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“You people need to find better ways of settling your arguments,” the girl says. “Your class gives me more business than the rest of the hero classes combined.”
Samada Makoto, Class 3-F. Quirk: True Love’s Kiss. Her lips secrete a compound that, when it meets another person’s skin, forces them to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth for ten minutes. Fighting it causes the person to believe they are in intense pain, though no actual bodily harm is done. Her goal is to work as an interrogator with the police, but for now, she’s not above making a few yen under the table by selling her services to her schoolmates.
Kaminari hands her a crisp thousand yen bill. “This is just, like, so much easier.” His friends nod their heads in agreement.
“It’s weird that you find truth serum more appealing than talking to each other,” Samada says, but she pockets his money anyway. “Alright, you know the drill. Kaminari Denki, do you consent to me using my quirk on you?”
“Hell yeah.”
“And the rest of you all heard that?”
A chorus of yes’s echoes around the common room. Almost half of Class 2-A is there, though their nerdy rep with the glasses is notably absent.
“Great!” Samada grabs Kaminari by the chin, bends down, and kisses him on the cheek, leaving a smear of red lipstick behind. “You’ve got ten minutes. Don’t waste it!” She grabs her coat and leaves before they can start squabbling.
“Well,” Shinsou says. “How do you feel?”
“Mmm, really nice.” Kaminari sinks down into the couch. When you don’t fight it, Samada’s quirk feels good, like a warm bath. “Bit tired. Bit horny.”
“I guess it’s working,” Sero says, “so I’m gonna ask. Kaminari, did you, or did you not, eat the last slice of my birthday cake?”
“I didn’t!” Kaminari pumps his fist. “I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t!”
“Goddamnit! I really thought it was you. Do you know who did eat it?”
“Nope!”
Sero groans. “Then I guess we have to do this again. It’s down to you two, now.” He points at Bakugou and Jirou.
“Do you want to fucking die!?” Bakugou yells, Kirishima going Unbreakable to hold him back.
Jirou points an earphone at Sero. “I will end you, you sticky bastard.”
“Cool, cool,” Shinsou says. “So are we done here?”
Kaminari laughs. “Oh, babe, not at all!”
“Shinsou, you weren’t here for the other times, so let me explain,” Ashido says. “Once we resolve the case, we use the rest of the ten minutes to ask the person embarrassing questions.”
“Uh, why?”
“Because it’s funny?”
“That’s fair,” Shinsou concludes. “You’re okay with this?” he asks Kaminari.
“Yeah, of course.” Kaminari grins. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“How old were you when you last peed your pants?” Jirou asks.
“Fourteen,” Kaminari says, his smile quickly disappearing. “It was quirk-related! I short-circuited really bad!”
Jirou snickers. “Sure you did.”
“How long have you left food that you dropped on the floor before eating it?” Kirishima asks.
“A couple hours.” Kaminari winces. “It was a granola bar!”
“What’s the deal with that stuffed dog on your bed?” Bakugou asks.
“That’s Mr. Pickles! I sleep with him every night.”
“Are you a virgin?” Sero asks.
“Does hand stuff count?”
“Oh my god,” Shinsou says. He buries his face in his hands.
“Don’t be shy!” Kaminari tells him. To Sero, he adds, “Do blow jobs count?”
Across the room, Todoroki turns to Midoriya. The two of them happened to be in the common room when this began and were tasked with watching the elevators to make sure Iida or Yaororozu didn’t interrupt. “Are you sure this is okay?” Todoroki asks.
“I guess? As long as no one asks anything mean, it’s probably fine.”
Todoroki trusts Midoriya’s judgement, but still. You never know what innocuous question might make someone reveal something personal. Todoroki is a man of many secrets. “Would you do it?”
Midoriya shakes his head. “No, never.” He has secrets, too, like his connection to All Might.
“Me either.” Maybe it’s okay for Kaminari, who is somewhat of an open book. But Todoroki has a bad feeling about this.
“Who do you like in the class?” Ashido asks Kaminari. As usual, the topic of the interrogation has turned to romance.
“Hitoshi, obviously!”
Shinsou grunts into his hands. The tips of his ears are red from the detail Kaminari went into about their sex life.
“Duh,” Ashido says. “Who else?”
“Just him!” Kaminari says. “I liked Jirou last year, but I think you guys knew that.”
“I think Kouda’s bunny knew that,” Kirishima says.
“Forget feelings, then. Who do you think is hot other than Shinsou and Jirou?”
“Oh man, um… Yaoyorozu obviously, Kirishima—”
“Bro,” Kirishima says, touched.
“—Bakugou—”
“Tch! Obviously.”
“—Uraraka, Hagakure—”
Ashido balks. “Tooru’s above me!? She’s invisible!”
“She’s very shapely.” Kaminari glances around the room. “Midoriya is really cute—”
“Thank you, Kaminari-kun.”
“—and Todoroki’s hot as hell, but he’s off-limits—”
“Wait, what?” Sero says.
“Why is Todoroki off-limits?” Ashido asks.
“Because Bakugou likes him,” Kaminari says, “and Bakugou scares me.”
The room goes silent, and then all hell explodes.
“What in the fuck, Dunce Face?! When did I ever say that!?”
“You didn’t,” Kaminari says. The effects of the quirk are wearing off, and his warm bath is starting to feel like a cold shower. “You never said anything.”
“But it’s still true,” Sero says gleefully, “because he can’t lie!”
“I don’t know. He might just think it’s true,” Jirou says. “Why do you think Bakugou likes Todoroki, Kaminari?”
“He stares at him all the time,” Kaminari says. “He gives him extra food when he makes dinner. He put a blanket on him when he fell asleep in the common room—”
“Shut up.” Bakugou's on his feet; his voice is shaking, and the colour has drained from his face. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You’re fucking—” He clenches his fists. “I’m done. I’m out.”
“Bakugou!” Kirishima calls.
Bakugou ignores him, heading for the elevators. “I am so done with you extras!”
He stops short. Todoroki is standing in his way.
“You put a blanket on me?” he asks.
Bakugou’s mouth pulls into a snarl. He raises his fist.
“Kacchan, don’t—”
The blast knocks Midoriya to the floor and Todoroki into the wall. “Kacchan!” Midoriya yells, but Bakugou is already gone, slamming the door to the stairwell behind him.
*
Todoroki knocks on the dorm room door. “No,” Bakugou yells.
“It’s me.” Will Bakugou recognize his voice? “Uh, Todoroki Shouto.”
“Then definitely no.”
Todoroki bangs on the door again. “Come on, there’s a time limit.”
“On what? You being a dumbass?’
“No. If you’d open the door, I’d tell—oh.”
The door swings open, leaving his hand hanging in the air as Bakugou scowls at him. The scowl deepens when he sees the lipstick kiss on Todoroki’s cheek. “What the hell is that for?”
“To make me tell the truth. Can I come in?”
“Fine. But make it quick.”
“I told you, there’s a—”
“Time limit, yeah, I know.” He shuts the door behind Todoroki. “What do you want?”
“I want you to ask me if I like you.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to tell you that I like you. Oh.” Todoroki touches his mouth. “I guess you didn’t have to ask.”
Bakugou stares. “You like me?”
“Yes.”
“In what way?”
“Romantically. Platonically. And—”
“And?”
“S-sexually.”
Bakugou is lucky he doesn’t blush easily. “And you had to be on truth serum to tell me that?”
“I didn’t think you’d believe me if I wasn't,” Todoroki says. “I thought you’d think I was making fun of you, and I don’t want to make fun of you.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want you to be my boyfriend.”
Bakugou chokes. “Buy me dinner first!”
“Okay. Are you hungry?”
“No, shithead, it’s three p.m.” Bakugou sighs, running a hand through his hair. “Is this for real?”
“Yes.”
“Then how would you feel about me kissing you?”
“Good,” Todoroki says. “Really good. A bit horny. Oh no—”
He doesn’t get anything else out before Bakugou kisses him. It’s messy, Todoroki too stunned to move and Bakugou using way too much teeth, but it’s still pretty amazing. Enough that, when they break apart, the first thing Todoroki says is, “I want to do that again.”
“In a minute,” Bakugou says. “Let me catch my breath.”
“Okay. Can I tell you something else then?”
“What?”
“I was the one who ate Sero’s birthday cake.”
“What!?” Bakugou sputters. “Why?”
“Because I was hungry and it looked really good.” Todoroki pauses. “Tasted really good, too.”
Bakugou laughs, tentatively, at first, like it’s been shocked out of him, then louder, harder. “You’re so weird,” he wheezes.
“I really like your laugh,” Todoroki says.
“So fucking weird,” Bakugou repeats, fonder this time.
“Can we kiss again now?” Todoroki asks.
“Yeah, alright.”