At the coercion of his parents, Denki Kaminari was promptly dropped at Loav & Sechz Mall to get him out of his room. Their attempt to reacquaint him to the world. It was bad enough he wasn't involved in any sports or after-school clubs. But when he stopped going to school he had to be enrolled in online classes, which gave him even less of a reason to leave the house.
Lucky for him, he had a few friends who worked at the mall.
"Hey, Kaminari! Long time no see!" Kirishima fisted bumped him from behind the register at Build-A-Bear.
"Yeah, it's good to see you, bro."
"How have your computer classes been?"
To put it bluntly, the only reason Kaminari's grades were better was that getting out of bed wasn't a requirement for online school. Most of his assignments he was able to hand in on his phone. He'd go to his Zoom classes but then space out and play a game instead, like League or Fortnite.
"They've been great!" Kaminari lied, forcing a smile. "Sorry I haven't been able to see you at school, Kiri."
"Don't worry about it, man. Your health comes first."
Oh, right. Kaminari's parents managed to convince everyone he had a health condition that weakened his immune system and made him more susceptible to pathogens. It wouldn't have sat well with the rest of his family if they knew the truth: that he'd been flunking.
Which he was still dangerously close to doing.
"Oh hey, isn't your birthday tomorrow? We gotta party!" He insisted.
Kaminari was dreading his birthday. It meant an entire day where the attention would be focused on him. Twenty-four hours of smiling so people wouldn't ask him whether or not he was okay. He'd have to get out of bed. Shower. Make more of an effort picking out clothes. It was going to be exhausting.
"Nah, it's not a big deal," he insisted, trying to appear nonchalant.
"What? How can you say that? You're gonna be eighteen!"
"Did I hear someone say party?" Sero asked, strolling in while on his break. "By the way, here's an early present." He handed a banana avocado smoothie to Kaminari.
"Whaaaat?" He asked, genuinely happy. "Is this the one with - "
" - Yup. Straight Vanilla bean, fresh out the pod. Nothing but the best for my bro."
Kaminari's pupils dilated as he guzzled down his smoothie. "Mmmm."
"Hold on man," Kiri said, trying to pull the smoothie away. "If you drink that too fast you're gonna give yourself a - "
"GAAAAH!" Kaminari groaned, jumping up and down.
"Brain freeze," Kiri finished, sighing as he shook his head.
Sero laughed, hugging his stomach. "You should see your face, it's hilarious."
Color rose to his cheeks, both out of shyness and joy. No matter how far down he'd fallen into his darkness, his friends always knew how to pull him back up.
But one person brought color into his life in a way no one else could.
Kaminari froze when out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of purple. There was a group of girls. One with pink hair, one with black, one with brown, a blonde, a redhead, and…
A girl with a violet bob and earbuds hanging around her neck. She wore a black leather jacket with a white lightning bolt on the back, and biker boots. She had small red triangles drawn under her eyes, which were dark and endless.
"Kaminari?"
"Bro?"
"Hellooooo?"
Kaminari couldn't look away. Finally, Sero turned around to see what caught Kaminari's attention. Then laughed. "Forget about it, man. It's not happening."
"Don't say that," Kiri scolded.
"Let me guess. The greaser chick, right? Save yourself the heartbreak."
"Sero!"
"What? It's true! We live on the same block. I've known her since I was a kid and I've never seen her with a boyfriend."
"Does that mean she's single?" Kaminari asked as sparkles appeared in his eyes.
"That wasn't supposed to be the takeaway," Sero scolded. "A girl like that would eat your poor little puppy soul for breakfast."
"Sero, just let him try."
"No way! I'm not gonna let maneater over there crush his spirit!"
"I think it's too late," Kiri said, suppressing a smile.
Kaminari took a step forward. "I'm gonna go talk to her."
"Down, boy!" Sero said, trying to hold Kaminari back. But Kamianri just started climbing over him like a cat trying to escape a hug.
"Could you - damn - CALM DOWN?!"
"I WANNA ASK HER OUT!" Kaminari exclaimed through his teeth, snarling.
"You're crazy!" Sero yelled back.
"Just let him go," Kiri said, regarding Kaminari with concern. "I've never seen him this motivated to do something before."
"Are you kidding?! She's with all of her friends! She's in her pack! Everyone knows a guy doesn't have a shot in hell when the friends are backing her up. Even if she wanted to go out with him, she's not gonna risk judgment from her followers!"
"Jiro doesn't look like the kind of person who cares about other people's opinions," Kiri pointed out, noting that she was dressed drastically different from the rest of her friends, who were all in floral print sundresses or cute denim shorts.
Kaminari finally got loose and bolted out of Build-A-Bear. "WAIT!"
"Shit," Sero muttered under his breath.
"Dude, language!" Kiri scolded. "There's kids in here!"
Keigo snickered from his hiding place behind the stuffing machine as he ate from a bag of pretzels.
"Why are you here?" Sero asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I was bored."
Sero glared at him. "Do you ever actually...work?"
Keigo shrugged. "I'm banging the manager. I can do what I want."
Kiri flushed. "LANGUAGE!"
~.~
By the time gamer-weeb made it to the cluster of girls, he was seven feet deep into the interior of Victoria's Secret.
Jiro had her arms crossed over herself and looked equal parts uncomfortable and uninterested, while her other friends "oohed" and "aahed" over different colored lace bras.
Kaminari wasn't used to this much athletic activity, so despite the store not being that from Build-A-Bear, he was gasping for air and holding onto his knees when he finally reached Jiro.
"Uh…" She mumbled, cocking her head to the side.
"Hi," he panted, still recovering.
"Hi?"
"Hey, it's that guy," Hagakure recalled. "He used to go to school with us."
"Oh, yeah! We used to have English together," Yaoyarozu remembered. "Calamari, right?"
"Kaminari," he corrected. "Denki. Kaminari."
"Kay…" Jiro said. "Well...what do you - "
" - You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," he gushed, looking up with glistening eyes. "Would you wanna grab a bite sometime?"
Jiro's jaw dropped.
"That's rude," Kendo scoffed, flushing red. "He said she's the most beautiful when we're standing right - "
"Shhh Shhh Shh," Mina shushed, blacking Kendo with her arm. "I wanna see what happens."
"This kinda stuff is why Tsuyu needs to quit her job," Melissa whispered. "She's missing this!"
"I don't think Tsu cares about this stuff," Uraraka whispered back.
Jiro's eyes widened. "You're an AC/DC fan?"
"Huh?" Kaminari's hand went to the lightning bolt on his face he'd drawn with eyeliner. "Oh. Yeah."
Jiro placed her hands on her hips. "What other kind of music do you like?"
Kaminari straightened as he finally caught his breath. "Uh...do you mean groups or genres?"
"Both."
Kaminari thought for a minute. "Rock. Alternative. EDM. Punk Rock - "
" - Name your top favorite Punk bands," she demanded.
Kaminari shrugged, confused as to why that was relevant. "MCR. Nirvana. The Undertones. Blondie, the Subhumans, Pennywise - "
She shot him a small smile. "I've never met anyone else who's into the Subhumans."
"Oh yeah, I love their stuff. Especially Subvert City. I fall asleep to it."
"Isn't that the loud screamy stuff with a guy yelling into a mic for five minutes?" Mina asked.
"Yeah," Jiro concurred with a grin. "And it's bitchin."
"How can you fall asleep to that?" Hagakure asked.
"Well, it's not always the Subs," Kaminari said. "Sometimes it's the Ramones or Black Veil Brides - "
" - Meet me at the juice bar upstairs in ten minutes."
Kaminari's whole face lit up. "What? Really?"
Jiro gave him a nod and gentle shove. "I'll see you there. Okay?"
The blonde boy walked off with the widest smile, practically skipping out of Victoria's Secret.
"Did he know what store we're in?" Yaoyarozu asked.
"I don't think he noticed," Hagakure said.
Kendo shook her head, laughing. "I've never seen a guy step foot in here, let alone run inside."
"He was kinda cute, Jiro," Uraraka said. "In a dopey sort of way."
"I dunno. He seems like a spaz to me," Melissa said. "A cute spaz, but still."
Jiro smiled to herself, giving a half-wave as she walked out. "See you guys later. I've got a date."