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Aoyama hoped to be alone when he entered the gym for some extra training after school. Much to his dismay someone else was there already. He should have expected it. Bakugou was usually training at this hour. The explosive blonde stopped shooting, small precise explosions the moment he noticed Aoyama.
"Hi!" Aoyama made an effort to greet the other friendly.
Bakugou gave a court nod to show he heard the other.
"Sorry, if you need the space I can go..." Aoyama apologized for lack of anything better to say. He didn't feel too comfortable training with someone else here, especially if he wanted to work on improving his weak points. Perhaps he wouldn't mind as much if it weren't Bakugou, since he was so hard working and determined to improve all the time. His hard work paid off and he never hesitated to let it be known how much he disliked it if others didn't give it their best.
"Don't bother." Bakugou's voice tore Aoyama from his thoughts.
"What?" He asked surprised.
"You went through the trouble of asking to use the gym after classes, right? You got a permit and everything. That was what you wanted to talk to Aizawa about after class today, right?"
"Ah, yes..." Aoyama was a little surprised how... not calm but...friendly? Did Bakugou really appear friendly?! Wow. Or was he just tired out from training?
Bakugou turned around again and went back to shooting off small explosions.
Aoyama used the time to warm up. He stretched forwards, sideways and backwards. He did jumping jacks and some sit-ups. He did the plank for a while and push-ups. He went into a bridge position and continued with any other stretch position he knew until he sat on the ground and settled into a forwards stretch with his head against his knees. This was as small as he could make himself while still looking like he did something sportive.
"Hey." Bakugou's voice suddenly sounded next to him. "You can't honestly have come here just to stretch. You could have done that in your room."
"Oh...I was just warming up." Aoyama hastily explained.
"Yeah right. You've been warming up forever. If you wanted to be here alone you could have just said so."
"What? No, it's fine! You were here first, anyways."
Bakugou looked at Aoyama, who was still bending forward. He considered his next words carefully. "Well. I'm done with training. Do you want my help with anything or do you want me to go?"
Aoyama was so surprised it took him a while to find his words. "Help me?" He asked, sitting back upright. Was he dreaming?
"Look, I'm not going to repeat myself. If you want me to leave I will."
"You don't have to stay here. I'm not really sure how you could help me anyways." Aoyama said.
"Well...what did you want to work on?"
"I'm not really sure." Aoyama admitted.
"You are not sure? You must have had something in mind." Bakugou frowned.
"Well, yes. But I'm not really sure how you could help with me improving my stamina."
"Stretching won't really help much with that. I can tell you that much." Bakugou couldn't believe Aoyama was wasting so much time.
"I mean stamina regarding my quirk. I always get sick after a while, so I thought I'd just try and use it a little more."
"Hmmm...Have you seen a doctor about this before? It can be dangerous to overuse your quirk. If I overuse mine my arms hurt. If I'd take it too far I could tear something. Your quirk is located in your stomach area, so you probably should be even more careful."
Aoyama could only stare. Was this an imposter? He never spent much time with Bakugou before, but he never thought he'd be so docile and offer help. "You can overuse your quirk?" Aoyama blurted out.
"Of course. It's just like with everything else. If you study for a long time you can't concentrate anymore after a while. If you run too much you get tired." Bakugou said as if he didn't push himself day in and day out.
"Doctors didn't really tell me much, except to be careful and not to overdo it too much. But that's not getting me anywhere." Aoyama let his shoulders droop.
Bakugou thought for a while before he asked "Have you ever tried of using your quirk for a very short amount of time? Or to make the radius of your beam smaller somehow?"
"All Might and Aizawa suggested it once but I couldn't do it." Aoyama sighed.
"Well, then that's something you can work on. What's easier? Making it smaller or shorter?" Bakugou asked. Was he seriously trying to help him? Aoyama could barely believe it.
"I guess shooting it for a shorter amount of time."
"Okay. Get up and I can stop the time." Bakugou offered and pulled his phone from his pocket.
Aoyama got into position, a good distance away from the other blonde. "Okay!" He warned Bakugou so he would be ready to press the button when he shot out his laser as short a time as he could.
"What the hell." He heard Bakugou from the side. "You can't stop it sooner?!"
"It's the shortest I can manage! I told you I suck at this." Aoyama said with a downfallen expression.
"Well fuck this." Bakugou cursed. "What do you do to make it stop?"
"I...concentrate?"
"And you can't concentrate sooner? There must be something physical you have to do too?" Bakugou suggested, unwilling to give up. If he started helping someone they better succeed. The so called and self declared Bakusquad knew this far too well.
"I tighten my stomach muscles?" Aoyama said, though it came out more as a question.
"Can you do that without your quirk?" Bakugou ordered.
"Do what?"
"Tighten your muscles. Seriously. You're not stupid. If you train your stomach muscles you might be able to stop your quirk faster." Bakugou explained.
"Oh! That makes sense. I could try." Aoyama said and stood moving his stomach. He felt like an idiot, exaggerating the motion so much. But he didn't really know what else to do.
"I can't watch this." Bakugou said to his horror. This was exactly what he had feared. Embarrassing himself in front of the other blonde. "Let's start somewhere else. Let's start with your breathing. When you breath out your stomach goes in. If you breath out very fast you're stomach should tense up. See if it works." Bakugou said and critically watched Aoyama breath in and out slowly at first and then fast.
The moment Aoyama huffed out a short breath through his nose, his stomach tightened up and his eyes got wide. He immediately turned around and activated his quirk. Huffing out a short breath his quirk stopped much faster than before. He turned around to see Bakugou with a smug grin on his face. "Now let me time it!" he said, holding up his phone.
Bakugou watched Aoyama for quite some time until he suggested the other to stop.
"You don't want to train too much now. It seems training like this is less taxing on your body than when you have your quirk out for longer, but you can work on that some other time." Aoyama could barely believe Bakugou told him to stop training.
"Usually you tell people to continue training." He noted.
"Because they are lazy as fuck and I know they can do better. You could seriously hurt yourself and I have no interested to have you puking your fucking guts out while I'm here."
Despite Bakugous rough words and crude language choice Aoyama was pleasantly surprised by how much Bakugou had helped him. They walked back to the dorms together in silence, but Aoyama felt closer to the other than he had before. That evening he took off a glittery star sticker from one of his sheets and stuck it on Bakugou's poster for god behavior.
-----.....-----......-----
Bakugou was heading up the stairs when he came back from his weekly therapy session, when he saw a very sparkly blonde heading down from above. What happened next happened as if in slow motion for both of them. Bakugou said Aoyama stumbling and falling forwards. The big jar he carried in his arms slipped out of his grasp while he desperately tried to find his footing again. Aoyama fell forward, bracing himself with his arms, the jar crashed to the ground. The lid popped open and a cloud of glitter exploded onto the floor, onto the walls, onto Aoyama and on Bakugou's pants and shirt.
Bakugou stood frozen on the stairs. Aoyama did not move. The shorter blonde was in shock. A million thoughts crossed his mind. His knees hurt. The floor was covered in glitter. It was a big mess to clean up. Bakugou stood right in front of him. His angriest, most explosive and inpatient classmate stood in front of him. He braced himself for the onset of yelling. He wouldn't be surprised if Bakugou aggressively grabbed his shirt and pulled him up to shake the life out of him.
None of that happened. Instead, Aoyama noticed a hand, calmly waiting close to his head, but still a fair distance away.
"You okay?" Bakugou asked and only then did Aoyama realize Bakugou wanted to help him up. He hesitantly reached for Bakugou's hand and promptly was yanked up.
"The hell are you planning on doing with this shit ton of glitter?" Bakugou asked disapprovingly.
"Sorry! I did not mean to fall!"
"I sure hope so! You'd be a fucking idiot if you planned doing that."
"I'll clean it up. You can give me your things to wash too."
"It's fine."
Aoyama blinked. Did he hear correctly? "What?"
"Don't bother. I can wash my own things." Ah. Yes. That sounded much more like Bakugou. "Don't move. You're covered head to toe in glitter. I'll get a vacuum cleaner." Bakugou said. Before Aoyama could respond, Bakugou stripped his shirt, pants and socks off, leaving him in nothing but his underwear.
Aoayama could only stare. He had seen Bakugou change plenty of times. In the locker rooms, in the baths...he had seen the other naked before! Apparently the context of Bakugou stripping in front of him without anyone else present changed his feeling a lot, because suddenly he felt his face heat up. It wasn't his fault Bakugou was so attractive.
Bakugou was gone before he uttered a single word so all there was left for him to do was to wait.
"BAKUGOU! It is not appropriate to walk around like this in the dorms! This may be the boys side, but please refrain from running around undressed like this and put on some clothes!" Aoyama could hear Ida yell. Yikes. Now he felt bad.
Bakugou returned fairly fast with a vacuum cleaner and a plastic bag, but not any more dressed than he had left.
"You didn't get clothes?" Aoyama asked, moving to get up.
"They'd just get glittery. And don't get up!" Bakugou said, successfully getting Aoyama to shrink back to the ground.
"Put my clothes in here." Bakugou instructed, holding the bag wide open. "And try not to make the glitter touch the outside of the bag."
"Should I take my clothes off too?"
"Yeah. But not yet. Let me try and vacuum some off you first." Bakugou said and went to plug the cable in. He vacuumed Aoyama as best as he could, making the blonde turn around until he deemed the result acceptable.
While Aoyama took off his clothes, Bakugou started to vacuum the walls and carpet.
"Thank you. I can finish now." Aoyama said, reaching to take the vacuum cleaner from Bakugou. Bakugou handed the machine over without complaints, simply grabbed the bag to take his clothed to get washed. Only when Bakugou left did Aoyama register that his own clothes were in there as well.
As soon as Aoyama was done with vacuuming he wanted to go and find Bakugou, only to almost run into the other when he went around the corner.
"If you drop that thing again, I will not help you clean up a second time." Bakugou warned.
"Sorry! I was just about to look for you."
"Why?"
"My clothes..."
"I put them in the washer."
"Oh...thanks."
Bakugou made a grunting sound that Aoyama liked to interpret as a 'you're welcome'.
"So. What were you planning with that thing anyway?" Bakugou nodded to the big jar, that had less than a quarter of what was inside before. "Why do you even have so much fucking glitter?!"
"Glitter is trés magnifique!" Aoyama said, hugging the glass closer. "The others wanted to do makeup downstairs and I told them I had glitter in my room."
"You seriously want to put that stuff on your skin?"
"It's special, biodegradable glitter. It's safe to use. It's made to wear for festivals and so on. Why don't you come downstairs?"
"I'd rather not. I've had enough glitter for...the rest of my life."
"Maybe it will help to associate it with something better? A life without glitter is such a sad life! It's like when you fall from a horse. When you fall you get up again right away, so you won't become scared."
"Did you imply I'm scared of glitter?" Bakugou asked incredulously.
"I'll go get changed and meet you downstairs!" Aoyama said and left Bakugou standing in the hallway. Dumbfounded Bakugou did turn around to head to the common room. He could easily leave again if everyone got too stupid. He could see Hagakure- well he couldn't see her. But he could see her clothes and he could see Ochako, Tsuyu, Jirou, Momo and Mina sitting on the couches with make up surrounding them.
"Bakugou! Did you see Aoyama by chance? He wanted to get-"
"A shitload of glitter? I know." Bakugou interrupted Oachako.
"Oh. How do you know?"
"Because I saw him. Idiot spilled the glass all over the place. Had to clean it up."
"Oh my god. Does he need any help?"
"He'll come down soon." Bakugou said and sat down. Suddenly he realized girls surrounded him and he was the only guy. And the only guy that apparently would join was Aoyama. Oh fuck. What had he gotten himself into?
"Is anyone else joining your little paining session?" Bakugou asked.
"Not that we know of." Momo answered him.
"But everyone's welcome!" Mina supplied. "I wrote into our group chat, but Kiri and Kami are playing video games with Sero."
"What are you doing here Bakugou?" Tsuyu said not unkindly, but in a tone that showed she clearly expected him to be the last person to sit down with them.
"Aoyama asked me to." He begrudgingly admitted.
"It's great you are here though! You'll let us do your make up right?" Mina asked, eyes shining.
Before Bakugou could protest, Aoyama came running towards them.
"Pardon mes mademoiselles!"
Bakugou had half a mind to ask who the fuck he was calling mademoiselle, but decided it wasn't worth it. He resigned himself to hell and regretted every life decision he had made in the past half hour.
"That is so much more glitter than I expected." Jirou said when she looked at the big glass Aoyama put down on the low coffee table.
"You should have seen how much there was before he dumped it in the hallway." Bakugou couldn't help but say.
"Are you sure we can use it?" Ochako asked.
"Mais oui! I can order more any time. I've had this for a while. I never could share it with friends, but I'm sure it's more fun than using it alone." Aoyama said.
Bakugou's mind blanked out for a moment because were they still talking about glitter?
"How do we apply this?" Tsuyu asked pointing at the glitter.
"It's best if you put on some primer or cream on first." Aoyama explained.
" Tsu's makeup is pretty much done. I thought of adding some green eye shadow, what do you think?" Jirou asked.
"Okay." Tsuyu agreed.
"Oachako and I will help you Toru." Momo said.
"So, what about you two?" Mina asked holding up an eyeliner like a weapon.
"If you are getting anywhere near me with that. I'll blow you up." Bakugou threatened, as she expected. "Don't tell me you all started with eyeliner. You have to start with a primer or something!"
"Eh?" Seven pears of surprised eyes looked at Bakugou.
"You know how to use make up?" Jirou asked.
"Of course."
"Show us!" Mina immediately challenged.
"I use eyeliner when I wear my hero suit. Don't tell me you never noticed." He huffed, but got up to get a better look at the different products they had. He selected a few and settled down on the ground so he could look into a mirror they set up.
Aoyama, you can go ahead and do your makeup too if you like." Momo encouraged, noticing Aoyama became quieter.
"Ah...I'm actually not that good at putting on make-up. Glitter is easier." He admitted.
"Come here." Bakugou instructed after wiping his face off with a wipe. He handed the packet to Aoyama. "Get your face clean first." He instructed and took notice of Mina pulling her phone out, no doubt recording or taking pictures.
He ignored her in favor of concentrating on Aoyama.
"You can use this." Jirou suggested, offering her own foundation, which matched Aoyamas pale skin tone pretty well.
"You want any special colors for your eye shadow?" Bakugou eventually asked.
"Choose blues!" Mina immediately suggested.
"I think a bright lilac tone like this would look good too." Momo pointed to the pallet.
Without double checking with Aoyama, Bakugou picked up some power with a brush.
"How do you know so much about makeup?" Aoyama asked the blonde curiously.
"Don't move." Bakugou immediately corrected him by grabbing his chin. "My mom's a model."
"Oh, yeah! I keep forgetting that." Mina admitted.
"There." Bakugou finally let go of Aoyama. "Now put on your glitter, or whatever." He said.
"Oh no! I want to see you do your make up too!" Aoyama said.
"Don't you all have something better to do?" Bakugou muttered but reached for the primer.
"Well, we all are pretty much done." Mina shrugged. "Plus, it's not every time we get to see you do this."
"It takes a shit load of time. I have better things to do."
The girls started applying the glitter and eventually Aoyama joined them, because it did take Bakugou a while to blend things the way he wanted and he was very particular about his eyeliner too.
"Would you like some golden and orange glitter? I think it would go much better with your eye shadow." Aoyama offered, motioning to the glitter that shimmered in silvery, blue and lilac tones. It matched, Jirous and Momo's make up best, but it also looked great on the others. Hagakure did not only wear the glitter in her face, but also her arms and décolleté.
"No more glitter!" Bakugou protested.
"But you have to put at least a little on now!" Mina protested and Hagakure jumped over to him with the jar. Just as Hagakure added the final touches, more people could be heard entering the common room.
"Oh wow!" Sero called.
" Holy shit you look like drag queens! Why are you all sparkling?!" Kaminari asked. Mina had sent pictures, but seeing them in person was something else.
"It's called glitter mon ami." Aoyama said.
"All that's missing is a dress." Sero added with a grin.
"Oh yeah? Maybe you want to try too?" Bakugou bit out. He was fuming. The idea of them making fun of him made his nerves tingle already. But seeing them laughing right in front of him made his blood boil.
"Hey, no! You look great!" Kaminari assured.
"Yeah. We didn't mean anything bad by it." Sero assured.
"Would you like to try?" Hagakure offered to diffuse the situation?
"A dress?" Sero asked unsure.
"No. Make up of course!" Mina rolled her eyes.
"And glitter!" Aoyama added.
If Bakugou had to hear the word glitter one more time he might explode. He already saw glitter everywhere. It clung to everyone's clothes. Luckily, Kirishima was there to calm him down while Kaminari and Sero were forced to sit down and get their faces drowned in tiny, glittery particles.
"It...it really looks good on you." Kirishima complimented Bakugou. "Who did it?"
"Me."
"You did that yourself?!"
"He also did mine." Aoyama said, appearing out of nowhere next to them. "I'm sure you'd look good with red eye shadow."
"You think so?" Kirishima asked a little unsure. He glanced at Bakugou.
"Come on." Bakugou sighed. "You can't be the only one in the squad with a clean face." The blonde pulled Kirishima to the couch. Slowly, layers of foundation and powder covered up Kirishima’s blush. Bakugou carefully applied eyeliner and held his breath. His hand was shaking just slightly, but he managed to steady it enough for the lines to turn out decent.
They all ended up taking a series of pictures and glitter everywhere. Somehow the glitter found it's way onto their clothes, the coffee table, the couch, the floor...it was everywhere. When Bakugou noticed a glittery star sticker on his poster at the end of the day, he wasn't sure whether to be happy, or if he should have an aneurysm. He was more than done with the word starting with a 'g'.
-----.....-----.....-----.....-----
Aoyama felt nauseous and lightheaded. He barely made it to the couch at the dorms before collapsing onto the furniture. He definitely overdid it in training. His stomach hurt and he just wanted to cry. The common room was empty, since everyone else had gone home or hung out together somewhere else. Bile build up in his throat and he couldn't hold back. He barely managed to somewhat lean over the couch. The bile burned in his throat and tears escaped his eyes. He already threw up back at the gym before deciding he would risk dragging himself back to the dorms to grab some anti-nausea medicine in his room.
There was no way he would make it all the way up to his room. He didn't even manage to miss the couch entirely. That definitely would be a pain to clean up. He vaguely thought about calling someone for help, but he felt so disgusting he did not want anyone else to deal with his mess.
"Hey."
Oh god. Was he hearing voices now?
"Hey! Are you alright?" Somehow the familiar voice sounded more concerned, which did not make much sense. That voice usually did not sound concerned.
"Fucking hell. Wait here." Bakugou ordered. That sounded much more like him.
Aoyama had no idea how he was supposed to leave, yet alone get up or move, so he stayed silently crying in agony. Maybe Bakugou would call Aizawa. He really did not want to bother their teacher with this. It was embarrassing enough Bakugou saw him.
"Can you get up?" Aoyama heard Bakugou ask and he glanced up at the blonde who stood, looking down at him, with a bucket in one hand and a bunch of other things in the other.
All Aoyama could manage was a low groan.
"Great." Bakugou sighed, pushing Aoyama up, which made the other whine even more.
"Quit whining!" Bakugou said and shoved a hot water bottle to Aoyama's stomach. He handed him a wet wipe to clean his face and used a different towel to wipe down a strand of Aoyama's hair. Bakugou grimaced in disgust, but did not say anything.
Once Aoyama cleaned his face he took the towel and handed him a bottle of water to drink from.
"Rinse your mouth." Bakugou said, holding the bucket under Aoyama's chin.
Once Aoyama rinsed his mouth with water, Bakugou offered him some mouth wash.
"Felling any better?" He asked.
"Y-yeah. Thanks." Aoyama muttered. The fresh taste in his mouth was a big improvement and helped a lot to make him feel better.
"Do you want to go to your room?" Bakugou asked.
Aoyama shook his head. "I'll throw up again." He said with teary eyes.
"If you got any more in your stomach, that would be impressive." Bakugou said, eying the mess on the floor.
"Sorry for all this." Aoyama apologized.
"Just stay there." Bakugou said and left with the bucket and mouthwash. He returned with the bucket filled with some soapy water as well as some paper towels.
"Y-you don't have to do that." Aoyama said when he realized what Bakugou was about to do.
"I'm not letting this shit soak more into the cushions than it already has. Also, it smells. So shut up and sit back." Bakugou snapped at him.
Aoyama did as he was told and leaned back, closing his eyes. He listened to Bakugou clean up and curse in disgust at times. Once Bakugou commanded him to move a little, so he could clean the spot on the couch cushions better, so Aoyama shifted to the side. Luckily he started to feel better.
Bakugou left to wash out the rags and change the water, then returned to go over the spot once more, just in case. He really did do a good and thorough job at cleaning everything up.
"Thank you." Aoyama said.
"What happened? This is nothing contagious, is it?" Bakugou asked.
"No. No...I....I trained too much..." Aoyama admitted.
"That's stupid!" Bakugou said.
"You train all the time." Aoyama tried to defend himself.
"Yeah, but I'm used to it! If you train too hard or much, especially when you are not used to it, you can seriously fuck yourself up! Have you ever gotten your stomach checked? What will you do if your intestines suddenly burst?!"
Aoyama paled at the thought alone. That was exactly what his stomach sometimes felt like.
"I go to the Doctors regularly." Aoyama said. "I just don't want to fall behind. Everyone else has their great quirks, and I can't even use mine without a belt."
"And if you keep this shit up, even a fucking belt won't help you anymore." Bakugou sounded harsh, but Aoyama knew he was right.
"Deku can't use his quirk either. I'm sure there are many others who struggle too. If I use my quirk too much, my arms hurt. Next time you want to train, ask someone to go with you." Bakugou said.
"Midoriya got pretty good at handling his though." Aoyama said before he could think twice about it.
"Hugh?"
"Nothing!" Aoyama hurried to say. "Thanks for cleaning up. And brining me this..." Aoyama said, motioning to the hot water bottle instead.
"Whatever. You need something else?" Bakugou asked and Aoyama shook his head.
Bakugou might be rough, but he did more than enough. He really helped him feel better. A few hours later, Aoyama finally managed to get up. The first thing he did was to get his sticker set and add a sparkling, glittering star to Bakugou's poster for good deeds.