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Bakugou likes sunflowers.
“They grow really tall and don’t fall over.”
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Bakugou is brash.
Kirishima’s mom doesn’t like him. She saw him on television, as he thrashed and snarled when accepting his sports festival victory. “This is the one?” His mom frowned. Kirishima hastily closed the video, ensuring her that he isn’t like that. It was hard to convince her. It’s not like he had any counter-programming to show her. The only photo he had on his phone was taken when Bakugou was passed out—he doesn’t fall asleep, so much as violently crashes into unconsciousness—and it would be weird to show that to his mother.
“Would you ever want your parents to meet me?”
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Bakugou hates formalities.
Nicknames, usually mocking in nature, come easier than family names. Deku, Half and Half Bastard, or Asshole—his personal favourite—feel like ammunition, designed to maintain a radius. A no-man’s land of solitude.
What does it mean, Kirishima wonders, when instead of bullets, Bakugou offers him a bridge?
“I don’t wanna spend my Friday at a food circus or whatever those losers are doing. Can’t we just stay in, Eijirou?”
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Bakugou is a prodigy.
He attacks with vigour and intense efficiency. To an inexperienced eye, he destroys without thought. At first glance, he’s indiscriminate, brash. A weapon of mass destruction.
What they don’t see is someone who wants, more than anything—more than to win, to fight, prove himself, to feel joy—is to become a hero.
“I’m afraid I would hurt someone I didn’t mean to hurt.”
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Bakugou is a prodigy, and Kirishima is...not.
Every step for Kirishima feels like a miracle. Like barely keeping his head above water, when he knows a tsunami is coming. Everyone else seems miles ahead, surfing and propelling forward, Kirishima seems to sink lower the more he moves. To harden is to slow down, after all, and he was terrified of drowning.
This changed when someone, a boy who was scary yet tender, spiteful yet attentive, taught him not how to swim or float. Didn’t offer a boat or a life vest, but taught him how to breathe underwater.
“Not falling must mean you’re damn strong.”