A/N: Everyone liked how Denki got along with the inmates, and I kind of commandeered the idea from the Mentalist. If you haven't watched that show, it's so good, and the main character is SO charismatic. How he is with inmates every time he gets arrested is exactly how I pictured Denki would be!
Toga, looking, sounding, and acting exactly like Denki, took a running leap at Hitoshi and Neito, who caught her easily.
"I knew you guys would know it's me!" she said in Denki's voice. "I can always count on you!"
"Yeah, yeah," Neito said, flashing Toga a small smile as he wandered off to let the other heroes know that they were taking their boyfriend home.
Hitoshi made a show of checking Toga over.
Toga's breath caught in her throat when she realized it wasn't an act, when she realized that he was genuinely concerned for her wellbeing, when she realized that the smile he beamed her way wasn't forced in the slightest. He was truly relieved that she was okay, even when it was his soulmate who was taken in her stead.
When the tears flowed over, Hitoshi asked, "what's wrong?" and everyone within earshot looked in their direction.
"I just love you both so much," Toga declared loudly before flinging herself forward to once again be wrapped in Hitoshi's arms.
The other heroes laughed and went back to what they were doing, beginning clean up or starting on their required paperwork mostly. Neito made his way back over after getting the all clear to take their worn out boyfriend back home, 'his' outburst just then more than proving that he had been through more than enough to justify missing out on clean up duty.
"Calm down, peacemaker," Hitoshi murmured as he tightened his hold on her, helping to ground her. "We've got you."
And there it was. Total confirmation that they knew she was Toga. If she wasn't completely sure before, she knew then.
"I'm so sorry!" she practically wailed once they were finally alone.
Neito shot her an incredulous look. "Uh… For what?"
"Don't act oblivious, Nei," Hitoshi admonished, schooling his face as to not give away his intentions. "She's obviously sorry that she hasn't come to visit us sooner."
Neito snapped his fingers and nodded in quick agreement. "Right, right. You should have, you know. But, luckily for you, we're pretty forgiving people."
"What—no! You just found out that you're all soulmates, and he went and sacrificed himself for me, and then you both just played along! I owe you all so much! Big time! Huge!" Toga continued, getting louder and faster in her anxiety.
"Maybe you should let the League know that you're fine before they attempt to storm Tartarus," Hitoshi offered as a distraction, tossing her Denki's phone.
She caught it, pausing in her rant to look between the two. "You should hate me, or at least be annoyed with me, I guess. It would suck if you hated me after what you just did."
"We don't hate you," Hitoshi reassured. "Now let's get everyone together so we can go over Denki's plan, yeah?"
"How did you know Denki told me a plan?" Toga asked.
"Denki always has a plan," Neito chirped. "We'll explain more once everyone's together."
When Toga texted simple coordinates to Kurogiri, and seconds later a portal opened up, Hitoshi and Neito shared a narrow-eyed glance.
"We definitely need to get in on this whole League business thing," Neito declared, and Hitoshi nodded enthusiastically as they followed Toga through the warp gate.
The League members were gathered around, all attention on the three as they entered through the gate.
"They have Toga?" Shigaraki asked when it was clear that no fourth person was coming through the gate.
Toga laughed nervously. "Not exactly," she said as the vision of Denki melted to reveal her own form underneath.
"Oh, thank fuck," Dabi said as he rushed forward to envelop her in a hug.
"Where is Kaminari, then?" Spinner asked.
"Tartarus," Hitoshi answered.
Before anyone could react, Toga blurted, "I'm so sorry! I changed into him, and we tricked them into thinking that I was the real him and he was actually me pretending to be him, and then they took him away! How can they do that? How can they just take him away?!"
"Don't be sorry," Dabi said, shushing her as he held her head against his chest. "It's easier to break people out when we have you. It's easier to get him out with you helping than to get you out."
"That's what he said," Toga admitted, though everyone could tell from her tone that it didn't make her feel any better.
"Won't they figure out pretty quickly that he's actually himself, anyway?" Spinner asked.
"Well, hopefully not too quickly!" Neito chimed. "He's been dying to get into Tartarus!"
The villains kind of paused in their scheming to look over at the heroes, who were just making themselves at home, wandering through the base to plant themselves at the bar and accepting water from Kurogiri with a grateful nod.
"What?" Twice asked so eloquently, standing there with his head tilted, utter confusion seen even through his mask.
Toga sniffed, took a breath, and said, "he did say to tell you not to make a scene about them having your soulmate unrightfully imprisoned until he sang his alert song."
"Oh!" Neito said, perking up. "Should we say that we're soulmates? The Hero Commission doesn't know yet, and it seems to already be serving us well that they don't."
"I think just the fact that our supposed boyfriend disappeared, and Toga made a reappearance would be enough to convince everyone that they have the wrong person," Hitoshi said. "I don't think we have to mention the soulmate thing at all."
"Right," Neito said. "Until then, will you continue to pose as Denki, Toga?"
Toga took a deep breath, pulled away from leaning on Dabi to stand of her own accord, and nodded. "I'll just have to sneak into Tartarus to get more blood. I'm running low on Denki's."
"I'll just have to sneak into Tartarus," Neito mocked, rolling his eyes.
Toga smirked. "What? Like it's hard?" Turning to Hawks, she asked, "care to fill me in on the floor plan?"
Neito was about to argue that it couldn't be that easy to just waltz into Tartarus and back out again undetected, but then a familiar figure caught his eye.
"You," he snarled as he slid off the barstool and stalked forward toward his target.
Mr. Compress held his hands up in easy surrender. "I apologize for knocking you out."
"What? I don't care about that! Denki said you'd be able to teach me how to marbleize people!"
Mr. Compress lifted his mask to reveal an easygoing smile. "Sure, but you have to go all in, or you can end up doing some damage," he warned, showing off his arm as a possible example. "We'll start with inanimate objects, just to be safe!"
He slid the glove off of his remaining hand and held it outstretched toward Neito in offering, and already cackling and eyes alit with mischief, Neito arose to the challenge.
"You're next," he warned, pointing at Twice from across the room. "My clones are going to be better than the damn originals by the time I'm done with you!"
"Better than the originals?" Twice muttered to himself, trying to figure out how that was possible, exactly, as Neito started taking instruction from Mr. Compress.
-.-.-
"Here she is," the guard announced, pushing Denki forward into the infirmary.
He stumbled from the force of the shove. He'd normally be able to handle it, but not after the beating that he'd received from the guards. He was sore and a little out of it from when they'd punched him in the face, and he could already feel his eye swelling up, the tingling in his nose from the impact still not having subsided.
Denki doubted there'd be donuts or any magic healing ladies.
The guard was gone as quickly as he'd come, and the nurse was there, helping Denki to his feet. She was surprisingly gentle, but he figured that the doctors and nurses still had to abide by the do-no-harm thing, even when working in a place like that. That didn't seem to matter when it came to using the biggest needles and jabbing him with extra force every time it came time to give him another dose of quirk nullification drug, but he would take any kindness where he could get it.
The nurse hissed like she was the one in pain when she finally got Denki onto the exam table, only for him to slump backwards into it.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he reassured, waving her off with an uncoordinated hand. "I'm just glad to be lying down, is all."
"Yeah, that's real convincing," she said with a snort, but she did move away to grab the materials to run some tests.
When she came back to his side, she quickly wrapped a tourniquet around his bicep and wiped off the junction of his elbow with an alcohol prep pad.
"Oh, hey," Denki said, turning his head in her direction. "Just to warn you, my—oh…" he paused, wondering if maybe he did sustain a concussion after all when he saw the clear tubing fill with red as the nurse began to expertly fill collection tubes before replacing them with empty ones. "Huh… the only one who has ever gotten my veins that easily is…"
The nurse shot him a sharp smile and a wink.
Denki sat up bolt straight, or tried to, but Toga was there, pushing him back down. "You're injured," she admonished.
"Yeah, and they still think I'm you," he informed.
They sat in silence, staring at each other as the implications of that settled in.
"What happened?"
"They said that if I wasn't going to change back so they could treat me like a woman, they would show me what it means to be a man."
Toga swallowed. "I never got to thank you—"
"Seriously, there's no need."
"Hitoshi and Neito have been saying the same thing," she said. "But thank you anyway."
Denki smiled, and Toga knew that was as much acceptance of her thanks as she was going to get. To him, he didn't need thanked because that's what a hero does, and a hero is, by definition, a largely thankless job.
"How'd you manage to get in here, anyway?" Denki asked.
"It's easier than you'd think," Toga said, shrugging. "With Hawks's expertise on the layout, some insiders who don't mind having a day off, and everyone having their guard down because they think the shapeshifter is already on the inside… it was so easy, Denki."
"Much easier to get in and out than to just break out, I'd imagine," Denki said.
"Yeah," Toga agreed. "You were right to do what you did, but it's not easy for a villain to be saved by a hero. It's hard to wrap my head around, even after learning about your ulterior motives."
"What about a friend being saved by a friend?" Denki asked.
Toga paused. "Yeah, I can live with that."
"Good, because I might need saving in the near future. It's a lot worse in here than I'd imagined it would be."
"Do you need extracted right now?" Toga asked, pulling the tube free and placing the end of the tubing in her mouth, allowing Denki's blood to flow right from the source.
Denki laughed. "I don't doubt that you could, really, but I feel like I'm still needed here a bit longer. I think there's still more for me to see. The other inmates call me the people's hero. Did you know about that?"
Toga put pressure on Denki's arm before pulling the needle out and wrapping his arm up, pulling the tubing from her mouth and pocketing the vials of blood she had collected. "I've heard it a few times, but I didn't know that it caught on so much that it had even become popular in here. All the prisoners have been kind to you, then?" Toga asked, a threatening tilt to her voice not going unnoticed.
"Yes. Thanks to the League, my reputation precedes me."
"Uh… I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Sure," Denki said, rolling his eyes before wincing, making a mental note not to do that again when his eye was in the process of swelling shut. "How are Hitoshi and Neito?"
"They're great. I thought they'd be so mad at me, but they were all like, 'typical Denki.' Neito is picking up a bunch of new skills, but you'll never guess which quirk out of everyone's is his favorite."
Denki hummed in thought. Neito loves to master the complicated, and he had done so well with Twice's the first time, so he guessed it would probably be Twice's or Mr. Compress's.
"Mr. Compress's?" Denki guessed.
"Shigaraki's!" Toga blurted.
"No!" Denki gasped.
"Yes!" Toga squealed. "And you should see the look on Shigaraki's face every time! Neito will decay something, go absolutely nuts cackling about it, and muttering to himself about how he will rule the planet. Hitoshi will sit in the corner with Spinner, making loud commentary about how Neito always said that you spent too much time with Midoriya, and now look at Neito muttering to himself like a nut. Then Neito will chase Hitoshi around, hand outstretched and laughing like he does. Then when Neito catches Hitoshi, and Hitoshi laughs and doesn't even flinch away from him… I heard Shigaraki tell Dabi that he was starting to understand why he was never afraid of him, and why Denki was never afraid of him, or well, his quirk, I guess."
"I'm glad they're all getting along. Is Neito threatening to decay my face off because I kept Dabi's secret from them?" Denki asked.
"No…" Toga said, but her eyes were looking everywhere except for at Denki. When she did look at Denki again and saw his unimpressed look, she sighed. "He was muttering about using Mr. Compress's quirk to cut you in half—"
"Oh, no!" Denki gasped. If he had pearls to clutch, he'd be clutching them.
"—but! But! Dabi had spent some time with him and Hitoshi. I think he's just mad that he would have done the same thing in your position, so he has nothing to be mad about."
"He can be mad with no reason," Denki said. "I've never minded."
Toga smiled. "I'll let him know." Toga turned away before Denki could see her smile sharpen because she knew it would only piss Neito off even more.
"Don't tell him!" Denki pleaded. "It won't make him feel better!"
Toga scoffed and rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath about ruining her fun.
Toga filled Denki in on where there were cameras and where there weren't. She also let him know that the soulmates had discussed not letting anyone know that Denki was their soulmate, and asked what Denki thought about it.
"That's actually really smart," Denki said. "I think that's perfect. We can use it to our advantage longer if people don't realize that we can communicate this way while we're apart."
"We all knew you'd agree easily, but I still don't see how. If I was in your position, I think I'd scream it from the rooftops that I had soulmates and those soulmates were mine and I was theirs," Toga said. "It's cool how you three are so secure that you don't have to have everyone knowing every little thing to make it real."
"It's always been this way," Denki said with a shrug, looking up at the ceiling and picturing his soulmates. "They've always treated me as an equal to each other, and I've never felt out of place with them. It never really mattered how the rest of the world saw us, because I knew that they would always bring me back into the fold, even if someone else didn't see us all on the same level."
"They're just as secure in you, you know?" Toga said. "When I freaked out about what happened, about you being locked in here, they were just like, 'typical Denki, at it again.' They have so much faith and trust in you, just like you have in them and us to trust that we'll be there when you need us to get you out of here."
"To be fair, they've had a lot of practice in that department," Denki said, looking at Toga with a narrowed gaze through his one good eye as his other one got closer and closer to being completely swollen shut.
"If you mean the fact that they've had to experience you being taken by villains and somehow coming out unharmed multiple times… I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Yeah, uh huh, sure."