Lightning Serenade

Chapter 60: Full Throttle I

A/N: Chapter 60, let's go!! Big plot movers are about to happen! Are you as excited as I am?!

Neito had been loving. Maybe too loving. It was suspicious, and Hitoshi and Denki shared glances that confirmed that the other also picked up on Neito's erratic affection.

When the hero students piled onto the busses, separated by class, Neito had even tried to bribe Vlad King to let Denki sneak onto the Class 2-B bus. When that was a bust, he had turned his attention to Aizawa. Unsurprisingly, Aizawa seemed immune to bribery, which was good for society, but bad for Neito.

"I'll host our get-togethers at my house!" Neito had tried, also putting on his best puppy-eyed look.

"That's no matter," Aizawa responded in his deep, tired voice. "Having you two over livens things up."

"Then I'll make sure we definitely meet at my house if you don't let Hitoshi and me on this bus!" he tried, stomping his foot and pointing at the bus like Aizawa might have confused which one they were discussing.

"The peace and quiet is always nice," Aizawa mused in return.

Neito saw where Hitoshi got his easygoing attitude from. Diffusing by endless agreement seemed to be his specialty. Denki's, too. And it seemed to work, evidenced by Neito sulking back to his own class's bus, Denki waving at him enthusiastically as he went. He was greeted by a smirking Hitoshi.

"I told you that it wouldn't work," Hitoshi chirped, smirking.

Neito could kiss that smirk right off his cute face. On the other hand, he liked it just fine on Hitoshi's face. It suited him well. Just maybe not when it was at Neito's expense.

"It was worth a shot!" Neito insisted, grabbing onto the handrail and swinging himself around to start climbing the steps to enter the bus.

Hitoshi followed, smiling. Everything was good. Neito had stopped acting so uptight around him and Denki, so Hitoshi considered that a win, even though Neito had been overcompensating with uncharacteristic, intense love and attention. Aizawa and Yamada were continuing to talk about adoption. The real thing. It gave Hitoshi chills every time. He didn't know why it always took him by surprise; they were his pre-adoptive family, after all. But the fact that they wanted to turn pre-adoptive into adoptive just made Hitoshi smile so wide that his cheeks hurt every time he thought about it.

Neito was just so, so grateful that his lovely soulmate and boyfriend were able to overlook his transgressions.

Denki made his way through the bus, sending a smile in Midoriya's direction. When Midoriya averted his gaze without smiling back, Denki didn't hesitate to move past his seat and aim to sit with someone else. He had no idea what he might have done to upset Midoriya, but a bus ride full of their classmates in close proximity was not the time or place to try to find out.

For the first five minutes, he had sat next to Mineta.

"You never hang out with me anymore!" Mineta whined.

"Uh... have you seen my boyfriends?!" Denki joked, shoving Mineta playfully with his shoulder.

Denki seat-hopped like a few others. Mina was known for being the best seat-hopper, though.

Denki had sat on Kirishima, much to Bakugou's chagrin.

"Don't you have anyone else to bother?" he had barked.

"You mean you?" Denki asked, feigning innocence as he stretched out so he was across both Kirishima and Bakugou's laps. With a laugh, Denki attempted, "I'll get up if you promise to leave the spice out of dinner tonight."