Lightning Strikes the Heart

Chapter 11: To See The Sunshine

So, you know how it is when you feel like going into an empty room and just screaming "fuck" at the top of your lungs? That was Kaminari right then.

It was Sunday, which meant no classes, which meant that he couldn't even distract himself by acting stupid. So, all he could think about was Shigaraki and Susanoo and Princess and he was going insane.

He wasn't meeting up with Chou until 3 and it was 10 o'clock in the morning.

Fuck his life.

He was seriously considering finding a quiet place and just start screaming when something hit him in the head. A ball of paper rolled at his feet. "Hey, Jammingway, come here." He turned to find Jirou standing there, an unreadable expression on her face.

A bit out of it, he followed her into a surprisingly empty commons room. The rest of the students were either still sleeping (Ashido, Mineta), doing extra work (Iida, Yaomomo), working out (Kirishima, Midoriya, Bakugo), or just doing their own thing (everyone else). Two guitars sat there.

"We're going to practice today," she said with finality. He wasn't going to argue, he was happy for the distraction.

They went through the chords and played simple songs. By the time noon rolled around, he actually felt like he could breath.

Jirou looked at him intently. He kind of felt exposed in a weird way. He shrunk back. "What?"

She nodded decisively. "You look better now. Good. You've looked like someone killed your puppy for the last few days."

He could feel himself turn red. God, he was bad at this.

He looked back down at the guitar in his hands. It was a cool black color, with purple accents. Suddenly, a song popped into his head and his fingers itched. It was an American song. He couldn't remember the name, but he could remember the lyrics.

Watch me stand in line
You're only serving lies
You've got something to hide
We gon' burn the whole house down

"What's that?"

He started. And then, to his horror, he realized that, with his new guitar knowledge, he'd strummed out the chords from memory.

He forced a laugh. "Ah, I don't know, just something I heard on the radio."

It technically wasn't even a lie.

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God, this was so uncool. Kaminari was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Chou was supposed to be here any minute and Kaminari had enough nervous energy to light up Tokyo. Present Mic sitting three tables down, shooting him thumbs up, was not helping.

"Kaminari?"

Kaminari was startled out of his thoughts as he looked up. She was in a gray sweater, with black jeans and her wings opening and closing slowly behind her. He stood up, smiling. "Hey, gorgeous. What's up?"

She blinked at him and then started laughing. "Oh my god, that was so cliché!"

His cheeks turned red.

"Good thing it was cute," she teased.

He laughed with her. "Good thing I'm cute, huh?"

She sat down, still giggling. "Yep."

"So, do you go to UA?" Kaminari asked, figuring that was as good a place to start as any.

She nodded. "I'm in the Business Course with Aoi, my friend that was with me at the mall? We saw Class 1-A's culture festival concert. It was really fun."