Archive of Our Own ^beta

What am I doing with my life?

I’m so pale, I should get out more.
I should eat better.
My eyebags are horrible, I should sleep more.
People would respect me more if I had a proper sleep schedule.

What is wrong with me?
I don’t have any friends.
I can’t even hold a conversation with someone.
Why can’t I hold a conversation with someone?

Oh right, it’s because I’m dead.

Shinsou continued to ponder his pathetic existence as he shuffled across the dusty floor, covered in hundreds of scuff marks from the shoes of countless other corpses dragging their sorry feet just like him.

His afternoon existential dread stroll through the mall was the highlight of his day.
It always went the same, but hey, routine is routine.

He let the thoughts continue to run through his mind, the only part of him still capable of moving fast.

And just like every day, the thoughts eventually went searching for memories he knew were nowhere to be found.

He couldn’t remember who he was, parents, siblings (if he even had any) hobbies, his quirk, none of it. He couldn’t even remember his name.

He was pretty sure it started with an “H”, but that’s always as far as he got.

Looking in a mirror never provided much insight. The unruly tangled purple hair, cracked blue lips, and dull colorless eyes only made him look that much more depressing. Upon further inspection, his irises were the lightest shade of lavender, practically white, only hinting at the original darker shade.

He could tell he was a teenager but that was only useful in making him feel that much worse. The knowledge that his probably already pretty shitty life was cut short so soon did nothing to help his mood.

Tired of feeling sorry for himself, he turned his attention to the corpses around him.

“Zombie watching”, as he liked to call it, though it probably wasn’t the most politically correct term.

It was a twisted kind of entertainment, to wonder and make up stories about who those people used to be.

The guy in the orange button down, black vest, and top hat that always hung around the playing card kiosk must’ve been a magician for kids’ birthday parties. Those gloves were probably white under all the blood stains.

Oh, and there was the blonde corpse who made the Gap his home. He always put on clean denim after each kill. Shinsou liked to think he worked in fashion before the apocalypse.

And finally the tall beautiful woman with honey waves caked in blood, idling bumping into the lip gloss table at Sephora. She must’ve been a pro-hero if her torn suit was anything to go by.

None of it mattered anymore though, they’re all the same now. Just corpses haunting the mall.

Shinsou picked up his pace as much as possible as he passed the decayed skeleton loitering by the sneaker store, snarling at his passing figure. Boneys gave him the heebie jeebies. They’d eat anything with a heartbeat.

Not that I wouldn’t too…but at least I feel a little guilty about it.

The thought brought little comfort to distract from the sad reality. He’d become that one day. A completely brainless boney that breathes bloodlust and nothing else.

But hey, that's something new and fun to look forward to.

Shinsou pushed the post-morbid thoughts aside and stepped onto the escalator. As he rose to the top floor, he emotionlessly watched a little girl with dirty white locks and little horn pass him by, riding the adjacent elevator down to the floor from which he just came.

Her eyes locked on his for a moment before turning to face forward again, staring at nothing.

The loneliness ached in his still heart and he wondered briefly if maybe the little girl felt it too.

Does she feel stuck? Does she wish for more than this?
Or am I the only one?

Lost in thought again, Shinsou finally trudged to the very end of the mall. His pale blue-ish fingers pushed open the glass store, causing the dusty little bell to jingle like it always did.

This tiny pet store was what he called home. There wasn’t much left when he found it, but there were three very frightened yet resilient kittens who against all odds survived the apocalypse. If it was capable of it, Shinsou’s heart probably would’ve warmed at the sight when he first laid eyes on them.

He must’ve been a cat person before he died because the kittens got over the whole corpse thing and grew attached to him surprisingly quickly. So that’s where he decided to stay. If nothing else, it just felt right.

Shinsou settled down onto the singular bean bag chair long since dragged from a furniture store and let the kittens roam over his slowly decomposing limbs, smiling slightly when one made herself at home nestled in his hair, letting out a quiet purr.

Corpses can’t nap given that they don’t sleep at all, but Shinsou liked to close his eyes anyway and pretend. He could stomach his existence with the slightest bit of joy that way.

The little bell ringing once more jerked him out of his relaxed state.

A man with messy long black hair and matching scruff on his pale chin silently sat down on the floor next to him, the yellow sleeping bag he lifted from the camping store wrapped around his frame like a cocoon. Immediately, one of the kittens hopped inside to snuggle against him.

Shinsou didn’t even know his name, but at this point, he saw the other corpse as his dad.

Not by blood, of course, but…something of a father figure.

He never offered to play catch but he did teach me how to strangle a human and crack its skull open so…basically the same thing, right?

The thought would probably make Shinsou snort if he had the capacity to laugh.

The two had never had a conversation but had somehow established a mutual understanding through grunts, groans, and the occasional one-word affirmation.

Neither of them seemed to be predisposed to chattiness anyways, if Shinsou was being honest. It didn’t seem to matter though, they always got the important things across.

Shinsou stared meaningfully at Aizawa, blinking once, twice, before a single word struggled past his lips.

“H-hungry.”

Aizawa slowly nodded, unzipping the sleeping bag as he did so.

“...Musutafu.”

And with that colorful dialogue, they were off, shuffling towards the exit and out into the streets with a whole mass of corpses trailing behind. Everyone was always looking for a snack and grabbing a bite as a group was only natural. Especially when all of humanity wanted to blast you in the head, with quirk and gun alike.

The chorus of groans were almost like a symphony if Shinsou cared to romanticize it, but it didn’t change the fact that they were a pack of zombies moving at a snail-like pace after the faintest scent of fresh meat.

Fricking All Might, we move so slow.

Shinsou sighed.

This could take awhile.

-------

Denki felt his heart quicken as the double metal door creaked and separated, creating a small opening through the impenetrable wall that surrounded U.A. High School.

Not that it was much of a highschool anymore.

Denki had a hard time wrapping his head around this whole apocalypse thing. Not that it was difficult to understand, more so that it had happened so quickly without any warning.

And it was even harder to come to terms with how fast everything fell apart.

He himself had made dumb jokes about the spooky “Quirk Doomsday Theory” conspiracy. Watched video essays online with his middle school buddies and laughed at the absurdity of it all.

It wasn’t absurd anymore.

It had only been a few months until the U.A. entrance exam when the outbreak occurred. When one unlucky bastard’s obscure quirk tore reality to shreds.

Denki knew the explanation by heart because repeating it over and over was the only thing that convinced him this was real and not a nightmare. It worked like this:

Quirk: Corpse Contagion
Mechanics: An infected individual secretes the virus through saliva, transferred through bite.
Effects: Lethal. Infected individual is deceased but remains animated. They do not breathe, bleed, or sleep. The skin decays and the body is cold. Appetite is for human flesh only, nothing else satiates.
Note: Reanimated corpse state is temporary. Skin and internal organs will eventually fully decay. Resulting state is a reanimated skeleton. In this state, speed and aggression increase.
Weakness: Fatal blow to head.
Cure: Unknown.

Sometimes Denki daydreamed about what his life would’ve been like had this never happened, had he made it to the entrance exam. Would he even have passed? Become a hero like he always aspired to be?

Then again, none of that really mattered anymore. Dreams of heroism seemed childish now when pros, villains, and civilians alike fell to the virus.

The lines were all blurry now when it came to that.

Only one hard division remained: Human or Corpse.

When the quirk virus first began spreading, people were rushed to quarantine centers and evacuated to safe zones. That solution held for a few months, but the efforts were futile.

U.A. Highschool, being one of the most fortified complexes in the country, became something like a last stand.

Denki remembered when he first arrived, lots of teenagers who had hoped to enroll there congregated together, feeling inspired to start their heroics early and help out.

Ever the optimist, Denki had dubbed them all “hero-hopefuls.”

‘How ‘bout the apocalypse as an entrance exam, huh? Us hero-hopefuls will be the ones to fix this, right guys?’

The phrase was silly but it stuck and became the unofficial name for their pseudo-task force.

But one by one they were picked off, their numbers dwindling.

He watched that light of hope fade from his friends’ eyes.

And heroes don’t kill, but Denki definitely had.

A shove from Mina brought him back to the present, his eyes blinking a few times before focusing on Nezu’s face on the screen.

“...grateful for the service of young volunteers like you to venture beyond the safety of the walls and collect resources vital to humanity’s survival.”

Denki kept his gaze on the screen, but turned his head slightly to his other side.

“Hey, hey Kyoka, whaddaya think? Maybe we’re getting this medicine stuff for the cure, yea?” Denki whispered, his voice lilting with a hint of hope.

An earphone jack poked his chin, forcing his head to turn back to facing front.

“No one believes in a cure anymore, Kaminari.”

Her voice was cold with a hard edge to it as she whispered back.

Denki resisted the urge to physically cringe at the refusal to use his given name. Still, he allowed his eyes to drift to the side, taking in her profile. Her jaw was tense and her gray eyes were devoid of any emotion besides resignation.

He reached out a hand, gently curling his fingers around hers, the smallest show of comfort.

Just as soon as Denki’s fingertips brushed against hers, she jerked away from his touch.

A chilling yet expected sadness seeped into his bones. He supposed it was high time he stopped trying.

Kyoka hadn’t touched him in months, really had barely even looked at him since…

The sound of metal grinding to a halt interrupted his thoughts. The gate was open and the mission was the only focus now.

Kyoka, Mina, Ibara, Juzo, Nirengeki, and Denki all exchanged a solemn look before stepping forward.

As Denki walked across the barrier, his eyes caught on the graffiti spray-painted onto the outer wall. He and Hanta had put it up 2 years ago, an ill-advised attempt at humor.

WELCOME TO THE DEAD ZONE. LOOK ALIVE OUT THERE! ;)

It wasn’t really that funny anymore.

------

Shinsou paused in his slow shuffling and eyed the pharmacy across the street. He didn’t need to see Aizawa’s nostrils flaring in interest to confirm what he already knew.

They could all smell it.

The pack of corpses didn’t waste any time, with the scent of fresh blood heightening their senses and agility, they rushed forward towards the building. The cracked flickering red cross sign was like a beacon, drawing them in.

With a loud crash, Shinsou broke down the door, not even feeling the impact of his decayed body slamming into the solid surface.

As soon as he stepped inside, he caught sight of six humans frantically stashing medicine into packs. One in particular with a dark purple bob drew his attention. She was hunched over on the ground, some sort of extremity connecting her ears to the floor.

“I told you I heard something! Aim for the heads! Juzo, sink them!”

That was Shinsou’s only warning before the floor turned into sludge and all the corpses wailed and growled, desperately scrambling for purchase.

Shinsou jerked his head as Aizawa hissed in annoyance, unzipping his sleeping bag to reveal a long gray scarf coiled around his neck. He quickly wrapped one end of the scarf around his wrist and whipped the other end upwards, hooking it onto a pipe on the ceiling.

In one fluid motion, he yanked himself out of the liquid floor and swung across the room.

Shinsou couldn’t see which human’s quirk had been at fault. All he heard was a scream and a crunch, and then the floor returned to solid.

With that obstacle to motion removed, the corpses surged forward and the bloodbath ensued.

The humans put up a good fight, attacking with their quirks and ranged weapons together. Shinsou himself had a near miss with what appeared to be a pink girl carrying a high-tech super soaker full of acid, forcing him to dive down onto the floor and take cover.

Still, the corpses overwhelmed them. Shinsou watched as his fellow comrades took down the girl with vines for hair and the short stout guy with white hair with ease.

The sound of limbs hitting the floor, bones snapping, and blood spurting echoed throughout the tiny space.

But it all fell away as Shinsou’s head carefully rose from the floor and his vision locked on the human across the room.

The whole thing probably only lasted a few seconds but the scene played in slow motion before Shinsou’s eyes.

A boy slid out from behind one of the counters, black and yellow rifle in his grasp. One hand wrapped around a metal rod attached to the base and the other tightly wrapped around the trigger.

Shinsou could only remain frozen in place on the floor, unable to tear his eyes away as crackling energy surged around the boy.

His bright eyes glowed like twin streaks of lightning while his golden blond hair sparked and fluttered around his head like an electrical halo.

Shinsou had never seen anyone look so alive. Like a human livewire.

He pumped the rifle once and then fired off a bolt of electricity, directly into the skull of a corpse as those golden eyes dulled with grim satisfaction before ducking back behind the table.

Shinsou must’ve suddenly been feeling suicidal because he felt the inexplicable urge to run after him, praying that intense golden gaze would land on him next.

But before he got the chance, he felt the ground underneath him shudder and vibrate as if hit with a shockwave. He realized the wave must’ve hit him too, but with his dulled senses he barely felt it himself. He whipped his head around to find the same girl from before, with the dark purple hair, glaring fearfully at him.

There was a tense moment, a pause, where the two of them just stared at each other.

Then the hunger took control and Shinsou launched himself at her.

Being physically taller and having inhuman strength made it almost too easy to grab the girl and throw her to the ground, immediately knocking her out and pinning her down under his weight.

He paused again for the briefest moment to eye the object wrapped around her head.

Hm, nice headphones.

He quickly pocketed the device, a final delay before digging in.

This part is one that Shinsou wasn’t particularly proud of, he didn’t want to hurt people, but hunger was a pretty powerful thing. And for him, meal prep involved smashing a skull on the hard cement floor to get at what’s inside.

If he didn’t eat all of her and spared her brain, the quirk virus would take hold and she’d turn into a corpse, just like him. But the thing is, when he bites into a brain, he gets access to the person’s memories, thoughts, and feelings.

Shinsou couldn’t explain it if he tried, he wasn’t even sure if the other corpses experienced the same thing. But for him, the brain was the best part.

It made him feel just a little bit human again, just a little less dead.

Shinsou closed his eyes as he swallowed the first morsel, feeling the euphoric sensation of looking into another person’s head take hold. Images and emotions flashed through his mind like a highlight reel of memory.

Joy. A Beethoven symphony playing on a piano. Older, wrinkled hands guiding younger smaller ones over the keys. ‘You’re a natural, Kyoka!’

Pride. An earphone jack jabbing the eye of an older boy and then a flurry of girls congratulating. ‘Yeah, you showed him, Jirou!’

Anxiety. A microphone in front, the feedback echoing across the stage. The first few lyrics of a song falling from lips and fingers strumming the guitar.

Anticipation. Looking across a cafeteria table, eyes catching a blond boy with a dusting of freckles. A smile like the sun.

Laughter. Lying on a bed, hand in hand, staring at the ceiling.

‘I miss burgers, I bet the zombies would chill out if they just got some good greasy fries.’

‘I like how you can still say goofy stuff like that, even now, when the world is so fucked up.’

A warm hand brushes dark purple bangs out of the eyes. A lopsided grin. ‘Not all of it.’

A fond exasperated giggle ‘Cheesy idiot.’

Love. The same blond boy. Frantic kisses under a stairwell. Breaking away and finding golden eyes staring back, a shy smile.

‘Kyoka…I- I love you, you know that, right? ...c’mon you gotta say something, please, Kyoka, don’t just say nothing!’

‘...no I- uh I know. And…I think I love you too, Denki.’

Another smile like the sun, even brighter this time.

‘...Kyoka?’

-------

“KYOKA?!”

Denki had lost sight of her for a moment, too busy fending off the slew of corpses. He just had to find her--

In his peripheral vision, Denki saw a corpse with its hands gripping Mina’s throat. Without hesitation, he whipped the rifle around and sent a million volts through the thing’s skull. He only had a millisecond to watch Mina collapse to the floor in relief under the corpse’s motionless weight before another one was on him.

Denki whirled around and used both hands as he swung the rifle hard, crushing the corpse’s skull in one deft move.

He sent out a quick thank you and apology to Hatsume for destroying her amazing tech.

The sound of footsteps had him turning around again, dizzy from expending so much energy. A corpse was slowly walking towards him, looking at him with unhinged intensity.

Without a weapon to concentrate his quirk, Denki raised a simple finger gun, hand slightly shaking as he took aim.

He watched as the electricity shot out from his finger, the tendrils running forward in a wild jagged path.

The bolt found its home in the corpse’s chest, directly striking his heart.

The corpse’s body shuddered for a moment and his face twisted into a confused frown, Denki almost dared to call it a pout, but that was the only indication of any effect, and then the corpse continued to advance.

Denki took in the tall frame, dirty lavender hair, sunken eyebags, blood-stained lips and pale skin as he shakily retreated. His back hit the edge of the counter as the corpse approached him, coming so close that Denki could smell his rotting breath. Some clearly hysterical part of his brain noted how he was like…a lot less ugly than Denki figured a corpse would look this close.

“...D-denki?” the corpse croaked out.

Denki stilled at the sound of his name. Too overcome with fear and adrenaline to fully process the impossibility of this moment.

His knees buckled and he slowly sank to the floor. Golden eyes were glued to near white-lavender ones as the corpse mirrored his movement and placed a hand on the counter, caging him in.

“Denki.”

The corpse whispered it this time, almost as if in awe.

Denki took in quick shallow breaths, anticipating the fatal attack at any moment.

But it didn’t come.

The corpse slowly turned his head, and Denki watched as his gaze fell on the other corpses before turning back and scanning Denki’s body, brows furrowed in concentration.

Then the corpse slowly raised his other hand, the one covered in his own tainted blood. Denki’s body was frozen in fear, he could only watch warily as the cold hand caressed his cheek, wiping the substance across his face and over his lips.

Denki didn’t dare move as the corpse pressed impossibly closer, his nose brushing against Denki’s hair as he quietly sniffed once, twice.

Then the corpse drew back and once again Denki was leveled with that intense stare.

“S-safe,” the corpse murmured.

Denki fought the urge to flinch as cold fingers gently wrapped around his wrists and carefully pulled him to his feet.

“F-follow.”

Denki feebly resisted, not seeing a way to fight his way out of this.

“Dude, w-what the hell,” he whispered frantically.

But the corpse ignored him, just continued to pull him along, though his grip remained soft.

Denki’s eyes darted to the side and caught a head of pink curls peeking out from under a table. Mina’s eyes nervously followed him, looking devastated but unsure. He quickly shook his head, signaling that she shouldn’t even try.

They were woefully outnumbered by the corpses. Fighting back now would be suicide.

He just had to accept his fate, whatever that may be.

------

Shinsou shuffled along, purposefully lagging a bit behind the group as he gently pulled Denki after him, trying to act nonchalant and not like he was completely freaking out.

What am I doing? What is wrong with me?
None of the others would ever bring a living human home.

Shinsou eyed the other corpses, none of them showing any signs of hunger or understanding. They must think Denki is just another corpse, a new member of the decaying family.

They’d all think I’d gone insane…if they could even think.
Why is my brain so weird?

Shinsou remained quiet as they all entered the mall, following his dad to the camping store. As Aizawa pulled open the door, he paused and spared the two of them a glance, something flickering momentarily in his eyes, but then it passed and he disappeared inside, likely to find a new sleeping bag.

Can I count that as parental approval?

Nothing says a killer first date like effectively kidnapping your crush and then immediately introducing him to your fake father.

‘Crush’? Seriously? Ugh. I want to die all over again.

There was no turning back now though, so Shinsou continued to guide Denki along until they reached the pet store.

After they stepped inside and Shinsou closed the door, Denki finally turned to face him. His golden eyes were wild, darting all around, likely looking for escape routes, hands rapidly running through his hair and twisting the cuffs of his faded yellow flannel.

Shit, he totally thinks I’m going to eat him.

With a limited vocabulary, Shinsou decided to try his best.

“H-home.”

Denki’s quick movements abruptly halted in favor of warily watching Shinsou as he brushed past Denki and settled into the bean bag chair. Immediately, two kittens scurried out from their hiding spaces and nuzzled Shinsou’s ankles.

Denki’s brow scrunched up in confusion and then he choked out a harsh exhale, clearly in disbelief, but still he slowly found a seat on the floor.

Finally, Denki spoke and the words tumbled out, voice shaking even as he tried to sound light-hearted.

“You’re joking, right man? ‘Cause it’s not funny. I don’t know if you like to play with your food before you chow down or what, but just get it over with, okay?”

Shinsou frowned.

“N-not eat,” he insisted, sounding as clear as possible.

Denki rested his weight back on his hands, letting out a shallow sigh.

“Right yeah, for sure,” Denki replied sarcastically.

“S-safe,” Shinsou croaked in response, struggling to get his sluggish tongue to articulate something of meaning.

Denki opened his mouth again, as if to respond, but then the third kitten made an appearance, quickly hopping into his lap and licking his hand.

Denki’s mouth clicked shut, eyes dropping down to the fluffy creature nestled between his legs. A stray tear trickled down his freckled cheek as Denki slowly scratched the kitten’s head in awe.

Shinsou lifted one of the other kittens in his palm and slowly approached the blond boy, but as soon as he got close, Denki flinched away.

Right, got to take things slow.
Good thing that comes naturally.

Shinsou carefully set the kitten down, letting it scamper over to Denki itself and then walked out of the pet store.

He made his way to the deserted Starbucks down the hall, plopping down into one of the broken chairs. He chastised himself for not thinking this through a bit better but at least he knew when to give someone their clearly needed alone time.

Not to mention, giving Denki some space gave him the perfect opportunity to have a snack. He truly didn’t feel an urge to…eat the blond, but keeping himself fed in other ways definitely couldn’t hurt.

Shinsou pulled the brain leftovers out of his sweatshirt pocket.

There’s plenty of ways to get to know a person.
Eating his dead ex-girlfriend’s brains is definitely one of the more unconventional methods but…

Shinsou took a bite and closed his eyes, letting the memories flood through.

Denki runs ahead, turning back grinning and jerking two thumbs up.
‘Who’s got two thumbs and is the only one that can get you past the wall? This guy!’

Kyoka laughs and follows, checking behind them as she goes.
She watches hesitantly as Denki pries open a device on the wall and then thrusts his hand inside the mess of wires, emitting an electrical current that short-circuits the system.

Denki turns back to her with a goofy smile, eyes a bit dazed and a drop of drool running down his chin.
‘S’on power-save manual now, jus’ gotta pry the door opens.’

Kyoka wipes the drool off his chin with her sleeve, a small smile playing across her lips.
‘Thanks Denks.’

The two push apart the heavy door and dart through before it slams shut behind them.

Shinsou’s eyes briefly fluttered back to reality and then the scene returned.

They’re walking quietly through the empty streets.

‘I haven’t heard from my parents in days,’ Kyoka says softly.

Denki grabs her hand, kissing the back of her wrist and offering a gentle squeeze.

‘It’s gonna be okay, I promise. You said the record shop is just outside the inner wall, right?’

Something in the memory changed and the taste on Shinsou’s tongue turned sour.

An out-of-tune chord echoes, Kyoka cringes at the sound as she pushes open the music store door.

‘Mom…Dad…?’

Two figures turn at her call, a woman who looks just like Kyoka but with glasses, fingers stilling on the keyboard under her hand, and a man with long dark blond hair, twirling a broken guitar string through his knuckles.

They’re corpses.

‘Kyoka…’ Denki whispers cautiously.

She ignores him.

‘Mom, Dad, please…it’s me.’

The corpses drop their instruments and take a slow step forward. The man’s nostrils flare and the woman licks her lips.

‘No no no…’ Kyoka trembles and backs away.

Then the corpses are running at them and Kyoka’s knees buckle as she drops to the floor. They’re only a meter away, snarling as their hands reach for her.

Kyoka shuts her eyes.

ZAP. ZAP.

Kyoka’s eyes fly open just in time to see a bolt of electricity strike her mother right between the eyes and another follows just as quickly. Her father’s head is smoking as he collapses to the ground.

Denki is standing right behind her, frozen in place, chest heaving and rifle still held at the ready, blinking the wetness from his eyes.

Shinsou swallowed the rest of the brains roughly, suddenly feeling a bit sick.

Well…that provides some context. No wonder he’s so freaked out.

Shinsou gathered his resolve and slowly shuffled back to the pet store, sighing in relief at the sight of Denki still sitting there but frowning at how withdrawn he looked.

Shinsou desperately wanted to see that sunny smile from the pictures in his head.

So, time to try a different approach.

Okay, here we go. Don’t be creepy, don’t be creepy, don’t be creepy.

------

Denki flinched when the little bell above the pet store door rang again, signaling someone’s arrival.

Unfortunately, in the 30 minutes that he was alone the only escape plan he’d devised was to make a run for it and that seemed pretty stupid when the glass windows revealed a whole host of zombies loitering throughout the mall just outside.

Plus, he was running on pure adrenaline at this point and he knew he was going to crash soon.

He had no clue what was going on anymore, nothing about this made sense. He should be dead right now. Why wasn’t he dead right now?

Maybe he was just being saved for a midnight snack?

He couldn’t get a read on this corpse guy. Nothing he’d done so far was what Denki had come to expect.

Why did he bring Denki here? He claimed he wasn’t gonna eat Denki so what was his freaking angle then?

And the cats? If someone told Denki they saw a corpse cuddled up with some kittens he would’ve laughed in their face and yet…

Denki held up a shaky finger gun, emitting a few warning sparks as the corpse walked through the door and approached him.

But the guy walked right by him, only sparing Denki a long unnerving stare before bending down to pull a box out from a dusty cubby pushed against the wall.

He silently placed the item at Denki’s feet, then retreated to his bean bag chair and sat down.

Denki slowly lowered his hands and cautiously lifted the box lid, reaching inside to retrieve the contents.

A pillow and a few cat toys.

As soon as Denki experimentally squeaked one of the toys, all three kittens came scampering forward, jumping up into his lap and pawing at his face.

A soft shaky giggle erupted from his lips.

Denki picked up the pillow and set it on the floor so he could lay down comfortably, and as soon as he did so, the kittens all piled onto his stomach. He sighed deeply, feeling like he could finally breathe for a moment.

Denki twisted his head to the side, finding the corpse staring openly at him, his cracked blue lips twitching upwards in what, if Denki squinted just so, might’ve been an attempt at an actual smile, but really looked more like a grimace.

Denki felt himself almost smile back, just slightly, but it must’ve been enough because the corpse nodded and spoke again.

“S-safe. Safe h-here, with m-me.”

Denki outright chuckled this time, a breathy hysterical thing, as he finally began to believe it himself.

“You’re not like other zombies, huh?” Denki remarked, half-teasing in his delivery but also genuinely bewildered by the corpse in front of him.

He only received a slow blink in response.

But the action made the urge to close his own eyes suddenly very apparent as the lack of danger finally pushed the adrenaline rush aside.

Denki yawned, rolling onto his side to get more comfortable, but never letting his gaze stray from the corpse.

In the moment just before sleep took over his brain, exhaustion loosened his tongue.

“Y’know the weirdest thing about this, you’re not even bad-looking. I bet if you hadn’t died, chicks would totally dig that creepy smirk. You must’ve really pulled, bro.”

And with that concluding statement, Denki was out like a light.

He was too busy snoring to see the way Shinsou’s mouth fell open in shock and his pale hand pressed against the weird tingle in his chest.

------

Shinsou was leaning forward on the beanbag, elbows propped on his knees and chin rested in his hands, staring right at Denki when his eyelids sleepily fluttered open to reveal the golden irises beneath.

Denki stared back for a moment before coughing awkwardly.

It took Shinsou’s rotted brain a few seconds too long to realize he’d been caught watching the boy sleep. As soon as he did, he jerked his head up to stare at the ceiling instead.

Nice going, real smooth.

“Uh, good morning to you too,” Denki offered.

Shinsou tipped his head back down and made unblinking eye contact once more.

Denki propped his head on his hand and stretched his legs a bit so it looked more like he was lounging than curled up on a dusty pet store floor.

“So…I’m not usually a one-night stand kind of guy, but I’d really like to get out of here,” he quipped.

Shinsou really should’ve expected that but…

“N-not safe,” he grumbled.

Denki narrowed his eyes for a moment but then something sparkled in them for just a second, quick as a flash, but then it was gone, so fast that Shinsou’s slow brain couldn’t hope to keep up.

Denki flopped lazily onto his back, stretching his arms and then crossing them beneath his head as he propped his feet up on the box.

“Well then, if you’re so insistent on me staying, I expect some breakfast in bed, babe. Gotta provide some food if you wanna keep this whole domestic roleplay thing going,” Denki teased, turning his head to punctuate his point with a wink.

Shinsou found the ceiling to be incredibly interesting again. He still hadn’t recovered from the comment last night and now this?

Was Denki trying to kill him?

Well, actually…that’s pretty likely, yeah.

Still, Shinsou couldn’t really argue, humans need food to live and rather ridiculously, he much preferred Denki alive.

“O-okay,” Shinsou murmured and slowly got up.

Denki shifted a bit to get himself more comfortable, closing his eyes and waving a hand in farewell.

“Take your time, Rot Stuff!”

Shinsou decided to focus on remembering where the abandoned food court was in favor of processing how that pun made him feel.

------

As soon as the pet store door slammed shut, Denki’s eyes flew open.

He had to get the fuck out of here now.

Sure, the corpse dude was weirdly easy on the eyes and friendly enough. And yeah, Denki could recognize the rescue and hospitality service was a pleasant surprise.
But he couldn’t stay there.

Shacked up with a zombie who had to get hungry sooner rather than later? And in a mall, filled with a whole host of corpses who definitely had less restraint?

Yeah, Denki was gonna pass on that one.

Had the escape plan progressed past making a run for it?

No, no it had not.

So Denki ran.

Luckily that section of the mall seemed deserted and Denki felt his hopes rising by the second. He might actually have a chance at making it out of there.

A left, a right, and another minute of sprinting shot that hope right in the head.

The sound of shuffling feet and groans had Denki skittering to a stop, his pulse quickening at the sight of a group of corpses approaching from the far side of the mall.

They seemed confused, heads turning all around as they sniffed the air suspiciously.

“Shit,” Denki cursed loudly.

A cold hand suddenly gripped his shoulder, causing Denki to let out a shrill screech before another cold hand clamped over his mouth.

He could only make muffled shouts as the hands roughly pulled him down to the ground behind a phone accessory kiosk.

Denki let the charge building under his skin explode in full body electrical shock and immediately his assailant released him.

He whirled around only to be met with the sight of friendly corpse guy holding up two hands in surrender, purple hair standing on end and left eye twitching slightly but otherwise completely unharmed.

“Oh, it’s you. Crap, I’m sorry I didn’t kn—”

The corpse covered his mouth again to shut him up, the coldness of those pale fingers on his lips making Denki shiver.

Slowly, the corpse removed his hand again.

“B-be quiet,” he stuttered out in a whisper.

He dug his nails into his own skin until it drew blood and carefully smeared the substance across Denki’s face and down his neck.

He wasn’t even sure why, but Denki shuddered again at the strange sensation.
Probably just because the whole thing was kind of gross.

That didn’t explain why his heart did a weird hopscotch skip when the corpse leaned in close to sniff him, but Denki decided not to think too hard about it.

The corpse retreated back, nodding once stiffly in satisfaction with his work, and then slowly pulled Denki to his feet.

“S-safe. Follow. D-don’t run,” he said softly.

“Yeah, alright. Thanks bro,” Denki whispered back and let the corpse guide him back into the open space.

The other corpses were closer now, milling about in the center of the mall, still groaning and looking around with interest but their eyes roamed right over Denki.

“Wow, that trick really works, huh,” Denki breathed out in awe.

The corpse squeezed his wrist in warning.

Right, he was supposed to be shutting up now. Whoops.

Corpse Dude leaned in close once more, croaking out a breathy whisper directly into Denki’s ear.

More shudders to be ignored, still irrelevant to the current situation.

“P-play dead.”

Denki blinked once, not quite sure if he heard that right, but when he turned a skeptical eye on the corpse he had to bite his tongue to quell the laughter.

Corpse Dude was doing the zombie walk.

His arms extended forward, head lolled to the side, and then he let out a purposeful groan.

After a second he immediately dropped the act and turned back to Denki, raising his eyebrows meaningfully.

“O-okay?”

Denki wanted to chuckle so badly, but this definitely wasn’t the right time.

So he raised his arms, let his wrists flop, dropped his chin, and started groaning and moaning as loud as he could all while dragging his feet forward one shuffle at a time.

“Uh…groannnn, grrrrr, um…. erghhhh? I’m a zombie, yea…brains are so yummyyyyy groan groan moan grrrrrrr.”

He only made it a few steps before Corpse Dude grabbed his wrist to stop him, shooting him an exasperated look, the most emotion Denki had seen from him thus far actually.

“T-tone it down.”

Personally, Denki thought he was doing a pretty good job, but he wasn’t about to argue with the expert, so he took it down a notch to just some low grumbling.

By some miracle, they made it through the pack of zombies and back to the pet store.
As soon as they made it inside, Denki collapsed onto the bean bag chair, feeling like he’d just aged 10 years in the span of 10 minutes.

Unsurprisingly, making a run for it was pretty stupid. He wouldn’t have survived the day if it weren’t for Corpse Dude saving his butt…again.

The crinkling of plastic re-captured Denki’s attention, bringing his eyes back to the corpse in front of him, whose pale hands were offering up a pack of dried fruit and Monster energy drink.

Almost on cue, Denki’s stomach growled loudly as he gratefully accepted the snacks with a sheepish smile, immediately tearing into the bag and twisting open the can.

“T-told you not safe,” Corpse Dude grumbled.

“Alright, look man,” Denki chewed loudly as he talked, “m’sorry for tricking you and trying to bolt, not cool of me. I really was hungry though, so thanks for this.”

The corpse just stared back at him, but for the first time since the pharmacy, Denki felt the familiar urge to fill silence with chatter so he didn’t really mind.

“You gotta admit though, this is a pretty fucking weird situation. I’m just trying not to die, ya know? But I’m getting the vibe our interests are aligned in that area, so super appreciate the save. Makes no sense to me at all but like, I’m definitely not complaining, homie.”

He tipped back his head as he gulped down the energy drink, slamming the empty can onto the ground as soon as he finished.

“Monster energy drink? Ha! Did you pick this on purpose? That’s actually pretty funny, you got a real dark sense of humor, Corpse Dude.”

Denki let the rambling die in his throat when the corpse sat down and scooted a bit closer to him, something like determination in his eyes.

“My name is…” he trailed off, seeming to get stuck on his own statement.

Denki’s eyes widened in surprise, lips turning upwards into a lopsided smile.

“Wait, bro, you’ve had a name this whole time?! Well, what is it then?”

“Hhhhhiiiii…”

Denki scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. He was, like, 95% sure that was just a sound and not a name.

“Hhhhiiii?” he repeated questionably.

The corpse shook his head and huffed, looking a bit frustrated with himself.
“Hhhhhhhh,” he tried again but it was still completely intelligible.
It was almost kind of cute how hard Corpse Dude was trying though.

“Uh, does your name start with an H?” Denki asked.

The corpse nodded eagerly and Denki felt a little spark of excitement.
They were getting somewhere now!

“Ummm Hiromi?”

A shake of the head. Okay, that was a dud.

“Hajime?”

Also a no.

“Hiro? Haruki? Hayato?”

No, no, and nope. Damn.

Corpse Dude looked so disappointed and it was really bumming Denki out. The guy saved his life, the least he could do was guess his name, but they could be at this for hours.

Denki snapped his fingers, emitting a few sparks as an idea struck him.

“Hey wait! Why don’t I just call you H? That work for you?”

The corpse sat back slowly, eyebrows raising in pleasant surprise as a tiny smile fought its way onto his face.

“H…” he repeated slowly, sounding as happy as a corpse could probably sound.

Denki hopped off the bean bag and grabbed one of the cat toys, a long stick with a pom pom on the end. He then turned to face the corpse, grinning goofily as he ceremoniously tapped the stick on either of the corpse’s shoulders.

“By the power vested in me by…me! I now officially dub thee ‘H’.”

H blinked tiredly back at him, once, twice, before that crooked little smile made itself at home on his lips once more.

Denki beamed in return as he plopped back down onto the bean bag chair, crossing his arms behind his head in reference to his earlier pose.

“But hey, if you get sick of ‘H’, I can always go back to calling you ‘Rot Stuff.’ You liked that one too, right?” he said with a cheeky wink.

Denki almost felt bad as that little smile shifted back into its usual grimace when H only grumbled in response.

------

“So H…”

Shinsou felt that weird tingle in his chest again as he watched Denki playing with the kittens. He scooped all three of them up at once and turned to Shinsou with a wicked grin.

“Ya think I could juggle these fluffballs?”

Shinsou’s eyes widened in fear as he crawled forward as fast as he could to take the kittens away from the blond boy.

“Hey! I was kidding! It would be a cool trick if I could though, right?”

“No,” Shinsou grumbled softly but Denki only laughed at his annoyance.

“Speaking of tricks…” Denki began, voice sounding a little too innocent for Shinsou’s taste. “I was thinking about it more and as much fun as this is, I can’t really stay here forever. And dude, I know I know,” he paused to raise his arms and loll his head, “not safe.” He grunted it out, mimicking Shinsou’s stilted deadpan. “But…you did sneak me past the zombies with that clever scent trick twice sooooo I’m thinking that means you could do it again, but in the opposite direction, yeah?”

The tingle died and Shinsou felt deader than ever.

No. He can’t leave yet. Because…well because…

Shinsou could admit it. He was a greedy monster. Everytime Denki graced him with a smile or a laugh, Shinsou felt just a little bit alive, and he was hungry for more.

Tell him…tell him we have to wait. That they’ll notice.

“H-have to wait. Corpses suspicious…t-they’ll notice.”

Huh. Nice work H.

Denki sighed but nodded in acceptance. “Okay, yeah, that makes sense and that’s on me for jumping the gun. So how long ya think?”

Shinsou hesitated for a moment before speaking. He wouldn’t be too greedy.

“C-couple days? T-they’ll forget. And then…y-you’ll be okay.”

Denki propped his chin on his hand and leaned into Shinsou’s space, golden eyes sparking with interest.

“H, buddy, that was like, a whole sentence! I’ve never ever met a corpse this chatty. I was pretty sure you all couldn’t talk at all. Is this just a you thing or…?”

Shinsou shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Denki slowly leaned back, shaking his head in amazement.

“Alrighty, couple days you say?” Denki trailed off as he tapped his chin, looking around for something Shinsou didn’t know what.

Then he snapped again, fingers sparking and eyes lighting up just like they did when he thought of the name ‘H.’

“Well in the meantime, we can have some real fun, yeah? This is a mall after all! And you know what you do at one of those, right?”

Shinsou shrugged again.

Denki waggled his eyebrows and before Shinsou could even react, Denki was darting forward and yanking Shinsou up by the hood of his blood-stained sweatshirt.

“Shopping!”

------

Denki’s eyes lit up as he spotted the perfect store only a few doors down with no other corpses in sight.

H had insisted they play it safe at first for Denki’s sake, which was surprisingly sweet but also infuriatingly inflexible.

The dead couldn’t have even a little bit of fun?

Well, they would now, if Denki had anything to say about it.

H graciously allowed Denki to pull him into the store but then Denki felt the cold wrist jerk in his grip as H came to a stuttered stop.

“W-why h-here?” he croaked out slowly, sounding extremely apprehensive as he backed away, which only resulted in him knocking over the standing ‘Hot Topic’ sign behind him.

Denki chuckled, turning a mischievous smile on him.

“Listen buddy,” he rested his hands on his hips, “no offense but I think we can do better than the bloody gray hoodie and what better be dirt-smeared blue jeans.”

H only grumbled self-consciously, doing that thing again where he scratched the back of his neck and avoided eye contact.

“Hey! Me too, okay? Like don’t get me wrong, this yellow flannel holds a special place in my heart, but even I can admit she needs to go at this point, yeah?”

“L-looks fine…t-to me,” H mumbled.

Denki snorted, ignoring the way his fingers sparked a bit and shoving them in his pockets. “Yeah, I bet it does, seeing how it’s covered in blood, ya heathen!”

H slowly crossed his arms and huffed.

Denki paid him no mind, jogging up and down the aisles excitedly as he ran his fingers across the racks of clothes.

“I used to shop here all the time…when else would I get a chance to go crazy like this? It’s the apocalypse, baby!” Denki whirled around, arms extended to gesture happily at all the clothes.

“Not to mention, I have a feeling you’re gonna look pretty good in this stuff, H. Indulge a doomed dude’s last wish! I want one of those movie fashion montages,” Denki finished with a winning smile thrown in H’s direction.

H’s shoulders sagged in what Denki took as begrudging acceptance.

“N-not doomed…safe. B-but…fine,” H groaned.

Denki didn’t waste another second, gleefully grabbing a fistful of clothes and pushing H towards the fitting room.

“My very own Dress-Up Zombie Doll!” he cheered enthusiastically while H only grunted in response.

Denki let the excitement carry him through the rest of the afternoon, throwing everything from cargo pants and skinny jeans to t-shirts, vests, and jackets at a reluctantly willing corpse.

They took turns trying on outfits, all by Denki’s selection and most of them would probably make Mina and Bakugou hurl, but they weren’t there to stop him!

However, Denki was not a patient guy and H took aggravatingly long to change each time, which to be fair, wasn’t really his fault but it still made Denki mad with anticipation each time.

On something like the 17th outfit, Denki had sort of lost track, H was taking eons to come out of the fitting room.

“Need any help in there, Rot Stuff?” Denki teased through the curtain, tone extra suggestive just to push the guy’s buttons because it was fun and Denki was getting bored.

A soft grumble was the only reply and then finally a few moments later, H shuffled his way past the curtain.

Denki almost fell over.

H looked…good. Like really good. Like a dead dude did not have the right to look that good. Was it weird for Denki to be thinking that? Ah screw it, this whole thing was whacked out anyways, who really cared anymore.

“Dude…does H stand for ‘hot’? Because you definitely convinced me!”

“S-stop teasing.”

H was standing in front of him wearing skinny black jeans with artful rips revealing purple mesh patches underneath, a belt chain, a gray Metallica t-shirt, and a black denim jacket with the sleeves rolled up, looking drop dead gorgeous (pun intended) and honestly something out of one of Denki’s middle school bisexual fantasies and he had the audacity to question Denki’s seriousness?

Nuh uh, not acceptable.

“I’m dead serious, bro! Got me considering going necrophile over here.”

H did a weird thing where he stared at Denki in silence for a solid minute, then his mouth opened, closed again, and finally twisted into a strained grimace, like he ate something too sour.

“I-I’m undead…n-not dead, so n-not…t-that errー” he trailed off into a choked grunt.

Denki laughed, brushing past the stuttering corpse into the fitting room, calling out behind as he did so. “Okay okay, chill out, I was teasing at the end there. But really, ya look good, dude, corpse hunter’s honor!”

Denki quickly changed and hopped back out in his own new, blessedly clean, outfit. Yellow and black plaid cargo pants, a white pikachu tank top, and a black buckled choker.

“How do I look?” he asked cheerfully, striking a little pose with sparking finger guns.

H stared at him in complete stillness for two whole minutes this time.

“F-fine.”

Denki wilted dramatically. “That’s all I get? Wow, and here I was, ready to give up my morality for you,” Denki whined playfully.

“...l-looks nice,” H finally grunted out, so low that Denki had to strain his ears to hear it.

Denki beamed again. For some reason, the quiet compliment made his stomach twist pleasantly.

“I’ll take it!”

------

Shinsou sniffed twice experimentally, and once satisfied that Denki’s human scent was undetectable again, motioned for the blond to follow.

Denki had insisted they venture farther into the mall today, which made Shinsou nervous but he found it hard to say no to him. Especially when spending time with Denki was so addicting.

He just wished the human would stop making fun of him.

Or at least, that’s what Shinsou had to assume it was because there was no possible way Denki actually thought a corpse was attractive. But then again, he kept insisting…

Shinsou’s thoughts were interrupted by Denki excitedly darting ahead, pulling off more of a zombie power walk than the slow corpse stumble.

“No way! How did I miss this on the way in?!”

Shinsou slowly caught up to find Denki gesturing happily towards the run-down arcade. He looked so excited and the grin on his face was enough to make Shinsou feel like he was dying a second death. It sucked because he didn’t know how to break it to the blond that the arcade was probably deader than him.

“N-no power, s-sorry,” Shinsou moaned woefully, waiting for that delightfully bright expression to vanish before his eyes.

But Denki’s eyes only sparked with anticipation, an eyebrow raising confidently.

“Now it’s my turn for a fancy trick, watch this!”

With a farewell finger gun and a wink, Denki sprinted inside, leaving Shinsou to amble awkwardly after him as fast as he could muster.

When he rounded a corner, he found Denki prying open a metal panel in the wall where a mess of wires was spilling out of. He tossed a cocky grin back at Shinsou and then thrust his hands inside the wall and grabbed onto a fistful of wires.

“Indiscriminate Shock! 1.3 Million Volts!”

Shinsou’s eyes widened as Denki’s entire body jolted with an excess of electricity, golden eyes glowing bright like fluorescent bulbs and tendrils of yellow sparks running all over his limbs. It reminded Shinsou of when he first saw Denki, but on a tenfold scale.

It was mesmerizing.

The mass electrical output funneled into the wires and suddenly the entire room was alive with light and color. All the machines blinked on at once, displays flashing and music exploding around them from the various games.

Denki turned to him with a goofy grin and two wobbly thumbs up, eyes crossed, and a bit of drool dripping down his chin.

“Toldja it wa’ fancyyyy. Wheyyyyyy.”

Shinsou surprised himself with how fast his body moved, surging forward to catch an unsteady Denki before he face planted onto the floor.

“Jus’ give me…a few minute!” Denki slurred dopily.

Shinsou stood stock still, unsure what to do with dead weight in his arms but selfishly not wanting this rare moment to end.

Denki was so warm in his too-cold grasp, the heat from his skin making Shinsou dizzy. He’d completely forgotten what it felt like, the warm embrace of another, their pulse beating against his own.

But he didn’t have a heartbeat to share.

Denki’s arms hooked around the back of his neck as the blond nuzzled against Shinsou’s collarbone with an adorable snort-giggle.

Suddenly, he was glad he didn’t have a heartbeat because the thing would surely be pounding like crazy right now if he did.

“Heh, look like…I’m falled for ya,” Denki mumbled airily, still giggling up a storm.

At that comment, Shinsou jerked his head down, wide-eyed and expecting to find sparking Denki in his grasp. His chest had just stuttered so sharply, it felt like he had been struck with another one of Denki’s bolts straight to the heart.

But all he saw was Denki grinning and drooling on his jacket.

Shinsou looked up to the arcade ceiling as if it held the answers to his dilemma.
He needed Denki to stop teasing him immediately since clearly it was driving him to genuine madness.

A few moments passed and Denki finally stood up on his own two feet, casually brushing fingers through his hair to fix it and popping his neck as if nothing had happened.

“Yikes, sorry about that!” He sheepishly scrubbed at the drool stain with the heel of his hand, accomplishing nothing but spreading it around more. “Nasty side effect, but worth it for the results, yeah?”

Shinsou nodded slowly, feeling far too much mental whiplash to generate any understandable verbal response.

The physical whiplash followed soon after as a warm hand grabbed onto his wrist and dragged him towards one of the games with an enthusiastic shout.

They must’ve spent all day there, but the hours felt like nothing to Shinsou, which was strange given that everything in his world seemed to drag on before meeting Denki.

The blond jumped from machine to machine with a sparkling smile that never fell even when Shinsou’s hand coordination was too slow to give Denki any sort of challenge.

Being Denki, he teased him relentlessly of course, but all in that charming way of his that made Shinsou feel all fluttery. He couldn’t even complain after Denki beat him in everything from Space Invaders to Mario Kart, not when the blond was beaming like that.

If he noticed how Denki avoided all the FPS games, he wouldn't say anything about it.

Just when Shinsou thought Denki finally had enough, those golden eyes landed on a machine tucked in the corner, gleaming with mischief.

As soon as Shinsou’s gaze followed Denki’s, he wished he had the ability to make a run for it.

Not that Denki even gave him the chance, grabbing his wrist once more and yanking him over to the machine.

Shinsou dragged his feet, desperate to get away.

“D-denki…p-please no,” he groaned pitifully.

The blond only laughed. “Aw c’mon! It’ll be fun! You act like I’m bringing you to a torture chamber not a DDR machine.”

“S-same t-thing.”

Denki snorted and hopped onto the platform. “Don’t be such a wimp! It’s just dancingー barely that evenーjust rhythmic stomping, really!”

Shinsou merely growled under his breath but stepped onto the platform with him.

Denki scrolled through the songs for a bit before selecting one with a smirk. Then he turned that lopsided smile on Shinsou, winking cheekily.

“Excited to see your Monster Mash! Or should I call it Zombie Zumba? The Cryptid Shuffle?”

Shinsou only had the five second countdown to ponder why he ever decided to save this human in the first place and more pressingly, why somehow he still didn’t regret it.

The opening notes to “Thriller” played from the machine’s shitty speakers and then Shinsou really did regret it.

Unsurprisingly, Shinsou had two very slow left feet that could not keep the beat even if his life depended on it, so it’s a good thing he was already dead.

Denki was pretty awful too and had no room to judge, but that didn’t stop him from cracking up throughout the whole thing.

Shinsou didn’t love looking like an idiot, but he loved looking at Denki when he laughed like that.

It filled his rotting brain with cotton candy which is probably what led him to use his inhuman strength to smash an elbow through the crane machine glass and awkwardly present Denki with a Pikachu squishmallow.

The resulting blinding grin was worth the embarrassment and Denki even insisted that Shinsou steal the Gengar one for himself as well.

They must’ve made quite the pair, a corpse and a human, walking through an abandoned mall holding matching pokemon plushies.

“Hey, H?”

“Mhm.”

“Thanks for this…and for the whole day really. It’s probably weird to admit but this is the most fun I’ve had in years.”

Well, it was official. Shinsou was done for.

“W-welcome…m-me too.”

------

Time passed far too quickly for Shinsou’s taste. He cursed himself for ever complaining about the days stretching on and on in the past.

They filled the days with exploring the various shops and attractions of the mall, still being careful to steer clear of corpse-filled zones, but with a complex so large they had plenty of places to go.

An entire afternoon was spent lying on the floor of the comic store, with Denki’s hair tickling Shinsou’s neck as he pressed close to read the words aloud.

Shinsou couldn’t stop Denki from inhaling a bucket of miserably stale popcorn at the rundown movie theater even if he threatened physical harm.

There was one moment where they were spotted and Shinsou’s stomach did a fearful flip but not for the reason he would’ve suspected.

Denki had somehow convinced Shinsou to step into Claire’s of all places, just so Denki could fit him with a pair of sparkly purple cat ears.

Just as the blond had tucked the headband behind Shinsou’s ears, his dad rounded the corner with the same little white-haired corpse girl Shinsou had passed days prior.

The two just stared at each other, Shinsou looking horrified with Denki’s fingers still halfway threaded through his hair and Aizawa looking disgruntled with the girl’s tiny hand holding onto his pinky finger.

Shinsou thanked All Might he had the prudence to mask Denki’s scent and absentmindedly wondered when exactly his dad had pseudo-adopted another corpse child.

What? Is he running an undead orphanage in this mall now?

As if Aizawa could read his mind, the man huffed and avoided eye contact, simply nudging the little girl to go inside and grab what she came for.

The girl shuffled inside, sparing Shinsou and Denki one curious glance, and then reaching for a glittery unicorn backpack hanging on the wall. Her short arms couldn’t quite reach and before Shinsou could stop him, Denki walked over, grabbed the thing, and then crouched down to place it gently in the girl’s waiting hands.

“Here ya go,” he whispered with a little smile.

The little girl only blinked back at him, but she hugged the bag close to her chest.

Shinsou didn’t dare move, torn between melting at Denki’s sweetness and warily eyeing his father’s reaction.

Aizawa didn’t have one besides a slight raise of the eyebrow and then they were gone.

---

Back at the pet store, Shinsou watched Denki carefully as he sat down on the floor across from him. The boy had been uncharacteristically silent since they returned.

“H, can I ask you a question?” The soft request broke the quiet.

Shinsou nodded.

“My girlfrieーer ex-girlfriend? Heh. This is kinda weird.” Denki paused, took a deep breath, twisting his hands in his shoelaces. “Anyways…she um, she died back at the pharmacy…”

Shinsou felt his body grow cold, or colder than it already was.

“So I just have to ask…will um, is she a corpse now? Like you?”

Shinsou felt the guilt twisting in his gut. He wanted to say it, he should say it, tell Denki the truth right now.

But he couldn’t find the words. Couldn’t bring himself to.

So he just shook his head, eyes carefully focusing on the floor and not on Denki’s face.

A sigh. “That’s…better then, I guess.”

Shinsou looked back up at Denki when he heard how small his voice was.

He looked sad but also resigned. Shinsou kind of hated it.

“She…went through stuff, you know? A lot of stuff.” He swallowed roughly.
“And she was super tough. More than I ever was. But I guess, after a while, she just couldn’t…take in anymore?”

There was wetness in Denki’s eyes now and Shinsou wanted to reach across the space between them, but he didn’t dare.

“She stopped singing.”

The headphones suddenly felt like a brick in Shinsou’s pocket.

“You know, people die all the time now, especially where I come from. And it’s not that I’m not sad that she’s gone. ‘Cause I really am. But…I think I was living like she already was a little, just to prepare myself…‘cause it felt like I already lost her.”

Denki scrubbed at his teary eyes with the back of his hand, sniffling out a dry laugh.

“Sorry, you probably don’t want to hear this sob story. It’s just…that corpse guy and his daughter…? It just reminded me of some stuff…and made me think of my own weird situational family. I miss them, ya know?”

Shinsou didn’t know what it felt like to miss someone, but he knew he’d miss Denki if he was gone.

He slowly got to his feet, crossing the room and scooping up two of the kittens. Then he set them down in Denki’s lap, happy to see them immediately snuggle up to the blond and purr with contentment.

Denki sniffled and gently petted the little fluffy creatures, finally a hint of his usual smile returned to his lips.

The sight flooded Shinsou with relief and affection. He wanted to tell Denki he could find that sense of comfort in him too, that he could be there for him in that way, but his tongue didn’t know what to do.

So he did the next best thing he could think of.

He scooted forward, shifting awkwardly into Denki’s space who just eyed him curiously with a confused look.

He slowly wrapped his arms around the blond and squeezed gently.

Is this how you hug? I don’t remember how to hug. This is definitely weird of me. Why did I think this was a good idea again?

Just as Shinsou was about to pull away in embarrassment, two warm arms wrapped around his back and pulled him in even tighter.

He could feel Denki smiling against his shoulder. He never thought he’d like knowing a Denki smile was occurring and not being able to see it, but like this? He was okay with it.

“You’re the weirdest corpse I’ve ever met, you know that?” Denki whispered into his ear, but his tone was full of awe.

Shinsou didn’t mind that either.

---

Denki passed out in the beanbag chair soon after, cuddled up with the kittens and snoring peacefully.

Shinsou watched him for a while, counting the even rise and fall of Denki’s chest.

Must be nice to sleep. Wish I could join you in that too.

The dead don’t sleep, can’t even dream.

But Shinsou had an alternative.

He wished he wasn’t hungry. He was honestly surprised he went that many days without even feeling the urge.

As he shuffled towards the Starbucks, the last pieces of brain felt like they were burning a hole through his pocket.

He pulled the tissue out and stared at it for a moment, something unpleasant twinged in his stomach, then he shut his eyes and crammed the stuff in his mouth.

As soon as he bit down, the images came flooding through.

Kyoka shrugs off a comforting pink hand as it lands on her shoulder. Spotting Denki in her peripheral vision, she turns away sharply.

Her vision locks onto fiery red eyes staring her down, expression unreadable.

“You sure about this, Ears?”

“Yes.”

“...tch. Alright. Shitty Hair, give her a glock and show her how to use it.”

A safety clicks and cool metal is pushed into her waiting hands.

A boy with spiky red hair offers a small sympathetic smile.

“You don't need any help, do you?”

“No. I don’t.”

--

A dimly lit pharmacy, lights flickering uneasily.

Kyoka’s earphone jacks bury into the ground.

Silence.

Then the drag of footsteps.

“Guys, I hear something, we should get out of here.”

A girl with vines for hair shakes her head stiffly. “No, we must fulfill this mission for the greater good. Our sacrifice will be worth it.”

Denki steps forward. “We should listen to Kyokaー”

The door slams open and a horde of corpses tumble through.

“I told you I heard something! Aim for the heads! Juzo, sink them!” Kyoka screams.

Kyoka grabs her gun and fires off round after round, taking down at least seven corpses.

She pulls the trigger and the gun only clicks. It’s empty so she tosses it aside, immediately dropping to the ground and sending off a powerful soundwave.

Kyoka turns and comes face to face with a corpse with unruly purple hair, hunger and bloodlust wild in his lavender eyes.

He stares at her for a moment, then those eyes flash with fury and he lunges forwardー

Shinsou choked on the morsel as it turned rancid on his tongue, gagging and spitting it out in a rush. His whole body was wracked with tremors, shaking violently in his seat.

The image of himself viciously attacking was running on a loop in his mind. He brought shaking hands up in front of his eyes, turning them over slowly, seeing phantom red blood dripping down his fingers.

Logically, he knew what he did. But the corpse brain fog conveniently left the details blurry in his memory. Now seeing it so vividly, through the eyes of the human, he suddenly felt sick to his stomach.

A chorus of growls and a strained scream broke through his dark thoughts.

Shinsou jumped up, tossing the rest of the brains in a garbage bin as he ran out of the coffeeshop.

Denki was very much awake and standing in the middle of the food court, completely surrounded by corpses.

He whirled around in a circle, firing off bolts of electricity, but the number of zombies was just too overwhelming. Shinsou could see the intense panic in those golden eyes.

Denki dropped to the ground, body already sparking and glowing as he slammed his fists into the floor, sending out an indiscriminate shock that had all the zombies spasming in place.

It only lasted a moment though, before the corpse shook off the effects and advanced again.

Shinsou ran in front of Denki, who could only let out a surprised yelp as he grabbed onto the nearest corpse and aggressively threw him to the ground.

Shinsou disposed of the one after that with a swift kick and an elbow to the next.

Denki pressed up against him, back to back, and began shooting off more focused bolts, taking down a few corpses of his own with more concentrated shots.

Shinsou felt his chest clench painfully in fear when the warm weight against his back disappeared.

He whirled around and found none other than his father with his pale rotting hands wrapped around Denki’s neck.

Shinsou didn’t even stop to think.

He yanked his dad away by the scarf around his neck, curled his other hand into a tight fist, and punched him so hard that the man crashed to the floor.

Shinsou took a step back slowly, uncurling and clenching his fingers over and over as he stared at his own hands once more in disbelief.

Well shit. I totally just suckerpunched my dad.

Then warm hands wrapped around his wrists, ever so softly, pulling them down and prompting Shinsou to look back up into wide terrified gold eyes.

“I’m sorry IーI woke up and you weren’t there. I didn’t knowー I thought…I thought maybe you left me too and you were gone and I just couldn’t be alone…so I had toーI don’t know. You said a few days, H, it’s been a few days, I have to go back to them or… I can’tー”

Denki’s frightened rambling got more and more incoherent as he went on so Shinsou cut him off.

“It’s okay. S-stay with you. S-stay together. K-keep safe.”

Denki let out one shaky exhale, then another, and finally his breathing evened out. But his hands didn’t leave Shinsou’s skin. He watched the blond look down at them and still he didn’t move.

Shinsou felt the now familiar twitch in his chest as Denki’s fingers slowly traveled down his wrists towards his hands, almost as if he was about to intertwine themー

“What.”

The two jumped apart at the dry exclamation.

Aizawa staggered to his feet, bloodshot eyes darting between Shinsou and Denki with barely contained rage.

So much for that parental approval…

Shinsou stepped forward, raising a single placating hand, while Denki stepped backwards uneasily.

“Denki. F-friend.”

Aizawa narrowed his eyes.

“Alive?”

Shinsou nodded reluctantly.

Aizawa frowned.

“Eat.”

Shinsou shook his head immediately.

Aizawa took another step forward, gritting his teeth.

“Eat,” he repeated.

But Shinsou stood his ground, stepping in front of Denki and shaking his head again.

“No.”

“H-have…t-taught you…n-nothing? Eat.”

At Shinsou’s silence, his father finally retreated a step. Face dropping into a look of searing disappointment that was somehow worse than the previous hunger-fueled ire.

Oh, I’m so grounded. Or…I would be, if he had the vocabulary for it.

“Eat…” he grumbled half-heartedly, sighing deeply.

A sickening screech echoed across the mall. Shinsou recognized the sound, but had never heard it directed at himself.

Boneys.

Shinsou spared his father one last apologetic look and then turned to Denki.

“Run.”

------

Denki sprinted like his life depended on it, because well, it did.

The sound of bones crunching against concrete as the skeletons raced after them was more than enough encouragement.

Denki glanced over his shoulder to see H running after him, surprisingly agile for a corpse.

“Who was that?!” Denki yelled as he ran.

“M-my dad…s-sorta?”

Denki almost tripped but quickly found his balance and kept running.

“Dude! Not gonna lie, I don’t think he likes me very much!”

Shinsou gifted him with a withering look in response and pushed him forward to run faster.

The boneys chased them out of the food court and back into the main hall, shrieking something awful as they pursued.

“Uh, so what’s the plan here exactly?!”

“Run,” H repeated rather unhelpfully.

Denki’s eyes searched the perimeter as he sprinted, catching sight of the west entrance. He spun on his heel and dashed towards the doors, glancing back to make sure H was following along.

He frantically darted through the automatic doors and as soon as H joined him, whirled around to shoot a bolt of electricity at the motion sensor.

His finger was still smoking when the boneys caught up mere seconds later, but the doors remained closed.

Denki grinned slightly hysterically and let out a small whoop as the boneys banged against the glass doors, fists pounding furiously but their efforts were futile.

The celebration was short lived as high-pitched snarling cut off his cheer.

Denki turned and there were four boneys standing in the parking lot behind them, skeletal fingers popping in anticipation as they eyed his flesh up and down.

The fear returned so rapidly it nearly choked him.

H shifted closer to him protectively, but the boneys didn’t seem to differentiate between the two, screeching just as violently at him as they did at Denki.

The boneys stepped forward, drawing closer and closer.

Denki felt his breath quicken to a breathless pant, jerking his head to the side, wide-eyes landing on H who only returned his fearful hopeless expression.

Denki was struck with the fleeting thought that if this is how he went, he wouldn’t mind H being the one person by his side in the end.

Then something strange happened.

A metallic wide scarf-like substance snapped into the space, seemingly out of nowhere, and wrapped tightly around all four boneys, pulling them together into a tight clump.

The skeletons whined and thrashed, but no matter how they fought, they couldn’t escape.

The same corpse from before (H’s dad?) deftly jumped down from his perch on a lamppost, and expertly secured the bindings around the boneys.

He slowly turned around to face Denki and H, leveling them both with a bored expression.

“Come with me.”

Denki watched as H blinked once and then sighed in relief, smiling slightly and immediately stepping forward to follow.

Denki stayed rooted in place, staring incredulously at H when the corpse threw him a confused look.

“Uh, not to be ungrateful…but he lowkey tried to kill me. Like literally five minutes ago? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for meeting the ‘rents, getting to know each other over dinner, etc. But…not if I’m on the menu. Uh, respectfully of course…sir?”

The older corpse rolled his eyes, but the action was so slow it almost looked like he took a micro-nap while standing right in front of them.

“H-here to help,” he grumbled, somehow achieving a tone that both expressed his sincerity and deep displeasure with the situation.

Denki still wasn’t too comfortable with this development but he didn’t really see another option. Plus, H seemed to really trust the corpse so, it was good enough for him at this point.

Denki edged forward warily, taking a wide berth as he passed the still struggling boneys to join H and his father.

He offered the older corpse a shaky grin.

“Just in case you change your mind,” he knocked lightly on his own skull twice, “I’ve been told there’s not much up here anyways, so it’d be a pretty disappointing meal.”

H’s dad just stared at him, looking like he’d rather die again than entertain this conversation.

“Great. He jokes.”

Denki didn’t mind the deadpan (ha deadpan) response. He was much more comfortable with that than the wild snarling and gnashing of teeth from earlier.

He smiled and fell in step with H and the older corpse, slipping between the two of them, ignoring the cold stare he received as thanks.

“Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m a snack but not in the literal sense, ya know? Oh jeez, wait, this is totally the part where you ask me: ‘What are your intentions with my son?’” Denki groaned it out darkly in his best imitation of the older corpse. “Right?”

“That’s a lot of words for you though,” he amended graciously. “Hm, blink once for yes and blink twice for no!”

The corpse’s bloodshot eyes remained unblinking and unimpressed.

H dragged a tired palm down his ashen face.

Ha, okay, Denki was totally starting to see the family resemblance there.

H’s father led them carefully away from the mall and deeper into the parking lot. Denki really appreciated his whole ‘don’t fuck with me or my son’ energy because it was temporarily extended towards him and the boneys steered clear.

Or if they didn’t, they got K.O.-ed real quick.

Just when Denki thought they were safe, a familiar symphony of groans echoed across the parking garage.

“Are you kidding me? I thought I zapped these guys!”

But then Denki noticed that the zombies almost seemed just as bewildered as him, looking all around and then back at him like they weren’t really sure what they wanted to do.

They stayed a safe distance away, just watching and waiting.

H and his father seemed similarly perplexed, pausing in their advance.

Feeling a little reckless, Denki took an experimental step forward.

“Denki waiー” H grunted nervously.

But nothing happened. The corpses just stared.

“H…I think it’s okay,” Denki whispered in awe.

He couldn’t understand it, why the zombies weren’t attacking, but something about all their expressions seemed vaguely familiar.

They almost looked the same as when H first approached him, when they first met.

He didn’t feel the same fear as he did before, moreso that weird gut instinct that had allowed him to start trusting H in the first place.

“They’re friendly zombies now! Like you,” Denki smiled.

H stepped forward next to him, but his eyes were still full of unease.

“W-what are y-you talking about?”

“I honestly don’t really know! Just…I wanna try something.”

Denki let himself take a quick inhale, suddenly feeling nervous and a little jittery. There was a line he had been toeing for awhile, that he hadn’t had the courage to cross, because it meant something more, something much deeper than any of his flippant jokes.

It was definitely crazy, but it also felt like hope.

Denki didn’t have to reach far.

He brushed his fingers against H’s cool pale ones, feeling the corpse stiffen beside him at his touch.

Slowly, he threaded their fingers together and clasped their palms, warm-blooded flesh pressed against cold bloodless veins.

Except H’s hands weren’t nearly as cold as Denki expected them to be.

A light giddy sensation ran through him, the feeling was far less surprising than the temperature of H’s hands.

H squeezed gently back, twisting slightly to stare at Denki in astonishment, that tiny crooked smile playing across his blue-tinted lips.

Denki grinned widely in return.

The corpses stared at their hands in awe, looking confused but slightly intrigued.

Denki victoriously raised their joined hands and turned to flash a sheepish smile at H’s dad still standing behind them.

“Well, guess this answers your unasked question!”

H’s father rolled his eyes again like before, grumbling in aggravation, but Denki could’ve sworn there was a barely-there nod too.

That was definitely the best he’d ever get from the man and Denki was positively beaming.

A far off screech interrupted the moment.

Right, boneys were still a thing, unfortunately, but Denki would ride the high of a small win.

Literally.

“H, you okay with taking shotgun?”

“To kill?”

Denki laughed and tugged on H’s hand, pulling him through the sea of corpses that parted for them like awkwardly stumbling waves.

“Not an actual gun, dude, the passenger seat!”

Denki spotted a bright red car and let go of H’s hand to elegantly pull open the door with a flourishing gesture.

“After you, Rot Stuff,” he said smoothly with a wink.

It must’ve been the light reflecting off the red paint that stained H’s cheeks the faintest shade of pink. Nothing else would’ve made any sense, at least.

“Y-you know how to drive?”

Denki ran around to the hood of the car, popped it open and grabbed what he hoped were the correct wires and promptly shoved them in his mouth.

“Nope!” he garbled out as he hopped into the driver’s seat.

H eyed him fearfully but still buckled his seat belt, albeit shakily.

Denki let the electric current spark on his tongue and run through the wires, hiccuping a bit as the sparks crackled past his lips.

The vehicle sputtered to life and Denki let out a muffled cheer.

H looked at him like he’d grown a second head, but sort of in a fond way so Denki decided to take it as him being impressed.

Denki slammed his foot on the gas and swerved wildly out of the parking spot, catching H white knuckle gripping the ceiling handle in his peripheral vision as he clipped another car, taking the entire side view mirror with it.

“Whoops! Well, the owner’s probably dead anyways.”

------

Everything was happening way too fast for Shinsou to fully process.

Literally, because Denki was going 145 km/hr down the deserted streets.

But on top of that, his dad tried to eat his crush, then decided to save his crush from bloodthirsty skeletons, and then said crush held his hand and Shinsou pretty much stopped asking questions after that because none of this felt real.

Who knew being dead could get so lively.

Again, the thought felt a tad ironic given how Denki just swerved to avoid a fatal crash with a stop sign and Shinsou swore he felt phantom heart palpitations.

Guess I can’t expect him to be funny, cute, considerate, and a good driver. That would be asking far too much.

Denki was going to get them both killed, which really meant just himself, so Shinsou felt he had a right to be concerned.

“H! Bro! We totally charmed the heck out of all those corpses! It was like Minecraft on peaceful mode up in there! That was insane! They didn’t attack at all, even your dad! And he scares the absolute shit out of me! Honestly, not sure how that worked, but I’m so not complaining,” Denki’s excited rambling was loud enough to carry over the sound of wind whooshing through the open car windows.

Shinsou liked listening to the blond talk happily and didn’t really know what or how to respond so he just nodded in quiet agreement. His hand still felt warm from when Denki had held it.

They drove for a while until Denki suddenly started to slow down. Shinsou noted how the blond’s eyes were drooping and the electric buzzing around his skin had gotten much quieter.

“T-tired?”

Denki nodded sluggishly.

“Yeah. Yeahhh. Might be outta juice, I’m gon’ pull over.”

Denki steered the car to the side and then came to a jarring stop, sending them both flying forward in their seats.

“Sorryyy,” Denki slurred as he spat out the charred wire.

Shinsou waved off the apology and helped Denki out of the car, guiding him towards the nearest abandoned apartment to take cover in.

The door was locked so Shinsou awkwardly shifted Denki’s limp weight to one side and used his other arm to bash it open.

Thank you dead nerve endings.

As soon as they stumbled inside, Denki collapsed onto the couch, head lolling to the side with a soft “wheyyyy.”

He was drooling a bit again and the fondness bubbling up inside Shinsou’s chest was almost too much.

Shinsou stood awkwardly in the middle of the room for a few moments before giving in and sitting himself down on the other end of the couch, staying completely still and just watching Denki carefully.

After a while, Denki blinked back to awareness and sat up, tilting his head with a grimace as his neck popped loudly.

“Dang, okay, I need to lie down somewhere more comfortable and catch some real Z’s. Z as in snoozes not zombies, I already got myself one of those,” he said smoothly with a wink and a playful boop of Shinsou’s nose.

For the love of All Might, have mercy Denki.

He almost missed the days when the blond was scared of him because that was at least expected, he knew what to do with that. Now that he was being like this? Overly affectionate? Dare he say romantic, even? Shinsou was woefully unprepared.

“ーprobably upstairs, all these apartment models are the same you know?”

Shinsou didn’t even realize he had spaced out, until he looked up and Denki was already halfway up the stairs, smiling mischievously at him.

Shinsou hated how weak he was for that look.

“H-huh?”

“The bed? Upstairs? You coming or what, Rot Stuff?”

Shinsou could’ve sworn he was getting better at formulating words but suddenly all he could produce was a garbled grunt.

Denki laughed loudly and the sound warmed the entire room.

“Dude, just to sleep. No funny business, I promise! Your dad would like, literally kill me and then probably feed me to your sister…wait is that little girl your sister? Ah whatever, you get the point.”

“I-I don’t sleep.”

Wow. Incredible. Truly riveting stuff, H.

Denki’s grin dropped a fraction and Shinsou immediately wanted to blow his own head off for being so socially inept.

The blond toed the carpet, biting his lip nervously. Shinsou’s eyes studied the movement closely.

“Uh well,” Denki continued less confidently, “just to keep me company then? It’s kinda creepy being up there all alone, y’know?”

Shinsou decided actions might work better than words because clearly those were beyond his skill set right now, so he simply stood up and followed Denki to the stairwell.

Denki’s smile returned in full.

“Ugh why does it smell like burnt polyesterーoh wait that’s me isn’t it,” Denki lamented as he picked at his ruined clothes. The white tank top was riddled with singed holes, the pikachu face barely recognizable, and his pants were slightly charred. Shinsou hadn’t even noticed until the blond pointed it out, being so used to seeing corpses wearing nothing but torn rags.

“Yikes. Well that’s what happens when I short-circuit that much. Good thing we didn’t pay for these, huh?” Denki joked easily as he sat down on the bed and began unlacing his Converse.

Shinsou awkwardly sat down on the floor, confused as to what was happening.

Denki kicked his shoes off and then promptly unzippered his cargo pants and kicked those off as well. It happened so fast, Shinsou was left wide-eyed blinking, mouth gaping in stunned silence for a minute before his brain rebooted and he threw himself down on his back to stare at the ceiling and not Denki.

What the fuck.

A wheezing laugh filled the room. “H, relax, I’m wearing boxers! This is what I wear to sleep anyways.”

Shinsou only responded with a grunt of acknowledgement, dedicated to studying the cracks in the plaster above him and nothing else.

“Wow, you’re such a gentlemanーer gentlecorpse?” Denki teased with a chuckle.

He heard rustling and the sound of yet another garment softly hitting the floor.

What the fuck.

Shinsou’s stupid head betrayed him and tilted to the side, catching a glance of Denki’s bare chest.

“Enjoying the strip show? Don’t pop a boney on me bro, I think we’ve seen enough of those today,” Denki drawled.

Shinsou whipped his head back to look at the ceiling, grumbling as Denki laughed loudly at him. Why did it suddenly feel so hot in this goddamn room? Wait…what? He shouldn’t even be able to feel that. Christ, Denki was literally driving him to madness.

He stayed completely still as Denki got into the bed, only turning to face the blond when he was tucked under the covers.

“You don’t have to stay on the floor y’know, I’d feel bad about that…”

Shinsou shrugged and didn’t make any movement to get up.

“F-fine here.”

Denki sighed. “Okayyyy.”

Silence settled between them, the darkness of the room making everything feel even more quiet.

Shinsou should probably stop staring so openly but Denki was staring right back.

“Hey H…so you’re on a human-only diet right? Like you gotta snack on people…or you’ll croak?”

“Yeah,” Shinsou replied solemnly.

Denki propped up his head on his fist, sitting up a bit so he could get a better look at Shinsou, leaning over the edge of the bed.

“But…you didn’t eat me. You actually saved my ass, like a lot!”

Denki smiled fondly, his golden eyes seemed to twinkle like two little stars in the dark.

“I know you’re a corpse and this doesn’t really make any sense but…I like you H.”

Shinsou felt like his still heart was going to beat out of his chest, like Denki had zapped him with a billion volts again, like the sun was rising in his throat.

“You’re so determined, you try so hard, it’s like you just refuse to give up. I barely know any humans who still have that resolve…” Denki trailed off wistfully.

Shinsou felt breathless, weightless, like he might just float off the floor and straight through the ceiling.

Denki smiled at him again, so soft Shinsou almost wondered if he was dreaming.
Why was he looking at him like that?

Denki looked at him like he could still see the humanity in him.

“You’re a good person, H.”

A sinking darkness weaseled its way into Shinsou’s mind.

Denki wouldn’t say that if he knew the truth.

He wouldn’t hold Shinsou’s hand in his if he knew what it had done.

“You’re not a monster.”

Shinsou physically cringed, the guilt dragging him back down to the floor, like weights were tied to his hands.

But I am.

“Call me crazy but…” Denki was grinning brightly and Shinsou almost had to look away.

“I feel like you’re a hero-hopeful, just like the rest of us!”

“It was me.”

Denki’s smile froze in place at Shinsou’s admission, eyebrows twisting in uncertainty.

“What do you meaー”

Shinsou slowly slipped his hand into his jacket pocket, scrunching his eyes tightly closed as if it could erase the memory imprinted in his mind.

His fingers shook as he wrapped them around the dark blue plastic.

Shinsou removed the headphones and silently reached over, passing them into Denki’s hand.

He watched as Denki’s fingers curled around the headphones, watched as the realization crept its way across the blond’s features.

Denki rolled over onto his back, clutching the headphones slowly to his chest.

“Oh.”

Shinsou ached to say something, but his tongue felt like it was made of lead.

“I mean…maybe I should’ve guessed that. I justー” Denki swallowed thickly, voice eerily quiet.

The light in his eyes dimmed.

“I hoped you hadn’t.”

Denki rolled over, showing his back to Shinsou, and tugged the covers tightly over himself.

“Denki,” Shinsou pleaded in a whisper. “I-I’m so sorry.”

For once, Denki didn’t utter a single word.

“Denki,” Shinsou tried again, feeling something like his heart breaking.

The shadows of the room felt suffocating as the silence stretched on.

Shinsou rolled back to laying flat on the floor, wishing he could sink through the surface all the way down deep into the ground.

And stay buried there.

------

Shinsou opened his eyes and everything was washed in a warm golden glow.

Sun filtered in through the windows of the cozy coffee shop, casting yellow rays on the fuzzy carpet and comfy bean bag chairs.

He inspected his own hands and found they looked less pale, more alive.

He looked back up and there were people seated in the chairs, playing with the kittens scampering around the floor.

Bakugou, Kirishima, and Mina.

Jirou.

And Denki.

“Okay, pretend the apocalypse never happened. Pick any job in the world, what would it be? The sky’s the limit!” Denki was asking warmly.

Mina jumped up and did a little twirl. “Dancer! Being creative and making people happy, that would be the dream.”

“That’s super manly, I like that!” Kirishima cheered.

A kitten jumped into Denki’s lap and he petted it with a smile. “You know what we need? Somebody to figure this whole thing out and exhume the world!”

“‘Exhume?’ What’s that even mean?” Mina questioned.

“Uhh I think like, to revive?” Denki responded.

“It means to dig something up, like a corpse,” Jirou commented dryly.

“Same difference!” Denki waved her off.

Jirou’s sharp gray eyes landed on Shinsou, eyebrows raising in calculated interest.
“What are you doing here?”

Shinsou stepped forward warily, confused as to why he was being addressed. But then again, no one else was there.

Bakugou sneered, kicking his feet up and throwing Shinsou a harsh glare.
“Eyebags, are you actually fucking dreaming right now?”

Shinsou blinked slowly. “I’m not sure…”

“Zombie fuckers can’t dream. Sleeping, dreaming, that shit’s for humans. What makes you so fucking special, huh?”

Denki shot Bakugou a look. “Simmer down, Blasty. He can dream if he wants to!”
Then the blond stood up and beamed brightly at Shinsou, making him feel even warmer.

“What about you, H? What would you be?” Denki asked impishly, grinning as he walked right up to Shinsou.

Shinsou took a step forward to meet him halfway.

“A hero,” he replied softly, with no hesitation.

Denki smiled again. “Well you can be anything you set your mind to. Isn’t that what they always say?”

“We can be heroes together, right? You and me?” Shinsou asked hopefully.

Denki nodded, still smiling.

“Not gonna fucking happen, Romeo,” Bakugou growled.

“Not after you told him you ate his ex,” Jirou added with a knowing look, crossing her earphone jacks in the shape of an X.

Denki scratched the back of his neck and shrugged, mimicking the noncommittal gesture Shinsou always fell back on.

Then he winked.

------

Denki woke slowly, with dried tears still staining his cheeks. It was still dark out. He probably only slept a few hours at most.

He sat up and pushed the covers off his legs.

Everytime he tried to think about anything he felt like he was going to shut down.

So he didn’t.

Moving on automatic came relatively easy.

He found something wearable in the closet, jeans and a shirt, and tossed it on, not caring what it looked like.

He glanced down at H lying on the floor, surprised to find his eyes softly closed.

Denki carefully leaned down and waved a hand experimentally over his face.
The corpse didn’t show any reaction.

Huh. He was sure the dead didn’t sleep.

Maybe that was just another thing H wasn’t truthful about.

Another feeling tried to push its way through, tears bubbling up again, but Denki shoved it back down.

He quietly walked down the stairs and stepped out the front door, taking a deep shuddering inhale of the fresh air.

He spotted the red car still parked outside and suddenly he was throwing the door open, shoving wires in his mouth. His hands gripped the wheel tightly.

Maybe he shouldn’t leave like this. Shouldn’t just run away.

Part of him wanted to stay, so badly it scared him. He glanced back at the apartment and the tidal wave of emotions battered at his mental barriers once more.

He scrunched his eyes shut and slammed his foot on the pedal, desperately trying not to think about how it should’ve made him feel better knowing he’d never see H again.

But it really didn’t.

------

Denki approached the outer wall of U.A. on foot, with hands shoved in his pockets, energy long-drained from driving the car.

He felt slight relief at seeing Kirishima stationed outside but then tensed when the red-head immediately activated his quirk, entire body hardening so his skin was impenetrable.

Un-biteable.

“Identify yourself,” he shouted harshly.

Denki sighed, too tired to deal with the rare aggressive Kirishima.

“It’s just me, Kiri. I’m all good, bro.”

“Stop, don’t take another step!”

Denki held up his hands in surrender but continued walking forward.

“Dude, c’mon, I’m not infected.”

“I said stop, Denki!” Kirishima pleaded, suddenly sounding a bit hysterical.

So Denki stopped.

“Alright, alright. Fine. Sorry, bro.”

Kirishima softened one hand so he could remove a small device from his pocket, holding it up to scan Denki’s eye. Only letting out a sigh of relief when the thing beeped once and glowed green.

“Thank Hatsume for this thing,” Kirishima muttered as he pocketed the device.

As soon as his hands were free he turned off his quirk fully and graced Denki with a wide watery smile.

“Bro! You’re okay!” he cried happily before scooping Denki up in a crushing hug.

The metal door to the wall slid open and Bakugou came charging out.

“Is he infected?!” Bakugou demanded harshly, palms already crackling.

Kirishima quickly set Denki back down and turned to flash a smile at the ash-blond.
“Clear, Bakubro!” he announced happily.

“Thank fuck,” Bakugou dropped his hands, “we sent Shoji and Tokoyami out scouting for you, Dunce Face. Mina said you were…you were fucking takenー”

“I was…but I escaped,” Denki replied carefully, not sure he could tell the truth without setting off alarm bells.

“Shocked ‘em all and made a run for it. Stole a car and then holed up in a residential area until it was safe. Real life GTA, pretty cool huh?” he finished jokingly, trying to keep it casual.

Bakugou punched his shoulder, but it lacked any real force. “Not fucking funny, Drooly. We thought…we thought you were fucking dead.”

“Awww, did ya miss me Blasty? You do care!” Denki crooned, smirking slightly.

Before Bakugou could make a half-assed protest, Kirishima wrapped them both up in a crushing group hug. “Yes, we did! And we’re so glad you’re back, bro!”

Denki hugged back tightly, but the reunion somehow felt bittersweet.

“Yeah, me too,” he replied softly.

------

Shinsou woke up with a jolt, eyes flying open as the morning light streamed in through the windows.

He immediately turned his head to look for Denki, but found only empty sheets.

That residual hopeful feeling bleeding through his dream shriveled up and died instantaneously.

He stumbled down the stairs and outside, stomach sinking when he was only met with a barren red car-less street.

Denki had left him.

He wasn’t sure why he expected anything different.

That didn’t mean it broke his heart any less.

So much for heroes, huh?

Shinsou sighed and began his long journey back to the mall on foot. It’s not like he had anywhere else to go.

You can’t be whatever you dream up.

All I’ll ever be is a monster. A freak.

A slow-moving, pale-skinned, eyebag-riddled zombie.

The buildings seemed to pass by in a blur even as Shinsou trudged along.

What was I thinking? That he’d actually still like me? That he’d want to stay together?

It’s hopeless.

And this is my punishment for letting myself want for more. I should’ve just been content with what I had.

Things don’t change and I just have to accept that.

It’s so much easier not to feel.

…because then I wouldn’t have to feel like this.

Shinsou rubbed at his eyes, as if he was going to cry, but he knew that wasn’t even possible.

Then a trickle of water ran down his cheek.

No way… that’s not possible.

Another followed, but this time it dripped down his forehead.

Oh great. Now it’s raining.

He supposed the sky was crying for him. How ironic of Mother Nature for that one.

Shinsou sighed heavily and continued his pathetic shuffle of shame, determined to stop thinking so much, to just get back home, and forget about Denki.

Just like he forgot about everything else.

Somehow the thought brought him absolutely no comfort.

He hugged his arms tight around his own chest, shivering a bit as the water seeped through his clothes. The ones Denki had picked out for him.

Shit…am I cold right now? Is that what this is? Corpses aren’t supposed to get cold…

A loud grumble interrupted his thoughts and Shinsou wrenched his gaze from studying the wet cement to find a bright yellow sleeping bag blocking his path.

Something from the inside unzippered the thing and revealed his father with the little white-haired girl seated on his shoulders.

She waved shyly as Aizawa uncrossed his arms in greeting.

Shinsou stepped forward hesitantly and his dad offered him the most barely-there smile. But it was enough to break Shinsou’s resolve and he tumbled forward to wrap Aizawa up in a soaked-through hug.

His father tensed for a moment and then slowly returned the hug, patting his back gently while the little girl did the same to his head.

When Shinsou finally leaned back he noticed the large horde of corpses standing behind his father, idling calmly.

“W-what are you all doing here?”

“Boneys. Chased us all out. Came to find you.”

Shinsou’s eyes widened at the admission but stayed silent, giving his dad time to find more words.

“W-where is…zappy boy?”

Shinsou turned his head slightly away, to avoid looking into Aizawa’s eyes.
“H-he left. Went home.”

Aizawa grunted and it almost sounded angry, eyes narrowing like Denki had personally wronged him by leaving Shinsou behind, but then he grumbled sympathetically.

“A-are you okay?”

Shinsou shrugged and dropped his head.

“No…”

His father set a comforting hand on his shoulder and squeezed, lips twisting into a grimace, shaking his head in solidarity.

“Loud blondes,” he muttered it out like a curse.

Shinsou huffed out a chuckle, not quite understanding his father’s personal grievance.

“Boneys. Looking for you,” Aizawa continued, his tone laced with warning.

Shinsou merely scratched the back of his neck, looking down at his feet. He didn’t really care at this point. The stupid skeletons could take him if they really wanted to.

“And him,” Aizawa murmured.

That gave Shinsou pause, fear twisting in his gut.

“Not sure h-how but you b-both started something,” his dad stuttered out, causing Shinsou’s eyebrows to raise at the amount of words.

“Last night. I slept? I saw…images. M-memories?” Aizawa said, sounding pretty awed himself. “Fluffy clouds. Microphone. An orange cat.”

He had thought that sliver of hope had long since died, but his dad’s words brought a whisper of the feeling back.

“I think…we’re changing,” Shinsou whispered.

Aizawa nodded slowly, understanding and maybe even a bit of hope flickering in his own white pupils.

The little girl adjusted the straps of her backpack, the same glittery unicorn one that Denki had handed to her, and blinked down at Shinsou from her perch on Aizawa’s shoulder.

“H-hi,” she finally spoke, a feather-soft whisper. “I-I’m Eri.”

Shinsou smiled slightly up at her, completely shocked to even hear her speak.
“Hello Eri. I’m…H.”

Eri’s lips tilted upwards just the tiniest amount in return and Shinsou wondered if he had finally snapped because he could’ve sworn her little horn looked a bit bigger.

“I-I have to tell him,” Shinsou voiced the realization as it came to him, feeling more alive by the second at the mere thought of seeing Denki again.

“Will you help?” he asked his father, but then looked out across the sea of corpses too.
“Help? Exhume?”

The corpses eyed him for a moment and then let out a resounding groan.

His father nodded sagely, the image a little comical now that Eri was gripping onto his hair to stay upright.

“They said…yeah.”

Shinsou smiled more fully but the excitement quickly dropped as he remembered a crucial problem.

“H-how do I get past the wall?”

Aizawa gave an almost scary smirk as he lifted the scarf off his shoulders, over Eri’s head, and then slowly wrapped it around Shinsou’s neck.

“Time for a c-crash course.”

------

Denki played with the strings of his hoodie while Mina pulled a brush gently through his hair, carefully untangling the mess of knots.

There was rarely silence between them, but the few quiet moments they shared were reserved for serious situations like this.

Like when Denki had just spilled his guts and Mina was giving both him and herself a second to process.

But as most things do between them, it didn’t stay serious for long.

“Girl…WHAT,” Mina finally exclaimed, painfully tugging Denki’s hair in her excitement.

“I’m going to need you to run that back again because to me it sounded like you said you fell in love with a corpse and I know that can’t be right!”

Denki squeaked and shoved her away, hands sparking with embarrassment.

“Woah, okay, nobody said anything about love,” Denki sputtered hysterically. “I just…I know it’s crazy, but I kinda miss the guy, okay? Is that so weird?”

“After everything you just told me…YES. IT’S WEIRD.”

Denki sighed and it turned into a drawn out wail. “Heck, you’re right, I don’t know what’s wrong with me!”

“Is he, like, even cute or…?” Mina asked with a sparkle of mischief in her eye.

“...I feel like this is a trick question,” Denki replied hesitantly.

“OMG. YOU TOTALLY THINK HE’S HOT. YOU THINK A DEAD GUY IS HOT.”

Mina fell into a fit of cackling, rolling around on the bed and kicking her feet like a maniac, only shutting up when Denki chucked a pillow at her.

“Listen! I’m just saying if a dude can somehow make the pale rotting dead-eyed look work for him, that’s not my fault!”

“No, you’re right. It’s the fault of a very concerning trauma-response kink--”

“STOP! Stop, stop, no, no, please, Mina have mercy, okay?” Denki whined in protest, cheeks blooming a bright red as he covered his ears and shook his head.

Mina bit her lip to stifle another giggle and obediently grabbed the discarded hairbrush, silently returning to her work. “Babe, relax, I’m teasing…mostly.”

Denki crossed his legs under himself and shifted nervously. “Moving on from looks…I may possibly also like him for his…personality?”

Mina’s brushing halted abruptly again. “Wait…he actually has one?”

“Yes! He does! You’re so mean, jeez!” Denki shocked Mina lightly in retaliation.

“Bitch, I will melt your hair off, don’t test me!” Mina snarked back playfully.

“So…” she continued casually. “You miss him, you’re attracted to him, despite it all, both physically and emotionally, do I have this right?”

“Yeah…” Denki mumbled sheepishly.

Mina hummed thoughtfully and suddenly Denki was being yanked around to face her on the bed.

“So he could be like, your boyfriend? …your zombie boyfriend?!” she squealed excitedly, a shit-eating grin stretching across her bright pink cheeks.

Denki felt his ears and neck burning up with color. It took all his control not to actually shock the living daylights out of Mina by accident.

“No! Yes? Maybe…Ugh I don’t know. It’s…complicated right now! It doesn’t matter anyways, I dipped out on him, we’ll never see each other again, which is…probably for the best,” Denki finished, tone a bit strained.

Mina splayed herself out on the bed, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead with dramatic flair. “Forbidden love, how painfully tragic and woefully romantic!”

Denki smacked her with another pillow which only resulted in her getting him back just as good–escalating into a whole pillow fight, leaving them both grinning and out of breath.

Denki couldn’t believe he was smiling so soon, but Mina was always able to draw it out of him. He was glad he could confide in her like this; the teasing was worth it in the end.

Mina draped herself over Denki’s shoulders, squeezing tightly. “Listen, do what you gotta do, it’s the apocalypse, baby! Tinder doesn’t work anymore, so I can’t really judge.”

Mina smacked a kiss to his cheek and collected her things, heading back to her dormitory room with a farewell, “Sleep well and dream of your zombie boo thang!”

Denki giggled fondly and stepped outside on the small balcony, slowly inhaling the crisp night air into his lungs.

“D-Denki!”

His head snapped to the side at the sound of a deep rough voice saying his name. It almost sounded like…

“Denki!” the voice repeated.

Denki ran to the edge of the balcony, grabbing the rail so he could lean over and look down below.

And there was H, standing awkwardly in the moonlight, covered in dirt and leaves as if he tumbled out of a bush, with a weird thick gray scarf wrapped around his neck.

Golden eyes widened as those pale lavender ones blinked up at him.

“H! What the heck are you doing here?!” Denki whisper-yelled down to the corpse.

“H-had to see you,” came the croaky reply.

Denki had to bite his tongue from laughing hysterically as both disbelief and something strangely happy danced around in his gut.

“H, buddy, that’s great and all but if anyone besides me saw you, they would not hesitate to kill you! How did you even get this far?” Denki gasped out.

H rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. Then he looked back up at Denki with so much hope in his eyes it almost knocked the blond sideways despite their great distance.

“C-can I come up?”

Denki’s grip tightened around the railing as he began to babble. “Uh I mean, sure, why not I guess! I don’t know how you plan on doing that but up here is better than down there where anybody could walk by and shoot you in the freaking head–”

The words died away as H wrapped one end of the scarf tightly around his wrist and whipped the other end up high to fasten itself around the railing, right next to Denki’s hand.

He could only watch in silent shock as the corpse heaved himself up slowly, tug by tug until he was level with the balcony floor. Denki immediately reached over the rail to help haul him up and over the rest of the way.

Suddenly, H was standing right in front of him, looking all too pleased with himself and his efforts as he smirked down at Denki.

“You’re gonna kill me, dude,” was all Denki managed to get out in reply.

Immediately, H pouted slightly, looking guilty. “N-no! Never.”

All Denki could do was laugh breathlessly. “Not what I meant at all, don’t worry about it.”

H stepped closer to him, but kept his hands buried in his pockets. Eyes suddenly full of genuine remorse.

“Denki, I’m sorry.”

He had a choice. He could tell H to get lost, that what he did was unforgivable. And probably no one would ever blame him for it.

But looking into those lavender-white pupils, brimming with both regret and affection, Denki was struck by just how human he looked.

Corpses don’t say they’re sorry. Corpses don’t feel remorse.

Or so he was led to believe.

But Denki was tired of believing in only painful realities.

He wanted to believe in heroes and dreams again.

In hope.

So he dug his fingers into H’s pockets and tugged those pale hands free, gently intertwining them with his own.

“I know. It’s okay. And I’m sorry too,” he replied softly, giving H a lopsided smile.

Then before H could react, he pulled the taller boy into a tight hug, sighing deeply as the corpse immediately squeezed him back gently.

“Huh,” Denki wondered aloud. “You feel so much warmer than I remember…”

“Denks, can you shut up?! I’m trying to sleep! Have you finally snapped and started talking to yoursel–”

Mina’s aggravated yelling cut off as soon as she barreled onto the balcony and spotted the two of them hugging in the dark.

“Oh my GOD. Is that him?!” she screeched, jaw dropping as she took in the sight before her.

Denki broke away from the embrace and smiled sheepishly back at her. “Uhhhh, yeah?”

H’s eyes darted between them and when nobody immediately attacked him, he waved stiffly. “Hi.”

Mina cocked one hip and rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she gave the corpse an up and down.

“Personally…not for me but yeah, I can admit you’re valid.”

“Yes! Thank you! See, you get it!” Denki cheered.

“G-get what?” H mumbled curiously.

Denki and Mina merely chuckled as they pulled him inside the room.

-------

Shinsou tried not to fidget as a very very pink girl shoved herself into his personal space. Bright yellow pupils on black scanned over him intensely.

“How’d you die?” she asked cheerfully, as if discussing the weather.

“I-I don’t know,” he grumbled in reply.

“What was your quirk?”

“I don’t remember…”

“Why don’t you smell rotten? He doesn’t smell like a graveyard or anything! That’s sooo weird.”

“Mina, please, you’re scaring him,” Denki whined.

“He’s the zombie! I should be scared of him, not the other way around!” she retorted.

Shinsou scooted backwards a bit on the bed.

“You are a little scary,” he muttered.

“Awwww thanks!” she said with a giant grin.

Thankfully, Denki shoved the hyperactive horned pink girl away and sat down in front of him, looking up at him expectantly.

“H, what’s up, why did you have to see me?”

Shinsou blinked slowly, focusing as hard as he could to make his speech function properly.

“Need to tell you…and show everyone…we’re changing.”

Denki seemed to buzz with energy, golden eyes glowing hopefully.

“We?”

Shinsou nodded quickly.

“Me, my dad, everyone, all of us. We’re…sleeping and dreaming. Have to act fast. Not a lot of time. Boneys chased us all out. Must be because we’re…” Shinsou trailed off, afraid to voice something he wished for so badly.

“...coming back to life?” Denki asked, voice full of awe.

“Think so…” Shinsou murmured.

“No way! Okay, that changes the whole situation,” Mina exclaimed.

Denki nodded excitedly. “We have to tell Kiri and Bakubro! And then go to Nezu!”

Mina squeaked. “Um, are you kidding? As soon as Blasty lays eyes on this one he’ll blow him to bits.”

“P-prefer not to be bits…” Shinsou grumbled. He remembered the boy they were talking about from his dream-memories, and he wasn’t too keen on meeting the guy.

Denki hummed thoughtfully. “We need to get him close to the center, without being detected, but how?”

Mina sucked on her lip for a moment before jumping up onto the bed with an excited squeal.

“A makeover!”

Oh, Shinsou really didn’t like the sound of that. He already went through enough embarrassment at the mall with Denki.

But unfortunately, Denki snapped his fingers, emitting a few sparks, and Shinsou already knew what that meant.

“Yes! We could definitely swing that! Just a little foundation and…a lot of blush.”

Mina was already darting towards the door and likely her room. “I have some make-up I was saving for a school dance that’s definitely never going to happen now. It would be my honor to sacrifice it to the cause!”

Thus began the worst moments of Shinsou’s afterlife, made only slightly better by Denki winking at him through the mirror as Mina attacked him with a variety of brushes.

“Ah, there he is, my masterpiece!” Mina cooed as she snapped the blush closed.

“The Moan-a Lisa, if you will,” Denki added cheekily.

Shinsou frowned appropriately and let out his best zombie moan, secretly happy to earn himself a laugh from the blond.

“Awww, zombie flirting is so cute! You guys are adorable! I ship it hard, I really do, you’ve won me over,” Mina sang sweetly, a teasing lilt to her voice.

Shinsou was about to grumble in protest but Mina was already filling up her acid super-soaker gun, a challenge in her eyes, clearly daring him to say something rude to her.

Denki grabbed his hand and hauled him off the bed. “Mina loves to tease, but that means she likes you, c’mon we don’t have time to waste!”

Shinsou let Mina run ahead and pulled Denki so he hung back for a moment. The blond went easily, but looked up at him with a confused expression.

“H, what’s wrong?”

Shinsou squeezed Denki’s hand, trying to communicate everything that his words and facial expressions lacked.

“P-promise we’ll stay together? S-save everyone together? Be safe together?”

Denki’s confusion faded into warm understanding as he squeezed back.

“I promise. Hero-hopefuls always stay together.”

-------

Denki kept Shinsou’s hand tight in his grasp as they walked through the makeshift camp. Lots of people seemed to be mobilizing and there was a frantic energy in the air.

As soon as Denki spotted spiky red hair, he ran over, with Shinsou stumbling after him and Mina close behind.

“Kiri! Where’s Bakugou? What’s going on?!” Mina asked anxiously.

“It’s bad Mina, we’re getting all these crazy reports of corpses and boneys gathering outside the wall. Bakubro’s in a strategy meeting with Nezu and Mic right now, I wouldn’t interrupt–”

Mina brushed by him easily, ignoring the warning. Denki followed closely behind so Shinsou had no choice but to do the same.

“Hey bro! I haven’t seen you around, are you new?” Kirishima asked curiously.

Crap. Uh. Say something normal. Say something human.

“I’m a transfer student. Um, how are you?”

Shinsou cringed at how obviously awkward and lacking sense that sounded, amplified by Mina loudly facepalming at his social blunder.

“I’m good, given the circumstances! Thanks for asking, that’s super manly of you!” Kirishima replied happily.

Denki yanked him away with a nervous glance in Kirishima’s direction.

“Thank god he’s as dense as a boulder,” Mina muttered.

Suddenly, Bakugou came storming out of a building and Shinsou was ripped out of Denki’s hold as Mina pulled him down behind some crates.

Shinsou grunted in annoyance but stayed down at her insistence.

Denki stepped directly into Bakugou's warpath with a friendly smile.

“Hey Bakubro! Need to talk to you about somethin–”

His words were cut off as Bakugou thrust a rifle into his hands with a growl.
“No time for stupid chit chat Drooly, the corpses and skeletons are at our gates, practically past the outer wall, we gotta fight. Got you a new bolt blaster, now let’s fucking go.”

Denki clumsily slung the large gun around his shoulder as he tried to pull Bakugou back. “Hey wait, listen this is important! We don’t have to fight the corpses!”

Bakugou froze and turned to Denki with a wild look in his eyes. “What.”

Kirishima sidled up next to him, as if summoned by Bakugou’s anger.
“Hey dudes, what’s the hold up?”

“Look, I know this is gonna sound insane but…the dead are coming back to life. I saw it with my own eyes, okay? They’re somehow…curing themselves? It’s real, I swear!”

“Denks, that does sound kinda crazy, are you alright?” Kirishima questioned carefully.

Bakugou sneered. “No, you know what’s real? There’s thousands of them, numbers growing by the day, and so fucking few of us.”

“But–-” Denki tried again.

“They’re not curing themselves,” Bakugou spit furiously. “We are their food, they eat human brains. And you’re sure lucky as hell you don’t seem to have one right now, else they’d eat yours too. Just like they did to everyone else! To All Might! To Jirou! And to shitty Deku!” Bakugou was screaming by the end of his tirade, but his voice broke on the last syllable.

“But you never found a body, right? That’s what I’m saying! He could still be alive, there’s hope!”

“THERE IS NO HOPE. THEY’RE ALL FUCKING DEAD.”

“Katsuki…” Kirishima’s voice whispered sympathetically into the tense silence.

Shinsou couldn’t stand by and watch anymore. Not when Denki was facing all of this anger alone. So he shrugged Mina off and stepped into the light.

“L-let me explain.”

Burning red eyes zeroed in on him.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“He’s a transfer student!” Kirishima supplied helpfully.

“This isn’t a fucking school anymore. And I didn’t ask you, Ei.”

Shinsou felt a warm hand intertwine with his and glanced to the side to find Denki right beside him.

“This is H.”

Bakugou took a step forward and practically snarled, digging a finger into Shinsou’s chest.

“Didn’t ask you either, Drooly. Who. Are. You.”

Shinsou cocked his head to the side with a bored look. He didn't appreciate the way this guy was talking to Denki so he wasn’t about to give in to the tantrum.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Bakugou gripped his shirt collar and shoved his face right up in Shinsou’s space. “YOU WANNA FUCKING DI–-”

Shinsou saw the exact moment Bakugou glanced down and caught the line on his neck where his foundation ended and pale rotted skin began.

“You’re a corpse,” Bakugou said, eerily calm.

Denki tried to step between them, anxiety clearly running high.

“Bakugou, please listen! He saved my life, he protected me! I think I triggered something in him? And it sparked something in the rest of them and–-” Denki’s rambling cut off as he blinked rapidly, like his own words were foreign to him.

“Wait…sparked…oh…OH. It all makes sense no–-”

Bakugou didn’t let him finish, slamming Shinsou hard against the concrete wall and pushing a grenade gauntlet covered hand over his face.

“Hah, you want to see triggered? I pull this pin and zombie fucker here goes kaboom.”

“Well technically, if anyone’s the zombie fucker here, it would be Denki,” Mina joked uneasily.

Shinsou fought the urge to roll his eyes, not that he really could with Bakugou’s steadily warming hand gripping his brow. Why this girl had the subtlety of a gun was beyond him.

“WHAT?” Bakugou barked, hand inching towards the metal pin.

“Bakugou, no, stop! Just hear us out!”

“W-we’re trying to help,” Shinsou grumbled out.

“They’re not going to attack, Bakugou! They’re getting better,” Denki pleaded.

“Tch. Shit doesn’t get better, it just gets fucking worse. People get bit, they get infected, and then I blow them up. That’s how we stay alive, that’s how we win this fucking quirk doomsday bullshit.”

Shinsou flinched as Bakugou made to blast him into the next dimension, but the explosion never came.

Bakugou stiffened and turned slowly, finding the nozzle of Mina’s acid super-soaker pressed to the back of his head.

Shinsou had to retract his previous statement, she could be incredibly subtle if she wanted to be.

“Denki, take your expired arm candy and get outta here, okay? Go help your zombie friends. Stay safe, you guys got this.”

Apparently Denki didn’t need to be told twice because Shinsou was already being dragged away from Bakugou’s slack grip.

“Mina!” Kirishima cried in surprise.

“You’re not gonna fucking shoot me, Racoon Eyes,” Bakugou growled.

“Wanna bet, Blasty?” she replied airily, pumping the gun once in warning with a sweet smile.

Yeah, she was definitely scary.

-------

Denki pulled H along, running as fast as his mind was racing.

“That went well,” H commented dryly.

“Forget about that! I think I may actually have figured this out!” Denki shouted back excitedly.

“W-what do you mean?” H asked warily.

Denki could barely contain himself. If he was right about this, it could really change everything.

“When did you first notice yourself changing?” he questioned excitedly.

H’s eyebrows furrowed, rather cutely if Denki did say so himself, as he pondered the question.

“...right after I met you,” H replied, sounding a bit self-conscious about his truthful answer.

Denki sparked happily at the response, grinning wildly.

“After I shot you?”

“Yes…”

“H!” Denki stopped running for a moment to grab the purple-haired corpse by the shoulders and shake him a bit. “I shot you in the heart.”

H blinked back at him, eyes narrowing in confusion.

“Yes?”

“What if…what if we’ve been wrong about how this quirk virus works the whole time?! We came up with the word ‘corpse’ to describe something we never fully understood, ya know?” Denki asked the questions as if he already figured out the answer, voice raising in his ecstatic state.

“Maybe your heart hadn't really stopped…it was just dormant!”

Then, Denki smiled brighter than he ever had before.

“And when I electrocuted you…I woke it back up!”

Denki watched in anticipation as H blinked slowly, mouth falling open in astonishment. Then he shakily raised a hand to his own chest, gripping where his heart would be. A minute passed and then his eyebrows shot up to his hairline, light eyes meeting Denki’s again full of disbelief.

Then he carefully took Denki’s hand and placed it on the same spot.

Denki held his breath, hand pressing softly into the firm chest beneath his fingers. A moment passed with him feeling nothing, but he didn’t let hope slip through his grasp.

Another moment of stillness.

Then finally, a beat.

Denki giggled hysterically, almost choking on a sob.

It was there. It was faint and inconsistent.

But it was there.

H really was coming back to life, or rather, maybe he was never truly deceased to begin with.

“You said it yourself, Rot Stuff, you’re not ‘dead’ just ‘undead,’” Denki teased breathlessly. “All you needed was a little,” Denki shot two finger guns his way and winked, “shock treatment.”

H huffed out a dry laugh but it sounded like magic to Denki’s ears.

He grabbed onto H’s hand again, no longer surprised by how much warmer it felt, and smiled.

An alarm blaring and red lights flashing interrupted the sweet moment.

“Right, okay. Cure found. Back to running. Let's find your family!”

------

When Denki squeezed his hand and Shinsou felt that strange twitch in his chest, he knew now that it wasn’t his imagination.

He had been feeling it the entire time, sporadic moments of life interspersed in his dead existence.

Moments where his heart couldn’t help but beat.

He was absolutely amazed that Denki had figured something like that out, even more so that the boy running beside him was essentially a living breathing cure.

Still, he couldn’t help thinking it was a bit more complicated than that. Denki wanted to say it was just simple electrocution to restart the heart.

But Denki didn’t know that everytime Shinsou had felt that jump in his chest after the initial shock, it was far from random.

Each beat had been for Denki, for something he had said or done.

Shinsou didn’t know what to make of that or what to call it.

Though he had a few guesses.

Now wasn’t the time though, they had more pressing problems.

“Where are they?” Denki asked frantically.

“Eastern outer wall,” Shinsou replied.

Denki made a sharp turn and dragged them both in that direction.

When they finally arrived, Denki was already out of breath but Shinsou heard him completely stop for a moment.

“Woah. That’s a lot of zombies. I don’t think I zapped that many at the mall.”

Shinsou’s father emerged from the front of the pack, shuffling over to them, Eri still seated on his shoulders. He could already tell from here that Aizawa looked way more alive and Eri’s horn was definitely bigger, her skin almost glowing faintly.

“No, but I think you got the right ones,” Shinsou replied.

“Hi H,” Eri whispered, waving shyly.

His father only nodded in greeting before his intense gaze landed on the blond.

“Denki,” he grumbled out.

“Uh hey, sir! Good to see you again, heh,” he replied nervously.

“Mhm,” Aizawa grunted, but Shinsou could’ve sworn it sounded a little pleased.

“F-found more allies for the fight,” Aizawa murmured. “But boneys closing in.”

A not too far off screech confirmed his statement.

“Humans coming too,” Shinsou cautioned.

Aizawa smirked. “Perfect.”

The crowd flinched as the first boney threw itself over the wall, dropping down in a grotesque twisted position that it seemed unbothered by.

Shinsou quickly tried to pass the scarf back to his father but his hands were pushed back. “Keep. Might need it. Now go, run.”

His father didn’t bother with a heartfelt farewell, simply turning to pick the boney off the ground and slam it back down hard.

Shinsou grabbed Denki’s hand this time and pulled him through the horde of zombies, heading back towards the inner wall.

More boneys dropped down, their numbers steadily growing but the corpses immediately fought back, using their fists or whatever objects they had brought with them.

A host of humans ran by them, stopping in their tracks when they encountered the warzone in front of them.

“Uh, who are we supposed to kill here?” a boy questioned.

Aizawa roughly kicked a boney over to them.

“This imbecile,” the authority in his tone was clear.

Immediately, tape shot out of his elbows and restrained the creature while another girl shot its head off with her gun.

“Good, you’re not completely useless children.”

------

Once again, Denki found himself running for his life with H right beside him, boneys hot on their heels in a feral pursuit.

Honestly, not the worst date he’d ever been on. Could definitely be better though.

Denki pulled the communicator out of his pocket and hooked it up to his ear, anxious to know what was happening elsewhere on the U.A. campus.

“Nezu, we’re seeing corpses fighting skeletons.”

“Repeat that?”

“Copy. Same here at Ground Beta. Corpses fighting skeletons.”

“Fucking bullshit.”

“Bakubro, it’s real! Very manly corpses fighting the Boneys at Ground Gamma.”

“We saw Denki with a purple-haired corpse running your way, Kiri.”

“Fuckers. I’m heading there now.”

“FYI, two corpses just saved my fuschia behind!”

“Alright listeners, just…focus on the boneys for now then.”

“Ha! Wow, this is actually working!” Denki cheered.

But the victory was short-lived as several Boneys barreled directly into their path, surrounding them on all sides.

Denki pulled the rifle from behind his back and fired off two shots, grateful his adrenaline levels weren’t affecting his aim as the boneys he struck crumpled to the ground.

H whipped the scarf forward, capturing two others in its coil and slamming them into a wall.

“Hey! Pretty good hero team-up we make, huh?” Denki panted out.

H’s lips tilted upwards as he nodded and oh wow, that was definitely a very slight natural blush to his cheeks. Denki could just float away on that high.

They continued running, taking down as many boneys as they could as they went.

“H, what exactly is the plan?”

“K-keep running.”

“Okay, I can do that!”

Denki guided them to Ground Gamma, hoping to find cover in the maze of metal pipes and tubing.

That idea was clearly a bust though as a massive group of boneys was waiting for them, huddled below the pipes and eagerly scaling the structure to reach them.

Denki whirled around but found the same sight on the other side.

He quickly fired off a round of bolts, but the boneys kept coming. Eventually, he just threw the entire rifle down, knocking one boney down with it. Too tired to expend any more electricity.

“Shit, shit, shit. There’s too many of them,” Denki cried, panicking.

His fearful golden eyes landed on H, desperate for a solution, a way out of this. He expected H to be similarly terrified, but the boy had only hard fast determination set in his gaze.

“K-keep you safe,” he said, an echo of those early words he had tried to comfort Denki with at the very beginning.

“Wha–-” Denki’s question was cut off as H pulled him in swiftly, wrapping Denki’s limbs around him and securing the hold with part of the scarf.

Denki could feel his own heart beating at a rapid pace, not even sure if it was from the panic or their sudden closeness.

H looked down at him and tried to smile, something reassuring.

That was the only warning Denki received before H threw the other end of the scarf out scarily far, like a lasso, a distant clang the only sign it caught something.

Then H jumped off the pipe and they were falling through the air, gravity pulling them down at an alarmingly fast rate. Wind rushed in Denki’s ears as his stomach swooped unpleasantly and he was probably screaming but the ringing in his ear was too loud to hear it.

Just as they were about to hit the ground, and Denki’s foot grazed a boney’s head, the scarf found tension and then they were swinging.

Flying through the air, with H’s strong grip on the scarf as the only thing keeping them from falling.

Denki’s hands wrapped around H’s neck tightly, holding on for dear life, his eyes scrunched shut–but then they were still swinging and Denki was still breathing so he peeked his eyes open.

H was staring down at him, worry clear in his brow but also a soft fondness there that indicated he was just happy to have Denki safe in his arms.

Denki offered a grin back, albeit a bit wobbly, but genuine nonetheless.

They swung over a giant metal wall-like structure in the middle of the complex and finally crash-landed on the other side.

Denki felt H hug him close to his body, tumbling out of the fall so that his back hit the ground first instead of Denki’s head.

Denki groaned, the vertigo of the fall still reeling in his brain but then his thoughts caught up and he was pushing himself up to ease the weight on H’s chest, checking his face and head frantically.

“You’re officially insane, dude. What the hell was that? Oh jeez, are you okay? Hey, H? Rot Stuff? Groan if you can hear me!”

H was lying completely still, eyes staring up at the sky unblinking as if in a daze.

Finally, he blinked once, twice, and then Denki saw the recognition bloom in his gaze.

“Groan,” he replied sarcastically, sounding a bit pained but otherwise fine.

Denki gasped out a laugh, sitting back on his heels.

“After all that, if you croaked on me, that’d just be so lame bro.”

Denki didn’t really think he said anything particularly funny, but for some reason H must’ve found it hilarious because the boy was suddenly chuckling softly which quickly turned into full-bellied laughter.

His laugh was kind of breathy, like it was the first time in awhile that much air had passed through his lungs.

But the problem was, that was kind of the nail in the coffin for Denki.

Pun fully intended there.

He was very aware that he was still sitting on top of H, could feel his chest shaking beneath him, and to see that mirthful expression directed up at him?

There was no way Denki could stop himself from leaning back down, brushing a hand through tangled purple hair, and dragging his fingers down a pale jaw, lifting the chin so blue-tinted lips pressed against his pink ones.

Denki’s eyelids fell closed, lips sparking and humming softly as his mouth slotted against H’s, moving together as one.

H kissed him back eagerly, like he could taste life on Denki’s lips and Denki was more than happy to let him savor it.

After a moment, Denki drew back, needing a breath of air but the sight that met him immediately stole it.

H was gazing back up at him, cheeks flushed and lips red, skin quickly tanning to a shade of the living.

Golden eyes drank it all in as those nearly-white lavender irises swirled with new color, darkening to a deep and vibrant violet right in front of him.

“Woah…” Denki finally breathed out.

“My thoughts exactly,” H replied with a smirk, voice totally even, the stilted quality of it completely gone.

Oh wow, look at that, Denki was also completely gone.

H didn’t give him a moment to recover, twisting his fingers through golden hair and pulling Denki back down for another kiss.

H’s hand guided Denki’s fingers down to his neck as they kissed, letting the blond feel the pulse beating steadily there.

Denki knew he was alive, but still he felt like he died and went to heaven.

-------

Shinsou felt the thundering of his own heart against his ribcage and with each beat he knew now exactly what it meant.

What each thump that had struggled past the quirk had meant this whole time.

Love.

And he finally felt alive again.

Then something sharp whistled through the air and pain exploded in his shoulder.

Denki cried out and jumped off of him, quickly helping a panting Shinsou into a sitting position as the stinging sensation grew.

“Aiming for the fucker’s head next. Move Denki.”

Shinsou winced as he sat up further to spy Bakugou standing a few yards away, gun held at the ready. Kirishima and a few other humans beside him. Also, a rat in a suit?

Denki stayed exactly where he was though, stubbornly remaining by Shinsou’s side.

“No, Bakugou, I’m not moving. Put the gun down.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Bakugou snarled.

“Bakugou…” Denki tried again, voice shaky but soothing. “I know everything feels hopeless right now. I know we lost some really good people. But we don’t have to keep losing.”

Bakugou seemed to pause at that, the hand holding his gun trembling slightly. Kirishima eyed it warily, looking like he wanted to grab it but waiting for the right moment.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to win some lives back instead?”

Bakugou’s eyes narrowed. “That’s…not possible.”

“But it could be! Look at H, he’s different, he’s…” Denki glanced down at him and awe filled his features.

“He’s bleeding! Look Bakugou,” he held up a red-stained hand, dripping with the blood running from Shinsou’s fresh wound.

“Corpses don’t bleed, but living humans do.”

Bakugou’s gaze locked onto the blood on Denki’s hand and finally his arm went slack, dropping to the side and the gun clattering to the ground with it.

“Lower your weapons everyone, I see a better outcome now,” the rat spoke clearly.

Kirishima turned off his quirk and didn’t hesitate to rush forward, helping Denki to his feet and then the two of them heaved Shinsou up, draping either arm over their necks.

The pain in his shoulder persisted but Shinsou didn’t mind, it made him happy even, to have that constant reminder that he was actually alive.

Two little robots came forward with a stretcher between them and Shinsou was carefully lifted onto the bed, but Denki didn’t stray too far, walking along beside it with Shinsou’s hand clasped tightly in his hold.

“Are you alright? Does it hurt?” Denki asked, sniffling a bit as a few relieved tears slipped through.

“Yeah, hurts like a bitch,” Shinsou replied.

“Tch. Good,” Bakugou grunted as he fell in step with them.

Another man sidled up to them, the black leather of his outfit squeaking with each step. His long blonde hair was tied up in a hastily constructed bun and yellow glasses were pushed up on top of his head, revealing kind green eyes.

He placed a gentle hand on Shinsou’s shoulder.

“Hey listener, mind telling me where you got that scarf?”

Shinsou looked up at the man, finding uncertainty but also a shred of hope in his eyes.

Understanding lit up inside of Shinsou and he smiled.

“I think he can tell you himself.”

------

Denki didn’t have a hard time wrapping his head around this whole cure thing.

Especially because he was the one who figured it out.

H started teasing him for getting a bit of ego about that but Denki felt he had the right to be a little proud of himself. And it worked like this:

Quirk: Sleeping Heart
Mechanics: An affected individual’s heart is dormant and the saliva secretes the sleeping agent, transferable to others.
Effects: Affected individual remains in an animated state between fully living and fully deceased.
Note: This state is temporary, if not treated quickly, the body will decay and develop appetite for human flesh.
Weakness: Loud blondes with bad self-preservation skills.
Cure: Electrical stimulation. (Or a high-five from Eri, if you’re lucky.)

Healing all the victims of the quirk virus wasn’t easy work, but once they found the solution, it was actually attainable. And that possibility gave people hope.

Hope was a powerful force to bring change.

Denki was stationed in a hospital with other electric-quirk users for months, reviving as many people as he could while charging up as many AEDs as necessary.

He didn’t mind the hard work though, especially when his boyfriend was there beside him throughout the whole thing.

H’s father was there too, with his own loud blond husband in Mic. That tearful reunion was something Denki felt really lucky to have seen.

However, H didn’t seem to ever want to stop making comments to his father about the loud blond part. Apparently that was a thing for the two of them.

Denki was more shocked to learn the guy was actually former pro-hero Eraserhead and teacher at U.A. Kind of intimidating to have that as your boyfriend’s dad, but Aizawa had tried to kill him when they first met so he figured he couldn’t do worse than that at this point.

Eri stayed with them too, the four of them making a strange but happy family. It warmed Denki’s heart to see how out of this tragedy something so perfectly awesome could be born.

And Denki had to hand it to the little six-year old. Despite her youth, she was a huge help. Her Rewind quirk could heal any former corpse in an instant, cutting out all recovery time and reverting them right back to their human state as if they were never dead to begin with.

Undead. Denki mentally checked himself. Especially because his necrophilia jokes did not go over well at dinner with the parents. (Mic had laughed, at least.)

Eri couldn’t control her powers very well so she was only asked to help occasionally or in special circumstances.

One of those special circumstances stumbled through the hospital doors one day, secured by two rescue squad members as it thrashed and fought, half its skin already peeling off to reveal dark bone below.

But the skin still showing was dotted with freckles and the mop of dark green curls was clear despite the dirt and blood.

Denki had never seen Bakugou shed a single tear over the 2 years he’d known him, but the moment he saw a completely human Deku smiling nervously at him, the boy broke down into sobs.

Deku hugged him back tightly, muttering apologies the whole time and something about eating the staff of his favorite stationary store but Bakugou just told him to “shut the fuck up, you stupid nerd” and hugged him tighter.

They couldn’t save those they already lost and the boneys were too far gone. But moments like that reminded Denki why he fought so hard in the first place.

Winning back lives and giving people hope, that was pretty hecking heroic if you asked him.

And falling in love didn’t hurt either.

------

Shinsou fiddled with the manilla folder in his hands, flicking the edge of the paper up and down, but not yet opening it.

His dad had found his file in the U.A. records, apparently he had applied to the hero course prior to everything that had happened.

Shinsou still didn’t remember much from before he “died.”

It seemed to vary case by case for everyone. Deku remembered everything vividly, it probably helped that he was a detail-oriented person to begin with. Aizawa remembered important things but other things were still foggy.

Quirks were similar. Some came back in full like Eri’s, but Aizawa’s eyes didn’t look like they’d ever function quite the same.

Most people at the very least knew their own names.

But Shinsou had nothing. His mind before the apocalypse was blank, making him wonder if there was even truly anything meaningful enough to recall.

He could sort of sense a power, his quirk, lying dormant there, but it felt foreign making him afraid to even touch it.

Then Denki cuddled closer to him on the beanbag chair, resting his head in the crook of Shinsou’s neck.

He poked the folder lightly and flashed a smile. “No one would care if you didn’t ever open it, we could just toss the dumb thing.”

Shinsou looked around the coffee shop, enjoying the sight of Deku and Eri playing with a gray cat, his dads sharing a latte, and Mina relentlessly teasing Bakugou and Kirishima as they snuggled against the wall.

The image brought to mind the first dream he ever had as a corpse, all those days ago. But that dream was based on memories not his own.

He was ready for his own life, his own memories.

Shinsou swallowed once and then grit his teeth. “No. I want to know.”

Denki nodded against his shoulder and then quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek, causing Shinsou to flush a light pink.

He both hated and adored Denki’s uncanny ability to make him blush. It was always embarrassing but it was also a constant reminder that he was alive.

He liked that Denki never stopped making him feel like that.

“Okay then, let’s crack her open!”

“It’s a folder, not a beer,” Shinsou quipped back dryly, but the silly comment was enough to soothe his nerves and allow him to finally look at the paper inside.

Name: Shinsou Hitoshi
Age: 16
Quirk: Brainwashing

Shinsou couldn’t read any further, already chuckling loudly and dropping the paper in his lap.

“What? What’s so funny?!” Denki asked.

“You’re not going to believe this,” Shinsou huffed back through laughter.

Denki grabbed the paper and scanned its contents, eyes widening as he found the same line Shinsou did.

“Ha! That’s actually hilarious. Wow, guess some things really are instinctual.”

“What can I say, I just love brains,” Shinsou groaned, mimicking his old speech pattern.

Denki buried his head in Shinsou’s chest, giggling to himself.

But then Denki pulled away so he could look directly into Shinsou’s eyes, golden eyes shining happily.

“So, Hitoshi, huh? Not gonna lie, I never would’ve guessed that one. Not at all what I thought H stood for.”

Denki grinned. “So, should I start calling you that now?”

Shinsou blushed again. “I guess so, I’m kinda going to miss H to be honest though, maybe even Rot Stuff too,” he added reluctantly.

Denki snorted happily. “Whatever you want, babe. But you can be Hitoshi and H to me, cause in the end, you know what H stood for?”

Shinsou cocked his head to the side curiously. “What?”

Denki winked. “Hero.”

Shinsou blushed and shoved Denki away in retaliation.

“That was horribly corny.”

“You know you love it, Hitoshi.”

“Only because I love you, Denki.”

Denki placed a palm over Hitoshi’s heart and he could feel it beating steadily against Denki’s hand, faster and faster as the blond boy smiled softly up at him, his other hand tangling in strands of lavender hair.

“Ditto,” he replied softly. Then he grinned impishly. “And not just because the eyebags turned out to be a permanent facial feature. But don’t tell Mina I’m into that, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Hitoshi shook his head fondly. “Never. Not a word.”

Denki’s smile turned soft again as his fingers played with Hitoshi’s hair.

Golden eyes warmed as Hitoshi’s violet ones gazed back.

Hitoshi let his eyes flutter shut, leaning in slowly to press his lips to Denki’s in a gentle kiss.

Denki’s palm sparked against his heart, causing it to skip a beat.

Hitoshi only chuckled and kissed him again, more than used to the feeling by now.

Feeling alive was never a foreign sensation when Denki was near.