"Oh, hey! You're that kid from the sports festival, aren't you?" the ticket stand guy asked, staring straight at Hitoshi. "The one from general studies who made it really far!"
After a short hesitation, Hitoshi answered, "yeah… that's me."
"So cool!" the young man praised. He might have even been a teenager, around their age. It was common for some teenagers to get summer jobs, especially when they didn't have hero internships to worry about.
"Oh, I think I remember you two being in the sports festival, too! How many quirks do you have, man?" he asked, turning his attention to Neito.
"Just the one," Neito dismissed coolly. "Now, about those tickets—"
"Yeah, sorry guys! You two are good to go, but you have an electric quirk, don't you?" the ticket stand guy asked, finally turning his attention to Denki. "People with electric quirks aren't allowed in this waterpark, but there's another waterpark about two and half hours from here by train that does allow people like you!"
"You're really going to discriminate based on quirks? Don't you know that's illegal?" Neito sneered, slamming his hands on the countertop, indignant at the audacity of the waterpark.
"Sorry, man," the ticket man offered, his hands out in a placating manner. "It's not up to me or you know I would let you all right in. Seriously! Big fan!"
Neito took a deep breath in, let it out, and demanded through his teeth, "let me speak to your manager."
As the ticket man left the window to fetch his superior, relieved to not deal with that situation any further, Denki tried to tell them that it was okay, and that he was used to it.
"You shouldn't have to be used to it!" Neito seethed, angry for Denki. "That's the point! How the fu—How are we supposed to train hard and become heroes if they won't even let us get some self-care and relaxation? They want us to burn bright and die early! And I don't care who hears!" Neito ranted, getting louder as he went, and turning on his heel to yell the last part at the gawking group at the next ticket window over.
Luckily, that group was smart enough to quickly divert their attention back to their own ticket window and quickly move on after making their purchases.
Denki, the peacemaker, tried, "you guys can just go without me, and—"
He stopped as he saw Hitoshi shaking his head. "This was meant to be a date with you. It wouldn't exactly be a good date if you weren't there, would it? Let us handle this. We have your back."
Denki sighed and contemplated, but inside, he was warm and absolutely thrilled. When was the last time that someone had defied rules for him? When was the last time that someone pointed out when he was being treated unfairly and actually worked toward fixing it?
"You always take care of everyone else," Hitoshi continued as Neito continued to shoot glares at everyone who looked at them for more than half a second. "You took care of me with the muzzle demonstration at the mall, and then Bakugou with getting the whole school to participate in yet another demonstration."
"And don't forget about when you saved my ass after I was so rude to you during training," Neito tacked on after sending a glare at an older lady who had been shooting disapproving glances in their direction. When he finally made eye contact and the lady rushed away, Neito grinned manically at his little success.
"That was just training!" Denki defended Neito against himself. "Anything goes during training!"
"No, it doesn't!" Neito argued. "Because I would have been devastated if the roles were reversed! You are so good at letting things go, but maybe you're too good at it. When you do that too often, you let people walk all over you instead of standing up for yourself and taking what you deserve."
"And you deserve the best," Hitoshi tacked on with a determined nod.
"What can I help you with today?" a middle-aged man asked from the counter window, the original ticket man standing nervously and awkwardly in the background.
"I'm sure you already know the situation," Neito spat. "Give us all entry to the waterpark."
"It's against policy—" the manager started to recite, but Neito wasn't having any of it.
"Do you know who this is?" Neito asked, gesturing toward Denki. "This is Chargebolt. He's currently interning with Thirteen."
"That's very cool, but that doesn't change the policy," the manager said calmly.
"Do you know who this is?" Hitoshi asked, gesturing toward Neito. "This is Monoma Neito, and I'm sure all of the media outlets would eat up a story about how you denied access to three hero interns who were just trying to have a good time."
"Do you know who this is?" Denki jumped in, not to be outdone, gesturing toward Hitoshi. "This is the son of Pro Heroes Eraserhead and Present Mic, vocal advocates against quirk discrimination. How do you think an investigation would go into the legality of you discriminating by quirk type?"
Denki ignored Neito's muttering "still spending too much time with Midoriya" under his breath.
The manager got paler and paler as the gravity of the situation started to weigh on him with the incoming almost-threats from the teenagers in front of him.
"Since it's a safety issue, if he can pass a quirk control test, then he can enter," the manager offered as a compromise, but everyone knew that it was just to save face.
Knowing that the manger was not the one who had made the policy and that he was just trying to do his job, Hitoshi and Denki were kind enough to allow him to try to salvage the situation.
Neito was not.
"Why wasn't that offered in the first place, then?" he sneered, jabbing his finger into the countertop to get his anger across.
Of course, Denki passed with flying colors, and they were allowed into the waterpark for free, probably in hopes that the sign of goodwill would prevent the teenagers from actually going to the media with their complaints.
Fat chance.
What kind of heroes would they be if they let something like that slide as long as they themselves were exempt from it? Not any kind of hero that they wanted to become, that was for sure.
"Thanks for letting us in for free!" Neito yelled back as they entered through the gate, cupping his hands around his mouth, making sure as many people in line as possible heard him.
"And for the free meal tickets!" Hitoshi yelled as an addition on pure impulse.
"And for the free locker rentals!" Denki yelled, following Hitoshi's idea, before quickly pulling the soulmates through the gates before the manager could change his mind and deny access to all three of them.
Because while they did get access to the park for free, they did not, in fact, get free meal tickets or locker rentals.
They quickly set off to change and put their things away in a locker (that they did purchase the rental for), laughing and enjoying the schadenfreude of the increasingly angry voices they left behind at the ticket counters for the manager to deal with.
As far as the boys were concerned, it was a win-win. Either they made the park give away a lot of free things and made them take a hit to their profits for the day, or they had a lot of angry customers when their requests for free things were denied.
May the online reviews of the waterpark rest in peace.
Coincidentally, the waterpark that was suggested that was two and a half hours away had a huge influx of new customers, and they couldn't figure out why.
While they did act up a bit at the ticket counter, they followed all the rules and didn't give the lifeguards any trouble. They knew the difference between quirk discrimination disguised as safety and actual safety, after all.
When Denki started creeping around, hiding behind pillars and trash cans, doing useless somersaults to get from one hiding place to the next when walking would have been just as effective, if not more so, the soulmates smiled to each other and joined right in. What kind of date would it have been if they didn't get up to their old QQQ habits?
If they hadn't been playing around and drawing attention to themselves, she might not have noticed that they were there and missed their chance encounter completely.
When Denki flopped onto his back instead of finishing yet another somersault to get from one point to the next, staring wide-eyed at a girl who was just watching the trio with a huge smile on her face, it caught the soulmates' attention.
"Hi!" she greeted as she ran over, quickly sending a sheepish apology in the lifeguard's direction after he reminded her that it was against the rules to run. "I wanted to go on the family waterslides, but they won't let just one person. If you guys went with me, that would be an even four! What do you say?"
Denki held his hand up, and she took it, pulling him to his feet.
"Yeah, sure! I mean if it's okay with Hitoshi and Neito," Denki amended, looking over at the soulmates.
They easily agreed but were confused because they had no idea who this girl was. They had all been at the same mental hospital, went to the same high school, and Hitoshi went to the same middle school, but neither of them recognized the girl.
As Denki and the girl rushed forward to look at their options to choose which one to go down first, Hitoshi informed Neito, "she's not from our middle school. Maybe she's from primary school."
"Or maybe they are complete strangers," Neito added with a snort, then softer, "it wouldn't surprise me if people could just sense how caring he is."
"Okay. Slippery Serpent first, then Gushing Geiser!" the girl finalized their choice. "Have you made a move, yet?"
"No," Denki answered sheepishly. "They did, though!" he added, sending a smile in her direction. "We're on a date right now, actually."
"Shit," she swore in a whisper, "I'm interrupting your date?!"
"It's fine! I've been wanting to introduce them to you anyway, so this is perfect!" Denki reassured.
"I'm going to get brainwashed today," she said, narrowing her eyes and nodding, stating it like it was just a simple fact, or maybe a goal. "Oh, maybe they'll even attempt to kill me! No—" she said, quickly changing her mind. "They aren't like Iida, Todoroki, and Midoriya."
"Wait—what?" Denki asked, turning to her wide-eyed, a million possibilities of what she might mean passing through his mind.
"Tell you later," she promised in a whisper, sending a wink in Denki's direction, before turning toward the approaching soulmates. "We chose Slippery Serpent, first! Any objections? No? Let's go!"
"I can't believe they tried to deny you entry!" the girl complained, indignant on Denki's behalf.
"Right?!" Neito added, egging her on. "What I can't believe, is that Hitoshi played the 'don't you know who I am' card!"
"Technically, I played the 'don't you know who he is card.' Denki was the one who played the card on my behalf, after you played it on his behalf," Hitoshi countered.
"I'd give you guys whatever you wanted if I was in his situation. Like 'you want free season passes for life? Here you go!'" the girl added, enjoying the easy banter with the trio that she found herself quickly falling into.
"Damn!" Denki swore under his breath. "That would have been better than thanking him for a free locker rental. I'll have to remember that for next time."
"Hopefully there won't be a next time," Neito growled, sharing a meaningful look with Hitoshi.
"How do you two know each other anyway?" Hitoshi asked as the group ascended the stairs as the crowd moved forward, getting closer to taking their own turn down the slide.
"I didn't introduce you!" Denki exclaimed, slapping his forehead. "This is Shinsou Hitoshi, and you already met Monoma Neito."
"We already met?" Neito asked as he extended his hand to shake hers in formal greeting, a habit from meeting with his parents' important and wealthy guests whenever they hosted.
"Unofficially," the girl answered with a shrug, reaching out to shake Neito's hand.
Neito's eyes had widened with realization as he felt the familiar quirk wash over him, taking root in his body, where it would remain active for the next five minutes.
"You—" he started to accuse, taking a step back. He looked around, noticing all of the people who would be caught in the crossfire if a fight were to take place. He absolutely hated the strategy of just going along with whatever was demanded of him until an opportunity presented itself. He'd rather take the chance and make his own openings, but that didn't seem to be an option in that situation, standing in line on a tall staircase, crowds of civilians both in front and behind the group.
"Not very Plus Ultra of you to copy my quirk," the girl pouted dramatically before smiling her sharp smile.
"And this is Toga Himiko," Denki finished the introduction, suddenly realizing he probably should have gone about it a different way.
A/N: I'm pretty sure this is one of my favorite chapters I've ever written. Let me know what you guys think! Comments, likes, reviews, kudos, theories, and predictions are always appreciated!