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Todoroki sat at his desk, staring back at the reflection of the class in the window. Mr Aizawa hadn’t shown up to officially start the day’s lessons and everyone was still doing their own thing.
Just from the reflection, he could see Asui comparing notes with Uraraka and Tenya.
Mineta was quite literally drooling over Momo (who was pointedly ignoring him too converse with Jirou).
In the furthest corner of the classroom, he could see Ashido sitting on Sero’s desk. Her legs were swinging back and forth as she mindlessly listened to Kaminari and Kirishima talk amongst themselves.
Todoroki would be lying to himself if he didn’t admit that he stared a little bit too long at that group.
They were the self-proclaimed Bakusquad. The name was almost just as cringey as the fact that they considered themselves be friends with Bakugou Katsuki. Just his name alone left a bad taste in Shouto’s mouth. Honestly, Shotuo wasn’t fully confident that Bakugou was even be capable of friendship.
Friendship meant that a person could be relatable, endearing, and nice.
Bakugou was definitely none of those things.
He was just so mean and angry all the time. It just seemed like all he ever wanted to do in life was prove that he could be the best at any and every thing.
From test scores to physical performances.
From cooking to dating Izuku.
God, Todoroki huffed to himself. This is ridiculous. I don’t know what Izuku sees in him.
It wasn’t a secret that Todoroki had a thing for Izuku. It was a pretty natural progression. Midoriya Izuku was one of the very first people that Shouto had ever found a friend in. He was one of the first people to show Shouto that compassion, that relatability, that warmth that he had unknowingly craved for so long.
So yeah, Todoroki probably found himself more often than not being a little too overprotective of Midoriya’s wellbeing.
And a little too overcritical of Bakugou.
So what? Todoroki reasoned with himself. Any friend would be defensive.
In fact, Todoroki turned to Izuku who was sitting right next to him and gave him a curt nod, “Good morning, Zuku.”
“Morning, Shouccan!” Midoriya smiled brightly at him.
Something was off about him, Todoroki instantly noticed.
He was too bouncy. Too anxious.
Todoroki watched as Midoriya turned away from him to glance back at the class entrance.
Probably waiting on Bakugou to show up. What kind of boyfriend doesn’t walk his significant other to class anyway? It’s not like it’s out of his way.
Instead of asking that though, he found himself asking “What’s wrong?”
“Huh? Nothing!”
Todoroki stared at him, not believing a single word.
“It’s nothing, really! It’s just Kacchan is late to class. Or I guess he’s not really late because class hasn’t started yet. But he’s always gotta be the first to arrive, ya know? He usually wakes up early and meets me at my room, but he texted me that something had came up and he might be late…”
Shouto raised an eyebrow and hummed silently. To be fair, it was unusual for Bakugou to be here after everyone else had showed up. But who was he to discount the little blessing.
Before Todoroki could come up with some half assed response to reassure Izuku that whatever was making Bakugou late was probably something “reasonable”, the door slid open and the devil himself walked into class.
Except something was different about him today.
He had the same spiky blonde hair that always made Shouto wonder just how much product he went through on a weekly basis because that couldn’t have been natural.
He had the same ruffled appearance in his uniform - never putting in any effort to not look like a delinquent.
He even looked more murderous than normal, but that wasn’t super unusual.
No, Todoroki realized as Bakugou kept his face down and bee lined straight for his now usual seat next to Midoriya. He looked different because he was wearing glasses.
Bakugou Katsuki was wearing square framed, metal rimmed prescription glasses.
Todoroki was pretty sure his brain was short circuiting because suddenly every thought Todoroki Shouto had ever had about Bakugou was replaced with a steady stream of: Soft & cute & soft & cute and soft.
-
Todoroki Shouto spent the rest of the lesson staring at Bakugou Katsuki and feeling like a bad friend.
Was he a terrible friend?
A good friend definitely would be more supportive of their friends and of their relationships.
A good friend would not be staring at their friend’s boyfriend just because he looked so soft in with his glasses that slid down every time he looked down at his notes.
Todoroki tilted his head and tried to figure out if his brain really had short circuited and he was actually going crazy. Is this what life was for Denki?
Where were these new feelings even coming from?
Just because Bakugou now squinted at the front board while wiping his glasses off on his blazer didn’t change the fact that he was still mean. And he was still completely undeserving of Izuku.
He was still a bully.
He was just a bully who looked really, really soft (and kinda, a lot, very cute).
Todoroki briefly wondered if this was what Izuku was used to seeing. That had to be the reason that he wasn’t fawning over his boyfriend at this very moment. Todoroki didn’t even like Bakugou and he was having a whole gay crisis over the glasses™️.
Honestly, he could only imagine what it would be like to see Bakugou in his glasses, all curled up against Izuku during a movie night or something. Both of them in pajamas, sharing a bowl of popcorn.
He would probably drop dead.
Or worst yet, he could picture Bakugou pinned down underneath Izuku scarred, muscular arms. Izuku would be heavily grinding against him. Their labored breathing between the wet sound of them kissing. Todoroki would have to reach between the two to wipe off Bakugou’s foggy glasses and to maybe get his own kiss. He would love to tangle his fingers in Bakugou’s spiky hair and pull him in for his own dirty kiss…
Nope. We’re not doing this. Todoroki suddenly blinked, cutting his own thoughts off and returned his gaze to Mr Aizawa. He discreetly adjusted his blazer to hide any evidence of his impure fantasies. I absolutely refuse.
-
As it turned out, Todoroki had absolutely no control of his own thoughts and his thoughts were getting increasingly more Baku centric.
Todoroki found himself sitting in the familiar small café that he frequented with Momo and Jirou. Somehow, they had all managed to quickly become best friends.
Their not so beautiful friendship had actually blossomed mostly because Todoroki had felt like he needed to give Izuku and Bakugou the appropriate space as a new teenage couple.
At least, that’s what Momo had convinced him one day when he kept inviting himself to third wheel on Izuku’s dates and it was starting to look more and more like Bakugou was considering actually committing homicide.
“One for Shoto,” Jirou called out for him, briefly pulling him out of his thoughts as she set down a piece of cake in front of him and Momo. “And one for Momo.”
“Oh, I really shouldn’t…” Momo smiled politely, even though she was already digging her fork into her slice.”
Women.
“Yeah, maybe if you eat too much cake, Mineta will finally move on to someone else.”
“God, you’re telling me.”
Todoroki rolled his eyes and ignored the girls as he began on his own slice.
The cake was a chocolate forest cake with cherries. It reminded him that sometimes he would go into the kitchen back at the dorms and see whatever was left of Bakugou’s treats. He always wondered about Bakugou’s bakings. He had only heard about it how good they truly were from Izuku and Kirishima, but it wasn’t a surprise that he took cooking as serious as everything else in his life.
Shouto could only imagine when Bakugou found the time to practice baking.
He had probably practiced at home with his mom. But the real question was - did he wear an apron? Did he wear his contacts or did he bake with his stupid glasses that spent an entire class period sliding down his face? Did he ever get flour all over the place?
Maybe that’s how his hair got to be so ashy blonde all the time.
Todoroki almost laughed at his own thought, but was interrupted by Jirou kicking him underneath the table.
“Earth to Todoroki?”
“What?”
Jirou and Momo shared a knowing look before breaking into a fit of giggles.
This is my fault for befriending a bunch of girls.
“Sho,” Momo leaned close to him, “You were mumbling something about a certain angry blonde and him baking?”
“Oh,” Todoroki rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and took a big bite of his cake. He took a few extra seconds to chew before shrugging. “Yeah… I’ve been thinking about weird thoughts about Bakugou.”
Jirou’s eyes widened and Todoroki winced as her fork clattered down on the plate, “Like in a romantic way? Like in a ‘you’ve moved on from Izuku and onto his boyfriend’ kinda way?”
It was Todoroki’s turn to kick Jiro because Shut up. And then kick Momo because that was the last time he was trusting her with any secrets. He knew he should’ve started hanging out with Tokoyami instead.
Maybe then he could fly away from any and all embarrassing conversations.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but no. I just think he looked really soft today. And now I’m…” He had to choose his words carefully. “Curious.”
“Curious?” Momo repeated slowly. “Because he looked… soft?”
“Yes.”
Momo and Jirou shared another look before shrugging him off and returning to the cake in front of them.
-
It was the end of the week by the time Todoroki decided that he must be a terrible friend.
It was Saturday which meant it was his day to hang out and decompress in Izuku’s room. It was supposed to be a nice change from hanging out with mostly Momo and Jirou throughout the week. Saturdays meant there was no gossiping. There were no questions about his sudden intrusive thoughts about Bakugou. There was no talking about boys in general.
Saturdays were just the day to hang out with Izuku and watch dumb hero movies about All Might as if he wasn’t now an actual fixture in their lives.
Which is why Todoroki was so unprepared when he let himself into Izuku’s room (without knocking, which was his fault) to see no Izuku whatever. Instead, there was Bakugo Katsuki sitting on Izuku’s bed, alone, wrapped in a fluffy, crocheted blanket made by Izuku’s mother, wearing round clear framed glasses and Goddamn slippers.
Todoroki immediately felt like he was going to a have a stroke.
“W-what? I-”
Immediately, Bakugou jumped off the bed and threw down the The Five Love Languages book that he was in the midsts of reading.
Yeah, Todoroki had no choice but to accept that he was going to have a whole ass fucking stroke.
“What the ever loving fuck are you doing in here?!”
Todoroki blinked slowly, owlishly, “W-why do you look like that?”
Bakugou eyes narrowed at him and he defensively threw the blanket down to the ground, “Like what?!”
“Soft and kinda cute?”
Immediately, Bakugou’s hands started to crackle and Todoroki wondered if Bakugou was crazy enough to destroy Izuku’s dorm room in a fit of rage.
Before he could find out the answer to that, the door opened again and Izuku walked in with a bowl of popcorn and a six pack of seltzer water, “Oh good, you’re both here! Hope you don’t mind that I invited Kacchan to movie night.”
Bakugou looked offended.
Todoroki would probably look the same if he wasn’t still deciding on whether or not he was about to be the first 16 year old to have a stroke at UA.
Izuku ignored Bakugou and instead walked past him, pushing his glasses back onto his face in passing as he set the food and drinks down and begin looking for the remote.
“Kacchan, have you seen where I put the remote?”
“Why did you have to invite this glorified heating pad to movie night?”
Todoroki huffed.
There was that mean Bakugou that he had grown to know.
“Every Saturday, Zuku and I have a movie night. Thank you very much.”
“Hah?!” Bakugo whipped his head back at Todoroki. His hands were still crackling. “Here’s an idea for you. Why don’t you find your own relationship and start a new tradition?!”
“He was mine first,”
Oops.
Todoroki hadn’t meant to say that out loud. He quickly looked over at Izuku who was now on his hands and knees, looking under the bed for the remote. Luckily, he hadn’t heard that. But his boyfriend had definitely had.
In the time it took for Shouto to look over at Izuku, Bakugou had thrown himself into Todoroki and knocked him onto the ground. All the air in Shouto’s lungs was abruptly forced out and suddenly, Bakugou had both hands wrapped around Shouto’s neck.
“I don’t even need a goddamn quirk to kill you!”
Yeah, Todoroki thought, trying to push Bakugou off of him. I deserve this.
-
After that day, three unexpected (totally expected) things began to happen.
One, Bakugou realized that Todoroki had a thing for Izuku and used this against him religiously.
aka
”I think my hero costume needs a cleaning.”
”Take it to dry cleaning yourself.”
”I’m telling you to, you goddamn fucking dirty tampon.”
”First of all, I barely know what a tampon is so why do you? And second, pray tell why would I ever do that?”
”I mean, if you’re busy then I guess I could. While I’m at it, I can make some small talk to my fucking boyfriend about some half melted Crayola ass with zero brain cells being in Goddamn love with him.”
”I absolutely loathe you.”
“Okay, and?”
” And I’ll pick it up after class.”
Two, Todoroki realized that even though Bakugou was being worse than normal to him and had quite literally choked him out until Deku pulled him off of him, for some Godforsaken reason, Todoroki had developed a small crush? A moderately sized infatuation? An embarrassing obsession with the man and how soft he was behind the grouchy exterior he had.
Todoroki had actually began to dream about the day he would find Bakugou asleep in the common area and have to remove his glasses so he didn’t have to worry about him rolling over and breaking them.
Three, Izuku had started inviting Todoroki to a lot of his and Bakugou’s dates.
aka
”Shoucchan, how is your food?”
Todoroki looked up from his cold soba noodles and smiled politely, “They’re amazing! I’m really glad you invited me here. I probably wouldn’t have ever found this place otherwise.”
Midoriya smiled brightly and clapped his hands, “Actually you can thank Kacchan! He found this place.”
Shouto turned to Bakugou and made sure to hold eye contact as he slurped up his noodles, ”Thanks Kacchan.”
Bakugou responded by dramatically flipping the table over (which was set for three, including a lit candle and bottle of sparkling apple cider).
-
Naturally, after a few weeks of this new routine, Todoroki found himself walking alongside with Momo. The two of them had set out to the grocery store together to buy snacks after class one day.
Todoroki took this time to observe Momo. She was tall, beautiful, and smart. Todoroki figured she was probably the total package for most men.
But she just wasn’t Izuku.
She, for damn sure, wasn’t Bakugou.
So why couldn’t Todoroki just fall in love with her instead? Life would be so much easier. He wasn’t as oblivious to ignore the obvious attraction she harbored for him at the beginning of their friendship.
Todoroki said as much to her as they crossed the intersection, leaving them a few blocks from their destination.
Momo’s cheeks turned red and she clutched her bag strap a little tighter, “You know, I’ve always wondered the same thing.”
“I just want to get rid of these feelings. It would make being a good friend to Zuku that much easier. It’s hard enough to be a good friend when Bakugou is always being so mean to the both of us.”
“Is he mean in general or just to you?”
Todoroki gave her a flat look, “What’s the difference? Are we talking about the same guy?”
“You know what I mean!”
“No, I don’t.”
Momo rolled her eyes and stopped walking. Instead, she turned to face Shouto and placed his face between her slender hands, “Sho, do you remember back before Midoriya and Bakugou were dating? When you used to complain that Bakugou was being meaner than usual to him? Like borderline small child pulling another child’s pigtails? And then it turned out that he was in some backwards way flirting with him?”
“Okay…”
“That means that Bakugou is mean, yes. He is also angry and very hostile, yes. But you and I both know that he is also capable of ignoring people. My point being, I think the meaner he is – the more he likes you. I mean, look at the “bakusquad”. And for someone who has been complaining so much about how awful he has been, you also have been complaining about how soft he is. I doubt he would let you see him in such a way if he didn’t want to. And let’s not exclude how often they’ve been inviting you on their dates ever since the day you decided that death by a deranged Bakugou was part of the plan.”
“It wasn’t part of any plan.”
Momo squished his face tighter between her hands, “He. Likes. You. I am pretty positive of that, at least. My point is – he is fully capable of pretending like you don’t exist. But he acknowledges you. And somehow in his childish backwards logic, I think he’s pulling you closer by being mean to you. The meaner he is to you, the more you complain about him, and thus the more time you spend thinking about him. Get it?”
Oh.
Todoroki did get it.
Bakugou was mean on the outside, but he was soft on the inside. Meanwhile, Deku was nice and he was soft everywhere.
And Todoroki had a penchant for soft things. He liked nice. But he also somehow liked Bakugou because when Bakugou stopped being mean…
“I think I need to talk to Bakugou.”
“Yes, you do.” Momo let go off his face and turned to start walking towards the store again. “But first we need to shop.”
-
“Bakugou.”
Todoroki pushed open the door to Bakugou’s dorm room and was once again surprised by how soft the man looked outside of class.
This time, Bakugou must’ve been fresh out of the shower because he was sitting on his bed with his hair tucked into a towel, he was wearing an oversized yellow All Might sweater, thick pajama pants with tiny explosions on them, and the same slippers as before.
And to top it off, this time, his glasses were fogged up.
“Holy shit, you shitty goddamn tube of IcyHot. Why are you in my room now?!”
Todoroki licked his lips and looked at the towel wrapped around Bakugou’s head, “I need to talk to you.”
“About?”
“You being so soft.”
Todoroki waited for Bakugou’s reaction.
Instead of saying anything, Bakugou took off his glasses and wiped them clean on his sweater. Todoroki figured this was the best he was going to get.
“I like Zuku.” Todoroki mentally prepared for the impending attack. “A lot.”
In response, Bakugou straighten, and he set the glasses on the nightstand. He then began cracking his knuckles, “Listen, half ‘n half. If you’re here for a rematch of what happened in my boyfriend’s room then I don’t need 20/20 to kick your ass.”
“I’m not. I’m here because I also like you. Or, well, the softer version of you. The cute version.”
Bakugou paused and stared (or well, squinted) at him. Todoroki was used to his untrusting beady red eyes. This was much easier to talk to. So he continued.
“Momo says that you’re being mean because you like me too. That’s why you’re inviting me on dates too now.”
Todoroki was pretty sure that Bakugou’s cheeks were starting to turn a dusty pink. He took this as a good sign.
“So I came here for confirmation. And I want in.”
“In on what?” Bakugou crossed his arms but didn’t deny anything.
“I want proposition dating both soft you and Zuku.”
“Jesus, what the ever-loving fuck is soft me?!” Bakugou huffed, his voice raising. He grabbed his glasses and put them back on making it impossible for Todoroki to take him seriously. “And what makes you think I want to open my relationship to you?”
“The fact that you haven’t tried to kill me yet.”
Bakugou nodded like it was a fair point.
(And it was.)
“Also, soft you would be a nice Bakugou who gives cuddles, wears glasses, and dresses like you do when you’re not expecting visitors.”
“Katsuki.”
“What?”
“If we were to give this a try, I expect my boyfriend to be on a first name basis with me. And yeah, Yoyo or whatever her name is was right, I guess. I told Deku what you said and he said he figured you had a thing for him, but he didn’t want to add anything else to the relationship unless I was comfortable with it. So I gave him the go ahead to invite you out a few times – because I’m not an ass and I am a great boyfriend so I’ll do what makes him happy – and I noticed you’re not that bad.”
Todoroki blinked hard, “But you’ve been so mean.”
“And you kept coming back, didn’t you?”
Baku—Katsuki had him there.
“So,” Todoroki extended his hand out as if to shake on it. “Boyfriends?”
Bakugou shook his head and turned back to his bed, “Whatever. I’ll text the nerd and let him know.”
Shouto smiled, crawling into the bed with him.
-
Bonus Scene
Todoroki still remembered the first time he ever saw Katsuki in his glasses. He had looked so soft. But this…
This was different.
Katsuki was still wearing his clear framed glasses alongside with a full on apron. Somehow he had flour covering the entirety of him.
Actually, there was no ‘somehow’. An equally messy Zuku with an waist apron tied on and he was kneading the dough in front of him.
“Like this, Kacchan?”
Katsuki looked over at him from where he was standing in front of the stove, mixing a pot of apple compote for the pie it looked like he was in the middle of making.
“Yeah, yeah… Good job or whatever, Deku.”
Izuku smiled brightly at the praise and went back to kneading the dough, only to notice Todoroki standing there.
“Shoucchan, come help us make an apple pie! Kacchan is teaching me his secret recipe. I’m on dough duty!”
Katsuki grunted in agreement as he continued stirring the filling.
God, Shouto thought dreamily as he declined the offer to instead sit at the counter and watch his two pretty boyfriends. My life is so soft.