Chapter 19 Lightning Serenade

A blow horn woke the trio up.

A blow horn woke the trio up?

A blow horn. Woke the trio up.

Or, more specifically, Touya, holding the button down on a blow horn, woke the trio up. No where was safe from his tyrannical training. Not even Shinsou's foster home the morning after his first ever birthday party.

"You're burning daylight!" Touya yelled in his best deep-voice no-nonsense Endeavor impression. "Let's go! Move, move, move!"

Once the boys were all standing up, wide eyed and hair mussed from their sleep, staring at Touya like they just knew they had to be dreaming, Touya started giving off orders of jumping jacks, laps around the yard outside barefoot (to get those calluses up to where they need to be, of course), and push-ups. The strain from their arms and abdomens during the plank competition threw away any hopeful remnants of the idea that they might be dreaming.

Touya was proud to say that he did get Neito swearing again but was disappointed that there were no technicians to shoot him a dirty glare. To add fuel to the fire, Touya added thirty sit-ups to every curse that left Neito's mouth. After Touya changed the number to ninety sit-ups, Neito quickly learned to give scathing glares that spoke volumes but did not let another curse leave his lips.

"What's with the look, Raion? Lion got your tongue? Go ahead and curse me all you want. I won't mind! It's your core that will suffer…" Touya warned with manic eyes and a grin stretching across his face. Yeah, Touya was in his element, all right.

Neito smartly kept his mouth shut.

To be honest, Touya was impressed, even for being forced into a heavy workout first thing in the morning after being abruptly awoken, they were all holding their own. He figured that they would slack off after he was not there to guide them, but by how much they had improved since they last saw each other, it was obvious that they all had strictly followed Touya's workout regimen that he had sent them home with.

Denki distracted himself by once again picturing himself swimming in the ocean blue of Touya's eyes, imagining himself being pulled into the black of his pupil by a lazy, but strong, whirlpool, and being dumped into another dimension where everyone's quirks were switched around. He imagined himself with Neito's quirk, failing at every quirk where Neito so easily succeeds. He imagined himself with Hitoshi's quirk and wondered if he'd even be able to control it so flawlessly. Neito got the hang of it so easily, but everything came easily to Neito.

Neito distracted himself by remembering the look on his mother's face when she caught him in her study, her contact book open to Endeavor's page. Neito had to swear up and down that he wasn't trying to prank call Endeavor, but that he needed his household number for another reason entirely. He could still hear the wariness of the girl's voice he heard on the other line when he asked for the super-cool, awesome hero trainer that had blue fire to be put on the phone. His heart hurt for Touya when she had responded that "Shouto doesn't have blue fire." Neito quickly dropped the act and demanded she put Touya on the phone immediately. How the hell was Touya so overlooked that when blue fire was mentioned, they thought that Neito had made a mistake about the color of the fire quirk instead of realizing that he was talking about Touya? The fury Neito felt kept him going a lot longer than he normally would have lasted, and the competition between the boys fueled him even more. Neito felt like he could last in a sturdy plank position for hours on rage and competition alone.

Hitoshi distracted himself during the plank by letting his thoughts wander to what happened overnight because Neito rudely refused to brainwash him so that he didn't have to actually put mental effort into the workout because then no one would be available to brainwash Neito, then. So, they both had to power through with the other not willing to put the other under Hitoshi's quirk just in case the other changed their mind about putting the other one under. Yeah, that thought process didn't make much sense to Hitoshi, either. He was struggling, so his thoughts wandered to what he had dreamed the night before. Was it a dream?

Hitoshi swore that his birthday party was so great that he wouldn't have nightmares that night, but sometimes nightmares don't care that you just had the best day of your life. Hitoshi had woken up and jostled the other two he was sleeping next to. Denki had tiredly reached out a comforting hand before immediately falling back asleep. Hitoshi was relieved that he hadn't disturbed him too much. Neito was already whisper singing, the now familiar lullaby echoing a millisecond after the lyrics left Neito's mouth in real-time.

Hitoshi had snuggled back into the blankets, and that was the fastest that he had ever fallen back asleep, until he was once again sitting up pin straight. That time, though, Neito was also startled, and they made wonderous eye contact with each other before looking over at Kaminari, who shifted in his sleep to face the other way before going completely relaxed again, back in deep sleep in an instant.

Hitoshi couldn't figure out if what they had heard was some kind of freaky shared dream between soulmates who had just started drifting off again, or if it was his quirk messing with the soul bond once more, but he could have sworn that Denki had sleepily mumbled out some of the lyrics, just a few words at the end of a verse, before going silent once again. And Denki's voice had echoed in his head, a millisecond after the words left Denki's mouth.

How did Denki know the lyrics to the lullaby? Did he recognize what Neito was singing, even as he sang so softly? Did Hitoshi just dream it all? He hadn't had a chance to talk to Neito about it, yet, so maybe him sitting up and looking back at him was all just part of a dream that happened after Neito sung him back to sleep. Or maybe that did happen, but Hitoshi and Neito just imagined it. Or maybe they didn't imagine it, but the soul bond is interacting with Hitoshi's mental quirk again. He had put Denki under the quirk while muzzled earlier, so maybe using it on him and having him sleep so close while using the bond to sing to each other made some brainwaves get mixed up.

Hitoshi dared a glance over at Denki to find out if he was aware of what transpired the night before. Denki's head was tilted in thought, even as he maintained his plank position, as his eyes followed Touya's face as he walked around, barking orders on how to fix lazy positions and threatening to add another sixty seconds of plank time for every correction he had to make. Hitoshi didn't think that Denki seemed off in any way; he was acting like he always does. Nothing was out of the ordinary for Denki, or for Neito for that matter, since they had all been woken up by Touya. That had Hitoshi thinking that maybe he dreamed it all. That he woke up with the nightmare, Neito sung him back to sleep, and then he started dreaming that both he and Neito heard Denki singing. It wouldn't be out of the norm for his brain to conjure up such a dream based on how Neito and Hitoshi got sent to the inpatient mental hospital to begin with; it wasn't like his brain was pulling this idea out of thin air. There were a lot of unknowns and fears around what Neito and Hitoshi had experienced the day after becoming soulmates, and maybe Hitoshi was just subconsciously waiting for it to happen again, so his mind did something that might help him feel like the other shoe had dropped so he could relax. He hated to tell his mind this, but it made things worse, not better.

Hitoshi could have scoffed at the thoughts running through his head if it weren't for the fact that if he changed his breathing pattern, he would definitely collapse.

"Hitoshi," Neito drawled, voice sounding steady, even as he was shaking from the effort of maintaining his position. "Truth or dare?"

"Seriously? Right now?" Hitoshi asked, breathing harder from the effort of speaking. When Neito shot him a glare, Hitoshi sighed, and answered, "truth," knowing that Neito would dare him to lose the little competition they had going on if he had chosen dare, but that gave him an idea that might just work.

"If you could go anywhere before the summer was over…" Neito paused to get a breath, "where would you go?"

"The beach," Hitoshi answered without hesitation. "Any beach. I love the ocean."

"Do you like the ocean, too?" Neito asked, turning his head toward Denki.

Denki just nodded, still focusing on keeping himself in the competition. Hitoshi didn't have the excess energy to jokingly sneer at Neito that it was his turn to ask now, thank you very much.

"Touya," Hitoshi heaved. "Truth or dare?"

Touya snorted but chose dare.

Hitoshi ducked his head to hide his smile. He had him right where he wanted him.

"I dare you to release us from this exercise and move on to something else."

Neito and Denki both snorted and swayed, but didn't fall out of position until Touya conceded, reminding himself to never pick dare while in the middle of a workout again.

"Clever," he complimented grudgingly, shooting them a smile for the ingenuity.

It sucked for him; he wanted to push them as far as he could. But it was great for them, working together to start a simple game, make him drop his guard, and have him walk right into a trap. The trap involved questions, but Hitoshi didn't even use his quirk on him, even when he answered without hesitation, relying on his own intelligence instead of his quirk. They were doing so well, and Touya was proud at how nicely they were coming along.

The very act of conceding was enough to show Touya that he himself had progressed immensely. He used to not be able to stand the idea of anyone being better than him at any way, even in a small sense of a quick out-witting instance like Hitoshi had pulled on him, feeling that his own confidence in himself and his intelligence was being called into question. He had to retrain himself on the ways that he thought about things. He didn't want to snap at people when he got mad, especially when he was often madder at himself than anyone else and was just taking out his anger the only way he knew how; the only way Endeavor ever modeled taking out his own anger. He didn't want to be the uptight sore loser, though, was the main problem. He looked at his peers who could be laidback and easygoing, even when they were losing. They would laugh it off, and still give 100% to the rest of the game, even if there was no chance of catching up to the leaders. Touya wanted to be like that.

First, he had retrained himself to see certain personalities as his new role model in the place of Endeavor. Every time he thought, 'what would Endeavor do in this situation?' he had to correct himself and ask, 'what would a flexible, laidback hero do in this situation?' His friends saw an immediate change that became more natural as he practiced it. Now, it was as if he was raised with that mindset instead of the complete opposite. That was the power he had over himself and his frame of mind.

He noticed a similar mindset to his previous one in Neito, and maybe that had a lot to do with why he agreed to train them in the first place. So, when Fuyumi told him that the phone was for him, and Neito asked to crash Shinsou's little slumber party the morning after, he didn't hesitate to agree. Seeing all three boys getting along better than ever, yet to be turned off by Neito's strong personality, gave him more hope for Neito than he had ever had for himself. Seeing their determination and self-discipline that mirrored his own made him truly believe that these kids were going to go far. Maybe even farther than Shouto ever would because they have the support and teamwork already going strong among themselves while the way Endeavor was going, Shouto would only have himself.

Touya could already see Shouto pulling away. He hadn't been as uptight about getting their father's approval since the boiling water incident had happened and their mother got taken away. Shouto didn't have the small support that their mother had offered before her breakdown, and now Shouto himself was wearing thin. Humans just weren't meant to train constantly and only rely on themselves. Shouto was smart; he had already figured out that he could not rely on Endeavor.

The inconsistency became more and more apparent as the training went on. One day, a thousand sit-ups would be met with a small smile and maybe even a "good job." The next day, a million sit-ups wouldn't even be enough, and Endeavor would be breathing down his trainee's neck to do more, more, more. Then, when he became aware that he might be losing respect from his trainee, he would throw in a "good job" here and there again. He was well aware what a cycle of abuse was, and he wasn't afraid to use it to his advantage to keep his children training way past their limits to try to make them the best.

Even if Endeavor had any interest in what Touya was doing recently, and even if he had tagged along to see what his eldest son had been up to, he would think that these three boys had no chance and did not even come close to Shouto's level, but he would be so wrong.

When faced with a challenging opponent, Shouto would go full force, like he was trained to do. When he started to tire and had no back-up, he would lose, and might even die from over exhaustion if the villains didn't finish him off first.

These three would look out for one another. They would take the brunt of the fight when one was feeling overwhelmed to give him time to recuperate. They would work together, coming up with new strategies right then and there as they learned more about their opponents and their strengths and weaknesses.

Honestly, Touya was inspired by the boys. After a full day of training, and the boys challenging each other to even more when Touya was about ready to let them off, Touya felt a little jealous. He wanted the same thing that they had. He wanted a powerful quirk that didn't hurt his body every time he used it. He wanted a close group of friends that he knew he could always trust and rely on more than anyone else. He wanted to continuously improve and never stagnate in his progression.

So, that night, Touya finally decided that he was as ready as he would ever be. He trained rigorously with no cheat days. His muscles were dense, but his frame was lean. His body was young, and he was resilient. It truly was now or never if he would ever take control over his quirk instead of allowing his quirk to control him.

So, that night, Touya snuck out, not that anyone would have cared if he had been caught. He climbed up the mountain where he had trained many times before, and where he had been found a few months prior after he had attempted to use his quirk once again, going too far as always, and had been promptly healed and admitted to a mental hospital for "self-harm." But it wasn't self-harm, it was self-progression. No pain, no gain, right?

Touya lit up his quirk, but this time didn't hesitate to let it engulf his full body. No hesitation this time; maybe hesitation was the mistake that messed him up the time before. He felt the heat and the burning, and he pushed through anyway. He just kept going and going and going. He couldn't even hear himself as he screamed in pain through the roaring of the flames in his ears. His skin blistered and popped, but he still didn't let up. He was going to master his quirk; he wasn't going to give himself any other choice.

Hitoshi had been through a lot in his short life. There had been many ups and downs in his life, but never anything quite as high as his birthday party and having all of his friends there to support him in their own ways, with a new foster family who seemed to really care about his well-being instead of how to exert the most control over him. There had never been anything quite as low as attending Touya's funeral the very next weekend after his birthday party.

Hitoshi hadn't believed it at first. Neito and Denki hadn't, either.

"But I just saw him… he was just at my party…"

The Hamabis never wanted to see Hitoshi with that numb look on his face again, so they had tossed out the muzzle from the caseworker. The Hamabis had no idea how to protect their foster son from this type of loss. They couldn't hide him away and tell him to make no friends in case he lost them. It was better to have loved and lost than to not have ever loved at all, of course. But it still scared the new foster parents.

Hitoshi didn't know how to process this. He buried it when his parents had died: The idea of never seeing someone he loved ever again. Previous placement changes were different in that he knew that, someday, if he wanted to, he could track them down and see them again. But death? Death was so, so permanent, and Hitoshi had never lost a friend before.

"You guys have to promise me you won't die," Hitoshi had demanded gravely before the funeral had started.

"What? Toshi—" Denki had started but was interrupted.

"If either of you die, I'm going to think that it's my fault. That I'm some kind of bad luck charm. Please, don't leave me here alone," Hitoshi had whispered, tears starting to fall down his face.

Neito stepped forward quickly to embrace his soulmate and Denki took the time to gently wipe Hitoshi's cheeks of the tears that escaped his eyes.

"If I died, who would steal your quirk at the worst possible moment?" Neito asked, feigning sincerity.

"You—!" Hitoshi started to object, but his eyes glazed over as he fell under his own quirk. The quirk was dropped just as quickly, and Hitoshi stared at Neito in open amazement. "First of all," he started, dropping his eyebrows into a fierce glare, "you definitely have the worst possible timing down. Second of all," he added, eyes softening, and he looked at his soulmate in wonder, "you're getting really good at that. I didn't even realize you had activated my quirk. I didn't hear it in your voice or anything."

"He's chasing after you," Denki supplied, opting to give more information when Hitoshi's eyes darted in his direction, shooting a quick, apologetic look at Neito just in case he wasn't supposed to tell Hitoshi about the extra training he had been doing. "You've been getting really good at hiding when you're using your quirk, and Neito wants to keep up with you, so we've been practicing on the way to school."

Neito, instead of denying Denki's admission, nodded in agreement, looking at Hitoshi with undisguised wonder and amazement that he felt all of the time, but often tried to dampen. Hitoshi pulled them both into a hug, then, and squeezed them tightly.

"I don't know what I'd ever do without you guys."

One thing that Denki had focused on, the 'silver lining' of the funeral, was that he would get to meet Touya's little brother that he had mentioned a few times during their time at the mental hospital. He said that he was their age and had distinctive half red, half white hair.

Denki's heart broke for Touya even further when he looked around at the small gathering only to realize that the little bother in question was not in attendance, and neither was Endeavor.

A/N: I'm so sorry, guys. This was super hard to write, but it had to be done. My bad. My apologies. Big ouch.