A/N: I'm currently at a resort, and will be for about a week, all expenses paid by the company I work for because of some training I'm attending. I have already gotten a good feel for the INDOOR WATERPARK in which I TOTALLY DEMOLISHED the Flow Rider thing. I was seriously very competent, and very surprised about that. What are some things that you were really good at for your first try that you expected to totally fail at?
"So, I'm chasing this guy, right? And I have him cornered. He knows from experience in the short chase we just had that even if he were to magically develop a second quirk and scale the wall, I'd still be right behind him because of my skill with my capture weapon—"
"And what skill that is!" Neito interrupted.
"—Shut up! Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…" Hitoshi continued.
Neito shrugged in a very relaxed way, knowing that Hitoshi basked in compliments about his improvements. Even if someone passing by weren't an intimate part of the group, they would still know that Hitoshi wasn't actually upset because of the huge smile he sent in Neito's direction, unable to hide his amusement at his soulmate's easy compliments that he started to seem to throw around more and more as time went on.
"… he turns around, right? Then, get this! He takes a step forward, quirk activated, ready to send porcupine quills right through me. He takes one look at me, sighs like the world is turning against him, and surrenders! Just like that! He lowers his quills that would have definitely done a lot of damage, maybe even enough for him to escape, and he just gives up! I thought that maybe my reputation might have gotten him to cooperate, but when I asked questions, he answered them!" Hitoshi raved, hands moving wildly to express his absolute confoundment.
"Did you use your quirk on him?" Midoriya asked, pen posed over paper, ready to take notes to further his understanding of Hitoshi's quirk.
"No," Hitoshi admitted with a shrug, a calmness taking over quickly from his rapid-fire storytelling. "He surrendered. No quirk needed."
His constant changes in volume, speed, and tone didn't phase his close friends; everyone figured that Neito's dramatics were rubbing off on his soulmate, but a select few had figured out that this is how Hitoshi had always been, and everyone would have seen that if people hadn't cowered in fear whenever he spoke. Neito often wondered if he would have guessed they were soulmates before it was confirmed if he knew how similar they were if Hitoshi's traumatic upbringing hadn't stifled his personality to keep him flying as low under the radar as possible.
"Interesting," Midoriya muttered, taking notes.
"What the hell are you even writing if he didn't use his quirk?" Neito demanded, trying to peek over to see.
Midoriya snapped the notebook closed and held it against his chest. "None of your business!"
"If you have notes on me in there, I think it is my business!" And, after a hesitant pause, Neito asked, "do you have notes on me in there?" No one was cruel enough to mention the hopeful tone in Neito's voice.
"Of course, I do," Midoriya reassured him. "Nothing that would be helpful, yet, though. I'm still working on the basic information before I can start to play around with it to see if I can think of anything you haven't already."
"You'll let me know if you come up with anything?" Neito asked.
"Definitely!" Midoriya chirped.
Neito had seen how Midoriya had narrowed in on what Hitoshi should work on, so much so that he had helped his soulmate to choose who to intern with to improve most, and even to get from three people under his quirk to five in such a short amount of time when going from two to three was painstakingly slow.
Midoriya had talent for quirk analysis and creative ways to use quirks in different situations. With Neito's the possibilities were endless and depended entirely on who was around to copy quirks from, so Midoriya had a big project ahead of him.
Midoriya himself was surprised about how easygoing and playful Neito was once he got to know him. It was a little scary how someone's opinion could change so quickly and drastically, just by getting to know them a little better and seeing that he truly meant no harm. After letting his guard down, Neito had quickly grown on him, and his comments and antics were actually seen as endearing and complimentary rather than obnoxious. Having Neito ask Midoriya for help and acknowledge his competence without using some snarky backhanded comment to get his point across? There was no greater compliment.
Neito was often seen as unhinged and uncontrollable, but Midoriya quickly learned that Neito keeps a close and careful control over himself. He never crosses a line, keeping himself well within his own boundaries. When Midoriya snapped his notebook shut, Neito didn't pry further, demanding to see or taking the book from him to look for himself. Midoriya wouldn't have even been mad or upset had he done exactly that; sometimes that's just how friends act with each other.
At first, Midoriya feared that even as he saw Neito as a friend, maybe he didn't see Midoriya as a friend back. After a while, though, Midoriya figured out that Neito had that strong boundary with everyone, to never go to far and do or say something that he couldn't take back, to never push people over the edge.
It made Midoriya wonder how Neito could have said those things to Denki way back during the first battle between Class 1-A and Class 1-B. Did he change because of that, or was he always like that and just had some strong, intrinsic trust that Denki would forgive him? If that was the case, he was right. Midoriya doubted there was anything that Neito could say or do that would make Denki hate him.
To be fair, though, Denki didn't hate anyone… well, except for All For One, but that was so understandable that it didn't really count to Midoriya.
"What are you doing Saturday?" Hitoshi asked Denki.
He had been quietly observing Hitoshi, Neito, and Midoriya interact, laughing and egging them on when appropriate, but not really contributing to the conversation. Nothing was wrong, and everyone knew that. No one was worried that he wasn't jumping in because sometimes Denki just liked to sit back and observe. Everyone was getting along so well that there was no need for the social genius to jump in and smooth things out, so he just enjoyed the endless entertainment as it was.
"I'm busy!" Denki chirped, barely containing his growing smile.
"Do you have your internship that day?" Neito asked, confused because they had already shared their schedules with each other. If Denki didn't have anything come up, he should have been free.
"No," Denki answered, giving as little information as possible, unable to meet the soulmates' eyes.
Hitoshi and Neito narrowed their eyes at him, their own smiles growing on their faces as they glanced at each other. It was Midoriya's turn to sit back and observe; it never failed to amuse him when it came to those three.
"Then what are you doing on Saturday?" Hitoshi asked, willingly taking the bait.
"It's a secret, I guess," Denki answered simply with a shrug, his huge smile giving his game away.
"You guess?" Hitoshi asked, picking up the hints that Denki was throwing down.
Denki absolutely beamed, laughter barely contained as he answered, "yeah, until you tell me what we're doing, then it won't be a secret anymore."
"You said you have plans because you already decided to agree to whatever we were about to ask you?" Neito mused, then snorted.
After a pause, all four boys were laughing.
Everything was going so well for all four of them, and so any little thing could send them into a laughing fit when they all got together and started their mindless chatter.
"Go to the waterpark with us," Neito demanded, though his eyes were warm and crinkled from the force of his lingering smile.
"What? Me?" Denki asked, slightly stunned. "People don't usually like having me around water with them because of my quirk…"
"Oh, please!" Neito wailed dramatically, throwing his hands out to the side. "You have perfect control over your quirk! If anyone should be feared at a waterpark because of their quirk… it's me!"
"Oh, please no!" Hitoshi quickly interjected, before explaining to Denki and Midoriya, "last time he was told no for something, he copied my quirk and made the worker do what he said."
"Oh!" Denki drawled, realization dawning on him. "Is that how we got in to pet the penguins when no one else was allowed?!"
"You looked at them like they were the most amazing creatures on Earth," Neito defended. "I asked, they said no. I held my soulmate's hand, asked again, and they answered with no again. Third time's the charm, as they say!"
"Yeah, let's not do that ever again!" Hitoshi insisted, shaking his head frantically, as if that might dissuade his soulmate from getting what he wants by whatever means necessary.
"No promises," Neito answered before quickly moving on so that Hitoshi wouldn't get a chance to respond. "So, Saturday. Waterpark. You in, Denks?"
"Yeah!" Denki chirped. "You coming?" he turned to ask Midoriya.
"He's not invited," Neito rushed out.
"Neito, you can't just invite me in front of someone else only to exclude them!" Denki scolded lightly.
"What he means," Hitoshi started, coming to Neito's rescue, "is that we're taking you on a date. Midoriya would just be the fourth wheel if he tagged along."
A glance over at Midoriya showed him to be smiling contentedly, leaning back on his hands and watching the interaction unfold with amusement dancing in his eyes.
"Like a date date?" Denki dared to ask.
"Yes. You already know how we both feel about you, Denks," Hitoshi stated with a sigh, running his hand through his hair. "Let us help you find out if you feel the same."
"Oh, I do!" Denki answered. "Wasn't that obvious? I feel like everyone else knows. Did you guys not know? You don't have to take me on a date to help me work out my feelings because I already know!"
"Then we'll take you because you deserve to go on nice dates," Neito insisted firmly.
"Did you know about this?" Denki asked Midoriya, confused as to why the soulmates were asking him out on a date (he could still hardly believe it. If you caught him pinching himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming… no you didn't!) with Midoriya right there.
"He was moral support," Hitoshi answered like that explained everything.
"Moral support?" Denki pressed.
"He was going to pummel us into the ground so hard that we would forget our despair if you were to turn us down," Neito answered with a shrug, like that was a simple and obvious explanation.
"I wouldn't have actually," Midoriya insisted, hands up in a surrendering motion when Denki turned to look at him disbelievingly.
"But that was your purpose?" Denki shook his head, letting the train of thought go. It was surely something to think about (and laugh about) later. Turning to the soulmates, he asked, "you seriously thought that it was a possibility that I'd say no?"
"Yeah," Hitoshi admitted while Neito shrugged. "Even if you liked us back… both of us… you still might not have wanted to change anything. We're getting along so well, and…"
"And all the what-ifs…" Neito supplied.
"Screw the what-ifs and the maybes," Denki declared with a shrug. "If something unexpected happens, we'll deal with it when the time comes. I've given it a lot of though, and I think our friendship is strong enough to withstand anything. If you guys are willing to take the risk of taking me on and trying this out for real, then I'm in!"
"I thought it would take more convincing, honestly," Neito muttered to Hitoshi, but loud enough for everyone to hear.
Denki laughed. "I trust you two with my life. In comparison, trusting you with my heart is no big deal."
And while Hitoshi and Neito were happy and relieved that Denki had agreed, their hearts broke a little, wondering why fate had failed to see that all three of them would have been perfect for each other.
If fate wasn't going to make them all soulmates, then screw fate; they'd do it by themselves.