Chapter Text
The team begrudgingly pulled off their skates, all varying degrees of embarrassed and pissed off. Tokoyami trudged off sock-footed, pulling the lost-and-found box out from the shelf on the side of the rink. A few minutes later he came back with a sour look on his face and two sizes too big orange sneakers. He ignored the snickers from Bakugou, grabbing his sweatshirt and heading out to be the first one outside.
***
The team lined up on the grass surrounding the community center after pulling on sweatshirts and flannels. The mid-February cold was biting, and half of them were already shivering.
Aizawa exited the center, pulling out his whistle from where it was stashed in his back pocket. He rang it one, loud, and the teens were off.
Bakugou quickly pulled the lead, trying to outpace everyone. He didn’t want to have to deal with small talk, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let fucking Deku get ahead of him. Soon enough he was full on sprinting as he went along the side of the community center.
Midoriya, Uraraka, Sero, and Shoji were all behind him by a bit, lightly jogging to make sure their barely-warmed-up muscles wouldn’t give out on them. They didn’t totally mind the chance to talk, and Uraraka soon started complaining about her struggles in Math class.
Behind them Todoroki and Tokoyami brought up the rear. Tokoyami, having worn loafers to school that day, unfortunately was having to get adjusted to the uncomfortable borrowed sneakers. Todoroki was having similar trouble, as the quick transition from ice to grassed ground was messing with his balance quite a bit.
‘Damnit’ he thought to himself as he tripped over a non-existent rock for the second time. He flailed his arms, trying to stop himself from falling again. ‘Why does this keep happening?’ he wondered, starting to focus on his feet instead of the air in front of him.
This strategy worked well until he bumped into Tokoyami’s back.
“Shit!” Tokoyami lurched forward, grabbing the closest thing to him, which happened to be Todoroki’s shirt. “Oh fuck.”
Needless to say, Todoroki and Tokoyami stayed in last place throughout the laps.
***
As Bakugou continued his fast pace, he began to reach the first corner of the community center.
‘Why the fuck does this building have to be so goddamn big?’ He thought to himself, cursing Aizawa. He put on an extra burst of speed, feeling the strain already pulling at his calves. Bakugou rounded the corner sharply- a bit too sharply, and wasn’t looking where he was going.
He tried to ignore the stabbing pain in his legs, and maybe that was the reason his mind was out of it. Or maybe it was that he forgot to eat breakfast that morning. Or maybe it was the fight he had with his mom on the phone before practice, where she said he had to go to yet another doctor.
Whatever the case, Bakugou’s head just wasn’t where it was supposed to be. And so, his feet following the general consensus, ended up not being where they were supposed to be.
Bakugou ran right into a wall.
Well, what felt like a wall. Something big and hard and- it had to be a wall, right? Only a wall could take Bakugou down that fast. Yeah, it had to be a wall. But walls didn’t tend to have laps, did they?
“Dude, are you okay??” Yeah, walls didn’t have voices either. Bakugou opened his eyes (when did he shut them?) to be met with a flurry of red hair and rough hands. He blinked, finally registering what had just happened. He hadn’t run into a wall, but an absolute wall of a boy.
He looked up into bright, concerned eyes. The guy obviously had gone down with Bakugou, but somehow was able to land on his ass, pulling Bakugou down in a way that managed to keep both of them from being hurt too much. Key word being too .
Bakugou’s face hurt like a bitch. His cheeks were hot- maybe from impact? Yeah, that sounded about right. Body parts get all red when they hit stuff, like his fists when he punched a wall.
Bakugou realized he still hadn’t said anything to his accidental savior, and blinked hard before responding, “Of course I’m alright. Where the hell did you come from, asshole?” And there was the instinctual anger.
The guy smirked, eying Bakugou’s face up and down. “Well, aren’t you a gentleman? How about a ‘yes, I’m fine, thank you for saving me’?” Bakugou 'tsked, choosing to ignore the way the boy tried to imitate his gruff voice.
“There wouldn't be a need to be saved if you hadn’t been in the way in the first place, Shitty Hair.” Yeah, Bakugou knew it wasn’t a good insult, but the red hair was the first thing he could single out about the guy in front of him.
“Wow! Lot of smack talk from a guy who’s still in my lap.” Bakugou froze, looking down at their position. He hadn’t even realized they were still positioned in the way that they fell. He was sitting directly on top of the other boy, with his hands instinctively wrapped around the shoulders of the other teen. Speaking of which, the redhead had his too-fucking-big-to-be-teenage-hands around Bakugou’s smaller-than-he-wanted-it-to-be waist. And shit. Oh god. SHIT. FUCK.
Bakugou peeled himself off of him, a flush spreading to the back of his neck, his ears, across his nose. Dear god, he hoped it wasn’t noticeable. But from the way the guy on the ground was smirking at him, it definitely was.
The teen pulled himself off of the ground, brushing the dirt that had collected around his pants.
“I, uh…” Bakugou started. Suddenly, he could hear fucking Deku and his gang of annoying ass friends rounding the corner. He blanched- what would the rest of his team say if they found him red-faced and stuttering, around a stranger no less? Bakugou took one last look at the boy in front of him. He had stood all the way up, and was no less than 4 inches taller than Bakugou. His shoulders were huge , he was a tank of a man. All of these factors mixed with the embarrassment and pain Bakugou was trying to shake off became too much. So, he did the only thing he could think of.
He flipped the other guy the bird and sprinted away.
It wasn’t a heroic exit, it wasn’t even a cool exit, but he just needed to get away, okay? And he didn’t look back over his shoulder. He didn’t see the guy staring back at him with a confused but amused look on his face, he didn’t see the rest of his group rounding the corner. Okay? He didn’t . Because if he did, that would be super embarrassing, and Bakugou Katsuki doesn’t do embarrassing. He doesn’t . That was Deku, or even Todoroki’s job. So he shook his head, and powered through the strange pounding in his chest.
***
The rest of the team jogged past a random guy standing near the community center. Midoriya noticed he looked a little beaten up, so he called over his shoulder,
“Hey, you alright?” He was met with a cheery thumbs-up, so he decided it was okay to keep running past.
“Anyway, now Mr. C’s going to totally bring down my grade, and I don’t know what to do about it.” Uraraka finished, rolling her shoulders a couple of times as they picked up the pace.
“Maybe you could see if you could get an extension?" Sero suggested, opting to jog backwards for a minute.
"Or you could at least explain what the problem is.” Shoji commented. It was kind of amazing, Midoriya pondered, how he could run and speak without his helmet getting in the way. It just about covered his eyes- was visibility an issue, too?
“What’s that, Midoriya?” Shoji turned to him, cocking his head to the side. He flushed, bringing his hands up to wave in front of him.
“Nothing! Sorry, just talking to myself, hah.” Midoriya really had to get that muttering problem under control.
Speaking of getting things under control, he could already feel a tightness in his chest. Shit. He tried to breath deeply, but a cough came out instead.
He had been working so hard with All Might- no, he told him to call him Toshinori. Ugh, but that didn’t feel right. Anyway, All Might and him had been working on stamina training, but only on the ice. Running, even jogging felt so much different. So much harder.
Sooner than he wanted to, he was wheezing, trying (and failing) to catch his breath. The other teens turned to him, immediately slowing down. Midoriya stopped in his tracks, motioning for them to continue on.
“Just-” he gasped, “need inhaler. Go on ahead.” He bent over, putting his hands on his knees. He knew he should be standing up straight, why wasn’t he standing up straight?
While the three didn’t want to leave Midoriya behind while he was like this, they also knew he got incredibly embarrassed if he thought others were pitying him. So, against their better judgement, they nodded their heads and continued along the side of the center.
Midoriya reached into his pocket, hands fumbling for his inhaler. Finally he brought his chest up, standing straight so his airway could be a bit clearer. He could hear Todoroki and Tokoyami slowly approaching, so he knew he better hurry up.
He finally took it out, and quickly brought it up to his mouth. He took a few slow inhales, trying to stop the panic and pain growing in his chest. Slowly, he began to calm down, finally able to breathe fully again.
He heard steps stop right in front of him, but he was so focused on his breathing that he didn’t even register the two boys standing by him.
“Midoriya, are you alright? Do you need Aizawa?” Todoroki was always so thoughtful. It never felt like pity when he asked what Midoriya needed, though it still made him flustered.
Tokoyami, however, didn’t seem to have that problem. He elbowed Todoroki in the side, saying,
“Idiot, he can’t answer- he’s got the inhaler in his mouth. Let’s just stay for another second.” The two boys awkwardly fidgeted as Midoriya took one last breath of his inhaler. He blushed, embarrassed that they were just watching him.
“Sorry, guys! I’m fine, just needed a breather, hah.” He cringed internally. ‘Really?’ he thought. ‘The breather line? How original. Ugh.’ He motioned in front of him, starting to walk. “I don’t need anything, we can start walking again,” he smiled awkwardly, looking to the front instead of his teammates. They both nodded, starting their trek around the third corner of the building.
The three boys kept the pace slow, Todoroki still staring at Midoriya pretty intensely. Midoriya wasn't even sure if he was doing it on purpose, but it still made him want to speed up, just to make things less awkward. He brought his pace to a jog, thinking the other two would keep up.
"FUCKING HELL, TODOROKI-"
They did not.