Work Text:
This totally sucks.
Denki grits his teeth as he darts onto another street, looking around frantically. He got separated from Bakugou and Kirishima a while ago, but he can still hear explosions going off in the distance, so they must be fine. And that’s not the point right now—he needs to focus.
The people they’ve been assigned to apprehend are a group of villains terrorising the townsfolk for a while now. They never act solo, and they usually only operate at night. It’s part of their hero curriculum for their final year in U.A., and the Pro-Hero they’re working under is probably… somewhere… Denki didn’t notice where they went. Anyway, while they were chasing the villains, he accidentally got separated from his friends, and now he’s lost.
He chews on his bottom lip, debating on using his quirk to help him see better. The town isn’t the most well-off, so certain areas are completely entrenched in darkness, making it difficult to move around.
Ah, but if he uses his quirk, he’ll give away his location, and the villains will know how to avoid him! They know this place better than he does, after all!
Denki skids to a stop when he hears a loud crash. There’s a piercing cackle, followed by what sounds like the slap of a… rope? A whip? Whatever it is, it’s coming from an alleyway. Without further debate, Denki dashes in, shooting a bolt of electricity into the sky to alert his teammates.
“Oh? Is this another one of your friends?”
Denki’s heart drops to his stomach.
One of the villains he was chasing is right in front of him. Only, they aren’t conscious, instead bound by a white cloth and laying flat on the ground. Behind them stands two guys who look around his height and stature. One of them is wearing a black mask over his mouth and nose, alongside a hoodie to shield most of his features, while the other has on a white theatre face mask.
“Who are you?” Denki asks, pointing a finger threateningly at them. Or, he hopes it’s threatening. He’s a little shaken up, honestly—these two don’t look like they’re part of the same villain team, and yet they have the villain knocked out right beneath their feet. There can’t be another gang he was unaware of, can it?
Either way, these two seem like powerful people. He should be careful.
“We should be asking you that!” the one with the white mask says. He steps over the body, and the ends of his tailcoat flares out dramatically. “You’re friends with this loser, aren’t you? How about you join him and eat concrete, huh?”
“Wait,” the other person interrupts. His voice is low, and much less frivolous than his partner’s. “I don’t think they’re part of the same group.”
Denki has no clue what is happening right now, but he crosses his arms, nodding. “Yeah! I’m a hero—my name’s Chargebolt!”
“A hero?”
Denki’s breath hitches when the one with the white mask leans in, peering up at him. It’s hard to really make out any of his features due to the mask, but when they’re this close, he manages to catch sight of a striking pair of blue eyes.
“Well, that’s not good for us,” the masked guy laughs, spinning on his heel. He points to his partner, crooning, “My beloved Nighthide, do something, won’t you?”
Nighthide? That has to be an alias. Are these two people heroes as well?
The other guy sighs deeply, rubbing the back of his neck. He looks up, and Denki freezes when they make eye contact, feeling like chains have suddenly wrapped around his ankles, keeping him there.
“Sorry about him,” Nighthide says with a dismissive wave. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Ah? U-Um, it’s Chargebolt—”
Before he can finish his sentence, Denki’s mind goes blank.
“Monoma, this is one of the worst decisions you’ve ever made.”
“So rude, Shinsou-kun! If it wasn’t for me, we would have gotten our asses handed to the police already.”
“And you think kidnapping a random hero won’t get us jailed?!”
First of all, Denki thinks, struggling to open his eyes, I’m not just any random hero. I’m a U.A. Student.
“It’s not like he even saw our faces. We could’ve just ran off and let him deal with that dumb villain. What are we going to do with this guy now?”
“Convert him to the dark side,” Monoma jokes. There’s a loud smack, and a whine of pain quickly follows.
Finally, Denki manages to peel his eyes open. He shoots upwards with a gasp, but panic sets into his veins when he realises that his limbs are bound by something tight, keeping him immobilised.
“Ooh, shit. Pretty boy is awake.”
Denki yelps when two figures lean over him ominously. He instantly recognises one of them—Nighthide, he recalls. Even though he couldn’t see his face earlier, the mask hanging around his neck and the hoodie he’s still wearing gives him away.
The other guy stares down at him with his lips curled in judgement. His features are all very elegant, with high cheekbones and a smooth jawline, and despite the rather precarious situation he’s in, Denki can’t help but think that he’s rather pretty.
They’re both quite attractive, actually, in their own ways—
Oh, wait, what the hell. Did these two just say that they kidnapped him?!
“Now what do we do?” Nighthide groans. Shinsou, Denki realises, connecting the voices to the names he overheard. Then the blond one must be Monoma.
He looks around, trying to figure out where he is. Judging by the size of this place and the tall ceiling… A warehouse? He’s seated on a tattered couch, and there are tattered craters and empty soda cans lying around. The walls are also covered in either graffiti or stickers.
Is this a base of some sort? There doesn’t seem to be any working utilities, so it can’t be someone’s house.
“How’s your head?” Monoma asks, ignoring Shinsou’s question. “I hit you pretty hard, but I’ve never actually knocked someone out before! I wonder if I gave you a concussion?”
“There’s no way your scrawny arms are capable of concussing someone.”
“Shinsou-kun, you’re really not on my side today.”
“Um…” Denki interrupts, eyes darting between the two nervously. “Could you guys untie me?”
The two blink back at him, varying looks of confusion on their faces. Then, Monoma tosses his head back, cackling, and Shinsou coughs into his fist.
“Hah! Did you hear that, Shinsou-kun? He actually asked to be untied!”
What the hell are their problems? Denki presses his lips into a thin line, waiting for them to stop laughing so he may continue this conversation. He would really like to get home soon, actually.
“Do you realise the position you’re in now, Chargebolt?” Monoma asks, which makes Denki jump in surprise. He forgot that he told them his hero name. “You’re in no place to be making demands. In fact, I think we’re just going to keep you here and make you do all our bidding.”
“My friends are probably on their way to get me right this instant,” Denki argues back with a scowl. He doesn’t appreciate the lack of faith that they have for his friends. They’re awesome heroes, and they’d definitely know that something’s amiss by now.
“Nah. We switched your phone off,” Shinsou chimes in, waving a black device at him before tossing it onto the coffee table. Jerk! “It’ll be a while before they find you.”
Denki slumps over on the couch. “Fine,” he groans, rolling his eyes.
Honestly, Denki should probably be stressing out a little more over this whole situation. He’s been separated from his friends while on a mission, and it seems like there’s no way for them to track him down. Sure, he could probably use his quirk to break out of these restraints, but he doesn’t know what powers these two guys wield. If he’s careless and overexerts himself too early, he’ll fry his brain and make shit worse.
But perhaps it’s because of how young Shinsou and Monoma seem, or how they haven’t actually pulled out any life-threatening weapons on him, but Denki doesn’t find himself scared. He’s more exasperated at being caught up in the middle of whatever they’re doing. It reminds him of being stuck between Bakugou and Todoroki’s arguments, if you can even call what they exchange an argument.
Man. Denki is going to die young with this mentality.
A sudden thought crosses his mind. “Hey,” he says, catching their attention once more. “What happened to the villain you apprehended earlier? Was he handed off to the police?”
“Hah?” Monoma sneers. “How would we know? We just left him in that alleyway. If the police find him, then good for them.”
“What? But—” Denki frowns, sitting up again. “You have to report any necessary information before you go! Like your names, the time, what he was doing… That’s one of the first lessons in being a hero!”
“Yeah, well,” Shinsou snickers, “obviously, we’re not heroes.”
…What?
“But civilians aren’t supposed to get involved with villain activity…” Denki murmurs. Now that he thinks back at it, he didn’t actually see Monoma or Shinsou using a quirk. Then again, something weird did happen to him at the end before he was knocked out—there was a psychic force invading his brain and keeping it forcefully empty, like it was suppressing all his cognitive functions. That had to be a quirk, right?
But if these two aren’t heroes, and they were still involved in the scene, then that means—
“You’re vigilantes,” Denki realises.
The silence is a confirmation in itself.
“I didn’t know that there were vigilantes still in operation,” Denki blurts before he can stop himself. At their unimpressed looks, he backtracks hurriedly. “I-I mean there were rumours, but the laws are so severe that I thought no one would bother with it anymore! If you get caught, they’ll regard you as a villain!”
“Yeah,” Monoma agrees, running a hand through his hair. “I guess we have gotten that one before.”
Shinsou’s lips lift into a wry smirk. “Sure. The terrifying Phantom Thief who lurks in the shadows, looking for the next quirk to steal.”
“Oh, like you’re so innocent, Nighthide. How many people have you brainwashed already?”
They both break into dry chuckles. Denki vaguely wonders what the hell he’s gotten himself into. A quirk stealer and a brainwasher doesn’t sound like good news, no matter how you twist it.
Wait a second. “Brainwashed?” Denki repeats. “Is that what you did to me earlier?”
“Hm, looks like someone is smarter than I thought,” Monoma laughs.
He scowls, a blush rising to his cheeks. For how pretty Monoma is, he sure is annoying.
“Well, anyway, we can’t keep you here forever,” Shinsou says. He spins on his heel, dropping onto the couch next to Denki, and Denki eyes him warily, waiting for him to do something incriminating. But Shinsou just tilts his head back and closes his eyes—
“Oi, don’t fall asleep yet. We’ve still got him to deal with.”
“You can handle it,” Shinsou dismisses. Monoma grumbles something unintelligible under his breath.
In the meantime, Denki checks his surroundings, trying to figure a way out of here once more. Clearly, Monoma and Shinsou don’t actually want anything to do with him. It was only a coincidence that Denki showed up while they were apprehending the villain, practically doing his job for him. And they only brought him here because they knew having a witness was bad news.
If being caught is their only concern, then—
“What if I promise not to tell anyone?”
Monoma raises an eyebrow, squinting. “You really think we’re just going to believe you?”
“I’m an honest guy!” If Denki could, he’d offer a hand out and make a pinky promise. Alas, his hands remain firmly stuck to his sides. What is this cloth around him even made of, anyway? It’s so tight. “I mean, other than not having a license, it doesn’t look like you’re doing anything wrong… It’s a win-win deal. You let me go, I’ll return to U.A., and I’ll take this secret to the grave.”
“U.A.?” Shinsou’s eyes flutter open, an odd shadow crossing over his face. He huffs. “That shitty school.”
“Don’t offend anyone, now,” Monoma says lightly, but his voice has also lost its humorous quality. Something in the air shifts, though Denki isn’t sure what exactly. “Well, what do you think?”
“Mm. I don’t have any other suggestions.”
“Alright then. Fine.”
Huh. That’s easier than he thought it’d be. Maybe Denki has a knack for this whole negotiating thing.
Monoma leans down, reaching for the cloth. In a flash, it’s loosening and slipping off his body, piling around Denki’s feet. Denki winces, stretching his stiff joints. That was a seriously unpleasant experience.
“One more thing, Chargebolt-kun!”
“It’s Kaminari,” he corrects, standing up. He meets Monoma at eye level, who tilts his head, staring back intensely.
“Is that so?” he murmurs, and suddenly there are fingers wrenching into the front of Denki’s shirt, dragging him forward.
A gasp is ripped from his throat as Monoma presses their foreheads together with a wicked smirk pulling at his lips. Their breaths mingle, and for a moment, Denki thinks they might actually— kiss?
“Kaminari-kun,” he says sweetly, “let this secret slip, and I’ll make sure you never step foot into that precious school of yours again.”
Denki swallows, heart thundering in his chest. Is it just him, or has this room gotten really hot? “O-Okay.”
“Monoma,” Shinsou complains, groaning, “just let him go already.”
Monoma does as told, practically pushing Denki away and towards the door. “Oh, there’s no need to be so uptight, Shinsou-kun! I just had to get the message across!”
Yeah, okay. That’s a lot to unpack. Whatever their problems are, Denki isn’t going to overstay his welcome. He grabs his phone and makes a dash for the exit, getting out before either of the two vigilantes can change their minds.
Right as he shuts the door, he hears a crackle of electricity ripping through the air, followed by a screeching laugh and an exasperated curse.
Total weirdos.
He already knows he’s going to see their faces in his dreams tonight.