Work Text:
Paranoia wasn’t exactly something that was new to Midoriya, fear of what he didn’t have an answer to, yeah, that sounded a lot like him. He was, however, very trusting, and therefore the idea that he would doubt someone was a little out of the ordinary.
Especially if it was Bakugou.
It started off as small things, Bakugou spent more time on his phone, and stopped letting Midoriya see what he was looking at. Saying it was “none of his fucking business.” Which fair, it wasn’t. Midoriya could respect his privacy.
Then, it seemed like Bakugou was available less and less, he had cancelled last minute on Midoriya, and sometimes he would come home later or forget about plans altogether. It had only been a couple of weeks, but Midoriya only needed a couple of days to start fearing the worst.
Of course, there was the same excuses, that he forgot, was working late, or sometimes he wouldn’t have an excuse at all. He would say, “he just couldn’t,” and that would be that. Midoriya was pushy, he wouldn’t press or anything despite how much he wanted to, despite how frustrated he was beginning to get.
And then there was the icing on the cake.
Kirishima.
Don’t get him wrong, Midoriya really likes Kirishima. He’s one of the few people that Bakugou has managed to remain friends with even after their graduation. Of course, Midoriya appreciates the fact that Kirishima has remained his friend because it isn’t like it’s easy to befriend Bakugou to begin with, and Bakugou wants nothing to do with the people he works with.
However, Kirishima has been there a lot , more so than usual.
Sometimes it would just be when Midoriya was lounging on the couch that he would walk in with Bakugou, sometimes it would be when Bakugou and Midoriya had finished a meal and there would be a tap on the door. It was the times where Midoriya got home and saw him there that was the worse. They would seem hurried, rushed and like they had just started whatever activity they were engaging in and as a result, Midoriya knew they couldn’t have been doing it for more than a few minutes and was afraid to think that they had been doing something before that they didn’t want him to see. He wasn’t an idiot though, and that was suspicious to him.
He didn’t know how to say it out loud, he only knew how to fret over it. It hadn’t even been a month of the instances, but it was driving Midoriya out of his mind. He had to keep asking himself that one question.
Was there a chance, that Bakugou was cheating on him?
And that lead him down a spiral of circumstance. Was Midoriya not enough? Has Bakugou finally gotten bored of him? It lead to him constantly chewing on his lip until it bled and nervously bouncing his leg up and down; his jittery hands clamped between his legs.
He couldn’t imagine what he life would be like if Bakugou left him either, where would he go? Neither of them could afford the apartment on their own, and it was definitely under Bakugou’s name first, even if Midoriya’s name was somewhere on the lease, it meant that he would have to leave.
Would he have to sit there, painfully talking out which of the belongings that Midoriya would get to take, and which ones that Bakugou would get?
It never stopped, the thoughts they never stopped. Sometimes, never around Bakugou or Kirishima, he would mutter about it. A habit he had never outgrown. He mumbled to himself when he was thinking about anything, good or bad.
Of course, it was enough for Uraraka to take note when he had joined her for lunch on a Sunday afternoon. She was sipping out of a white mug, smiling at the caramel taste that filled her mouth before noticing that Midoriya’s finger simply traced over the rim of a matching mug.
“Deku,” Uraraka said with a smile and he glanced up at her. Her eyebrows furrowed, and Midoriya knew what was coming. “Is everything alright? You’ve been acting strange lately.”
“Yeah,” Midoriya sighed. “I guess I’m just thinking about a few things s’all.”
Uraraka hummed as she raised the mug up to her mouth once more. “Is it something you would like to get off your chest?”
“It’s about Kacchan, so you don’t want to hear about it.”
“Uhm, yes I do.”
“Since when?” Midoriya replied. “You usually don’t seem too thrilled to hear me talking about Kacchan.”
“Now that I am a full fledged adult with a relationship of my own that I constantly speak about,” Uraraka smiled. “I realize that I can’t ask you to not talk about someone who is a big part of your life. So, tell me what the issue with Bakugou is?”
“Something seems off,” Midoriya began. “He’s been cancelling a lot of our plans lately, and sometimes it’s super last minute. Sometimes he has an excuse, like work, and sometimes he won’t have one at all. It seems like he doesn’t want to hang out with me anymore, but he can make all the time in the world to hang out with Kirishima.”
“Really?” Uraraka narrowed her eyebrows. “That doesn’t sound like Bakugou.”
“Right?” Midoriya threw his hand up with the word. “Anyways, the Kirishima thing is what’s been bothering me.” Uraraka knew what Midoriya was about to suggest, and was frowning at him through pity before it even left his lips. “I think he’s cheating on me.”
Everything about it sounded so positively hurt , but more importantly, it sounded afraid. It was an accurate representation to how Midoriya felt, no matter how much it would pain him, in the end he would always be fearing whatever would come next. Bakugou had always been such a constant whenever things had gone awry, it was weird to think of him as anything but.
“Well,” Uraraka spoke up, tapping nervously on the edge of her mug. “Maybe you shouldn’t jump to conclusions, after all, isn’t it normal for Bakugou to spend a lot of time with Kirishima? Besides you, Bakugou doesn’t really interact with a whole lot of other people.”
Midoriya tilted his head back and forth in thought. “I know, that’s why it sounds crazy, but I’ll get home and it’ll almost seem like they’re already hiding something. Like hurry! Here comes Midoriya so turn on the television and act like that’s what you’ve been doing the entire time.”
“Oh, that does seem strange.” Uraraka bit down on her lips. “Deku, I don’t want to tell you how to do things, but.. maybe you should just ask. After all, Bakugou is pretty forward with his actions, if he didn’t want to be with you, I’m sure he would just break it off.”
“Yes, emotionally and verbally that is exactly what Kacchan would do,” Midoriya said. “But we’re just finding now that we’re economically pretty stable, and if he did break it off, we would have to each fight for what we wanted from the house, and we both would have to move out.”
Uraraka hummed, trying to think of a logical response to Midoriya’s mayhem. “Well, if worse comes to worse I have a couch with your name on it.”
Midoriya laughed. “I can afford an apartment, it just won’t be as nice as the one we have now.”
“Worse comes to worse, Deku,” Uraraka smiled at him. “I don’t think it’ll need to happen though. Honestly, Bakugou is pretty irrational. I think that if he didn’t want to be with you, he would just break up with you no matter what the consequences were. He doesn’t like to waste his time, he made that pretty clear when he asked you out for the first time.”
Midoriya smiled fondly at the memory. “He swore a lot.”
“He swears a lot now.”
“You’re right.”
“Surprised you haven’t picked up that habit.”
Midoriya turned his eyes up to Uraraka. “Sometimes I swear.”
“What?” She shook her head. “Since when!”
“I swear around Kacchan, that’s pretty much it though,” Midoriya shrugged. “Obviously not as much, but you’re right, it does rub off on you.”
Uraraka smiled a little, she always liked how Midoriya looked when he was talking about Bakugou. He lit up a little bit, although now, each moment ended with him slinking down and having a bit of dismay cross his usually cheery features. It was a bit surprising, after all he had endured, he stood tall each time but Bakugou cheating? It only took the simple idea of it to tear him to shreds.
“Deku,” Uraraka began and caught the attention of the green haired fool in front of him. “You are going to have to ask Bakugou, you know. If he hasn’t come out and said he doesn’t want to be with you, then he never will. And maybe you’re just imagining things! Maybe he isn’t cheating on you at all and you’re just needy.”
Midoriya smiled a little bit, despite being in a rather precarious spot, the small joke from Uraraka seemed to cheer him up just a bit. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
“Nothing will get any better if you do nothing,” Uraraka shrugged. “You should know that better than anyone else.”
――――
Midoriya returned to his apartment later that evening after spending the previous hours shopping with Uraraka. He didn’t feel the need to buy anything, but once Uraraka got started, she got sucked in fast . So it was probably best that Midoriya was able to finally pull her away.
When he walked inside, he heard a bit of scramble and sighed as he knew that Kirishima and Bakugou were probably in the living room, doing who knows what. Midoriya kicked off his shoes and shut the door before letting out a meek, “I’m home,” that there was no way anyone heard.
“Deku?” Bakugou called from the living room. “Is that you?”
“Yeah!” Midoriya called back to him. He made his way into the living room to see Kirishima smiling at him from the couch, Midoriya returned a weak smile that Bakugou narrowed his brows at. After all, usually when he spent his time with Uraraka ― or any of his friends for that matter ― he came home with a million things to tell Bakugou about. It was odd that it looked like he had nothing to say.
“Everything alright?” Bakugou asked as Midoriya took a seat on the second and smaller sofa on the far side of the room, not bothering to see beside Bakugou which continued to surprise him. After all, Midoriya always wanted to sit next to Bakugou. It was half the reason that Kirishima sat on the other end in the first place; to give Midoriya a place to sit.
“Yeah, everything’s good.” Midoriya replied, he pulled out his phone and absentmindedly scrolled through it. Not really paying attention to any of the words that passed by his eyes.
“How was Uraraka?”
“She was good. She’s really living it up right now.”
“You guys went to lunch?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that all? You were gone most of the day.”
“We went shopping.”
“Did you get anything?”
“No.”
Bakugou blinked a few times, he was surprised that Midoriya was sitting there, not even giving him anything to work off with verbally. Sometimes it was difficult getting Midoriya out of his own head, but normally he was telling Bakugou what was bothering him in a few seconds.
“Well,” Kirishima spoke up. “I’ve gotta run, so I’ll catch you guys later.”
“Okay,” Midoriya replied without even looking at him. “Was nice to see you Kirishima.”
“Ah yeah!” Kirishima smiled nervously. “You too, dude.”
“Get out shitty hair,” Bakugou sighed as the red head took the note and left the house. When the door clicked shut, Bakugou turned his head to Midoriya again and waited for him to say something. “What’s the matter, Deku?”
“Nothing.”
“Stop with the bullshit and tell me what your issue is.”
“I said, nothing.”
Bakugou huffed in annoyance and stood up off the couch. “Come on,”
“What?” Midoriya looked up at him this time.
“I’m fucking hungry, and I’ve been waiting for you to get back so we can go get some dinner, so let’s go.” Bakugou replied.
“Just make something in the kitchen.”
“I want to go out.”
“Well, I’m not hungry.”
“Well I fucking am, so at least come with me shithead.”
Midoriya huffed. “Why do I have to go with you? You’re a big boy, eat by yourself like I have for the past three weeks.”
Bakugou let his eyes close, here it comes . “Deku, I’ve been ―”
“Busy, I know.” Midoriya rolled his eyes. “‘Work,’ right?”
“Every time I had to cancel on you, I was working.” Bakugou scoffed.
“Then where’s all the money from those extra hours?” Midoriya’s eyes narrowed and Bakugou who let his head fall back and groaned loudly. “What are you getting pissy about?”
“I want to take you to a nice dinner, put on a better shirt, and let’s go.” Bakugou glared at him. “Come on, let me do something fucking nice for you instead of you pissing away on the couch.”
Midoriya grumbled as he stood up and walked to the bedroom, coming out a few seconds later in a black t-shirt that contrasted nicely against his jeans. “Here,” Bakugou handed him his own windbreaker and slid a leather jacket onto himself. “Please don’t sit there and be all grumpy all night.”
Midoriya looked up at him, and it was that one look that Bakugou noticed something different. “I won’t.”
When you have spent so much time with someone, and then you live together, you begin to learn about their little things. What someone does when they’re nervous, happy, sad or angry. So Bakugou noticed Midoriya chewing on his lip, and how his fingers gently drumed against his knee.
The drive there was silent, and when they got there, Midoriya’s eyes widened at where they were. “K-Kacchan..”
“What?” He asked as he turned the car key.
“This place is really expensive and we won’t ever get a table,” Midoriya turned his head to him.
“Just trust me, alright shitty nerd?” Bakugou said and Midoriya watched as he climbed out of the car before scrambling out himself. He followed Bakugou into the restaurant before glancing around and the relaxing lighting and the overwhelming atmosphere.
Bakugou walked up the hostess as Midoriya looked around. He had only been here two time before, one time he took Bakugou here for his birthday and another time he took his mother for a similar occasion. However he made reservations weeks in advance.
“Hi sir,” the hostess smiled at him. “Do you have a reservation?”
To Midoriya’s surprise, Bakugou nodded his head. “Yeah, reservation for two under Bakugou Katsuki.” The woman scanned the list before nodding and leading the two to a table. When they sat down, a woman took their drink order before laying the menu out in front of them.
“Kacchan, you made reservations?” Midoriya asked and Bakugou nodded his head. “When did you make them?”
“I don’t fucking remember,” Bakugou shrugged. “It’s not important when I made them.” Midoriya glanced down at the menu before hearing Bakugou speak again. “Don’t worry about the cost of it, alright?”
“S-Sure,” Midoriya stuttered before letting his eyes glaze over the menu.
The two eventually ordered and that left them sitting in a gentle silence. Bakugou’s eyes continued to trace over Midoriya’s features, noticing every curl, every freckle and every time that he bit down on his chewed up lip.
“Why do you keep doing that?” Bakugou asked him and Midoriya raised his eyes to Bakugou. “You keep chewing on your lip, what are you nervous about?”
“Be-Because..” Midoriya began before shaking his head. No, he shouldn’t ask Bakugou here . Besides, things seemed so different now, was he potentially wrong? But why did Kirishima run out so quickly earlier, normally he stayed for a little longer but he seemed nervous. “I don’t want to talk about it here.”
Bakugou shrugged his shoulders. “Alright.”
The duo ate dinner with small conversations bouncing off of each of them. Bakugou noticed Midoriya’s tense behavior, and he wanted to know what was causing it because he certainly couldn’t figure it out.
After their meal, they both got into the car and he drove in the opposite direction from their apartment. “We aren’t going home?” Midoriya asked.
“No, I have something else I wanna do.” Bakugou replied and Midoriya felt his stomach twist.
This is where he breaks up with me, isn’t it?
The thought made Midoriya sink into his seat, biting down so hard onto his lip that he noticed the familiar taste of blood that came from him cutting it. Bakugou was too concentrated on driving to notice it, although he could tell that Midoriya was sitting low in his seat.
Bakugou pulled up the building his agency was based off of and parked the car. Midoriya was plenty confused, after all, he had been to this place a few times before, but never enough to remember who worked here or where to go to find Bakugou.
“Come on,” Bakugou said. “I need to get some shit.”
“O-Okay,” Midoriya muttered and climbed out of the car, Bakugou had just put a foot on the first step before he stopped and turned to Midoriya.
“Before we go in,” he began. “Tell me what’s been eating you.”
Bakugou scanned Midoriya’s face but showed no emotion himself despite what was flowing through Midoriya. He fumbled nervously with his hands and chewed on his raw lower lip. “Stop doing that,” Bakugou instructed. “You’re gonna fucking hurt yourself, now just spit it out.”
“I..It’s not easy,” Midoriya muttered and this is where Bakugou’s eyes widened, was he possibly fearing the worst? Or did he know he has been caught? “Kacchan, I..”
“Out with it, Deku.”
Midoriya took a deep breath, he felt the heat rush to his ears and the tears rush to his eyes before he could get the words out of his mouth, he ducked his head down and forced them out though. “I think you’ve been cheating on me with Kirishima!” The tears ran down Midoriya’s face as soon as the last word came out but he couldn’t raise his eyes up to Bakugou’s expression.
“The fuck? What makes you say that?”
“Y-You guys always seem rushed or hurried when I come in the room, like you’re hiding something and you keep avoiding me and you say you’ve been working late most of the time but I know better Katsuki!” He was shaking now, fearing whatever was going to come out of his mouth before he could think. “If you’re tired of me just get rid of me already, don’t make me go through this!”
“You’re fucking dumb, Deku,” Bakugou sighed and Midoriya raised his eyes up for the first time to noticed his aggravated expression. “Seriously? You don’t trust me so much that you think I’m cheating on you?! And with shitty hair of all fucking people!”
“Y-You’re not..?” Midoriya mumbled.
“Why the fuck would I have any reason to cheat on you?” Bakugou huffed.
“Th-Then.. Has it all been in my head..?”
“I guess only somewhat,” Bakugou shrugged. “You’re right, I’ve been acting weird, but not for the reasons you suspect. Wipe your tears and come on.” Bakugou turned and continued walking up the steps. Midoriya was genuinely confused before he walked up the steps behind him.
Bakugou slid his badge into the building and people looked at them, maybe it was because Midoriya was puffy eyed and looked rather small behind Bakugou or maybe some other reason Midoriya couldn’t place.
Bakugou lead Midoriya to one of the highest floors before leading him out onto a balcony. “If you stand here,” Bakugou said as he leaned against the railing. “You can see the ocean on your left, and the city glow on your right.” Midoriya looked both ways just like Bakugou said, he wasn’t sure what he was getting at, but he listened patiently. “I never knew what you liked more. Since you always liked going to the beach, and you always liked going to the different events in the city.”
Bakugou walked behind Midoriya and put a hand on each side of his head. “If you look straight ahead, you can see the mountains too.”
“You like going hiking,” Midoriya noted. “Is that normally where we go?”
“We’ve been there a few times,” Bakugou answered. His hands slid from Midoriya’s head to around his waist as he rested his head on the green haired boy’s shoulder. “I wasn’t lying to you when I said I spent extra time working. Because I noticed when you stand here, the sun comes up and over the city, and when it sets it sparkles across the water.”
Midoriya was surprised to hear Bakugou sound so sentimental about the things he was looking at. After all, he wasn’t the type to stop and ‘smell the roses’ and normally he made fun of Midoriya for it or got antsy when he stopped. “So when I spent all those nights working late, it was a helpful reminder as to why I was. Although, you were right, I didn’t spend all those nights working late. And sure, I spent a lot of time with Kirishima but not in the way you thought I was.”
“Why were you working late to begin with?” Midoriya asked. “Did something happen?”
“Eh, I don’t know.” Bakugou shrugged. “I guess you could put it that way, although at the time it didn’t really affect you one way or another. If you keep looking, you can see our apartment way over there. Where I knew you were while I was here.”
“You left the light on, Kacchan.”
“No I fucking did not,” Bakugou scoffed. “You can’t see that far.”
Midoriya glanced at it as Bakugou leaned off of him. “The dinner was to make up for calling it off on you so many times, after seeing how you acted earlier, I knew something else was up so I changed course a little bit.”
“I was being stupid, huh?” Midoriya muttered as he glanced down at the railing, seeing the city streets below him.
“I mean fucking yeah,” Bakugou scoffed. “Why the hell would I cheat on you? And with fucking Kirishima? Fuck you are way better than him.”
Midoriya smiled a little bit, it felt bittersweet though. “I’m sorry, Kacchan,”
“It’s alright.”
“Everything seemed so off,” Midoriya said. “But you never told me why you were working more.”
“Shithead,”
“What?”
“Turn a-fucking-round.”
“H-Huh?” Midoriya muttered before turning and seeing Bakugou crouching behind him. Giving him an unamused expression as he leaned forward onto his knee.
“Done asking questions?” He asked and Midoriya looked him up and down but didn’t say anything. “Good, because I have your answer if you’d shut the fuck up.”
“Wh-What is it?”
Bakugou sighed before pulling up a small black box and popping the top open. “I was saving up to buy this fucking thing, so I could ask you if you wanted to marry me?”
Midoriya’s eyes darted from Bakugou’s face to the ring several times before he pointed at himself.
“Who else would I fucking ask that to?!”
“Y-You..” Midoriya trailed off, his brain total mush. “You’re asking me.. If I..”
“I swear you better just fucking tell me before I throw it, Deku. And I would hate to do that because it wasn’t cheap!” Bakugou huffed. “Come on, do you want to marry me or not?”
“Ye-Yeah!” Midoriya nodded his head. “Yes I’ll marry you, I-I —”
“Cue the tears,” Bakugou said as Midoriya began to furiously wipe his eyes. He stood up and pulled the ring out, sliding the silver band over Midoriya’s finger at the same time that he pushed his lips against Midoriya’s. Immediately after locking their fingers around each other.
“Yikes,” Bakugou said as he pulled back. He thumbed over Midoriya’s bottom lip. “You did a number on that thing.”
“I-I’m so sorry Kacchan!” Midoriya sniffled as he threw his arms around the blonde’s neck.
“For accusing me of cheating?” Bakugou rolled his eyes as he pulled Midoriya back. “I get it, it could’ve been suspicious. I cancelled so often because an extra shift would open up at work and I would take it, and I spent so much time with Kirishima trying to fucking figure out what ring to even buy for you or how to do this at all. Let me tell you, he tried to get me to do some mushy shit.” Midoriya laughed a little at it. “That’s why he acted so weird around you, he was afraid of accidentally saying something because I would have fucking destroyed him if he did.”
“And to think this whole time I thought you wanted to break up with me,” Midoriya sniffled as he laughed at the thought. It all sounded ridiculous now.
“So fucking dumb,” Bakugou chuckled. “You’re so fucking dumb sometimes, Deku,” he pressed his lips against Midoriya’s forehead before smiling. “But come on, you versus shitty hair? You every fucking time in every fucking way. Every way.”
“Kacchan,” Midoriya whined as he pushed on his shoulder. “Don’t be gross.”
“You fucking live for it.” Bakugou smirked at the blushing green haired boy.
“Yeah,” Midoriya smiled. “I love you.”
“Good because you’re marrying me.” Bakugou said. “No backing out now, shitty nerd.”
“Well I agreed to it,” Midoriya smiled.
“I’m fucking ecstatic you did,” Bakugou chuckled. “I knew you would, but it helps to solidify it. Fuck I was nervous.”
“You were nervous?” Midoriya smiled.
“No, I don’t get nervous.”
“Kacchan you were nervous!” Midoriya giggled.
“No!”
“Yes you were!”
“No I fucking wasn’t!”
“You just said you were though, so you were!”
“Fine fuck!” Bakugou groaned. “It’s nerve wracking trying to convince someone to love you forever.”
Midoriya smiled wider as he wrapped his arms around Bakugou’s waist. “Yeah but I said yes, so no worries.”
“Oh please,” Bakugou chuckled. “With you it’s always worries.”
“Rude,”
“Don’t worry, shithead,” Bakugou grinned. “Cause I love you enough to deal with your bullshit.”
Midoriya sighed. “Are you going to be this romantic when we actually get married?”
Bakugou’s smile almost seemed devilish at this point. “Hell yes.”