Chapter Text
Literally bumping into someone in the hallway is never a pleasant thing to go through and, as Hitoshi is falling back and landing hard on his ass in the hallway, he goes through everything wrong he’d ever done in his life and repents for all of it. He’s not religious, doesn’t really believe in anything other than the inevitability of his own demise, but he feels like he should. Because fucking ow what did he do to deserve this?
He recognizes his reaction would normally be a bit over the top, but it’s proved to be entirely warranted when it turns out he’s bumped into none other than Kaminari Denki. As in the Kaminari Denki. As in the person someone had accused him of having a crush on.
Great!
Kaminari, to his credit, manages not to yelp too loudly when they collide and fall over, but Hitoshi does acknowledge that he’s likely in pain. They’d both fallen hard and… well, it’s not exactly fun to fall on a floor that’s damn near as hard as concrete. It’s not something Hitoshi would ever choose to do in his spare time. Not that he has much else to do…
“Shinsou! Sorry, man!” Kaminari’s on his feet again in a split second, then he’s holding a hand out to help Hitoshi up. His face is sunshiney, even when he’s clearly feeling guilty. “I wasn’t paying attention, sorry dude. You okay?”
Hitoshi stares at his hand for a long second. Then he nudges it away and stands up on his own, trying his best to not seem rude.
“I’m fine.” He says, as neutrally as he can. “Not a big deal. I should’ve been paying attention.
Then he gives Kaminari a pointed look and says, “Don’t you have a lecture right now?”
Kaminari winces. “Dude, I’m trying to skip right now. Don’t tell anyone?”
Hitoshi narrows his eyes. “You’re skipping?”
“Mhm.” Kaminari nods. “I’ll get you coffee if you don’t tell.”
Hitoshi inhales very slowly and exhales even slower. Then he looks over Kaminari’s shoulder down the hallway of lecture hall doors. Then he sighs and turns on his heel (in the opposite direction of where his lecture is) and says, “Fuck it, I’ll skip too. But you’re paying for my coffee.”
“Oh hell yes!” Kaminari cheers, just a little too loudly for Hitoshi’s taste, then jogs to catch up to Hitoshi. “This’ll be fun. Was just gonna be alone to try to get a breather from the prof, but now I’ve got you!”
Hitoshi wishes he didn’t sound so happy about it, like Hitoshi had just made his day.
“C’mon, have you tried the new coffee shop that just opened by the library? It’s so good.” Kaminari hops ahead and turns to walk backwards in front of him, somehow not tripping and managing to keep pace with him perfectly. “Plus their logo is a cat and that seems like your kind of thing.”
“It does?” Hitoshi raises an eyebrow, doing his absolute damnedest to sound entirely indifferent.
“Well… yeah!” Kaminari shrugs, hair bouncing just a little as he walks. “You’ve got a cat keychain on your bag, you have those little cat hairclips sometimes… very cute, by the way.”
Hitoshi feels embarrassment creep up the back of his neck. “Those are my little sister’s. I only use them when I don’t have anything else.”
“Still cute, dude. Nothin’ wrong with bein’ cute!” Kaminari grins at him. “What’s your coffee order usually? Dark and bitter like your soul?”
He’s joking.
It’s so cute.
He is so cute.
Maybe I do have a crush on him. Hitoshi wonders to himself. That thought is… damning.
“Actually I usually go for something vanilla or white chocolate.” Hitoshi says dryly. “Mochas are usually my thing.”
Kaminari’s mouth forms a surprised little ‘o’ and he says, “I see! I see. Y’know that kinda fits surprisingly well. Wouldn’t expect it but it’s neat.”
Hitoshi just shrugs and looks off to the side, stepping through the exit door that’s always stuck open. Kaminari is still walking expertly backwards in front of him, not tripping or hesitating when he has to step down from the building onto the outdoor path. It’s… a little impressive, in a silly little kind of way. A childish part of Hitoshi’s brain wants him to go ‘wow you’re good at this,’ but he has too much pride. Or something.
The two of them walk along, Kaminari chatting idly the whole time. They pass couples making out loudly in the open air and groups of students studying or playing lawn games or just generally fucking around and they even pass a high school tour happening. Kaminari seems to know at least one of every person they pass, waving and grinning or calling a hello here and there as well. It rubs Hitoshi’s socially awkward side the wrong way, makes him slouch harder and wish he could duck into his hood and vanish. But he lets Kaminari take the brunt of everyone’s attention.
At some point, though, Kaminari seems to notice how uncomfortable he is and Kaminari quietly says, “Hey, dude, you good?”
“Fine.” Hitoshi says, just a little too quickly.
“Hm.” Kaminari frowns. But he doesn’t say anything else about it.
But Hitoshi does notice that he stops calling out to so many people and even ignores a few that call a hello to him. It’s… well, Hitoshi doesn’t know how to feel about it.
It takes them barely another two minutes to get to where they’re going and, when Kaminari hops around to face the coffee shop, Hitoshi realizes that somehow he hadn’t been here before. How he of all people had missed one of the new (and really cute looking) coffee shops on campus is beyond him. Maybe it’s because his dorm is on the opposite side of campus and there’s another library and coffee shop over there? Something like that.
They step into the coffee shop and a chime jingles overtop of the door. A barista calls a ‘hello! Welcome!’ from the counter and Kaminari grins brightly and returns the greeting. He hops right up to the counter, Hitoshi close behind him. Hitoshi’s doing his best to process how cute this place is. The tables are white, the chairs are a soft sunflower-y yellow colour, and everything has a cottagecore vibe to it. Kaminari’s outfit and hair fit with it all really well. A lesbian almost definitely owns the place.
Before Hitoshi can even answer when the barista asks him for his order (after getting Kaminari’s), Kaminari steps in and orders for him, rattling off something that is almost exactly Hitoshi’s order. White chocolate mocha with almond milk and no whipped cream.
“Also can you add those chocolate curl things on top?” Kaminari asks eagerly. “Don’t tell him but I’m planning on stealing some.”
The barista laughs, looking between the two of them for a second, before assuring Kaminari she can do that and telling him how much it’ll be. Hitoshi doesn’t stay to listen, instead goes to get a table. He knows what the barista’s look had meant - she thinks they’re dating. Great.
The sun through the window is warm on Hitoshi’s skin, and he closes his eyes to try to bask in it and not worry about what people might think about him and Kaminari. They’re not dating, that much Hitoshi knows, but no one else would believe that based on what had just happened. Call it gay panic, call it whatever you’d like, but Hitoshi has to make sure that never happens again so he doesn’t freak out and die of a heart attack or something.
When he opens his eyes, he sees Kaminar smiling brightly at him and setting his drink down in front of him.
Yeah, okay. Definitely gay panic.
“Here you go!” Kaminari says with a little flourish. “Chocolate curls included. Enjoy.”
Hitoshi reaches for his drink and cups it in his hands. He hadn’t realized how cold his fingers were until they downright start to defrost on his coffee cup. He hisses quietly in discomfort, but keeps his hands where they are because damnit he was cold and he didn’t even realize it. Kaminari, on the other hand, had gotten iced coffee despite it being ten degrees celsius outside and windy as fuck. He just picks up his cup and sips at it happily.
This, coupled with his cuffed jeans and the art-hoe yellow and black flannel tied at his hips just makes Hitoshi even more firm in the belief that Kaminari is about as bisexual as it gets.
He’s stereotyping, sure, but Kaminari is the damned stereotype.
By the time Hitoshi has defrosted his hands enough to take a sip of his coffee (and finally manages to stop staring at Kaminari’s tiny, cute little happy dance he’d started doing in his chair as soon as he’d started drinking his coffee good fucking lord Hitoshi’s gay oh no), Kaminari had almost drained half of his own coffee. Which, all things considered, isn’t that surprising. He does almost everything quickly. It’s probably the ADHD.
But, right in front of Hitoshi’s eyes as he drinks the coffee, Kaminari slowly grows less and less twitchy.
Hitoshi had experienced similar effects on his ADD, but watching it happen for someone else is a whole new and rather interesting experience in and of itself. And it may just be another excuse to stare at Kaminari without feeling too weird and guilty about it, but Hitoshi is nothing if not a starved, lonely gay so… we’ll forgive him. For now.
“So how is it?”
Hitoshi blinks and viciously fights the urge to blush. “Sorry?”
“The coffee.” Kaminari says, “How is it? Did I get it right?”
“I…” Hitoshi realizes he hadn’t actually been tasting his coffee at all, so he takes another sip and tries to pay attention to it and ignore the way Kaminari’s eyes look in the sun. “Yeah. It’s good.”
Kaminari beams at him, all sunshine. “Good! Thank fuck.”
Hearing any sunshiney person swear is always weird. Hitoshi had choked on his soda the first time Midoriya had said ‘fuck’ around him, and the first time Uraraka had cussed out one of the frat boys on campus for harassing her friend had almost been enough for a bisexual awakening on Hitoshi’s part. But this? This somehow feels even more surprising. Hitoshi has no clue why.
Kaminari laughs at how surprised Hitoshi looks and, as he does, Hitoshi viciously schools his expression and wishes everyone would look away already. Kaminari always laughed loudly. Always. And it… it’s never annoying? But it is enough for Hitoshi to cringe under the weight of everyone suddenly turning to stare at them.
“Sorry, sorry, I just- bro you looked like you just got slapped!” Kaminari snorts and claps a hand in front of his face. “Your eyes were all wide. Sorry!”
“It’s fine.” Hitoshi mutters, taking another sip of his coffee.
“You good?”
“Yeah. Just don’t like people staring at me.” Hitoshi sighs. “Seriously, it’s fine.”
“Hm.” Kaminari purses his lips. “Do you wanna move outside? Fewer people around.”
“Um.” Hitoshi swallows. “Sure?”
“Cool. I know a good spot, come on.” Kaminari hops to his feet and gestures for Hitoshi to follow. Then he whisks out of the door to the coffee shop before Hitoshi even has time to stand up.
By the time Hitoshi’s met up with him outside, Kaminari’s already finished his coffee and is carefully separating the lid and straw into their respective recycling bins (after dumping the remaining ice in the grass). It’s a curious little display, but it’s also oddly endearing in a distant, weird sort of way. In his dorm room, Hitoshi runs a pretty strict recycling system as it’s a bit of a fixation of his, and this? It both makes sense and doesn’t make sense that this would be a thing he finds endearing about Kaminari.
Charmed by a guy who recycles properly. We really are scraping the bottom of the barrel here, aren’t we? A voice in his head that sounds suspiciously like Ashido’s says, The bar is officially on the floor!
He shakes the thoughts from his mind. He has to focus on not being utterly and completely useless due to his gay panic. He would rather like to function.
Kaminari leads him onward toward a little fountain area surrounded by trees. It’s peaceful, relatively quiet, and Kaminari hurries over to the fountain and perches himself on the wide rim of it, gesturing for Hitoshi to sit down as well. Once he sits down, the sun ends up being perfectly blocked by the tops of the trees. It’s nice, everything smells like spring.
Hitoshi takes a sip of his coffee. It’s not quite as hot as it had been, but it isn’t lukewarm yet either, so he’s more than happy to drink it. Plus someone else paid for it, so he feels morally obligated to at least drink most of it or else his guilt will eat him alive at four in the morning.
He’s about three quarters of the way finished when one of Kaminari’s legs starts to bounce. Kaminari doesn’t seem to notice and Hitoshi assumes it’s a normal thing because, well, most of the overly caffeinated or ADHD-having or anxiety-riddled students he’d met on campus had some sort of twitch or shake. It’s nothing big or important, so Hitoshi ignores it. Besides, the sound of Kaminari’s shoe hitting the ground rhythmically is oddly calming in an anxiety-driven sort of way.
“Hey,” Kaminari says after another minute or two. “When does your class end?”
“Uh.” Hitoshi has to check his watch for the time. “About another twenty minutes. Why?”
Kaminari deflates a little and looks at the ground. Hitoshi is immediately struck with a sense of absolutely paralyzing fear. Had he said something wrong? Had he offended Kaminari? Or, gods forbid, had he made him sad?
After a second, though, Kaminari looks back up at him and says, “You should probably get back, huh?”
Hitoshi shrugs. “I guess. My stuff’s still there, but…”
Kaminari shifts his weight awkwardly.
“Are… you okay?” Hitoshi tries to sound as not-awkward as possible.
Kaminari twitches. “Yeah! Yeah, bro, I’m good.”
“Then why are you suddenly quiet?”
“I dunno, man, I just like hanging out with you?” Kaminari shrugs helplessly.
“You like having someone to skip class with.” Hitoshi says.
“I get lonely, dude! And Kirishima’s working on getting his EMT certification, so I don’t feel like I can bother him!” Kaminari whines.
“Oh.” Hitoshi says weakly. Then he clears his throat, steels his courage, and says, “Text me. So long as you don’t pull me out of every lecture this semester.”
Kaminari immediately brightens. “Wait, really?”
“Sure.” Hitoshi says. “But don’t you have that tall friend? The one with the black hair who looks kind of like a stoner?”
“Who, Sero?” Kaminari blinks. “Yeah, but he’s taking night classes and all of mine are in the early mornings so I don’t wanna wake him up. And he’s not a stoner, only mostly a stoner.”
“Still calling him a stoner.”
“Whatever. Also he uses they/them pronouns sometimes.”
“Oh.” Hitoshi blinks. Then he nods. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.”
Kaminari grins at him. Then he snatches Hitoshi’s drink and takes a sip. Hitoshi makes an offended noise and yanks it back. How dare he steal his precious caffeine?
“Sorry, sorry.” Kaminari laughs. “Just wanted to see how it was.”
“You couldn’t have asked?” Hitoshi hisses at him.
“You’d have said no.” Kaminari points out, and Hitoshi’s argument dies in his throat because Kaminari has some foam on his upper lip and it is now taking every ounce of self control Hitoshi has ever had to not lean over and swipe at it with either his thumb or lips. Gods fucking help him.
After a second of him staring, Kaminari reaches up and jams his thumb into Hitoshi’s forehead. “Uh, dude? Earth to Shinsou?”
“I’m fine.” Hitoshi swats his hands away and turns his head, lifting his cup to take another sip of his coffee. “You’ve got foam on your face.”
“Aw, fuck, how’d I do that?”
As Kaminari goes about vigorously wiping at his mouth, Hitoshi quells the instincts inside of him telling him to call Kaminari cute. He is most definitely going to die of embarrassment if he does that, let alone in public. His survival instincts absolutely refuse.
“You should definitely get back to class now.” Kaminari, now finished wiping the foam off his mouth, is hopping to his feet. “C’mon, let’s go.”
Hitoshi grunts at him and stands up, then starts following him back in the direction of the lecture hall. As soon as they’re past the trees surrounding the fountain, Kaminari whips around in front of him and starts walking backwards again, hair once again bouncing lightly as he does and his flannel swishing with every step.
And, when his eyes catch the light, Hitoshi almost dies.
Thank the gods I didn’t kiss him just now, he’d have killed me. Or I’d have killed me. Whichever.