"Jiro, oh my god ."
Denki flopped on to his best friend’s mattress as dramatically as he could manage, but the traitor didn’t didn't even look up from the notebook she was frowning into. He had to give another pathetic whine before she rolled her eyes and asked "Is this about hot lit class guy, or the battle of the bands?"
Denki might not have been smart in a lot of ways, but he had the foresight to save some of the classes he thought would be easy for him until later in his college career. Literature class was one of the ones that everyone had to take at some point and Denki figured that it was one he could breeze through with minimum effort.
That was, until the first day of class when someone had slid into the seat next to him. Someone was the most beautiful man Denki had ever laid eyes on -- literally the embodiment of tall, dark, and handsome -- and Denki had been trying and failing to properly talk to him for weeks .
"His name is Shinso . And it's about both ."
"You only know that from spying on his assignments." He couldn't see Jiro's face but he just knew she was rolling her eyes, "What did you do this time?"
"I tried to invite him! And he said he was 'already planning on going .’ What does that mean?"
Denki pointedly ignored the glare sent his way.
"It sounds like he was already planning on going, Denks."
"Yeah but does that mean he has other friends there? Do you think he was already planning to watch us? I mean…"
"We're not that big of a deal…" Jiro's face went pink and she turned back to her desk before Denki's smile got too big.
"Oh but we totally are though."
They were for a college town band, at least. Plus Ultra had actually gotten a few shows at paying venues, and they'd been practicing their asses off to try and win this battle of the bands thing. There was some prize money for that, but more importantly --"And we're gonna be even bigger when we win. You know talent agents go to this kind of stuff."
"Ugh, don't remind me."
"You're nervous." That earned Denki a pen thrown at his head, which he skillfully deflected into being lost forever in the gap between the mattress and wall.
"Shouldn't you be too? Especially now that Shinso is gonna see you play."
"Oh shit ."
His huge crush was going to see him play and he had to not mess up or do anything to embarrass himself .
As if sensing his distress, Jirou leaned back in her chair and poked one finger into his stomach.
"Chill dude, it's like you said. You don't even know if he's there to watch us."
"Yeah but…"
"…but you want him to?"
"Of course I do!" Denki sat up suddenly, "I want him to see how cool we are! Because I know as soon as he sees me on stage he won't be able to resist my charm!"
"And you're going to make sure that happens by…?" Jiro'swas teasing, at this point. What was she --? Oh!
"Getting his number!" He said, with all the confidence of a man who had no idea what he was doing.
Okay, okay so this plan was kind of stupid, but it was also kind of smart? Mostly Denki was mad at himself for not having thought of it sooner.
Literature class on Tuesday was a short discussion on the reading that they had done over the weekend. Denki wasn't really paying attention. All of his focus was on the note he had written before class and hastily stashed under his notebook when Shinso had arrived.
If he couldn't talk to Shinso, he could write to him! Sure, it was a plan a middle-schooler would have come up with, but it had also taken him almost a month to realize it was an option.
Did kids still send those notes that said ' check yes if you like me?' Because Denki had been very tempted to write something like that. But he didn't want to scare Shinso off, either, so in the neatest handwriting he could manage, he wrote 'Do you want to hang out at the battle of the bands this weekend? ‘You should give me your number so we can plan things :) .’
The moment came, as the professor told them they'd be reading a set of poems and gave them a page number to turn to. Denki knew there was no way he was going to be able to focus on that, so he waited until Shinso was leaned over, pulling the book with the readings out of his bag, before sliding his note on his desk. Of course he didn't manage to be smooth about it or anything. Shinso must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye because he froze and looked over at him with alarm and confusion. Denki just offered his most dazzling smile and looked down at his own notebook, pretending to read the haphazard notes he had written.
Oh god . Yeah, he was right this was kind of a stupid plan, because now he had to wait and what if Shinso didn't want his number and he was just going to leave without even responding --
A phone appeared in front of him, opened to the screen to enter a new contact. Now it was his turn to look up in surprise, as Shinso looked at him with the barest hint of a smile before turning back to his book. Denki stared at it for a long moment before realizing he should probably do something before the phone locked itself. He had handled this well enough to put a fun nickname for himself in Shinso's phone, right?
He slid the phone back with a wink, and wonder of all wonders, Shinso texted him that very night.
From Unknown Number :
So do you have a name or am I just supposed to call you “cute blonde guy from class”
Sent:
I mean ur free to call me cute as much as u like ;)
But u can have my name if I can have urs
(He really didn't want to freak out Shinso by knowing his name when he shouldn't. Asking made him feel very clever.)
From Unknown Number :
:\
It's Shinso Hitoshi
Sent:
and im Kaminari Denki :D!
The rest of the week passed agonizingly slowly, but Denki did get a small smile from Shinso when he said "See you this weekend" at the end of their Thursday class, so he was riding high.
Yeah , the rest of the band kept getting onto him for being distracted during practice, but he was always distracted in practice so this wasn't anything new.
The battle of the bands was set up for groups to go on stage and play whatever they wanted for 10 minutes or less - for them that amounted to two songs -- two of their popular songs, that Denki was already plenty good at anyways. Plus, it's not like everyone else wasn't distracted. Most of them tended to get nervous before big shows.
Denki was the exception. Performing didn't bother him at all, and he didn't much care what the talent agents thought of them, though he supposed it would be nice if they got noticed. The one thing that did make him nervous was… Well, Shinso . The small amount of flirting he'd managed to do seemed to have been accepted, and if Shinso was already going it stood to reason that he would be into guys who were in bands. So he just had to show up and do what he normally did! And it would be fine!
When Saturday rolled around, and everyone piled into the van, Denki was as uncharataristially as nervous as everyone else, earning himself a tight grip on his knee and a growled announcement from Bakugo that " if you bounce your leg one more fucking time im going to kill you live on stage" which weirdly enough cut the tension and got everyone to relax a little.
Around the time they pulled into the venue his phone buzzed.
From Shinso:
Just got here and am hanging out I guess
if you're around
He hesitated and looked to his band-mates, who were pulling their instruments out of the van and hauling them to the set-up area. They'd arrived just before they were supposed to go on - both because these sorts of things tended to have delays, and to reduce the amount of time they'd spend waiting around nervous. He couldn't really justify going out to meet Shinso only to have to leave right away, but chances were they’d have at least a few minutes…
"Shit!"
" Now?"
Denki smiled and jumped out of the car to grab his own guitar case, pausing only for a moment to send back:
Sent:
Gimmie a little bit
but if ur around u should totally watch the band that’s about 2 go on
I bet ull rlly like them! :)
Was that too obvious? He didn't know and he didn't have time to care. Denki followed the group with an amp in one hand and his guitar in the other. They had everything set up in record time.
Tthe lights were on them, their name was announced, the curtains opened, and they played .
He didn't look for Shinso in the crowd. He didn't , really. That was the thing he loved about performing -- once he was up on stage, in the flow of things, he didn't think of anything else. For the glorious span of their set, he was totally focused on playing his heart out. He barely even registered when they transitioned from their first song into their second, they'd practiced them so many times. If anything, he was upset that they only got to play two -- but the two they had played had been damn good.
All of them got off stage with wide smiles, Denki sent some finger guns out into the audience to be met with cheers and applause. God , it felt good to perform.
Under Bakugo's supervision they had the stage cleared off, everything back in the van, and everyone ready to go enjoy watching the competition themselves in the blink of an eye. And that left Denki bouncing on the balls of his feet because now he was going to go find Shinso and reveal how he had secretly been cool and in a band all along.
Sent:
ok
so I'm free now, if u wanna meet ;)
From Shinso:
Funny thing about that
I got caught up in something, should be free in 10-15 minutes or so
But if you're around you should watch the band that's about to go on
I bet you'll really like them
It took Denki longer than he would like to admit to realize that Shinso had just parroted his own words back at him, mostly because he didn't do it in the demented form of text speech that Denki liked to use. It took him even longer to process what that meant. He'd sent that message because he was revealing that he was in a band. Shinso had sent him that message because --
The next band was announced. The curtains opened. Shinso was on stage with the band, holding a bass guitar.
Oh.
He was pretty sure he should feel betrayed by this or something, because Shinso was now technically his competition, but the only thought he could force through his frazzled brain was, " Oh, god, he looks so hot ."
Shinso's band was much more low key than theirs, dressed in dark colors, opening with a song that started kind of slow, in a building rock-opera sort of way. He tried to take in as much as he could -- the other band members were other people he vaguely recognized from around campus. Shinso had painted his nails, and had at least an eyebrow piercing that Denki wasn't aware of until now. He was good at his instrument, but his bass skills hardly mattered, because as they transitioned from their first song to their second, Shinso swapped places with their lead and started to sing .
Denki swallowed dryly. If he hadn't been done for before, he sure as hell was now .
All he could do was stand and watch, hypnotized as the deep voice he liked so much wrapped around the audience. Fuck. Fuck, fuck fuck .
Problem one was that now everyone was going to realize how hot Shinso was, and he would have competition . Problem two was that there was no way he could talk to Shinso without immediately embarrassing himself. Because Denki was going to flirt with him.
The song finished and Denki found a water bottle being shoved into his hands by none other than Bakugo.
"Go fucking talk to him." He growled
Denki blinked, confused at the sudden encouragement.
"Right now!" Bakugo snapped, "You know if you don't you're going to psych yourself out of it!"
Which was totally true, and, related to that, Denki just got a text. He wiped a sweaty palm off on his pants before retrieving it.
From Shinso:
Well, I'm free to meet now
If you want.
Sent:
Literally omw backstage Right Now.
Shinso was very noticeable, probably on the way back from loading up his one equipment. He was still a little flushed from the exertion of performing, and when he saw Denki the corner of his mouth curled into a smile and oh shit oh god Denki was about to do something stupid, wasn't he?
"H-hey!" he called out, loud enough to attract glances from some of the other people backstage, "I didn't know you were in a band!"
Ah yes, there it was. He shoved the water bottle at the taller man, hoping it would serve as some kind of distraction. Is that why Bakugo gave it to him? Or was he supposed to drink it? Too late now. Shinso accepted it, screwed off the top and took a drink and Denki only realized he was staring at the long stretch of his neck when Shinso finished and caught his eye, smile turning into a wide, leering, grin.
…Was it a bad time to make a joke about being thirsty?
"I'm not really. This was just sort of a thing I got dragged into. And to be fair, you didn't tell me that you were in a band either."
"Dragged into? What ?"
Shinso shrugged, "Their original bassist got sick, and I know how to play a little. They actually had to change up the songs they were gonna play so I could keep up."
"Wh- but you sang ."
Shinso's grin fell away into a much more nervous, much cuter smile - one of his hands went up to rub at the back of his neck, and oh, Denki had found something, hadn't he?
"Dude you have the voice of an angel. Like, a really sexy angel --" Right okay, keep talking and don't acknowledge what you just said and maybe he'd forget it, "-- So even if you're not really in a band you should be. It was totally epic dude. I'd be your first groupie!"
Shinso blinked, face running through several emotions in quick succession - surprise for sure, and embarrassment, before settling into amused, eyes crinkling and mouth turning back up into a smile that had Denki leaning on the fence for support. Shinso’s face was definitely a little pink and he really didn't know what to do with that.
"Not that I'm opposed, but you're either you're smoother than I thought, or you have no idea what you just said."
Denki felt his face heat, "Wh- what did I say? Was it the angel thing? Because I know that it's embarrassing, but I still stand by it!"
As he spoke, Shinso's smile stretched back to that wide ( wolfish?) one from before
"I think It would be the cool guy thing to do to walk away and let you figure it out, but I really want to see your reaction when you realize. " Shinso looked away, like he was trying to keep from laughing, "You should look up what a groupie is."
"Um… Okay?" How was that the thing he'd said that had been smooth? A groupie was just a fan of a band, wasn't it? He pulled out his phone and searched, groupie definition. And it was just as he thought - a person who regularly follows a pop music group or other celebrity in the hope of meeting or getting to know them. That was what the dictionary said, at least, but literally the next search result had an explanation of the slang meaning of groupie, and, oh.
Groupie - a person who seeks emotional and sexual intimacy with a musician or other celebrity.
Oh. Oh. Oh . Shit. He'd just said -- And Shinso had said --
His face was burning so red that it hurt, but he managed to sputter out, "A-and you wouldn't be opposed?"
And wasn't it oh so gratifying to see Shinso's smile freeze and his face go as red as Denki's felt.
"Well. At least take me to dinner first, but yeah."
"Cool." Said Denki. The fuck? He had managed that and he hadn't even been flirting on purpose . "Actually you know what? I propose that if your band wins you have to take me out."
Shinso laughed, low and raspy, and as far as Denki was concerned he had died and gone to heaven right there, "Fair enough. Do you want to go watch the rest of the bands?"
And because Denki felt like he could take on God and win in that moment, he grabbed Shinso's hand, offered his most winning smile, and said, "With you? For sure"
From Shinso <3:
Damn looks like you guys won :\
Looks like you're going to be the one taking me out after all
Sent:
Consider it a date <3