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Denki Kaminari is a hopeless romantic. He couldn’t not fall in love with almost everybody he met- and of course, he lived in a world where you literally wear your heart on your sleeve. He even chose a career path where if people know who you care about, they will go after them.
Denki was always designed to be a mess.
Now, walking into his middle school classroom, not many people stood out to him, but looking to his right sat a girl with light blue eyes and hair that matched. They talked every break and flirted a bit- so quickly he was down bad. Just as quickly, a pastel blue cloud tattoo appeared on his side over night, so who was he to deny fate.
The next morning after breakfast, he stole a flower from the bouquet on the table.
“Hey bud, what are you doing there?” His mom asked, causing him to jump
“N-Nothing!” He squeaked, hiding the flower.
“Denki!! Do you have a girlfriend?” His older sister seemingly came out of nowhere, stealing the flower from his grasp.
“Hey- give that back! It’s none of your business!”
So, before homeroom, he presented it to her and asked her on a date- with so many people watching. She wasn’t interested; she didn’t even take the flower. But that was okay! Denki was not going to cry- he was above that! Even if he could feel the tears pricking the corners of his vision and watched it slowly blur, he was better than that. He could move on easily- right?
~~~
The following year, he began hanging out with a boy with bubble gum pink hair, and without even realizing it, he had fallen for him as well. The image of a pink and purple dragon appeared across his right shoulder, so he decided to act on it- this time couldn’t be worse. He learned his lesson from last year; this year, Denki would do it in a secluded place- just the two of them: o grand gestures. Just the two of them and a heartfelt confession.
“You’re a fucking freak!” The boy hissed backing away, a disgusted sneer on his face. “It’s wrong to like boys! Are you watching us change in the locker room? You fucking fa-”
Denki tuned it out, his face blanked. He only apologized and ran off. He wasn’t sure he could even go to classes that day, he ended up walking home and holed himself into his bedroom, when his moms found him, any anger they had about him skipping class quickly subsided as they comforted their son. The rest of the school year was lonely, no doubt bubblegum boy had told the class, girls came up wanting a ‘gay best friend’ and not listening when he explained he was bi, boys avoided him, and even people he called his friends pushed him out of the circle.
At least that time Denki was the one that told the person. The following school year, he fell again- another boy, this one with bright orange hair and auburn eyes. Within days his tattoo landed on his upper left arm. A tangerine with a vine in the shape of a heart. It was cute, but that didn’t mean much because when he saw it in the mirror, he started sobbing. Here he was, on the way to fuck up another friendship. It was going to be hard to hide even- and if this trend from the past year were to continue. So he hid it. What else was he supposed to do? Confess and lose the only person who was around him? He’d rather be dead! So, he continued being Tangerine’s friend until they were in the locker room getting dressed for the gym one day. He pulled his shirt off, not paying attention to a few of the whispers that circled when the tattoos were revealed.
“Hold on, that tattoo looks familiar, doesn’t it?” Somebody said, quite loudly, making eye contact with Denki as he spoke, “looks like somebody else’s in this room- hmm I wonder…” the voice continued. Denki just pulled on the gym t-shirt and rushed out. It didn't take long for Denki to get a text.
I saw that tattoo.
And Denki’s world shattered. What was he supposed to say at that point?
I’m sorry .
That was what he settled on. Tangerine didn’t talk to him the next day. Or the day after that. But that was okay. It just meant he had time to work on his application for U.A. Once he got there, things would be so much better- he could forget the past and move forward and eventually climb to a top ten hero position- oh that’s the dream.
~~~
The exam was hard- so fucking hard. He was almost scared the written portion would be how he failed, but he got through it. The fighting? Easy! He had so much faith in his quirk, a little too much at times-
And before long, he was accepted. Classmates stared at him in awe when he announced his high school decision, some jealous, some proud- he could feel glares from some classmates as if asking why somebody as dumb as him got in-
He just had to prove them all wrong.
~~~
Old habits die hard. That was one of the lessons he learned in U.A. that stuck with him.
Walking into that classroom, he became quick friends with quite a few people- Jirou Kyouka was one of the first. They playful banter, mainly was him flirting and her teasing, it wasn’t a shock when he found the little purple beat rhythm from her hair was adorned on his right hipbone. It was clear she wasn’t interested. Between his silly pick-up lines, and his “I’m asking you on a date, but I could totally play it off as a joke or a group hangout!”, she always laughed at him, he wasn’t that dense. He could tell she didn’t want anything. But it was fun while it lasted. Days after he realized his feelings, Mina approached him.
“Kami, you’re friends with Jirou, like good friends- right?” She asked as the two walked to the cafeteria for lunch.
“I mean, yeah, I would think we are good friends- Why?” A pit settled in his stomach, scared about the conversation and where it was going. But when he looked over at Mina’s face and the pink tone slowly became red, he didn’t feel even slightly upset.
“Does she ever talk about anybody, like,, in a romantic way? Fuck- I don’t even know if she likes girls-”
“Have you seen her, she is a bicon and we all should know it-” he chuckled, “I can try and get it out of her if you want? See if she does?”
Mina lit up at that statement and nodded.
He could confess to Jirou first, try and take that from Mina, but the amount of guilt outweighed his desires, he couldn’t be selfish in the slightest. There wasn’t a single bone in his body that would take that from his friends.
He didn’t even need to try and get the info in the end- he saw the two of them huddled close together and whispering when he walked into homeroom the next day, Mina flashed him a thumbs up, and he shot one back at her.
Seeing her with Mina hurt a little bit- of course he was happy for his two friends! But he grew attached to their little habits and banter, so of course that was going to sting. It wasn’t right for him to keep up with it, not when she had a girlfriend who cared about her so much. So he stopped, and tried to move on, slowly setting boundaries for himself so that he could preserve the friendship and hope she wasn’t weirded out at all by it. Neither of the girls had to know- it was probably better that way.
It wasn’t hard to get attached to somebody else who was a little mean. It was always fun to pick on Bakugo, his entire friend group did every now and then! The green grenade with the orange background insinuated some deeper feelings Kaminari had. But seeing that same print on Kirishima’s upper arm, he knew he had to leave it.
Bakugo was nice to him- or as nice as he could be given who he was. The blonde had to of trusted him too! Kaminari was the only other one in the class that could get away with calling him Kacchan and all those likes. But he killed that crush for his best bro. Kirishima.
Falling for Kirishima was an accident- just another person he had attractions too early on, and another crush he had to kill. Kirishima was the first one to notice all of his tattoos- the one day Kaminari forgot to wear a shirt that covered most of them. But he wasn’t laughed at or teased, but instead Kirishima called him manly, he was manly because he wasn’t afraid of feelings and was able to move on and do amazing things.
And it should have felt good getting that praise! Being called manly was a form of high praise from Kirishima! But that night he curled up and sobbed in his room because he noticed Kirishima’s stupid little tattoo, forming right next to Bakugos. Sobbed because he really wasn’t over the tattoos that had formed- even the oldest ones that have been there for nearly three years at that point.
That night he started researching because maybe getting rid of the tattoo could work. Most procedures you couldn’t get until you were eighteen- coverup jobs were always a possibility, though it was hard to find artists who would do it. There were experimental tattoo removals possible, but the results were very mixed still. There was a person with a quirk who could remove it, but they were booked out for months. Black market methods he found were too sketchy, and were far too pricey. He was shit out of luck.
One thing he would always count on, who has been there since he fell for Jirou was his best bro Sero. He was there to comfort him. He knew it would only be a matter of days until Sero’s little scotch tape tattoo would pop up- Sero always hated the look of his own tattoo, claiming it was tacky, but Denki swore that was part of the charm of most tattoos. One day they were chilling in Sero’s dorm room, when sero went to change shirts, and just barely, Denki swore he saw his own tattoo.
Somebody liked him back at last.
Sero confessed to Todoroki that week.
This wasn’t a heartbreak he could go to Sero with, so that night, Denki cried in Mina’s room, and she learned everything. He wasn’t sure how much he wanted to tell her, and things he wanted to keep secret even slipped out, but she only held him close and soothed him.
“You’re not upset I had a crush on your girlfriend?” he whispered quietly when he finally calmed again.
“Kami, look me in the eye and tell me why I would be upset that you feel human emotions” She asked, matching his quiet tone.
He was that close to crying again.
~~~
There was a small period where Denki was able to avoid feelings, he had his close friends and that was enough- until the joint training. - meeting Shinsou- working with him. He fell for him at that moment. He knew he had to at least tell that boy something- even if he couldn’t have him.
“You’re a hopeful hero, just like the rest of us!”
T hat had to suffice- he felt his heart beat out of his chest seeing the look Shinsou gave him, that's when Denki knew he said the right thing at the right time.
After that day, Denki kept seeking him out, for the smallest of things- studying, workouts, to even getting ramen or coffee after classes. Mina kept encouraging him, and he ended up in her room every night, some nights with Jirou too, just talking about the days. He was down bad and looking at his hip bone, seeing Shinsou’s tattoo filled him with so much joy.
In second year, when Denki’s feelings for him reached a high, their hangouts got more and more sparse, Denki should have known something was up though it was hard to determine if he was being avoided or if somebody else has been taking Shinsou’s time.
One day when walking back to the dorms, he found the answer. Shinsou and Monoma were walking hand in hand off of campus- and Denki felt his heartbreak. Isn’t it funny? It’s like he was being broken up with- except he never had the boy. He shouldn’t have been this upset, Shinsou was never his- they were nothing more than friends- whenever relationships were brought up, Shinsou always mentioned how it just wasn’t a good time for him. Between his mental health, which was recently at an all-time low, and his transfer into a new class, it was just too much.
That night, Mina had to seek Denki out. “Denki Kaminari, I hear the break-up playlist from my room on the other side of the dorms, you are going to let me in and tell me what happened. We both know hiding like this will not be good for you.”
He sniffled unlocking the door and turning down the music, Mina quickly came in and shut the door behind her, letting him resituate himself onto the bed before she sat down and pulled him into a tight hug. The flood gate finally broke, no matter how hard he tried to keep it in, there was just something about Mina that made emotions easy. His sobs turned into heavy breaths after a few minutes, the playlist coming to a close on the last song. The two sat in silence for a few breaths, Mina rubbing slow circles into the bottom of his back.
“Do you want to talk about it?” She finally broke the silence with a whisper, “or do you need a distraction?”
“Dis-Distraction for now,” he whispered, voice cracking from the crying. Mina nodded determinedly “You’re going to go shower and then meet me in my room right after, alright mister? No backing out, you’re getting the Mina Heartbreak treatment tonight”
~~~
The shower did help him a lot, getting under the water, cleansing himself of the dirt and the grime, and the emotions from the day- it even woke him up slightly (he would have fallen asleep in Mina’s lap if she just sat there). And when he got to Mina’s room, he was ready to cry again. There was music playing already, some sort of bubblegum pop as she explained it, he didn’t mind, it was kind of vibey even.
From one corner of her room to the next, by ten PM it was a bit of a trainwreck, from sitting down playing with makeup, to where they ended up now, curled up and shit-talking romance movies. Jirou came by for a little bit during the night to hang out with them and left when Denki promised that if he needed something he knew he could call her as well- but she did what he needed by providing their old bickering and teasing banter.
The movie came to an end and Mina sat up so she could find another one for the two, but he stopped her.
“I think… He’s dating Monoma…” he whispered out, and all the lightness left Mina’s face.
“How! Monoma has been nothing but awful to our class!” She exclaimed
“He isn’t that bad of a guy- just a bit of a character-” Denki tried to defend him. No matter what though, he did agree with Mina. It just appeared that Shinsou was the special exception for one reason or another.
“I don’t know, I still can’t see too much good coming out of this-” Mina said, leaning back into his side, fingers gliding over some of his more visible tattoos, notably the purple hydrangea etched into his side.
There was some scarring over a couple of them that had formed after a few rough battles on one of his internships, but he was rather happy about that, as it led to them not being easy to recognize. Others, he wasn’t so lucky, there were even some nights he sat on his floor, blade in hand, wanting to cut through those as well.
He hasn’t done it yet. He isn’t sure if tonight will change that. Mina doesn’t let him go back to his room.
~~~
Things get easier the more Denki sees them together and the more he realizes it’s not something he can have- Dating Shinsou at that point had to be more of a dream. How would Shinsou know Denki had more feelings for him at one point anyways? Slowly his fast friend drifted away from him with the pulls of his relationship. Within months it felt like they were strangers again
And for once, this seemed to go Denki’s way- He was able to avoid any confrontation about that tattoo. Third year came and went, and right before going pro, Mina presented him with a birthday present that truly was a game changer.
Denki opened the envelope in confusion when it seemed to be just a standard piece of printer paper, but Mina was practically vibrating as he opened it up.
Appointment: Denki Kaminari
Service: Soulmate Tattoo Removal
TIme: August 1, 20XX
“Mina you did not- how?? It’s impossible to get in unless you’re a douchey businessman who cheated on his wife and needs a removal asap-”
“There’s no obligation for you to go, but it’s something you considered for years and I’ve been trying to get this for you for so long so-”
And so in August, a week before he was going to start up as a Sidekick at a new agency, he was able to get the procedure. He walked out of that office with a few of them taken off. It was weird though, as much as he hated seeing those scarred memories, he felt empty without the three he did remove- he felt empty not seeing the purple flower peeking above his waistband. Maybe he still wasn’t ready to move on.
Working at the new agency was supposed to be a breeze, but things don’t always go as planned, as he was very displeased to find that one of the people he would be working with was none other than the man he wasn’t over- Shinsou Hitoshi.
Their shifts never lined up, Denki seemed to always be coming in when Shinsou was leaving and the two had polar opposite schedules. There was never much more than general meetings together and small talk in elevators.
Until one day, when Denki walked in, seeing a coffee on his desk, signed by S.H. Now, he may not have been the brightest crayon in the box, but he knew who it was from without even batting an eye. He had a small moral dilemma while he took the first sip, but when he recognized the taste(and the cup on a second glance) he was taken back to second year, one of their coffee and study sessions.
“Shin, are you ever scared of the future?” Denki asked, looking up from his textbook. He hadn’t been reading that past four pages and knew once Shinsou left he was going to sit there and struggle reading it for another hour, so why not kill the time they do have.
“I don’t know, if I’m being honest, sometimes I’m impressed I’m here today” the other teen admitted, looking down at his cup in shame.
Denki only nodded at that. The couple sentences left enough food for thought.
“What about you?” Shinsou continued, causing Denki to startle; he didn’t expect to be thrown back his own question.
“A little. So much can change so quickly” he admitted.
Slowly it turned into Shinsou would hang around the office a little bit later, claiming he had to wrap up some stuff, or Denki would appear earlier, claiming he was just early because his body woke him up. They would sit in the staff room and engage in polite small talk, which evolved into their fun little banter.
It was two weeks before the outlines of a tattoo appeared again, in the same location. It wasn’t an overnight occurrence like it was when he first had a crush on Shinsou, it was slow and gradual. Slowly the tattoo changed and colored to be the dark purple flower it was before. And despite the pain it caused to see and have in the past, he didn’t mind the detail forming.
But no matter how much he thought he came to terms with the entire thing, something in his stomach still had to know about him and Monoma; he needed to know if there was a chance. And once he got the no, everything would be okay. for realsies.
So the next morning, Denki arrived at the office about an hour early, a couple of bagels in hand, and made his way to the break room where Shinsou was already, sitting down with one of the agency laptops, typing away, looking up and giving Kaminari a small wave.
“Here!” Kaminari said, setting one of the bagel bags and a coffee beside the laptop before sitting down next to him “How was your shift?” He asked.
“It was weirdly slow for it being summer,” Shinsou admitted, shutting the laptop. “But still exhausting, I’m ready to go home and sleep”
Kaminari chuckled “Sounds like the old Shinsou I know,” he said “Have you and Monoma moved in together yet? You guys were pretty serious in high school,” he asked before he could bite it back.
Shinsou flinched at that “oh uh, we broke up halfway through third year,” he muttered “I noticed having him around pushed you away, and uh, things weren’t going great either way so,” he looked aside as his thought trailed off.
Denki sat there and blinked a few times, and suddenly he wanted to vomit up the coffee he had been sipping on. “Why didn’t you ever approach me about it?” He asked, trying to be cautious, though his words didn’t seem to agree with his sentiments. Shinsou only shrugged slightly, starting to pack his bag. “I’ve got to head out, I’ll see you around, Kaminari”
~~~
About a week later, Denki was put on night patrol one night- or well, an entire two-week period. He assumed it might have been a slip-up with scheduling, but when he approached the boss, she only confirmed it was right, some bullshit about how there was a suspicious figure and his quirk was a good matchup, and a bunch of other stuff he ended up tuning out.
When he walked into the breakroom and saw Shinsou there, he realized that he would at least be on the same shift as him.
“Guess who is lucky enough to get a new patrol partner!” Denki said, sitting at the table next to him, stealing a sip of whatever coffee Shinsou had gotten before he settled in here
“Let me guess, there’s a new intern and you thought she was cute so you volunteered to work with her?” Shinsou asked, not even looking up from his laptop
“Nope! Guess again!” Denki perked again
“Then it’s going to be a cute boy because we all know you are a bisexual disaster”
“Well, I mean, if you consider yourself cute then close enough-” Denki winked at him. “The boss changed up my schedule for a couple of weeks-”
“This is going to kill you if you’re anything like what you were like at U.A” Shinsou finally looked up, raising an eyebrow. If he heard the cute compliment he either didn’t care or other things to precedence.
“I’ll be fine- hopefully-” Denki shrugged. His sleep schedule at U.A. wasn’t that great for the first couple of years, and it’s not like he chose for it to be that way! It just spiraled into weeks of undersleeping and then into weeks of oversleeping.
Shinsou seemed to hesitate for a second. “Hand me your phone, I’m going to give you my number so that when you feel like garbage in three days I can help.”
“Damn, didn’t keep it from when we were in school? I always thought I could at least be a good booty call” Denki teased opening his phone and sliding it over as Shinsou flustered and typed in his number.
“It’s not like that and you know it” Shinsou huffed standing up packing his bag, “I’ll see you tomorrow night, right?”
Denki nodded, watching fondly as the boy put his bag on his back, noticing a flash of a yellow tattoo on his side where his costume had the mesh over skin overlay, and as much as he wanted to ask and see it, Shinsou was already out the door.
~~~
Turns out, Denki was turning into a mess already. Two days into his new temporary schedule, he was accidentally skipping whole chunks of his routine- brushing teeth, eating meals, seeing friends, and even his usual leisure activities. So, begrudgingly, he opened his phone and sent out a text.
u were right
Not even a minute later, his phone dinged
text me ur address, i’ll bring food and some other stuff.
It wasn’t too long later that he heard a knock at his door, Shinsou coming by with a packed bag, full of the mentioned “stuff”
“Alright go ahead and eat, I brought some things to help you with sleeping better” A warm Tupperware containing food was dropped into his lap as Shinsou pulled some other stuff out from his bag, ranging from a couple of pill bottles of over the counter sleep medicine, black-out curtains- those likes. It was easy to notice he’s been doing this shift for quite some time
“Never pegged you as a good house spouse, maybe I need to fake being sick so I get this luxury treatment more often” Denki yawned, taking the food and starting to eat it.
“Or maybe you’re the only half tolerable coworker I have and I don’t want to lose it because you passed out mid-shift and got fired,” he said, making his way back to Denki’s bedroom to hang up the curtains. Only a couple of minutes passed before he came back out and sat next to Denki, the two sitting in relative quiet.
“Half tolerable my ass” Denki muttered, finally breaking the silence, “You know I’m an absolute fucking delight”
“Yeah, because you almost getting us killed in second year is a ‘delight’” Shinsou glanced over making air quotes when saying delight
“That was the most fun you had since joining our class” Denki argued in mock offense “Would Class B have welcomed you in with such a big bang”
“No, because they fear expulsion-”
“Did Aizawa expel any of us? Ever?” Denki cut him off, a small smirk forming on his features knowing he won.
“Oh shut it” Shinsou rolled his eyes, before leaning against Denki, slowly shutting his eyes.
Denki felt a pang of warmth through his chest- sure his friends always made him happy, but even years later, Shinsou had a unique effect on him that simply infatuated the boy. Suddenly, Denki was glad he didn’t dive into these feelings head first- he just let them simmer in his chest and slowly grow into a dull roar. He wrapped an arm around Shinsou as he fell into him.
“Why all this?” Denki asked in a hushed whisper, loud enough for Shinsou to hear it, but quiet enough to where he could act like he didn’t and Denki would drop it.
“I think it’s second-year me doing the things I wish I had done” Shinsou responded, keeping his eyes closed.
“Care to elaborate?”
“I was head over heels for you, maybe some part of me still is? I think that was a large factor of why I broke it off with Neito in third year” he shrugged, lifting his shirt to show the tattoo that confirmed his predictions from the other day.
“Damn, you should have told me sooner,” Denki said, lifting his own shirt with a hopeful smile, and turning to show the tattoo to Shinsou.
He shivered when a cool hand made contact with his side and gently trace the tattoo. His hand was cold, but there was no pressure behind it, more than anything it was ghosting his side- as if Shinsou pressed down any harder the tattoo would vanish.
“For my birthday, I got a few of the tattoos removed, it’s not safe to have so many in our field- yours was one of them…” Denki added, letting his shirt drop, growing nervous. He should have shut up after showing the tattoo, but his pretty little mouth didn’t know how to do that and just kept going “when we started working together and actively staying late or coming early to see each other, it slowly reappeared…”
“Well, I’m glad it did,” Shinsou added, looking away as a blush painted his face.
Sure love sucks and he was let down so many times- but maybe Denki could do something with it this time.