Hello, everyone! Here is my story for the Ground Current Prompt Event! Enjoy some adorable shenanigans with two of the cutest BNHA bois~
Denki slowly ran his tongue up the side of the popsicle, catching the beads of melon-flavored goodness running in rivulets over its rapidly-melting green surface. Despite his best efforts, rivers of the sweet juice still ran down to coat his fingers, leaving them sticky and smudged with green. He was sitting in the shade of his umbrella, taking a break from the blazing summer sun to lounge in the cool circle of shade; however, when he heard Mina squeal particularly loudly, his gaze flicked to the expanse of rolling waves in front of him. His eyes fell upon Eijirou, who had Mina hefted over his shoulder and was preparing to launch her into the ocean.
Denki’s tongue halted its ascent up the popsicle. He couldn’t help it—he was entranced by the muscular planes of Eijirou’s body, by the slim pink lines of scars scattered over his tan skin that he could see even from the beach. Eijirou only had to hold Mina up by one arm wrapped around her slim pink waist; with his free hand, he raked his fingers through his damp red hair. God, look at the way his pecs quivered with each booming laugh—!
With a plop, a piece of the popsicle broke off and landed on Denki’s thigh. The cold striking his skin snapped him out of his trance. He looked down at the chunk of green ice and the streams of green juice now running either side of his leg with a petulant frown. Then, with a sigh, he flicked it away into the sand and then used his towel to wipe the popsicle juice off his leg.
“This trip to the beach is gonna be the death of me,” Denki grumbled and shoved the rest of the popsicle in his mouth. Maybe he could choke on that instead of his feelings.
Denki had been crushing on Eijirou since pretty much their first year. How could he not? He was kind, optimistic, cheerful, and so excruciatingly handsome. Eijirou had only gotten more attractive as time went on, becoming an Adonis walking the earth by their third year. He’d grown out his hair some, too. He usually wore it in a bun but let it loose today; it flowed around his shoulders like streams of fire itself, catching the sunlight in ways that made Denki’s heart play his ribs like bongo drums. Denki nursed his crush with the popsicle, trying to let the nice melon flavor soothe the yearning in his soul.
“Pining again, are we?”
Denki reflexively jerked, jamming the popsicle into the back of his throat. He immediately lurched forward with wracking coughs and hacks; the popsicle sailed out of his mouth to flop into the sand, but Denki was too busy coughing his throat to mourn its loss. Once the convulsions of his windpipe finally settled down, he whipped around to glare at Hanta with watery eyes.
“Dude! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Denki rasped while he rubbed his throat.
“Sorry to interrupt your sulky daydreaming,” Hanta shrugged, but the grin splitting his face betrayed that he wasn’t the least bit remorseful. “I wanted to see if you were ready to come out,” he continued with a meaningful wiggle of his eyebrows. Denki snorted at his pun, then pulled his legs up to wrap his arms around them. He propped his chin on his knees with a pout and looked back out to the sea, where a thoroughly soaked Mina was trying to wrestle Eijirou into the surf.
“Stop teasing me,” he mumbled. “You know I can’t…”
“Dude, we’ve talked about this,” Hanta sighed as he squatted down next to him and ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. “Eiji’s a nice guy! Even if he doesn’t feel the same about you, you know that he won’t let it ruin your friendship.”
“I knowwwwww, but it’s just haaaaaard!” Denki whined and dramatically flopped himself down into his towel. With his bottom lip jutting out in a pathetic pout, he just gazed longingly at the redhead frolicking in the sea. Sure, he would love to just confess his massive crush to the guy… But every time he thought about it, his belly twisted up into knots and his tongue became impossibly heavy.
“All right, all right, I won’t press you about it,” Hanta tutted and patted his shoulder. “But stop sulking up here and come play! This is the last week of summer before our third year starts. At least enjoy yourself a little bit!”
“Okayyyy…” Denki conceded and dragged himself to his feet. He plodded down into the surf with Hanta. He had to admit, the kiss of the sun over his skin and the splash of the cool water against his calves did make him feel a little better; it was hard to be moody when it was such a nice day. He waded out until the water was up to his waist, then crouched down until it lapped at his neck. He closed his eyes, focusing on the currents swirling around him, and tried to find peace with the sea.
When he opened them, Eijirou was standing right in front of him, and whatever sense of peace he’d acquired was shattered in an instant.
“Eiji!” Denki squealed, jumping up and sending water arcing all around him as his limbs flailed. “Jeez, you scared me!”
“Sorry,” the redhead apologized with a sheepish grin. “Mina wanted to know if you wanted to play a game of chicken with us!” He pointed off to his right, and Denki turned to see Mina perched on Katsuki’s shoulders.
“Come on!” she challenged, shaking her fist. “Lemme at ‘im, lemme at ‘im!”
“Stop squirmin’ up there!” Katsuki barked, wrapping his arms tighter around Mina’s legs. “You’re gonna fall off before we’ve even started!”
“So, you game?” Eijirou asked when Denki looked back at him. Hanta popped up into background, giving him a vigorous thumbs-up and mouthing, “Do it! Make him yours!”
Oh, I have the feeling I’m going to regret this… Denki thought, but he nodded in agreement anyway.
He was already regretting it as he perched on Eijirou’s broad shoulders, the redhead’s thick arms wrapped around his legs to keep him steady. Jeez, he was pretty sure he could feel each individual muscle! Was that his soul leaving his body?
“All right! Are we ready?” Hanta, the default officiator of the match, shouted, bringing Denki back to reality.
“Yeah! Let’s go, let’s go!” Mina cheered. Eijirou and Katsuki were standing across from one another, the surf swirling around their waists. As Mina squeezed her thighs a little around Katsuki’s neck, she drew a finger across her throat while her other gave Denki a thumbs-down. “You’re toast! I am the undisputed champion of chicken!”
If she only knew that I was the biggest chicken here.
“Go!” Hanta yelled and chopped his arm down through the air as if he were waving a flag. Denki helped and grabbed onto Eijirou’s head as he surged forward, charging at Katsuki. Denki barely had time to fling his arms up and grab Mina’s hands as she lunged at him. He interlocked their fingers, and the pink-haired girl leaned in to grin breathlessly at him.
“You seem a little out of it, Denki,” she teased, sticking out the tip of her tongue.
“Me? Out of it?” Oh, his voice was several octaves higher than it ought to be. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“Oh, sweet Denki, you know that I know everything there is to know~” she cackled devilishly. Denki felt the blood drain from his face; what was she up to? “Happy hunting~!” she cheered, then wrenched her hands away before giving him a hard shove right to the center of his chest. Denki yelped as he lurched backwards; with his legs locked around Eijirou’s shoulders, his momentum jerked the redhead back. Eijirou let out a shocked cry as his feet slipped in the squishy sand. The sky came rushing up to meet Denki, and then he was splashing down into the water.
Denki felt Eijirou’s body twist in an instinctual effort to try and catch himself. They splashed around in the water a bit, disoriented. When Denki’s head finally broke the water, he sputtered and tried to peer through the salt water burning his eyes; instead of the blazing azure sky, he was instead met with a bashful shark-toothed grin.
“Well, that didn’t go as well as I expected it to,” Eijirou laughed. He had somehow ended up right on top of Denki, one beefy arm planted by his hip while he straddled his legs. “Mina sure is tough.”
Denki tried to articulate a socially acceptable response, but his brain was too busy going Hot damn, hot damn, hot damn, hot damn to do so. Eijirou pulled his sodden bangs away from his eyes, then smiled through the water streaming down his face. “You okay?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m okay.” Denki’s tongue started flapping sooner than his mind could filter it. “I’m totally okay. You know why I’m okay? I’m totally in love with you, dude. This is great.”
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait—!
“Do what?”
“Do what?” Denki parroted in panic, realizing what he had just said. Thank God Hanta had pulled Mina and Hanta away to look at a hermit crab or something, because he would have died if they heard that. Trying to recover from the most uncool confession in the history of confessions, Denki nervously laughed, “You know what? I’m kinda hungry now, why don’t we—?”
“You like me?” Eijirou interrupted. Denki shut his mouth, then opened it, then shut it again.
Oh, no. Here it comes. I’ve ruined everything. This is it, this is the end, I need to move to Yemen and change my name—
“I, um… I like you too,” Eijirou admitted. A pink haze came to his cheeks as he averted his gaze, his lips tugging up into a bashful smile.
“Do what?” Denki said again, and Eijirou laughed. The redhead sat up, grabbing him by the wrist to pull him up into a sitting position.
“I said that I like you too.” He smiled sweetly at him, pushing his hair out of his face again as a chunk of it flopped back down into his eyes. “I didn’t say anything because, I dunno, I wasn’t sure how you would react. Katsuki’s been telling me to just suck it up and tell you for a while now, but—” he interrupted himself with a nervous laugh, his blush deepening. “I guess that doesn’t really matter. Um, do you wanna go out with me?”
“Uh, hell yeah!” Denki immediately cried. How could he refuse?
Eijirou smiled happily at him, his grin as blinding as the sun above. Denki smiled back, feeling himself melt from his head to his toe. Guess I’m the champion of chicken after all!
Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!
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