Chapter Text
Dares were always a bad idea.
Jirou knew this and she should have thought better of it.
But there was something in the way that Mina disguised the game, making it seem so innocent and harmless with her telltale Cheshire grin.
It was unsettling.
Jirou should have listened to her gut.
It was one of the rare weekends that the U.A. students had off, and the girls had gathered together in Mina’s dorm for a much-needed girl's day.
Naturally, things were taking an unwelcoming turn.
“Let’s play truth or dare!” Mina suggested.
“That’s a great idea!” Hagakure chirped.
“Sure,” Uraraka agreed.
“ Ribbit,” Tsuyu responded, nodding in agreement.
Jirou froze in her seat, taking a swig of her hot chocolate to hide her expression. Whatever. Yaomomo was there, and there was no way in hell that she was going to let them play truth or dare.
“Please Yaomomo?!” Mina and Hagakure pleaded, eyes wide, “It will be fun!”
“W-Well,” Momo curled her fingers around her hair, “I suppose as long as the dares don’t get too out of control, everything will be okay. No one has to do anything they don’t want to do.” She affirmed sternly.
Perfect. This was perfect. Yaomomo was supposed to be her saving grace.
“Yeah,” Jirou stretched her limbs out like an overgrown cat, “I’m out. Quite frankly, the idea of playing this game with you guys feels awfully dangerous.”
“What?” Mina blinked her eyes innocently and pouted, “Do we look dangerous to you?”
“Yes,” She replied without hesitation, preparing to stand up, “See you guys.”
“Noooooooooo!” Mina and Hagakure wailed, an invisible force tugging her hand back as Mina blocked to door.
Hagakure whined, “Come onnn Jirou ~”
“Just for one round!” Mina proposed.
Jirou paused, weighing the possibilities in her head. Well. One round wouldn’t be as catastrophic, she supposed. Whether she chose a truth or a dare she was unlikely to have anything too horrible. She’d have to monitor the game and see.
Besides, they were never going to leave her alone and unfortunately, Jirou could literally hear their cries from a mile away.
“Fine,” She sighed, “But I’m not going to do anything extreme.”
“Yay!” The offenders that had pleaded with her to play latched onto her arms like leeches, huge grins on their faces (at least she assumed, Hagakure was invisible after all) and dragged her to the center of the circle.
“Okay!” Mina chirped, her Cheshire grin widening and worry pooled in the depths of Jirou’s stomach, “Who’s up first?”
Mina asked Uraraka who chose truth, resulting in a very flustered Ochako floating and spilling out every detail about her crush on Midoriya.
Uraraka asked Yaomomo to reveal who she had a crush on, resulting in her very flustered response of Todoroki. Jirou wasn’t surprised. She knew Momo like the back of her hand, so to her, it was super obvious.
Yaomomo asked Hagakure about her relationship with Ojiro and what was happening there. She happily replied.
Good. Everything seemed to be safe so far.
Or at least, it was until Hagakure asked Mina. She chose dare and was told to ask out her crush.
It was strange to see Mina flushed but it was sweet. They followed her into the hall, before she marched towards the common room, the girls seeing her off and cheering her on. They had no idea what happened next, but then they heard a voice boom throughout the dorms, “AHAHAHA. SPIKY HAIR IS BROKEN!”
Mina then marched back, a triumphant smirk on her face as she entered the dorm room.
“So,” She purred casually as if she hadn’t just asked out Kirishima, “Who’s next?”
Jirou swallowed, as Mina’s mischievous eyes met her own, “Jirou.”
“Yes?” Her throat suddenly felt so parched and she knew after what just happened, that she was utterly, and entirely screwed.
“Truth or dare?” She grinned wildly.
Kyouka wasn’t sure what was more dangerous right now. If she went with the truth, Mina would probably pull the deepest, darkest secrets she could from Jirou. And Jirou went through a Hello Kitty phase in middle school.
Yup. Definitely, not a fact she wanted everyone to know about her.
On the other hand, a dare would probably be something terrible, especially with Mina on an adrenaline rush from asking out Kirishima. With Mina, anything was possible and giving her the power to let her mind run free and come up with some sort of dare wasn’t comforting.
But it would be a one-off. A one-time thing. She would never have to do it again.
Truth, however? That was eternal. Knowledge is power and she would be handing Mina that authority on a silver platter.
So she chose the only logical thing to do.
“Dare,” Jirou answered, letting out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Her jacks clicked together nervously as she awaited whatever tortures Mina had in store.
Mina’s grin widened, mirth twinkling in her eyes and Kyouka knew there were a million possibilities shooting through her head.
Then she schooled her expression slightly, trying and failing to fight off the smirk gracing her features.
“I dare you to kiss Kaminari.”
Jirou’s jaw dropped, her blood running cold and she seemed to pale, “What?”
“I dare you to kiss Kaminari,” She repeated smugly, “Just walk up to him, grab him and kiss him.”
Now, it was rare for Jirou to lose her cool.
But Kaminari??
“Kaminari?? Why Kaminari?!” She screeched, her skin turning red.
She shrugged in reply, “He’s probably the guy you’re most inclined to kiss.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Her cheeks seemed to darken with each word. Oh God, this wasn’t good.
“Relax Jirou!” Mina cooed, “You don’t have to do it of course. I get if you’re scared.”
She paused.
Jirou? Scared of kissing stupid Jamming-Whey? That was ridiculous! Kaminari was her best friend, but he was also an idiot. There so was no way in hell she was scared of kissing him. She wasn’t a damn coward!
“Now Mina, don’t you think that’s a bit-?” Yaomomo began, ever the saviour to defend Jirou.
“Yaomomo.”
Her best friend’s dark eyes flicked to her own and she calmly said, “It’s fine. It doesn’t mean anything anyway.”
She wasn’t sure if the words came out as bitter as they sounded to her.
Yaomomo gave her an unreadable gaze, before softening into one of concern and reluctance, “…Alright.”
“Perfect!” Hagakure squealed, “You got this Jirou!”
“Have fun~” Mina said in a sing-song voice, as Jirou huffed, crawling up from her spot on the floor and walking out the door. Once again, all the girls crowded against the edge of the door to see Jirou march down the hall.
This was easy. Just because she gave in to the peer pressure didn’t mean anything. It was a kiss. Simple and harmless at that. Besides, to someone like Kaminari, it probably didn’t mean anything. Just another kiss to add to the list.
She was just Jirou.
She doubted it would affect him in the slightest. There was no need to overthink it. She would kiss him and things would be normal and he would never bring it up again.
Easy.
She took a deep breath to steel her nerves that were making her queasy, as she braced herself for what was to come.
Easy.
She walked into the common room, head held high as she searched for her target.
“Jirou?” Kirishima noticed, face still red from Mina’s impromptu question.
Sero mumbled, “What is with all the girls storming in here today?”
She made eye contact with Kaminari, eyes wide as she stalked towards him, a determined expression on her face.
“Uh, Jirou?” Kaminari cocked an eyebrow in confusion, “Is everything mmph-!! “
He never got to finish his sentence as Jirou grabbed him by the tie of his uniform, bringing him to her level and smashed her lips against his.
It was strange. Jirou thought that she would get shocked if she kissed Kaminari. Instead, his lips were so soft and sweet. It was the complete opposite of what she was expecting. Her stomach felt like it was rolling and all she felt was elation as she tasted the honey on his lips.
He ended up charging the entire area around him with static electricity, the lights flickering and Jirou figured that’s why he hadn’t shocked her. She giggled against his lips as he seemed frozen in place. She deepened the kiss ever so slightly, enjoying his warmth before pulling back.
She looked at the goofy and dazed expression on his face, his lips swollen slightly and his eyes wide with shock. His face was a deep shade of crimson now. It took all her willpower not to laugh.
She hummed happily, “That’s all.”
She spun on the balls of her heels, head held high as she ignored the surprised looks on the faces of her classmates as she marched out of the common room.
She heard something slam to the ground.
Even without her quirk, Sero’s screams of, “Oi! Jirou broke Kaminari!” And in reply, Bakugou’s cackling could be heard from a mile away.
Well. At least she got a good story out of this.
She marched back into Mina’s dorm, schooling her expression. Unsurprisingly, they were anxiously camped out at the door.
Hagakure broke the silence, “So?!”
Mina bounced on her feet, “Did you do it?!”
Jirou rolled her eyes, desperately trying to fight the smirk on her face.
She put her fingers to her lips like she was shushing herself, “Sorry girls, a lady never kisses and tells.”
Then everything went to hell.
The class had gathered in the common room for one of their normal movie nights.
It was a weekly occurrence since the class needed these breaks when they weren’t out almost getting killed and whatnot.
The more Jirou thought about her kiss with Kaminari, the more anxiety pooled in the pit of her stomach.
Stupid! How could she agree to this? She felt bad all things considered, she did just walk up to him out of the blue and crashed her lips against his. He was no doubt chewed out by his friends for his reaction.
Denki was a great guy. In all her time at U.A., hanging out with him held her greatest memories. He was like a walking ray of sunshine and he was so devoted to his friends it was amazing. Especially when he knew how important specific things were to them. He was funny and sweet and she cared about him a whole lot. He was her best friend after all.
But kissing him was uncharted territory. It was something completely unknown to them. Their friendship was built on banter and jokes, with the rare occasion of heart-to-heart conversations. That was the Kaminari and Jirou dynamic.
Besides, Kaminari was the resident flirt and although he’s been rejected by every girl on campus, he had never once tried flirting with Jirou. She couldn’t blame him she supposed. Kyouka probably would have killed him if he tried.
She owed him an apology. She did kiss him without his consent and even if that was a minute detail and he was probably used to girls walking up and kissing him (who was she kidding, that dork had no game) she didn’t want any bad blood between them.
She sighed. Well, there were worse things to do than to apologize to Kaminari.
…And kiss him, apparently.
She really didn’t know how to feel. Sure, she had kissed him and if she was honest with herself, it left her feeling giddy but he didn’t even reciprocate. He was too frozen to do anything.
Besides, it didn’t mean anything to him, so it shouldn’t mean anything to her.
His lips were really warm though…
Curse his stupid electric quirk. Poor Jirou was always cold and she didn’t like being touched. No insulation for her, she supposed.
She entered the common room, everyone sprawled out in different places as Midoriya signed into Disney+ and queued up Ant-Man to the screen. They liked to make fun of the inaccuracies, especially with Kodai.
Bakugou was texting someone on his phone, Sero sitting on the armrest of the couch and snickering at the sight. Todoroki and Momo were sharing a blanket. Uraraka handed Midoriya a bowl of popcorn, Iida following close behind. Kaminari was sitting next to Bakugou, trying to catch a glimpse of his phone. The only people missing were…
Kirishima and Mina.
“Hey Jamming-Whey,” Jirou said as a way of greeting, plopping down next to him.
“Hey, Jirou!” He greeted, still not looking her in the eye. Something was off.
“Do you know where Kirishima and Mina went?” She asked curiously.
“O-oh. I think they’re outside talking about…about earlier,” He referred to their lovely game of truth or dare.
So that’s what this was about.
“Are you ever going to look me in the eye again?” She crossed her arms, her jacks clicking together nervously.
“ Whaaaat ?” His voice had an uncharacteristically high pitch to it, the static electricity bouncing off of him a dead giveaway to his nervousness. He rubbed the back of his neck, finally facing her although he was red-faced, “What makes you think that?”
“Because you’ve been dodging me all day,” she pointed out.
“No, I-“ He tried, eyes wide with worry that he might have offended her.
“Look,” She interrupted, nibbling her lip slightly and her jacks clicking together from nervousness, “I’m sorry Pikachu. I don’t want you to be upset with me or anything.”
His brows furrowed in confusion, “What are you sorry for? I’m just confused why you…you kissed me.”
“We were playing truth or dare,” Jirou shrugged, “You know how Mina can get.”
“So…” He faced the front, his gaze staring off into space as the pieces clicked into place, “So that’s why Mina asked out Kirishima…”
It was an odd expression to see on Kaminari’s face, one of determination and focus. It looked like he was trying to work out a math problem or solve an extremely difficult puzzle. It was cute.
“Mmhmm,” Jirou nodded, “She dared me and I figured since it didn’t mean anything it would be fine.”
Was it just her, or did Kaminari seem… disappointed ? No, that couldn’t be.
Why would he seem disappointed over the prospect that Jirou kissed him and it didn’t matter?
“Why…why wouldn’t it mean anything?” Kaminari asked quietly.
She cocked her head to the side, still not following, “What do you mean?”
“Like,” He turned away from her, “What leads you to believe it didn’t mean anything to me? I’m just asking out of curiosity.”
What a strange question. Where was this coming from? Why did he want to know?
“Oh,” she twirled a jack around her finger as she contemplated what to say, “Listen Kaminari, you’re a lot better now than you were at the beginning of our first year at U.A., but I’m sure that you’ve had prettier girls that were totally your type walk up to you and kiss you. I’m…me. And we’re friends, so I was sure it wouldn’t bother you in the slightest.”
When he didn’t answer, Jirou turned to face him only to find him staring at her with an unreadable expression. He was biting his lip, head cocked to the side and his eyebrows furrowed. He looked like a puppy. Cute.
She frowned as a thought about his reaction occurred to her, “Sorry, if I made you uncomfortable though.”
“Oh. Yeah, don’t worry. I’m not upset or anything,” He seemed to snap out of his trance, his voice getting louder with every word and she felt like something was still wrong, “Thanks for telling me at least.”
“Anytime,” She nodded before rolling her eyes, “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”
His expression was immediately replaced by one of mirth and he waggled his brows, “Are you calling me pretty?”
Ah. There he was. Cocky and bubbly.
“Oh no, I never got to finish my sentence,” She raised a brow smugly, “I meant to say you’re pretty annoying.”
He dramatically put his hands to his chest as If she stabbed him, “You wound me Jirou! The pain I feel from your insults is unbearable!”
“Good,” She grinned, “Die.”
“Rude!” He gasped dramatically, “Have a heart Jirou! This is where you’re supposed to confess your undying love for me.”
“Oh really?” She sighed dramatically and with the flattest voice, she could muster went, “Oh Kaminari! What have I done? I will never be able to live without you!”
“Yeah?” He asked, a large smile on his face and something akin to hope glittered in his eyes. It was a rhetorical question, she knew.
Yet he was looking at her like her response could change his entire future, his entire life.
Her jacks clicked together nervously and her cheeks turned bright pink.
“Yeah,” she affirmed.
His smile seemed to brighten even more if possible, giving her his signature megawatt grin, “Have you seen Ant-Man before?”
She ignored the sudden topic change, “Of course. I’m a woman of culture.”
“Really?” He raised a brow, “I never pegged you as a Marvel fan.”
“Surprise, surprise Jamming-Whey,” She grinned.
“Everybody shut up!” Bakugou’s voice bellowed across the common room, finally pulling his gaze from his phone, “I’m trying to watch the damn movie and I can’t if you extras keep yapping!”
Kirishima and Mina chose that moment to make their impromptu entrance (much to Bakugou’s dismay) hands intertwined with huge grins on their faces.
“About damn time!” Kaminari cheered, standing on the couch as he, Hagakure and Sero hollered.
“You got it, Kami!” Mina beamed, Kirishima flushing slightly.
Everyone offered their congratulations to the new couple, even Bakugou going as far as to give them a nod of approval before backtracking and saying, “Now we don’t have to listen to Crappy Hair whine all day.” Well, they got the sentiment.
Kaminari and Jirou plopped back on the couches, the movie playing and enrapturing the class's attention as they settled down.
She watched the movie, the scene of Scott Lang robbing Hank Pym flashing across the screen and causing her to giggle. It had her focus and she had to admit, she liked these movies more than she would ever admit out loud.
She wasn’t sure when she started to drift off, or when she rested her head on something really soft but she was comfortable. Her head rest was really warm . It smelled good too.
Why was it so familiar…?
She felt something slide around her waist, pulling her close before she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
Nice headrest.
“Jirou?” A sweet voice murmured quietly and she felt something shaking her awake.
Ugh. Where was she?
She tried to open her eyes before immediately shutting them, the light causing dark spots to swirl around her vision.
“The light burns,” She mumbled sleepily. She felt a deep chuckle vibrate beneath her, and the feeling made her sigh.
“You’re not a vampire Jirou. C’mon, wake up,” The voice nudged her insistently, “I’ll make you breakfast.”
“…With coffee?” She asked quietly. She was more awake now, but if the person offering her breakfast was going to keep being generous…
“Sure,” He chuckled again and slowly, Jirou blinked an eye open to see who exactly had the nerve to wake her up.
“Good morning,” the sun beamed at her and Jirou had to rub her eyes just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
“Kaminari?” She yawned.
“In the flesh.”
She could practically hear his boyish grin.
“What happened?” She stretched her arms out as she sat up, rubbing her sore neck.
“You fell asleep at movie night and I guess I fell asleep before I could wake you,” He explained, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, “My bad.”
Her eyes adjusted to the pinkish-red light of the sunrise as it filtered into the common room and she looked around. Everyone was gone.
“Not your fault,” She shrugged, “I should have realized I was tired.”
“Long day of pulling pranks and fulfilling dares?” He offered, eyebrow raised in amusement.
She hummed, “You could say that.” Her jacks clicked together in reply. Snakes.
“Are you sure?” He asked in concern, his voice suddenly three octaves quieter, “Are you sleeping okay?”
Damn. He knew her too well. He could read her like a book and that said a lot considering Jirou was the definition of poker face.
There was no getting out of this, was there?
Her shoulders slumped in defeat, “You got me.”
He chuckled, rubbing soothing circles on her back before his voice became soft, “What’s wrong?”
She clicked her jacks together, “Just some…some nightmares.” She sighed, “They’ve been getting worse recently. I’m not sure why. So I’ve been…I’ve been sleeping less.”
“Oh,” He pouted, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, “Why didn’t you come to me?”
Jirou snorted, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He rolled his eyes, a small smile playing on his lips, “I mean Jirou, I’m an insomniac. I’m up all night anyway. You can always visit. Then we can be insomniacs together.”
Right. He was an insomniac. It’s not that Jirou had forgotten, she just felt bad about barging in on him in the middle of the night. Like today, for example, he was clearly tired enough to sleep. Also, her pride wouldn’t let her.
Not that she would admit that to him.
At least she could be honest about this.
“Honestly, the thought never crossed my mind,” She shrugged, “Besides, what if you’re actually sleeping for once and I wake you up? I would never hear the end of your whining and I’ll regret not staying in my room.”
“Cell phones exist Jirou!” He pulled his out and shook it in exaggeration, “ Remember ?”
“Shut up,” She dodged his teasing gaze. He had a point.
Why didn’t she think of that?!
“Well now you know,” He shrugged, “Come visit next time you can’t sleep. I’ve been told I’m very distracting,” He waggled his brows suggestively.
“In a bad way,” She flicked his nose with a jack causing him to blink in surprise.
He chuckled, “What do you want for breakfast?”
She raised a brow in confusion, “You were serious about that?”
It was his turn to raise a brow in confusion, “Yes? Why wouldn’t I be?“
“I don’t know I just thought…”
His gaze turned to her expectantly, eyebrows furrowed in curiosity and confusion. His golden eyes pierced hers and it caught her off guard. She wasn’t sure why the concept of Kaminari cooking breakfast for her was so foreign. So she resorted to her default mode of sarcasm.
“I thought those were tricks to lure me from my sleep,” She settled on.
He gave her a teasing smile, “Honestly, I didn’t think that would work. I overestimated your love of coffee.”
“Ah yes, my one true love,” She yawned.
It took her a while to fully realize that she and Kaminari had woken up under a blanket, with Jirou sleeping on his shoulder all night long.
Also, they were very close.
She supposed that made sense, they technically had fallen asleep on each other.
It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter.
“Is your shoulder okay?” She asked suddenly, eyes wide in worry.
“What?” He seemed to snap out of a trance and moved his shoulder around to emphasize his point, “Yeah! It’s fine don’t worry.”
He pulled off the blanket and walked towards the kitchen with a yawn, stretching out his limbs.
Without Kaminari occupying space next to her, she suddenly felt cold.
How on earth was he so warm?!
“This is so unfair,” She whined, reluctantly leaving the blanket and making her way to the island, “It’s freezing in here.”
“Oh really?” He asked curiously as he opened the fridge in search of eggs, “I didn’t even notice.”
“Yeah, 'cause you have a stupid heating quirk Chargedolt,” She scoffed.
“Huh,” He grinned, “So are you saying you’re cold without me sitting next to you Jirou?”
She rolled her eyes, “Yeah because I was stealing your heat!”
“Thief!” He gasped dramatically before smirking, “You may have been trying to steal my heat but you stole my heart instead!”
She knew he meant it as a joke yet she couldn’t help but notice the hopeful tinge in his voice like he meant what he was saying.
“You’re joking?” Her eyebrows furrowed, pink covering her cheeks.
“Of course,” He replied instantly, dodging her gaze.
That was the thing about Kaminari.
He was never serious.
“Just…make the eggs idiot,” She grumbled, hopping up onto the counter.
“Right,” He muttered. The only sound for a while was the low sizzling of eggs and bacon on the pan.
She didn’t like the awkward silence that had somehow slithered its way into their conversation but she didn’t know how to break it either.
“You owe me a movie you know.”
Her eyes flicked to his own, although he was focusing way too hard on making eggs.
“What?” She asked in confusion.
“It’s your fault I missed the movie,” He teased, throwing her a challenging look.
He was giving her crap. She knew.
God, she was going to wipe that smug smile off his face.
“How is the fact that you fell asleep my fault?” She glared, her jacks poised around her to emphasize her point.
“Well, you fell asleep on me and then I couldn’t move ,” He blinked his lashes innocently, “So, I fell asleep too. Now, you owe me a movie night.”
She rolled her eyes, “I’m going to give you an Oscar for being so dramatic, sheesh.”
He bit his lip and did the Tiktok sheesh challenge, “Sheeeesh!”
Jirou blinked once. Twice.
Then she burst into laughter.
“You…. pfft …look so….so…ha…stupid!” She cackled.
Kaminari pouted, “Hey!” Although it didn’t take long for him to smile too, “Stop laughing!”
That seemed to egg her on more and she slowed down her giggles, before trying to copy what Kaminari did. She couldn’t keep a straight face however and burst into giggles, only this time, Kaminari’s laughter joined hers.
Once their laughter died down, Kaminari cocked his head to the side, taking notice of Jirou’s expression of pure elation.
“I’ve never heard you laugh like that before,” He smiled softly, “It sounds really pretty.”
Jirou’s eyes widened and her face turned a shade of red and she prayed Kaminari would assume it was from the red light of the sunrise behind her.
She snorted, “You should hear me when you go into Whey! Mode. That’s peak comedy.”
He pouted again, “Jirouuu.” She gave him an amused smirk and he affirmed, “I’m serious.”
Her eyes widened again and she looked to the counter, “Thank you.”
He turned back to the eggs, “How do you like your eggs?”
“Scrambled. Like a normal person,” She grinned.
“Gordon Ramsay is proud,” He waved the wooden spoon dramatically.
She stifled a giggle and stared out the common room to watch the final moments of sunrise, “It’s so beautiful.”
She heard Kaminari let out a soft sigh.
“Yeah. It is.”
Jirou would never admit it, but breakfast with Kaminari in the mornings was her new favourite time of day.