Chapter Text
Kirishima closed his eyes and smiled as he listened to the new song he had found.
Once upon a summer
A traveling circus came to town
From the land down under
And I was filled with wonder
When I saw the girl on the flying trapeze
Tear through the air with the greatest of ease
His reverie was interrupted by the sound of pounding on his door.
"Shitty Hair! Class starts in fifteen minutes; you had better be done with your hair or I'm leaving without you," called Bakugo from the other side.
"Coming," he yelled back as he grabbed his bag and threw open the door. He left the song playing as they made their way to the elevator, slightly swaying to the music. "Bakugo, isn't this a great song? I found it this morning and can't stop listening to it."
"It's whatever," Bakugo said with a shrug. The song continued to play while they rode the elevator to the first floor and ended as they exited the dorm. Kirishima considered playing it again, but decided instead to put his phone away. He had worked hard to get Bakugo to walk with him in the mornings and he wanted to enjoy every second of it.
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Bakugo rolled his eyes as he watched Kirishima run around to everyone at lunch sharing his new music.
"This is so cute!" Squealed Mina. "I feel like I'm with them at the circus during that one instrumental part."
"I am assuming that was the purpose of including it. They did a good job," added Tsu.
Uraraka, who had been standing with Tsu, leaned over to see Kirishima's phone better. "I like it, but what is it?"
Kirishima turned his head to answer but was beaten by Jirou, "Under the Circus Lights" by Owl City. It's on their Coco Moon album that came out a bit over a year ago."
Bakugo saw Yaoyorozu come over to listen more closely and even some of the guys were commenting on how much they liked it. He hadn't thought much of it when Kirishima had played it that first time, but this was the third time they had listened to it during lunch and something about it was starting to irk him. He opened his mouth to announce his annoyance and then realized most of the group was so absorbed in the song that they weren't even going to notice. He stood up and saw that Iida and Todoroki were sitting further away and not as engaged as the rest of the class.
"Anyone who listens to a song on repeat needs to get their head checked," he snarled before stomping away. "I'm headed back to class."
"Arriving well before class starts is admirable! More students should follow your lead," Iida called after him.
"Why would listening to a song on repeat require a head exam?" He heard Todoroki ask Iida. Bakugo shook his head and left Lunch Rush with the sound of music fading in his ears.
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A couple of days later Kirishima was walking back to the dorm swaying to the music that was, this time, playing through his headphones. He wasn't sure where Bakugo had disappeared to; they didn't always walk back to the dorm together but they usually did. He danced his way through the door and didn't see that Bakugo was in the common room until a pillow hit him in the face.
"Hi Bakugo! I missed you on the walk back today," he said ignoring the scowl on the blonde's face. Bakugo was usually grumpy about something and Kirishima thought his scowl was pretty cute. Bakugo opened his mouth to say something but stopped as he watched Kirishima remove his headphones.
"Oh. Didn't see those."
Kirishima bounded over and plopped down on the couch next to him. "Well I wasn't sure if others would want to keep hearing the same song over and over so I thought headphones were the manly thing to do." He punctuated his point by smashing his fists together.
Bakugo gave him a blank stare back. "As long as I don't have to listen to it."
He looked pretty annoyed for some reason so Kirishima threw an arm around him and nestled them both back against the couch. Everyone else was also starting to come down to the common room and he knew that Bakugo was always more relaxed when he acted as a buffer between him and the others. The blonde stayed tense as people were getting settled but that disappeared after awhile and Kirishima couldn't help but hope it was because of him.
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"How are you listening to this song AGAIN?" Bakugo asked as he entered Kirishima's room to find him listening to 'Under the Circus Lights' for the 100th time that week. He stormed over to Kirishima's phone where it lay on his desk, stabbed pause violently, and then turned to glare at the redhead where he was lounging on his bed.
"Because it's a good song!" Kirishima said with a laugh as he got up to rescue his phone before Bakugo did more with it than turn off the music. "You really should give 'Own City' another try; not all music needs to be heavy metal."
"Just good music," Bakugo grumbled in reply. "I swear Kirishima, if you make me listen to that song one more time then I'm outta here and you can study for the test by yourself." He sat down in the desk chair with a huff and opened his notebook to the most recent lesson and was pleased to see Kirishima put away his phone and settle back down on his bed with his own notebook. He started reciting the points most likely to be on the exam and missed the soft smile that was on the redhead's face.
Later that night, as he lay in bed trying to fall asleep, Bakugo couldn't escape the lyrics he had heard over and over and found himself wondering just who Kirishima was picturing when he listened to them.
She was a light in a dark lullaby
That girl was raised by a butterfly
I swear when I caught her eye, I could almost fly
And under the circus lights
I must have fallen in love that night
It had taken a long time for him to admit that Kirishima meant more to him than just some extra; he didn't like to think that his importance was being supplanted. However, as he drifted off, he found himself admitting there was more to it than that.
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Kirishima arrived at Gym Beta ready for sparring practice with Bakugo and was surprised to not see the blonde in the locker room. He saw Deku enter from the other door in his hero costume, clearly having come from his own workout, and went over to see if he had seen their friend.
"Hey Midoriya, have you seen Bakugo? We're supposed to spar but he wasn't at the dorms."
"Oh yeah, Kacchan has been in the gym for the last hour," Deku answered indicating the door he had just come through. "I tried to not make it obvious I was watching but he's got some really cool new moves. He's been working on aerial maneuvers like quick 180 turns, dodging obstacles, or executing vertical flips. He's used his quick to be airborne since we were in middle school but this is one of the first times I've seen him focus on actual flying technique rather than just his attacks. You should go take a look."
Kirishima thanked him, quickly changed, and then stepped into the gym. The sound of Bakugo's blasts easily identified that he was still hard at work and Kirishima only had to look up to see him gracefully maneuvering through the air as if he were dancing.
I swear when I caught her eye, I could almost fly
"Bakugo!" He yelled out, waving his hands. Kirishima knew he must look pretty dopey given that he was smiling so wide you could see all his teeth, but he didn't care. Somehow the other heard him, even over his own blasts, and he flew down to land near the other. He looked surprised, even though they were supposed to meet, and wore an expression that Kirishima wasn't quite sure what it meant.
"Took you long enough to get here," Bakugo said between pants as he caught his breath. "We should, uh, work on your defense. I've got a lot of sweat stored up."
"Perfect! I can take anything you throw at me. Let's go!" Kirishima took off across the gym to a spot that had fewer people, dragging Bakugo behind him.
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Spending an hour shooting howitzers turned out not to be enough to lessen Bakugo's nerves. He and Kirishima were now cleaned up and walking back to the dorms, the latter happily chatting away, and Bakugo couldn't seem to get his heart rate to slow down. Whenever it seemed like he was finally getting it under control, Kirishima would step too close such that they knocked into one another and it set him off again.
"Hey," Kirishima said with a light poke at his arm to get his attention. "I really liked your new aerial maneuvers."
Bakugo blushed at the compliment and hoped it wasn't obvious.
"Tch, you've been talking to Deku haven't you? Calling them 'aerial maneuvers' had to have come from him."
Kirishima nodded and grinned. "Yeah, he was admiring them too. But really, you looked so graceful up there. It wasn't even like you were flying, more like dancing. Made me think of the song I've been listening to...." The redhead trailed off as Bakugo's breath caught in his throat. Had he been that obvious?
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Well, actually, you keep asking why I like listening to that song so much and its because of you."
They kept walking, but the pace slowed to nearly to a shuffle. Bakugo tried to glance at Kirishima out of the corner of his eye to gauge his expression but found the other glancing right back at him. His heart rate increased yet again as Kirishima continued.
"The song is all about flying and falling in love, and the way it sounds is the way I feel when I'm around you. I wasn't really expecting you to return my feelings, and when you really didn't seem to like the song I wasn't sure what to think about that, but then I saw you in the air and thought that maybe, just maybe, you were doing it for me."
Bakugo took his hands out of his pockets where they had been buried and hurriedly wiped them on his pants before the pools of sweat that were now pouring off him ignited.
"That's...why do you...you shouldn't....." he again glanced over and saw the hopeful look in Kirishima's eyes. He took a deep breath.
"When did you get so smart?" He finished as he was the one to now step close to the other so that their shoulders knocked together.
"From hanging out with you," Kirishima said matter-of-factly.
Bakugo startled as he felt a hand brush against his own, but then allowed it to slip into his grasp. They walked in silence for a minute while their thumbs slowly traced patterns on the others hand.
"What I don't get is why you don't like that song? I mean. Other than the fact that I've played it a million times."
Bakugo laughed feeling as if a weight had been lifted. "It's about a damn girl, you dumb ass. A girl with a 'charming sweetness'; I thought you had a crush on one of the lame extras." Kirishima shook his head.
"Nope. I know the lyrics say 'she' but I always just kinda ignored that. It was always about you."
Bakugo tried to fight the grin that had taken over his face, but for once this was a battle he was losing. Instead, he shifted his gaze up towards the sky and realized that the lyrics were indeed pretty perfect.
And that's how the girl on the flying trapeze
Knocked me off my feet with the greatest of ease