#kamijirou moments

[prettyboykatsuki]

new reaction image just dropped

[epickiya722]

Actually, now I'm thinking about it, it's odd to me that Midoriya and Uraraka look similar and maybe that's on purpose.

Round eyes & face

Facial marks (Freckles for Midoriya, blush stickers for Uraraka)

"Brunette" (green hair is considered being a brunet/te in anime logic)

Shorter than the others

Now given that, what if Uraraka "falling in love" with Midoriya wasn't her actually falling in love? What if it was her having a self-reflection and accepting herself?

Further thinking about it... they're practically the same person.

They're both compassionate, kind. They learn to adapt to changes. They're cute, but they're vicious if pushed far enough. They won't give up on people or in a fight. Hell, they both float, use long range attacks, and close range ones. Works in teams of three (Uraraka-Asui-Hado, Midoriya-Bakugou-Todoroki) under a top Pro Hero.

And they both "rival" some feral blond that they don't act "normal" around.

What if Midoriya wasn't meant to be Uraraka's crush but her mirror? Mind you whenever someone points out her "crush" it's not someone you would turn to for love advice.

Aoyama is Aoyama (think about that reveal), Ashido practically ships anybody with anybody when there's no real chemistry, and Toga has a twisted concept of love.

You really think I would trust any of them on telling me I have a "crush"?

There's also the fact that Uraraka herself during her talk with Midoriya says they're both "oddballs". That whole talk during 342 comes off more as someone talking about their feelings about their identity and relating to a friend who feels the same about themselves than supposedly "romantic". When someone is called an "oddball", it means that person is "weird". They're not part of the "norm".

Sometimes it comes off as having different interests, like someone liking the arts unlike the majority of the group who likes sports.

Or it's someone who identifies as queer.

What if these last few chapters of Toga and Uraraka was Uraraka accepting herself?

@darkcircles4lyfe points out a detail that I didn't catch until now in this post here.

In this scene, Toga has a hold of that All Might keychain. We know it's of importance to Uraraka because Midoriya gave it to her. We also know that once before Uraraka snatched it away from her when Toga first got a hold of it during the PLF War Arc. Here, she doesn't do it. Granted, because she's bang the hell up and probably even isn't aware of her surroundings. But on Horikoshi's part, what if that's on purpose? What if here, Toga is taking the keychain as a way of saying Uraraka is finally accepting herself and her feelings? That Midoriya was that mirror she kept looking into and questioning until this very moment?

And let's be honest here, it's not like Horikoshi isn't incapable of writing M/F ships. I just think IzuOcha is a ship he doesn't intend to make romantic because of how underdeveloped it is.

Compare it to Kamijirou and Kirimina, it is pale. Also, make note of those two pairs.

The characters in those ships also have opposing physical features.

Kamijirou - dark and light hair colors, the extrovert and the introvert

Kirimina - Spiky hair and curly hair, sharp edges and round curves

A lot of pairs Horikoshi puts together in which the characters are close (romantic or platonic) have some opposing features to them.

Gentle Crimimal and La Brava - tall and short, dark hair and light hair, one is more hands on and the other isn't

Eraser Head & Present Mic - quiet and loud, dark hair and light hair, close combat & long range

Bakugou's and Jiro's parents - quiet & loud, dark hair and light hair

It's his shtick.

But for Midoriya and Uraraka? They are just genderbend versions of each other!

That's really all I have to say here. And if you disagree, fine. Don't care for the input though, keep it to yourselves. (I say this because some of you are just damn disrespectful.)

I myself don't think IzuOcha is a bad ship, but I just don't think it's a ship Horikoshi has on his agenda. Let alone wants the audience to perceive them as "romantic" but as a "mirror".

[nightmarerose1]

💥🐦‍⬛ 🪨 Bakusquad Boys⚡️🕸️:

💥⚡️The fact that Kaminari, Sero, Kirishima and Tokoyami were the only ones who sat close to Bakugou while everyone else sat far away from him like he had the plague shows how those four were always going to be his ride or dies🕸️🐦‍⬛🪨

🍱On their way to sit with Bakugou at lunch/Kaminari invited Mineta While Sero invited Sato🍱

🕯️When you and your besties just performed a ritual thinking you summon a demon but instead you summon an Angry pomeranian 🕯️

🍰Sato earned his place on the Bakusquad by being the best chef ever,🍰

🗯️Tbh I forgot the context of this scene and thought Bakugou was mad at them for not giving him attention🗯️

🌌Would’ve loved a Drama Cd of their late night conversations or them just hanging out. I can imagine a scenario where Kaminari wanted to hang out so he text the group chat to meet up at the common lounge. Of course Sero and Kirishima was onboard but Bakugou was being difficult refusing to go which ended with Kirishima just dragging him out of his room. After that happened and they enter the elevator Bakugou just press the 2nd floor gets off and walks straight to tokoyami door knocking until he answers. Then when tokoyami does answer Bakugou ends up dragging him along probably saying something like “if I have to deal with them so do you”🌌

Bonus: Speaking of Tokoyami getting dragged along I love his friendship with Kaminari,Kirishma and Sero🕸️⚡️🪨

⚡️I’m so Thankful for the School festival arc since we were blessed with Kaminari and Tokoyami friendship! Wish we could of seen more moments of these Guitar buddies, especially since Tokoyami admires Kaminari so much. But I like to believe after the time skip Tokoyami was the wingman that helped Kamijirou get together⚡️

🪨 Just like with Kaminari I wish we could have seen more of Kirishima and Tokoyami friendship. Look how happy they are talking to each other and the fact Kirishima also collected the same key holder means that he could of had a emo phase as well. Also I’m 80% sure that most of there their conversation are about Bakugou, whether it be about how amazing he is in combat or how his behavior can be concerning🪨

🕸️ok we DEFINITELY needed more moments between Sero and Tokoyami their friendship is to underrated especially since they both were able to catch up with Bakugou during the obstacle course and would be straightforward when they need to be. Also I love how in the smash comic Sero decided to dress up as Tokoyami for Halloween,makes me wonder how much time and money he put into that costume to make it accurate enough that it tricked midoriya🕸️

[Part 2]

[aki-shigaraki]

I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT how I saw someone’s slideshow on tiktok the other day and they said something like

IzuOcha becoming canon would mean that Horikoshi doesn’t know how to write romance. Their relationship isn’t even close to being romantic (besides the somehow undeniable?? argument that it’s shonen so it has to be canon, spoiler, it IS deniable since Horikoshi said he does what he wants loool). Maybe there was a crush from Ochaco at some point, but she’s past that and it’s obvious whenever we see their interactions past ~4th season. If they would become canon, that would be just bad writing. It wouldn’t make sense storywise.

BUT he DOES know how to write romance - look at the implied canon pairings like KamiJirou, HagaOjiro, KiriMina. we all agreed on them being canon not because they blush at each other, but they CARE for each other and WORRY about the other person

*insert KamiJirou first war scene „do it for someone who is closest to your heart”*

AND… because the canon pairings in bnha also have this little funny thing in common. Both sides inspire each other and in some ways they want to resemble each other too!!! I’ve noticed it especially in KiriMina, first when in Kirishima’s backstory he says that the „horns” he stylizes his hair into are inspired by Mina’s horns, and then when she said in s5ep25 that she created Acidman because of Kiri’s Unbreakable.

So, it looks like Horikoshi KNOWS how to write romance - because this is how it looks in real life. You care about your s/o, you worry about them, they inspire you, you know stuff about them because you’re curious about them, you want to spend time with them etc. It’s literally how every canon implied ship in BNHA is written. It’s not a surprise. It’s just good writing.

and you know whose relatiohsips are also written this way??? hm. let me see

not IzuOcha for sure (they had their little moments but PLEASE we get TWO scenes of Ochaco moving on from Izuku. this isn’t canon at all)

BUT THE GAYS.

The biggest canon pairing of them all, the BKDK and their lesbian sisters TOGACHACO

it’s already canon because it’s written the way Horikoshi writes romances. He isn’t oblivious what he’s creating BECAUSE IT’S INTENTIONAL. THEY ARE CANON.

edit: it’s dynamight.delight on tiktok check it out it’s her second pinned video it’s soooo goood

so.

my guess is: IzuOcha isn’t going to become canon, but I’m not sure if ANY of the pairings above will ask each other out etc / make it official. I just think it will be obviously hinted and my hero will end without any labels attatched to the pairings. This isn’t my only theory but yeah, the only thing that I’m sure about is IzuOcha aren’t supposed to be canon.

[oshiawaseni]

Trails of Love Hori's been paving down in the build up for the series' ending

Part II: Decoding the love story being told through other characters

Part One | II. KamiJirou | Part Three ->

.•° ✿ 5. "I̥̰̟͈̣̮͑̑͐̓̌z̴͉̙̲̋͗͌u̶̫̝̒̊̐Ocha" ೋღ

Oh look, time to defeat the raid boss of BNHA: IzuOcha. (I wrote this meta in March, and after reading it now, I didn't feel I needed to change anything, but I added a small bonus section at the end. Hope you enjoy!)

I have a lot of things to say about why Ochaco was never meant to be the one... but I'll try to stay concise and on topic with regards to this meta. Ochaco appears set up as Izuku's love interest from the get-go, but is that really what Hori wanted to do? I'll be taking a dive into their themes and in part three of this meta, I'll be explaining why the answer to that question has been a resounding: NO!

When I compared the feedback Ochaco got from Aoyama, Toga and Mina about her having a crush on Izuku for wanting to be like him, to Izuku, who didn’t get any feedback for all the times he did the exact same thing and copied Kacchan, it felt very unfair.

See what I mean? It is completely unfair. And this was such a hard topic for me to navigate and answer for the anon at that time. But then I did some thinking.

Compress, Gentle/La Brava, Kamijirou and finally Kirimina (which came as a pleasant surprise, and for me, cemented Hori's intentions with all of this)... all of these characters have been written to highlight various things about BkDk's relationship.

Then, there is Ochaco's admiration of Izuku and she always gets told it's a crush, and it's so weird of a plot to begin with. This very one-sided "crush" also felt out of place with the rest of the themes going on. I eventually realised maybe we had been looking too closely at the admiration issue all along. By attempting to explain the meaning of the tree and why it's different from this other tree, we didn't see the forest it's connected to and that there was actually something bigger going on that Hori had been crafting.

Scale it back and you’ll see: It’s not that Izuku didn’t get his own feedback about his feelings for Kacchan in the various ways he shows he wanted to be like him, but Ochaco’s conversations with Aoyama and Mina and Toga were his feedback!! It was one of the biggest AHHHHHHHHHHH SO THAT'S WHY pin drop moments I've ever had.

No one was calling him out, because they didn't need to! Calling out Ochaco for that behaviour was all Izuku's same behaviour needed!

Chapter 15 is the first time Izuku displays this behaviour of wanting to be like Kacchan. In Chapter 48 Izuku trains his movement after thinking of "Kacchan and the others". His movement mimicking Katsuki's is first noticed by Iida in Chapter 52.

We spent so much time worrying what the difference is between Izuku and Ochaco’s admiration, but we tackled the problem all wrong! In fact, we didn’t need to tackle it at all.

Because not only did Ochaco’s crush sideplot serve as a red herring to veil the real love story going on from the average reader, it was also used as another tool to highlight it.

In chapter 58, Izuku showed off his new movement style and everybody, even Katsuki, noticed it was copying the way Katsuki moves. The fact we get another Ochaco shot of her watching Izuku mimic Katsuki really does add credence to the theory that she noticed Izuku's feelings because he's also copying the person he loves. And if their logic was true for her, then why couldn't it be true for Izuku too? Izuku's mimicry being such a non-issue for 1-A was surely done on purpose for us to see this hypocrisy one day: That her mimicry gets called out as love by everyone, but everyone sleeps on Izuku's own mimicry simply because it's between two boys.

Our take away was never meant to be “what’s the difference between their admiration/love”, but simply that Izuku was both wanting to become like and inadvertently becomes like Kacchan because he loves him so much and a way to keep Kacchan close to him was incorporating both his attitude and movement style into his own.

Hori was linking the two concepts of mimicry and romance together with commentary from Mina/Aoyama/Toga while having Izuku do this EXACT THING they were talking about, with Katsuki, right in front of our damn salad!

Because what other characters noted about Ochaco's behaviour... Izuku was also expressing towards Kacchan. (Hori even brought it up again in DvK2 just to remind *everyone* that Izuku is very conscious of doing the exact same thing as Ochaco)

Even if Ochaco later reveals their logic to not be true FOR HER (which I wholeheartedly believe in. BkDk+TogaChaco end game LETS GO), we know for sure this logic has absolutely been true for Izuku. And the feedback Ochaco got also fits Hori’s framework of;

Bkdk -> are the actions

Other characters -> are the words for their feelings and actions.

Ochaco never was a raid boss to begin with... she only had the appearance of one. All to get BkDK through to the finish line.

Ochaco talking about "putting the All Might doll away" here used the same verb as "shutting her feelings away" and her scene instantly jumps to Izuku looking at his black whip - a quirk he has also "put away" behind a locked door that represents OFA. Black whip is a quirk which emerged from the feelings he has for Katsuki, that Izuku has also had to "put away" because what happened to him was so traumatic. I think Hori wanted us to see their two stories of "locking something away" were actually the same in essence, and it wasn't just black whip itself that Izuku had to lock away, but also his feelings for Katsuki... because we lost Izuku's POV towards Katsuki after the "I'm too blessed." scene. Most likely to hide the romantic love Izuku feels towards him from the reader.

I realised the same logic of the other couples also applied to Ochaco too a few months ago, while I was putting together this meta about all the ways Hori has indirectly shown readers what Izuku’s feelings for Kacchan are. Hori couldn’t say it outright because of his demographic and the current expectations society has that BL should stay in it's own category and far removed from shounen.

So Hori gave bkdk their moments without a whole lot of context and developed the idea of them simultaneously in another language, by getting other various characters to do the talking. And he used these characters to indirectly spell out bkdk’s love story in conjunction with bkdk’s own behaviour, all for the sake of his big bkdk reveal in the series' finale.

And to think he’s been doing this almost since the beginning blows my mind. (Chapter 15! Chapter 15 was the start of WWKD: What Would Kacchan Do) The man is a genius. A lot of this feels like he had needed to release his feelings about bkdk, so he left these trails of code throughout the manga... and we’ve finally cracked the damn thing.

We did it. We realised Hori’s 2nd language and roundabout method of telling one of the greatest love stories in shounen history. And I’m sure there’s even more examples of it to discover, that all our fandom's talented, keen-eyed bkdks find every day.

If Horikoshi Kohei-Sensei wrote this story because he wanted to cement his mark in jump history, he has deservedly done just that!

Part B - The real ship of dreams

(It felt too good to be true, yet I was quietly hoping...) .•° ✿ 5. TogaChako ೋღ

Circling back to the first part of this meta, "The Shape of an Eternal Bond" ... Do you remember when I talked about how BkDk couldn't imagine a world without each other, and the sense of an eternity they both exude together? Something that has always been, something that will always be. It seems more themes and feelings we get from bkdk's relationship have now been thrown into the Togachaco fight.

Ochaco gave Toga what is essentially a marriage proposal to a vampire, and then her wires made the shape of the infinity symbol. Toga expresses to her "I can't stand the thought of you not being in this world anymore." This is 1. so touching 2. bkdk as HELL, and I am certain that Katsuki and Izuku will confess their desires to be together forever before this manga ends.

I mean, this just goes to show you how us bkdks and Hori are literally on the same neural link, and we've been right about his methods of storytelling and how he's leaving trails of love inside these other couples to express concepts that are present in bkdk's own (soon to be) very romantic relationship.

It's a fun thought exercise to look at Togachaco's fight and predict what certain themes of theirs Hori will install into bkdk's talk/feelings they will express to each other... but there is a certain one, other than "forever", I feel very strongly about and will focus on here...

And that is Izuku's smile.

Something Katsuki once detested became the thing he most advocated for and longed to protect. His thumbs pointing to himself while talking about smiles... no wonder this had an air of Katsuki, himself, being the biggest reason Izuku smiles. "How could you leave me and choose this for us - a life of no smiling like that?"

At the start of the series, Katsuki couldn't stand Izuku's face or the smile he made at him. Whenever he saw it, he could only think of it as somebody laughing at him, looking down on him... but then DvK2 reframed Izuku's wide smiles at him and turned them into something pure, and genuine, and I think that's when Katsuki started to realise how much he was being loved the whole time.

And how could Katsuki possibly not reciprocate those earnest feelings from his special person who helped him find his heroic heart?

And this seems to be something Ochaco has noticed about Izuku? Ochaco, somebody who loves when people smile, noticed how big Izuku smiles when he talks about heroes... but especially the besotted faces he makes whenever he's with Katsuki... Of course she did.

On the Weekly Shounen Jump cover that featured bnha chapter 394, most of the characters on it are happy and smiling. Izuku isn't, however. That's because he's lost the ability to smile because Katsuki is still dead in the manga... Hori used this jump issue to build on this theme in the manga - that if you take Katsuki away, then away goes Izuku's smile, too.

Because Katsuki's very existence gives Izuku his happiness.

These two panels were supposed to be compared to each other - "Blood" and "Smiles" are two concepts mirroring each other in Togachaco's story. It's their different love languages. Toga felt like she couldn't ask Saito-kun for blood because he'd never accept her, Ochaco felt like she couldn't ask Izuku for his smile... because he'd also never accept her... she knew this was because Izuku already had somebody who gave him his sweetest smile... the same person who knew him more than anyone.

Chapter 395's title, 'shiawase no ue ni' was an interesting one that feels nuanced with Ochaco's feelings towards Izuku. It can be read as "Above (my) happiness..." I think this title is describing the concept of prioritising something else BEFORE one's own happiness. It's the perfect concept title for self-sacrifice, like Toga putting Ochaco's life above her own, but could ALSO be referencing Ochaco placing Izuku's happiness with Katsuki before her own feelings for him!!

Ochaco's story, at present, appears to be about putting aside unrequited love for a person she didn't quite understand, and instead placing her efforts into an attainable goal - rescuing somebody's heart from despair, and in doing so, becoming each other's important person. And then neither have to journey through life alone anymore. Ochaco knew this is something Izuku and Katsuki found in each other. In the image above, the girls are looking at Izuku and Saito, who won't turn their way, because they are both looking at a blonde boy next to them. Their "Sometimes Saturday." Katsuki.

The hidden face as Ochaco says she "came to like" Izuku Midoriya is quite suspicious. It belies what she's saying and she seems to either be hiding something negative or she’s not being truly forthcoming about her situation and feelings for Izuku. There are also themes of envy that finally showed up in Togachaco's dialogue which may be foundation Hori has laid down for the reveal of Ochaco's feelings later, as well. Envy about the attention Izuku received from others as a hero. Envy towards Izuku's innate passion for heroes, and the adoring faces he makes for Katsuki, perhaps.

So this smile that Katsuki has always misunderstood as something negative aimed towards him ended up turning into something... very lovely and important to him, as shown in Izuku's panel and how Ochaco described Toga's smile right afterwards.

And honestly... if we get little snapshots of the many smiles Izuku has made for Katsuki, while Katsuki is thinking about how adorable Izuku looks just for him when they're talking, I don't think I'll make it out of this bkdk reveal alive. Hori is going to obliterate us with whatever he's got cooking for them.

With all the major bkdk-alike couples now finished, the next post of this meta series will be: Part III, and the conclusion of this meta series ->

Back to Part One

[thehusbandoden]

Mha Boys React to

You Not Saying I Love You Back

Izuku, Bakugou, Shoto, Kiri and Denki

Fluff- slight angst- crack

This is another old one 🥲

Mentions of KamiJirou and Izucho in Shoto's

Izuku:

You always loved pranking Izuku, you got lots of views, and your followers absolutely loved him. You've been hoping to try this trend for a while now, and decided that you would go through with it today. So, once Izuku was ready for work and came to say goodbye, you had a camera hidden as you sat on the couch, reading a book.

Izuku strolled over to you on the couch and kissed your head gently. "I'm leaving now Puppy, I love you, I'll see you tonight." Smiling you kissed his lips gently, "K. See you tonight Zuku." Frowning slightly Izuku stood there for a few moments before gently petting your head, "I love you."

You nodded and grabbed his hand to leave a gentle kiss. "I know, bye Baby." Frowning deeper Izuku took both of your hands and made you look him in the eye. "I love you." ".... I know." "That's not what you're supposed to say." Izuku frowned. Forcing yourself not to break you say, "Bye~!" "Do you not love me?! What did I do wrong?! I'm so sorry! Was it because I- *Panic muttering*".

Finally not being able to take it you burst out in laughter. "No~! Baby~ it was a prank! I love you, I love you, I love you!" You exclaim, wrapping Izuku in your arms, kissing his forehead in between your multiple 'love yous'. "Oh, I thought you didn't love me anymore! (y/n)~ don't do that to me~!" Izuku whined, causing you to giggle even more.

Bakugou:

Your followers LOVED your husband. I mean, he was HILARIOUS! They ate up his reactions in literal seconds. Whenever you posted a prank, or any kind of video/short with him in it, it would instantly blow up. And so, you decided to do one of your followers recommendations.

I mean, you knew that your husband would explode, but you knew that he wouldn't kill his (s\o). Right??? And so, right before your husband was going to go out with his friends you set up a camera in your living room, hiding it with the number 2 hero Lord Explosion Murder Dynamite's merch (You have a LOT in your house, both bc you love your hubby to death, and he has the biggest ego in the MHA universe.)

Once the camera was set up you went back to the couch and scrolled on TikTok, replying to your followers here and there. When Bakugou finally came out of your bedroom you stopped yourself from giving in as you watched his muscles appreciatively. Holding strong, you swallowed as he walked towards you.

"Oi. I'm leaving now." Bakugou grunted, stooping down for you to kiss him. Kissing him teasingly you almost giggle as Bakugou huffed when you pulled away quicker then he wanted. "Oi. I said I'm leaving." "Okay. Have fun, future number one." You reply, intentionally not initiating an 'I love you' like usual. "I love you idiot." Bakugo muttered, a light blush on his cheeks.

Bakugou hardly ever said those three words, so you almost gave up. But you knew that this would EXPLODE so you decided to go on. "I know. Have fun." You reply, causing Bakugou to halt. "You're forgetting something." Bakugou growled, red eyes glaring daggers at you. "Hmm? Oh, be safe." You smile sweetly, internally dying inside.

"Say it. Now." Bakugou growled. "What do you want me to say? Keep Denki and Sero in line so you won't get kicked out again?" "Y know what. Forget it." Bakugou grumbled, turning to leave. "Wait Baby no~ it was just a prank!" You chase him as he walks out the door, apologizing profusely.

Shoto:

You really didn't want to do this. Like really, really didn't want to do this. But, Denki confessed to Jiro so you had to. You never broke your promises, ever. And one of this level? It would be a sin. I mean come on, you've been shipping them for at least four years, (You guys graduated U.A. like a year and a half ago) and have been trying to get them together for two.

Finally, Denki confessed and Jiro agreed on letting him take her on a date. So, you decided to put yourself, and your sweet husband in agony. A short lived agony, yet an agony all the same. (Yes, I am quite dramatic.) And so here you were, filming a prank video for Denki's prank channel.

If this became popular Denki made Izuku promise that he would confess to Ururaka, so you had to do your best, I mean come on~ two of your favorite ships FINALLY getting together? It was a dream come true! And so, here you were, on your and Shoto's bed, waiting for your beloved husband to say goodnight before he went on patrol.

Being the number 3 hero he usually took a late night shift so he could spend more time with you. (Sweet Baby <3) Giggling at a prank Mina pulled on Bakugou (Not a ship! I repeat, not a ship!) you were surprised when you felt Shoto lay on top of you.

"I gotta go Love, but I'll be back in about an hour. I love you, don't stay up all night watching Bakugo blow up again. Deal?" Shoto asked, causing you to giggle softly. "Only if you promise to not stay up fighting villains all night!" You tease, causing Shoto to sigh. "

"Love, you know that's out of my control." Shoto replied softly, giving you a sweet kiss on your neck, causing you to shiver with delight. "Same here! I mean come on, Bakugou being ignored is utterly hilarious! Also I need to show Denki some love, look at his channel! It's basically dying right now!" Chuckling softly Shoto gave you a kiss on your head.

"Okay, but once I get back you need to get off and show me some love instead. Okay?" Shoto compromised, earning a smirk from you. "Deal!" Smiling fondly Shoto gave you yet another kiss on your head. "Love you. Have a good night, I'll be back as soon as possible." "Come back soon~ but be safe!" You exclaim.

Shoto continued getting off of you and started walking downstairs, seemingly not noticing you failed to verbalize your love. You intensely listened as you waited for your beloved Shoto to come back up. You snorted as you heard Shoto's footsteps suddenly stop. You forced yourself to not giggle as Shoto walked up again, walking into your room he stood and just stared at you.

"Did you forget something?" You ask, completely smitten at the adorable look he gave you. "No, but I believe you did." Shoto replied. You smiled, "Oh? Did i? Well go kick some as-" "(Y/n). Please, I love you." "I know! Have a good patrol!" "Y/n. I love you so, so much. I mean it, I really do." Shoto frowned, feeling bad you realized that he was actually getting insecure now.

He tended to do that, no matter how perfect he was he always found a way to compare himself to other men, saying he's not good enough. Or even worse, he compares himself to Endeavor, that peace of (I don't cuss, so I couldn't tell you 😒) which broke your heart.

Depending on how broken he was the longer it took you to calm him down, and reassure him that he was utterly perfect to you and nothing at all like his shizzy old man. (Yes I just wrote shizzy. Why? Cause shizzy is the same as shiz.) Now feeling bad you walked over to him and enveloped him in your arms.

"Oh Baby, it was a stupid prank, I'm so sorry. I love you too. So, so much." You comfort. And so after his patrol you spent the rest of the night cuddling and spouting words of love. Yes, it took a while of unconditional love for him to feel whole again. (The vid blew up FAST I mean, Denki now has a whopping new 483 followers. And they keep coming.)

Kirishima:

You and your boyfriend were currently in a prank war. It all started when Kiri, that sweet, sweet baby of your's decided to ignore you. Two years have passed since then, and both of you are third years in U.A. high. Last week your boyfriend decided to start a argument and pass out. Yeah, you weren't happy. And so, you were going to get revenge. Your prank channel has almost a million followers, about half on your side, while the other on Kiri's. Smirking you set up the camera in your boyfriend's dorm. Kiri was in the bathroom getting ready for the gym, and Bakugou was going to be over shortly to drive him. (Ummm pray for Kiri's life. Driving with Bakugo??!💀)

You looked up as you heard Kiri open the door, stepping into your view in the process. I mean, you two were still kids, so you haven't you know, *cough cough*. But~ that doesn't mean that you can't like what you see... ANYWAYS! He had a red tank top on, which show cased his muscles beautifully.

He had black shorts and a red head band which pulled back his hair from his face. Smiling widely you looked him in the eyes, causing him to blush. "So... I look good?" Kiri asked, face as red as his beautiful hair. "Good? Eiji.... you look stunning! I mean drop dead gorgeous. I would literally date you in a heartbeat- scratch that I would marry you in a heart beat! SO manly!" You ramble, causing your gorgeous boyfriend's neck and ears to start turning red as well.

Before Kiri could could respond the door was kicked open. "ENOUGH WITH THIS CRINGEY SHIZ AND GET YOUR *Dadadada* OUT HERE NOW!" Bakugo yelled, causing both you and Kiri to sigh. "Well, I love you Baby, I'll be back in a few hours." Kiri promised. Stooping down to kiss you he slightly frowned when you responded with, "Mkay, have fun." "I love you." He repeated after giving you a loving kiss on your lips.

"Mhm, have fun." Scoffing Bakugo stormed off and yelled, "I'LL BE IN THE CAR! DON'T TAKE TO LONG, THAT MEANS NO FU-" "YES! THANK YOU, WE KNOW!" Kiri yelled, face a dark red. Giggling you kissed his hand, "Bye Baby, have fun being screamed at." "Wait... aren't you forgetting something?" "Make sure to keep Bakubeast in check?"

Kirishima would normally chuckle, but instead of him blessing you with the sound of his laugh he just frowned deeper. "Baby... Pebble... Do you love me?" "Why do you ask? But Baby, you gotta go, you're gonna be late." "Please say you love me!" "Baby~ you're gonna be late~!" Kiri pouted and then kissed you on your head. "Bye, love you." He said in a defeated tone, breaking your heart.

Normally, you would go over to him and smother him with love and promise him that it's just a prank. But, you had to stay strong, the prank he pulled was so~ mean! After a few hours Kiri came back to your dorm, sweaty and tired. It looked like he almost forgot about your neglect, but knowing Kiri he wouldn't forget it until you fix it.

After Kiri greeted you with an 'I love you' and a kiss on the temple he went to go shower. (Please just pretend that third years have showers in their dorms or something!) After his shower Kiri let you dry his hair, something that you LOVED doing when it was fluffy and just washed. Time skip: about an hour or two later.

"Hey... (y/n)." Kirishima called, hesitation heavy in his voice. "Yes Baby?" You ask. "A-are you mad at me? I'm really sorry.. I don't know what I did wrong, but I'll fix it! Promise!" Giggling at his eagerness you decided to end his misery.

"Oh my poor Baby! I'm sorry! I love you, I love you, I love you~!!!" You exclaim, jumping off the bed to wrap your worried boyfriend in a hug. "Wait.... was this a prank?! (Y/n)! SO~ mean!" Kiri laughed, wrapping his arms around you he peppered your neck, face and head with kisses.

Giggling you cuddle for the rest of the night, the video blew up and your followers are now asking for more Bakugou content. Though, I would stop being smug right about now, and start preparing for Kiri's next prank.

Denki:

Denki told you that he wouldn't prank you, but come on. His followers have seen you in a few of his prank videos, and boy oh boy did they love you. They requested time and time again for him to prank you, so he did. And you did NOT like that. And because he broke his word, you'll break your's. And so here you were, intro already filmed and camera set up.

"Nugget~ Baby Nuggy~" Denki called, winking at the camera you looked up as Denki walked into the room. "Yes Bubs?" "I need to go~" Denki whined, walking over to you he wrapped his arms around you and started kissing your face repeatedly causing you to giggle. "Mkay, don't overuse your quirk. Be safe!" You encourage.

Kissing Denki sweetly you lent back as he started to deepen the kiss. "You got to go Bubs. See you in the morning!" Groaning Denki leaned in to give you a quick peck on the lips. "I love you. Have a good night." "Have a good night!" You chirp, internally giggling as he stopped.

"I love you." Denki repeated, leaning down to look you in the eye as he kissed your nose. "Denki~ don't be late! Bakugou WILL kill you!" You exclaim, giving him a light push as he tried to kiss you further. "Baby~ I love you~" Denki whined, clinging to your neck like a child. "I know, I know! Just go to work!" You order, stifling your giggles as your boyfriend acted like a literal child.

"(Y/n)... please say you love me." Denki sniffled, a pout staining his cheerful face. Yes, you knew that you should've lasted longer, but come on! That pout! "Baby! It was just a prank! I love you~" You pout, wrapping your arms around Denki in a hug. "(Y/n)! Really?!" Denki whined, causing you to giggle. You laugh as you see Denki's playful pout, before pulling him in for more kisses. (First time writing Denki, hope I did an okay job).

Masterlist | Tips <3

Do not copy, repost, nor plagiarize my work. Ask before you translate or use my work in any way, minus reblogging.

[sanzusslutt]

MHA Discussion Time!

What is the discussion about?: I’m just gonna talk about IzuOcha and the difference between other ships.

Warnings: Some Mha manga spoilers but not many..

Izuku’s romantic feelings towards Ochaco have never been mentioned. Horikoshi has always been very obvious about other ships from the beginning like KiriMina and KamiJirou, while IzuOcha has always been an one sided love story. Horikoshi's handling of romantic subplots has varied in terms of explicitness and development. Let’s break this down.

1) Explicit Romantic Development: Other ships like KiriMina (Kirishima x Mina) and KamiJirou (Kaminari x Jirou) have more obvious and mutual interactions, making their potential relationships clearer to the audience. These relationships have moments that suggest a mutual interest and development.

2) IzuOcha Dynamics: The interactions between Izuku and Ochaco have largely focused on friendship and mutual respect. While Ochaco's feelings for Izuku have been hinted at and developed, Izuku's side of the relationship has not been as explicitly romantic. His primary focus has been on his growth as a hero and his training, with little to no direct acknowledgment of romantic feelings towards Ochaco.

3) Narrative Focus: Horikoshi may have intentionally left Izuku's romantic feelings ambiguous to keep the focus on his journey as a hero and his complex relationships with other characters, particularly Bakugo and All Might. This allows the story to maintain its primary focus on action, growth, and the heroism themes.

4) One-Sided Love Story: The one-sided nature of IzuOcha adds a layer of realism and subtlety to the story, reflecting how not all relationships develop into romance, especially in a high-stakes, intense environment like the one the characters are in.

The absence of explicit romantic feelings from Izuku towards Ochaco, contrasted with the clear and impactful dynamics between Izuku and Bakugo, does add weight to the argument that BakuDeku has a deeper narrative significance. This nuanced approach by Horikoshi allows for various interpretations and keeps the story rich and engaging for different segments of the fandom.

You’re free to speak your mind in the comments! I’ll be more than happy to discuss with you! You can also give me ideas about a future “Discussion Time”!

[one-and-a-half-yikes]

This thought had been in my head before, and I didn't think about making a post about it till I saw a really dumb post I disagreed with.

Once again talking about Izuku having a crush on Ochako, while acting as if Izuku is an average shounen protag like all the others. Except for one thing...

While it can be stated that Izuku did at one point have a crush on Uraraka, and I'm not gonna dispute that, many have already pointed out how Izuku very quickly gets over it the more time he spends at U.A. And all of this is true, but there's one thing I haven't seen anyone point out yet and that's that all of Izuku's moments where we see him crushing on Ochako I treated like a gag.

There's a lot of moments from the earlier parts of the series so I didn't grab them all. But I'm gonna use some to make my case here.

this is literally the first panel where we see this happen, and right off it comes across less like a crush and more like...actually I don't know how to even describe that face...

But the point is that it doesn't really seem like the face of someone who's flustered (especially because we see Izuku get flustered at multiple other points and it looks nothing like this-), and he's barely blushing at all in this. The way that this scene is made, makes it seem like you're meant to treat this in jest. "Oh a teen boy having a crush on a girl, just a boy being a boy!" Yes. A boy being a boy. A teen boy who was previously bullied and ostracized by all his peers and who's only interaction with the opposite sex would have been his mom. I can't imagine why he's having this reaction. Anyways.

Okay now Izuku is flustered...but it's because of personal space? Not the girl in front of you? Huh. Okay. This happens again btw, during the first OVA (I think), where Uraraka in her excitement at being paired up with Izuku ends up in his personal space without consideration for his boundaries.

This continues on sparsely throughout random points in the story, until they just...stop. Completely. And this interesting, because every other time regarding IzuOcha specifically focuses on Uraraka and her feelings about Izuku. And it's never treated as a joke. Whereas with Izuku, you're meant to find it funny, but never highly important, or warranting you're full attention. It's just something that I find interesting, especially when you take into consideration how this parallels KiriMina and KamiJirou, and how for both boys and their feelings toward their respective love interests their feelings are treated again, with weight.

And like I said, Uraraka's emotions are treated seriously. We're given multiple moments to see her contemplate on this stuff. But never Izuku. Why? Because he's not important, it was always gonna be one-sided thing between them, imo I don't think, even if bkdk was never meant to be a thing, that Hori ever intended for this to be a deep, meaningful relationship between these two. That it was always never gonna happen. That's my two cents tho.

Not sure how to end this off, so yeah...if anyone wants to add anything or ask if I didn't explain something well enough lemme know cause I have no idea if I did 😅

[dekusheroacademia]

Ship moments: comparison

Here is a comparison of all the main ships moments and how many are in manga, anime vs novels etc. Again, the moments are what any fan of the ship would consider a meaningful interaction, so of course we have something like "character A saving B and going full rage" here being compared to "character A sharing tea with character B", as I did not weight the different moments. Being that each ship is different, a tea sharing moment might be what is most loved about ship C, vs the angst of rage for ship D.

To do so, I made lists of all the moments so you can check which ones I considered.

The moments added are from these, and categorized as:

Manga (Manga)

Anime (if there are filler episodes or extra scenes not in the manga) (Bones)

OVAs (Bones)

Movies (Bones)

Novels (school briefs) (Novels)

Spin off manga (Team up mission up till volume 3) (Spin off)

Drama cds (unfortunately not all of them were translated) (Extra)

Exhibition skits between actors (from summaries of them) (Extra)

BNHA Ultra Stage additions (Extra)

I did not consider Smash given that it was an explicit parody and re-imagining, instead of extra material.

To look at all the lists you can check here.

This is the whole data:

As you can see, colors are the different manga+adaptation+extra.

Interestingly, Kirimina was the only ship that had no extra (anime or novels or other) moments, all the moments they had was in the manga. Following was Togachako, which had only manga, with a few added moments this last sixth season.

This is just for the manga (violet FF ships, pink FM ships, blue MM ships):

In the manga, Izuocha, Iidachako and Kamijirou are the top 3 F/M ships. The top 3 M/M ships by interaction are Bakudeku, Tododeku and Kiribaku which are also the top 3 ships on AO3 for the whole fandom.

Tsuchako was the top F/F ship, followed by Togachako.

Now, I wanted to see how much of these ships moments was due to the manga vs extra added material (from spin off to Bones added etc.).

And now, if we look at the percentages of non manga material:

On top we have Kacchako, with 67% of its ship moments (more than half) coming from non manga material (so extras and anime only scenes). Following we have Iidamomo, then Bakudeku, Kiribaku and Todobaku all above 60%.

As said before, the ship with no extra manga material was Kirimina, with 0%, following Togachako that only has 6%.

And to conclude, this is the final total:

[distressedchinchilla]

my BNHA/MHA SHIPS +

smol explanations

EraserMic (aizawaxyamada) tired + loud = perfect

KiriMina (kirishimaxmina) loving himbo bf + girlboss = perfect

BakuCamie (bakugoxcamie) angry competitive bf + "trendy" gf = iconic power couple

IzuOcha (MidoriyaxUraraka) softie bf + precious gf = trulove

TokoTsuyu (tokoyamixAsui) goth bf + cottagecore gf = asthetic dreams

KamiJirou (kaminarixjirou) himbo supportive bf + shy(kinda) music gf = A perfect Bi queen and her Pan husband

Huwumi (hawksxfuyumi) energetic adhd bf + soft careing gf = adorable ship that comes w/ hilarious in-law endeavor moments also not as toxic as dabihawks but still funny brother-in-law moments "hey we're gonna have a family dinner next week" ".......so touya'll be there?" "....yes" "......he tried to k!ll be before" ".......I know babe just try and get along this time" "iT's NoT mY fAuLt ThAt He HaTeS mE!!" "..........didnt you kill his friend with the copy quirk tho?" ".....yea" "........"

ToshInko (All Might x Midoriya's Mom) ITS BOTH OF IZUKU"S PERFECT PARENTS HOW CAN I NOT-

[nevouchan]

KamiJirou rp romance request

ʀᴜʟᴇs (ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ʀᴇᴀᴅ)

↡

∴ ════ ∴ ❈ ∴ ════ ∴

𝑹𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔

➺Don't control my character

➺I only do bottom for the 🌶 moments

➺If you do not respond after 20 days I will leave the conversation

➺Respect my outside life, I'm still a student so I have classes during the week

𝑹𝑷 𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆

➺Literary, long detailed texts, I would really like it to be the same for you

➺In the third person singular

𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓

➺Romance ✔

➺Drama✔

➺Violent✘

➺Horror✘

➺Normal life✘

➺Oc x Oc✘

➺Oc x Cc✘

➺Cc x Cc ✔

➺Bxg Good for now

➺Gxg ✘

➺Bxb✔

𝑻𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔

➺No rape

➺No pedophilia

➺No weird fetishes

𝑨𝒈𝒆

➺I will only rp with people 18+ years old

∴ ════ ∴ ❈ ∴ ════ ∴

I suggest going to Discord. (Not an obligation, we can also rp here)

My Discord: nevoujelly

⊰᯽⊱┈──╌❊╌──┈⊰᯽⊱

Hello! Today request for RP on the KamiJirou ship, in general I'm not into gxb at all, but I don't know why I want to try!

You will do Denki and I will do Jirou

ʜᴏᴡ ɪ ʀᴘ (ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀsɪᴄs)

𝙸 𝚛𝚙 𝚒𝚗 𝚊 𝙻𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚢, 𝙸 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚎, 𝚍𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚎𝚡𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞

𝙸 𝚛𝚙 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 3𝚛𝚍 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚛

⊰᯽⊱┈──╌❊╌──┈⊰᯽⊱

If you are interested come see me in private (On Discord or here) or leave a comment

[six-eyed-samurai]

I PROMISE I HAVEN'T BEEN SLACKING Y'ALL

So here's a spoiler for the Kamijirou fic I've been working on 😈😈😈

Jirou likes rock and Denki likes electronic.

They argue about it a lot. The usual which is better, yours make no sense, it's much more superior that whatever you call that music. Sometimes during study nights the books and work are forgotten, pushed aside, to make way for their heated debate. Their friends roll their eyes and ignore them; it's almost a ritualistic thing at this point.

Only Mina thinks there's something more to it - to the rest the noise just dies down when one of them whips out their phone and forces the other to listen to their music.

So what if they were sitting really close to each other and occasionally lean their heads on the other's shoulder? They're sharing an earbud after all, and the wire required them to be close.

(They're sulking, the rest think, because they see the eyerolls and shoulder shoves.)

(They're in denial, Mina thinks, because she sees them smile at the same moment when it hits the chorus and hum together.)

[justahopelessaromantic]

Memories (Ch. 1: Jirou)

Fandom: My Hero Academia Ships: Kamijirou and Ochajirou Links to Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 Summary: They'll probably write memoirs about all this. That or they’ll pay someone else to. When they're all retired top heroes, of course, ready to share their life stories with the public they’ve spent their lives protecting. Who knows? It might even inspire the next generation of crime fighters! Maybe they'll even throw together a neat little scrapbook or something as a class this year and give it to Mr. Aizawa as a gift. For now, it'll just have to settle for rattling around in their brains every once and a while. You know. Like memories do.

Jirou remembers the soft shine of the sun in her eyes

The shade from Uraraka’s arm painting Jirou’s face

As she stretches out her hand

Tips of her fingers pretending to run through the white fluff

Wading through a sea of blue

Almost as if she could rip that light straight out of the sky

(She’d never need to

Uraraka shines so bright already

Like the closest star in the night sky

Jirou would much rather steal her instead

Slip by her in the halls one day

Wordlessly

Snatch her up in plain sight

Drag her

Hand in unlovable hand

Out those front door

Riding the wind to wherever it takes them)

Floating petals brush against Jirou's face

As she plucks blades of grass

1 by 1

Mina mutters something about a pretty view

(It takes Jirou a moment for it to sink in

As she sinks deeper into the tuff of green tickling her neck

Her friends gazing at the sky,

Petals,

Clouds,

Trees,

Sun,

Not the star lying by her side,

With her soft hands,

Faintly folding the edges of her skirt

Rosy cheeks,

Sore from grinning

Wide eyes,

Sparkling in the light

Jirou figures she could stand to be a bit more observant)

Momo offers a soft smile in response.

Tooru hums in agreement

(Or acknowledgment?

Everyone’s she’s so tough to read)

Voices so soft

Kind

Soothing

(Kaminari said the same about her's once

Uraraka too

They're sweet

Maybe even right)

Could lull her to sleep so effortlessly

With the help of the sunshine

Beating down on her skin

Warmth radiating from her classmates-

Classmates?

…Friends

As they lay still with her

Blades of grass tickling their skin

Jirou remembers how it felt to lie with girls like that

Back when she was young

When they let her just be

Cover her ears to muffle suffocating sounds

Hum to herself

Scoot closer to whisper something snarky in their ears

Drown in their soft laughs

(And Jirou‘s never overdramatic

Really, she isn’t

But, god

Uraraka’s airy giggle sounds

So

Damn

Lovely

It bubbles up from her chest

Rises up and floats in the air

Hovers for just a moment to ring in Jirou’s ears

Before finding itself caught in the wind

Rustling the leaves

Painting the backdrop of woodland creatures scuttling about and gentle chirps far off in the distance

And, oh, how it intertwines itself with Jirou’s low chuckle

The two opposing frequencies blending together

Melting into sweet, sweet harmony

The accompaniment the soft murmur of conversation

About...boys, she thinks?

Who knows

Who cares

Her man is shining

Bright as the sun

And buzzing like the bees somewhere else

Right now

It’s just Jirou and her and them)

Brush her hand against theirs

Exist

She hasn’t had that since 1st grade

She never lets it go

Grips it tight

Digs her nails into it

Refusing to let it slip

[faerii-shin]

A KamiJirou Fanfic

Chapter 2 out of 5 - “Spark” Pt.2

summary : Will she finally admit it? Or it will remain like that for a couple of years? Struggling for him really, to simply ask her out.

warnings : none

genre : fluff, soft, comfort?

a/n : Enjoy the fanfic luvs! I stan KamiJirou so much. I need it to happen.

The front porch was still and quiet that afternoon. You could say it actually had the right timing. Or did it, really.  Kaminari’s POV: Oh my — she actually agreed. Is, does, does she actually mean it? Will she actually? Well, I mean there’s only one way to find out. *gulps* (End of POV). Kaminari opened the dorms’ main entrance and there she was. Jirou actually came and was already waiting for him.

They both waved at each other and Kaminari took a seat next to her on the bench she was sitting on. So why did you ask to meet me here, hmm Pikachu? Jirou exclaimed. I just wanted to ask something alright… Kaminari replied back. He then asked Jirou if she had any plans for the weekend, starting Friday. Jirou was somewhat shocked at the question, so she was stunned for a moment.

She then shook her head without even stopping herself, responding no. Kaminari’s face lit up in excitement that you could see small sparks forming around him. Jirou realized what she just did, which could not be taken back. Kaminari then suddenly blurted out, “could you come with me to go somewhere this weekend?” Once more, she was shocked. She then said; if that’s what you want, why not.

He started releasing more electricity, but with Jirou there she stopped him just in time. They agreed to meet each other outside of the dorms once more. This time on Friday, 3pm — where the adventure truly begins.

To be continued on Chapter 3 out of 5 - “As Beautiful as a Sakura” Pt. 1 

[oshiawaseni]

Trails of Love Hori's been paving down in the build up for the series' ending

Part II: Decoding the love story being told through other characters

Part One | II. Kirimina | Part Two -> IzuOcha?

.•° ✿ 4. KamiJirou ೋღ

The next 'couple' that helps Horikoshi tell bkdk's love story is Kamijirou. They don't say it as explicitly to the readers as Gentle/La Brava and Kirimina do, but this moment is still worth mentioning as it's another example of other characters speaking for BkDk's actions.

In the first war, the Midnight group were traveling to go against the villains at their hideout, and Kaminari was scared out of his mind, unable to cope with his anxieties from the dangers facing him.

Tokoyami tries to calm him down by praising his guitar skills, to no avail. Midnight is apologetically saying he's being involved in the war efforts because the adults don't have what it takes to fight alone.

She then tells him something which acts as confirmation of Kaminari's feelings for Jirou, for the first time in the manga.

Think of the person who matters most to you, right now.

They're both thinking of each other. This telepathic soul mates vibe reminds me of how BkDk are with each other, too.

This is my favourite drawing of Kaminari, he looks so pretty to me and I think it's because his situation and his expression shows the love and worry in his heart for Jirou. Up until this point he's been quite an elusive character to me that hit on the girls in the class at the beginning and suddenly we see he actually cares a great deal for just one... Jirou. It would seem he's found his match in her. ^_^

This theme of "thinking of the person that matters most" to stave off your fears never went away... because almost 100 chapters later, Hori draws upon it again when Katsuki realises sAFO was only interested in killing him and would not stop until he was dead.

None of the heroes had the power to prevent it... his hero wouldn't make it in time, his own efforts failed and his body and mind were brutalised in a really humiliating way.

Knowing he was soon going to die because sAFO wanted to use his death to hurt his most precious person was a very frightening experience for Kacchan. Thoughts of "the person who matters most to him" provided him emotional comfort to get through it all.

Stripped completely bare and facing his end... all Katsuki could think about was Izuku being right there beside him, and he never let himself give in to sAFO's provocations. Instead of feeling betrayed by Izuku's love, he felt empowered by it. He wanted to be strong for Izuku's sake. His spirit would not be broken.

Just like how Kaminari realised what his feelings for Jirou were, Kacchan also realised how much he and Izuku were loving each other right then, during this very dire moment, and he used their precious feelings as his strength to keep pushing forward.

Next Part -> IzuOcha Back to Part One

[jazwritesalot]

Shaken, Not Stirred - Chapter 1: Amaretto Sour

Pairing: Shinsou Hitoshi/Kaminari Denki, ShinKami Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia, My Hero Academia Rating: Teen & Up Audiences Total Word Count: 22,634 Tags: Aged Up Characters, AU - College/University, AU - No Quirks, AU - Coffee Shops & Cafes, Barista/Electrician/DJ Kaminari, Waiter/Bartender/Psych Student Shinsou, Bakusquad Shenanigans, brief one-sided KamiJirou, side KiriBaku, background EraserMic, background CamieJirou, comedy, alcohol consumption, drinking, house parties, bar scene, implications of depression, cat cafes

Link to AO3

Written for the ShinKami Big Bang 2020

Summary: Kaminari Denki is a jack of all trades, but a master of none. Juggling three jobs seems impossible at times, but he manages well. That is, until romance gets in the way. After a failed attempt to woo his long-time crush, he finds himself slipping into a downward spiral. With a not-so-gentle nudge from his roommates, he finds himself at the doors of Cool Beans Cat Cafe. What he finds beyond those doors may just be the push he needs to get better. The hot waiter is just an added bonus.

“For the love of God, can you please stop? You’re so freakin’ annoying! I’m only going to say this once, okay? I’m not interested in you, so back off.” The words replayed themselves in his mind nonstop since the moment she uttered them. It had been a little less than a month since the unfortunate accident that Midoriya had at Tape Deck, and Denki was sure it was going to work out in his favor. Sato had called him in a panic once he heard about the broken arm, asking if he would mind picking up some of Midoriya’s shifts for him. He jumped at the opportunity, figuring that spending more time at work with Jirou would give him plenty of opportunity to put the moves on her until he was able to work up the courage to ask her out. It was a total win-win. Or so he thought. It was one of the rare days where Sato left the shop early, so that left the store with Bakugou manning the kitchen, Denki the register, and Jirou finishing out her shift as the sole bicycle delivery driver. Clearly his attempts to woo her were in vain, for the moment the electricity-based pickup line left his lips, she whipped around, delivering the words in a harsh tone, eyes narrowed and face tinged red.

Things had been awkward between them since that day, unfortunately for him. There was the sting of rejection, sure, but he was hoping that they could at least go back to their normal friendship and banter. However, he was proved wrong again and again as she continued to ignore his very presence at work for the next week. He couldn’t really talk about what was going on with his coworkers since he was working pretty exclusively with Bakugou, who was as prickly as they came. Why his roommate had a crush on him, then proceeded to date him, Denki would never know. It got both better and worse when Midoriya returned earlier than expected; better since he had less shifts to fill in for, yet worse since he went back to working the lunch shifts, which put him back to working more closely with Jirou, who was still ignoring him. His heart just wasn’t into it, or anything, anymore, which was a tragedy really, since he did enjoy this job. Because of this, he found himself calling out more frequently, which he knew was kind of a dick move, but he just couldn’t help himself. He knew he needed to just be honest with Sato about what was going on. The man was very kind and surely would understand and fix the schedule for him. Unfortunately, the truth would have to wait another day. He picked his phone up off the arm of the couch, exiting out of the picture of the schedule he took and dialed the cafe.

“Sugar Rush. Sato speaking. How may I help you?” He could hear the ovens buzzing in the background and Uraraka’s laughter filling the air. 

“Hey Sato, sorry for calling on such short notice, but I think I’ve come down with a stomach bug. I won’t be able to make it in today. Sorry,” he lied.  

“That’s okay, Kaminari. I’ll get your shift covered. Feel better soon,” Sato assured in a warm tone before ending the call and Denki almost felt guilty about lying to him. With a heavy sigh, he placed the phone down on the coffee table and stretched out on the couch, his eyes roving the ceiling, looking for patterns in the uneven, flaking paint. He let his mind wander aimlessly as time crawled by slowly, ruminating in what he could have done differently to avoid this entire mess. 

The sound of footsteps clambering down the stairs brought him out of his head and he blinked blearily. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed from his phone call to Sato and now, but he was pretty sure he dozed off a little bit. Kirishima rounded the corner, humming along to whatever song was playing on his phone, when he stopped short at the sight of Kaminari’s prone form. 

“Dude, shouldn’t you be getting ready for work?” he asked as he popped a headphone out and looked at his phone. “Or well, weren’t you supposed to be at work like thirty minutes ago?”

“Sato called me off. I guess it’s just not been busy enough for me to be there,” he shrugged, sitting up to make room for Kirishima. He hated how easily the lies rolled off his tongue, but there really wasn’t anything he could do about it now. 

“Man, that’s strange, since finals are coming up next week,” Kirishima mused before brushing it off and moving to stand in front of the mirror in the room to fiddle with his hair instead of joining him on the couch.  

“You’re in a good mood. Have plans?” Denki asked, trying to keep up appearances as he slumped back down across the cushions.  

“Yeah! Katsuki gets out of class soon, so we were going to have a lunch date before his shift tonight,” he smiled.

“Dressed like that? I’m sure Bakugou will love that,” he chuckled, hoping that it was believable enough to pass as he looked over Kirishima’s outfit. The guy was a fashion disaster in his black joggers paired with a white “suns out, guns out” tank layered underneath a short-sleeved navy blue button down with cartoon sharks patterned on it. If he decided to wear his crocs with that, Denki would yell at him, on principle alone. 

“He doesn’t mind,” Kirishima laughed. “Better to be myself with him rather than who the media wants me to be,” he called out as he walked to the bathroom, returning with a tub of hair gel.  

“That’s gotta be the only reason you are able to maintain such a low profile out in public despite your popularity.”

“That, and everyone still thinks I have black hair. Makes it really easy to go undetected when they’re looking for someone who doesn’t exist anymore,” he mused while spiking his hair. They existed in silence, save for Kirishima humming, while Denki watched him work, mulling over his words. What would it be like to be with someone who cares about you for who you are, not for what you are? The silence was short-lived, however, as Kirishima’s phone started buzzing incessantly against the table under the mirror. A grin lit up his face as he swiped his pinky across the screen, answering the call and putting it on speaker. 

“Hey babe! I’m almost ready, just doing my hair.”

“Sorry Ei, but I’m going to have to take a rain check on our date,” Bakugou grumbled. 

“Oh? Did something happen in class?” Denki felt like he shouldn’t be overhearing their conversation, but he was curious as to why Bakugou would cancel at the last minute. It wasn’t really like him. Instantly, the realization hit him, and he felt a ball of panic weighing down on him. 

“Not class. Kaminari freakin’ called out again, so Sato called me in.” Denki was frozen in place, watching the realization hit Kirishima as his hands stilled in his hair. He faintly heard the fridge door close too, meaning Sero was also hearing this. 

“He did?” Kirishima asked, wiping his hands on a damp towel he had also brought out from the bathroom, his eyebrow quirked as he looked at Denki, who couldn’t look away no matter how much his brain was screaming at him to run and hide.  

“Something about a stomach bug, I guess. Now I gotta work a freakin’ double shift today on top of studying for finals. I swear to God, Dunce Face better actually be sick. I’m tired of covering his shifts.”

“I’ll hit him up and see how he’s doing. Anyway, when is your break? I can stop by then and we can have a mini date. How does that sound?” 

“Sounds good to me. I’ll probably take my break once Deku gets here at three. I’m about to head in, so I will see you then. Bye.”

“Bye babe! See you then!” Denki was still sitting there, petrified, as Kirishima ended the call and turned to face him, arms crossed over his chest. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sero leaning against the entryway to the kitchen eating an apple.

“I thought Sato called you off, Denks?” Kirishima asked. 

“Did I say that? Whoops, my bad. I meant to say I called off,” Kaminari laughed nervously, rubbing at the back of his neck. 

“Denki, when is the last time you went to work?” Concern was written all over Kirishima’s face. 

“Last week. I think you were busy doing filming.”

“Filming finished three weeks ago, Kaminari,” Sero chimed in as he finished off his apple. How long had it been since he last worked at Sugar Rush? Two weeks? He couldn’t really remember.  “Let me ask you this—have you worked any of your jobs recently?”

“What? Of course I have!” He had, hadn’t he? Sure, it had been probably two weeks since he worked at Sugar Rush. And maybe he had been neglecting the emails and texts from the local bars about putting on a show. He had at least answered the work phone for his electrician job... four weeks ago. Shit. 

“Kami, I know Kirishima helped you out with your rent for this month. Don’t lie to us.” Denki bit his lip, averting his eyes from Kirishima’s worried gaze and settling on Sero’s face, which looked both disappointed and concerned. It’s not like he liked lying to them. It was just easier than the truth. Sero shifted and the kitchen light glinted off the metal through his nose, catching Denki’s attention.       

“When did you get your septum pierced?” Kaminari asked both in genuine curiosity and in an attempt to change the conversation. How much had he missed?

“Like two weeks ago. But that’s not the point, Denki.”

“We’re just worried about you, man,” Kirishima said softly, sitting down next to him on the couch and clapping a hand on his shoulder. “You haven’t left the house in weeks.” Oh shit. They had noticed that?He hadn’t even realized how much time he had been spending around their house.

“That, and you haven’t even worked on any new mixes,” Sero added, collapsing into the spot on the other side of Kirishima. “I miss hearing the bizarre shit blaring from your room.”

“I guess I just really haven’t been feeling inspired lately,” Denki shrugs, leaning back against the cushions, head tilted back to stare at the cracks in the ceiling. 

“Does this have anything to do with Jirou?” Kirishima asked quietly and Kaminari whipped his head to the right to stare at him.

“Wha? How did you?” he babbled. He couldn’t remember ever saying anything to either one of them about what went down between the two of them at work. He was also pretty sure he had done a decent job of keeping his emotions and reactions in check whenever she got mentioned at home. 

“Katsuki may have mentioned something to me the last time I saw him,” Kirishima admitted sheepishly. That made sense, Denki supposed. Bakugou had been at Sugar Rush on that ill-fated day—he remembered hearing the low whistle coming from the kitchen before Jirou stomped off, leaving the shift early, much to the chagrin of both he and Bakugou. Having to tell customers that deliveries stopped early was never a fun thing to do. 

 “Jirou? What happened? I thought things were going good between you two?” Sero questioned as he turned to face him, his chin resting on Kirishima’s shoulder. 

“I don’t know. I guess I just built it up in my head too much. I totally thought she was into me, you know, but I guess not. So it’s no big deal.” Denki moved his gaze away from the pair and blinked up at the ceiling again, trying to will the tears away. 

“Not a big deal? Kaminari, you’ve got to be kidding me, right?” Sero asked, brow quirked. “You literally got caught lying to us about your work schedule by Kiri. Clearly something is not okay here.” 

“It’s really nothing guys. You don’t have to worry about it.” He felt himself shrugging again, trying to give off vibes that he really was okay. He hated that they were worrying about him over something so stupid. It was just a crush—it would go away. 

“Bullshit!” Kirishima snapped at him. Denki sat up and stared at him in shock as his jaw dropped. Out of the three of them, Kirishima was the one with the patience of a saint. If he was the one to snap at him, he must really be concerned. “We worry because we love you, bro. If something’s wrong, you’ve got to trust that we will be here to help you out.” Kirishima’s earnest gaze was the final tipping point for Denki; all of the tears and emotions that he had been holding back for weeks all came spilling out. Sobs wracked his body and Kirishima was quick to pull him into a bear hug, squishing him against his chest. Sero stood and moved to the arm of the beat up couch, sitting on it and rubbing Kaminari’s back soothingly as he let it all out, finally telling them about the interaction they had at work and what was said. 

“It just… it hurts guys,” he hiccuped after getting the story out. “ And that’s the most confusing part. It shouldn’t hurt like this. There was never a guarantee that we would get together, so why in the world does it feel like my heart was ripped from my chest and stomped on repeatedly?”

“You really liked her—it’s that simple. You guys have a lot in common and when you talked, it seemed like you could see a future with her that was more than just the friendship you already had established,” Sero reasoned as he ran his fingers through Denki’s tangled hair. When was the last time he brushed it? He couldn’t quite remember. 

“But doesn’t that just make me an idiot? I was asking for more than she was comfortable with,” he sniffled. 

“Nah, I don’t think it makes you an idiot. Maybe you could have backed off before it got to the blowup, but there’s really nothing you can do about that now.” Kirishima’s chest vibrated with his words, which started to lull Kaminari into a sense of peaceful bliss.

“Besides, if you’re an idiot, what does it make this one here?” Sero asked, sticking his thumb in Kirishima’s direction. “He has us wingman for him and forgets to set an alarm to be here on time. What a loser,” he snickers. 

“But clearly it worked out for the two of them,” Denki pouted, looking tilting his head to look up at Sero. “What about me though? I don’t know what I should do. Do I try talking to her?”

“I think the best thing you can do regarding her is to give her some space. If you try talking to her too soon, she may think you’re trying to hit on her again.” What Kirishima said made sense, but it still left a sour taste in Denki’s mouth. He hated when his friends were mad at him.

“You should try doing something to get your mind off her, off the situation. The longer you sit here in the house, the worse you will get. Maybe you should try picking up a shift at the cafe, just so you can get out of the house,” Sero suggested. 

“And risk running into her? She’s been avoiding me like the plague. Not to mention Bakugou might actually try and kill me if I randomly show up to work one day,” Kaminari whined, sinking down until his head was resting in Kirishima’s lap. 

“I’d make sure Katsuki wouldn’t kill you,” Eijirou assured him with a grin. “He may try and maim you a bit, but I wouldn’t let him kill you.”

“Gee thanks. That makes me feel so relieved,” Denki deadpanned, blinking up at him. 

“Okay, if not the cafe, why not try calling around and seeing if there is any electrician work that can be done? There’s got to be at least one building that needs repairs of some sort.” As if the fates were listening to Sero, Denki’s phone started to ring, the annoyingly loud ringtone signaling that it was his work line and not his personal one. The three of them turned to stare at it, not quite believing the luck that was bestowed upon them. 

“Dude, are you a wizard or something?” Kirishima asked. 

“Kaminari, you better answer that or so help me God,” Sero threatened lightly and Denki scrambled to grab the phone from the table. 

“Chargebolt Electric! Kaminari speaking. How may I help you?” The cheer in his voice sounded forced, even to him. But this was necessary. Just a step on the right path to getting better. 

“Kaminari? Hello! I am so glad you called! My name is Yamada and I am a world of trouble like you wouldn’t even believe. I’m at work and my walk-in cooler unit just stopped working. Is there any way you can come and fix it? I’m desperate here,” he begged. 

“I’m not quite as familiar with that piece of equipment as I would like to say I am. I’m not sure if I would be the best match for you,” he admitted with a sigh, shoulders drooping. He was actually kind of excited to get out of the house for once. 

“I’ve called around and everywhere else has said that they have no experience working with it. And they all referred me to you, saying you are the best in town. Please, I’m begging you here. I will pay you triple your hourly rate. This is urgent.” 

“Holy shit,” Kaminari wheezed under his breath. Triple his rate? Good god, he would be able to pay back Kirishima with that money. His gaze flickered to his roommates, who were both looking at him questioningly. 

“Please say you will help me. I don’t know what else to do and I really need this to run my operations today.” The desperation was clear in his tone and Denki felt a pang of sympathy for him. 

“Send me the address and I will be there as soon as I can,” Denki assured, already rolling himself off of Kirishima’s lap and rushing to his room. 

“Thank you so much! You will not regret this at all! I will text you the address ASAP!” Yamada agreed before hanging up. He let the phone fall from his hand and bounce on the mattress while he yanked up a pair of jeans and switched from his nightshirt to one of his numerous band shirts that was littered all over the floor. Huh, maybe he should get around to cleaning his room? 

“This will be good for you, Denks,” Sero called to him from his perch on the couch as he ran out of his room, hopping into his tennis shoes. 

“I agree! And remember man, if you need us, let us know. It’s not like it’s hard to find either one of us,” Kirishima reminded him as he also was putting his shoes on. 

“Says the man who was gone at least 4 days a week for filming. Also, your crocs are an offense to every god known to man, please burn them,” Kaminari teased while shrugging on his black and yellow hoodie, already feeling a little bit better. He grabbed his tool bag from the entryway and slung it over his shoulder. “Time to learn everything there is to know about walk-in coolers before I get there! See you fools later!” he called to them before he raced out the door. 

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The journey to the destination wasn’t a long one, thankfully enough. It gave him just enough time to read up about the repairs he would need to do without letting his mind wander too much. Before he knew it, he was walking up the steps to Cool Beans feeling more refreshed than he had in weeks. 

“Hello? Is anyone there?” he called out as he entered the cafe, closing the door softly behind him, mindful to not let any of the cats out. He was forever thankful that Yamada gave himthat heads up before he got there. He looked around the waiting area for signs of any human life. There was a low curse that came from somewhere to the right of him, beyond the doorway, and Kaminari wondered what that was about.

“Damnit, I swore I told Eri to lock the front door.” Denki looked over to where the grumbling was coming from and nearly choked. The man looked like he could belong on the cover of one of those alternative music magazines that Sero was subscribed to. The sleeves of his white button down t-shirt were rolled all the way up, revealing heavily tattooed arms. The front of the shirt was unbuttoned to reveal a black tank top that had what Denki could only guess was the logo for a metal band underneath. His vibrant purple hair was pulled back into a loose bun with wisps escaping and curling wildly around his face. And what a face it was—Denki could appreciate a man with piercings, he is friends with Sero, after all, and this man was no exception to that rule with the metal threaded through his lip, eyebrow, and bridge. What really captivated him, however, were his indigo eyes, which were lazily locked with his. This man could tell him to kiss his feet and Denki was pretty sure that he would in a heartbeat just from his hypnotic gaze alone.   

“Welcome to Cool Beans. Unfortunately, we are temporarily closed right now,” the man said, his low voice bored which should not have sent a chill down Denki’s spine, but that required further introspection that he didn’t want to delve into at the moment. The man quirked his eyebrow up at him—was that two piercings??—and Denki realized he was still standing there staring at him like a fool. 

“So I heard. The name’s Kaminari and I’m with Chargebolt Electric. I’m here to look at your walk-in,” he said as he jiggled his tool bag nervously. He was forever thankful that Sero combed his hair out during his earlier melt down as the hot stranger looked him over with a small smirk. 

“An electrician, huh? Well, you look like death warmed over,” he grinned, scooping up the big white and black fluffy cat that had walked up and started rubbing against his legs, demanding attention, as Denki talked. 

“You’re not looking so hot yourself, handsome,” Denki shot back as he took in the deep bags under the man’s eyes. A chuckle left the other as he lightly rocked the cat and gave it a small scratch under its chin and that was when he realized that he had accidentally used his flirty voice with cat-man. What was he doing ? “Forget I said that. Anyway, am I right in assuming that you aren’t Yamada?”

“You would be correct,” cat-man snorted. “The name’s Shinsou. Pops is the one who called you.” Shinsou squatted to let the cat go as it started wriggling around in his arms and dusted his legs off as he stood back up. “Follow me. I’m sure he’s still moving the product to the freezer so it won’t spoil.” It was all that Denki could do to not nod his head stupidly (or check him out discreetly) while following him, nor to scream loudly when a young girl came popping out of seemingly nowhere in a uniform similar to Shinsou’s, cradling a sandy-colored cat in her arms and speaking rapidly in a soft voice, the words too faint for Denki to pick up what she was saying. Shinsou ruffled her hair, chuckling at whatever she said and Denki was almost certain he had just heard the sound of angels. How was it fair for one man to be this hot? The small girl flitted away back toward the entrance of the shop after assuring that she would lock the doors this time and they finally reached the kitchen. 

“Pops! The electrician is here!” Shinsou yelled out and there was a loud bang with an even louder curse following it before a man emerged from inside the freezer, rubbing the top of his head. His hair was tied up in a loose ponytail and Denki blinked at him before recognition set in. 

“Wait—you’re Yamada? But don’t you work at Hands Up Radio?” he asked as he placed his toolbag on the ground. He knew his memory was a little fuzzy, but he swore he remembered being stuck in a conversation with this man for a good hour a couple months ago. 

“Oh wait! You’re Chargebolt Electric? Welcome, Little Listener! It’s nice to work with you again!” he smiled, showing off his perfectly straight teeth.

“Wait a second, you know each other?” Shinsou questioned, grabbing the case of eggs from the counter to transfer them over to the freezer. 

“Not closely, but I did some work at Hands Up a couple months ago for him. I guess I just didn’t make the connection that Yamada was also the radio host, Present Mic.”

“That’s right, Little Listener! Knowing that you’re the one doing the work here makes me feel better! And there’s no need to be so formal with me—feel free to call me Hizashi,” he said, giving Denki a hearty pat on the back. “Hitoshi, leave those on the counter. They just came from the market, so no need to chill them yet.” Shinsou shrugged and put the case of eggs back on the counter and grabbed another case of ingredients that Denki couldn’t identify from where he was at to put into the freezer.  

“Sounds good, Hizashi!” Denki grinned. “Now, how about you show me where the problem is.” Hizashi perked up instantly, and he followed him into the walk-in, already sucked into the chatter coming from the older man. It had been quite a while since Denki had really gotten to flex his electrician muscles, so he was eager to get to work.  

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The repairs didn’t take as long as Denki had anticipated they would—thank you, internet—and he was putting his tool away after only around an hour of repairs. 

“Hey Hizashi, do you need any help getting your kitchen put back together?” Denki asked as he exited the walk-in. Instead of coming face to face with Hizashi, however, he ran face-first into Shinsou’s chest as he was leaving the freezer with a bucket of ice. Cubes sloshed out of the container around them, and Denki held his nose, which was throbbing from smacking it. 

“Whoa, you okay there?” Shinsou asked, putting the bucket up on the counter and went to take Denki’s hands, but before he could, Denki squeaked and took a step back. He was already in the midst of a bi panic—he didn’t need Shinsou accidentally adding onto it by holding his hand (even if it was for medical purposes). 

“Yeah! Of course ‘m fine! No need to freak out!” he flailed his hand, the other still over his nose. Shinsou just arched his eyebrow and shrugged it off before grabbing the ice bucket again. 

“Suit yourself. I’ll let Pops know you’re done.” He walked out of the kitchen and Denki was this close to smacking himself on the forehead. What a way to be an idiot. He pulled his hand away from his nose and was thankful to see that his nose wasn’t bleeding, at least. What a story that would have been; “oh yeah, I got a bloody nose from smacking my face on a hot man’s rock-hard pecs. No big deal.” He could hear Kirishima and Sero laughing already. 

“How’s my favorite electrician doing?” Hizashi asked, wiping his hand on a towel as he walked into the kitchen. 

“Not bad! Thankfully it was a pretty easy fix and I didn’t have to go out and get any special parts. That really saved on some of the costs!” he laughed. 

“Cost really isn’t a worry right now. I’d rather spend the money to get things fixed properly than go cheap and have it break down in a couple of days.”

“I still can’t wait to see how you explain this to Dad. He had been harping on you for weeks to make sure all of the appliances are up to par,” Shinsou snickered as he came back into the kitchen, putting the ice bucket up. 

“Don’t you have a bar to be attending to, eh Hitoshi?” Hizashi said with a forced smile, eyebrow twitching. 

“Oh, you’re right. Probably don’t want me spilling any more of your company secrets, huh?” he snarked back, before locking eyes with Denki. “The lighting has been going haywire recently. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw you again soon.”

“Alright that’s it!" Hizashi laughed, playfully shooing Shinsou out of the kitchen. “Get back to work before I get Shouta to dock your pay for mentally tormenting me.” Shinsou’s cackling laughter reverberated throughout the kitchen, and Denki’s skull, as he left the room and went back into the cafe. “Sorry about him. He just can’t help being snarky. I am scared to see what he may teach Eri in the years to come. Anyway,” he smiled, “how much do I owe you?”

“Um, give me a second,” Denki awkwardly chuckled, typing away in the calculator on his phone. “Since there weren’t any parts that I had to order, I only have to charge you for my labor. Which is 15,000 yen an hour. I hope that’s not too crazy of an amount for you.” 

“Are you kidding me? That’s practically a steal! You’re almost undercharging yourself. But, as I promised, I would pay you triple your hourly rate. Let me go get the money.” Denki’s jaw dropped—he thought that Hizashi was kidding about that. He disappeared and came back with the wad of yen and pushed it into Denki’s hands. 

“This is too much, I swear. Can I help you with anything else? Like, do you need help putting the stuff back into the walk-in?”

“Well, I was going to have Shinsou or Eri help me, but if you’re offering, then sure, why not!” The two set off to move all of the produce and day’s meat into the walk-in. Between the two of them, the job was done in no time. 

“Was there anything else you needed from me today?” Denki asked, looking at his phone for the time. It was only a little after 1300, which wasn’t bad at all. He just needed to make sure he avoided the path to Sugar Rush, lest Bakugou see him and try to kill him on sight. 

“I don’t think so, but you must be hungry. Why don’t you stay for a while and have a meal on me? For all of your hard work.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose. Besides, I have food at home, so it’s no big deal,” Denki chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. 

“Oh, but I insist. You have done an amazing job today,” he said, directing him to the bar area of the cafe. “How do you feel about cold soba?” he asked as Denki slid into a seat at the bar. 

“It's nice! But really, you don’t have to worry about it. Or, at least, let me pay for it. I feel bad for taking a free meal.” It wasn’t like he didn’t have the cash to pay for a meal now, after all. 

“Not a chance, Little Listener. Also, feel free to order whatever you want from the bar and Hitoshi will make it for you. And if you want to go spend time with the cats, let Eri know and she can set you up with some time with them,” Hizashi instructed before heading to the kitchen, leaving Denki alone with his thoughts and Shinsou. 

“So, wanna take him up on his offer for a free drink? I’d like to say I’m pretty decent at mixing them,” Shinsou asked, throwing a towel over his shoulder. 

“Hmmm, what about an Amaretto Sour? It’s been a while since I’ve had a good one,” Denki responded and Shinsou hummed before grabbing a glass and the bottles of Amaretto liqueur and sour mix. He found himself being mesmerized by watching Shinsou move, pouring the liqueur, sour mix, and a splash of Sprite into the shaker. A few shakes later and he was draining the liquid into a highball glass that had a couple of ice cubes in it. He garnished the drink with a cherry and slid it over to Denki with a satisfied smirk on his face. 

“One Amaretto Sour. Shaken, not stirred,” he grinned while wiping down the counter. 

“You’re such a dork, Haven’t heard a James Bond reference in a hot minute,” Denki snorted. A cute dork, not that he would say that to his face, though. The first sip of the drink was enough to ruin Denki for any other Amaretto Sour he could ever come across. How dare Shinsou say he’s only ‘decent’ at mixing drinks. “Dude—this is the best drink I’ve ever had. Do you like, go to school for bartending or something?”

“Ah, no. Nothing like that. I took some mixing classes since those were kind of required once we got the bar installed here, but otherwise I just learned by trial and error.” He didn’t look up as he spoke, too focused on cleaning the glasses he had just dirtied. “I actually am going to school for a degree in psychology, if you can believe that.”

“Well,” Denki started, eyeing Shinsou up and down, “I’ve known you for a total of maybe two hours, but I can say that that definitely tracks for you,” he announced confidently. “What I’m trying to figure out is why the cafe, though. Not that I’m really one to speak, since I also work at a cafe, but a cat cafe? What even made you interested in that?”    

“The cafe? Oh, well my dads own Cool Beans. It’s somewhat a family affair, I guess you could say. My little sister, Eri, mans the front counter, Pops and Dad switch off on running the kitchen, and I have the wonderful pleasure of being the barista, bartender, and waiter. It can be a bitch and a half to get everything done on a busy day, but it’s not all that bad. Especially when we can take a break and just chill with the cats.”   

“How is it working with cats?” Denki asked while nursing his drink. “I’ve never had a pet before, so the idea of having many little bodies working around you seems so cool to me.”

“It can be somewhat challenging, since they can mask when they don’t feel well. But the group of cats we have here right now are all super friendly. Some don’t get along well with one another, but there’s plenty of room for them to get their space and destress. Besides, we are all cat people here, so we all know how to read their body language to know what they need.” His back was to Denki as he reshelved the bottles but Denki could just picture the small smile that was crossing his face as he talked about the cats. 

“You sound like you really know your stuff. So, do the cats just get free rein over the cafe? Or are they only allowed in one area?”

“Well, they used to be able to roam around the dining area and the front lobby, but we had an incident a couple months back where we had a customer harassing the cats because he had too much to drink. Since then, we had to section off a room that is for the cats specifically and people can reserve times to go in and play with them. We have one cat, who is actually our family cat, that is a recurring escape artist. So, we always have to keep an eye on him.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke, and while nodding along to what Shinsou was saying, Denki found himself being distracted by the intricate butterflies that wrapped around his forearm. 

“That’s some really nice linework you’ve got there. Where do you get your tattoos done at?” Denki blurted out before he could stop himself. Shinsou blinked at him, looked at his arms, then back to Denki. 

“Uh, I got these done at Tentacole’s. I came across Shoji’s portfolio and really liked his work. Awase, who also works there, was the one who did my piercings,” he admitted with a small blush on his face and Denki was pretty certain that talking about himself made him uncomfortable. 

“Oh! That’s sick! My roommate got some of his tattoos done there. He and Shoji were good pals back in high school, so Shoji hooks him up. I thought the art style looked familiar. Say, you said you’re studying psychology. What school do you go to?” he asked as he finished off his drink, a small thrum of energy running through his veins. 

“What is this, twenty questions?” Shinsou laughed. “I study at University of Akihabara. Why? You study there too?” 

“Nah, I went to Isamu Technical School. That’s where I became a certified electrician. But one of my roommates goes to UA. Well, he does the online program route since his work schedule keeps him pretty busy.” That was the understatement of the century, not that Shinsou needed to know. “I also have some coworkers that go there. Heard a lot of good things. Maybe one day I will go back and get a degree in English. That seems like fun.”

“Don’t let Pops hear you—he’s a substitute teacher for English classes. He can, and will, talk your ear off about English literature for hours,” Shinsou grimaced and Denki laughed. 

“Oh I can only imagine. The last time I did work for him, he talked my ear off for hours about different aspects of radio broadcasting. It was interesting stuff though. Definitely worth being late to my other job.” 

“It’s not nice to talk about others when they aren’t there to defend themselves,” Hizashi chided, appearing from the kitchen with a bowl of cold soba and Denki’s stomach growled loudly. Guess it had been a while since he last ate, huh? As he dug in, he listened to Shinsou and Hizashi playfully banter and Denki made a mental note to come visit this place again, not only for the amazing food and drinks, and cats, but also to get to know the mysteriously hot waiter a little more. He could sense a friendship—and crush, who was he kidding?—budding and he would be damned if he passed this up. He just needed an excuse to stop by again. Oh well, he was sure he would think of something.