Lightning Serenade

Chapter 26: Sports Festival

Denki had become a ball of nerves since the almost-kiss happened with Neito that Neito's soulmate had just happened to witness. Denki didn't know what to say to Neito, so he just avoided him. Denki didn't want his face smashed in, so he avoided Hitoshi as well. How was he supposed to explain to Hitoshi that it was probably fine because he desperately wants to kiss him, too? He'd probably get punched twice. Maybe even brainwashed to hold still so Hitoshi could get the perfect aim lined up, and Denki would let him and not break free because he would deserve everything that happened to him.

What had he been thinking? He hadn't been thinking at all, was the issue. He was just so happy that Neito wasn't angry with him and with the buzz of electricity zapping around and not making him feel disoriented like usual—he was high on the feeling, and he wanted to kiss Neito, so it didn't even cross his mind to stop him.

He had to talk to someone about this, and he knew exactly who he could speak with to get an objective view of the situation. He knew exactly how talking to any of his friends would go, and he was too cowardly to go directly to the source, so that left one option who was detached, completely removed from the situation, and who was able to give him an objective viewpoint and tell him what an idiot he had been.

"So, you almost kissed someone who isn't your soulmate. So what? It happens all the time," High5UrDead's voice crackled through the headset Denki was wearing. After a pause to give full concentration to shooting the incoming zombie hoard, he continued, "it's not like you kissed someone who has a soulmate himself, right?"

Denki opted to shoot a zombie coming from behind Fri3ndlyFir3 instead of answering.

"Right?! P05itiv3R3v0lt?!" High5UrDead demanded after Denki's lack of response.

After a few more seconds of giving no response, Denki's headset crackled to life with the sound of manic laughter from Fri3ndlyFir3.

"Shit," High5UrDead muttered.

"I know," Denki whined into the headset, dropping his head back against his chair in resignation.

"Is the soulmate going to come after you?" Fri3ndlyFir3 asked after recovering from his laughing fit, still heaving from the intense feeling of schadenfreude.

"I don't know. Maybe?" Denki offered, closing his eyes, and bracing himself for his next confession, "but I'd like to kiss him, too."

"What the fuck?!" High5UrDead yelled through his headset, making Denki wince at the sudden volume blasting in his ears, almost toppling over in his chair at his useless attempt to reflexively try to get away from the loud burst of sudden sound. "Let me get this straight," he demanded. "You're in love with two people who happen to be soulmates with each other?!"

"That about sums it up," Denki admitted.

Being said aloud by another person made him feel terrible. There was no redeeming that, was there?

"So, if I drop off the face of the planet and don't meet you guys on here, you have to promise me that you aren't going to rat them out to the heroes for killing me and disposing of my body," Denki insisted with a laugh, even though he was semi-serious. "It would be exactly what I deserve."

"We wouldn't rat them out to the heroes," High5UrDead promised automatically, almost sneeringly, but Denki didn't think too much about it, just accepting it as imaginative banter between online friends.

At the same time, in the current League of Villains hideout, Dabi and Shigaraki were lounging in the shared leisure area, headsets on and controllers in hand. Dabi turned to Shigaraki with a wide, manic smile on his face.