Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Being friends with Deku was easy.

Sure, getting there was rough. The misunderstandings, the stubbornness, having everything about who they were torn apart and blown up until they were left with nothing but the roots and seeds of their history to sow and recover from. The details of that are gritty and long, but that’s not the point here.

No, after that everything became a natural and simple transition. 

And there were maybe a few months of awkward and unfamiliar gestures, like when Deku successfully synced up a move with one of Bakugou’s for the first time, excitedly came running towards him to offer a highfive, and shocked and completely unprepared for that sort of reaction, Bakugou stepped to the side and let Deku fall flat on it his face.

Or when Bakugou turned around to face Deku sometimes to ask for help with a question, and Deku in his nervousness at having been asked for assistance, would over-explain. He would go back multiple lessons to set the base for the one problem and make sure he was explaining everything in the absolute most accurate way possible. Everyone in the class could see from the way Bakugou’s pencil was screeching on the desk frustratingly, and the dark irritated aura floating off from him – that in an attempt to be even a bit cordial, Bakugou was going to steam in the babble to wait until his question got answered.

Yeah, a few months of those types of things went by before the two finally reached a good relaxed pace of friendship. All the little things came easy, like Deku tapping Bakugou’s shoulder to grab his attention in class, or Bakugou coming to sit and eat lunch with Deku directly across from him so they could speak face to face, banter and teasing seeping in easily, a steady balance of that and the private conversations they had to have. Pulling each other to side to discuss serious matters, from class, to hero work, and in its heavier moments, Deku’s legacy – but again, that’s not the point.

No, the point is, having been acutely aware of each other’s nature and mannerisms for as long as they had made the transfer from bitter rivals to good friends fairly easy to cope with.

Bakugou could live with this.

But what wasn’t easy, what was really grinding his gears again, what Bakugou absolutely could not live with, was dealing with the horrifying and disgusting fact…. that he might have a crush on Deku.

Might was the word he hung onto.

Might was what he hung onto when Deku would tap his shoulder in class, whisper ‘Kacchan’ in that fake urgent way he does when he just wants to make mindless conversation, and he had to deal with the new tingle that bristled up his back at just that small gesture. 

Was it excitement? Hell no, it couldn’t be. Deku just needed to stop fucking bothering him randomly because it was fucking annoying – that was it, he had decided.

But even so, still Might was the word Bakugou had to live on when god-forbid Deku found something hilarious and would roar into that loud unabashed and unashamed laughter that would have him covering his face, because stupid Deku was, of course, going to start crying. That was just something bound to follow, and Bakugou had to decide whether stand there and look off to the side as if the idiot wasn’t dying next to him, or hiss “It’s not that fucking funny, relax already,” in hopes of sedating the sound that was not only annoying the fuck out of him but also making his heart race despite it all.

Might… if only maybe, it continues to mean this feeling was something salvageable, and that it was something he could end quickly before it took its course any further.

So he kept that up.

He might have a crush on Deku, fucking whatever. It doesn’t mean he absolutely did.

And that was the safest conclusion.

He took that might and decided to crush these bubbling emotions as soon as he could. All he had to do was find all the things that annoyed him about Deku.

If being friends with Deku was easy, this was going to be a landslide.

He talks too goddamn much.

Bakugou would think, as Deku talked mindlessly in class to him about all the new methods and theories he was learning, occasionally whining about muscle pains, where Bakugou would have to follow-up and yell at him to take it fucking easy unless he wanted to stop being a hero altogether. Deku would also veer off from talking about those things to talking about the weather, his mother, about whatever the fuck his makeshift squad of Four-Eyes and Round-Face were doing after school, and sneaking in little quips at Bakugou’s expense if he thought he wasn’t paying attention.

But he was paying attention, fuck Deku. And fuck him for still catching him off guard with the quips everytime. And fuck his smile of accomplishment when he thought he successfully caught Bakugou’s attention back – not realizing he already had all of it.

That’s when Bakugou realized that this reason probably wasn’t working.

But that was fine, he had plenty more where that came from.

He’s a pretentious show-off.

So was Bakugou, but so what? He can do whatever the fuck he wants. When it’s Deku, he’s forced to watch while this shithead comes up with something new off the cuff everyday. Then he has the gaul to pretend to be modest and flustered about it when he knows just how hard he worked to get half of these things ingrained. It’s admirable, fucking move on with it.

That word…admirable.

This one wasn’t working either.

He’s too nice to everyone.

The polar opposite of Bakugou, who met all new people with strong apathy, and even sometimes defensiveness if he even got whiff of a slightly bad vibe. No, Deku just fucking makes everyone his new bestfriend and new inspiration in seconds. Flattering people with his fanboy interest in just about anyone’s stupid quirk, and charming people with his openness and honesty. It was fucking annoying, not everyone is your friend, not everyone has your best interests at heart, and not everyone deserves your kindness.

I sure as hell probably don’t either.

That invasive thought just made anxiety flare in his chest, but when he walked out of the school building to see Deku waiting for him outside to walk home, notebook in his hands, and an excited glint in his eyes that indicated he had something to babble to him about on the way, the anxiety melted away immediately.

They’d work too hard to get here for those things to still be haunting him, but he knew the guilt would linger with him for a long time and he’d just have to deal with it, and that’s all the punishment he had, he’d live with that as long as he needed.

But right now, Deku was flipping through the pages of his notebook, the same one Bakugou burnt up that was apparently still getting new nerd shit added to it, and talking about how he had been looking at everyone’s quirks and all the ways he could merge some of the methods into his own. Stuttering, to say he could probably do the same for Bakugou, but being more excited to talk about all the ways he was going to use One For All, and wanting the approval.

That secret, his trust, his forgiveness.

This was blissful, this made every single wall of Bakugou’s come tumbling down and get replaced with a new sense of calm, and that was when Bakugou realized – this reason probably wasn’t working either.

He’s not looking at me.

 This was the new annoyance that erupted one day when Bakugou went over to Izuku’s house to study. Bakugou was a fairly decent studier, but this particular lesson was easy to him, and he was left bored, watching Deku stare intently at his and Bakugou’s shared notes. He wasn’t looking up once, and all Bakugou could see was the quick movement of his eyes completely focused on the written information.

It was the only annoying thing in awhile that brought back that familiar tingle of frustration on his skin. To remedy this in the most subtle way possible, Bakugou scoot over closer to Deku and leaned forward, pretending to read the notes with him. Thighs touching and shoulders brushing, Deku still seemed completely unfazed.

Twitching his eye irritably, Bakugou started shifting around making a small commotion. Deku was still unfazed.

“Fucking…Deku,” Bakugou cursed to himself in his head.

“Huh? Why are you muttering? Did you want something?”

Clearly, that wasn’t in his head.

Deku had turned to look at Bakugou questionably, and the serious glint in his eyes made Bakugou shrink, embarrassed at the fact he didn’t have a serious answer to return.

“Fucking…no you just,” Bakugou scrabbled through grit teeth, then immediately grabbed a sheet of paper randomly to use it as his scapegoat, “you had the notes I needed, fucking hogging the shit – I’d like to pass the class too, thanks.”

“Oh, well I’m sorry,” Deku breathed out in a laughter, “take what you need, I’ve looked at most of it!”

And Bakugou did just that, taking two more random sheets of notes he knew he didn’t need and scooting himself away from Deku, now having to steam with the embarrassment of his desperate attempt at getting the idiot’s attention.

But whatever, he was just bored. This still hadn’t proved anything, no, he still might have a crush on a Deku, and he was going to stick to that.

That’s what he thought, but then came the day where the universe finally decided it got tired of bullshit.

Kirishima had invited the gang to his dorm for a game night. Sero and Mina hadn’t been able to come leaving just Kaminari and himself available. Bakugou wasn’t that into game night, until he was really into game night. His competitiveness would get the better of him and he either found himself in an uncontrollable good mood when he won – followed by yelling and gloating – or an insatiable bad mood – followed by a flurry of anger, accusations, pouting, you name it –  it wasn’t fun. Not wanting to be stuck alone with the two people who would probably plot to piss him off for shits, Bakugou called in a buffer.

“Do you want to come with me to Kirishima’s dorm tonight?” Bakugou questioned after class, standing over Deku’s desk while the boy packed his things. The question didn’t come off nervously, they’d asked each other to tag along for trips and outings on more than one occasion already, and while the thoughts of his maybe-crush nagged at him, he hit it to the back of his head to keep a sense of normalcy.

“What? Oh yeah, sure,” Deku complied, placing his last book in his bag and smiling his approval before standing face to face with Bakugou.

“Great.”

That was it. The plans were made and this was going to be a pretty normal night, Bakugou in his usual punctuality just went to knock at Kirishima’s door right on time, Kaminari had apparently already been there, and Deku came fashionably late. Probably held back by All Might for a bit from his shitty excuse of being “caught up with work” but whatever, that’s fine.

Deku sat down next to Bakugou on the couch laughing nervously at him.

So he was right. Bakugou just nudged him with his shoulder passively in a quiet “I get it, it’s fine,” gesture and then they both turned to make their attention at Kirishima and Kaminari across the table who were fumbling with gameboard pieces.

The game was Monopoly, and Monopoly was dumb. He tried to remain uncaring about the game as it progressed, finding himself occasionally distracted and more interested by how analytical Deku would look on his turn, and how carefully he would watch Kirishima and Kaminari’s moves. He was taking this way too seriously and Bakugou smirked at this.

“Bakugou, it’s your turn.”

Kaminari’s voice broke into his thoughts.

“What the…? Kacchan are you laughing at me? What’s so funny?”

Deku’s accusatory tone is what brought him back to reality, and he quickly realized everyone had caught him staring.

“Midoriya, Bakugou’s probably got something up his sleeve…you better keep an eye on him,”

Kirishima’s fake urgency was Bakugou’s savior, even though he probably didn’t mean it to be he wasn’t going to complain.

“Fuck yeah I do,” Bakugou looked back at the board and shook the dice in his hands, “but don’t worry about it, you’re going to fucking jail anyways.”

“I’m 2 spaces away from jail, I just won’t roll a 2,” Midoriya glowered.

“Uh-huh,” Bakugou ignored, finishing his turn.

The game went on pretty averagely after that, talking coming from card reading and teasing, the occasional groan of distress, the sound of the pieces clicking on the board, and once again Bakugou found himself getting lulled and relaxed.

He needed a drink, and fortunately, Kirishima had brought everyone sodas somewhere in the middle of the game.

It was Deku’s turn and he had just rolled his dice, after getting the number of spaces he needed, he reached out to move his piece.

It had just so happened that was when Bakugou decided to reach for his drink, and just above the table, their hands brushed ever so slightly.

Now, any normal person who just experienced unexpected and vaguely intimate contact would just retreat their hand back, pull away and escape the situation calmly without creating an issue.

Bakugou’s body decided to say “fuck that” to the normal flight response, and he slammed the palm of his hand down as hard as possible on the table, causing his drink to spill, the cards and pieces to go flying, and everyone to jump back distressed and screaming in shock.

“Bakugou?!”

He doesn’t know who screamed that, he didn’t care, he was frozen in place and unmoving looking furiously at his sprawled out hand as if it was to blame.

“Kacchan?”

He knew exactly who that was, gritting his teeth, he knew his instincts wouldn’t allow him to ignore it, and he had no choice but to turn his head to respond to the concerned tone.

And of course, he was doing it again, giving him that look.

That look he despised, that look of worry and concern he didn’t need. The look that, after the times when he’d built his walls, would have pissed him off – but now with most of those old feelings torn down, it left him feeling openly dreadful and weak over something that didn’t need those emotions.

“I…” Bakugou started, looking away entirely, deciding he wasn’t strong enough to hold Deku’s gaze like he wanted, “...I saw a bug….quit lookin’ at me like that already.”

He waited for Deku to read his embarrassment, to give an awkward response at having seen Bakugou was probably feeling uncomfortable.

“Oh, did you kill it?”

And just like that, Deku broke whatever tension he was feeling. Bakugou didn’t even know if this was on purpose anymore, he couldn’t tell when Deku just knew or when he was being clueless. The uncertainty killed him, but he decided now was not the time to think about it.

Sitting up and composing himself, Bakugou finally released his hand from the prison of his gaze and shook it out.

“Of course I did,” Bakugou growled, wiping imaginary bug guts off on his shirt.

“EW, and you’re just going to wipe it all over yourself?!” Deku screeched, disgusted.

“GROSS, Bakugou!” Kaminari laughed.

“I would have gotten you a napkin, dude,” Kirishima glowered seriously incapable of not letting his smile escape anyways.

“You know what? All of you shut the fuck up! I didn’t need your pansy napkins, fuck off,”

After that, the night went on normally again, except now Bakugou couldn’t dismiss himself from thinking about the fool he had just made of himself, and by the time the night was over, he couldn’t even be bothered to care who won, he just wanted to go home.

“Kacchan it was like you weren’t even trying,” Deku had observed while walking by him.

Bakugou suddenly realized he was wordlessly walking Deku back to his room despite having a clear escape back to the safety of his own room right next door, wonderful.

“It’s only natural I guess!” Deku laughed, “It was just weird that even after you won you didn’t say anything, I’m sure Kirishima and Kaminari expected a bit… more from you?”

“That’s just too fucking bad huh.” Bakugou growled.

“Yeah you didn’t seem that into it anyways, so I suppose it’s fine,” Deku concluded almost to himself. Why was he always analyzing every fucking thing?

Making it to Deku’s room finally, the two stood face to face in front of the door. Bakugou was trying his damndest to remove the tension his heart was creating, but it was hard when he couldn’t move under Deku’s genuine and fond gaze that he was definitely more or less likely reading too much into.

“Anyways, that was really fun, Kacchan! Thanks for inviting me,”

“Yeah…whatever sure, it was nothing.”

“And also er…” Deku finally opened his door slightly, not completely, but cracking it to indicate this would be the last thing he’d have to say, “thanks for understanding earlier -- me being late I mean -- it’s just nice having someone I don’t have to dance around, you know?”

Oh, I know. I wish.

Bakugou thought that to himself, but instead he responded again,

“Yeah…whatever, it’s fine.”

Deku opened the door completely and went through it, when Bakugou went to step in front of the doorway he was met with that fond smile again.

“Let’s go out again soon, goodnight!”

“Night.”

At that, Deku closed the door on him, and Bakugou’s unwillingness to be okay with the fact he was out of Deku’s presence for the first couple of seconds prevented him from moving right away. Instead it left him staring at the door Deku had just exited through, and dread pooled in his chest both from what felt like an abrupt goodbye, and the fact he had finally come to terms with the one fact he’d been battling:

He had a crush on Deku.

Chapter Text

 Why?

Why him?

Bakugou slammed the door to his bedroom behind him and let out the roar he’d been keeping in his chest all night...no, all day…no…all this time of nothing but fucking buildup for months erupted from his heart and out of his mouth as he kicked off his shoes and paced around – face buried in his hands frustratingly.

While pacing and growling into his palms he heard three knocks come from the outside of his wall.

This school could pay to get a dorm building set up in less than a few weeks, but couldn’t put enough of that budget into making sure the walls weren’t paper fucking thin, so often Kirishima would bang on the other end of the wall in the most convenient way possible of telling him to quiet down.

At that warning, Bakugou immediately resorted to trudging himself to his bed, collapsing face first into the mattress, and screaming angrily into his pillow instead.

Why Deku? Out of all the people in the world why was it Deku?

It’s always fucking Deku.

For all his life, whenever Deku was involved his body set off some kind of voluntary alarms, so nothing about this was a new sensation, but the fact that the center of all his attention, admiration and...affection? -- that’s disgusting, forget he even thought that -- whatever it’s called, all of it being pointed in Deku’s direction to this degree was a new level of danger he wasn’t ready to handle.

What even was it? He knew Deku stood out, he knew Deku was different, but so did everyone else who ran into the asshole, so why had he let himself fall this deep?

Flipping around on his back and throwing his hands into his face he groaned long and loudly in annoyance. Something about this bastard was keeping Bakugou’s heart locked in place and tied around his little finger, every word held some new weight of significance that didn’t previously exist and it was making his stomach whirl.

Friend.

Rival.

Partner.

Almost a decade of falling out and still being enraptured in each other made Deku both a familiar and unfamiliar presence, one that still managed to surprised him but he still somehow knew better than anything else. It was an odd mixture that made Bakugou realize no matter what, him Deku weren’t ever going to be the ideal perfect image of childhood sweethearts that you’d read about from a fucking shoujo, but even so…. what was this?

“It’s nothing,” Bakugou muttered to himself through grit teeth, “It’s something, but it’s nothing, get a hold of yourself,”

Lifting himself up from the bed he kicked off his shoes and stood up to the direction of the bathroom to get a shower running.

He wasn’t going to let himself be some lovesick puppy, okay so he might – he has a crush on Deku.

Whatever.

The next day is coming and he can just ignore it, now that he’s unfortunately and agonizingly sure of these feelings he can keep up like a normal human being and try not to be too obvious, right? Other kids like his classmates may be terrible at hiding their infatuations but Bakugou wasn’t any ordinary kid.

He could take these feelings and kick it in the ass like he did everything else.

He tried his damndest to keep himself psyched on that ideology.

He went to bed chiming the promise to himself in his head as a reminder, and woke up the next morning reminding himself over and over again.

He felt good about it, grabbing his backpack and shoes he sucked in a deep breath and smiled smugly to himself, fully reassured.

The minute he stepped out the door he was gonna head to class, look Deku in the eye, and get on with his fucking life like none of this ever happe-

“…Oh! Good morning, Kacchan!”

The minute he opened the door, everything about Bakugou’s determined posture melted.

“What…” Bakugou, started staring at Deku in disbelief.

“Uh…”

“We’re.. we’re you…,” Bakugou looked around the hallway to see if anyone else was with Deku or was maybe heading this direction, but no, the only person around was the one infront of him, wearing a mixture of a nervous and amused wobbly smile, “How long have you been fucking standing out here?”

“Oh, not long!” Deku laughed, “I got here maybe a few minutes ago...I figured you know…it wouldn’t be too bad to walk to class together, right? You don’t mind?”

Deku looked up at him with teasingly pleading eyes and Bakugou’s heart skipped a beat.

“No… no, fuck why the hell would I care?” Bakugou grunted, “You should still probably think to maybe warn people before just popping up wherever the fuck you’d like.”

“I thought you just said you didn’t care?” Deku huffed out amused, “Kidding, kidding, you’re right… but erm…so the real reason I came a little unannounced is uh…”

Deku started twiddling his thumbs around and Bakugou was beginning to lose what patience he had.

“What? Open your mouth and talk,”

“Well uh,” Deku continued with a smile, lifting one hand to the side of his face as if he were about to tell Bakugou an important secret, and instinctively, Bakugou stiffened.

“Do you… have the answers to last night’s homework?” he whispered harshly.

What.

“Wh- what the…”

“Heh…heh…”

“Deku, what the FUCK why didn’t you fucking do it before th-“

All Might.

Bakugou stopped himself, and Deku looked a little relieved he understood.

“Hah...yeah well see, I was going to do it before coming to Kirishima’s but then… I got a little caught up you know?” Deku started twiddling his thumbs again, “And when I got home last night, even though I was exhausted I thought about doing it then, but I remembered what you said about how ‘there’s no fucking point-,”

“-if you’re already halfway fucking dead,” Bakugou finished Deku’s poor imitation.

“Yeah, right! You said that last time I came to class kinda you know a little...” Deku knocked on the side of his head twice to finish his sentence for him and giggled nervously,  “in the end, I ended up passing out anyways, so I’m really sorry but,” he pressing his hands together apologetically he finished, “please, Kacchan?”

So, he fell for an idiot, a complete fucking idiot.

“What the hell ever,” Bakugou hissed throwing his bag over his shoulder and stepping past Deku to walk ahead, “Yeah, I got it done, you’re real damn lucky you can write fast Lightning-Hands,”

Deku sped up to catch up to Bakugou and settled into a pace right beside him, shoulders brushing. They had been at this for awhile but suddenly the significance of Deku walking alongside him was a lot more evident, and he had to temper the shade of red threatening to cross over his face.

“’Lightning-Hands’… that’s a new one, although it makes me think of Kaminari a bit,” Deku pouted, “anything a little more creative, maybe?”

“Sure, how about ‘step-the-fuck-off-you-fucking-nerd’,”

“Oh wow, that is creative…definitely a mouthful though…not your best work,”

“You know what? You can fail actually, you get nothing.”

“Kacchan wait, no please,” Deku mockingly whined with a laugh.

“You heard me! Nothing, you fucking asshole,” Bakugou tried to sound serious but the smile creeped up on his face against his own wishes as Deku knocked into his side trying to reach for Bakugou’s bag.

All down the hallway their bickering continued, the sound of Deku’s laughter followed by Bakugou’s sneers echoed against the walls unknowingly waking up the last few people sleeping in, and momentarily startling the students already awake, but much groggier than pair.

This was not an unusual occurrence for the class these days, and Bakugou was only maybe halfway aware of how embarrassing it was because the other half of him always decided in the moment he didn’t really give a fuck as he knocked Deku around and the two of them chased each other down the hall.

‘Lightning-Hands’? What was I thinking?

Behind him, Deku was hurriedly copying Bakugou’s work down, whilst the blond ran his fingers through his hair frustratingly, clenching his teeth and flexing his fists.

He couldn’t tell what he was more embarrassed about, the fact that he may have been flirting or how he’d chosen to go about it. Either other way it was pissing him off as reality had finally dawned on him for the moments he wasn’t in speaking range of Deku.

So much for kicking this infatuation in the ass, everything mundane about their interactions were now hitting Bakugou like a train. Actually, it had been doing this before, so this was more like 10 trains consecutively piling on each other.

When Aizawa came dragging himself into the classroom and picked up their homework, Bakugou tried to focus on the old man instead, trying to put everything off his mind to focus on the one goddamn thing in the class that wasn’t going to give him as much heart burn.

Sometime in the middle of Aizawa talking, Deku started poking on Bakugou’s back.

He was still unbearably irritated, and now wasn’t the time, but Deku was insistent.

“Kacchan… psst, Kacchan,”

“What,” Bakugou whispered harshly not bothering to turn around like he normally would.

“You have to turn around, hey…” Deku whispered just as harshly, continuing to poke at his shoulder.

The tingle he got from the contact was returning, and the quickness of his heart beat only proved to piss him off more than it did excite him.

“Whatever you have to say, say it now.”

“What? No, turn around I want t-“

“Either say it don’t!” Bakugou whispered in a yell, still refusing to turn around and harshly slamming his fist down on the desk.

“Midoriya, Bakugou, do you two have something to share with the class?” Aizawa grunted, clearly annoyed with seeing the two furiously go back and forth.

Normally, Bakugou would turn around and freely communicate with Deku, in the few times Aizawa had admonished them it had been because they were too loud laughing, too loud with sounds of approvals, Deku’s “Ohhh”’s and “Ahhh’s” over whatever they were blabbing about causing a disruption, those kinds of things.

Typically, he just didn’t mind, but Bakugou’s dealt with enough class call-outs to not be bothered by Aizawa’s tone whatsoever.

And even though this instance was definitely a little different, Bakugou had become a master of coming up with a fake response on spot.

“No, Sensei. Deku was just asking a question,” Bakugou replied as though it were rehearsed, “It’s over with and dropped now, right?”

Bakugou aimed the end of his question at Deku, and though a little perplexed, Deku responded back.

“Y...yeah sensei, it’s okay really, sorry,” Deku called.

With a dissatisfied sniff, Aizawa turned back around to the board to continue his lesson, Deku buried his face back in his notes and didn’t prod at Bakugou again. Somehow a lot of the tension Bakugou was feeling had went away with knowing Deku’s insistence had been killed.

The remainder of the class went on normally, and it’s when lunchtime hit that Bakugou realized he had another issue.

“Kacchan!” Deku had stood outside his desk waiting for him to get up, “we’re eating lunch on the rooftop today right?”

Bakugou and Deku had started a tradition of eating lunch alone together when Deku came back from meetings and discussions with All Might. It was a time dedicated mostly to Deku talking about all the things the mentor and student had spoken to about in private, and Bakugou more than willing to listen and feed into all of Deku’s worries and excitement. It was something he’d rather Deku blabber about to him than just anyone again, anyways. It was easily an excuse for alone time, and Bakugou had found himself actually looking forward to it whenever Deku approached him with the invitation.

But today….

“Guh…uh,” Bakugou started, and Deku’s face looking a little disappointed, “Not…not today,” Bakugou picked up his lunch and bag and stepped away from Deku to keep a distance from his face, “You can just tell me later, or something I guess, but I promised the gang I’d sit with them and entertain their bullshit for a day.”

Deku looked at Bakugou as if he wanted to ask ‘why would you do that?’ - and he was right, why the fuck would he do that – but he seemed to think better of it and just resigned to a sigh.

“Okay…that’s um…that’s fine, you have fun, I’ll sit with the others too…” Deku was clearly a little sad and worried looking, but he took in a breath anyways to finish his sentence, “be nice to them okay? Don’t let them drive you too crazy,”

He forced a laugh, and Bakugou feeling a little bad and decided to go ahead smile smugly back.

“There’s no fucking way that won’t happen,”

Having been a little reassured by Bakugou’s silly response, Deku’s down-trodden face slowly began gleaming again, and with a laugh he turned to exit the classroom.

“I figured,” he laughed over his shoulder, “Still…good luck, anyways!”

As Deku exited the classroom to head to the commons, the minute Bakugou heard the last of his footsteps, his smile dropped into an evident and irritated frown.

The feeling from last night of being separated from Deku was erupting again, but now equally piled on with the irritation of knowing these feelings were making his stomach sick again.

He had to stay away from Deku.

Because avoiding the problem has always worked, right? Bakugou’s conscious asked sarcastically to himself before choosing to ignore it.

If he avoided the problem, he could figure out how to deal with it.

That was his new plan.

So at the end of the day when everyone was packing to leave, instead of waiting for Deku, he got his things and said he was going to his dorm alone.

“Alone?” Deku looked disappointed again.

“Yeah, as in ‘by myself’,” Bakugou grunted.

He never bothered coming up with an excuse for Deku or a lie, this was just the situation, and even if Deku looked like he desperately wanted to ask ‘why?’ or ‘what’s wrong?’ he just lowered his gaze slightly and complied.

“Well…alright, I’ll see you later then I guess?”

“Yup,” Bakugou replied quickly with little care, “later.”

Bakugou hurriedly exited the classroom, didn’t look at Deku’s eyes, didn’t stop to see if he had something more to say, just grabbed his things and walked out with his head held high.

This was a start.

When he got home he immediately threw his things down, and settled on his bed, ready to do this self-reflection thing and find a solution to the problem.

However, Day 1 of figuring out how to solve his infatuation only came up with one answer:

Avoid him.

The next day, Bakugou did just that.

Deku approached Bakugou in the morning at his desk as he usually did and gave a beaming, “Good morning!” to which Bakugou simply replied to with a wave and didn’t bother looking Deku in the face.

Normally, Bakugou would have responded with a grunt or at least some snide remark but his passiveness caused Deku to freeze in shock from going toward him for a moment, and with a worried look, he opted to turn around to talk to Uraraka and Iida instead.

This lasted for the rest of the week, Deku made open approaches and Bakugou either ignored him or hardly gave a response. Having Deku out of his space cleared his head a little more, but made little room for the intrusiveness his more painful and berating thoughts.

You’re an idiot.

“Kacch-,“ Deku had whispered behind him one day, trying to start a conversation before being interrupted by Bakugou abruptly raising his hand.

“Aizawa-sensei can I be excused I gotta take a piss.”

You’re doing it again.

“Kacchan, hey are you-“ Deku started another day, but had been cut off by the sound of Bakugou’s chair screech as he stood from his desk once again leaving early for home.

“Kacchan!” Deku had called at Bakugou’s back but he didn’t turn back to respond and just kept moving forward.

Don’t talk to him.

Sucking in a breath Deku approached Bakugou with his lunch and slammed it down on his desk, a bit of a desperate look painted his eyes but the smile of his still gleamed.

“Kacchan? All Might told me something really cool the other day, can we talk about it?” Deku spoke quickly, but his voice was left with a tinge of strain as he tried to hold up.

“No. Not today,” Bakugou avoided eye contact in his cold response, which was not nearly as strong as he felt.

You want to talk with him.

The next day Bakugou had walked out the classroom early, he of course wasn’t met with Deku’s excited gleam on the path home, he walked the sunset shadowed sidewalks alone. The sound of the wind and clinging gates that had been previously drowned out by the sound of Deku’s voice and his laughter on the trail were now louder than ever, and the pain in his heart was inescapable.

You’re starting to miss him.

Lain sprawled on his bed and staring at the ceiling, Bakugou grabbed a pillow from his left, repeated the thing he did the first night of his realization, and screamed.

Bakugou had spent more time trying to figure out how to avoid the situation than actually solving it, but the problem wasn’t him, it was Deku.

Deku was making him feel like this.

Deku was making him feel sick.

Deku was making him feel weak.

So how was he supposed to confront the problem if the problem’s existence twisted his insides just as much as being away from it did?

Tossing and turning, he tried to sleep, but everyday of this created a new pile up of noise in his mind that he couldn’t tune out, so much noise that he almost didn’t notice the sound of phone vibrating behind him.

Against his best wishes, his heart skipped excitedly when he opened up the phone to see the notification.

FUCKING DEKU now

Hi Kacchan! :)

Bakugou stared wide eyed at his phone for a bit, wondering how to respond. The bridge of texting him took a lot of his edge off, but he realized if Deku started asking questions about his behavior, he’d probably have to cut it off.

With that in mind, he sent the most neutral response he could think of.

what the fuck do you want

Bakugou expected a reply immediately, but there was a moment of silence between the notification of Deku having read his message that made him a little more nervous than he’d expected. However, when signal showing Deku was typing finally showed up, he stared at his phone expectantly.

nothing I just wanna talk…! ^^;

Bakugou grimaced at the response, it was too vague for him to entertain so instead he returned the favor.

I don’t have anything to talk about

After sending the text, he knew he was lying. He wanted to catch up, he wanted to make up for what time he’d neglected, he wanted to see his inbox fill as Deku spammed him with handwritten notes and explanations, and he wanted to talk about all the mundane things in the world, but he knew it would all lead to Deku asking the questions he didn’t want to answer.

Whats been wrong?

Are you okay?

And he’d have to answer, he’d feel inclined to give Deku the reason, he’d be forced in that moment to confess once the question was lain down. Bakugou wasn’t going to place himself in a position to lie, saying “nothing” was not an option for him anymore, so instead he gave Deku the wheel to decide where to go.

oh…yeah, me neither honestly haha :’)

And the conversation was killed, successfully.

Feeling a little bummed about it damned himself, Bakugou decided to fill the void by scrolling up to old conversations instead.

He found an old one from October and smirked, remembering it.

Kacchan what are you doing for Halloween this year? :O

locking myself away from you freaks, don’t think I didn’t see u sneaking around with hair-for-brains and four-eyes. Im not getting involved

gah I thought we were being sneaky >_< Kacchan its just a Halloween party, it’ll be fun!

Everyones going to be dressing up like what the fuck? are you all still in preschool?

Kacchan you only stopped dressing up last year, you don’t have to look cool in front of everyone :/

You’re right, because im fucking awesome already

Haha I guess that’s true too <3

Ew

Don’t be like that! Anyways, if youre not coming can you help me think of a costume?

Sure, not All Might.

But KACCHAN I could ask him to borrow his REAL UNIFORM it’d be authentic!!

You don’t think everyone would find it pretty fucking weird if u had an "authentic" all might costume?

Eh….>_>;

No All might costume.

Bakugou remembered for a bit Deku had stopped the conversation, and there hadn’t been a response for about 30 minutes before Bakugou got irritated and felt the need to push his point more.

If I wrap some toilet paper around my head or some shit will you do it too so im not the only one looking like a fucking idiot? Why do you insist on sticking out like a sore thumb all the damn time

Deku had responded immediately

Oh! you mean like mummies?

What else is fucking wrapped in toilet paper

That’s actually kind of cute… sure why not! Itd be fun to do something with you :)

say something stupid like that again and im cancelling

Fine… that’s really cool of you Kacchan ^^ Do you think we should get seros or aizawa-sensei’s help instead of toilet paper tho??? It’d be more authentic!

Would you look at that? Halloween = Cancelled

KACCHAN IM SORRY

The conversation went on from there and in the end Deku convinced Bakugou to go with him to ask Momo to clone some of Aizawa’s wrapping instead. And the Halloween party had actually been fun save for someone in in the class tying his and Deku’s wrapping together on purpose, causing them to accidentally trip around and shit, you can use your imagination for that because honestly Bakugou would rather forget it.

Scrolling down, more conversations ensued.

If i got a fish would u get one with me? The dorms said those are the only pets we can have and im lonely ):

No bcs then id choose the biggest and baddest fish and you’d choose some small little baby fuckmunchkin

Whats your point?

My fish would kill your fish

okaaaay....so…why don’t we both choose either two big fish or two small fish?

Id still pick the fucking best fish and you'd have to hold a funeral 

Ok Kacchan -_-

A little further down.

Deku guess the fuck what

What? :O

Bakugou was sure the sign for him typing had been up for a long time and he pouted a bit embarrassed if Deku had watched the phone for it.

I was sparring with the arms guy right? The dude with loads of fucking arms, I wanted to show I could beat him in a fist fight. everything was going fucking great, only fists, I was dodging and everything but then the mother fucker clocked me in the face and my nose started bleeding -- he was so distracted by it I flipped the piece of shit on his ass with a sweep kick

It was fucking awesome, I guess using legs and fists isnt as shitty when I do it

My nose is still bleeding too. It’s a fucking pool of blood deku it just AINT STOPPING

Bakugou remembered he had taken over that entire conversation while walking to class after the spar with a small towel under his nose and a self-satisfied smile.

However, by the time he had reached the classroom he had seen Deku and Round-Face speaking to each other, glaring at Deku’s phone with concern and confusion.

“I just don’t know how he expects me to respond to this Uraraka. Do I get worried? Do I say good job? Do I-“

“WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SHARING OUR CONVERSATIONS, DEKU?”

He kind of laughed at the memory now despite his irritation then, and continued to scroll through mindless conversations with Deku and finding the sick feeling in his stomach turn warm.

And as he continued scrolled through he made two assertions:

The first one being, Bakugou was so fucking obvious, anyone who read this would think Bakugou’s been pining for Deku since day one, he felt disgusted at his own lack of ambiguity.

The second realization being, Deku definitely couldn’t like him back.

Deku was Deku.

Always this kind to everyone and attentive to everyone’s will and wishes. Bakugou felt the sickness in his stomach return everytime a “<3” or a “cute” made him read the text as anything more than Deku’s usual shit.

And because of this, Bakugou knew he couldn’t ever let Deku know about these…feelings. No, he had to hope it would wane off, finding a way to deal with it only led to one solution: Telling him. And hell if Bakugou was going to scare Deku off with his own selfish, completely unreciprocated feelings.

He had to wait it off for as long as he could, and that meant continuing with his Deku-Deficiency.

So for weeks and weeks, Bakugou kept up avoiding him.

Every approach and every day Bakugou shook Deku off, the green haired boy’s face begun contorting from worry to annoyance over the course of time.

One day after Bakugou shrugged off another one of Deku’s invites to lunch, Bakugou thought he heard the boy growl in frustration.

And as this went on, Deku seemed to become more predisposed to just keeping away from Bakugou too. After the school day ended, with an upturned nose Deku would purposefully leave earlier than even Bakugou, and on days Bakugou had caught Deku leaving with All Might in the corner of his eyes, Deku didn’t bother asking him to lunch anymore afterwards. Instead Deku would happily bounce off with Uraraka and Iida while Bakugou went off with Kirishima and Kaminari.

Bakugou was a little grateful Deku got the message and also a little hurt. Still, he didn’t approach him, and they seemed to be in a mutual understanding of this arrangement. However, the oddity of it didn’t seem to miss the class.

Unfortunately for him, Class 1-A have had front row tickets to the Ballad of Kacchan and Deku since the beginning of time, so they’ve watched the two from the first fight on Ground-Beta, to the unwavering and strange amount of closeness that grew between the childhood friends after the second one. So for them to have distanced again caught everyone’s attention.

Especially All Might and Aizawa’s, as he started to notice them whispering after class and looking in Bakugou’s direction.

The weight of it, the weird stares, and Deku being blatantly fucking obvious about his irritation was driving Bakugou mad, but he was going to keep his cool, he was going to hold it off until the sight of Deku leaving the classroom didn’t make his heart drop. He was going to keep it up until looking at old text messages didn’t make his heart beat, and until hearing Deku laugh with others while he wasn’t involved didn’t make him want to drag himself towards the sound just for the sake of being closer to it, he was going to keep it up until this feeling of longing dissipated into fucking nothingness.

He contemplated this, prided himself on this ready and sure of it until once again, the universe decided fuck all, its time to kick this shit in the ass once and for all.

“Bakugou, Midoriya, today you two will stay after school to put up the desks and clean up,” Aizawa had dragged out as soon as class ended.

Bakugou froze from getting his things looking angrily and painfully in Aizawa direction, hoping maybe the daggers in his eyes would force the teacher to take back his statement or at least pair him with someone else.

From behind, Deku only looked blankly ahead.

“Yessir,” Deku replied immediately.

“Be sure to lock up when you two are done,” the teacher finished, gathering his things and dismissing the class.

He wasn’t going to get out of this, he was completely fucked.

So when the school had finally emptied and Deku and Bakugou were left alone setting up the tables and chairs he wasn’t surprised when Deku finally piped up with the question after only a few moments of silence.

“So, are you going to tell me the problem or what?”

Bakugou whipped around expecting to see Deku’s back and ended up being a little taken aback when he saw Deku standing defiantly in his direction, rocking one chair back and forth on its heels.

Bakugou puffed out his chest taking in a deep breath, ready to tell Deku to mind his fucking business and put the chairs up, but Deku only cocked his eyebrow, the irritation in his eyes forced Bakugou to back track. The words wouldn’t have escaped his mouth like he wanted with Deku looking at him like that, the anger Deku was feeling was seeping its way in Bakugou’s own heart, mirroring it, and unlocking every bit of frustration he’s held in for all these months. If Bakugou responded to that, he would spill everything in the most ungraceful and ugly manner known to man.

So instead he hid himself again, swerving around and slamming a chair backwards on a desk to release a little anger.

“I need you to get away from me,” he started, and hearing Deku’s mouth open to retaliate he continued, “just … fucking go wait outside in the hall or something and let me figure this the fuck out, shit,”

Looking down, he walked in Deku’s direction and snatched the chair that Deku was irritably rocking around from his hands, and Deku just glared daggers into him confusingly.

“Just fucking wait! I’ll do your half, but if you want to hear anything from me you need to give me like 15 damn minutes out of your presence.”

Deku looked like he wanted to argue, but sighing he relaxed his glare and reluctantly resigned.

“Fine,” he huffed, stepping backwards and then turning to exit the classroom.

When Deku had finally left, Bakugou kicked one of the chair away in frustration and screamed a “SHIT” loud enough he knew Deku probably heard on the other side.

Bakugou had to tell him the truth now, and he hadn’t thought this far ahead. In all his avoiding the issue he knew the eventual solution was going to be confessing, but he hadn’t planned for a second how he would. Could he get away with telling Deku he was over it now and they could move the hell on?

Slamming a chair down he realized, no. You don’t just avoid someone for 2 months without explanation and then demand 15 minutes of breathing room over feelings you just “got over”.

So what does he say?

Deku I like you.

Is that enough?

Deku I lo-

Accidentally screeching a seat across the floor a little louder than intended he decided “like” was definitely enough. That was the word he needed to use, or something similar.

“’Deku, I like you’, no fuck that sounds fucking ditsy I need to-,” Bakugou was muttering to himself while setting up the last of the chairs, “’You’ve really been pissing me off lately and’ – No... ‘It’s not fucking you its me, about you, so I guess it’s all your fucking fault in the end again huh? – gah NO, SHIT!”

Bakugou kept up rehearsing to himself all through setting up the chairs and sweeping, by the time he finished the last of the work he was sure he came up with the best way to put his makeshift and rushed confession.

“ ‘Deku, you piece of shit, I know it sounds fucking insane but I think I got a stupid puppy crush on you and it was pissing me off, that’s it.’ Yeah, perfect.”

Bakugou cheered to himself, muttering ‘Deku, you piece of shit’ to keep himself confident as he stepped out of the door to the classroom to meet with Deku in the hallway and finally shoot this circus act in the foot.

He was ready to meet with Deku’s anger, he was ready to put this shit out there and leave it to rot. Maybe with the way he says it Deku will blow up in his face and they can put it behind them, chalk it up as one big mistake, and let it all die.

He imagined how it would play out, put up the barriers needed to take Deku’s anger head on, he deserved it, he wanted it, he was prepared for it.

But of course, nothing could ever go as he wanted.

Why didn’t anything ever go as he wanted.

Walking out to the hall, instead of being met with Deku standing tall with fire in his eyes, he was met with the boy leaning casually right outside the door, his eyes blank.

And when he noticed Bakugou’s presence he looked at the taller boy with a quiet sadness in his eyes.

“So?” he demanded, his voice cracking a bit.

Bakugou’s plan got erased immediately, again. Everything about him and his demeanor slackened in Deku’s presence and he simply stood there, frozen.

Deku pushed himself off the wall to step back from Bakugou, only a slight bit of determination glinting from his eyes mixed in with the gloom he was pushing down.

“Kacchan, you have to tell me what’s wrong,” Deku started calmly, despite the look in his eyes.

He’d done it again.

They were supposed to have been well passed this already.

Deku values his friendships, and Bakugou knew more than anyone else how much that annoyingly dangerous passion outreached, he was foolish to assume Deku would only be angry with him.

Because Deku’s never been like that, Deku’s never kept up long enough to only be angry, not with him, not with anyone and Bakugou should have known better.

But in the face of Deku’s emotions like this, once again his heart began to mirror his own, and Bakugou felt an uncontrollable amount of guilt rush over him.

Not over not telling Deku, not over avoiding him, but for just not being unfront with himself fucking again about Deku.

Deku wasn’t the one doing this to him, he had been doing this to himself, and it was going to inevitability intertwined with Deku no matter how much he tried to leave it, no matter how much he tried to avoid it.

Their feelings had always been inevitably connected like this.

And he had to get over it.

He had to accept it here in it's fullest form.

He took a step forward, and Deku took a step back.

“Kacchan.” Deku started sternly.

“Please,” Kacchan replied fast and flat glaring the boy standing off with him in the eyes, and Deku taken only slightly aback by the vague desperation, let his guard down just a bit to let Bakugou make his way forward.

Words weren’t going to work, he was messy with those, the intimacy and carefulness of the language always managed to miss him, and he couldn’t trust his own heart to say what he felt, so instead he moved forward.

Getting eye to eye with deku, he only looked down slightly. The boy wasn’t that much shorter than him, but enough so that he had to lean forward and down enough to make this comfortable.

“Kacchan?” Deku whispered.

Wordlessly, Bakugou let his arms go past Deku’s waist to wrap around the bottom of his back, biting his lip Bakugou dragged Deku into his chest and embraced him into a tight hug.

Deku shocked, didn’t know where to place his hands for a moment, and Bakugou shakingly buried his face into the crook of Deku’s neck so his eyes couldn’t be shown.

Deku finally resigned to placing his hands lightly on Bakugou’s back, using one to pat him gently.

“I missed you too,” Deku whispered, causing a shiver to run down Bakugou’s spine, “but this still isn’t explaining anything,”

Bakugou huffed and tightened his hold.

“Stop me,” Bakugou muttered into Deku’s shoulder.

“Hm?” Deku questioned, now lowering his hands down Bakugou’s back for a more casual hold.

“Do that thing you do where you call me an idiot, tell me this is stupid,”

“I still don’t know what it is Kacchan,” Deku replied, a little bit of the irritation returning, “you’re a dumbass, but you still need to tell me so I can tell you all the reasons why,”

Bakugou huffed a small laughter in Deku’s shoulder at his response, and they stood silent embraced in the hug for a long period of silence before Bakugou finally began shifting.

He loosened his grip slightly to give himself room, and while continuing to avoid Deku’s gaze, he pressed a small kiss to Deku’s jawline before immediately retreating into the hug tightening his grip, causing Deku to puff out a slight bit of air.

“O-oh.” Deku huffed.

“Shit, fuck, goddammit!” Bakugou spat curses into Deku’s shoulder regretting the action.

There was a longer silence, neither boy had broken from the hug.

Deku pat Bakugou’s back twice.

Pity, of course, he should have known that was coming, fucking Deku alwa-

Deku pat his back three more times, a little harder than last time.

What was he trying to be encouraging now? Like Bakugou needed to be reassured his ugly feelings were okay or someshit? Why didn’t he just-

Deku was now frantically patting Bakugou’s back to a point where it was starting to actually kind of fucking sting.

Irritated, Bakugou broke from his hiding place in Deku’s shoulder to meet with Deku face to face.

“DEKU, what the fuck are y-,”

Bakugou was interrupted by a foreign press of lips on his, rough and unaimed, but enough to get his eyes wide as the attacker leaned back from the kiss with the fire in his eyes that he had been searching for earlier.

“Are you kidding me?!” Deku screamed in Bakugou’s face.

Bakugou was a little dumbfounded by the action to reply properly, did… Deku just…

“Uh…” Bakugou groaned dazed, hands hanging lazily over Deku’s waist now.

Deku moved the hands that were wrapped around Bakugou’s back to roughly cup both of Bakugou’s cheeks in his palms.

“You idiot!”

Deku kissed Bakugou roughly again a little more aimed and calculated, holding a little longer, before breaking apart again with an irritated grunt.

“That’s why you’ve been avoiding me all this time?” he hissed, “You’re terrible!”

Everything was still moving a little too fast.

“Did… what the fuck did you just…”

Deku groaned exasperatedly and pressed roughly feathered kisses all over Bakugou’s face, they got softer and softer with each press of lips to skin before Deku slowly relaxed on his own and pulled back, dropping his hands from Bakugou’s face to his back again, pulling himself into Bakugou’s chest for another tight embrace.

“Me too…Kacchan,” Deku murmured, the irritation still scrunched in his eyebrows but a new softness showing in his eyes.

Bakugou was coming out of his daze enough to process that statement, and in a moment’s hesitation, he pulled the boy back from the hug and looked seriously at Deku in his eyes.

“You...ah shit," he to a second to catch himself, "you...like me?”

“And you like me?” Deku immediately retaliated, not letting Bakugou turn the responsibility of answering first on him.

Bakugou took in a breath before answering in a whisper, “...yeah,”

Deku sighed tiredly.

“Good, me too,” Deku grunted giving Bakugou a small peck on the nose, “I thought it was pretty obvious but for some reason you need these confessions spelled out to you,”

He finished that last sentence with a fake laugh, and Bakugou felt his heart beat again at the sound of even a hint of the boy’s laughter despite it's ingenuity. A mix of the fondness, irritation, frustration and longing that had all existed and were building up in the months came pouring over him and he tightened his grip on Deku, pulling him close again.

Obvious? Bullshit, this asshole wasn’t obvious about anything in his heart, he was enigma, a completely incomprehensible tool, how dare he?

“Shut the fuck up, I’ve been fucking suffering, you weren’t obvious, you piece of shit, you fuckface, stupid Deku,” Bakugou finished his sentence doubling on Deku’s prior action and kissing the him on the lips. Maybe a little rougher than Deku had, so much so it had the boy leaning backwards into Bakugou’s tight grip.

The frown that had been across Deku’s face turned into an uncontrollable smile as Bakugou let the kiss linger, but needing to breathe he started slapping at Bakugou’s back again.

“Kacchan!” he laughed against Bakugou’s lips, “Off, off!”

At that, Bakugou slowly and hesitantly pulled off, not realizing he practically had the other boy caught in something of a dip in his arms.

They looked at each other like that for a minute, taking in the look of each other’s faces.

Bakugou’s eyes were jaded but wide, as though he had dispelled every emotion he had into that one kiss and was in the process of recharging for the next one.

Deku on the other hand, had just got finished laughing and was smiling up at Bakugou with a gleam and fondness that Bakugou had never seen before. It was new look to be added to the book of things that made Bakugou lose all the strength in his heart and it got tattooed it in his brain as a permanent sight like everything else with Deku did.

However, while the smile remained the look in Deku’s eyes began turning sad again.

“I wish you talked to me,” he cracked.

“Oh…,” Bakugou breathed, realizing the source of the original issue came from him again and he punched himself mentally, “I…fuck…I,”

Bakugou danced around for the right words, there was an easier way to say just “Im sorry” but instead he opted for the way more complicated route.

“I fucked up,” he groaned, looking away, “I fucked up…because I was weak and…,”

Despite himself, Bakugou looked back at Deku from the corner of his eyes to see the boy has lost the smile and was contorting his look to annoyance again before even letting Bakugou finish his sentence.

“It was because I was fucking weak,” Bakugou reemphasized just as annoyed that Deku was looking at him sideways, “and I didn’t tackle it head on when I should have, but I don’t make the same mistake fucking twice so,”

He lifted Deku from the tilt in his arms and looked him in the eye as he finished with a promise,

“I’ll get stronger,”

Deku twitched his lip looking a bit exhausted and unsatisfied with the response, before his eyes seemed to glimmer with some type of understanding and it all finally molded itself into a smile.

“Everything’s a different kind of battle to you isn’t it?”

“Yeah and you’re my worst enemy,” Bakugou spat back, putting his forehead to Deku’s roughly and closing his eyes, “fucking exhausting, fucking stupid,”

Deku returned the gesture by leaning into the touch a bit more softly, and sighing with a laugh.

“Yeah, and I guess you’re just my idiot, so it works out in the end.”

---

“I’m sorry, by the way,” Deku started as they trudged back to the dorms hand in hand.

“What the hell are you apologizing for?” Bakugou replied, meaning to sound a little more aggressive and irritated by the question but he was still a little drunk off the scene in the hallway.

“Well… I think All Might may have put Aizawa-sensei up to this…haha…” Deku continued nervously tensing his grip on Bakugou’s hand, “I was really kinda um…mad?”

“Wow, really? Couldn’t fucking tell from the way you almost ate my face,”

“I wasn’t that mad then,”

“Well you looked like you wanted to throw that chair at me earlier,”

“Uhm,” Deku coughed into his hand changing the banter subject from the chair, “Anyways, I kind of vented to him because it was effecting my training a bit and he noticed,”

Bakugou felt a little drop in his chest at the thought that Deku may have been disappointing All Might with his work ethic over Bakugou’s hissy fit.

“I accidentally broke like 10 punching bags in one session, All Might looked a little terrified,” Deku laughed.

Bakugou imagined an infuriated Deku sending 100lb bags of dirt flying one by one and wouldn’t admit for a second that he probably would have been looking like All Might supposedly had been.

“So I really think he consulted Aizawa-sensei about it, which is why we were forced so suddenly,” Deku scratched under his chin with his free hand thoughtfully, “they seem to do that a lot, huh?”

“Those old men need to stay out of our fucking business,” Bakugou muttered.

“I guess so, but they kinda know best it looks like,” Deku mused leaning into Bakugou, “who knows how long you have taken on your own?”

“Be quiet, get off me,” Bakugou grunted leaning his head into Deku’s anyways.

Intertwined fingers, the sunset, the sound of the clinging gates, and all of the silence Bakugou had dreaded before was now draping over him comfortably with Deku by his side again, closer even so.

Falling for Deku hadn’t been easy.

Getting here was rough. The misunderstandings, the stubbornness, having everything about who they were torn apart and blown up until they were left with nothing but the reality and its painful fire burning into their skin until someone finally gave in to turn and put it out. The details of that are gritty and long, but you already know that.

Yeah, even after all of that everything was a natural and simple transition.

Like the way Deku’s hand fit perfectly into his, the way they bounced off each other’s enthusiasm over the tiniest things, the way Deku looked at him, the way Deku kissed and held him.

Yeah, a long time of these kind of things went on before liking Deku became second nature to him, another instinct drilled into his very core before he knew it, the passion, the fire, the adrenaline, even the tenderness and care, he grew used to these things as an essential part of his life, as something he didn’t have to battle against or push away.

Bakugou could live with this.

So much so, that the thought one day the final barrier that existed between him and his feelings for Deku would finally come tumbling down.

The one thing he still feared, but did not deny.

The thought that, after some time he would be able to peg a word on his feelings for Deku with the intensity he truly felt, and put the weight of those feelings into a more attainable and accurate context than just a crush, than just liking him.

And whenever he heard the familiar annoying ass laugh, that familiar annoying ass smile, and that now familiar brush of fingers interlacing with his own, he thought that day just might come someday, and someday soon.

It just might.