Alright, after the recent developements, I have to ask this: Angst 6: “Don’t you ever do that again!” for Kamijirou.
[ “Don’t you ever do that again!” ]
It feels weird that his eyes are closed, because Denki swears he was right in the middle of a battle.
He thinks he can hear someone yelling his hero name, but the ringing in his ears is so loud it’s hard to tell. And wow, does he ache. His whole body is shooting in and out of a blissful numbness and pains so powerful that he’s glad when he’s numb again.
“Chargebolt!” He hears again, with more urgency and clarity.
His thoughts are sluggish and muddy, but he knows that voice, doesn’t he?
“Denki!” The voice is right next to him now, and Denki feels a warm pressure wrap around his hand while tiny splashes of something wet plink onto his cheek. “I swear, if you don’t open your eyes, I’ll- I’ll shove your dumb fingers straight into a plug socket or something- and I-” More splashes. A touch that tingles down his cheek. “Wake up, you idiot.”
He really wants to, but Denki feels like he’s riding the edge of oblivion; coming in and out of sensation and thought and feeling and there’s nothing at all right below him.
It would be so easy to slip into…
A sharp pinch replaces the caress on his cheek, and he scrunches his eyes against the newest pain against the background of all the larger, deeper pains. “Ow,” he mumbles.
“You… pinched… me?” Denki manages, his voice scratchy and weak.
“Well it worked didn’t it?”
Denki opens his eyes slowly and the blurry face of Jirou swims into focus. She makes a sound that seems caught halfway between a laugh and a sob. Her eyes are red and puffy and there are two clear lines of tears cutting a path through the dust on her cheeks.
He reaches up a shaky hand to brush at the tears and Jirou clasps it between her own.
“You never… cry,” Denki says, trying to get his mouth to form anything even vaguely resembling his trademark grin, but his lips are cracked and painful. “Who… died?”
She laughs this time. “You nearly did, you- you- dumbass! Why’d you jump in front of that blast for me, huh!? Don’t you ever do that again!”
But despite her smile, she’s still crying.
Denki tries to move but Jirou puts her other hand on his chest to keep him in place. “No, don’t. You’ve got to stay still.” She bites her lip and he can see the fear in her eyes more clearly now that his vision isn’t swaying. “Help’s on the way, okay?”
Denki tries to nod, and he winces. “Ow.”
“What did I just say?” Jirou says with a scoff and a voice so thick with affection that Denki isn’t sure he hasn’t already died and gone to heaven. “The others are dealing with the villain. Don’t worry.”
She says ‘don’t worry’ but her eyes say something else.
Denki smiles and he feels his lip crack. Doesn’t matter.
“I… saved you,” he says, and the words feel perfect in his mouth. Like he was born to say them.
“You did,” she confirms, squeezing his hand and letting a fresh wave of tears stream down her cheeks. “You’re my hero, Denki,” she says softly, “always have been. Always will be.”
Something inside him relaxes at that. Good. He did good. And hearing her say that… it fills him with something his pain addled brain can’t even begin to express or understand.
“Does this mean you won’t… put my fingers… in a plug socket anymore? ‘Cause actually that sounded… kinda kinky… and I’d be totally into… tha-”
The kiss that shuts him up is as rough as it is gentle. It reminds him of Jirou herself.
He doesn’t want it to be their first and last.
