Denki wanted to be a hero. Obviously. Why else would he be in the UA hero course if not that? Only the dedicated and lucky got there at all, and the latter didn't maintain their positions as students there if his homeroom teacher's constant threat of expulsion was any indication. But walking every day into the school, past the intimidating gates and the stringent security system, still set him on edge. Not very hero-like, he would sometimes think on his worse days.

It wasn't that the school was scary, in stature or reputation. As many adjectives as could describe him, "coward" was one that Denki rarely heard. He actually loved the atmosphere, loved the intensity and the people and just how much drive everyone seemed to have. Everyone was so passionate about their futures that he couldn't help just get caught up in it all.

But that was also the problem. He had expected it, of course. Only the best of the best were accepted into UA in the first place, so naturally he'd be surrounded by a class of giants, a school of them. Giants of personality, of power, of motivation, often of more than one. Logically, he knew his presence there at all meant that had he gone to another more normal school, he'd most likely be the giant, but at UA he was small.

He wasn't exceptional at anything, really. He started ranked sixteen of twenty in his class in the quirk apprehension test at the beginning of the year and he knew if they were ranked again he wouldn't score much better. It wasn't too bad, exactly. He was low, but not too low for the people in class whose quirks didn't help much in at least some of the tests. Just average. But academically, he was dead last.

Socially, the area he would probably consider one of his strengths, he still didn't measure up. Ashido's pure, cheerful magnetism and Kirishima's unadulterated enthusiastic and caring nature both outshined him by far. Even Bakugou drew more attention, even if it was bad.

And as for his dreams? He wanted to be a hero, but after spending a few weeks in UA's class 1-A, he started to feel like even that was stupid. Everyone else was just so eager, so determined. They had one path through life and it was heroism. Even when they doubted, it was always whether they could and not if they should, and that placed Denki in a precarious place because he wanted to be a hero while people like Midoriya and Bakugou and Uraraka needed to be heroes.

He honestly wished he could relate to that. Maybe the brainwashing kid should be here instead. He frowned, watching arcs of electricity jump between his fingers. He'd probably fit right in. Seemed like he really needs to be a hero, too. Wonder why.

It was a game he liked to play, one he kept strictly in his own head. He saw someone with that passion and thought of why they might be so enthusiastic about it. Why they might be so desperate to be heroes. Bet it's something no one would expect. He's Mr. Aizawa's long lost nephew, trying to be a hero so that he can impress him and start developing a relationship with the only family he has left. Wait, no, he's Mr. Aizawa's son, and he was cast out because his mom said he had no potential. Mr. Aizawa never recovered, which is why he's so obsessive about expelling us if we don't do well, and brainwash dude is trying to prove his worth by becoming the number one hero.

He moved his hands further apart, playing with the output of electricity. Or he just has a quirk people say is villainous and he wants to prove everyone wrong and become a hero out of spite. Spite is a good motivator. Still a better reason than "oh, I thought it'd be cool".

Denki frowned, his mind wandering from his hands to his motivations. As the familiar ball in his chest grew, he lost control of his output, and he panicked as a shock went flying to the next best thing besides his own fingers: the metal pen of a passerby classmate.

Todoroki flinched and dropped the pen. Denki surged to his feet. "Oh, man, I'm so sorry! It was an accident, dude!" He scooped up the pen and held it out gingerly for Todoroki to reclaim. "Totally my bad! I just got distracted and didn't realize and… uh…" He trailed off, looking up at Todoroki's neutral expression. The mismatched eyes that bored into him made him squirm. "Uh, yeah. Sorry. I'll be more careful."

He stood rigid, still awkwardly holding the tip of the pen between his fingers. The longer they stood like that, the longer Denki found he couldn't breathe under Todoroki's scrutiny. The held moment seemed to stretch on for several minutes, making Denki's lungs hurt and his fingers start to tremble. Oh my god, he hates me. I just totally pissed him off and now I'm weirding him out and oh god please just take your pen back and let me die.

Finally, mercifully, Todoroki accepted the pen and tilted his head quizzically. "Don't worry about it. No harm done." He turned away and continued nonchalantly to his desk.

Denki collapsed in his own chair, pressing his head to the desk and covering it with his hands. Luckily, the chatter of the classroom didn't seem to pause any longer than people turning to look at his own outburst, so he figured the huge time lag between him picking up the pen and Todoroki taking it back was mostly in his head. Still, his cheeks burned and he felt like maybe disappearing and never showing up in that classroom ever again. I'm an idiot. A groan escaped his lips. Why me? I'm trying my best. Why him? It couldn't have been Kirishima or something? If it were him we'd have laugh and then it's gone but no, now I just proved my own stupidity and incompetence in quirk control to one of the smartest and strongest guys in class.

He dropped one hand to the desk and peeked over it, watching everyone mill about as normal. He's probably back there judging me. "Did you see Kaminari just now? What a wreck. Can't even control a few sparks; what's he even doing here?" No, he's too heroic for that. More like, "Can you believe Kaminari's still here? I'm impressed. Maybe there's hope for him after all." Yeah. Or I hope so, anyway. It would be nice to think that they see any sort of potential in me.

Mr. Aizawa does, apparently, so I guess I shouldn't count myself out. Still, next to them…

Denki was brought back to center when class was started. He sighed, ducking his head once more when his attention was called to the class, but he quickly sat up and opened his notebook. Last place academically or not, it's certainly not because he didn't even attempt to learn. He just got distracted. Like when Ojiro's tail was waving in front of him. How could anybody expect him to be able to focus on the lecture when the tuft of hair on the end of his friend's tail was moving like that? Bouncing and swaying as Ojiro idly moved his tail without even thinking about it.

Denki did his absolute best not to touch it. He really did. But Ojiro had, on multiple occasions, said it was okay and it was just there. In front of him. Taunting him. He curled his fingers into his palm. Oh well, I already lost track of the lesson. With a shrug, he began to play with the hair on Ojiro's tail, the only indication that his friend noticed being how his tail moved to drag his attention back and forth and the small smirk that Denki could see when Ojiro turned his head a little.

A hand hit his back. He turned to Jirou. "Sit still, you're distracting." She whispered.

"Sorry." Denki said, rubbing his head. Ojiro helpfully stilled his tail, so Denki tried once more to turn his attention to the lesson.

"And that's why, once the classic superhero style began falling out of fashion for heroes, you see elements of baroque fashion popping up."

Denki blinked. What? He listened for a little bit more, quickly becoming less sure of what class he was even in, much less what "baroque" meant. "But it wasn't until a decade after this that hero costumes strayed fully from their origins and lost their 'uniform' idea. Heroes started wearing more practical clothing, designed for effectiveness rather than to mimic their comic book counterparts."

He had to admit, it actually was kind of interesting. He jot down what notes he could, while his attention was still on the lesson. "This is also the era when we start seeing unconventional heroes, including one of the most infamous, and one of my favorites, the Dadaist hero, Voltaire."

Denki glanced at the clock. Twenty more minutes. "…caused quite a stir…" If I zapped the clock right, could I make it speed up? Hmm, it would be hard not to just break it. Maybe I can ask Yaoyorozu, I'm sure she knows how clocks work.

He touched the end of his pen to his nose, holding it up with only one finger at the other tip of the pen. I probably should sit in the back, so I don't distract anyone else. He hunched over a little more, conscious of Jirou behind him. But then I'd really never be able to pay attention! I already get distracted just by Ojiro, and he's not even doing anything. If I had to have Bakugou's pouting in my vision every day I probably wouldn't even be able to think. He put the pen on his desk properly. Scary, but cute.

He risked a glance sideways, to where Bakugou sat. The grumpy boy was obediently scribbling in his notebook, brow furrowed and lips pursed. Though he was objectively calm, his eyes still burned. Yep. Still cute. An unhealthy power complex, but undeniably cute. Haha, please god never let him hear me call him that. He moved his gaze to others in his class that he liked to stare at. Uraraka, good to see you're adorable as ever. Midoriya, you too. Got to say, you look better without a shattered skeleton. Please try not to kill yourself at the next opportunity? Thanks, love you.

Wish I could see Yaomomo and Todoroki from here. Got some choice compliments for them today. Denki paused, remembering the incident at the beginning of class again. Okay, maybe not Todoroki. He buried his head in his arms, masking the grimace that found its way to his face. I really need to get out of here. Reset so I can face Todoroki again. Ha, not that I ever could.

Which is stupid. Being talkative is the only thing I even have going for me. It's actually a little weird that I still have no idea how to talk to him. Funny how his aloof thing actually makes it much harder to talk to him than Bakugou's angry 'splode-y thing does for him. Maybe if he chilled out and shut up, people wouldn't bother him as much. Denki grinned at the thought for a moment, imagining an angry and explosive Todoroki. Freaking cute, honestly. And then he imagined Bakugou being docile and quiet and maybe a little clueless and all the fun vanished and left him with a bad aftertaste. Weird. No. I prefer Blasty McSplode.

Should I be questioning why I seem to find angry boys cute? Like, is this just a thing for me? Huh… Midoriya. Nope. Yeah, no it's not a thing. Just the two. It's probably because I know he isn't really that bad, or rather, he's getting better. It's just Bakugou anger that's kind of cute, nothing to do with the person themselves. It'd be too out of place on Midoriya, but I could definitely see Todoroki doing it.

Heh, imagine if he just like, catches on fire if he gets angry. I almost want to try it, except that would involve purposefully pissing off Todoroki, who could kick the shit out of me with his eyes closed and his hands tied behind his back. Plus, I honestly don't even know how I'd do that. I haven't seen him like, actually express anger almost ever? Am I just not paying attention? His eyes caught the movement of the chalk on the board as new dates were scribed. Ha, probably.

Denki ran a hand down his face. Okay, seriously. Get it together. Focus. You'll never pick your grades up at this rate! Now, what are we supposed to be learning? He looked from his notes to the board and whined internally. No way we covered that much time! It can't have been that long! How did we get from a da- what's this word? Dadaist hero? What does that mean? Who's Macbeth?

He groaned and closed his notebook. This is hopeless. I'm hopeless. I'll have to ask someone for their notes. Again.

Okay, so Yaomomo, Bakugou, Iida, Midoriya, which one, which one… I've asked Yaomomo like ten times already… Bakugou is, pfft, that's likely. Class Pres would probably be willing and god knows Midoriya is such a good soul I could charm it off him if Iida refuses for whatever reason.

Still! Even if you're giving up on notes, you got to listen! It'll help you remember if you're reviewing when you copy notes instead of trying to learn it at the same time. You know this. From experience. Come on.

He tried, but the rest of class ended up going about as well as it started. He'd hear a couple minutes of the lecture before getting distracted by something, then distracted by something else, then refocusing on the lecture and just getting distracted again. In the end, he got what he usually got, scattered tidbits and that might help him in a competition of fun facts but that would be ultimately useless if he wanted to actually pass the test.

He sighed, defeated, and packed up his things. "Hey, Kaminari. Smooth move earlier, by the way." Jirou's teasing voice brought his attention behind him.

Denki turned to face her, his nearly-packed bag forgotten on his desk. "Shut up!" He whined. "It was an accident."

"What was an accident?" Kirishima asked, approaching Denki's desk. Sero and Bakugou trailed after him.

"Oh!" Ashido jumped on him, her hands on his shoulders as she bounced. "I saw it too! He zapped Todoroki!"

"Was that what that was about?" Kirishima looked concerned, as did Sero, but Bakugou just rolled his eyes and made a noise of disgust.

"Lies and slander." Denki said.

Jirou snorted. "So, you didn't zap Todoroki?"

"I zapped his pen. Accidentally."

"Same thing, dude."

They shared a laugh at his embarrassment, but thankfully his friends let it go. And of course, it wasn't until lunch that he remembered he never asked anyone if he could copy their notes.

At the lunch table, his gaze drifted over to the other main group, with Iida, Midoriya, and Todoroki. Well I can't exactly go over there now. The chatter of his friends went in one ear and out the other as he dug through his bag. When he pulled out his notebook and flipped it open, the area around him grew quiet. "Uh, Kaminari?"

"Hmm?" He hummed, furrowing his brow at the disconnected scribbles.

"Are you… studying?"

His head snapped up, seeking out the source of the voice. "No, Kirishima, I'm thinking about how I'm going to study without good notes."

"Let me see!"

Denki reluctantly conceded his notes when everyone started grabbing for them. He figured it would be better to just let it happen than ruin his notebook in a scrap over it. Ashido's roaring laughter drowned out even Jirou's. "Even my notes aren't this bad, Kaminari."

Kirishima grinned bashfully. "Haha, sorry Kaminari, I didn't think it was like this. You can borrow my notes if you need to, but they're not too great either if I'm honest."

Sero sighed. "Same here. It's better than what you've got but you might be better off asking Iida or Yaoyorozu."

"I've asked Yaomomo too much already." Denki put his face in his hands.

"She loves tutoring, though."

"But if it's just notes," Kirishima said, "Bakugou might be able to help."

"Like fuck I'm going to help." Bakugou spat. "Learn to take your own fucking notes."

"There's always Iida?" Kirishima said hopefully. "You could go ask right now, I'm sure he'd be eager to help."

Denki, along with some of the others, looked over to Iida's table. Iida himself was talking animatedly while the others either grinned fondly at him or quietly munched on their lunch. Then Todoroki looked over, and Denki caught his eye. Todoroki arched a single, quizzical eyebrow, which Denki took as a sign that he should stop looking.

"Ha," he said, "yeah. Maybe later."

"What's wrong? Still embarrassed about zapping Todoroki?" Ashido grinned teasingly.

"No, I just… don't want to interrupt."

"Never stopped you before, dude." Sero said. Denki just gave him a look of utter betrayal.

"Just fucking go already so everyone will shut up about it!" Bakugou growled.

"Alright, fine, fine." He snatched his notebook out of Jirou's hands. "I'm going." He stood and made his way to the other table, doing his best not to look at Todoroki as he did so.

The others saw him coming. "Hello, Kaminari. How can we help you?" Iida asked.

"Hey guys!" Denki grinned. "I was just wondering if I could copy some notes from last period. I, uh, missed a bit."

"I apologize, but Hagakure is already copying my notes!" Iida exclaimed. "Feel free to sit with us and work with her if you need to."

Denki looked over to where a seemingly floating pencil was scribbling into a notebook, Iida's tidy notes off to the side. "Ah." He said.

The pencil stopped moving and shifted to wave back and forth in the air. Hagakure was waving at him. He waved back. "I'm already a couple pages in." She said. "So you'd have to wait or just start here."

So much?! For one period? "That's okay." He said. "I'll figure out something."

"I'm sorry, Kaminari," Midoriya said, "I left my stuff in the classroom."

"Don't worry about it. I'll just get it off of Bakugou or something." Somehow.

"You could use mine." Denki turned to see Todoroki holding up his notebook. "Iida's might be better, but…"

"No, that's great!" Denki accepted the notebook and took a place at the table next to Todoroki. "Thank you so much, you're a lifesaver."

"Literally, if Kacchan was your next option." Midoriya mumbled. Denki snorted and started laughing. Midoriya snapped his head up as if he didn't actually expect anyone to laugh.

"Sorry." He said. "You're right, though." He looked to Todoroki. "You've saved me from trying to get help from Bakugou. I'm forever in your debt."

Midoriya started giggling a little, while Uraraka was much less contained. Todoroki just had a strange look in his eyes as he furrowed his brow. "If you don't start, you won't get it all before lunch ends." He said calmly.

"Shit, you're right." Denki hurriedly flipped through Todoroki's notebook as well as his own and started scribbling down the notes. He takes such good notes? And he even has questions off to the side like what the heck?

As the conversation moved from him, he couldn't help but listen in occasionally. They even talk about class during lunch break? No wonder there's three of our top students here. Or maybe it's because of that. Hmm… A finger tapped on the notebook, drawing him back to the notes. He glanced up at Todoroki, and just caught the other boy looking over for a moment. Denki grinned sheepishly and returned to copying notes.

Really, the only reason he managed to get them all before they had to return to class was that Todoroki was, for some reason, keeping a watchful eye on him the entire time. Once or twice it was Iida who called him out for getting distracted, but most of the time it would be Todoroki's quiet and nonchalant tapping that drew him back to the page. Aside from the first time, though, he never caught Todoroki actually paying any sort of attention to him. Whenever he looked up to thank him or say something, Todoroki was just politely watching whoever was talking at the time.

It was actually a little unnerving, since Denki couldn't figure out exactly how Todoroki seemed to be able to tell when his mind was wandering. He never thought he was that obvious, at least not when it was just his mind going off on a tangent.

But Todoroki's notes were themselves a blessing, since he somehow managed to write down why everything was important and not just random facts as the teacher said them. Denki never felt like he was writing anything useless. Next to a hero name and date would be a small description and their impact on heroism or hero costumes and Denki was pretty sure that most of the information was never actually discussed in class, but he also knew he didn't have the best attention span and probably just missed it all. Sure, he still didn't understand why he needed to know what hero single-handedly started a counterculture movement that led to the silver age of heroism as they knew it, but he at least understood why that hero was important to history and that was a big step up from a name and a date.

As their lunch period drew to a close, Denki finished up with Todoroki's notes and managed to get them back to him before they were all forced to return to class. Uraraka was saying something that had everyone else's attention, so Denki just lightly tapped Todoroki on the shoulder. "Thank you again, man. I really owe you."

Todoroki looked from the notes to him a few times as he took them back. "Did you understand everything?"

"Everything" might be stretching it… "Yeah, mostly. Your notes are super clear so I was able to pick up most of the stuff I missed."

"Oh. Good."

This is your chance. Talk to him! Denki felt a little bubbling in his chest. Excitement or nerves or both, he wasn't sure, but he was happy to finally have an excuse to talk to Todoroki. He'd at least chatted with everyone else before, so it was nice to finally have the chance to get past whatever barrier was between Todoroki and everyone else. Except Midoriya, and Iida to an extent. For some reason. "You know, you're like, super impressive. I knew how smart you were but even your notes are pretty much perfect."

Todoroki looked at the notebook in his hands instead of at Denki. Denki wasn't sure if that was a bad sign or not. "Thank you. It's not that special, though. Iida and Yaoyorozu have much more comprehensive notes."

"I don't know about Iida, but I always get lost in Yaomomo's notes. Like, they're comprehensive, yeah, but too comprehensive? A lot of it seems kind of like just noise and I have a hard time figuring out what's important. Yours are perfect. I get it, you know?"

If Denki didn't know better, he would have sworn he saw a hint of a smile tug at Todoroki's lips. "In that case, feel free to come to me when you have a hard time in class. I'd be happy to help."

"Really?"

"Well, is it more heroic to do well in class, or to help someone else do well?"

"That is…" adorable, "a good point."

"I'm not taking your notes for you, though. I expect you to at least try to do it yourself."

Denki clutched at his chest over his heart dramatically. "Hey! I'm doing my best!" He saw the little smile again. "But seriously dude, I wouldn't expect you to. I just… have a real hard time making good notes."

"Do you not know how?" Denki felt his face burn as he registered the question.

He mumbled, unwilling to admit it, especially not to one of the top students. But he sounds like he might be willing to help, and I really need to get my grades up. "Not really. But that's not even the problem. I just… can't pay attention long enough to get everything written down."

Todoroki didn't seem surprised. He shouldn't be, Denki thought, since he had spent most of the lunch period repeatedly bringing him back to focus every time he got distracted. "I see." He frowned, thinking about Denki's problem.

"Yeah." Denki said, rubbing his head. "I stopped missing class and everything but my grades haven't gotten too much better. I still miss a lot of the lecture, and then I can't study very well even when I remember to."

"With your notes, I'm not sure it'd do you much good if you could focus on studying." Denki wanted to protest, but swallowed his pride. He's not wrong. "Don't you study with Yaoyorozu?"

"She tutors me, yeah, but with everyone else I get distracted too easily. She's helped a lot but I'm still not doing too hot."

"Would it help to be tutored one on one?"

"I don't know, maybe. She's too busy for that, though. I couldn't ask her for private tutoring."

"I could do it." Denki stared at Todoroki, eyes narrowed. He was sure, absolutely positive, that Todoroki was just messing with him. Todoroki shifted a little, and his gaze dropped to the table. "I'm not as busy as Yaoyorozu, and I think it would be helpful for me, too, to review the material in that way. She often talks about how teaching is the best way to ensure you know something. I thought maybe it would be helpful for us both if I offered to…" Is he… rambling? Todoroki? "It's quite alright if you don't want to, I'm sure you're busy yourself. And you already have tutoring with Yaoyorozu so… sorry. Never mind."

"Wait, wait, no!" Denki jolted into action, realizing that Todoroki was actually self-conscious about his offer. "I'd love that! Please, help me study."

Todoroki looked at him for a moment with an expression that Denki could only assume was waiting for him to change his mind. "If you think I can help…"

"Yes! I'm sure you can. Please, I really do want to do better. If it's okay with you, I'd love to at least try it."

"Okay." Todoroki reached for Denki's notes. "I'll give you my phone number. Let me know when you're available and we'll arrange a time."

Denki sat paralyzed while Todoroki wrote in his notebook. I'm getting Todoroki's phone number. Todoroki Shouto. He's writing down his phone number. For me. God, I'm so gay.

Get it together. You're going to study and you're going to do it right. Make Todoroki proud that he offered to tutor you. Show him you're not slacking. Yeah.

"Here."

"Thanks man! I'll do you proud, I swear."

Denki stuck his brightest and most confident smile on, and swore that Todoroki smiled a little bit in return, before they had to get back to class.

In his seat once more and waiting for the teacher to start, Ashido approached him without the rest of the crew. "You never came back. I take it it went well?"

Denki smiled and held up his notebook for her to examine. "You tell me."

"Woah! I can't believe you got all this just during lunch! It always takes you forever to copy notes!" She started whining. "And these are so good, too. Hey, whose are they? Can I copy them off you?"

"Todoroki's. And I need to study tonight so if you need to you can copy them tomorrow."

"Todoroki?" Ashido looked over towards where Todoroki sat. "Figures he'd have good notes." She flipped through them a little, examining them, and then her eyes lit up like she won the lottery. "Hey, Kaminari." Wait, I forgot his number is written there. "What's this?" She grinned mischievously and pointed to the digits with Todoroki's name neatly written above them.

Denki couldn't fight off the blush. He hadn't intended on telling her about the study sessions, just because he didn't want anyone else to bother Todoroki about tutoring. He didn't think the other boy would appreciate that very much, and it defeated the point of starting one-on-one tutoring in the first place. "He offered to tutor me, that's all." Denki squeaked.

"Your face tells a different story."

"I swear that's all! It's just so we can arrange a time to meet."

Ashido nodded sagely and hummed. "Mhmm. A time to meet, huh?"

"To study."

"Then why are you blushing?"

"Because I'm a mess."

Ashido snickered. "Well, I know that's true."

"You aren't supposed to agree!"

"I'm sorry! Sorry." She said, though her cackling said otherwise. "What about Yaomomo's tutoring?"

"I'll be going to that too. For now, at least."

"You'd feel bad if she lost a student."

"She's just so happy when she's tutoring us."

"Isn't that going to be a lot of work, though? Classes and Yaomomo and Todoroki?"

Denki frowned. "Yeah, I guess. But my grades really need the help. I'm still last in the class."

"Well don't get all smart and make me the last! Or I'll have to steal Todoroki from you."

"You wouldn't."

"Don't test me, Kaminari Denki."

He couldn't resist snickering, and soon enough both of them were laughing.