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One
“Hitoshiiii,” Denki drawls, tugging on the other man’s wrist, “c’mon. Please just go. In.” He whines, letting the wrist go upon realizing that his friend is way too stubborn for this.
Hitoshi crosses his arms, now that his wrist is finally free, “Yeah no, I don’t think so.”
“Pretty please?” Denki pleads, pouting and mimicking Hitoshi by crossing his arms as well, “It’ll be fun. Besides, you know everybody in there.”
“I didn’t realize it was so fancy,” Hitoshi tells him, gesturing toward the restaurant, “I am not dressed for this place nor am I mentally prepared to spend half of my paycheck on half a potato and some fancy meat.”
“Okay, it is not half of your paycheck,” Denki argues with him, “and it’s a celebration dinner for your best friend, other than me of course,” He smirks, gaining an eye-roll from Hitoshi, “and you don’t even have to pay, Todoroki offered to pay for everybody.”
They’re celebrating Midoriya getting announced as number one and, Todoroki having a huge (and very known and un-subtle) crush on Midoriya, means him offering to pay for a celebration dinner with all of his friends.
Hitoshi quirked an eyebrow at that, “With his own money or his father’s?”
Denki couldn’t help but laugh at that. Todoroki hasn’t stolen money from his dad since their 3rd year of high school. That was 7 years ago. “His own,” Kaminari manages through a fit of giggles, “anyway, I’m pretty sure Katsuki and Todo are splitting the bill, they’re still doing that ‘fight for Midoriya’ thing.”
“Hasn’t that been going on for years?”
Denki shrugs at the inquiry giving a hum as if to say I don't know, he’s got too much going on to keep track of Midoriya’s love life, “Anyway,” Denki trails off, a telling smile on his face.
“No,” Hitsohi deadpans, “I’m not going in.”
“Oh c’mon!” Denki flails his arms and lets them slap at his thighs, they’re making such a scene in the front of this restaurant, “I have a suit in my car, you can change quickly.”
Hitoshi rolls his eyes, “Where do you expect me to change? In your backseat?”
Denki giggles and Hitoshi’s face contorts into that of a very unpleased man, “I wasn’t being serious!” He complains.
“I have tinted windows?” Denki offers, still giggling quietly. He hides his mouth behind his hands as he watches Hitoshi get more and more annoyed.
Ultimately he does agree and tells Denki that he’ll meet him inside. Denki gives him the keys to the car, “Now, don’t go driving off, otherwise I will be very upset,” He wags a finger at his best friend.
“Well, I wasn’t planning on it, but now that you mention it…” Hitoshi trails off, looking away from Denki jokingly.
“Hey!”
Hitoshi chuckles softly, “Don’t worry, I won’t run away.”
“Good,” Denki crosses his arms, hmphing and turning away, toward the restaurant entrance.
He heads inside, where he’s immediately greeted by the host, “Hello and welcome in, do you have a reservation with us today?”
“Uh yes,” Denki nods, “The majority of my party should already be here but there are a few names it could be under,” He chuckles awkwardly, the group chat was very confusing. Todoroki, Katsuki, and Midoriya were all saying that they’d make the reservation, they were all arguing about it and, by the end of it, it was confusing as to which one actually accomplished it, “I apologize, there’s a bit of miscommunication in our group... Constantly.”
“Don’t worry about it!” She smiles politely, “Go ahead and give me any of the names and I will see who we have under here.”
“It’s either Midoriya, Bakugou, or Todoroki,” Denki tells the lady.
She scans the computer, her eyes moving as she does so. She types some things in, “Alright, we actually have 2 Todoroki’s today, it’s a popular name,” She chuckles softly, “as well as one Bakugou. Can you give me first names or how big the party is?”
Denki sighs, why couldn’t they have just been clear in the group chat? Why did they have to be so vague? Still, he forces a smile and makes a mental note to remind these damn friends of his to be more clear in group chats from now on, “It’s a party of," He quickly counts everybody in his head Himself, Hitoshi, Bakugou, Todoroki, Midoriya (obviously), Uraraka, Iida, Tsu, Midoriya's mom, Kirishima, Jirou, and Mina, "12 under Todoroki Shouto or Bakugou Katsuki.”
“Oh,” Her eyes widen, “You’re with the heroes,” She looks up to Denki and fully takes him in, “Oh my god, you are a hero. And me mentioning it was very unprofessional of me,” She shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, “I apologize. Right this way.”
She starts walking and twisting and turning like she knows the restaurant better than the back of her hand, which, actually, Denki doesn’t doubt.
Smiles from everybody at the table come the moment Denki rounds the corner to get to their table, “Where’s Shinsou at?” Mina asks.
“He’s on his way, had to get changed,” Denki says, sliding into a seat next to her.
“Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience,” She bows lightly to Denki.
Denki shakes his head, “Don’t worry about it,” He grins, “You did your job as you were supposed to.”
She smiled and dismissed herself. Only a few moments later, Hitoshi was walking toward the table and, well- The suit fit him perfectly.
Denki honestly wasn’t expecting it to fit him so well, since it was one of Denki’s suits. But, god damn, does he look good in it.
Honestly, Denki is too starstruck to form words about it.
“Hey,” Hitoshi raises his hand up as a brief wave to everybody.
The table greets him and Hitoshi makes his way to sit in the last empty seat, one right next to Denki. He can feel the heat go to his face whenever their knees accidentally brush or Hitoshi’s laugh travels way too close to his ear or he can feel Hitoshi’s breath from him talking in Denki’s direction. It’s terrible.
Denki is definitely in love with this man. There’s no other way to put it. There really isn’t, he’s just in love with the man and that’s all there is to it. Shit.
Throughout the entire dinner, their knees brush a total of 27 times.
Not that Denki was counting or anything.
Haha.
Of course not.
Why would he do that?
No reason.
None.
Haha.
You’re crazy.
He sighs heavily, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom.
Yeah… He’s definitely down bad.
***
Two
“Movie night!” Denki announces to his roommate happily, marching into his living room with a bowl of popcorn. He shoots a finger gun at Hitoshi with his free hand, the one that isn’t carrying popcorn, and clicks his tongue.
He plops himself down to the left of Hitoshi. He places the bowl in between them and leans forward to grab the remote from the coffee table, “Did you decide on a movie or…?”
Hitoshi sighs heavily, “No and I am not watching a children’s movie so don’t even think of putting on-” He scoffs and rolls his eyes as he gets interrupted by Denki.
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“No,” Hitoshi admits, sending a glare to Denki, “But don’t you dare put on C-”
“Cars it is!” Denki grins, clicking the power button on the TV and opening up Disney+ to turn on the movie.
Hitoshi groans in complaint but makes no real move to turn the movie off, instead he just grabs a handful of popcorn and eats some; He then promptly drops the rest of the popcorn from his hand back into the bowl, “What the fuck did do to the popcorn?”
Denki looks over to Hitoshi and chuckles softly, the opposite man’s face is kind of difficult to make out in the dark but, from what Denki can tell, it’s one of disgust but he thinks it’s hilarious, “It’s just popcorn,” He says, grabbing his own handful and tossing into his mouth, definitely missing his mouth with the majority of it. He whispers, “with gummy bears, sour gummy worms, skittles of many kinds, red licorice, and m&ms in it.”
“What the fuck,” Hitoshi blinks, appalled, “I am concerned for all your mental, emotional, and physical health at this rate.”
“Oh,” Denki waves a hand in front of his face, “don’t you worry about a thing, I’ve been doing this with my siblings since I was 5.”
“That just makes me more concerned,” Hitoshi takes a deep breath, wincing, “How have I lived with you for 4 years and have never known that you make popcorn like this?”
Denki just shrugs, turning away from Hitoshi now and paying attention to the movie, “Maybe you just don’t pay attention to me as much as you thought.”
“Oh trust me…” Hitoshi mumbles, complete sincerity lacing his tone and, if Denki were to look at him he’s sure the man’s face would mirror that, “I pay attention.”
And, for some reason, the way Hitoshi said that. So sincere. Just the two of them. It went into Denki’s ear and straight to his heart because damn, Hitoshi pays ATTENTION to him. Denki feels a light blush on his cheeks and his heart begins to race because… Well, Hitoshi pays attention to him.
He pays attention to him.
To Denki.
He notices things about him, he pays attention.
Denki’s throat feels dry and he grabs some more popcorn, just to keep himself preoccupied with something. For once, he doesn’t actually have anything to say in response to Hitoshi. Usually, he has some kind of retort but, after that, there’s nothing.
He pays attention to him. Hitoshi pays attention to Denki. He said it himself. It was even kinda proven by the fact that Hitoshi knew what movie would be chosen if he didn’t make his own decision. Hitoshi knew exactly what movie Denki would put on.
He pays attention to him.
That’s just a crazy concept for Denki. The fact that there’s someone who actually pays attention to him.
The fact that someone is Hitoshi.
Now, if only he’d just notice how much Denki is in love with him. Pay attention to that.
***
Three
Denki stretches his hands above his head, he brings one arm down to cover his mouth as he yawns. He lets his arms fall down at his sides and glances at the clock on his nightstand. He normally wakes up before Hitoshi leaves on patrol, he normally wakes up early enough to say bye to him. But as he’s looking at the clock, blinking ”9:19” back at him, he knows that Hitoshi is already gone.
That kinda sucks. He likes being able to tell his best friend bye.
He doesn’t sleep all that well, usually opting for a short nap directly after his shift, waking up about an hour and a half later (if he even does end up sleeping), and then managing to sleep after Hitoshi gets home.
Today, however, he slept in. Which, yeah, it’s good for him to get the extra sleep, lord knows he needs it. It's just that he wishes he was awake to tell Hitoshi bye.
Oh well, he thinks, rolling out of bed. He’s kind of hungry, he could go for a snack right about now. He trudges his way into the kitchen only to see a piece of paper on the counter. He pulls it over to himself and spins it around so that it’s facing himself the correct way to read, then he reads it;
Hey Denki, I boiled some eggs and those are in the fridge. I know you normally wake up around the time I’m leaving but since you didn’t today, I figured you’d be waking up after I’m already gone so I made you the eggs, in case you’re hungry, and there’s some pizza that I ordered in the fridge too. You can reheat that if you’re hungry :)
-Hitoshi
Well damn, Hitoshi really does pay attention to him. The way that Hitoshi knows Denki’s sleep schedule and, when he goes to look into the fridge, he realizes that Hitoshi ordered his favorite kind of pizza, even though Denki wasn't there to eat it with him.
Hitoshi really does pay attention to him. He cares about him. He actually cares about him and Denki finds that really sweet. He smiles fondly at the perception.
Yeah, he might be a little in love.
***
Four
Denki is on patrol when a huge fight breaks out. Multiple villains destroy any path they cross. Heroes gather around to help. It’s chaos. Civilians running away, villains going after them, heroes going after them. There was absolutely no order. Denki was doing his best to fend off the villains while trying to help civilians evacuate but it’s a lot more difficult than they make it look on TV.
One moment, Denki is rescuing people, making sure people get out of the danger zone safely, and fending off villains, then the next moment it’s just black, nothing.
Now, he’s waking up to unfamiliar surroundings and the last thing he remembers is eating a bowl of cereal.
Bright lights above him, blinding him. So he shuts them again.
He’s unsure what happened. He was just in the field a moment ago. Was that a dream? Was he dreaming?
Where even is he?
His throat feels dry, he gulps and clears it. That doesn’t fix it.
He attempts to squint his eyes open again, trying to get used to the lights. He has a pounding, throbbing headache. The lights just make it worse.
He tries to bring his hands up to shield his eye but there’s something preventing him from doing so with one arm. He manages to glance down to see cords everywhere, all connected to him, and a huge mess of purple curls laying on his arm.
Is he in a hospital?
He feels tired. So tired.
He takes a deep breath. God, he’s tired. He yawns and tries to stretch his shoulders. He’s fucking sore.
He can’t stretch- Oh my god, who is on him, what is that hair?
He wants to stretch.
He’s so tired. Why does his head hurt so much?
Where is he? Why are the lights so bright?
He takes a look around. A counter to his left, it’s filled with flowers and bears and cards and whatnot. He moves his head to see directly in front of him, a door. To his right is the purple hair. He can’t really see that well, he has such a bad headache, so that paired with the super bright lights, it makes it hard to see.
His throat is really dry. His mouth is really dry too. He tries gulping again.
The purple hair is a person, who is that person? Why is there someone sleeping on him? He clenches his right fist, it's fallen asleep, all tingly. He's trying to get a sense of his bearings. He’s so tired.
He’s kind of cold but he had a blanket draped across himself. He pulls his arm out from under the purple hair, there’s a tube in his arm. He looks more to his right, there are lots of machines. An IV stand too, the bag is almost empty.
The person begins to stir and he looks up. Hitoshi. He recognizes Hitoshi immediately.
The moment Denki sees that face, he smiles. He’s so confused right now that a familiar face is exactly what he needs.
Hitoshi’s eyes widen and he sits straight up, fully awake now, “Denki,” He mumbles, as if it’s unreal, “Denki,” He repeats, a smile on his face. Shock and relief in his eyes, “You’re awake. Thank god.”
“Wha-” Denki tries to talk but his voice comes out hoarse, he clears his throat and gulps again, “What happened?” His voice barely comes out, it’s rough. He clears it again, “You look terrible, by the way.”
Hitoshi scoffs lightly, rolling his eyes. But it’s true, his eye bags are worse than usual, if that’s even possible. It looks like he’s been crying for a while, his eyes and nose all red and puffy. His hair is a mess and he looks tired. But the moment he made the realization that Denki was awake, he seemed like none of that bothered him, immediately going to tend to Denki. “Let me get you some water, I had some brought in for myself earlier,” Hitoshi stands up quickly, making his way to the left side of the room and grabbing a cup from the counter. There’s also a pitcher of water with ice in it that he pours into the cup. He makes his way back to Denki’s right and offers up the water, “Can you hold it?”
Denki nods. He’s sure he can hold a cup. It can’t be that difficult. He does manage it, just barely. It's like his hands aren't working like they're supposed to. He takes a sip and it does actually help his throat, soothing it a bit.
Hitoshi grabs the water back from him and places it on a side table.
“Am I in a hospital?” Denki asks, taking a deep breath. His voice comes out a little smoother but it’s still not like normal, “What happened?”
“I should go get a doctor,” Hitoshi says, getting up and heading toward the door.
Denki sighs, “Hitoshi, please. Just tell me what happened.”
“The doctor will explain everything, I can’t really explain what happened,” Hitoshi concludes, hastily heading out of the room to get the doctor. He stops in the doorway and turns back to look at Denki, his face softens and there’s a look in his eyes that Denki can’t quite name, “I’m very glad that you’re awake, Denki.”
He comes back with a doctor a few minutes later. The doctor smiles as she enters the room, “Good evening, Kaminari. How are you feeling?”
Hitoshi sits back down in the chair next to Denki.
Denki takes a deep breath and shrugs, “Tired. I’m really tired. Exhausted.” He gulps, “My throat is really dry. What happened?”
“So you don’t remember?” The doctor asks, writing something down on a notepad.
Denki shakes his head, “I-” He licks his lip and shuts his eyes, trying to remember. But he can’t. He doesn’t remember anything. “No, I don’t remember.”
The doctor nods, “That’s alright. Things should start to come back as you wake up more, don't worry. Do you know your name?”
Denki nods, “Kaminari Denki.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m 25,” Denki smiles, “But my birthday is coming up soon.”
Denki sees Hitoshi shake his head, “Your birthday already passed, it was a week ago.”
Denki furrows his eyebrows. That’s not right. His birthday is coming up, it hasn’t already passed. “What day is it?” Did he forget his own birthday?
“What day do you think it is?” The doctor interrupts before Hitoshi can answer Denki’s question.
“Um,” Denki shuts his eyes, trying to remember, “June 27th,” He turns his head to Hitoshi, “I missed my birthday? What day is it? How long have I been here? How- When did-” He looks around the room, his breathing starts to pick up. He’s panicking. “Where am I? What happened?”
Hitoshi reaches to grab Denki’s hand, which instantly helps to calm him down, “Denki,” He squeezes his hand, “what’s the last thing you remember?”
“I was, uh, eating breakfast,” Denki rubs at his forehead, calming down and trying to remember after that, “It was cereal. In that red bowl that we have. And-” he shakes his head, “I was eating cheerios, I added m&ms to it.”
Hitoshi snorts a soft laugh, “Of course you did.”
“And uh,” Denki bites on the inside of his lip and tries to remember after that, “I think I was about to go on patrol downtown. I was in my hero costume.”
Hitoshi nods, “Yeah, I remember walking out to see you that morning.”
“Do you remember seeing Shinsou?” The doctor asks, writing something else down on his notepad.
“Um,” Denki clicks his tongue on the top of his mouth. Yes. Yeah, he does remember. He'll always remember Hitoshi. He smiles, “Yeah,” He nods his head, “He came out to ask me if I could stop by the store on my way home from patrol that evening to get cat food.”
The doctor looks over to Hitoshi who confirms it by nodding, “Yeah, that was the morning he got hurt.”
“What happened? I don’t remember,” Denki rubs at the side of his neck with the arm not full of tubes, “I’m so sore. It feels like I just worked out all day.”
Hitoshi chuckles, “You did more than that, Denk. You helped a ton of people, there was a huge attack during your patrol.”
Denki’s eyes widen, “Seriously?” He tries to sit up but Hitoshi places a hand on his chest to keep him laying down.
“Don’t try to sit up,” Hitoshi says urgently. “But yeah, all of the villains were apprehended but there were 13 civilian casualties and a lot more injured.”
“Is Bakugou okay?” Denki asks, “And Midoriya? They were supposed to be on the schedule with me that day, were they there?” He looks between the doctor and Hitoshi.
“Yeah, they were there and they’re okay. They’re more concerned about you,” Hitoshi says, “Izu managed to break his arm and he needed stitches in his forehead from a piece of flying glass. Bakugou needed surgery and a few stitches to fix a stab wound but he went home today, Todoroki is taking care of both of them.”
Denki sighs in relief. His friends are okay. Suddenly he feels a sharp pain in his side, “Oh my god what happened to me?” He places a hand where he hurts, wincing in pain. It goes away after a second and he clears his throat, “My throat is so sore, my body hurts.”
The doctor speaks up now, finally telling Todoroki what happened, “You’ve had a tube in your throat, it was just taken out this morning so your throat is bound to be a bit sore. According to an eye-witness, one of the civilians you saved, a villain appeared out of nowhere and managed to strike you in the back of your head.”
“Teleportation quirk,” Hitoshi says quickly before allowing the doctor to continue.
“After that,” The doctor takes a deep breath, “you passed out and the civilian said that she and her daughter left to find some help. They found Cellophane, who then found you buried under rubble, which is not how the civilian left you. Part of a building had ended up falling on you due to property damage from the fight. You were brought to the hospital, there was a tear in your heart that we had to repair and that was successful, there weren’t any complications. There was also a piece of glass piercing your stomach, which we removed. We did have to remove your appendix and repair a few lacerations but we got everything managed. As for your head, there was a bleed that we repaired, but there was a minor complication, which we did handle, don't worry. But you have been in a coma for the last week, which has made it more difficult to use any sort of healing quirks on you.”
“God damn,” Denki chuckles in disbelief, there’s a slight pain in his chest but nothing he can’t manage. This is the worst he’s gotten injured on the job, and he’s gotten injured a lot. “Sero was there?” He looks to Hitoshi, “Is he okay?”
Hitoshi nods, “Just a few stitches,” He says.
“He’s been here the entire time,” The doctor says, pointing to Hitoshi, “We couldn’t get him to leave since he got here. And you have a lot of people wishing you the best,” He points to everything on the counter.
Yeah, that’s a lot of people but he really only cares about one.
Denki looks over to Hitoshi, “Really? You’ve been here for a week?”
Hitoshi nods, not making eye contact with Denki.
Denki smiles softly. He can’t believe that Hitoshi has been sitting with him for a week. Still, he can’t let Hitoshi know how much he actually appreciates that, so instead he snorts lightly through his nose, “No wonder you look so terrible.”
Hitoshi rolls his eyes, “Oh shut up, you’re the one in a hospital bed,” He leans back in his chair, letting go of Denki’s hand as he crosses his arms. Denki had forgotten that Hitoshi was even holding his hand until he let go.
He misses it. The warmth of Hitoshi’s hand, the feeling of it in his own, it felt normal. Like that’s how it always should be. He misses the touch.
God, he’s so hopelessly in love. So freaking pathetic, wanting to hold Hitoshi’s hand.
Still, he pushes his feelings down and rolls his eyes, bantering with Hitoshi, “Yeah and I bet you still look worse than I do.”
Hitoshi smirks, “Impossible.”
Denki rolls his eyes, laughing quietly as he brings his attention back to the doctor to thank her. He really tries to ignore his feeling for Hitoshi while he speaks to the doctor (it’s a little less than successful).
***
Five
“Are you ready to go home?” Hitoshi asks, finally. Denki has been waiting to hear those words for way too long at this point and he is so glad that he can finally get discharged. Even with all the healing quirks around, it took forever to finally get them to let him go. He still has a little bit of recovery time to go and he can’t work yet so that kinda sucks, but he’ll manage. As long as he can go home and be in his own damn bed.
Hitoshi helps Denki into the wheelchair (this whole brain surgery thing makes basic tasks somewhat difficult, healing quirks definitely helped him regain that function but he does also need a bit of physical therapy) and begins to grab all of his things. Finally, they’re on their way out of the hospital and Denki could not be happier to be out of that god-forsaken place.
The only thing is, they live on the 3rd floor of an apartment with an elevator that needs to be fixed very badly.
When they get home, it’s a… mission to get Denki upstairs. That’s one way to put it.
Another way to put it is; Hitoshi carries Denki bridal style all the way upstairs and sets him down ever so gently on the couch and gives Denki a million butterflies.
A million.
Their cat jumps up to greet Denki, probably missing him after all this time. Denki chuckles and pets her under her chin.
“Would you like me to cook you something?” Hitoshi asks, grabbing the remote from where it sits on the coffee table and handing it to Denki wordlessly as if he just already knows that Denki wants to watch TV.
“No I’m okay, thanks,” Denki turns the TV on and puts on his absolute favorite movie: Cars.
Hitsohi rolls his eyes and scoffs lightly, “Seriously? You get absolutely destroyed by a villain and a building and the first thing you turn on when we get home is Cars?”
“It’s a GOOD movie!” Denki sits up a tad bit too quickly in an attempt to defend his choice in movies, he winces “Oh, yeah, that hurt,” He nods, attempting to lay back down.
Hitoshi sighs heavily, “Please be careful, Denks,” He crouches down to help guide Denki back to a lying position, “The doctor said not to move too suddenly, you could re-tear something.”
“It’s fine,” Denki drawls, waving a hand, “Don’t even worry about it Tosh,” He grins, trying to ignore the pain in his abdomen.
“I am worried,” Hitoshi says plainly, resting his forearms on the edge of the couch, still crouching down to be level with where Denki’s face is, “I don’t want you to get hurt again,” He mumbles, his eyes staring down at his own hands.
He’s sad.
Denki hasn’t even thought about how much it’s probably affected Hitoshi, to be sitting at his bedside for a week, unsure if his roommate, if his best friend would wake up or not. Denki knew that it was probably hard but he hadn't deeply thought about it or anything.
Not until now.
“I’m sorry,” Denki mumbles, forcing a small smile on his lips, “I’ll be careful.”
“Thank you,” Hitoshi gets up and starts walking toward their kitchen, “Now! Do you want ramen or soba?”
Denki rolls his eyes softly but smiles fondly as he watches Hitoshi walk to the kitchen, not giving him a choice to eat or not anymore. He really appreciates that Hitoshi is looking out for him, taking work off to agree to care for him. Denki was just going to have his sister come over and help him out but Hitoshi insisted.
So as Denki replies, “Ramen please,” He makes note of just how much he’s in love with his roommate.
***
+ One
At the beach, as they’re watching a group of friends play volleyball, Hitoshi, being the very sociable guy that he is (high on the sarcasm), went to… play with them?
It was very odd.
“I wanna go play,” Hitoshi had said, eyeing the volleyball, “I used to play all the time in high school.”
“Really?”
Hitoshi nodded and pushed himself up, “I’m gonna go ask if I can join.”
Denki just blinked at him for a moment, “Are you really? I mean, I know you aren’t shy but, like, you prefer to stay away from people unless absolutely necessary.”
Hitoshi just shrugged, “Yeah, well, maybe you’re rubbing off on me,” He smirked and jogged over to the volleyball game.
So now Denki is sitting here, alone, on a towel with a sandwich in hand and a bird glaring at him like it’s a cat ready to pounce, watching his best friend and long-time crush play volleyball with this random group of people.
And he’s not even allowed to go play with them because he still has to ’take it easy’ and ’not do too much strenuous activity’ because of his damn injuries. His poor little heart needs a little more time.
He can’t even work in the field yet. He just sits in his office and does stupid stupid paperwork. So boring. He hates it. He can never stay focused. He likes being in the field, watching everything, scanning over everything. That he can focus on.
He can also definitely focus on the way Hitoshi is playing volleyball. He can definitely focus on how when he jumps his hair gets slightly pushed down and the muscles in his arms flex when he goes to hit the ball. He’s just so god damn beautiful. Denki being in love with Hitoshi is definitely no surprise to himself anymore. Not after how much he’s been pining after him lately. And how amazingly Hitoshi has been taking care of him after such a huge injury.
He is really in love with the man and he’s not sure how much longer he can go pretending like he’s not.
That’s answered for him pretty quickly when he sees another man, one that Hitoshi’s playing volleyball with, walk up to Hitoshi and start to stroke his fingers through Hitoshi’s hair.
What the fuck.
Jealousy sprang throughout Denki’s chest. This is not okay. What? They don’t even know each other, why is this stranger carding his fingers through his best friend’s hair? Nope. Absolutely not.
This is simply not allowed. Nope.
Denki gets up and (he is very very sorry to his doctor) runs down to where the group is playing volleyball. Immediately Hitoshi backs up from the man and walks toward Denki, concern on his face, “Hey, what are you doing? You aren’t supposed to be running, Denki. What the hell?”
Denki takes a step toward Hitoshi, actually out of breath from that short run. Before he got injured, he’d be able to run way more distance without needing to take a moment to rest and breathe.
“Chargebolt?” One of the people from the volleyball group’s eyes widen and she drops the volleyball in the sand, staring at Denki, “Woah, I’m such a huge fan.”
“I don’t think now is the time, Yui,” Another woman says, probably noticing the way Denki is looking at Hitoshi. Whatever it is, he’s grateful she said that because he just needs to get this out and over with.
“I-” Denki tries taking a few more deep breaths, coughing and wheezing a bit but he’s fine. Really. He is. Just needs to catch his breath. Hitoshi takes another step forward, concern written all over his face, he clearly wants to try and help but as he opens his mouth to say something, Denki shakes his head and reaches his hand out, brushing a piece of hair from his face, behind his ear, and resting his hand on that cheek, “Don’t lecture me,” He chuckles breathily, “I know,” He takes a sharp breath, “it was stupid but,” He licks his lips, which also happens to allow him to catch up on his breathing.
Hitoshi’s face is level, calm, observing, focused, “But what Denki?” He asks genuinely.
“But,” Denki continues, rubbing the pad of his thumb along Hitoshi’s cheek. He’s not as out of breath anymore and he’s not in pain, which is a good sign, “I’m, uh,” He paused the movement of his thumb, “I’m in love with you, Hito. Like really really in love so um I just- I don’t know what you were doing with him,” Denki’s eyes move over to the man who was carding his hair through Hitoshi’s, “But I just,” He let his hand fall down to his side, “I needed to tell you, even if you don’t love me back, I needed to tell you because oh my god,” He lets out an abrupt chuckle, “you are wonderful and I could not,” He shakes his head in disbelief, “keep watching his hands in your hair.”
Hitoshi stares at him in what seems to be shock, though it is kind of hard to tell, for a moment and Denki is pretty sure that he’s about to tell him something like he wants to move out or something before he just bursts out laughing.
There are some scattered giggles throughout the volleyball group but it’s mostly just Hitoshi laughing. He’s laughing, one of those laughs that always give Denki butterflies. It’s loud and boisterous. It’s a laugh that’s normally saved for just people he knows. People he’s comfortable around.
He can’t help it though, he’s just laughing. Once he finally gains his bearings he grabs Denki’s face, “He was just putting my hair up for me because I liked the way his was done and asked him to do mine.”
“Oh.”
Hitoshi lets out another brief chuckle, “You are such an idiot, Denki,” Hitoshi shakes his head, gulping. There is the smallest hint of a smile on his face, the softest thing ever. Denki could stare at the man’s face forever if he’d let him, “Do you really think I would fold at any of your requests if I didn’t love you back? Do you really think I would endure your terrible, and I mean really bad,” He looks like he’s having flashbacks, “popcorn if I didn’t love you back? Do you really think I would make you food, when I am barely able to make myself food, in the middle of the night if I didn’t love you back? Do you really think I would sit by your goddamn bedside for an entire week not showering, barely eating, crying my eyes out at the thought of losing you if I wasn’t in love with you too, Denki?”
Denki takes a moment to process exactly what he just said. He blinks a few times, trying to see if this was a dream or something but it doesn’t seem like it. Denki can feel Hitoshi’s hands pressed against his face. Denki can feel the sand on his feet. Denki can feel everything he’s ever wanted to right now. The feeling of his longtime crush actually loving him back.
“It’s about goddamn time that you figured it out,” Hitoshi rests his forehead on Denki’s, not even caring about all of the people around them, which is usually a somewhat big deal seeing as Hitoshi is an underground hero and can’t have too much attention on him at one time, otherwise it would be bad for his career. Clearly, he doesn’t give a shit right now.
Denki is more than happy to not give a shit with him.
“You really love me?” Denki whispered up at him.
“Absolutely I do,” Hitoshi nods, which ends up rubbing his forehead against Denki’s and just gives Denki all sorts of new feelings to figure out, “You are a mess and sometimes I don’t understand the things that come out of your mouth but you are incredible, Denki. I’ve loved you for years.”
Denki’s eyes widen, and the realization hits him so quickly. He could have had Hitoshi years ago if either of them had just told each other how they felt, “Can you kiss me please?” He asks, really just believing that’s the final thing he needs to make this really real.
“I was hoping you’d ask that,” Hitoshi leans in, closing the gap between their lips, and kisses him so much more gently than Denki could ever imagine.
There are light whoops and cheers from the volleyball group and Denki can’t help but feel like he just won the freaking lottery as he hooks his arms around the back of Hitoshi’s neck.
Hitoshi loves him back.