Lightning Serenade

Chapter 4: Fields III

Hitoshi was awaiting Denki's answer and did not bother to reword his question into a statement, if he even noticed he asked a question in the first place. Neito was also waiting for Denki's answer and didn't poke at Hitoshi for asking questions either, though he definitely did notice and kindly decided to give Hitoshi a small mercy by ignoring it while he stared at Denki, who was fidgeting under their watchful eyes.

"Sorry. Was I not supposed to say anything?" Denki stalled.

Neito wasn't having any of that, though. "How did you know, Denki?" he repeated.

"Well... you were singing to Hitoshi when they were searching him, right? And you said you weren't here for you this time, so it makes sense that you would be here for him since he's your soulmate. That's probably the reason that they moved me from Touya's room instead of just rooming both of you together, isn't it? There's probably a policy against rooming soulmates together," Denki rambled, a blush rising on his face as he felt dumber and dumber as he talked in circles, using his hands to try to convey what his words were lacking, attempting to explain what his brain had just assumed to be the truth with no hard evidence.

Denki wasn't about to tell these boys that the voices in his head sang when Neito did and that gave him a hint as to what he was doing when Hitoshi joined them in the hallway. He felt crazy enough as it was, so he didn't need them to add to his feelings of inadequacy and strangeness.

After a pause for the boys to consider Denki's words, Neito snorted. "Of course, they put me in a room with a genius!"

Denki was immediately taken aback because there was no sarcasm or malice dripping from Neito's words. Was he being serious or was Denki just being extra dense that day?

"They can't trust me enough to room me with just anyone! They are starting to understand what they're up against here! It's about time they didn't underestimate me!" Neito got louder and his movements more frantic as he ranted and conspired.

Denki was speechless because he realized that Neito was serious. He opened his mouth to correct him, but Hitoshi spoke first.

"A genius? Really?" he looked hopeful, but Denki didn't understand why.

Before Hitoshi could backtrack and take back his questions, Neito supplied the context for Denki without having to be asked, "Hitoshi thinks that people could probably break out of his quirk, and the smarter they are the easier it should be for them. No one will give him a chance, though. Wanna try it out?"

The dangerous, excited glint in Neito's eyes should have warned Denki to say no. It was probably against multiple rules on the unit. He did just promise himself that he would follow all of the rules so that he could get off the unit as quickly as possible to join the others for lunch, but Denki rationalized to himself that if they all got in trouble, he would at least have Hitoshi and Neito as lunchtime-companions-in-crime. And hey! That was only if they got caught!

"No! He doesn't even know what my quirk is, Neito! I wouldn't—"

"Sure! I'll do it!" Denki chirped, cutting Hitoshi off before he could get even more tense and start to obsessively reword his sentences again. He didn't want to cause Hitoshi unneeded stress, and besides, it was now or never. Soon, the other residents and technicians would be back from lunch, and he might never get to be alone with both newcomers again.

Hitoshi and Neito turned toward him, surprised.

"You don't even know what my quirk is," Hitoshi insisted.

The last thing Hitoshi wanted was to push Denki away when he was so damn warm and open. He hadn't had this kind of anonymity since... well, since before his quirk became apparent. Everyone always knew who he was and what he was capable of and acted accordingly. Denki was going to get himself killed with this level of just blind trust, but maybe he had never met someone with such a dangerous quirk before. Still, Hitoshi would rather add a friend to his short (nonexistent) list of friends than to get the chance to test a theory.