Archive of Our Own

You grab one of the straps on your bag and throw it over your shoulder, weaving your way between classmates to leave the room. You’d barely made it into the hallway when you hear someone calling for you.

“Hey, wait up (Y/N)!” A voice calls from behind you.

You stop, looking behind you to find the source of the voice. It came from your classmate, Kaminari. You let him catch up to you.

“Hey!” He says, trying to catch his breath. You wonder why he’s breathing so hard, as you’re probably only ten feet away from the classroom you both came from. “You’re the only person I know who’s in Mic’s class. Did you see the homework for tonight? It’ll take me years to finish!” He groans, clearly dreading the assignment.

You chuckle as his overdramatized expression. “Yeah, it doesn’t look fun. His assignments always suck, but this is especially bad.” You hold up said paper to skim over it. “I don’t know what any of these words mean.”

Kaminari grins. “I’m glad you’re as clueless as I am. Would’ve sucked to come to you only to find out that you actually understand this gibberish.” His eyes light up. “Hey, I know! We’re both bad at this, so why don’t we team up and get it done together?” He smiles at you, hoping that you say yes.

You think for a moment. You don’t have anything else to do, as it’s Friday afternoon and no other teacher is cruel enough to assign weekend homework. You return the blond’s smile. “Sounds like a plan! My dorm is a wreck, though. Do you mind if we go to yours? You are the one who planned this date.”

Kaminari’s expression brightens, a nearly invisible blush creeping onto his face. He nods eagerly, taking a gentle hold of your wrist and leading you in the direction of your shared dorm building. You laugh at his child-like impatience. You know that he knows that you know how to get to his place.

Your train of thought is interrupted by a now embarrassed Kaminari. Still dragging you along, he slows his pace and says in an almost pouty manner: “And I wouldn’t say I planned it, per se. I just happened to get lucky with you needing help and me wanting an excuse to hang out with you-“

You’d been smiling fondly at the electric blond until his last comment settled in your mind. You’d noticed Kaminari’s behavior at school. He’d appeared friendly—the kind of guy who’d always make people laugh. You’d admired him, deeply, in fact.

You’d never think that he’d approach you for more than academic help.

“You didn’t hear that.” Kaminari tries to hide his bashfulness with a laugh.

You don’t want to ruin a potential new friendship with any awkwardness, so you respond with a wink and a “Hear what?”

Kaminari flashes his signature puppy-dog smile and the two of you arrive in the commons of 1-A’s dorm. To your surprise, there’s a person you’d never seen before sitting on an armchair in the living space. Kaminari seems to brighten at this person’s presence.

“Shinso!”

The purple-haired individual perks up at Kaminari’s voice. He gives a friendly smile and wave to the blond, but eyes you curiously. Kaminari seems to spot his confusion, and rushes back to your side.

“Oh, right! You haven’t met everyone from Class A yet! This is my friend, (Y/N)! I’m taking them to my room to study. You’re lucky you aren’t in the hero course, man.” Kaminari sighs.

You scoff, silently agreeing with Kaminari’s not-so-excitement about the assignment.

Kaminari’s comment intrigues you, however. “Are you in general studies, then?” You tilt your head at Shinso, slightly confused as to why a gen-ed student would be in the hero course dorms.

“More or less. I’m being mentored by Aizawa-sensei. I won’t be participating in any hero course studies or activities, but I’ll be living here for the time being.”

Kaminari beams. You’d opened your mouth to respond to Shinso, but were suddenly grabbed by the wrist and taken to the elevator. Shinso laughs, sending you an apologetic glance.

———

Kaminari feigns a dramatic sigh as he flops onto his bed. “I don’t want to do this assignment.” He whines, his voice muffled by a pillow.

You chuckle at him. “Neither do I. Let’s at least look at it before giving up, though.”

And the two of you do just that. Sitting on the floor of his room, you talk to him as if you’d known him forever—settling into a casual conversation with no effort.

That is, until you catch Kaminari staring at you.

“You okay? You’ve been spaced out for a while.”

The blond blinks twice, before seemingly coming back to the real world and laughing—albeit embarrassed. “Yeah! I’m…good! Good! m’ just sick of this assignment.”

You watch him for a moment longer. His casual demeanor seemed to have dissipated within the last few minutes, changing the usually confident blond into a stuttering mess.

Deciding to drop it, you nod. A yawn escapes your lips, and you lean back onto your elbows. “I’ve read over this paper so many times, the words don’t even look like words anymore.”

Kaminari chuckles at your words. “I’m done caring about it for now. We have until Monday to hand it in.”

“As much as I want to lie and say that I’ll do it in time, I know that this’ll end up lost on my desk.” You stand up to stretch, having gone stiff from sitting for too long. “Eh, one overdue english assignment won’t stop me from becoming a pro hero.”

Kaminari watches you in amusement. He clears his throat before averting his eyes and mumbling something under his breath.

“Hm?” You look at him, confused. His sudden strange behavior has you worried. Had you said something wrong?

“I…was wondering if you’d like to stay a bit longer?” He meets your gaze again, a hopeful but almost sad expression on his face.

You laugh softly, and a flash of hurt crosses his eyes. Realizing your mistake, you quickly answer him. “I’m glad you finally asked. I didn’t really want to leave.”

And you meant it. He’d been great company. You hadn’t felt so…comfortable around someone in a while. Like you could fully be yourself around someone. You only hope that he feels the same, and judging by his bashfulness, he does.

You eye the clock, noticing how fast time had flown. It’s almost time for “light’s out”, as Aizawa-sensei calls it.

“You don’t mind me staying over, do you? Mic is gonna kill me on Monday, so I definitely don’t want Aizawa to chew me out for staying out so late.”

Kaminari smiles, somewhat returning to his normal self. “I’ll hide you. If we get caught, I’ll shock the lights and we definitely won’t be seen.”

You laugh at Kaminari’s suggestion. “That doesn’t sound very heroic of you, Chargebolt.”

He snickers, though your use of his hero name sends a shiver through his spine. “A hero has to make choices sometimes. Would I rather be put on house arrest or simply deal with a short power outage?”

“As if Aizawa wouldn’t immediately assume it was your fault.”

“Too true, (Y/K).” Kaminari glances at you, and his timidity returns. “Would you..um..”

“Yes?“

“Would you maybe wanna invite Shinso to our slumber party? I know the guy is awake.”

You feel a pang of sadness hit you. Does he not want to be alone with you? You admit that the idea of spending the night with Kaminari is intimidating, but you’d hoped that you still could.

But declining his suggestion could make him not like you, so you accept.

———

Soon enough, you’re greeted by a familiar face. You hadn’t noticed before, but clear bags under Shinso’s eyes definitely prove Kaminari’s earlier expression about how the purple-haired hero would be awake so late. You laugh to yourself, knowing how well you can relate.

You wave to Shinso, a quiet “Hey” escaping your lips—a yawn soon follows. Kaminari responds with a yawn of his own. Shinso laughs, eyeing his friend in suspect.

“Tired, huh? How much studying did you guys get done?”

If Kaminari hadn’t been bashful before, he certainly is now. Tired eyes widen as the blond opens his mouth to retort. Shinso notices Kaminari’s embarrassment and quickly takes his joke back.

“Kidding, I’m kidding.” Still, he shoots Kaminari a knowing look.

You don’t want to admit how much Shinso’s comment affected you, however. You’d always admired Kaminari’s friendly attitude in class, but recently, your “admiration” had turned into a small crush.

You cover your flushed face in embarrassment, hiding your feelings with a pretty obvious fake laugh. To your luck, however, neither boys seem to notice.

“Shut up, man.” Kaminari grumbles.

“Right, right. My bad. I shouldn’t have assumed that a dork like yourself could get such a pretty person into his room this late for reasons other than studying.”

“Shinso!” Kaminari yells, then remembers the time. He slaps his hand over his mouth, only increasing Shinso’s laughter.

Shinso looks to you apologetically. “I’m sorry. I can’t miss an opportunity to mess with him, you know.”

You nod in agreement, laughing with him. “For sure.” Still, his compliment lingered in your mind. Judging by Kaminari’s irritation at Shinso, he hadn’t missed it either.

Shinso moves to slump into a giant beanbag pressed against a corner, Kaminari taking the opportunity to move to his bed to pout. You laugh at their childish banter, feeling a sense of belonging among your two male peers.

“Oh! Look at this, you guys!” You turn to Shinso, finding him sat up in the beanbag, happily looking at his phone and laughing. Scooting towards him from your spot on the floor, he flips his phone to reveal a video of a cat being forced to pick up some food it’d spilled.

“Trying to win them over with your cat videos, I see.” Kaminari’s pouty voice appears from the other corner of his room.

Shinso laughs, both at you being encapsulated by the video and at Kaminari being jealous of it. “Get over here, then.”

Despite muttering some annoyed comments under his breath, Kaminari complies, meeting you on the floor next to Shinso.

The video ends, and you let out a quiet “hmph”. The internet isn’t wrong about cat videos being addicting.

“Don’t worry (Y/N), I have more.” Shinso scrolls on his phone, evidently trying to find another video.

Kaminari scoffs. “I’ve never met someone as obsessed with cats as you are.”

“Oh shut up, dude. You like them too.”

The blond rolls his eyes, admitting that yes, he does.

———

The three of you spend hours on your phones, each of you searching for a better cat video than the last. You gasp at one, excitedly showing it to Kaminari and Shinso.

“Look! It’s you, Kaminari!” Two cats are pawing and hissing at each other over a stuffed Pikachu toy.

Kaminari chuckles, seemingly in a better mood. He hears jokes about his quirk being like Pikachu’s electricity almost daily, but it being from you makes it funny to him.

Shinso’s eyes widen. “Dude, (Y/K), you haveto see this picture.” He turns to his phone, aggressively searching.

You turn your head in confusion. Kaminari groans, seemingly aware of whatever Shinso is looking for. “Don’t show them that-“

But he’d already shoved his phone in your face. “Look. I forced him to wear these.”

Kaminari looks defeated in the picture, a pair of Pikachu ears resting on his head. “We went to Kyoto on summer vacation once. It took forever to convince him to go to the Nintendo store-“

Kaminari interjects. “Because I knew what you’d do to me-“

“But it was so worth it, as I now have valuable blackmail against him.”

Kaminari grumbles at his friend. “You know, you’ve been-“ He stops complaining at the sound of you bursting out laughing.

“You look so annoyed! I love it!” You say, coming down from your laughter. Shinso watches you, amused. Kaminari, however, blushes intensely at your words. He stares at you, clearly lost in your eyes. He’d never known that such an adorable person had been sitting in class with him all along.

He kicks himself for not asking you out sooner.

But alas, he hadn’t forgotten his annoyance at Shinso. “You. Have done enough damage for tonight.” Kaminari stands, nearly ripping his friend’s arm off as he drags him out of his room. “Goodnight!” He slams the door, somewhat trying to be quiet about it.

“You’ll thank me later!” Shinso calls.

Kaminari lets out a long sigh, pressing his back to the door. “I’m sorry about him, I wouldn’t have invited him if I knew how damned annoying he’d be.” He turns to face the door, his voice growing louder as he talks.

“I’m glad I got to see that, though. You looked adorable in those ears.”

Kaminari turns bright red. He scoffs, avoiding eye contact with you. “Yeah, yeah.”

You stand from the floor and walk to him. “I’m serious! You should get them and wear them to school.”

“And be relentlessly teased by Shinso, along with literally everyone else? No thanks.” He finally faces you, noticing a slight blush across your cheeks.

“What if I dared you to?” You shrug at him, smirking.

He meets your teasing gaze, responding with a smirk of his own. “That’s cheating, you know I’d never back down from a dare.”

Your heart is thumping; you hadn’t realized just how close you’d gotten to the blond. His lips are only inches away from yours, and the temptation to kiss him has only gotten stronger. “Really, now? So I could dare you to do anything?”

Kaminari seems to note how close you are as well, his breathing picking up in speed. “Y-yeah, anything!” He chuckles out of nervousness, but doesn’t dare look away from you.

“Anything at all…” You pretend to think, tapping your chin with your index finger.

You don’t know where this sudden confidence came from. You’d had crushes before, yet never had the courage to even talk to them, let alone flirt with them. Kaminari really does bring out a different side of you.

“Then I dare you to kiss me.”

It all happened in snapshots. Kaminari gasped, composed himself, then pressed his lips to yours. Emotions exploded throughout your mind—feelings of happiness and shock—you’re so glad you said yes to his “not-date”.

Your kiss grows deeper, his arms snaking around your waist while your hands hold his face to yours. Your head spins, and though you wish it could last forever, you pull away to breathe.

A moment passes. You’re too dazed to respond, and Kaminari chuckles softly.

“Wow. Yeah. You really don’t back down from a dare, do you?” You collect yourself, smiling at the deeply flushed blond.

“What’d I tell ya?”

You don’t respond, instead choosing to bring him into another heated kiss.

———

A few hours have passed since Kaminari’s heart exploded. He’d carried you onto his bed after you’d fallen asleep on his beanbag. The two of you spent the rest of your date chatting about anything and everything, and with every word you spoke, Kaminari realized just how special you were.

He’d found it hard to meet someone that he truly enjoys being around. He’d always tried to be friendly to everyone, yet the side effects of his quirk had made him the laughing stock for countless classmates and “friends”. You never laughed at him, only with him.

He’d noticed your kindness and friendliness towards others for awhile now, stealing glances at you instead of paying attention to lectures in school. He’d admired you, and the assignment that he’d nearly forgotten about gave him the perfect opportunity to get to know you.

Making sure he hadn’t woken you up while carrying you, he walks towards his closet. He moves a few boxes in the corner to dig out a gift bag.

Inside, were a pair of Pikachu ears.