A/N: I started taking topiramate for migraine prevention, and WHOA BOY. So, if my writing seems terribly different (or just plain terrible), my mind is foggy from trying to acclimate to this new drug. I'm going to go over these chapters multiple times to try to minimize any confusion my writing under this fog might cause, but it's still foggy. Even writing this damn A/N is very hard and I keep pausing in my typing. The words just aren't coming to me, and I keep losing my train of thought, and it's all very frustrating, as you can all probably imagine. Please take that into consideration for this and future chapters! Many thanks! 3
"Shouto found his soulmate," Denki said into the phone that was held strategically between his shoulder and ear as he lied on the floor, books spread around him as he prepared for final exams. "You'll never guess who!"
"Well, he's always around Midoriya," Shigaraki said. "But since you said I'd never guess, it's probably not him."
"Yaoyorozu!" Denki said excitedly into the phone, hands pushing the books away to dig his fingernails into the carpet at his excitement.
"You didn't let any of us guess!" Toga complained.
Denki laughed and apologized before going into the details. "So, Shouto finds out that Yaoyorozu is his soulmate. They speak alone for like five minutes before they have already decided that it's a platonic soulmate situation because Yaoyorozu is already head-over-heels for Jirou, and Shouto is obviously gay for Midoriya. So, Shouto tells Endeavor that he found his soulmate, and Endeavor is so pleased that it's Yaoyorozu. Then Shouto absolutely destroys this man's plans for the future by saying that they will only be friends because he, and I quote, has chosen to take Midoriya as his partner instead."
Denki smiled as he moved to pull the phone away from his ear as laughter burst through.
"What if Midoriya finds his own soulmate later on?" Mr. Compress asks. "Have they planned for that?"
"They really doubt that Midoriya has a soulmate out there because of his… questionable lineage."
"That makes sense," Shigaraki agreed, recalling his research when Denki was only known to him as P05itiv3R3v0lt, and knowing that it's the same reason that he doesn't have a soulmate of his own out there, either.
"But even then, Midoriya is so enraptured with Shouto that I think it would also just be a platonic thing if he did happen to have a soulmate show up. I didn't realize how messy soulmate situations could be until I found myself causing a mess of my own."
Dabi, Shigaraki, and Hawks had all verbally expressed their agreement at the same time. There was a pause, and then spirited arguing over who was the one who was the mess of the group. Shigaraki said it was obviously him because he was the one who wasn't destined. Hawks argued that Shigaraki and Dabi would have been perfectly fine if he hadn't come along to make everything more complicated. Dabi argued that if he could have just decided instead of selfishly wanting them both, then it wouldn't have gotten as far as it did.
By the end of the debate, they all agreed that whoever's fault it was who caused the mess had done everyone a huge favor because none of them would have had it any other way.
-.-.-
Even Endeavor would admit that Denki was endlessly useful, even before he graduated and joined full-time ranks. He was the calming voice for the panicking victims of disasters. He was the one who chose his words carefully, giving the press wordy nothingness with a bright smile that no one dared argue with. He was the one who could teleport to the top of a building to get a good look or act as impromptu surveillance (even when he would argue that it wasn't really teleportation, and the rest of the team would roll their eyes at his insistence on the importance of semantics. To be fair, they had never experienced Kurogiri's warp gates. Denki's lightning quick transportation wasn't nearly the same as that, not that he could force that argument from his throat to make his point).
Graduation was largely uneventful. Though, even with all of the extra security surrounding the event, Denki still had disguised Toga and unmasked Mr. Compress in the crowd, cheering the loudest when he walked across the stage, his parents shooting odd glances at the odd couple a few rows over who were screaming loudly for their son. They confirmed with each other that they had never seen those people before, and just figured that Denki must have saved themduring one of his internships or something.
Aizawa pulled Denki away right after graduation.
Denki groaned dramatically. "Going to give me detention right after graduation?" he teased. "Think I can outrun you?"
Aizawa looked at him consideringly, hands grasping the capture weapon around his neck. "Maybe before you developed some new skills."
"Definitely!" Denki agreed. "What did you need?"
"The Hero Public Safety Commission put in an official request for you to report to their office tomorrow morning," Aizawa said, voice not giving anything away, but Denki could still somehow tell that Aizawa was not pleased. "It's mandatory. They've put in an official drafting notice."
Denki sighed and rolled his eyes. "How are they supposed to get anything done if they can't even do their own research? I'm exempt from their drafting."
"UA's exemption runs out after graduation," Aizawa said.
"That's why I signed on with Endeavor's agency three weeks ago."
Aizawa stared at Denki, his expression giving nothing away. After a moment, Aizawa nodded and grumbled under his breath, "good planning ahead."
"Honestly, they shouldn't have given away their hand by bringing me in early," Denki said with a shrug. "I wouldn't have known they had any interest in me if they would have just lied low and used Hawks to keep tabs on me."
"I'm assuming it was Hawks's idea to sign with Endeavor's agency," Aizawa said, not waiting for confirmation, "but how did you get Endeavor to agree?"
"I challenged him to a game of tag," Denki said, a grin growing over his face at the memory. "It's hard to win against literal lightning."
Aizawa hummed. "The news programs have still been airing the same story about Hawks," Aizawa hedged.
"Hawks is safe," Denki said.
Aizawa nodded, and repeated, "Hawks is safe."
-.-.-
"Endeavor! Endeavor!"
"Endeavor! Over here!"
"Comment? Care to comment?"
"Hi there!" Denki chirped, sliding in between the reporters and the retreating Endeavor. "Chargebolt, here! Ready to answer your questions!" He shot a wink at one of the cameras, knowing that he'd have some fans swooning when the evening news played.
"Chargebolt!" the channel six news reporter exclaimed, excited to be first in line to talk to the easy-going hero. "What happened here today?"
"There was a building collapse, as you can see behind me," Denki said, waving his arm behind him for the camera. "All employees and customers are accounted for with only minor injuries. The rescue teams, which included heroes and sidekicks from Endeavor's, Best Jeanist's, Mount Lady's, and Gang Orca's agencies, responded quickly and efficiently, getting the last cashier out less than four minutes after the building first collapsed."
"You mean, no casualties besides the one fatality, correct?" the channel three news reporter asked, pushing his way to the front to shove his microphone in Denki's face.
Denki's smile tensed, and the channel six news reporter winced. Channel three, however, remained oblivious. Channel three was always oblivious.
"Now, that's how rumors start," Denki chastised lightly. "We don't want any of that! There were no fatalities. Like I said, there were only minor injuries."
"But with Full Throttle, there is always at least one casualty," the reporter argued, pushing the microphone further into Denki's face.
If Denki didn't pull back, the microphone would have been pushed right up onto his mouth. How unhygienic. Denki put his hand on the microphone and gently pushed it away.
"No one ever said anything about Full Throttle," Denki said. "This was not a villain attack, just a quirk malfunction from a customer's child who had recently developed their quirk. Please refrain from spreading false information in the future. It only discredits channel three, and I think we all know that channel three needs all the help it can get!"
As if on cue, the surrounding reporters and civilians laughed, making Denki's harsh criticism sound more like lighthearted banter. Channel three reporter's face had paled, and he had quietly backed away from the front of the pack, contenting himself to record from the back, where he should have stayed to begin with.
"If I had said anything like that, they would have had my 'bad attitude' all over the network," Endeavor grumbled as they walked back to the agency.
"It's his winning smile," Midoriya said, flashing a huge smile in Endeavor's direction as if to show him what he meant.
Endeavor huffed. Denki didn't notice because he was too busy watching Shouto's mouth quirk up into a small smile in response to Midoriya's, no matter how sarcastic.
And if Denki was a little more harsh on channel three reporters than other channels because they were the ones who continued to push for new information on Hawks, well, then that was Denki's business.
-.-.-
"Word got out after we tried to draft Chargebolt. Every damn hero that graduated in the past five years is suddenly signed with agencies. We have no new candidates. Agencies that haven't been signing new heroes in decades have suddenly signed dozens of newbies."
"I bet this is Hawks's doing."
"You think he's smart enough to pull something like this off? Doubtful. Even if it wasn't this organized and large-scale."
"I think it's funny that anyone thinks he's still alive. I bet the League of Villains had a great time torturing him to death. I hope they pulled his feathers out, one by one."
"And I know it's organized, because every single person who comes through takes exactly half the donuts. We start with twelve, then we have six, then we have three, then we have one and a half. Who takes exactly one and a half donuts? Then we have three fourths of a donut left! It's deliberate!"
"It would be a mercy if he was dead, now that I think about it. If he is still alive, then damn, even I feel bad for him. For his pitiful death to be this drawn out? I can barely imagine. He'd probably be begging right now, pleading for the torture to end…"
-.-.-
"Please!" Hawks begged. "I can't take it anymore!"
"You aren't going to die if you don't get attention for five more minutes," Dabi said.
The satisfying crackle of the eggs frying in the pan was music to everyone's ears, except for Hawks, who would rather starve as long as he was getting attention. Shigaraki was draped over Dabi's back, smirking and enjoying a nice side of schadenfreude to go with his eggs, knowing perfectly well that Hawks would have been completely satisfied with his attention and that it didn't have to be Dabi's.
"I'll give you attention, Hawks," Spinner said, strolling up behind him and plunging his hands into Hawks's feathers. After a surprised pause, Spinner added, "actually, this is very nice."
Hawks hummed with content, and suddenly Shigaraki found himself nudging Spinner out of the way.
"I can take it from here, thanks," Shigaraki said.
"No, no. I've got it," Spinner dismissed.
"No, I insist. He's my boyfriend, my responsibility."
"How leaderly of you, but I can handle it."
"Leaderly isn't a word, the author checked. So, maybe you should go read a dictionary instead. Time well spent, I'd say."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," Hawks chastised, unable to wipe the smug smile off of his face. "There's enough of me to go around!"
Dabi scoffed, scrambling the eggs a little too aggressively. "Two boyfriends aren't enough for you, birdie?"
Hawks flushed. "Not what I meant, and you know it!"
Shigaraki pulled Hawks's face toward him and planted a kiss. When he saw that Spinner still had his hands threaded through Hawks's feathers, Shigaraki went back in and deepened the kiss, drawing it out and giving Hawks exactly the kind of attention he deserved.
"I know exactly what you're doing," Spinner said. He sighed and withdrew his hands. "And it's working anyway. You win!"
"I always do," Shigaraki said, pulling back to smile cheekily, resting his forehead against Hawks's.
Just as Shigaraki was about to lean in to continue where they left off, Dabi announced that the eggs were done. Hawks groaned when Shigaraki pulled away, and Shigaraki offered a sympathetic smile before shrugging and rushing over to Dabi to receive his plate and a kiss.
Yeah, Hawks was facing the most unbearable torture to ever exist.
-.-.-
"That confirms it," Hitoshi said, flinging himself backwards onto Neito's bed. "You were right, Denks. They targeted every single graduate, and not just from this year. It looks like they went four or five years back."
"It might have been a little overkill to warn people who graduated up to a decade ago," Denki admitted with a sheepish smile.
"Better safe than sorry, I say," Neito said, reaching over and grabbing Denki's hand. Not to take his quirk or anything, just to hold. "Everyone I talked to in the phone tree was really grateful."
"Same," Hitoshi said, automatically offering Neito his other hand, knowing that Neito would have been seeking his out next.
Neito sighed in content, splayed out on his bed with his soulmate on one side and his boyfriend on the other. Another heroic endeavor come to pass that they wished they could see the look on the Commission's face when they realized that they had run out of options.
"I wonder why they wanted me so bad," Denki thought aloud. "I don't think they knew about my lightning, and it's not like I won any of the sports festivals or anything. If it's because I was interning with Hawks, then Hawks should have known about it. They should have gone through Hawks to better secure my agreement."
"Maybe it's because you're the only one to have survived Full Throttle's quirk," Hitoshi guessed. "You're kind of famous among the few people who actually know about it."
"That's the only thing that I could come up with, too," Neito said. "Unless they really did somehow find out about your lightning or something."
"Doubtful," Denki hummed. "They couldn't even resist talking about how they knew about my schizophrenia and my time at Unit Beta. I think they would have mentioned it if it was in their arsenal at all."
Neito hummed, mind wandering. His grip tightened on their hands, and that's the only warning that Hitoshi and Denki got before Neito voiced his idea. "I wonder if I could turn into lightning and transport us like Denki can."
"No!" the boys yelled urgently, scrambling to get up and trying to rip their hands out of Neito's grip. Neito focused on keeping hold of his boyfriends and just cackled, lungs heaving at the force of his laughter and the hands trying to be yanked desperately from his grasp.
Everything had been going well. The boys had been planning on getting their own apartment, and Hitoshi would laughingly relay Aizawa's message that Neito and Denki were absolutely forbidden from taking Hitoshi away from him when he had just adopted him. Aizawa's scandalized look when Neito had stuck out his tongue at him when they had passed each other next had him laughing at random points throughout the whole week. Denki, on the other hand, had recurring nightmares of endless detentions and begged Neito to never instigate Aizawa like that again.
"He was terrifying! He's so scary!"
"He didn't do anything!" Neito argued.
"Not in real life!" Denki shuddered. "But in my dreams…"
"So that's what all your tossing and turning was about!"
Neito made sure to instigate Aizawa every time he knew Denki was watching, knowing that Denki would surely cuddle up to him under the covers that night. Denki knew what he was doing, of course. He found it fun that they had this little unspoken game that included Hitoshi's father without them even realizing it. He also didn't have to tell Neito that he didn't need a reason or excuse to snuggle up to him; they both just knew it was more fun to act oblivious.
One morning they had shot apart from each other when Hitoshi had woken up, and he had given them a strange look.
"I—uh—we—" Denki stuttered.
Neito saved the day by chiming in, "Denki had a nightmare, so I was comforting him."
"Uh huh," Hitoshi said before hoisting himself up to go start breakfast.
He had quickly figured out what they were doing and knew that they would keep it up until he said something about it. So, he didn't say anything about it. Hitoshi could have his fun and play his tricks, too!
Apartment hunting was fun, but it was almost like they were living together, anyway. They were never apart for long since graduation. Barring patrols, they spent every spare second together, rotating between all of their parents' houses, plus adding the Hamabis into the rotation, much to Hitoshi's pleasant surprise.
They had their hands full with two more foster children of their own but having three Pro Heroes under their roof for a weekend did wonders for those kids, especially when they learned the reason that these big time Pros were visiting the Hamabis in the first place was their foster connection with Hitoshi.
"If Hitoshi could make something of himself coming from a hard place, you absolutely can, too," Genori would say.
Hitoshi would blush, but Denki and Neito knew he was pleased and secretly proud. Hitoshi reminded the Hamabis often that they had had a huge influence on his life, and they told him that he was the reason they adjusted their fostering form to only accept those who would otherwise be rejected and moved around from home to home, and that was only if they weren't unlucky enough to be placed in a group home where they might never get out until they age out.
Their foster daughter had blood red eyes to match her blood-based quirk. She quickly bonded with Eri over eye color alone before finding more commonalities, and Hitoshi wished he could casually bring a notorious villain around to meet his former foster parents.
As their patrol group started to split up to cover more ground and organically move into different areas, Denki was on high alert. That was obvious because he was on patrol, but it was more so than usual because Full Throttle had been active in the area. The last time had been just a week and a half prior. With how often Denki was pushed in front of Endeavor to be the bright, sunshining face of the agency and reduce any hurt feelings (Endeavor could only say 'no comment' so many times nonchalantly before he got snappy), he'd be surprised if Full Throttle hadn't gotten word that he survived.
It would be a nightmare to run into him again. Sure, Denki could just zap away, but not everyone else had that option, and he wouldn't just leave someone behind just because he knew how devastating Full Throttle's quirk could be.
He wasn't too worried though. It was bright, mid-morning. What kind of villain would target someone specifically during such an inconvenient time of day for villainy?
Hitoshi had flopped down on his bed, hair still a mess from sleeping after a rough patrol the night before. Neito was putting a late breakfast together for him while Hitoshi scrolled through TikTok, inevitably finding his way to Denki's page.
When the idea came to him, he tried to dismiss it, but then he figured, why not? It's not like Denki would be upset with him if he found out he snooped through his phone. It was just sitting there on the bedside table, fully charged, untouched since it woke Denki up for his patrol that morning. Denki had rolled out of bed just in time for Hitoshi to come clambering in from his own patrol and take Denki's place, curling up next to Neito with a satisfied hum at how warm the bed was. Hitoshi stayed awake just barely long enough for him to feel Denki plant a kiss on his temple, falling asleep before Denki had even made it to the other side of the bed to give Neito his good morning kiss. Hitoshi didn't hear Denki get ready or the door close as he left, absolutely dead to the world until waking up around 10:30 a.m.
Quickly thumbing in the passcode, Hitoshi went to the TikTok icon and immediately went to Denki's drafts. Everything else he's already seen about a thousand times, and he wanted to see the things that no one else had had the pleasure to before.
"What are you doing?" Neito snapped from the doorway, crossing his arms and leaning against the door frame.
Hitoshi had jumped and threw a sheepish look over his shoulder at his soulmate. "Just snooping on Denki's phone. The usual."
"I don't know if we should be doing this," Neito said, his words going directly against his actions as he flopped down on the bed next to Hitoshi and squeezed in close to better see the screen.
"What?" Hitoshi laughed. "You think our boyfriend is cheating on us or something? Between two boyfriends and his patrolling with Endeavor, I think his schedule is too full to fit some side action in, don't you think?"
"It's not that," Neito said, smiling and rolling his eyes. His smile fell, then. "It's just, what if there's things we shouldn't know about, like with the League or something?"
"And those secrets are kept in the oh-so-secure location of Denki's draft TikToks?" Hitoshi asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.
Neito nudged Hitoshi's shoulder with his own and muttered, "it wouldn't be the first time."
Hitoshi paused at that, then laughed. "You have a point there, but now, he tells us everything."
"I don't know," Neito said. "We know so much about a lot of the different League members, but Denki never talks about Dabi."
"Maybe he doesn't get along with Dabi," Hitoshi said, more focused on scrolling through Denki's drafts.
Neito sighed in frustration, combing his hands through his hair as he thought. "That's just it, though. Dabi is one of the villains that he regularly games with. He should be talking about him the most. And he's the one with the blue—are you even listening to me?"
Hitoshi had been focused on the phone, starting with Denki's older drafts and working his way to the ones that were more recent. His brows furrowed and his scrolling started increasing in pace until he stopped completed, his thumb hovering over the dancing Denki on the screen. Hitoshi's face had gone pale.
"What's wrong?" Neito asked, grabbing the phone from Hitoshi's limp hand and scrolling through, trying to see what Hitoshi saw to make him react that way.
Hitoshi turned toward Neito, the color still not coming back to his face, and whispered, "Denki is our soulmate." Neito opened his mouth, to argue most likely, but Hitoshi continued before he had the chance. "You know how I've been singing those songs during my patrol and switching every week? I was starting to think that I had just been imaging it, but Denki's drafts line up perfectly with what I had been singing."
"Every week?" Neito asked.
"Every week," Hitoshi confirmed. "During one of our sleep overs, I thought I heard him sing. It was late. It had been a long day. I was sleeping right before and went to sleep right after, so I thought that it might have been a dream, but I couldn't shake the thought that it might not have been, too."
"You've been dealing with this on your own for years?! Why didn't you let us know? Or me, at least?" Neito asked, not mad, just disappointed that he missed an opportunity to be a support for his soulmate.
"I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up," Hitoshi admitted. "I didn't want you to think that you weren't good enough for me on your own, and I didn't want Denki to think that we'd only want him if he was actually our soulmate, and that we were only interested in him because we suspected he might be. What if it turned out he wasn't? After we had finally just got him to accept that he wasn't coming in between us and messing everything up?"
"Yeah, okay. I might have done the same thing when you explain it that way." Neito's eyes slowly widened as the realization hit him. "Denki's schizophrenia! The voices were us this entire time!"
"Which also explains why we all get along so well! Why we all fit together like we were made for each other—because we were!"
Neito laughed, flipping over so his back was against the blankets and kicking his feet up in the air in pure elation. "He's going to be so happy! And us! We get to keep him forever! We don't have to worry about another soulmate coming along one day and sweeping him off his feet!"
Neito and Hitoshi were laughing and smiling when the song rushed through their minds, forcing its way to the forefront of their thoughts, making itself known.
Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh…