Lightning Serenade

Chapter 24: First Year at UA II

Denki was spacing out, like he always did when he did one of the exercises that Touya had taught him years before. Staring into the familiar icy-blue color, he imagined himself as a figure skater, even though in reality, he had horrible balance on ice skates. He had tried before, imagining himself skating backwards, skating so quickly that he passed the other skaters in a dusting of ice from his skates, and even doing cool tricks. In reality, though, he fumbled, running in place but not actually moving forward before he fell face-first onto the ice. That was back during a fun weekend when he was still best friends with Hitoshi and Neito, but it was fun to reminisce.

Denki had slept soundly throughout the night, no nightmares at all. He woke up refreshed around 5:00 a.m. and wanted to get some training in before class started, so off to the training gym he went. After a boring, lonely train ride, he walked through the school entrance and headed to the furthest gym from the entrance, hoping that he could avoid interrupting anyone else who might be up this early. Denki didn't usually train that early in the morning, and he didn't know what everyone else's routines were, so he was trying to avoid messing up someone else's morning ritual. He hadn't seen anyone as he walked, so he had thought he was in the clear.

Imagine Denki's surprise when he opened the door to find Todoroki Shouto warming up. He had attempted to excuse himself and leave, but Todoroki said that it was okay if he joined him and that he usually does better when there's a little competition. Denki couldn't argue with that logic, because he often did his best when he was competing against Hitoshi and Neito, so he stayed.

Denki was feeling a lot more like himself, even though he was sore from his destruction-fest with Bakugou the evening before. His muscles were sore, but his daydreaming really helped take the edge off. What's better on sore muscles than laying right on a huge floor made of ice?

"Why are you staring at me? Is there something on my face?" Todoroki asked, looking at Denki in question.

"Oh! No! No, no. Nothing like that," Denki reassured, shaking his head. "Just daydreaming. Sorry!"

"Daydreaming about what?" Todoroki inquired.

Todoroki didn't really care, but he wasn't the best social butterfly, and needed some practice. Who better to practice with than the electric social genius of the class?

"Ice skating," Denki answered laughingly. "Your blue eye is easy to get lost in, and it helps me focus... or rather, it distracts me so I can make it through my workouts."

"You're surprisingly competent," Todoroki attempted to compliment.

"That's not the compliment you think it is, my dude," Denki said, but laughed, so Todoroki knew he wasn't upset with him for his social misgivings.

"I just mean," Todoroki continued, actually interested in the conversation as more than just social practice and wanting to keep it going, "you're easily keeping up with me, and I was trained daily by the number two hero," he explained as he shifted his position, but not dropping out of the plank position that the two had been holding for four minutes and was still holding on strong.

Neither wanted to be the first to drop, and neither had even started to feel the strain, yet. Todoroki was surprised. Denki seemed to fly under his radar—maybe under everyone's radar, because no one seemed to see him as a threat. Under the school uniform, gym uniform, and layers of his hero costume, it's not so obvious just how fit Denki had really become from sticking so rigidly to Touya's training regimen.

"I guess you never noticed before because we've never really spent any time together," Denki pondered aloud.

Todoroki nodded his agreement. "You spend a lot of time with Bakugou, I've noticed."