Chapter Text
The thought of morphing into the couch became more appealing with each second Kyouka spent lounging in the common room. The afternoon sun cast an orange glow through the massive windows, low chatter resonated from every corner. The students enjoyed their free time by socializing. Becoming a hero was a dream of hers since a young age, she had already gotten this far but the meticulous training program made her question if it was worth it. Her muscles ached, sore and tired. If bones were a living thing they would probably hurt too. Unfortunately, Aizawa decided that today was a perfect time for endurance training followed by strength building, also known as the recipe for exhaustion. Kirishima and Bakugou are probably the only students who actually enjoy working out, to Kyouka it all seemed like masochism.
Around her, Mina excitedly discussed the new episode of their favorite show with Uraraka. Where they both found the energy for it remains a mystery. She only heard half of the conversation, a part of her brain shut down.
The couch shifted with new weight. She glanced aside and noticed Bakugou sitting down on the opposite end holding the biggest glass of cold brew she had ever seen. Denki was the designated caffeine addict of the class, but the size of Bakugou’s glass beat him to the amount he drank. When Kyouka thought it couldn’t get worse, Bakugou chucked down half of it in one go. If her mind hadn’t been clouded by fatigue she would’ve been concerned.
Just as she peacefully drifted to sleep, she felt tapping on her shoulder.
“…Kyouka? Is everything okay?” Momo leaned above her, two steaming cups in hand, silky black hair framing her face. Soft waves fell in ripples around her shoulder with a subtle glow her own hair never seemed to attain. Kyouka suddenly felt self-conscious about hers, most likely disheveled. She didn’t get a chance to brush it after showering as her only goal was getting to the couch as fast as possible.
“Hey,” she said softly, looking up, “I’m fine, it’s just training you know?” Momo’s presence never failed to calm her down.
“We’re all tired, Aizawa didn’t go easy on us.” She thrust a cup towards her. “I was making some tea and I thought that maybe you’d like some too?” she said, nervously averting her gaze.
“Thank you Momo, that’s so thoughtful of you,” she grinned. A sudden warmth filled Kyouka’s heart. “Which one is it?”
“Vanilla camomile, your favorite.”
She tried to recall when the topic of her favorite tea was mentioned. Momo remembering small details like that was touching. She didn’t deserve such a good friend.
“You’re the best,” she told her. Momo’s shy smile and faint blush were incredibly worth it.
“Momo!” Mina exclaimed with sudden excitement, noticing the other girl’s presence. She made her way towards the two of them, swinging an arm around Momo’s shoulders. Her pink skin turned bright peach under the setting sun, and she had one of her many leopard print shirts on.
“A family friend gifted me a book, and you know I’m not a fan of reading so it got me thinking if you, a person who actually enjoys it, would like the book.” The speed at which she talked was impressive. “I was wandering if you would be willing to swing by my room to check it out?”
“Uh… yeah, sure I guess,” Momo agreed.
“Great! Let’s go right now,” she said, grabbing her wrist and dragging her away. “Bye everyone!”
Kyouka’s focus fixed on the cup in her hands. She would’ve liked talking to Momo for a little while. Maybe she should come by her room later? Or shouldn’t she? It was probably better for both of them to rest.
After Mina’s departure, the common room started emptying, her classmates heading back to their dorms. She didn’t pay mind to it until everyone had left, save for her and Bakugou. His emptied glass sat forgotten on the counter while he stared off into empty space.
“What are you gonna do about it?” His sudden words startled her. Kyouka didn’t know if they were friends or not. She considered him one, despite his uncanny ability to be an asshole, though she doubted he felt the same about her.
“What am I gonna do about what?” His question genuinely confused her.
“Your crush on Ponytail.”
Her what now?
“Excuse me?” she sputtered.
“You have a big fat gay crush on her and watching the two of you dance around each other is painful,” he repeated calmly, “so, what are you going to do about it?”
Bakugou really thought he could get away with saying anything he wants. Kyouka’s mind was boggled. What led him to think that? Sure, Momo is one of her best friends and she is incredibly pretty, intelligent, gentle, and overall perfect but she can very well enjoy spending time with her without liking her in that way.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she finally settled on saying.
“Like hell you don’t,” he scoffed.
“Yeah? And what about you Bakugou?”
“The fuck you talking about?”
“What about your ‘big fat gay crush’ on Kirishima? What do you plan on doing about it?” she backfired.
His expression went blank, eyes widening. Bingo, topic successfully changed. All five stages of grief took turns in appearing on his face as he blinked at her.
“I don’t have a stupid crush on Shitty Hair, shut up,” he mumbled at last, looking anywhere but at her. “Either way, you’re changing the topic.”
Fuck.
“Okay then,” she asked, “why do you think I have a crush on her?”
“Oh I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that you have a dreamy fucking look on your face whenever she talks-” he sighed, continuing, “-looking at her like she bought you the guitar of your dreams, trying to spend as much time with her as you can, frowning in disappointment whenever she has to leave mid conversation… Do you want me to go on?”
Did she really do all those things? She never noticed though. Placing her hands over her face, she groaned in exasperation. Bakugou did seem to have a point and thinking about it made her brain hurt. She was way too tired for this.
“I didn’t take you as an observant person,” she remarked.
“I’m not fucking blind,” he shot back.
“Well,” she said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you but all that can just be narrowed down to friendship, which is what it is.” There surely was no way that Bakugou could be right. And yet a small part of her brain begged to differ.
“Friendship my ass, have fun basking in denial.”
He got up and left common area, leaving Kyouka alone with her thoughts. Fortunately, she was tired enough to ignore them, her mind blank as she dragged herself into her dorm. Though as sleep finally claimed her, it was to the sound of a familiar laugh she loves.
“Jirouuuuuu”
The sound of persistent knocking snapped her attention away from the song she’s been working on. With a sigh, Kyouka set down her guitar and went to open the door. As expected, a head of bright yellow hair greeted her.
“Ugh, you finally opened,” Denki complained as he entered the room, plopping himself on her bed without asking for permission. The familiar sight almost brought a smile to her face. He had spent so much time in here it might as well have been their shared dorm. For some reason, they rarely ever hung out in his room. It was more fit for visitors and less stacked than hers, but they didn’t make use of it.
“Kaminari, it’s been twenty seconds.”
“Seems long enough to me.” He rotated himself until his head hung upside down from the bed, arms splayed wide. “I’m so bored. Please provide me entertainment.”
“Don’t you have homework? Some studying to catch up on?” She could almost see the piling assignments, forgotten in a corner of his desk.
“Won’t do.”
Kyouka sighed. She knew Denki often had a hard time with understimulation and no obligation would cure it. It was impossible for him to battle it on his own, she made sure to never refuse helping him.
The entire class knew about Denki’s ADHD and did their best to help. Oddly enough, Bakugou was the first to suggest he might be neurodivergent. Aizawa took it from there, and Denki soon had a diagnosis after a talk with his parents.
“You up for a movie?”
“Which one did you have in mind? We could always ask Sero to pirate it for us,” he suggested.
She already had the perfect movie and fortunately enough they would spare Sero the effort since someone posted the entire thing on Youtube.
“Have you seen the Velocipastor?”
“Oh my god,” he gasped, “is that the one from that one viral Tumblr post? About the pastor and some ninja and dinosaur stuff?” You could practically see rivers of excitement oozing from him.
“Yup,” she said, grinning at his elation, “have you seen it then?”
“No but I’ve been dying to. Should I go get my laptop or- “
“We can use mine.”
They settled on her bed with their backs to the wall and she pressed the play button. Denki has a huge thing for shitty movies and he accidentally got her into them as well while begging for company. So far, their brains luckily weren’t overcome by the amount of stupidity they intake. Aside from a few hidden gems, most movies were painfully bad and they both loved every second of it. Sometimes one does need to consume actual quality content so occasionally they would opt for a cartoon instead.
As expected, the movie was trash. She could tell even if only half of her attention was on it. As the minutes passed, her thoughts drifted back to what Bakugou said yesterday, despite her desperate efforts to not think about it. Momo was the only thing she thought about. Running their interactions over and over in her head, she wondered if Bakugou’s point isn’t as far fetched as she deemed it at first. He did have a point, she liked spending time with her, admired her intelligence and personality. Kyouka wished Momo would realise how amazing she is and gain more confidence. Her laugh added years to her lifespan, and you could get lost in her wide black eyes. Inevitably, scenarios of the two of them going on coffee shop dates, running her fingers through her long hair, and cuddling surfaced in her mind. The cuddling progressed into kissing and-
“Okay,” Denki interrupted, “what’s wrong?”
Shit. Was she really that transparent?
“I mean, you don’t have to tell me, I just want to help if something’s bothering you…” he continued blabbing as she stared at him.
“I… I think I just realized something,” she said, snapping out of it.
“What?”
Wait a minute. Sure, she loves Denki a lot but is telling him about this really a good idea? He would never reveal a secret on purpose, but a string of accidents already started forming in her head.
“Um- “she needed to think faster “-Shinsou’s transferring tomorrow,” she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
Denki’s face went from normal to scarlet red in a span of seconds. He coughed nervously and for a moment it looked like he was about to short circuit.
“That soon? Tomorrow’s a few hours away. Yeah, I would say that’s a pretty short time.” As he scrambled over the passage of time, his face took on an even redder shade.
One could describe Denki in a variety of ways and subtle definitely wasn’t one of them. His expressive nature really did him bad. Running through the hallways screaming “I’M SO GAY FOR SHINSOU HITOSHI” would’ve been less obvious at this point. To his despair, and honestly Kyouka’s too, the only person who didn’t seem to notice was Shinsou himself.
She sighed. Might as well try to help him.
“You wouldn’t happen to like Shinsou, would you?”
“Who, me? Never, nope, definitely not, seriously I don’t know where you got that from,” he chuckled nervously.
Just as she was about to respond, a raspy voice appeared in the back of her head. You should bond with Dunceface over being terrible liars. Bakugou’s voice. Even when he was a whole floor apart, the bastard still managed to pester her, showing up in her subconscious and what not.
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Kyouka then made a decision. After the movie was done, she found herself in front of Bakugou’s dorm.
“Go the fuck away” followed her knocking. After getting him to let her in, she became the fifth person to ever see Bakugou’s room. Black nail polish sat on his desk, next to his neat pile of schoolwork. To her surprise, lengthy lines of shoujo manga filled his bookshelves, she even recognized some she personally enjoyed. A single All Might figurine stood on one of the shelfs. Besides that, and the authentically orange-black carpet, there wasn’t much more to his room. Loads of empty space waiting to be filled.
“You have more than enough place for a set of drums here,” she suggested. After all, every inch of her own room was taken up by an instrument of sorts.
“Never brought them from home,” he mumbled in response. “Did you want something?”
Right, the reason she came here. Deep breaths, she could do this.
“I think you were right.”
“I always am, be more specific.” Classic Bakugou.
“You know, about the Momo thing…” Her voice dropped in volume, feeling more embarrassed than she expected.
“That thing?” he scoffed. “What am I supposed to say, congrats?”
Oh. He did have a point, there was absolutely no need for her to be telling him this now.
“I don’t know what to do about it. And since you have a thing for a friend too- “
“For the last fucking time, I don’t have ‘a thing’ for Shitty Hair!” he cut her off.
“-I figured you would know what to do.”
To quote the guy himself, Kyouka also wasn’t “fucking blind”. It was clear as day to anyone willing to pay attention that he liked Kirishima. Hell, Midoriya had probably already noticed ages ago, given his obsession with studying people. Bakugou might be able to help her figure out this whole thing. Not that he seemed to make any progress of his own, but he brought this upon her, she will make it his problem too.
“How willing to ruin your friendship are you?” he finally spoke after several moments of silence.
Were the two of them close? Closer than Kyouka was with any of the girls at least. But when it came to choosing a best friend, Denki undeniably occupied that place. Still, she would consider them as pretty good friends. Regret spiked through her, if only she had spent more time with Momo. She definitely wanted to.
“I think, for now, I just want to get closer,” she said. “I’ll figure out the rest later.”
Bakugou sighed, planting his face in his hands.
“You both seem pretty close already,” he said, “you do know it’s gonna hurt even more if you ruin that friendship? Are you seriously willing to put yourself through that?”
“That’s really the worst-case scenario. But consider this, if I stay silent on my feelings, she will find someone else, and I’ll get my heart broken either way. If she rejects me, I can at least say I tried. Being a coward won’t get me anywhere.”
Turns out, he could be of help if he wanted to. She knew why he was doing this, a small empathetic part of him felt bad for her since their situations were so similar. The fear of losing his best friend seeped in between his words. Kirishima is the only person he seemed close to. Miraculously, he did have other friends. Sero, Denki, Mina and Kyouka herself. Though not zero, the number was still rather small. She understood why he couldn’t afford losing him.
At least Bakugou knew that there might be a small chance of Kirishima reciprocating his feelings with him being stone cold gay. Kyouka didn’t even know if Momo was into girls in the first place! This was really a royal pain in the ass. She missed her blissful days of denial.
“Go hang out with her,” Bakugou spoke.
“What, now?”
“Yes, now. It’s like eight PM on a fucking Saturday, plenty of time left if you ask me. You did say you wanted to get closer? Now’s your chance.”
Her comment on cowardice must have really gotten to him, getting him all fired up.
“Sleep over, even. Get serious about this,” he added.
“That’s a good idea actually,” she told him, “thanks.” Something crossed her mind and she grinned at him. “You know, you could do the same with someone who’s right next door.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” he growled while pushing her towards the door.
“Seize the evening Bakugou, the opportunities are endless!” she giggled as he slammed to door in her face.