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When Bakugou agreed to let Mina have her fun with the little sticker project she started he knew doing 200 favors would be one hell of an ordeal. However, he also was aware that he could easily get stickers from several people at once. Cooking, cleaning, even study sessions were sure ways to get multiple stickers at once. It was easy. A little too easy.
Bakugou earned his first stickers because he did something nice for Mina specifically. It hadn't been difficult, considering he didn't even think about it much. He just had some free time and decided in the spur of the moment to help her feel better. It was a little difficult to wait for such chances to come up often. Especially since he didn't regularly interact with most of his classmates. He was stubborn though and he waned to earn at least some of the stickers for more personal reasons.
This predicament brought him to the conclusion he actively had to think about what some of his classmates liked or how he could help them. For some it was easier...for some it was harder. Bakugou thought Jiro would be one of the easier people to deal with. In retrospect, it was a very naive thought he realized. He only had one idea how to do Jiro a favor and it was a very obvious one at that.
It was no secret Jiro liked music . Just like mina enjoyed dancing with others, Joro liked to play with her friends. Tokoyami and Denki regularly played with her, but Bakugou hadn't bothered joining them again after the concert. He still played his drums at home from time to time when he visited his parents over the weekend. Although Bakugou knew how he could do something nice for Jirou, he was a little too prideful to simply knock at her door. So he waited. And waited... and finally his waiting paid off.
Jiro, Denki and Tokoyami sat on the couches in the common room and played around on their guitars. Playing around was the key word here, because it really was just a jam session. Especially Denki didn't have the experience yet to hear when it would be a good time to change things up. Slowly but surely they found their rhythm though. It did sound pretty good. A little one sided with three guitars, but that could be changed.
"Want me to play the drums to that?" He offered as casually as possible. Listening to them play was more motivational than Bakugou had expected.
"Yes!" Jiro grasped what felt like a one in a lifetime chance.
"Don't change the rhythm again all the time!" Denki immediately called out, though Jiro was already on her feet and Tokoyami accepted his fate as well.
"I'm not changing the rhythm." Bakugou argued while they all went up the stairs to Jiro's room.
It was too much of a hassle to bring the drums down right now, so they all piled into Jiro's already very crammed room. Tokoyami and Denki sat down on Jiro's bed, while she herself took her desk chair.
"Okay, so can we please agree that Bakugou can't change anything when he plays?" Denki begged.
"What's the point of me being here then?" Bakugou asked. He came here because he wanted to experiment with the drums.
"I think it would ben nice if we tried out different things." Jiro admitted.
"Yes. That works for me. We are not practicing for anything serious after all." Tokoyami agreed.
"There are different ways we could go about this..." Jiro said to Denki. "I think the easiest for now would be if you kept playing the same thing. You'll provide a base that fits with many things. We others can work on alternatives. Once you feel comfortable you can change things up too if you want." She was excited to have another instrument on board and while she would love to play the piano or any other instrument, she figured for now the guitar would suffice. If she was lucky she could get Bakugou to join again.
Bakugou adjusted the cymbals to his liking and hit the different drums to get used to them again. Some rhythms were basically muscle memory to him and he easily got back into the swing of things. The next one to join was Tokoyami and then Jiro.
"Keep that rhythm, Bakugou." Jiro told Bakugou, then went to address Denki. "Do you hear the tact?" She asked Denki. "One, two, three..." She counted with what Bakugou played so he could tell easier.
"When should I start?" Denki asked a little lost. Bakugou held a steady tact but it still sounded like Tokoyami and Jiro changed whatever they played. "I'll count to three and then you can join, okay?" Jiro let him know and started counting once more.
At first Denki only focused on what he had to play and where he had to put his hands, but slowly he started to hit the notes automatically and he could hear what the others played too. Jiro smiled brightly, it was nice being able to continue making music while she was at UA. Even though her parents encouraged her and always let her know she could follow her own dreams, she felt a little bad she didn't pursue a more musically inclined career. Playing with her friends made her feel like she did not have to choose between heroism and music. She could do both.
Bakugou watched Denki carefully and once he was sure he got the hang of playing his part Bakugou started experimenting.
"That sounds great!" Jiro complimented and switched her part up as well. Tokoyami steadily kept his part the same, while Kaminari struggled a little but managed not to get thrown off completely.
When they finally came to and end, Jiro caught Bakugou before he managed to escape her room. "You know, you are welcome to join us again. With a drummer we have so many more options. Maybe I can try out the keyboard or other instruments. Or you could try something else too of you want."
"I'll see." Bakugou avoided agreeing directly. He did not mind joining again, in fact he had fun himself and looked forward to another chance like this. He was just too stubborn to say so out loud.
Jiro let the blonde go. She could invite him at a later time again. In the meantime, she could try and motivate him by sticking one of her earphone stickers on his poster.
-----.....-----.....-----
One semi-personal favor achieved, several more to go. Bakugou was out of ideas already. He almost started to wish Jiro could drop a jar of stuff starting with G. Almost was the important part here. He wasn't quite desperate enough yet, as evident by his refusal to even think of the full word. Bakugou started to watch Jiro more. He paid attention to what snacks she liked to get, who she spent most of her time with, what she liked to do in her free time. She liked playing music, no surprise there. He started to feel like stalker Deku and it frustrated him to no end.
Jiro wasn't particularly interested in training and Bakugou trained more than enough by himself and with others already. He couldn't spend any more money... Bakugou felt stuck. There had to be some way to get more of those headphone stickers without being too obvious. As so often, he got a chance when he didn't expect it. Bakugou came back from a hike, when he noticed Jiro on school grounds, near a few trees. She looked away from him and kept perfectly still for a moment then walked forward to pick up her phone, which she had balanced on a wall.
Bakugou didn't have anything to do, his homework was already finished and anyone who could use his help could wait a few moments. The blonde walked towards Jiro to investigate further what she was doing. She didn't notice him at all. Instead, Jiro was focused on setting her phone up again. She had a little trouble to keep it from falling over and getting the angle to her liking it seemed.
"What are you doing?" Bakugou asked and scared her so much she jumped back and dropped her phone on the ground.
"How long have you been here?!" She demanded to know.
"I just got here."
"Oh." Jiro bent down to pick her phone up. Upon checking it over she was glad to find it intact. It had a new scratch on one corner, but the glass wasn't broken and it still turned on.
"So?" Bakugou asked.
"I was...trying to take some pictures." Jiro admitted.
"What for?"
"Um...for my parents. Or...my grandmother actually. My parents wanted to make her a photo album for her birthday."
"Okay." Bakugou said, unsure if he should leave or stay.
"I also...thought about maybe taking some pictures for a website or social media. I thought about posting some of my music- not that I'd post anything we all do together if you don't want of course! But I really like music and I don't want to give it up completely so I thought I could keep it as a hobby and by sharing it...well...maybe someone else might like it and I can make them happy."
Bakugou blinked at Jiro, processing how much she had said. "Wouldn't a video be better?"
"Oh. Ah...yes. But...I need a profile picture or something too. I'm just not very photogenic..." Jiro sighed, fiddling with her phone in her hand.
"Want me to take a picture?" Bakugou offered.
"Uhm..." Jiro blushed nervously. The reason she didn't ask anyone in the first place was because she felt so awkward about taking pictures.
"If you don't want me to, just tell me." Bakugou stated when she hesitated.
"It's just...I'm really bad with photos..."
"We'll see." Bakugou said and grabbed her at the shoulder. He looked around, checking where the sun came from and what backgrounds might look good before positioning her against the trees, a little further to the side from where she had stood before.
"Don't worry about how the pictures will turn out and just get comfortable in front of the camera. You can delete all the pictures you don't want later." Bakugou told Jiro. "Now look here." He instructed and took the first picture.
Jiro didn't feel comfortable at all and it showed. She felt stiff and her smile was tight, her hands were clenched.
"You really have to relax." Bakugou said, taking another picture, which didn't turn out better.
"It's awkward. Someone could walk by any time." She tried to explain and promptly glanced around to check if anyone was there.
"You realize there are other spots to take pictures if you are so worried about people coming by?" Bakugou started to get the feeling this would take much longer than anticipated.
"I thought the trees were a good background. I couldn't think of a better spot that's not too far. Where would you go?"
"If you go up the mountains you'll most likely won't meet anyone. UA's forest in the east is closer though and usually there's no one there either around this time."
"Are there any good spots you think?" Jiro asked. She didn't mind to go somewhere else, but she never planned on turning this into a big thing.
Bakugou just shrugged. "Depends on what you are looking for."
"Okay. I guess we can check it out if you don't mind." Jiro decided. They walked to the forest and Jiro realized she only went there once before for training and there were several parts of the forest she still hadn't seen. It was also bigger than she remembered. Bakugou led her to a clearing with some trees and rocks. It was a beautiful place and the light seemed just right. There were many options on where to stand and what to use as a background.
"So...where should I stand?" She asked, her insecurity returning.
"Wherever you want." Bakugou had to hold back a roll of his eyes. Jiro still didn't look relaxed. "Okay. Let's try something different first." He sighed. "This is what some photographers do with little kids, but whatever. Let's take stupid pictures first."
"Stupid pictures?" Jiro asked confused.
"Yeah. Just grimace. Have fun. Wave your arms. Loosen up. That kind of stuff."
"Did you have to do that as a kid?" Jiro couldn't help but ask curiously.
"My parents are designers. What do you think?"
"You'll have to show me pictures sometime!" Jiro said now a spark of mischief in her eyes. She would definitely tell Mina, Sero and Kaminari.
"Dream on." Bakugou shot her down immediately.
"Maybe Midoriya could show us..." Jiro thought out loud.
"Do you want me to drop your phone or explode it? Because I'm willing to do both." Bakugou glared.
"Okay, okay. Sorry." Jiro laughed a little. "I just can't imagine you peacefully smiling at a camera." She chuckled at the thought of little Bakugou glaring at a poor photographer.
At least the teasing had loosened Jiro up a little. Bakugou work with that and build up on that. "Stand over there by the rocks and jump up."
"You really want to do these silly pictures."
"Yes. Now get to it. I don't want to stand here all day."
Jiro jumped. Bakugou looked at her unimpressed. "Don't fucking hold your arms in front of you! Raise them up in the air!" He yelled at her.
Jiro tried again and Bakugou sighed, then an idea struck him. "Hey, I'll take pictures on my phone. We'll use yours to play music." Bakugou handed Jiro her phone and let her scroll through her music. If that didn't help her loosen up he didn't know what would.
Turned out the music alone did not help. Bakugou regretted ever stepping a foot in Jiro's direction. He should have just went straight to the dorms and ignored her. "Now jump again!" He called over to her. The jump was a little better but she still did not look as if she enjoyed herself. "What the fuck is your problem?!"
"Your yelling makes me really uncomfortable!" Jiro yelled back. Oh fuck. Okay. Deep breath. Why did this feel like an advanced therapy class? He wasn't ready for advanced classes but now he started this shit show and he could not give up.
Fine. There was one more thing he could try. "Jump!" He said, this time jumping up himself, raising his arms high. That seemed to do the trick.
Jiro watched Bakugou jump. At first she jumped a little tentatively, but Bakugou didn't stop jumping. He jumped with his legs straight jumped with his legs bent backwards, legs forward...and Jiro had to laugh at how ridiculous the situation was.
"That's it! Turn around!" Bakugou instructed. The music motivated to dance and jumping around like silly kids was basically a form of dancing. A terrible form, but still.
"Okay, now stand like a starfish!" Bakugou called over, finally holding the phone at her to take a picture. "Strike a pose!"
That made Jiro fumble a little. Suddenly she became all too aware of the phone pointed at her. "Don't think! Just any pose. Right arm up!" Bakugou called. "Left arm up!" Bakugou continued instructing her to do poses that looked pretty random but with the music still blasting away and her focused on moving her body she at least didn't loose the smile on her face. Bakugou still hadn't managed to take a decent photo, most of them were blurry, but Jiro had lost her hesitance and stiffness.
"Ready for some final photos?" Bakugou asked.
"Umm..."
"Don't start fucking overthinking again." Bakugou groaned.
"Sorry. Sorry. Yeah." She brushed her hair out of her face a little and Bakugou approached to hold the screen towards her so she could fix her wild hair as best as possible without a brush.
The grass where she had stood was trampled down quite a lot so Bakugou made her move to some other rocks. If there was one thing he learned by now it was that he had to go in small steps. "Lean against the rock and look into the distance." He said. He wasn't sure if this would be a good photo to send her grandmother, but it might be all right for a website or social media.
He took several photos of her looking away from the camera, some even of her back turned towards the camera. He had her lean on or touch some rocks and trees so she wouldn't have to worry as much about posing and her placement of arms and legs. The longer they took pictures, the more Jiro started enjoying it. Bakugou even started to call out encouraging words. "Yeah, like that." or "Now you fucking got it." coming from Bakugou meant a lot to her.
Finally, at the end of their photo session, Bakugou could take some close-ups. He even got her to smile into the camera relaxed, with a sparkle in her eyes. He had to move closer, because zooming in with his phone would ruin the quality, but she no longer minded. Bakugou hadn't judged her the entire time. Or, he had, but he also acknowledged her improvements.
"Here. Let me know if you want me to take more." Bakugou said, handing her his phone. "My battery is close to dying though." He warned.
"We should have brought Kaminari." She joked, swiping through the pictures.
"Wow..." She said. The pictures looked so much better than she expected. The first ones were terrible, but they had their own charm because despite being blurry, most showed her enjoying herself.
"Next time you want to get photos you should get a better camera and take some instruments with you." Bakugou said without looking at her.
"Will you take pictures again for me?" She asked.
"I'll think about it." There was no need for promises now. He made a move to leave, but Jiro grabbed his arm.
"We should take at least one photo together." She said and held the camera out to take a selfie.
"Oh hell no!" He protested.
"What? I have to see if you can follow your own advice! Come on, one smile." She said.
"No." Bakugou tried to shrug free. She'd just show everyone else and he'd never hear the end of it. The thought alone was terrifying.
Unfortunately he couldn't shake her off completely and she managed to snap a blurry picture with him looking away grumpily. She relented for now, accepting it would be the best she could get alone. She was fairly confident she could get a decent picture of the blonde with the help of their classmates though.
As soon as they got back to the dorms Bakugou hid away in his room. Much to his dismay the peace did not last forever. He had to go down again eventually and as soon as he did he was ambushed by the so called Bakusquad, several other grinning at his misery. They begged him to take photos of them and teased him about childhood photos they wanted to see. Midoriya wisely kept his distance before he got roped into something that could result in him getting exploded.
The only thing worth the teasing was that Jiro appeared very happy and rewarded him with one of her headphone stickers in thanks for his help.
-----.....-----.....-----
It had to be Karma. Bakugou had no other explanation why Jiro would ask him of all people for dating advice with Yaoyorozu. Over the time spend practicing together and his ridiculous attempts to help her be more comfortable with standing in front of a camera they had grown steadily closer. It also helped that Bakugou didn't hate her before. He respected her work ethic on things she felt passionate about.
Somehow Jiro had grown more and more confident in her interacting with Bakugou. She knew early on the blonde was more bark than bite, but the more time they spend together the more she also got to see a glimpse into his softer side. All this led them to Bakugou's current misery. Bakugou had made the mistake to stay behind in Jiro's room after Kaminari and Tokoyami rushed out after practice because Sero invited them to watch a movie.
"Why are you asking me of all people?" He asked Jiro. "Why don't you talk about this with Hagakure? Or Ochako? I'm pretty sure even Todoroki noticed her crush on Deku."
"Yes, and you like Kirishima."
Bakugou wanted to say something and he opened his moth, then closed it again tiredly. "So?" He finally got out.
"So I don't know...what do you think I should do?"
Bakugou hated this. "I don't care." He muttered trying to discourage her. When he looked at her he gave in. " Just ask her out and get it over with. Can I go now?"
"Sure." Jiro gave up. Great. Now Bakugou felt like an asshole. It obviously had taken Jiro quite some effort to speak up about this.
"I have no idea what you want from me." Bakugou said, staying seated.
"I don't know either, but you somehow got Ojiro and Hagakure together."
"You want me to shove you in a room till you come out married?"
"NO!"
Bakugou couldn't help but smirk at Jiro's panicked look.
"It's just... even if I would ask her out on a date, I don't know how or where." Jiro said.
"You don't have to ask her out." Bakugou pointed out.
"Yes, but it's really weird to just ask her to be my girlfriend. It feels like a date would make it clearer there is more I want from our relationship than just friendship." She blushed once her brain caught on to how her words could be interpreted. She didn't even like her explanation but Bakugou nodded and seemed to understand either way.
"It's not like I grew up poor. I will even admit my parents are well off compared to others, but it's nothing compared to Momo's family. I don't know what I could offer to impress her."
"I don't think you have to offer any special date locations." Bakugou said, finally giving some semi useful advice. Not that it helped Jiro much though.
"I can't just ask her to have tea with me at the dorms. That's...that would be weird. I feel like if we are somewhere else it's easier to get to know each other differently. I don't want to ruin the friendship we have now but if we realized things don't work out we could associate the memories of a failed date to a place we don't have to be in every day."
That was a fairly good point Bakugou had to admit. "Ojiro and Hagakure went out to eat."
"Okay...but what restaurant would be good?" Jiro asked, happier now that Bakugou seemed to take her more serious.
"You don't have to take her to some fancy place. As you pointed out both of you have enough money to go wherever. If she wanted to go somewhere expensive she could go any time. If this is supposed to be a date where you can talk the only thing that matters is that you don't go to see a movie or concert right away. Just go for a walk to talk or whatever."
"Are you saying this because you like hiking?" Jiro said with a cheeky glint in her eye.
"Fuck you. I was trying to be helpful!" Bakugou hissed.
"You were!" Jiro quickly assured. "Thank you. I think you have a point."
"You can think about it some more. I don't think she'll hate you or turn you down though."
"Thank you." Jiro said, there was still so much unclear in her head but it felt like their talk came to an end and she had to sort through her thoughts first.
"If I ask Momo out, will you ask out Kirishima?" She asked. Wide, red eyes looked at her before they narrowed annoyed.
"Fuck off. I don't make deals like that."
"Why don't you want to be with him? You clearly are interested in one another." Bakugou grimaced. He hated how obvious he was.
"He deserves someone better." Bakugou bitterly replied.
"I don't think so. I mean, I don't think you are bad. I'm sure you'll be very nice to him and you'll be good for one another. He also doesn't want anyone else." Jiro said.
Bakugou looked away, jaw clenched and thoughts racing. "Good luck with Momo." Was the only thing he said before getting up and walking out of the room.
When Bakugou found a new headphone sticker on his poster later that day he wasn't sure if it was as a thanks for practicing, to reward him for his words or as a form of encouragement. Probably all three.