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Sero had the worst luck of the entire class and a bad habit of walking into situations that inevitably scarred him for life. He wished he could give the seemingly supernatural power away to someone like Mineta or Hagakure who might enjoy using it, but he was cursed to live with it, so he did.
Just last week, he'd walked in on Mina and Kirishima vigorously making out just as she was slipping her hand into his shorts. They were supposed to be studying, but that's what he got for not knocking.
Then, the week before that, he'd found Mineta rifling through a pile of dirty magazines and unsolicited pictures of girls from around the school in the middle of the night. He'd been at the table in the common room, salivating and utterly disgusting.
While Sero didn't know why he'd decided that was a good place to do that, he pushed that out of his mind. Instead of questioning, he burned the pile immediately on the back lawn while Mineta watched and shouted and squirmed. He had the hope that whatever demons or bad luck followed pictures taken without girls' knowledge would be dispelled with the burning of them. Unfortunately, now Mineta starred as his ever present sleep paralysis demon.
Then the week before that, he'd come across Aoyama and a pile of cheese. He hadn't stuck around long enough to find out what that was all about, but nightmares about the scene haunted him just to this day.
So, when he walked down to the common room closer to midnight than lights out, he wasn't really that surprised to hear a scuffle down below.
"Deku," he heard Bakugou growl roughly, and a quiet shushing.
"Ssh, stop being a baby. Do you want Mr. Aizawa to come out and catch us?"
He stalled on the stairs, straining his ears for what exactly was going on. If it wasn't anything crazy, then he could get some juice and just go back to bed. Maybe he could break up whatever fight was brewing before it even started. If it was something weird or crazy... Well, he wasn't equipped to handle that on his own and would just go back to his room without getting anything.
Silently stepping off the last stair, he peaked around the corner. The soft warm light from one of the overhead stove lights illuminated Bakugou and Midoriya sitting by the stove where a steaming bowl and a pot on a burner sat. Steam rose thick from the pot, but neither moved to get it.
Midoriya dipped a rag into the bowl at his elbow. "You need to be more careful, Kacchan. What if you had moved a second slower? You could have lost your eye because of that guy. Why do you have to fight everyone?" he reprimanded, wiping at the blood streaking down from a cut running straight from the corner of Bakugou's tightly closed eye back along the side of his head.
His hands were shaking.
Bakugou laughed hoarsely. "That's rich coming from you, Deku. You're just as bad as I am, you just don't start the fights. I saw you hit that guy. How's your knuckles?"
Silence fell in the room, and Sero fought the urge to swallow. If he did, they'd surely hear him. He'd never seen these two be soft with each other, and why would he have? They'd been at each other's throats since the first day of class.
Midoriya continued bandaging Bakugou's face without comment, still glaring at the other teen. When he was done, he tossed the rag back into the bowl and got up to pour water from the pot into two waiting cups.
"Deku-"
"I'm fine!" Midoriya snapped.
Sero had never heard Midoriya talk to Bakugou like that. His breath caught in his chest, and he held it there. Midoriya turned back as Bakgou caught his fingers. Just that one touch had Sero's mind reeling. What was he witnessing?
"You're shit at lying. Give me your hand."
With a sigh, Midoriya turned and let himself be pulled close until he was standing between Bakugou's knees while he examined his hand between their bodies. The top of Bakugou's head looked like it was touching Midoriya's chest from where Sero stood.
Midoriya flinched above him, and Katsuki murmured, "You're going to have to get this checked out by Recovery Girl in the morning. I think something is broken."
It was so quiet in the dorms, Sero could hear the water boiling in the pot, the sound of every breath they took and how they'd synced up.
"I'll be fine," Midoriya mumbled, and Sero flinched away from the scene as he felt more than heard Bakugou's anger rise.
He took a moment to catch his breath as Bakugou started shouting.
"Stop playing the fucking martyr! You want your hand to get more fucked up than it already is? You want to not be able to move it at all? Is that what you want, Deku? Because it's not-"
Sero peaked out again as Bakugou suddenly went quiet, just panting out his frustration.
Midoriya had his hand over Bakugou's eyes, staring softly down at him. "Breath, Kacchan, you're starting to panic again. Calm down, please. You're going to reopen your wounds."
"I can't calm down when you're always getting hurt," Bakugou growled, curling his fists in Midoriya's t-shirt at his waist, "And then refusing to go to Recovery Girl when there's clearly something wrong. There's nothing wrong with asking for help."
"Says the guy who is way to stubborn to ask for help himself," Midoriya teased, leaning closer though his hand remained over Bakugou's eyes, "So stubborn."
"Same to you."
"I learned how to from you." When he dipped his head down, catching Bakugou's parted lips, Sero couldn't hold in his gasp of surprise.
A hand slapped over his mouth to silence him though, and the other two seemed too preoccupied as Bakugou wrapped his arms around Midoriya's waist to hear him.
The hand dragged Sero away and back up the stairs, holding him hard against a soft chest. When they were finally on the second floor landing, Sero wriggled free of the hold and turned to find open air. "Hagakure?" he whispered after a moment of confusion.
She shushed him loudly, a hand slapping back over his mouth. "Shut up or they'll hear you!"
"What the hell is going on anyway?" Sero whispered back quickly, eyes searching for something to latch onto, but there was nothing. It was disconcerting that he knew Hagakure had to be naked and that she found it a good idea to walk around naked. Really, the whole situation, Midoriya, Bakugou and Hagakure made him uncomfortable. All he'd wanted was some juice.
"Nobody knows about them. This happens a lot though."
"What? Them making out in the kitchen?"
Hagakure's laugh was quiet, just a breath, and he could imagine her smothering it with a fist. "No. Them coming back after curfew and sitting in the kitchen to talk. It happens all the time. I assume the kissing happens while they're out."
"How has Mr. Aizawa caught them yet?"
Hagakure hummed. "I think he has, but whatever they're doing must be important. Or they only get caught in the kitchen, so he can't do anything about it. They come back all banged up a lot of the time too."
"That's so weird," Sero whined.
Again, she hummed. "Maybe. I think it's sweet."
Sero groaned, but didn't resist as she pulled him quietly back down the stairs. When he peaked around the corner, the pair was just breaking apart from their embrace.
Midoriya reached for the cups, handing one to Bakugou before sitting back down to hook his foot around Bakugou's calf. He smiled. "Are you ready for the test?"
"Okay, I'm going to go make some noise," Hagakure whispered in his ear before her presence was gone.
Sero swung back around, pressing his back to the wall as she trampled down the stairs.
"Shit," Bakugou whispered, and the scramble of scooting stools was loud in the quiet.
Hagakure moved passed Sero with a brush of air, and she gasped theatrically. "Oh! Midoriya, Bakugou, hi! Couldn't sleep either? What are you drinking?"
"Oh, evening, Hagakure. It's just, uh, some peppermint tea," Midoriya mumbled.
Taking a breath, Sero followed Hagakure out, rubbing at the back of his head as Hagakure prattled on near the others. He retrieved what he wanted from the fridge and hurried away, but not fast enough apparently.
"Hey, Elbows!" Bakugou called before he could make it to the stairs and he stalled, turning back to smile widely at him.
Sero really hoped he didn't look suspicious. "Yeah, Bakubro, what's up?"
"Make sure to sleep. I've not going to go easy on you in training today just because you're fucking tired. You got that?"
"Sure, sure," Sero said, waving him off as he mounted the stairs. Well, at least he could count on Bakugou's attitude to never change towards him, but man, he really did wish he could just forget about what he'd seen.