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Denki Kaminari had been feeling off all day. His throat was dry and felt tight, and his nose was stuffy. But he brushed it off as allergies and went about his day.
Now here he was, trying to study with the Bakusquad for their big test on *insert subject* tomorrow. But Denki could hardly focus. Now, this wasn’t abnormal, but it was even less focused than usual.
“You good, Kamibro?” Kirishima asked as the boy had been staring at the wall instead of studying.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Kaminari replied.
“Well, you just stared at the wall for like five minutes,” Kirishima told him.
Kaminari didn’t remember doing this, but the rest of the squad confirmed that’s what he had been doing.
“I think I’m just really tired,” Denki said. It wasn’t a lie. “I might just head to bed.”
“But there’s still a lot to review,” Mina responded. “You and I need this study session the most.”
“I’ll just wake up earlier and do some studying then. It’s no good if I can’t focus because I’m tired,” Kaminari answered. He then got up and headed to his dorm.
He, in fact, did not wake up to study. Instead, he slept through five alarms before Iida came to tell him to turn it off.
“How are you still sleeping? We have an important test! Turn that alarm off and get up!” Iida told him when he’d opened the door after knocking numerous times.
Denki slowly got up and turned the alarm off. “Sorry, Iida.”
“You’d better get ready quickly, there’s only about twenty minutes until class,” Iida told him, then ran off.
Denki closed the door so he could get dressed. His movements were slow, groggy. Probably because he just woke up.
He tiredly headed down the stairs, his body aching everywhere. His body felt weak. His throat was now sore instead of yesterday’s dryness, and his nose was still stuffy.
“Oi! Did you get your studying done?” Bakugo’s voice worsened the headache he noticed was forming.
“Uh, no…” Denki admitted. “I guess I was more tired than I thought. I think I slept through like five alarms before Iida got annoyed enough to wake me.”
“Kami, what if you fail the test? You only stayed for about half our study session!” Mina was shaking him by the shoulders, not helping the headache either.
“It’ll be fine,” Kaminari tried. He didn’t really believe it, but wanted to ease Mina’s nerves. “Also, please, stop shaking me.”
“Oop, sorry!” Mina let go of his shoulders.
“You extras coming or not?!” Bakugo yelled from the front door. Denki and Mina ran to catch up with the rest of the Bakusquad.
Denki was quieter than usual on their walk to class; the only sound coming from him was the occasional cough to ease his itchy throat, a couple of sneezes, and plenty of sniffling.
“You good, bro?” Kirishima asked as they headed into the classroom.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Kaminari lied. In reality, he wished that he’d just stayed in bed.
He lay down on his desk, smiling slightly as his cheek felt the cold surface. He stayed like that until Mr. Aizawa came in, where he then switched to leaning into his hand.
Classes seemed to drag on slowly. Kaminari had slept through all of homeroom (which Aizawa likely didn’t notice, because he was asleep himself) and had nodded off a few times in other classes. The test was to be held after lunch, so maybe he could get some studying in while eating.
Soon enough, it was lunch time, and Kaminari had completely forgotten about his thoughts of studying. He wasn’t as hungry as usual and didn’t finish his entire lunch. Once he decided he wasn’t hungry anymore, he just put his head down on the table.
He felt someone tap his shoulder, but didn’t look up.
“Are you alright, Kaminari? You never leave your food unfinished,” It was Jiro who spoke.
“I’m just not very hungry right now,” Denki mumbled.
“That’s not like you. Usually, you eat all your food, along with whatever we don’t finish,” Mina added.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Sero joined.
“I’m fine,” Kaminari answered.
His friends seemed doubtful about that. Kaminari didn’t move his head from the table until the bell rang for next period, the one of the test.
Denki’s head was pounding, and he was sore all over. His nose was so clogged he couldn’t breathe through it anymore. His throat hurt every time he swallowed, and he had quite the cough. He was now aware that it wasn’t just allergies, but he’d actually caught something.
He kept staring at the test, having to reread a question a thousand times before his brain would finally process what it asked. And for the life of him, he couldn’t remember the answers. His brain was too foggy.
By the time the test was meant to be over, he’d done a total of 5 questions out of 50. Aizawa collected the tests and headed up to his desk to grade them.
The students were given free time while Aizawa graded. Kaminari took this time to put his head down for the millionth time that day.
“How do you think you did on the test, Kamibabe?” Mina asked him.
Denki just groaned as he looked up at her. “Probably really bad…”
Mina looked at him in concern. Denki’s cheeks were red, making him look even more like a Pikachu than before, and his skin was pale. His eyes had a feverish glaze to them, and his nose matched his cheeks.
“Kaminari,” Aizawa’s voice grabbed his attention.
“What?” Kaminari asked.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” Aizawa requested.
“Sure…” Denki followed Aizawa out into the hallway.
“I noticed you only answered five questions, and quite frankly, I can’t even read the answers you gave,” Aizawa began.
“It was only five?” With how many times he’d reread them, it felt like he had done a hundred.
“Yes, that is correct. Are you even able to read what you wrote?” He showed the test to Kaminari. All his writing looked like nothing but scribbles.
“No,” Denki admitted with a cough. “I can’t.”
“That’s what I thought. I am willing to let you retake it, though, as you clearly aren’t at your best right now.”
“What do you mean?”
Aizawa sighed. He gently placed his hand on Kaminari’s forehead. “Anyone can clearly see that you aren’t feeling well right now. And telling by your fever, that assumption is correct.”
Denki couldn’t deny that he felt awful as he was sent into another fit of coughs. It was taking all his energy to even stay standing.
“Telling by the state you’re in now, you should have just stayed in the dorms today,” Aizawa told him.
“I didn’t want to miss the test,” Kaminari coughed.
“Well, I’m letting you retake it once you’re feeling better. For now, how about you head back to the dorms?”
Kaminari nodded and stuck close to the wall as he walked away. Aizawa sighed again.
“I’m going to have someone escort you there. I’m afraid you won’t make it on your own.”
Kaminari nodded, and Aizawa grabbed another student to help Denki back to the dorms. It ended up being Kirishima.
Denki had to wrap his arm around Kirishima’s shoulders to walk without his legs giving out.
“You’re really warm, bro,” Kirishima stated during their walk.
“Mr. Aizawa said I have a fever,” Denki slurred in reply.
“Yeah, I don’t think I would even need to touch you to be able to tell,” Kirishima told him.
He got Denki back to the dorms and into his room, making sure he got into bed before heading back to class. Denki slept until school was over.