Lightning Serenade

Chapter 101: Casino II

A/N: I know this chapter is late, so thanks for your patience! I started my new job at the hospital and the twelve-hour days are kicking my butt, and I haven't even switched over to night shift, yet! BUT—I've also been working on revising LS as well, and I'm up to Chapter 36! Don't go looking because I haven't started publishing the revisions, yet, but just know that that's on the way, too! I've added a few things in earlier chapters (like giving Mineta, Yaoyorozu, Kyoka, Uraraka, Midoriya, and Iida more time with Denki in between Fields and UA), but nothing major that changes the story. I've added recaps every 25 chapters and reminders about who my OCs are when they reappear to hopefully keep everyone up to date and less confused with how long this thing is! So, as you might imagine, I'm excited to get the revisions out, too!

"So..." Kirishima ventured with forced casualness, reaching across the table to snatch a French fry drenched in ketchup from the middle of the table. "Are we going to talk about the fact that you booped my nose?"

Shigaraki leveled him with an intimidating glare that Kirishima, to his credit, didn't back down from. "I have no idea what you're referring to," Shigaraki said, tone flat, giving nothing away.

"The whole Overhaul thing? With Eri? I was totally on my last leg there, man, and you came in like a knight in shining dust among the crumbling concrete and saved me! I thought I was a goner!"

"Eri?" Shigaraki asked, tilting his head slightly as he squinted in concentration. "Little girl with time reversing quirk?"

Kirishima nodded enthusiastically, throwing another fry into his mouth.

"Overhaul?" Shigaraki continued. "The guy with no arms?"

Dabi smothered his snort in his elbow, trying and failing to cover the sound of it with a cough.

Shigaraki hummed, tapping his chin in intense thought. "Yeah, no. Doesn't ring a bell."

Dabi broke out into loud guffaws, and Kirishima looked between them, dismayed, before looking over at Bakugou to see if he had anything to add to the conversation. Bakugou rolled his red eyes and gave a look that told Kirishima that he was very much on his own.

"I swear it happened, dude!" Kirishima said. "Just like I said it did!" He slammed his hands on the table as he leaned in closer to the villains sitting across from them, ignoring the background activity happening around them in the casino. "And you're the reason Overhaul has no arms! How can it not 'ring a bell?!'"

Dabi's laughter was reinvigorated; he slapped the tabletop with the palm of his hand as he buried his face into his other arm against the table.

Shigaraki elbowed Dabi. At this rate, his laughter would get Shigaraki going, too, and their little game would be over. It was hard enough to keep his face flat without his lover losing it right next to him, encouraging him and egging him on.

"You have no evidence of anything," Shigaraki insisted.

"It happened on television!" Kirishima retorted instantly. "All of Japan were your witnesses!"

Shigaraki looked at his open hands laying on the tabletop before looking over at Dabi who was trying to catch his breath.

"How long would it take to silence all of Japan?" Shigaraki asked in a stage-whisper, flickering his eyes over to meet Dabi's ice blue gaze, delighting in the face that eye contact with the man still made his heart skip a beat.

Before Dabi could answer, Bakugou snarked, "what are you gonna do? Boop their noses to death?"

While Kirishima wailed happily about knowing all along that Bakugou believed him about the "booping situation," and Bakugou vehemently denied it and tried to retract every statement he ever made that lead up to that point in his life.