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Shinsou was so done with this week- past few weeks actually. He had so much to do it was a struggle to keep up with all of his appointments, deadlines and general things to do. He really wanted to move to the hero course, so he had to keep his grades in general studies at the top of his class. Besides the training he did with Aizawa, he also got a lot of make-up work that covered the theoretical parts of the hero course. Hero ethics, strategy, hero history, quirk management, forensics... it was a lot.
It was too much if Shinsou was honest and he desperately longed for a break. He could talk to his classmates about their normal classes, but he had to power through the hero course materials on his own. A few times he asked Aizawa after their training about things, but Aizawa already went out of his way to help him. Shinsou was so tired of everything he had to do he kept messing up.
Recently he handed a Japanese essay in he just couldn't bother to proof read one more time. He just wanted to move on from it. There were so many red crosses, that he shoved the paper into his bag and a week later still hadn’t pulled it out to take a closer look.
Shinsou usually liked math, but recently he kept getting all the equations wrong. And a few days ago he said orgasmic instead of organic in biology in front of his whole class. That embarrassing incident still kept him up at night. No matter how much he longed for a break, he could not afford to take time off from studying and training. When he was done with his school work he went out for a run, even if it was in the middle of the night.
Avoiding teachers patrolling the campus at night turned into stealth training for him. One time Midnight almost caught him because she heard bushes rustling as he tried to hide. Luckily he scared a stray cat that had been hiding there and Midnight wandered off, considering the case closed.
Shinsou dared to go on another run in the middle of a windy night. He rounded a corner and promptly ran into someone. His heart rate sped up, his knees felt weak. A paralyzing fear overcame him suddenly. If he was found outside past curfew it could very easily impact his chances of transferring to the hero course. Hero students were not supposed to break rules. Aizawa would be so mad and disappointed. He entirely lost his voice, unable to come up with any explanation or excuse what he was doing. Yet, he was faced with a question.
"What the fuck?!"
That did not sound like a teacher.
That was no teacher.
Shinsou was looking at a grumpy blonde hero course student.
"What are you doing here?" Shinsou found his voice again.
"Getting a pedicure." Bakugou said. "What do you think, idiot?!"
Shinsou shrugged his shoulders, looking around to see if anyone else was here.
"What are you doing here?" Bakugou asked.
"Training."
Bakugou raised an eyebrow.
"Well, running." Shinsou corrected.
"I've never seen you around before."
"Oh. We are in different buildings so..." Shinsou said. General study classes had their own block after all.
"I meant out here. At night." Bakugou's frown only lifted for a moment because he rolled his eyes.
Shinsou considered that answer for a moment, then asked. "You go for a run at night often?"
"No shit."
"But isn't that forbidden?" Did hero course students have different rules?
Bakugou gave him the most unimpressed look "So? The worst they can do is give us a lecture or detention."
"They could expel us." Shinsou said.
"Do you want to get expelled?" Bakugou asked, finding it hard to believe the purple haired teen would go running just to get kicked out.
"Of course not!"
"Then what's your problem?"
"Nothing. It's nothing." Shinsou said, raising his hands defensively, backing off. "I uh...I should go back I guess." He said awkwardly, motioning behind him, ready to turn around.
"You want to transfer to the hero course, right?" Bakugou asked, making Shinsou stop in his tracks.
"Yeah?"
"Is that why you are training so late?" Bakugou asked.
"I-...yeah." Shinsou admitted.
Bakugou looked Shinsou up and down, before sighing. "Want to train together sometime?" He asked.
"Are you serious?" Shinsou's voice was layered with doubt.
"If you don't want to, just say no. But if you really want to transfer, you'll have to fight others sooner or later anyway. It can't hurt getting practice in with someone other than Aizawa." Bakugou said.
"How do you know I'm practicing with Aizawa?" Shinsou did not want to look as if he just got to transfer because he was a teacher's pet.
"You literally have the exact same fighting style." Bakugou said.
"Oh. Uh...If you have time and don't mind-"
"Great. Meet me Friday at five at training hall C." Bakugou interrupted.
Shinsou was so surprised, all he could do was nod and mutter an "Okay." That came out more as a question than an answer. Was Bakugou the type of person to just randomly offer others to train together? Then Shinsou remembered and suddenly things made a little more sense.
When Bakugou went for another midnight run, he did not expect to run into anyone, especially not a general studies student. The second he recognized Shinsou he was torn between ignoring him, snapping at him, starting a fight or...be stubborn and beat Shinsou at his own game. So far, it had been incredibly satisfying to watch his classmates shocked expressions, whenever they realized he could be nice.
When Bakugou looked at his poster after their teachers found out about their little class sticker challenge, he was close to chasing after them- specifically Shinsou and strangle him. However, he had chosen to glare quietly at the added name that had appeared under Dark Shadow's name. Bakugou was not sure when exactly it happened, but somehow Shinsou had managed to scrawl his name on his poster. At first he considered to just ignore it. They never crossed paths anyway.
Meeting Shinsou now almost felt like a sign from the gods- if he would believe in something like that. So he decided to take the opportunity. It was worth it. Bakugou could tell the exact moment realization set in for Shinsou.
-----.....-----.....-----.....-----
Shinsou had agreed to meeting Bakugou, but he had forgotten one important thing in that moment. He was supposed to meet Aizawa at the exact same time, at the exact same location. This certainly put him in an awkward position, but he had to bring it up somehow. He had no way to tell Bakugou he couldn't make it, unless he went to 1A's classroom. It would be terrible, if Aizawa met Bakugou and they would talk about him. It would make Shinsou look like a slob who forgot appointments.
"What is going on?" Aizawa asked Shinsou in the middle of their training. His student was even more distracted than usual.
"I...is it okay if we don't train on Friday?" Shinsou asked hesitantly. It was better asking now, than having to bring it up again later. "I'll still train!"
"You want to train alone?" Aizawa asked, his face not giving a hint to how he felt about that.
"Umm...no. Actually...Bakugou asked me." Shinsou said, getting right to the point.
"Bakugou..." Aizawa said slowly. "Is this about their sticker project?" He asked. It was the only explanation he could come up with.
"Probably."
"You are not part of the class yet though." Aizawa said.
Shinsou's mind instantly focused on the word yet. Did that mean Aizawa would want him in class 1A? Where there concrete plans already? Was he getting ahead of himself?
"I...might have added my name to his poster when we were there." Shinsou admitted. "Just as a joke. I didn't think he'd do anything about it!"
Aizawa stared at him, before hiding his smile behind his scarf. "It will do you good getting more practice with others. Bakugou especially. He's fast and he takes training seriously. You better give it your all."
"Of course."
"And don't use your quirks without supervision."
"Okay." Shinsou agreed. If he was honest, he was glad he got that rule. He did not look forward to getting blasted into pieces.
"Is there anything else?"
"Umm...could I borrow some keys to training hall C?"
"Bakugou has a key. Just meet him there." Aizawa waved him off. It just wasn't worth the paperwork to give Shinsou a key as well.
That conversation had gone much better than Shinsou thought it would. He probably should have expected Aizawa to be happy about having more free time. A few days later, Shinsou waited in front of training Hall C, wondering if Bakugou had been joking after all.
"You're early." Shinsou heard and looked up from his phone, to see Bakugou approaching.
"Is that bad?"
"No, idiot. How would that be bad?"
Shinsou shrugged and followed Bakugou inside the training hall.
"Anything specific you want to work on?" The blonde asked, setting his bag down. Like Shinsou, Bakugou already wore his workout clothes, so they did not have to waste time getting changed.
"I'm fine with anything, as long as we're not using our quirks."
"Sure. Are you warmed up already?" Bakugou easily agreed.
"Not really. Unless you want to count me jogging here." Shinsou said.
"Fine, let's do some stretches first then." Bakugou decided.
Shinsou quickly noticed why Aizawa so easily agreed to letting him train with Bakugou. The blonde was ruthless. He kept a very close eye on Shinsou, critiquing his form and making sure he didn't half ass any of his exercises. He did not put him too far, but just far enough that he really could feel a stretch. Going through all the exercises barely took half an hour, but it might have been the most exhausting warm up Shinsou had in a while.
Shinsou was rightfully worried about how actual training was going to be. Bakugou was relentless and Shinsou was mainly focused on defending himself. However, he was glad to find out, that all his training with Aizawa seemed to pay off. He managed to hold his ground much better than he thought he would.
"Are you going easy on me?" Shinsou asked when they took a break to drink something.
Bakugou remained quiet for a few moments. Shinsou almost though he was ignoring him on purpose, because he had no interest in idle chit-chat, when Bakugou decided to answer him after all.
"No. You're better than I though you'd be to be honest."
Why did this feel like very high praise.
"I didn't get a single hit in. I barely managed to defend myself." Shinsou said.
"Naa, you're doing good. I'm used to Aizawa's fighting style and yours is so similar it's easy to match. You're doing fine for fighting me for the first time."
Was Shinsou dreaming? He had to be.
"Thanks."
"Yeah, don't think that means you don't have to put any more work in though. You're too busy avoiding my hits to notice you could have hit me while ducking. Try to combine defensive moves with offensive moves more." Bakugou stood up to demonstrate what he meant.
By the time they ended training, Shinsou almost managed to get a hit in. Bakugou only managed to evade him in the very last moment.
"Can we train together again?" Shinsou asked when Bakugou locked the door behind them.
"Sure. I'll ask some others from 1A to come too. Ojirou would probably be a good match for you."
"I'm not sure if you're trying to say that you are too good to fight against me, or Ojirou bad enough."
"Both." Bakugou grinned.
"You are not very modest."
"If being not modest means the same as honest to you, then yes."
Shinsou rolled his eyes in amusement.
"Do you have any plans tomorrow?" Bakugou asked, when they were close to the dorms.
"Studying and training, why?"
"Some of us are going to the city tomorrow to get lunch and see a movie. You wanna come?"
Shinsou was thoroughly confused. Was this what Bakugou really was like?
"Is this because I wrote my name on your poster?" Shinsou asked bluntly.
"If you don't want to come, just say so!" Bakugou snapped, defensively. He almost sounded...hurt?
"No, no...Sorry. I just did not expect that. Won't the others mind?"
"The idiotic extras will be ecstatic. You'll fit right in."
"Oh."
"So?" Bakugou pressed for an answer.
"I guess I could come, if it's really okay."
"Great. We meet at the front gate at eleven thirty. Don't be late."
"I wasn't late today."
"Keep it that way." Bakugou said and without another word he took a turn and stomped off to 1A's dormitory.
"See you tomorrow!" Shinsou called after him.
Bakugou raised his hand to wave in a silent signal he heard the purple haired teen.
Hound dog would be so proud of him now. Inviting others out to do something, making new 'friends'....who would have thought it would ever come to this? Shinsou better give him some good stickers as a reward. Even Dark Shadow scrawled something in her name row.
-----.....-----.....-----.....-----
"Oh look! It's Shinsou!" Kaminari called out as his eyes fell on Shinsou, waiting at the front gate of UA's campus. "What are you doing here?" Kaminari asked, friendly.
Shinsou looked from Kaminari to Bakugou, who kept walking with a smug grin. Hadn't he told the others he would come?
"Bakugou invited me here." Shinsou said and his discomfort immediately lifted, when he saw a dreaded look crossing Bakugou's face. Suddenly all of his friends, Kaminari, Kirishima, Mina and Sero looked at the blonde in awe.
"OMG!" Mina screeched. "Blasty's making new friends outside of our class!" She said.
"He's grown up so fast." Sero pretended to wipe away a tear.
"I thought this day would never come." Kaminari said, holding his hand over his chest.
"Will you shut up?!" Bakugou said, glaring at Kirishima, daring him to join the other's teasing.
"He asked me to come, when we were training together yesterday." Shinsou dared to speak up. "I'm sorry if he forgot to tell you he invited me. It must have been because he was so excited to go out with all of you today."
A silence fell upon the group, followed by slow, disbelieving blinking. Bakugou was the first to regain his composure. Oh, if looks could kill.
"Oh, oh." Kaminari whispered, struggling between grinning like a fool and looking terrified for Shinsou's life.
"Run." Kirishima mouthed and Shinsou took his advice, running through the gates, Bakugou hot on his heels.
The others followed after them quickly.
"Don't kill him Blasty!" Mina called after them.
"I'm too young to die! Aizawa will kill us if Bakugou blows Shinsou up!" Kaminari whined.
Shinsou got impressively far, but Bakugou managed to catch up to him and he tackled him onto grass, at the side of the road. All air left Shinsou's lungs as Bakugou menacingly, sat on top of him.
"I give! I give! I'm sorry!" Shinsou said, though his lips twitched upwards.
"Oh really?!" Bakugou asked, his hands crackling in warning.
"Yes. Yes, I'm sorry! I've learned my lesson." Shinsou said.
Bakugou let him stand up with a huff, Shinsou's quietly muttered "Oh mighty lord" luckily got drowned out by the others approaching footsteps and hard breathing.
"Oh thank god, you didn't kill him." Sero said, patting Bakugou's back in a 'well done' way.
"You're accepted. You've got guts." Kaminari told Shinsou.
"Unlike you wimp." Bakugou said, storming off in the direction of the train station.
Shinsou watched as Mina pushed Kirishima in Bakugou's directing with a whispered "Time to work your magic."
As the day progressed, Shinsou understood more and more what she meant by that comment. Krishima was incredibly good at calming Bakugou down and keeping him content, despite his friends near constant teasing.
They were all a little rambunctious, but that also meant they easily included Shinsou in their conversations and made him feel welcome. Kirishima alternated between talking to Sero, Kaminari and Mina and walking next to Bakugou, talking to him alone. Shinsou watched how close they walked and how they interacted, for quite a while, before he leaned over to Kaminari, lowering his voice as he pointed to Bakugou and Kirishima. "Are they dating?" He asked.
Kaminari whipped his head around, a bright grin on his face before breaking out into laughter.
"What? Are they?" Shinsou asked irritated.
"No. Not yet at least. Unless they decided to keep it a secret." Kaminar said.
"We know it looks like it though." Sero joined in helpfully.
"Are they always this..."
"Close?"
"Lovey-dovey?"
"Flirting?"
"Just be glad you don't have to see them every day." Mina said.
"You never should have taught Kiri how to dance. They are both far too good at dancing around one another." Kaminari said.
Before any of them could continue the discussion, Bakugou turned around, glaring at them intently.
"What are you fucking extras whispering about?!" He demanded to know, while Kirishima stood behind him, his face almost as red as his hair.
"Nothing!" Sero, Mina and Kaminari immediately said, their hands raised in surrender.
Shinsou also raised his hands and looked away. Teasing Bakugou was very tempting, but his survival instinct made him keep his mouth shut.
The others quickly changed the conversation to a topic that only made Bakugou roll his eyes and keep going onwards. It was a really fun day and the most relaxing one Shinsou had in weeks. He really hoped he could transfer soon. He had been so worried that they wouldn't accept him, but everyone was really nice- well at least the Bakusquad, but Bakugou had mentioned Ojirou and some others were looking forward to train with him as well.
Shinsou really had to get some stickers for Bakugou soon.
-----.....-----.....-----.....
Shinsou started training and hanging out with class 1A a lot more after their trip to the movie theatre. Naturally, the topic of their conversations shifted to school work eventually. Shinsou only understood half of what they talked about. Subjects such as math or Japanese literature were not very different from the general study course. Chemistry or physics where much more focused on specific quirks heroes or villains had. Heroics was also an extra class Shinsou still had to catch up in. Aizawa gave him all necessary books, but it clearly was a class that relied on active discussions.
One day after training, Shinsou ended up revealing, that some of the material for the hero course was a little tough to get through on his own.
"Want to study with us?" Bakugou offered.
"You don't have to. I know you are busy."
"I'll be tutoring these idiots anyways. You can sit with us." Bakugou gestured behind him to Kaminari, Sero and Mina who were goofing off.
"Okay." Shinsou agreed. "When?"
"Just come bye tomorrow after class." Bakugou said. And that was, how Shinsou entered 1A's dorms for the second time.
Kamiari eagerly waved Shinsou over to sit next to him. Sero sat on Kaminari's other side, while Kirishima sat with Bakugou and Mina. The table was already littered with papers, pens and books. Glasses filled with juice and water looked wrong no matter where they were placed. Shinsou already mentally prepared himself to witness at least one of the glasses falling over during the course of the next few hours.
"Want some cookies?" Kirishima offered. "Satou baked them."
"No thanks." Shinsou replied.
"Want anything to drink?" Kaminari asked. In his haste to get up he almost knocked his glass over.
"Not right now, thank you."
"Do you-"
"Sit down." Bakugou interrupted Sero.
"Hey! I was gonna ask him something." Sero protested.
"You were going to stall and procrastinate studying. Get back to work!" Bakugou said and hit Sero with his rolled up notebook.
"Is anyone else coming to study?" Shinsou asked. It would make sense if at least Satou came, considering he backed them cookies.
"No, not today." Bakugou said, almost absent mindedly, as he leaned over to look at what Kirishima was writing.
Shinsou got out his work books, feeling a little embarrassed how behind he was. How was he ever supposed to catch up to the hero course students? Their study session proved to be like a light at the end of a dark tunnel. A glimmer of hope was presented to him, that perhaps he wasn't as far behind as he thought he would be. A few productive hours later, they packed their school supplies away and Shinsou was invited to stay for dinner. He also was roped into staying for game night by Dark Shadow. While they were playing, Shinsou almost forgot he wasn't part of 1A already. Dark Shadow, Tokoyami and Bakugou looked impressed at his dark sense of humor and the others accepted him just as easily.
When Shinsou was sure that Bakugou was not paying attention to him, and instead fully focused on Kirishima, he snuck off quietly. Bakugou only noticed what Shinsou had been up to, when the purple haired teen was already gone. New stickers stuck to his poster. The stickers showed a cat, that had a weird and, black and far too big muzzle on it's head and slept in a pile of fabric that looked like Aizawa's scarf.