Chapter Text
“Don’t you guys think Bakugou and Todoroki kinda look nice together?”
That had been such a random, such a sudden comment that Kirishima, Ashido and Sero only flabbergasted looked at Kaminari, their pens and mechanical pencils frozen-stiff on top of whatever they had been scribbling on their notebooks at the time.
“What?” blurted out Sero after a long stretch of silence. An eyebrow slightly arched in both confusion and surprise, he asked, “Kaminari, did you fry your brain again? If you need a break from studying, go get your rest now before the damages become permanent.”
“I thought my brain was getting all scrambled from the cramming but I see you’ve got it waaaay worse than me,” noted Ashido, her black-tinged eyes squinting as she closely observed what she now considered a lost cause.
“Where did that one come from?” asked Kirishima, only now able to properly speak after the massive blow he had taken from that unsolicited comment. He looked around the communal area of their dorm, searched the surface of the dining table where they had set camp to burn the midnight oil (though it was actually only 7 PM) studying for the upcoming exams, even peeked outside through the nearest window. But Kirishima never found any object, any imagery that could have made Kaminari say something like that out of the blue.
“No, it’s kinda like…” started Kaminari, slowly leaning back on his seat while his eyes gravitated upwards towards the ceiling. He leisurely twirled his mechanical pencil on his fingers as he tried to put his thoughts into words. “I was over here, drowning in my sadness over having been born an idiot and thinking, man, Bakugou sure is lucky for being a natural at everything he does, how can I be more like him? And then I suddenly remember that, damn, Todoroki is the same too! They’re both smart. Their Quirks are strong. Their personalities suck, though in different kinds of ways. They’re kinda cool. Handsome too, even a guy like me can tell. They excel in anything they do yet they screw up at things we can easily do, like getting our provisional hero licences.”
“Bakugou would have killed you if he had heard that one…” softly mumbled Ashido under her breath, inwardly cringing just at the thought of that hellish scenario.
“All in all, they make a good pair!” said Kaminari, his body suddenly jolting so he could straighten his sitting position. He dropped the mechanical pencil on the table and clenched his fist tight. “They look nice together! They look so nice together, actually, that if they suddenly told us they were dating or something, I’d be totally like, of course you are!”
“Kaminari, Bakugou is constantly yelling and flipping out on Todoroki,” pointed out Sero, now really starting to get worried about his pal’s mental stability. “He even says all the time that he isn’t friends with Todoroki whenever someone comments on the two of them.”
“Todoroki ignores Bakugou whenever he comes bitching at him about something 9 times out of 10,” added Kirishima, leaning himself over the table so he could slap his hand on Kaminari’s forehead and check if he had a high fever or something. His body temperature was as normal as it could get.
“They always come back all beaten up from their supplementary classes and I’m pretty sure it’s because Bakugou is constantly picking a fight with Todoroki or refusing to partner up with him when told to do so,” noted Ashido, pushing a bag of chips and a can of soda towards Kaminari. Maybe his problem was a lack of sugar or salt in his bloodstream. Hadn’t she recently read in the textbook somewhere that the brain fed on glucose or something along those lines? For good measure, she also made a package of chocolate-coated cookies slid over the table towards Kaminari’s way.
“EXACTLY!!” yelped Kaminari in excitement, readily grabbing the can of soda. He popped it open and gave a good couple of swings, nearly downing half of its contents in one go. With a satisfied sigh, he slammed the soda can on top of the table.
Exactly, what…?, inwardly sighed Sero, Kirishima and Ashido, only getting more and more confused. Either Kaminari was so tired from studying that he was becoming delusional or they had been missing some sort of detail that Kaminari, for some ridiculous reason, had caught on already.
“Geez, you guys suck at reading between the lines,” snorted Kaminari with a mocking tone, shaking his head just the slightest in disappointment to the lost semblances in his friend’s faces. He took one more sip to the soda can and then smugly cleared his throat. “Allow me to debunk everything you’ve said~ Bakugou is constantly yelling and flipping out on everyone, no matter who that person is. Now let’s make a comparison. Kirishima, how many times has he blown up with you while flipping out on you?”
“Ugh, too many times to count…” groaned Kirishima, his shoulders slumping down in defeat. They were close friends, that Kirishima was sure of, but it still didn’t stop Bakugou from attempting to explode with him when rubbed the wrong way.
“Right. Apart from official matches and Quirk practice exercises, I’ve never seen Bakugou violently going off on Todoroki, no matter how much he’s yelling at him,” said Kaminari with a couple of nods of his head, seemingly pleased with Kirishima’s reply. “Yeah, he might have given a yank here and there, but no explosions whatsoever~ And I mean, if you’re into someone and everyone else around you is constantly friend-zoning you with that person, you’d eventually start barking back in retaliation, right? Especially if you’re as prickly as our Kacchan~”
“Now that you mention it…” muttered Sero as his brain delved into deeper thoughts. He tried to look back at everything that had happened since they started high school but he couldn’t recall a single instance where Bakugou had tried to blow up with Todoroki, even though he was pretty sure everyone else in their class and class B had been a victim of it at some point.
“And it’s not like Todoroki is ignoring Bakugou’s bitching, he just doesn’t mind it when he’s the one doing it,” continued Kaminari, moving on Kirishima’s argument. “I’m not that familiar with Endeavor, but he and Bakugou have the same type of vibes, right? At least as far as that ‘I’ll become the number one no matter what’ mentality of his goes. Todoroki kinda has some daddy issues about that, right? So why doesn’t he feel bothered by Bakugou? Why doesn’t he ever retaliate whenever Bakugou comes bitching at him? It’s because it’s Bakugou and since it’s Bakugou, it’s not really bitching, it’s just passive-aggressive flirting! Also, if they really disliked each other that much, no way would they act so peaceful with one another, right?”
“You’re right… It might not be to the same degree as Bakugou, but Todoroki gets that frowning face on him every time someone rubs him the wrong way... And he never has it whenever Bakugou is trying to get on his case,” said Kirishima, slowly connecting the dots in his mind now that the obvious had been pointed out. “Not to mention, for two guys who are always arguing with each other one-sidedly, they sure can come up with perfect combo moves on the fly. Like what happened when we were on I Island!”
“Last but not least! Ashido, I have but one word for you!” announced Kaminari, his facial expression growing exponentially sombre and serious as he shifted his gaze to Ashido and raised his index finger in front of his face. “Sexual frustration!!”
“That’s two words…” sighed Ashido with an exasperated roll of her eyes. She snatched a bite-sized cookie from the open package next to her and popped it in her mouth. “I’m not sure about the ‘sexual frustration’ part but yeah, I guess there are some moments of hotter tension between the two of them now and then, if you catch my drift. The type of moments that make you want to scream ‘just kiss already!’ or something~”
“Yes, yes! Exactly! You guys are finally starting to see the same thing I’ve been seeing!!” acknowledged Kaminari with explosive hype; so much so, he ended up jumping up from his seat. It didn't last for very long as he plopped back down on the chair and gave a tired shrug with his shoulders. “Or you’re just getting as delusional as me. Because, I mean, they might look good together and kinda suit one another in lots of aspects but that doesn’t mean they’re gay for one another, right?”
“Oh c’mon!! You can’t fill our heads with Bakugou-Todoroki fantasies and then cut us off cold turkey like that!” whined Ashido. “If you’re gonna say all of that, then own up to it and admit to your delusions! Whether they’re the truth or not!”
“Delusions, you say… But if so many people can see it, can we really call it delusions?” pointed out Sero, closely thinking about everything Kaminari had said. “Or is it that we’re overthinking about it after hearing Kaminari’s arguments?”
“Why not ask others about it, then?” suggested Kirishima, lifting one of his arms up in the air as soon as he saw a group of students arriving at the dorm. They would surely be able to dispel their doubts over if it was delusion because of Kaminari’s influence or if others had also caught on to these things. “Hey, Midoriya, Iida, Uraraka, Asui, Tokoyami! Could you come here for a bit?”
“Did something happen?” inquired Midoriya, an eyebrow slightly arched in puzzlement as he observed Kirishima’s ecstatic hand waving.
“Do you have some sort of question about those equations?” asked Iida too once the group stopped next to the dining table. He put one of his hands inside of his school bag and promptly removed a notebook from inside. “We were reviewing those materials in the library just a few minutes ago. I could go through it once again with you.”
“Nah, we’re taking a break right now,” dismissed Kirishima, albeit with a beaming grin. “We do have a question for you guys, though.”
“Do you guys also think that Bakugou and Todoroki kinda look good together?” asked Kaminari without missing a beat. “As in, romantically speaking.”
“Bakugou-chan? And Todoroki-chan?” repeated Asui as she tilted her head to the right.
“That’s a combination to be deeply feared, not romanticised,” pointed out Tokoyami with his usual exaggerated, dramatic expositions.
“They don’t get along at all, how exactly could there be any romance there?” chuckled Uraraka with a small roll of her eyes. She passed the verbal baton to the student standing next to her, as he’d be a better source of confirmation to it than she could ever be. “Right, Deku-kun?”
“............I… can kind of see it…” confessed Midoriya with a certain hesitation. “The looking good together… and the romantic possibility of it…”
“You can!?” yelped Uraraka, Asui, Tokoyami and Iida in a flabbergasted chorus.
“I-I mean, Kacchan is quick to strike when angered but I’ve never seen him hitting Todoroki-kun outside of official matches or Quirk practice, no matter how much he’s yelling at him,” explained Midoriya with a flustered voice and flustered hand movements. “Their Quirks are extremely compatible with one another but I can’t see either of them having such good teamwork with one another if they actually hated each other as much as their constant one-sided bickering seems to indicate. Kacchan always snaps when someone calls them friends but it’s not like he goes out of his way to avoid Todoroki at all costs. They even go to and come back from their supplementary classes together every day. If Kacchan hated it, he’d have found a way to break that routine up by now. Todoroki-kun has a… complex relationship with his father and Endeavor and Kacchan have some similarities with one another but Todoroki-kun treats Kacchan the same way he treats all of us, no matter how confrontational he gets with him or how evil-sounding his methods are. There are times when they get along really well and can pull off perfect combination attacks without any direct communication yet they have this perpetual… Um… How should I call it…? Tension between them? I can’t call them friends per se but they’re not just acquaintances or classmates either? It’s hard to put it into words, actually. I’m sorry I can’t give you a better ans-”
“EXACTLY!!” yelped Kaminari yet again, this time with an even louder voice. He gestured towards Midoriya while he glanced around his studying companions. “See? You see!? What did I tell you? Midoriya just gave the exact same arguments I did, didn’t he!?”
“Holy shit, if even Midoriya can see it, then it’s gotta be legit!!” exclaimed Kirishima, his red eyes nearly jumping out of their sockets due to stupefaction.
“No way. Todoroki-kun and Bakugou-kun? There’s no way… right?” said Uraraka, slowly starting to question herself the more she heard and the more she thought about what she was hearing. Soon, the idea of her two classmates being in love with each other didn’t seem as ridiculous anymore. “No way…”
“I never thought about them like that but once all of that is pointed out like that, it’s hard to ignore the romantic potential to their whatever-name-they-give-it relationship,” noted Asui, finally straightening her head now that she had done all the thinking she needed to do. “Whether it’s us overthinking and reading too much into it or not, what’s there is there. Romantic relationship or not, everything Midoriya-chan said is true.”
“Rather than create theories and fantasies in our minds, wouldn’t it be faster and easier to ask them directly?” suggested Iida, glancing over to the clock to check the time. “They must be back to the dorm by now.”
“No, actually, they haven’t arrived yet,” said Sero with a small shake of his head. “And are you insane? There’s no way we could ask them something like that. Okay, maybe to Todoroki but Bakugou would slaughter us on the spot. Heck, I think he’d blow up with us the moment we spat out ‘Are you dating’ and wouldn’t even let us finish the-”
Height’s Alliance’s front door was suddenly slammed open, probably with a destructive kick by the deafening sound of it. There was only one person in the entire school who could have such a flashy, overdramatic entrance to their living quarters.
“Fuck! This is all your fault!!” roared Bakugou, quickly taking his shoes off in the entrance area. He angrily stomped his feet on the wooden floor as he marched deeper into the communal area. “Because of you, I have every nook and cranny of my body all sticky and fuckin’ disgusting!!”
Every nook and cranny…? Sticky and disgusting…?, inwardly repeated the flabbergasted spectators, some also shaking in their metaphorical red boots out of fear of retaliation for their conversational topic.
“Why not take another bath then?” pointed out Todoroki, neatly straightening his and Bakugou’s shoes before he followed him towards the elevator. “That should solve the stickiness, right?”
Another bath…!?, inwardly repeated the even more flabbergasted spectators, some jaws finally starting to drop in utter bewilderment.
“No need to tell me that twice! And stop following me! I ain’t sharing my bathing space with you ever again!!” spat Bakugou with a venomous hiss, his red eyes glaring murderous daggers at Todoroki as he looked his way sideways. The elevator’s door opened and they both stepped inside at the same time, though not without another barrage of cusses and curses. “Didn’t I fuckin’ tell you to stop following me!? Take the goddamned stairs! It might help you burn whatever energy you still have left after all of that crap!!”
The closing of the elevator’s doors left the entire communal area in total silence. Several pairs of unblinking eyes exchanged glances with one another.
“Aha… Ahahah… Nah, we’re just reading too much into it,” awkwardly laughed Kirishima, quickly dismissing his thought with a wave of his hand. “Talking about what-ifs and possible love stories is messing with our brains.”
“Y-Yeah, totally!” yelped Ashido, furiously nodding her head in acknowledgement of her friend’s words. “Talking about it is all fun and games but there’s no way they’d actually date. No, I can’t even imagine them falling in love with one another in the first place!”
“Yeah... we’re just overthinking it… just that...” said Midoriya with a certain hesitation. He forced himself to smile, even though he still feared that he would get the beating of his life the next time he was in the same division as his childhood playmate. “We overheard a portion of their conversation out of context. Yeah, it’s just that…”
Still feeling awkward and doubting everything they thought they knew about their two classmates, the two groups parted ways and went back to doing what they intended to before the love talks had started.
-.-
A day had passed.
Kirishima’s study group partnered with Midoriya’s that evening to get some extra intense cramming done through Iida’s methodical - and slightly boring - tutoring. With so many people joined together, they occupied an entire dining table, portions of it filled with towering piles of textbooks and printouts.
“Ugh… I think my brain has reached its limit…” groaned Kaminari, sluggishly stretching his arms over his head as he balanced his chair on the back legs only. “I’m gonna stop torturing my brain cells for today...”
“Do it after you finish that English composition,” instructed Iida, not a single drop of compassion towards his slacking classmates. He wasn’t a merciless demon, however. “Once you finish, you can take another 30-minutes break while I review and correct it.”
“Nooo! I’m sick of studying…!” whined Kaminari, flapping his arms around in the air as if a child throwing a tantrum. He leaned the chair even more backwards, to the point he caught a glimpse of the closed main door to the dorm. Kaminari readily let the chair’s front legs fall back on the floor with a loud clattering sound and turned around on his seat. “Bakugou’s late tonight too.”
“Kaminari, don’t! We’re not going over that conversation again today!” admonished Ashido, throwing her eraser at the back of the blonde’s head. “They’re probably caught in the traffic or something. Just let me focus on my English vocab, not on what Bakugou and Todoroki might or might not be doing to end up with every nook and cranny of their bodies all sticky and disgusting!”
“You’re not helping either, Mina-chan,” noted Asui after a collective wave of groans and exasperated sighs.
“Maybe we could all use a break,” awkwardly laughed Midoriya as he noticed the tired, almost vacant eyes in some of his classmates. A half puzzled, half shocked pointed look from Uraraka made him vehemently shake his head in denial. “A-A regular break, not a break to gossip about Todoroki-kun and Kacchan!”
“Bakugou was the same cranky and prickly asshole of always and Todoroki was the same expressionless hot dude of always throughout the whole day so it’s just like Midoriya said yesterday,” said Sero, now that several had already breached into the topic once again. “It’s all in our heads. We’re overthinking that out of context conversation way too much and blowing it out of proportion with our delusions.”
“Yeah but what if that conversation is really about what we all think it is?” remarked Kaminari, the corner of his lips perking up in mischief. “What if the reason why they’re late tonight too is because they’re up to no good somewhere and getting all sticky and disgusting all over again~? Hmm~? What do you hafta say about that now, huh~?”
“A quick text to All Might would tell us where they are,” pointed out Iida, quickly adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose after having closed his notebook. There was no way he could convince his classmates to go back to focusing on their studying now. “He’s the one going with them to the supplementary classes this month, isn’t he?”
“Oh yeah! That’s true!” yelped Midoriya, readily grabbing his cell phone from the table. He wrote a text at the speed of light and sent it to All Might, patiently waiting for a reply while nearly staring a hole through the screen. All of them were nearly staring a hole through that electronic device, such was their hunger for a satisfying answer to their delusions - whether it wound up being a confirmation or a crushed fantasy. Minutes later, Midoriya’s phone rang with an incoming message. With bated breath, he checked All Might’s reply. All he could say was… “Oh.”
“Oh? OH!? What’s ‘oh’ supposed to mean!?” screeched Kaminari, nearly yanking his blond locks out of his head due to overwhelming frustration. He pulled the cell phone out of the frozen Midoriya’s hand and went to check the reply himself. All he could say was... “Oh.”
Everyone broke into a complete frenzy for having heard the same response coming from two completely different people, with very different personalities and usually very different reactions to pretty much everything.
“Let me see,” said Asui, ever the level-headed one. She likewise removed the cell phone from Kaminari’s hand and glanced down on the unlocked screen. She couldn’t help but blurt out the exact same her two friends had earlier but at the very least she managed to provide some explanations to it. “Oh. Looks like All Might is only accompanying them to the supplementary classes’ site this week. They’re coming back to the dorm on their own.”
“Oh my god,” squeaked Uraraka, her cheekbones even pinker than usual as she half hid her embarrassed expression behind her hands. That pretty much said it all, didn’t it?
“Maybe they’re arriving later than usual because of unexpected delays on the public transports,” suggested Tokoyami, also opting to take the level-headed route rather than jump right away to the delusions. A very weak explanation, as the Japanese trains and buses were worldwide known for their millimetric timetables and always on-time arrivals and departures.
“A delayed train or bus doesn’t explain where the stickiness and a need for a second , not a first but a second bath comes from!” said Kaminari, accusingly pointing at Tokoyami almost as if the poor soul had just offended his entire bloodline. He then immediately raised both hands in the air, in a surrendering gesture. “They’re doing it! They’re totally getting it on behind our backs! Those two are definitely dating and haven’t told any of us about it!”
“Or maybe they got caught up in some sort of incident?” offered Midoriya, more in the shape of a question than an actual rebuttal for Kaminari’s hasty conclusions. “They always have such bad luck when they’re outside on their own. They got attacked by that villain that glued them to one another and Kacchan even got kidnapped by the League of Villains when the two of them were partnered together for the test of courage.”
“If those two had gotten into some sort of incident yesterday, there’s no way Aizawa-sensei would have let them continue commuting back to the dorm on their own,” countered Kirishima, absolutely sure that that explanation, in particular, was impossible. Not with that homeroom teacher, not with that school, not with all previous villain incidents revolving around Bakugou.
“Then… why were they so late yesterday and why are they even later tonight?” asked Ashido, not entirely expecting an answer out of anyone in the communal area.
Ashido and her studying companions couldn’t offer an answer to that question but the opening of the front door could. Well, at least as good of an answer as that unusual sight could be.
“Bakugou, stop stabbing your nails on my shoulders, we’ve already arrived at the dorm,” sighed Todoroki, closing the door behind himself with the heel of his foot seeing as his hands were once again too busy with holding Bakugou in place against his back.
“Exactly, we’re back! So put me down already, you fuckin’ asshole!” roared Bakugou, giving a couple of strong yanks to Todoroki’s hair. He only stopped when Todoroki slowly let him slip down his back and onto the floor. However, as soon as his feet touched the ground and he straightened his body, a strong bolt of pain shot through his spine. “OUCH!!! Fucking hell... “
“Maybe I should carry you all the way to your bed?” offered Todoroki, already positioning himself in front of Bakugou so he could climb on his back once again. All he got was a slap to the back of his head.
“Like hell you should! I can walk to my room perfectly fine on my own!” hissed Bakugou, the threatening red glow on his eyes hinting that one more word about that would mean painful retaliation against Todoroki. One step at a time, even more slowly than an elderly man without his walking cane, Bakugou approached the elevator after kicking his shoes off. He tried to lift his arm to press the button but all he got out of this was intense pain that nearly got him howling his lungs out. “Press the freakin’ button for me! And ice! I want ice right this damn moment!!”
“Yeah, yeah,” sighed Todoroki with a small roll of his eyes. He quickly sorted out their shoes once again and walked up to Bakugou, where he quickly pressed the elevator’s button to call it to the ground floor. Once that initial task was done, he partially froze his right hand and placed it over Bakugou’s lower back.
“I said ice, not to get handsy on me!!” growled Bakugou, promptly slapping Todoroki’s hand away from him. He slowly forced himself to cross his arms over his chest, despite the pain it inflicted on his back and hips, and grumbled, “It’s always the same shit with you…”
“I was only trying to help,” said Todoroki with an apologetical tone, icy hand readily withdrawing closer to his left one to melt the ice away.
“It’s your fuckin’ fault I’m like this in the first place, you stupid half-and-half moron!!” roared Bakugou, a vein nearly popping out of his forehead.
The spectators were counting the seconds for the incoming explosions but, surprise of all surprises, the elevator’s door opened, their two classmates stepped inside and the door closed once again… without any structural or bodily damages.
Much like the previous day, several pairs of unblinking eyes exchanged glances with one another. They were so shocked, so surprised, so flabbergasted, so EVERYTHING , they couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe properly.
Long minutes had passed before Kaminari could blurt out, “They…”
“Kaminari, don’t say it, dude…” beckoned Kirishima, the back of his head dropping on top of his seat’s backrest.
“They were totally up to no good somewhere and getting all sticky and disgusting all over again,” said Asui, ever the level-headed one... until she could no longer be level-headed due to intense curiosity.
“The fall of humanity will soon dawn on us, as the two strong ones who could never see eye to eye have now joined in body and soul,” mumbled Tokoyami under his breath, more to himself than to all of his dumbfounded classmates. Some ended up hearing his whispers, however.
“Just say they had sex once and for all,” groaned Sero, feeling so tired and exasperated in one too many different ways and for one too many different reasons. “The faster we internalise it, the longer our lifespan will be.”
Another wave of tense silence flooded the dining table, some doing as Sero had told them to and internalising the unexpected discovery, others scavenging their memories for further proofs on the matter and further reasons to retort back and forth about it.
“But… we still don’t have actual evidence of it, right?” noted Ashido, scrunching her face slightly to a deep thinking expression as she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head sideways. “It’s all circumstantial evidence so far. And out-of-context conversations. And out-of-context back pain… There could be a million different reasons for any of these events.”
“Mina-chan, just accept it…” sighed Uraraka, inwardly sending her blessings to the newly discovered couple.
“No, no! That’s not what I’m trying to say here!” denied Ashido with a shake of her head. She leaned closer to the table, a mischievous smirk popping out into her lips as she quietly said. “We don’t have any concrete evidence about anything. No evidence about them dating, no evidence about them using the current lack of chaperones to get some rumpy pumpy done. And if we want peace of mind to be able to get studying done and not screw up our exams, we need that evidence.”
“Ashido… does this mean what I think it means?” gasped Kirishima, his eyes slowly opening wide in surprise.
“Yes. Yes, it does,” acknowledged Ashido with a big thumbs up. “Tomorrow, we’re going Deku on those two lovebirds!”
“Please don’t use my hero name as slang to spying or stalking…” nearly sobbed Midoriya.