Chapter Text
Denki Kaminari has always liked girls, that's how it's supposed to be. Boys like girls, and girls like boys.
Well, Momo likes girls. But that doesn't matter to Denki, he doesn't care about her being gay that much. It'd just be weird if he was—which he isn't.
"Kami, truth or dare!" Mina's voice drawls in a girly manner, pointing across the circle of criss-cross laps directly at Kaminari's face. She wiggles her finger, her long, decorated nails exaggerating her pointing.
The environment is light, giddy, and everything you'd expect from a group of trashy high schoolers smoking vapes in the bright pink room belonging to Ashido.
Except for Bakugo and Kirishima. Bakugo claims vapes are for "Extra's", and Kirishima is stubborn about vapes negatively affecting his manly persona and his daily gym activities.
Theres light chitchat and comments, Sero's blowing donuts, Bakugo's half present while in his own head, Kirishima's clutching a hand exercise device Denki doesn't know the name of, and Denki's... Well, Denki's about to choose truth or dare.
Denki powers enough strength in his orange flavored vape induced brain to muster out, "Auhhh...Truth?"
"Hypothetically, if you had to hook up with any guy n' 1-A, who would you choose?" She spoke slow and had a slight slur you hear from California beach babes online, her face screwed in a strange smile and eyes squinted.
Denki's smile fades and his eyes widen, he looks around the group searching for their reactions.
Sero makes a type of 'Ooo'ing sound, Bakugo gets a shit eating grin and that unsettling evil look he gets when he is about to call you names, and Kirishima is giggling like a school girl.
"Come on, don't make me answer that! I'm not inta guys!" He whines out, playfulness lingering in his tone, but he stands by his statement. Denki is totally straight, and he hates being questioned about it! He likes girls, Denki's for sure.
"C'mon man, jus' answer it!" Sero huffs out next to him as waves of smoke slap Denki right in the face, and he scrunches his face up and close his eyes tight from the fumes.
Bakugo is the next to speak up, "Unless it's one of us, Dunce-face?" It comes out like a bark, and an evil, deep giggle softly rolls out his throat. Theres shared laughs and chuckles around the circle, except for Denki. Denki is positive his face is now, for sure, flushed a soft shade of pink, matching his pink sclera.
"Ewuh! You guys are not nearly cute enough guys for me to even consider!" He laughs out, dodging the question entirely. He's never thought his friends were unattractive, per se. Bakugo's thick arms, Kirishima's big thighs, Sero's lanky, large hands... They all have traits that Denki finds very attractive, in a girl's perspective!
That same girly voice speaks up, "Not answering my question, Kami! Now spill! Would it be Tokoyami? Or maybe—" Mina pauses as she crawls closer to Denki, sliding into the middle of the circle, "—maybe Ojiro? I mean, with the way you play with his tail..."
Denki slaps both his hands over his face in an embarrassed fashion, squeaking out, "Shuddup!" Then, he snakes his hands down to yank his vape right out of Sero's grip to shoves it into his own mouth, inhaling deeply. He lets the fumes fill his lungs, then lets the smoke trickle out his mouth and relaxes into the frame of Mina's bed behind him. "If I had to choose someone..." He trails off, tapping his finger on his chin as Sero pulls his vape back out of his palm.
Mina leans in comically, big grin on her face, "C'monnn!"
"I guess I'd choose...Shinso?" He flaps his hands around in a confused manner.
"Shinso?!" Mina yelps
"Yeah, the fuck? Why that loser?" Bakugo raises his voice, as if he's taking personal offense.
...They're right, why Shinso?
For some reason, it was just the first person he could think of. And honestly, it just felt right.
Scrambling for a normal reason any normal straight guy—which Denki is—would say, he blurts out, "Well, uh, If you think about it, Shinso kinda looks like Jiro, right?" Theres an awkward pause as everyone stares, and Denki can feel a large droplet of sweat slide down his forehead, "...Nd' Jiro's pretty cute, so..."
"I guess, but he's just so..." Mina glances around the room in thought, "he's so broody? And Kami," she goes back to looking at Denki, "You're so loud and goofy!"
"Gee, thanks." Denki crosses his arms, not actually upset. He knows he's fairly loud and all that junk, he can't help it!
"She right though, Den. He looks like a Hobo." Sero drawls out, and that tugs a good belly laugh out of Bakugo, and some chuckles from the others.
"What? Nuh-uh! Shinso looks super rad!" Denki's voice whines with an embarrassing voice crack, and he's not quite sure why he is defending Shinso, they've only spoke once in passing.
...You know, Denki has caught him staring at the back of his head a lot in class whenever he turns to talk to his friends, he never really thought of that much till now.
Denki is promptly snapped out of the little though he had in his vape-dwindled brain by a voice, "Only you think that, Dunce." Bakugo laughs out, his tone stern.
"But, if you think inna girl's perspective, he's got that super attractive mysterious and shy attitude! And he's got a real deep voice, n' he's like, 5'8"!" And now Denki is really not sure why he is defending him this much. Sure, he truly believes in a girl's perspective Shinso is very attractive.
The next voice to fill the fuzzy void of Denki's brain is Kirishima's, "Kami, I've never seen even Aoyama defend his gay, male amour's this hard." And that sends out the rest into a fit of belly laughs, rolling and coughing. Denki's face is bright red now, he can feel the heat radiating off his cheeks. Denki can also feel his throat burn and tighten, preparing for a sob that he pushes back down.
In a swift motion, Denki pushes himself off the floor in a wobbly fashion and walks over to Ashido's door.
"Wait, Kami, were only joking!" Mina yelps, and crawls over near Denki's feet.
"I'm jus' going to use the restroom, I'll be back, dude!" He white lies right through his teeth and tugs on the handle to take his leave.
Denki didn't go to the bathroom, headed straight for his dorm, stomped right to the balcony, for some fresh, non-orange-vape stuffed air.
He didn't like their teasing, he gets they're joking, but he isn't into dudes! Hes been straight all his life, and he knows being gay isn't wrong, but for him to like guys is just... weird. Wrong? Something like that. He's comfortable and fine where he is, looking at all the cute girls at school, flirting with Jiro, skipping past the gay section on sites he shouldn't be on at night... He feels fine how he is!
Plus, he likes girls, so how could he like guys? You can't like both. Can you like both? ...No, no, Denki would rather not think about that right now.
A soft gush of wind tickles Denki's spine, and a shiver rolls down him. Whirling his body around, he opens his balcony door and heads right back into the warmth of his dorm. He decides that he'd rather shower next morning, because all of his last remaining energy was spent on vaping and thinking way too much then he's used to.
With that, Denki lazily turns on his night music—10 hours of Minecraft songs—to help him sleep, yanks his shirt and pants off, plops into bed in only his yellow boxers, and quickly passes right out.
Theres a distant sound of an alarm, and Denki groggily cracks his eyes open. They briefly stick together from whatever eye boogers are made of, and he wipes them clean. In a post high daze, he sits up and stretches his arms up wide, letting out a roaring yawn to start his day.
Denki looks himself up and down in the mirror, fixing his uniform and adding all his little accessories. He thought it'd be fun to include his hero suit chocker, bringing out the black of his hair streak out. He has a multitude of different colored rings and bracelets, and a gold slim necklace to bring out his tanned skin. He makes sure to add his bright, jeweled Pikachu belt and some feather light white contour on his nose bridge.
Snatching his bag off the back of his desk chair, he heads for his door and out to his home room class. All this assortment of keychains sing as they bounce off one another, but they're silent to Denki, as he has two small earbuds blasting energetic music into his brain.
The hallway is filled with a diversity of students heading to their own class, bustling around each other as they chitchat. Denki spots a few of his friends—Sero, Mina, and Kirishima—from afar huddled around each other as they enter their home room. Eager to blabber on about whatever he could think about, Denki speed walks to the class room, simultaneously pausing his music and putting away his earbuds back into his bag.
He swings around the frame of the door, waltzing to his seat and plopping down his belongings before heading towards Mina and Sero. They both shut their chatter to turn to him, Sero outstretching his arms for a hug.
"Den!"
"Sero, my man!"
Dapping each other up, they have the broest bro hug, with back slaps and all. Pulling away, Denki turns to Mina, who has an apologetic look.
"Kami, I'm like, super sorry if I upset you last night! I promise I don't mean to cross boundaries." She yelps out, dropping to her knees in an exaggerated manner.
Denki busts out a laugh, clapping his hands. "Mina, Mina! It's fine! I honestly forgot I was goin' to the bathroom and headed to bed. Ya know how dumb I get when I'm high."
Sero chuckles, his eyes squinting, and Mina helps herself up.
"Seriously? We all thought you were offended! Don't scare me like that, Kami." Mina let's a breath of relief, clutching her heart.
Sero pats Denki's back, hiding their front from where the door is to slide Denki's vape into his hand.
"You left this with me last night."
"Oh, thanks, man!" He swoops it up and shoves it quickly in his pocket before anyone sees.
Well, he was hoping no one would see. Clearly, assuming that by Shinso staring right at them meant he had seen the vape. Denki prays he's not a snitch, considering how buddy-buddy he is with Aizawa-sensei.
Speaking of, Aizawa-sensei apparently snuck in while Denki had his back turned, calling the students to sit down.
Still staring at each other, Denki flushes a slight shade of pink in embarrassment from being caught. He scrambles to sit in his seat and hopes for the best.
Denki doesn't know Shinso quite well yet, so he's not sure what his reaction will be. Hopefully Shinso's not like Iida.
Denki effectively spends the whole class period nervously playing with Ojiro's tail.
"Kaminari." A husky voice slaps Denki's half asleep brain wide awake, whipping his head over in the direction he heard it.
Hands half stuffed in his bag while packing up for lunch, Shinso tower overs him. Well, tower might be a stretch. Shinso was noticeably a few inches taller then Denki, but nothing compared to Sato!
"Ah! Shinso! What'ssup man?" He shines a sheepish grin, yanking his hands out his bag to set them in his pant pockets.
"I'd like to speak about something with you. Preferably somewhere private."
Denki's stomach grows a pit, and he can feel his leg begging to bounce at speeds unknown to man. Play it cool.
"Yeah, sure! Whe- Um. When? Now?" He stammered out. Gosh, way to play it cool, Denki!
"Yeah, just follow me. I know a place." His voice flat and unreadable. Great.
The walk feels unbearable, walking through hallways and corners, his pit grows probably the size of a basketball. Scenarios play in his head, and Denki knows he's overthinking, but he just can't stop! He wishes he could hit his vape right about now, ironically.
Clearly he was too deep in his head to notice Shinso stop, walking right into his back. Denki stumbles, and balances himself back up. Shinso let out a gruff, turns around and faces Denki with a flat expression. Denki can't for the life of him get any sort of read on Shinso, making him more nervous.
"I saw what Sero gave you."
..Of course.
In a beat, Denki grasps at straws, "Please don't tell Aizawa-sensei, man. I swear, I'll do whatever you wa—"
"I wasn't going to tell him—"
"You're not?!"
It all happens too fast. They both sit in a second of silence to catch up mentally.
Shinso wont tell Aizawa-sensei? So then why was he here, confronting Denki about it? Why is Denki still freaking out, and why was Shinso staring at him so deeply? Why is his gaze making Denki so nervo—
"I was actually going to ask—well, this might be weird—ask if I..." Shinso rolls one hand around, "...we could do it sometime. Together." He awkwardly mutters.
"You want to...?" Denki experimentally questions, still not believing that Shinso, of all people, wants to smoke with him.
"Smoke. Vape. Whatever you call it, I'm just— I'm curious."
Ah, so Shinso's feeling rebellious. That makes sense now, Denki concludes. Try to play it smooth, you want to seem cool, Denki!
"Uh, yeah, yeah, man! We can do that. Smoke. Whenever you want, bro."
Close enough.
"Tomorrow, after class. Whenever your not busy." He says nonchalantly, rubbing the back if his neck.
"Where will I find ya...?" Denki questions.
"I'll probably be close, you'll see me."
Whatever that means? Denki lets himself trust Shinso and not push it.
Denki stammers, "Kay! Cool!"
And theres an awkward silence that settles for a bit. Feels like hours, but was probably a few seconds.
"Well... See you." Shinso, still rubbing his neck, awkwardly shuffles away.
"See ya!"
What a mess. Now he's sure Shinso thinks Denki's a loser.