals have this distinct sound of their steps. I figured it was a cat because if it’s a puppy the sound of their breath—” The purple haired girl become a rambling mess, one hand playing with her jack.
“No, not about that. About the sound you said were noisy earlier.”
“Oh, that… well, I guess like everyone else I couldn’t really shook off the thoughts of that fight we had with the liberation army.” She said it so casually, it made Kaminari thinks it didn’t even affect her at all, but at the same time it would’ve contradict what she had just told him. “I bet that’s why you’re awake too. Staring off spaces like a moron.”
“Hey, that’s harsh. Stop jabbing at me, this is supposed to be a nice moment.”
“Fine, whatever, I don’t care.”
Kaminari notices a slight pinkish tint on Jirou’s cheeks and stupidly decided to tease her about it. “You’re blushing.”
“Shut up! No, I’m not! Your eyes are broken!”
That outburst only made her cheeks flushed redder than before. Kaminari didn’t even get a chance to repeat his tease before Jirou’s earjacks fly threateningly in front of his two precious eyes. “Okay, okay, don’t literally break my eyes though.” Jirou lowers her jacks, turning away from Kaminari to hide half her face by burying them in her arms. “Anyhow, I’m about to tell you that you were right though. I was thinking of that fight.”
“So… are we talking about it?”
Kaminari snorts. “Hell no. It already occupied half of my brain storage, I’m not dedicating more time on it again.”
“True.” She agreed, hugging herself tighter because of the cold. Obviously she’s not a big fan of it. To make matter worse, a chill breeze passes them by a few seconds later, it lasted for less than thirty seconds but it almost send Jirou on edge.
“Promise you won’t hit me,” Kaminari said, taking her aback.
“Why would I hit you?”
“Because I’m about to offer you a hug and I prefer you to not refuse so the atmosphere won’t turn painfully awkward.”
“Dude, what are you playing at? Ugh,” the pinkish tint on her cheeks has gone all the way to beetroot red now, side-eyeing Kaminari with confusion—thankfully, not the disgust that Kaminari was expecting.
“I’m just saying! I have electrical current running through my blood, I literally have to charge from time to time thus I’m practically a powerbank so I’m always warm.”
Jirou’s answer didn’t come immediately, though she did lean back onto Kaminari’s shoulder, enabling him to put an arm around hers. “You’re bad at flirting.” She claimed, covering her face with the sleeves of her jacket.
Kaminari couldn’t hold his smile. “Well, you’ve identified that as flirting so this counts as a success story.”
Wrapped up in Kaminari’s arms actually invited sleep back to Jirou’s system. The sound of him breathing behind her ear and his fingers tapping on her arm, maybe to a beat of a song she doesn’t recognize. It was nice. It was normal. That’s all there is to it.
“I didn’t tell you this then,” Jirou shyly stammers, adjusting her position under Kaminari’s embrace whilst doing so. “But you really worry me to death.”
Like a cat, Kaminari nuzzles into Jirou’s hair. “I know,” he sighed. “Can’t help it though, can we? Huh, 15-year-olds, blindly choosing to be the light of the dark. What was I thinking? We’re barely even a spark.”
Kaminari doesn’t show it much, but Jirou does notice how smart he actually is. He just happens to not be a booksmart like Yaoyorozu or Bakugou. But this boy, who's currently wrapping her up in a pleasant hug at two in the morning, is the opposite of illiterate.
He loves to read, he enjoys philosophy, which might just be the most off-brand thing to say about Kaminari Denki. For the people who know Kaminari more than the surface though, it’s a different story. It’s a whole different Kaminari Denki.
“Sparks gather to make a fire,” Jirou said, knowing well it will excite Kaminari just a bit.
It did. Kaminari’s light giggle is very welcomed by Jirou’s eardrums. “And the fire has to be kindled to make a light. Nice. We should write a song together.”
“Only if we made it to graduation.”
Kaminari jokingly slaps Jirou’s arm. “Don’t be such a downer,” he chided her, faking an angry tone.
Jirou hums in agreement though unenthusiastically. “Maybe some of the times. But not all.”
There was a few seconds of silence and Jirou was getting comfortable, she made a mental note to not get used to this too much. Reasons exist on why some things are rare and cherished.
“You know, my grandma—“ Kaminari mutters, his voice is lazy and hushed, but because of the proximity of his lips to her ear, Jirou can feel even the vibrations. “I spent a lot of time with her growing up, because my parents are always busy.”
Jirou chuckled, she knows how that felt like too well. Whenever her father is on tour, she’d consider herself lucky if she could meet him at least once a month. “And?”
“Whenever she tucked me to bed, she always sings me a lullaby. It was nice, my gran isn’t a bad singer. I remember enjoying it.”
Though thankful that Kaminari would share such private memory with her, Jirou really isn’t grasping his point. So she just commented a generic, “That’s nice.”
“Every time she would sing me a lullaby… she’d always fall asleep first.”
Jirou didn’t expect to laugh as much as she just did. Hanging out with Kaminari too much really lowers your humor level.
“You’re gonna wake someone.”
“Your grandma seems fun.”
“Well, let’s meet her sometime.”
Jirou looked up to meet his eyes, they were open wide and the gold in them almost leaves her breathless. “Okay.”
Reality hits when they realized how long they’ve been holding that eye contact, it rushes the blood into their faces. Boldly enough, they didn’t look away.
“Promise you won’t hit me.” Jirou said it this time, glancing at the lower half of Kaminari’s face.
“Why would I hit—“
Before long, Jirou’s lips landed on his. She’s kissing me. Suddenly, Kaminari is on high alert. Assessing the whole situation one by one as quick as possible. Jirou Kyouka, in his arms, kissing him. What kind of sick dream am I having?
Jirou’s kiss was sloppy, and Kaminari was too shocked to respond with anything which resulted in her pulling away as soon as she leaned in.
She detached herself from the cuddle, sitting upright and hiding her face from him. Kaminari get up from the bench and squatted in front of her, trying to read her expression.
“That was dumb,” Jirou quietly breathed her sentence out.
Kaminari swiped her hairs away from her face, placing both of his hands on the sides of her head, he closed his eyes and he went for it. Leaning in for another kiss. Funny how he initiated the move and it’s his breath that has been taken away.
He thought his mind would be more occupied by the taste of Jirou’s lips. Or her tongue that’s just like his, slightly bitter from the warm black tea they were just drinking. But it was the smaller things, the spontaneous jerk of surprise that melts into relaxation as her brain processed the situation, the warmth of her face just a millimeter away from his, her fringe that brushes his forehead. Those little details drive Kaminari to beg for more. Kissing her deeper, and deeper as the night wind blows upon them.
Jirou’s hand made a move to grasp on Kaminari’s shoulder, and then she pulled away, seemingly running out of oxygen.
“It wasn’t dumb,” Kaminari retaliated, tucking a few loose strands of her dark purple hair behind her ear. “I really like you, okay? And it’s been so hard pretending that I don’t.”
Intentionally bumping his head with hers lightly, a laugh followed Jirou’s action. “Glad you said it first, because I probably wouldn’t.”
She pecked his lips one more time. Her fingers drawing lines on Kaminari’s features. “This isn’t a one-time thing then, yeah?” he asked, grinning cheekily. He looks tired, maybe his body's clock already alerted him that it’s ‘sleepy-time’. Jirou stood up, dragging him along to get back into the dorm.
“We’ll figure it out. But now go back to your room before anyone sees us.”