A/N: Hey, guys! Here's Chapter 11! Sorry it's so late. I've been extremely busy lately. Next chapter will be out earlier; I promise. For now, enjoy. I'm not too proud of this chapter, but I hope you guys like it anyways.

"What's up with these rude ass requests, Bomb Boy?"

Bakugou shot his head up. He barely even blinked, the rest of the class turning toward the commotion as his face lit up like a firecracker. "Huh? What did you just call me, Earphone Jack?"

Kyouka stuck her arm out over Denki's chest. "You heard me. The guy doesn't want to race, so just—"

Kyouka fell forward. Lanky fingers had snaked their prints around her wrist, pushing her out of the way. She looked up at Denki, standing tall, clenching his fists by his side.

"I'll race."

Bakugou cracked a smile.

Kyouka's eyes shot wide. "Kaminari, what the hell? Are you stupid? You can't race them! It's too cold!" She flung her hands out in front of her, beckoning down at the ground. "Just chill out on the beach with your friends. Are you crazy?"

He tilted his head toward her, glance stern. "Maybe I am crazy, Jirou, but I'm gonna race."

Maybe he was miscalculating this endeavor. Maybe he really was stupid like she'd foretold. But now that he had Kyouka by his side, his heart ringing loudly in his ears, he felt a little more confident, ready to give this a shot.

Denki pushed past her and joined Bakugou and Midoriya, shielding his face with his hair. She guessed he was nervous, maybe? Embarrassed? Shaken up? She didn't know. That was when she usually hid her eyes behind her bangs. When the world was getting to be a bit too much.

Or maybe he was just now realizing he'd have to hide his scars. Maybe that was it.

Bakugou explained the rules of their competition. The three of them were to change into swimming trunks and walk deep enough into the ocean that their feet couldn't touch the ground. And then, on Kirishima's whistle, they were to race, and whoever crossed the finish line first was the victor.

Denki sighed. Assuming water was off limits, he hadn't brought swim trunks.

Bakugou unzipped his jacket, lifting up his shirt. He pulled down his sweats to reveal red and black swim shorts, stepping out of them with a crackle of his hand. Midoriya took a step back.

Midoriya began undressing himself, and Denki just looked at him like he had three heads. "You were prepared for this?"

Midoriya turned toward him, his trunks bluer than a Saturday sunny sky. "Hm? Uh, kind of. I always expect something like this out of Kacchan. Why? Do you not have a swimsuit?"

Denki shook his head.

"Hm…. Maybe—"

Sero's voice caught their attention. "Yo, Denki! I got a pair for ya!"

Denki's hands were free, and then all of a sudden they weren't anymore, and he almost jumped back before realizing Sero's red swim trunks were in them, the bottoms laced with a buoyant bright orange fire. Denki inspected them, just because he could. No rips or holes.

So there really was no way out of this. He could have just said no to racing to begin with, but he didn't want to be called a wuss. Nobody wanted to be called a wuss.

He was stuck here, he guessed.

Denki hid behind a small hut near the bonfire and got changed. His shoulders were littered with scars, nothing like the big and bumpy ones on his thighs but still noticeable nonetheless, and he had to pull his trunks up high.

He took a shaky breath. "Okay, Denki," he said, looking down at his hands, "you got this. Those swimming lessons from when you were young should come in handy. All you gotta do is prove yourself, right? Stay neck and neck, and you'll be fine."

He exhaled, looked up. This little burst of confidence would likely wear off within minutes, so he basked in it while it stayed.

He sat down on the ground for a moment, still staring up at the stars. He wished Kyouka was here with him, holding him in her arms.

Once Denki had trekked back to the beach, he took quick notice of Iida lecturing the boys not to go out toward the sea, chopping the air furiously like a rickety robot on repeat. Midoriya was the only one who even remotely listened, but at the end of the day, he didn't dare back out.

"Oh, we'll be fine, Four Eyes," Bakugou scoffed. He dipped his toes in the sand at the edge of the water, hissing under his breath. "It's not even that cold."

Kirishima popped up behind them all, nodding. He was their referee. "It's chilly, but it really could be worse."

Denki turned away. At the moon, he mumbled, "What are you guys talking about? It's freezing."

The four of them slowly adjusted to the harsh temperatures. Denki couldn't feel his feet.

They waded deeper, now in up to their waists. Denki wondered if he was stepping on shells or crabs or crystals—he was numb from the top of his thighs down. He could barely feel the current washing over him.

Denki's heart was in his throat. He wanted to go back to the shore. See Kyouka, maybe. But what he really wanted to do was drown. He really wanted to dip his head underwater and feel the numbness take over, the pain stinging the ridges of his cuts along his hips. He wanted to suck all that water into his lungs.

He wanted to disappear.

He turned back to the beach. There was the rest of the class, staring at him, and there was Kyouka, eyebrows furrowed as their gazes intertwined.

He kept going.

He walked out farther into the ocean, where he had to stand on his tippy-toes. "I can't touch," he said once his feet left the ground.

Midoriya shivered. "Neither can I."

"Hold up. I can still touch."

The three of them delved deeper until Bakugou's toes were finally off the floor. Kirishima swam a solid 100 feet down the coast, waving once he reached his end goal. "Whoever crosses me first wins!"

The three boys lined up at their starting point.

Denki tried to align with them. He had trouble calculating where the hell to stand. His brain was frozen.

Kirishima lifted an arm in the air.

The boys sucked in their breath.

His hand hit the water. "Go!"

The three of them took off.

Denki couldn't feel his legs. He couldn't feel himself pumping, couldn't tell how fast he was swimming. He couldn't even tell if Midoriya and Bakugou were behind him or in front of him, but he was guessing it was the latter.

Denki's arms felt heavy. The water was enveloping him, corroding the insides of his body. He felt out of tune with his movements.

His heart hurt. His skin stung. He wanted to evaporate.

All of a sudden he felt like he was sinking, and he couldn't pick his head up on his front stroke, because much to his dismay, his head was underwater, and his face felt cold, so incredibly cold.

His left leg had cramped up. He couldn't feel it, nor in the beginning could he even tell. It was only once he was feet below the surface that he realized something was wrong. He gurgled some water down the wrong way, eyelids twitching. "Help," he murmured, barely able to focus on his hand reaching out in front of him. There were Midoriya and Bakugou, swimming away in the distance.

No, he thought, vision growing weak.

No, no, no.

His eyes shut.

I was so close.

"Hey!" Kyouka called.

Kirishima was too focused on the two racers in front to notice Denki's distress. Sero was paying close attention, though, and had taken his shirt off and jumped into the water before Kyouka could even utter another word.

Kyouka shook her head. In her clothes, she darted forward, following after him.

Midoriya and Bakugou both stopped short before they could reach the finish line. Kyouka's shriek had hit them hard.

Midoriya and Bakugou tried to come to Denki's aid, but Sero had already grabbed him and pulled him out of the water by then. He threw Denki's arm over his shoulder, patting him on the back one, two, three times to force him to wake up. Midoriya and Bakugou watched with worry.

It was no use. Denki was out cold.

Kyouka met up with Sero knee-deep in the water. "Oh, God. Is he gonna be okay? I-I got him." She beckoned him over to her. Her eyes were glued wide. She couldn't even find the strength within her to blink.

"You sure?" Sero raised an eyebrow.

Kyouka nodded, shaking.

Sero transferred Denki over to her, and she swung him around on her back. She was glad he didn't weigh much. It was easy to hold on to him.

"Kaminari," she called. "Kaminari, are you there?"

There was a pause.

"Denki. Denki Kaminari. You okay?"

No response. Denki did cough once, puking up a bit of water onto her shoulder, and she sighed like her life was just on the line. Her hands were still shaking under his thighs.

She ignored any prying glances as she dragged her feet onto the beach, slipping past Class 1-A as she carried on up the stairs and onto the street. Iida called and asked, "Is he okay? Do we need to take him to the hospital?"

Kyouka shook her head. "He's coughing up water right now. He should get up in a minute."

Yaoyorozu had neatly packed up Denki's things in a little bundle for him, and Kyouka grabbed that and carried it between her teeth. Using her arms as a shield, she hid his scars as best as she could.

Thankfully, it was a short walk back to U.A. Denki's eyes fluttered open just minutes into their journey, his voice sweet serenity to her ears.

"H-Huh? What the hell?"

Kyouka felt that last bit of tension leave her body.

Cars whizzed by them, splashing slush up onto the sidewalk. "Where are we?" he asked, shivering.

He began to cough. He hopped off her shoulders, and she patted his back as he choked up water onto the road.

Everything went quiet for a moment.

"We're on our way back to U.A. You don't remember?"

"The race? Oh, yeah, I remember, alright. I know"—he coughed—"where I am now."

Kyouka wanted to smile, but she couldn't. "Good," she said. Headlights lit up his chest as she leaned in for a hug. He was so cold. Freezing, freezing cold. She hurriedly opened the bundle and pulled out Denki's jacket. "Lift your arms up," she ordered, and Denki did, and she put on and zipped up his coat, and then helped him step into his sweats.

"Warmer now?" she asked, holding him tightly.

"Yes. Way warmer."

The moon was in the middle of the sky now. He could see it over the trees. Although, it didn't bring him any warmth. Kyouka's hug didn't either.

He pulled away. "Can we go to the dorms now?"

She nodded. His sweats were soaked from Sero's swim trunks underneath. She couldn't feel her legs.

Once they got back to the dorms, Kyouka ran up to Denki's room and grabbed him a pair of pajamas and shampoo for the shower. He needed one, and he needed one now. He was far, far too cold. Dangerously cold.

Kyouka showered on the girls' side of the wing. After all, she was cold too. She wondered if Denki was okay, what he was doing. She wondered if he was even upset. He didn't seem it. He seemed totally fine, even after all that had happened. But she had a feeling he wasn't. She had a feeling something was wrong. Kyouka didn't quite have a natural knack for these things, but spending time with Denki had quickly taught her how to spot abnormal behavior. Humans were not good at hiding things. And Denki averting his eyes, voice cracking each time he spoke, was definitely not a good sign.

Meanwhile, over in the boys wing, Denki was on the shower floor crying.

Kyouka let out a sigh, sitting down on her bed. When Denki walked through the door, she hurriedly tossed him a blanket.

"Kaminari, your eyes are red. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just got some shampoo in them."

What a poor excuse that was.

For a moment, she didn't say a word. She just stood up and stepped over and wrapped her arms around him. He looked down at her in surprise.

"Jirou… why?"

"I'm not stupid, you know. So just cling on to me, will you?"

Silence. The two collapsed onto the bed.

"I told you not to race."

"I'm sorry," he said, voice muffled by her pajamas. "I just felt confident with you by my side all of a sudden, and I just… went with it."

She smiled into his shirt. "Hey, well, you bit off more than you can chew. But the good thing is you're okay. I was so scared, Kaminari. I hate to admit it, but I was."

"Did I scare you?"

She held him tighter. "Yes. Yes, you did. I thought I was going to lose you." Her voice hitched in her throat. "I thought you were gone for good."

He rubbed her back. Gave her a peck on the cheek. The hair rose up on the back of Kyouka's neck, and she blushed at that, meeting his eyes with wonder.

"Sorry," he said, turning his head toward the wall.

"It's okay," she murmured, her hug growing stronger. "I'm not mad, and I, um, didn't say no."

The two of them lay down on the pillows. They got all wrapped up in Kyouka's blankets, and she whispered, "If anyone asks, we both went to bed early." She didn't feel a smile, or hear a chuckle. She just felt the nod of his head.

For the third night in a row, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Kyouka awoke at midnight.

The fan was running in her room. She didn't remember turning it on. In fact, she was pretty sure she shut it off before she went to bed.

And then it occurred to her. Her hands were empty.

Denki was not lying next to her. She was alone in her sheets, alone with her thoughts and with the cold air running rampant in the room. Shooting up in bed, she pulled the covers off of her, flicking the bedroom light on. Nothing. Nothing in the bathroom, either. No Denki Kaminari. He was gone.

And to think that just earlier this was her biggest fear.

Kyouka slid on her slippers, hurrying out the door. In the elevator, she paced around frantically, hoping she'd see him in the common area, waiting patiently for her eating snacks on the couch. She'd yell at him, sure, but her worries would be quelled.

Sadly, that was certainly not the case.

Denki Kaminari was not in the common room. Not in the living room, not in the kitchen. Where else could she check? His dorm? That was it! Maybe he was up in his dorm!

But she stopped short before she could even press the elevator button up to the third floor.

Outside the window, she saw sparks. Electric sparks, sparks of lightning shooting up from the trees. Her heels turned, and her feet kicked up, and in a split second she was sprinting out the double doors of the dorm.

She ran so hard she almost fell and slipped in the snow. She followed the path out onto the street and into the wooded area, striking closer to the bursts and bolts.

Her pants were falling down, but she didn't care. Her hair was frazzled, and she was out of breath, but she needed to find Denki. She needed to find Denki now.

And all of a sudden she'd found him, there, sitting hunched over on the ground, firing off electricity in any and every which direction. "Kaminari!" she called. He didn't hear her. "Kaminari!" she called again.

She shot her earphone jacks into the ground. Rocks rumbled beneath him, and that stopped him dead in his tracks.

Not only did it stop him in his tracks, but it forced him to fall on the grass.

"Kaminari!" she repeated. She ran over to him. "Kaminari!"

She grabbed him and picked him up. He was only half conscious. Veins were popping out from his skin, pulsating with each beat of blood, energy flowing through them like the fire of a great inferno.

The night was suddenly silent.

"Kaminari. Kaminari, speak to me."

Birds were chirping. Owls were hooting. But she couldn't hear them.

She shook his shoulders. "Kaminari!"

"I'm… okay," he said after a moment.

"What were you trying to do, you idiot?" She wanted to slap him. "You could have killed yourself!"

Silence.

"Unless… that was the goal."

"No. That— My goal was"—he choked—"just to hurt myself, okay? There's your answer."

"Holy— Oh my God." She grabbed her head, scratching at her scalp. "Alright, let's go back. Please, let's go back. Before Aizawa finds us."

Denki fell flat onto the ground. She called him, but he didn't answer, and he didn't wake up when she slapped his cheek. She checked his neck to make sure he had a pulse. He did. He'd likely just passed out from the stress continuously electrocuting himself had taken on his body.

She carried him inside on her back. The ground was fried where he lay, shocks sprouting out from amidst the source like the earthy roots of a tree. The leaves around him were black.

She took him to the girls wing, up to her room. She laid him on her bed.

She grabbed the stool for her drumset and sat by him. He was still knocked out, bruised with a messed-up face. She looked down at him with misty eyes, and all of a sudden it hit her, like the weight of the world clambering down on her shoulders, and she realized Denki had essentially just tried to shock himself into sleep, and if she hadn't been there, his body would have been lying out in the dead of night until morning, where he'd probably freeze his ass off all over again.

She scrunched her hands up in her lap. Denki had been through hell and back all in one night, and if she hadn't been there to save him, who knew how things would have turned out. Just the thought of him cowering out in the cold all night made a tear roll down her cheek, and then she sniffled—once, twice—and she couldn't hold back anymore, and she crunched in on herself and as she started to let out the most violent cry she'd let out in a long time.

"Kaminari, you idiot, you can't go yet! You can't go…."

She felt a hand reach out for her wrist. "I'm not gonna go."

There was Denki, lying awake. He was caked in bruises and cuts, his body abused from the physically agony he'd put himself through. He sat up slowly in bed, mumbling profanities at the pain.

"Kaminari…."

"I'm sorry, Jirou. Please don't cry."

He grabbed her other hand. He was only inches from her face.

And then, all of a sudden, he began to cry, too.

"I'm sorry," he gasped. "So sorry."

She stood up and hugged him with whatever energy she had left in her. "Please don't ever do that again. Please. You can't endanger your life like that. You need to stay."

Denki buried his face in her chest. "I'll try my best," he said, and the two sat there in silence for a second. "I'll try my best to stay."

"And before you say it, the whole Bakugo versus Midoriya versus you thing was dumb. It was freezing out, and those two are, like, the strongest kids in the class, so please don't feel bad over it, okay? I know saying that won't help anything, but please…. Plus, you got a leg cramp."

Denki's lips parted. "You were watching?"

Kyouka pulled away. "Of course I was."

Denki's breath caught in his throat. "Thank you, but"—his voice broke in two—"I don't want to be a disappointment anymore." He fell into her chest again. "I'm an embarrassment. An embarrassment, Jirou. I don't want to be an embarrassment anymore."

"Oh, Kaminari." She rubbed his back. "You're not an embarrassment."

His shoulders stiffened into her shirt with each gasp. "I am! I am an embarrassment!"

She pushed away from him. Slowly, she grabbed his face, looking into the bright golds of his eyes. "You're the farthest thing from an embarrassment to me."

And then she leaned in and kissed him.

She didn't know why she did it. His lips were just right there, and the way his chest rose and fell got her heart racing, and she wanted him to know that he had her, and that she wasn't leaving.

Because, although she hated to admit it, he had a hypnotic hold on her.

Denki's lips were chapped. His skin was burnt, and his face was bruised, and he smelled earthy and salty and sweaty. His clothes were charred and she could taste his tears, but she didn't mind. It wasn't like with her tired eyes she had any right to talk. She just kept kissing him hard, ignoring the sound of the clock or the fan or the heater, and she felt a little guilty for getting all giddy when he kissed her back. Her skin must've felt so hot to the touch.

Kyouka placed her hand on Denki's cheek. He was still choking back sobs between his lips. He had a tight hold on her wrist, his other hand shaking and gripping her waist. Kyouka slowly closed the distance between their bodies.

She pulled her lips away, leaning her forehead against his.

She pushed him back onto the bed.

She realized what a compromising position they were in and rolled over onto the covers.

Denki turned toward her. They met eyes, staring at each other out of breath. Kyouka hid her face in her pillow.

"You're not an embarrassment," she said again.

Her heart felt fuzzy—airy. She'd never kissed anyone before.

"I sure feel like one."

Unbeknownst to her, Denki hadn't either.

She leaned in and hugged him.

"You're not." She kissed him right under his chin. "And I'm just glad you're okay."

She felt a nod, and then it hit her that Denki was hurriedly trying to back his hips away from hers. She moved closer toward him, careful not to let him get away.

"Jirou—"

"Don't worry about it. I don't care."

Denki breathed a sigh of relief.

He climbed on top of her and kissed her again. His lips were now wet with her spit, and his face was left soft from the ghost of her touch. Their hearts merged together, blasting like the beat of a drum, humming quietly in their ears.

Denki broke their kiss, sighing and falling on top of Kyouka's chest. She ran her hands through his hair, the soothing smell of shampoo mixing with the scent of the grassy ground. Even Denki's scalp was burnt. Kyouka narrowed her eyes.

She kissed the top of his head.

"I'm here. And don't you ever forget it."

Denki looked up at her. "I know. I won't."

Salt caught on Kyouka's lashes.

And once again, under the light of the moon, the two fell asleep like that, a trail of tears staining their starlit cheeks.

A/N: YES! FINALLY! THE KISS! I loved writing that lol. I hope you guys enjoyed reading. I hope everyone has a happy holiday season, and next chapter will be out in a week or so!