Work Text:
Denki was scrolling through old videos.
Mostly because he was avoiding homework.
Again.
"...Oh!"
He paused one clip from their first year at U.A.
The Sports Festival.
Everyone was younger.
Louder.
Just a little more awkward.
Then… From somewhere behind the camera…
A laugh.
Not a polite chuckle.
Not the quiet little laugh Izuku usually gave nowadays.
A full...
Head-thrown-back...
Couldn't-stop-if-he-tried laugh.
Denki replayed it.
Then replayed it again.
"...Huh."
A few minutes later...
Kirishima wandered into the common room.
"What'cha watching?"
Denki handed him the phone.
"Listen."
Kirishima did.
Then smiled.
"...Midoriya?"
"Mhm."
"I forgot he laughed like that."
Denki nodded.
"...Exactly."
He watched the clip one more time.
"...When was the last time you heard him laugh like that?"
Kirishima thought.
"...Honestly?"
"I don't remember."
Denki frowned.
"...That's kinda sad."
The next morning...
Izuku walked into the common room.
"...Morning."
"Morning!"
Denki smiled far too enthusiastically.
Izuku hesitated.
"...Why are you looking at me like that?"
"...No reason."
"...Really?"
"...Absolutely no reason."
Ten minutes later...
Denki dramatically attempted to juggle three apples during breakfast.
He made it to exactly...
One.
The second apple bounced off his
forehead.
The third landed directly in his cereal.
Milk splashed everywhere.
Silence.
Then...
Izuku laughed.
A genuine laugh.
Not the one Denki had heard in the old video.
But...
Closer.
Much closer.
Denki smiled to himself.
Progress.
Over the next week...
The attempts continued.
Some were intentional.
Some...
Definitely weren't.
He challenged Tokoyami to a staring contest with Dark Shadow.
Lost immediately.
He tried teaching Kirishima how to moonwalk.
Both of them fell over.
He confidently claimed he could make pancakes without a recipe.
The smoke alarm disagreed.
Every single time…
Izuku smiled.
Sometimes he chuckled.
Sometimes he shook his head.
Once...
He laughed so hard he had to put his notebook down for a minute.
Denki quietly counted that as a major victory.
Eventually...
Jirō caught him watching Izuku from
across the room.
She raised an eyebrow.
"...Okay."
"What are you plotting?"
Denki blinked innocently.
"...Nothing."
"...Kaminari."
He sighed dramatically.
"...Fine."
He leaned closer and whispered,
"...I'm trying to make Midoriya laugh
again."
Jirō looked across the room.
Izuku was smiling politely while talking to Iida.
She looked back at Denki.
"...Why?"
Denki's usual grin softened.
"...Because..."
"...I think the world's a better place when people laugh like that."
Jirō stared at him for a moment.
Then smiled.
"...That's..."
She nudged his shoulder.
"...Actually really sweet."
Denki rubbed the back of his neck.
"...Don't tell anyone."
Across the room...
Izuku looked over.
"...Are you two talking about me?"
Denki immediately grinned.
"...Nope!"
"...You definitely are."
"...Maybe a little."
Izuku laughed.
A little brighter than before.
Denki smiled to himself.
Mission...
Was officially underway.
The mission continued.
According to Denki...
Operation: Laugh Again was going extremely well.
According to Jirō...
It was mostly just Denki embarrassing himself in increasingly creative ways.
"...It's working though."
She folded her arms.
"...Accidentally."
"I'll take accidentally."
Tuesday afternoon...
Denki wandered into the common room carrying a stack of laundry.
He caught his foot on absolutely nothing.
The entire pile exploded into the air.
Socks.
Shirts.
Towels.
One pair of boxers landed squarely on Sero's head.
Silence.
Sero slowly removed them.
"...Bro."
Izuku burst into laughter before he could help himself. He stopped almost as quickly as he started.
Not loud.
But genuine.
Denki grinned from the floor.
"...Worth it."
A few days later...
Denki found Izuku sitting alone in the library.
Notebook open.
Muttering quietly as he wrote.
"...Whatcha working on?"
Izuku looked up.
"Oh."
"Just hero analysis."
Denki sat beside him.
"...Can I see?"
Izuku hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Sure."
Denki carefully took the notebook.
He expected statistics.
Battle notes.
Strategy diagrams.
Instead...
Tucked between pages of Quirk
analysis...
He found something unexpected.
Tiny observations.
Scattered throughout the margins.
Kirishima always laughs before telling a story.
Another.
Iida drums his fingers when he's
excited.
Another.
Ochaco hums when she's concentrating.
Then...
Denki froze.
One note simply read:
Kaminari laughs loud enough to make everyone else smile too.
He read it again.
Then a third time.
"...Midoriya."
"Hm?"
"...You wrote this?"
Izuku blinked.
"...Yeah."
"I like remembering little things about people."
Denki looked back at the note.
"...You noticed that?"
Izuku smiled.
"...Of course."
"You make rooms feel lighter."
For perhaps the first time all week...
Denki had absolutely no joke ready.
He quietly handed the notebook back.
"...Thanks."
Izuku looked confused.
"...For what?"
Denki smiled.
"...Just..."
"...For noticing."
That evening...
Jirō found Denki sitting on the dorm balcony.
Unusually quiet.
"...Everything okay?"
He nodded slowly.
"...Yeah."
"...You don't sound convinced."
He looked up at the evening sky.
"...Did you know..."
"...Midoriya writes little notes about everyone?"
She smiled.
"I've seen some of them."
"He wrote..."
Denki laughed softly.
"...that my laugh makes people smile."
Jirō's expression warmed.
"...He's right."
Denki looked down for a moment.
"...I don't think anyone's ever said something like that before."
The next Monday...
Denki walked into the common room carrying a small paper bag.
He placed it on the table in front of Izuku.
"...What's this?"
"A thank you."
Izuku tilted his head.
"...For what?"
Denki smiled.
"...For reminding me..."
"...That making people laugh is actually worth something."
Izuku opened the bag.
Inside...
Was a small packet of homemade cookies.
Slightly uneven.
A little overbaked.
Definitely made with enthusiasm rather than skill.
He looked back up.
"...You made these?"
"...Maybe."
"...They're a little wonky."
"I know."
Izuku picked one up.
Took a bite.
Then smiled.
"...They're perfect."
Denki laughed.
"...You're a terrible liar."
"No."
Izuku reached for another cookie.
"...I just think things made with good intentions always taste better."
For a moment...
Neither of them noticed the cookies.
Or the notebook.
Or the people around them.
Because somewhere between shared laughter...
And quietly noticing the best in each other...
Something much warmer than friendship had begun to grow.
Operation: Laugh Again...
Had become strangely successful.
Not because Denki had suddenly become funnier.
If anything...
His jokes had somehow become worse.
"...Okay."
Denki stood proudly in the common room.
"I have invented a new superhero."
Everyone looked up.
"...His Quirk?"
Silence.
"He can only teleport..."
Dramatic pause.
"...to places he's already forgotten."
Complete silence.
Sero frowned.
"...That doesn't even make sense."
"I know."
"I haven't finished."
Kaminari pointed triumphantly.
"...His name is..."
Another dramatic pause.
"...Where-Did-I-Go."
Groans echoed around the room.
Bakugo threw a cushion at him.
It hit him square in the face.
"...Deserved."
Everyone agreed.
Everyone...
Except Izuku.
Who was laughing so hard he had to lean against the sofa.
Denki smiled.
Mission status:
Excellent.
Later that afternoon...
Aizawa entered the common room.
He looked around.
"...What's going on?"
Jirō answered immediately.
"Kaminari's trying to become a comedian."
Aizawa looked at Denki.
"...Don't."
"I wasn't asking permission."
"...That concerns me."
Even Aizawa's deadpan response earned another genuine laugh from Izuku.
Denki quietly filed that away as an unexpected assist.
That evening...
The dorms lost power.
Not dramatically.
Just...
Everything went dark.
A chorus of confused voices echoed through the common room.
"...Seriously?"
"...Again?"
"...Who overloaded the circuit this time?"
All eyes slowly turned toward Denki.
He raised both hands.
"...In my defence..."
"I haven't touched anything."
Silence.
"...Today."
Emergency lights flickered on.
The room filled with soft amber light.
Someone found a pack of playing
cards.
Someone else lit a few battery-powered lanterns.
Before long...
The entire class had gathered together
on the floor.
Talking.
Playing games.
Sharing snacks.
It felt...
Unexpectedly cosy.
Halfway through the evening...
Mina suggested charades.
Denki immediately volunteered.
His first prompt:
Microwave.
He acted with absolute confidence.
Opening a door.
Putting something inside.
Pressing buttons.
Waiting dramatically.
Then pretending to explode.
The room stared at him.
"...Bakugo?"
"No."
"...Explosion?"
"No."
"...A really angry washing machine?"
Denki collapsed onto the floor laughing.
"...It was a microwave!"
Sero looked horrified.
"...That was the worst charades performance I've ever seen."
"It was art."
"It was a crime."
Izuku laughed.
Not politely.
Not quietly.
He laughed until tears gathered in the corners of his eyes.
He laughed until he couldn't answer.
He laughed so hard his stomach hurt.
The room slowly fell silent.
Not because anything was wrong.
Because...
Everyone had stopped to listen.
It wasn't often they heard him laugh like that anymore.
Denki looked over.
The grin he'd been wearing all evening softened into something gentler.
"...There it is."
Izuku was still trying to catch his breath.
"...What?"
"...That laugh."
He said it so quietly...
Almost no one else heard.
Izuku blinked.
"...You've been..."
He looked around the room.
Then back at Denki.
"...This whole time..."
Denki rubbed the back of his neck.
"...Maybe."
"...Why?"
He shrugged.
The answer came as naturally as breathing.
"...Because I missed hearing it."
The room suddenly felt very still.
Even Bakugo didn't interrupt.
Izuku looked at him for a long moment.
Then smiled.
Not the smile he gave strangers.
Not the one he wore to reassure
people.
A smaller one.
Warmer.
One that belonged entirely to Denki.
"...You know..."
"What?"
"I don't think..."
He laughed softly.
"...I realized how much I'd missed it too."
For the first time since Operation:
Laugh Again had begun...
Denki realized something.
He hadn't been trying to make Izuku laugh anymore.
He'd simply been trying to make him happy.
And somewhere along the way...
That had quietly become the funniest...
And most important...
Thing he'd ever done.
After the power outage...
Things quietly returned to normal.
Classes.
Training.
Homework.
Late-night study sessions.
Life carried on exactly as it always had.
Except...
Denki had stopped trying quite so hard.
Not because he'd given up.
Because...
His mission was over.
He'd heard Izuku laugh again.
Really laugh.
That was enough.
A few days later...
The common room was unusually quiet.
Denki sat on the sofa, absentmindedly scrolling through his phone.
He wasn't telling jokes.
He wasn't trying to entertain anyone.
He was simply...
Tired.
Izuku wandered in carrying two cans of iced tea.
He paused.
"...Everything okay?"
Denki looked up.
"...Yeah."
A beat.
"...Just don't really have the energy to
be funny today."
He laughed awkwardly.
"...Feels weird."
Izuku frowned slightly.
"...Why?"
"I don't know."
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"I guess..."
"...People kind of expect me to be the loud one."
"The joke guy."
"The idiot."
He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.
"...Sometimes I wonder if I'd still be interesting if I wasn't making everyone laugh."
Izuku walked over.
He handed Denki one of the drinks.
Then sat beside him.
"...Can I tell you something?"
Denki nodded.
"Always."
"You know what my favourite part of your jokes is?"
Denki laughed.
"...The jokes?"
Izuku smiled.
"...No."
He shook his head.
"My favourite part..."
"...Is watching you laugh at them first."
Denki blinked.
"...What?"
"You always laugh before anyone else does."
"You genuinely enjoy making people smile."
He looked at Denki warmly.
"I don't think you're funny because your jokes are perfect."
He chuckled.
"Most of them are terrible."
"...Oi."
"But..."
"...You're funny because your happiness is contagious."
Denki stared at him.
"...You really think that?"
Izuku nodded without hesitation.
"I do."
"And..."
He smiled.
"I've never spent time with you because I expected you to make me laugh."
"I spend time with you because..."
He searched for the right words.
"...I always leave happier than when I arrived."
For a moment...
Denki didn't know what to say.
Nobody had ever explained him to himself quite like that.
He looked down at the unopened can in his hands.
Then quietly admitted,
"...I was kind of scared."
Izuku tilted his head.
"Of what?"
"That if I stopped being funny..."
He laughed nervously.
"...people might stop looking for me."
Izuku answered immediately.
"I'd still look for you."
No hesitation.
No uncertainty.
Just...
Truth.
Denki smiled.
A small one.
Different from his usual grin.
Quieter.
More vulnerable.
"...Thanks."
Later that evening...
The two of them wandered out onto the dorm balcony.
The campus lights twinkled below.
Neither of them spoke for a while.
Eventually...
Denki nudged Izuku gently with his shoulder.
"...Hey."
"Hm?"
"I've got one more joke."
Izuku laughed.
"I was wondering how long it'd take."
Denki cleared his throat dramatically.
"What do you call a hero who always carries spare batteries?"
Izuku pretended to think.
"...I don't know."
"A re-charge specialist."
Silence.
Izuku looked at him.
"...That might actually be your worst one."
Denki burst into laughter.
A second later...
Izuku joined in.
The sound drifted out across the quiet campus.
Two different laughs.
One bright and infectious.
The other warm and wholehearted.
Different.
But somehow...
Perfect together.
Several months later...
The U.A. School Festival had finally come to an end.
The performances were over.
The food stalls were closing.
Most of the visitors had already gone home.
Now came the glamorous part.
Cleaning up.
Class 1-A had been divided into teams.
Some were dismantling decorations.
Others were carrying tables back into storage.
Denki...
Had somehow volunteered to carry an entire stack of cardboard boxes by himself.
Sero watched him wobble across the courtyard.
"...You know..."
"You could've made two trips."
Denki smiled confidently from somewhere behind the mountain of boxes.
"...Where's the fun in that?"
He took another step.
The top box shifted.
"...I've got it."
Another step.
"...Definitely got it."
Another wobble.
"...Absolutely-"
The entire tower collapsed.
Boxes scattered across the pavement.
Rolls of streamers bounced in every direction.
A handful of balloons escaped into the air.
And...
From one completely unmarked box...
A bright yellow rubber chicken slowly rolled to a stop at Denki's feet.
Silence.
Denki stared at it.
"...I..."
He looked around.
"...I genuinely don't remember putting that in there."
For one perfectly still moment...
Nobody moved.
Then...
Izuku laughed.
Not a quiet chuckle.
Not the polite laugh he gave when someone told a funny joke.
A real one.
The kind that stole his breath.
The kind that made him bend forward with one hand over his face.
The kind Denki had first heard in that old Sports Festival video.
It echoed across the courtyard.
Bright.
Unrestrained.
Wonderfully familiar.
One by one...
The rest of the class started laughing too.
Not just because of the rubber chicken.
Because Izuku's laughter had always been impossible not to join.
Denki couldn't stop smiling.
"...Worth it."
Sero picked up the rubber chicken.
"...This thing?"
"No."
Denki looked toward Izuku.
"...That."
As everyone gathered the scattered
decorations...
Jirō wandered past.
She leaned closer to Denki.
"...Mission accomplished?"
He looked across the courtyard.
Izuku was still smiling as he helped
Ochaco pick up the balloons.
Denki's grin softened.
"...Yeah."
"I think it is."
She smiled knowingly.
"...Took you long enough."
The sun was beginning to set by the time the clean-up finally finished.
Most of the class headed back inside.
Denki and Izuku stayed behind.
They sat together on the steps outside
the school.
Each holding a cold canned drink from the vending machines.
The campus felt wonderfully peaceful after such a busy day.
Izuku looked out across the empty festival grounds.
"...Can I ask you something?"
Denki smiled.
"Always."
"...When did you stop trying to make me laugh?"
Denki thought for a moment.
Longer than Izuku expected.
Then he shrugged.
"...I think..."
"...Around the time I realized I didn't have to anymore."
Izuku tilted his head.
"...I don't understand."
"You were already laughing."
"...Not just at my jokes."
"You laughed at little things."
"You laughed with everyone."
"You laughed because you were happy."
He smiled quietly.
"...I figured my job was done."
Izuku sat with that for a while.
The evening breeze rustled the festival
banners that hadn't yet been taken down.
Finally...
He spoke.
"...Thank you."
Denki looked over.
"...For what?"
"For noticing."
He smiled.
"I spend so much time paying attention to everyone else..."
"...I never realized someone was paying that much attention to me."
Denki rubbed the back of his neck.
"...Well..."
"I thought someone should."
Izuku laughed softly.
Not because of a joke.
Just...
Because hearing that made him happy.
He looked over at Denki.
"...Can I tell you something?"
"Always."
"I don't think..."
He smiled warmly.
"...I laugh because you're funny."
Denki gasped dramatically.
"...Rude."
Izuku chuckled.
"I think..."
"...I laugh because I'm happiest when I'm with you."
For perhaps the first time in his life...
Denki Kaminari found himself completely speechless.
He smiled.
A real one.
Smaller than his usual grin.
But somehow...
Even brighter.
As the last light of day faded beyond the school buildings...
The two of them sat together in
comfortable silence.
No jokes.
No performances.
No missions.
Just two friends who had quietly become something more.
Months earlier...
Denki had made it his personal mission
to bring back a laugh that the world had almost forgotten.
In the end...
He discovered something even better.
The happiest sound he had ever heard...
Wasn't making Izuku laugh.
It was knowing...
That somewhere along the way...
He had become one of the reasons he did.