Lightning Serenade

Chapter 46: Internship Rescue

A/N 1: The timeline is going to be very canon divergent. It's not a mistake on my part, just something that is going to make my plot run smoothly! (I'm hopeful this won't be an issue or confuse anyone considering that I already did major things that were canon divergent already, like Denki being taken and not Bakugou at all, for instance, and that went over really well with everyone! But I wanted to throw out the warning anyway. My internal mental timeline of MHA is already all over the place because I spend more time reading fics than actually watching the show, so things already might be out of order anyway!)

A/N 2: Also, I was sick on Saturday and Sunday, so those are the first two days I've had off in three weeks. I'm thoroughly exhausted and very disappointed that I'm not rich enough to fill my bathtub with money, even after working so, so much. What does it take to be rich these days? I can only pull on my bootstraps so many times before they break! If only I had access to Endeavor's credit card... oh, I could do so much damage to his bank account without even really trying, let alone if I was actively trying to be malicious with it!

A/N 3: If you had access to Endeavor's credit card for only one hour before he would realize that it's missing, what would you do with it to cause the most damage possible?

"Oh, she's hot," Mineta gasped, trying to discreetly get Denki to look in the girl's direction without blatantly pointing at her. "I'd climb her like a tree."

"Hmm? Oh, yeah," Denki offered without even looking in the vague direction that Mineta was hinting at.

"Damn. They have you down bad, don't they?" Mineta probed, squinting at his friend as they ate together in the food court at the mall.

"Who?" Denki asked, entertained and ready to hear Mineta's theories.

"Those soulmate dudes... Monoma and Shinsou, right? Hook, line, and sinker, buddy!" Mineta exclaimed.

"Is it that obvious?" Denki asked, amused.

"Is it that obvious?" Mineta mocked, but his smile was still friendly and not malicious. "The only thing more obvious is the fact that you're UA's traitor. Are you going to finish that?" he asked, gesturing towards Denki's milkshake.

"Uh—what?" Denki stuttered out, pushing the remaining milkshake toward Mineta who snatched it up quickly.

"Oh? Yeah, it's obvious. You come back from the League unharmed, you keep talking to the damn villains even after figuring out who they are, and you let them 'endorse' you, like that would ever go over well!"

"It's just video games. We don't talk about anything important," Denki defended, but weakly, knowing even as he said it that it was a weak argument.

After slurping up the rest of the milkshake, Mineta snickered. "That's not how everyone else sees it, whether it's true or not. You're just so damn stupid, aren't you? Or maybe you're just crazy? Do we need to send you back to Fields? Maybe you should never have left."

"I knew Dabi from before, though. He was Touya! I can't just ignore that!" Denki pleaded, ashamed at the crack in his voice.

"Why not? You ignore everything else!" Mineta exclaimed, throwing his hands out to the side in his amusement at Denki's stupidity.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Denki asked hesitantly, not sure he wanted to know what the little purple boy thought anymore.

"You ignore your own feelings towards Monoma and Shinsou, and you ignore that their feelings match yours. Why don't you go after what you want, huh?" Mineta pried, the smile on his face still seemingly friendly, not matching the content of his voiced thoughts.

"It's not so simple!" Denki argued with a frustrated shake of his head.

"You better make a move before it's too late! Oh—! Never mind. It's already too late," Mineta sneered, gesturing with his hand further toward the center of the food court where Hitoshi and Neito stood on raised platforms, both muzzled and chained.