Chapter Text
Kaminari knew he was screwed the moment he saw the blood stained petals in his trembling hands.
It had been a day like any other, filled with tests he’d probably failed, and lectures he zoned out in. He was in homeroom when it happened, an odd constricting feeling in his throat. It was like a surprise cough when you swallow spit down the wrong pipe, and like the idiot he was, that feeling was not foreign to him in the slightest.
He tried to be subtle, clearing his throat and covering his mouth with his hand to stifle any noise. Their teacher, Aizawa, would not take kindly to his lecture being interrupted by a coughing fit. But the feeling didn’t go away, instead, when he tried to inhale after, he felt like he was wheezing, like something was blocking his airway.
He felt eyes watching him, which made what was subtle panic, increase exponentially for him. He HATED being watched. It was like who could feel whoever’s eyes drilling holes into his skull.
That was a problem for a later date though. Denki really didn’t want to interrupt his teacher, well, again anyway, he had a bad tendency to be very disruptive in class without really meaning to; but at the same time he felt ready to collapse from lack of oxygen.
The coughing fit came involuntarily, and the blonde instantly stood up and hurried out the door at the back of the classroom, trying his best to ignore the stares that followed him.
And now he was here, sitting on the cool tile of the bathroom floor, secluded in a stall, staring death in the eye. Okay, maybe that was dramatic, but he never claimed to not be dramatic!
Hanahaki was a disease so rare it was almost unheard of. Like Chickenpox, a vaccine had been made for Hanahaki relatively soon after quirks first presented themselves. It was rumored that a supervillain had been born with the power to spread diseases of his design, and out of revenge this cruel disease was released into the world. The odd stipulation to contracting this virus? You have to be in love with someone, with no chance of it being reciprocated. That is always how it worked. No ifs. No ands. No buts. Sure, there were times the unlikely happened and the unrequited crush wasn't so unrequited, but normally that wasn't the case. You can’t force feelings after all, so therefore, surgery was the preferred method of curing it. There were two problems with that: one being that you would lose all memory of the person you were in love with. And two?
Denki wasn’t in love with anyone.
At least, he didn’t think he was.
His mind swirled in a jumble of thoughts. He didn’t even feel scared, well, he did feel scared, but he felt more confused than anything. How was it possible that he contracted Hanahaki without ever even loving someone? He wracked his brain for some kind of answer, but none came. Maybe it was a fluke? Some fucked up mistake? He let the two small petals fall from his hand and into the toilet bowl, watching them float for a second before a soft chuckle slipped out. He couldn’t help himself. How stupid was this? After all he had been through, the war with All for One, being attacked by villains in HIGHSCHOOL, his best friends getting kidnapped and nearly killed? His teacher dying in front of him! What sick joke was this?
He knew on the outside he probably looked insane – and to their point – maybe he was for now full on laughing at his predicament. He felt a sigh escape his lips as he relaxed on the ground, one leg pulled against his chest, the other laid out lazily in front of him.
He didn’t know what to feel, and in reality, for once in his life, he didn’t really feel anything. He was probably in shock. He stood and flushed the toilet, going out of the stall and moving to the countertops to wash his hands. He noticed that his eyes were puffy from how much he had been coughing.
I really am a sorry sight. He chuckled dryly to himself as he grabbed a tissue to dry his eyes. So much for the eyeliner I begged Mina to do this morning.
Denki’s return to class ended up being rather ill-timed. He should have looked at the time before even bothering to return, but he never claimed to be the brightest crayon in the pack. He found his fellow classmates of 2A filing out, chatting with each other, and already grouped together in the class cliques.
After the AFO war, the class as an entirety had grown impossibly close together. They all considered each other close friends at the very least, even best friends, and for some? Family. The groups weren’t formed consciously nor maliciously, they had simply just existed since the start of their time at U.A Highschool, and even with their class bonding, it was okay to still have favorites.
An easy grin spread across Kaminari’s face, as it always did when he saw his friends, but especially; the Bakusquad.
The members included:
Bakugou Katsuki – The group’s namesake and hot-headed leader. Someone Denki had at first abhorrently disliked due to his poor attitude and immense ego, but he had grown on him after a while.
Kirishima Eijirou – Bakugou’s second in command, and mediator to the leader’s literal flaming temper. He was also Denki’s best friend in the world, they had known each other before U.A and had grown up in the same neighborhood. They hadn’t been extremely close until U.A though.
Mina Ashido – A girl so bubbly and mischievous she got along with everyone. Denki found himself drawn to her in a way he hadn’t felt before. Not in a romantic sense at all, but in a true kindred spirit way. She was like an older sister to him.
Sero Hanta – Another one of Kaminari’s closest friends, he was a life of the party; but always responsibly so. He kept the group having fun while always making sure no one died.
Jirou Kyoka – A girl so talented in music that Denki was honestly surprised she hadn’t wanted to become a professional singer. He used to have a small crush on her at the beginning of their freshman year, but that had quickly faded once he realized the girl was a raging lesbian.
And then there was him. Kaminari Denki. The laughing stock of Class 2A – well, besides Mineta but that was a LOW bar – he wasn’t quite sure why the others had included him in the group. He wasn’t going to complain though. He loved his friends more than he could ever express.
Kaminari had never really understood Midoriya’s fascination with All Might, until he met his friends. Then he understood. His friends were his All Might, and he wasn’t about to question whatever kind Fates had allowed him to become one of them.
“Hey Kamibro!” Kirishima’s voice rang out over the students bustling out of the class, the red-head’s grin matched his own as the two clasped hands in greeting when Denki had finally made it to them.
Mina’s brow was furrowed in slight concern, “Hey, are you okay, Pikachu?” She questioned him, the girl might have been about as book smart as Kaminari was, but she was definitely emotionally perceptive like no other.
He had to internally chuckle at the nickname, one she’d given to him when they first had met, and one he hoped she never stopped calling him, “Man, I really made a scene, didn’t I?” he laughed, shaking his head with a slight grimace, “just inhaled spit down the wrong pipe. I couldn’t stop coughing for, like, ten minutes.”
A scoffing laugh came from Bakugou, who was standing slightly to the side of his squad, looking annoyed. Probably because Kirishima had prevented him from up and ditching the rest of them.
“Of course you managed to do that, dunce face,” his tone would’ve sounded absolutely condescending to anyone who overheard – and it entirely was – but that was Bakugou for you, and it had taken a long time for Denki to see around the harsh words and belittling comments.
It did, however, help that that response from the hot-headed blonde resulted in a smack upside the head from Kirishima.
“What happened to all your first year character-growth, Bakubro?” Kirishima chided goodnaturedly, his pointed teeth slotting together perfectly in his sunshine grin.
Sero sighed and shook his head, but his lips curled upwards, showing his slight amusement, “Regressing already PomPom?” he teased.
The group exited the classroom corridor, laughing and conversing as they headed towards the dormitory. That was, of course, only after Bakugou nearly blew Sero’s head in for his statement.
PomPom was the nickname Mina had given to Katsuki when she realized his hair was damn near identical to a pomeranian’s. Mina had promptly been forced to wear cornrows for weeks. Turns out? Mina’s quirk made her hair extremely flammable.
Denki walked a little behind his friends, not intentionally, his thoughts just seemed to weigh down his entire body. After a while, he realized Jirou was staring at him. He flushed in embarrassment, was he that obvious when he was upset? He thought he had gotten better at that.
“You were in the bathroom a long time,” she said once she had realized he wasn’t going to explain so willingly.
Kaminari just shrugged in his natural, completely nonchalant fashion, flashing her an impish smile, “What can I say? Last night’s Taco Bell didn’t end up agreeing with me.”
She studied him for a moment, and he hoped whatever Fates were out there, that she couldn’t see through his ruse. His silent prayer must have worked though, because after a bit of silence, her only response was;
“I told you not to eat that fourth crunch wrap.”
“So you DID get sick!” Mina jumped into their conversation, again making Kaminari wonder if her Alien quirk gave her some kind of super hearing, “I have NO idea why you thought it was a good idea to chug two baja blasts, and down four crunch wraps in the span of thirty minutes.”
Sero raised an eyebrow, “weren’t you the one who dared him to in the first place, Mina?” he mused.
She shot the black-haired boy a look, “it’s not my fault! How was I supposed to know he would actually take me up on the dare!”
Bakugou huffed from his place in front, but Kaminari swore he saw the other blonde’s lips twitch upwards, the closest thing to a smile the group ever really saw from their leader.
“He’s stupid as shit and has a bottomless pit for a stomach, Pinky, of course the fucking idiot took what you said seriously.”
The group all looked at Kaminari before Mina relented with a shrug, “fair, but in my defense, he took it like an absolute champ. I would’ve thrown up after the second.”
“That’s because you have the smallest stomach known the history of the universe, Weird Eyes” Bakugou muttered bitterly, “thats probably why you’re so fucking weak during training.” he added.
The rest of the group smiled to themselves. It was moments like that that they could tell their hot-headed friend actually cared about them, even if you had to read in between the lines and in the invisible ink to see it.
“Awwww, I knew you caredddd,” Mina cooed, jumping up and wrapping her arms around the back of Bakugou’s neck in a half hug-half tackle.
The solid rock known as Bakugou didn’t so much as budge at her attempt, “Get the fuck off me before you have to spend $200 on a hair appointment again.” He growled.
Denki grinned, “Don’t you mean before YOU have to spend $200 for Mina’s hair appointment, explodo-boy? If I remember correctly, Kiri made you pay for it.”
“Shitty hair can’t make me do jack shit,” the chihuahua-mannered boy snapped back as they finally made their way through the dormitory and onto class 2A’s floor, “I only did it so she would shut the fuck up, she was whining the entire fucking day and bugging the shit out of me. Unlike some of you fuckfaces, I actually care about my grades and had to focus on finals.”
A sardonic smile crossed Jirou’s face and her eyes narrowed slightly in her well-known teasing expression, “Bakugou, that happened during spring break. Finals weren’t for two months after that.”
“Oooooooooo, take that, Kacchan!” Denki cheered, raising his hand to Jirou, she obliged and accepted the high five.
If looks could kill, both Kaminari and Jirou would’ve been incinerated on the spot.
Mina pouted, “How come Denki gets to call you Kacchan and the rest of us don’t?” she whined, a topic of debate that had gone on since first year.
“Because dunce face doesn’t understand that I’d actually kill him if I didn’t know he was stupid as shit and had the impulse control of a fucking puppy,” came the same old reply.
Denki did know. He just didn’t care, but he wasn’t going to correct the guy.
“Ooo, how about we all watch that Kpop hunter movie!” Mina suggested, noticing the group starting to dissipate to their respective rooms.
Bakugou scoffed and folded his arms, “we have our English essay due tomorrow. I highly doubt you shitheads have even started writing the damn thing, or even know what it’s supposed to fucking be about.”
The group watched as the color drained out of Mina’s face, “THAT’S TOMORROW?” she freaked, yanking out her phone to check the syllabus, not that Bakugou would EVER be wrong about something syllabi related, but a girl could hope.
Kirishima looked on in pity, “Girl, that thing is supposed to be two thousand words long, that’s why Present Mic told us about it when the year started,” he told her gently, Denki didn’t know why his friend was pointing that out, it wasn’t like Mina would’ve started on it any sooner.
“Well SORRY, I’ve been preoccupied!” She retorted, shoving her phone into her back pocket in annoyance after confirming what Bakugou had said.
Sero raised an eyebrow, “Oh? With what?” he asked.
“With- Well- I had-” the poor girl fumbled for an excuse, eventually admitting defeat and looking mournfully at Kirishima.
Her quirk really made her puppy dog eyes look weird, but Kaminari would NEVER let ANYONE catch him say that outloud. But hey, he couldn’t deny that the look was effective, especially on someone as kind-hearted as Kirishima.
The red-head looked at her sympathetically, “you can bring your computer and books to my room and I’ll explain how you’re supposed to do it and help you choose your topic.” he offered.
Mina’s mood instantly shifted as she threw her arms around her muscular friend in triumph and gratitude.
“You two are both idiots,” Bakugou interrupted, “if you end up helping her, Shitty hair, she’ll have you ending up writing the whole damn thing while she spills all the shitty fucking gossip from other classes.” he paused momentarily before adding in a frustrated growl, “again.”
A light flush of embarrassment crossed both Mina and Kiri’s face simultaneously, Bakugou turned his back to them and started to his room. The two stood there uncertainly before he called over his shoulders, “well? Hurry up, I don’t have all day.”
Sero glanced over at Denki, “actually, he does in fact have all day,” he whispered, “Bakugou consistently stays a week ahead in his assignments.”
“Wow, that’s…commitment,” Denki admitted.
At first glance, one might peg Bakugou as a delinquent who didn’t care about his studies, and while the first one was true, the latter was the complete opposite from how the hot-tempered blonde actually was.
Kirishima and Mina grinned at each other before following suit after their friend.
Denki smiled slightly as he saw his friends retreating, and he turned to go back to his own dorm.
“You too dunce-face!” Bakugou’s shouting could be heard from all the way from where he’d reached down the hall, “I know you haven’t done yours either!”
Kaminari let out a laugh pausing in his step, “you know me too well, Bakubro.” he called, “I’m just grabbing my computer.”
“Bring snacks!!” Mina yelled after him.
Denki shouted back in agreement before continuing to his own room, a dopey smile now planted on his face.
Sure, it had taken him a while for him to get used to Bakugou’s abrasive and at times cruel-appearing behavior. But now? The blonde’s permanently sour attitude and ‘fuck off’ mentality just made it all the more heart-warming when he showed he truly did care about his group.
Opening his door, Denki was instantly hit with the disaster area that somehow qualified as his sleeping quarters. He never seemed to have motivation to clean, nor the willpower. In short, he was just too lazy to put in the effort after hours of classes and hero training to clean, and on the weekends? Weekends were for relaxing! Not cleaning!
He rummaged around until he located his computer – which had somehow ended up all the way at the far back underneath his bed – and gathered a bag of the snacks he always had on hand.
The first few months at U.A, upon being grouped into the Bakusquad, he had made it his personal mission to be the snack supplier, finding out each squad member’s favorites. It sounded like it would’ve been easy enough. It should’ve. But man did his friends have a horrible time letting other people do nice things for them. He smiled softly at the memory, Mina had been the only one to actually tell him without him having to plan a five step mission. She had just told him upfront that she LOVED circus cookies. The pink and white ones with sprinkles. Honestly, it made sense. It had taken him only a bit longer to discover that Sero’s choice of snack was undoubtedly, Takis. Kaminari had actually guessed it by accident one day after offering Sero a pack while the boys were having a late-night game sesh in Sero’s room. Kirishima was a bit harder, Kaminari had ended up sneaking onto his friend’s phone and hacking into his Walmart app to see what snacks he often repurchased. Only to find that the only ‘snack’ the man ate was protein bars and energy drinks. Bakugou…he still didn’t know if he was correct, but whenever Denki had brought cinnamon balls for himself, a few of them always seemed to go missing with no explanation,even if it was just him and Katsuki in the room.
He finished gathering what he needed and headed over to the room. From outside he could already hear Bakugou’s ear-drum shattering protests as Mina supposedly kept touching his very much off-limits figurines.
Kaminari decided to walk in without knocking, partially because he didn’t see the point, they knew he was coming, and partially because his hands were preoccupied with the snacks.
“CIRCUS COOKIESSS!!” Mina squealed once she saw him enter, his bag loaded with goodies, she ran over to him – ignoring the still fuming Bakugou – and promptly relieved him from said bag.
A playful pout etched onto Denki’s face, “what? Am I chopped liver to you? You’re only excited to see the cookies and not your best friend in the whole world?” he asked, pretending to sound hurt.
She glanced up at him, “oh yea, welcome back, Denki.” she said, busying herself in tearing open the bag of cookies.
Sero chuckled as he walked over and plucked the bag of Takis out, “thanks Pikachu,” he said, ruffling the smaller boy’s hair, “you da best.”
Kaminari positively beamed at that, “I know I am,” he replied, puffing out his chest with false bravado.
He noticed Katsuki staring at the bag out of the corner of his eyes. He smiled a little and picked up a fireball candy and tossed it to him, “catch, Bakubro!”
The man just scoffed in return, but caught the candy and didn’t say anything. The usual Bakugou code for, ‘thanks’.
An arm wrapped around Denki’s shoulder, making him avert his gaze.
“Denks.” Kirishima mused, “did you bring the snacks to distract us from our goal here?” a hint of a smirk on his lips.
It was Denki’s turn to scoff, “why I would never, Kiri,” he defended, but grinned a little, “but seriously, Mina asked for them.”
Kiri raised an eyebrow at Mina, before shrugging and leaning over to take a protein bar from the bag.
“Alright you shitheads,” Katsuki had moved to sit down at his desk, “let’s get to work so I’m not stuck with your dumbasses all night.”
Sero smirked, “you mean so you can go to bed at 8pm, PomPom?” he cooed.
The glare shot his way did nothing to erase the smile off the ravenette’s face.
“Why are you even here, tapefuck. I know you didn’t become one of these shitheads and forget about the assignment too.” Bakugou retorted snidely.
Hanta just smiled innocently, “I came here for the entertainment,” he sat on the floor next to the snack bag, “and the snacks,” he added.
Mina and Denki proceeded to be forced to boot up their laptops and open their books. Well, Mina’s book. Denki had somehow forgotten his in his trip to his dorm. Bakugo began to explain the assignment, but that lasted about five minutes before his desk got charred from his quirk acting up.
“HOW THE FUCK DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT MLA FORMAT IS YOU ABSOLUTE-”
Kirishima covered Bakugou’s mouth with his hand, “yelling at them isn’t going to make this go by faster,” he reminded him.
Katsuki’s eyes narrowed into slits.
“Uhhhh…Kiri? He looks like he’s going to bite your hand off.” Mina said, watching the red head’s boldness with amusement.
Kirishima quickly removed his hand, “how about I explain the basics and Katsuki can make sure you choose a good topic?” he said with a smile.
The two essayless classmates nodded eagerly.
…
“How the fuck did a three hour essay take you two dumb fucks SIX HOURS to write WITH HELP.” Bakugou growled, by now it was 11pm, and the explosive blonde was far past his tolerance.
Denki looked down, “I just don’t understand itttt,” he whined, looking at his friend with a pitiful expression.
Mina let out an annoyed sigh, “at this point I’ll take the failing grade,” she shut her laptop and stood, “thanks for you boys’ help,” she continued, “but I’m going the fuck to bed.”
Sero smirked at her from where he was lying on the floor, playing clash royale on his phone, “so you can stay up till 3am watching Love Island, but you can’t stay up another hour to finish an essay?”
She kicked his side as she passed him, leaving the dorm without a reply.
“Hormonal Bitch.” Bakugou grumbled when she left.
Denki winced, “careful, she might hear you,” he whispered.
The boys stayed silent for a few seconds to make sure that she had not heard, before Denki turned to Kirishima.
“Can you help me with the conclusion paragraph?” he asked tiredly.
Bakugou walked over and looked over the other blonde’s shoulder. His eyes scanned the screen.
Kaminari mentally braced himself for his friend’s relentless criticism, but it didn’t come.
“It sounds fine, just restate what you said in the first paragraph with more details from the body paragraphs and submit the fucking thing.” was the only thing he said.
Denki chuckled darkly, “that bad huh?” he asked as he scrolled back to reread his introduction paragraph.
Bakugou looked at the computer screen, then glanced at him before shrugging and putting his hands into his pockets and sitting back down at his desk, “it’s not the worst thing I’ve seen.”
Kirishima’s eyebrow raised and he walked over to look at the computer screen as well, reading over his shoulder like Bakugou had moments before. His eyebrows raised higher after a moment.
“Damn Kamibro …This is actually pretty good.” he encouraged, patting Denki’s shoulder.
“You don’t have to lie, y'know."
Bakugou bristled at his comment, “you calling me a fucking liar, dunceface?”
Kaminari merely shook his head and finished typing up the conclusion paragraph before submitting the paper. He stood, and Sero took that as his cue to stand with him.
“Thanks a bunch guys,” Denki said with a grateful smile, Bakugou just tsked and rolled his eyes.
“Fuck off and let me go to bed.”
Kirishima shook his head slowly, “he means to say, you’re welcome.” he smiled and walked with the two out of Bakugou’s room.
“See ya tomorrow, PomPom! Enjoy your beauty sleep!” Sero called out before the door closed.
The trio walked away before they could hear the string of profanities that filled the quiet hall.
When Denki finally got back into his room, he found himself still smiling. Maybe he did have something he was good at, at least. He got himself ready for bed and put away his laptop.
The boy had completely forgotten about the petals. It seemed that even faced with possible death, if it was out of sight, it was out of mind.