"I don't understand why you're so… down. Honestly, it's kind of scaring me," Neito stated, placing a hand on Hitoshi's shoulder and ducking his head to look him in the eye.
When Hitoshi didn't answer, opting to look away from Neito's inquisitive gaze instead, Neito sighed in resignation before offering, "let's just invite Denki, over, yeah? He is the life of the party. Whatever you're feeling, he will make it go away, at least temporarily."
The last thing Neito needed was for Denki to stop by, but if it would make his soulmate feel better, he would grin and bear it.
Hitoshi started to shake his head, still refusing to look into Neito's eyes.
"It's been months since we've seen him, sure, but I'm sure he'd rush right over. I'll call him now," Neito decided, reaching for his phone, only for his hand to be intercepted by Hitoshi's, holding it tightly against his chest so that he couldn't get to the phone.
Hitoshi finally looked up at him, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, but refusing to fall.
"We can't call Denki. That would make it worse," he whispered out hoarsely.
"I don't understand," Neito insisted, but sat back down and didn't try to reach for the phone again. "Did something happen? Please explain it to me. Please?"
"I… God, Neito. I love him," Hitoshi blurted out, tears finally overflowing and trailing down his cheeks.
"I do, too! But—"
"No!" Hitoshi interrupted, grabbing Neito's shoulders to face him head on to try to make him understand what he was saying, the betrayal that he had hid for too long already. "I feel the same way about him that I feel about you. Do you understand?"
Hitoshi saw the surprise in Neito's eyes, but the betrayal wasn't obvious, yet. Hitoshi wanted to look away; he didn't want to see the hurt he was causing his soulmate, but he didn't deserve to hide from what he was doing to him.
"I… I do, too," Neito whispered, collapsing against Hitoshi at the confession.
"What?" Hitoshi asked. He heard; he just couldn't comprehend it.
"I didn't want to tell you, so I've been trying to push the feelings down. You've been doing the same thing, right? And that's how we've both gone a month already without talking to Denki at all. I was so scared to tell you," Neito admitted.
"I was scared to tell you, too. I just need you to know that this doesn't change anything about the way I feel about you… I just feel the exact same way for Denki as well," Hitoshi explained, trying to soften the blow and ease any uncertainty that Neito might have about his feelings.
The conversation was going much better than he expected. The only tears were tears of relief and understanding and acceptance. There was no yelling at all. Maybe they were really meant for each other. They fit together so perfectly that they were both falling for the same electric boy.
"I couldn't have said it better myself," Neito conceded.
When Neito and Hitoshi slowed down communication with Denki, Denki didn't reach out as much, trying his best to respect their wishes. When they stopped responding at all, Denki tried a few more times. After the fifth time reaching out with no response, he took the hint and didn't try to contact them again, hoping that after an extended break from him, they might be more inclined to reach out in the future. Denki figured that they had just had too much of him. He knew he was a lot to handle, so he could hardly blame them.
It hurt more than he thought it would, though. He felt like he had a real connection with the soulmates. They were his best friends, and they called him their best friend, too. He thought they were all on the same page, but now he knew better than to get his hopes up like that again.
Throughout middle school, High5UrDead and Fri3ndlyFir3 were his only constant friends. He kept a healthy distance from his friends from school as to not go through the same hurt again if they started to feel like they've had too much of him, too. He felt incredibly fortunate that High5UrDead and Fri3ndlyFir3 never seemed to tire of him. When he felt like they might be tiring of him, they would groan about how the game had gotten old and predictable, then Denki would get an invite to follow the two to the next game they wanted to demolish.
When he wasn't at school and he wasn't gaming with his online friends, he started up a new hobby that he knew he entirely sucked at. Recording and editing videos for TikTok was a lot harder than he thought it would be going in, but it took up a lot of his time and gave him something to think about other than how he had lost two valuable friendships and really never even got closure as to what he did to push them away. For the distraction, he was grateful.
Hitoshi had been watching the same TikTok for five minutes straight, and Neito knew that could only mean one thing.
"Denki posted another video?" he guessed, sitting down next to Hitoshi, who was supposed to be working on his literature report that was due in a few days.
"Yeah," Hitoshi sighed, longing evident in his eyes, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
Hitoshi passed the phone over to Neito, and Neito was immediately reminded of how hard it was to scroll past Denki's videos. He had gotten much better at recording and editing. His transitions improved until they were flawless. Neito knew because he had gone frame by frame on the more recent videos and could not figure out when the transitions actually occurred—they were that smooth. Denki had started picking up different dancing trends and really had a knack for them. Neito felt bittersweet when he thought about Denki spending all of that time learning new dance trend after new dance trend.
On one hand, he was glad that Denki seemed to be spending that time alone. But then he would immediately feel guilty for thinking that. It wasn't fair to expect Denki to not share his time with others when Neito hadn't called him back in months. He planned to call him back. Of course, he did. Just as soon as he could look at Denki without feeling the same exact warmth he felt when he looked at Hitoshi. As he stared at the virtual image of Denki dancing on the screen, he knew that that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
"He looks like he's doing well," Hitoshi whispered, staring at the screen from over Neito's shoulder.
"What makes you think that?" Neito asked, as he was just thinking about how much time alone Denki must spend to learn and practice the dances and record and edit the videos.
"His handle is as upbeat as always, isn't it?" Hitoshi asked hopefully.
In reality, Hitoshi kind of hoped that Denki had moved on from them. It hurt when he stopped reaching out, but what did they expect when they stopped returning his calls? He deserved to be happy with people who didn't confuse their feelings for him with something that wasn't even possible. He deserved to find his own soulmate without having two people who had already found their soulmates pining after him and making him seem unavailable.
Neito glanced down at the new handle and wondered how long this one would last. First it was P05itiv3R3v0lt, then it was 1derCircuit. After that, it was Strik30ut, but that one didn't last too long. Now, it was High5ImAlive. Neito thought about it for a bit before voicing his thoughts aloud.
"This is the first one that doesn't have anything to do with his quirk, isn't it?" Neito inquired.
"Yeah, from what I can tell, anyway," Hitoshi shrugged, not giving it too much thought as he watched the smiling, dancing blonde on the screen, doing the same dance over and over again, steadily building up Denki's views.
"I miss him," Neito admitted with a whisper. "Do you still see him at school?"
"Only when first arriving and leaving. We haven't been in the same class since the year I transferred," Hitoshi said, wondering if things might have been different if they had been in the same class. On second thought, it would probably just make his life that much harder.
"Maybe we should just tell him," Neito suggested, and not for the first time.
Hitoshi lazily looked sideways at his soulmate and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.
"I wish we could, but I think that might make things worse. What if he doesn't feel the same way? We would have tried to get into his life again only to make him feel awkward being around us. What if he agrees, but finds his soulmate later? Do you think you could handle that loss? Because I don't think I could. What if he doesn't agree and he pulls away permanently because he fears that he might mess up and come between us somehow—"
"He wouldn't—"
"But he would think he would. You know him, Neito, just as well as I do. He wouldn't risk something that major if he thought that he might end up hurting us somehow in the long run, even if that is what he wanted, which we're not even sure about. This is the safest route. He'll forgive us and invite us back with open arms once we get our feelings under control and can love him like a true friend, like he deserves."
"And until then, we suffer in silence?" Neito grumbled.
"At least we have each other?" Hitoshi whispered, making Neito turn back toward his soulmate at the question in his voice.
"We're going through a tough time right now because we both love our best friend more than a friend should. But I still love you, Toshi, and I wouldn't change being your soulmate for anything in the world."
It had been a few years since they had all met and formed that friendship in the mental hospital. Hitoshi and Neito had applied to get into UA and were awaiting the test results to come back to see if they made it in or not. That was stressful, but even that did not take away the empty feeling they had in their chests when Denki was not with them.
It was weird finding your soulmate so early on. At first, they were just best friends, right along with Denki. Sometimes, in some situations, that all it ever amounts to be. Because they found each other so soon, and because they shared the same strong feelings toward Denki as well, both thought that maybe their soulmate bond was going to turn into a strong friendship and nothing more. When the romantic feelings started bubbling up a year ago, they were both horrified to find out that they were feeling the same type of thing for Denki as well as each other. When Hitoshi had admitted his feelings about Denki to Neito, Neito had actually collapsed in relief because he was feeling the exact same way. They couldn't exactly be mad at each other for pining after the same person, could they? They might have tried, but always failed. Denki was just so loveable that there was no avoiding it, it seemed.
When Neito opened up his UA acceptance letter that had come in the mail that afternoon, he screamed. He knew he had done really well on the technical and practical exams, but still, the acceptance rate was so miniscule that he couldn't be sure. Even now, it felt like a dream.
He called Hitoshi not a second later, wondering if he had gotten his acceptance letter, yet. And he had, though he had more mixed feelings about his because he was only admitted into general studies instead of one of the hero courses. Neito tried to comfort him and remind him that he could always transfer into the hero track if he does well in general studies, but Hitoshi still seemed a little reserved. Neito could hardly blame him; already he was feeling the pressure of inadequacy looming over him as he thought about how he wasn't good enough to get into Class 1-A. He couldn't exactly complain to Hitoshi about it, though, could he? Not when he actually made it into the hero track when Hitoshi did not.
It wasn't fair. The admission tests were tough for a mental quirk wielder, so the fact that Hitoshi got in at all was a huge sign of his incredible ingenuity and flexibility, but the scores were more objective than subjective, and there was no way to account for how amazing a hero he had the potential to become.
At least this was something to take their minds off of falling in love with Denki without finding a way out, even after they had cut contact with him. That's what the soulmates were thinking when they walked through the entrance gate on their first day at UA High School, right up until they saw the electric blonde staring up at the building in awe. The soulmates would have been, too, if the view of Denki wasn't even more amazing. What was he doing there anyway? If he was in the same class as Neito or Hitoshi, it would be even harder to try to dampen their feelings toward him.
"I'm in Class 1-A," Denki informed cheerily, excited to share this milestone with those he considered his best friends, even when they hadn't spoken in almost a year. "I didn't know you guys got in, too! That's so cool!"
When Neito told him that he was in Class 1-B and Hitoshi admitted that he was only in general studies, Denki pouted.
"Too bad we weren't all in Class 1-B together. We could have gone from the Beta Bros to the Class B Bros!" Denki exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air as they walked through the entrance together.
When Neito and Hitoshi quickly excused themselves to start making their way toward their classrooms, Denki didn't try to follow after them, knowing that they didn't want to spend any more time than they had to with him, but not quite understanding why. There was no big fight or blowout, or even anything small that gave him any hint of what had happened to make the soulmates no longer want to associate with him, and it made him nervous for the future.
What if he had done something unforgivable and he couldn't even figure out what it was? How was he supposed to make any long-lasting friendships while he was here at UA if he didn't know what caused his most precious friendships to fail so drastically?
Neito and Hitoshi couldn't believe how much seeing Denki for just a minute had brightened up their day, and even their perspective of not being in Class 1-A, because at least one of them had made it! But, then they had to remind themselves that they were no longer the trio that they had once been, and it was all their fault for falling for someone who was only supposed to be a friend.
Denki's worries were momentarily forgotten when he entered Class 1-A and it was basically being back on the unit at the mental hospital.
"Huh… maybe you have to be a little crazy to be a hero…" Denki thought aloud, muttering to himself as he took an empty seat next to Kyoka, reminding himself to call her Jirou and to not give away that he had met a lot of his classmates before in a mental hospital.
That was not a good way to make a good first impression on the kids he was meeting for the first time, and it was a great way to lose trust in the friends that he already did have going in.
Keep your mouth shut. Don't say anything stupid. Keep your mouth shut. Don't say anything stupid.
"Hey Denki! Oh—Kaminari, I mean," Izuku started in his chipper tone, excited as everyone else to be in the elite class of future heroes. "Where are Monoma and Shinsou? I thought you three would be joined at the hip wherever you ended up!"
"Hey, Midoriya!" Denki exclaimed, giving himself a mental high-five for using his surname. "They made it to UA!" Denki bragged with a blinding smile, adding, "Shinsou is in general studies and Monoma is in 1-B!" to explain their absence from the classroom.
Denki didn't bother to add that he had just discovered that today and the soulmates had quickly taken off afterward. He just hoped that the classes would train together often so he could try to mend the relationship that he must have done something to break.