So I didn’t write as much as I’d like for the shinkami shipweek :( buuuuut I did make this aesthetic board that I’m proud of lol and I wanted to share it (who made 💜💛 so aesthetically pleasing???)
(this doesn’t refer to a specific day/prompt, it’s just like a general aesthetic)
Denki knows he’s an unbearable morning person, he’s been reminded of it his entire life. But there’s just something about the opening shift at Bakugou’s cafe that makes him even more boisterous.
Mina sighs as she flips the sign. She looks exhausted as she slips behind the counter and leans on Denki’s shoulder. Kirishima usually takes this shift with him, but he’s at a conference for the week.
“How do you do this every day?” she asks. Denki smiles, shrugging.
“Just a morning person, I guess,” he says. Mina shakes her head, standing up straight when the bell above the door jingles. She walks toward the register, but casts a disbelieving look over her shoulder.
“I’m a morning person. You’re a monster.”
Denki can’t hold in the full-bellied laugh as he steps into the back to pull the pastries from the oven. He delicately places croissants when the door jingles again. With a sunny grin he calls out without looking up.
“Welcome to King Explosion Koffee! We’ll be with you in just a moment.”
The person just hums. Not a morning person, then. Denki glances up and immediately freezes. It’s like everything happens in slow motion. He’s still holding the tray of croissants, Mina is handing a drink to a customer and nodding to the man who just walked in. He’s gorgeous and exactly Denki’s type and he’s about to miss his chance.
As if on instinct, Denki reaches out to tug Mina back toward him and drags her back into the kitchen. He sets the tray down and grips her shoulders.
“What was that?” she asks and Denki shakes her shoulders.
“Did you not see him, Mina? I need this,” he says. Mina frowns.
“The guy?” she asks, leaning out of the kitchen to look at tall, dark, and tired with a pout. “That’s your type, Kami? Really?”
“Just let me have this,” he says. Mina rolls her eyes, grabbing the tray of croissants and bumps their hips together as she steps out to finish setting them out behind the counter.
“It’s way too early for bi-panic, Kami. He’s all yours,” she says. Denki runs a hand through his hair, regrets it, tries to fix the mess he’s made, and then jolts toward the counter when he realizes that the guy is still waiting.
You’d think that being pretty popular would make him immune to the effects of drop-dead gorgeous people, but you would be wrong. Denki stumbles up to the counter, a sunny grin on his face as he leans in. He just has to flirt. He’s good at flirting.
He can do this.
“What can I getcha?” he asks. The guy’s eyes give him a quick once over before he sighs and closes his eyes.
“What’s the strongest drink you have?” he asks. Denki tilts his head.
“Probably the Ground Zero,” he says thoughtfully. The man nods.
“Great. I’ll have that in the biggest cup you have with an extra three shots.”
Denki pauses, brows furrowing, hands pausing over the register.
“Uh--are you okay?” he asks. The man blinks slowly.
“Depends on your definition,” he says. Denki pouts, typing in the order anyway.
“That’s not a very good answer,” he says. The man cracks a little grin at that and Denki feels a warm sense of accomplishment he wasn’t expecting. He grins back. “Not a morning person, then?”
The guy leans in and Denki’s breath catches. He smells good, too, which is definitely a crime against Denki’s sanity.
“Does it still count as morning if I’ve been up all night?”
Denki blinks and his eyes dart between Ground Zero Guy’s eyes and lips a few times. He might bite his lip, too, but it’s all a blur. He can’t be sure. If the smirk the guy shoots him is any indication, though, he definitely did and damn if that isn’t the most embarrassing thing he’s done in a while.
“Uh--well--I mean…” he trails off before the words really hit him and he stares into those violet eyes in shock. “Hold on, you’ve been up all night and now you’re getting coffee?”
He shrugs.
“Pretty typical Tuesday for me, actually.”
“Dude, I’m, like, super concerned about your health.”
The guy leaned in and Denki was about fifty percent sure it was because he was interested in him, but he couldn’t be sure. Not yet, anyway.
“I guess I’ll just have to keep coming by,” he says and Denki holds his breath. This dude is completely unfair. “Just so you can check up on me.”
Denki’s mouth is suddenly dry, his voice but a distant memory. He remembers the days when he could talk fondly. The days when he didn’t just stare at gorgeous people with violet eyes and lavender hair like a gaping fish.
Those were good days, he thinks.
“Yeah. I guess you will,” he breathes. The guy smirks as he leans away, waiting for something. Denki baltedly realizes he’s waiting to pay and get his drink. He fumbles with the register, taking the card he hands over and working on auto-pilot. “Can I get a name? For the cup?”
“Shinsou.”
Denki nods, writing it on the cup and shuffling to the machines. Mina is failing to hold in her giggles and Denki glares at her.
“If you don’t write your number on there I’m disowning you,” she whispers. “He’s totally into you.”
Denki frowns, looking between the cup and Shinsou. He’s typing something on his phone, completely casual nonchalance. It’s unfair. He bites his lip, looking back to Mina.
“What if he’s just like that?”
Mina squeezed his shoulder comfortingly.
“Kami, he keeps looking at you. And when you turned around he definitely looked at your ass.”
“He did?”
“Yes!” she said, shaking him and looking pointedly at the cup. “Now write your number on there!”
Denki nods, scribbling his number on the cup frantically before making the coffee. He puts the extra shots in, but he still grimaces as he thinks about how much caffeine Shinsou is about to consume.
He takes a steadying breath before turning to Shinsou and holding the cup out over the counter. Shinsou takes it and their fingers brush and Denki nearly drops the cup all over Shinsou’s shirt. Scrubs?
Denki hadn’t even noticed that. He’s wearing scrubs. Denki’s stomach flutters and he doesn’t want to think about why.
Denki throws on his best smile when Shinsou looks up at him again. If he just keeps smiling he can make it through his conversation.
“Have a good day,” he says. “Come again soon!”
Shinsou smirks, humming with a little nod. He walks out the door and Denki can finally take a breath, his heart racing in his chest. He might not survive another conversation with Shinsou.
Pulsing. It's always pulsing, when Denki presses his hand against Hitoshi's.
The light -- soft summer yellow -- radiates from his wrist like a glowstick. His soulmark. Half evolution-borne fluorescence, half magic. Denki stares at it in the dark of their intimacy, watches it wane and breathe to life again in a span of a few seconds, like an ember fed by the wind.
"I wish I could live in this moment forever," He whispers, cheek pressed against a pillow.
Hitoshi, face illluminated by the lilac glow of his wrist, brings Denki's hand to his lips. Their soulmarks beat brighter in unison.
"You know what to do," Hitoshi says.
Denki tightens his grip on his hand. Hitoshi loosens his, and lets go.
The light dies out in a single blink as Hitoshi rises from the bed. Denki gasps like he'd been struck, following his soulmate with his body. With his everything.
"Please," Denki trembles, "It's not too late for you."
A smile quickly pulls at Hitoshi's lips. "Not too late, huh," A huff. "Don't beg. That's not what heroes are supposed to do."
"I'll do anything for you--"
"Then come with me," Hitoshi cuts him off, hand outstretched. "Come with me."
Denki twitches, hesitates. He grabs his wrist tight, knuckles turning white, and avoids his eyes.
Hitoshi's hand drops back to his side, untaken. Something misty and black materializes behind him in the dim of Denki's room -- and in an instant, he is gone, swallowed whole.
Denki keeps gripping his wrist long after his lover had gone. It pulses -- the pain pulses, bone deep with unlit fluorescence, but he holds on.