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Todoroki found himself in the midst of waking up, he's not certain, but thinks he heard a loud noise. Loud noises weren’t anything alarming considering the cohabitants of the dorms he lives in, he just figures one of the guys dropped something. Also the overwhelming truth that going back to sleep sounded like a better idea than . . . everything. So he blissfully ignored the loud noise and the pull consciousness was quickly losing it's hold on him, when the loud noise appeared again. This time around he realized it was knocking, and when the same knocking appeared again, he realized it was at his door. A noise found itself escaping from Todoroki, probably a subconscious reaction from the disappointment of being forced to wake up. He then pushed himself up from his futon and his limbs still felt heavy, a sign from his body that's telling him that it still wants to rest.
The knocking happened again and from how little light was in his room, Todoroki had to wonder what time it was, the sun was barely starting to rise it seemed. He walked over towards his door and blinked tiredly at it, before it was knocked on once again. He opened it and saw the last person his sleep ridden brain was expecting, but the amount of impatient knocking suddenly made sense,
“Good -,” his groggy voice started to say.
“Finally! You think I got all morning for you to wake up, sleeping beauty?!” Bakugou interrupted. It was interesting, despite Bakugou whispering it still very much came out as a yell.
Todoroki just blinked again. He wondered how Bakugou did it, it was so early. Even during their internship, Bakugou woke up with so much energy, most of that energy went into crankiness, but that wasn’t far off from Bakugou's usual nature. Crankiness aside, Todoroki still found that part of Bakugou admirable, having that much energy in the morning or ever, wasn't something often said about him.
Todoroki then started to think about why Bakugou was at his door so early to begin with. It must be pretty serious if he went to someone else about whatever’s going on with him.
“Are you ok?” Todoroki asked while rubbing his eye.
“Don’t I look ok?!” he whisper yelled again.
Todoroki looked over Bakugou, he seemed alert and put together, so nothing unusual. Bakugou was glaring at him impatiently, that also wasn’t unusual, it was familiar, it was nice.
“Don’t answer that,” he said, fed up with how long it was taking Todoroki to answer. “Just follow me,” he said, before promptly storming down the fluorescent lit hallway. Bakugou made it to the end of the hallway until he realized he was Todoroki-less. “Today Todoroki!” he said impatiently.
I’m so tired, Todoroki thought, before finally following after his spiky haired blonde friend.
They took the stairs down to wherever Bakugou was leading them, and with Todoroki’s brain starting to finally turn on, he realized he never answered Bakugou’s question earlier.
“You look fine,” Todoroki finally answered.
“Huh?” Bakugou asked, stopping on the steps and turning around to face him.
“You asked if you look ok earlier, and you do,” he answered. That answer seemed to annoy Bakugou, if Todoroki read Bakugou’s reaction correctly.
“Of course I do,” he said. “Don’t know if I can say the same for you and your stupid bedhead.”
“Oh.”
Todoroki then ran his fingers through his hair and did his best to put it back into place.
“Does it look better?” he asked. Bakugou’s eyes darted across Todoroki’s face. Todoroki couldn’t read his face, it wasn’t Bakugou’s normal expression of irritation, there seemed to be something else mixed in with it, but perhaps Todoroki was reading too far into it, wishful thinking perhaps.
“Just come on, IcyHot,” he said before making his way down the stairs.
Bakugou led them towards the kitchen and now Todoroki felt even more confused at what Bakugou was trying to do.
“Here,” Bakugou said, like the word 'here' made him want to vomit. In Bakugou's hand was cupcake, covered perfectly in red and white icing. Like my hair, Todoroki thought.
He took it from Bakugou hand and looked at it some more and wondered what a cupcake did to bother Bakugou so much, Was Bakugou wanting him to do something about it?
“You never seen a cupcake before?” Bakugou asked.
“I have, but what does this cupcake have to do with you waking me up?”
“Don’t you know what day it is?” Bakugou asked in disbelief, as if Todoroki was missing something obvious.
Todoroki thought about it briefly before answering, “Friday.”
“No, you idiot!”
“But it is Friday,” Todoroki explained.
“I mean the date!”
“Oh,” he said, then remembering that he wrote the tenth on his notes yesterday. “The eleventh, January eleventh,” he said before realizing something. “Oh, that’s my birthday.”
“Jeez Half ‘n Half, You can’t even remember your own birthday?”
“It’s not that,” he said before wistfully looking down at the cupcake.
He remembered his mom doing stuff to celebrate it when he was little, and Fuyumi trying to after his mom got sent away, but it was never the same without her.
“It’s just not a big deal to me,” he answered truthfully. “Is that why my phone kept going off last night?” he asked more to himself than towards Bakugou.
Bakugou scoffed before saying, “You’re hopeless.”
The dots finally connected and realized that Bakugou went out of his way to make this for him.
A swirl of feelings swelled up inside his chest, and he couldn’t help but find it amusing that someone who so adamantly denied being his friend, did something as thoughtful as this.
“Thank you, Bakugou,” he said sincerely.
“Don’t overthink it. I’m just making it up to you for the stupid internship, being in your debt sucks ass is all,” he explained.
Ah, that’s his excuse, Todoroki thought.
He then noticed a flaw kin akugou;s reasoning.
“You didn’t owe me,” Todoroki explained and Bakugou scrunched his face up in displeasure. “I did it because you -,”
“It doesn’t matter! Are you going to eat the cupcake or not?”
“I will.”
Todoroki took a seat on the stool next to the counter and unpeeled the wrapper from the cupcake. It almost looked too good to eat, but he thinks Bakugou wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment after putting in all the work to make it for him. Todoroki could almost pitcure his reaction now, the mental image had this weird comforting effect.
Bakugou took the seat next to Todoroki and Todoroki could feel Bakugou’s eyes watching him intently, watching in a similar way it does when he's fighting someone, trying to read every movement his opponent makes. Todoroki didn’t mind it though, he’s never minded having Bakugou’s eyes on him.
He broke off a piece of the cupcake with his fingers and put it inside his mouth.
“Mm,” Todoroki let out. He knew Bakugou could cook, but he’s never actually tasted it for himself before, it was just something he heard from his classmates, almost like a myth. It was the perfect mix of moist and flavor, and it was just made this morning, meaning it was still warm.
“Good, right?” Bakugou asked.
“Very,” Todoroki answered breaking off another piece. He then moved the cupcake so it was sitting between the two of them.
“I don’t want your nasty cupcake!” Bakugou said, quickly figuring out what Todoroki was trying to do.
“But you made it.”
“Exactly, for you!”
“But I want you to.”
“And I’m supposed to care about what you want!”
This wasn’t Todoroki’s typical move but today was special, wasn’t it? “But it’s my birthday,” he said.
“So?! Who care about you’re stupid birthday?!”
“You do.”
“I don’t.”
“But you-,”
“Weren’t you listening. I did it because -,”
“Please,” Todoroki said.
“Well, since you’re begging me,” Bakugou said.
“I am,” Todoroki said and Bakugou’s eyebrows raised. Todoroki thought Bakugou always made such interesting faces. Bakugou groaned before begrudgingly taking and eating a piece of the cupcake for himself.
“Happy now?”
“Yes.”
Bakugou just grumbled something intelligible before stuffing another piece into his mouth.
Todoroki remembered that proverb about food tasting better when you’re eating with friends. It sounded illogical, but if this moment was proof of anything, maybe there is some truth to it after all.
“Thank you, Bakugou,” Todoroki said, trying to catch his friend's eyeline.
“You already said that, you idiot.”
“I know,” Todoroki said and Bakugou finally looked his way, only to show him how truly unimpressed he was.
“You have something on your face,” Bakugou pointed out while he rested his chin on his hand.
“Oh,” Todoroki said and moved his hand up towards his face to wipe it off. “Where?” he asked.
“Left,” Bakugou answered. “My left,” He corrected when he saw Todoroki’s hand go right. “Down,” he instructed. “No that’s too far, go back up again. Ok now my right.”
“Here?”
“No! Hey, stop moving,” Bakugou said before he suddenly put his hands on the side of Todoroki’s head. “Hopeless,” he muttered out.
Todoroki was sure this was weird, but he knew he liked this, this Bakugou cupping Todoroki’s head in his hands his hands thing. Bakugou's hands felt very nice actually, Todoroki didn't know if he should be surprised or now, a lot of things about Bakugou were an anomaly. Bakugou then removed one of his hand and wiped the corner of Todoroki’s mouth with his thumb and Todoroki was taken aback at how such a simple gesture made his skin feel like it was on fire.
He found his eyes looking down at Bakugou mouth and felt this tightness in his stomach. The only thought in his head was, I want to kiss you. He’s never felt anything like that before, it was a lot to process, but it was a scary feeling either, it was . . . exciting. He wondered maybe if should tell Bakugou about this recent development, but he then realized that maybe he should work on getting Bakugou to admit that he’s his friend first, before approaching whatever this is.
Todoroki then felt Bakugou’s hands pull away and without think Todoroki found himself putting Bakugou’s hands back to where they previously were. They could still do this, right? This is friendly.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
“I liked where your hands were,” he answered.
“AND?!”
“It’s my birthday.”
Bakugou gave him this look saying that he found Todoroki to completely beyond human comprehension. “You’re letting this power go to our head.”
“Just for today.”
“You’re so weird.”
“You think so?”
“No doubt about it,” he answered.
When Bakugou still hadn’t dropped his hands, Todoroki found himself perfectly content.
“Hey, IcyHot?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t go telling people I did this alright, don’t want people getting the wrong idea.”
“What would be the wrong idea?” he asked and Bakugou looked away, his face seemed almost embarrassed. Todoroki thought it was a nice look on him. His kissing thought earlier hadn’t been a fluke it seems.
“That you’re like special, and that we’re like friends or something equally gag worthy,” he explained. All of it reminding Todoroki that he has a long way to go in getting Bakugou to admit to their friendship.
“I see.”
Bakugou always the diligent person and did a good job at keeping his hands where Todoroki had wanted them.
A moment passed before Bakugou finally looked back at Todoroki again.
“You’re not thinking about something cheesy, are you?”
"Would you say that me thinking that you-,"
"Yes," he answered before Todoroki could finish.
"You're probably right."
"Course I am," Bakugou said with a smug grin.
Todoroki just further nestled into Bakugou's palm and tried to enjoy as much of Bakugou's willingness to cup his head as he could get, he knew this was a rare offering not to take for granted.
“Alright I did my time, birthday boy. Don’t say I never did anything for you,” he said while pulling his hands back towards himself. Todoroki already missing his touch, even if Bakugou had participated a lot longer than Todoroki ever imagined he would. “I’m getting ready for class, you should too if you don’t want to show up barely on time, like you always do,” Bakugou explained before walking away and back towards the stairs.
Todoroki thought he'd have to remind himself to ask Midoriya when Bakugou's own birthday was. He found himself wanted to do something, not because he felt like he had to make it up to him, but because he really wanted to. For his friend, for his . . . well, he could work on the second half of that statement later.