Thursday was Thursday, and that was all Denki could say about it. Nothing new or unusual happened, besides Present Mic accidentally getting excited in class and breaking a window with his yell.

He was just glad it wasn't his eardrums.

His head on the other hand...

"I can't believe Mic threw his chalk at me," Denki complained, rubbing said sore patch. "I've got chalk dust in my hair now."

"Maybe if you'd been paying attention he wouldn't have thrown it." Sero snickered.

"Like you're one to talk," Denki snorted.

Bakugou whacked Denki in the back of the head. "At least he's subtle about it, idiot."

"Do I have a target on my head today or something?!"

Kirishima laughed. "Yeah, a 'naturally growing' lightning bolt."

"It is natural." Denki pouted. "Why would I dye this?"

"Kirishima styles his damn shitty hair every morning. Takes forever."

"A small price to pay for the aesthetic."

"Couldn't you just focus your quirk into you hair all the time?" Sero asked, and Kirishima frowned.

"Couldn't you just keep firing tape for an entire day?" He retorted in the same tone.

"Understandable. Have a nice day."

Denki laughed, loud and clear. "I love you guys," he said, slinging an arm around both Sero and Kirishima. "Mina, get in here!"

Ashido cheered, jumping right into the hug. "Tomorrow is gonna be so great, we've got nineteen players!"

Everyone froze.

"Ashido..." Kirishima said slowly, pulling out of the hug so he could stare at her. "There's twenty people in the class."

"What?"

"I could've sworn we--"

"Nineteeeeeeeeennn players!" She waved her arms wildly, nearly clocking Denki on the nose.

Denki's eyes widened as he leant out of range, before he turned to Kirishima.

"Who's number twenty?" He said lowly. "You don't mean--"

"Ooooooooooohhhhhhhh! Aizawa-sensei!" Ashido cried.

"I was gonna say M--"

"Do we really want Aizawa-sensei playing?" Sero asked, and Kirishima punched his shoulder.

"Dude! He's like, the most important member of our class! We may as well ask, right?"

"... I have a bad feeling about this."

* * *

"Kaminari, come with?" Kirishima asked as he slid up next to Denki's desk as the final bell rang out.

"Where to?"

"Aizawa-sensei." Kirishima shrugged. "I was kinda joking before, but Mina's insisting."

He jerked a thumb over to where the pink girl was sitting, and Ashido waved back, huge grin plastered over her face.

Denki leaned back in his chair, pointing a pencil at Kirishima. "And you want me to go with you to the front of the classroom."

"Hey, I know you'd be just as nervous about this!"

"You want me there as emotional support?"

Kirishima's famous sheepish smile was back.

"Oh for-" Denki broke off into a sigh, pulling himself to his feet. "Come on then, you useless pile of rocks."

The two made their way to the front of the classroom, Aizawa glancing up from his notes as they approached.

"Yes?" His tone was tired, though that wasn't unusual.

"Uh, hey, Sensei." Kirishima began, lifting a hand in weak greeting. "I uh- we- Kaminari had something he wanted to ask you!"

"What- I- no! You ass I-- Sensei uhhhh..." Denki tried shoving his friend forwards to no avail, a light tussle ensuing. "We- as in uh, the whole class-"

"If it has something to do with my personal life, you can stop there." Aizawa interrupted, looking back down and shuffling his papers. "I will not answer anything, and yes that includes questions about my cats."

Denki looked over his shoulder at Kirishima, who motioned for him to continue. "Well, uh no, this isn't about you, but we uhhh..." he sent a look to Kirishima, internally screaming help.

"We have a class activity planned Friday night," Kirishima said finally, stepping forwards to be brushing shoulders with Denki. "Everyone else has said they'll be there, so we were wondering if you would like to attend too."

"Does it involve breaking curfew?"

Denki could feel Aizawa's urge to just lie face down on the ground, he sounded so tired.

Kirishima grinned. "Nope! We'll go to bed whenever you deem it necessary!"

"Well, it's a Friday, he doesn't exactly have a say..." Denki murmured. Aizawa blinked slowly.

"So what is it you're asking?"

"We want to have a full class game of Uno!" Denki blurted out, and Kirishima nodded his agreement.

"And... you're asking my permission?"

A beat.

"To play a card game?"

"No- we uh- we've already- it's uh--"

"They're meant to be asking if you want to join us!" Ashido called from her seat. She was one of the last people left in the classroom, having stayed in her seat to watch the boys flail.

"You want me to join you?"

The three of them nodded vigorously.

Aizawa's attention turned to his papers again. "No."

"Awwww! Sensei, why not?!"

"I simply have no interest in playing games with you kids." He said flatly. "I have work to do, and although I'm sure you do too-" he paused, giving a pointed look to each of them in turn. "- just don't go disturbing the other students with your racket."

"Huh?" Denki tilted his head to the side, a little confused. "What's that mean?"

"Dude, Aizawa-sensei's just saying to keep the volume down when we play!" Kirishima said, slinging an arm around Denki.

"We knew that already, though."

Regardless, Ashido cheered, skipping up to the boys and punching Kirishima's shoulder lightly. "And we cap off at nineteen players!"

Aizawa made a slight noise, and the three of them turned to him. He didn't look up from his papers.

"Sensei?"

"I suggest you leave this classroom sooner rather than later."

They took his advice, grabbing their bags and dashing for the door.

"Why does Aizawa-Sensei scare us so much, anyway?" Ashido asked once they were a fair distance from the door.

"It's his reputation," Kirishima replied waving a hand about. "We're the first class to ever get past the first day, let alone term."

"Yeah, no idea how some of us passed."

"We barely made it through!"

"Don't remind me!" Denki groaned, dropping his head. "And now I'm too emotionally invested in a card game to actually focus on my studies!"

Ashido giggled. "Yeah, it does that to you."

"Hey, we have Yaoyorozu and Iida regulating play time with work time, it's not that bad."

"You actually believe saying I'm going to study means I actually do?"

"I know it means I do."

Denki elbowed Kirishima in the side. "You have Bakugou to keep you on top of things."

"We've literally had group study sessions twice this week." Kirishima retorted, elbowing him right back.

Ashido rolled her eyes. "Seriously? You're arguing about this?"

"I'll have you know this is a very important matter."

"Uh huh." Ashido puffed out her cheeks. "Sure."

The three of them fell into a strange silence, before cracking up with laughter.

"Tomorrow's gonna be hectic." Denki finally said after the laughs had died down a little. "Nineteen players, two decks of cards and I still don't have a proper grasp on the rules."

"We're gonna destroy so many friendships." Kirishima agreed, and Ashido shook her head at a speed Denki didn't think was possible.

"Don't say that, Kiri!" She cried. "I know it's a joke, but I actually don't want this to end up between people."

But if the previous games had been any indication to Denki, it took much more than an abnormally aggressive game of cards to force the class apart.

* * *

"-So if you manage to snap a skip card, the next two people get skipped!"

"Ah, okay, that makes sense!" Hagakure said. She may have nodded, but nobody in the class could tell. Denki certainly couldn't.

"Are there any rules we've missed?" Ashido asked, and Kirishima tapped his chin in thought.

"Mmmm no, I think we got them."

"Perfect!"

"Would've been more fun to chuck you shits into the deep end." Bakugou grumbled, slouching.

Denki grinned, knocking shoulders with him. "That would be fun," he agreed. "But everyone deserves an equal chance to win, right?"

Sero snorted. "Equal? Kaminari, you're never gonna win and you know that."

"Let me dream," he sniffed dramatically, turning his nose up to the ceiling. "I doubt you would understand my vision."

He was starting to sound a bit like Aoyama, and that was a little odd. Denki nudged Bakugo again. "Hey, go easy on me this time?"

"Like hell I will." Bakugou growled back, shifting so he could rest his forearms on his knees. "Don't fucking jitter and I might consider not blasting you to pieces."

"Aww, you do care!"

"Yo Kaminari, move over would you?" Kirishima said, jerking his head to the side. Denki blinked.

"Huh?"

"There's no room on the floor," he elaborated, and Denki leant to the side so he could see around Kirishima. Indeed, with nineteen people crowded around one little table, there was no space on the floor, aside from where Kirishima was standing - and that was barely enough for him to place his feet.

Denki shifted to the side as much as possible, and Kirishima squeezed in between him and Bakugou.

"I don't get it," Denki said lowly, squishing further into the couch. "How come you always try to sit as close as possible to Bakugou?"

Kirishima stared at him like he had grown a second set of eyes. As far as Denki knew, his quirk didn't have a secondary effect like that.

"Because he's my friend." Kirishima said after a pause, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Bakugou's mouth twisted oddly, and he turned his head away.

"Hold on-" Denki leant forwards, chest to his knees so he could stare at Bakugou in shock. "Was that a smile? An honest-to-gods, genuine, not-looking-like-you're-gonna-murder-anyone smile?"

The rest of the class fell silent, seventeen heads whipping around to stare at Bakugou.

Tiny explosions popped in his hands as he scowled. "Let's just fucking play."

Kirishima's smile was blindingly bright. "Mina, would you do the honours of dealing the cards?"

Denki eventually moved to sit on the armrest of the couch, one foot tucked underneath his other leg. It meant he had to throw his cards to reach the table, but it was a small price to pay, preferring it to being crushed by Kirishima into the side of the couch.

Besides, he was bad enough at the game to start with, was more was another disadvantage?"

Hagakure played a red six, which was immediately snapped by Bakugou. Kirishima placed a red three, which was snapped by Bakugou again before Denki could even react. Kirishima then put down a yellow three, but in his haste Denki put a red card down instead.

"Penalty!" The class cried in unison, and Uraraka flicked the card back towards him from her spot on the floor. Denki sighed.

"Pass up another one, then." He said, and Uraraka did so as Koda continued the game with a yellow seven.

In a regular game, it probably would have gone Ashido, Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Bakugou, Kirishima, Denki, Koda, Shouji, Tokoyami, Ojiro, Hagakure, Asui, Uraraka, Midoriya, Todoroki, Iida, Sato, Aoyama, and Sero. It had yet made a full round without jumping several people.

The chaos was great, if Denki was being honest. Sure, there was no chance in the world of him ever winning, but that was part of the fun. Because with nineteen players, it was near impossible to guess who would win.

Though it was probably Bakugou.

Speaking of which, Bakugou had jumped forward at the same time as Todoroki, their cards hitting the pile at the exact same time. Neither of them removed their hand, locking gazes.

"Oooh~" Hagakure said, giggling. "Intense!"

"So who got there first?" Ashido asked, eyes flicking between the two boys. Everyone had agreed that if two people moved at the same time, whoever's card got there first would be considered the actual move. So far, Denki had lost six of these such battles.

"I did." Todoroki said flatly, not breaking eye contact with Bakugou.

"The fuck you on about, icy hot?" Bakugou shot back, still half out of his seat from putting his card down.

Hagakure giggled again. "I think it's a draw."

"Indeed," Tokoyami nodded solemnly. "It seems the cards touched the deck at the same moment."

Denki shifted in his seat, trying to see what they meant. He nearly fell off the couch (for the second time that week), but underneath Todoroki and Bakugou's hands he could see that they were right - neither card was on top of the other, meaning there was no way to tell who got there first.

Bakugou's scowl deepened as they didn't move. Todoroki's expression never changed, and he never broke his stare at Bakugou. Denki was kind of unnerved by the intensity of his gaze. He'd only seen the same expression on Todoroki's face once before, and that was when he threw down the gauntlet to Midoriya at the sport's festival.

"Scissors, paper, rock?" Ojiro suggested, nervous smile plastered over his face. Denki was a little glad someone looked how he felt.

In fact, as Denki looked around the group, he noted that most of them did.

Barring Midoriya, Hagakure (well, she probably was, but there was the rather glaringly obvious reason as to why Denki couldn't tell), and Tokoyami, everyone was a little nervous at the showdown between Todoroki and Bakugou.

Uraraka shifted a little away from the table, Ashido doing the same. Koda looked like he wanted to, instead leaning back so he was half hidden by the couch. Iida sat up a little straighter, as if his authority as class president would solve this.

"Back down before I blast your face off." Bakugou growled.

Todoroki didn't even blink.

Denki laughed nervously, bringing his other leg up to sit cross-legged on the arm of the couch.

"I agree with Ojiro," Yaoyorozu said, gingerly placing her cards face-down on the edge of the table. "Scissors, paper, rock would be the easiest way to solve this."

"Easiest, my ass." Bakugou snorted. "The easiest was to solve this shit is for icy hot to admit defeat and back the fuck down."

"Why would I back down if I'm right?"

Midoriya hid a snort into his cards, but not well enough because Bakugou's scowl was then directed at him instead of Todoroki.

"Deku, you're gonna be chicken shit when I'm done with you."

He shrugged nonchalantly, as if Bakugou had just asked how his day had been. "I kind of agree with Yaoyorozu and Ojiro." He said, and Bakugou straight up hissed. Denki watched in concern.

"If I wasn't holding cards right now..." he threatened.

Todoroki raised an eyebrow. "You would what?"

Bakugou dropped all his cards and launched himself at Todoroki. Kirishima jumped up, dragging him back to sit down.

"Um..." Jirou set her cards down on the arm of the couch next to her, reaching for the scattered cards. "Bakugou, you do realise you lost the showdown, right?"

Kirishima has to practically lie on Bakugou to stop him from throwing himself at Todoroki again.

Todoroki brought his hand back from the pile empty, card now resting neatly on top.

"Thought you would have learnt to not go for the bait." Sero commented quietly.

"Fuck you!"

"Uno." Todoroki said.

Bakugou screamed.

Denki took to staring at the pile so he wouldn't be the victim of Bakugou's rage (it seemed to always happen). His eyes slid to his own cards, unfocused for a moment before his gaze locked onto one in particular.

He looked back and forth between the pile and his hand a few times, just to make sure.

Denki yelped, before sliding clumsily off the couch and snapping a card to the pile. The class fell silent, staring at him.

"... what?"

"Did you..."

"Kaminari, you actually snapped?"

He grinned. "Don't sound so surprised."

Koda quickly placed his card down (a yellow draw two) before ducking back behind the couch.

Todoroki went back to staring flatly at Bakugou, leaning forwards so he could place his final card on top of the pile. "I win."

Everyone scrambled backwards as Bakugou blasted the table, leaving it scarred with scorch marks. A few burnt cards floated down, and Ashido sighed.

"That was a new deck, too..."