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Kirishima started off his days training.
The sun dripped like yolk, rich and deep yellow over the horizon when he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, the buzz of dawn teasing his windowpane. He'd always start during the early morning, just after the sun was up. He'd run suicides on the training grounds till he was hot and huffing, drenched with the morning sun draped thick over his back before gorging down breakfast after a cool shower.
Though he woke up earlier than usual that morning. Probably from being fuelled by one too many energy drinks writing his Hero Law essay the night before.
Unable to go back to sleep, he decided to take a walk around the school dormitories before heading to the sports field. In his headband and UA trackies, the morning air zipped into his nose. Gravel crunching underfoot, he looked up at the cotton candy pink horizon seeping into the deep blue sky, losing himself in the twilight hour.
He took a detour down a lonely, beaten path in the forests surrounding UA, finding a lake circled by bushes and trees. Taking a quiet moment, he sat cross-legged by the moist earth surrounding it, his palms carding dewdrops off the cool grass behind him. Sunlight danced along the jewelled surface of the water, glittering to gentle birdsong. His reflection in the water warped with his bright, unnatural hair, and a wry smile pulled at his lip.
Kirishima leaned back on his arms and looked up. Light dappled through the leaves to trail sunspots in his vision, and he closed his eyes to sink into a warm, empty cocoon. Nothing but him, the curtains of trees, and the sound of cracking.
Cracking?
Kirishima's eyes shot open, and his brow knotted. The cracking came louder.
He was on his feet in a heartbeat, his arms up and hardened. A bush shuddered in his periphery.
Critical, silent, Kirishima edged closer. His steps sank soundlessly into the firm mud, hugging the soles of his trainers. Spotting no one, he grew confused at the crackling coming from the ground. Soft and meek, like the bush served as protection instead of camouflage. Pulling a face, Kirishima softened his arms. He knelt before he parted the branches masking the noise of a few, final cracks, then soft chirps.
Black, buttony eyes stared up at him.
Kirishima's brow crawled high on his head. Four balls of fluff, frayed dark and wet, each smaller than the palm of his hand, looked up at him in doe-eyed wonder.
Four freshly hatched ducklings. Kirishima went breathless.
"Hello..."
On his knees, back curled and breath trapped in his chest, he couldn't help but whisper. A bewildered smile stretched his lips. Then they started chirping louder, excited and full of life. Padding off of broken eggshell, onto the floor of their nest, they flapped tiny, damp wings faster at Kirishima. Like the stretch of light over the horizon, his smile went boundless.
"Easy, guys," he giggled, crouching a little closer.
The ducklings fell over themselves a little, their newborn legs wobbly, and Kirishima's gaze stayed warm on them.
After Kirishima left to do his workout, his mood soared like a hot air balloon for the rest of the day. He kicked out his legs at his desk in the break between first and second period.
"Okay, you might be living sunshine," Jirou poked Kirishima with her ear jacks, making him blink, "but that is not allowed."
"Hear hear," Kaminari raised his hand. Sero and Ashido echoed him.
Kirishima stopped humming and looked over to everyone hanging out by their square of desks in the classroom. He cocked his head.
"What's not allowed?"
"We just had the history of the Quirk-Holder Constitution battered over our heads, then we got trigonometry of all the hellish beasts to walk the earth next," Kaminari counted on his fingers. "You are not allowed to be so..." He put his hands up, gesturing them to the aura surrounding Kirishima and his face. "So..."
"Sunshiny?" Sero suggested.
"Perky?" Ashido rocked her chin on her fist. "Chipper?"
"I'd just say happy," Jirou shrugged, mildly disgusted. Denki pointed at that, nodding hard with feeling.
"You guys look pretty grouchy saying all that," Kirishima chuckled.
"Um, 'cause we have reason to?" Ashido raised a brow.
"No one's happy before maths, man." Sero said with crossed arms. He looked over his shoulder where Bakugou slouched at his desk on the side. "Hey, Bakugou? Are you happy?"
"Fuck off, Post-it."
"Love you too." Sero looked back at Kirishima, thumb pointing back at Bakugou. "See? He gets it."
"Not even maths geniuses like maths." Kaminari blew a raspberry, before he face-planted his desk and moaned. "Of course Kacchan would get it."
"Call me that again, Sparky," Bakugou turned back to growl, hand braced on the back his seat. "I'll recycle you for pennies, you dead battery."
"Says the overgrown dandelion." Kaminari pulled the skin below his eye, stuck his tongue out. "I don't want your M.C. Hammer pants for a body bag when you hide the evidence."
Bakugou's chair legs screeched back as he hurled insults at Kaminari, who only rose to the bait once Jirou puttered out a laugh at the scene. Ashido followed suit, pumping up a fist while getting her phone out to film everything, and Sero gave a beleaguered grin at the antics. Kirishima let out a snort before he knocked Kaminari's chair with his feet, calming them down till they were both muttering to themselves in their seats.
Though even afterwards, Kirishima's gaze stayed trained on Bakugou in the front. He sucked the inside of his cheek before looking to his friends, beaming widely at them.
"I mean, I'm not happy 'cause we got maths next, guys," Kirishima said after the commotion. "But hey, I can tell you all about it later!"
"I'll be holding you to that, Kiri," Ashido pointed at him, black eyes thin in suspicion. "I need to see what miracle has you in such a good mood on a Monday morning."
Jirou fingered her earjacks, frowning. "Isn't it Wednesday?"
"Honey. Spiritually?" Ashido cupped Jirou's cheeks, looking her dead in the eye. "Every school day? Is a Monday morning."
"The hot take we need, but don't deserve," Sero said, brows high.
He and Kaminari golf-clapped to Ashido's deep bows.
Kirishima snorted, smiling before he stood from his desk. He wandered over to Bakugou's while the others kept talking. His feet was pressed up against his table legs, hands in his pockets as he leaned back unbothered, and Kirishima couldn't help but think he looked really cool like that.
"Need my notes again?" Bakugou barely glanced at him. "Class starts in a minute."
"Nah, I can just look over them later," Kirishima waved his hand. He leaned on Bakugou's desk, eyes glittering in a grin, whispering when he properly caught Bakugou's. "You wanna come with me somewhere during lunch?"
Bakugou squinted up at him. He glanced at others looking at them who quickly looked away when he did. Squinted some more before he looked back up at Kirishima.
"Not gonna invite your band o' merry idiots over there?" he muttered. Maybe whispering to match Kirishima's tone, too.
"I can show 'em later," he shrugged. "But I wanna show you first."
Bakugou's eyes went round at that. How Kirishima looked down at him with those twinkling, crinkling eyes of his again. Smile private and sweet, like the secret he was going to share with him.
At a round of giggles he heard behind Kirishima, he shot another glance that made them fall as silent as the dead. He looked back to Kirishima's expectant, bright-eyed expression. His Adam's apple rolled along his throat.
"...Yeah," he said. Nearly croaked before looking back down at his clean, boring desk. "Sure."
"Awesome!" Kirishima gave a full, blinding grin, a giggle of a snicker. "I'll meet you at the school entrance later!"
"Pay up." Bakugou glanced to the hiss he heard in the background, and saw Kaminari gesture his fingers to Sero with all the subtlety of Present Mic. "That was totally a date and totally counts, pay up—"
"They're just meeting up at lunch, man," Sero said, eyes rolling up. "They do that all the time."
"They do do that a lot," Jirou muttered.
"We have no need for non-believers in this house!" Ashido whisper-hissed. "Love is real!"
"Hey, now I never said I didn't—"
"Whatcha talkin' about, guys?"
"Nothing, Kirishima!" Kaminari blurted, smile slapped like a sticker on his face. "Why would you think that, my one and only bro in this world whose personal life I'd never monetize in any conceivable manner?"
His voice consistently rose in pitch before it cracked in a squeak. Kirishima blinked at everyone smiling extra wide at him. Except Sero, who nodded gravely on the side and pitched his voice oddly deeper:
"Son."
Kirishima, very slowly, sat back down at his desk. Squinting at them. "Uh—"
"Heeey, now!" Ashido cooed and cocked her head. "Did you do something different to your hair?"
"Yeah! It looks...spikier," Jirou sucked on her lip, before giving a quick smile. "Than usual."
"Oh, you think so?" Kirishima brought a hand up to his hair, grinning. "Come to think of it, I did add s'more gel than usual to it this morning!"
Kaminari and Sero sagged in relief on the side. At the door rattling open, everyone scrambled to their seats, and Bakugou huffed a smile to himself at his desk.
"You know I'll kick your ass if you're tryna ambush me," Bakugou muttered, watching his step treading through the thicket behind Kirishima in his school uniform. The heat of the afternoon weighed on his back. "What the hell are you even planning on showing me anyway?"
"I told you it's a surprise, man," Kirishima drawled, smile still going strong. "You'll like it, I swear. Trust me!"
Bakugou grumbled something under his breath, but he kept following.
Eventually they came to the lake Kirishima found that morning. Bakugou took a moment, the rays of the noon sun bouncing off the green leaves and crystal water, and the grimace gradually faded from his face. Then he saw Kirishima crouching and rummaging in a bush, and his scowl came back full force.
"Did you stash something?" he asked in disbelief, marching over to crouch down next to him. "What the hell are you even doing?"
"No, man, listen, I'm just looking for—" Kirishima parted the branches definitively with both hands, and he lit up. "There you are!"
Bakugou looked down, and whatever expression he had wiped clean into shock when found four ducklings in a nest. Two of them chirped up at Kirishima, while the other two turned at the noise and made eye contact with him first. They looked like brown dust bunnies with eyes; they were so small.
"What the fuck," he whispered.
"Yeah, aren’t they adorable! That's why I was so upbeat this morning."
"As if your dumb mug isn't every morning," Bakugou muttered, scoffing when Kirishima bumped his shoulder at the jab.
Crouched next to each other, they watched the ducklings for a moment. Bakugou kept frowning at how small they were. Their speckled eggshells were still in the nest. His thoughts strayed to the miracle of birth and how whack that shit was.
He looked to Kirishima, and his brows flew up seeing him sad.
"What's up with you now?" he said on reflex, pulling a face again. "I thought you were ready to shit a brick wanting to show me this."
"I was excited to show you. I just..." Kirishima trailed off, looking thoroughly depressed. The hatchlings kept squeaking up at them. "I thought their mom would be with them by now, but..."
Surprised, Bakugou looked back at the ducklings. Then his eyes went a little downcast, too.
"...Shit happens, Kirishima," he mumbled. "It's good that these ones aren't hurt."
"I guess." The tug at his lip came bittersweet. "It’s still sad, though."
Another pause. Not knowing the words to say, he just knocked Kirishima's shoulder gently with his own. Kirishima knocked his back.
"Hey," Bakugou spoke up again. "Lunch is nearly over."
"Yeah," Kirishima sighed. "We should head back."
He patted his thighs and made to stand. Bakugou took a moment before he followed.
"...This was cool," he muttered, pouting as he looked to the light bouncing off the ripples of the lake beside them. "Thanks for showing me."
Kirishima looked at him, a little shocked. Then an airy laugh left him, a fond grin on his lips. Bakugou only clicked his tongue and started walking after him.
But chirping and rustling sounded behind them. Blinking, they both turned around.
Kirishima gasped. "They're..."
In two neat little lines, the four ducklings waddled after them. Dread dawned on Bakugou, making him blurt a simple, yet powerful:
"Fuck."
It took an explanation to Aizawa, a promise it won't interrupt their school work, and a consultation with Kouda before they're able to keep the ducklings without guilt. With half of them imprinted on Kirishima and the other on Bakugou, they agreed to take care of them together.
But explaining to Aizawa, apparently, was the easy part.
"From the top, from the top," Kaminari clapped his hands at them, an impatient conductor from the common room sofa. "I wanna hear all this from the top."
The sky had barely dimmed with evening when Kaminari caught them in Kirishima's dorm, and it wasn’t long before the Bakusquad huddled up in the common room. Ashido kept cooing while filming a sheepish Kirishima and an annoyed Bakugou who sat on the sofas opposite, the ducklings waddling in a cardboard box on their laps, filled with cork shavings and a portable happy light inside. Sero hovered, peering down at them over their shoulder, toothy smile wider than usual. Jirou knelt by the armrest, a soft awe on her face as the ducklings chirped around her ear-jacks that floated over to them.
"What the fuck else is there to say, you burnt bulb?" Bakugou snapped at him, one arm crossed and his other in the box so his two ducklings could rub against his fingers. "Kirishima showed me these fluffballs and they fucking imprinted on us."
"Yeah," Kirishima rubbed the back of his head, hair tied in his headband. "I'm just confused why they didn't imprint on me when I found them this morning."
"According to Wikipedia, filial imprinting occurs around thirteen to sixteen hours after hatching," Sero recited off his phone. "So it doesn't happen right away."
"I wish you brought us to see them," Jirou said, more to herself as she kept watching the ducklings.
"Yeah, Kiri, why didn't you bring us?!" Ashido scolded while looking over the video she took. "I would've totally crashed your date if it meant I could be a duckling momma!"
"I-It wasn't a date!" Kirishima squawked. He darted a look at Bakugou next to him, who just looked aside with his mouth in his palm. "I was gonna show you guys after!"
"And why did you wanna show Bakugou first, hm?" Ashido asked archly, brows high behind her pink hair. Kirishima's lips clapped shut. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"Sero, I accept cash installments or lemon Gatorade for my winnings," Kaminari said. "None of that almond milk crap from last time!"
"I don't owe you a lick, man," Sero crossed his arms at him in a pointed frown. "This exchange proves nothing."
"Get the tape off your eyes, Sero!" Kaminari cried, forearms snapping forward with all the force of pulling an Iida. "They literally achieved parenthood!"
"You paid him with almond milk?" Jirou squinted at Sero. Kirishima just laid back against the sofa and groaned up at the ceiling, his face flaring.
"Lay off him, you shits," Bakugou piped up, growling at them. "He showed me first 'cause I'm his best fuckin' friend. End of story."
"Um, you wanna square the hell up?" Kaminari cocked his neck back at Bakugou, his hand coming up to hold the phone. "We’re Kirishima's best friends,” he pointed at Sero and himself, “end of story."
“Package deal, bro,” Sero said, fist-bumping Kaminari and doing explosions with his fingers after. “We drink tea and kick ass, and tonight I’m fresh outta tea.”
"I mean, you guys are cute, but. I'm the only one Kiri trusts with his hair. And you know how he is with his hair," Ashido mentioned, casual, shrugging. "Just saying."
“I mean, I’d like to think I’m working towards best friends status,” Jirou cocked her head, her chin in her arms. "But I know what songs he likes.”
“You mean the ones that make you instantly grow a pompadour and ride off into the sunset with a bike gang?” Sero said. Kirishima opened his mouth before nodding with a shrug.
"You guys might think you're his best friends," Bakugou announced, overly loud, teeth showing as he dropped an arm around Kirishima's shoulder. "But whatever you think you are, I'm better."
"Literally the definition of best is that you can't be better!" Kaminari threw his hands up in a yell. "That's just how superlatives work! You'd know!"
"Guys, guys, we don't need to fight over this." Kirishima put up his hands, cheeks pinched with colour and a helpless grin. "You're all my best friends. You included, Jirou."
To the grumbles of the others, Jirou gave him a smile he returned with a beam. Bakugou huffed, rearing back into his seat, his arm still around Kirishima's neck.
"M'still better."
Kirishima chuckled, patting Bakugou's hand hovering over his chest to reassure him. Bakugou leaned further into his side, and Kirishima bit down a grin of delight.
"Okay, I can accept a truce," Ashido said, her arms out to call the end of the match. "Besides, we shouldn't fight in front of the kids."
"You mean Jamming-whey over here?"
Jirou and Sero snickered at Kaminari's indignant cry. Ashido nodded. Kirishima snorted at Kaminari's calls for justice while Bakugou fought off a smile, before both of them looked down at the ducklings that hadn't taken their eyes off of them.
"Parenthood, huh…?" He scoffed in a glance up at the others, feeling Kirishima's eyes on him. "That's just skipping steps."
His gaze slid to Kirishima's, who only gulped and grinned in a blush at him. Their fingers brushed as they brought a hand each to play with their ducklings. Kirishima’s cheeks tingled, warm and giddy. Bakugou let out a hint of a smile at the sparking sensation, like a quieter package of his own explosions.