A/N: So… on Wattpad… Lightning Serenade was rated number 289 for the #MyHeroAcademia tag out of 68,600 stories! That sent me so hard that I'm living in the clouds for now, Skypiea style! AO3 has been treating me well with kudos and bookmarks and favorites and comments as well, so shout out to them! Thanks everyone for your support and time and attention toward my story. I'm always amazed when I refresh and find even more notifications than there had been the last time I checked. I'm really feeling the love and I want you guys to know that I appreciate every single one of you so, so much!
Denki and Hitoshi continued to grow closer, but Denki started to grow closer to the soulmates as a pair, as well. After Neito's birthday party, Denki tagged along every once in a while, when Hitoshi would go to spend time with his soulmate. Denki was worried about this, at first. He reassured his friends over and over again that if they want time just for themselves, that he would not be offended or hurt in anyway and that he would completely understand, but both boys insisted that they loved his company and asked him to keep joining them.
Denki spoke to Neito and Hitoshi separately, as well, in case they didn't feel like they could voice their true opinions in front of each other without looking like a jerk, promising each one to start backing off and not let the other know that it was for any other reason than his own choice, but even in private, both boys were adamant that Denki continue to join them.
Denki felt like he was walking on clouds for the first time in his life; he was no longer walking on eggshells, nervous that one wrong subject change would annoy his friends enough for them to start a silent treatment period that he always hated, or even drop him completely as a friend if they were annoyed enough.
Denki's metaphorical feet had healed nicely after his runway of choice switched from eggshells to clouds, no longer having to nurse the micro-injuries from every misstep taken that would build up and get worse over time.
Denki's parents noticed the change in him easily and quickly. When Denki's grades started to rise steadily, they were even more lenient with how often they would send him across the city to spend time with the soulmates that he declared as his best friends. They didn't know if they were actually studying together, or if it was something as simple as Denki's self-esteem allowing him more confidence and less second-guessing that allowed his marks to rise so steadily, but they were grateful for it either way.
It was a nice, positive cycle that Denki had found himself in. He got better grades, so he was often less stressed and in a better mood. He was in a better mood around his soulmates, who then were also in a good mood because Denki's smiles and laughing fits were contagious. When the soulmates were in a good mood, their time spent studying was filled with fun and laughter. When Denki was taking an exam, he would think back to a joke that Hitoshi had made about the subject matter, chuckle to himself, and then promptly pencil in the correct answer.
Denki was hesitant, however, when Hitoshi brought up the idea of learning degrees, angles, percentages, and fractions on their own time without it being the subject of study in his math class. Hitoshi and Neito agreed that it would be best training-wise to get to know those areas very, very well so that they could use the commands while under Hitoshi's quirk.
At first, if Hitoshi or Neito commanded Denki to turn 1/3 of the way around to his left, he would have just stood there, his brain not being able to compute what was being asked of him. But now, he could be given the same command and automatically comply… even while not under a brainwashing quirk. That is how thoroughly they dug into their studies to make giving and receiving precise instructions as efficient as possible. Denki was nervous for nothing, because with his best friends by his side, he could learn anything! And they never even once called him stupid, even when he struggled with associating degrees with percentages!
So, when Denki answered the door an hour before his birthday party was due to start and saw his two best friends standing there, both wearing their paint-covered clothes from Neito's party a month and a half earlier, Denki couldn't help but double over laughing because that was what he decided to wear as well. They were just so in tune with each other.
"You guys are my soulmates!" Denki exclaimed as he wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes, but quickly froze when he realized what he had said and that the soulmates looked a little shocked, too. "Sorry, guys, I didn't mean like actually—"
"It's fine," Neito soothed, pulling him into a tight hug. "Happy birthday, genius."
Hitoshi took Neito's place in Denki's arms as soon as Neito went past Denki to put his gifts on the table, murmuring, "happy birthday, Denks," before turning him around and leading him back into his house to follow Neito.
Denki was immediately relieved that the soulmates didn't take offense to his thoughtless comment. Denki knew that they weren't secretly stewing over it because of the bubbles in his stomach at being called a nickname by Hitoshi, who still sometimes called him Kaminari instead of Denki, so a nickname was definitely a good sign!
When the other party members started showing up, Hitoshi and Neito started sharing sneaky glances that Denki was also being included in. Denki felt like all three of them were up to something mischievous, and he didn't even have any idea what was going on! He just knew that he was all in, whatever it was that his best friends had in mind.
When Denki's mother brought out the Pin the Tail on the Donkey poster, Denki almost groaned. He had already told his mother that he was too big for that kind of party game, but like usual, she didn't really ever listen and taken Denki's wishes into consideration.
When his friends from school started to snicker at the childishness of it, Denki dared a glance over at his best friends, who were staring at the poster with wide eyes and wider smiles. Denki let out a sigh of relief. At least his best friends weren't going to make fun of him, and by the looks of it, they had an idea that would make even Pin the Tail on the Donkey fun.
"Denki goes last because it's his birthday, and his sticker gets to be on top because he's going to win it," Neito declared, naturally taking the role of gamemaster, and handing out the tail stickers and markers for everyone to write their names. "Every player can choose one person to give them instructions with placing the tail, but the one who is giving directions cannot be the same one that blindfolds and spins the player. Any questions or objections?"
Denki looked around at the members of his party to find them all staring wide-eyed at Neito, this random, blond, short, scrawny kid who none of them knew just coming in and giving everyone directions like he owned the place. Neito might as well have owned the place, as far as Denki was concerned, because he got no questions or objections, and when he started pointing at people to indicate that it was their turn, there wasn't a single refusal or even an off comment about how it's too childish for a 13-year-old's birthday party.
Denki's friend group had fun giving bad instructions to each other, causing each other to pin the tails erratically around the donkey instead of where the actual objective was. They all laughed at each other, but Denki dreaded his turn because he knew that when he inevitably missed, they would laugh at him and not with him.
When Denki's friends had all had a turn and it was just the trio left that still had to go, no one had hit the target, yet, or really even got close. Denki wasn't even upset that they weren't taking it seriously because then maybe it would be easier to move on to something more age-appropriate without them holding this party hiccup over his head.
"Direct me?" Hitoshi asked Neito.
"Of course," Neito said with a smile and nod, a competitive glint in his eye.
"Blindfold and spin me, Denks?" Hitoshi asked, holding out the blindfold in offering toward Denki.
"You know it!" Denki chirped, skipping toward him to accept the blindfold.
Denki carefully blindfolded Hitoshi, making sure that there was no way that he could see anything before helping him spin around ten times. Denki adjusted Hitoshi's stance so that he stood at the center of the poster, facing it directly, and with his arm outstretched, he was only a few centimeters away from making contact with the poster.
"Perfect," Neito complimented Denki as they switched places so that Neito could be ready to give accurate directions.
Denki smiled in appreciation at the praise but didn't dwell on it because he was too excited to see his best friends absolutely demolish this stupid, little party game.
"Sixty degrees. Go," Neito commanded, short and direct.
Hitoshi complied immediately, his arm moving smoothly and slowly in a right-upward direction, the position of the tail right in the path of his arm.
"Stop. Target acquired," Neito stated simply.
Hitoshi, with full trust in his soulmate, didn't hesitate to press the sticker against the paper. He removed his blindfold to find the tail sticker with his name on it in the perfect position. He turned to see his soulmate's and best friend's reactions, but was met with more faces that just theirs, all staring at the poster and between himself and Neito in awe.
"So, this is what having a soulmate can do," one of the kids from school had whispered.
Hitoshi didn't bother to correct them. That is what training with people you trust can do, but they didn't seem like they would care, or even understand.
Hitoshi turned with the blindfold and tied it around Neito's eyes.
"Wait!" one of the kids objected. "You said the same one giving directions can't be the one who blindfolds and spins!"
"Denki is directing me," Neito replied without missing a beat.
Denki jumped to attention at this reveal as Hitoshi started to spin Neito in place.
"What? Me? Really?" Denki asked, readying himself to try to get Neito to change his mind.
"You're my best friend, Denks," Neito deadpanned, even while he was still being spun in circles. "I trust you with my life, so this little party game really isn't anything to stress about."
Butterflies exploded in Denki's stomach, but he swallowed his anxiety and self-doubt, and lined up behind Neito to give him the best instructions that he could manage.
"Uh, forty-five degrees," Denki supplied hesitantly.
Despite Denki's lack of confidence in his answer, Neito automatically started moving his arm in the direction that Denki specified.
"Stop," Denki commanded, when he lined up with the tail, though he fell a little too below. "North," Denki demanded firmly, eyes closely watching Neito's movements to tell him the perfect time to… "Stop! Target acquired!"
Neito pressed the sticker against the poster and took the blindfold off, immediately laughing at the fact that his sticker covered Hitoshi's perfectly. They all really were in sync, weren't they?
The other kids made comments among themselves as they switched places, but the trio ignored them in favor of focusing on and carrying out their self-imposed mission of pinning the tails on that donkey.
"Hitoshi, will you direct me?" Denki asked, looking up at him just before the blindfold was placed by Neito.
"Of course," Hitoshi stated, ruffling the top of Denki's hair as Neito tied off the blindfold.
"Wait!"
The objection came from the leader of Denki's friend group from school. "We think you guys might be cheating, so we should be the ones to spin Denki."
"That's fine with me," Denki stated, cutting off an objection he knew was coming from Neito a second later.
He knew his friends would try to sabotage any chance he had, and that was fine. He had been embarrassed before, and he would be embarrassed again, but nothing would ever let him swallow the shame of not being able to fend off a preventable disagreement during his birthday party.
Denki's friend group snickered as they all helped spin him. Denki felt hands all over him, but none were rough, just more disorienting that a single pair of hands would have been. They positioned Denki and covered their laughs with fake coughs as they backed away, giving Hitoshi space to give his commands.
"Spin toward three o'clock and take one step forward," Hitoshi commanded, and Denki complied just as automatically as if he had been under Hitoshi's quirk.
"270 degrees. Go," Hitoshi commanded.
Denki hesitated, the directions not matching up with what he imagined in his head. Denki quickly got over his hesitation and complied with Hitoshi's directions. While his friends might have given terrible directions, he knew his best friend, Hitoshi, would never lead him astray, and that the weird directions were probably due to his friend group placing him incorrectly in the first place and Hitoshi was just giving the commands to correct the misplacement.
"Stop. North. Go."
Denki complied, moving slowly so that Hitoshi would have plenty of time to tell him when to stop.
"Stop. Target acquired."
Denki could hear the smile and excitement in Hitoshi's voice, and he pressed his sticker against the poster. Denki tore the blindfold off and just about wailed, because his sticker covered Hitoshi's and Neito's completely. They had all placed their tails perfectly, and Denki had never felt so cohesive as he did at that moment with his two best friends.
Neito and Hitoshi immediately jumped on Denki, praising him for following Hitoshi's directions so well and the unparalleled trust that he had shown them when following Hitoshi's unexpected directions in order to correct Denki's misplacement by his friends from school.
"I told you that Denki would win," Neito bragged toward the slack-jawed friend group that stood, staring in amazement at the poster.
"Neito is always right," Hitoshi added, throwing his arm around Neito and shooting him a cheeky, confident smile that Neito and Denki both hoped to see more of in the future.
When Denki dragged himself into his classroom and slumped over in his seat on Monday, he wondered why Hitoshi was in such a good mood. Going back to school after spending a weekend with Neito always seemed to drain them both of energy at first, so Denki didn't understand why Hitoshi was looking at him with thinly veiled anticipation.
Denki tore his gaze away from Hitoshi and looked toward the board before almost bouncing out of his seat.
"Fractions?!" Denki exclaimed, turning back to Hitoshi in excitement.
"Fractions," Hitoshi confirmed with a definitive nod, his smile never leaving his face. "Now you get to show everyone how smart you really are."
"I don't know…" Denki whispered conspiratively, leaning closer to Hitoshi. "I think being underestimated might be one of my favorite tricks so far."
Hitoshi shared a smile with Denki, and whispered back, "you don't want anyone to know how killer you are at fractions? Your secret is safe with me, genius."
Denki flushed under the praise, but smiled widely, and Hitoshi couldn't wait to call Neito after school to tell him how damn adorable their best friend was.