#denks

Nothing, not even a read receipt. He clicks his tongue before locking his phone. He figures if Mina is out at a house party and didn't mention you were with her, then you must be in your dorm. Which in itself was alarming, you never turned down a good party. 

Shit did he have an exam he should  be cramming for? The two of you shared about 90% of classes. Purposefully setting it up that way, especially since the two of you had been glued to the hip since your UA days. The infamous class 1-A. The only time the two of you were a part was for the Bakugou rescue plan. You and Izuku hell bent to get the asshole blonde back. Kirishima too now that Denki thought about it. Guess that's how the "Bakusquad'' came to be now that he thinks about it. And the only three classes the two of you didn't share this semester were Athletics, Advanced Hero/Villain theory, and English as your placements were more advanced there than Denki could ever dream to be. He was sure you probably shared those classes with Bakugou. 

Especially not if Mina was going. It made Denki think something may have come up? Did you have an exam you were cramming for? 

He walks down the brightly lit hall, passing by decorated dorms with people's names on them. Jack-o'-lanterns and paper ghosts held neatly scripted kanji, per the RA's request so the whole hall could be "in the spirit of the holiday." 

It's easy enough to find yours, yours is the only one in English. You came to UA on a scholarship, knowing little to no Japanese and even that didn't stop the two of you from becoming fast friends. 

And all the detentions for the sneaking out and harmless pranks the two of you pulled off definitely brought the two of you closer. 

He checks the door and it's unlocked. The LED strip that's at the top of the room is set to a deep blue while the string lights beside your twin bed twinkle. Kaminari can just make out a lump on the bed, comforter pulled up over your head and he faintly hears the sound from your phone. 

"You kinda smell...Like a Baka."

"Eren Yeager!" A voice says in time with your phone causing you to jump out of your skin. 

"Kamisama, Denki you could have knocked!" You growl, wiping at your cheeks and trying to keep your voice even, "What if I was doing something private?!"

Kaminari laughs aloud. 

"Like what? Touching yourself to fanfiction?" He teases goading himself on. 

"Yea it's probably the only action I'll ever get." You grumble, chest sinking as you feel the weight of the truth in those words. 

Not like anyone liked you anyway.

When Kaminari senses the rapport is off between you two, he sighs.

"Alright, what's wrong?" 

Radio silence is deafening, he shuts the door behind you and plops onto the mattress. 

"Oi, what's wrong besto friendo."

"It's stupid, Denks." You huff, trying to hide your tears but this was Kaminari you were talking to. 

Nothing got by him. 

"Come on! It's obviously bothering you.  You're in your depression hoodie, the LEDs are set to dark blue and you're curled up in your bed watching Tiktoks on a SATURDAY night!" He lists them all on his fingers before moving the blankets from your head, "Now tell me what's really bothering you." 

You look into his honey eyes and not a drop of judgement clouds them, tears burn your own. 

"I don't think Bakugou likes me. I'm just so tired of being around him and thinking we're having a good time and I'm the only one who is! I'm stupid and sensitive over the dumbest things Denks." You burst out, all your words running together and you're upset enough it comes out in English instead of Japanese. Kaminari replays what you said over again in his head a few times as he tries to comprehend. 

"Wait, what do you mean?" 

"I mean I'm tired of fucking masking! More importantly I'm tired of thinking I'm in a safe space to be me. To really be me but I can't. And I'm tired of being sensitive to 'rejection' that isn't even fucking there. It's all in my head Denks but that voice is so loud." You grit your teeth and press on, "Every time I realize I'm being too loud, too much, too intense I tell myself to 'quiet down. Stop interrupting, don't bother saying or texting the info dump they don't fucking care! It's not a cool conversation starter. You're just fucking annoying'. I feel like I don't have to mask around you Denki. You get it. You get the chaos, the hyper attitude, the playful aggression. I'm tired of my feelings getting hurt even if that's people's intention or not  Ugh I'm so stupid and annoying. Forget I said anything." 

Denki frowns, hating to see you so uncomfortable in your own skin. He pulls you into a tight hug, wrapping his long arms around you and squeezing the life out of you. 

After a few long moments he pulls back, watching tears fall down your cheeks. 

"You stood me up for this?!" He teases, still he wipes away your tears with the sleeve of his hoodie. You look confused before it clicks. 

"Fuck me! The dish soap fountain. DAMN IT!" You rack your brain for if you even bought extra dish soap for the occasion. 

You hadn't.

"I'm the worst friend in existence." You fall back onto your bed. 

"Guess I'll just leave you here to die." Denki laughs before falling back to look up at your ceiling with you. The fan fills the silence although it is not uncomfortable. It never is with Denki and if you wanted to talk someone's ear off he'd let you and turn around and do the same. 

It's why the two of you got along so well, wired as hell and that was without caffeine! 

"What did he say?" Denki prompts after a while, you just let out a big sigh. 

"It's so fucking dumb, Denki." 

"Damn girl just tell me." He gives you a small shock and you tap his ribs harshly. He rubs them as you kick your feet for a second. 

"We were in the common area earlier cause we're partners for a big project for class. Anyway I was telling him some cool facts cause you know sometimes I get nervous to be around him alone cause I still have that dumb crush. So I'm telling him irrelevant shit Denks. Like magnolia trees and how they're older than bees and beetles used to pollinate them. Ugh and how coca-cola and Pepsi taste exactly the same if the coke is warm and the Pepsi is cold cause coca cola was invented before refrigeration." You slam your pillow over your face. 

"Aannnd?" 

"And he says…" Your voice cracks a bit, you clear your throat, "And he says 'Ya sure do fuckin talk a lot.'" 

"So Im like 'yea..' and I'm fighting the urge to get up and leave but I mood drop so bad cause I know I've done this to the whole group an ungodly amount of times. My brain is like here's a slide show of every fuck up we have on record. Then I lie, I tell him I'm not feeling well, shove my shit in my bag and leave." 

Denki waits a moment, sometimes another thought will pop out in a small stretch of silence when you're venting. When you say nothing the gears in his head turn. 

"What did he look like when he said it?" You just groan in response, "And don't count his tone there's usually another layer to that." 

"Well…." You try to recall, "His cheeks were kinda pink, he looked…" 

The memory comes to the forefront, his normally burning ember eyes felt soft, the corner of his mouth turned up and a faint dusting of pink settled his cheeks. He had kept his eyes on you the whole time you went off on your tangent. Hadn't he always looked at you like that when you rambled? 

Soft, attentive? 

"Oh." You state. 

"Oh?" 

"OH!" 

"What what?" Kaminari watches your thoughts in your facial expressions before you squeal. 

"Does Bakugou…." You lean close as if saying it too loud would make it untrue, "Like me?" 

Denki scrunches up his brows, thinks of his sour mood earlier, sure he had them here and there but usually only after Bakugou thinks he's fucked something up.  

"Oh!" Kaminari reaches his own realization before he laughs out loud. 

"Oh my god I think he does!" He chuckles as it seems so obvious now. 

"Stop! Don't tease me about this!" You hit him with a pillow and he grunts.  

"I mean he doesn't hate you, that's for sure. He obviously hangs out with you." 

"UUUGGGHHH cause he has too. Okay enough about that. Let's go do this fountain thing." You rise from the bed, tugging up your thigh highs and latching them with the sock garter under your skirt once again. You have to raise your black skirt high enough that Denki can see your lacy black underwear but he doesn't give it a second glance. 

He's seen you naked thousands of times and yea you were pretty, gorgeous even, but Kaminari didn't see you that way and it was vice versa. Completing one another without complicated feelings. 

A bit like soulmates now that Denki is thinking about it. 

"Found it!" You exclaim, brandishing your industrial sized dawn dish soap you had "borrowed" from the science lab. Besides your tuition had paid for it a thousand times over and then some, the college wouldn't be hurting without a bit of blue soap. Denki smirks, rising to his feet as he secures his own jacket before he tosses you your dorm keys and black converse. 

The two of you would make bad villains, giggling as you approach the center of the quad, sunglasses covering your mirth filled eyes with hoods shielding your face. Unable to keep quiet or see for that matter. So it's no surprise that by the time you've emptied two of the dish soaps out of the crate Kaminari lugged here, you realize there is no water. 

"Denki." You grab his arm and he startles, looking around. He can't afford another demerit this week. 

"Yea?" He says sheepish, lightning dancing on the tips of his fingers in his usual nervous habit. 

"We're idiots. Denks, it's October. Like almost Halloween October. There isn't any water!" 

"Shit…." 

"God it's probably been off for months." The two of you stand defeated before busting out into laughter. Only the two of you would plan something so late and not realize that October in the north might be a bit too frigid for a fountain of water, even in a hero college. 

The cool air bites at your cheeks but they burn from the constant smile you have as y'all lug the crate and industrial bottle back down the mile long trek to your dorm hall. Finally standing in the warmth Denki sets the crate down. 

"What do we do now?" You ask, "I've got mischief in ma bones." 

"We can always move Sero into Izuku and Shoto's dorm again…" Denki smirks and you laugh. 

"Denks last time we moved him he lived there for three months. We gaslit the three of them so bad even Sero believed it." 

"In our defence we thought he was just really committed to his role in the prank." Denki retorts. 

"The three of them were so cramped in there!" You laugh, wiping at a tear, "Didn't they have to climb over Sero's desk to get to their en suite?" 

"Yea and I swear the only reason Sero moved back in with me was because Bakugou needed Izuku for a class. Then when he saw the three of them he said 'Yall are fuckin dumb." Another round of laughter as you think of Bakugou berating the three. 

"Two of the top three students in the whole fucking college thought Denki was special enough for a room to himself and y'all gotta share a room with three people. Dumbasses." 

You look down, smile fading a bit but before your mood can drop again, the shine of the floor catches your eye and then the unnaturally blue soap. Denki watches the cat smile form on your lips as you say.  

"Indoor Hall hockey." Denki looks delighted with your suggestion. 

"We're gonna get married someday."

A montage of rummaging through your dorm room and his, the two of you have found enough rulers and a meter stick for makeshift hockey sticks and a tennis ball for the "puck." Shortly after your findings the hall is streaked in blue while y'all throw buckets of water onto the hall floor and finally each of you place a wet floor sign at the entrance on each side of the hall for both safety and markers for the goal. 

Laughter echoes around the hall and no one is bothered. It's a Saturday night, half of the dorms were empty and would be until the sun streaked the sky. As the saying goes work hard play harder. 

You slide dangerously fast hitting the tennis ball almost full force. It hits Denki in the solar plexus and sends him flying into the metal frame of the doorway. He grunts, a deadly smile on his face before he spits blood in the trash can by the door. Suddenly Kirishima appears behind you with a giggling Mina. 

"What are you two doing?" He smiles, and you see he too is intoxicated. His cheeks flushed and his sharp toothed smile made his eyes twinkle. You swallow down your desire before you straighten. 

"Uh hockey…." Kirishima was a fifty fifty chance on joining the two of you when y'all did something stupid. 

"I wanna play! Kirishima let's plaaaaayyy!" Mina whines, unable to keep her footing, Kirishima wraps his large arm around her waist to steady her. You think he'll say no as he looks down at Mina before he finally speaks. 

"Aight lemme get my old sticks." 

Excitement thrums through your veins when they return, sticks in hand.

"Boys vs girls?" Denki asks, Mina looks a bit more sober but not by much.  

"Yea, we're gonna kick y'all's ass! Full contact full fucking ass whipin!" You yell starting the match as you hit the tennis ball hard. It hits the wet floor sign and the clatter echoes through the dorm a promise of your victory. The hall is wide enough for you and Denki to walk down it shoulder to shoulder but Kirishima was another story. He was large, broad and mountainous. A sexy burly thing with a heart of gold but that heart of gold could be lost when he was feeling competitive. 

Just as he was tonight, tasting victory on his drunken tongue. He's been 'checking' you all night, his large shoulder slamming into your thick frame bruising you up against doors and walls but this particular check was his full body weight this time. He slams into you with enough force you burst through a dorm room door as the wood shatters into confetti around you.  You land in an awkward position, back arched from something soft and warm before your head cracks against the concrete floor beneath the area rug. 

"Ow.." You whimper, getting up to see who's dorm you crashed into only to be met with a burning hot gaze. 

"Besto friendo?" Denki and Kirishima pop their head into the broken door way and see you lying on Bakugou, your skirt flipped up a bit from the ride. Quickly Bakugou flips it down before lifting you in his arms to roughly place you on his bed. 

"Stay." He growls, furious as the game he was playing on the TV flashes loser somehow you don't think that's what he's angry over. 

"The four of you are fucking idiots." Bakugou snarls, "Clean this up!" 

His popping hands gesture to the door and the hall. Eyes burning into Denki and Kirishima  Meanwhile Mina leans on Eiji, looking a little green. 

"Oh man I'm gonna.." Is all she can get out before she rushes towards the open en suite, leaning over the porcelain sounding miserable as ever. Kirishima stumbles into the room, taking large strides to get to his crush. 

"Denks, I'll help…" You start to stand up only for Bakugou to snap. 

"You've done enough." He spits venom and you look down, eyes burning with fresh tears.  

"The red towel is mine right?" Kirishima calls out and Katsuki sighs. He feels like a mother hen. 

"Uh yea. It only has been since we moved in together." 

"Good. I used it to wipe up Mina."

"Gods, spray the shit spray, turn on the fan and toss your towel in the wash before you take Mina back to her room. Then you and Denki clean this shit up!" He growls and Kirishima follows suit. Carefully carrying Mina out of the door before he stops, mind hazed as he pats his pants. 

"Shit I don't have my key, can you leave it unlocked?" Bakugou just stares at Kirishima, fighting his rage. 

"Oi, shit for brains WE DONT HAVE A FUCKING DOOR!" He finally erupts. Bright explosions littering his skin as he pants but Kirishima pays him no mind. 

"Oops." He chuckles, making his way back towards the room you normally share with Mina. Katsuki breathes out heavily through his nose as he steps in the bathroom, returning with a small plastic box. 

He comes to stand beside your dangling legs as you look up at him. Eyeliner smudged, cheek bruised from the rough housing and blood dripping onto your white and black striped long sleeved shirt from the nape of your neck. 

"Don't fucking look at me." He bites, gripping the first aid kit so tightly the plastic cracks. You look down and he watches a tear fall onto your black skirt.  He thinks of earlier, he doesn't know that it felt like a hot rod was shoved into your stomach but he saw the change in your face. He watched your smile fade away and it was because of him. 

Here he was doing it again, speaking without much thought. What you didn't know was how tightly his throat closed up when he heard your skull connect with the floor. How tight his chest was when he watched you fly through the door. 

He lets his fingers brush along your cheek and throat. 

"I-" He swallows, softening his voice, "I need you to look towards the hall so I can see your wound." 

You angle your head away from him, keeping your face down so he can finger through your hair, wiping up the blood with alcohol swabs and he sighs with relief when he sees it's a small laceration.  With your healing it should be closed by morning. Still he wants to keep an eye on it and you in case you have a concussion. He swipes over it a few more times and you suck your teeth when it stings. 

"Drink this." He hisses, pressing a water bottle into your hands while he makes his way to the closet. Grabbing for one of his hoodies and carefully removing the door from its hinges before attaching the closet door to the main entrance to the dorm. The door was a little too short but it was a good temporary fix.

"I should get going…" 

"No, you're gonna stay here and spend the night." He tosses the hoodie onto your lap. 

"But Mina-" 

"She's fine. Kirishima is probably already asleep there. You know Denki hasn't mopped that floor yet and who's gonna keep you up for another hour and make sure you're breathing is normal while you're asleep?!" He snarls, "Mina sure as fuck can't do it. Denki will fall asleep before you. So that leaves me." 

He sounds jaded and it makes your nails bite into your skin. 

"I'm glad we could confirm I'm just a gnat to you." You say under your breath but Bakugou catches it. He goes to react but collects himself, at least for the most part. 

"Take off your shirt and hoodie." You look up frightened at that, "You want the blood to stain your favorite striped shirt?" 

When you don't make a move he rolls his eyes. 

"Then take it off." He gives you his back but his hand is held out expectedly. When you place the shirt in his hands he heads to the bathroom. Pouring peroxide onto the fabric just to rinse and repeat a few times. 

"How'd you know about that?" You peep up from his bed, curling into the scent of caramel despite how hot and cold Bakugou can be.  He hangs the shirt up to try on the shower curtain rod. 

"Got into a lot of fights, remember?" He returns to the room, debating if he should sleep in Kirishima's bed or go back to his video game for the night, "Was easier to just get the stain out myself than explain to people. Especially Ma." 

"Oh." You want to say more, facts bubbling up to fill the heavy silence before you decide against it. 

Thinking it best to keep quiet. 

"About fucking earlier…" He says, coming to stand in between your legs. You keep your fingers interlaced and on your lap, the knuckles bone white. 

"I know I know. I shouldn't do dumb shit and break stuff. I'll tell the RA it was me." He grabs onto your chin to force you to look at him. His mouth is set in a hard frown and his eyes are even harsher. 

"No. You shouldn't do dumb shit because you could get hurt." He snaps, tone changing as he looks away dropping your face, "Look I just worry about you, k?"

"But you're mad at me and I-" Bakugou interrupts you as he goes off on a tangent.  

"You don't annoy me. I just don't know how to fuckin talk! I like that you do. I like how your eyes light up when you remember some random fact and how that leads to another and another. Somehow we end up back on the topic at hand and somehow you've solved the problem to our homework without even thinking about it. I like when you burst into song or qoute stupid tiktoks and vines with Denki. I like the dumb nicknames you give everyone and how we all have some dumb theme song you've made up and belt into song when we haven't seen each other in while. I like that stuff. I…."

He stops for a moment, wetting his lips trying to find the words and how to say them appropriately. He leans close, pressing his forehead to yours. 

"I fucking like you.  Really like you and have for a stupid long time."

"Oh." Is all you can say, speechless for once. He is about to pull away, taking that as rejection. 

"I get it. I know you're too nice for an asshole like me." But you don't let him pull away instead you grab onto the nape of his neck pulling his lips to yours. Kissing him as if he were your last before the two of you part. 

"I like you too, dumbass." You imitate his voice at the end with a giggle and he just smirks down at you.  Your phone pings on the floor of the dorm but neither of you see the phone screen as Bakugou leans in for another long kiss. 

In the morning you'll find out the message from Denks to the group text reads 

You loved the snow.

Every time you peeked out of the window and saw the world blanketed in soft white, Denki practically had to rip you back to get you to put at least some shoes on before you sprinted into the wintery world to catch snowflakes on your tongue while snowdrifts built on your lashes.

He especially thought you were most beautiful on snowy evenings, light reflecting off the blinding white and dancing across mahogany skin like his own personal show. One of his favorite photos is of the two of you at night, after you’d playfully tackled him in a snowdrift. You looked at him like he was the only thing in the world, the both of you bundled up for the weather and covered in snow, cheeks and noses tipped with red. He’d brought a mittened hand up to your face to gaze at you adoringly, and Katsuki of all people snapped the candid moment for the two of you.

What a perfect picture.

What a perfect lover.

What a perfect memory.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

The moment aurum orbs locked with yours, he knew he needed to know you more.

It wasn’t hard to get on your good side; you were his hero partner, and with that came innate trust. With that trust, it was so easy to get you to agree to a date with him to your favorite little ramen shop, easy to get you to invite him inside for a drink after the end of the fourth date, easy to slip you out of that little dress you wore with the lightning bolt on the side and press your back to the mattress.

Easy to trail kisses down, down, down until his strong hands held shaking thighs open and he devoured you like the sweetest dessert he’d ever had the pleasure of tasting on his tongue. You’d mewled for him, not sure if you wanted him to stop or keep going, voice sticking in your throat the minute he channeled his quirk through his tongue against your hardened clit and slipped his tongue lower, pressing into you so deep his entire face was buried in your heat.

When you begged so sweetly for him to fuck you, he couldn’t help but grip the headboard and comply, leaning down to kiss away the tears streaming down your cheeks with pleasure as he memorized every spot that made you cry out.

When you came around his cock for the third time that night with a cry of his name garbled by an overstimulated sob and begged him to pleasepleaseplease cum inside you, called him daddy as you left angry red welts down his back, he knew for sure he was a fucking goner.

Your love moved quickly. By six months, you were living together and had adopted a stray, an emaciated golden retriever puppy that had stolen your last mochi ball one summer day. One year and he was looking at rings while you were on patrol, Mochi on your side as your faithful search and rescue dog. At a year and a half, you awoke on Christmas day to the sounds of unfamiliar barking. You opened your bedroom door to see a fluffy white puppy patter towards you, a note attached to her collar. When you picked up the puppy and read the note, your heart stopped.

In Denki’s erratic scrawl, the note read “Hi! I need a name, and my daddy needs to know if he can change yours.”

You stared blankly at the note, processing, until Mochi nudged your hand with something in her mouth.

“Release.”

Mochi happily dropped the box into your hand, tail wagging furiously as you opened it to find your dream ring and dropped to the floor in disbelief. Denki caught you before you could fall too hard, and smiled, “Is that a yes?”

A year later, he watched you float down the aisle towards him on a December afternoon, snow clinging to your soft curls like a halo as Mochi and Noelle trotted behind you, taking their places by each of you.

It was perfect. Everything was perfect.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

You were arguing again.

Two months shy of your second anniversary, the two of you were embroiled in yet another knockdown, drag out over, of all things, children. Denki wanted to start a family. You wanted at least another year to establish your career before being out of commission for an extended period.

“Your career isn’t going to vanish!” Denki snarled, “I’m not asking you to quit—”

“BUT YOU ARE, CHARGEBOLT!” His eye twitched at the misuse of his hero name, “You may not think you are, but that’s what you’re asking me to do! You are asking me to quit my dream career for at LEAST a year or two, and all I’m asking you to do is let me plan for it!”

“Uraraka did just fine—”

“Her husband is Dynamight!”

Denki paused to stare at you, “What the fuck does that mean.”

“Denks—”

You yelped when he grabbed your arm and yanked you towards him until you were nose to nose, “What. The. Fuck. Is. That. Supposed. To. Mean.”

“I—it’s just…Dynamight is number two, and Uravity herself is in the top 20—”

“And I’m number four.”

“But I’m barely breaking the top 50. I’m too ne—”

“That isn’t what the fuck you said.”

“Denki, baby, please…you’re hurting me.” You put your hand on his and pried his fingers off, then scrambled away from your husband, shaking from head to toe.

His face softened and he reached towards you. You flinched. He dropped his hand.

“I—sparkle, princess…please. I didn’t—I didn’t mean t—”

Electricity crackled at your fingertips, “Please don’t approach me, I’m scared.”

His eyes darted to the arm you cradled, a bruise in the shape of his hand rapidly forming. He took in the fear in your eyes, your form cowering in the corner as you made yourself as small as possible, guarding yourself, showing all the signs he was taught to recognize in domestic violence victims he rescued. You inched yourself over to your office, eyes never leaving his until the door clicked shut, locked, and he heard the first broken sob you released.

Because of him.

Bile rose in his throat and he turned to sprint into the guest bathroom, vomiting into the sink. Every glance back up at his own reflection started the process over until there was nothing left; nothing left to vomit, nothing left to do but clean his mess and try to figure out how to fix the mess he’d made of you.

In the end, he gave you your year. In fact, he gave you two.

The image of your terrified face, your broken trust, your trembling form stuck in his mind, and he decided he could never see it again, so he put himself through therapy, seeking answers. He was a broken man, broken since his first year at UA, but with hard work and time he gained your trust back, and by the end of year two, he’d graduated therapy. He was working to prove he’d do anything for you.

One night you stopped him as he reached for a condom in the bedside table, chest heaving with arousal.

“You don’t need…I…Um. I stopped my birth control.”

“Oh. I can…I can pull out.”

“I—I don’t want you to.”

He looked at you like you’d created the moon and stars for him, and the two of you tried. You tried, and you tried, and you tried, and after six months, your first positive brought excitement and apprehension.

That was, until, you woke him screaming in the middle of the night, sheets soaked with blood.

They couldn’t do anything. It was too late, they said. Told you to try again.

And you did, and two months later you had a positive test. Denki begged you to stay home and take it easy. Reluctantly, you agreed, but asked for one week. One week to get your affairs in order. He agreed, it was more than reasonable.

Then Thursday happened.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

“Winnie! Come on, it’s time to go!”

Eyes that looked too much like yours snapped up to meet Denki’s, and she smiled widely, one tooth missing, “Bye Uncle Kas—Katsk—Ka—Kat!"

Katsuki patted the child on top of her head, between two neatly styled puffballs, “You’ll get it eventually, kid. Let’s wait for that front tooth to grow back in before we try my name again.”

Katsuki looked up at Denki, “Are you sure she’s ready for this?”

Denki chewed his lip, “She has…questions. So many. She doesn’t understand, and her counselor said the best course of action is honesty, so she needs to know. I can’t hide the truth from her. I can’t…I can’t put her in a position to start out broken.”

“Are you ready for this?”

Denki scoffed, pushing back tears, “Were you?”

Katsuki paused, nodded in acknowledgement, “If you need us…”

“I know. Thank you.”

“Fix your face. Wynter worries about you, just like—” Katsuki lets the sentence hang in the air, opting instead to make sure Winnie is all bundled up before blowing raspberries against honey-colored cheeks until she scream giggled. She trotted over to Denki, slipping a mittened hand in his.

“Ready, papa!”

“Alright!” he scooped her up with a bounce, drawing out a giggle as he turned towards the door. She squirmed in his arms, “Daddy, put me down! I’m a big girl! I can walk!”

He put her down, watching as his sweet girl sprinted to the car and pulled at the door, turning to him with snowflakes clinging to her lashes and asked him to unlock the door. When he did, she climbed into her seat and buckled herself in, legs kicking gleefully.

Denki blinked back tears. For a split second, he almost swore he saw you as she carefully adjusted her seatbelt and said, “Safety first, daddy!”

The ride to the cemetery was full of Wynter excitedly describing her last day at school before the holidays, including a riveting tale of how she inadvertently sneezed and shocked Eijiro’s son, Crimson, and Denki’s careful reminders to mind her quirk when she got too excited.

However, she fell quiet when they crossed the threshold of the cemetery. She didn’t make a peep as the car rolled to a stop, and Denki got out and unbuckled her, picking her up.

“Papa? I thought we were going to see mommy.”

“We are, snow glow. Remember how I told you your mommy died when you were too little to know? Well, this is where people who died go to rest.”

“Like bedtime?”

“Not exactly. See, when you go to bed, and we do the goodnight song, it ends with I’ll see you in the morning. When someone dies, they don’t wake up in the morning.”

Wynter chewed her lip, “So mommy won’t wake up?”

“No, baby. Mommy isn’t waking up.”

The snow crunched beneath his boots as he walked up to your grave, kneeling down to lower your daughter to the ground, one arm wrapped around her.

“Wynter Robin, meet your mommy. She loved you more than every snowflake that ever fell. Did you know you’re named after her favorite season?”

Wynter nodded, “Mhm! And her favorite book!” She paused for a moment, “Daddy?”

“Yes, my snow glow?”

“Will I…will I ever see mommy?”

Denki sat for a moment, then cleared his throat, “You know…I believe you will. I believe mommy was a good person, and that she’s waiting for us on the other side, but right now she wants us to live long, happy lives until we can see her again.”

“Can she see me?”

“Mhm.” He kisses her forehead, “and hear you. You can talk to her as much as you want! Sometimes, she might even answer in unexpected ways.”

Wynter pauses, then takes a couple of steps forward, presses her palm to the headstone and gazes at the photo of you engraved there.

“Hi mama. Daddy says I look like you. That’s good because you’re pretty! Wanna see my quirk?”

She steps back, lets lighting bounce between her tiny fingers, “Daddy says you could do this too, and you called it bunny bolt! One day, I’ll be a hero just like you and you’ll be so proud.”

A robin swoops down, landing right between Wynter’s puffballs and makes itself right at home. Denki smiles, brushing tears away.

“She already is, Winnie. I promise.”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Emergency puppies.