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Tooru fiddled her pencil in between her fingers, watching the twirling colors swirl together as her fingers grew more comfortable with the pattern. It was a review class today, and she was extremely bored since she already knew everything. She quickly looked around to see if anyone near her was also bored out of their minds. Unfortunately, it seemed as if everyone else was paying attention. She decided to try and pay attention to Cementoss’s lecture again.
“-add 20 to the 56 in order to balance the equation. This gives us 8b equals 76. Now, to figure out what b is, you have to divide 76 by 8, which gives us 9.5. Now that we know that b is 9.5, we can finish the rest of the equation.”
Nope, still boring.
Tooru sighed quietly, surrendering herself to another class of daydreams and fidgeting. At least, that was her intention, until she noticed the impatient tapping behind her. It sounded as if someone was smacking their pen against their notebook close behind her.
Bakugou.
Tooru felt her grin grow as she ripped out a paper from her notebook as quietly as she could. Even if Bakugou didn’t end up replying, it gave her something to do for the time being. She quickly wrote, trying to keep it in time with Cementoss’s lecture in order to look like she was taking notes:
Hey, are you as bored as I am? Cause if you are, I wanna talk if you’re down
Tooru glanced around to make sure that no one was looking as she dropped her hand into her sleeve (since she wouldn’t be able to rely on her hand to hide the note). She, then, subtly swung her arm backwards in order to deposit the note onto Bakugou’s desk without Cementoss noticing. As she was rearranging in her seat, she heard Bakugou stop tapping his pen.
Tooru bit her lip to hide a grin despite knowing that no one would see it anyways. It was just something that she had picked up from watching other people’s expressions. She heard Bakugou start to write something down, which meant that he actually decided to respond.
Success!
Tooru felt a slight brush against her arm, so she glanced around before subtly putting her hand behind her in order to get the note. As soon as she felt the piece of paper between her fingers, she dropped her hand back into her sleeve and brought her hand back in front of her. Thankfully, it was an easy enough maneuver to do, so it wouldn’t be too hard to keep up during class.
Of course I’m bored, this is easy shit.
Do you read manga? If so, what kind?
Tooru passed the note back after writing a reply despite Bakugou not really making an effort to start a conversation. If he hadn’t wanted to talk, he shouldn’t have responded.
Romance manga, mostly, cause of my mom (if you tell anyone, you’re dead)
I love romance manga! My current favorite is an old one called Orange, what’s yours?
Don’t have one, but I’ve read Orange and it is pretty good
Pretty good? It’s amazing!!
The concept is interesting, but I was disappointed in the execution
As if you could do any better
I could
Oh yeah? What would you do with that concept?
If you really want to know, ask me later, class is about to end
Tooru looked up from the last note Bakugou had given her to glance at the clock, only to realize he was right. It was almost time for lunch. At least her plan to entertain herself worked wonderfully, though now she was dying to know what Bakugou would write with the concept of receiving letters from your future self. She was going to have to ask him about it later.
For now, Tooru gathered her school things and was swept up into Mina’s hyperactive, slightly melancholy (from not being able to understand the lesson) energy as she headed to lunch.
~~~~~
A couple days later, Tooru managed to catch Bakugou alone in the kitchen. She glanced around, only to notice that there wasn’t anyone else in the common room either. She grinned to herself, taking this as a sign that she was meant to talk to him today.
Tooru walked into the kitchen, not stopping until she hopped onto the counter next to where Bakugou was looking through the cupboards (probably looking for something to make himself for dinner). He looked at her, looking slightly angry as he always did, but also confused as to why she was there.
“Alright, what was your idea for the Orange concept?”
Bakugou looked surprised, dropping the angry undertone of all his expressions for once. Tooru was kind of surprised, herself, at how easily she was able to read Bakugou now that she was actively trying to; she always assumed that his expressions were just as hard to read as her own. It was only a split second before his expression returned back to normal, but she would always remember how he looked without it. He was kind of pretty when he wasn’t angry.
“Well, the idea of getting letters from your future self is something you can do a lot with.” Bakugou grumbled out, eyeing her carefully as if he expected her to start laughing at whatever he was going to say. “I think I would’ve done something completely different with it story wise, though. Probably make it more of a horror than a romance, give it more suspense and maybe reveal that someone else was actually pulling the strings the entire time.”
“Huh,” Tooru let out once it was clear Bakugou wouldn’t continue, “I guess that would’ve made for an interesting story. I still stand by what I said about Orange being amazing.”
“Yeah, yeah. It wasn’t a bad story. It just… wasn’t quite the best.”
“I can tell you are trying to be nice about my favorite romance manga, and I greatly appreciate it.” Tooru put as much of an uppity tone of voice as she dared, which, unexpectedly, made Bakugou huff a little in what sounded like the start of a laugh.
“Sure, Invisibitch.”
Tooru couldn’t help but giggle at the nickname Bakugou gave her, “Oh my God! I should’ve used that as my hero name.”
Bakugou snorted before saying, “Oh yeah, ‘cause that would’ve gone over so well with Midnight.”
“She approved of Todoroki and Iida just putting their first names!”
“Yeah, but she didn’t approve of Alien Queen or King Explosion Murder.”
“You know what? I understand not approving of Explosion Murder, but Alien Queen? That was an amazing name for Mina! It fits her much better than Pinky does!”
“Completely agree there, but hey! King Explosion Murder was an awesome name.”
“Awesome? Absolutely, but appropriate for a hero? Not so much.”
“Why not?” Bakugou practically shouted as he turned on the stove and put a pot of water on it to make what looked like ramen.
“Well, first of all, you’d have murder in your name. Most hero work is public, and the public is very judgemental, which means we have to try and anticipate their opinions of us. Half of hero work now is publicity, and you know it.”
Bakugou rolled his eyes, “Ugh, unfortunately. You want some?” He gestured towards the pot on the stove with the box of noodles in his hand.
“Yeah! Thanks for offering.” Bakugou just grunted, as if he didn’t just do the first nice thing that Tooru had ever seen him do. “Anyways, if I were you, I’d pick something like… Nitro, or Outburst, or something along those lines.”
“Huh… not bad suggestions, Invisibitch.” Bakugou said, smirking slightly and leaning against the counter like it was a natural position.
Tooru returned the smirk, though she knew that Bakugou wouldn’t be able to see it, “No problem, Explodokills.”
Bakugou barked out a harsh laugh before turning his back to her and getting out vegetables to add to the ramen. Tooru realized that he was probably signalling that he wouldn’t be talking anymore, and she was perfectly fine with that. In fact, she jumped off the counter and poked him on the shoulder on her way out of the kitchen. The end of their conversation seemed pretty perfectly timed, as well, since she had just set up her school work on the coffee table in the common room when Kaminari came down and started bugging Bakugou for food.
Bakugou absolutely refused to give any of the food he was making to Kaminari, which made the other boy balk as he handed Tooru a bowl of ramen on his way to his dorm room to eat his own dinner. Tooru just grinned as she ate, feeling very victorious for receiving a simple act of kindness from Bakugou.
~~~~~
The next time they have a long conversation is after Tooru discovers a stack of a manga series outside her dorm room door. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Bakugou was the one who left them, especially since there seemed to be tiny notes in the margins about his thoughts on the story every few pages or so.
Tooru was ecstatic to discover that the series clearly took some inspiration from Orange (with some added violence and action), which meant that Bakugou wasn’t just giving her some random series. He thought that she would like it, and that made her feel happier than she had in a while. Usually, when people got her things, they got stuff that pretty much anyone could want and didn’t really think about her personal tastes. Bakugou, hopefully, purposefully choosing a series that was similar to one that she had told him was her favorite seemed so caring, which was slightly out of character. She wasn’t going to complain about that, though.
Tooru was quick to start reading after school had let out for the day, incredibly curious about the story that Bakugou, quite forcefully yet subtly, recommended to her. As she was reading, she became quite attached to a character that reminded her of Bakugou. Granted, the character, Kaneko, was more like a female version of him, but still. It was quite endearing how the character reacted to scenarios, and Tooru could easily picture Bakugou reacting the same way.
Tooru was getting really into the action of the story, anxiously reading the character expositions of their past and how it led them to where they were. She was finally to Kaneko’s chapter of her past, and she couldn’t wait to see what it could possibly tell her about Bakugou (considering that the character seemed to have similar motivations to him).
What she didn’t expect was for the chapter to end with Kankeo being stabbed by a criminal after getting mugged. Tooru quite literally screamed, causing Jirou to rush over to her dorm room and ask what the matter was.
All Tooru could do was sob and point angrily at the manga she had thrown at her wall, and Jirou just sighed at her, saying, “Next time you get emotional over a story, please refrain from screaming. I thought you were dying!”
“Sorry,” Tooru sniffed, doing her best to hold back her tears, “it won’t happen again.”
Jirou smiled at her, patting her on her head before leaving to go back to her own dorm.
Tooru sat in her room for a couple more minutes, just pouting and processing the fact that Bakugou had given her a manga series that made her cry. Eventually, she sat up, deciding that she needed to go and scold Bakugou for the emotional damage he had caused her. Nodding to herself, she grabbed the manga she had thrown and made her way over to Bakugou’s dorm room.
~~~~~
Katsuki grumbled as he pushed off of bed in order to answer whoever was knocking up a storm outside of his dorm room. He just wanted to take a nap for once after training, and now he had to deal with this asshole. He scowled as he yanked open his door, purposefully making his voice as intimidating as possible to try and contradict his less than intimidating appearance after being woken up suddenly, “What the fuck do you want?”
“You! You gave me a sad manga, and you are going to pay for it!” Invisibitch practically screamed at him, shoving her way into his dorm room when he was momentarily shocked by her sheer volume.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Get out of my room!” Katsuki shouted back at her, despite closing the door while turning to walk over to where she threw herself onto his bed. He growled down at her, taking the time to shove her over to make space for him to lie back down next to her.
Invisibitch held up a manga, part of the series that Katsuki had given her in order to have someone to rant about it to (not that she needed to know that part), and grumbled into the pillow she had shoved her face into, “I got attached to Kaneko, and now I am emotionally damaged, and it’s your fault. Fix it.”
Katsuki snorted at the fact that Hagakure sounded like a petulant child, “What part are you at?”
“Kaneko was mugged and stabbed… there’s no one else around her! They won’t find her in time, and I cried.” Hagakure complained, shifting onto her side so that she could face Katsuki as he turned his own face towards her. Neither of them seemed to notice how close they were. “I deserve emotional compensation.”
“Unfortunately, that emotional compensation won’t come unless you finish the series, and believe me, it gets worse before it gets better.”
Hagakure gasped dramatically, “How dare you! You owe me dinner for making me cry and then spoiling the series.”
“How was that a spoiler?” Katsuki asked aggressively, moving so that he was leaning back onto his elbows instead of laying flat on the bed.
“Didn’t deny making me cry.”
Katsuki huffed, “Hardly my fault you’re a damn crybaby.”
Hagakure giggled, “Don’t try and lie, I saw the tear stains on the page that were there before I started crying.”
“You have no proof.” Katsuki argued, shifting in order to hit her face with a pillow. That only caused her to laugh harder, which was decidedly not what he was going for.
Hagakure threw the pillow back at him, “You know what? Just for that, I’m giving you one of the more emotional series of manga that I have.”
Katsuki flopped back onto the bed with a sigh, “Do what you want, but know that you can’t force me to read it.”
“No, but I know you will.”
Katsuki rolled his eyes, moving to get out of bed, “Whatever, you said something about me owing you dinner?”
Hagakure was quick to follow him, “Yup!”
“Alright, hope you’re alright with spicy tofu.”
Katsuki could practically feel the joy radiating off of Hagakure as she followed him down to the common room kitchen in order to get the dinner she was apparently owed. For some reason, it didn’t seem as annoying from her as it did from any of the other extras in their class. Katsuki was choosing not to think about that too hard for the time being, and just enjoyed the fact that she was content to quietly watch him cook their dinner.
~~~~~
Somehow, all of these interactions led to them getting lunch the first weekend every month, trading manga, and discussing whatever came to their minds. They got along far better than either of them had expected to, since they had some fairly obvious differences in preferences. Every time they went out to the cafe, which they both agreed was the best one around, they would be seated in silence until they ordered. After that, it seemed like the dams broke and they both went on tangents about what manga the other had let them borrow. Once they were both satisfied with the conversation surrounding their manga series, the conversation tended to drift in no particular direction.
This time, they had started to debate about ethics surrounding child stars. Neither of them knew how they ended up on that topic, considering it was quite a bit more serious than either one of them would be comfortable discussing to anyone else. It just felt like the way the conversation was meant to go, which made no sense.
Katsuki had to keep reminding himself not to overthink it. Hagakure seemed content with the heavier topic of conversation, and neither of them were actually angry at the other for the difference in opinions. It was just a discussion. The kind that he wasn’t used to having with anyone else. Arguing was his go to method of communication (super healthy, he knows), but arguing with her seemed impossible.
The conversation drifted once again from their debate to bubble tea as they left the cafe with their to-go orders of bubble tea in hand after Katsuki paid. He didn’t mind covering for Hagakure; she paid last time after all, so it was only fair.
Drinking their beverages, they made their way back to the dorm building at a meandering pace. It was such a nice day, not too hot and not too cold. Katsuki listened as Hagakure started to hum along to a song that they heard while passing a store, wishing he could stay in that moment forever. It was so peaceful compared to their everyday lives. He wondered briefly if this is what it was going to be like as a pro-hero, with moments of calm in between hectic missions and loads of paperwork. He wouldn’t mind at all if that’s how his life ends up, so long as Hagakure and him are still… doing what they're doing.
Even in his own head, it sounded like Katsuki was in love with Hagakure, which didn’t bode well for him. Especially since he knew that she had a crush on Ojiro (something that she had mentioned in passing once a couple months back). He was setting himself up for heartbreak, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. Maybe he should’ve spent more time thinking about what was going on, instead of doing his best to ignore it and continue on as if nothing was happening at all. Maybe then he wouldn’t have to worry about getting his heart broken any time soon.
~~~~~
Tooru and Bakugou were walking up to the dorm building together; their arms brushing against each other as they made their way to the door. Bakugou opened up the door for her, letting her lead the way into the common room. Most of their classmates were already there, though that wasn’t too surprising considering the majority of their class were extroverts. Although it seemed to her that they were a bit surprised that Bakugou and her had walked in together.
“Hey, what’s up?” Tooru greets them easily, knowing that whatever was making them all confused probably had nothing to do with Bakugou and her keeping secrets and more to do with none of them not having observational skills.
Kirishima is the first one to speak up after a moment of the class just staring at Tooru and Bakugou, “Hey, guys! I guess we didn’t realize that you two hung out.”
Bakugou looked between Tooru and the class with a slightly pinched expression (even in his confusion he still looked cute angry), “We’ve been getting lunch together for months now.”
“Really? What do you two even talk about?” Mina questioned, leaning heavily over the armrest of the chair she was sitting in and clearly not believing them if her expression was to be believed. (Tooru absently thought about how easy it was to read Mina’s emotions. It would be difficult to deal with in the field if a villain decided to take advantage of that particular weakness of hers, but Tooru couldn’t help but be slightly jealous that Mina was able to even have that problem.)
Tooru just exaggerated a shrug in response to Mina, before saying, “Stuff.”
Mina’s face crumpled a bit at that, and she stuck out her tongue at them. Bakugou huffed, “I don’t get why this is a big deal.”
“It’s a big deal because you never told us you guys were friends!” Mina exclaimed, quite dramatically too if the way she flopped onto Ochako’s lap was any indication.
“Our relationship isn’t really you guys’ business,” Tooru brought up before Bakugou could start yelling, like she was sure he wanted to do.
At that, Mina perked up lightning quick, “Relationship?”
Bakugou rolled his eyes and huffed (quite dramatically, in Tooru’s opinion), “Yeah, relationship. A connection between two people that’s not necessarily romantic, Raccoon Eyes.”
Tooru stifled a giggle at the look on Mina’s face. It was a cross between disbelief, offense, and poorly hidden mirth. Truely, watching Mina’s expressions was an adventure that Tooru quite enjoyed going on.
“It’s not necessarily platonic, either!” Mina defended quickly, eyes darting between Tooru and Bakugou in suspicion.
Tooru and Bakugou exchanged glances as best as they could (you know, with Tooru being invisible and all that) before bolting all the way to the elevator before any of their classmates could process what they were doing. They watched their classmates fall over themselves in order to try and catch them as the elevator doors closed.
Once the elevator was secure and not in risk of being filled with 18 other teenagers, Tooru started laughing uncontrollably. The entire situation seemed like something out of a sitcom, and she loved it. Soon, Bakugou’s rough laugh joined her more airy one, and it sent her into another fit of giggles as the elevator started to move.
Luckily, they caught their breath before they came up to the floor of Bakugou’s dorm. He led the way and held the door open for Tooru, like the proper gentleman she was learning he was. They flopped down onto Bakugou’s bed and just layed there for a long while.
Tooru finally broke the silence that lingered between them in order to say, “You can call me Tooru.”
“What?” Bakugou almost whispered back to her.
“Call me by my first name… Tooru.”
Silence once again crept up between them, but it wasn’t the comfortable silence from before. This silence felt like it was slowly suffocating Tooru.
Finally, Bakugou spoke up, “Call me Katsuki, then.”
Tooru grinned and reached out slowly to take Katsuki’s hand. As his fingers intertwined with hers and squeezed oh-so-gently (like she was something too precious to handle roughly), she was sure that this was what it was to be completely, and helplessly, happy.