Chapter Text
Kaminari remembers a lot more than people think he does. He remembers Mina’s favorite song and Sero’s favorite beanie. He remembers Mr. Aizawa’s birthday, Kirishima’s hair dye brand, Bakugo’s favorite authors of the romance mangas he’ll never admit to reading even when they all can see them in his room. Kaminari remembers what Aoyama is allergic to, what jokes will always make Jirou laugh when she’s had a rough day, and he definitely remembers what life was like before his sister broke top fourty heroes, and even what life was like before his dad broke top eighty.
They had never been terribly off, even when his mom passed. But his earliest years were filled with an absent dad and Dotai surrounded with so many books that he couldn’t imagine her ever reading them all the way through. Obviously, now that he’s in the UA hero course that she once passed he understands but back then it was as if she had every book in the world surrounding her at the kotatsu.
Denki remembers family nights that were spent under the kotatsu playing uno until his dad short-circuited, and family days out that were to the park or the movies. They still have family nights and days out of course, but now they tend to be a bit,,,, more than they used to be.
And he sees his dad more now, and his sister helps him dye his hair with the same lighting bolt she puts in hers and that his dad puts on all his uniform pieces even if no one else makes the connection because he doesn’t show his face on patrol. But sometimes Denki still forgets that he’s part of something bigger than himself now. That Kaminari means more than ‘the family upstairs who occasionally shorts out the apartment building’ and now means ‘the heroes’ the same way that Iida’s name does or Todoroki’s name does. It’s been that way since he was five and still it’s easy to forget.
Especially when he knows how to use the tea kettle and catches Yaoyorozu rereading the instructions manual for it at one in the morning.
"Hey, watcha doing?" the girl startles and Denki winces just a touch. In retrospect, he probably should have let her know that he was there, but the blond was still in 'do not wake everyone else up just because you can't sleep' mode. When her eyes settle on him she relaxes.
"Kaminari, you scared me," the girl gives a breathy laugh, hand still on her chest. From anyone else, it would seem like a self-soothing gesture but from Yaoyorozu it's a sign of quirk usage. Her hand resting on reflex where her costume has a deep v. The blond doesn't mention it. Just as he doesn't mention the bags under her eyes or the way that her hands are shaking ever so slightly before they're folded into a near little pile on the table. The instruction manual sits beside her like any other book. Denki eyes the paper carefully but is equally as careful to keep his voice light and bubbly as he speaks.
"Sorry! I had to figure out how to be quiet or Katsuki would have killed me by now." He doesn't sit, just leans over the back of a chair across the way from her so that there's space. The last thing that she needs right now is someone crowding her.
"Oh, I don't think he would have killed you,” it’s said with a laugh but it’s flat compared to how it usually sounds. Her eyes are too now that he has a better look at them, they keep trying to focus on him but slide off to the dark of the common rooms quickly after.
"You didn't see him the first time I woke him up, villains don't scare me nearly as much as he does," It's a lie of course. He would choose the blond-haired explosion any day over the figures that haunt him late at night. Katsuki may be gruff and have the mouth of a sailor but he cares about his friends and Denki knows that he's made that list by now. It's in the way that, even as he calls him dunce face but lends him his notes and subtly slips the terrible comedies that Kaminari enjoys into the movie night rotation a bit more often if it's been a hard week. Just subtle enough that he can deny them or cover them up with semi-plausible excuses but blatant enough that Denki can spot it a mile away.
The exaggeration does make Yaoyorozu chuckle though and that's worth it.
"So, have you already had tea then?"
"Oh," Yaoyorozu flushes slightly but Denki doesn't mention that either. Just moves from the table to the countertop and pulls the kettle from the cupboard above it. "Not yet."
"Cool! I can make your cup too then!" Denki doesn't look over his shoulder as he fills the pot. It's not a terribly complex process but then again, Yaoyorozu could have said the same about learning the proper fork to use at Hero Commission Banquets and after all these years she never once had. With the button pressed and his hands back to rummaging through the cupboards for different blends of tea, Denki tried to think on whether he should push the topic that lay between them or not.
"Are you awake at this time often Kaminari?" Her voice is tired and he decides that no, there will be time later for talking about nightmares and counselors and reaching out. Right now Yaoyorozu needs a friend, not a speech, and Denki is nothing if not a good friend.
"Yeah, the downside of my quirk is that I've always got just a bit too much energy for my own good. My sister hated it when I was a kid because I was always getting into trouble." He settles on a simple night time blend. Worst case scenario Yaoyorozu and he have a conversation around yawns and drink extra-strength coffee in the morning before class. Best case scenario he can convince his class rep to head back to sleep and maybe manage to get some himself.
The cups he picks are less of a task, a simple red one for Yaoyorozu and an obnoxiously bright yellow one for himself. Denki can feel her gaze watching him go through the process of dropping the bags into the cups, strings hanging over the side of the mugs, waiting for the kettle to give a high whistle before picking it up and pouring it into the cups.
Personally, he’s always learned better hands-on than by watching but there’s no good way to offer that without pointing out that she didn’t know how to do it in the first place. And Yaoyorozu’s eyes seem to be able to focus better on his hands than his face anyways, giving the energetic blond a nod of thanks as he sets the cup in front of her. Just before taking the mug in her hands she gently folds the instruction manual up and slips it in her pocket. Kaminari gives her a teasing grin before opening his mouth again. "If there wasn't such a big gap in your ages I'd definitely try to set you guys up."
Yaoyorozu flushes just a touch brighter this time, sputtering for words as Denki laughs. Her hands come up once more but this time instead of flying to her chest defensively they're against her face to hide embarrassment.
"Was I that obvious?" The groan comes from behind her hands but there’s more life in the words than there was before. Good . Crushes are something easy to talk about. The league can take their field trips and their dances and their sense of security but there are still parts of their lives that dust-covered fingers can’t reach.
"Nah, I only noticed because I had to keep watching you for help with the forks. Dotai just thinks you're cool and, I quote 'an example of someone out of my league'. Jokes on Dotai though because we're in the same league I look exactly like her." Honestly, the number of times that his sister has been asked if he’s her son instead of her sister are ridiculous. There may be an age gap but it’s not that big.
"You two do look very similar."
"Yeah, we both take after our mom," It's a bittersweet statement. He doesn't have memories of her like his father or his older sister. At least by looking like her he can carry a bit of her with him but he would trade it all for a memory. Yaoyorozu nods in understanding. There’s a reason that she is excused from economics class to do self-study. The wounds of a parent gone too soon are still raw after all these years.
Kaminari lets the silence settle for a few minutes, not morose but far from the light laughing tone that he aims for. Dotai says that his mother didn’t like the serious silences either.
"You know between Dotai and Jirou though you definitely have a type. Didn’t picture the class rep would like bad girls but here we are." This time Yaoyorozu does spit tea everywhere and the red that she turns is nearly as bright as her mug even if she’s laughing. The noise smoothing over any anxieties that had begun to rear their ugly head about making a moment worse instead of better.
And if she immediately turns it around on him about making eyes at a general education student then, well, no one else is awake to prove it.