Chapter Text
Subversion
*Chapter 1? Who the fuck knows. Certainly not I. Will add other stories at random.
For Bunny who called Bakugou a ‘Walking Trope Subversion.’
Walking into his school after the USJ is weird in ways Eijiro isn’t familiar with. He meets the eyes of the dark shadow guy-Tokoyami? Across the courtyard and they nod at each other. There’s a… connection. An understanding that wasn’t there even a few days ago.
It’s as exciting as it is uncomfortable.
“Do you think they’re gonna give us trophies?” The voice of his classmate whispers. Eijiro glances over to see Kaminari giving him a shaky grin. He hasn’t known his classmates long but the guy seems pretty cool so far. They’ve clicked easily and it was hard not to gravitate towards each other in the wake of what’s happened. He shrugs. It’s not like there’s a guide that says ‘how schools react after a villain attack to students who kick villain asses.’ There was probably a magazine article stating something like that though.
His classmates seem to be crowding into each other as the news crew preys like sharks on the edge of the water, waiting for even the smallest hint of blood. Sero, the lanky guy is speed walking towards them even as Mina bumps his shoulder.
“No way are we getting anything like that,” Mina declares. “We barely survived. No one’s getting trophies for barely surviving.”
“We kind of kicked ass though,” Kaminari points out.
“I don’t know, man,” Eijiro said hesitantly, not wanting to burst the guy’s bubble but… “I gotta agree with Ashido here.”
“You guys bum me out.” Kaminari is smiling though, meaning he doesn’t really think that. “I’m glad I wasn’t alone at the USJ.”
Eijiro wholeheartedly agrees with that.
He wonders what it would have been like if he hadn’t had Bakugou beside him during that first initial attack.
Still… when they get to class 1A’s room, the atmosphere is thick with tension. There’s a silent acknowledgment between everyone that its hard to simply… slip back into place as normal students.
At least, until Aizawa walks in mummified and eyes slitted, launching into school events and coursework like things are hunky dory. Its both hilarious and very, very concerning. It’s easy to focus on the threat of an encroaching test on basic quirk laws then.
“Not only did we not get trophies,” Kaminari whined, “but we got two essays due by the end of the week and a test.”
“Want to head to the library?” Mina asked. “It would be easier to work on the essays if we do it together.”
“Why not?” Kaminari sighed.
“Sounds good!” Eijiro agreed.
He was pleased that he seemed to have fallen into a friend group so easily this time around. The last time Eijiro had moved to a new school, it had taken well over six months before he’d found himself a group to hang out with for this kind of stuff. Sitting along at lunch, studying by himself, training by himself, going out alone to the mall or arcade was so lonely and awful.
He was determined to make sure no one in his class had to…
Eijiro stopped dead in his tracks. Mina, not paying attention, ran right into his slightly hardened back.
“OWwwwwie,” Mina whined. “Kiri!”
He couldn’t help it though.
It was…
It was Bakugou.
Their beast of a classmate had found himself a corner in the library and was glaring at the text as if trying to set it on fire. From the half empty water bottle and array of pens, it looked like he’d been there for a while, wadded up papers looking like a battlefield.
He was alone.
“What is he doing?” Kaminari whispered, head practically sitting on Eijiro’s shoulder as he looked over it. Mina peaking around his side.
“The same thing we’re here for, obviously,” Mina whispered, rolling her eyes.
“Does he know your supposed to read the text, not try to fight it?” Kaminari quipped.
Eijiro felt… conflicted. On the one hand Bakugou had shown himself to be ruthless. It hadn’t been cool at all, the way he’d mercilessly gone after the Midoriya kid. Eijiro had spent the entire exercise cringing and waiting for All Might to call things off. The guy was a hothead and a tank of a fighter. He was an entire demolition team in one.
It had been impressive and terrifying.
But…
At the USJ the guy hadn’t hesitated to leap right alongside Eijiro to take on that warp villain. He’d shown himself to be more than a brute when with those reflexes and had opted to cut off the Villains escape plan and had implied that most of the villains were weak- that what they’d seen from their classmates indicated that they could handle themselves against them.
In his own weird, kind of messed up way, he’d shown that he respected their classmates.
And then that same kid…
Bakugou had taken one look at the situation and had shot forward to intercept the warp gate before it could get to that Midoriya kid. The guy was still a brute. No doubt about that in Eijiro’s mind, but… it was also clear that there was more to the guy than what first appeared. Bakugou might not like Midoriya, but he’d leaped into battle to protect him.
“Maybe he needs help…?” Eijiro whispered.
As if Bakugou could hear them from all the way across the library.
Kaminari laughed hollowly.
“Not a good idea bro, I’m pretty sure he eats nails for breakfast and shits out bullets,” the blonde hissed.
“First,” Mina whispered, “gross. Second, I kind of agree with Kaminari on this one Kiri.”
Bakugou had not made a good first or second or third impression.
He glanced at the guy.
He was frowning down at his papers, highlighting a lot as he went. People walking by walked faster when he glared at them. Everything about the situation read ‘do not approach.’ What if he’d been alone for so long he didn’t know how to be any other way?
Eijiro squared his shoulders.
“Um… hi.”
Red eyes narrowed to slits as they turned away from the papers to bring all the fury of the guy’s rage onto Eijiro’s person. He swallowed, trying to tame his beating heart into something not resembling a flat line.
A long moment of exceptionally awkward silence thickened from a broth to a five-course soup between them.
“…hi,” Bakugou deadpanned, mocking him, before turning back to the paper.
‘Great start,’ his mind hissed.
Eijiro rubbed the back of his head, glancing at Mina and Kaminari who were making abort gestures with their hands. He swallowed but straightened his shoulders.
“Hey, listen man, we’re uh, it looks like you’re having a tough time here,” he gestured to all the balled-up papers even as an unimpressed look started to form on Bakugou’s face. “We’re getting ready to study and were wondering if you’d like help. I’m uh… I’m not terrible at Art or our history classes and Kaminari is really good at Japanese and English.”
Bakugou looked him up and down as he leaned back in his seat, revealing the picture of five birds with words around it on a flag in their textbook.
“There were two major events that occurred in 2062,” the guy barked out. “What were they?”
“Uh… I uh…” Eijiro swallowed, taken aback.
Bakugou frowned at him, folding his arms.
“We covered this topic the first week of class. Don’t tell me you brain dumped them the moment the test was over.”
“I… um, I think it was the first major laws concerning quirks?” Eijiro tried.
“You think or you know?” Bakugou growled.
“I know!”
“Well, you’re wrong.”
Eijiro balked as Bakugou went on.
“The United Nations declared a state of Emergency and attempted to enact and enforce new policies concerning protection of the new ‘metas’- what quirks were called when they first appeared. Two events caused this; the genocide of every human with a quirk in North Korea in February of 2062 and a law enacted in the United States in May legalizing hunting people with quirks with the intent to kill or capture for bounties.”
Bakugou jabbed his finger at their textbook.
“The new laws you’re thinking about weren’t put in place until 2073 and it wasn’t two laws, it was thirty-seven. It was part of an extensive set of treaties signed at the Conflict Resolution World Accords.”
“The ones that failed,” Eijiro said quietly,
“Failed six times over the course of the next fifty years,” Bakugou said, nodding. Which we’ll be covering in World History three weeks from now. You shouldn’t brain dump information. What we’re learning now is foundation for what we’re going to learn.”
“…right.”
‘Three weeks from now?!’
“Uh, dumb question, but how do you know that?”
The deadpan look on Bakugou’s face felt as if it was trying to melt Eijiro where he stood.
“Its in the syllabus,” Bakugou told him, picking up and shaking a thick pad of papers aggressively. “This is UA, you need to be familiar with our syllabus if you want to keep up. It’s not good enough to be studying only the stuff that we’re talking in class week by week.”
“Right.”
“You’re a decent fighter but that doesn’t mean you should be neglecting your studies,” Bakugou said severely, sounding pissed off.
‘What is happening?!’
“Right.”
“Go study you loser.”
“Right.”
Eijiro turned on his heel and marched back to Mina and Kaminari watching him with confused tilts of their head. “Did he tell you to fuck off?” Mina asked, glaring at Bakugou from around Eijiro’s shoulder.
Eijiro laughed, his voice cracking a bit.
Kaminari looked at him fearfully.
“What did he say, dude? He looked hella calm when he was talking to you and its kind of freaking me out.”
Eijiro grimaced, looking up at the ceiling as he tried to sort his thoughts.
“Guys… I think he’s way smarter than us.”
“That meat head? No way!” Kaminari hissed. “He’s like, practically the hulk. Hulk Smash! Me strong!”
“Yeah, well,” Eijiro let out a bark of laughter. “I definitely just talked to Dr. Banner.”
“I don’t believe you,” Kaminari denied.
Mina had a look on her face, arms folded over her chest.
“That’s… so unfair,” she muttered. “Are you sure?”
“He’s not even studying this week’s stuff,” Eijiro said blankly. “He’s studying stuff three weeks ahead.”
The moan that came out of Kaminari’s mouth did not sound appropriate.
“There’s no way this is legit.”
“Let’s just go study, man. That conversation made me feel like I’m falling behind.”
“It’s the third week of class!”
Eijiro leaned against Mina’s shoulder, whispering so only she could hear.
“Do you know what the United Nations are?”
At Mina’s blank look, he felt his shoulders relax.
Eijiro googles it on his phone rather than leafing through their history textbook. It was what the United Front Assembly For Human Rights and Dignity used to be before the fall of the governments in 2092. Much less of a mouthful, that’s for sure, but people did like their dramatic titles.
Most people just called it The Assembly for short.
Eijiro looked over their class syllabus. He’d briefly glanced through it at the start of class, but the idea of studying ahead had really never occurred to him.
Week one: The First fifty years of quirk history.
Week Two: Part 1: The fall of our governments.
Week Three: Part 2: The fall of our governments
Week Four: The thirty-year war and the Thirty-Seven Laws.
Week Five: Rebuilding.
JEEEeeeeez. This guy was extreme. He was way ahead of them. What the hell? As he’s flipping through the pages of their textbook he catches on the picture Bakugou had his history textbook open to. He checked the start of the passage and realized it was chapter 11. They were on chapter 2!!!!!
“This guy is intense,” Eijiro whispered.
“Who?” Kaminari whispered.
“Are you still thinking about Bakugou?” Mina’s voice sounds amused, those glittering yellow eyes twinkling at him unnaturally.
“It’s just…” Eijiro bites his lip, before stabbing their textbook for emphasis. “He’s on chapter 11.”
“No way,” Kaminari denies. “He’s just flipping through the book like the rest of us.”
‘Definitely not.’
The guy had been intimately familiar with the material already, but he didn’t think he was gonna convince Kaminari of that. Especially when the guy seemed so passionate against looking at Bakugou as anything but a brute.
They’d figure it out though.
Eventually.