Denki was wondering whether he should tell Aizawa or not. Yaoyorozu worked for The Garden , and due to having escaped three years ago, he doesn't know what they're up to now. Sure, Denki wasn't that bad at using a computer ( He was one of the best back then) , but the organization isn't slack either. Tracking them will give them more chances to track him.
And Denki doesn't want to go back.
So the real question is, what are they trying to get from UA? Denki can't imagine them actually sending an infiltrator to UA, it was such a risky move and offly strange for the Garden...
Denki'll just stay silent for now.
~~~
He doesn't think Yaoyorozu's that big of a threat.
The Sports Festival only proved Denki right, Yaoyorozu wasn't that big of a threat. Although she may be able to think on the spot, her quirk just takes too long to make the items and she's not as good in combat as their classmates so that's another disadvantage. So that wasn't much of a surprise.
What was a surprise was Hyacinth. Denki didn't know what to expect, the courses were able to opt out of the Sports Festival if they chose to, but it seems that Hyacinth had a certain determination this time...
And that's when it snapped into place for Denki, Hyacinth was aiming for the hero course. In hindsight, it should've been obvious, but then again, Marigold wasn't known for his intellectual skills, even if he's no slack at them either.
What surprised him is how Hyacinth didn't notice him, or did Hyacinth notice him? He could never tell, he never knew what was going through Hyacinth's mind. He used to feel like a chess piece on his friend's board, constantly surprised by Hyacinth's moves, it seems like that feeling never really left.
It just faded.
It's been three years after all, things have changed, they've evolved. And that certainly applies to Hyacinth. Of course, he's always been an insomniac, but Denki noticed how it increased majorly. It must be the paranoia, Denki thought. It happened to him too, many times, staying up at night seeing if the Garden was going to find him, it's normal.
Of course, Denki shouldn't assume, especially now, where he knows nothing about Hyacinth. Everything he used to know was based off of the Garden. Hyacinth had anger and attachment issues, yeah, but overall was an amazing friend. That Denki would be grateful for.
However, Hyacinth doesn't count as a friend now, does he?
"Hey, Goldie, you coming?" Sero asked.
Denki felt a glimmer of hope when he spotted Hyacinth raise his head in the corner of his eyes, "Yeah, I'm coming."
Hopefully, Hyacinth doesn't find Yaoyorozu first.
~~~
The Sports Festival seemed to rail on and on, the fights were incredibly reckless and the strategies were sub-par in Denki's mind. There were a million other ways to subdue the opponent, and Denki had just happened to specialize in that. He found himself increasingly frustrated as the most obvious solutions were just in front of their faces ! Unlike Hyacinth's stone cold reaction to this, Denki kept his smile perfectly placed.
The Bakusquad can't suspect anything about him anyway.
Denki cheered when the Sports Festival was over, not that it was out of place.
Now he just needed to track down Hyacinth, and he was going to do that through Midoriya, "Hey, Midoriya-"
Midoriya snapped out of his quirk muttering trance ( something about a brainwashing quirk? Denki knew it was Hyacinth's.) "Hey, um, Marigold, right? Or Kaminari-"
"Marigold is fine," Denki smiled, "I was just gonna' ask if y'know where the purple haired kid went since I saw you two talking."
Midoriya's face lit up with recognition, "Oh yeah, he just went near the cafeteria."
"Okay, thanks!"
~~~
Denki wandered through the halls in search of the cafeteria, wondering what he was going to say to Hyacinth. Except the fact that his thinking time was cut a little short with the abrupt bumping into someone. "Sorry, sorry, I wasn't paying atten-"
"Marigold?"
Denki looked up, and there he was, in all his glory, "Hyacinth?"
Hyacinth stared at him, as if expecting him to say something.
"Huh? Oh," Denki grinned sheepishly, how could he forget? "Pluck off the petal of the Marigold, stare at the Iris-"
"-And may the Hyacinth be with your spirit," Hyacinth finished off, "So...Marigold, or should I say Kaminari Denki ."
"Hello, Hyacinth, or should I say, Shinsou Hitoshi. " Denki gestured to the cafeteria, "Feel like springing this joint for a cafe, or staying in the food court?"
Hyacinth scanned the area, his eyes focusing on one person, "Spring this joint."
Denki followed his gaze to one of his classmates, Yaoyorozu . It was safe to assume that Hyacinth either knew or was getting really suspicious, "Agreed. Feel like catching up over coffee or icecream?"
"Is that even a question?"
Denki grinned as he saw an edge of Hyacinth's lips quirk up. It was good to have his friend back. They just needed Iris.
~~~~
Denki sipped his caramel Frappuccino, "So, these past 3 years, what happened? Not it! You go first!"
Hyacinth sighed, "You didn't even give me time to reply."
"Exactly," sluuuuurp , "Now explain."
"Right," Hyacinth took a sip of his bitter black coffee, "Well, you gave me the information for my family, but instead of tracking them down, I went to the police station unlike a certain someone."
"How did you even know???"
Hyacinth shrugged, "You're just that person, Goldie. Anyways, I eventually did get to my family, except, they were kind of weird."
"Was it culture shock? Regular shock?"
Hyacinth's eyes connected with Denki's, "They didn't expect to see me again. Apparently I had been kidnapped and probably wouldn't have been found."
Denki's grip tightened, "Imagine how many more kids are like you - like us -"
"That's why I want to be a hero," Hyacinth's voice was soft spoken.
Denki maintained eye contact as he responded, "Yeah, me too. Maybe we'll meet Iris and become a trio."
"Either way, we'll make it there," Denki continued, a solid resolve hanging in the air, "We will."
They both left with high hopes.
~~~
Denki had to do a lot of catching up with Hyacinth. They continued meeting for a week continuously, filling each other in on parts of their life that they hadn't known about. By the time they were done, things felt normal again, except with a new person.
After that, they agreed to meet two times a week. They were busy, after all. They had their own lives. And especially Denki, who was in the hero course.
"I can't believe she sent you a message," Hyacinth said, "We haven't seen her at all. "
Denki snapped his attention back on Hyacinth, "Yeah, all I know is that she still had blond hair. But she was being kind of shady."
"You don't think..."
"Think what?"
"You don't think Iris got caught again, do you?"
Denki had never considered that a possibility, but now that it was Hyacinth saying it, that was actually a very big possibility, "Then how is she alive?"
"They're keeping her alive as bait or something," Hyacinth said, "Or as an infiltrator."
"As bait? We're not worth that much though." Denki couldn't make sense of the situation.
"What if her parents are?" Hyacinth suggested, "You wouldn't know."
"That actually does sound plausible," Denki hesitated before saying, "I don't think she got caught though."
Hyacinth frowned, "We wouldn't actually know though."
"There's no way she would be left alive if she got caught," Denki said, "We're disposable, they'd just end us if we got caught." Denki added, "She's alive I saw her. She can't be with the Garden."
It was an expression that Denki was familiar with, Hyacinth's frustration that made the roots of his anger spark, "But we have no idea where she would be."
Denki gulped, he really didn't want to suggest this, "We know she's doing something shady, right?" At Hyacinth's nod, he continued, "What if instead of the Garden, she's working for someone else?"
"Who could she be working for?"
"I don't know, but I have an idea."
~~~
"Goldie, you've been hanging around Shinsou a lot," Sero brought up randomly one day.
"Yeah, Dunce Face, you're hanging around Insomni-Bitch a lot," Bakugou agreed.
Denki shrugged, he hadn't noticed how much he was hanging out with Hyacinth. All this time with him seemed miniscule compared to their time at the Garden. They had practically lived together, and then were abruptly separated. Having Hyacinth here was like an anchor Denki could finally get his hands on. Finally some sense of normality after 3 years of shock and adjusting. "I mean, he's one of my best friends." Denki felt a bit uncomfortable with the silence, "I don't know what you want me to say."
"He's one of your best friends? Didn't you guys just meet each other?" Sero questioned.
"We're childhood friends," Denki replied, "I've known him since I was about 5. Or as young as I can remember."
"You guys practically grew up together!" Ashido exclaimed, "That's so adorable!"
Denki smiled, "Yeah. I hadn't seen him in 3 years though, we were separated but agreed to meet up in UA."
"That was a good idea," Sero nodded in approval, "Sero approved."
Denki grinned, "Sero approved huh? Glad I got that seal of approval."
"You better be!"
~~~
Denki couldn't sleep, and he knew Hyacinth was most likely dead asleep or too bored to talk, so that wasn't an option. He slapped on a hoodie and some sweatpants and opened his door, wary of any creaks. Sneaking out of the dorm was easier than he expected it to be, for Denki, that luckily meant that he wasn't getting rusty. Or else, he hoped.
He found it ironic how he was gripping onto his past so tightly when all he wanted back then was to escape.
Denki wandered through UA aimlessly, letting his feet control his destination.
The wind blew, creating a song that was music to Denki's ears. The moon was the only source of light he had, and he was fine with that. It looked like a bright lamp, one of those in the infirmary. It gave Denki a bitter nostalgia, all those times he would wake up in the infirmary after passing out from the tests. The Garden wasn't nice.
Eventually, Denki's feet led him to a bench and he sat down. He sighed, taking a moment to clear his mind. A lot of things happened this past month.
As Denki wondered how Iris was doing, he also wondered what Iris was doing. There's no way she could be a villain, right?
Time was the only way to tell.
And he hoped it didn't take too long.