Chapter Text
Bakugo only had the gum when he knew he was in for a long day of classes. A pack a day wasn’t healthy, but neither was the caffeine, and neither was how much he crammed his schedule.
So go figure.
Some days if he really had to study, he would skip meals and buy double the amount of gum. Parts of the library and book store didn’t allow food, specifically parts with textbooks. The parts Bakugo needed for studying. Sure, he already knew most of the stuff due to past studying sessions, but no harm in making it a guarantee A.
As for the gum, baseball had really done a number on him that way, and Big League Chew had as well. The candy store was relatively crowded that day, but the lines didn’t seem all too long. Mainly just college kids heading to the back.
The candy shop wasn’t large by any means, and had some stupid name that Bakugo never made much of an effort to look at whenever he walked in, “Rocket-Pop” or something. There were barrels full of the sugary crap lining the walls, countless candy dispensers, some freezers with drinks and ice cream in the back, along with a straight up back room running behind the entire store that would have been used for storage if not for the reality of college students living so close by.
Bakugo’s roommate worked back there more often than not, and sold a different kind of candy. Sero’s ‘business’ was yet another reason Bakugo was rarely in the dorms outside of changing, and the occasional textbook switch out. Oh, and sleeping once every blue moon.
Of course Bakugo could have just tried to buy out the gumball machine to the right of the door, but he doubted Sero would approve of something so stupid and big in their dorm room, especially due to the amount of guests he had over on the regular. It was a miracle on its own that Sero actually respected Bakugo not wanting any of his own space trashed.
Passing the tiny kitchen section where caramel apples and fudge was made, Bakugo beelined it to the specific barrel filled to the top with the colorful stupid faced packs. Bakugo proceeded to shove them into a basket until he had about 20ish. He could probably stretch those for a month, if he learned how to actually ration.
“Didn’t know you played baseball.” Sero’s obnoxiously casual voice filled the air just beside him, causing Bakugo to whip his head up only to see two figures there, the other having bright yellow hair with some weird black streak in it.
Guess it wasn’t just a high school phase for some people.
“Don’t you have crap to sell?” Bakugo managed through gritted teeth, rifling through his basket while he did to make sure he got a fine assortment of flavors. He had issues. Sero just clicked his tongue at him.
“Harsh, my man. Hurts my heart.” Sero earned himself a middle finger with that one, one at which Sero returned with a smirk. The blonde-ish kid next to Sero still hadn’t said anything, just studying Bakugo slightly. Hockey players usually travel in cliques, so it wasn’t a far assumption to assume he played too.
His attire didn’t exactly make it obvious though, as he was wearing some black fuzzy underlining Abercrombie zip up over an ACDC shirt, with grey-black bootcut jeans. At least the jeans left space for the black converse, but didn’t exactly distract away from the black choker.
Bakugo would have thought this guy was a whole lot more emo if his jeans didn’t have spiraling silver patterns stitched into the bootpart with likely something similar on the back pockets (his parents were fashion designers, Bakugo knew that stuff), and if his shirt didn’t have so many colors, though clearly muted by time.
“Ever tried eyeliner?” That same weird yellow kid mused, narrowing his golden eyes at Bakugo’s red ones. Therefore he got to have a real nice view of Bakugo rolling them a second later.
“No.” Now that was a lie, as Bakugo used to put some on with his eyeblack before every single baseball game back in high school, but he wasn’t about to let this random twink along with his roommate find out about that. It had been a sort of good luck thing.
And Bakugo also knew he looked dang good in it.
“Black looks good with red.” Bakugo tried to roll his eyes even harder at that, but judging by that kid’s simply confused expression, he just came off looking stupid. So took to snapping again.
“Everything looks good with black dunce face.” He snarled, causing the weirdo to mock wince and clutch his hand to his heart, a slight smirk tugging at his face. This was exactly why Bakugo had made a conscious effort to never meet Sero’s friends, they were all sarcastic little turds. Of course Sero then immediately took the moment where Bakugo wasn’t suffering for five seconds to chime in yet again.
“Maybe if you cut the caffeine and…” Sero trailed off intentionally, gesturing at all the gum. “Then maybe you would get a life. Just a thought bro.”
“My name’s Denki, by the way.” The blonde perked up, cutting off what was very soon to be an angry outburst. Bakugo just narrowed his eyes at him, before slowly panning back to the still smirking Sero, who unfortunately was taller than him.
“Didn’t ask.” Bakugo snapped loudly, eyes flicking back to Denki for just a second, who immediately grinned like they were best friends. At least the childlike face was better than that stupid egotistical smirk.
“Didn’t have to.” Yeah Bakugo just gave Denki an incredulous look at that, officially giving up on staring down Sero in favor of glaring at the shorter boy. Denki was just too attention seeking for that to work for long.
“I meant the baseball thing as a joke first, but you freaked out man.” Sero said all sing song after a few seconds of silence passed, cocking his head slightly at Bakugo with his arms folded across his chest. At that point Bakugo was just done with the two of them, and had tutoring in about 15 minutes anyway.
“High school? Little league? Preschool?” Sero continued on, with that grin still not dropping from Denki’s face. The idiot looked like a golden retriever. Bakugo had no need or desire for Sero to know anything about his life though, so promptly turned on his heel.
Combat boots shrieked against the worn floor, every step making a clack as Bakugo headed for the register, where the same girl normally was. It was always some hyper girl with a million different hair colors. On one of the rare occasions where Bakugo actually talked to Sero, he had told him that she used to have blonde hair, but dyed parts new colors anytime she saw a cool one.
Therefore she looked like a unicorn.
“Hey mami, i’ll take this one.” Sero said with a grin, hopping the counter and walking over to the register. Sometimes Bakugo forgot that he did technically work here.
“Aww come on Hanta, your roommate’s hot.” Hagakure said with a slight pout, but obliged, walking off to restock some barrels presumably. That was only after doing the classic flirty once over though. Bakugo just scowled, choosing to ignore that one.
His attention slowly drifted to both watching Sero grin and Denki staring at some freezer doors with pure longing. Sero grinned like the Cheshire cat, all mischievous and crap.
There had only been one actual time where Hagakure had helped Bakugo in this store, and it had been when Sero had a stomach virus. Bakugo swore Sero just lived to spite him, and that Hagakure lived just to try to-
“Soooo Katsuki-”
“Bakugo.”
“We’re roommates, I’m at that point.”
“You only talk to me if you want to f with me, so go to heck with that ‘friend’ crap.” Bakugo snapped, raising his voice just enough to carry, prompting a few confused, and a few openly judging looks in that direction. He didn’t care though, that needed to be shut down.
“Or better yet, just go get high like you always do. Apparently that helps huh?”
Bakugo was expecting immediate retaliation, so it was weird when Sero didn’t immediately make some stupid comment, eyes instead going slightly downcast under the jagged partial curtain the wolfcut provided. Sero rarely shut up in the midst of teasing.
But per usual, instead of considering his actions, or considering the very real possibility that there would be roommate switch forms on his bed by tomorrow, Bakugo just scowled harder. He then took the chance to dump the basket back in the barrel, slamming the brown thing back into the proper stack.
That short act, especially the lack of footsteps directly behind Bakugo, sadly did give him the moments he needed to consider it. He knew he was being a jerk. But he didn’t need friends if he was going to be at the top. And heck if he even needed a roommate, or a dorm period at this point.
Tucking his zip-up tighter around him, worn dark red sleeves balled up tight in his fists, Bakugo stormed out. He could just buy more gum later. Honestly, Sero did have a point with buying too much, but could have all the fun in the world staring at Bakugo’s receding back if he wanted to be near him that much.
At least he didn’t yell at him. At least he wasn’t a complete stick in the mud.
The weather wasn’t exactly the best, but it was typical for this time of year. Humid, a bit foggy, typical. And honestly nice for a walk, which was a relatively short one Bakugo had to manage over to the book store. The place worked like a library more often than not, and therefore was the location for most of the tutoring sessions.
Naturally the college campus did have a library, but it was a bit of a walk, and typically very crowded, especially on days near exams. The book store was a bit further from the dorms, but far more quiet, along with actually having tables readily available.
He should apologize. But, Sero would know he didn’t mean it. Nothing got under that guy’s skin.
And that was about when Bakugo realized he had left his bag at the candy store. He had slung it down right next to the gum barrel, just so he could properly rifle through the sugarly crap (he went to the gym every morning his brain could handle it, he could burn it off). And had left it.
Like some braindead extra. Checking his watch, Bakugo just cursed under his breath and turned on his heel yet again, walking at a much faster pace. Tantrums really weren’t all that productive, especially due to how slow he had been walking as a result of thinking he had plenty of time.
Fifteen minutes had been a fine amount of time to head to the book store with time to spare. Fifteen minutes with seven already burned and eight likely needed to make the runaround, was not exactly time to spare.
The second his boots started scuffing against that worn floor again, Bakugo scanned the room for Sero and that weirdo blonde, because figures they would still be together. Denki was still at those freezer doors, whining judging by the hand gestures.
As far as Bakugo could tell by the freezer reflection, Sero just looked almost placating. Well, placation that was slowly souring into something far more concerned as Denki kept talking. On the other hand, the red-headed boy to his left was laughing.
Wait, red headed boy?
“You actually came back man!” Sero said, a grin tearing through the concern the second he saw Bakugo just standing there, looking incredulous as Denki and Kirishima looked over too. He actually did hold his tongue from correcting Sero about the purpose of his return, but didn’t hold back his scowl as he went for his bag, which thankfully hadn’t gotten stolen.
He wouldn’t apologize still, but it didn’t hurt to have Sero think he came back to make sure he was ok.
“Oh hey skull guy!” Kirishima said the second something in his brain clicked, showing almost all his weirdly sharp teeth in his own grin. Bakugo just grabbed his bag and headed for the door again, only mildly concerned at how fast Denki was talking behind him. He couldn’t even make out what the dude was saying, just fuzz and gibberish.
Maybe he had some energy drink problem, or considering he knew Sero, something else. Wouldn’t be uncommon for a college student. At the same time, the blonde could just have more energy than he knew what to do with.
Mildly curious, Bakugo did stray his path a bit to see what was in the freezer, which were just rows of drinks. And specifically, Denki staring at three rows of ‘Chargebolt’ energy drinks, with more caffeine than any of the rest of them.
He already had two tucked into his right arm, and was looking at Kirishima with big eyes presumably for a third. Bakugo vaguely recognized him from the few times he had actually visited the nearby comic book store, so he knew he had a job, but also probably relied on his buddies to make sure he didn’t burn all his money on the drinks.
“Ever tried one of these?” Denki said excitedly the second his brain seemed to process Bakugo standing closer now, and that was when Bakugo fully noticed that one of the cans in Denki’s arms was already empty. He had been gone for about seven minutes. Those cans were big. Geez.
“Don’t listen to Denki, skull guy, it’s a bad call.” Kirishima said, that massive grin still glued to his face as he moved to sling an arm around Bakugo’s shoulders. Without hesitation, Bakugo ducked out of the way, backpedaling to where he knew the exit was.
It was far more about the act of physical contact than the nickname. Honestly, Bakugo far preferred skull guy over nerd. It fit him, to an extent, even if it was just based on a hoodie.
“Yeah yeah whatever.” Bakugo muttered, turning on his heel to properly head towards the door as he adjusted the bag haphazardly slung on his shoulder. He didn’t care if they actually heard him or not, but on his end definitely heard Denki’s almost psychotic laugh, along with Sero’s voice saying something along the lines of calling Denki an addict.
What he did care about, however, was the set of footsteps directly behind him.
“Where ya headed?” Kirishima’s voice was too cheery for this late in the day, full with an almost childlike excitement for something Bakugo was clearly missing. At least he had dropped the paranoia from a few days ago about Bakugo being a gossip on him and that stuttering nerd.
“Into traffic, you go first I’ll watch.” Bakugo snapped, increasing his pace to no avail. The pit of dread in his stomach just grew with every second Kirishima didn’t go in a different direction than the way Bakugo was headed. Either he was following him, which Bakugo wouldn’t be all that surprised at, or he was headed to the book store too.
“Well I got tutoring! Bombed some calc test-” Everything else Kirishima said in the next few seconds fizzed out in Bakugo’s head. It could still be someone else. Heck, that nerd freak’s mom owned the book store, it easily could be him.
Bakugo really hoped it was him, not that Kirishima would be able to focus much around his little boy toy anyway.
“Hey man, you listening?” Kirishima said a bit louder after longer went by with no response from Bakugo other than a slightly increased pace.
“Yes, just don’t care.” Bakugo snapped moments after Kirishima finished talking, startling the boy with the rapid increase in volume. And aggression. Kirishima didn’t give up whatever mission he had to talk to Bakugo though, and kept on trying, still keeping pace.
“Kiss your mother with that mouth?” Kirishima said with a grin, and Bakugo just rolled his eyes. He hadn’t even cursed, how much of a prissy was this guy?
“No actually, I kiss yours.” Bakugo muttered before picking up his pace yet again. At this point it wasn’t even to outpace Kirishima, he already gave up on that due to his legs being shorter, it was more to get to that book store ASAP in order to hopefully see someone else sitting at the table Bakugo had said to meet at.
Sadly, it was forced to be a stand-still at the crosswalk. That left Bakugo tightly crossing his arms over his chest, with Kirishima leaning against the nearby pole. It was miraculously not covered in stickers, unlike most on the actual college campus.
Admittedly, most over there were for the school team, but still. It looked like someone threw up a rainbow.
“So, what’s your name? I feel like it would be rude to just call you skull guy forever.” Kirishima offered up casually, cocking his head slightly. His gelled up hair didn’t even budge at the motion. Bakugo doesn’t offer anything back, just irritably checking his watch again. Three minutes.
Looking both ways, there weren’t any cars actively coming, and frick if Bakugo was going to suffer through Kirishima talking for any longer than he had to.
So Bakugo set off across the street, ignoring Kirishima’s almost panicked question of what he was doing, the words fading to that familiar fuzz in his brain.
Moments later, and only a few strides later, he got his hood harshly yanked back, forcing him into falling backwards. Right onto a weirdly well built arm, and half of a weirdly sturdy chest. It was undeniably a bit nice, considering the sheer warmth coming from it, but a nuisance all the same. Bakugo’s bag spilled over slightly in the movement, a few pens scattered across the road as he glared what he hoped was absolute death at Kirishima’s face.
“Frick’s your problem?” Bakugo spat, not exactly knowing if he cut Kirishima off or not, but really only focused on the scattered pens, which he grabbed seconds later, shoving them back into his bag. He knew his priority should be getting out of the road instead of saving a few pens, but the little walking guy was already green in his peripheral. It was fine.
Kirishima’s face immediately morphed into something purely incredulous, and his voice slowly started fading back into recognition.
“You could have died-”
“Spare me the crap, ‘Red Riot’. And leave me alone.” Bakugo sneered the nickname specifically, but something in his gut was screaming at him again that he was missing something. Sure, he had been looking down while he walked, but if a car had been there he would have heard it.
He would have.
Kirishima’s features slowly stoned over as he seemed to realize Bakugo was serious, not exactly in anger, more in disappointment. Bakugo didn’t get enough of a close look to determine if this meant a surefire end to the constant trying to talk to him, but hoped it was.
Figures, he got pissed, true colors for a hockey player. Probably thought he could get away with manhandling just because he’s the star of a team. Something in Bakugo’s gut was still screaming at him that he was wrong though. As the light started flickering again, the countdown till the light would turn green resuming, Bakugo finally moved. A few slightly uncertain strides later, and he was on the sidewalk.
His knuckles were unnaturally a bit white around his bag strap, right hand moving to double check that it was properly fastened shut. Kirishima hadn’t seemed like the kind of guy to just yank someone back because they were getting away from him, but maybe Bakugo had read him wrong.
Bakugo didn’t pay much attention in AP Psychology back in high school.
The book store was only a single shop down, and Kirishima was already wretching the door open to it, with Bakugo not even bothering to try to make it before it shut.
Wet leaves lacking any semblance of a crunch just sat there under Bakugo’s footfalls, dirt staining the yellow-ish gold, orange, and brown. If it hadn’t rained, it would have been far nicer walking on leaves. Screw that useless water. Passing the cat cafe, Bakugo managed a glance over at that storefront across from the bookstore, seeing the lights reflected in the glass.
And seeing that red leather jacket still sitting behind it, untouched by the rain.
Scowling, Bakugo just looked down again, storming to the book store and walking inside, completely missing the car full of drunk college students speeding around the nearby corner. Away from where they almost hit a man on a crosswalk.