A/N: I just really love you guys. Because of you, my readers, all I think about in every spare moment are my stories and different plot lines and twists that I could use. I go to sleep thinking about how to connect the current plot point with the next one, and I go to work counting down the hours until I can go home and write some more. I post each chapter with a happy heart, knowing that you guys are going to take care of me emotionally and show me that my hard work and creativity is appreciated. I appreciate every comment, like, kudos, review, and message. Thanks for your readership. 3
"What do you want?" Shigaraki sneered at Denki standing in the doorway before turning his attention back to the colorful screen in front of him.
Denki really wasn't a threat to Shigaraki; he knew that. But to have Shigaraki completely disregard him to turn his back on him still made him feel very small.
"Uh… Can I play?" Denki asked hesitantly, taking a cautious half-step further into the room.
Shigaraki glanced back at him once again, pausing his game to really look him over and consider. He did like having someone to play with. It beat playing alone, that is, if the kid turned out to be any good. Shigaraki figured that because Denki was a teenage boy, there was probably at least some video game experience. Besides, Dabi had flat out refused to play with him while Denki was there, wanting to keep an eye on the kid at all times. So, why was the kid wandering into Shigaraki's room of all places, unaccompanied by Dabi?
"Shut the door behind you," Shigaraki grumbled, moving over to make room for Denki on the futon next to him.
Denki let out a breath and willed his heart to calm down as he carefully shut the door and made his way closer to the villain. It was weird being in Shigaraki's presence, and so close to him, of his own accord.
Denki flopped down next to Shigaraki and finally looked at the screen. He slapped his hands over his mouth, but the muffled snort still captured Shigaraki's attention.
"You got something to say?" Shigaraki growled, red eyes narrowed at him in warning.
"Just… I didn't take you to be an Adventures of All Might player, is all," Denki admitted, holding his hands up in surrender.
"There's a glitch," Shigaraki informed matter-of-factly, turning his attention back to the game and unpausing it. "I'll show you."
Shigaraki proceeded to jump, fly, and run his All Might avatar throughout the cityscape of the game, ignoring the NPCs trying to catch his attention to do various tasks to earn points. Finally at his destination, Shigaraki stopped the All Might avatar in the middle of a sidewalk, next to a fire hydrant. Denki was about to question what he was supposed to be looking for when a small flowerpot fell from above screen, flattening the much larger All Might avatar like a pancake. The 'GAME OVER' flashed across the screen and offered to restart the game or exit.
"Holy shit," Denki whispered under his breath before bursting out laughing. "A flowerpot can kill All Might in this game?! It wasn't even like a giant one, or a quirked-out spiky one! It was just a little old lady one! It had daisies in it!" Denki exclaimed as he wailed through his laughter, eyes squinted in absolute hilarity.
Shigaraki's own smile grew over his face; laughter was contagious after all. He looked over at Denki consideringly before choosing the option to exit the game and choosing a multiplayer one that he frequented.
"Are you any good?" Shigaraki asked, nodding to the screen.
"I can hold my own," Denki promised, not wanting to put Shigaraki off by saying he wasn't the best, but also not wanting to make him mad by implying that he was amazing at it, either.
Denki didn't know what tended to set Shigaraki off, but he knew he would rather not if he could help it. He was trying to be as neutral as possible. Shigaraki quickly logged out of his own account, opting to move forward without the stress of worrying about an inexperienced player messing up his stats.
If Shigaraki had used his account, maybe Denki would have noticed his username. Alas, they were declared as generic Player 1 and Player 2.
Shigaraki handed over his spare controller, and Denki quickly took it, immediately turning to the screen to choose his character and other preferred specs. Denki worked quickly, not wanting to keep the villain waiting; Shigaraki might have noticed that he seemed very competent already from the way he immediately knew the order of the specs and which ones he wanted. However, Shigaraki was gazing at Denki in wonder instead of watching the screen, eyebrows furrowed as he thought about what he knew about the electric blonde.
Shigaraki had come up with little, unsurprisingly. Denki was never one of the League's considered targets. What had puzzled Shigaraki was that even colleagues like Toga and Twice would still flinch and pull away from him when his hands were too near, worried that he might accidentally, or maybe even purposefully and impulsively, use his quirk on them, given the chance. So, why was it that Dabi was no longer the only exception? Why was it that this hostage of theirs had quickly snatched the controller from his hand, not flinching away or caring when their hands had touched briefly in the transfer? Why was it that Denki didn't hesitate to grab the controller from him, or maybe even insist that Shigaraki put the controller down on the futon before he would pick it up?
Was this kid reckless? Maybe that was part of it, but he didn't seem suicidal, or he would have lit the League up with his quirk, consequences be damned. But maybe his connection to Dabi was truly the only thing holding him back from doing just that.
"How do you know Dabi, anyway?" Shigaraki inquired, starting the game after Denki indicated that he was ready.
Denki moved his avatar forward, following Shigaraki's avatar around the familiar landscape that he had played forward, backwards, and sideways with his online friends at one point or another, conquering multiple other groups before moving on to another game completely.
"Oh, we go way back," Denki answered, eyes and focus not straying from the screen, but still aware enough to not give anything away about Dabi that he did not want to be public knowledge.
"That wasn't an answer," Shigaraki growled.
Denki just shrugged in response, continuing to follow Shigaraki to a safe hideout in the game to regroup and plan the strategy for victory.
"Why did you come in here anyway?" Shigaraki asked as they both reacted quickly and took out the threats coming at either side of them.
Shigaraki whistled lowly, impressed with Denki's quick reflexes. Maybe playing a few games with the hero student wouldn't be too bad after all.
"To ask you to reconsider targeting Hitoshi and Neito," Denki answered honestly. "The soulmates," he clarified, in case Shigaraki didn't remember their names.
Shigaraki scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You can't just barge in here, asking for favors and making demands! What made you think I'd agree to any of that?" Shigaraki demanded, smashing the buttons on his controller a little bit harder than usual, hinting to Denki that he was becoming agitated already.
"Dabi seemed convinced," Denki admitted with a shrug, not wanting to make demands, but still wanting to be heard out. "Plus, you guys literally kidnapped me. I think I reserve the right to at least ask, at the very least."
In response to that, Shigaraki's character turned around 180 degrees and fired right at Denki's character.
Denki started wide-eyed at the screen before turning the same expression over to Shigaraki, who just spared him a disinterested glance in return.
"What's with the friendly fire?!" Denki asked, flailing his hands around at the betrayal.
"There's nothing friendly about my fire," Shigaraki sneered, making Denki perk up in familiarity. "And until you tell me what I want to know, your avatar's blood is going to coat the ground we stand on."
"No complaints?" Shigaraki asked when Denki didn't respond.
"Uh, no. I just had some weird déjà vu is all. Besides, Dabi said to let you kill me a few times as to reduce your impulse to decay my face off," Denki offered with a shrug, waiting for his character to respawn.
Shigaraki scoffed. "Let me kill you a few times? Like you could possibly defend yourself!"
"I think I could hold my own!" Denki defended, nose scrunched in determination as he stared at the screen, trying to figure out if there was a way to dodge Shigaraki's shots without firing back at him in return.
"What's Dabi's real name?" Shigaraki asked, hoping that the quick back and forth banter might cause Denki to slip.
"Ask him yourself," Denki demanded bluntly.
After respawning, he hadn't even gotten to take one step before Shigaraki's character shot him again.
Denki groaned, flinging his head back against the futon in dismay.
"Tell me Dabi's name, and I won't go after your friends," Shigaraki offered.
"How do you not know your own soulmate's name anyway?" Denki asked to derail the conversation, knowing that he couldn't betray Dabi like that.
If it came down to it, he would just have to warn the heroes who the League of Villains was after next, and hoped they believed him. Maybe that would be enough to save the boys he loved from the scary reality that is All For One.
"Soulmate? Dabi's not my soulmate," Shigaraki said, dumbfounded at Denki's assumption.
"He's not?" Denki asked, tearing his eyes away from the screen and looking at Shigaraki. When Shigaraki shook his head, Denki continued, "then how do you do it? How do you risk getting attached to each other with the possibility that one of your soulmates might come along and ruin everything you've built together?"
"What we have…" Shigaraki started, not used to talking about his feelings for Dabi and just experiencing them in the moment. "It isn't that serious. It's whatever."
"Liar," Denki blurted before he could stop himself.
Shigaraki turned on him, game forgotten, an incredulous look on his face at the audacity of his hostage.
"What did you just say to me?" Shigaraki demanded flatly.
Maybe Denki was dumb and reckless, but he didn't hear any anger in Shigaraki's voice, but surprise at being talked to that way. Denki figured that instead of backtracking, he would push forward. He would either end up dead or gain a newfound respect from Shigaraki for his courage. He figured it was worth the risk, though he might look back on that exact moment in the future and realize how reckless he had been.
Though, if Neito and Hitoshi were there, they would agree with him completely. They would know that he had picked up some kind of subtle hints from Shigaraki that let him know instinctively that it was safe to forge ahead, and they would have trusted him unconditionally. But they weren't there, Denki was on his own, and he was nervous.
"I said that was a lie," Denki said, doubling down. "I heard the way Dabi talked about you and saw the look on his face when he was thinking about you. That's not nothing."
"What do you know?" Shigaraki retorted quietly, without the expected bite to his words.
Denki started to understand. Shigaraki was trying to keep a distance, not wanting to get attached because he thought Dabi might just be using him for some fun and not taking what was budding seriously. Maybe he was thinking that his feelings were one-sided, but he saw the way Dabi looked when Shigaraki was brought into conversation, and he saw the way Shigaraki's grip had tightened on his controller when he implied that their relationship wasn't that serious.
Denki decided to treat Shigaraki's defensive rhetorical question as an actual question.
"Dabi is… eccentric," Denki offered. He wouldn't give away Dabi's identity, but he could give Shigaraki this, at least. "When he was still training us, he crashed Hitoshi's birthday party by waking us up the next morning with a blow horn and making us train." Shigaraki snorted, and Denki continued, a smile on his face from the memory, "he does unpredictable things sometimes, but he doesn't get involved with someone if he doesn't care. If he didn't care about you and what is going on between you two, you wouldn't question it, you would know. He would make it obvious. The way he egged you on earlier? From where I stand, that was so obviously him showing the highest affection for you, at least in Dabi's own, unique way."
Denki was too busy watching Shigaraki's face to realize that they were being surrounded by other players on the screen, slowly creeping closer and ducking out of sight every few steps in the virtual forest that surrounded them.
Shigaraki picked up his controller, sending a glance and a small smile in Denki's direction. Denki knew that that was Shigaraki's way of saying thanks, and Denki followed suit with picking up his own controller, ready to get back to the game.
"No more friendly fire," Shigaraki promised softly, ending the conversation, and turning back toward the game.
Denki didn't mind the conversation being cut short. The intensity of Shigaraki's face relaxing was enough to show him that he at least gave Shigaraki a lot to consider.
"Six o'clock!" Shigaraki urgently commanded when he saw a player sneaking up behind Denki before firing his own weapon at other incoming players.
Denki whipped his character around 180 degrees and fired automatically without thinking, muscle memory easily taking over.
After a few more tense seconds with rounds being fired from both sides, Shigaraki's and Denki's avatars were the only left standing. Shigaraki and Denki turned to face each other, wide-eyed.
"How…" Shigaraki started to ask before a horrible realization took over his face, the uncanny feeling of familiarity finally making sense. "Are you P05itiv3R3v0lt?"
The impressive reflexes, the easy and familiar cadence of their banter and conversation flow during the game, Denki's familiarity with the game and map, and now his effortless following of Shigaraki's barked command led to Shigaraki's horrifying realization.
Shigaraki jumped, startled, when Denki screamed, jumping to his feet.
"You're High5UrDead?! Oh shit! Oh shit! And Dabi!" Denki exclaimed, taking a dramatic breath in before belting, "he's Fri3ndlyFir3! Oh my god!"
Shigaraki watched, stunned, as Denki carried on.
"And! And… you're upset," Denki realized, his energy levels immediately stabilizing as he realized that Shigaraki was not quite as excited as he was. "Are you disappointed that it's me?"
Shigaraki shook his head in response, leaning forward and rubbing his temples with his fingertips. Pieces were falling into place. Namely that P05itiv3R3v0lt admitted to being in love with a pair of soulmates, and the League had just decided to target a pair of soulmates, the same pair that Denki was currently trying to dissuade him from going after.
"The soulmates that you're in love with…?" Shigaraki inquired.
"Oh, yeah. That would be Hitoshi and Neito," Denki admitted with a shrug.
"Well, there goes my bargaining chip," Shigaraki sulked.