Chapter Text
The next few weeks were simple and most of the class had fallen into their own routines. The simple life the class had grown accustomed to would be momentarily paused one day as Denki woke up to the sound of an alarm blaring right next to his ear.
“Ah! Shin, why is your alarm so loud??” Denki questioned as he turned off the blaring siren. Immediately after turning it off Denki could see why it was so loud, Shinsou was still asleep. “Wake up Shinsou!!” Denki shook the purple-haired boy in consciousness.
“Huh, mornin’ already?” Shinsou spoke bleary eyed.
“Yes. Now-” Shinsou sneezed, cutting off Denki, “Are you sick?”
“Nah, I’m fine,” Shinsou sniffled.
Denki placed a hand on Shinsou’s forehead, which turned out to be scalding hot, “Ah, you’re burning up. You’ve got to take the day off. You stay here and I’ll get you some breakfast, oatmeal okay?”
“You know it,” Shinsou called after Denki as the blonde left his room.
Denki was able to quickly whip up a bowl of oatmeal for Shinsou.
“Didn’t know you liked oatmeal,” Kirishima noted as Denki began taking the oatmeal to Shinsou.
“Oh, no, I hate oatmeal, this is for Shinsou, he’s sick today,” Denki replied, quickly going to Shinsou's room, “Here you go, man,” Denki placed the oatmeal in Shinsou’s hands.
“Thanks,” Shinsou smiled at Denki.
“Well I best be getting ready myself,”
Denki hadn’t realised that he hadn’t taken his meds until it was second last period hero lessons. Today they were doing a practical lesson, which made it all the worse. All Might wanted them to be strengthening their quirks, so that meant that Denki would be blasting as much electricity out of his body as he possibly could.
“Alright, young Kaminari, ready whenever you are,” All Might called out from a separate room.
For the safety of the class All Might had made sure Denki didn’t use his quirk at such high quantities until everyone was safely in another room. Upon hearing All Might's message Denki took a minute to brace himself, before shooting out as much electricity as physically possible for him.
His head got a little lightheaded and there was a little bit of ringing in his ear, but no seizure had occurred.
“All right, that’ll be enough, everyone go get changed, class is over!” All Might bellowed.
Denki joined the class as they quickly filed into the change rooms.
“That was a lot of electricity, impressive Kami,” Sero said, bumping Denki with his shoulder. Denki just smiled despite the action sending pain through his arm.
Denki made his way to last period quickly, glad to have just made it there in one piece. They had math with Ectoplasm and it looked as if Ectoplasm would just lecture the whole time. It was about halfway through Ectoplasm’s lecture when Denki felt a seizure coming.
“Yes, Kaminari?” Ectoplasm said, noticing the raised hand Denki had.
“Can I go to the washroom?” Denki asked quickly.
“Uh, yes, but be quick.” Ectoplasm replied.
Denki got up to leave when his vision began blurring. He knew he wouldn’t make it to the washroom, but he at least had to make it out the classroom. Denki unfortunately did not indeed make it out of the classroom as just three steps later he began seizing.
When Denki came to there was a circle of concerned classmates plus Ectoplasm around him. He carefully sat up a pounding now prominent behind his eye.
“Are you okay?” Ectoplasm asked, crouching down, “You were only out for about two minutes, so you can either go see Recovery Girl or go back to the dorms early,”
“I’ll go back to the dorms,” Denki carefully stood up and left the classroom.
Once back at the dorms, Denki didn’t even bother saying hi to Shinsou —who was watching a movie in the common room now— as he nervously went to his dorm. Denki lay on his bed and curled up into a ball.
Now they know how big of a liability I am, they’ll expel me for sure!!
Denki thought to himself. His friends tried to come in, ask if he’s okay, or anything, but Denki just ignored them.
Denki eventually fell asleep and when he woke up was the same ball of nerves. He stayed curled up until Shinsou came. Shinsou was the only Denki told that he didn’t lock his room.
“C’mon, it’s time to go to school,” Shinsou said sitting down next to Denki. He was already dressed for the day.
“I don’t want to go,” Denki mumbled.
“What’s wrong? Do you feel like you’ll seize again?”
“No, It’s just that now I seized at school they now know how much of a liability I am and will surely expel me,”
“Well if you just stay here that’s not going to change whether you get expelled or not,”
Denki sighed, “I guess,”
“Okay, so get ready for school and we’ll go,”
“Okay,”
Last period practical lesson and Denki realises that in his haste he forgot once again to take his meds. Denki feels a seizure in its wake as they get put in sparring pairs. Denki is with Shinsou and they go to their corner of the gym. The sparring is going fine, minus the fact that Denki feels like he’s going to seize. Denki goes in for what is supposed to be the final blow for just Shinsou, but as he went in with the electricity riding on him, he knew it would cause him to seize.
Denki comes to, a circle around him mimicking the one from yesterday. Panic floods him as he realizes what this means, there's no way he won’t be expelled for it this time. He scrambles to his feet before running away. Denki makes a stop to change his uniform because out of the two his non-gym uniform was the more comfortable uniform. Once changed, he bolts for the nearest washroom and hides under the sink farthest from the door, where he began crying with his head on his knees.
Someone came into the bathroom and Denki hoped that by God they wouldn’t notice him. The person walked to the last sink and sat down in front of him.
Oh, fuck,
“Hey, Kaminari,” came Shinsou’s voice from in front of him, “Everyone’s looking for you, you know.”
Denki’s head shot up revealing Shinsou who had also changed, and also hitting the sink above him. Denki let out a hiss of pain as his head hit the porcelain, “You can’t tell them where I am,” Denki begged, ignoring the pain now coursing through the back of his head.
“I kinda have too,” Shinsou replied.
“No, please don't, they'll expel me for sure and if they expel me, then papa and dad will probably start beating me because of how disappointed they’ll be. I can’t go back to an abusive household Shin, I just can’t” Denki sobbed tears still rolling down his now hot cheeks. Denki put his head back on his knees as he continued to sob. His breathing had picked up and he was desperately pulling at his hair with both his hands.
Shinsou took both of Denki’s hands out of his hair and now held them in front of Denki. “Kami, can you tell me five things you can see?”
Denki looked at Shinsou again, tears still streaming, “I can see you, and the floor, and the stalls, and the door, and the window,” Denki spoke through sobs.
“Good job, now four things you can feel,”
“I can feel your hands, and the floor, and the wall, and where I hit my head,”
“Okay, how about three things you can hear?”
“I can hear the electricity buzz, people in the class next door, and you,”
“And two things you can smell?”
“I can smell the stinky bathroom, and uhm,” Denki took a moment to think before answering, “I don’t think I can smell anything else,”
“That’s alright, can you taste anything,”
“I can taste my toothpaste still,”
“Great, feeling better?”
“A bit,”
“Okay, well now we should go find the others,”
“What, but I’ll be expelled!” Tears began flowing again down Denki’s face.
“Everything will fine, I promise,”
“...Alright,”
Shinsou helped Denki out from under the sink. The two began walking out the bathroom, holding hands, when Denki stopped.
“Please don’t let go of my hand,” Denki squeaked out, tears making their way down his face.
“I won’t. I promise.” Shinsou spoke and the two left the bathroom and began walking to where Shinsou thought the rest of the class was.
Eventually they made it to their class, who immediately began to crowd around. Tears came hotter and faster as Denki desperately tried to wipe them away with his free hand.
“Guys, don’t crowd,” Shinsou swatted them away. A chorus of ‘sorrys’ came from them, “Do you guys know where All Might is?”
“I do believe that he is in our homeroom classroom,” Iida said.
“Thanks we’ll be heading there,”
The two made it there quickly and entered, hand in hand. True to Iida’s word, All Might was there and he noticed them immediately.
“Young Kaminari,” All Might began.
“I know, I’m sorry,” Denki said, just loud enough for the two people beside him to hear, not looking at either.
“What?” All Might asked, perplexed.
“I’ll pack my things,” Denki informed.
“No, don’t.” All Might interjected, causing Denki to look at him, “You are a vital component to class 1a and have earned your spot there. Now I want to know, are you okay?”
“Mmhmm,” Denki hummed.
“Do you know what might have triggered the seizure?”
“...I forgot to take my meds,” Denki paused for a second before continuing, “I know it was really irresponsible of me, sorry,”
All Might stayed silent, utterly confused by the apology he was receiving.
“The only reason he forgot his meds is because yesterday he was too focused on getting me breakfast, and today he was overthinking for too long and had to speed through getting ready.” Shinsou interjected.
“Young Kaminari, neither of those things are your fault, you did nothing wrong.” All Might spoke to Denki.
“So I’m not getting expelled?” Denki asked.
At those words All Might’s heart softened for the boy before him, “No, not in a million years,”
“Oh... okay,” Denki said, surprised.
“Go back to the dorms, the school day is over,”
Denki nodded and Shisnou and him went back to the dorms, where Denki was bombarded with questions from concerned classmates.
“Are you okay?”
“Why’d you have a seizure?”
“Were you crying?”
“Do you want a hug, dude?”
The last one came from Kirishima, but even still it all made Denki want to cry even more. Shinsou helped him ward off their classmates and lead him to his room.
“You can stay... if you want that is,” Denki said when they had made it to his dorm.
“Alright,” Shinsou smiled.
Shinsou went into Denki’s room, closing the door behind him, and hopped onto the bed beside Denki. Denki quickly latched onto Shinsou’s torso and was not keen on the idea of letting go. Shinsou didn’t mind the surprise cuddling and began rubbing Denki’s back comfortingly.