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Everything Katsuki Bakugou knew about love, he learned from watching his mother. His mother loved hard, with every cell in her body, but she was abrasive and prone to outbursts, which her husband handled with gentle smiles and soft touches because he knew he had her whole heart in his hands. Mitsuki was also honest, brutally so, because she lived every day like it was her last and she didn’t see the value in lying about her feelings to protect other people’s sensitivities. She was fiercely loyal, but viciously jealous and overbearingly protective, and as his father always reminded him, Katsuki was his mother’s son. He inherited all of the best and worst parts of her, then turned the dial up to ten.
As much as he screamed to be left alone, people flocked to Bakugou like he was some kind of beacon, and on impulse he lashed out— but he was working on it, okay?! Old habits died hard and pushing his classmates around was default for him. They had to know he was the best, that he was going to be number one and that he was going to step all over anyone if that’s what it took to get there. Despite all that, they were still drawn to him. Bold Uraraka had laughed and called him toxic one day, but when Deku tried to make some pathetic excuse for him, he had yelled something about not needing defending before stomping away with Kirishima hanging off his shoulder trying to placate him. That day, his eyes had locked on unshakable gray and blue eyes which could have burned him to the ground.
Bakugou was angry because Shouto Todoroki never gave him the reaction he wanted, and it was agonizing. Todoroki was not even a little afraid of him like the others were. He talked back, annoyed the fuck out of him, and he did it on purpose. He must not have feared death or any god, because he’d looked down into the barrel of the gun that was Bakugou’s explosive palm without flinching, not even when sparks flew and the threat of a blast to the face became very real. No matter how hard Katsuki pushed, how close he got in the other’s face, how often he threatened, he couldn’t make Shouto lose control and it made his skin crawl. He wanted to wreck him, make him lose composure, kiss that stupid look off his face until his lips were cracked and bleeding and gray and blue eyes couldn’t focus anymore—
Bakugou hadn’t gotten around to being honest about those growing feelings for the thorn in his side, but frankly, there were a few things in his way— like being number one and trying to finish his remedial courses so he could catch up to all the extras that had obtained their provisional licenses. He wasn’t making excuses. Of course not. He just had more important things to worry about.
Another hurdle was that half-and-half was always on his damn phone. For someone so mellow, he was surprisingly chatty when it came to messaging. He texted with emojis and sent animated gifs, not that Katsuki had tried to peek at the other teen’s screen to see just what the fuck he was doing on that thing all day or anything.
Okay, Todoroki had siblings he kept in touch with. He had friends to talk to now. He liked to play shitty phone games about collecting cats and matching candy. He read manga and made a lot of lists. But for fuck’s sake! It was midday and they were on a break from their remedial course, sitting at a cafe with their rivals from Shiketsu High School. They were at the table, having lunch with students from a rival school. Todoroki had the rest of his life to text. Had he been this disrespectful when they were all living at home? Endeavor probably didn’t tolerate it when his children were young, and maybe that was why the youngest of the family was constantly glued to his phone on his downtime now. Todoroki at least had enough sense of responsibility to put it away during class and training, but Bakugou swore he’d blast the device to pieces if he saw Todoroki smile down at it one more time.
“Put your damn phone down, icyhot! Can’t you see we’re eating?!” Bakugou snarled, startling the other boy.
“Sorry, Midoriya said something funny,” Todoroki explained matter-of-factly, quickly typing out a response before setting his phone on the table. Bakugou stuffed a quarter of his sandwich into his mouth and chewed furiously, glaring daggers, but when Shouto’s screen lit up again and mismatched eyes darted towards the device, Bakugou slammed his fists on the table.
“I said quit it! You can talk to that stupid nerd when we’re all done eating!”
“I didn’t realize me texting and you eating were mutually exclusive.”
Bakugou’s jaw dropped at Todoroki’s insolence and his legs propelled him up, an indignant fist forming in Shouto’s direction.
“I’m going to use the restroom,” Shouto excused himself without letting Bakugou get a word in and stood from his seat.
“I’ll come with you, Todoroki!” Yoarashi announced and leapt up as well, earning a confused but resigned look from Todoroki.
“You really don’t need to,” the two at the table heard Todoroki murmur, but he didn’t reject the boy’s company as he loyally followed. Bakugou lowered himself slowly back into his seat and his gaze fell heavily onto the phone Shouto had left behind. When Todoroki wandered sufficiently away to find the restroom, with Yoarashi dutifully trailing after him, Camie gave Bakugou a knowing look.
“What the fuck are you staring at?” Katsuki hissed and Camie grinned.
“If you’re jealous,” she cooed, nudging Todoroki’s phone across the table towards the boy with one perfectly manicured finger, “Just look through his phone! Sometimes you have to, boys are such a drag,” she sighed dramatically, pouting her lips. She watched Bakugou’s beet red face scroll through a number of emotions before it settled on one of indignation.
“Who said I was jealous?!” Bakugou shrieked, smacking the phone away forcefully. Todoroki’s phone flew off the table, but Katsuki quickly scrambled to catch it before it hit the ground. He was not about to be indebted to that bastard for breaking his phone for no damn reason. He set it down again and the screen turned on. There was a new message on the screen, and without meaning to, Bakugou caught the name of the person texting: Izuku Midoriya, saved with a shitty collection of green emojis following the surname.
“Oooh, cute emojis!! Todoroki must really like this guy!!” Camie exclaimed, and Bakugou flipped the phone over with a dangerous scowl on his face.
“And what about it?!” Yeah, the nerds were good friends, but that was all. That had to be all. There couldn’t be anything more, there was nothing more complex about the wide and adoring eyes Izuku made at Shouto and the soft little smiles Shouto gave back. Bakugou dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands.
“I wonder what he has your name saved as! Have you even given him your number? He’s a catch! He’s famous all over for being a total babe, even at Shiketsu,” Camie reached for the phone, but at that moment, Yoarashi’s loud voice called out to them, announcing the pair’s return. Bakugou ground his teeth together painfully when Todoroki looked directly into his eyes as he picked up his phone again.
—
Just look through his phone!
He wasn’t jealous. Not at all. Just what was Camie even trying to insinuate? Icyhot could talk to whoever he wanted to. He knew that Todoroki and Deku were close. But how close? Did Shouto really just sit around and text Midoriya all day? What the fuck was so interesting about that nerd that they had to text incessantly? But Deku liked girls, he always had. Right? Right? And girls liked him too, for some reason. He knew Midoriya was into Uraraka, and she was even more obvious about her feelings. There was no way there was anything between him and Todoroki.
Right…?!
Bakugou was sitting on a bench, stewing in his own anger while watching Shouto and Inasa sparring, with Camie hovering on the sidelines and cheering her classmate on each time he got a hit in. Next to Bakugou on the seat, Todoroki had left a towel, a water bottle, and his stupid phone. Each time the device buzzed, announcing a notification, Bakugou’s fingers twitched. Camie glanced over her shoulder, and she must have sensed the stress Bakugou was under because she mouthed, ‘Check his phone’ and pointed surreptitiously at the cellphone in question.
Fuck it. With a scowl, Bakugou snatched up the phone and swiped up. He doesn’t even have a fucking passcode... That meant Todoroki had nothing to hide, right? He had to mentally prepare himself to handle the text messages, so he started with the phone background. It was a basic stock image that probably came with the phone. Boring enough. Next, Bakugou tapped the photo icon, eyes narrowing as he scrolled through the camera roll. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he didn’t find anything interesting. Pictures of plants, pictures of cats. Some photos of his family. A few selfies not taken by him but taken on his phone of his group of loser friends. Some screenshots of recipes he’d found, which he probably would never recreate, at least not on his own. Maybe he’d sent them to Fuyumi.
A message came through as Bakugou was scrolling, and he gritted his teeth as he read Midoriya’s name again. Steeling himself for what he might find, he opened Shouto’s text messages and scrolled through his most recent contacts. Midoriya and the other nerds in their little group chat, Uraraka, Iida, Asui. Then their own group chat with Camie and Yoarashi, for remedial class use, of course. They had made lunch plans earlier in the day before they all arrived at training. (Katsuki noticed his own name was saved as “Bakugou” with the bomb and explosion emojis; he made a note to rub that in Camie’s face later.) Then his sister Fuyumi. Momo, with no last name, which made Bakugou raise an eyebrow. Were they really that friendly? His brother Natsuo was listed under Yaoyorozu, then under that was Midoriya again but in a separate conversation, without the prying eyes of the other nerds watching the things they said. This was what he had been after.
The first thing Bakugou learned was that his paranoia about some secret relationship between icyhot and Deku was completely unwarranted. He felt stupid, a little. Midoriya was taking Uraraka out for mochi in the evening to officially ask her out, and he had been spilling his heart out to Todoroki about how nervous and excited he was. Bakugou scrolled to earlier messages, more fawning over Ochako, a few encouraging messages from Midoriya wishing him luck on his training that day, Midoriya checking in on his thoughts and feelings because that was the kind of shitty fucking good friend Deku was—
His own name flashed by and Katsuki stopped, scrolling manically in the other direction to try to find it again. The messages were from the night before.
I like him so much
Kacchan???? Really????????
I realized it this morning at training
Are u sure??????
I got distracted and made a mistake
Bakugou destroyed me
He got in my face and cursed me out for
“being a waste of his fucking time”
And that I’d “make a shitty sidekick at best”
That’s all I remember though, I wasn’t really listening
I wanted to kiss him but I probably wouldn’t have survived
OMG
I just
Todoroki
Just know Kacchan is kind of……………
A lot.
Bakugou wanted to murder the nerd. No, he would murder the nerd the next time he had the chance. Turn him into charcoal. Show him a lot. He was stuck on that conversation, though. He read the lines over and over and over until they turned blurry, as if he couldn’t believe his own eyes.
“Bakugou, I think you grabbed my phone by mistake.”
Bakugou almost screamed and he whipped his head around until he found the source of the voice.
“Here, I found yours on the ground. Sorry for the confusion.”
Todoroki was standing in front of him, breathing heavily and wiping sweat from his face and neck with his towel in one hand and holding Bakugou’s phone out to him with the other. Katsuki’s face was flushed a deep, dark red and Shouto wasn't helping the situation.
“Are you feeling okay, Bakugou? You can have my water if you didn’t bring your own.”
“I-I looked through your phone.” Katsuki Bakugou was many things, but a damn liar wasn’t one of them.
“What do you mean?” Shouto asked, tilting his head to his left in that stupid, innocent, wonderful way that made white hair sweep across his face, and that made Bakugou want to snap his neck and kiss him at the same time.
“I mean I fucking looked through your phone! I looked at your pictures and read your messages!” Katsuki’s hands were in fists at his sides, “Shit!!” he yelled out and quickly wiped the sweat from his palms on his pants when he felt them get too hot.
“Oh, okay. You could have just asked instead of doing it behind my back,” Todoroki said, then took a swig from his water bottle since Bakugou didn’t seem to want to take up his offer.
“You would have let me?!” Bakugou snapped incredulously, “I read everything, even your messages with Deku!!”
“Bakugou, are you jealous?” Shouto asked as if he’d suddenly remembered something, “Camie said you were jealous that I was texting Midoriya a lot, but I didn’t really understand it,” he admitted earnestly.
“You mean you knew?!”
“So you are jealous?”
“I thought… I though you two had something going on or something,” Bakugou confessed through his teeth, “I had to find out for myself.”
“Midoriya is my best friend, so I guess you could say that?” Shouto answered and Katsuki wanted to die.
“No, you stupid idiot! Like... like dating, or whatever!”
“Oh,” Todoroki whispered pensively, and he furrowed his brows, “Did it really seem that way to you?”
“You kept smiling at his dumb texts all day, what the fuck else was I supposed to think?!”
“Bakugou, do you not smile at your friends?”
“That’s not the point! You’re fucking killing me here, asshole! Quit playing dumb, you know exactly what I’m talking about!”
“Okay, I’m sorry. To be honest, I wasn’t going to tell you,” Todoroki finally relented and glanced away a bit sheepishly.
“Why the hell not?!” Bakugou yelled incredulously.
“You don’t like me,” the other boy shrugged, “So I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“You don’t get to just decide how I feel about you!”
“You’ve told me you don’t like me. That you ‘fucking hate my guts,’ in fact,” Todoroki quoted, searching Bakugou’s face for answers, “Why would you say that if you don’t really mean it?”
“Oh, fuck you—“ Katsuki leapt to his feet and yanked Shouto closer by the front of his uniform. He smashed their lips together, reveling in the surprised little sound Shouto made against his mouth before dropping everything in his hands and eagerly kissing him back. When they finally parted, Todoroki’s face was flushed pink, and when they made eye contact once more, Bakugou knew he would never let anyone else have the boy in front of him.
“I wasn’t jealous,” Bakugou growled, “Get that through your thick skull.” Shouto only grinned and gripped the sides of his face, kissing him again with more fervor and surrendering himself to whatever fate awaited him in Katsuki's hands.