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Denki nervously checks the rearview mirror.
“You can begin any minute now,” Yamamoto-san, the test instructor, sighs.
Denki nods tersely, trying to keep his sparks contained, and shifts from neutral into drive. He backs out in jerks and stops, but once he’s actually out of the spot, he turns and smoothly glides onto the backstreet that leads to the main road.
Yamamoto-san hums and marks something on his clipboard. Denki bites his lip and pulls to a stop at the corner. He looks both ways, then checks his turn signal and merges onto the main road. Thankfully, it’s pretty empty, and Denki is able to coast along just under the speed limit.
He cruises for several minutes, switching lanes thrice during that time, before Yamamoto-san directs him to, “Pull into that Starbucks.”
“O-okay,” Denki agrees, pulling into the turn lane. The tick tick tick of the turn signal goes on for nearly fifteen seconds before the other side is clear enough for Denki to cross through the lane and enter the Starbucks parking lot.
“Head into the drive through,” Yamamoto-san continues. Denki nods again, and he hesitantly drives through the lot and pulls into the drive through.
He doesn’t get why pulling into a Starbucks drive-through is an important part of a driving test, but whatever.
“Do I back out now, or..?” Denki hesitates.
Yamamoto-san stares at him. “No. Now you continue through and get me a vanilla latte.”
“...Okayyy,” Denki agrees slowly. He doesn’t want to piss off his test instructor, but he doesn’t exactly have money to waste. He gets a small vanilla latte, and Yamamoto-san accepts it greedily.
“Good job, kid. Now, get back on the main road and head back to the testing center.”
“Oh, alright,” Denki exclaims, pleased at how short the test was and how well he did (in his opinion, at least).
When he drives into the parking lot not five minutes later, Yamamoto-san has him parallel park in front of the building, and Denki manages to avoid the other car there (to be honest, he’d be hard-pressed to hit it when it’s not even close, but Denki would somehow manage).
Of course, Denki nearly screws it up anyways. He’s about to ask if he should leave the car in front of the building or back into a parking spot when Yamamoto-san says, “Make sure you don’t leave the car in neutral. Don’t want it driving away on us, hm?”
Denki sparks, caught off-guard by the question. The car jolts, then settles.
Yamamoto-san groans.
Timidly, Denki asks, “Do- do I still pass?”
“Just…” Yamamoto-san starts, then stops. “Don’t do that again and you pass.”
“Alright!” Denki agrees readily. He rubs the back of his neck. “I’ll do better about that!”
“...Right. Well, you passed,” Yamamoto-san says, marking one last thing on his clipboard and passing a sheet of paper to Denki. “Go inside and give this to Hanako-san. She’ll get you set up with your license.”
“Yes!” Denki cheers, pumping a fist in the air. Yamamoto-san massages his forehead, and Denki shrieks down. “Sorry, too loud?”
A year later, Denki is at Yuuei and facing an odd rescue situation, watching his classmates split up and go their separate ways.
“Bakugou, you’re not going?” Kirishima asks.
Bakugou stalks off the opposite direction, dragging Denki behind him. “What?!” Denki exclaims.
“We’re looking for villains,” Katsuki snaps. “Leave the rescuing to the extras!”
“Huh?” Denki cries.
Kirishima runs to catch up and sets Denki back on his feet. “I guess I see your point, Bakubro, but this’ll be slow going, right? Only one of us is very mobile.”
Bakugou snaps something back, but Denki misses it, too focused on what the other two missed.
“Guys, let's use a getaway car!” he exclaims, already hopping into a shiny red volvo. (Mentally, he marvels at how rich Yuuei is all over again. Seriously, where do they get the funds for these things?)
“None of us know how to drive, Dunce Face,” Bakugou snarks.
Denki looks up and grins. “Well actually…”
Not five minutes later, they’re careening down the road, Bakugou balanced on the hood of the car.
“How do you know how to drive?” Kirishima screams over the wind. “Actually, how do you know how to hotwire a car?”
Denki laughs maniacally and ignores the question. Kirishima doesn’t need to know.