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“Bwaaaa, Bakugoooooo,” Ashido draws out his name into one long whine, “I’m so sore!” She punches him on the shoulder, stumbles over her hastily kicked off boots and just rolls with the stumble to drape herself across his shoulders instead.
“You’re the one who wanted to spar,” Bakugo points out, but his body aches too.
Sparring with Pinky is always fun, she needs to work on defending from aerial attacks, and trying to factor in the spray pattern of her acid along with her duck and roll fighting style always leaves him pleasantly sore.
Exhaling into his neck, Ashido extracts herself and rolls her shoulders, shrugging out of her jacket. Her arms are heavy with hard earned muscle. Bakugo knows how hard she can hit, but it’s all covered in a soft layer of skin and tissue. Ashido has always refused to diet just to get visible muscles like some of the others in their class.
On instinct Bakugo’s feet carry him to the genderless bathhouse, something Nezu has put in to be more inclusive. There are only a few people Bakugo knows of who use this place because they hate using the other two. Most people he knows use it to just, shower with someone. After three years of villain attacks and trauma, no one likes having their back unguarded, and it was a hassle to find a shower buddy of the same gender before this place.
“OI!” Ashido bumps into him with her shoulder, huffing a laugh as Bakugo stumbles sideways, “Earth to Baku, come in Baku, are you reading me?”
“Shut up,” he bumps her back and the laugh that rings out makes his stomach flip pleasantly.
“I asked ,” she says, eyes shining with mirth, “if you were planning on showering fully clothed.”
Blinking Bakugo lifts his head and sees the stalls of showers, his caddy hanging off one from where he’d set it earlier. Ashido’s is only a few stalls down. “I’m tired.” He grumbles, fingers popping the latches to his gauntlets, and feeling for the zipper at the back of his neck.
“You’re telling me!” Ashido crows, “here gimme.” She bats away his blind fingers and pulls the zipper down to his waist with a few gentle tugs.
Bakugo mutters a thanks and ties sleeves of his under suit around his hips to keep it from falling while he deals with his boots.
Humming to herself Ashido heads for her shower caddy, digging around for a minute till she finds her phone. Bakugo frowns at her, “You brought your phone into the bath house?”
Ashido flaps her hand at him distractedly, “I paid for a waterproof case and I'm gonna get my money’s worth!” Music blares from the phones tiny speakers suddenly and they both jump. “Sorry!” Ashido calls as she cranks it down, “sorry, Denki must have been listening to something and forgot to turn it down.” Now that it’s quieter Bakugo can pick out some guitar as a dude starts singing softly. He doesn’t know the song.
Shrugging Bakugo walks over to his own stall, dropping down heavily on the shower chair. He aches, all over. “You suck!” He calls as he flicks the shower on to the hottest he can stand.
“That means I made you work for that win!” Ashido yells back over the sound of the shower. Then her voice is a lot closer, right over his shoulder, “-that’s a compliment! Mind if I join you?”
Bakugo startles, dropping his bar of soap and whirls around. Ashido is standing politely just out of eyesight, tucked around the corner of his stall and into the next one but Bakugo can see the edge of her neon green shower caddy, and the line of one long pink leg through the steam.
The silence stretches into awkwardness.
“Fair enough,” Ashido tries to sound chipper but Bakugo can hear the note of disappointment in her voice, “that’s why I asked-“
Bakugo’s hand whips out faster then he can think, snagging the edge of her caddy and nearly ripping out from her hands.
Ashido stumbles into view, naked, pink, and startled. Bakugo curls his fingers tighter into the corner of caddy as nerves swell in his chest.
Something must show on his face, because as soon as Ashido regains her footing on the slick tiles she blinks at him, worry creasing her forehead, “Bakugo?”
“I’ve never done this.” He blurts, face heating as he lets go of the caddy and swivels back around in his seat.
“Showered?” Ashido murmurs in confusion, and Bakugo clenches his jaw down on the instinctual insult. He knows from their study dates that Ashido needs to verbally work through a problem to understand it. “Oh!” She says brightly, the pieces sliding together. Bakugo relaxes his jaw.
“With a girl?” she asks, setting down her caddy somewhere to Bakugo’s left.
Bakugo inhales deeply, exhaling into the piping hot water, and leans forward to let the spray hit his back more fully. “With anyone,” he murmurs to the tiles below his feet. If Ashido had spoken that low he wouldn’t have been able to hear her but Ashido doesn’t have fucked up hearing, so she inhales softly and just says, “Oh.”
It’s quiet a moment as that sinks in, then Ashido’s fingers dapple across his shoulders to get his attention. Bakugo straightens the curve out of his spine in acknowledgment. “Do you… want... to shower with me?”
Bakugo’s chest tightens with equal parts nerves and affection for Pinky.
Her fingers are tracing nonsensical patterns across his shoulders as she waits for his response. “Don’t know what to do.” He grinds out, the admittance not as hard as it could have been but still difficult to force out.
Ashido’s hand flattens fully against his shoulders, and Bakugo has the brief thought of her activating her quirk, melting away his skin and muscle till she hits bone and then even past that. The thought evaporatorates when her hands clench down on his sore muscles before smoothing again, digging the heels of her hands against his back till a few of the knots release.
“Well,” she says, never able to keep quiet for long, “I do it two ways! Option 1-“ she pauses to rub at a particularly stubborn knot with her thumbs, “-uh sorry you’re really tight but option 1 is we get clean as fast as possible and then get as filthy as fast as possible if you know what I mean.”
Bakugo’s shaking his head even before she’s done talking, the safety risks of fucking in the shower aside, he’s exhausted. He’d never been able to please her the way she deserves like this.
“Okie dokie,” she says easily, using one of her elbows now, and Bakugo groans when the knot releases, sagging forward with his elbows on his knees. Laughter in her voice Ashido says “then we just. Shower together. Enjoy the hot water and-“ she double taps his back and he straightens, getting a face full of hot water for his trouble. Spluttering Bakugo wipes water out of his eyes and hides his smile in his shoulder as Ashido laughs behind him.
“Here,” she says, moving in front of him to block the spray, Bakugo suddenly has an eyeful of perky pink skin. His face redness as Ashido groans as the hot water slides over her shoulders. “Oh man-“ she rolls her shoulders again and Bakugo can appreciate how the motion makes everything move. He grunts for her to finish her sentence, face flaming.
“Sorry sorry,” Ashido hurries, exhaling slowly, “feels good though.” She smiles down at Bakugo like he’d hung the sun in the sky that morning.
“My showers are always a hot as possible,” she chatters on, oblivious or ignoring Bakugo’s flaming cheeks, “Kiri always tries to get me to take cold showers to flush out the lactic acid and stuff but-“ she shudders just at the thought and Bakugo drops his head, leaning hard against her stomach before he can change his mind about option 1.
Immediately Ashido starts running her fingers through his hair, combing away the leftover ash and mildly acidic mud clinging to his hair, “I just can’t imagine taking cold showers. Oh hey which is your shampoo? I’ll wash your hair.”
“The black one is conditioner” Bakugo grunts, because he doesn’t remember the color of his shampoo. He’s never paid that much attention to be honest.
“Got it! Ashido chirps, leaning hard into him as she stretches to grab the bottle. Bakugo grabs her hips, partially to steady her and partially to keep her from snapping his neck.
He leaves his hands where they are when she leans back, and Ashido doesn’t comment on them while she sinks her soapy hands into his hair. Distantly Bakugo knows she’s still talking and that he should be paying attention but he gets lost in the feeling of her hands in his hair, nails scraping gently against his scalp as she rhythmically works her hands from the crown of his head (still pressed against her stomach) to the nape of his neck and back again. Foamy soap slides down his back and Ashido chases it, still chattering on about someone in the year below them asking her for help with their costume.
Bakugo hums when her chatter pauses, and Ashido laughs softly, still pushing foam out of his hair and down his back. “You’re like a big lazy cat,” she says and Bakugo’s chest seizes at the sound of such unguarding affection in her voice. Her stomach moves against his head as she laughs again, leaning to the side to let the water rinse the rest of the soap out. Bakugo flexes his hands on her hips and she laughs again, delighted. “Yeah like that! Here lemme go a sec, I gotta go grab something real quick.”
Releasing her Bakugo sits back, scraping some leftover foam from his shoulder and scrubbing his bangs with it.
“If you wash my hair like that I’m totally gonna melt your boots,” Ashido says conversationally from behind him. Bakugo frowns, pausing in his scrubbing to let that sink in. The water washes the soap into his eyes and he hisses.
“Wash your hair?” Bakugo asks, looking straight up at the shower head and blinking the shampoo from his eyes. They still sting a little.
A washcloth is pressed into his hand and Bakugo takes it gratefully, leaning back to scrub it over his face as Ashido talks .
“Heck yeah! You think I'm doing all this work? Out of the kindness of my heart?” When Bakugo glances back scowling Ashido’s got one wrist presses dramatically to her forehead, a picture perfect damsel in distress straight from one of the cheesy soap operas Eijrou watches. Bakugo rolls his eyes at her.
Snickering, Ashido pours her weird purple dragon fruit soap into a bright blue loofah, sticks the thing on her wrist like a bracelet, and snags Bakugo’s conditioner bottle as she comes back to stand in front of him.
Expecting the miles of perky pink skin this time, Bakugo leans against the back of the shower chair, tilting his head back to look her in the eye. “And what makes you think I’m gonna a fuckin’ wash your hair?”
Ashido glances up from reading the label of the bottle, a mischievous smile curling her mouth.
Bakugo realizes he’s in trouble a second before she slams a handful of conditioner on his head with a loud slap sound. Bakugo splutters as conditioner drips onto his face while Ashido cackles.
“Oh..” he says darkly, glaring at her from under the thick white glob he can feel sliding down his forehead, “Wait, wait, wait!” Ashido protests through her giggles but Bakugo grabs her by the waist and yanks her toward him before she gets far. Fingers dance up and down her sides as she squeals, squirming against his grip under the onslaught of tickling.
“I yield, I yield!” Ashido cries in between heaving breaths, Bakugo stops tickling but leaves his hands on her hips, keeping her close.
Pushing her wet flop of hair out her face Ashido beams down at him, still breathing hard. “Totally worth it,” she huffs, catching the glob of conditioner against her thumb and carefully sidling it back up into his hair. “I will cherish the face you made for all my days!” she cries, a soap actress again. Bakugo tightens his grip in warning and Ashido laughs breathlessly, carding her fingers through his slick hair, pushing it back from his face.
“But seriously though,” she says, once she’s got her breathing back under control, and Bakugo’s head is pressed back against her stomach. “You are gonna do mine once this conditioner is out. Showering together is no fun if only one of us gets clean.”
“Is that what you call this?” Bakugo mutters, he can see his bar of soap slowly dissolving under the spray of water just past their feet. Ashido’s stomach flexes as she wheezes out a, “gimme a minute here!” A few more passes through his hair is apparently a minute for her because the next thing Bakugo knows her loofah is hitting his back. He jumps a bit, and Ashido immediately pulls the thing away, “No good?” She asks simply, more then willing to swap soaps to make him comfortable.
“Warn a guy.” Bakugo grunts, stomach twisting with butterflies. Out of everyone, their whole “squad,” Ashido is the only one he never knows how to show that he cares about her. They have the least interaction, no classes together or shared internships. They always have to plan to get together like today, with sparring practice. And still Bakugo has no way to express all these fond butterflies in his gut.
Humming along to the song still playing faintly from her phone Ashido rubs the loofah across his skin, the gentle scratch and soft foam pleasant background input as Bakugo thinks. Ashido isn’t as materialistic as other people Bakugo’s met, so gifts are out. Does sparring count a quality time? Bakugo wracks his brain trying to remember what that stupid little paper in the infirmary said about love languages. Gods he hopes she’s not a words of affirmation person.
Careful fingers prod his shoulder, “Bakugo? If you’re this tired, don’t worry about me I can-“
“Katsuki,” he blurts out suddenly, head whipping up to look her in the face. “Call me Katsuki.” His hands tighten on her hips from nerves as he watches her face flit through confusion, to the threat of tears, to such raw affection he flicks his gaze to her horns, sticking straight up from her skull without her hair to hide them.
“Katsuki,” she whispers softly, gods his name sounds so good when she says it, hands sliding up his neck to cradle his face. When he dares to glance at her again she smiles and leans down.
Bakugo stretches up to meet her halfway, for a chaste kiss that tastes vaguely like soap, “Yes?” he whispers against her lips.
“Call me Mina,” she breathes back, pulling away and arching one eyebrow in fond challenge.
“Mina,” he answers the challenge easily, her name deep and fond rumbling up from his chest. Her returning smile is near blinding.
“Trade me places, Katsuki.” She says it slower then her usual chatter, testing out the syllables carefully.
Bakugo stands immediately, and suddenly they’re nose to nose, smiling stupidly at each other. Mina, gods he’s waited so long to think of her like that, kisses him softly as they swap places.
“You owe me a hair wash!” She declares and just like that they slide away from sacred silence before it sours into something hurtful. Back into easy companionship, but Bakugo knows she’ll call him by his given name again. The thought warms him so much his voice goes all soft and lovey instead of snappy.
“How in the everloving fuck do you even wash your hair around those horns?”
“Easy!” She drops into the chair, and tips it back far enough that Bakugo has to grab her knees to keep her from falling out. He pushes down to settle the chair and Mina grins at him with her prize. Two bottles that clash horribly, one neon orange and the other an ugly shade of purple. “Orange first! Just be careful of the side of your hands when you're near my horns. They’re sharp all the way down.”
Bakugo blinks at the offending bottles and snatches the orange one up, if only to get it away from the backdrop of Mina’s pink skin.
“My eyes are burning,” he says, dumping a handful of orange shampoo into his waiting palm. Mina laughs, tilting her head up as he works the goop into a foam before sinking his hands into her hair. “They’re terrible colors put together but it makes my hair soft so-” She shrugs, eyes fluttering closed as Bakugo carefully massages the stuff into her hair. He’s a lot slower then she had been, but he does his best to mimic what she had done with him. Nails scraping against scalp, working from the crown of her head to the nape of her neck, and then back, fingers gently massaging as he goes.
“You’re not gonna hurt me you know.” Mina cautiously opens one eye to squint at him, “I’m not gonna explode or anything.” Bakugo pushes her head back down, ignoring her gentle attempt to tell him that she trusts him and his explosive hands. Bakugo’s face is so heated he vaguely wonders if he’s caught on fire.
“Shut up,” he barks, “ I’m trying to make sure I don’t slice my hand open. Unless blood is a new trend I don’t care about.”
Mina giggles against his stomach before leaning up a little, “OI!” Bakugo complains, she’s messing up his rhythm. “Oh hush you, I’m trying to wash the ash out of your belly button. How’d you even manage to get ash in your belly button?” The loofah scapes over his skin again and Bakugo just rolls his eyes and keeps carefully lathering up her curls.
The song from her phone changes, just audible over the sound of the running water beating against Bakugo’s back, and Mina starts singing softly along. It’s some pop song that Bakugo doesn’t know but he focuses on Mina’s soft raspy voice, the scrape of the loofah against his chest and the task of washing her hair. When the foam gets too thick Bakugo leans to one side, letting the hot water rinse the excess free before setting to work again.
“Good thing the school has a fast water heater,” Mina murmurs, slowly sitting further up to better wash his chest, “this is a long shower.”
“There’s two of us,” Bakugo grumbles back, finally deeming her hair thoroughly shampooed, “Hand me the other monstrosity you call a hair product.” Mina laughs quietly into his skin as she leans over to grab the purple bottle.
“Here, come closer so I can get your back.” She tugs him forward by his thighs and he steps up to settle between her legs. She leans her forehead against his chest, lazily running the loofah along his spine as he drizzles her sweet smelling conditioner into his palm. Bakugo sniffs warily at the handful before working it into Mina’s hair, “What the hell is this even supposed to smell like?” He grumbles, he’d been expecting it to smell like Mina. It kind of does, but it’s strong enough to make his nose burn, nothing like the soft notes that cling to his pillows after a study date that dissolves into a sleepover.
Mina makes a disgruntled sound but peels her eyes open enough to read off, “Dragon fruit, cherry blossom, and coconut oil for soft hair without the weight.” The bottle lands back on the tiles with a thunk as Mina leans back against him, “it’s something Hanta got me a while back. Said it would help keep my hair from splitting and breaking so bad.”
Bakugo leans to the side, snickering as Mina gets a face full of water, but finds his question again. “Your hair breaks?”
Pushing her bangs out of her eyes Mina nods, inhaling the fragrant steam and seeming to wake up a little bit, “Yeah! My acid makes it kind of brittle. I-“ she pauses as he takes the loofah from her and starts washing her shoulders. Bakugo raises one eyebrow in challenge, Mina breaks into a grin and leans back, granting him access to even more pink skin. “I never told you I sweat acid did I? It’s nothing strong!” She assures him when he snaps up to look at her, “it’s a super mild acid kind of like vinegar is,” she wrinkles her nose, “gross that means I sweat vinegar.”
Bakugo chuckles as he washes her neck, careful to avoid her chest just in case she doesn’t-
“Dude,” Mina says, gently pushing his hand further down her front, “you’re missing a pretty big area here.” Bakugo’s face heats as he carefully washes her collarbones. “How does sweating vinegar make your hair fucking break ?” It’s a deflection and judging from Mina’s smile she knows it, but she allows him to draw her attention away from his hands.
Leaning back in the chair far enough that Bakugo has to shuffle forward half a step to chase her, she exhales slowly, “Oh! Vinegar sweat right. Sorry lost my train of thought there, but yeah! I sweat a mild acid and something about that mixed weird with my old hair stuff and I had split ends like you wouldn’t BELIEVE!”
Tuning her chatter out, Bakugo focuses on finishing washing her stomach, then leaning to let the water wash away the soap. As the bulk of it goes down the drain the scent follows it, and Bakugo finally can smell how, once Mina gets moving, her natural body heat will make the smell more like her and less like eye burning awfulness.
“Katsuki.”
His head snaps up at the sound of his name, pleased that she’s more comfortable saying it even as his face morphs into its default scowl. “What?”
“That’s the third time you’ve zoned out on me. I vote we finish up here and then put on a movie or something for background noise while we take a nap.”
“Well then get back over here so I can rinse your hair out.”
Mina comes easily, taking the loofah from him, and leaning against him to rinse the thing out while he deals with her hair.
When he’s done, leaning back from her just enough that she gets the message, Mina stands, stretching up with a contended breath. This time Bakugo looks openly, even though his face is still hot.
Chuckling, Mina ducks around him, grabbing her clashing bottles and kicking one leg up on the chair to scrub the loofah down one leg and then the other in quick succession. Bakugo glances down, and sees that his calves are streaked with soap and a little bit of leftover ash. He snatches the loofah from Mina as she steps down, copying her brisk movements to clean, as she wanders out from the stall to grab them towels.
A nap sounds great.
Turning off the water Bakugo stands up just in time to receive a kiss and a towel around his neck. Mina giggles at his stunned expression and kisses it off him quickly. “Come on Katsuki, I’m thinking about watching that new show Denki and Hanta we’re talking about last week.” She’s got a towel draped over her shoulders too, and Bakugo grabs it, running it down one pink arm before turning to the other. “I thought we were gonna watch a movie?”
Mina lets him dry her off, kneeling in front of her to get her legs as she gently squeezes water out of his hair with the towel in her hands, “I know I said movie but a show would run for longer....” She pecks him on the cheek when he stands, before sinking to her knees to dry him off too. Her hands are slower than his were, probably because of the way her thumbs dig into the knots in his thighs until they release, same as she had done for his back. Gods she’s so close-
“Katsuki? What do you think? Movie or show?” Mina rises up, gracefully slinging the damp towel around her shoulders, and walking away from him. Bakugo spares a moment to dry off his back before following her into the steam filled main room. They really did use a lot of hot water.
“I think,” he says when she glances over her shoulder at him, “that as long as I’m laying down it doesn’t matter.”
Grinning at him from her locker of clean clothes, Mina pulls out a pair of soft looking sweatpants and drapes them over one arm, a challenging eyebrow raised, “First one to get dressed gets to pick whose bed we’re crashing on.”
*****
They walk out together, Mina tucked under Katsuki’s arm against the chill of the outside. It’s really not that cold out here but compared to the hot steam of the bath house it might as well have been snowing. Bakugo is glad he chose to wear a hoodie.
“Told you to wear a jacket.” He says dryly, when she shudders and slides an arm around his waist, under his coat.
“That’s what I have you for!” She crows happily as she leeches his warmth. Bakugo grumbles but tightens his arm around her.
“You’re lucky I love you,” he mutters when her chilled fingers curl against his hip bone.
Mina smiles at him, all soft open affection that makes Bakugo’s face get hot all over again. “I love you too Katsuki.”