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Denki always had a weakness for pretty things. He guessed it was a side effect of growing up with having artists as parents. The more striking something looked, the more Denki seemed to gravitate towards it. This was especially true for people. It was why, upon entering 1-A classroom for the first time, Denki zeroed in on Todoroki and thought, ‘Woah, pretty,” followed by, “Am I gay?”
One could guess how the next few months went.
Denki dealt with not only his classes and all the tests and exams that came with them but also his sexual discovery on top of surviving monthly villain attacks. It was why, despite his massive crush on Todoroki, he never made a move to befriend him. Classes, villain attacks, and gay panics while being friends with your crush? No, thank you. Denki would most likely buckle under the pressure.
This changed after the Sports Festival. Todoroki walked up to him, utterly blasé, and decided he’d join his Cavalry team. It wasn’t to say they became best friends afterwards, but Todoroki thawed out quite a bit, to the point that once the entire class moved into their school dorms, he and Denki were on first-name bases, resulting in Denki becoming even more enamoured than before.
Denki often ended up staring at Shouto with a glazed look whenever they spoke. Like now. They were in class and Shouto was kind enough to help him with his mathematics homework, only, nothing he said stuck. Denki was far too busy admiring him to focus on anything else.
Denki inhaled sharply when Shouto tilted his head and asked, “Denki, are you alright?”
“Wha—uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m okay, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Your textbook is upside-down.” Denki looked at his desk and oh, would you look at that, his textbook was indeed upside down. He momentarily contemplated throwing himself out the window to avoid the embarrassment but fortunately, he managed to gather his focus to blurt out, “I can read upside-down.”
Okay, that was... not better.
Shouto blinked at his sudden confession. “You can?”
“Yeah, I totally can.” He couldn’t.
Thankfully, before Denki could worsen things for himself (like demonstrating his nonexistent upside-down reading skills) the school bell rang, ending the class. He quickly thanked Shouto, swept his school supplies into his bag, and bolted out the door. Perhaps he should lessen his interactions with a certain peppermint-themed boy. There were far more important things to worry about after all.
Like his history project.
Where he just got paired up with Shouto.
Who he now had to spend the next two weeks with.
Denki was doomed.
He hunched over his desk and stared hollowly at Midnight-sensei’s impish smile. She assigned the pairings for the project, unaware of the kind of problem she inflicted on Denki.
No.
Denki couldn’t stress over this. That’d only make things worse. Despite always being flustered around Shouto, he genuinely loved talking to him. Denki’s mind simply had the unfortunate habit of either shutting down or being overly aware of everything. Denki imagined he acted a lot like a tongue-tied, gangling monkey whenever the other boy was involved. The image did not give him confidence for his upcoming talk with Shouto.
Midnight-sensei eventually stopped talking, prompting his classmates to shuffle across the classroom to sit closer to their assigned partners. Denki did as well. He stood up, ignored the restlessness tingling under his skin, and walked towards Shouto. A sort of game plan formed in his mind. Sit down. Talk about history. Don’t get distracted by the pretty boy. Simple.
Sit down, talk, don’t get distracted.
Sit down, talk, don’t get distracted.
Denki spotted the empty chair beside Shouto. And sat down.
Talk, don’t get distracted.
His eyes unconsciously strayed towards Shouto’s hair. It glowed from the sunlight passing through the nearby window, forming a gentle halo around his head. Denki idly wondered how it would feel to run his fingers through them. He imagined they would be soft to the touch, like down feathers—
“Hello, Denki.”
Fuck, he was getting distracted!
“Hi,” Denki cleared his throat. “Hi, uh, so— history project.” He winced at his ungraceful reply before pushing away his awkwardness as best as he could. “Which era do you wanna do? ‘Cause I’m down for any.”
Shouto nodded. “I’m alright in choosing any era as well. Whichever you’re comfortable with, I will accept.”
This boy. “Riiight,” he said slowly, “But like— which era do you wanna do? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m awful at schoolwork.” Denki scratched his cheek sheepishly. “I don’t think I should choose what project we should do.”
Shouto’s lips twitched upward minutely, and Denki mentally patted himself on the back for achieving such a thing. “Alright,” Shouto said, “How about the beginning of the Quirked Era? It was my favourite to learn.”
Denki nodded eagerly. “Sure.”
They talked. About the project, and then about themselves once they found they had time to spare. Denki didn’t know how he steered their conversation in that direction, but he did, and he was damn proud. He even managed to tease out some personal information from Shouto. Apparently, the other boy never had the opportunity to play video games or watch many movies. He preferred to read books. A lot. Perfectly fine with Denki, he liked reading too.
Aside from Denki’s initial fumble, their conversation went well. That was until Midnight-sensei popped up behind them and asked for their chosen project topic. She smiled sweetly while doing so, her expression somehow awfully familiar to Denki. As if he’d seen it on someone untrustworthy before. It made Denki unconsciously tense.
“That’s a good era.” she said, jotting down their answer on a clipboard, “One of my favourites. I suggest you two choose a specific point and thoroughly research it.” Then, she cupped her right cheek and lamented out loud. “The previous groups always had the problem of never being in-depth enough because they tackled the whole period. Don’t make that mistake, okay?”
Shouto nodded and thanked her for the advice. Denki, on the other hand, only heard how he would need to spend more time with Shouto. He felt an odd mixture of elation and dread at the thought.
“Well, then,” Midnight-sensei said, “Good luck boys.” She threw one last secretive smile that had Denki fighting to keep a frown from his face, before moving on to the next pair of partners on her list.
Well, then.
That was something.
Denki decided to call them The Eyes.
The Eyes appeared shortly after his class with Midnight-sensei, and it promptly began watching him everywhere. Denki didn’t know why they were there. All he knew was that he somehow angered a spirit sometime this week and it was now plotting his death. Denki was confident none of his classmates were responsible for it, or else he would’ve felt them more often during class hours.
Thankfully, The Eyes only ever seemed to follow him on school grounds, never outside of it, and it didn’t stalk him to the bathroom or locker rooms. It was, however, frequently there during lunchtime. Honestly, it was a little disconcerting, being stalked in the hallways of your own school. He thought of reporting The Eyes to one of his teachers but decided against it. His teachers would probably chalk it up to stress from the constant villain attacks his class underwent, before insisting he take mandatory counselling sessions. No, going to the teachers would only make him look like a nutjob.
It was why, a week later, Denki still hadn’t done anything about The Eyes. It was driving him mad. In an attempt to avoid them, Denki decided to have lunch outside at the UA gardens today rather than at the cafeteria as usual.
He said so to his friends who then threw him confused looks. Okay, fair. Denki wasn’t the solitary type, and he never ate anywhere but at the cafeteria despite having been invited to eat elsewhere by his classmates before. But Denki had enough of The Eyes, so here he was, standing in the middle of a packed hallway with Kirishima and Ashido to inform them of his lunch plans. As typical, Bakugo was nowhere in sight, most likely having left already. Bakugo never waited for them no matter how much Kirishima asked. Tokayami was there, though. Denki wondered how Kirishima and Ashido managed that considering they usually ran in different friend circles.
“That’s fine man,” Kirishima said, “Just kinda sudden. Everything okay? Why the gardens?”
Denki could only reply cryptically. “Ever’thin’s fine...” He narrowed his eyes and gazed intensely at his friend, which, thinking back on it, probably made him look crazy. “Just avoiding... The Eyes of UA.”
Tokayami (bless him) took his answer easily and merely nodded, saying, “The eyes of UA can sometimes be overwhelming. That is understandable Kaminari-san.”
Denki didn’t think he and Tokayami were talking about the same eyes, but he appreciated his words nonetheless, so, Denki thanked him before heading to the gardens.
Unfortunately, while on the way out, Denki had to stop midway. A quick rummage through his school bag showed that his journal, the one he wrote exclusively on about his day-to-day life, was missing. He groaned and buried his head into his hands.
Not knowing what else to do, he sped back towards history class, believing he’d left it there.
When he arrived and tried opening the classroom door, it was firmly locked. He cursed out loud when he peeked through the thin window centred on the door and saw neither Midnight-sensei nor his journal. Without meaning to, an awful scenario appeared in his mind, where a random student found and read his journal. Plenty of his thoughts were detailed within those pages. Nothing intensely personal, but still some private things that Denki would rather not share.
Denki threw his head back and groaned. Well, there was no getting into the classroom. He turned around and walked to the teachers' lounge, hoping to find Midnight-sensei that way, only, she wasn’t there either.
“Eh? She’s not here?” Denki asked the exhausted visage of Aizawa-sensei, “She’ll be back in her classroom after lunch, though, right? I forgot something there.”
Aizawa-sensei leaned against the doorframe as if he were using it to help him stand properly. Denki felt bad taking up his lunchtime. His teacher clearly needed the break. “Not sure,” Aizawa-sensei said, “Probably. You can check back before afternoon classes start.”
There was a loud commotion in the background that sounded an awful lot like Present Mic-sensei. Aizawa-sensei's only response to it was to blink slowly.
“Oh, alright, then. Thanks, sensei,” Denki said.
Aizawa-sensei gave him a nod, and then groggily walked back inside the lounge. He didn’t make it past the third step before he crouched to his knees and laid down on the floor. Aizawa-sensei pulled out a small yellow pillow— most likely stashed for this exact occasion— from under the nearest desk and rested his head on it. He was out like a light immediately.
Denki did the only respectable thing and closed the lounge door for him.
Denki sighed and walked away, figuring he should eat his lunch at the garden before lunch period ended. When he rounded the corner, however, a small shiver travelled down his spine.
The Eyes were back.
His sole reason for wanting to eat in the gardens was destroyed at that moment.
Hoping he could somehow lose the Eyes on his way out, Denki decided to take a longer route to the gardens. He moved quickly, twisting and dodging around multiple corners and school shortcuts. These shortcuts were usually reserved for emergencies and weren’t supposed to be used like this, but fuck it, his life was in danger. This counted as an emergency!
Footsteps thundered through the vacant hallways and—were they getting louder? Was someone following him or was that just the echoes of his own feet? Jeez, Denki felt like he was going crazy. If the Eyes were a normal person, he would’ve lost them by now, but it seemed like he was right about them being a supernatural entity because no matter how much he tried, he simply couldn’t shake them off.
Denki took another sharp turn.
Then another.
And another.
And—
Denki almost ran into Midnight-sensei. Thankfully, he stopped just in time to avoid colliding into her. He was out of breath; his calm walk down the corridors had descended into a full-on sprint. “Midnight-sensei,” he exclaimed between heavy breaths, “You're here!”
“Kaminari-san,” she said, “What are you doing alone in the hallways? Aren’t you supposed to be at lunch?”
Denki scratched the side of his cheek. “Oh, uh, well, I was looking for you. I accidentally left a book of mine in your class and was wondering if I could get it?”
Midnight-sensei gave him a raised eyebrow, sensing that this wasn’t all there was to it, but Denki wasn’t about to tell her more, so instead of answering her silent inquiry, he simply looked away and chuckled nervously. “And then I’ll be on my way to lunch. Yeah, uh, sorry, that book is kinda important to me...”
Her lips quirked upward at his awkward explanation but replied cordially, “Well, I guess you’re in luck because I found it on my way out of the class and have it here with me.” She reached inside her green handbag and pulled it out. “I was about to drop it off by the lost and found.”
Denki’s face lit up and took the book from her hands. “Thanks, sensei!”
“No problem,” she said, waving him off, “Now off you go. Lunch is halfway done, and you need to eat.”
“Right.” He gave a short goodbye and walked to the exit.
Denki didn’t realize the Eyes had left him alone until he was out the school doors, flipping through his journal. Thank God for that. The Eyes were very unnerving.
A loose piece of paper stuck between the pages caught his attention. He tugged at it to see a single sentence, scrawled neatly in someone else’s handwriting.
Meet me on roof-C after school.
Denki blinked. That was seven flights up UA. Why would someone want him to go there? He shrugged to himself and decided to eat his lunch first. He’d think it over later.
When the last school bell rang, Denki tucked his supplies into his bag, gave his series of farewells to his classmates, and entered the nearest elevator. His curiosity won out in the end. He wanted to know who wrote the note and why, despite understanding that it was probably not smart of him to go to a secluded place while being stalked by magical eyes.
Denki did, however, text his sister that he’d arrive home late. He wasn’t that stupid. If he somehow disappeared, eaten by an angry spirit, he’d like to give his family a heads-up.
‘If I’m gone today,’ he typed, ‘Tell Captain Socks that he was the best dog a boy could have.’ Denki paused, then added, ‘And that I know you deleted my Pokémon save, you fuckin’ suck.’
The elevator lurched and opened, showing the top floor of UA. Denki hit send, pocketed his phone, and stepped out before heading to the side stairs where a bulky metal door guarded the roof entrance. Denki used his weight to open it, and it screeched loudly as he did so.
That was when he saw...
No one.
Not a damn soul was on the roof.
Rail fences—metal ones as high as his chest— surrounded the roof edges to prevent people from accidentally falling off, but that was it. The roof was barren as a desert otherwise. Denki stepped out onto the boring grey roof, heard the door click close behind him, and leaned up against the fences. A cool breeze passed by him. Well, at least no supernatural eyes were going to eat him today.
He decided to spend a few minutes waiting, watching the students below him scurry out of UA like ants. When enough time passed, he checked his watch, noting that it had been ten minutes since his arrival. He muttered to himself, “Man, did I get duped?” That was an unpleasant thought.
“Denki.”
Denki whipped around to see Shouto enter the roof. They locked eyes, and Denki’s mind halted. Eh? What was Shouto doing here on the roof? For a moment, Denki thought Shouto was the mysterious person who sent him the letter, but by the minuscule way his eyes widened when he saw Denki, that didn’t seem to be the case. He was just as surprised to see Denki on the roof as Denki was to him.
“Denki,” Shouto repeated when he didn’t receive a reply.
It jolted him out of his thoughts. “Yeah!?” Denki unintentionally squeaked out. He winced at the sound of his voice and forcefully calmed himself. “I mean, uh, hey Shouto. What are you doing here?”
“I received a note,” Shouto began, “It told me to come here because someone wanted to tell me something important. Did you write it?”
Denki stared at Shouto, slowly digesting his words and then decided— “...Nope!” He moved towards the door, hoping to get out of the awkward situation quickly. “I actually have to go. My sister’s gonna be pretty worried I’m not home yet.” Denki made a circular motion with his wrist, trying to convey a nonchalant attitude he didn’t have. “You know how it is.” He reached out for the door and jingled the handle.
And found it was stuck.
He laughed nervously at the curious look Shouto shot him, and jingled the handle again, this time, a little more forcefully than before. It still didn’t budge. “Ah,” Denki said, dumbfounded, “It’s locked.”
Shouto frowned and moved towards him. “Let me try.” He placed his hand on the handle, arm briefly brushing against Denki’s, and pushed. Shouto did not have better luck, and unfortunately, his attempt to help had him step in closer to Denki’s personal space, who was now uncomfortably aware of how close they were.
Denki’s heart thrummed faster as he spluttered out, “How are we going to leave? We can’t possibly stay here all night and our families— especially my mom and sister! God, they’re so gonna kill me—!”
“Denki,” Shouto’s smooth voice interrupted, “Calm down. We can call the teachers if no one finds us in the next minute or two, and if those don’t work, I’ll use my quirk.” He then purposefully looked at Denki in the eyes and said, “Are you sure you didn’t send me the letter? The message said it was important I come up here.”
Denki stiffened at his attention before saying with false bravado. “Pshh, no, of course not. Why would I do that? You weren’t... you weren’t even supposed to be here.” Okay, that last part came out wrong. Denki wanted to say that he didn’t expect Shouto to appear on the roof but rather someone else. He didn’t know who, but certainly, not Shouto. He silently cursed his inability to talk properly when under stress.
Shouto blinked at his odd wording. “Why?” he asked.
They were very close now. Denki couldn’t help but flush in embarrassment. “I—I—Well—” He looked anywhere but at Shouto, a little horrified at the situation he found himself in, he wished, for the first time in his life, that he had a different quirk. Something that would let him teleport, or fly, or float, because he really, really wanted—
“—to jump off this roof.”
Shouto’s eyes widened, and an uncomfortable silence stretched between them.
Did… did he just accidentally imply he was suicidal to his crush?
Denki sobbed hysterically in his mind.
No, absolutely not. That was not what he wanted to say. Unfortunately, his filter had long since left and his stress took over, and that was what came out of his mouth. Denki came to the roof, prepared to die via supernatural Eyes, not out of pure embarrassment!
Neither of them moved for what felt like an eternity.
Eventually, Denki couldn’t handle it anymore and he turned away. A pair of hands stopped him.
“Don’t.”
Denki choked. “What? No, that’s not it. You've got the wrong idea, Shouto.” He held back a hysterical laugh threatening to burst from his mouth. He was utterly and completely mortified. He wanted to sink into the ground and disappear forever. Move and change his name to Kazuto or something and never be seen again.
“It isn’t? Because it looked an awful lot like what you were about to do was...." he said, “I don’t know what you're going through but you can’t—”
Denki’s mouth felt dry. It made responding to Shouto’s gentle lecture difficult. Oh man. Denki needed to fix this misunderstanding immediately, but, how could he explain that ‘no, he was not suicidal, he just wanted to run away and die metaphorically’ without sounding insane?
“Denki, do you understand?”
“That’s not it at all,” he said, desperately waving his remaining free hand.
Shouto frowned. “Then why were you running?”
“I like you,” he blurted out.
“What?”
Denki took a deep breath. “I have no idea what’s happening right now but... I got a letter. It wanted me to come here,” he said, “and, I like you?” Heat crawled up Denki’s cheeks when he realized how out of pocket that must have been. “Sorry, that was a bit sudden. I-- I mean it’s fine if you don't. It’s probably weird being confessed to by a guy, huh? Uh, You know what? Ignore everything I just said.” He looked down at his feet and didn’t dare glance at the other boy, feeling awfully exposed. “Please don’t tell anyone,” he said quietly.
Shouto loosened his grip on Denki. “… I thought you liked girls.”
Denki’s eyes snapped up. “Ah, that’s not... really true,” he said, tugging ends at the hem of his blazer nervously. He sent Shouto an awkward, hesitant smile. “I mean, why do you think I flirt so much with girls? It’s ‘cause my family will react weirdly to... this.”
A spark of realization flickered across Shouto’s eyes. “It’s to hide the fact you like guys.”
Shouto’s statement made Denki squirm a little inside. “Did it work?” he asked, scratching his head.
“Yes.”
Denki burst out laughing. All the stress he’d built up the last few minutes magically disappeared with that one deadpan word. He wiped the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes and idly wondered if he thoroughly fooled anyone else in class.
Shouto broke the moment by saying, “Okay.”
Denki looked at him with knitted eyebrows. “Okay?” he asked slowly, not understanding what Shouto was ‘okay-ing’ to.
Shouto nodded. “Yes. I accept.”
Denki remained confused. It must have been evident on his face because Shouto curled his lips upwards into an amused smile, and elaborated. “I accept your confession,” he said, casually blowing Denki’s mind. Shouto tilted his head curiously and asked, “Now what?”
“We... we go on a date?” Denki replied dazedly.
“This weekend?” Shouto hummed softly as if recounting his schedule. He gave another blindingly handsome smile that almost sent Denki to his knees and said, “Saturday? It's supposed to be sunny.”
All Denki could do was mutely nod.
A soft click to the side grabbed their attention. They briefly glanced at the door, then at each other before Todoroki reached out to the handle once more and pushed. Unlike earlier, the door swung open, revealing an empty stairwell. Baffled, but too grateful to question the magically unlocked door at the moment, Denki and Shouto descended the stairs, back to the seventh-floor hallway.
UA was most definitely empty now, save for the few teachers that may still be working, so it wasn’t a surprise when Denki and Shouto didn’t run into any other person while warily walking back to the elevator. Their own footsteps were the only sound echoing in the lonely building.
“That was weird right?” Denki couldn’t help but ask once they were standing in front of the elevators. “Should we tell someone about the door? It locked and opened on its own.”
A pensive look appeared on Shouto. “Hmmm, what’s there to tell?"
Denki opened his mouth, only to close it after thinking things over. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s kinda odd we were there in the first place anyway.” Then, a sudden chill crept through him, followed by the familiar feeling of being watched. The Eyes were back. Just as Denki didn’t think things could get any odder—wait, were the Eyes responsible for locking them on the roof?
Next to him, Todoroki must have sensed the sudden chill in the air as well, because he stiffened and began shifting his eyes to see what caused it. “You feel it too?” he murmured.
“It’s been following me the past week,” Denki whispered back.
Todoroki’s expression morphed into concern. “What?”
“Children!”
Out of nowhere, Midnight-sensei appeared behind them, jolting them out of their hushed conversation. A huge grin overtook her face as if she’d just heard fantastic news. “Kaminari-kun, Todoroki-kun,” she greeted cheerfully, spreading her arms in a welcoming gesture, “You two are here awfully late, did something happen?”
“No, Midnight-sensei,” Todoroki replied, “Everything is fine.”
Midnight turned her grin into a devilish smirk and the uneasy feeling of being watched flooded through Denki’s system. His eyes widened, the puzzle pieces slowly connecting in his mind. “You!” he exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Midnight-sensei. “It was you! Midnight-sensei, that’s creepy!”
Todoroki threw him a curious glance, so Denki decided to elaborate. “Her,” he said, “She was that feeling we just felt a minute ago, and the one who's been stalking me the past week, and also probably the one who sent us the letters and locked us on the roof.” Denki made some rapid nondescript hand gestures towards Midnight-sensei. “What kind of teacher are you?”
Midnight-sensei merely cupped the side of her cheek, not letting go of her smirk. “Well, did it work?”
It took a minute for Denki to understand her question, and when he did, he flushed bright red.
Midnight-sensei, the crazy woman she was, winked at his reaction, then cat-walked away, waving a hand goodbye as she did so. “Have fun on your date, you two!” She disappeared around a corner, leaving both boys to stew in silence at her comment.
“…Let's leave before she comes back." Todoroki finally said.
Denki nodded in agreement.