Archive of Our Own ^beta

The first time Kaminari Denki really remembered looking at Shinsou Hitoshi was during the USJ attack.

They hadn’t been in the same group. Kaminari had been frying his own brains out while Shinsou, Midoriya, and Asui were locked into the Flood Zone. Midoriya and Asui were climbing out of the lake when Kaminari and his minder arrived. He didn’t exactly remember much about that part, nor who was guiding him, as he’d overused his quirk once more (to nobody’s surprise).

Midoriya’s head swiveled between the lake and the plaza. Kaminari was vaguely aware of sounds behind him but he was too focused on how pretty and alluring the water in front of him was. It was almost summertime, right, so he should go swimming? His mother never let him go swimming for some stupid reason that he couldn’t remember right now. But that wasn’t important because she wasn’t here and that meant she couldn’t stop him from going into the beautiful water.

Asui and Midoriya were saying something to his minder (was that his mother? He hoped not) as he stepped closer and closer to the lake’s edge. There was a boat in the center that seemed like it had a few holes in it. That was probably not good.

But he didn’t need to go on the boat. He just wanted to stick his feet in the water and relax under the summer sun, listening to the noise of the waves crashing around him.

It must not have been his mother because she didn’t stop him from taking the first steps off of the shoreline and into the water. The water was colder than he expected for summertime but that just made it more refreshing.

His feet sloshed through the water and he crept in further and further and further. It was around his waist, then his chest, until finally, he took one last step and dropped.

The feeling of the water sinking over his head was surprisingly refreshing. It helped clear up some of the brain fog that inevitably came with shocking himself into stupidity every time he overused his quirk. He still felt the pleasant high of disconnect from his own body even as his hair drifted above his face, blocking his view of the darkening waters as the trail of bubbles streaming from his mouth lengthened. 

The light seemed to be disappearing as something moved in front of him. He hardly noticed it, too busy watching his hair strands sway in an invisible current. It was only when a flash of purple drew closer that Kaminari finally noticed the thing in front of him.

The rest of the bubbles streamed from his mouth as Kaminari stared into the set of glowing orbs hovering in front of his face. Those were…. Eyes. Beautiful, glowing purple eyes that illuminated the water between them in a beautiful ultramarine hue.

Kaminari’s hand reached out of its own accord, slowly meandering through the water that separated them, drawing closer and closer until he was only nanometers from making contact—

A hand grabbed his shoulder, ripping him back from the water. Kaminari blinked in surprise as he was drawn to the surface, sputtering and coughing the water from his lungs that had hardly been on his radar just moments earlier.

Later, once All Might had arrived and the other teachers had followed shortly afterwards, Kaminari brought up his experience to Asui. The only other two who had been in the water were Midoriya and Shinsou, the former of which had been taken to Recovery Girl for his broken arm while the latter had appeared beside their class when the teachers gathered them up. He told Asui that after he’d been pulled into the water, he’d managed to hook some of the villains under his command. Asui reassured him that there had been no monsters in the depths and that none of the villains they’d fought or seen apprehended had a matching quirk. 

Kaminari had mostly snapped out of his quirk haze by this point, but the way Shinsou’s hair sagged, dripping water onto his shoulders covered by a blanket, mesmerized the blonde. He swayed in his seat as the EMTs came to clear their group of students before they would be interviewed.

Later, he would begin to doubt himself too. But those eyes… they featured in his dreams. At first it was once a week, then once every few days, until finally there wasn’t a night that passed that Kaminari didn’t stare into those radiant purple eyes as they swam up to him, pressing their foreheads flush against one another as their anchors in an endless sea of ever-shifting colors and tides.

In hindsight, there were plenty of hints that Kaminari should have caught onto it much sooner. But Shinsou Hitoshi was just another plain kid with a less flashy quirk in a class full of future heroes. Kaminari didn’t really pay attention to the enigma of Shinsou Hitoshi until the Summer Camp. 

Only then did he start to realize there was something fishy about his purple-haired classmate…

Kaminari first noticed Shinsou’s fear of water at the Summer Camp, the night before everything went to absolute shit.

The boys were getting ready to enter their side of the baths, ready to relax after another long, hellish day being taught tortured by Aizawa. Kaminari’s everything hurt and his pounding headache from near-quirk overuse definitely wasn’t helping matters.

Once the boys had all dropped their towels and entered the water, even Kaminari, who usually avoided bathing with others, noticed that one person was missing.

“Has anybody seen Shinsou?” Midoriya asked. His face was turning a concerning red color in the heat making his head look like a disembodied strawberry.

None of the boys had, shaking their heads. Tokoyami offered to leave the springs to go search for him, but Kaminari intercepted him instead. “Nah, it’s okay. I’ve got this. Besides, I want to go see if I can bum some pain killers off of the Pussycats because my head is killing me.”

Kaminari quickly left the bathing area, changing into his clean clothes to head toward the dormitories. There was really nowhere else to be right now except in the lodging or out in the training fields, and even Shinsou wasn’t crazy enough to spend even more time training after their hellish training that awaited them every single day while they were here.

The purple haired boy looked up from his novel as Kaminari walked in. He couldn’t see the cover of it before Shinsou placed it face down on the bed, his radiant purple eyes staring up at the blond haired boy.

“Yes?” Shinsou questioned. Kaminari realized he had been staring for quite some time, definitely longer than was socially acceptable even for a space cadet like him.

The blond shook himself from his thoughts. “Oh, uh. It’s time to bathe? The rest of the class is down at the hot springs now and—“

Shinsou hummed before turning back to his book. “I’ll be down there in a little bit.”

Kaminari nodded, turning around before he paused. That tone of voice… “Are you lying to me?”

“Why would you think that?” Shinsou asked, engrossed in his book once more.

“You sound like Ashido when she says she’s going to work on her homework in ‘five more minutes.’”

Shinsou shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, Kaminari. I’ll see you in a little bit.”

Kaminari could take the rejection for what it was. He sighed before turning around, walking back out the way he’d came. The others questioned why Shinsou wasn’t in tow and Kaminari, sensing that the purple haired boy wouldn’t like to be pestered, decided to follow in Shinsou’s wake and lied.

“Oh he’s asleep already.”

“Really, dang. I wanted to ask him about our training with Aizawa earlier since I don’t remember a lot of it. He practiced brainwashing me a bunch but I don’t remember what I did,” Sero complained before tacking on. “Except that my tape reserves are like crazy dry.”

Kaminari slid into the water alongside his classmates. Time flew by quick enough that Kaminari nearly forgot about his conversation with Shinsou earlier. It was only when they returned to the dormitories and the purple haired boy’s bed was empty that Kaminari thought back on their conversation.

The blond was one of the last boys to bed, taking his time in the bathroom as he looked out at the only other empty bed. He triple-checked the stalls one last time before he left the building.

Most of his classmates had fallen asleep, making Kaminari realize that he had spent an exorbitant amount of time in the bathroom. And that he was extremely tired. But he didn’t want to leave Shinsou on his own out in the woods.

It took several minutes to creep out of the dormitories without waking up his classmates but eventually he stepped foot onto the dirt outside.

Kaminari really had no idea where to start, but he figured that maybe over by the cabin the teachers stayed in would be a good place to start. Aizawa did seem to mentor Shinsou more closely than the other students since the boy wanted to become an underground hero, unlike most of their classmates who had dreamt of the spotlight since they were small children first manifesting their quirks.

He decided to let his feet take them where they may. His body seemed to know where it was going on its own, as if being drawn toward the sound of running water down the hill. Kaminari remembered the Pussycats mentioning the small creek nearby.

As he grew closer to the brook, the familiar spike of purple hair came into view. Shinsou didn’t appear to notice him until he drew close; his bare feet were just inches from the shoreline, but not touching. His eyes were glassy and he stared straight ahead at the small pool of water forming on the backside of a rock a meter upstream.

“Hey,” Kaminari said as he plopped into the dirt beside him. Shinsou just hummed under his breath swaying slightly in an unperceived breeze. “What’re you doing out here?”

“Just…. Thinking,” Shinsou said with a melodic quality to his voice. Something about it tickled the back of Kaminari’s mind in a way the blond didn’t want to acknowledge until long after this training camp was over.

“Why out here though?” Kaminari questioned as he slid his shoes off and dipped his toes into the water.

The small splashes of water echoed against the softly babbling stream. If the moonlight had been any less prominent, then perhaps Kaminari might not have noticed. He may have missed the smallest twitch of Shinsou the moment Kaminari splashed his legs into the water.

His friends may have teased him for being at the lower end of the class, but even Kaminari could put the puzzle pieces together here.

A quiet exclamation slipped out without his permission. “Oh.”

“Huh?” Shinsou asked, looking slightly more aware than he had moments before.

You’re afraid of water, aren’t you? Kaminari thought.

He deliberated with himself for a moment; he didn’t want to make the other boy uncomfortable, but he wanted to let him know that he had an ally.

“I’m not the biggest fan of water either, you know. Especially after the USJ. And with my quirk…” Kaminari chuckled. “Well you can imagine that I wasn’t invited to many pool parties as a kid.”

Shinsou tilted his head and finally looked away from the water to stare at the blond. “I’m… not…”

Kaminari patted his shoulder, cringing at himself internally. How much more awkward could he be? Though Shinsou’s confused pout almost made it worth it. He’d have to commit that image to his memory.

“Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me!” Kaminari gave a mock salute. That got a chuckle out of the other boy. “Now come on, we have to go to bed soon. Aizawa-sensei said that tomorrow’s training it going to be even worse, especially for those of us who failed the final exam.” At least their night lessons wouldn’t start until tomorrow.

Shinsou only hummed in response, but allowed Kaminari to pull them both to their feet. As they left the creek bed behind, Kaminari ignored the warmth of their clasped hands, the way it sent a slight electric shock up through his nerves that was addictive.

Later that night, Kaminari dreamed of electric purple orbs floating in the darkness. This time, they drew closer and closer and closer and closer…. Until finally they touched.

And Kaminari’s world exploded into colors.

The previous darkness that surrounded him lit up into a flurry of colors that weaved around him and between him, between them, illuminating the waving strands of kelp that danced in the invisible breeze. He gasped, ignoring the trail of bubbles that filtered upward as he stared at the being across from him with its radiant purple eyes and black sclera, its razor sharp teeth and fins replacing its ears, the purple scales that covered its entire body from head to tail.

While he stared at the creature across from him, they looked just as surprised to see him there. Their eyes widened and their clawed hands flicked out toward Kaminari to—

A splash of cold water woke him up.

Kaminari gasped as he sputtered the water onto the wooden ground. He looked around to see that the rest of his classmates were filtering into the bathroom; Kaminari was the last to remain.

Aizawa-sensei stood above him with an empty cup of water. “Get up. We have training to do.”

Kaminari groaned, but did as he was told and staggered into the bathroom to relieve himself. On the way out, his neck itched. He turned to see Shinsou staring at him in the mirror, quickly averting his gaze upon realizing he’d been noticed. Kaminari shrugged off the weirdness. He could deal with it after camp.

Maybe he spoke too soon in assuming he’d live to see the end of camp. 

Kaminari really regretted all of those times he had screwed around during physical training as he hoisted Shinsou over his shoulder. Aizawa and Thirteen had taught them how to do a fireman’s carry in order to evacuate a wounded civillian or teammate, but it took Kaminari a moment to remember how to hook his arm under the purple haired boy’s leg and lift.

Shinsou groaned when he was lifted, his nail scratching over the blonde’s neck when he adjusted himself. He was too out of it to understand what was happening, largely in part to the bleeding head wound.

But Kaminari paused in his movements when he heard a quiet whine. Concerned that he had aggravated an injury or hurt Shinsou in some way, his eyes quickly shot over his shoulder.

Shinsou’s eyes were closed but there was a soft purring and churring sound emanating from the boy… only his mouth wasn’t open. Still the sounds filtered out and sunk into Kaminari’s chest to add an embarrassing warmth to the blonde’s chest that he would staunchly deny until his deathbed.

He shifted the other boy into a piggyback carry, which the other seemed responsive enough to. It seemed that despite his head injury, there was enough lucidity or muscle memory remaining to instinctively link his arms around Kaminari.

Only for the blond boy’s heart to nearly beat from his chest when he felt the cold nose of the other touch against his neck.

The only thing more surprising than the sudden presence of Shinsou tucked into the hollow of his neck was the fact that the boy’s head was moving back and forth rhythmically, rubbing against his in various ways as the ghost of his breath tickled across the blond’s skin.

Kaminari allowed himself only a fraction of a moment to savour the warmth that filled some unknown and unreachable cavern within his very being before he forced himself to keep moving through the forest.

By the time he reached the cabin with Vlad King and the other students present, it had been nearly half an hour since the attack had begun and Kaminari’s body was exhausted. He therefore claimed that as his excuse as he settled onto the ground beside a limp Shinsou who refused to release his neck, and let his own eyes fall shut for a few brief seconds. It never occurred to him that this sort of drowsiness was unnatural and somewhat concerning to the other students and teacher in the cabin. But yet, Kaminari drifted into a deep, silent sleep alongside the purple haired boy.

He had little recollection of his dreams when he woke up an hour later to emergency services finally arriving at the site. Kaminari managed to rouse Shinsou enough to release him, but the paramedics were more concerned about the amount of blood congealing around the base of his skull. While he was getting his own checkup, he could hear the paramedics wondering about where that much blood had even come from… Kaminari noted the oddity with a slight hum.

And that was that.

The next few days were stressful as his parents wouldn’t let him leave the house and he texted his classmates constantly as they all waited with bated breath for updates on their hospitalized classmate and on Bakugo, who had been kidnapped by the League of Villains.

Throughout that time, he rarely slept, too wired to think about it. The odd buzzing still lingered beneath his skin despite it being over 72 hours since his last contact with Shinsou who refused to answer his phone despite Kaminari’s pestering— the only reason Kaminari knew he was even alive was that he had answered the phone briefly the day after the attack, only to sit there in silence for several seconds before abruptly ending the call. Further attempts to call him were met with an instant redirection to the voicemail inbox.

Seeing the recovery of Bakugo on the television was a sigh of relief. He sent frantic messages in the class group chat asking if the others were watching, seeing the flurry of responses in return. Names flashed by but none were the contact he wanted to see.

Kaminari thought he would sleep much better that night now that his friend was out of the clutches of those villains… but to his displeasure, he woke up surrounded by the darkness once more. That same empty feeling filled him, drew him out into the darkness surrounding him and the faint touch of something against his limbs, almost like the seaweed and kelp at the beaches that would touch his feet, making him squeal in surprise at the slimy texture.

The two familiar purple dots greeted him, illuminating the darkness faintly around them and showcasing a pale purple color of something. Whatever it was, it was magnetic, drawing Kaminari in closer without a conscious thought.

Whether it was him or the orbs that were moving, Kaminari didn’t know. The darkness hid their environment and made it hard to measure any movement or any sense of time. He could have been there for decades, centuries, and never known any better. This place in his dreams was eternal and it scared him immensely— the only reason he wasn’t panicking was the hypnotizing call of the other person there with him who felt like his other half that he had never known was missing.

Before they could draw any closer, a loud sound echoed through the water. Kaminari blinked as the darkness vanished into a blinding light and his sister jumped onto his covers.

“Denks! Mom said that we can go get pancakes today! You have to wake up!” his sister cried as she bounced around on his mattress.

The teenager threw his pillow over his head and groaned, trying to drown out the image of bubbles leaving his mouth and the sadness in the purple orbs that he had somehow recognized without even seeing their face. He eventually succeeded in banishing both his sister from his room and the dream from his thoughts, letting it fade into the back of his mind alongside the other information that didn’t matter in his day to day life. He needed to focus on being a hero, not on his hyperactive imagination that had plagued him since childhood; Kaminari wasn’t a kid anymore.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t squeal with excitement when he saw his phone light up with a returned text from a certain purple classmate. In reply to the blond’s inquiry about his health, Shinsou had just sent back a cat meme that said ‘hangin in there’ that had a cat wearing sunglasses and pointing little paw finger-guns. Kaminari reacted with a laughing emoji before getting ready for his day, just a little more pep in his step than before.

Moving into the same building as all of his best friends was every high schooler’s dream. Kaminari and his classmates sat through the tour by Aizawa-sensei, some of them more patient than others… and by some, he meant everybody that wasn’t him.

“Quit twitching your leg, Sparky,” Bakugo scoffed as Kaminari bumped him with his elbow for the third time in the past five minutes.

Kaminari winced, but withdrew the offending limb into his own space. That didn’t stop his foot from tapping or his fingers from drumming a rhythm on his leg until a warm hand grasped his hand and halted the movement before Bakugo could resort to physical violence.

His face flushed red and he steadfastly did not look at Shinsou over the connection of their hands.

When they were released to finish setting up their rooms, Kaminari immediately set about throwing his mismatched items around the room. His mother always said it looked like a color bomb went off in his room but that was the way he preferred it because at least it had color compared to his sibling’s catalog model rooms. So maybe the leopard print duvet looked weird with the zebra print curtains, but he liked what he liked.

His various knickknacks went on the shelf beside his computer. The items were random and he barely remembered where he had gotten half of them from, like the purple bottle cap or the various sea shells or the tiny prize figurine of a video game character. Whenever he found something in his pockets that looked interesting, he threw it onto his desk where it was doomed to spend the rest of its existence.

All of his classmates reconvened down in the common area where it was decided that they would have a room competition. The rooms were exactly as he expected, except for one. It wasn’t unexpected per se, rather that he had just never pictured Shinsou’s personality nor had he expected the boy who was afraid of water to have such a nautically themed room.

“Dude, I didn’t know you liked pirates so much,” Sero said as they viewed the purple haired boy’s room.

Shinsou let out a weak chuckle. “Uh, yeah. Pirates. I grew up by the beach so…”

“You did?” Kaminari blurted out. He hadn’t heard the boy talk much about his family or his personal life. There was a niggling feeling in his brain, always present when thinking about the boy, that wanted him to pry further, to dig out those secrets and lay them bare so that he could fully understand the enigma of Shinsou Hitoshi. 

Shinsou’s room was plain, but not empty. On his desk was a small fountain that filled the room with the sounds of trickling water. There were a few fishing nets hung up on the wall that were used to string up various trinkets and beads and Kaminari’s heart skipped a beat for absolutely no reason when he realized that collecting trinkets was a commonality between them.

On the window sill was a glass bottle with a rolled up parchment stuck inside. It looked old and faded, almost like the bottle actually had been sitting in the ocean waters for years, not just some decor piece bought from the home goods store.

Kaminari stepped forward to inspect it. There was a string necklace wrapped around it with a single pearl tied through the center. In the shifting light, it reflected back a purplish color that tickled the back of his brain once more. When his finger pressed to it, it seemed to shift colors slightly, melting from a deep lavender into a pale gold.

A hand landing on his shoulder drew him from his trance. “Kaminari, you can’t just barge into his room like that!” Ashido said as she dragged him back toward the entrance.

The rest of the class had moved out into the hallway, leaving behind the frozen figure of the room’s owner. Kaminari locked eyes with the boy. He looked like a deer in the headlights, staring at the blond as if he were simultaneously the world’s greatest mystery and the world’s greatest treasure.

“Shinsou, are you coming?” Kaminari asked. It took a moment, the slightest bit of hesitation where Kaminari felt a wave of emotions distinctly not his, that he pushed aside in staring at the purple haired boy. He repeated his question.

This time, Shinsou followed him.

The dreams began to grow more detailed after that. No longer was he just floating beneath the waves, not drowning but not breathing either. The purple eyes lingered at the fray. Sometimes they drew close, other times they ducked away into the sea of dancing kelp where Kaminari couldn’t follow. Sometimes he tried to follow only to get lost in the labyrinthine plants until he was woken up by the shrill screeching of his alarm.

During his turn to shop for the dorms the following week, Kaminari used his last remaining pocket money to invest in a journal. it was a small thing, big enough to write in but small enough to fit in his pocket.

He would jot down his recollection of the dream every morning, trying to recall the details even after it would fade away into the shadows (like those eyes) the moment he awoke.

Occasionally, if he woke up in the night and could not fall back asleep, he would take the time to draw out the scene. It never changed, always in the same location, the same patch of kelp, the same small clearing with its few seashells and shiny pieces of something sticking from the sand. He always started off in the same place until he moved, swimming in the awkward way that his body couldn't comprehend just yet. It was odd but he could never remember why it felt odd.

The journal remained tucked away in his nightstand. He would never admit to any of his classmates for keeping a journal, a dream journal at that. A few times he’d been tempted to confide in somebody about the dreams, and their escalation from every few days to every night without exception. It could be his subconscious trying to tell him something? Maybe that he was craving seafood?

But he had never been a big fan of seafood. Sure, he ate it when it was put in front of him. He would never say that he craved fish or shellfish or anything of the sort though.

After a few weeks of sleepless nights tossing and turning as he woke up from his dreams, he began to wander through the dorms. Usually there was at least one person in the common area before midnight, but Kaminari commonly wandered into the kitchen well after three a.m., long past the time any sane person would be awake. The first time, he was alone in the darkness as he lay on the couch and stared at the ceiling. Something pricked the back of his neck, his hairs raising at the thought of somebody watching him, but refused to psych himself out with some make-believe monster in the dark. He was going to be a literal superhero, he didn’t need to be scared of the things in the dark or of some stupid dreams.

So his tradition of migrating down to the common room continued on, usually with a blanket pulled over his shoulders trailing behind him. Surprisingly, it took several nights for Kaminari to run into the resident insomniac of the dorms.

“Hey,” Shinsou greeted quietly as he stepped out of the shadows.

Kaminari blinked the crust out of his eyes from staring at the ceiling. His thoughts were unusually slow considering how hyperactive he could be during the day. He simply hummed at the other boy before returning to his roof-tile vigil.

“You look tired,” Shinsou said as he lifted Kaminari’s legs up to sit down on the couch. He quickly replaced the legs onto his lap.

“Am,” Kaminari shrugged. The dream from tonight had been different, but he couldn’t remember. There was something happening in the dream that had startled him, that had shifted something so that now the purple eyes were waiting in the darkness, leaving him there for himself whilst Kaminari waited and waited for his comforting presence to arrive.

Shinsou winced, patting Kaminari’s shin twice. “Want to know what I do when I can’t sleep?” he asked the blond.

Kaminari made an inquisitive noise.

Luckily, Shinsou seemed to be fluent in random noises, because he continued on. “I used to stare up at the sky and stare at the moon while my mother would hum.”

Kaminari snorted softly. “Bit hard to stare at the moon right now.”

Shinsou chuckled. He ran a hand down Kaminari’s blanket-covered leg, sending tingles up the blond’s nerves. Even through the blanket, it was incredible how much he could feel through the fog.

“I could try humming,” Shinsou offered. “What’s the worst it could do?”

Kaminari didn’t have enough energy left in him to retort as the boy slowly began to hum. It was a peaceful, serene melody that carried with it the scent of salty water and soft currents brushing against his skin. Although the fog was growing thicker and thicker by the moment, this time Kaminari let himself fall into the fog without difficulty.

Just before he could fall completely under though, he felt something soft scratch his head. A soft keening noise escaped without his permission, unable to see but able to feel the quiet chuckle of Shinsou as he moved his fingers against his scalp. Kaminari wasn’t even sure when the boy had moved so that his head was pillowed in his lap. But that didn’t matter.

“I wish you would just tell me what’s wrong,” Shinsou mumbled, followed by another word Kaminari couldn’t understand. “You’ve been tired for so long and I wish I could help you.”

Kaminari hummed, the sound reverberating through his chest. “I’s nothin’. Jus’ can’ sleep with the dreams.”

The fingers paused for a moment before continuing onward. “Dreams,” he repeated softly.

“Yeah. Keep leaving me. Don’t wanna leave,” Kaminari bundled further into the other boy’s lap. A soft rumbling sound ran through Shinsou’s body.

“Don’t worry,” he said the mysterious word again. “You won’t be alone anymore. I promise.”

Kaminari woke up the next morning in his own bed, oddly refreshed and for the first time in a while, ready to take the day by storm. His only memories of the night before were a brief humming snippet that repeated in his brain throughout the day and a promise.

He was never abandoned in his dreams again.

Kaminari only started to grow suspicious during one study session with Shinsou. The purple haired boy, having caught on to Kaminari’s struggles in focusing on academics, had volunteered himself to ensure that the blond stayed on track and completed his English assignment.

“Why are you so good at English?” Kaminari groaned as he slammed his head into his pillow. They almost exclusively studied in Kaminari’s room, avoiding Shinsou’s room through some unspoken agreement. Kaminari was glad because he didn’t think he could resist the urge to peek around the room and study all of those trinkets that seemed to lull him in closer like they wanted to connect with him.

Shinsou shrugged. “It’s just part of my quirk, I guess. I’ve always had an easy time learning languages.”

Kaminari’s eyebrows raised. “So you know other languages?”

The boy in question smirked. “A few.” Kaminari smacked the boy on the shoulder and pouted when Shinsou just laughed off his mighty blow.

“Fine, so it’s going to be like that,” Kaminari said with narrowed eyes. “I’m going to figure it out one way or another. They don’t call me the greatest detective for nothing.”

“Who calls you the greatest detective?” Shinsou asked.

“E–” Kaminari fell under the familiar wave of Shinsou’s quirk. It was always such a calming and peaceful experience to be thrown under the boy’s quirk, despite how some people said it was weird. Being under Shinsou’s quirk was one of the only times Kaminari felt like his racing brain could finally take a break and relax. He desperately hoped Shinsou couldn’t feel any emotions through his quirk, otherwise Kaminari might actually combust.

Kaminari’s eyes were burning, but he didn’t want to tell Shinsou that since that first night they’d spent in the dorm common room, he hadn’t been able to sleep without somebody beside him. Sure he could catch a few hours here or there, but now that the person who had started that problem was in his room, his safe haven, that hesitance came crashing down.

The yawn that slipped out of his mouth startled both of them. Shinsou chuckled but made to stand up from the bed. Kaminari couldn’t help the soft whine under his breath as his eyes slipped shut without his consent. He could hear Shinsou chuckle with a surprisingly deep tone underneath, almost like some sort of vibration. It must be nice to have a deep voice, Kaminari thought.

“You know, I bet you have a good singing voice,” Kaminari absently mused.

Shinsou chuckled again. “Is that your way of asking me to sing?” he questioned.

Kaminari just hummed in affirmation. He didn’t know why the tiredness was hitting him so suddenly but it took every last ounce of restraint in his limp body to make sure that he didn’t latch onto the purple haired boy like an octopus or some other weird sea creature.

Shinsou sat back down on the bed and the mattress shifted by his feet. “What song do you want then? I don’t usually sing to people, but for you, I’ll make an exception.”

Kaminari tried not to think about how prized he felt to be the boy’s exception. “Whatever you want. Something in one of your languages.”

“One of my languages,” Shinsou pondered. “I know one that I’ve heard since I was young. It used to put me to sleep right away.”

“That sounds nice right now.”

Kaminari listened as a series of low rumbling sounds and chirping notes began to rise from the other. It wasn’t long before the fog settled over him much stronger than before, growing stronger as the song lured him in further and further. Although the noises didn’t make sense, and were certainly not a language Kaminari had ever heard before, the tone or something else must have conveyed the meaning and emotions because Kaminari could picture the storyline in his head.

The young woman is trapped on the island alone, her lover leaving her for dead. But then a family of women emerges from the sea and they take her in. In order to live with them, she has to drown. She does so willingly and finds an unexpected home and a person that she connects with on a far deeper level than her previous lover. They are destined to be together, by sea and stars, and she knows within her very being that they will never be separated again.

It’s comforting, if not a bit dark for a children’s lullaby. He wonders what Shinsou’s parents were like and where they’d heard this story to pass along to their child. Shinsou rarely talked about his family and it seemed like they were practically nonexistent, if not for the fact that somebody must have raised Shinsou.

Those thoughts didn’t stick around for long because he soon felt a familiar hand begin to weave its way in and out of the threads of his hair. He hummed along with the song, already slipping beneath the waves that bid him into the usual dream. But this time, he wasn’t worried. The waves were calm and accompanied by the humming and clicking sounds of the one person his body felt it could finally relax around. For better or for worse, Kaminari trusted Shinsou.

There was a soft touch upon his face. I’ll see you soon, pearl. He had never heard the purple orbs speak before, just felt their emotions in that single press of their foreheads. Somehow, though, he knew that voice belonged to them.

So then why did it sound like another purple haired boy?

That night was when the suspicion really began. The mentions of the sea, of drowning, and the haunting familiarity of the color purple. Some part of Kaminari’s mind had been adding the pieces up for a while now, but he hadn’t been willing to connect them just yet.

Now though, he needed to dig a little deeper and figure out if this whole thing was just some convoluted delusion from his head or if, maybe, there could actually be some truth to those stories. So he did something entirely uncharacteristic of him. There were many kinds of people in life. Some people were more physically active than others, some preferred to exercise their brains over their bodies. Some people loved to read whilst others despised it. If you were to ask Kaminari’s friends which category he fell into, they would definitely sort him into the latter.

Which is why it was such a surprise to catch him in the library. Willingly.

It also didn’t help that it was three hours past curfew and although the library let him inside when he scanned his student ID, it almost definitely alerted the security system and his chronically sleep-deprived teacher who would hopefully be on patrol tonight so he could not come and fetch his wayward student who was just trying to do some minor reading before bedtime, okay?

Kaminari had watched a YouTube video on the Dewey Decimal system earlier that day when he should have been working on his mathematics homework, so he was able to locate the books that were scattered throughout several different areas. He didn’t really understand why they were so far apart— why weren’t they all grouped up under the number for ‘mermaids’?

But regardless, he gathered his haul up and sat beside the lamp at a table, skimming through the contents. A lot of the information had turned up in his cursory search of the internet and his disappointment grew.

He had come to the library to find something new from an older, more reliable source than some of the hoax websites on the internet. Kaminari needed the mermaid tales of old, with the mermaids that sang sailors to their death, not whatever romance fantasies had been written online since the dawn of the internet.

The first book he found gathered historical accounts of sailors in the Mediterranean Sea. It mostly covered the idea of mermaids drowning sailors, which was an interesting comparison to some of the other mythologies he had found online. Korea believed mermaids were actually a good omen; Kaminari remembered his mother’s stories following more closely along with the European version.

He paused in his perusal when he thought he heard the scuff of a foot. The library remained shrouded in darkness, only a few feet faintly illuminated by the burning lamp beside him.

For a brief moment, he thought he saw a flash of purple eyes in the darkness, those same orbs that haunted him in his dreams. No, not haunted… a different word. Haunting, but beautiful. Never frightening, but with a deepness Kaminari could get lost in.

Kaminari took a steadying breath. He wouldn’t allow that dream to escape his mind, to escape into his waking moments as well.

He focused back on his book and skimmed the text once more. It told the stories themselves, but he really wanted to find out what they looked like, or how they could be identified? Were there any weaknesses or revealing things he could use to figure out if somebody was a mermaid, like silver or a stake to the heart?

That night, he left with a paper scribbled with various notes and drawings oriented every which way, along with a photo gallery full of dozens of pictures from the tomes littering the desk in front of him.

Then, Kaminari groaned as he realized the daunting task in front of him— reshelving all the books.

Kaminari sat down at his desk in his room. Shinsou had just left after yet another study session where Kaminari spent more time staring at the boy than he did his homework. He was sure that he was as subtle as a brick, but the other boy didn’t comment.

His grades had been steadily improving since moving into the dorms. Mic-sensei had even commented on it at the top of his homework assignment, congratulating him and offering him any assistance if he needed it. These types of remarks were always accompanied by a little drawing of Mic-sensei doing finger guns and shouting “rock on!” like a little comic book character. After years of having teachers disparage his short attention span, despite his above-average comprehension of the material, it was nice to have both a teacher and a classmate in his corner.

Well, Kaminari was pretty sure that Shinsou and him were more than just classmates, friends even. But he didn’t want to overstep. So he waited until Shinsou returned to his room a few hours later to rant about cats (again) to ask.

“—and I love them so much even though they always try to lick me–”

“Hey Shinsou, are we friends?” Kaminari blurted out in the middle of his sentence. His eyes widened as he hurriedly tried to apologize. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, it just came out–”

Shinsou waved him off. “It’s fine, it’s fine. And, uh” he rubbed the back of his head. “I think we are? I haven’t had a lot of friends, but I don’t think there’s anybody else in this class I’d willingly spend time with, so yeah.”

“Yeah. Uh, cool,” Kaminari responded, mustering every ounce of his intelligence to spit out whatever that response was. 

Shinsou smirked. “Cool.”

They lapsed into silence for a moment before Shinsou continued his talk about cats and how he wished to visit the cat cafe down the street from the school. Kaminari listened for a bit before chiming in how he’d always wanted a cat but that his sister was allergic. Cats always hated him anyway because his quirk made their fur stand up.

“I always have the exact opposite problem. Trying to leave the cat cafe involves several employees and many bribery treats,” Shinsou chuckled. He was lying on the end of Kaminari’s bed on his back, scrolling through his phone while his legs swung in the air. Kaminari tried to turn back to his homework on his desk but they both knew it was a losing battle. The only thing he could focus on these days was Shinsou.

That was the moment that the idea finally sparked. He had been keeping track of his dreams, and maybe he could kinda-sorta say he was mentally mapping out all of the odd things relating to Shinsou.

But he needed to make this tangible. He needed to put in the effort into finding out how or why Shinsou was involved in his nightly dreams, and figuring out what all of those little oddities meant. Something fishy was up with Shinsou and Kaminari was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Eventually, once their conversation had run its course and Kaminari had finally finished his homework, Shinsou left Kaminari’s room– not without patting the blond’s shoulder as he passed and sending an unfamiliar bolt of electricity through him. His skin tingled like he had been the one who was shocked. It stunned him enough that he didn’t realize he hadn’t responded to Shinsou, now alone in his room with only his thoughts to keep him company.

Kaminari flipped over the page in his English notebook and began to scribble down his thoughts. Keeping his dream journal had taught him that there was value in writing down his stream of conscious thoughts.

He started off by reviewing every memory he had of his interactions with Shinsou. From the first moment they’d met until now. What he had were a list of several distinct moments that showcased Shinsou’s oddities.

1. At the USJ, he had disappeared for a bit only to appear wet. And nobody had known who saved Kaminari from the water, but why did Shinsou save him because…
   
2. He was afraid of water, as seen in the baths at the summer camp
   
3. His eyes were a little too captivating (though that could just be Kaminari’s errant thoughts running rampant once more)
   
4. When they were in the woods during the summer camp attack, Shinsou had made some interesting noises, like a cat almost.
   
5. And his nails were really sharp, enough to scratch Kaminari when carrying him
   
6. He likes the sea (see his room decorations), but hates water?
   
7. When he sang to Kaminari in his bedroom, his singing was almost hypnotic, though Kaminari was very tired so maybe he just fell asleep?
   

As he went down the list, Kaminari could think of easily explainable reasons for each point. Maybe he had fallen in the water at the USJ for a moment, or fought a villain with a water quirk. Maybe he liked cats so much that he went through a cat-boy phase and could still make the noises. Hey, everybody had their middle school phases. Kaminari had tried to be emo for a brief bit but as he was unwilling to dye his hair, it hadn’t quite worked out. Regardless, there wasn’t enough evidence here for Kaminari to confirm anything, much less even begin to formulate a hypothesis like his middle school science teachers had told him to do.

Looking at his list, Kaminari jotted down what he had read about mermaids in the library that night. He had initially been researching them to figure out why he was dreaming of one nearly every night. But he knew, just as maybe he had subconsciously known for the past while, that the signs were all pointing in the same direction.

Something was up with Shinsou Hitoshi and Kaminari was going to get to the bottom of it. And in order to do that, he needed to do some investigating….

The next morning, Kaminari woke up with a game plan. Now that he had started his list of Shinsou Suspicions (patent pending), he just needed the perfect opening to enact his plan. And for once in his life, Kaminari was glad to be assigned a chore.

He announced their fate at the beginning of homeroom on Friday morning. “Shinsou, Kaminari. You two will be accompanying Present Mic and I to the store to complete this week's shopping. If the rest of you want something added to the list, make sure it’s added by this afternoon.”

The rest of the class nodded and Kaminari felt his heart race as he immediately realized what that entailed. Both of them would get time alone, together. It was the perfect time to–

“Hey Kami,” Ashido whispered. Kaminari’s head whipped up to see her leaning on his desk. He hadn’t realized that homeroom was already over, jeez. The familiar yellow caterpillar bag was gone and not hide nor hair remained of the hero in question.

Still, Kaminari couldn’t help the way he jumped in his seat, much to the amusement of his desk neighbors. “Yeah, Ashido?”

She leaned down so that her head was pillowed against her arms on the edge of his desk. “Are you excited?”

“About?”

“About this afternoon! You know…. shopping. Alone? Just the two of you together without adult supervision.”

Kaminari snorted. “Don’t worry, we won’t blow up the store. On purpose. Probably,” he added. He leaned down to search his backpack for his missing pencil, since it was his lucky pencil and regardless of what people thought, he didn’t misplace everything but occasionally he still lost stuff despite–

A hand waved in front of his face. “Hello. Earth to Kaminari!”

“Hm?” he blinked.

“Are you excited to spend some time alone,” she wiggled her fingers, “with Shinsou?”

Kaminari shrugged. Ashido was being weird again but he was too focused on coming up with his game-plan for talking to Shinsou that afternoon. “Oh, uh, yeah. Can’t wait to talk to him.”

The end of their interaction came in the form of Present Mic entering their classroom with a loud, but somehow not quirked, scream. All of the students who had left their seats immediately returned to them– not for fear of punishment like Eraserhead, but because Present Mic would be disappointed in them and nobody, nobody, wanted to deal with that.

“What’s up, listeners?” He shot finger guns at them. “Today’s grocery day so if you have any requests or anything you’re digging, just send it my way, m’kay?”

Present Mic then clapped his hands together, once again at a startling volume, as most things were when caused by the man in question. “Right then. Today’s lesson is a partner assignment so I’ll be grouping you up and you complete the exercise.”

He called off the names and the students rotated and traded seats until they were next to their partners. Kaminari couldn’t help the slight sag in his shoulders when Shinsou was paired up with Yaoyorozu instead of him. It made sense though– those two would work great together.

While he was supposed to be helping Sero with their assignment, Kaminari instead kept his gaze trained on Shinsou, who seemed to know whenever his eyes alighted on him because he would look up and give Kaminari a faint smile. It was a rare treat to see Shinsou smile, especially in a classroom setting. He enjoyed the heroics course, but there were years of conditioning that had made Shinsou’s resting bitch face a more permanent affair. Kaminari sometimes wished he could go back to Shinsou’s middle school and give those kids a piece of his mind and/or quirk.

Shinsou’s mouth quirked up at something Yaoyorozu said and Kaminari couldn’t help the pang through his heart that the expression caused. Kaminari looked away before their eyes could lock once more and then focused on actually helping Sero with the assignment, much to the dark haired boy’s surprise.

The rest of the day passed in a much similar manner, with Shinsou occasionally texting Kaminari relaying orders from classmates. Kaminari ignored the urge to add more emojis to his name, sticking with the simple superhero emoji and a purple heart.

After their classes finally ended, Aizawa told both him and Shinsou to be ready to leave in half an hour. Kaminari used the time to take a quick shower and fix up his hair before lounging in the common room to wait for his partner. They were able to wear their casual clothes in the dormitory, but Kaminari had never seen Shinsou outside of raggedy sweats and a single black dry-fit shirt, so he was excited to see if the boy would actually wear some of the other clothes that Kaminari knew he owned.

When Shinsou finally came downstairs, Kaminari had to stop his jaw from dropping to the floor. He wore a black bomber jacket with a pair of charcoal jeans, a pale yellow shirt, and a pair of black high-top converse. It was such a basic outfit but damn if he didn’t look good in it.

“Ready to meet the teachers?” Shinsou asked as he walked up to Kaminari.

Kaminari was glad there was nobody else in the room to call him out on his stuttering, and hurried gulp, as he clambered to his feet and followed behind Shinsou.

The walk to the front gate was longer than expected, though Kaminari supposed that made sense since he had hardly left campus since the dorms were constructed. He still called his family every night but he had everything he needed here on campus and there were plenty of people to keep him entertained.

Aizawa and Present Mic, or Yamada out of costume, were waiting for them by the gate. The two were bickering about something but their conversation petered out as the students drew close. All four of them exited campus and walked to the staff parking lot, where a small pickup truck waited for them.

Unsurprisingly, it was Yamada who drove to the store fiddling with the radio the whole way and at one point, nearly running a light because he was so busy mumbling under his breath about a radio station he was trying to switch off of. All of them, Aizawa included, silently agreed to not mention the incident and continue their short journey in silence until they reached the small court with the stores and restaurants.

“Okay you two,” Yamada said as he handed Shinsou a credit card. Kaminari tried not to pout at not being able to hold the fancy card. “You both have a copy of the list and your classmates requests. Aizawa and I will be running some errands around here and doing a small run of the staff’s grocery shopping later on. If you need anything, you can call us, and let us know once you’re done so we can get the groceries in the car, okay listeners?”

Kaminari was about to ask about the cold foods sitting around when Aizawa reached into the trunk and pulled out a handful of reusable shopping bags, including a few insulated ones and even one with ice-packs lining the sides.

The two teachers waved them off in the direction of the grocery store and headed to complete their own mysterious errands. Shinsou had the physical copy of the grocery list which meant that he was the one to lead them into the store. 

Kaminari hadn’t been in the grocery store in years, at least not one this large; the most his mother ever trusted him to do was run down to the convenience store after a particularly notable and embarrassing incident when he was ten. The less said about that, the better. But it meant that he was surprised by the rows and rows of aisles stocked to the brim with food. Shinsou looked slightly less underwhelmed, but Kaminari knew that the hesitance came from the fact that there were a large amount of people milling about on their own grocery shopping.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Shinsou grumbled sullenly.

Some of their pickups were actually easy. The meat was already prepackaged by the butcher since it was such a large order. A few bags of rice and other bulk items were thrown into the cart alongside some condiments, snacks, and other items that needed to be restocked. Shinsou spent ten minutes arguing with a lazy employee who refused to help them get down the last box of Yaoyorozu’s preferred tea– an argument that resulted in the purple haired boy scaling the rack to grab the box and flipping off the employee in the process. Kaminari didn’t even bother to hide his roaring laughter and the man’s soured expression. 

Snacks were a much more difficult affair, mostly due to the variety of options and people not specifying their preferred brands. The two did their best to remember previous packaging they’d seen in the kitchen and threw the best options into the cart. Kaminari grabbed some of his favorite gummy worms while Shinsou grabbed about ten boxes of the dried seaweed he munched on while studying. He ate that stuff like candy, in a suspiciously large quantity now that Kaminari was thinking about it. That was something to throw into his Shinsou Suspicions list.

While their grocery shopping took a little over an hour, the waiting line for checkout was surprisingly quick. They only waited for five minutes before they were gestured to an open line where the employee silently and efficiently rang them up. Shinsou handed over the black card they had been given to pay with and began bagging up the cold items into the insulated bag. Kaminari threw all of the other items into the other bags, the two working in tandem as the card reader accepted the payment and the cashier finished the transaction.

Kaminari sent a text to Yamada to let him know that they were finished. He didn’t receive a response for a few minutes and Shinsou sent a similar text to Aizawa, who told them that their errands were delayed. They should hole up at a restaurant or something until they could get back to the car, which would take at least half an hour. Shinsou nodded as another text came in, telling Kaminari that there was a good ramen joint just down the block that Aizawa recommended.

The two lugged the groceries, a struggle even for two hero students, down the block to the restaurant in question. It had a modest crowd, but the two were able to snag a nice corner booth where they could stash the groceries below the table and go to order their food.

Kaminari patted his pockets as they stood in front of the counter, realizing that he had left his wallet at home. Frick.

“It’s okay,” Shinsou said, placing a few bills on the counter. “I’m paying.”

Shinsou ordered a salty, seafood ramen while Kaminari stuck with a basic tonkatsu ramen. While they were at the booth, Shinsou reached into one of the bags and cracked open one of the boxes of his seaweed to munch on.

Kaminari snorted, remembering the large quantity. “Better not let Aizawa see all of those boxes or he’ll think you have a problem”

Shinsou shrugged. “Nah, I’ve seen how much coffee he drinks. He knows he has no ground to stand on.” Kaminari watched as he silently ate his way through about half the box, only tucking the box back into the bag when the waiter delivered their meals. They both thanked the man before digging into the warm broth.

The table was silent for a few moments as the two boys enjoyed the meal. It was a companionable silence though, one that Kaminari, who had a chronic problem with opening his mouth at the wrong time, felt comfortable in enjoying.

Only the sounds of soft slurping filled the table until there was a loud crash. Kaminari nearly spilled his bowl but Shinsou’s reaction was worse, spilling the hot liquid onto his shirt and hissing. Kaminari looked for the source of the noise and saw the waiter crouched over a shattered bowl. One of the other patrons was already helping him up so Kaminari focused on the closer problem.

“Are you okay? Here, take my jacket.”

“Trying to get me out of my clothes that quick? And it’s okay, my jacket is pretty dry so I’ll just ditch the shirt and zip up the jacket.” And Kaminari nearly fainted when the boy did exactly as he said, pulling the shirt above his head in one smooth motion and leaving his torso exposed to the air for just the briefest of moments. His stomach wasn’t as muscular as some of the other boys in their class– cough, cough, Midoriya, cough– but it was still obvious that he spent time working out. His muscles were defined particularly along the sides by his ribs and lower stomach. Kaminari averted his eyes once he realized that he had been staring for a quite frankly embarrassing amount of time. 

Only to look back once more when he realized that those weren’t just muscles, but something else. There were thin, nearly invisible lines that ran parallel to one another and looked like they must have been extremely painful.

Speaking of pain, a small flash of pain lanced through his tongue. He didn’t realize he had been biting his tongue but quickly moved it to the side of his mouth. Shinsou finally finished zipping up his jacket and Kaminari couldn’t tell whether he was more relieved or disappointed, which was definitely something to think about later. Preferably, when he wasn’t being distracted by the magnetic purple eyes staring at him across the table.

“Are you good there? You looked like you spaced out for a few minutes,” Shinsou said.

Kaminari blinked, realizing that Shinsou had already returned to eating his meal and that his shirt was folded up on the booth beside him. The waiter had already returned with a rag to clean up the spilled liquid while the restaurant had returned to its general state of order.

“Oh. Uh. Yeah, yeah. I’m fine,” Kaminari stuttered. He took a large gulp of his cooling soup to hide his nerves. Why was he even nervous? It was literally just Shinsou.

He felt a rush of fondness run through him that made him nearly choke on his soup. It felt so foreign, yet at the same time, like it completely belonged.

Kaminari glanced up from his attempt to drown himself in his ramen only to notice a small speck of something red on Shinsou’s chin. “Is that blood?” he blurted out before his brain could catch up.

Shinsou blinked, startled. “Oh, yeah. I cut my tongue on my teeth when I spilled my soup. I guess you were still pretty out of it when I cleaned it up.”

“Must’ve bled a lot to get onto your chin,” Kaminari mumbled under his breath, thumb already reaching out to brush it off of his chin. He turned scarlet when he realized that he was practically leaning over the table to reach Shinsou.

Shinsou stared at him with startled eyes. The color of purple almost seemed to shift and wane like changing tides, fading from a deep lavender to a more indigo color. “Uh, yeah. But it doesn’t hurt much any more.”

“Hmm, that’s good,” Kaminari said. He stirred his ramen a bit before taking a bite, noticing that it was a bit cold but not caring much.

Neither of the boys talked much for the rest of the meal. They were nearing their last bites when the bell over the front door of the restaurant rang and two familiar faces stepped in.

“Ah! There you two are! We finally finished our errands so we came over here to help you lug those bags back to the car. Sorry we’re so late, listeners, but you know how it is?” Yamada explained, sliding into the booth beside Kaminari. Aizawa remained standing with an impassive expression. If anything, Kaminari could have sworn he saw the teacher’s eyes roll just the slightest bit.

“No problem,” Shinsou said. He gathered up his dishes into a neat pile before sliding out of the booth. “We grabbed dinner and now we can head back, I guess. Unless there’s anything else you need to do.”

“Nope,” Yamada popped the p in the word. “We’ve done enough errands for the next month, and I for one cannot wait to enjoy the weekend and catch up on grading.”

Kaminar winced at the reminder of grading. They had just turned in an essay in the English teacher’s class that week and Kamianri knew that even with Shinsou’s help there were still going to be plenty of errors.

Between the four of them, moving the grocery bags to the car was a lot easier than it had been to transport them there in the first place. Kaminari remained silent on the drive back to campus, barely resisting nodding off to the soothing vibrations of the car. He heard some whispering a few times and what he swore was the ghost of a hand running through his hair, but by the time they reached campus, the car was quiet and everybody’s hands were in their own laps. Kaminari helped unload the groceries and headed straight to bed where visions of purple eyes and familiar faces danced across his eyes.

To say that Kaminari was surprised to receive a text the next day, while sitting in his bed doodling in his theory notebook and organizing his thoughts, would be an understatement.

SH: So I know this is kinda last minute

SH: But I was wondering if you would want to come over for dinner tonight?

SH: My parents said I could have a guest over for holiday dinner

Kaminari blinked, trying to pull up his mental calendar. Was it a holiday today? There had been no classes today, but that wasn’t unusual for the weekend now that they lived on campus. Was it a cultural thing? Did Shinsou even follow a religion or was this something else?

KD: Holiday?

KD: Yeah I’m down just tell me when to be ready

SH: Does twenty work for you?

Kaminari glanced up at his alarm clock. Twenty minutes? If he hurried, he could take a quick shower and scrounge up something to wear but what would they wear off-campus anyway–

Wait.

KD: How are we getting off campus??? I don’t have a pass for this weekend and it’s too late to request one from Aizawa

SH: Don’t worry about it. I took care of it already

Well if that wasn’t an intimidating non-answer. If Shinsou just put on a pin-striped suit, he could probably pass for the mob… and now Kaminari needed to stop thinking about Shinsou in a suit.

Instead of responding, he just reacted with a thumbs up emoji and tried not to scream his heart out. Family dinner meant meeting his family, his potentially mermaid family and that meant that Kaminari was getting a prime opportunity to figure out more about whether or not Shinsou was actually a mermaid or just displayed all the signs and mannerisms of a mermaid hiding in plain sight.

The list was spread out on the bed, a few notes added after their ramen meal. He had added a note about sharp teeth and the strange cuts along his abdomen.

1. At the USJ, he had disappeared for a bit only to appear wet. And nobody had known who saved Kaminari from the water, but why did Shinsou save him because…
   
2. He was afraid of water, as seen in the baths at the summer camp
   
3. His eyes were a little too captivating (though that could just be Kaminari’s errant thoughts running rampant once more)
   
4. When they were in the woods during the summer camp attack, Shinsou had made some interesting noises, like a cat almost.
   
5. And his nails were really sharp, enough to scratch Kaminari when carrying him
   
6. He likes the sea (see his room decorations), but hates water?
   
7. When he sang to Kaminari in his bedroom, his singing was almost hypnotic, though Kaminari was very tired so maybe he just fell asleep?
   
8. Sharp teeth because he cut himself badly enough to bleed at the ramen restaurant
   
9. Suspicious cuts and/or gills alongside his abdomen
   

And though he hadn’t written it down in the list properly, there was a nebulous tenth point that he had that encompassed whatever the dreams he kept having were supposed to be. A shared mindspace hallucination? A memory he had forgotten? Some lingering quirk effect from the USJ? Maybe the dream had nothing to do with Shinsou aside from his overactive imagination, and despite the slowly evolving forms and dimensions of the dream, Kaminari still couldn’t bring himself to add it to the list.

Kaminari tucked his journal under his pillow and headed to the shower for a quick rinse off. He would prefer to wash his hair and clean up a bit, maybe even consult Ashido on a good outfit to wear, but there wasn’t enough time for that.

Instead, he rushed through his routine and scrubbed down before heading back to his room to change into a set of dark grey jeans and  black boots with a plain, long-sleeved grey shirt. It wasn’t particularly stylish, but hopefully neutral enough that he wouldn’t look too underdressed for whatever holiday celebration Shinsou was dragging him to.

He was fixing his hair in his hanging mirror when he heard a knock on the door. Kaminari opened it up to see Shinsou leaning against the doorframe, scrolling through his messages when he noticed Kaminari had answered and gave him a hooded stare.

“Ready?” Shinsou asked as he tucked his phone into his back pocket. He was wearing a very similar outfit to the one he had worn to go shopping– the same black jacket, a pair of black jeans, and a white shirt, with the same high-top converse held in his hand. It made Kaminari wonder if the boy only owned two outfits, though he knew that wasn’t true because he had seen the boy’s wardrobe.

Kaminari nodded. “Uh, yeah. Let me grab my shoes and wallet and then we can head out.”

He took a moment to make sure he had his phone, wallet, ID card, and everything else he could possibly need before joining Shinsou in the hallway. The two walked quietly down the staircase until they reached the lobby and exited the building.

“So, like, you said that you already got permission for both of us. How?” Kaminari asked.

Shinsou shrugged. “Aizawa is our ride anyway, so it was easy enough. He gets it.”

It was another non-answer that rankled Kaminari, but their sensei was already waiting for them ahead on the path and he silently gestured for them to follow. Once again, they went to the staff parking lot and took the car outside of the campus grounds. The car ride was silent for several minutes until Shinsou requested the radio be turned on to a certain radio station. It was mostly alternative music and a mix of some pop hits to pass the time as they drove through the city, much further away from campus than the shopping trip had been. Still, it felt like too long and too short of a trip by the time they pulled up to a very normal looking house.

Aizawa parked in the driveway and grabbed a bag from the passenger seat. Kaminari blinked in surprise, but still followed the man and Shinsou to the front door where, instead of knocking, Aizawa pulled out a key and let them in.

Kaminari had to double check that he hadn’t accidentally shorted himself out with his quirk. Why did Aizawa have a key if they were going to dinner with Shinsou’s parents? Unless he was a close family friend or something but then why didn’t they act like it?

Shinsou slipped off his shoes at the front door and Kaminari did the same, following in his footsteps as they followed their teacher further into the home. And as the distance between them and the door increased, Kaminari realized that there was no way this wasn’t Aizawa’s home. There were many pictures lining the walls of him and a young, blond man in addition to other scattered items like the fruit pouches he liked or a yellow sleeping bag identical to the infamous one from 1-A’s classroom.

“Holy shit,” Kaminari whispered under his breath. He had never even thought about his teachers’ lives outside of school and now he was getting an up-close view of the teacher he would have sworn was either a robot or a devil sent down to rain punishment upon their class, or some unholy combination of the two.

There were the sounds of somebody cooking in the kitchen. Kaminari paused behind Shinsou to stare at another picture on the wall, this time with three people instead of the usual two. Kaminari stared a bit harder, unaware of Shinsou lingering behind him until the boy spoke up.

“Coming?” Shinsou asked.

Kaminari’s brain stalled out. A myriad of thoughts rushed through his brain far too quick for him to even begin to identify. Instead, he went with an intelligent “uh–” until Shinsou finally took pity on him.

“That was the day Hizashi and Shouta adopted me,” Shinsou said as he nodded to the picture. “I’d already lived with them for a while but we finally made it official.”

“Huh,” Kaminari responded. His mind was still racing. Adoption? But that meant that… Aizawa was Shinsou’s father?

A blond man matching the one in the picture in front of them appeared down the hallway. He smiled and waved at Kaminari. “Hey listeners, dinner is almost ready!” the man called out to them. The man, or Kaminari realized Present Mic, retreated back to the kitchen with the remnants of Kaminari’s sanity in tow.

Shinsou was looking at Kaminari with a smile mixed between humor and concern, like he could feel Kaminari’s brain splitting apart at the seams.

“You…” Kaminari started.

“Me,” Shinsou said, his smile definitely more of a mirthful smirk now and Kaminari didn’t hold back on his urge to hit him. And the purple troll couldn’t even give him the pleasure of pretending to be intimidated, instead just laughing at Kaminari’s swats.

Shinsou cackled as he continued toward the end of the hallway. Kaminari followed him automatically. “I knew your face would be good but man was it worth waiting this long.”

“Hitoshi, what did we say about psychologically torturing your friends?” Present Mic, or apparently Hizashi, chastised Shinsou as they finally stepped into the dining area.

Oh wait. Aizawa and Hizashi adopted Shinsou, which meant that they were both his dads. But that also meant that…

“Holy shit, you’re married,” Kaminari blurted out right as Aizawa stepped back out into the room, changed out of his usual hero attire and instead emerged in a pair of black sweatpants and a black shirt that had a cat dangling from a string of yarn.

And then, something even weirder than Aizawa marrying somebody occurred. He smiled.

Kaminari barely resisted the urge to grin, but judging by the small snort from Shinsou, he was less than successful. Or maybe Shinsou just knew him that well.

“I am. If you tell any of the other hellions in your class though, I’ll double your laps for the rest of the term,” Aizawa threatened as he sat down at the dinner table. There were four plates set up and Shinsou took the seat across from Aizawa, leaving Kaminari to scramble for the one beside him. He would rather run those extra laps than spend an entire dinner trapped next to Aizawa. Who was the father of Shinsou– the guy he happened to be interested in.

“Oh don’t listen to Shouta,” Hizashi said. He brought over several plates of side dishes and a main plate with a large grilled fish sitting atop. “If he gives you a hard time in class just for hanging around Hitoshi, just let me know,” he winked at Kaminari.

The family began dispersing out plates and passing around side dishes in a silent, almost rhythmic pattern. Kaminari had lost what little remained of his appetite at the realization that the parents he had to impress were also his teachers. He dumped a few small portions of the dishes onto his plate, but when he passed them to Shinsou the boy silently added more onto the blond’s plate. Kaminari wanted to protest but he also didn’t want his teachers to think he was being rude, despite the fact that he hadn’t eaten a solid meal the whole day.

The table was silent as the last of the dishes were set back down. It took Kaminari a moment to realize that there were small humming and trilling noises, barely audible, coming from the seat beside him. Aizawa also had his eyes closed and just as Kaminari was about to close his eyes and pretend to follow along with whatever silent prayer was happening, he locked eyes with Hizashi. The blond hero winked and bowed his head, placing his arm against Aizawa’s and closing his eyes to follow alongside them. Confused, Kaminari just blankly did the same.

After about a minute of quiet noises, some of which he could’ve sworn had come from across the table, Shinsou opened his eyes and Kaminari opened his just a second later. He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but it must have been some prayer for whatever celebration this holiday dinner was for.

The first few minutes of dinner were silent and semi-awkward as Hizashi tried to break the ice. He asked Kaminari about his family and about what he liked, judiciously avoiding the topic of school much to Kaminari’s relief.

“My family is good, yeah. My sister got in trouble again the other day but it sounded pretty hilarious to me. She stuck a tissue into the automatic pencil sharpener and it wouldn’t stop spinning so she tried to take the batteries out and accidentally short circuited it, which also knocked out the classroom lights. My parents basically already have a credit card on file with the school between my sister and I.”

Hizashi laughed. “Hah, when I was a kid one of my friends jumpscared me at the doorway and I screamed so loud that I knocked out the classroom window. I’m sure I cost my parents so much money in repairs. Probably kept the window company in business for years!”

Aizawa rolled his eyes in the seat next to him, which didn’t go unnoticed by Hizashi. “Oh come on, I’m sure you have a funny story from your childhood. I’m trying to break this ice here.”

“No,” Aizawa denied. “I kept my head down and my mouth shut.”

“So if I called your mom to ask her the same question, she wouldn’t have any stories whatsoever?” Hizashi pressed.

Aizawa only paused for a moment. “No, she wouldn’t. And don’t ask her or I’ll skin you like a fish.”

“Ooh kinky,” Hizashi wiggled his eyebrows as Shinsou scolded him with a ‘keep that away from the dinner table!’

“But for real, Kaminari. I’m glad Hitoshi invited you over today,” Hizashi said earnestly. “I know you two are still taking things slow on your ‘journey’ and we fully support you for that. I was so excited the first time I got to celebrate with Shouta and his family.”

Kaminari chuckled. “Oh, uh. Yeah, I’m glad to be invited to this, uh, celebration?”

Aizawa and Hizashi both gave him a deadpan look before slowly swiveling their gazes over to Shinsou, who Kaminari could practically feel radiating nervous energy.

“Say, Kaminari, did Hitoshi here ever explain what today’s celebration is about?”

He didn’t want to throw Shinsou under the bus, but… “Uh, no, not really. I’m not really good with keeping track of holidays and whatnot and I know my memory isn’t the best so,” he trailed off with a shrug.

Aizawa gave Shinsou a disappointed stare and opened his mouth to speak. But before he could say anything, Shinsou grabbed Kaminari’s hand in his and yanked him out of his seat.

“Thanks for dinner, Hizashi, but we’re going to go up to my room now and talk. Just talk. Nothing else. No need to check on us, okay? Bye,” Shinsou said in a rush before dragging a startled Kaminari up the staircase.

Kaminari’s feet moved on his own to make sure he didn’t fall onto his face. Shinsou had turned a startling crimson color that Kaminari would have teased him for if they were out of earshot of his parents. Unfortunately, he was still very conscious of the fact that his two teachers were downstairs and could still hear every interaction between him and their son.

Shinsou still had his warm hand wrapped around Kaminari’s and the blond boy was far from inclined to remove it anytime soon. Still, as they reached the top of the staircase and he was guided into a soft, pastel-blue room, he stared at the murals adorning the walls.

“Holy shit,” Kaminari whispered as he looked at the delicately painted waves spanning each wall. Combined with the sandy, speckled color of the carpet, Kaminari almost felt like he was on the bottom of the ocean, just like in his dream.

Shinsou noticed his enamourement. “Hizashi paid one of his radio station interns who just graduated with an arts degree to come paint this when I first moved in. Said it would help make me a little less homesick.”

“Homesick?” Kaminari questioned.

Shinsou shrugged. “Yeah. I’ve always loved the beach, ever since I was a little kid. Whenever I’d run away from a foster home, they’d always find me at the beach playing in the sand and staring out at the ocean on the horizon. I didn’t know why until I finally met Hizashi and Shouta.”

Kaminari’s heart nearly beat from his chest. Was this it? Would Shinsou finally tell him about all of those weird things that were adding up to paint a slowly clearing picture?

“Are you…”

“I didn’t want to scare you away or anything. But I… I’ve never told anybody.”

“Shinsou, listen, I know–”

“And I really wanted to but there was never a good time and things just kept happening–”

“Shinsou–”

“So I kept quiet but now that we’ve known each other for so long and I know you, I need to tell you.”

Kaminari sighed, staring up at Shinsou’s radiant purple eyes. He already knew what Shinsou was about to say. But he wanted to hear him, no, needed to hear him say it.

“I know what you are. But say it, say it out loud.”

Shinsou stared down at Kaminari, looking him in the eyes and searching, for what Kaminari didn’t know. He took a deep breath, sending electric shocks down Kaminari’s spine as he finally said the fateful words.

“I’m a siren. You and I have a sort-of connection and I know that you’ve started to notice it. The dreams, the thoughts bleeding over.”

“Thoughts?” Kaminari blurted out, startled.

Yes, the thoughts, Shinsou said with a fond drawl. Though, Kaminari noticed that he had never opened his mouth.

Kaminari’s jaw dropped to the floor. “What in the actual heck?”

Shinsou rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled. “I thought you noticed the thoughts and I knew you were suspicious, so I figured today was a good day to tell you. I was planning on waiting until after dinner, but my parents couldn’t keep their mouths shut just a little bit longer,” Shinsou grumbled with no small amount of affection.

“I wanted to wait to tell you until I could hand you this,” Shinsou said, reaching into his pocket. In his hands was a familiar looking pearl.

“Isn’t… is that the pearl from your dorm?” Kaminari asked as if he hadn’t stared at that pearl every time he had entered Shinsou’s dorm room.

Shinsou nodded. The colors of the pearl shifted from lavender to pearl and back again. “When a mer meets their ‘bonded’, they are supposed to give them a gift or a token. I don’t have much, since I’m not a proper mer, but I asked Hizashi what he gave Shouta when they first completed their bond. He said that traditionally, mer give treasures but pearls are also a common gift.”

Kaminari stared as Shinsou held his hands out in a cupped position between them. “A bond?” he murmured in confusion. He reached out to grab the pearl from Shinsou’s hands. “What exactly does completing a bond mean?”

Shinsou blushed, the splash of color warming his typically pale cheeks. “For every pair of mer, it means something different. Not every mer has a soulmate, and for sirens like me and Hizashi, it’s particularly rare according to Hizashi.”

Wait a second. “Present Mic is a mermaid too?” Kaminari exclaimed.

Shinsou winced. “Just mer is the correct term. And yes, we’re both mer, or more specifically, sirens. A siren is a mer who is born with a vocal power or ability, in addition to quirks, which are far less common in mer than in humans. But, uh, sirens are a minority and there’s not a lot of us around so finding information is difficult.”

“I just can’t believe Present Mic is mer too.”

“I don’t know why that’s so hard to believe. I mean, have you ever heard that man sing after class? There’s a reason his producer has been trying to convince him to release an album since signing with the radio show.”

Kaminari thought back to Shinsou’s lullaby ages ago while they were studying and the way his voice had lulled him into a calm, sleepy state. If all sirens’ voices had that same effect and same beauty then he could only imagine what kind of career the voice hero may have had.

“Huh. But what were you saying about the bond before? And I assume that has to do with the weird dreams I’ve been having since the USJ.”

Shinsou cringed, his shoulders rising up slightly in a way that Kaminari knew meant he was embarrassed. “I didn’t realize you had them that long. I only started getting mine more recently.” He paused for a moment to stare at Kaminari before blazing on. “A bond is like a special connection between two people. Usually it’s between two mer, but that’s not always the case like with Shouta and Hizashi. People with fated bonds usually have a shared mental bond and a sort-of universal connection, I guess is the way to describe it? Like they will always be drawn to one another and although they can be away from one another, the universe will always find a way to bring them back. Just, um, basic stuff like that. I really should’ve prepared my speech a bit more,” Shinsou chuckled nervously.

Kaminari thought about it, about all the little thoughts and feelings and dreams that had followed him around for the past two terms. There was something else missing, he knew, or rather, he felt.

“Why do I feel like you’re leaving something out?” Kaminari questioned, feeling the embarrassment bleed over into his mind in a wave of emotion that distinctly was not his.

Shinsou rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled awkwardly again. It was a habit of his that Kaminari had noted before, but apparently only got worse under pressure. “It’s just… usually, fated bonds are between romantic partners or people who feel some sort of attraction to one another. I won’t pressure you into this based on my feelings and I understand that you may just want to remain friends…”

Kaminari wondered if Shinsou had ever felt any of these thoughts and feelings that had leaked over the bond. Perhaps he would have been more confident in Kaminari’s feelings if he had felt that spillover….

“And before you commit to the bond, I want to make sure that you understand what it is that you’re getting into. A bond like this… mer usually mate for life. A bond is something special that can’t be broken.”

Shinsou pointed to the pearl still clutched in Kaminari’s hand. “That pearl is a symbol of our bond. I know that this is very sudden and you can keep the pearl either way, but it’s a big decision so I understand if you need some time to think it over,” Shinsou said in a rush of air. Kaminari swore he saw the boy deflate once the last word spilled out.

Kaminari rolled the pearl back and forth in his hand. Again, it shifted colors in the light, back and forth and back and forth. It was magnetic, hypnotizing.

“I think,” Kaminari began slowly. “I think I do need some time to think over it,” he said as he looked up into Shinsou’s eyes. “It’s very sudden, and I’ve known about you being a mer for a bit now, but… but it’s sudden. And I just need to think about it. I–it’s not a no, it’s just…”

Shinsou smiled softly. Kaminari couldn’t tell if he was imagining the bitter tang to it or not, since it looked as sincere as any smile he had seen on the other boy’s face.

“I understand, Kaminari, don’t worry. Take your time and… and make whatever decision you think is best, okay?” Shinsou reached over to cup the hand with the pearl in it. Kaminari couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes.

The two of them went downstairs after a moment’s silence, the emptiness following them as they went downstairs to see Aizawa dressing back into his hero gear and tying his boots.

It must have been obvious to the adults that some sort of conversation had occurred because they were silent and didn’t ask why either of the boys looked like they had been wrung through an emotional wringer. Aizawa gruffly told Kaminari that it was time to go back to campus to be back before curfew. Kaminari thanked Hizashi for his hospitality and thanked Shinsou for the invite. He tried not to linger too long or think about why the purple haired boy seemed to be avoiding his eye.

The car was silent with just him and Aizawa in it. Since he was the only passenger this time, Aizawa allowed him to climb into the front seat and didn’t comment when Kaminari immediately leaned his head against the glass to stare out the window.

“You know,” Aizawa broke the silence after a few minutes. “I understand your feelings. I’ve been where you are.”

Kaminari slowly lifted his head away from the smudged glass to look up at his homeroom teacher.

“You’re a good kid, Kaminari, and I’m glad that it’s you that my son is bonded to. None of us will think any differently of you if you choose to reject the bond.”

“I can do that?” Kaminari questioned. “Break the bond, I mean.”

Aizawa nodded stoically. “You can. I won’t lie and say it’s a painless process, but it can be done. And if you want it to be broken, then that is your choice.”

Kaminari gulped. “Is it painful then?”

“Physically, no. But emotionally and mentally… mer are very emotional creatures. Their bonds and connections with the world around them are different than ours. It took me a while to understand that with Hizashi. So cutting off the bond… it’s a different sort of pain, one that you and I will probably never understand.”

“If you do choose to reject the bond,” Aizawa said, turning away from the road for a brief second to allow Kaminari to understand the gravity of the situation. “Which is completely in your right. All I ask, not as your teacher or as a hero, but as Hitoshi’s father,  is that you will be gentle.”

Kaminari swallowed. He returned to staring out the window and the car ride remained silent, the two of them eventually walking back onto campus and Aizawa escorting him to the dorm building. His teacher waited until he entered the doorway, nodding once, before he walked away into the brisk night, leaving Kaminari alone to his jumbled thoughts.

Kaminari went undisturbed for most of the weekend. The only times he saw any of his classmates were when he left his room to hunt for meals, mostly sticking to leftovers late at night and squirreling some food away in his room. It wasn’t that he was avoiding Shinsou or anything… but that was exactly what he was doing, actually.

The problem wasn’t that he didn’t want the bond. In fact, it was the exact opposite. He wanted the bond more than he could comprehend, and that scared him.

Aizawa’s words about the bond stuck in his head, about how much it meant to mer, to Shinsou. Kaminari was used to running head first into decisions in his life. But this wasn’t just his life anymore– it was both of their lives. He would rather die than hurt Shinsou in the manner that Aizawa implied.

And as breakable as the bond was according to Aizawa, breaking the bond later on would only hurt twice as much as rejecting it now.

But that part of him that wanted the bond, craved it even, whispered that he should do it. That something that felt so right couldn’t be bad. It almost sounded like Shinsou’s voice at first and Kaminari worried that his thoughts were being projected to the purple-haired boy. But there was no response or indication of his presence, and when Kaminari followed the mental trail as best he could, he only found a vague presence. He poked it, but instead of opening up it closed inward, almost like an oyster protecting a pearl.

And so he closed himself in as well, holing himself up in his room and telling his classmates the flimsy excuse of catching up on homework combined with a new videogame. He hadn’t even touched the game since he’d gotten it, despite how excited he was when it arrived.

His strategy inevitably only worked for two days however, because when Monday rolled around, he seriously considered playing sick. He knew that Aizawa would know that he was lying, and why he was lying, so he pulled himself out of bed despite having not slept a wink.

Class wasn’t as awkward as expected. His classmates interrogated him on why he spent the weekend locked up in his room and he made up a lie about the video game and a particularly frustrating level. Shinsou passed by his desk without a word, just a simple nod. But he avoided Kaminari’s eyes.

The rest of the day went smoothly as well. English was unremarkable and Mic acted as if the dinner hadn’t even happened. Kaminari kept his head down, finished his work, and left class as quickly as possible.

His luck ran out at dinner when Ashido came up to his room and physically dragged him down to the table. He made as many excuses as he could, but even he could tell how pathetic they sounded, and so he resigned himself to his fate… though not without a few dramatics.

Ashido appeared in the kitchen downstairs dragging Kaminari by his foot as the blond groaned. The members of the class that were down there laughed at the sight and Kaminari felt a brief rush of amusement that wasn’t his own that vanished as quickly as it came.

Since he was one of the last ones to arrive, that meant that every other seat in the room was occupied except one. Kaminari couldn’t help but wonder what cosmic being had decided to play this wonderful prank on him. At least Shinsou didn’t make a big deal out of Kaminari’s arrival, continuing his own conversation with Sero on his left as Kaminari slid into the seat on his right. Their elbows brushed for the briefest of moments which generated a bolt of electric feelings that had Kaminari nearly gasping.

Dinner passed uneventfully, thanks in no part to their seemingly mutual agreement to pretend that everything was fine. They passed dishes between them while avoiding those moments of accidental touch, and even had a small interaction when Ashido drew them both into conversation. It wasn’t the same as it was, but it gave Kaminari hope that things between them weren’t ruined forever.

When he finished his meal, he went to clean his dishes when he heard more footsteps behind him. He held his breath as the bond fluctuated with each step closer that Shinsou took.

“Hey,” Shinsou said. He stood just about five steps behind Kaminari, just far enough that Kaminari could barely hear his whisper.

The running water flowed over Kaminari’s hands as he paused in his motions. “Uh, hey.”

It was silent for another moment before Shinsou said, “Can we… I’d like to talk after this. If that’s okay.”

Kaminari hummed. He turned the sink off and grabbed a towel to dry his dishes. “Your room or mine?”

“I… either will work,” Shinsou replied.

“Okay,” Kaminari said with confidence he didn’t possess. “My room then.”

Another awkward moment of silence settled over them until Kaminari set down his dishes and towel. Shinsou smiled at Kaminari when the blond stepped out of the kitchen. After all, he needed to prepare his room for company.

There was nothing much he needed to do to clean up. His room was already far more tidy than Shinsou had ever seen it during their study sessions, which was one of the only benefits of hiding away in his room for so long. The only thing he could do to improve the space was open up the window to let the fresh air in and put away the trinkets littering his desk. All except for one of course.

The pearl Shinsou had given him was tucked away on his desk. Sometimes, Kaminari held it in his hand when the thoughts of Shinsou and everything that had happened between them became too overwhelming. The comforting glow, both visually and emotionally, from the object helped soothe away the worst of the thoughts and emotions that threatened to pull Kaminari under like a rogue tide.

Now, he placed it on his bedside table, but not before holding onto it one last time and hoping that everything would go alright. To say he was nervous about this conversation would be an understatement. Aizawa’s words about the importance of this bond rang through his head as he tried to calm his breathing. The echo of the bond drew closer and closer with each passing moment as Kaminari thought over his decision. It wasn’t so much a decision as a resolution, a promise.

Maybe even a dedication.

Kaminari opened the door before Shinsou even had a chance to knock, the strengthening of the bond allowing him to know exactly when the other would arrive. The other boy didn’t even look startled. Instead he looked rather sheepish as he looked down both ends of the hallway.

“Are… are you going to invite me in?” Shinsou asked.

Kaminari couldn’t hold back the faint chuckle. He was sure his amusement also trickled down the line if the small smile on Shinsou’s face was any indication. “I thought you were a siren, not a faerie.”

Shinsou chuckled but stepped into the room as Kaminari let him in. The blond closed the door behind him and tried not to feel like he was caging them in.

“How’ve you been?” Shinsou asked. He was perched awkwardly on the edge of Kaminari’s bed, just barely sitting down while his legs were extended far from the bed to keep his balance. Kaminari threw himself onto the bed beside him, conscious of the places where their skin connected. The bond flared for a moment before Kaminari could feel Shinsou reigning in his rogue emotions. Kaminari held himself back from pulling on that string connecting him and unwrapping Shinsou from this tangled mess of emotions and dramas.

It took a stronger man than Kaminari to not snort at the sheer awkwardness permeating the room. Shinsou also cracked after a moment and perhaps it was some sort of feedback from the bond, but the two of them were reduced to giggles for a good fifteen seconds before they recovered.

“I missed you,” Kaminari said before the tension could return. It was true, though. Although he had been avoiding Shinsou, that didn’t mean he hadn’t missed them, hadn’t missed what they were… whatever that may be.

Shinsou gave a weak smile. “I missed you too.” Kaminari could feel the faint spike of emotion through the bond, almost like it was running up his arm from the place where their forearms connected and feeding him a direct link into Shinsou’s emotions.

“So, um, you said you wanted to talk?” Kaminari said. He tried to control the pounding of his heart. He’d made his decision, so why was he so nervous? It was just Shinsou.

“Yeah. I want to talk.”

There were several seconds of silence in which Kaminari just stared at him. Was he… was he going to say something?

Kaminari blinked as the silence continued on. “Um.”

“What?” Shinsou asked.

“Are you going to talk?” Kaminari asked him incredulously. Were they seriously having this conversation right now?

Shinsou shook his head. “You had something to tell me,” he replied.

“You could feel that?” Kaminari prodded at the mental link between them, feeling the warmth wrap around his mind for a moment before retreating once more.

That got a chuckle from Shinsou. Kaminari could feel the warmth again, like warm sunshine with just the slightest hint of salt on the air. “I don’t need a bond to know what you want, pearl. You’ve made up your mind,” Shinsou said. “And whatever your decision is, just know that I’ll accept it no matter what. It won’t change anything between us.”

“But it will!” Kaminari protested. “It would change things. I could never look at you the same knowing that I hurt you on purpose. I would rather die than do that.”

“Kaminari,” Shinsou said, straightening up where he sat. He was staring down at Kaminari with startlingly familiar purple eyes that reminded him of many restless nights dreaming of the sea’s dark depths. “Don’t you dare accept this bond because of that. I can handle a little pain but I’m not going to take your life away from you. That would make me no better than a villain.”

Kaminari winced. He knew what that word meant to Shinsou, how sensitive it was. The same way Kaminari had been treated as a dumb blond due to his quirk’s side effects, Shinsou had been treated like scum due to his own quirk.

“You’re not a villain,” he protested.

“But I would be if I forced you into this bond.”

“But you’re not forcing me! You don’t need to force me when I already love you!”

Kaminari froze. The only sound in the room was their breaths, not that Kaminari could hear anything besides the pounding of his heart. Had he really just said that? Yelled that, really, but he could believe he was so stupid to just say that especially at a time like this when—

“You…what?”

“It’s a strong word, I know,” Kaminari said, trying to calm his racing heart. He was failing miserably but plowed on anyway. “But it’s true. Tell me you can’t feel it in the bond. Go on, please, stop cutting it off, I know it has to be hurting you.”

Shinsou winced. “It doesn’t hurt that much,” he said. Kaminari could feel the floodgates slowly being let open to a sea of roaring emotions that threatened to drag Kaminari under.

“It’s still hurting you though.” Kaminari was barely able to parse his thoughts through the roiling emotions flitting through his brain. Everything from nervousness and anxiety to a burning admiration and devotion that Kaminari couldn’t trace back to one singular source. It was like they were one person for a moment, intertwined and intertangled.

“That–”

“Don’t you dare say that doesn’t matter,” Kaminari said before he could even speak. He already knew what Shinsou was going to say, could already feel it the instant the other had even thought it.

Kaminari could feel something moving through his mind, almost like an eel in the way it bent and moved while barely brushing by. “You… you really do love me,” Shinsou said in a breathy, awed tone. Both of them could feel the core burning bright between them. There was no ignoring it, no lying about it, not while it sat between them.

“Of course I do.” Kaminari’s eyes were watering and he wasn’t quite sure why, but the tears began to fall down his face at a steady pace and he was immediately pulled into a hug.

Shinsou tucked his face tightly against his chest, the fabric of his shirt catching the tears before they fell. “What’s wrong, pearl? Why are you crying?”

“I-I don’t know,” Kaminari said, his voice undeniably wet. He didn’t usually cry at anything besides sad movies and cute animals. Crying was for when he was sad, but he wasn’t sad! The only other times he’d cried were when he was happy. When he was so happy and emotional that he couldn’t contain it in himself anymore and needed to let the tide gates open to the world. “I guess… I guess I’m just happy that you love me too.”

And he knew that without Shinsou even needing to say it. How could Kaminari ever doubt it when he could feel that spring of emotion overflowing with it?

Shinsou started swaying back and forth. It was calming, Kaminari couldn’t help but notice, and he smiled when he heard the faint sounds of rumbling from Shinsou’s chest.

“Are you purring right now?” he mumbled into the other’s chest.

That got a chuckle from the boy. “No, no. Just humming.”

“You’ve got a pretty voice

“I hope it’s not just my voice that’s pretty.”

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments.”

“Was that supposed to be a pun?” Shinsou asked incredulously, scoffing at Kaminari’s small giggles.

“I need you to say it, pearl. I need to hear you say it for me to make sure you want this.”

“Shinsou Hitoshi, if you don’t complete this bond right now, I’m going to drown us both.”

“I think you’re forgetting that I can’t drown, pearl.” Kaminari could feel the amusement radiating through the bond. If this is what it felt like before the bond was complete, then afterwards would be incredible.

“Oh shut up and kiss me already, Hitoshi.”

Kaminari felt a ping through the bond. Being bonded with a siren had come with some effects, Kaminari had discovered. He had an increased lung capacity, his skin sometimes took on the same scaly appearance as Hitoshi’s if he didn’t pay attention in the water, and one of his favorite things to come from the bond– their dreams.

Even when they both need to sleep and rest their physical bodies, they are never far apart. Hitoshi had explained it as a shared mindspace, a place that manifested and morphed itself to fit their dreams and desires. It matched them perfectly.

Kaminari swam down to the darker parts of the water, his lungs a non-issue in the world of their dreams. Tonight, they’ve been exploring the coastline near UA. The two of them have visited the beach many times since completing their bond, occasionally accompanied by Aizawa and Hizashi to make sure the two don’t wander off too far. But in their dreams, there’s no need for supervision. It’s just the two of them, together.

He treaded water in the middle of a kelp forest, his feet barely brushing against the sandy bottom, when he sensed a familiar presence nearby. Two familiar purple eyes emerge from the darkness of the kelp. His hand reaches out to cup Hitoshi’s face as the siren swims closer, pressing their foreheads together. Hitoshi’s eyes are as bright as ever, like a lighthouse to guide Kaminari through the darkness.

There’s no need for words in these dreams. Their feelings are connected, always, and Kaminari knows without a doubt that Hitoshi loves him, and he loves Hitoshi too.

When Kaminari wakes up the next day, tucked under the arms of a still-sleeping Hitoshi to the quiet sounds of Hizashi cooking breakfast, he’ll let himself drift back under the waves to rejoin his bonded. They have a lifetime bonded together and Kaminari is going to cherish every second of it.

The first time Kaminari Denki noticed Shinsou Hitoshi was at the USJ. His first time dreaming about Shinsou Hitoshi happened a short time later. But first, he has another dream to settle into. And as he returns to his place in the mindspace, cradled in Hitoshi’s arms much like in real-life, he knows that he’ll never stop noticing Shinsou Hitoshi. Not now or ever.