Chapter Text
Time Bomb
Goal:
Sneak into Katsuki Bakugo’s room while he is asleep and remain inside as long as you dare without waking him up. Your turn ends when you exit the room or when Bakugo catches you.
Rules:
- Don’t wake up Bakugo.
- Seriously. Don’t wake up Bakugo.
- First player of the round is known as the Risk Taker.
- The loser of the previous round is known as the Sacrifice and must take their turn during Bakugo’s afternoon nap.
- Each player is required to perform an Initializing and/or a Collection.
- Initializing is the act of writing your initials on Bakugo (pen provided).
- Collection is the act of taking physical evidence of tactile contact.
- Plucking hair is not allowed. Take only hairs that have been shed on the pillow.
- Nitroglycerin sweat will be ignited on player to validate.
- The timer doesn’t start until the door closes behind you.
- The timer stops the moment you open the door.
- Don’t tell Tenya Iida.
Points:
- 10 seconds = 1 point
- Risk Taker = 5 points
- Initializing (foot) = 3 points
- Initializing (arm) = 5 points
- Initializing (hand) = 8 points
- Initializing (face) = 10 points
- Collection (hair) = 8 points
- Collection (nitroglycerin sweat) = 20 points
- Getting caught = -20 points
- No Initializing or Collection = -20% points
Winner:
Whoever has the most points by the end of the round wins. The prize is having next week’s chores divided amongst the rest of the players.
Loser:
Whoever first gets caught by Bakugo, otherwise whoever has the least points. The penalty is being the Sacrifice in the next game and a guaranteed explosion to the face.
Top Scores:
- Eijirou Kirishima -191 points
- Fumikage Tokoyami -184 points
- Izuku Midoriya -177 points
Honorable Mentions:
- Kyoka Jirou -Lulled a groggy Bakugo back to sleep with a song. Successfully escaped.
- Denki Kaminari & Mina Ashido -Collaborated on a comic strip that covered Bakugo’s arm up to his neck. Ashido successfully escaped. Kaminari did not.
- Hitoshi Shinsou -Brainwashed Bakugo into Initializing himself and returning to sleep. Successfully escaped.
Disclaimer:
This game is played at your own risk.
This game is played with Bakugo’s full knowledge and consent.
An unlocked door is accepted as his consent.
It starts when Kirishima tells Kaminari that Baugou doesn’t lock his door and Kaminari dares him to sneak into Bakugou’s room while he’s asleep and stay there for five minutes without getting caught. Chickening out on a dare isn’t very manly, so Kirishima does it. Bakugou surprises him by being a heavy sleeper, and he spends the five minutes huddled on the floor next to Bakugou’s dresser, ready to bolt at the slightest disturbance in Bakugou’s sleep.
Then, Ashido finds out and demands proof because, “It’s just not possible, Kirishima, I know you cheated somehow!” And, well, Kirishima can’t just let Ashido get away with slandering his manly name like that, can he?
By the time Sero finds out, they’ve already got a set of established rules that Ashido and Kaminari put together one day during lunch. The official Time Bomb™ ruleset, along with a bi-weekly updated list of player rankings, can be found taped to the wall (thanks, Sero) behind the common room’s public announcements corkboard.
They try their best to keep the game hush-hush, but word spreads fast at UA, and Class 1-A in particular is known for it’s gossip pool. Despite that, there are three people that everyone – even Bakugou – unanimously agrees not to tell:
Iida, because he’s a great guy, but he’s also a huge stick in the mud. He’d never let them keep doing it. Especially not since the betting pool started.
Mineta, for obvious reasons, but also because they’re all a little bit worried that if Bakugou caught Mineta sneaking into his room he’d actually kill the dude.
Midoriya, because he’s a wild card and his troubled past and stormy present relationship with Bakugou could only end in disaster, regardless of whether or not he approved of the game itself.
Ever since Bakugou figured out their schedule, the Bomb Squad™ (Ashido and Kaminari, self-proclaimed) has started to randomize game night. They play at least once a week, but it’s often spur of the moment when one of them rushes into the common room hissing, “He’s asleep!” and all the currently gathered students pile into the elevator. There’s also an emergency group text alert system that all presently participating members of the game are included in, should one of the aforementioned forbidden three be in the vicinity of the common room during the announcement.
None of them are sure who, though Kirishima has his suspicions (Todoroki…), but eventually someone lets it slip to Midoriya that there’s an entire underground betting pool centered around the task of sneaking into Bakugou’s room while he’s asleep. Against all of their expectations, Midoriya is ecstatic. Kirishima isn’t sure if it’s his competitive spirit, or the frankly ridiculous size of the current pool (thanks, Momo), but whatever the reason, like everything else he does, Midoriya gives 110%.
The thing is, none of them know how Midoriya’s actually doing it.
“He’s never been caught,” Kaminari moans one day, draped over the back of a sofa in the common room while Kirishima tries desperately to go over his notes from English. “Everybody gets caught. Even you get caught!”
“I don’t know, man.” Kirishima squints at two words that should be the same word but… aren’t, for some reason. He hastily erases what he’d just written and says, “They’ve known each other since they were kids. Maybe Midoriya’s got, like, a trick to it or something.”
Almost overnight he knocks Kaminari out of the top three in the rankings and sets his sights on second place. Midoriya looks at Tokoyami like he’s a pork cutlet bowl that Midoriya’s about to devour. It’s frankly terrifying and Kirishima’s not eager to have his spot at the top of the rankings be that vulnerable. He likes the Tokoyami shaped cushion between his and Midoriya’s high scores, and he wants to keep it there, damnit. At the very least, he’s got to find a way to keep up with Midoriya somehow because at this rate, it’s only a matter of time before he’s viciously dethroned.
It’s a Friday during class when Kirishima gets the idea. Someone set Bakugou off again, Kirishima doesn’t even remember what the original comment was, but Bakugou stands up, one foot on the seat of his chair, one foot on his desk, and starts ranting about being number one in the class, and suddenly, the pieces fall together in Kirishima’s mind so clearly, he can’t believe he hadn’t thought of it earlier.
That night, like clockwork, Kaminari comes stumbling out of the elevator, does a quick sweep of the room, and yells, “Time Bomb!”
Everyone scrambles.
One of these days, Kirishima thinks they may exceed the elevator weight capacity and he dreads the thought of being stuck in a broken-down elevator with fifteen of his peers packed in tighter than a subway during rush-hour.
They spill out into the fourth-floor hallway and crowd around Bakugou’s door in a flurry of hushed laughter and whispering. There’s a new sign on Bakugou’s door tonight (he’s gone through several since the game started). It’s the biggest one yet, and he’s clearly taken the time to painstakingly scribble out each character with black marker in a jagged-looking font that reminds Kirishima of a horror movie poster – though Iida has apparently been by since he put it up to redact all the curse words. It reads:
If I catch any of you fuckers in here while I’m sleeping, I’ll fucking drop-kick you out my window. Nobody sets foot in this room and lives. I hope all of you shit-stains fucking die.
“Isn’t that cute?” Ashido whispers, with her hand to her cheek like the mother of a small child who’s just made macaroni art for the first time.
“I volunteer to be Risk Taker,” Kirishima says, before anyone else (Midoriya) can beat him to it.
There’s a quiet whispering of ooh’s, and Kaminari fixes him with a skeptical look. “Bold move, Kirishima. Bakugou’s been extra pissy this week.” He gestures his head towards Bakugou’s hand-made sign. “But you are in first place. If anyone can do it…”
Against his better judgment, Kirishima locks eyes with Midoriya who’s standing on the other side of Bakugou’s door next to Asui and Sero. The expression on his face makes Kirishima’s palms go cold and tingly. He gulps.
Kaminari’s hand claps him on the shoulder. “You know the drill, buddy,” he says.
Kirishima steps forward. Bakugou’s doorknob is slick with sweat beneath his white-knuckled fingers. He nods – to Kaminari, to himself – and goes in.
As always, Bakugou’s room is pitch dark, but by this point, Kirishima knows his way around it like the back of his hand. It’s the same layout as everyone else’s; bed against the right wall, desk and dresser against the left, window and curtains on the far wall. Like Kirishima, he’s got a set of weights in here somewhere, but Bakugou keeps his room tidy (except, of course, when he’s sick), so they’re never left out on the floor and Kirishima can walk confidently to the center of the room without having to worry about tripping.
He stops at the edge of Bakugou’s bed and, as his eyes adjust to the dark, he can just make out a tuft of blond hair sticking out beneath Bakugou’s black comforter.
This has to be done strategically. If Kirishima fucks this up, it’s all over. He takes a deep breath, fists his hands at his sides, exhales. It’s go-time.
“Bakugou,” he breathes the name, barely audible. If Kirishima tries to touch him, he knows Bakugou will start blasting. Weeks of having people sneak into his room and draw on him with sharpie have conditioned him to react violently upon waking. Or at least, more violently. But nobody’s stupid enough to make noise in Bakugou’s room (not on purpose). So when Bakugou doesn’t move, Kirishima says his name again, slightly louder.
“Hey, Bakugou.”
Bakugou huffs in his sleep and remains still.
Kirishima squats in front of the bed. “Bro,” he says. “Buddy.”
Nothing.
“Bakugou wake up.”
Nothing.
This time, he hisses as loudly as he feels is safe without alerting the entire class of 1-A standing outside Bakugou’s door, “BA-KU-GOU!”
There’s another huff, so that’s something, but Bakugou still doesn’t stir. God he might as well be in a coma.
Against all his better judgment, Kirishima reaches out slowly and nudges what he assumes is Bakugou’s shoulder under the blanket. “Dude, please wake up.”
Bakugou’s hand shoots out from beneath the quilt and connects solidly with Kirishima’s face. He tumbles backwards and barely catches himself on his elbows before his head collides with Bakugou’s dresser.
Bakugou mumbles something inaudible that Kirishima assumes could be equated to, “fuck off,” and his arm hangs limply off the side of the bed.
With a quiet breath, Kirishima pushes himself forward, wrapping a careful hand around Bakugou’s upper arm in case he decides to try and use it as a weapon again. “Bakugou, it’s me, your best bro in the whole world. Don’t you want to wake up for your best bro?”
Bakugou mutters something into his pillow that sounds like, “I’ll fucking kill you,” which isn’t a great response, but Kirishima’s managed to avoid Bakugou’s startle reflex for the most part and that’s a win in his book.
“Please? I really need your help, dude.”
Finally, finally, Bakugou’s covers shift and his head turns – one red eye peeking out from beneath a mess of blond hair and bed sheets to squint at Kirishima.
“You better be fucking dying,” he says.
Kirishima smiles sheepishly. “You want to be number one, right?”
In an instant, Kirishima see’s Bakugou’s gaze turn from irritated and drowsy, to piercing and alert, it’s then that Kirishima knows he’s already won.