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It all started with a heroics training lesson.
“We’ll be staying inside the classroom for today’s session,” Aizawa announced in his usual monotonous drawl. “You will be learning how to check the vitals of injured civilians. You’ll begin by pairing up amongst yourselves and measuring each other’s heart rates. Yes, you may choose your own partners.”
Jirou’s eyes scanned across the classroom to see with whom she could pair up with. Yaoyorozu had already switched seats with Iida so she could sit closer to Uraraka. Kaminari was draped over Sero’s desk, theatrically proclaiming how he would resuscitate the other boy with his quirk. And Ashido was dragging her chair next to Kirishima’s.
Eventually, her eyes met Bakugou’s own harsh gaze. Well, she supposed she could do worse than her own boyfriend. She raised an eyebrow in question, wordlessly asking if he would be willing to work with her. The blond shrugged, which Jirou interpreted as approval.
Jirou scooted her seat closer to his, though Bakugou made no effort to meet her halfway. At least their desks were already next to each other’s.
“Now,” Aizawa instructed once all of the partners had been established, “who can tell me which areas of the body would be the most effective to get a pulse reading from?”
Kaminari raised his hand, and Aizawa gestured for him to answer.
“The chest!” The blond cheered proudly.
“No.” The homeroom teacher sighed.
“But that’s where the heart is!” Kaminari cried out dramatically.
“Checking a pulse through the chest on a wounded civilian is always risky, since they could have bruised or even broken ribs. There are much safer areas to check.” Aizawa explained. “Any other guesses? Bakugou?”
“The side of the neck or the wrist.” Bakugou rolled his eyes.
“Correct.” The underground hero nodded, satisfied. “You may use either method. Press your index and middle fingers against the decided area and count the number of beats you feel for one minute.”
“If you think you’re gonna touch my neck, Ears, you’ve got another thing coming.” Bakugou narrowed his eyes at Jirou.
“To be fair, with my quirk, I can probably check your heart rate from here.” Jirou joked lightly as she turned her chair around to face him. “And I know you know my name, Kat. I’ve been your girlfriend for months now.”
Bakugou made a noise to acknowledge she had been heard, which was honestly more polite than what most people got out if him.
“How do you want me to check yours?” the blond asked.
“Any way works for me.” She shrugged.
With no further warning, Bakugou leaned forward. He reached his hand out and pressed his fingers against the side of her neck. Jirou held her breath, surprised by the sudden contact, and tried to calm down her heart since Bakugou could literally feel it right now.
Bakugou scowled in concentration as he counted, thankfully too focused on his task to see her internal scream into the void. Jirou could feel her face heat up, acutely aware of how warm Bakugou’s hand felt against her neck.
After what felt much longer than a minute, Bakugou finally let go.
“91.” Bakugou frowned. “It’s within the average range of a resting heart rate, but still surprisingly high.”
“Just nervous about our english presentation next period, I guess.” Jirou forced a laugh out of her throat.
Bakugou squinted at her in suspicion, but elected to ignore her blatant excuse.
“Your turn.” Jirou coughed into her fist awkwardly. “I’m guessing you’d prefer it if I don’t check through your neck?”
Bakugou snorted, but nodded in affirmation.
Jirou stretched her hand out for him. Bakugou’s eyes widened a fraction before he averted his gaze. Eyes now downcast, he thrust his hand forward to offer it to her.
She laid his hand on her lap, palm facing upwards, cupping the back of it with her own hand. She placed her phone on the table and set a timer for one minute. Then, following Aizawa’s instructions, she pressed her fingers against the inside of his wrist, below his thumb.
Jirou hadn’t been kidding earlier when she said she could have checked his pulse without touching him. Even now, while she could feel his heart on her fingertips, she could still hear it, too. It was nearly deafening, like his drum solos during the Cultural Festival. Wild. Erratic. And most of all, loud.
Normally, Jirou didn’t like loud things. Her hearing was sensitive, with her quirk and all.
But listening to Bakugou’s heart beating and feeling it pulsate was nice. It was like she was holding his heart in her hands.
And then her phone’s alarm was blaring into her eardrums, shocking her. Jirou let go of his hand as if she had been burned. Bakugou’s eyes finally darted back to meet her’s, a confused expression on his face.
There was a ringing in her ears and Bakugou’s lips were moving, but she couldn’t digest whatever the blond was saying. Jirou tried to pay attention to the conversation at hand. She looked at his face. His very pretty face. And his very pretty mouth. And his very pretty hair. And his very pretty eyes. And his very pretty eyebrows, which were both raised in question.
Crap. He was asking her a question.
Oh right. They were doing an assignment for class.
Was the ringing in her ears getting louder?
“115 beats per minute,” Jirou spoke shakily, once she had finally found her voice again. “Jeez, and you called me out with my resting heart rate!”
A pretty pink shade painted Bakugou’s pretty cheeks.
Yeah, the ringing in her ears was definitely getting louder.
“Nitroglycerin lowers people’s heart rates,” Bakugou spat. “So my body counteracts it by stressing the hell out of me all the goddamn time, so I don’t just pass out.”
“Damn. I guess Kami’s right whenever he says you have zero chill.” Jirou smirked.
“Shut up and die, Ears,” the blond sneered, pretty face still dyed a pretty pink hue.
With a start, she realized that the ringing in her ears had still just been Bakugou’s heart beating.
And the thing is, as soon as she started to take notice, she just couldn’t stop.
As Present Mic prattled on about how to conjugate verb tenses, all Jirou could hear was the steady thrumming from Bakugou’s chest. It wasn’t like this was a new development. If she concentrated, she could hear the rest of her peers’ own pulses no problem.
But hearing Bakugou’s heart was so effortless. Like everything else about him, it demanded attention. Like it was calling out to her.
It was soothing, in a way. The consistent thumping was almost musical. Like white noise.
“Oi. Ears,” Bakugou seethed. “You good?”
Jirou blinked up at him. They were in the cafeteria for lunch, waiting for the rest of their friend group to meet them at their regular table. The two of them were the only ones among them who knew how to actually cook, so Kaminari and the others had to buy food from Lunch Rush.
“What do you mean?” Jirou frowned in bemusement.
“You seem distracted.” Bakugou scowled. She could hear his pulse quicken. “You’ve been zoning out all day.”
“Um.” Jirou answered, rather eloquently.
How was she supposed to explain to him that she kept spacing out because she really liked listening to his heartbeat?
Thankfully, before she could flub her way out of that mess, Kaminari was sidling up next to Bakugou, trying to steal a bite of his food.
Even as Jirou stuffed her face, she could still feel Bakugou’s gaze digging into her.
And she still found herself tuning out of the conversation when the others arrived, nearly drifting off to the sound of Bakugou’s pulse.
So. Jirou might have a bit of a problem. And honestly, Bakugou was to blame. It wasn’t her fault that his heartbeat sounded so mesmerizing. She couldn’t help it if she was always fascinated with a good bass beat.
The drums were the backbone of a song. It guided the other instruments. It kept them steady and on pace.
During that Friday’s “Bakusquad Night”, a weekly event wherein their friend group met up to hang out and play games or do homework or whatever, Jirou spent the entire evening curled up on Bakugou’s lap, resting her head against his chest. While the others were all engrossed in the movie they were watching, she was just listening to his pulse.
Bakugou didn’t question it though, and simply tucked her head underneath his chin. He snuck in a quick kiss on her forehead, too, which made Jirou very glad that he couldn’t hear her own heartbeat.
She was nearly lulled to sleep to the soothing rhythm of Bakugou’s pulse when she felt something poke her side. Jurou cracked an eye open and found Kaminari leaning over to speak with them.
“It’s Sero’s and Iida’s turn to go grocery shopping, so we’re headed to the mall tomorrow. You guys wanna come?” Kaminari asked.
“What do you think, Kat?” Jirou asked, lightly bumping her head against his stomach.
“I could use some new work out clothes.” Bakugou offered them a meager half shrug.
“You and Kirishima should really tone it down when you spar.” Jirou shook her head in amusement. “I guess I do need to replace my bass’s strings, too.”
“Great!” Kaminari cheered. “I think Ashido asked some of the girls to join, too, so it’ll be a real party!”
Jirou rolled her eyes in fond exasperation and Bakugou rolled his eyes in much less fond exasperation.
Sure. A party.
It was a real party indeed. And like most parties, there were a lot of uninvited guests. Namely a rag tag team of villains.
Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, and Iida had ended up accompanying them. Iida, Sero, and Ashido had gone to the supermarket to get groceries for the class. Bakugou, Uraraka, and Kirishima had split off from them to browse through some sportswear. Jirou had no idea how those three ended up ripping and burning through so much fabric.
Which left Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, and her to go window shopping at the music store. Yaoyorozu had offered to buy Kaminari a new set of guitar picks and Jirou had just found a sturdy pair of drumsticks she thought Bakugou might like, when the mall’s security system alarm went off, notifying them of a villain attack.
“I think they messed with the cell tower.” Kaminari frowned as he fumbled with his phone. “I suddenly have no service.”
“Which means we can’t reach the others or contact Aizawa.” Jirou deduced with a groan. “Alright. Let’s concentrate on evacuating the civilians first. I’m sure Kat and the others can handle the villains.”
The other two heroes in training nodded in understanding. Jirou plugged her earjacks into the nearest wall. She could hear yelling and explosions. She tried to ignore that and pay attention to the softer noises. She heard crying and rushed footsteps.
“Let’s go!” Jirou exclaimed, motioning towards the nearest crowd of panicked people.
By the time the last of the civilians were safe and outside of the building, Jirou could no longer hear the telltale signs of a fight. They had met up with Iida, Sero, and Ashido outside of the mall, which meant that Bakugou, Kirishima and Uraraka were still inside somewhere. She pulled out her phone, but the cell signal was still being jammed.
“I’m going in. I can locate them with my quirk.” Jirou notified her classmates.
“I’ll go with you. They might need some backup.” Kaminari nodded.
The two reentered the mall, and Jirou plugged her earjacks into the floor.
“I can hear five different heartbeats inside the building. I can’t distinguish to whom each of them belong to, though,” Jirou hummed. “There are two close by on the level just below us.”
The two jogged down the nearest escalator and stumbled upon Bakugou lying flat on his back on the ground like a starfish. There was another person also lying down next to him who appeared to be unconscious.
“Are you okay?” Kaminari cried out.
“I’m fine, Sparky.” Bakugou scowled, not even bothering to lift his head to look at them. “There were two villains. I managed to take care of that bastard, but the other one had some type of venom quirk or something. She shoots out toxic darts that can paralyze people.”
“You can’t move?” Jirou furrowed her brow in concern. In spite of his reclined position, his heart was beating rather rapidly. Perhaps an effect of the poison?
“Nope,” Bakugou uttered flatly, making a popping noise with the p. “Hair for Brains and Round Face chased the bitch somewhere upstairs. I think they got it covered, though.”
“I’ll go get some help so we can carry you guys back,” Kaminari volunteered.
“All right. I’ll stand guard over the villain in case he wakes up,” Jirou nodded in thanks. Kaminari then sprinted back up from where they came from.
“The elevator should still work, so at least you won’t drop us down the escalator,” Bakugou grunted.
Jirou turned to face him with a curious expression.
“What the hell are you looking at, Ears?” He grumbled.
“Your pulse rate is really high right now,” Jirou noted worriedly.
“I told you, that’s natural,” Bakugou muttered. “My body has to counteract the nitroglycerin in my bloodstream with stress.”
“But your heart wasn’t beating this fast during the fight.” Jirou tilted her head at him in confusion.
“I wasn’t even in the same wing as you.” Bakugou raised an eyebrow at her in retaliation. “You can differentiate the sound of my pulse from others while that far away? And with that much background noise?”
“You’re deflecting,” Jirou accused, face flushing. “How can your heart rate be higher now than when in a fight? Actually, I couldn’t even tell it was you when Kami and I came looking for you guys. Your heart only started beating faster after we got here.”
As the implications of what she said eventually sunk in, Jirou could feel heat spread across her face. However, at least she wasn’t the only one.
“Shut up,” Bakugou mumbled. His cheeks were now dusted with a bright and vibrant pink color.
“Are you talking to me or your heartbeat?” Jirou teased, reveling in Bakugou’s embarrassed expression. She grinned, amusement dancing in her eyes, before breaking out into unrestrained laughter.
When she looked at him again, another snarky remark on the tip of her tongue, she paused. Bakugou was smiling at her. Not a brilliant smirk or a feral grin. A real smile.
And his heart was as loud as ever.
“Uh,” Jirou said poetically.
“What?” Bakugou cocked his head at her in bemusement.
“Your heart. It literally skipped a beat.” Jirou tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, a small smile on her face.
“Well, my heart has great taste, Kyou.” Bakugou grinned back.