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Denki watches way too much TikTok. He has seen way too many trends, challenges, concepts, and various random shit. This includes the La Esmeralda 'Esmeralda Ballet variation' trend. The one with the super high kicks and sometimes a tambourine. Usually done by a professional ballet dancer, but sometimes an amateur will attempt to do so. Denki, a genuinely intelligent boy whose academic skills don't translate well in school, is also stupid. Not because he can't focus on work properly but because he thought that sticking his tongue directly in a socket would charge him up faster. So a smart boy has stupid ideas? That's typical. Except this smart boy in particular is an extreme extrovert, who talks easily and a lot. And he claims that his specific brand of love language is, "Sharing and trying dumb shit with my bros!"
Part of this dumb shit is TikTok trends. He's done 'Put Your Finger Down' challenges with Hanta, 'Name the Song' challenges with Kyouka, almost killed the kitchen with a mini blueberry tart with Mina and Eijirou. He's tried a thousand trends with pretty much every person in the dorms, except for one person: Bakugou Katsuki. The ultimate king of stubbornness. Denki has tried everything in an attempt to really finalize that bond with his fellow blond. Then, Mina drags Denki into the dance side of TikTok even though he can just barely dance well enough to call it dancing and he stumbles into the ballet side at 2:41 in the morning and loses it. This shit is say more difficult than he thought it'd be, and it's a challenge. Which makes the Esmeralda dance trend the perfect bait to secure Denki's friendship with one Bakugou Katsuki.
"Kacchan, I have a challenge for you," Denki shouts, leaping on to the arm of the couch precariously.
Katsuki rolls his eyes, dragging Denki down and barking, "Sit properly, Drooly before you fucking fall and concuss your own dumb ass."
Denki waves him off as he yanks out his phone to shove it in Katsuki's face. "Bro, I challenge you to the Esmeralda dance trend challenge," Denki announces, "You didn't dance during the culture festival. So, I'm gonna assume that ya can't dance unless proven otherwise."
Across the room, Izuku snorts into his cup of milk. Katsuki raises an eyebrow and scowls, "Now what the fuck makes you think I got the time for that crap?"
Hanta, ever the enabler to Denki's bullshit, jeers, "He can't dance! The talented Bakugou can't do something!"
Izuku giggles maniacally into his mug, earning a strange look from Tenya and Ochako. Shouto keeps slurping his soba, uncaring to all but his gluten-filled noodles. "Bros, come on, you can't expect Bakugou to to do everything you guys challenge him to," Eijirou tries to defend, but ultimately does not help the matter at hand
"Oh so you little shitstains think you're better than me? Fat chance," Katsuki snarls, palms popping, "When the fuck do you want me to kick your ass?"
"An hour from now is good," Denki grins, "I'll give you the chance to watch the video."
Katsuki rolls his eyes and heads up to his rooms. Hitoshi drawls from his place on the floor, "You're gonna regret it."
Denki waves his hand, denying Hitsohi's statement as he pulls out his phone, "Nah! It'll all be good fun, you'll see!"
Blacked out the dorms 2 times: @everyone Baku agreed to do a challenge w me!!! Come watch pls pls pls pls
Girlboss eardrums: can't wait to see baku kick ur ass
clifford the big red rock: Both my bros r gonna kill it!!! Theyre both so manly i think theyll both do good
Popeye but bad bones: Sorry Kamimari but
Popeye but bad bones: 2000 yen kacchan kicks the shit out of kaminari
powered by orange juice engines: Midoriya!
pinkalicious pinka-vicious: ur on!!! Baku cant be good at everything!!
powered by orange juice engines: Ashido!! Don't engage in underage gambling schemes through bets on fellow peers! It is disrespectful and illegal!
flex tape premium: im recording this whole thing
Ochako turned to Izuku at the table as he smiled deviously as he sipped his milk. "What do you know," she asked, dubious of the whole scheme.
Izuku ignored the reprimands Tenya was directing to him as he smiled a sharp grin, "Oh, nothing, besides the fact Kacchan will win.
"I know you are confident in Bakugou's abilities, but the Esmeralda looks like quite the difficult feat," Tenya commented, "How can you be sure?"
Izuku drummed his fingers excitedly against the table, his smile the only answer. Shouto, who had been eating soba the whole time, popped open a bag of dried fruit snacks and ate them as though they would provide the knowledge Izuku was withholding.
Every student in Class 1-A gathered in the common room as Katsuki and Denki stood in the center. The couches had been shoved out of the way and the music for the Esmeralda was queued up. Denki twisted his torso side to side as Katsuki leaned against the wall in a loose singlet and grey leggings under black shorts. He was wearing odd, slipper-like peach shoes and held a tamborine. He looked smug. "Friend and foes," Denki announced dramatically while glancing Katsuki and Izuku's directions for the foes part, "Welcome to the dance battle of the century!"
Mina swept in, hip checking Denki to the side. She held a chunky stiletto as a microphone and faced Hanta's direction. "This is the ultimate dance battle of Class 1-A. Our competitors, Bakugou Katsuki and Kaminari Denki, face off in the Esmeralda Dance trend from TikTok. The original ballet is from the pre-Quirk era, inspired by the 1837 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, another pre-Quirk era source," she reported to Hanta's recording phone, "Which blond shall triumph? Will it be the bubbly original challenger with an electric conviction to win or the tenacious accepter of the challenge who has had a track record of proving to be unreasonably talented?"
Katsuki tapped his feet impatiently as Denki finished stretching and the music began to play. He had to do a lot of high kicks, and only one one foot, and Denki's knee bent as he kicked it up to around shoulder height. He was strong enough as a hero student to technically do the movements but he lacked the technique and flexibility it took years to build up. But overall, even with a couple stumbles, he managed well enough. Kirishima cheered, "That was so manly of you, bro!"
Izuku gave supportive claps. Shouto snacked placidly on blueberries Katsuki shoved in his hands. "That was pretty good," Ochako commented, "He could probably get it down, actually!"
"Kaminari did very well for someone who seems to have no formal training," Tenya stated, slamming his chopping hand into the side of the couch without noticing, "I am curious as to how Bakugou will perform."
Izuku nodded lightly but his lips pulled into a knowing grin as Katsuki leaned off of the floor and strutted confidently forward, setting up his own phone. "That's only part of the fucking song. Since I don't do shit in halves, quarters, or eighths, I'll just do the full fucking variation of the La Esmeralda tambourine solo," Katsuki grumped, "So get fucking ready extras."
"Oooh," Mina called, "How will this shape the performance?"
"The whole dance," Denki coughed, "There's a whole dance? What the hell, you can't have learned it in an hour!"
"My bro's got this," Eijirou cheered, "He's the manliest!"
Katsuki settled into the beginning position with a knowing, haughty light in his eyes. His eyes settled on the camera and Izuku mumbled excitedly as everyone stared, "Here he goes."
Katsuki championed into second position, his arms swinging up to clap on the the tambourine as the music suddenly swelled, immediately standing right on the tips of his pointe shoes before falling into plie. The reaction was instantaneous; Denki fell off the back of the couch in surprise, kicking Fumikage's shoulder as he went down. Katsuki paid that exactly no mind as he went to passe with his left leg to land in plie again, then developpe'd, his right leg swinging up so the ends of his shoes could clap against the tambourine held over his head. The boys cringed at what was essentially a standing split while on his toes his toes are dead what the literal fuck Bakugou Katsuki, Denki making a small hissing sound as he poked his head back over the couch. Katsuki fluidly moved into a sous-sus in fifth position, then repeated the whole thing. Katsuki moved to piroutte across the floor, and Izuku's head swivelled to look at Mina, who was gaping silently. Yeah, well, this is the only result of what happens when you pick up ballet at 6 and never look back. Izuku wouldn't know, he tried one lesson and it was miserable. "Oh my God," Ochako whispered as Katsuki turned 4 full revolutions on the pirouette before landing in fourth, then turning his leg to draw his position to face the left, "He's murdered Kaminari."
Eijirou murmured, "I'm so sorry Kamibro, rest in peace."
Katsuki's face was undeiably smug, insufferably superior, irritatingly high and mighty. Unfortunately, nobody could tell him jackshit when he moved into arabesque then moved into his petit developpe because who the fuck could tell him anything? Nobody. The next moves were simple, bending his left knee back while pointing his right toes forward, repeating the knee bend before moving it to plié. However, it was repeated three times, and it was exhausting to even look at, and with each knee bend, his arm would come down to hold the tambourine for his toes to clap at, then immediately bring it up to his opposite hand to clap against. Ridiculous. "What the fuck," Hanta breathed, still recording.
Katsuki moved to pirouette into his new passe, landed in first before doing multiple pirouettes. He fucking loved La Esmeralda. It was complex, it was technical, and it was fucking exciting. Seriously, who the fuck just tossed in a tambourine to the dance? He could drop that shit if he wasn't completely precise and that would fuck up everything. He had to be as precise as a surgeon. It was as nervewracking as it was exhilirating. His right leg dragged forward to close and open in a small arc, and fuck yeah, his turnout was goddamn glorious. He went into the tombé en dehors. He considered for a brief moment as he pirouetted. Does he want to go with the combination piqué en dedans as well? Would it be too extra? Yes, it would, so clearly Katsuki has to. He had to flex this shit on the extras who foolishly thought that he couldn't do it. Fuck that, he had ten years of training and enough superior spite to kill ten elephants. The cheerful lilt of the music did not match the killing look in Katsuki's eyes. His foot swung over his head again as he kicked over and over, his left foot never touching the floor as his right foot went en pointe then back down to balance onto the balls of his right foot, then back en pointe, over and over as the ends of his pointe shoes kicked against the tambourine. "Oh. Oh, bodies...bodies should not move like that," Tenya winced as Katsuki's leg kept arcing over his head, never bending when it was held straight, "The limits of the muscles' ramge of motion even in Quirk society should not allow for that."
Katsuki smirked as he finished with a grand jete, flicking his leg up instead of kicking his leg back because his Russian ass teacher would never fucking dare bring English style into her goddamn studio. Katsuki ended with a final shimmy and clap of the tambourine. "Now, would someone like to tell me what's happening here," Aizawa spoke up as he leaned against the wall as though he had been there the entire time.
"I was fucking challenged," Katsuki huffed, pulling himself off the floor from his last pose easily, "Their fault for underestimating me. Don't do that shit again, you goddamn extras, you don't have the braincells to comprehend the shit I can and will do."
"Keep the windows closed next time," Aizawa advised, "1-B heard the music and apparently those kicks traumatized Monoma when he came to investigate." With that, he left.
Hanta had stopped recording, saving the video to everything possible before sending it to the chat. "What," he whispered, "The hell was that?"
Katsuki unlaced his pointe shoes and tossed them over his shoulder while he held on to the strings. "Congratulations, you fucks unlocked willingly shared fact number, fucking what was it? Yeah, number fucken three: I've danced en pointe since I was 10 and no, you shits won't see more and yes, you shits need more range of motion. Bye, ya goose-looking fuckers."
Izuku turned to a gobsmacked Mina and laughed lightly, "You can deliver my 2,000 yen anytime this month!"
"Did you already know," she murmured.
Izuku blinked innocently. Nobody blamed her for the smack to the back of the head she delivered to Izuku. Shouto, who had watched the whole debacle quietly, kept eating his 3rd bowl of cold soba. Dinner and a show was quite nice.