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Jirou likes horror movies.
Kaminari likes them... less.
They didn't hate them, jump scares were, of course, part of the fun of it, giving them a sort of thrill that was hard to get anywhere else. No, the problem was the fact that the things stayed with them. No need to speak of all the time they'd spent worrying about killer clowns (that one had been justified! There were plenty of idiots going around like that). Or, for that matter, anything they'd seen in horror movies. Jirou just laughed about it most of the time.
Yes, Jirou was probably braver than them. Yes, that did bother them a bit. But Kaminari was nothing if not a good friend, so if Jirou asked them to go with her to a movie, they would go. Even if it might mean they were more jumpy than usual for a while.
What they hadn't bargained for, however, was the idea that they'd have to be sitting apart this time.
"I thought you'd booked our seats together, Jirou," Kaminari said, slightly irately.
"I did," Jirou replied, frowning. "Maybe we booked too late and they made a mistake. Why, is it a problem?"
Kaminari took a deep breath in. No, they were brave enough for this. "Nah, it's fine. Just a bit annoying."
Jirou hummed her assent. "Are you sure? We can just go home if you're uncomfortable, Kaminari."
They considered the prospect for a moment, but then they remembered why they were here. "Really, it's fine. I know this is the last showing for ages, it's not fair for you to miss out because of me. I'll come."
The girl still looked unsure, but smiled anyway. "Well, we should probably get some food, the previews will be starting."
Kaminari nodded, and the two joined the line. Kaminari had never been very good at queuing in general, and their attention soon started to wander. Their eyes met with a tall boy in the other line, and they stared idly at him.
The boy was definitely something to stare at, anyway. He was tall, taller than Kaminari, and pretty muscular looking. His hair was split down the middle, half red, half white. It had to be dyed, they decided. Although such bright colours weren't unusual, he'd never heard of two coloured hair. Odd. And his eyes weren't matching either, one blue and one grey. Maybe that was why he'd dyed it that way-
Wait. Eyes?
Oh. The boy was looking at them. Kaminari smiled apologetically. The boy tilted his head to the side a little, shook it and looked away. Well, they'd screwed that up. And the boy had been pretty as well. Looked like they'd wasted their opportunity. Kaminari sighed.
Jirou turned back to them with the popcorn and a knowing look. "Got a crush, Kami?"
Kaminari's face coloured. "Of- of course not!" they denied.
"Mmm, suuuure. Let's head in then, I guess."
Kaminari nodded at her, and they headed in. Jirou's seat was farther from the front than Kaminari's, so she waved goodbye to them and they shuffled along the row to their seat.
They weren't too bothered about the fact that a stranger would be sitting next to them: Kaminari was a social person by nature. Still, they were a little worried as they didn't have Jirou there beside them.
Well, at least she wouldn't be making fun of them when they jumped.
Kaminari relaxed into their seat and was watching the tail end of the previews when someone appeared and sat down beside them. They would have checked to see who it was, if it wasn't for the fact a particularly interesting ad had come on the screen, and they were quite absorbed, only sensing the new presence beside them.
The movie soon started and Kaminari was unsettled from the beginning. The girl walking alone on the street, at night, with no one around? It was cliche, admittedly, but still gave them the creeps nonetheless.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise, somewhere offscreen. The girl looked surprised, then went to investigate.
No, you idiot! Kaminari screamed internally. People on horror movies were stupid. Grabbing Jirou's arm in preparation for the inevitable jumpscare, they braced themself.
However, as the unidentified shape jumped out at the girl and they heard her scream, Kaminari came to a more terrifying realisation.
Jirou and them were sitting apart. So whose arm was he holding? A random stranger's.
They turned around quickly to whisper an apology, and saw a familiar face. The split-haired guy from earlier? Kaminari stared helplessly into the boy's mismatched eyes, unable to say anything. The boy simply stared back.
After what seemed like an age, Kaminari found their voice. "I'm.. I'm so sorry, usually my friend sits beside me when we go to these, but she's apart from me this time, I just thought you were her-"
"It's alright," the boy whispered back, and they swore their heart stopped for a moment just listening to that voice. "No harm done."
Kaminari nodded their head awkwardly, and removed their hands from the other's arm. They noticed the boy had a strange red scar over his blue eye, although he'd clearly tried to cover it up. Curious and curiouser.
The next several minutes of the movie were rather tame, the typical setup of a story after the initial scare. Things did soon begin to pick up, however, and when Kaminari jumped at the next jumpscare, they suddenly felt something grab their arm, which definitely wasn't helping-
It was the boy. The boy was holding their arm.
He seemed to notice around the same time as Kaminari, and an embarrassed expression came over his face. It seemed he had done this on instinct, as Kaminari had. But the expression of pure, unfiltered fear hastily disguised by embarrassment was unmistakable. They did get scared of these movies, but never as scared as the boy looked. They were filled with a sudden desire to protect him. So when the boy tried to hastily remove his arm, Kaminari caught it and looked straight at him.
"If.. If you're scared, you can hang on to me. I know it's difficult without anyone you know. Plus... I'm scared too. Maybe we could just... I don't know, hang onto each other?" they suggested, laughing nervously.
The boy blinked several times, but whispered back, "Alright."
It turned out to be quite nice, all in all. The movie wasn't the best, but you couldn't go very wrong with a cute boy sitting beside you, and clinging onto you. They wouldn't say it was adorable, as the boy was clearly terrified, but it did have small puppy vibes, and anyway the agreement was mutually beneficial. The boy felt warm and, in some indescribable way, safe. Plus, he didn't seem to mind much when Kaminari started nicking his popcorn, and that was always a pro. On the contrary, he seemed merely amused. Although Kaminari was yet to see him smile, his eyes seemed to be smiling and they thought that was beautiful.
Eventually, the credits started rolling and the boy seemed to heave a sigh of relief. Kaminari smiled at them in what they hoped was a reassuring manner, and they carefully separated. Out of the corner of their eye, Kaminari spotted Jirou coming down. She seemed to do a double take when she saw the two of them, and Kaminari had to stop themself from laughing. Luckily, she appeared to get the hint and headed of by herself, presumably to wait for them outside.
"Thank you." the boy said, in the silence.
"No, thank you," Kaminari parried.
There was some silence as the two got up from their seats and headed along the row, though it seemed somewhat companionable, and not nearly as awkward as it should have been.
"Why were you at a horror movie anyway if you're so scared of them?" the boy asked as they left the dark theatre.
"Oh, my friend wanted to see it. And I'm a Good Friend, tm," they replied, making the quotation marks with their fingers, "so I agreed to come with her. Although, I could ask the same of you."
The mismatched boy got oddly quiet after Kaminari had asked the question, and they were about to take it back, or assure him he didn't need to answer, when he muttered "Friends dared me. They didn't know about... the PTSD though. Although it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... thanks to you..."
It was Kaminari's turn to fall silent. The boy seemed to realise what he'd said and added, "Wait, why am I telling you this? I don't even know you."
"I mean, you know I'm super skittish when watching horror movies. We have that in common." they deadpanned, then, smiling, added, "I guess you should know my name though. Denki Kaminari, pronouns are they/them." They pointed to the pin badge with their pronouns which they always wore, as it had clearly been unreadable in the dim light of the movie theatre. "How about you?'
The ghost of a smile played over the boy's lips, before he replied, "Shouto Todoroki, my pronouns are he/him. Nice to meet you."
"That's a nice name," Kaminari grinned, "although I'd guess it'd make sense for a pretty person to have a pretty name."
Todoroki's cheeks coloured with a dusting of pink, and it took him a few moments to stutter out "Uno... Uno reverse.."
Kaminari laughed. "Pretty smooth, man."
Todoroki gave him a look, as if to say Yeah right, but he said nothing. "Well... Good to meet you, Kaminari." He turned away, and Kaminari panicked for a moment. They couldn't just let this adorable, awkward boy leave like that.
"H-Hey, wait a second!"
The split-haired boy stopped, and turned with a quizzical look on his face. "Huh?"
"Well.. I have the name, could I get the number?"
Todoroki seemed to freeze up for a moment, and Kaminari was beginning to worry they'd done something wrong when the boy smiled a completely beautiful smile. "Certainly."
Kaminari felt their face heating up, but nevertheless handed their phone to him. There was silence for several moments as Todoroki typed in his number, then handed back the phone. "Maybe we should meet up some time?" he asked.
"Def.. Definitely," Kaminari struggled out. "Though not to see another horror movie."
"Agreed," Todoroki nodded, still with that small smile. "I texted myself, so I'll have your number too."
Kaminari had lost the ability to speak, so they simply nodded their head vigorously until the boy left.
Jirou walked over to her friend and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, who was that you're talking to? A completely and totally platonic person you just met who happens to make you spontaneously combust?"
Kaminari sighed. "Okay, give it up. Maybe I do have a crush on him, but it wouldn't be your business if I did."
Jirou laughed. "Okay." She continued to talk, but Kaminari didn't take in much of it. They were too busy staring at the message Todoroki had sent himself.
Their smile, it said, is like sunshine.
Oh, Kaminari had fallen for him. They'd fallen hard.