Chapter Text
Denki Kaminari slouched in his seat, peering out the window of the bus. “Why’d Aizawa have to give us seating arrangements?” he pouted.
All the students of Class 1-A were packed into a bus, travelling to a secret location where they were going to participate in a summer training camp to strengthen their quirks and earn their provisional hero licenses.
“Ouch,” said the red-headed boy who was seated beside him. Ejirou Kirishima was a fellow Class 1-A student, and also one of Kaminari’s best friends.
“Come on man, you know what I mean,” Kaminari crossed his arms.
“Ohhhh, I get ya,” Kirishima narrowed his eyes. “You wanted to sit next to your girl.” He nudged Kaminari playfully, turning around to peek at a pair of girls sitting just a couple rows behind them.
Kaminari quickly pulled his friend back into a forward facing position. “I- she’s not my-”
“Leave it to me buddy.” Kirishima peered over at their teacher, Mr. Aizawa, who seemed to be completely asleep in his seat despite all the noise the students were making. He then turned to face the students behind him again. “Hey Yaoyorozu!”
Kaminari punched Kirishima in the leg, but the boy persisted.
“Come here real quick! I have something to tell you!”
Momo looked at the boy and tilted her head. “Sure, one sec.” She stood up and made her way over to the redhead, causing the girl sitting next to her to look in their direction for a quick moment before giving a disinterested look and moving aside.
Kaminari exhaled a deep breath, glaring at his friend.
“Now move, I gotta talk to Yaoyorozu,” Kirishima said with a wink.
The golden-haired boy rolled his eyes, smiling. “Thanks.”
He stood up, surrendering his seat to Momo, and slowly made his way down the aisle.
On his way back, he caught a very disapproving glare from their class rep, Tenya Iida. Kaminari guessed it was because Iida had given the class a lecture about how standing up on a moving bus was a safety hazard. Kaminari gave a nervous smile as he continued to walk down the aisle.
As he approached Momo’s empty seat, he laid eyes on her. Kyouka Jirou. The girl that, as of recently, seemed to occupy Kaminari’s every thought.
Jirou sat in her seat with her arms crossed, gazing out the bus window. Her short, purple hair fell just over her eyes, highlighting her mouth which was twisted into an apathetic expression.
“Mind if I steal this seat?” Kaminari said with a bright grin.
Jirou turned to him, the corners of her mouth turning into a smile. “Hey, Kaminari.” She moved over to the seat closest to the window, gesturing for him to sit down next to her.
“What’s up?” he asked, taking the seat.
Jirou pointed at the window she’d been looking through. “Catching the view,” she said sarcastically.
Kaminari scrunched his nose, looking out the window at what seemed to be mostly just trees and big rocks. “No music?” he said.
“My phone died,” she shrugged.
“Well then consider me your knight in shining armor,” he said excitedly reaching in his pocket.
“What are you talking about?”
“We can listen to music on my phone!”
“Together?”
He held up one side of a pair of wire earbuds.
“Oh right. I forgot people have to use these things,” she eyed the earbud before putting it in her ear.
“Check your privilege, Jirou,” he joked, giving her a disapproving look before cracking a smile.
“Ugh, this feels so weird,” she said, leaning in closer to him so she was within reach of the cord.
“You’ll get used to it,” he smirked, choosing some music. As he clicked play, the soft sound of synth and bass began to flow through their ears.
She yawned. “You know, I never pegged you for an indie guy.”
“Really?” he laughed. “What were you expecting?”
“I don’t know. Electronic? Maybe surf rock? Indie just seems a little chill for a guy like you.”
“What can I say, I’m a man full of mysteries,” he winked.
She rolled her eyes, cracking a smile. “I mean, indie’s alright. Kinda puts me to sleep though.”
“It’s good for that.”
The two listened to Kaminari’s music in a peaceful silence for a while.
Kaminari stared at the back of the seat in front of him, thinking about the girl who sat beside him. Even though they weren’t talking, he was happy just to have her next to him.
He let his mind wander, enjoying the ambiance of the music until he felt a subtle weight on his shoulder. He looked down to see that Jirou had, in fact, started to doze off, her head falling on his shoulder. As soon as Kaminari felt the girl lean on him, his heart began to race. He froze in place, not wanting to disturb her.
The boy tilted his head up to see Kirishima and Momo peering over their own seats to look back at the two. Kirishima gave a silent thumbs up while Momo covered her mouth and giggled. Kaminari remained still but was sure to send the two a disapproving glare, silently demanding that they leave him alone.
He turned his attention back to the sleeping girl on his shoulder. He and Jirou had spent so much time together since the start of school that, in Kaminari’s mind, they might as well have already been dating. He loved surprising her with little gifts, watching her blush when he complimented her, and hearing her laugh at his dumb jokes. He felt her warm up to him with every moment they spent together and he was even beginning to think she might like him back. Maybe.
In the midst of his thoughts, the bus screeched to a halt, causing everyone inside to jolt forward slightly. Jirou slowly opened her eyes, the movement seemingly having woken her up. She picked her head up off Kaminari’s shoulder, and turned to him, confused.
“Did I fall asleep?” she asked, yawning.
“Yeah, you did.”
“Oh, sorry,” her cheeks turned slightly pink as she quickly sat up.
“No, no, it’s okay,” he reassured her.
Jirou stared at him for a moment before turning away and pulling her earbud out of her ear. “I blame the indie music.”
“Fair enough,” he laughed. “But can I be honest with you, Jirou?”
She looked at him quizzically.
“You totally pegged me with the surf rock,” he continued, laughing.
“I knew it! Which bands do you like?” Jirou started excitedly naming off band names to which Kaminari would nod at the ones he knew.
“Oh man, there’s this band I have to show you!” she beamed. “I think you’d like them, their music is totally surf rock but maybe a little slower and the synths are totally up your alley-”
He loved seeing how excited she got when she talked about music. He could tell that along with becoming a pro-hero, music was one of the things Jirou was most passionate about. Kaminari admired the girl so much.
Aizawa had begun to usher the students off the bus.
Kaminari stood up. “I’d love to hear their stuff,” he beamed.
“Maybe after we’re done training for the day we can hang out, just the two of us,” Jirou said, shyly pushing a piece of purple hair behind her ear.
The boy felt a shiver rush down his spine. “Yeah, I’d really like that,” he squeaked.
“Cool. Well then as soon as we have some free time-”
“Wait,” Kaminari cut her off. “I can’t.”
Jirou looked back at him, confused.
“Me and the others who failed have to do those remedial classes after training,” he said, dejectedly.
Jirou frowned. “Oh…”
“But maybe after?” he said quickly, not wanting to pass up the chance to hang out with Jirou alone.
She smiled. “That works.”
“Plus, I bet the stars will be out.”
“Oh yeah,” she said, her eyes widening in excitement. “You know, I’ve kind of always wanted to find a little spot in the forest and just soak in some music and look at the stars. Totally disconnected from everyone else.” Jirou paused for a moment, seeming to revel in the idea. “So I’ll see you later?”
Kaminari nodded, nearly speechless at the idea himself.
He prayed the day would go by quickly because he couldn’t wait to see her.
----
Unfortunately for Kaminari, Aizawa’s remedial lessons ended up going on until nearly two in the morning.
Kaminari pouted, knowing he wouldn’t be able to see Jirou like he’d planned. Their class training during the day had been so intensive that he’d barely had a chance to even see the girl, let alone hang out with her. As he sat in his chair, staring at the ceiling light, he cursed himself for failing his exam in the first place.
He’d tried to tell Jirou he wasn’t going to be able to hang out, but Aizawa caught him and confiscated his phone. Kaminari spent the rest of the lesson tapping his foot and clicking his pen, eager to get out of the room.
As soon as he was released, Kaminari rushed to send Jirou an apology text. After some time had passed with no response, he assumed the girl had fallen asleep and he didn’t blame her. After the day’s training and the late night remedial lessons, Kaminari himself was exhausted.
The minute he returned to the room he was sharing with the other boys, he flopped into his bed and fell asleep. When the boy awoke in the morning, he saw that he’d received a message on his phone.
Jirou: sorry! i totally fell asleep last night. i guess i was pretty exhausted from all that training.
Kaminari smiled at the screen. He was glad at least that he hadn’t kept her up and that she was able to rest after all that hard work.
Kaminari: No worries! Can you believe those stupid lessons lasted until 2am?? I wish I didn’t have to do them.
Jirou: lol maybe if you just passed your exam, you wouldn’t have to
Kaminari: Fair enough
Jirou: oh well, we’ll hang some other time
Kaminari: We could hang out tonight…
Jirou: at 2am?
Kaminari: Aizawa said he’d cut us some slack tonight because he kept us so late last night.
Jirou: you know, you’re probably supposed to use that extra time to rest
Kaminari: Well, staring at the stars while listening to music sounds pretty relaxing to me. What do you say?
Jirou: you’re an idiot.
Jirou: i’ll be there.
Kaminari: :))
Kaminari: I’m really excited to see you
Jirou: <3
---
The sound of sirens pierced through the forest. Kaminari struggled to push past the team of professionals that stood in front of him, but to no avail.
During Aizawa’s second set of remedial lessons, villains had infiltrated and attacked the camp. He and the others didn’t have much information about the attack, but as the paramedics and fire department showed up to the scene, they were finally able to get a look at the damage the attack had caused.
After continuing to try to push through the team, Kaminari finally broke through and took off running. One of the fire fighters caught him almost immediately, holding him in place.
“What the hell are you doing, kid?” he said, staring at the squirming boy in his arms.
“Let me go!” Kaminari shouted. He continued to kick and struggle until he caught something out of the corner of his eye that made him stop moving completely.
Accompanied by an array of firefighters and police officers, came a line of stretchers with students who’d been injured by the attack. Almost immediately, Kaminari spotted a student with bright purple hair lying on one of the stretchers with an oxygen mask over her face.
“Jirou!” he screamed, now struggling even harder.
The firefighter who was holding him called for help and before he knew it, Kaminari was fully restrained by a group of them.
Kaminari watched with wide eyes as they wheeled the stretcher into an ambulance and drove away into the distance.
When the firefighters released the boy, he crumbled to his knees, tears welling in his eyes.
Kaminari felt helpless. He had no idea what had even happened to her or if she was going to be okay.
He hated that he couldn't be there to save her and he swore to himself that if anything happened to Jirou, he would make it his personal duty to destroy whoever hurt her.
It pained him to think that she might never know just how much he cared about her. Now he could only hope that he would have another chance to tell her how he felt.