Chapter Text
Being divinely protected wasn’t something that Sero Hanta really believed in. Sure, he believed there was something bigger out there, whether it be some guy or thing up in the air or the Universe as a whole. He just didn’t really believe in anything else. That was until he saw an absolute fucking angel . Their eyes met from across the room. It felt like he was in a movie. He felt like he was staring at someone who looked like they should be in a movie. God, he was beautiful. He looked like he was nearly glowing. Or was he actually glowing? Hanta squinted, vision bleary from the drink that sloshed in his hand and the joint that threatened to fall from his lips. Oh fuck, where’d he go?
His eyes flicked across the dimly lit room almost frantically. Did he imagine him? Was it just weed in this joint? Nah, he had definitely seen someone. His mouth twitched and he blinked a few times, reaching up to rub at his eyes. God, why were there so many people? The fire marshal would be furious. Focus. Where’s the hot guy? He scanned the crowd again, flicking from face to face, from group to group. There was a sea of people, but none of them were his glowing hottie.
“Bro, if you don’t pass the joint I think Bakugou’s gonna have a fuckin’ conniption,” Denki nudged his ribs and Hanta rolled his eyes, but plucked the joint from his mouth with his free hand and passed it off a glaring Katsuki. “You good?”
“Yeah, good, good. I think I just saw an angel,” his words slurred, earning him a pat on the back as his friend cackled. “Shut up bro, I'm serious,” he couldn’t help but let a lazy grin spread across his face, rolling his eyes again as he looked down at the blond.
“Whatever you say, bro. Maybe lay off the jungle juice though,” another pat on the back. “Or the drugs."
“Ha, ha,” Hanta mocked, bringing his cup to his lips as if triggered by the mention of the drink. His eyes flicked back to where he had seen him, the glowing man, but he was nowhere to be found. Classic. See a beautiful man- a possible angel- at a party, make eye contact, then the beautiful man disappears and all hope is lost. He let his lazy gaze fall back to his friends as he downed his drink, only half listening as his focus drifted. They spoke loudly around him, something about a superhero movie Katsuki had seen with Midoriya. When Katsuki started to shout, Hanta turned his focus to the music that thumped around them. It was a nice beat, easy to dance to, not something he was super familiar with. Man, he had to piss.
“Then go piss, bro!” Denki laughed. How did he hear that? “Bro, you said it out loud.” Oh my god, he can read my mind. “No bro, you’re talking out loud.”
“Oh,” Hanta laughed, a huge grin breaking across his face as his fried friend tried not to burst out laughing.
“Go pee bro, gimmie your drink.”
Hanta did just that, rubbing his still-grinning face slightly as he stumbled towards the bathrooms, using the wall as a guide. Maybe he did need to slow down a bit, they had been drinking nonstop for what felt like hours. The night was still young- they had quite some time to go.
Suddenly, he was in the tiny, disorganized bathroom. Various bottles of many sizes were strewn on any available surface, most still standing, but some toppled over. It looked like a witch’s storage cabinet, cluttered and bright. He found himself staring at himself in the mirror. Shit, he really was drunk. He grinned dazedly, leaning against the sink for balance. After a few moments of intense eye contact, he reached over and yanked the window open, just enough so he could lean out a bit. Feel the cool breeze on his warm cheeks. He hadn’t realized he was so warm. Humming, his eyes fell closed. Maybe he would go sit on the porch for a bit, smoke a little, let the alcohol seep out of him before he rejoined his friends. His cheeks pinkened at a harsh gust of wind and a shiver rolled through his body. He welcomed the night air as he swayed slightly to the music, enjoying the moment of solitude.
His mind wandered back towards the glowing man, wondering where he had even come from. Hanta had never seen him on campus and it wasn’t like the university was humongous. Three light little knocks interrupted his train of thought and his eyes snapped open. Oh right, he was in the bathroom.
“Hold up!” he called, moving back to the sink to wash his hands and splash a bit of water on his face. When he yanked the door open, he gasped gently and he instantly brought his hand up. “It’s you,” he breathed, cupping the man’s face. The man- who was now flushed darker than his red hair- stared at Hanta with wide eyes. “You were glowing.”
“I was?” the man whispered quietly.
“You were, I saw you.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?” Hanta laughed, bringing his other hand up to touch the other side of his face, fingers just outside the edge of the scar around his eye. “So you were glowing?”
“Maybe,” the man answered quietly, sincerely. It made Hanta’s whole body flush with warmth.
“How?”
His question was answered with the smallest of smiles and a gentle kiss that caused electricity to buzz along Hanta’s spine all the way to his skull. Kissing him felt like gold melting, slow and luxurious. It tasted of ambrosia, of the damned apple Eve bit into. It was as if living a thousand lives without him was worth being able to live this one with him. He felt like he was glowing. Maybe he was. He stared at the man, his eyes now wide. “I see,” he mumbled, causing the man to laugh. God, what a beautiful laugh. He wanted to hear it for the rest of his life, it was such a great laugh. His hands dropped and the man peeked past his head and into the bathroom.
“I'd like to use the restroom now,” he laughed, it was like bells. Or chimes. Or like the soft patter of gentle rain.
“Right. Sorry,” Hanta stumbled out of the way, watching the man disappear behind the door, their eyes meeting between the crack before it was firmly shut behind him. Hanta stood there, stunned, his mouth still tingling from the kiss. How was a kiss so simple one of the best he’s ever had? He waited for a few moments, still absolutely stunned, staring at the closed door in front of him, before licking his lips and reluctantly going back to find his friends.
He didn’t see him again that night.
The sun forced its way into his room, shining through the large crack in his curtains, the soft morning glow highlighting the dancing dust particles. Golden rays rose across his face and he squinted, flopping his arm along his eyes. His head throbbed, reminding him that he wasn’t in that beautiful dream he had last night.
Groaning, he rubbed his face, head throbbing angrily at him using the little energy he had to simply wake up. “Fuck,” was all he could croak out into his empty room, blindly grabbing for his water bottle, guzzling down its contents quickly. “Fuck,” he repeated, this time more exasperated. His phone pinged quietly from its precarious perch on his windowsill, next to an ashtray with a half-smoked blunt. He reached for the blunt first, lighting it blindly as his squinted eyes adjusted to the brightness of his room. After a couple of long drags, he snatched his phone, muting it and letting it buzz against his chest, eyes closing again. Fuck . The night was definitely incredibly blurry.
Was it a dream? It felt like a dream.
No, it couldn’t have been, or else he wouldn’t be this sore. Right?
As he took another long drag, he tried to focus through the fog. Something happened. Something important. His temple throbbed and he flinched slightly, setting the joint down. He held the smoke in his lungs, letting it burn just a little bit as he willed the throbbing away. God, why did his head hurt so much? He really wasn’t a huge drinker, he knew his limits and knew when to stop so that this exact thing wouldn’t happen. Hell, he hadn’t been truly hungover since undergrad, and Denki had them bouncing from party to party until the sun came up. Hell, they even partied the night of finals week, downed what Hitoshi called “The Brown Adderall” (which was three espresso shots, five packets of sugar, a splash of oat milk, and an even smaller splash of Redbull), and went to their exams, then to drink more in celebration of being finished with that one exam. Undergrad had been crazy, especially being in tow of Denki and Mina’s shenanigans.
Cringing, he exhaled and reached up to gently massage his head, fingers pushing through his overgrown mullet. After a few self-indulgent moments, the throbbing having finally started to melt away, he inhaled, stretching slowly, relaxing on the exhale. He dragged his hands along his face, rubbing circles along it before finally sitting up fully. Eyes falling on his calendar, his eyebrows knit together for a small moment.
Friday, November eighth.
Friday, November eighth ?
He grabbed his phone, peering down at the tiny text. Friday, November eighth.
He could've sworn Friday was yesterday. Did Denki really drag him to a Thursday house party knowing damn well he had a class at nine? Which- his eyes flicked to the time- he was going to be late to. Great. That sneaky bitch.
“ Fuck .”
Panic lit a fire under his ass and he shot up, tugging on the cleanest looking undershirt, the least smelly button-up, only semi-wrinkly trousers, a moderately clean pair of socks (making a mental note he definitely needed to do laundry), grabbed his bag —which he shoved all the materials he needed for the day — and bolted out the door. God damnit , Denki was not going to hear the end of this, he knew damn well how much this particular professor hated Hanta’s guts. He popped a few ibuprofen as he booked it down the stairs of his apartment, praying that by the time he got to class, he would be sufficiently un-hungover and possibly ( hopefully ) still be lightly baked. With each step, his head pounded and he felt as if his brain was going to explode. He was going to absolutely murder Denki.
x x x
“Holy shit dude, you look like you got run over by a truck,” Eijirou plopped down into the seat across from Hanta as he stared dejectedly at the tests he was meant to be grading, head in his hand and eyebrow furrowed. “What the hell happened to you last night?”
“I don’t even want to think about it or I’m going to actually vomit. Not even weed can help me now.”
“That serious huh?”
“Deadly.”
A rumble of a chuckle escaped the grinning red-haired man who pulled out a smoothie almost from thin air. Obviously not from thin air, but Hanta definitely hadn’t noticed the little cup holder of drinks Eiji had set down next to them. “This’ll help, Kats loaded it with a fuck ton of pre-workout.” Hanta eyed the drinks hungrily, his stomach rumbling, crying out for the missed breakfast and lunch.
“Oh sick, so now I’ll want to die but be able to run ten miles.”
Eijirou laughed again and leaned back in his seat, letting out a low whistle. “And here I thought Denki was the token hangover bitch. I don’t know if he’ll like that you’re coming for his title, bro.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Hanta mumbled as he dragged the drink towards him, taking a long, slow sip. At least it tasted good, he couldn’t deny Katsuki’s smoothie-making skills. Hell, he could barely taste the five scoops of pre-workout the blond devil had put into it, only good old-fashioned orange, strawberries, and pomegranate.
“Don’t sweat it, bro,” Eijirou shrugged as he sipped on his own drink. Probably a mix of raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and a healthy splash of cranberry juice. Katsuki’s work called it the “Berry Blast”, but it was known as “The Big Berry Bitch” in their friend group. They sat in silence for a few moments, Hanta just grateful for the nourishment.
It had been a long morning, running from one class to the next with absolutely no time to eat, let alone will his horrendous migraine away. He was so frazzled that his Intro to Film class got a quiz that was meant for his Russian Lit class and the poor freshmen were too shy to say anything until they had almost all turned in the quiz. He couldn’t blame them really, he just slapped it down at the end of the row and rushed to pull up his lecture and they had been expecting a pop quiz. Just probably not a pop quiz on the intricacies of War and Peace and more about themes in Mean Girls . After that debacle, it was all downhill from there.
From nearly getting run over by a bike in the quad to tripping and cracking his phone, it was as if he was cursed. He knew that the hangover was probably the thing throwing off his groove, but it was easier to chalk it up to a little bit of bad luck. Well, a fuck ton of bad luck, if he was being completely honest with himself. Even finding a seat in the packed library was a thing in itself and he nearly had to fight a gaggle of sorority girls for the last plug opening. Like hell he was going to let Akiko from Kappa Beta Pi steal his precious power to scroll on Twitter and Pinterest.
When his head finally stopped throbbing, Hanta put down his smoothie and scrubbed at his face, letting out a long, slow sigh.
“Better?” Eijirou mused.
“Much, thank you my brotato chip.”
“Anything for you my brocicle,” the redhead grinned toothily at his friend, who returned the grin, leaning back in his chair. Both men were quiet, sipping at their drinks and allowing the bustle of the library to flow around them.
“So what’s got you all sorts of fucked up? You’re usually the one bringing me the smoothies,” Eijirou finally asked, starting to pull a few crumpled packets from his gym bag. Hanta watched, pitying their poor, wrinkled existence. Ei needed a trapper keeper or something .
“I had a weird night. And an even weirder morning. I feel…” Hanta paused, eyebrows scrunching together. “Like something’s not right.”
“Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?”
“Yeah... kinda? I just feel major deja vu, but you can usually place the deja vu, you know? And I can’t really place it. Like I definitely have not had a shitty day like this, but it almost feels familiar still? I think I might’ve just smoked a bit too much way too late and had a funky-ass dream or something.”
“What kinda dream?”
“We all were at this party that Denks invited us to, standard house party kind of thing, and I was just so drunk where I thought I saw this glowing guy and then that thing where you kinda feel like you’re falling happened and then I woke up. But waking up just didn’t feel right , you know? Like I really do feel like I got hit by a truck or something.”
Eijirou nodded sagely. “Maybe it was like a premonition-type dream. Like in Final Destination . But instead of dying, you’re seeing your soulmate or something, that glowing guy.”
“God I hope so because that guy was hot ,” Hanta chuckled softly, taking a contemplative sip of his smoothie.
“With all this ,” Ei waved his hand, “and all that , do you think you’re gonna go to the party tonight?”
“Well, now I have to if I’m gonna be meeting my soulmate.”
“Woah, woah, woah, soulmate ?” Denki plopped himself down into an empty seat, head cocked as he grinned at Hanta. Surprisingly his purple haired boyfriend wasn’t with him. “We finally found someone suitable enough for the ever-so-picky Sero Hanta?”
“He’s having prophetic dreams,” Eijirou added with a quirk of his eyebrow, sipping his smoothie to avoid explaining any further.
“And what’s happening in these prophetic dreams, hmm Hanta?”
“He’s making it seem way more than it is,” Hanta rolled his eyes and chuckled a little. “I just had this crazy dream where I saw this hot guy at a party you dragged us to. But I can’t really remember anything other than what the guy looked like.”
“That’s all that matters,” Denki said with a bit of finality. “So we’re gonna find this prophetic dream guy and you’re gonna profess your undying love and you’ll finally not be lonely anymore!”
Hanta cringed a little bit and the redhead across from him threw him a sympathetic look. “I’m not lonely . I have you guys.”
“Of course you do bro, always!”
“Okay, yes, obviously. But don’t think we don’t see you longingly staring at the cute old
people in parks, bro. It’s getting weird.”
Hanta looked between his friends and he rolled his eyes a little when he saw the pity on both of their faces. After a moment, he sighed loudly. “Fine, fine, we can try to find the prophetic dream guy. But don’t be disappointed when he was only a figment of my ever creative imagination.”
“I’ll get my best sleuths on the case,” Denki immediately took out his phone, grinning down at it.
“Oh my god, please don’t tell Mina.”
“Too late!”