Chapter Text
4:00 AM
“We all literally got ready together. How the fuck is he still late?”
The parking lot was cold and dim, unusually so for a summer morning, though last night's rain probably had something to do with it. Wet leaves clung to shallow puddles across the concrete, morning mist carrying the mingled smell of damp soil and petrol.
Four in the morning was an ungodly time to be outside for anything.
Yet here they all were.
The atmosphere felt like somebody had taken the anticipation of a class trip and contaminated it with the dread of walking into an exam.
Excitement and misery in equal measure.
Just full of dread and excitement.
Kirishima offered him an awkward smile and a few placating pats between the shoulders while Bakugo continued his low, uninterrupted stream of profanity. The man wasn’t known to go to bed late but neither was he known to wake up ridiculously early so it made sense he was in a pissy mood.
Kirishima leaned his weight against the hood.
Then immediately peeled himself back off it.
Warm. Not residual-summer-heat warm either. The sun hadn't even properly risen yet.
“Uh, did someone take the car out recently?”
Bakugo raised an eyebrow, placing his palm on the hood as well,
“How recently are we talking—oh, very recently. Well shit it wasn’t me.”
Sero had stationed himself near the rear bumper, cigarette balanced lazily between two fingers while the smoke disappeared into the mist. At Kirishima's question, he tapped his knuckles against the car once.
Twice.
Then his face brightened with delayed recollection.
“Oh yeah! Kami told me last night he was gonna get this thing fueled up early morning, probs went out when we were having breakfast.”
Bakugo nodded, “I guess that explains his absence at breakfast. I swear if that idiot complains about being hungry 10 minutes into the ride I’ll strangle him.” He then looked back at Sero, “Hey, are pink cheeks and icy-hot done loading up their stuff? I don’t want any bugs getting inside. It’s fucking mosquito haven out here.”
Uraraka huffed as she placed her bag into the trunk last before closing it shut,
“Yeah I am! Gee he’s right about the mosquitos. Did anyone bring bug spray for the cottage? I swear I remember telling someone to do it . . . “
Todoroki pointed at the trunk they had just closed,
“Yeah, I think Jirou told me you wanted someone to grab a bunch of cans?”
“I guess—wait, a bunch?” She turned to him, dreading the answer already, “How many did you grab?”
Todoroki went very still.
Apparently, somewhere between purchasing the cans and admitting the number aloud, he'd finally developed an understanding of quantity.
“Todoroki.”
“I grabbed . . . 10.”
Bakugo reeled his head back at that,
“You grabbed 10 cans of bug spray? Buddy we want them to stay away from us not commit bug genocide.”
Uraraka sighed,
“Its fine. We’ll just have leftover bug spray. A lot of it.”
She glanced at their dorm building, barely visible under the tall light poles and then back at the car. Jirou had gone back into the dorm after Kaminari mentioned forgetting something, and she wondered how much longer they would take.
Todoroki peered around the parking lot before slowly asking,
“Anyway, where is Mina?”
Sero snorted, throwing his half finished cigarette on the ground and then tapping the car window very lightly, pointing at Mina who was knocked out cold inside.
Kirishima shrugged,
“I mean it is 4 AM. Man I should’ve done that too, it would've been a nice nap before you guys made me slave away for the drive.”
“Slave away is a word of choice.”
“Shut it Sero you refused to drive.”
“ . . . fair enough.”
4:05 AM
“Denki . . . “ Jirou yawned, her other hand still on her friend’s dorm room door from the previous few times she had knocked. Even the door was cold beneath her palm. Kaminari kept his room at a temperature Jirou personally considered hostile to human life. “I thought you had everything packed.”
Something crashed inside. Kaminari yelped.
There was a moment of silence.
Then the frantic rustling continued as though neither event had occurred.
Jirou rolled her eyes.
The answer to her question came a minute later as his door opened with a cold gust of wind, making her shiver and he sheepishly stood there with his small bag fully open in his arms. Earphone wires hung over one side, his gum container was open, and something she couldn't identify was threatening to fall out near the zipper.
“Yeah man sorry, I kinda had some last minute things to do. Forgot to do them this morning cause I wanted to get the car fueled up.” He closed his door, started walking towards the stairs and she followed wordlessly.
The concept of being awake at 4 AM wasn’t registered by her brain yet.
Jirou reached straight into his bag without asking, rescued the open container of gum before half of it ended up on the floor, popped one into her mouth, and clicked the lid shut.
He peeked at whatever she was doing and recalled,
“Oh thanks, forgot to close that. But yeah I forgot my earphones, toothbrush, toothpaste, vitamins and oh—“ He held up the car keys. “These. Can’t really leave without these.”
“Yes we really can’t leave without those.” She caught them as he tossed them to her. Then she raised an eyebrow,
“I didn’t know you took vitamins.”
“Eh, not that big of a deal. I won’t die without them but-“ He did a so-so, “-they make me feel like sunshine and rainbows.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes,
“Gee you make vitamins sound like lexapro.”
He sighed mockingly,
“God I wish they were.”
Snorting, she tried to help him zip his bag close but Bakugo’s yelling soon stopped them from doing whatever they were doing, and they rushed down the stairs. The yelling ought to wake the whole dorm up at this rate.
4:10 AM
“There you are bro!” Sero pulled his friend into a side hug before Bakugo could get his hands on him first. “What took you so long?”
The blond smiled at his friend’s attempt to save him and stuck his tongue out to Bakugo, who on the other hand, was being held back by Kirishima.
However he did scrunch his nose at the scent of cigarettes that were lingering on Sero’s hand,
“Gee man, smoking bright and early?”
“You know how it is.” He pulled back from the hug, digging into his pockets to find the pack, “Want one?”
Kaminari paused, thinking about it for a second before shaking his head,
“Nope, maybe a drunk cig. It’s too early for any substances.”
Sero shrugged as he gave up,
“Sucks to suck, me and Mina were thinking of drinking some coolers in the car.”
Uraraka threw a mint at him which he caught and she added, “You know this is a road trip not a bender right?” She turned to Jirou, “What took you guys so long anyway?”
“Well this guy here,” Jirou mumbled mid-yawn, pointing at Kaminari, “apparently forgot everything he ever owned back at his dorm.”
“Hey! I told you exactly what I forgot man.”
“It’s fine!” Mina exclaimed in excitement as she threw open the right hand door, poking her head out along with her blanket, whose edge was almost coming in contact with the dirty parking lot puddle. “It’s a road trip, it’s supposed to be fun! We are leaving early just so we aren’t in a rush for anything.”
“Look who’s awake.” Bakugo grumbled as he pushed her head back in and flung the blanket in too while he was at it. “Anyways everyone inside, I’m sick of these mosquitos already.”
“Bright red car . . . “ Todoroki observed as he stood by the left door. “In a way it’s sort of embarrassing. Uraraka, didn't you say this was Aizawa sensei’s car?”
“Well it wasn’t like Aizawa sensei was going to change the color of his car for us.” She recalled, “Oh, that reminds me, not a single scratch on this car guys or its detention for a month times the number of scratches.”
Sero’s eyes widened,
“Dentention times the number of scratches? What if we get 12? Just straight detention for a year?”
Kaminari gave him a wary look,
“Why are you counting man? Let’s just not get any scratches, it can't be that hard.”
Jirou hopped onto the passenger seat up front, clearing the cup holder for Kirishima to put his water bottle in as he sat down on the driver’s seat. Kirishima had spent the entire week praising the car.
“Didn’t you say this was the best car ever?” She questioned curiously as she put her seat belt on, “Now that I’m thinking about it, there’s nothing all that special about it. It’s just an 8 seater with like, decent trunk space I guess? Was there something else?”
The redhead turned to Jirou with genuine joy in his eyes and said,
“Its color is the same as my hair!”
“Ah.” She simply tossed him the car keys.
Sero laughed as he got into the second row from the right door, Mina already dozing off back to sleep in the middle seat next to him. And the third occupant of that row, Uraraka, had her seat folded down so the last 3 people could enter the back row and she could finally sit.
“Alright dunce face, head on in.”
Kaminari frowned and pointed at himself and then at the seat he was supposedly going to occupy,
“Wait- Me?! Why do I get the coffin seat?”
He wanted to be anywhere but that corner seat, but of course nobody else wanted it either.
So here was the first predicament.
“Oh you don’t really have to sit there. Either me or Bakugo—“
“Nope.” Bakugo cut Todoroki off, arms crossed. “Let the dumbass sit there.”
“Again, why me?” He whined, “Do I really have to be in that seat? Why can’t you or Todoroki sit in that one?”
The ash blond scoffed,
“Because we weren’t late.”
“But—“
“Get the fuck in right now dunce face.”
“I really really don’t want to Bakugo.”
“This isn’t a discussion dunce face I am telling you to go sit. Its 4 o clock in the fucking morning don’t piss me off.”
“I–Bakugo please.”
There was a beat.
Kaminari wasn't pouting anymore.
Bakugo took a moment to actually look at him. There was something in his friend’s eyes. Genuine . . . apprehension. He had to debate if he really was about to let Kaminari have his way just because he looked a bit uneasy. One glance at the car and he could tell everyone else was also thinking the same, they were quiet though.
Fuck he was thinking too hard.
“No.”
4:15 AM
Just as they were driving out of the parking lot, Kirishima’s eyes landed on Iida on the sidewalk doing stretches. He pulled the car over and rolled his window down,
“Iida!? What in the world are you up in the morning for?”
Class prez was posted on the side walk, dark blue jogger suit drenched in sweat already. He stopped doing his stretches and stared at them with a stern look which dropped after a few seconds.
“I was about to ask you the same thing but I almost forgot about the road trip. As for me, I am on a run.”
“At the crack of dawn bro?” Kaminari quipped from the very back. His voice carried less energy for some reason. “UA can’t be that serious.”
“Not everything is for UA, It’s always good to stay in shape Kaminari!” He huffed with pride.
The blond frowned,
“Are you implying I am not in shape?”
“What—No no you are in excellent shape!” Iida waved his arms around nervously, “I am just trying to explain as to why I am outside.”
“Right . . . “
Bakugo folded his arms and sank into his seat. He didn’t want to interrupt their conversation. In a way he felt like he had forced Kaminari’s hand by making him sit in the coffin seat. The least he could do was let the guy have a conversation.
So he whispered to himself and no one else,
“God why did we even stop.”
But with the car being small as hell, of course he was heard. So he was nudged by Todoroki who whispered back,
“Don’t you know? He got a scholarship at some fancy college—“
“Yeah yeah he knows.” Kaminari interrupted, eyes never leaving Iida. “He just doesn’t care. Because he got a scholarship too.”
Todoroki blinked in surprise that Kaminari had just taunted Bakugo—and even more so when it got no response out of him.
“What? Is it that surprising that I am better than you?” The ash blond bragged.
He didn’t want Kaminari to get in any trouble so he simply changed the topic,
“No, I got a scholarship too. I'm just surprised you haven’t bragged about it yet.”
“Well I didn’t want to seem like an asshole to people who didn’t get any but you know what? Fuck you. I’ll start bragging now.”
5:45 AM
“God, traffic on main road was crazy.” Kirishima groaned as he finally took a turn onto the highway. The drive inside the city seemed never ending and he just felt happy to leave the barrage of car horns behind. So loud for it being 5 AM.
“If we hadn’t stopped to talk to Iida about his scholarship for 20 minutes we could’ve been out quicker . . . “ Sero drawled.
“Sorry bro.” Kirishima laughed sheepishly, “He would’ve been gone by the time we came back from the trip so I really wanted to say goodbye.”
Jirou jumped up at that,
“Wait as in gone gone? I didn’t know this was his last day?”
“Oh you guys didn’t know? No wonder all of you were in a rush to leave.”
“Shitty hair, this would’ve been nice to know before I told him he’s wasting our time.”
“But I thought you knew he had a scholarship!" Kirishima grabbed his water bottle to take a sip. "Also I thought you only said that because Kaminari was sad that Iida wasn’t giving him a hug.”
“Well fuck it looks like dunce face also knew he was leaving. I didn’t know it was a goodbye hug. Scholarship? Yes. He was leaving TODAY? Nope.”
Todoroki scrolled on their car’s route on Google Maps, passing his phone to Uraraka sitting in front of him cause she had asked to see it a few minutes ago when the traffic had seemed endless. She sighed in relief.
“Well besides the apology letter that we now owe Iida, Kiri you would be happy to know for the next few hours we have absolutely zero traffic.”
The redhead snapped his fingers,
“And you would be absolutely right Uraraka, that does make me happy.”
Jirou opened up her phone to play some music and added, “I can finally play some music loudly.” She paused. “Well as long as none of you guys mind loud music.”
“I don’t care but I don’t think dunce face here would like that.” Bakugo grumbled, pointing to his right with his thumb.
Jirou, who was sitting in the passenger seat, had to turn all the way around to take a look. She was genuinely surprised at what she saw.
“He’s sleeping?!”
Sero and Mina looked back as well, amazed but not surprised.
Sero cracked his neck, having to almost break it to turn around because Kaminari was right behind him. Then he acknowledged,
“That’s just how he is. He usually has a lot of energy but something happens to him in cars. He’s always sleeping on trips. Mina on the other hand, sleeps a lot before a trip and stays awake the whole drive. It’s like they swap souls or something.”
Bakugo gave Sero’s seat a light kick,
“Don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. We’ll finally have some peace and quiet.”
Uraraka threw a small piece of paper at the ash blond,
“Hey! What if he can hear you?”
In response the other chuckled for the first time since the trip started,
“Oh you think I care? I would say that to his face if he was awake.”
Todoroki rolled his eyes and took his phone back which Uraraka was passing. Grumbled something that sounded too close to ‘rabid dog’ before shutting his eyes for a nap as well.
Mina opened a chocolate bar,
“Actually I think he has said it to his face before.”
Jirou turned back to the road and sighed.
“Don’t worry you’ll get used to the headache” Kirishima’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Believe it or not, they don’t want each other to die”
She smiled,
“Right”
7:30 AM
“Okay guys . . . Maybe do you think he’s sleeping so much because he’s mad at us?” Mina mumbled as she opened up her third chocolate bar and turned to observe her friend again.
Sero looked up from his game of candy crush and gave Mina’s shoulder a playful shove,
“Kami and mad in one sentence? The car ride must be really getting to you Mina.”
“No but it’s true! I’ve never seen him sit anywhere that’s closed off! He’ll even sit on an aisle seat while watching movies—“ She exasperatedly threw herself back in her seat “—oh hell he sits on the aisle on roller coasters!”
“I think the idiot will be fine Mina. He’s never mad about anything except his exam scores while he himself is responsible for. Plus even if he was upset at this, he’ll bounce right back. Here.” Jirou unplugged her phone from the aux and passed it to her. “I was playing ambient music so far, but we can’t just play ambient music the whole ride. Play some songs you like.”
Mina took the aux reluctantly and Uraraka smiled and reassured her,
“And you know what, our next stop, we can switch seats around! I think Kirishima needs a break from driving every few hours anyways and our next designated driver is Kami.”
That statement however, stirred up more trouble.
Bakugo leaned forward to get a good look at the brunette, “Wait, why is it him? I have a license too, you know. You were all giddy and shit walking around, happy that there were 4 people with a driving license on the trip like a month ago.”
“Well Bakugo,” Uraraka turned around to stare at him, “After Kirishima the only people with driving licenses are me, Sero, you and Kaminari. Sero has refused to drive, I am not confident enough in my driving skills on the highway and you . . . “
“Me what?”
She peered back out the window again, intending to keep doing so until the next stop,
“Out of you and Kaminari, he’s the only one who won’t ram his car into someone for going over the speed limit.”
Before this could’ve set Bakugo off on another rant, Kirishima took a sharp turn into a highway food stop. His legs were tired and so were his ears.
“OKAY, I need some sustenance and I think me and Kami need to switch soon. So time to stretch out our legs guys!”
8:45 AM
The coffee shop smelled like coffee, baked goods and a retirement home. Yes, a retirement home.
“You really chose a good time to stop huh Kiri.” Kaminari taunted with a smirk as Kirishima buried himself deeper into the coffee table.
Apparently they had chosen the exact same time to stop as a retirement-home field-trip bus. The shop was full of old people who hated teenagers or anyone who didn’t have the decency to kiss their ass. An old man had given Sero the nastiest glare when he had forgotten to hold the door open for him when they were walking in.
Speaking of the devil. Sero walked up to their table with a tray full of coffee orders,
“Alright guys, who had what? Do this quick my arms are getting tired already.”
When almost all of them responded at the same time, he groaned and waved his hand before just saying the orders out loud. Now he understood why coffee shops did things the way they did. Grown adults left their brain cells out the door every time they entered an establishment.
“Black coffee?”
Bakugo took the offered coffee and Sero had to mutter ‘Of course that’s yours.’ under his breath.
“Hot chocolate?”
“It’s me!” Mina took it off his hands and he asked her incredulously, “Mina didn’t you have like, 3 whole chocolate bars in the car so far?”
“Are you judging me Sero?”
He deadpanned,
“Kinda yeah.”
“Hey can’t a woman just like something really bad?”
During the banter, Todoroki grabbed his black tea off the tray, or at least tried to.
“Woah hey hey hey!” Sero used his other hand to balance the tray again and put the drink back, “Never grab anything off a server’s tray.”
He then picked off the black tea and handed it to the guy himself who stared at the cup before asking,
“Are you an employee of this establishment in this scenario?”
Sero thought about it for a moment before closing his eyes and saying in fake earnestness,
“Yes. Yes I am. At least right now. Anyways, who had the Iced Americano with—woah, 3 extra espresso shots? Who here wants to die of heart failure?”
Kaminari laughed and raised his hand,
“Yeah that would be me.”
Jirou passed the cup down to Kaminari and asked,
“No but seriously, can you handle this much caffeine?”
“Well I’m gonna drive next. I get sleepy in cars. Plus this is nothing, I mixed red bull with coffee one time.”
She made a face,
“For what?”
Sero interrupted,
“However much I want to know why he did that, my arm hurts so get these drinks out of my hands now. Uh I guess I know the cappuccino is mine. Who had the ginger tea with honey?”
Uraraka put her arm out and smiled,
“Oh that’s me. Thanks!”
“The cold brew?”
Jirou took it off his hands quickly.
“And last but not least—huh, what in the world is this?”
“Oh that’s mine.” Kirishima took his drink, “It’s a milkshake!”
Sero took his own drink off the tray before staring at whatever abomination Kirishima was drinking,
“Kiri why is it green?”
“It’s . . . I don’t know honestly but the stuff in it sounded good.”
“Alright man . . . Anyways you guys wanna drink this here or in the car?”
Kirishima was the first one to get up,
“I kinda wanna take a nap right away after drinking this so let’s just keep going.”
Everyone agreed after some mandatory back and forth and Jirou mentioned at last,
“Well as long as none of us spill anything inside the car and don't cause Aizawa sensei to kill us, I’m cool with that plan.”
9:10 AM
Kirishima, now in Denki's previous spot, had fallen asleep as soon as the last drop of that milkshake was gone. Which, upon some online research, Mina found out was a veggie milkshake.
How did that work? She didn’t want to know. At least the guy with the strongest stomach here was the one chugging it down.
On that same last row, she was with Bakugo now. She was about to have the best time of her life with this one. She loved bothering the guy, it was like watching a pomeranian rage. However, before she could, she felt something cold poke her arm.
It was Jirou’s earphone jack. Following it, she looked into her friend’s eyes which were filled with dread. She nagged,
“Not when there’s a good amount of people sleeping Mina.”
Mina looked around the car and indeed, besides her, Kaminari, Sero and Jirou, everyone else was knocked out.
“Wow those coffees and teas really did a number on everyone here. You would think caffeine would keep them up.”
“Speaking of caffeine,” Sero, who was in the passenger seat now, observed Kaminari as he drove with one hand and sipped on the caffeine abomination with the other, “you really can handle your caffeine huh.”
Kaminari shrugged,
“I guess so? Kinda feels like electricity to me when I have a lot of caffeine in me. If anything, it makes me feel good.”
“Feel good? God, I wish that was me. Anything that’s not decaf will give me heartburn.”
Jirou who was sitting right behind Sero leaned forward to take a look at Sero’s cappuccino in the cup holder, indeed confirming there was ‘De-caf’ written on its lid. She was finding out a lot about her friends’ health issues today. What’s next? Kirishima’s anemic?
“You guys need to take care of your bodies more.” She quipped before falling back down on her seat, “I got no issues. No allergies. Nada.”
Mina snorted, joining in on the conversation,
“Oh you’re gonna love this one. Bakugo is lactose intolerant.”
“What?!”
“Raccoon eyes . . . “
11:50 AM
After making Bakugo and everyone else go back to sleep, the road trip had been peaceful so far. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, there was a cool breeze and the air smelled fresher the farther they got from the city. The AC was blasting, and the radio was playing some indie songs at a really low volume because Jirou fell asleep too. But it was just so peaceful.
Just a tad bit too peaceful.
It was starting to irk Sero and he could pinpoint exactly where the root of the problem was. Bakugo was angry at just about anything as usual, Kirishima was trying his best to keep the group together as usual, Mina was the life of the party as usual, Jirou was quirky as usual, Uraraka was the most responsible as usual, Todoroki kept to himself as usual and Sero, he himself felt normal. As usual.
So that left . . . He turned to his left.
“Hey bro.”
His friend’s eyes stayed on the road but a smile immediately popped onto his face,
“You’re still awake? Thank god I thought everyone went to sleep after forcing Bakugo to take a nap.”
“Yeah, that coffee run was pointless huh?” He grinned, “Not for us at least!”
The blond rolled his eyes playfully,
“You can’t be saying that after drinking de-caf.”
“Are you calling me a wuss for drinking de-caf?”
“ . . . no?”
“Liar.”
Kaminari laughed, properly this time, and he felt something ease inside his chest. He didn’t know why he felt anxious in the first place. He thought of just getting that out of the way. Whatever seed of doubt Mina had planted in his mind.
“I had a question for you.”
“Shoot.”
Sero looked out the window and crossed his arms, in a way to avoid eye contact. He and Kaminari weren’t really the type of friends who ‘communicated’. They just never had issues in the first place. But he didn’t want anyone to go into this trip with a negative experience from the get go. So, awkward or not, he figured he'd just have to ask.
“Were you like—“ He corrected himself, “Or are you like, actually upset about sitting in the coffin seat?”
Kaminari shifted gears as he turned into the next highway entry, humming as though he was thinking about the question. But the fact that he had to think about it made it obviously clear that it must’ve been upsetting to a certain degree.
“Not really no.” He said, shifting the gear back, “I just don’t like closed off spaces.”
Sero frowned, genuine this time,
“I didn’t know that. Is it like claustrophobia or something?”
His friend shook his head rapidly,
“Oh no no, nothing like that. Only to a certain degree. Makes me feel queasy, but not claustrophobic. A friend of mine used to be claustrophobic, I’ve seen how that shit goes. If that was the case with me I would’ve been having panic attacks back there haha.”
“I see.” Sero ran a hand through his hair, absorbing the new information. “Sorry about that man. It’s just, you’ve never mentioned it before so I think no one really thought it was a big deal.”
Kaminari laughed,
“It’s really not. Just slightly uncomfortable but I can live with it.”
“Okay if you say so . . . but you can call shot gun for the rest of the trip if you want to.”
“Woah, no take backs?”
“No take backs.” Sero raised his arm forward for a dab up, “You know what, to really seal the deal, I’ll even talk to Bakugo for you.”
Kaminari returned the gesture with a whistle,
“Wow, good luck with that one man. Honestly, if you can’t keep your word on that one I’d understand.”
1:45 PM
“Kaminari . . . you’re still driving?”
Todoroki groggily opened his eyes and saw Kaminari glance at him through the rear view mirror,
“You’re awake? You slept a while man.”
He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his palms before looking around the car. Everyone else was asleep.
“You’ve been driving in silence all this time?”
“Nope, Sero fell asleep like, an hour or something ago. So not that long. You got some good sleep in?”
“Not really . . . “ He trailed off, eyeing Uraraka whose head was on his left shoulder and Jirou whose head was on his right. Then Bakugo right behind him who won’t stop grumbling in his sleep. Even though the AC was blasting, all that body heat was making him sweat. “But it’s fine.”
“You don’t really sound fine . . . I guess getting up at 4 AM really got to everyone huh? You know you can go back to sleep if you want.”
“And leave you to drive in silence? That would be rude of me.”
“I really don’t care Todobro, trust me. Only thing I’m sad about is the fact that I’m all out of coffee.” And as if to prove it, he picked up and shook the transparent cup of just ice now.
“Regardless, I don’t think I can get any sleep in between these two anyway.”
And on that note, he gently pushed and rested Uraraka and Jirou’s heads on their respective windows. Finally having some freedom to move, Todoroki leaned forward to get some AC on his face from the dashboard. While moving the AC flaps towards his face, he saw Kaminari pinch the bridge of his nose.
“Are you okay?”
The blond blinked at the face that was suddenly next to his own before waving his hand,
“Oh yeah I’m good, just a headache.”
He stared at his friend’s empty coffee cup and mumbled,
“Maybe you should drink some water for a change.”
“Hey, I drink enough water alright.” He whined before remembering, “I’ve been getting these surprise headaches for a while now actually.”
That piqued his interest,
“Really? For how long?”
“Like, a couple of months now.” He blinked as if that would get rid of the headache, “Once a week they turn into a full blown migraine and I just can’t figure out why. I didn’t really make any lifestyle changes.”
“Hmm, maybe stress?”
“Stress from what? Summer vacation?” Kaminari asked mockingly.
“You’re right.” Todoroki leaned back, “Maybe old age then?”
At that the blond took his eyes off the road for one second to stare at him before looking back and stating,
“We all just turned 18 man. What are you talking about?”
He hummed in response before taking a moment to think. Maybe someone else needed to drive now.
“You want to switch with Kirishima again? You’ve been driving for a while now.”
“Eh, not really bro I’m good.”
“You’ve been driving for 5 hours I believe. Isn’t that too long?”
“Oh I’ve driven worse distances before. Trust me.”
“Really? Like what?”
For some reason, the blond paused. He opened his mouth but then simply didn’t say anything. As though he was rethinking his decision at the moment. But why?
Whatever that was, it was recovered quickly as he responded with,
“I don’t know, like 10 hours I guess?”
It sounded like a made up answer. But who was Todoroki to pry?
“Why did you travel such long distances?”
“Oh you know, for trips.”
“What kind of trips?”
“Long ones, with family and stuff.”
The car hummed mechanically and for some unknown reason, the silence of the car felt tense.
“Hmm, how long though? And with who?”
Kaminari laughed but there was an edge to it.
Was Todoroki crossing a line? To him, these just felt like normal questions. They weren't as close as Kaminari was with Kirishima or Sero, but Todoroki still considered him a friend. Surely they were close enough for something like this . . . .
The other giggled,
“Alright Curious George, what's up with the 20 questions today?”
He got straight to the point,
“I feel like I’ve never heard anything about your family or your life outside school from you before, so this is all very interesting to me.”
Kaminari made a face of disarray,
“That can’t be true, I mean I talk about how I love my mum’s cooking and stuff all the time.”
Should he cross the line? Why was he even so curious? It didn’t matter. On a normal day, if his friend wanted to tell him a secret or talk about any problems, he’d rather they tell him at their own pace. It was crystal clear that his friend did not want to talk about this.
But at that moment he wanted to know.
So he said,
“Surface level at best.”
A beat.
“I mean, what else do I need to tell you guys? I feel like that’s as much as I know about everyone else’s parents . . . “
Weirdly enough, Todoroki didn’t feel like letting this one go even though his friend clearly didn’t want to talk about it. Something about the situation just felt sad and empty. He wanted to know why. He felt as though if there were problems, he might be the one who could help the most considering his own fucked up family history. And this definitely seemed to be an issue related to family.
“You know about my family.”
Kaminari kept his eyes glued to the road, his grip on the wheel tightening just a fraction. Barely noticeable but there. The line was crossed.
“Dad’s from Manchester. Mum hates the UK. I spent a lot of time on planes or in cars going towards airports. Can we talk about literally anything else right now?”
Shit.
“I apologize Kami—“
“No it’s cool. It’s just, I don’t like to talk about sappy stuff you know. So I avoid this whole . . . thing.”
Todoroki stared at the rearview mirror and looked at the blond’s eyes which were narrowed in concentration. The road was straight. The concentration was just stress from this conversation that he had caused.
“Still, I am sorry anyways. My curiosity shouldn’t—“
“You know what Todobro? Maybe it really is the time for me to switch with Kirishima. I’m getting sleepy.”
Oh.
2:15 PM
Kirishima groaned as he was shaken awake. He opened his eyes only to close them immediately, the sun was shining directly into his face from the back window.
“Jesus Christ guys can I have like, maybe 5 minutes?”
“Kiri bro, come on. It’s time for a switch man. We’ve been trying to wake you up for a while.”
He leaned forward in his seat first, not wishing to get blinded again and opened his eyes to look out around the car. Which was . . . empty. The inside smelled like hot leather. How long was the car standing in the heat for? Why didn’t anyone wake him up earlier?
“You awake now?”
He nodded and took Kami’s offered hand still half asleep. The blond helped him get out of the narrow last row and out the car. As soon as he stepped outside the ridiculous heat wave hit him with the smell of dry soil. Where even were they? He was sweating his ass off inside the car for how long again?
God the heat was just making everything feel awful.
But he slowly gave his friend a thumbs up,
“Where’s everyone else?”
They were standing about twenty metres away from some small wooden shed—shop?
Sero walked up to the two of them groggily as well, pointed at the side of the small shop,
“There’s bathrooms there. Kami’s been driving a while so I think it’s time for a switch.”
Kirishima, a bit more awake, finally got a good look at Kaminari who was standing with his head down, eyes closed and hands on his hips. The classic ‘I don’t think I’m feeling so hot’ stance.
“Gee Denks you look . . . not so good.”
Sero gave Kaminari’s shoulder a hard pat, who let out a quiet protest,
“This guy here apparently has a headache. At least that’s what Todobro told me.”
“Which is not the reason I don’t want to drive. I’m just sleepy again. Just take over for a couple of hours then I’ll hop on again. You know, all this would’ve been really simple if someone—“ He gave Sero a pointed stare, “—hadn’t refused to drive.”
Sero raised his arms in defeat and walked away at that. Anything but hop behind the wheel huh?
“I gotta use the bathroom too. Don’t worry, I’ll take over for the next few hours. So be right back!”
With that, Kirishima ran off.
Uraraka walked up to him now. It was just never ending.
“You okay Denki?”
Denki? Did he really look that tired?
“Denki? I possibly can’t look that shitty man.”
She chuckled,
“Don’t worry. It’s just your stance.”
“I’m fine. Here.” He stood up straight and looked up at her, smiling, “Anyway, how’s everyone else? I feel like everyone’s kinda regretting leaving at 4 AM now.”
She sighed, as if a whole new dam of thoughts broke free in her mind. She locked her palms at the back of her neck,
“Listen, the reason I said we should leave early in the morning was so that when we reach there, we have a longer timeframe to rest up.”
“I guessed so.” He gave her shoulder a light pat, “Just give them time, all that sleeping means everyone’s gonna be awake the whole night. It’s going to be a fun night, that’s the point of a road trip!”
She gave him a polite smile,
“Thanks for the reassurance but for now they all hate me.”
He endearingly rolled his eyes,
“That’s gotta be an exaggeration. Trust me, no one thinks you’re evil for planning ahead.”
She agreed again. This time, it appeared a little more genuine.
“Maybe you’re right. Plus the heat’s making everyone cranky. It’s okay, you know what? I’m budgeting our money anyway and I say we all need some hydration. Do you remember if I told anyone to grab water bottles?”
He scratched his head,
“Honestly? Not really. I kinda remember you telling Jirou about the bug spray but not water. You wanna go ahead and grab some?”
“That’s what I thought. Alright then, I’m just gonna go up to that shop to grab some water.” She was about to walk off but stopped midway, “Does this place even sell stuff? Actually, that reminds me. Bakugo was talking to me about it, he wanted to know how you even knew this place. It’s so random.”
“Oh it’s just some place I know when I used to travel as a kid. Before all those big food courts opened up, this was kinda the only spot to get stuff on the highway.”
She thought about it for a moment,
“Right. Okay then. I’ll just go check it out.”
2:10 PM (5 Minutes Prior When Kirishima Was Being Woken Up By Kaminari)
“Okay in all fairness he sounded really suspicious so I wanted to keep pressing. In that moment even the headache sounded like an excuse.” Todoroki stood up from the wooden bench and ogled around at the circle of people surrounding him. “AND, you were all awake during that conversation and were just pretending to be asleep. What about that part?”
Uraraka, Sero, Jirou, Bakugo and Mina looked anywhere but at him. Such nice friends weren’t they? So supportive.
Sero was the only one who whispered back after a bout of tense silence,
“Well I kinda already had an awkward conversation with him just before you had yours so I didn’t wanna bother. Besides, you clearly had that handled.”
“Handled would be an overstatement.” Bakugo groaned, rubbing a hand over his face, “He totally fucked it up. There’s a reason we never ask dunce face about his family.”
“Why?”
“Well icy-hot if you failed to notice in your disaster of a conversation with him earlier, he doesn’t really take it well.”
Mina nodded somberly,
“Yeah it’s clearly something he doesn’t want to talk about so don’t push him. It’s not like he hides things. He’s upset about other things, he talks to us about those things. This is just sort of like a ‘no-go’ zone for us.”
“So you guys didn’t know the stuff about his parents until today? And never bothered to ask again either?” Uraraka asked, peeking back at the car to make sure Kaminari was still busy getting Kirishima to wake up.
“Pink cheeks do you know how much laughing stock potential dunce face would have had if I had known he was half British at the start of highschool?” Bakugo actually grinned. Somehow that was worse. “Oh boy this opens up like a thousand new doors to shittier nicknames.”
“Well for one—“ Mina interjected, “—we technically don’t know anything about his family history as far as he knows. So let’s keep it that way.”
“Kiri doesn’t know it either. He was the only one who was fully knocked out cold.” Sero added.
“Honestly?” Jirou sighed. “Just keep that that way as well. Out of all of us, he’s the worst at keeping secrets.”
“Speak of the devil, shitty hair is awake. Now zip your mouths shut. None of us know what happened in the car.”
2:30 PM
Sero had, terrifyingly enough, talked Bakugo into letting Kaminari take shotgun for the rest of the trip. Uraraka had tried to use some of their budget to buy some water bottles and snacks but upon inspection, the shop seemed abandoned.
She had waited 10 whole minutes too. Because if you looked through the main stall of the shop, you would see the paper doors that led to a traditional living room. It was dark in there with a single cup of tea on the table and a floor pillow. There wasn’t even any steam coming off of the tea so who knows how long it had been there. Todoroki had mentioned that there was an old lady who was standing out front of the shop but she had scurried back inside as soon as they had stepped out of the car.
So no water or snacks for now.
Kirishima turned the car on, trying to make the AC run a bit to cool the inside down. Then he rolled down the window and called out:
“We can find another spot to get stuff from! You guys wanna just head out?”
“Might as well.” Bakugo said as he wiped sweat off of his forehead. “It’s hot as fuck out here. Let’s go.”
Kaminari raised a finger but Bakugo cut him off,
"I don't give a shit sparky. Just consider it a gift that I will be the one sitting at your place this time."
Denki's eyes widened for a second as he looked Bakugo up and down and said,
"Who are you and what have you done to Kaachan?"
Before Bakugo could come up with a retort Torodoki said,
"Just go. I wanted to talk to Kaminari about something."
Kaminari’s shoulders sagged as he chose to stare down at the dry soil. Bakugo simply glared and walked away, apparently he too had sensed the seriousness of the situation. Whatever it was. Once Bakugo was gone, Todoroki led Kaminari a few more metres from the car so they could talk privately.
"If this is about what happened in the car, it’s fine—“
"Why were you keeping your bag with you? Everything was put into the trunk. Some wanted their earphones with them and they took those out before leaving. Why do you need the whole bag?"
That question seemed too out of the blue. Kaminari raised his eyebrow and said,
"Oh, uh, it’s not about the car?”
“Not really no.”
“Really? Alright then um, I have a habit of keeping some of my important stuff with me all the time. Why? Is it weird?"
Besides, it wasn't even his main bag, it was just the small one. It was only a little bit bigger than Todoroki's small fanny pack.
But Todoroki somehow felt relieved at the fact that Denki seemed genuinely confused. As if he didn't know about the concept of keeping stuff in the trunk at all. Yes, weird, but still relieving.
"No." Todoroki answered at last.
But then Todoroki continued to stare as if he was staring into Kaminari's soul and the said boy was shuffling his feet awkwardly.
"Anything else?" Kaminari asked, hoping that he would stop staring.
"Actually yes, why does the owner of the shop recognise you?"
Kaminari at first reeled back a bit, eyebrows raised, clearly looking like a person who was surprised by a strange question.
But then suddenly out of nowhere Kaminari's face went blank. Not lifeless or emotionless, no, not like that.
It became completely unreadable.
A chill ran down his spine as Todoroki glanced back at the car, wondering why no one else was commenting on it but then realised that they couldn't see his face because they were too far away to notice.
He looked back at Kaminari and swallowed the lump in his throat. The heat pricked at his skin and yet he felt cold.
“Kaminari?”
It was a horrible feeling. Not fear, but some third other thing. He knew what it was but he didn’t want to name it. Not yet.
And astonishingly it wasn't new, seeing Kami like that. His hands were still in his jacket pockets and his posture was still lazy all the while his face betrayed his body language. He'd seen Kaminari like this before. Once.
Somehow the longer Kaminari said nothing, the more he refused to back down.
And thankfully, and finally, Kaminari slowly blinked said in a monotone,
"I just know her because me and my mom always stopped by this place when we were traveling. There are many more food malls but I knew this one was the safest from personal experience."
"Then why did she walk back inside the second she saw you?"
Kaminari didn't say anything and his expression stayed the same. Todoroki was now able to fully confirm that he had seen this same expression on Kaminari before. It was at the rooftop when one day-
“Wait!!!” A shrill voice yelled out.
Everyone jumped up at the sudden noise, snapping back to look at . . . this really old lady running towards them. She looked frail and was wearing a brown kimono, her white hair was held in a bun with a chopstick.
First thought? How was she running that fast?
Second thought? Who the fuck was that?
“Wait wait!”
“Ma’am—“ Todoroki started but was cut off as Kaminari pushed past him towards the woman and she finally came to a stop.
She was short, really short. Around 4’2 if one had to guess. But she ran like she was 5’11 and yelled like she was 20 with a pair of smoker’s lungs. Kaminari bent down a bit to talk to her and to everyone’s shock, the first thing she did was almost pull one of his ears off.
“OW ow ow Chiyo baachan! What the hell was that for?!”
She sternly let go of his ears,
“Brat were you just going to drive off without seeing me!?”
“We waited around for you!” He complained with a grimace, holding onto his red ear. He stood up straight again probably to avoid any more unpleasant attacks. “I didn’t know where you were and I didn’t just want to barge into the shed!”
“I went in to get you something! Acting like you’ve never been here before, you know damn well you could’ve walked into the shed!” She yelled at him and then glared at the car, “You kids have no patience these days!”
The people inside the car mumbled amongst themselves, embarrassed and feeling like they got told off by their own grandmother. Todoroki on the other hand was still flabbergasted about his entire interaction with his friend at that moment. He seemed completely fine with the old woman. Why did he make that face while talking to him then?
“Here!” She handed a big plastic bag to the blond, and forced him to bend down so that she could ruffle his head. What was most shocking about that part was that she wasn’t getting electrocuted, because that’s what usually happened whenever someone touched Kaminari’s hair.
He pulled his head away after a few seconds, trying to take a peek inside the plastic bag,
“What’s in it?”
“Some coffee and water. I threw some snacks in there too. It took me a while because I had to put ice in your coffee. You never have it hot.”
Kaminari's expression softened,
“Aw baachan you don’t have to . . . “
She slapped his leg, urging him to go ahead,
“If you don’t keep it I’ll slash all your tires.”
“Aizawa’s car?!” Jirou yelled, climbing over from the passenger and up to Kirishima’s window. “No ma’am we will take it! Thank you!”
“Jirou man it hurts, your elbow’s on my knee!”
“We can still offer you some money ma’am.” Uraraka opened her wallet to take out the budgeting card but Jirou’s hand gripped her own from the front. Eyes frantic.
“I cannot—and I cannot stress this enough Uraraka—I cannot handle another second of detention. Do you know who else is on detention period right now for the next whole month?”
“Who . . . “
“Mineta.” She sat back down on her seat and whispered, “So if the old woman wants to give us free stuff, she gets to do that. She can do whatever she wants.”
“Ok-okay.”
Kaminari ignored the chaos happening in the back for a second and gave her a tight hug,
"Thanks baachan, I really appreciate it."
"Don't thank me kid. Just be safe out there."
"Of course of course, But I have to go now . . . " He trailed off, suddenly not so happy about the idea of leaving her alone.
He pondered for a second before grinning as an idea formed in his head.
"How about this? On our way back, I will bring you a souvenir! We will be back in 10 days. Then we can talk a bit more too. I might as well stay over for a few days like the old times!" Denki said with an enthusiastic smile.
The old lady smiled wholeheartedly and was about to say something else when Bakugo's command cut the moment short,
“Hey dunce face, you coming or not!?”
Kaminari frustratedly looked back at Bakugo, wanting to argue and demand some time; however, before he could say anything the woman pulled on his wrist and he looked back at her.
She was looking at him with . . .
'Pity?' Uraraka thought as the woman pulled the boy's ear closer to her face and mumbled something.
It must have been a question because Kaminari shook his head and the woman beamed happily as she walked away.