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Bakugou wasn’t sure who started it, but he damn well was going to be the one who finished it.
“Is this necessary?” Jirou drawled on in that don’t-give-a-shit tone of hers.
“Yes,” Bakugou emphasized, using his phone to point directly into her face. “That scaredy-cat piece of shit Deku ain’t got nothing on this.”
And, honestly, that extra probably didn’t. Currently, Bakugou and Jirou were standing in line for Japan’s tallest and fastest rollercoaster. The ride was expected to move at over 130kms with plenty of loops and tons of drops, steep enough to make even the most avid roller coaster enthusiast reconsider getting in that seat.
Bakugou was thrilled.
He and Deku had started a war of sorts. It began with him third-wheeling a carnival date with Deku and IcyHot against his will, but in an attempt to deal with the suffocating lovey-dovey mushiness of said dates, he challenged Deku to a series of escalating challenges.
First, it was who could spin the fastest on the teacups, then it was who could obliterate the other in bumper cars, and finally, it was who could win the most prizes in the throwing games.
Deku won that last one, but Bakugou wasn’t going to let one fluke victory determine the reigning champion of carnivals.
Besides, seeing Todoroki’s face soften as Deku thrust a bunch of plushies into his arms made Bakugou want to gag and simultaneously renewed his desire to crush the nerd even more.
And so, he was at the amusement park again.
For this outing, Jirou had tagged along—something about planning something or another for Ponytail—and Bakugou immediately kicked off their day by beating Deku in their first round of carnival throwing games. After another successful bullseye, Bakugou lugged an enormous shark plushie over his shoulder, turning to the nerd with a smirk.
Did Bakugou need these useless prizes? No.
Was he still going to stomp the nerd into the dust to make a statement? Yes.
For some reason, whenever Bakugou got into this competitive mode, his childhood friend was always there to fight back. Even though it was different this time than usual—Deku had made it clear he wanted to impress Todoroki and wasn’t just competing for his pride—it still pissed Bakugou off more than anything, to see a fire light up the moldy green in Deku’s eyes.
So, it was all the more satisfying to best him.
“I still think you were cool, Midoriya,” Todoroki said, as Deku made his way back to his boyfriend.
Deku laughed nervously, looking anywhere but at IcyHot. His face was bright pink as he tugged at the hem of his t-shirt. “You think so? I kinda misaimed with that last ball, b-but, that’s okay, Todoroki-kun! I can get you something else!”
Todoroki tilted his head. “I don’t need anything else. It’s fun just being with you.”
Jirou squealed as Deku turned an even redder shade of red. The nerd started to say something equally disgusting back until Bakugou shoved his way between the two, jamming a finger into Deku’s chest.
“You’re not getting off that easy, nerd—” Bakugou scowled, disapproval clear on his face. “I’ll beat you at any and all the games here, no questions asked.”
“Can’t you give it a break, Bakugou?” Jirou sighed, rolling her eyes. “What does it matter if you’re better at carnival games than him? You guys’re fighting for no reason.”
“Shut it, Sound-Girl,” Bakugou growled, not taking his eyes off a very uncomfortable Deku. “I want an indisputable win. We need a harder challenge. Something like…” He glanced around the amusement park before pausing at a towering structure in the distance. A grin grew on his face as he turned back to the nerd. “Who can ride Japan’s fastest rollercoaster the most.”
Deku paled, looking very much like a fish out of water. “Th-the rollercoaster?”
Bakugou smiled wide. “The rollercoaster.”
“Um, I don’t—how will that exactly—I mean not to say I won’t , but wouldn’t something else be better to—”
“Quit mumbling and just admit that you’re too scared to get on,” Bakugou smirked, feeling victory well up in his chest. “You’re shitting your pants , and I have you beat.”
The fire started to light up in those eyes again. Deku swallowed, then tentatively picked up his voice, getting ready to fight back in that annoying way of his, but not before IcyHot interrupted.
“It’s alright, Midoriya,” Todoroki said. “They probably won’t let him on anyways so you’d win by default.”
This piece of shit.
“What the fuck does that mean, you son of a bitch?!” Bakugou roared, turning to Icyhot with ire flickering in his eyes.
Todoroki was the worst.
Bakugou doesn’t know where Deku picked up this flaming piece of garbage from, but the man was just as infuriating as the nerd himself, except, in a completely different way which was something he didn’t think was humanly possible.
There were too many things to name that he found unpleasant about him, but mostly the way that IcyHot said things matter-of-factly as if there were no room for argument was enough to escalate Bakugou’s blood pressure tenfold. Honestly, it was enough of a struggle to tolerate the nerd—it was absolute hell to see Todoroki worm his way into their small circle of friends.
“Because it’d cause a disturbance…” Todoroki added in that monotone voice of his as Bakugou stared him down angrily. “Sorry.”
Jirou choked back a laugh as Bakugou felt a vein pulse in his head. He turned to Deku once more as the nerd flinched and recoiled.
“Deku, I don’t give a shit about you impressing your sorry excuse for a boyfriend—we are getting on the fucking rollercoaster or so help me, I swear to god—”
And so, they were here.
Okay, in thinking about it, Bakugou was probably the one who started this, but he wasn’t going to admit that to anyone.
“This is pointless,” Jirou pushed again as they neared the front of the line. Bakugou shot her a glare, but she shrugged it off, playing with an earphone bud in her hand. “Just sayin’.”
“It’s not pointless. If you want to chicken out too, you’re free to leave,” Bakugou responded, staring intently at the roller coaster cars past the gates ahead of them. “We’re getting in the front and I’m recording the whole thing so that damn nerd can see just how much of a loser he is for sitting out.”
“You do you, man,” Jirou shrugged, choosing to ignore the blonde’s hyper-fixation on competition and looking up nervously at the towering ride. “I’m not the biggest fan of rollercoasters, but I feel like Momo would want to try everything when she’s here, so—”
“Ponytail?”
“Yeah, something about never getting to go to an amusement park.”
“Hm,” Bakugou mused as they finally made it to the front. “I mean, just because she would want to doesn’t mean that you—wait, you like her or something?”
Jirou flushed red, but before she could respond, they were ushered off to their seats and the blonde refocused his attention on only the things that mattered—proving to Deku how much better Bakugou was than him.
There were a few moments of chaotic energy surrounding the riders as they waited for the roller coaster to move. Most people were talking excitedly about the ride while others were obsessing over their seat belts, double, then triple checking over the clasps just in case they flew out during a flip or something. Jirou was stiff as a board next to Bakugou, clutching the rail in front of her like a lifeline. Bakugou ignored it all to hold the phone out in front of him, a devious smile on his lips.
As soon as the rollercoaster lurched forward, he started the recording with his front camera on, smirking at himself in the reflection.
“Eat shit , Deku.”
And then, they were off. Bakugou switched the camera to the default mode as they began their first uphill climb.
It was a moderately steep ride to the top before a sudden drop, and Bakugou grinned as he heard a crescendo of screams reach his ears. This was the thrill he wanted out of this lousy venue. Neither the carnival games nor the bumper cars compared—this was on a whole new level and with each twist and turn that sent blood rushing to his ears, he was more than ready to rub it in the nerd’s face once he got off the ride.
At least, that was until his phone slipped out of his hands.
Bakugou was generally very good with his belongings. He kept things in good condition until they broke or got outdated. Unlike some irresponsible people he knew, Bakugou had never ruined an electronic by spilling liquid on it or dropping it.
Well, until today, apparently.
He knew he had naturally sweatier hands than the average person just because of how often he needed to wipe them against his pants before meeting someone new that he actually cared about meeting, but it must have been the sheer thrill of the ride and sitting up in the front that made him more careless than usual.
Just as they started speeding towards yet another forwards loop, his fingers slipped and the next thing he knew, his phone went flying backwards, hurtling towards a certain doom on the ground.
Bakugou swore, swiveling his upper body to snatch it before it could travel outside his radius, but to no avail. Physics was against him and he watched helplessly as the phone made an awkward parabolic curve over the back seats of the roller coaster in its inevitable trajectory towards the floor.
And then, he watched in pure amazement as a man in the middle carts grabbed the phone out of the air just as it was veering away from the coaster tracks.
With a single hand.
On the opposite side of where the guy was sitting, mind you.
Bakugou wasn’t sure he was present for the rest of the ride after that. He simply sat in his seat, stunned into silence, watching the man celebrate a few rows behind him with a group of his friends.
Honestly, the guy didn’t seem to be present for the rest of the ride after that either.
As the rollercoaster screeched to a stop at the boarding station and people started to leave, Jirou and Bakugou had to be pushed off by the attendants—both of them shocked for completely different reasons.
“That was horrible,” Jirou shuddered, turning to Bakugou for a response, but the blonde’s attention was completely fixated on someone else.
The guy who caught his phone was showing an impressive row of sharp teeth coupled with a heinous display of red hair that jutted out at different angles. Probably from the ride, but maybe not. It looked terribly good unkempt.
“Hey, did anyone lose a phone?” The man called out across the platform, laughing the entire time as a blonde friend of his with a lightning bolt streak in his hair was hollering something while bouncing around him excitedly. There was a third member of their party with purple hair that looked like nothing phased him at all—from the ride itself, to the rambunctious behavior of his friends, to the impossible catch the redhead had made.
Bakugou made his way over to them, still in disbelief.
“What. The fuck.”
“Ah, it’s yours?” The man smiled, offering the device back to Bakugou as they both started to walk out together. Bakugou hardly noticed a very queasy looking Jirou trailing behind them. “But yeah, I know right??”
“What the fuck!”
“ Right ?”
“No, I, what—” Bakugou spluttered, snatching his phone from the stranger’s hand. He tapped at the screen to verify that it was indeed his phone and he wasn’t just hallucinating this whole thing. Sure enough, a photo of his Pomeranian looked back at him without a care in the world, as if it hadn’t just been thousands of feet up in the air a few moments ago. He looked back up at the man. “How the fuck did you even—”
“I don’t know, dude!” The stranger laughed, showing a row of pearly white shark teeth. “I was having a blast on the ride and then I saw something float up and the next thing I knew, I caught your phone!”
“Is your hand made out of steel ?”
“Aha… what?”
“My phone was probably flying at over 100km and you caught it just like that?”
The man blinked, then beamed. Bakugou belatedly realized that the guy was pretty ripped. “Apparently? That was probably the coolest thing I've ever done, haha!”
“Are you a fucking baseball player? A bodybuilder? A robot? The fuck kind of fuckery —”
“Nah, just a regular guy having fun at an amusement park—name’s Kirishima,” Kirishima extended a hand that Bakugou just stared at blankly. Undeterred, the redhead turned to his friends. “And, this is Kaminari and Shinsou! Trust me, we’re all as shocked as you are. It was just instinct, I swear!”
The guy that Kirishima had introduced as Shinsou seemed the furthest thing from impressed, but Kaminari was wheezing from the excitement, alternating from patting Kirishima on the back to jumping around like a dog without a leash.
“Dude, that was legendary . How do I get half as cool as you—do I need to go with you to the gym now? Is that what it takes?”
“Bro, you’re cool too, that was just luck!” Kirishima laughed with his friend, and fuck , that spectacle stopped Bakugou in his tracks too.
“Well,” the blonde swallowed, making sure the video was turned off before pocketing his phone. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, of course! Though, if you asked me for a repeat of that, I don’t know if I could do it again,” Kirishima chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.
They reached the exit where Deku and Todoroki were supposed to be waiting for Bakugou and Jirou at a nearby bench. After a quick glance around to find the lovebirds not there, Bakugou turned to Jirou for the first time since they got on the ride.
She shrugged shakily. “They’re on the Ferris wheel apparently.”
Great. Even more mushy gushy bullshit.
The redhead cleared his throat, and Bakugou turned back to him with a scowl on his face.
“Friends ditched you?”
“Not my friends,” Bakugou huffed, wondering if he could grab his stuff from the locker he rented, sit down in a restaurant somewhere, and look through the video he tried to record. Because he was able to view his lock screen, it looked as if it stopped recording after a certain point, but Bakugou wasn’t sure if it was when Kirishima caught it or when they got off the roller coaster. He needed to know. For gloating purposes.
“…wanna hang with us?”
“What?” Bakugou frowned at Kirishima.
“If you want to!” The redhead laughed sheepishly. He pointed behind him towards the dining areas. “We were going to head over and get some food if you guys wanted to join us!”
“I’m going home,” Jirou grumbled under her breath as she fumbled with her phone to make a call.
“D-do you need us to walk you to your car?” Kirishima called out, receiving a quick head shake in response. Bakugou thought it was thoughtful of him, but wholly unnecessary because Jirou was probably going to call Ponytail.
Kirishima looked a little sad to see her go, but turned to Bakugou with renewed anticipation. The blonde felt something lurch in his stomach, a feeling he should have felt much earlier while he was still on the rollercoaster.
If it was anyone else, he probably would’ve told them no immediately. But this was the guy who literally snagged his phone out of the air while going over 100km an hour. He was bright and powerful, and as hesitant as Bakugou was to admit it, he wanted to know more about the man who had won his respect without even meaning to.
Plus, his smile was kind of nice. Even if his hair looked like a thousand chili peppers glued to the top of his head.
Bakugou shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets and starting to walk towards the restaurants in the park. “Sure.”
Kirishima beamed and with the dumb looking one and the tired looking one in tow, they all made their way to their destination as a group.
“So, I know I caught your phone earlier, but I didn’t catch your number—”
“You fucker,” Bakugou snorted after a brief moment of surprise. “You’re not getting shit .”
But just as easily as Kirishima had snagged his flying phone on the rollercoaster ride, it wasn’t long before they were exchanging contact information and arranging another hangout, Kirishima knocking knees with Bakugou as if they had been buddies for more than just a few hours.
And honestly, it had never made Bakugou happier to have started a fight with Deku.
Mushiness be damned.