Work Text:
3am, phone exploding with texts, music from his computer playing at the maximum volume. To top it all off? Bakugou, awake, at his desk in his dorm room.
Bakugou was debating switching off his phone, but if he did that, his momentum would be gone. Good bye to all his study plans. You might be wondering, Bakugou, why are you awake at 3am? You always sleep at 6pm! And to that he'd say: Fuck off, you don't know me.
His desk was so small. Why was it so small? Where did UA's money go to? The fucking teachers? Because they're clearly not worth their money. His table was literally overflowing with worksheets and notes—it was a surprise the things weren't falling off. He had one singular pen in his hand, and he was doing Math practices. He's finished 4 separate books of topical Math practices, and he's gotten almost 100% of the questions correct.
He was doing very well already, if he do say so himself. He doubted anyone else could finish 4 Math books and get 99% of the questions correct in a day. He's not running on coffee because he told himself that he would sleep if he absolutely needed sleep, and he didn't want coffee to guide him to having a horrible sleeping schedule. If he was gonna get a horrible sleeping schedule, only he'd be responsible for that, thank you very much.
The lights in his room were all switched off, save a small study lamp meant for reading. The dim white light barely lit up the worksheet he was looking at, but Bakugou had his glasses on, so he could see maybe a tiny bit better. Or maybe he was being delusional.
Doing the Math practices felt like a game now, and he had a streak he was not keen to lose.
To be more specific, he was studying because he wanted to make Deku realise what a loser he was. That fucking nerd never knew anything, and suddenly he gets a quirk and life gets easier for him as if All Might was some kind of Fairy Godmother. If no one was gonna make Deku realise that life isn't as easy as that, he was going to do it. Apparently the fucker used to look up to Bakugou like he was a god, and if Deku was gonna beat him in anything, he was going to get an insufferable god complex. Deku with a god complex was not something he was looking forward to. It wasn't fair that the fucking nerd could do nothing and get grades like his, and the only way he could prove it was to beat Deku in every possible way—starting with the upcoming Math test.
Maybe he was trying to prove it to himself more than he was trying to prove it to Deku, but he wasn't ready for that yet.
His phone was louder now. Why was it louder now?
Bakugou glanced at his phone.
Kirishima<3 is calling...
Kirishima. Calling. At 3am. What?
He picked up the phone. Maybe ask him to shut the fuck up. "What."
"Hey bro! Just wanted to check if you're okay."
"Why would I not be fucking okay?"
He could hear hushed voices in the background, but not very loud. Like the people behind Kirishima was being extremely cautious. Kirishima let out a nervous laugh. "No reason."
Bakugou waited for elaboration, but none came. Just complete silence. He sighed. "What the fuck are you planning?"
"Nothing! Nothing, dude. We were, like, worried. And... stuff," Kirishima said. "We were worried and stuff."
Bakugou gritted his teeth. "You called me because you were 'worried and stuff'? Who's 'we'? Why are you disturbing me?"
Hushed voices were heard.
"Do I put you guys on speaker?" Kirishima's panicked voice asked.
A bunch of anxious screams followed.
"Don't do that! Are you crazy?" Sero replied.
"There's a reason why you're the only one with a heart next to your contact! If he finds out about us he's gonna kill us," Kaminari said.
"If anything happens, I wasn't involved," said Mina, despite being incredibly involved from what Bakugou's hearing.
"What do I do?" Kirishima asked.
"I—" Bakugou said, then sighed exasperatedly. "I can hear all of you."
Silence.
Bakugou took a deep breath. "On second thought, I don't wanna know why you're disturbing me. Bye."
He hung up, not giving them time to react.
He stared at his half-done question, and his pen that left his hand when he picked up the phone. He looked at the time, and the stack of worksheets that might as well be called a rubbish bin with how unorganised it was, and the darkness of his room...
Damn, I'm a mess.
And then he punched the wall.
Luckily, he only punched the wall twice. More time would've been wasted otherwise. Because he picked up that goddamn call from his bastard friends, his momentum was gone. Which, yeah, he predicted to happen, but he was still mad. Because Kirishima called him, he was painfully pulled back into reality and now he had no motivation to continue doing mindless Math practices.
He was going to kill someone. He was going to murder Kirishima. He was gonna murder all of them. He's told them countless times not to disturb him after 6pm—
His phone was ringing again.
Kirishima<3 is calling...
He picked up. "Can you guys fuck off for like 2 seconds?"
"Uh."
Bakugou slapped his face so hard it hurt. It probably left a red mark. "'Uh'? Uh?"
He heard the phone fumble around, and then: "Wanna go out?" came from Kaminari.
"Dude! Don't say that—"
Bakugou hung up.
He had the dumbest people bothering him sometimes. Why the fuck would his friends disturb him when he explicitly said not to disturb him? It seemed pretty straightforward to him.
His phone started ringing again.
Yep. They're going to die. He left his room for Kirishima's.
"Hi... Bakugou..." Kaminari squeaked, hiding behind Mina like the man he is.
Bakugou glared at all of them. "Explain."
Kirishima rubbed the side of his neck. "You wanna come in first?"
Bakugou ushered in—by that, he means he was standing inside Kirishima's room rather than outside. Everyone else was sitting.
"We were worried." Kirishima started, looking at Bakugou. "You're so stressed."
Bakugou frowned. "Okay? Then?"
Kaminari spoke up. "You were being emo and we just wanted to see if you weren't dead."
Bakugou widened his eyes in disbelief. "Excuse me?"
"Okay, to be fair, he's right," Sero followed up. "You don't stay awake until 4am and play emo music at max volume every night."
"I do whatever shit I want at night. It's none of your business."
Mina stood up. "But you're not okay! We just want you to be happy. Healthy. Same thing."
Bakugou furrowed his eyebrows. "I literally told you guys never to disturb me after 6pm."
Kirishima opened his mouth to say something, then closed it like he didn't know what to say.
Silence met Bakugou once again.
"Well?" Bakugou asked again. "You guys were disturbing my study session and it sucked—"
Kirishima stood up very suddenly, which is an extremely stark contrast to Mina standing up or Bakugou standing because 1) that guy is a whopping 186cm after his growth spurt compared to Bakugou's persistent 172cm, and 2) he almost never stands up like he was going to murder someone.
He grabbed Bakugou's face. "Listen, please. Let me worry about you, okay?"
Bakugou's eyes were wide, and he was moving back, back, back to a wall and Kirishima was cornering him.
"You're so stressed and we're worried. We're allowed to be worried about you. Because we're friends. You're drowning in your work and I get that you think that doing it over and over again will make you feel more secure about everything, but it's 4am. You're never awake at 4am," Kirishima said, voice just above a whisper, so the entire room could hear him. "We just wanted to see if you're okay."
Bakugou could feel his cheeks heating up, and he didn't know if it was just because Kirishima was holding his face. He blinked, and realised Kirishima was done talking. "I'm fine, I told you already."
"You're not. I heard you punch the wall just now. We all did," said Kirishima.
"That was because you guys destroyed my study session."
Kirishima looked into Bakugou's eyes, and Bakugou forced himself to meet his gaze. "You're awake at 4am, running on coffee, drowning in work, listening to angsty music at max. You're clearly not okay."
"I wasn't running on coffee."
"Wow, great improvement. Ruining your sleeping schedule on your own," Kirishima said sarcastically. "Were you running on your own anxiety?"
Bakugou looked down. The floor suddenly looked very interesting.
"Look, Bakugou, we're worried about you. Rightfully so."
Tears welled in his eyes.
"So please let us help you," Kirishima said.
The tears were falling. Bakugou wiped his face messily. Bakugou pushed Kirishima away with the little strength he could muster, looking at everyone in the room. "I already said you shouldn't disturb me after 6pm. Why couldn't you guys just do this stupid therapy group session some other time?" He wanted to sound angry, but it came out pathetic with sniffles.
"That's what friends do," Sero said. "We're not supposed to follow your rules because we think you're entitled to it as our friend; we're supposed to break your rules because we think we're entitled to it as your friends."
"And you're like, so smart. Why are you even studying?" Kaminari complained. "I feel like a failure."
"Don't you have healthier coping mechanisms or something?" Mina asked. "Y'know, other than staying up until 4am exhausting yourself over things you can't change overnight."
Bakugou frowned at Mina. "Fuck you."
"That was a genuine question, but I see how you made it to be an insult," admitted Mina.
"So, why were you studying?" Sero asked.
"Something stupid," Bakugou muttered.
"What? I didn't hear you," Sero asked.
Bakugou sighed. "It's stupid. I'm not saying."
"Please?" Kirishima asked.
Bakugou debated not saying, but he was already crying, so what else is there to lose?
"Deku's stupid and I'm not dumb," Bakugou summarised.
There was a collective silence, like everyone sort of understood but also didn't, at the same time.
"Uh, what?" Kaminari asked.
"Isn't the Math test in 2 days?" Mina asked.
Bakugou nodded.
"Why are you studying?" Sero asked.
"You guys are the worst friends ever."
The next day, Bakugou had woken up in Kirishima's bed, surrounded by 3 huge pillows and another pillow that was impossibly holding him instead of the other way round.
"Bakugou?" Kirishima asked. "You awake?"
"Huh?" Bakugou asked.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," Bakugou replied, deciding to accept it. His friends may be huge pains in his ass, but sometimes they were pillows he could rely on and rest on.
"You wanna study? Or go out? I kinda wanna karoake today."
Bakugou felt a sharp fear in his heart, thinking about how Deku could possibly do better than him in the test—
Fuck that. "The fucking Math test is tomorrow, we have time. Let's go out."