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It had been a week since Jirou and Denki made up. The class was back to normal, going about their business as usual. Monoma, realizing that there was no longer something happening, had started doing his annual lunch-time teasing/bragging.
She was glad the class was back to normal, her and Denki too. It was a shock for the class since they never fought about anything. Only serious stuff. Everything else was just banter or passionate discussions, which the others misunderstood for arguing, but it wasn’t.
They were currently in the third period, only a few more to go.
Jirou sighed and set her pen down, her hand tired from writing so much. She glanced over at Denki to her right, he was watching their teacher closely, twisting his pen around in his mouth.
She thought back to a few days before, when they met at the diner to talk. Jirou walked into the diner, her whole body shaking from nervousness, her heart heavy with guilt and thinking that her boyfriend hated her.
He had told her why he reacted the way he did, and assured her that he didn’t want to break up with her.
Jirou thought about what Denki had said exactly, that he had a bad incident involving a pool when he was younger. It had taken her a second to understand, but when she did, he explained everything to her.
“It happened when I was in kindergarten. Only a few kids in my class had developed their quirks, I was one of the ones who hadn’t yet,” Denki started, looking down at the table, “our teacher said that we were going to go on a field trip to the pool that just opened.”
Denki paused, still looking down at the table.
“It wasn’t too far away from our school, only around thirty minutes.” Denki paused again. “We were all so excited to go swimming and have fun playing games. My friends and I ran out of the bus, not able to contain our excitement.” He shifted in his seat, still looking down, “When all of us were done changing and putting our stuff away in the locker room, we ran back outside to the pool.”
Jirou saw Denki shake a bit, as if he was shuddering from the memory.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to Denki,” she said, and reached her hands out, wrapping them around his, as if they were hugging his hand.
Denki looked up at her, tears in his eyes, “I want to, I think you should know.” He squeezed the hand he was holding.
Jirou nodded and rubbed his knuckles with her thumb, trying to comfort him.
“We were all having fun and splashing around, the kids that already had their quirks were testing how they worked in the water. And then I felt something itching in my nose. I sneezed…” Denki trailed off, Jirou saw a single tear escape and run down his face. He used his other hand to wipe it away.
“Denki…” Jirou said, not knowing what to say.
“I sneezed and everyone in my class got shocked. I shocked them.” He said in the most broken voice she had ever heard.
Jirou squeezed his hand, he squeezed back. Jirou thought that was the end of the story, but he opened his mouth to talk again.
“Three kids were unconscious, my three friends that I had had since the first day at that school, who were the closest to me at the time. Everyone else got hurt pretty badly, our teacher made sure everyone was okay and called an ambulance for my friends and a few others that were in a worse state than the others.” Denki took a deep breath, “everyone was scared of me, my friends never talked to me again and flinched away whenever I tried to get close enough to them to say sorry. Rumor quickly spread throughout the school, and soon no one was brave enough to get close to me. Even the teachers were a little scared. My parents also couldn’t touch me without getting electrocuted, their quirks weren’t like mine and didn’t protect them. The only person who could have helped me learn how to control it was my grandpa, but he had died three years before. He had an electricity-conducting quirk, so he would’ve been immune to my shocks. But no one could help me or touch me. I was dangerous. I still am dangerous.” He finished, looking down at the table.
“You’re not dangerous,” Jirou started, she saw Denki open his mouth to say something but she squeezed his hand to tell him to be quiet. “You’re not . You might’ve been back then. But you have control over your quirk now. Hey, look at me.” Jirou reached an ear jack out and lifted his chin up, keeping it there to make sure he didn’t try to hide his face again.
“I’m serious. You aren’t dangerous and you won’t hurt anyone. You won’t hurt me ,” she added, knowing that he would be worried about hurting her.
The two were silent for a bit, Jirou looking straight into his eyes, trying to get it through to him. He was looking back at her with sad eyes, the tears no longer pooling in them.
Jirou broke the silence, “How did you learn how to control it?”
“I taught myself. We lived in a small neighborhood and word spread fast there. Everyone knew what had happened and didn’t want to get near me,” he answered, his voice cracking at the end.
“Did you ever move?” Jirou asked, still rubbing her finger over his knuckles.
Denki shook his head, “After I learned to control it, people started being more friendly towards me, but they were still scared and didn’t get too close. My parents too. Until about two years before I got accepted into UA, that’s when they started giving me hugs and stuff again.”
“No one touched you for that long?” Jirou asked, shocked.
Her boyfriend nodded and squeezed her hand.
“That’s why you’re so touchy-feely with everyone in our class, you’re touch starved,” Jirou realized.
Denki nodded again.
They were quiet again, both of them looking away from the other.
Jirou wanted to see him smile again, the light back in his eyes, “That makes sense.”
He gave her a questioning look.
“Only someone who is either crazy or touch starved actually has the guts to touch Bakugou. I’ve even seen you wrap your arm around his shoulders, I should’ve known then.”
Denki smiled and let out a small laugh, the light back in his eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jirou asked after a second.
He shrugged, “I didn’t know how you would react, I didn’t know how anyone would react. It was a fresh start for me and I didn’t want to scare away any of my potential friends. And then, when I actually made friends, I didn’t want to make them go away like my other one’s in kindergarten.”
Jirou heard a bell ring, class was over. She looked up from where she was staring at her notebook, her notes stopping halfway through a sentence. She glanced over at Denki and saw him already packing his stuff and standing up.
Jirou packed her stuff away too and stood up as her boyfriend leaned against her desk.
“Is everything okay?” He asked her, worry in his eyes.
“Yeah, why do you ask?” She swung her bag over a shoulder and they started walking.
“I saw your face during the lesson,” Denki clarified.
“Oh, I was just thinking about something.”
The stun-gun hero nodded and they made their way to the lunch room.
Jirou wanted to help him. She wanted to help him get over his fear of water, and his fear of himself. Which, admittedly would be harder than the former, but she would try as hard as she could.
She was thinking of ways to help him when she heard Denki say something.
“Hey, Kyouka. Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked again.
The heartbeat hero just smiled and nodded at him, still thinking of a plan in the back of her mind.
The next day, and it was the weekend, Jirou could start her plan to help her boyfriend. She had stayed up almost all night thinking about what she could do.
Jirou and Denki arrived at one of the training gyms, the one that had different elements to test how your quirk works with what.
When she woke up, Jirou texted Denki to get ready and put on some workout clothes. And to bring a normal outfit too. For all he knew they were just going to do a workout together.
The two of them walked inside and set their stuff down on some of the benches that were on the sides of the room. This was a new building and neither of them had ever been inside it before, there was an area where the ground was on fire, where there were just a bunch of rocks, and a lot of other sections.
“This place is so cool!” Denki exclaimed.
Jirou hummed in agreement, both of them in awe.
“What do you want to start with?” The energetic boy asked after a few seconds of admiring the interior, stretching his arms.
“Follow me.” Jirou led him to one of the corners where there was a small pool of water built into the ground.
“Wait… Kyouka…” Denki slowed down.
Jirou continued walking towards the pool, knowing that her boyfriend would still follow her.
“Kyouka… are we doing what I think we are?” He asked, his voice shaking a bit.
“If you think that I’m going to help you get over your fears, then yes, we are doing that.” Jirou stopped at the edge, Denki standing with half of his body behind her, as if he was trying to hide from the water.
“Wait, do we really have to do this? I mean, I can just say that I’m not feeling super good when we go to the pool in a few weeks.”
“No, we don’t have to,” Jirou started softly, but not weakly, “but do you want to be scared of something for your whole life and have it hinder your abilities as a hero?”
Denki was silent for a few seconds, but then sighed and whispered a “Fine.”
“Should we have a safe word?”
Jirou felt him nod, his head moving her hair.
“What do you want it to be?” She asked, trying to be calm for Denki’s sake, even though she was a bit nervous.
“Pineapple,” he answered after a second.
“Pineapple? Seriously?” Jirou asked, keeping it lighthearted.
Denki nodded again.
“Ok,” Jirou started, and dragged her boyfriend over to the steps leading into the water, “take your time,”
He took a deep shuddering breath, “Can… can you stay away at first?” Denki said quietly.
Jirou took a few steps back and nodded at him, he could do this.
He took another deep breath and took his shirt off, throwing it towards Jirou so she could set it down, and put one foot on the first step. Nothing happened. He looked up at Jirou, who nodded.
Denki slowly took another step deeper, and another, and another. Slowly, he took one final step, now waist deep, and standing in the middle of the small pool.
Jirou saw her boyfriend release a breath, as if he’d been holding it in the whole time. He looked up at her, she could tell he was still nervous and scared, but he did it.
“Nothing’s happening,” Denki said, keeping his hands out of the water.
Jirou nodded and smiled, “Walk around and get used to it.”
After a little more than half an hour of Jirou watching Denki walk around and submerge himself underwater, which took a little convincing, she had decided that it was time for a break, seeing how he was getting a bit tired.
Jirou grabbed a towel and was about to hand it to him when he jumped back from her.
“I’m still wet! I might hurt you.”
Jirou knew he wouldn’t, but set the towel down for him to grab anyways.
Denki dried himself off and they took a small break, eating their lunch they brought with them. Jirou still wasn’t able to get super close to him, but he let her sit next to him, with a few feet between them, at least it was a start.
Later that day, when the sun was just setting, Jirou and Denki were making their way back to the dorm.
They had spent almost all day at the training building, Jirou watching her boyfriend getting used to being in water. They had only taken a few breaks, one of them had been because Denki said he needed to stop. Something about the electricity getting too hard to control.
On his way out of the water, he let out a small shock, which wasn’t enough to get close to Jirou or even hurt her if it did. But Denki had said that he didn’t want to practice anymore. It had taken some talking and encouragement to get him to stay there. Just to sit with her Jirou had said, so he sat down a few feet away from her. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Denki still pretty wet despite drying himself off with the towel.
Jirou decided that there was only one way for the electricity quirk user to start to get over his fear of himself, he needed proof that he wouldn’t hurt her, and that wouldn’t happen if he wouldn’t let her anywhere near him.
“Hey, Denki?” She called his name to get him to look at her.
Thankfully, it worked and he turned towards her. She quickly used her ear jacks to pull his face towards her and give him a quick kiss before he could even register what was happening.
Denki flinched back “What are you doing?! I could’ve hurt you!”
“But you didn't. You aren’t.” Jirou nodded her head to where her ear jacks were still wrapped around his neck.
“Wait, I didn’t…” he trailed off.
Jirou nodded and scooted closer to him, so their legs were touching. “I knew you wouldn’t hurt me. I just had to get it into your thick brain.”
“Did you just insult and compliment me at the same time? How did you know?” He asked.
“Because I know you Denki, I know you would never hurt me and that you have it inside you to control yourself when you’re in water or wet.”
“You believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself,” Denki said, staring at her.
Jirou nodded, “This obviously won’t just make your fear of water and of yourself go away, but I thought that you needed a little push.”
“How’d you know I’m afraid of myself? I never told you.”
“I connected the dots, you’re also easy to read.”
“I’m not complaining, but why a kiss? Couldn’t you have just used your hand or something?”
“I thought it would be the most effective. It also doesn’t help that you aren’t wearing a shirt right now, and the water trailing down from your hair too. I don’t understand how you’re so - mpfh!”
Jirou was suddenly cut off when Denki kissed her again.
“What was that for?” She asked when he pulled away, both of them a bit breathless.
“A thank you. For helping me,” He answered.
The two stayed there for a while, waiting for Denki to get the courage to get back in the water again.
Jirou and Denki opened the front door to Heights Alliance.
“Where were you guys? We haven’t seen you since this morning,” Sero asked from the table, where he was playing a card game with Kirishima and Mina.
“Training,” Jirou answered as her and Denki sat down to watch their friends play.
Three days later, Jirou and Denki were at the element-training building again. They had been going there for a few hours every day since the weekend.
Denki was getting used to being in water and was now able to play around in the pool without shocking anything. He was still a bit cautious, but he was trusting in himself more and more every time they went there. He even let her touch him and sit next to him when he was still wet.
Jirou knew what she was going to try today, it would be hard to convince him though.
They set down their stuff and Denki took off his shirt, getting back into the water. Jirou smiled, seeing him not scared to go in there anymore.
After a few minutes, Jirou let her legs dangle into the water from where she was sitting at the edge of the pool. That was the closest she was able to get to Denki without him freaking out.
Denki, who was staying underwater, wanted to see how long he could hold his breath, resurfaced and swiped the hair out of his eyes.
“How long was that?” He asked Jirou.
“One minute,” Jirou answered, resting her head in her hand.
That’s when he noticed her legs were in the water.
“Kyouka…’ he started, “get your legs out.”
Jirou shook her head and gestured for him to come over to her.
Denki stood there for a few seconds, his eyebrows scrunched together the way he did when he was thinking about something. But he eventually decided to slowly make his way over to Jirou.
“See? It’s fine,” Jirou said as he stopped in front of her.
“For now.” Denki started to take a step back from her.
Jirou sighed and used her legs to pull him closer, his hands on either side of her to stabilize himself from being pulled so fast.
They stayed like that for a few seconds, Jirou slowly moved her hand and placed it on the side of his face. She carefully brought his head towards her. He rested his head in the crook of her neck, his whole body stiff. Jirou brought her hand to the back or his head, playing with his hair, trying to calm him down.
“It’s okay, you’re not going to hurt me,” she murmured.
After a few seconds, Denki finally relaxed and wrapped an arm around her while taking a deep breath. Jirou smiled, glad that he finally trusted himself enough to touch her while he was in the water. Her original plan had been to get in the water with him, but seeing how he reacted with just her legs, she’d have to wait a few days.
The two stayed like that for a while, just hugging each other. Denki was getting water on her, but she didn’t care.
Jirou shifted one of her legs a bit since it was falling asleep. Denki stiffened and she felt something tingling on her back.
He pushed away from her, a scared expression on his face, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!”
Jirou gave him a questioning look. That’s when she realized what had happened, the tingling on her back was a shock. He had accidentally shocked her.
Denki was apologizing over and over again, his hands over his face.
“Hey, stop. You didn’t hurt me,” Jirou interrupted.
“You’re just saying that!”
“No, I’m not.” Jirou extended an ear jack and wrapped it around his wrist. He stiffened again.
She pulled his hand down and made him look at her, “Look, am I telling the truth?” He always knew when she was lying.
He shook his head, slowly lowering his other hand.
“See? Come here.” Jirou beckoned him over again.
He slowly came towards her, her ear jack still wrapped around her wrist.
“But, I shocked you,” Denki said in a confused voice as he stopped in front of her.
“No, you didn’t. I just felt a small tingle.” Jirou pulled him into a hug again, “I thought you were trying to tickle me at first,” she joked, trying to calm him down.
He chuckled into her neck and relaxed his shoulders and arms.
“So I really didn’t hurt you?”
“Mhm,” Jirou hummed.
Denki let out a breath and relaxed fully, “Good.”
--------------------------------------------------
Two days later, they were back at the same building. They had done basically the same things as the other days, Jirou watching with her legs dangling in the water as Denki played around. They had started tossing a ball back and forth, deciding that since he was used to the water he should get used to actually doing stuff in it other than walking around.
They had been throwing the ball to the other for around half an hour when Jirou decided it was time to take things to the next step.
“Hey, Denki?” Jirou asked as she set the ball down next to her.
“Hmm?” He hummed, squinting his eyes suspiciously.
“I’m going to try something, don’t freak out,” Jirou warned and scooted closer to the edge of the pool.
“Wait, Kyouka. Please, I think it’s too soon,” Denki protested as she pushed herself into the pool, the water just above her hips.
“I don’t… I don’t want to hurt you,” he protested, his voice cracking.
“It’ll be okay Denki, you’re not going to hurt me.” Jirou started taking small and slow steps towards him.
He took another step back from her.
“Okay, I’ll stay here. I’ll let you come to me,” Jirou told him and stopped moving, now in the middle of the pool. “Look, nothing’s happening. No one is getting hurt.”
Denki slowly unfurled himself from where he caved in on himself, his back pressed up against the edge of the pool.
“Why did you start doing this in the first place?” Jirou asked.
“Because I trusted you.”
Jirou nodded, “So trust me now,” she said in a calming voice.
Denki nodded slowly, and started towards her even slower.
He stopped in front of her and released a breath.
“See? Everything’s fine,” Jirou whispered, “you’re not hurting me.”
She slowly lifted her hand and cupped her boyfriend’s cheek, “It’s okay.”
Denki leaned into her hand, he reached an arm up but then dropped back down.
“You can touch me, you won’t hurt me,” Jirou encouraged softly.
He carefully placed a shaking hand on her hip. Jirou stood still, letting him get used to it.
Jirou nodded at him, showing that she was fine, and he used his other arm to move both her hands behind his neck.
“So far so good.” She heard him whisper under his breath as he placed his hand on her other hip.
She felt Denki stiffen a little underneath her fingers and a slight tingling on her hips.
“You’re doing great.” Jirou started rubbing the back of his neck, trying to comfort him.
After a few seconds, Denki relaxed again and slowly slowly pulled her closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her and bent down to rest his head in the crook of her neck. Jirou took that as a sign that he was okay and hugged him back, still rubbing circles on his back.
“I’m not shocking you,” Denki said quietly, and a bit as if he couldn’t believe it.
It was another few days later and it was Monday, the day the class was going to go to the pool.
Jirou and Denki had been together in the pool playing games and just sitting on the steps. Jirou had started surprising her boyfriend with things to train him how to not discharge any electricity in the water. He was confused and stiffened at first, after she had jumped onto his back suddenly. But he quickly understood what she was doing when she explained that he should be prepared for when other people touch him suddenly.
The couple hadn’t done too much while Denki was getting used to being in the water with someone else, they mostly just talked or played a random game, although, they had kissed a few times, but that didn’t count.
Throughout the three days that they’d been doing that, Denki had only let out a shock once, and that was after Jirou had suddenly kissed him. He tried to pull away, probably to apologize or see if she was okay, but she used an ear jack to keep him there. He must’ve understood that that meant she was fine because he quickly started kissing her back.
After a bit, Jirou had pulled back for a second and rested her forehead against his, both of them panting. She said that he needed to get used to calming himself down without pushing whoever startled him away. She wasn’t sure if he understood because he just picked her up, set her down at the edge of the pool and kissed her again. At that point, Jirou’s mind was too foggy to care if he heard what she said or not. She later figured out that he had understood, and he just wanted to kiss her again.
Jirou smiled at the memory. Denki shot her a questioning look from his seat across from her on the bus. She shook her head and engaged in the conversation he was having with Momo and Todoroki.
When they got out of the bus, Jirou took Denki’s hand and squeezed it. He squeezed her hand back as they separated and went into their respective locker rooms.
When Jirou stepped out of the locker room, she was the first girl done since she had worn her bathing suit underneath her clothes, unlike the other girls, she saw Denki leaning against the wall waiting for her.
“Hey,” she said and leaned against the wall next to him, crossing her arms.
He smiled at her, she could tell he was nervous.
They were silent for a bit when Denki scooted closer to her, “You look really good,” he whispered in her ear.
Jirou blushed, she was pretty insecure about herself, but it had gotten better thanks to Denki.
“You don’t look too bad yourself. Although, I guess it’s kind of worn off on me,” she lied.
“What do you mean?” Denki asked, “you don’t think I look good?” He put a hand over his heart, acting offended,
“No, I do. I’m just saying the shock and awe thing you’re feeling right now wore off on me since I’ve seen you shirtless almost every day this past - mpfh.” Jirou was cut off by her boyfriend kissing her.
He pulled away, smirking, “Still not in awe?”
“Nope,” Jirou said although they both knew she had been lying from the start.
Denki smiled and kissed her forehead quickly.
“Are you nervous?” She asked.
“A bit, but I know I’ll be fine if you’re there.”
Jirou was about to respond when she heard a door open and looked towards it. Her friends were coming out of the locker room, talking excitedly with one another.
“You’re still here?” Mina asked when she noticed Denki standing next to Jirou.
“Yeah, I waited for her,” he answered, gesturing towards the heartbeat hero.
After the girls were done saying how cute the two were, Jirou suggested they get going, a bit annoyed but mostly embarrassed.
Denki and Jirou stayed behind everyone, holding hands.
“You got this,” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear.
He squeezed her hand in response, she could hear his heartbeat speeding up.
The day passed by smoothly and the class was now in the bus on their way back to the school.
Denki had been fine for most of the time, he had freaked out a few times, but quickly calmed himself down by looking at Jirou, he had told her while they were waiting for the bus to arrive. Which had made Jirou blush a bit.
Denki had stayed next to her for the majority of the time, other than when they had a longer break and his friends had convinced him to play a game with them and when he had to do something by himself for their exercises. But, other than that, he was next to Jirou pretty often, when they were listening to what Mr. Aizawa was telling them what they’d do, when they were sitting around and waiting for their turn. The girls, who Jirou was normally waiting around with, gave him a few questioning looks, but never brought it up. They must’ve noticed he was a bit nervous too.
Jirou was proud of her boyfriend, not only for being able to go through the whole thing, but also because he trusted himself a little more now. There was still work to do, but they would work it out together. Just like how they were working on her insecurities.
When they got back to the dorms and had eaten dinner, Jirou and Denki had decided that they would watch a movie in Denki’s room.
“Thank you. For everything,” he started suddenly while Jirou was putting the disc in the dvd player, he had a mini TV in his room, “for helping me. And for having patience with me.”
He walked up behind Jirou and gave her a hug from behind, his head on her shoulder.
Jirou turned around in his arms and wrapped her own arms around his neck.
“You’re welcome. I couldn’t just sit around and let you be scared of yourself for your whole life,” she said.
“Thank you,” Denki said again, and gave her a huge hug.
“You don’t have to keep saying that.”
“I know, I’m just really glad I have the best girlfriend in the world.”
“And I’m glad I have the best boyfriend in the world,” Jirou said back, she never showed this side to anyone, her soft and loving side. She had shown a bit to Momo, but that was different.
Denki pulled back and stared at her.
Just as Jirou was about to ask what he was doing, he gave her a quick kiss.
“What was that?” She asked.
“I’m not allowed to say thank you, so I’m doing it in another way. Am I still not allowed to say it?” He smirked.
Jirou just nodded and he leaned down to kiss her again.
They both knew that they still had to work through some stuff with both of their problems, but they would do it together.