Chapter Text
"Welcome back, Jiro!"
She hears in the form of a whisper shout as soon as she's fully closed the front doors to their dorm hall behind her. Kyoka really wasn't expecting anyone to be out around this time. It’s nearly ten at night and most of her classmates are asleep by now with their busy work study schedules, but it's nice to be greeted.
It's Eijiro, she realizes as she walks toward the dark living room. He's waving at her from the couch. It looks like there's someone next to him, but she can’t tell from the other side.
“Hey, Kirishima,” she whispers back, assuming there’s a reason his voice isn’t at its normal volume. She had originally just planned to go straight to her room and fall asleep, but she opts to head for the couch instead. Today was a quiet day, rather lonely. She wants to talk with her friends for a little.
She turns the corner as she drops her bag beside the couch, and finds that she was right, someone is curled up beside Eijiro - face, and hair mostly hidden from the blanket he's wrapped in. She can only tell who it is because of that awful leopard print blanket.
"Is that Kaminari?" she asks quietly. She almost wants to laugh, it's so strange seeing him look so small, but something's off about it, something that's not letting her smile.
"Sure is," Eijiro answers, patting his friend's head gently. "He's not feeling well."
Kyoka frowns as she sits down on the adjacent couch. She didn't realize he was asleep, but it explains why he hasn't said anything, and why Eijiro is keeping his tone quiet. Denki is a pretty heavy sleeper, so he probably wouldn’t wake up if they were just speaking normally, but it tells her that Eijiro is concerned and wants to let him rest.
"Me and Yaoyorozu are staying out here with him 'cause he seemed lonely. But he fell asleep pretty quick," Eijiro explains, conveniently just as Momo enters the living room.
Momo smiles warmly at her and waves. "How was your day? Did you get to do anything exciting?" Momo asks kindly, her eyes bright as she sits on the couch across from Kyoka. She has a mug in her hand.
"Not really. We were called in for a hostage situation, but for me it’s just a lot of standing around and waiting. It got resolved though," she says. Those situations are strange, they’re quiet but anxiety-inducing. They always leave her drained, and she has a feeling Momo has noticed that. "Were you guys in class?"
"Us two, yeah, and a couple others. Kaminari was at his work study," Eijiro says.
Kyoka figures he probably came home early from it if he wasn't feeling well. She knows he does his work study with Hanta, and he doesn't seem to be around yet. But maybe he’s gone to bed already.
“I’ll make you some tea,” Momo offers as she stands back up, heading back over to the kitchen, where Kyoka is assuming she came from.
“Oh - thanks, Yaomomo,” she says as her classmate has already walked off.
Eijiro has gone back to sleepily watching whatever’s playing on the television, she hasn’t been paying much attention to it. Her eyes drift back over to Denki, who she still can’t really see. He seems to be curled up pretty comfortably in his blanket, his head tucked under Eijiro’s arm.
She’s a little worried, but she’s sure he’s fine. It’s just strange seeing him like this.
She brings her knees up to her chest and starts scrolling through her phone, looking at anything and nothing. She’s probably going to go upstairs to bed soon. Momo comes over to bring her the tea she made, which Kyoka’s very grateful for - it’s nice in this cold weather.
Momo asks her if she’s doing okay, and Kyoka just answers with a nod. Her chest is still tight, but she’ll be fine. She just needs to relax, and this tea will definitely help.
"Could you do me a favor?" Eijiro asks after a few minutes of silence between the three of them, and Kyoka lifts her head to see his nervous smile.
Kyoka raises a brow.
"Take my spot for a second? I really gotta pee," he asks.
"Oh - uh, sure," Kyoka agrees without much thought, but she doesn't realize she agreed to sit that close to Denki until Eijiro stands up to let Kyoka take his place.
She slides where Eijiro was sitting after she puts down her cup of tea, and Denki leans against her arm after no time at all. Eijiro thanks her before he disappears. She tries very hard to not make this an awkward situation. She’s not particularly fond of sitting this close to anyone, let alone Denki Kaminari - but something else quickly takes over the embarrassment.
Kyoka didn't realize he was this warm. She didn't think to ask Eijiro what was causing him to feel unwell until now, but she knows now that it's at least partially from a fever. She figured not feeling well just meant he needed some rest. He's practically radiating heat, though.
Kyoka finds herself pressing the back of her hand to his forehead, still surprised at how warm it is. He doesn’t really react to it either.
Now that she's thinking about it, she doesn't think she's ever seen him sick like this before, not at all. She wonders if it's because of the weather, it's been getting a lot colder recently.
“Is he sick?” she asks Momo quietly. She knows the answer already, but she’s hoping Momo will provide some more context.
She doesn’t, though, she just nods with a sympathetic smile. Eijiro appears shortly after, and the way he walks over tells her he’ll take back over the spot, so she lets him. She retreats back to where she was sitting, but she can’t take her eyes off of Denki.
"Shouldn't he go to a doctor?" she asks as soon as Eijiro settles back into his spot. "He's so warm,” she comments.
"He did already," Eijiro tells her, his eyes peering down at their friend as well. "They sent him home with some medicine to take too, I made sure he took it. I think he just needs some rest. I’m sure he’ll feel better tomorrow.”
He sounds optimistic, but there’s something hiding in his tone, too. She knows he’s worried.
The front doors open again, bringing in a rush of cold air, but whoever is coming in is nice enough to close it quickly.
"How's my buddy doin'!" Hanta exclaims as he comes in through the door, but Eijiro is quick to shush him and tell him that their friend is sleeping.
Kyoka watches her friend's always-present smile melt into a frown in the few seconds it takes for him approach the back of the couch and peer over it to get a good look at Denki.
"Man...he really doesn't look good," Hanta sighs, reaching over and ruffling Denki's hair. The latter doesn't move an inch. "He took the medicine and everything?"
Eijiro nods. "Yeah...I guess it's not gonna make him better right away," he sighs. "He sure is knocked out, though."
Hanta disappears for a few moments to get his things put away, and he comes back with a glass of water, his eyes glued to Denki as soon as he's within his sight. He sits on the arm of the sofa that Kyoka has been sitting on, despite there being plenty of room for him to actually sit on the couch.
He takes a sip of his water, not taking his eyes off of his friend.
"It was so weird seeing him like that today. I swear I've never seen him sick my whole life," Hanta says with a sad little sigh.
"Oh yeah, you guys have known each other a while haven't you?" Eijiro asks.
"Yeah, since middle school. I lived next door to him," Hanta explains. Kyoka doesn't think she's heard that before. She was vaguely aware of them always getting to class at the same time, before they lived in the dorms.
She realizes that Denki doesn't talk much about himself, which doesn't sound right in her head. Denki definitely talked more than anyone else in the class, Kyoka knew that well, being sat beside him in the class all day, but she didn't know a lot about him personally, now that she thinks about it. He's never once mentioned he and Hanta being neighbors.
The sound of glass shattering in the kitchen has Kyoka immediately standing up, and everyone else nearly there.
"I'm so sorry! Just dropped a glass, nothing to be concerned about!" Momo calls from the kitchen. Kyoka sits down when she realizes that Mashirao is already there, helping her. She's not sure where he came from.
Kyoka looks back over to Denki, who hadn't moved an inch with all of the commotion. Eijiro seems to have noticed this as well, concern etched into his face.
"I wonder if they gave him something to make him this tired or he's just like that," Eijiro says. "That definitely should've woken him up."
"I dunno. They didn't let me go to the hospital with him," Hanta murmurs with a pout. "Probably a side effect of something."
Kyoka's heart sinks.
"Wait, you said doctor. Earlier," Kyoka says. The word hospital has a much more serious connotation. No one told her Denki was in the hospital. "He was in the hospital?"
At first, no one says anything. Eijiro and Hanta just look at each other like they've been caught doing something bad, not exactly sure what to say.
"Y...yeah. I'm sorry," Eijiro murmurs, scratching the back of his head. "Mr. Aizawa said not to make a big deal out of it. I didn't want to make you guys worry by telling everyone that...I'm sorry, Jiro."
"No - no, it's okay. I get it," she says. She doesn't blame Eijiro at all, but she's definitely much more worried than she was before. A hospital visit was a lot more serious than a regular doctor visit.
"My bad," Hanta says through clenched teeth. "Hospital sounds bad. It wasn't...well, it was serious enough for a hospital, I guess. But they let him go home?" he's trying to make it sound better than it is. Kyoka appreciates the sentiment, but it's not going to work. Considering everything - Denki's fever, and the way he's completely knocked out right now - it's a lot to worry about.
"What even happened?" she asks.
Hanta sits down on the couch beside her, eventually deciding the armrest wasn't comfortable, and he turns a little bit so he's facing Kyoka.
"Let's see…" he starts, tapping the glass of water he's been holding. "He was patrolling with Mt. Lady. I went with Kamui Woods. That's how we usually do it. And we met back up at some point. And Kaminari...he just, wasn't acting right. Super quiet, definitely looked sick. He was normal this morning? Right?"
Kyoka nods. She only saw him briefly, he and Mina were brushing their teeth in the living room, a common occurrence, but she didn't think anything was off. Mina would have said something. She remembers him waving at her and telling her good luck as she was leaving for her work study, and he always does that. Nothing out of the ordinary.
"You know what, now that I think about it. He didn't eat breakfast," Eijiro points out with a pout.
Hanta frowns at the realization. Denki's usually not the type to refuse food for any reason, even if he's not feeling good. "Yeah. So I was like, hey man, you good? And he was like, yeah man, I'm fine, but, he definitely wasn't. And you know him, he's not really the type to be like that. He'll say if something's up," Hanta says, putting down his now empty glass. Kyoka nods. At the very least, Denki is horrible at pretending he's okay when he isn't. "Mt. Lady said something to Kamui about it. And then, he just...passed out. And we couldn't wake him up for a good couple minutes," Hanta frowns. "Kinda scary. His skin was super hot. So they just took him to the hospital right away."
Kyoka bits her lip. A fever bad enough to knock him out isn't something to scoff at, especially for the generally healthy Denki Kaminari.
Momo has since appeared, offering Hanta a cup of tea, presumably what she had busied herself in the kitchen with. He takes it gratefully.
"But, yeah. I had to keep patrolling with Kamui. Mt. Lady filled me in when we got back to the agency. She was pretty worried too," he sighs, placing his cup down on the coffee table after he takes a few sips. "I think...she said something about his fever being at like, one 'oh four or somethin' crazy most of the time he was there, but they got it back down."
"Oh, speaking of. I need to take his temperature again..." Momo trails off as she disappears back into the kitchen.
"Mr. Aizawa brought him back here around seven, I think. So he was there for a couple hours. Six, maybe?" Eijiro says in place of Hanta, who has gone back to drinking his tea. "He just told me to keep an eye on him and make sure he takes the medicine they gave him every couple hours."
Kyoka's heart seriously hurts. So he hasn't even been back for all that long, it's hardly eight o'clock. She thought it was just some cold.
"Do they know what it is?" she asks meekly.
Eijiro frowns with a shake of his head. "Not really. A bad fever, but, they don't know why."
"I know Kamui said it could be quirk related, but they didn't do any testing. Since it was just the fever, really," Hanta shrugs.
Momo reappears in the living room in the meantime, a thermometer in her hand. She gently slides the thermometer past Denki's lips. Kyoka expects him to react, but he doesn't move at all, not even after she holds it there for a few seconds. He's really dead asleep.
It beeps, and she takes it back, standing up straight as she reads it.
"One 'oh two point six," Momo murmurs. "That's...a little better than before?"
"By like, a tenth of a point," Eijiro sighs. "C'mon buddy. We've really gotta get that fever down," he says, ruffling his hair a little, still with no reaction from him.
"You think those cooling patches will do anything? You know, the ones you stick to your forehead?" Hanta asks, gesturing to his forehead to help aid his explanation.
"They might help him feel a bit better, but it's unlikely they'll bring his temperature down," Momo says, a little dejectedly. "But...I suppose it wouldn't hurt."
"I've got some in my room!" Eijiro says. He takes Denki's shoulders before he stands up so he can gently lay him down on the couch as he gets up.
"Want me to take your spot again?" Kyoka asks him, already ready to stand back up.
"I think he might be better off lying down for a bit, since he's so out right now," Eijiro says, sliding a pillow under his head and bringing the blanket up to his shoulders. Still no sign of him waking up any time soon. "I'll go grab those cooling patches. Be right back!"
Momo picks up the tea that Kyoka had left on the table, and hands it back to her before she sits on the side opposite to Hanta. Kyoka apologizes as she takes it back - she'd forgotten about it, and now it's gotten a bit cold.
"Shall I warm it up for you?" Momo asks gently.
"It's okay. I'm sorry," she tells her as she takes a few sips. This is the kind of tea she usually gives her when she's anxious, whether it's something that she's told Momo about or not - she must realize this situation isn't making it any better.
"Don't be sorry," Momo tells her quietly, and the dorm hall dorms open again to reveal their resident explosion boy.
Katsuki is always quick to close the door behind him. Recently he's been pretty fond of just walking by everyone without a word, especially past eight thirty, but he's curiously gravitating towards the couches.
Katsuki doesn't say a thing when he looks over the couch to see who it is. Kyoka expects him to drop some sort of off-handed comment before storming off, but nothing comes. He seems to recognize that something isn't right with their classmate.
He makes eye contact with Kyoka for a moment, almost like he's waiting for her to say something, but Eijiro making a reappearance makes him break the eye contact.
"Bakugo! What's up? You're back early," Eijiro says, grinning widely at the latter, the box of cooling patches in his hand. "No Todoroki and Midoriya?"
"No. They stopped to get food," he grumbles. His voice is a little hoarse, he sounds tired, but he's not nearly as angry-sounding as Kyoka expects him to be. "The hell's wrong with Kaminari?"
Kyoka immediately takes note of how quickly Katsuki changes the subject to Denki, and the use of his name rather than his usual mean-spirited nicknames for the latter. She's known Katsuki long enough to recognize by now when he's concerned.
"He's just not feeling great. He'll be okay," Eijiro tells him with a little sideways smile, and the change in his tone tells Kyoka that he recognizes his concern too.
"Good," he murmurs, walking past him and disappearing upstairs without another word. Eijiro looks a little sad to see him go, but he turns his focus back to the cooling patches, placing the box down on the coffee table and opening it up.
"Has he ever called him Kaminari?" Hanta asks.
"I don't believe so," Momo blinks.
"Man, and he's not even awake to hear it. He won't believe this," Hanta jokes.
About half an hour passes without many words exchanged between the four of them that are awake.
A few more of their classmates come home in the meantime - Ochaco, Tsuyu, Fumikage, and Izuku and Shoto eventually come by too. Of course, all of them stop by the couch group to see what’s going on, and all of them were pretty surprised to see Denki in the condition he was in. He’s usually the first one to greet everyone when they come back to the dorms, since he’s always somewhere in the living room with the others, so Kyoka can imagine it’s strange to not hear him at all.
Most of them head back to their rooms after a few minutes, and Kyoka doesn’t blame them. She’ll probably head up to bed soon too, but then again, she’s not sure she wants to leave Eijiro alone to take care of their friend. He really doesn’t look tired at all, but still.
Hanta, on the other hand, probably would have fallen asleep if no one had walked in. She watches him for a few moments and notices very quickly that he's fighting to stay awake, his focus on his phone but his eyes closing every few seconds.
"You should go to bed, Sero," Eijiro tells him, saying what Kyoka is thinking. He’s noticed it as well.
Hanta lifts his head and sighs, his eyes a little wider now. "Nah, I can't leave. I'm worried about 'im."
"We'll take care of him. You've had a long day," Eijiro reminds him with a small smile. Kyoka is sure his day was stressful with everything that went on, especially having to go most of the day not knowing if Denki was okay or not. "I'll get you if we need you, man."
He sighs again, stuffing his phone in his pocket and thinking for a few moments. His eyes drift over to Denki, who is still sleeping deeply, curled up on the couch under his blanket. "Okay...fine, but seriously, get me if anything happens."
“I will, promise,” Eijiro tells him, and he means that.
"G'night Kaminari. Hope you're having a good dream in there," Hanta says as he bends down to gently ruffle his hair, half smiling down at him. Denki doesn’t budge. "Night, guys," Hanta says through a yawn with a wave to the group, and they all wave back at him as he disappears into the elevator. Momo does the same, looking rather tired herself, but asking the same of them - to wake her if anything happens.
Katsuki appears again after a while in his usual black skull shirt and sweatpants, and busies himself with something in the kitchen.
It's way past eight o'clock by now, which is usually around when he goes to bed, so it's strange that he's out - he must be concerned about Denki.
Eijiro gets up from his spot on the floor and excuses himself to go talk to Katsuki, and he’s with him in the kitchen, just out of earshot of a normal person. Kyoka is alone with Denki in the living room now, but he still hasn’t moved an inch.
She wonders if he’s going to go to class tomorrow or not, or if he has another day of work studies. She knows that she and Mezo have to attend their work study again, but thankfully, a bit later in the morning.
She hears Katsuki say something, Eijiro's expression saddens and he starts to talk. She uses her quirk to listen in a little bit, something she can’t help but do from time to time, and hears that Eijiro is telling him what happened to their friend.
“And he’s stayin’ out here?” Katsuki asks when Eijiro is finished explaining.
“Yeah, he didn’t wanna be alone in his room. You know him,” Eijiro says.
“That tracks,” Katsuki replies.
“You gonna stay out here? We could use the company,” Eijiro asks him.
“Company?” Katsuki huffs.
“Yeah. Pretty sure you’re not out here an hour past your bedtime just to sit around in the kitchen, huh?” Eijiro teases.
“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbles, but Kyoka notes how he isn’t denying anything. She knows the only reason he’s being so tolerable is because he’s talking to Eijiro, and thinks that no one else can hear them. She smiles to herself.
"'J'ro?"
She's a little startled by hearing her name so suddenly, much clearer than the conversation she’s been listening in on. As far as she knows, no one else is in the living room but her and Denki, but of course, it just means Denki is awake.
"Yeah, Jiro," she confirms for him as she looks over and finds him sitting up, a hand pressed to the side of his head. She’s not sure how she missed all of that.
He's quiet for a few moments, staring forward at the table, but not particularly focused on it. She can imagine he’s probably a little confused, he was in a pretty deep sleep for a while there. "'M cold," he murmurs, taking the light blanket he’s been covered in and bringing it up to his shoulders.
"Yeah, it is a little cold in here," she agrees. The door has been opening pretty frequently and letting all that cold air in. "You want another blanket?"
He just nods, but again, isn’t looking in her direction, or really looking at anything in particular.
She gets up and heads for the closet space where they keep everything extra, and before long she's back with the blanket, part of her tempted to throw it at him folded like she usually does if he asks for one, but of course she wouldn't do that now. He’s slouched and sinking into the corner of the couch. She would have thought he had fallen asleep if it wasn’t for the way he was staring forward, and he barely reacts when she lays the second blanket over him.
He's quiet again. Kyoka expects him to fall back asleep - he looks so tired, but he doesn't. He just keeps staring forward.
She looks over at Eijiro and Katsuki, who are still talking in the kitchen, and it doesn’t seem like they’ve noticed that Denki is awake. She doesn’t blame them, they still have most of the lights off in the living room.
"You seem really out of it. You okay?" she asks him after a few minutes of silence, though she's not sure if he's aware enough to give her a real answer. She's not sure if this behavior is from his fever, or maybe his quirk is giving him problems? He’s often pretty out of it and confused from overusing his quirk, but this kind of behavior is out of the ordinary for him either way.
"I dunno," Denki murmurs, his words a little slurred. "I feel weird."
He's shivering under those blankets. Was it a good idea to give him another one while he's running a fever? He thinks he's cold, but he's burning up. Another blanket with more heat might make it worse, not to mention make him feel worse despite how his brain is tricking him. But she can't just take it away from him now.
"Yeah. I know," she nods. "You're acting weird. I'm kinda worried."
He doesn't say anything, and that alone is enough to solidify her concerns. It's so strange how unresponsive he's being, he's not known to be quiet like this at all, even after overusing his quirk. She knows that when he’s quiet like this, something is seriously wrong.
"My head feels weird, J'ro," he murmurs, once again pressing a hand up to the side of his head. She notices a little spark of electricity when he does that, which she has to squint at. That’s a bit strange.
"Did they give you something for it?" she asks him.
Denki just stares blankly for a few seconds before lifting his head. "Huh?"
"Nothing. I'll be right back, okay?" she’s not sure if he heard that either because he doesn’t react, but she gets up and heads toward the kitchen anyway.
She sees the two still in the kitchen make eye contact as she walks over, both aware that something isn’t right, and Eijiro is concerned enough to stand back up. Kyoka waves a hand to let him know it’s nothing serious.
"I just wanted to ask, do you know if they gave Kaminari anything for his head?" she says.
“Oh, yeah. Is he awake?” Eijiro asks her, and Kyoka nods. “He’s not supposed to take them for another three hours, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt him to have them early? They sent him with fever reducers and something for headaches.”
“You shouldn’t risk it,” Katsuki grumbles.
“Oh, you think so?” Eijiro asks.
“Yeah. It’s probably strong stuff if it’s from the hospital,” Katsuki says, “his head hurts ‘cause he just woke up."
“Yeah...you’re probably right,” Eijiro sighs. “I should go get it anyway for when he’ll need it next. Pretty sure I left all that in my room when Mr. Aizawa gave it to me,” he points out as he gets up to leave, and surprisingly, Katsuki gets up to follow him.
She hears something shift in the living room and heads back over to Denki, who has his legs hanging over the edge of the couch now like he wants to stand up, but something is stopping him. He’s got that same blank look, but there’s a discomfort in his expression now that’s a little concerning to her.
“Kaminari?” she says, but doesn’t get any response. She's taking note of how he's swallowing repeatedly, she can hear it. It confuses her at first, but she quickly realizes that that’s from nausea, and from the looks of it, he’s about to throw up.
She’s quick to pick up one of the little trash bins they keep in the living room and hold it in front of him as she sits beside him, and his stomach contents fall past his lips before he even realizes, it seems like. Kyoka's glad she caught it in time, it probably would have ended up all over the floor otherwise.
Kyoka tries very hard not to focus on it too much because she doesn’t usually handle this kind of stuff very well, but she wasn’t just going to leave him alone. She remembers Eijiro mentioning that Denki didn't have anything to eat for breakfast today - she's wondering if he's been nauseous the whole time.
"Oh no, bad timing," she hears someone say, looks up to find Mina walking over, incredibly worried. She takes a seat on the armrest on the other side of him. She fiddles for a clip that's in her hair - it looks like she just finished washing her face. She takes it out, pushes Denki's bangs out of his face and clips them back as he gags and spits up whatever’s left, her free hand rubbing his back.
It's little things like that that tell her how much Mina cares about her friends. She's not easily grossed out by things like this the way Kyoka is, sure, but Kyoka wouldn't have thought to keep his hair out of his face.
She looks at Kyoka for a few seconds, her dark eyes shining with worry as she frowns at her. Kyoka just gives a little sigh. She assumes that Mina already knows the situation, she's been here for a while, but she's probably just as concerned about this as Kyoka is.
When her attention is back on Denki, she realizes that he's shaking, that his breathing seems off. Kyoka wonders why he got sick all of a sudden - she doesn’t recall Eijiro or Hanta mentioning anything other than a fever and when he initially fainted.
"You think you're done?" Mina asks him gently, patting his head. He moves his head in a way that's barely recognizable as a nod after spitting up a mouthful of bile. Kyoka takes that as a sign to put down the bin. "'Kay, good. It's over, you're okay!"
He goes to duck his face into her arm with a pained whine, and she wraps her arms around him without much thought at all. He's shaking a lot more than Kyoka first realized.
"It's okay, sweetheart! I bet that feels better, doesn't it? Got it out of your system?" she says. Denki doesn't respond to anything she's saying, he’s still shaking just as much in her arms, completely soundless. "I know it sucks, but it's over!"
It feels like someone is stomping all over her heart. He looks absolutely miserable.
"You look so cute with your bangs back!" She tells him after she lets him go to look at him, ruffling his hair a little bit. Mina's always been good at cheering him up, at cheering anyone up, but it doesn't seem to be working on him today. He's just too out of it to even really take in what she's saying, but he's still shaking.
Mina seems to notice that too, her shoulders sink and she pouts at him.
"You don't feel good at all, huh?" she asks him, gently patting his head and pulling him back into a hug.
Kyoka decides to focus her hearing on Denki to see if anything else is off, by gently laying one of her earphone jacks on the back of his neck. He flinches a little when she does that, it's probably cold.
His heartbeat is fast, but it's always fast, she's always thought that was part of his quirk. His breathing isn't right. It's irregular, forced - she could tell by just that that he still feels nauseous, if she couldn't hear all the noises his stomach was making, too.
She hears something she hasn't heard before - she can only hear the heartbeat of a person without pressing her earphone jacks directly against them, so maybe this is normal for Denki, but she doesn't know. She can hear electricity flowing in him, but it's not the same as the sounds that she recognizes as normal flowing electricity. Something feels wrong, but she's not familiar enough with it to be sure.
Mina's looking at her with her brows raised like she's interested in her findings. Kyoka just shrugs. There's really nothing new.
"You think you could get a washcloth and some more of those cooling patches? He's so warm," Mina says very quietly.
"Yeah, no problem," Kyoka says, taking back her jack and standing up. "I'm gonna leave the bin here, he still sounds nauseous."
Mina nods, and Kyoka heads back towards the kitchen, just as the elevator doors open back up to reveal Eijiro and Katsuki.
Kyoka just nods her head to acknowledge she's seen them as she wets a washcloth with lukewarm water, wringing it so it's not so wet.
"Did he throw up?" Eijiro asks. Kyoka can hear the frown.
She nods, and hears Katsuki sigh. She figures he's probably made that inference based on what they can see from the living room.
"I should tell Mr. Aizawa…" Eijiro murmurs, pulling his phone back out of his pocket. "That's probably not good."
"Where'd you put those cooling patches? I'm gonna switch it out," Kyoka says, and Katsuki is already handing her the box.
"Hey, Jiro?" Eijiro starts, standing next to her. "You can go to sleep, if you want. You look super tired."
"I do?" she murmurs, genuinely. She doesn't feel tired, although, if her head hit a pillow right about now, she can't guarantee she would be awake after a single minute. "No, it's - I'm fine. I'm gonna bring this over to Kaminari."
And she does that, taking the damp washcloth and box of cooling patches as she heads back to the living room. She appreciates Eijiro's concern, but she's not going to leave any of them to take care of Denki by himself, while he's as sick as he is.
When she wanders back, Denki's leaning against Mina's shoulder and she has an arm around him as he's curled into her side, petting his hair back and humming something. He's so out of it. He's awake, but it doesn't look like he's aware of anything happening around him at all. He looks insanely feverish.
"Is he okay?" Kyoka asks, sitting on the coffee table and handing Mina what she's brought over.
"I think so. Maybe it just freaked him out," Mina shrugs.
Freaked him out? She’s not so sure, not by the way he was shaking. Denki’s quick to shake off things like that, usually. She recalls a time Eijiro punched him so hard during a training exercise that he threw up, and he just got up and kept going like it was nothing. Why would he be shaking now all of a sudden? What is he so scared of?
"You asleep now, Kami?" Mina asks him. He groans very quietly, like he's telling her no. "Okay. You think we can lay you down? Might help your tummy a bit to relax some, huh?"
He doesn't say anything at first. Kyoka doesn't think that he fully understood her. "'M sorry, M'na," he murmurs, further hiding his face.
"Aw, it's okay. It's not your fault," she tells him gently. "I'm sorry you feel so bad."
It's so strange to see him like this.
They both help him lie back down, and Mina lays his blanket over him, murmuring something to herself about worrying about his fever. She takes the washcloth and presses it to his neck and forehead, and as she does so, Kyoka listens to him again.
Everything seems to have calmed down a bit. His heartbeat is slower, his breathing sounds much more even, and his stomach doesn't sound as bad. She breathes a sigh of relief. Maybe that's a sign that he'll get better soon.
Kyoka ties up the bag that was in the bin and brings it to the trash can, but when she's digging though the lower cabinet for a new trash bag, she hears a little scream from the living room, one that makes her bump her head on the cabinet.
"Ashido!" Eijiro shouts, his and Katsuki's quick footsteps disappearing into the living room just before Kyoka stands back up.
Mina is just staring down at Denki, a look of shock in his eyes, almost, and she's holding her arm like it's painful. "He - I touched him and got shocked," she says to Eijiro once Kyoka joins them in the living room. It almost sounds like she doesn't believe herself.
She does it again - touches his cheek, and the same thing happens. Kyoka sees the sparks, which makes all three of them flinch. Even Katsuki, just a little bit.
"Don't keep touchin' him," Katsuki growls.
"That's not normal, right? He's never done that. I swear he's never done that," she murmurs, shaking.
Kyoka is almost sure she's right. She's seen Denki suffer from aftershocks as a result of his quirk before, but not like this, not to the point where he's hurting others.
But, she thinks back to her thoughts from earlier. She didn't know until today that Denki and Hanta had been neighbors since middle school, despite being good friends with both of them. Maybe this is something that's happened to Denki before, and he's just neglected to tell any of them.
"Ashido - your hand," Eijiro hisses, prompting a little squeak from Mina as well.
Once Kyoka gets close enough to see, she bites back a gasp herself. Mina's entire hand is covered with lichtenberg figures, but they're actual burns. That's why she's shaking so much.
Katsuki's back in the kitchen looking for something in the cabinets and Eijiro stares down at Denki for a few seconds, who looks like he's in pain. Mina had laid him down on his back earlier, and he has an arm crossed over him, but his eyes are screwed shut and he looks much paler than he did a few minutes ago. She sees his shoulder flinch forward, just a little bit, and another spark comes off of him.
"This has definitely gotta be because of his quirk," Eijiro says with a shaky sigh, looking back at Mina's hand, saying what they're all thinking. The latter is only focused on Denki, she doesn't seem to have any attention on her hand injury at all, despite how much it's making her shake.
"The fuck are you standin' there for? Call Mr. Aizawa," Katsuki grumbles once he's back in the living room, a first aid kit in his hand.
"Oh, yeah - you're right. Okay," Eijiro takes his phone out and steps a little further away.
Katsuki instructs Mina to sit down after he opens the first aid kit. Kyoka is sure Mina would be teasing the hell out of Katsuki for doing something like this normally, but her eyes are flooded with worry and completely fixated on the couch adjacent to where she's sitting, where Denki's laying.
Kyoka stands beside the couch, unsure of what to do, her arms protectively crossed over her chest. Was that just a one time thing, or is that going to happen now every time they touch him?
She notices blood trickle from his nose, making her raise a brow. It's not enough to reach his lip, but it's there, and she doesn't understand why. What would cause his nose to bleed all of a sudden? She knows that can happen from using his quirk, but he isn't actively using it, and even with the way he's shocked Mina, it's not enough to cause side effects.
"Don't fuckin' touch him, Ears," Katsuki grumbles, even with his back turned to her.
"Jiro. Wasn't going to," she mumbles as she retreats her hand, which was apparently in the middle of reaching down to wipe off the blood without her realizing.
"Kirishima?" she hears Mr. Aizawa answer Eijiro's speaker-phone call after several rings, but there's an urgency in their teacher's voice that tells her he knows something is wrong.
Eijiro begins to explain their situation. "It's Kaminari," he says, "he - I think it is his quirk. Ashido has electrical burns on her hand from touching him."
There's a silence for a few moments. "Okay. Does she need medical attention?"
Mina shakes her head in Eijiro's direction. Kyoka would disagree, her hand didn't look very nice, but they can have Recovery Girl look at it first thing in the morning.
"N - no," he answers, unsure himself.
"Cover him with an insulation blanket. And don't touch him without rubber gloves. I don't need any of you getting injured," he huffs before another small pause. "I'll see if I can find a quirk specialist that can come by at this hour. If not, he needs to go back to the hospital. A quirk like his can get incredibly dangerous if he's losing control of it like that."
Kyoka's starting to get really nervous.
"Okay. Yeah, we'll do that," Eijiro nods with another shaky exhale.
"I'll be there shortly as well. Call me if anything else happens in the meantime."
And he hangs up.