My Boyfriend is (not) a Vigilante

Okay, so maybe Denki kind of deserved this.

He had pretty good control of his quirk these days, but accidents happened. He didn't mean to fry the power grid of an entire city block, but how was he supposed to realize that the villain had a quirk that amplified electricity? It was literally the worst match-up he could have gotten!

Apparently the guy's quirk had been announced over his coms when he'd been spotted, and maybe Denki had missed it. And cost his agency's insurance millions of yen in damages. He supposed he was lucky he hadn't gotten a worse punishment; as it was, they had changed all of his patrol shifts to the late night ones that didn't get worked most of the time anyways. It was more than fair, but that didn't mean Denki had to like it.

For one thing, there was hardly anyone out this late -- 11pm on a weekday were hardly prime hours to be walking around. The whole point of patrolling was to be seen, to let people know they were safe and to discourage any potential criminals from doing anything, well, criminal. He tried to keep up his usual happy demeanor but it was hard when the only other people he saw on the streets met him with squints and jeers. He found himself glowering right back and walking down the sidewalk with his hands shoved in his pockets.

Was he a little bitter that no one was trying to get his autograph? Yes! Maybe a little bit!

No one had warned him that night-patrols could be so boring. It wasn't as though he was going to just run into someone doing something illegal--

He froze as a short, high-pitched scream sounded from somewhere ahead of him.

Strike that. No one had warned him that he would run the risk of walking right into a crime on a night-patrol! His training took over a moment later and Denki took off towards the sound at a sprint, calling it in as he went.

Two streets over, a few alleys down, a woman was pinned to the wall by a big man with a quirk that made his body look like rocks. One hand was over her mouth, the other held a knife pointed at her stomach. Denki knew his arrival would prompt some kind of reaction, so he moved first, shooting a pointer disc at the man followed by a bolt of lightning that had him seizing up just enough for him to run in and pull the woman away, but not so much that it risked hurting her.

He shot her a wink, a finger gun and a, "Not to worry ma'am, Chargebolt's got your back."

Ugh. Even his one liners were shit tonight.

Looking back revealed that he'd had an accomplice waiting somewhere in the shadows that was now trying to help the original mugger to his feet. Well that wasn't gonna fly -- so he shot out a second disc, amping up the bolt that followed since the two were still holding onto each other. Then for good measure he ran forward grabbed the smaller guy, turning him over and pinning him on the ground. He was still stunned enough that it was simple to pull his arms behind his back and wrap them up with capture tape.

Denki wasn't sure what the first mistake he'd made that night was, but one of them definitely involved the fact that he'd turned his back on an enemy. A thick hand grabbed the back of his neck and he found himself being slammed face first into a brick wall.

Right. Big Guy. Rock quirk. Probably should have shocked him way harder.

The main thing in this situation was not to panic. That was more important than anything else, especially for him. If he freaked out and released too much electricity not only would he be left helpless, but he could possibly hurt the civilian he'd been trying to save in the first place. His face hurt, he was having trouble breathing and he was pretty sure he could feel that knife from before pointed at his back now.

He still had some pointer discs out, if he could just see them, maybe he could do something --

He let out a gasp as the man ground his face into the wall, vision filling with stars. He really shouldn't send off an un-targeted discharge without being able to see what he was hitting but he wasn't sure he had time to do much else.

"Hey.'' An unfamiliar voice called. It sounded steady and confident which was the exact opposite of how Denki was feeling right now. "What makes you think you can get away with this in my territory?"

"Your territory?" He felt the rock-man's voice rumble through him and then -- and then for some reason he went slack, dropping Denki in a heap on the ground. He rubbed at his throat, gasping for breath, only barely registering a resigned sigh, and that same mysterious voice say, "Go lay down on the sidewalk and take a nap for an hour."

Denki turned, blinking hard to try and get a glimpse of whatever the hell was going on. Small, hoodie mugger was still on the ground where Denki had left him. The mug-ee was nowhere to be seen, hopefully she'd run away somewhere safe. And the big rock guy was…laying on the sidewalk, curled up like he was taking a nap. Just like the mysterious voice had asked him too.

Uh. Weird.

He flinched back when another dark shape dropped in front of him, managing to put himself in even more pain by slamming his own head back into the wall.

"Ow, fuck!" He hissed. One hand flew to his disc-shooter. He still had a few left.

"Whoa, hey." Said Mysterious Voice, now sounding significantly more gentle and also closer, "I'm just checking to see if you're alright. You got hit pretty bad there."

The figure stepped closer, out of the shadows and into the sharp contrast of the streetlights.

Denki hadn't concussed himself, or gone anywhere near his voltage limit, really, but he would be happy to use either of those things as an excuse for what he did next.

"Oh damn." he said, "You're gorgeous."

Horrible night! He hadn't even managed a good pickup line!

Mysterious Voice was tall, with broad shoulders and a shock of windswept purple hair. He wore a complicated mask that covered the bottom half of his face but his eyes were beautiful, totally mesmerizing, framed on one side by deep eye-bags and on the other by eyebrows that had climbed halfway up his head.

"And you must have been hit harder than I thought."

Denki offered him a smile that actually kind of hurt his face. He must have been scraped up pretty bad, but a tentative touch told him that he'd managed to get away without a broken nose. Mystery man squatted down, still a good few feet away from him but clearly looking him over.

"No, I'm okay, I think. I'm just having an off day. Er- Night."

Denki pushed himself back up the wall a bit and started checking himself over for other wounds. Which was a little harrowing with the stranger's purple eyes on him. He kind of wanted this guy to think he was cool, but considering how they'd met that ship had already sailed. There was a long moment of silence that Denki tried hard not to freak out over, and then the stranger said "You're Chargebolt."

It wasn't a question, and before Denki could snap back with some witty reply he continued, "What are you doing here?"

The tone implied that Mystery Man really thought he shouldn't be here, which, rude.

"Uh? Trying to stop crime?" He bit his lip. Okay, he didn't owe this guy sass, he was pretty sure he'd saved him, after all, "I mean, I was just on patrol and I heard the scream, so…"

Mystery man scoffed.

"Heroes like you don't come to places like this," He said it so matter-of-factly, gesturing not at the dirty alley, but at the rundown neighborhood beyond it. Denki had been at the part of his patrol route where he would stop and circle back -- and had run off when he'd heard the scream. "Especially not this late."

"Wh- What's that supposed to mean?" Denki tried not to bristle. It wasn't like he was wrong exactly, but it was the principle of the thing.

"It means what it means." said Mystery Man evenly. Then he huffed a small sigh, "Well whatever. It's good you were here, I'm pretty sure I would have been too late if you hadn't ah- distracted them."

Denki felt his face heat and prayed it was too dark to be seen, "I would have been okay! But… Thanks."

Mystery Man laughed, low and raspy, and it did not do anything to Denki's insides, promise. "Try not to make a habit of getting slammed into walls. Unless that's what you're into, I guess."

Denki couldn't see Mystery Man's mouth, but he was pretty sure that he was smirking right now. Just his luck to meet a hot, smooth-talking man tonight, of all nights. He took a deep breath just to make sure he could speak at the right octave and tried to make his smile as flirty as he could manage under the circumstances.

"Wouldn't you like to know if it was?"

One of the man's eyebrows shot up, and what Denki wouldn't give to see if he was smiling back right now--

They both jumped as a police siren blared for a brief moment, lights coming appearing shortly after. Right. Denki had called them.

 Mystery Man rolled his eyes, like it was some great annoyance.

"You can deal with them, can't you? I have better things to be doing."

"…Sure?" This guy had just helped stop a mugging, didn't he want the credit?

Apparently not -- Mystery Man stood up and unfurled a scarf that was scarily similar to his old high-school teacher's, eyes fixed on some point above them. It took a moment for Denki to realize what he was going to do, but when he did, he pulled himself to his feet.

"W-wait! Before you go, just… Who are you?"

Mystery Man paused, tilting his head at Denki like he was amused.

"Siren."

And then he was gone.

The police actually seemed as surprised to see him there as Siren was, though they were less rude about it than he had been. Denki even ended up signing an autograph that night, for one of the officer's daughters. There wasn't a crowd for him to smile at, but he did it out of habit anyways, before figuring that it was late enough in the night that he could get away with walking back to his agency and ending the patrol.

Really, Denki should tell them just how badly tonight had gone, just how close he had come to getting stabbed. They would probably take him off the night shift, or at least send him out with another sidekick instead of alone. But…

The mysterious man, Siren, had said it was 'my territory.' Talked about it like he hung around. If Denki did too, maybe he'd get to see him again? Figure out more about him?

The young lady working the clinic at the agency had cooed over his wounds and sent him doe eyes the whole time she was patching it up, and normally he would have said something back, but he was distracted tonight. The whole encounter had been really weird, and it took very little for Denki to convince himself to do a little bit more research. As soon as he got home he cracked open his laptop and got to searching. If nothing else, he liked a good mystery.

'Siren' only returned results about the mythical creature. 'Pro Hero Siren' had him finding lists of heroes who were known for their voices, but most of them were women and none of them were the guy he'd met tonight. 

Siren had to be a hero name right? Or a weird nickname? But 'purple hair pro heros' had him looking at his own friend Jiro, with no sign of Mystery Man in sight.

His other clues were just as unhelpful - 'mask and capture scarf guy' was useless. 'Quirk that makes people do what you say' led him down a rabbit hole of quirk theory that he forced himself to save to read another day, because right now he was on a mission. 'Purple hair purple eyes unpopular pro hero deep voice' got him no results at all.

Finally Denki just pulled up the hero rankings and started combing through. Still nothing.

…Was the guy even a hero?

The more he thought about it the more Denki wondered. He hadn't stayed around to take credit for stopping a crime, and when he'd left it was in sort of a stealthy way, where no one would be able to see him. But he had stopped the guy about to stab him, and had maybe even saved Denki's life.

Tentatively, he went to the search bar and typed 'someone who stops crime who isn't a hero.' Police officer was obviously right out- Siren had left before they could even show up. And that made a lot of sense, because the other result was vigilante.

"Heroes like you don't come to places like this"

Oh, shit.

Okay, so Denki really, really should tell his agency about how last night had gone. But if he did that, he was absolutely going to miss the chance to look more into this Siren guy. Denki liked a mystery, especially when that mystery was really pretty. And technically he was trying to catch a criminal. Siren was a vigilante! And Denki trying to meet him again would totally be compromised if other people started to meddle.

It would be fine! Denki felt pretty confident that Siren wasn't dangerous. Or, well, at least not to him , because if he'd wanted to hurt Denki he'd already passed up the perfect opportunity.

So, fully aware that he wasn't making the smartest choice, Denki went out on the next night on the same punishment-patrol without saying anything. This time it was with his head held high, eyes darting to every shadow in every alleyway. Even if he didn't meet Siren again tonight, he was proving him wrong just by being out - heroes like him went to places like this! Or, well, places like that. Most of this patrol route was in a pretty well-to-do area with nothing much to see -- the most action he got for most of the night was making sure a couple of drunk guys got a cab -- but that just meant he was able to get to the end of the route, the bad part of town, that much quicker.

…Why did the route stop before getting there anyways? Wouldn't it make sense for a hero to patrol in the places where crime was more likely to happen?

He stood at the end of the block, the place where he was supposed to go a block over and start looping back around. He'd moved fast, so he should have the time…

Denki went one street off route, and then another, suddenly feeling tense and nervous as the street lights grew further apart. He didn't know what he was doing, really. Siren showing up had been a coincidence, there was no guarantee he was going to ever see him again.

He startled as a clang sounded as something landed on a nearby fire escape, dropping into a defensive stance. It looked like it was person-sized, though it was impossible to tell in the darkness.

"Huh. So you really do patrol out here" And oh he recognized that voice.

"Siren!" It probably wasn't very becoming of a pro hero to smile upon meeting a vigilante, but Denki did it anyways, "Yeah I do! Why would you think I wouldn't?"

He got a snort in response, "Because if no one sees you, you won't get more popular? I take it you haven't been doing night patrols very long?"

"Uh --" Was that the sort of thing he wasn't supposed to share with a guy who was technically a criminal? Then again, he'd said it like he'd already had it figured out. "How could you tell?"

In the dark he could just barely make out Siren's features, head tilting to one side as he considered his answer.

"Well you're just strutting around like you own the place, for one thing. And you look really conspicuous. It'd be pretty easy to jump you, especially since I'm guessing you walk the same way every night."

Denki flushed a little pink. Was that some kind of unspoken threat? I could have gotten a surprise attack on you, but I didn't?

"Yeah, but it would take some kind of idiot to attack a pro hero outright like that."

"Or someone with a good quirk matchup. Say… a body made of rocks?"

Denki winced at the joke. Leave it to him to get lectured by a vigilante.

Which, well. He could ask. Probably should ask about the whole illegal crime stopping thing, but Denki felt like if he brought it up it would scare Siren off right away. Instead he bit his lip and asked, "Well, what do you suggest I do?"

"Ditch the costume for starters. Maybe hide your hair, it's sort of a dead-giveaway for your identity."

"My hair is iconic!" He gasped, faux-scandalized.

"It's noticeable. Which is the opposite of what you want if you're trying to get anything done at night." If Denki squinted, he could see Siren run one of his hands through his own pretty noticeable hair. He wondered if it was as soft as he remembered it looking -- not helpful, Denki!

"Anyways, as much as I'd love to teach you to do your own job, I have my own patrol to get back to, so…"

"You patrol, too?" He asked, a little too excited. It made sense, he guessed. Vigilantes had to find crime to stop somehow . "Does that mean if I come back here tomorrow night I'll get to see you again?"

"I- you might?" Denki took great pleasure in the fact that Siren's voice sounded slightly strangled.

"Great!" He smiled, "See you tomorrow!"

"…Maybe." Siren insisted, before leaping from his perch to the low roof of another building and disappearing. Denki stared at where he'd gone for a long moment before turning around and making his way back to his own patrol route, significantly more distracted.

Oh, he'd gotten himself mixed up in something for sure.

If sneaking off from his patrol route to meet a vigilante without telling anyone once was stupid, doing it twice was totally idiotic. So obviously Denki was going to do it.

He had a plan. Sort of. More of a vague idea that if he got to know more about Siren he could… he didn't know, maybe connect with him, convince him to become a hero and do things the right way. Charm him out of a life of crime and into a life where Denki got to see him more often, maybe? Was that too extreme for a guy whose full face he hadn't even seen? Probably, but Denki was intrigued.

That night he took Siren's advice, ditching most of the costume (barring his support items) in exchange for some of the street clothes he kept in his locker. A Pokémon t-shirt, some jeans, and a hoodie, plus he'd somehow remembered to grab a knit cap from home to hide the hair that Siren had called him out on. His punishment-patrol started so late that there wasn't even anyone in the agency around to question it, which was probably for the best because they'd probably think he was just trying to ditch patrolling all-together. Which there was no way he was going to do now.

It was a quiet night again, though Denki was starting to wonder if that wasn't by design. Maybe he could ask about expanding his patrol route just a little further, into the bad neighborhoods? Those people needed heroes just as much as anyone else, plus it would mean he wouldn't even have to go off route just for a chance at seeing Siren.

That would have to wait, though. For now, he'd made it to the streetlight at the end of the block where he'd met Siren on the fire escape and tried to lean on it so he'd look a little less conspicuous. Only, as the minutes ticked by and no Siren appeared, he found himself looking around and standing a little straighter. Maybe he was too inconspicuous? Or he'd come by too late? No, that wouldn't make sense. He was earlier than last time, so maybe he just had to wait--

"I see you took my advice."

Denki didn't yelp, but it was a close thing, as he whipped his head around to see Siren approaching him from some shadowy alcove behind him. Had he been there long, or had he somehow managed to approach without Denki hearing him? Should he be offended that the vigilante felt like he was safe to just walk up to him like this? He could totally arrest the guy!

"I see you don't take your own." He gestured at Siren's own purple hair and hoped the breath he sucked in as the man stepped under the streetlight with him wasn't too obvious. He was still as stupidly attractive as Denki had remembered, "I'm surprised you showed up."

"What, and miss out on seeing your pretty face?" Siren delivered the line dryly, but Denki wanted to see Siren's mouth so bad. He had to be smirking. "And I'm not in the hero rankings. I can get away with a little more than you when it comes to that sort of thing."

"Ah, Touché. I think you're pretty noticeable, though." The raised eyebrow was back and Denki allowed himself a wink. As cool and mysterious as Siren was, it seemed that he wasn't immune to flirting, unless Denki was imagining the pink he could just barely see on his cheeks. Still, he knew he was taking a big gamble with what he said next, "Actually, I couldn't find anything when I searched for Siren."

The vigilante crossed his arms, "Yeah, that's sort of intentional."

An awkward silence fell between them and Denki found himself fidgeting with his own fingers. Oh god, he'd gone and done it now, and Siren would decide to take off and Denki would never see him again.

"I wanna find out more about you!" He blurted out. Then he winced because obviously a vigilante wasn't going to start offering up details about their life to a pro hero. If Siren wasn't going to leave before, he sure was going to now --

Siren laughed.

"I don't see why, but... How about this: Keep up these patrols and I'll answer one question a night. Makes my life easier and keeps you motivated. Deal?"

Siren didn't offer him a hand, but Denki reached over to grab one anyways.

"Deal!"

Denki thought long and hard about the question he was going to ask. A name seemed like it would be too obvious, quirk was similarly a no-go -- Denki had a vague idea about what it was anyways. He wanted it to be something surprising, in the hopes that it would make Siren spill more about himself than he'd planned on.

The streetlight at the end of the block was going to become their spot, it seemed, because when Denki arrived Siren was already waiting there with his so-smug, one eyebrow raised face.

…Denki forced himself not to examine what he was doing too hard. Like, he was known for doing dumb shit, but arranging meetups with a vigilante and not arresting him was on the top of the list for sure. He kept telling himself 'I have to know more about him so I can know how to help him' . It may have been a flimsy excuse, but hey, at least it was true.

When he showed up, Siren opened his arms and said "So? You have some kind of icebreaker question for me right? My favorite color? Perhaps my star sign?"

Denki bit his bottom lip to hide a smile.

"I do want to know those, but no. My question is…" He paused for dramatic effect, only to be met with Siren's unimpressed stare, "Are you a fan of Eraserhead?"

Well, he had been right on the surprising question front, because Siren straight up sputtered.

"Uh, yeah. Something like that." One hand came up to pull at the capture weapon around his neck, "…Now that I think of it, you graduated from UA, right?"

Denki giggled, he probably shouldn't share, but… "That's why I asked. He was my homeroom teacher."

Siren blinked, eyebrows furrowing disbelievingly. "Yeah, That sounds about right." His hand twisted deeper into his capture scarf almost nervously, "I almost went to UA, you know."

"Oh?" This sort of detail had been exactly what Denki had been hoping for, "Why didn't you?"

Denki got a snort in response, the vigilante's eyebrows furrowing even harder, "I found out how biased their entrance exam is towards physical quirks. Mine doesn't work on robots so I didn't really stand a chance."

Oh, he was talking about the heroics exam, wasn't he? Siren wanted to be a hero, at least in the past. That was a juicy little detail that Denki filed away for later.

"Dude, that's totally not fair. I mean, I've only kinda figured out what your quirk does, but you saved my ass with it! Obviously you could be a hero!"

Siren rolled his eyes, "Well I know that. But it doesn't really matter now, I guess. There are other ways to get things done than to go to UA."

Denki tried to keep his own face impassive. Yeah, other ways. Like being a vigilante ?

…But it was kind of a sad story if he thought about it. This guy wanted to be a hero, seemed to be right for the job if he was doing it on his own, anyways, only to get denied because his quirk couldn't blow things up. But then he hadn’t given up and he wound up turning to a life of criminal crime-stopping.

Hey, at least that meant it would probably be easy to convince him to come over to the heroic side, right? Denki just had to figure out how to actually do that.

"Anyways." Siren was saying, "I think we both have patrols to get back to, so…"

"See you tomorrow?"

"…See you tomorrow."

They ended up forming a sort of ritual after a few nights. Denki found out that their meeting time, while at sort of the middle of his patrol route, was at the start of Siren's. So, Denki started bringing coffee. It was mostly a bid at seeing Siren's face. It hadn't worked yet, but Siren had thanked him the first time and hadn't asked him to stop, so he kept it up. And Denki kept asking questions.

He learned a few things about the vigilante. Some of them were small, like the fact that Siren didn’t use hair gel, or that had never played a Pokémon game (or any video game really). A few of them were bigger.

The first big one: Siren was really in this to help people.

Denki had been at it for a little more than a week, and had walked up to their spot fully intending to ask for Siren's favorite animal.

It had, of course, been the first night since they'd met that a crime happened close enough for them to respond to -- nothing big, or noteworthy -- just a man ducking out of the 24 hour conbini halfway down the street, holding his jacket out in a way that seemed very suspicious. Denki took a half step forward before he found a hand wrapped solidly around his wrist.

"Chargebolt I swear to god if you try to go arrest a civilian for shoplifting food that I will lose whatever tiny shred of respect I had for you."

Denki froze in his tracks -- it was a crime, wasn't it? It was his job to stop it. Could he really stand by and let it happen just to impress the vigilante next to him? Siren must have sensed his confusion, because he sighed and said, "You know sometimes being a hero means letting someone have something to eat tonight. I'm sure 7/11 can take the hit."

Denki didn't think of himself as smart, really, but as soon as Siren said that, he got it.

Heroes like you don't come to places like this .

If you're not around to stop the circumstances from happening in the first place, don't interfere when people do what they need to just to survive.

He stopped moving, hyper-aware of the moment the hand left his wrist. Denki licked his lips.

"You uh, don't really respect us that much, huh?" It came out sounding a little rough, and he hadn't meant it to be his question for the night, but the way Siren huffed made it seem like he was going to answer it as one.

"I respect plenty of heroes, but I don't think a single one of them gives a rat's ass about their ranking." Denki looked up to see that Siren had sort of a distant look in his eyes, the shoplifter already forgotten. "It's fucking annoying how most of the ones who are trying to do the real good are the ones that the system works against."

"Most?" Denki couldn't help the jab, and was rewarded on Siren's eyes zeroing back in on his face.

"…There are exceptions." And then his eyes darted away "We should be going. Both of us."

The second big one had come the very next night: Whatever his quirk was, people didn't like it.

Denki had arrived first and was almost nervous that after the previous night that Siren wouldn't show. But he did, this time walking across the street to meet him like a normal person. Denki handed over the coffee and said, as teasingly as he could manage, "So… tonight I don't have a question, exactly, but give me your hero billboard rant. I know you have one."

For most people that would mean talking about who they thought should be ranked where. For Siren it evoked a great sigh and "It's not like I have one prepared…" Denki's conspiratorial grin earned him an finger to the ribs, "And it's not like I hate all the heroes on the billboard either, it's just…Would you believe me if I said I was jealous?"

"I mean, who wouldn't be right?" That earned Denki a glare and a note to self: stop saying the first witty comeback that pops into your head. Thank god Siren had dealt with him enough by now to deal with it like all his other friends and brush off the interruption.

(…Was that what they were? Friends?)

"My quirk is…” A sigh.  “It's not villainous, but people think it is. I always got shit about it as a kid and most of why I wanted to be a hero was to prove them wrong. I thought maybe if I made it they'd have to eat their words, that or that I could stop it from happening to other people. But the way it works is…" Siren crossed his arms and looked away, "It's not all that useful if everyone knows how it works. So even if I wanted to be a spotlight hero it's just not in the cards for me."

The thought that would come back to haunt Denki later was, Aren't there heroes that no one knows about or something?   Which was quickly ignored in favor of him saying, "I mean, if that's what you think, but I bet you could make it work. You seem really determined, dude."

"Hm." In the autumn air, this late at night, Denki could just see a puff of condensation from Siren's breath, "…You've never asked about it by the way. My quirk."

Denki should ask, he knew he should. Whatever Siren's quirk was would be super, incredibly important to know if the day came that Denki had to try and arrest him. And he was genuinely curious. It was also clearly a sore-spot, and Denki really, really wanted Siren to trust him.

"It sounds to me like you need someone in your life who doesn't give a shit about it."

The look Siren sent him back was so surprised and confused and open it had Denki's heart stuttering, for the brief moment it lasted.

"I don't know if I believe that. But thanks for the thought."

Denki grinned.

He learned other smaller things, too. Siren liked cats, and was insistent that all breeds were equal. Denki was pretty sure Siren only told him that his favorite type of pizza was Hawaiian in order to get a reaction out of him, which was tough luck because Denki loved pineapple on pizza. It was all very interesting, and Denki really enjoyed it… It just wasn't getting him any closer to enacting his plan. If anything, it was just making him sympathize with the vigilante more.

In the following week one of the other things Denki learned was that Siren thought the police were really, really annoying. They stopped two more crimes together -- another mugging and a proper armed robbery, both of which went totally smoothly compared to the night they had met -- and both times Siren would disappear as soon as the first hint of an officer arrived. Denki wasn't surprised, of course, except for the fact that both times Siren asked if he was good to take care of this , as though there was some world in which Siren was.

They had gotten themselves into a rhythm, a camaraderie that Denki was possibly enjoying a little too much, given the circumstances. So, of course, it only stood to reason that something had to give.

It was at times like these that Denki wished he and his friends had started their own agency together right out of school, like they'd talked about all through third year. It was still a plan, of course, once they all managed to have a little money saved up, but in the meantime Denki was stuck as a sidekick at an agency that wouldn't let him decide his own schedule.

"But I kind of like the night patrols? They're uh -- I dunno they're kind of peaceful?"

Ayako Tanaka was a severe woman with bright red eyes who seemed to be totally immune to Denki's natural charm, and unfortunately she was the one in charge of scheduling patrols. She pushed up her glasses and shot Denki a glare.

"Those patrols were meant as a punishment. Which you clearly didn't suffer through." A sigh, the loud clack of nails on a keyboard, "Still, it's been decided that you've done your time, you're going back to normal patrols next week."

Next week was in two days, and Denki only had one more night-time patrol before then. And while there was no way he was abandoning his whole Siren plan, he was also distinctly aware of the fact that he was in way too deep to explain why he couldn't just give those up.

"Ah but… Maybe I could still do a few? Every now and then?" He took a shaky breath, masking it with a painfully fake smile. "Actually, it honestly makes sense if the night patrols are in another district, this one is pretty safe as it is and, uh, there are some other places that could probably use more of a presence…?"

Tanaka sent him an odd look.

"We don't normally do night patrols. You had to do them to show that you were trying to make up for things. As it stands, you need to get back out there and start fixing your ranking."

Denki's mouth glued itself shut.

Heroes like you don't come to places like this.

…But being highly ranked was important too, wasn't it? If you were, everyone knew who you. They would feel safe just by looking at you. Just because you were there.

The tapping on the keyboard stopped. Tanaka was frowning.

"People don't care about heroes they don't see, you know."

"Yeah." said Denki, throat tight.  "I know."

Between that conversation and his last official night-patrol, Denki had come up with a plan. It was as stupid as everything else he'd done up to this point, but if he was going to do this, he should go all the way, right?

When he reached their spot and handed over the coffee, it was with an excited bounce in his step. If this didn't impress Siren…

"I have bad news!" He cheered.

"Yeah, sure seems like it." Siren replied, absolutely nonplussed.

Denki held up his hands, "Okay just hear me out. My agency is making me stop with the night patrols, which uh-- not surprising I guess, but --" He paused for dramatic effect, and also to gauge the vigilante's reaction, which was still mostly just confusion, "I realized I can just keep patrolling on my own. You know, like a vigilante!"

"I think it's just called a solo patrol when you have a hero license." Siren seemed stunned, if nothing else, unsure how to react for a long moment before eventually reaching up to rub at his eyes. Denki let the silence hang. It wasn't the praise he had been hoping for, but he hadn't been called an idiot yet either.

"…You're weird." Siren finally said. "It's like you'd never even thought about the issues with the hero system before. And now that you have you're--" he gestured at Denki helplessly, "What, you suddenly care? I just don't know what to make of you."

"I mean I… Kinda hadn't?" Denki chuckled weakly, running one hand through his hair. "I just wanted to beat up criminals and get popular and I thought that was enough, ya know? But now… I mean having seen this? I should be doing more, right?"

Honestly Denki's feelings on everything were very confused. Was he doing all this because he was trying to gain Siren's trust? Yes. Had the vigilante raised some good points that Denki hadn't been able to stop thinking about? Also yes.

Siren tilted his head to the side, just a bit, eyebrows pulling together in -- oh was that concern ?

"Well I'm not going to stop you, but don't put too much on your plate. I won't always be around to save you if you get in over your head."

Denki couldn't help his own embarrassed flush from the reminder, "Yeah, yeah, I know. The whole reason I bring it up is because I wouldn't be able to meet you as much! And I don't want you to think I abandoned you or anything. So we can work out a schedule or something! And actually if I get to decide the route myself maybe you could give me some pointers on where it's most needed? Because you were totally right when you said I hadn't thought about it…"

He trailed off only when he noticed that Siren was staring at him, and the flush on his cheeks only grew deeper. He probably wouldn't be in this situation if those eyes weren't so damn pretty.

Siren blinked slowly. Sighed. Held out a hand.

"Give me your phone."

A small part of Denki was worried that the vigilante was trying to destroy his means of communication. A much larger part was very curious, so he reached into his pocket and handed it over.

Only for Siren to hand it right back, annoyed, "Unlock it."

"Wh- dude! I'm not gonna let you look through my pictures!"

"That's not--" Siren literally facepalmed, much to Denki's delight, "I'm giving you my number so you can tell me when you're going to be doing things."

"Oh my god!" Denki broke out into an enormous grin and immediately swiped the password in. He was sure that he looked like a fool, as he handed the phone back over. "This has got to be in my top five most convoluted ways of getting a hottie's number."

Siren froze, and Denki could just make out the pink on his ears. God, he really should flirt more often if that was the reaction.

"This is just so we don't waste each other's time," he sounded choked, "If you misuse it I'm going to make you use your own quirk to destroy your phone."

Denki threw back his head and laughed, "No worries, I would never!"

He resisted for a grand total of two hours before sending Siren the funniest cat meme he could find.

Solo patrols were actually kind of really scary.

Like, going out alone at night had been one thing because he knew his agency expected him to check in, and they'd go looking for him if he didn't. Going out like this meant that Siren was the only person who knew where he was. He would probably come help, if Denki got in trouble, based on their first interaction, but there was no guarantee that he would even be able to call for it depending on how things happened. And he couldn't tell anyone else hey, I'm running around bad neighborhoods at night because then they would ask why, and he couldn't explain it to them.

The first night he had actually gone with Siren, as he pointed out areas that he wasn't able to get to very often for Denki to patrol. He would sometimes pause, point at a park and say sometimes drug deals happen there, but usually people are just trying to sleep, so don't run in without looking. Would gesture at a building that Denki would assume is abandoned and say that's a grow-house, but people are mostly using it for vegetables these days. Stopped them, at the end of the tour, to say probably don't go around announcing the fact that you're Chargebolt, people around here aren't all that trusting of heroes.

The second night, he'd realized that it was probably a bad idea to be seen patrolling around with a vigilante, so walked that same route on his own, flinching at every shadow despite the fact that he was a trained pro hero. It hit a little too close to home to the night he'd maybe-almost died, and even though nothing happened, he wound up going home completely exhausted and yet too wound up to sleep. It was bad enough that people at the agency were worrying over him the next day.

The third night the question he asked Siren was, "So, uh, do you mind if I did like a check-in with you at the end of the nights I go out? Because I'm like… Super paranoid of something happening to me and no one realizing it's happened until like two days later."

Shock swept over Siren's face for just a moment, "You're not telling anyone that you're doing this? That's --"

"Stupid and dangerous? I'm aware." Denki said it with a smile but the joke didn't quite land, even to him. "I just… Don't know how to explain why I'm doing this yet. But I'll get there!"

He would be telling his friends about what he was doing only once it was too late to stop him, of course. He could trust some of them to go along with his idea, but not all of them would, and the ones that wouldn't would strong-arm him and everyone else out of it. It had happened plenty of times in high school, and beyond, and Denki had learned to hide his dumbest plots from everyone if he wanted to actually go through with them.

…There was a part of him that really wanted to introduce Siren to his friends, too. He felt like this quietly snarky beefcake of a man would fit in perfectly. But he wouldn't be able to do that until they weren't as obligated to arrest him as he technically was.

"You--" Denki could hear the hiss of air through teeth as Siren got as exasperated with him as he usually did, "Fuck. Yeah. Please check in with me, if no one else. I don't want to be the one responsible for you going missing."

"Aww, you do care!"

The teasing was met with a scoff, and with Siren ending the conversation by turning and walking away. But not by denial.

(And at the end of the night he did get a text, one that read, “This is me checking in, so say something.”)

This plan was going better than he thought.

Time was a thing that was in short supply between 5 newly graduated sidekicks. Sure, Denki lived with Mina and Hanta, but Mina worked evenings, Hanta's schedule was unpredictable, and Eijiro and Katsuki both had the bad habit of working too much even when they weren't asked to. Being able to go out together was a rare treat that they managed maybe once a month, but they did manage. Everyone complained, of course, he and Mina practically had to bully everyone into going out, and when they got lunch, like they were today, everyone always got the least expensive thing on the menu because they were all trying to save as much money as they could. But Denki was of the opinion that all the trouble was worth it; getting to see his friends made him happier than anything else -- until they did something totally embarrassing of course.

Over the course of the afternoon Mina had been shooting him longer and longer stares that put Denki on edge. Mina was perceptive and the way she was acting meant that she suspected something. For once, Denki didn't want her to figure it out.

He didn't know what to do, though. She always saw through him when he was being aggressively cheery, and acting any other way would just make everyone else suspicious. She knew, and she knew that he knew that she knew, so really the best way to handle this was to take control of the conversation. He reached over to where one of her arms was laid out over the table and zapped her, earning a jump and a swat on the arm. The rest of the table rolled their eyes.

"What'cha thinkin' about?" He smiled at her. She gave him a wolfish one back.

"Oh, not much. Just that you haven't flirted with the waitress once since we've been here."

Denki blinked.

"Wait I… I haven't?"

He hadn't consciously flirted, but the act was so tied into his hero persona that it was almost second nature at this point. Mina reached across the table to take his hands.

"Denks, you only get like this when you have a major crush. And you haven't come waxing heartsick to me about them once! I want to hear about them!"

"Crush? I-I don't -- Who would I--?"

The only new person who he'd been really talking to or spending any time recently was Siren…

…He had sort of been treating his Siren plan like one of his grand schemes to get one of his crushes to go out with him, hadn't he? And, like, Siren was attractive and funny and were it not for the vigilante thing Denki totally would have a crush on him.

Shit. Maybe Denki did have a crush on him. A really big one. It wasn't that startling of a realization, once he thought about it. And if they dated he would probably open up more, and Denki would get to find out whatever dark backstory had led to him becoming a vigilante. Then he could be a supportive boyfriend as he got Siren out of a life of crime, and then everything would work out and be great and Denki would be dating a really hot, funny, caring pro hero.

He was aware that it was more a fantasy than a plan, but it didn't really ring as any more ridiculous than what he'd been doing so far.

"Oh my god." He pulled his hands away from Mina to cradle his rapidly reddening face in his hands, "I have a crush."

This earned him a litany of pokes on the side and face from both Mina and Hanta, and a pair of crossed arms from Katsuki who looked suspicious as hell.

"How the hell did Racoon Eyes figure out your feelings before you did?"

This was veering into dangerous territory. He didn't want to lie to his friends but if they asked the right questions he couldn't not.

"He's just this hot guy that I've been talking to, but like, I don't even know him that well?"

That wasn't exactly right, he knew plenty of things about Siren, and upon review, every single one of them just made him realize how bad he had it.

"Uh huh." Oh great, Katsuki had gone all protective mother hen, "Where have you been talking to him then?"

"Uh. Work?" True, for the most part, "Guys, you don't have to be like this. It's not that big of a deal, I don't even know his name."

"Ooh him? You've given him exclusive flirting rights without his name? He must be pretty."

"He -- He is, uh, yeah." Mina's teasing was usually so easy to brush off. How come it wasn't now?

"How the hell do you not have a name?" Bakugo grumped, "Just ask. You're so god-damn useless."

"Kats, I can't just ask." He really, really couldn't.

Eijiro set a hand on Katsuki's shoulder, getting a grumble in response. "Yeah, it's embarrassing, you know?"

Thank god Eijiro had his back, because that made it seem like they had never just been properly introduced or something, not that it was a question he had actively been avoiding asking. That he still couldn't ask. But this whole conversation had led to an epiphany about what he totally could ask.

"Guys, don’t even worry about it.” He told them with a creeping grin,  “I know exactly what to do."

Once he’d had the idea, there was no way that Denki was going to be able to sit around and not act on it. So despite the fact that he had an early morning patrol tomorrow, Denki sent Siren a text that said that he was going out tonight. The one he got in response read don’t push yourself too hard, which, if Denki knew Siren as well he thought he did, was intended to be read both as sarcasm and as genuine concern.

When he bounced up to their spot, Siren was already waiting, arms crossed, eyes very clearly suspicious. Not in an alarming way, more that he knew that Denki’s question of the night was going to be something weird. Which it usually was, when he showed up acting like an excitable puppy.

“Let me guess--” Siren started before he could say a word, “You’re wondering what kind of shampoo I use?”

Denki paused in front of him for just a moment.

“I mean. Yes, I am. But that’s not my question.” Oh, suddenly he was so nervous . He licked his lips and forced himself to look right into Siren’s eyes. He had to be confident in this or else Siren would probably assume this was some kind of joke. “Tonight my question is very important.”

He bit his lip and drew in a breath, but Siren didn’t interrupt him. Denki almost wished that he would. Instead he just watched with his focused gaze that really wasn’t helping the knot forming in Denki’s throat.

“Are you single?” God fuck , his voice wavered just a bit at the end, betraying how nervous he was, and he didn’t know if that was good or bad. Siren literally took a step back in shock, face a flaming red. That was probably good, right?

“Wh- Why do you want to know that?” Siren’s voice only sounded marginally more controlled than Denki’s own, and Denki was pretty sure that Siren was an expert at controlling his reactions which meant that he had really thrown him for a loop.

Gaining a little bit of confidence at the vigilante’s reaction, Denki stepped forward into the space Siren had vacated. “Well, it’s important! Tomorrow’s question depends on your answer!”

“Oh.” Siren all but choked out, “Well. I am. Single, I mean.”

“Great!” And if anything Denki’s enthusiastic response only got the vigilante even more flustered, one hand flying up to the back of his neck as his eyes looked anywhere but Denki. God, it was so cute, and hopefully a good sign. His hopes soared even higher when Siren finally looked back up at him and, a little more confident himself, asked, “Can I ask what tomorrow’s question is?”

“Well you could, but that wouldn’t be any fun, now would it?” Denki winked. He probably shouldn’t give himself any more time to overthink about this, but the drama was just too fun, “I’ll see you then, hot-stuff.”

He waved and walked away, much like Siren had done to him many a time. Hopefully what he was trying to do was obvious, and Siren would be prepared, and step two would go much more smoothly because they both knew what they were getting into. 

Well, more or less.

As exhausted as Denki was from patrolling all day, most of the night, and then the next morning, there was no way that he was going to let himself or Siren stew on this for any longer than they had to. And when he texted Siren saying that he was going out at night, he knew he damn well had better follow through because he was pretty sure that the vigilante would stop talking to him if he didn't keep people safe like he'd promised.

Whatever. Going out sleep deprived wasn't the stupidest thing he'd done in pursuit of this poorly-thought out plan. Not even close.

He tried to arrive earlier than he usually did, because he just couldn't focus on anything else and he needed to get this out of the way but Siren had still shown up before him, looking totally as cool as ever -- except for the fact this his arms were folded and his fingers were drumming unevenly over one arm. Which meant that Siren was as nervous as he was. Oh boy.

Denki licked his lips and willed his expression into a happier one. It wasn't that hard, because he was actually excited, but Siren seemed to see something he didn't like, head doing that curious little tilt.

The first thing he wanted to hear tonight wasn't "You look exhausted." But that was what came out of Siren's mouth (Denki was actually only assuming at this point that Siren even had a mouth, he hadn't seen it yet). It made Denki's steps stutter to a halt as he used a hand to gesture the vigilante up and down.

"You're one to talk."

Siren rolled his eyes, and his head along with them.

"That's just how I look. You--" Siren hesitated, his dry delivery becoming laced with something else that Denki couldn't quite identify, "You're already pushing yourself pretty far. You could take a break tonight."

"Nuh-uh. I said I'd patrol so I'm gonna patrol and --" Denki held up a finger to cement his point, "My question tonight can't wait, and I only get those on nights I go out."

Siren just stared and it made Denki feel horribly exposed. Right now, as keyed up and tired as he was, he felt like a live wire that would zap anything that touched him.

"Uh." Said Denki. "So…"

Siren shook his head like he hadn't even realized what he'd been doing, and to be honest that only magnified the creeping embarrassment crawling up Denki's spine.

"Sorry." Replied the vigilante, "I was just thinking of a lecture someone gave me. About how you have to take care of yourself before you can properly take care of others."

Denki blinked and couldn't stop the guffaw that spilled out of him. "I don't know a lot of heroes that listen to that advice."

"Yeah, you're telling me, the person who told me that was a huge hypocrite. That doesn't mean you shouldn't, though." Siren hummed. "How about this? If I can guess your question, you go home and get some sleep."

Now it was Denki's turn to stare. Only for a moment, before he shrugged and said, "I mean that sounds like a no-lose situation for me, so shoot."

Siren took a deep breath in an uncharacteristic show of nerves. "Will you go out with me?"

Yep. Okay, yeah. Yes. That sure was the question Denki was going to ask.

It took a long moment for him to register that it wasn't just Siren guessing the question. Based on the hunched way he was holding his shoulders, Siren was asking the question.

Denki sucked in a breath as his eyes went wide. He was elated. He was horrified. He was really, really happy. He knew that this was a horrible plan and he had gone through with it anyways, and he couldn't say no both because he didn't want to lead Siren on and also because he didn't want to. He was going to go on a date with a vigilante, and he wanted it to go well not just because it would lead to him getting more information, but because he liked Siren a lot. He couldn't think about any of that right now, not when the vigilante in question was looking at him expectantly and he knew what the answer was even if he was scared to say it.

He settled on saying, "You bitch! You stole my thunder!" But he couldn't stop a grin from breaking out over his face, and he was graciously rewarded with a full-throated laugh from Siren that made his heart feel like it was doing cartwheels.

"Can I take that as a yes?"

"Uh. Yeah? Yes. Yes, I would like to go on a date with you. Oh, geez." Denki's ears were burning , and Siren's were too, but at least it looked good on him, "Shit, I guess I have to go home now, huh?"

"Please do. You look almost as bad as me."

"Oh, I almost look all rakish and sexy?"

Siren's eyes flickered with something for a fraction of a second before he took a step back in the way that meant he was about to leave the conversation to go on patrol.

"Maybe, but cute and well-rested looks better on you." He turned around but paused and looked back at Denki over his shoulder, "I'll text you?"

He said it so carefully, so hopefully, that Denki was surprised his knees didn't give out under the wave of gooey emotions it made him feel. 

He said, “You’d better!” But as he stared after the place the vigilante disappeared from, Denki really wasn’t sure what to make of his life anymore.

Going on a date in a public place was the safest thing Denki had ever done with Siren. It was also, somehow, the most nerve-wracking. Even though it was just at breakfast (the only time they could really find something that worked -- before Denki's daytime patrol and after Siren's night-time one) Denki felt like he was about to buzz out of his skin. He wasn't sure if he was lucky or unlucky that he'd managed to miss both of his roommates. He needed to talk about it, but he also didn't dare, because one wrong slip about meeting up with Siren at night and Mina would be all over it, and then everyone would figure out that Siren was a vigilante and Denki would lose his hero license for not arresting him sooner.

He wasn't sure that they would get it if they found out, get that he was a good guy, that he deserved to be treated like a person before a criminal. And, well, that was exactly what Denki was doing, right? Putting aside the whole vigilante thing to do this.

Which was to say that he was going to this date in clothes he'd gotten no one's opinion on, with a guy whose name he didn't even know. He was maybe freaking out a little bit.

Denki stood outside the door of the perfectly normal, if not a little hipster-ish, café that Siren had sent him the address to. He was right on time, which was early for him, but he just couldn't bring himself to go in. This was…

This was ridiculous. He'd been nervous for dates before, right? And nothing bad was going to happen here, except for maybe him saying something he shouldn't and making Siren hate him and then the next time they saw each other it would be as enemies and-- Okay, no, that sounded pretty bad and definitely not something he wanted to happen. But it was way more likely to be what would happen if he stood Siren up.

Denki took a breath, balled one hand into a fist, and pushed open the door.

The café was a small place -- cozy, even -- and Denki could see the whole room from the door. For all that Siren had told him that his hair was noticeable, Denki spotted the vigilante's wild purple hair right away, and based on the cat-like grin on the vigilante's face, he'd spotted Denki, too. Denki took two steps towards and then stopped, because holy shit . Siren had a mouth, and Denki was pretty sure he was going to die from a heart attack on the spot. At least if he did it would be with the knowledge that Siren's lips were as pretty as the rest of him -- to say nothing of the fact that, dressed in street clothes, leaned back in the booth all casually, Siren was absolutely someone who Denki would have worked himself into an over the top crush over. 

Hey, he had already gotten the date.

Denki dragged his teeth over his bottom lip and forced himself to take the few steps remaining to slide into the booth across from the vigilante -- who now held his chin in one hand, still with that damn smug smirk that Denki could not stop looking at. Hell, Siren was probably smiling like that because he kept staring. He couldn't help it! Denki had already stared at every other part of him, the mouth was totally novel, and he couldn't tear his eyes away.

"So…Siren." Denki's mouth was horribly dry. What was he even doing? "You look good."

Siren's grin dropped as his eyebrows went up, like something Denki had said was confusing.

"You too, but you don't… oh ." Siren snorted, covered his face as he laughed, "Oh, uh. I guess I should introduce myself?" He held out a hand that Denki very gingerly shook, "You can call me Shinso Hitoshi when I'm off duty."

Oh. Oh? Wait, was it really that easy? It was probably a fake name, but the implication had Denki's heart suddenly beating double time.

"K-Kaminari Denki" God damn it , what was he, a blushing schoolgirl? "But I'm sure you already knew that."

The smile was back, "I can neither confirm nor deny."

And then a sort-of awkward silence fell between them. It was fair, Denki supposed, that they wouldn't really know how to talk to each other in this new context, but Denki was also the sort of person who couldn't stand for that sort of thing, so he mirrored Siren - Shinso - and cupped his cheek in his hand.

"I didn't think I'd need to bring a list of questions to our date, you know."

"Well you've been asking me a lot, you know. How about I quiz you for once?"

Denki was very aware that he shouldn’t agree to that, even as he opened his mouth and said, "Sure!"

And shit. The thing was that either Shinso had either been very attentive to the things Denki had chosen to reveal about himself, or really had been doing outside research because asking for Denki's favorite Pokémon was a little specific, wasn't it? Especially when he knew that Shinso didn't even know what a Yamper was. And then he moved on to his favorite music and they got into talking about bands -- they had a surprising amount of overlapping tastes despite their different aesthetics, and then it became Denki talking about all the instruments he'd tried to learn. (He was decent on guitar, and had been told by everyone who'd heard him try to never go near a trumpet again). Shinso said that it sounded fun, that he'd never really tried to learn an instrument and-- well the date was nice. Normal, despite everything, except for the fact that every few minutes Denki had to force himself to stop staring at his damn mouth.

Then Shinso said, "Oh yeah, you technically work with Kamui Woods, don't you? How is that?"

And that made Denki pause. This date was a date, but he'd also sort of meant it as a way to gather information, and that was a two way street. What if Siren was using him the same way, trying to learn more about heroes so that he could do… Something?

No. No, Siren really didn't seem like the kind of guy to do that, even if he didn't like the hero system, and now that he'd realized what he'd been planning to do Denki felt dirty. He could… He could get to know Shinso and put him on the path to righteousness without having to use anything against him, or something. Right? Was this what people who thought they could 'fix him ' felt like? He wasn't sure if he liked it.

…He was becoming less and less sure that Shinso even needed fixing, which was a bit of an alarming thought.

"Um." said Denki, biting his lip when he realized he'd been quiet for too long, "Well It's not like I ever see him, so I couldn't really say. I… I dunno maybe we should veto talking about work stuff? Since we talk at work all the time."

He carefully watched Shinso's reaction - feeling guilty for it even as he searched for a trace of displeasure. He didn't find it though, Shinso tilted his head a bit (mouth pulling to one side), shrugged and said, "Honestly, that sounds like a good idea. It's not like I can really talk much about what I do."

Denki tried to make his sigh of relief as quiet as possible. Maybe he had just lost the ability to say he was on this date for informational purposes, but he had gained a little plausible deniability.

"Well what do you do?" It was easy to let the smile slide back onto his face, and Shinso matched him, which did something funny to his stomach, "Besides work, I mean."

"God, not much. I've been getting into baking a little, I guess…"

And things continued from there, just as easy as they had been before. Shinso was dry, but funny and he appeared to actually care about what Denki had to say which was a rarity. Denki sort of felt like he'd found the perfect man, except, except, except…

He would have been happy to sit and talk for hours, if only the alarm he'd set reminding him not to be late for work didn't go off. When it did he stared down at his phone mournfully. He was already putting his job at risk by being here, he knew he shouldn't risk it even more.

"Sorry." He puffed out a sigh. He really was, "I have to go. Duty calls, you know."

"Yeah." Shinso sounded wry, and then a little more sheepish, "Do you have any more time? There was something I wanted to show you."

"…I have a little." Denki had no less than 5 alarms set to make sure that he'd get to work on time. The one that had gone off had only been the first.

Shinso offered him a hand, which, after a moment of flustered staring, Denki took. "Come with me, then."

Denki only had a moment to be annoyed at the fact that Shinso had paid the whole bill before he was being led down the street, through an alley, into a nice-enough little residential place. Should he be concerned about being led to a secondary location? Maybe. He wasn't, really, though. More just curious about where they were going.

When they stopped, it was in this small little stone courtyard, the kind of thing that got squeezed between apartments and called a green space even though most of it was cobblestone. Denki looked around in confusion. It was nice enough? There was a little fountain.

"Where… Is this?" Denki chanced.

Shinso's mouth quirked up, "This isn't anywhere. More just an excuse to get you somewhere more private. Because I might be misreading things but…" Shinso let go of his hand only for it to be put on the wall by his head. Denki felt like he was on fire. Was he seriously being kabedon-ed right now? And enjoying it? "You seemed to be focused on a very specific part of me."

Rather than try and deny it, or dignify it with a response, Denki decided fuck it and surged forward to capture Shinso's lips in his own. The taller man quickly reciprocated, tilting his head just so and humming a breathy note into his mouth. Denki found his hands balling into Shinso's shirt, and while he still had the presence of mind to do it he looped one of his arms around the taller man's neck -- pulling him down, closer. Maybe he was the one against the wall, but he wanted it to be clear that he was the one in control here -- and in the moment he took to take a breath he made it clear by immediately diving back in and licking into Shinso's now open mouth.

The man gasped and Denki smiled to himself. Shinso may have been a lot of things, but an experienced kisser didn't seem to be one of them. Not that it was a problem, Denki was still having the time of his life - and when Shinso nibbled at Denki's bottom lip he was very glad he was both against a wall and had an arm around his neck because otherwise his legs might have given out from under him right then and there.

It was sort of like how when he'd realized his crush -- he hadn't realized the tension between them until it had been pointed out, but now that he'd noticed he was damn well going to do something about it.

They kissed for-- well, a while. Denki wasn’t sure how long. Until he got dizzy, for sure, and they both had to stop to take a breath only to go back in again. Until the next alarm telling him to get the fuck to work and they finally broke apart for longer than a second.

It was a very loud reminder of just how stupid he was being. Denki silenced it and kissed Shinso silly until his third alarm went off, and the man finally backed off with a raised eyebrow (and a pink tinge to his face, and very-probably kiss-bruised lips, Denki noted smugly) he finally relented.

"I… really should be going." In a snap decision he got on his toes and kissed Shinso again -- on the cheek this time. "I'll see you again?"

"Yeah." Said Shinso, obviously dazed. "Definitely."

Denki went to work thatday on cloud-9, and even the villain who showed up halfway through his patrol who was trying to steal people's limbs couldn't faze him. When he finally got home to his shared apartment he was humming a tune despite the bruises and scrapes.

Before he could even strip off his sweaty clothes, though, he was stopped by a familiar voice and a pair of arms around his shoulders.

"Denkiiii~" Mina crowed, "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

It hadn't been that long since they'd had lunch together, but it was true that between their work schedules and Denki's new night-time patrols that Denki hadn't seen her nearly as much as usual. So he did what any good friend would do -- he bonked their heads together and said, "Bold of you to assume that wasn't on purpose."

Mina gasped in mock affront. "Well now I have you trapped. I have the night off and a found-footage horror movie that we need to watch."

True to form, the pink woman had already set up the couch with a few of their fluffiest blankets and had pulled up the preview to something called The Ghosts who Haunt Us 3.

"Hmm." He considered, "I'll only agree to it if… you make some popcorn while I'm in the shower."

"You drive a hard bargain for someone with no choice, but I accept your terms." She pushed him towards the bathroom.

Without too much fanfare, Denki showered, got into his favorite pajamas, and cannonballed onto the couch next to Mina who had not only made popcorn but dug out a box of cookies as well. Suffice to say that Denki's day was going really well so far -- Until about fifteen minutes into the movie when Mina leaned over, put her chin in her hands and her elbow on Denki's leg, and said, "You're looking awfully peppy about these gruesome murders, Denks."

"Yeah. Well." He gestured vaguely at the screen as though it had some kind of explanation. Then Mina cocked an eyebrow and he knew he'd already lost.

"So tell me about him."

"Wh- who? You've been paying attention to the movie as much as I have!" Denki tried to push her off but Mina just dug in her elbows harder.

"Don't play dumb with me! I'm the love whisperer, remember! And I've known you for almost five years! I know what a Denki who's thinking about his crush looks like! You've been all doe-eyed since you got home!" She wagged a finger in his face, and Denki sighed. He should have known better than to think he would be able to get away with what he'd been doing with Mina around.

"I… Found out his name today." And went on a date and made out with him, but she doesn't need to know that. Without any preamble at all Mina reached for her phone and sent Denki a meaningful look. Denki realized he had said the wrong thing -- she was going to look him up on social media, and he didn't really have a good reason to say no, not after the time she had found out a girl he'd been dating was already engaged to someone else.

"It's Shinso Hitoshi." He couldn't help the dreamy sigh that escaped after he said it. It was fine, right? It was probably a fake name anyways, and even if it wasn't Siren was definitely too smart to post about being a vigilante online.

"Mm-hm" She was already rapidly typing into her phone, movie forgotten, "Let me guess? Dark and broody? A loner you think has a heart of gold?"

"I-" Denki's voice cracked. She really didn't have to call him out like this. "Yes."

Mina just nodded, scrolling through whatever site she was using, "Piercings?"

"…No." But Denki flushed all the same. Shinso probably didn't wear piercings for the same safety reasons Denki didn't -- But boy would he look good if he did. In an attempt to ward off more embarrassing questions he said, "He's tall. Broad. Uh. Purple?"

Mina looked up at him for just a moment, "Purple like…?" She gestured at herself and Denki laughed.

"No! No, just his hair. And his eyes." That last bit came out a little breathy and Denki closed his eyes. Good god, he had it bad, didn't he? "But uh… You probably won't be able to find out a lot about him, he seems like a pretty private guy."

"Yeah, we'll see. I like a challenge."

And so Denki sat in tense silence, stress eating popcorn while Mina tried to find evidence of the vigilante he'd gone on a date with online. The movie was nearing it's climax -- this possessed woman was chasing the protagonist through a creepy house -- when Mina said, "Oh!" and shoved her phone in his face, "He's a little young but this is a Shinso with purple hair and eyes!"

Denki looked down at the phone and blinked. Sure enough, there was a photo of a younger Shinso, pinned in on both sides by some kids he didn't recognize, but whose uniform he did . The girl on his left was clearly the one taking the selfie and he didn't look happy to be there.

"That… Yeah, that's him."

"You were right about him being private, I think. That's all I could find, and there's only like, two pictures on it--" Denki tuned Mina out. Shinso had gone to Ketsubutsu. Shinso had given him his real name. That realization made Denki a mix of stupidly happy and terrified. Shinso trusted him enough for that? Why? What did that mean?

He scrolled up to find the other image -- it appeared to be a picture of a stray cat on top of a dumpster. And that was it. The name on the account was Shinso Hitoshi, but the description read I was bullied into making this . It screamed of something that he'd posted on for one day in high school and then forgotten about. He handed the phone back. If anything that only raised more questions than it answered. Shinso had gone to a pretty prestigious high-school and ended up a vigilante. What had happened between then and now? Probably nothing good.

He had talked about UA's entrance exam being biased against his quirk, right? Maybe Ketsubutsu's had been the same? Only he'd ended up attending the school anyways, so that probably wasn't right. Had he been kicked out, then? Or had he left for some other reason?

Shit, he was probably going to have to ask, eventually. If Shinso had trusted him enough to give him his real name then it couldn't be that much of a stretch, right? He just had to be sure he did it in a way that would let Shinso know that he was on his side.

He cast a sidelong glance at Mina, who was still frowning and scrolling through whatever apps she thought she could find him on. If he told her about the whole vigilante thing, would she be on his side too? Was the way he was handling all this make him a bad hero or a good one? It made him nervous that he wasn't sure what the answer was.

Mina blinked up at him and her brow furrowed in concern.

"Denks? You good?"

"I mean…" He gestured at the movie, "She did just get her legs chopped off."

Things between him and Shinso only escalated.

He was actually going out at night less, because the vigilante kept dryly reminding him he could ask his questions on their dates, which they were still having. It was hard to find the time, but they managed -- usually on Denki's off day because Shinso didn't appear to have anything to do until night time. When Denki teased him about waking up at noon to go on their dates being early for him, the man had just shrugged and said "Funny you think I sleep in the first place."

Denki found himself alternating wildly between being willfully ignorant of just who Shinso was (if Siren never got caught it wouldn't be a problem, right?) and desperate to talk about it. The question so how did you end up deciding to become a vigilante was always on the tip of his tongue, but it never actually left his mouth. With each outing, each date, each shared kiss, the problem became more and more apparent: he liked Shinso way too much. Facing the reality of who they were, really facing it, meant that one of them was going to have to change if they wanted to stay together. Maybe that would end up being him -- At this point Denki wasn't too sure. Whatever the case, nothing would change if he couldn't make himself ask.

He just… He just needed a little more context, was all.

It was cold enough now that dates meant things like movies and lunches, or Denki's surprise favorite, a trip to a thrift store. It was after that one, when Denki was admiring an absolutely hideous leopard-print blazer he'd found, that he'd sighed and said, "I wish we could go out at night and see the lights they put up in the park or something, but that's kinda cutting it close for you, huh?"

Shinso had said "Mm-hm" and then "I have nights off, you know."

"What!" Shinso took the slap on his arm like a champ, "You've been holding out a night on the town with me this whole time?"

Well, it made sense. Shinso probably decided his own schedule in a way Denki would never be able to do. He had just figured that Shinso was so dedicated to keeping the streets safe that he didn't take nights off.

"I--" The taller man's face screwed up, "I guess I have. It does seem like the kind of thing you would enjoy."

Denki snickered at the pain even imagining being social appeared to put Shinso in. "Don't hurt yourself, babe."

Shinso went a little pink at the pet name and looked away. His next words were mumbled just loud enough for Denki to hear them.

"It would be fine, if you're there." And if that didn't turn Denki's insides to jelly --

So they planned another date, a proper evening-time date, where they would get dinner and drinks and then walk through said light display at the park. Then they went on the date -- this time Denki was too excited to hide anything from his roommates, and they, not knowing most of the context, cheered him on.

And fuck, if it wasn't nice. Maybe the nicest date Denki had ever been on -- he ate well, got just a little bit tipsy, got Shinso to laugh more than once. When they were like this, it was too easy for Denki to forget the thing that made their relationship so perilous so he kind of did. He wound up watching Shinso more than the lights in the park, and the nice thing about the atmosphere and the dark was that no one batted an eye when, at the end of the path Denki pulled Shinso down into a kiss, and then another, and another, and then without really thinking about what he was doing one of his hands slipped up Shinso's shirt and the man breathed into his ear, in that low teasing voice of his. "You could walk me home from here, you know." And that had Denki's brain racing for a million different reasons.

Shinso's home. Where Shinso lived. Where Shinso planned all his vigilante stuff, but more importantly for right now, where Denki was about to go and hopefully get lucky.

"I am absolutely going to do that, then." He grabbed Shinso's hand and started walking, only for the man to chuckle and tell him that it was in the other direction.

He wasn't really sure what he expected from Shinso's apartment -- some kind of high-tech, secret lair, maybe, but no. It was a one bedroom apartment, much smaller than his own, sparsely decorated (Denki wouldn't say anything about how tasteful it was, he knew he had no concept of the word). It was… Normal. There was a cat themed mug on the edge of the sink, and some files open on the table that Denki should probably look into, but he couldn't bring himself to care as he was gently pushed onto the couch and kissed again.

When Shinso pulled away from that one, shy smile on his lips, Denki had the brilliance to say "Mm. I feel like, super privileged to be in here right now. I bet you don't trust a lot of people in here, huh?"

That made Shinso lean back, much to Denki's dismay, an emotion passing over his face that he couldn't quite put a finger on.

"This is… More a sign that you trust me, more than anything else." And oh, there were a lot of ways Denki could read that statement, but right now he wanted to do it in the vaguely threatening yet still sexy way. He slid over and put a hand on Shinso's knee, but the purple-haired man only offered a faint frown in response.

Then Shinso took a breath and said, "I know you said you didn't care about my quirk, and I appreciate it, but I think you should know about it before we do anything else."

"Oh." Said Denki. "Okay?"

He was curious, but he was more worried about the fact that Shinso had gone from incredibly sweet to incredibly stressed in less than a minute. He left his hand on the man's knee in the hopes that it was comforting.

"My quirk is brainwashing. Basically, if someone responds to something I say I can take control of them. It's--" Shinso swallowed, "You would know if I'd done it to you."

"That's how you got that guy to drop me." Sometimes Denki was thankful for the fact that he spoke before he thought. Because he had a lot of thoughts and he really doubted any of them were what Shinso wanted to hear right now. Shinso looked confused so Denki opted to explain, "On the night we met, you made a guy take a nap."

"I… Did." Shinso croaked.  One of his hands was clenched into a tight fist and Denki reached over to cover it with his own.

"Dude, I have given you a million opportunities to brainwash me by now. I'm not worried about you making me do something I want. I trust you."

He really did. Denki had, unfortunately, trusted Shinso since the moment he had saved his life and it had only grown since he had gotten to really know him; the man who had had been endlessly patient with him, who appeared to very much like him back. Maybe he was setting himself up to be burned but right now he couldn't bring himself to care about anything beyond who was right in front of him.

Shinso let out a long breath, and with it a line of tension disappeared from his shoulders and jaw -- one deeper than had been caused from just this conversation, one that he had been carrying this whole time. The look in his eye was between awe and something else that Denki couldn't place.

Oh, Denki realized, That's why he does what he does. He can't trust anyone to trust him back.

He hauled himself into Shinso's lap and planted a kiss squarely where his jaw met his neck. That earned him a gasp and a chuckle that he could feel from this vantage-point. And then a large hand traced down his side and his thoughts derailed entirely to something like oh, I am so fucked.

When he woke up, Denki was surprisingly cold. He gripped the blanket and rolled himself up into it before he remembered where he was.

Shinso's apartment. Shinso's bed. Alone in Shinso's bed? There was no way he had left Denki alone in his apartment, had he? Another moment of consideration told him no, that wasn't what was going on -- Shinso was in the other room, cooking something based on the smell and the faint sound of sizzling. Probably cooking them breakfast, which Denki didn't think he'd ever had anyone do for him before, at least not in this context. It was so nice and domestic and when it hit Denki just how much he liked it, he flipped over and buried his face in a very Shinso-scented pillow -- the realization making him more embarrassed than remembering anything they had done last night.

He was so fucking compromised. At this point, Denki would be willing to do a lot of potentially un-heroic shit to stay with Shinso. That fact was only made worse by the fact that he was pretty confident that Shinso would never ask him to do anything like that.

Was it so bad that he liked this so much? Maybe Shinso felt the same as him and they just needed to get on the same page and he could stop worrying about it? The need to both stay like this forever and do something about it was starting to get old really fast.

Denki groaned and draped his arms over the edge of the bed, reaching blindly until he found a shirt that had been discarded on the floor. It was Shinso's, which meant that when he slipped it on it went down to his thighs and was at risk of slipping off his shoulders. Denki hadn't planned for that but it sparked a thought  -- if Shinso was making breakfast then he was probably in a good mood, and he could go in there looking all cute and then they would be able to talk about things without anyone getting defensive or anything.

As soon as Denki stepped out into the kitchen and saw Shinso's sleepy smile his resolve vanished. He just seemed so happy and relaxed, for once, and Denki was happy, too, so couldn't they just stay like this? Why did everything have to be so hard?

He appeared to have arrived at just the right time, too, because a plate was placed in front of him and a kiss was pressed onto the top of his head and he wanted to cry; how could everything be so perfect and yet not?

"Morning, babe." He said with a dreamy sigh.

"Mm. Morning" Shinso replied as he slipped away, presumably to make his own plate. Denki stared after him for a long moment before turning his attention to his food.

Denki wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not that Shinso didn't seem to be a morning person. The lack of conversation left Denki to stew in his thoughts, and he wasn't a person who liked quiet. He should say something. Maybe it didn't have to be something direct?

"Hey." He swallowed the egg still in his mouth, "Are you happy doing what you're doing?"

Shinso stared at him, mug of coffee frozen half-way to his face.

"…What do you mean?"

"Like…" Denki gestured with his chopsticks, "Your work. Would you change anything about it, if you could?"

Shinso set his mug back down.

"I mean, you know about what I wanted as a kid, but I don't think there's anything anyone can do about that. Beyond that I'm… Living the dream, I guess?" He hesitated, but before Denki could jump in and say something like but what if I could, though, Shinso frowned and said, "Are you happy?"

Denki opened his mouth only to close it back when he realized he didn't have an easy answer. 

Was he? He was more trying to work towards a future where he could be happy than currently living it. And even that future had gotten murkier than ever, now that he'd met Shinso. Not just because of the man himself, but because of the things he'd learned trying to get to know him better. There were whole districts that heroes never went to, so many people who needed help who didn't get a glance from anyone. He kind of wanted to try fixing that, and he knew he wasn't doing that the way he was now.

All he could say was, "I don't know." 

This was why Denki liked to take initiative with things. Because if he didn't, something else would do it for him.

He had left Shinso's apartment and gone home with just enough time to immediately have to leave to go to work. His afternoon patrol had been so uneventful that it did all of nothing to draw his thoughts away from the spiral they'd been in since that morning. When he left work, it was past sundown and he'd texted Siren and made his way straight to the usual spot, hoping that going on another night patrol would give him some perspective. Only… Something was wrong. It wasn't like he'd never shown up before Siren, but it wasn't normal. The only thing he could really pin down as wrong was that his instincts said so, and well, if Eraserhead being his teacher had taught him anything, it was to listen to them.

He took a step, and then another, ears straining to hear anything above the sound of distant traffic. Nothing, and then the sound of something hitting flesh with a thwap and Denki was off at a jog, head tilted to try and pinpoint where it had come from. A few yards away he heard a grunt and made a hard turn down the next alley-way where the sounds of a confrontation only grew more clear -- and then there was Siren's voice -- "You should just cut your losses and run, you know. Would be easier for everyone." Someone responded with an aborted "Fuck--" but the sounds of the scuffle weren't over.

He rounded the corner and came face to face with the situation -- two people on the ground, conscious and struggling against the capture weapon that had them wrapped around the chest and arms. One person, was next to them, standing eerily still, and there was one who was still moving, with some kind of bone protrusions sticking out all over their body that looked sharp. With one end of his capture weapon occupied and one hand clutched to his side, Siren was fighting at a clear disadvantage. Or had been, until Denki arrived -- he darted forward and put one hand on each shoulder of the people who were restrained, putting them both on the ground with a carefully controlled shock.

"Siren! I'm here!" He called, before turning to do the same to the man with the blank expression. Sure, he wasn't moving, but he had learned his lesson on ignoring people the first time him and Siren had met. Siren grunted an affirmative and released the now collapsed attackers from his capture weapon so he could turn to face the last one, who now looked significantly more harried.

But… Something was still wrong, Siren was still moving too slowly, still had one hand clutched over his side, only just managing to dodge the blows sent at him. Denki didn't have time to worry about what was happening with that, he just tagged the guy with a pointer (which he tried to swat away, only for it to stick to his arm) and sent a bolt of electricity after it that was maybe a little higher in voltage than he had used on the other guys. He went down like a sack of bricks and then the alleyway was nothing but pained groans.

Siren looked back at him with wild eyes, but when they met Denki's it was like a switch flipped, and suddenly he sagged , taking a stumbling step back and sliding down the wall. It was then that it hit Denki: oh shit, he's hurt, and he ran to crouch down next to the injured man, digging in his pockets for whatever first-aid supplies he'd remembered to switch over from his hero costume.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Siren seemed fairly lucid, thank god, just in pain.

"Stabbed." Siren replied rather dryly, "Thanks for the save."

"Uh- Yeah. Anytime." Denki was trying not to panic because that was the worst thing he could do. It wasn't the fact that Siren was wounded -- he was trained for that -- it was that he had no idea what vigilantes did for medical care. He retrieved a folded up bit of gauze and with a few mumbled words got Siren to move his hand away so he could put pressure on the wound. To his credit, the vigilante took it with only a hiss and a few quiet curses. Denki, meanwhile, was rambling something fierce.

"Okay, okay. I don't know what you want to do here? Or what you usually do? I'm guessing you probably don't go to the hospital but if I vouched that you were just some civilian --"

"Chargebolt." Siren interrupted, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Denki gestured helplessly with his free hand.

"If you come in dressed like this, they would probably find out your identity or something right? I didn't think you would want that!" 

"…Who would find out my identity?" Shinso's exasperation was only made more apparent by his ragged voice.

"I dunno? The police? I didn't want you to get arrested or anything -- I figured you had a guy you went to for this or something but in the meantime I can um… get you some painkillers? I think I remember how to do stitches…"

“A guy? What…?” Shinso's face cycled through a lot of emotions very quickly. If Denki really thought about it -- which he didn't, he was far too freaked out for that -- Shinso looked like he had gone through the all the stages of grief in under a second.

"Denki. Chargebolt. Can you please reach into my jacket? There’s a pocket on the inside" Shinso asked, sounding a little bit like one of Denki’s teachers when he was being especially dense. “I want you to take what you find there and read it."

Denki scrambled for it. Siren had definitely dealt with stuff like this before, right? He knew what he was doing! His fingers found the hard plastic of whatever it was and he pulled it out of the pocket like he was claiming a prize. And then stared at it.

"This is…This is a hero license?"

He wanted to argue, to say that it couldn't be true, but as far as he could tell it was identical to his own except for the photo (of Hitoshi Shinso) and the hero name (Siren). More than that, it was the fact that Hitoshi was giving him a look that he could only describe as incredulous that made reality start to settle in.

"You're not a vigilante." He said dumbly.

"I'm not." Shinso agreed, "I'm an underground hero."

“Oh.” said Denki faintly, “I forgot about those.” 

“This whole time, did you really think--” Shinso cut himself off with a wheeze "As funny as this is, can you please call an ambulance now?"

Denki was a little stressed.

He had, as usual, been the one to deal with the police -- police who had recognized Siren as a pro hero, no less -- and as a result hadn't been able to really talk to Shinso about the revelation he'd had. He'd rushed to the hospital as soon as he could, of course, but he wasn't going to get to see Shinso until at least after the doctors had finished with him. He'd asked one of the nurses to keep him updated on Siren's situation and posted up in a corner chair of the ER waiting room. It was mostly empty, at this time of night, which meant all he had to focus on here was his own thoughts.

Shinso was a hero! That was good! Great! Amazing! Perfect, even. It was everything he'd dreamed of. He just wished he could have figured that out without embarrassing himself this badly.

 He really hoped that Shinso wouldn't be angry with him -- Denki really didn't know what he would be feeling if their situations were reversed. Disappointment, maybe, that someone he liked had been assuming he was a criminal this whole time. Definitely confusion, because looking back on it, there were certainly hints that Shinso was a pro. Things Denki had assumed were weird vigilante quirks that just made sense if he was a hero.

How the hell had he forgotten about underground heroes in the first place? He didn't really interact with them, but he'd definitely had a lesson on the types of heroes at some point during high-school, right? Hell, his homeroom teacher had been one, hadn't he? It wasn't like he ever brought it up, but he supposed that was kind of the point , wasn't it?

God, he was such an idiot. He just hoped that this didn’t ruin everything he'd worked for.

He spent the next hour and a half trying to fight back his anxiety by scrolling through a few sites on his phone, only every time he saw something that reminded him of Shinso he had to stop and take a deep breath to try and force himself to not be nervous. It wasn't working very well.

Eventually he ended up on the page Mina had sent him -- the one with the picture of Shinso and the two kids he didn't recognize. If he had a hero license, then Shinso had probably graduated from Ketsubutsu, not dropped out. Why had he assumed--

He jumped as a nurse said, "Chargebolt?" She gave him a sympathetic smile, "Siren is out of the ICU, and he's said it's alright for you to visit him, if you'd like."

"Oh yes, please --!" He all but fell out of his chair as he followed the nurse to Shinso's room. Thank god for visiting hours being flexible for heroes.

The nurse slid open the door to a room, and Denki stepped past her to see a grumpy looking Shinso sitting up in a medical bed. His expression did not lighten when he saw Denki.

He held out his hands as he made his way over to the cheap plastic chair that was set up by the bed.

"Before you say anything, please tell me if you're alright."

"They didn't stab anything that couldn't be fixed." Shinso said, voice flat. Then he reached up and rubbed his eyes, sighed and said, "So. Vigilante?"

"I- Yeah." He could already feel tears stinging at his eyes just from the embarrassment, "When we first met you told me your hero name but I couldn't find anything when I looked it up? And you… didn't seem to like heroes very much, but I guess that was just spotlight heroes, and you never stayed around to talk to the police --" He forced himself to stop, taking a deep breath, so that he wouldn't start sobbing, "Look I'm-- I'm really sorry. I understand if you're pissed off at me. I probably would be."

"I'm… deciding." Shinso's brows were furrowed, his expression otherwise unreadable, "Mostly I'm just trying to understand. Why the hell did you jump to vigilante before underground hero?"

Denki's eyes fell to his hands, face burning, "I… Forgot they were a thing. I never really interacted with them before now, so…"

He didn't look up, but he knew Shinso was staring at him.

"You went to UA. Your homeroom teacher was one of the best underground heroes in Japan, and you forgot?"

Yeah, Shinso sounded a little angry. Well, there was no use trying to make excuses for himself.

"Yes." Denki bit his lip, "If it makes you feel any better the whole thing was making me have, like, a huge moral crisis?

"...That's the other thing I don't get. If you really thought I was a vigilante, how come you never tried to do anything about it?"

Denki risked a look up and was surprised to find that Shinso looked more desperate than anything. Like this was so ridiculous he couldn't believe it at all, which-- fair.

"I… Kind of had a plan?" He was gripping his knees so tight that his hands hurt, "I wasn't going to do anything because you saved me, at first, and then I wanted to get to know you to find out why you weren't a hero. So I did and I kind of figured that you were someone who really should be and had just been fucked over by the way the system worked. So it made sense why you didn't it like it much, and it didn't make sense to arrest you when it really seemed like you were a good guy who was doing everything for the right reasons. And then I uh -- you know, started to like you and that made things really hard because I was convinced that if I got caught with you I would go to jail, but I also didn't want anything to happen to you. But you seemed happy? Doing what you were doing? So then I didn't really know what to do --"

"Denki." Shinso cut him off, voice significantly more gentle, "For the record, I think the fact that you would break the law to date me is very sweet. Stupid, but sweet."

"Are you mad?" He hated how small his voice sounded, but it wasn't like he was going to be embarrassing himself more.

"A little." Shinso conceded, "I think I'm mostly just in shock right now."

Denki sniffed and wiped at his eyes.

"C-can I…" He wanted to ask if they were okay, but he didn't see how they could be right now, "Can I ask how you became a hero, then?"

Shinso closed his eyes and leaned back into the bed.

"Sure, I guess." He sighed,  "I heard about the UA exam being unfair from my dad. Who works there. And who was your homeroom teacher."

Shinso shot Denki a glare, but his gaze was drawn to the foot of the bed, where Shinso's capture weapon was sitting in a heap. Well that explained that.

"Your dad is Eraserhead." At Shinso's nod he slumped miserably into the chair, "He's going to kill me."

"It's a possibility." Shinso said seriously. "At any rate I ended up going to Ketsubutsu mostly because he knew a teacher there with a quirk pretty similar to mine. I interned with both of them a few times, but I don't really feel like giving you the play-by-play. Graduated with my hero license, now I'm here."

"That's--" Denki sniffed again. For as much as he'd been fighting against them a few tears still escaped down his cheeks, "I'm really glad you're a hero, though. Like, you deserve that title more than anyone I know, I think, and it makes me a lot less worried about you. And, um , the future I guess since neither of us have to worry about getting arrested, now. But that's only if you want to keep seeing me of course."

Denki forced himself to stop talking and let his head hang. He wished he hadn't suggested that, because surely there was no way Shinso would want to keep him around after this.

"You've been thinking about the future, huh?" Shinso went quiet for a moment, and then he laughed, short and harsh.

"Holy shit." said Shinso breathlessly, "I think I love you."

Denki's head snapped up -- wondering first if Shinso was making some kind of cruel joke, but no -- the man's face had broken into a smile, even if his eyes were still conflicted, like he couldn't believe what he'd just said, either. This was not how he'd thought this conversation would go.

"You- You don't have to say it back or anything I just --" Shinso ran a hand through his hair and then used it to gesture at Denki, "You saw me. Me. And you thought I was a villain and you just decided to look for the good in me anyways." 

"Well I found it." Denki croaked, and risked reaching a hand out to take Shinso's. "It wasn't hard." And then, unable to stop his own hopeless, teary smile "I love you too."

And if, a little over a year later, when Denki and his friends finally opened their own agency there was a branch for underground heroes, if Denki was heavily involved with it, if Denki was dating the man who lead it, maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise.