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Kirishima liked Bakugou.
A lot.
Not in just a “wow you’re so manly, dude!” way, but in a “I wanna kiss your face off” way.
Every day, seeing Bakugou made him ache. Every inch of his body was on fire, lit by the flames that Bakugou created.
He just wished he had enough nerve to tell him.
Not like he hadn’t tried.
-------
“Oi. Are you finished with that damn worksheet?” Bakugou leans over Kirishima from behind, and Kirishima feels his skin start to heat up. Bakugou, seemingly oblivious to this, starts to lecture Kirishima on the answers he had gotten wrong, yet again.
“Are you even listening?” Bakugou knocks on his forehead, grinning as he manages to startle Kirishima back into focus. Kirishima’s hands reach for the place where Bakugou knocked, rubbing circles into the sore skin as Kirishima whined.
“Stop being a baby. What, you want me to kiss it better?”
Kirishima’s head felt like they were popping out of his sockets. He felt his heart start to thump around his chest, unable to even process an answer to Bakugou’s question.
He knew it was a joke. He KNEW that.
But the thought of Bakugou’s lips sent him into overdrive.
So much so that he didn’t notice the flush heating up Bakugou’s head, starting at his ears, travelling down his cheeks and further to his neck, disappearing under the fabric of his shirt.
“T’s a joke. Relax. What you need to be freaking out about is how low your grade is about to be on this quiz.” Thinking about his grades shocked Kirishima back to his senses, ever more so when he saw half the page covered in red marks.
“This is the fifth time I’ve tried to do this worksheet! What am I doing wrong??” Kirishima wails, prompting low chuckles from the back of Bakugou’s throat.
“Maybe because you keep trying to conjugate your nouns. And you’re adding commas where it doesn’t even make sense. Why do you have a comma in the middle of the word?”
“It doesn’t go there?” Bakugou slapped a palm to his forehead in distress.
It was going to be a long studying session.
-------
Kirishima didn’t complete the worksheet successfully until well after the sun went down.
Flipping the page over to review the answers, he checks back on the front to make sure he got them all correct before turning to Bakugou.
“Bakugou, look I-” Kirishima pauses, stunned by the sight in front of him.
He knew that Bakugou liked going to bed early, and that he was cutting into his sleep.
Still, seeing Bakugou rub his eyes blearily in an attempt to stave off sleep tugged at Kirishima’s heart.
He was cute. In a way that made Kirishima’s mouth open before he could think about it, a confession on the tip of his tongue.
“You finally done? Good. Leave. ‘M tired. Good night.”
-------
Kirishima wasn’t the only one with a crush, however.
Bakugou had one of his own.
On Kirishima.
Badly.
So badly that sometimes his brain started melting whenever Kirishima appeared near him, hands brushing against any piece of Bakugou they could reach.
It was almost embarrassing how badly he wanted Kirishima, and yet how much he couldn’t bring himself to tell him.
Not for a lack of trying.
-------
Kirishima was the only one that would train with Bakugou no matter the circumstances.
When the rest of their class was hiding away from the rain, they were in the gym, testing out their Quirkless hand to hand combat skills.
Although Bakugou had more formal training, Kirishima had the benefit of muscle mass and endurance. Meaning he kept Bakugou on his toes much more than anyone else could.
After a particularly aggressive bout, both boys laid on the floor, chest heaving and sporting matching grins.
“Bakugou.” At the sound of his name, Bakugou turns to look at Kirishima, and feels like he’s been sucker punched.
Red strands stuck to his forehead as Kirishima’s eye shrunk with happiness. A bruise was developing on the side of his jaw where Bakugou had caught him off guard with a swift kick. Sweat dripped down the side of his neck, and Bakugou felt such a need to plant a kiss there that his body started to move.
In a moment, he had managed to roll over, crouching over Kirishima so closely that he was sucking the air from between them like a vacuum.
“B-bakugou?” Kirishima’s confusion brings Bakugou back to reality, a deep red tinging his skin as he realizes the position he’s in.
He wants to go through with it. God, does he want to go through it. And he almost does.
But the way Kirishima’s eyes widen, and his body starts trembling unconsciously makes him stop.
“C’mon. Get up. Let’s get you back to the dorms.” Bakugou stands, painfully aware of how awkward he made things so easily.
He stretches a hand out, grasping at Kirishima’s until he’s able to pull him up. He didn’t realize how rough he had been on Kirishima until he’s slouched over Bakugou’s shoulders, barely able to move his feet.
He may be strong, but hurting him still made Bakugou feel like shit.
“I’ll run you a bath. You stink.”
“You’re the one who said we had to run in the rain, jerk. Now I smell like outside and sweat because of you.” Truth be told, Bakugou didn’t care how Kirishima smelled because the proximity to him made the blood rush to his ears so badly that he could only barely make out Kirishima’s response.
-------
“Did you bring the coupons?”
“Got them right here!” Kirishima holds up a handful of different circulars, waving them in front of Bakugou’s face until Bakugou swats at him.
They were on grocery duty this week, and Bakugou wanted to make sure that they got the best deals. His intense focus and dedication included collecting all the circulars in the area, creating a map of the grocery store, and creating a list by brand name, size, and price of every item they needed.
Kirishima couldn’t help but be attracted to him as he pushed their cart from UA. Feeding 20 students for a week took a lot of food, and Yaoyorozu had purchased a cart to help with transport. It was a large cart, but nothing that Kirishima couldn’t handle himself.
That was his one job. Push the cart. Everything else, Bakugou felt the need to handle himself.
The only reason Kirishima had the coupons was because Bakugou had accidentally left his folder with them in Kirishima’s room, a fault that stressed him to no end until Kirishima woke up and texted him about it the next morning.
Bakugou hated messing up. That was attractive to Kirishima, for some unknown reason. He understood the draw to his passion and drive, but the perfectionism still confused him.
When they arrived at the store, there were only a few employees milling around, and a couple arguing quietly in the baby food aisle.
The quiet managed to calm Bakugou’s nerves, and they started to drift from his careful planning, aimlessly wandering the store.
“Bakugou! Look at these!” Kirishima picks up a bag of chips with a shark on them, proposing themselves to be “shark flavored”, whatever that meant. As he held them up to his face, Bakugou couldn’t help but recognize the similarities between Kirishima’s pointy grin and the shark on the bag. He scoffed, trying to stop the laughter bubbling up in his chest.
“They suit you. We can get them.” Kirishima’s cheers cause Bakugou to soften, dim lighting hitting his features in just the right way to take Kirishima’s breath away.
Bakugou was always beautiful, but sometimes he was so otherworldly it was like he didn’t exist.
“Hey dude?” Kirishima whispers, the sound swirling around the aisle, taking up space between them almost as if it was a physical entity. It scared Bakugou into turning around, brow furrowed with concern over what could possibly make Kirishima’s voice dip so suddenly.
Kirishima didn’t like when his face screwed up with worry. Well, maybe he did like it a little. But he didn’t like being the cause of worry.
So he held it in.
What’s a little longer between friends, right?
-------
Bakugou tried himself on the walk home. The sun had almost set, and the sun got caught in Kirishima’s hair, filtering through and lighting up his eyes so fiercely that he felt like the sun was standing right next to him.
With his hair down and flowing behind him, he really could have been a comet.
Bakugou felt himself burning up, skin prickling with heat as Kirishima pushed the groceries in front of them, blabbering on about some sort of competition that Bakugou had no idea about.
This happened a lot. Kirishima was always talking about whatever was on his mind, even if Bakugou had no background knowledge on the topic. That never stopped Bakugou from listening and nodding along, even if it was the middle of the night and he would have much rather been asleep.
Kirishima’s voice was so soothing that it could melt mountains, and his smile could light a fire to the world’s forests. His laugh was like magic, throwing sparkles into the air with every giggle and blind Bakugou to every earthly sensation he had ever experienced.
Kirishima was the only thing he ever wanted to feel.
Without meaning to, he reached out, raking his fingers through crimson locks so soft it was like they were made out of the clouds themselves.
Kirishima turns, caught off guard, but not upset. It felt nice, a pleasant difference to the way his own fingers often tangled near his roots.
“Sorry. Looked soft.” Bakugou removed his hand, words dying behind his teeth as Kirishima turned back forward, insisting that he was okay with it.
There was so much more he wanted to say, so many feelings bubbling in his chest that Bakugou exploded once he reached his own room.
He couldn’t keep it inside much longer.
-------
They started to crack one day while they were stretching. Bakugou was so flexible that Kirishima insisted that Bakugou teach him, and so they had a daily stretching meet up in the mornings before class.
The sun had already started to rise when Kirishima made his way outside, yawning widely.
He had overslept. He knew Bakugou would be irritated, especially because he had pulled a muscle two days ago and didn’t say anything about it.
“What the hell took you so long, idiot?” Bakugou had bent himself into such a deep straddle that Kirishima had trouble answering. He was pressed against the grass outside, as he preferred the dewy morning air to the stale air inside the dorms.
Instead of responding, Kirishima got down and started to stretch too, wincing as his back started to scream at him.
“You’re not even going to say anything.”
“I overslept. Sorry, Bakugou. Won’t happen again.” The pain was getting to Kirishima, lighting up his synapses so much that he snapped at Bakugou unintentionally.
Bakugou was taken aback by the attitude he received, unsure of how to handle it. He had finally steeled himself to confess to Kirishima that morning, because there was no one around to interrupt them with stupid question or requests.
Instead, all that faced him was a red wall of frustration, impossibly steep.
He didn’t know what to do, so he did nothing.
Neither did Kirishima, and their session ended in silence, Kirishima heading back inside without waiting for Bakugou.
The sun rose, and so did their irritation levels, until it was too much to take.
-------
It was obvious all day that there was something going on between the two. No one wanted to get involved, but a heavy air settled on the group, even after they returned to the dorms.
Bakugou was pissed off. At Kirishima, for being stupid and mad at him.
Well, that’s what he wanted to tell himself.
Really, he was mad at himself. For making Kirishima upset. For getting on him over something so stupid.
For not being honest about his feelings.
They were eating him alive.
He felt like a nest of snakes had burrowed into his chest, nibbling at his bones until he started to waste away.
All he wanted was peace, and instead he had provoked tension. As he tended to do so easily.
He thought being with Kirishima was different. That he would be able to make light of any situation Bakugou landed them into.
Yet he was the one standing in front of Kirishima’s doorway, pleading with his eyes for Kirishima to let him in.
And was Kirishima a sucker for those eyes.
It was quiet at first.
Kirishima didn’t know why Bakugou was there, and neither did Bakugou.
“Are you mad at me?” Bakugou looked up from where he stood at the sound of Kirishima’s voice, taking him all in.
There was obviously something wrong.
“Why would I be mad at you? If it’s about this morning, it wasn’t that deep. I don’t understand why you got so upset.”
Okay, that was phrased poorly, evident by the way Kirishima bristled.
“What? You’re the one who yelled at me about oversleeping.”
“I didn’t yell. I just asked where you fucking were. You’re not usually late.”
“And so? I was late. Sue me.”
“I’m not fucking mad; I just said that. Try listening.”
“Then why the hell are you upset now?”
“I was fucking concerned, alright? Is that so terrible, Kirishima?” Despite his anger, Kirishima’s heart fluttered at the use of his name. That didn’t stop the ringing in his ears or the searing in his chest.
“Why the hell would you be concerned about me, Mr. I only care about myself?”
“Cuz I like you, idiot!” Bakugou’s voice rose before he could control himself, and that combined with the message stunned Kirishima into silence.
Bakugou...liked him?
Bakugou wishes he could say he said it by accident. A heat of the moment confession, something he could take back.
But he didn’t. It was a purposeful choice of words. He couldn’t hold it in anymore. Nor did he want to.
“Why would you say that?” Kirishima, somehow, managed to sound even angrier than before.
“What do you mean, why would I say it?”
“Do you- do you even care how I feel Bakugou? Why the hell would you fuck with me like this? You’re such an ass.” Kirishima hiccups, tears springing to his eyes. It had to be a joke, and one so hurtful that Kirishima couldn’t help the sobs that pressured through his lungs, sticking in his throat.
“I’m not fucking with you, dumbass, so stop the crying. I’m serious. Cut it out. I like you, Kirishima. Have for a while.” Bakugou steps forwards, swiping at tears until Kirishima can compose himself enough to speak.
“You’re really serious?”
“You think I would ever do anything to hurt you?” Kirishima smiles weakly, pressing his fist up to Bakugou’s chest.
“Then wanna date me? I don’t have that much experience with it, but I promise I’ll be the best boyfriend possible!” Bakugou rolls his eyes dramatically, an action that makes Kirishima giggle despite his previous tears. Soon they’re both caught up in giggles, sound filling the room that had ached with silence.
“Is that a yes?”
“Always a yes, Eijirou.”