Chapter Text
Denki Kaminari wasn’t stupid. He just got mixed up a lot.
“Kaminari, can you solve this equation for me?”
He swallowed hard, staring up at the blackboard she had pulled out for this study session. Her perfect handwriting presented for his confused and fried mind. It wouldn’t be so difficult if he was allowed to use a calculator! But apparently, you can’t really do that with algebra.
“...X to the 4?”
A sigh escaped her. “...No, Kaminari.”
Yaoyorozu turned back around with slightly deflated shoulders, adding a few hints to the board. It was so incredibly nice of her to help them with studying, let alone bring them to her house, err, mansion. She supplied them with fancy tea, wore some fancy teacher’s outfit, and assisted them with every problem they had! Even if it was mostly him and Mina asking questions…
“Look here, we have X squared plus X squared, right?”
“Uh, yeah? So the two 2’s up there add up to make 4, right?”
“Remember your exponent rules, Kaminari! Look back if you need to!”
The boy whined and flipped through crudely written notes, trying to find the one place he could get the proper information. “...Umm. Wait…” He grimaced, scanning through lines as the other students looked up from their work. “It’s… no, not that…” Ashido and Ojiro, the pair flocking either side of him, leaned over, pointing fingers to certain parts. “It’s… wait, I got it!”
“Do you!? Yes!”
“Yeah, it’s 2X squared… right?”
The group cheered mildly and politely, keeping it civil in such a respectable place. But proudest of all was Yaoyorozu, who didn’t have to go and point out the rules in his messy book. “Phenomenal! Yes, that is correct.”
“Sweet!” He jumped up with a cheesy grin only to have it fall shamefully. “Ugh, sorry, I just keep getting these dang rules mixed up.” The blond sunk back into his seat with a pout, ready for the jokes about it. But the first person to respond wasn’t Sero with something tongue-in-cheek, or Jirou with a roll of her eyes, but his teacher.
“No, everyone gets mixed up sometimes. I had difficulties when I first learned exponential equations in algebra, you know.”
“Yeah, but that was like first grade for you.”
“Well, third, but that’s besides the point. We all mix things up, and it doesn’t make you a bad student. And it’s not like a villain will be asking you these questions-”
“Unless Ectoplasm goes rogue, takes the rest of us hostage, and makes you do one of his quizzes!”
“Sero!” Yaoyorozu scolded him, handing him an entire worksheet of similar problems for him to slave over. “Now! Let’s go to history…”
Kaminari blinked, watching her for a moment. Yes, it was just encouragement and her being a good friend, but… she didn’t chide him for a screw up? Wow. That felt really nice. He smiled, listening to her teach with warmth in his heart.
A few weeks after their last study session, and after their test and results came through, the class ended up having an impromptu field day. A nice day right after stressful tests, who wouldn’t wanna be outside?
Currently, a small game of baseball toiled on between the boys, minus Ojiro and Shouji and plus Ashido and Asui. No quirk baseball was incredibly fun, especially since most of the students were comparable to top tier athletes. Hard hits, quick bases, and impressive catches. Everyone was having fun. Until someone didn’t.
“Deku!! Hit it like you mean it!”
“Jeez, Kacchan… Fine!” Leave it to these two to break the rules, however arbitrary.
Kaminari, stuck playing outfield with Sero, blinked twice and already saw what was going on here. “Uh, hey! Get back, dude, he’s slamming it!”
“Shoot, you’re right!”
There was an explosion at the makeshift pitcher’s mound, and a large crack from home plate. Bakugou threw the ball with literal explosive force, and Midoriya returned with matching intensity with his quirk. So much so that the wooden bat snapped clean in half and the ball shot up like a comet. It rocketed up, nearly burning up in the resistance of air before sailing back down.
The two catchers already began sprinting when they heard the bang, and yet they were nowhere near it as it fell. Kaminari just saw it, a speck of white in the sunlight, and tracked where it might be landing…
Right where those uninterested in the game were having a peaceful chat. Oh crap.
Ojiro and Hagakure sat on the grass with sodas a fair ways away, and Shouji, Uraraka, and Yaoyorozu sat in a circle around a guitar-playing Jirou, vibing and chatting about classwork. They had noticed the explosion, but not the ball falling down over them, with the guitarist as the bullseye. And Kaminari was no Iida. Gotta save them somehow!
“Ojiro! Heads up!” Yelled Kaminari, still running to try his hardest to catch the home run.
The group collectively looked to the not-so lightning fast hero, stared up to the sky, and ducked their heads as the ball came down like a bomb. But with quick thinking and wits, their resident genius Yaoyorozu created a comically large baseball mitt and tossed it to Shouji, who used all six hands to catch the ball safely. Crisis averted!
“Holy crap, guys!” “Is everyone okay!?” “You caught that thing!?” “It was going right for you!”
There was mild chaos in the group.
“Alright, everyone, settle down.” Yaoyorozu hushed the group as Kaminari and Sero slowed to a gallop and arrived. “Thank you, Kaminari. If you hadn’t said anything, that might’ve hit us.”
“Hey, all in a day’s work!” He chuckled sheepishly, taking the praise in stride. After all, it was Shouji who caught it, he just called for heads. Everyone settled back down, grinning and laughing from the situation, except for Jirou…
“...Dude, did you just call me ‘Ojiro’?”
“What?”
“Just now, when you were running, you looked right at me and yelled ‘Heads up, Ojiro’ or something.”
“Uh, no I didn’t-”
“I heard that too!” Uraraka spouted with a grin.
“I don’t think I-”
“Yeah, I heard my name and got super confused when you weren’t coming my way.” Ojiro laughed it off with a drop of sweat.
“But I-”
“It was kind of odd.” A mouth sprouting from Shoji commented.
“Okay! Sure, I said Ojiro instead of Jirou! I got mixed up I guess!” He finally spoke up, hands in surrender. He wasn’t even sure if they were telling the truth or if it was just one big conspiracy around him! But it got the others off his case. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head, drifting away from the group.
“...It’s okay, sometimes I get names confused too.”
“Wha- you? Yaomomo? No way.”
“It’s true!” The tall girl came up beside him, smiling warmly. “I had a pair of tutors named Tanahashi and Takahashi, and I always called one the other. And, I could not remember the Wild Wild Pussycats’ names until the final night of camp!”
“Wait, you too!?”
“Well, I used a whole mnemonic device! Pixie-Bob, B for blonde- what’s so funny?” She was cut off by some frankly charming laughs from the boy.
“Hah! I-It’s just… of course you did, Ms. Smarty-Pants!”
Her mouth gaped for a moment before pouting, looking away with a smile. She made him feel better again. That felt good. Almost good enough to ignore the pair of boys walking over from the playing field. Almost.
“Um- h-hey, Yaoyorozu, uh-” “Make us a new bat, Ponytail.”
“Alright! Meet-up back here at 3:30! And somebody watch Midoriya this time!” The pinkest girl in the mall called out to the 19 others who left the dorms for this outing. They even got Bakugou to come, with much bargaining and promise of there being a store for hot sauce.
The class broke apart, many forming pairs, triplets, and foursomes as they scattered across the mall like some multi-coloured marbles. The girls went right, the boys went left, and Kaminari went straight ahead, because he knew exactly where he wanted to go. Here’s a hint: Bath bombs.
The smiling hero-in-training practically skipped down the big open atrium of the mall, soon taking a right into a huge store with intense white light everywhere. The brightness really tickled his brain, and not in the normal, zappy kind of way.
He walked down aisle by aisle, hands running over some of the softest fabrics he’s felt. Blankets that could warm Tsuyu in winter, pillows that would soften Kirishima’s head, towels that could dry an ocean, this place had it all! But as he went through the aisles, he got somewhat disconcerted. His smile started to fade, and he ended up in the last aisle scratching his head. But that smile came right back when he looked over and saw a very familiar floof of hair.
“Hey! Yaomomo!”
“Oh! Kaminari!”
He pranced up to her, already wowed by her heavy bag of things. Clothes and jewelry and makeup galore. Pays to be a rich girl. “Got a whole bunch of stuff already? Nice.”
“Mh! Yes, and I’m looking here for some comforters. My room gets chilly sometimes.” She smiled right back, soon tilting her head in question. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, uh, heh. I wanna get some bath bombs, cuz apparently they’re, like, really good for your skin and, you know, heroes! Gotta look good too!” He chuckled, looking around at the store and biting his lip. He couldn’t find them though.
“...Bath bombs?”
“Yeah, like the things you put in the bath to make all those colours.”
“No, you’re… here, for bath bombs?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“At Bed Bath and Beyond?”
“Yeah!”
“Oh, Kaminari…” She looked away, covering her rising smile with a fair hand. “Are you looking for Bath and Body Works?”
Ah.
He blinked at her, his cheeks went red, and his own hands slapped his face. “Ohmigod, they’re different things!? I am so dumb!”
“No you are not!” She slapped his arm while giggling. “That’s a fair thing to mess up!”
“I got them mixed up! Jeez! Ugh! I’m so stupid!”
“Hey! Hey…” Her laughing died down, the hand she tapped him with now kind against his tricep. “You’re not stupid. It’s just an honest mistake.”
“Mnh… yeah, okay.”
She licked her lips, internally debating for a few seconds before just asking him. “Well, I want to go there too, actually. Why don’t we go over there now? It’s down that way, on the other side of the mall.”
Again, he looked at her, feeling a little shocked she just let that whole mistake go. “Uh- yeah! Yeah, let’s do that!” His signature grin came back, leading her out of the store and letting her guide the way from there…
“...The Sunshine and Cherry Blossom bath bombs, your total is 1400¥.”
“What!? For two!? That’s like a whole meal!”
“Kaminari, it’s okay, let me pay.”
“What- oh- I- dude, you don’t have to.”
“It’s fine, I got it. Thank you so much!” Yaoyorozu smiled brightly at the worker behind the register, skipping off with two pricey soapy thingies. Kaminari followed her, hands in his pockets and grumbling.
“At least let me hold the bag.” He offered, and she gave it to him with no fuss from her end. “Man, don’t spoil me like that, I’m gonna be in your debt!”
“No you won’t, it’s fine! We’re friends! My family’s wealth is of no concern.”
“Jeez, fine, Ms. Rich Girl.”
“If I were poor, I would’ve still offered to pay.”
“If you were poor!? That’s a mute point.” Kaminari huffed, continuing on with a fake pout and upturned nose… until he noticed she had stopped and was giggling again. “W-What?”
“Did you just say, ‘mute point’?”
“...Yeah? It’s like a…” He recognized this situation, face turning red from embarrassment of both his blunder and her intoxicating laughter. “...I got it wrong, didn’t I?”
“Just- mixed it up!” She swallowed her giggles before coming right back next to him. “It’s a moot point. Rhymes with ‘boot.’ It’s a point that’s irrelevant, like how it’s irrelevant to wonder if I wasn’t born into a wealthy family.”
“...So I got it right?”
“I’d say so.”
Those words made him light up more than he could’ve ever expected. Being told you were right by the smartest girl in class always felt nice. But it being Yaoyorozu felt a lot sweeter for him… “Um, hey, you hungry?”
“Uh, a little. Why?”
“Gotta pay you back for the bath bomb!”
“What? Kaminari, you don’t have to, I-”
“Hey. Lemme do this for you, alright? What kinda stuff you like?”
“Um… well, truthfully…”
“...I still can’t believe this is your first time getting McDonald’s.”
“Really? Is it that odd?”
“Uh, yeah.”
The two sat at a small café table by the mall’s entrance, finishing up their meal. They had to go out of the mall to actually get this food, but it’s all good. Point is, they were outside and able to enjoy the salty and fattening food in serenity. And though his wallet felt pretty light now, the benefits of eating McDonald’s, treating Yaoyorozu to her first ever McDonald’s meal, and showing his appreciation for her and her kindness was priceless.
The creation hero took the paper napkin from her lap and cleaned her lips, shaking her head and smiling. “That was… good, surprisingly. I feel kind of bad though.”
“Mh, that’s exactly how you’re supposed to feel!”
“Pardon?”
“Like, it’s junk food, it’s not supposed to sit nice in your stomach, but it just tastes so good.”
“I can agree. I just can’t finish it all.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty full too. You can just toss it.”
“I can keep working on it though.”
He shrugged, and she smiled and took another fry. Now that they were done with that, he studied her. Even after that meal, she looked as Yaoyorozu as ever. That is to say, stunning. But it felt cheap to just see her as pretty and rich. She was kind and helpful and super great at everything! And when she could understand that he mixed things up sometimes and not make fun of him for it? Like, how amazing can you get?
“You’re pretty amazing, you know.” He blushed, realizing what he just said.
“Oh! Um- I- thank you, Kaminari.” She blushed, realizing what he just said.
“Kinda weird to, um, say this, but, um… this was fun!”
“N-Nothing weird about that! Just us being friends!”
“Yep! Just, um, friends!”
“Mhm.” “Yep.”
They stopped for a moment, locked eyes, then awkwardly looked away. Could this be a… date? Class clown and future valedictorian? That wouldn’t work, right?
“...Hey-” Squawk!!
The ‘friends’ jumped at the sound of an incredibly brave black bird, sailing down to their table and stealing the remainder of her fries. It even stayed there for a few moments, turning its head to the two teens frozen in fear before taking the entire cardboard container off into the sky.
It was silent for a few more seconds before some actual, genuine laughs.
“Did that just!?”
“It did!”
They laughed, covering mouths and holding abdomens as amusement washed away the fear.
“I paid for those fries, you feathered freeloader!
“My fries! Nooo!”
“A freaking raven!? What the heck!?”
“Oh, Kaminari, that was a crow!”
He stopped and blinked. “It- it was?”
“Ravens are much bigger, and they don’t like cities like this.”
“How am I supposed to know that!?”
She smiled brightly. “I don’t know. I think you just m-”
“If you say what I think you’re gonna say, that’s cheating since there was nothing for me to mix up.”
“...Fine.” Yaoyorozu gave one final breath of laughter on that word, locking eyes with Kaminari again. This time, it lasted longer, and there was definitely more than just mirth in their gazes. But as he tried to draw closer, she swallowed and looked away. “...It’s quarter past 3, we should head back.”
“Uh, right! Yeah, let’s do that…” He laughed off the weirdness and got up to head on back.
Later that night, Yaoyorozu sat at her desk, finishing up a few notes for her studies. The bath bomb sat in her bag, her pencil rested on her lip, and her mind was completely foggy. She just felt so… out of it. So much so that when there was a knock on her door, she jumped so hard that the pencil rattled across her entire desk.
“Coming!” She called, fixing her hair as she walked to the door. She expected Jirou, or maybe Ashido. She got a… shock instead.
“Oh, Kami-” “Willyougooutwithme?!?” “-nar… i?”
The boy looked up from a bow, looking like he just ran a mile. The girl looked down, blinking rapidly and quickly figuring out what exactly he said.
It didn’t seem right. She thought he was head over heels for a certain earphone hero. She thought this wasn’t real. This had to be a mistake, right? Well, maybe he went to the wrong floor, or the wrong door. Yeah. There’s plenty of logical ways to explain this. She cooled herself down and sighed deeply, trying to look as unexcited as possible.
“You got mixed up again, huh?”
“Nope!”
“...Wait, what?”
Kaminari rose up, brushing himself off and deciding to just power through. “I, you, um…” It didn’t go well, so he started with what he could. “I- I really like you and you’re really amazing and I really mean that and I wanted to know if you wanted to go out with me!?”
His quick breathing was starkly contrasted by her lack thereof. She almost went pale before the blood started to work again and lit her face up. “You, I, uh…”
“I get mixed up a lot, but I’m not right now, I promise!”
“I… I- well…” What does she even say? “I think you are mixed up, because we already had a date today.”
They stared at each other for almost a minute before he finally spoke. “...Is that a yes?”
“Yes. I’m sure of it.”