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Bakugou wiped his sweaty palms on his pants for the umpteenth time as he stared down his blank sheet of notes, Present Mic's civics lecturing falling on deaf ears.
He'd been unable to pay attention for the majority of the period, mind clouded as it was by the promise Kaminari had forced him to make that morning: "Promise me you'll confess to Todoroki today!"
And he’d never been one to break a promise.
Since first period, he’d been unsuccessfully trying to catch Todoroki alone. Every time he got close, one of their "friends" would butt in and ruin the timing. Now, they were on the last class of the day, and he was running out of time. Unless he wanted to wait until evening and inevitably barf up his dinner from the nerves.
He wrang his wrists as he braved another glance over at Todoroki, two desks in front of him, two rows to the left.
At least Todoroki wasn't paying attention either. Staring out the window, he had his chin propped up in his hand as his eyes lazily followed the falling snow.
Icyhot always really did love snow.
From his angle, Bakugou could only see his right profile, cloud-white hair falling into clear grey eyes and snow-white lashes. He still needed that hair-cut Deku kept badgering him about, as much as Bakugou hated to agree with him. Bakugou also knew the sad reason he was so averse to haircuts. Maybe he’d end up just giving him one himself.
He watched in mild amusement as Todoroki's eyelids drooped lower, and lower, and lower, until eventually they closed entirely and his head lolled to the side. A small smirk played across his lips despite himself when Todoroki's grip on his pencil slackened and it rolled off the desk. Todoroki didn't even flinch at the clatter, already completely passed out.
Bakugou continued watching with mounting glee as Todoroki's chin began sliding off his palm. He saw it coming from a mile away, and oh it was going to be glorious.
Todoroki’s chin slid the rest of the way off his hand, and his head smacked into the desk with a resounding thwack.
Snickers erupted throughout the class as Todoroki shot upright, chair nearly toppling over where it screeched back noisily. Present Mic turned, eyebrow raised and ready to call him out, when the bell suddenly rang shrill and loud, sparing Todoroki the humiliation.
The class burst into noise as people got up to leave, hurriedly shoving textbooks into bags and spilling out into the quickly filling hallways. As it was, reality set in, and the joy Bakugou felt watching Todoroki slam his head into his desk like a complete loser immediately dissipated, replaced instead by nervous anxiety. Glancing over again, he watched Todoroki rub the red spot on his forehead, still not having made a move to gather his stuff.
Now or never, I guess.
With a deep breath, Bakugou stood, lugging his bag over one shoulder to stomp across the room.
He made it halfway before spinning on his heel and speed-walking away.
Nope. Nope, nope, nope.
He could feel his face burning up, hands dangerously close to exploding, and hoped he didn’t look too much of a mess on the outside.
Suddenly, a hard hand clapped down on his shoulder, yanking him back into the classroom.
“What the fuck!” Bakugou spat, glaring at Kirishima and Kaminari in front of him defensively, the two sporting matching wide grins that he wanted nothing more than to wipe off their faces. “Oh for fuck’s sake-“
“Man up, blasty!”
“You promised!” Kaminari shouted.
“Keep your voice down,” Bakugou hissed, glancing past Kirishima’s shoulder to confirm Todoroki was still staring into space.
Kirishima cheered, “A man never goes back on his word!”
“Shut up!”
Right as he reared his fist back for a well-placed sucker punch, the hand on his shoulder tightened and spun him around with a shove. “You got this!”
”See ya!”
The door slammed shut behind them with a sense of finality.
Swallowing thickly past the stubborn lump in his throat, he turned to slowly walk forward. In the empty classroom his footsteps echoed loudly. Todoroki somehow remained completely unaware of the oncoming trainwreck, bless his soul.
By the time he was standing directly in front of Todoroki's desk, he still hadn't noticed him, so he cleared his throat.
"Fuck is up with you?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth did he cringe at himself.
Great start, Katsuki. Great fucking start.
At the very least he'd caught Todoroki's attention, who looked up at him with a hint of surprise on his blank face. "Huh?"
Bakugou scoffed. Cute-ass idiot. "You face-planted into your desk, remember?"
"Oh," Todoroki blinked. "You saw that?"
"Everyone did, Icyhot. And whoever didn't definitely heard it.” He sighed in exasperation. “Honestly, who fucking does that?”
Todoroki yawned, half-heartedly wiping the sleep from his eyes. "Was there something you needed?"
Bakugou's jaw clenched. The banter had been doing wonders to squash the butterflies in his gut, but they were quickly back for vengeance.
"Yeah." He cleared his throat again. God, what's wrong with me- "I gotta tell you something."
"Oh. Ok."
They stared at each other, crystal blue and pearl-grey meeting blood-red.
The goddamn butterflies were out of control.
”Ok,” Todoroki repeated slowly after five eternal seconds. “What is it?”
Bakugou internally banged his head against the wall, repeatedly and violently. It was truly a blessing that Todoroki had absolutely zero social awareness, genuinely unaware of how awkward this all was.
”Just gimme a fucking second, god,” Bakugou hissed, breaking eye-contact to stare down at the edge of the desk. He glared at the top of Todoroki’s messy notes, the crinkled corners from endless fiddling, the doodles in the margins. Huh. He’d never realized Todoroki doodled, little hearts and snowflakes and checkerboards.
“Ok,” Todoroki repeated again, snapping Bakugou out of his musings.
He was going to lose his mind. He was losing his mind.
“Fucking hell, is ok all you know how to say?!”
“Sorry.”
Pulling his hands from his pockets to wipe them on his pants again, he forced his head up to look at Todoroki. The longer he stood there the less likely he was to confess, he knew. So he took a deep breath. “I-“
“Your ears are very red,” Todoroki decided to interrupt.
Bakugou’s scowl deepened. “Stop looking at my ears!”
“Are you ok?” Todoroki pushed. “You're acting weird.”
“I’m not! I’m just-“ His throat closed up around the words. I like you. I like you, but I can't say it. Why can’t I say it?!
“I don't want to be just friends anymore,” he blurted out instead.
Surprise flickered across Todoroki’s blank expression. “We're friends?”
Bakugou groaned, slapping a clammy against his forehead. “How is this going so fucking wrong?”
“What’s going wrong?”
An embarrassing sound escaped him as he realized he’d said that out loud. “Nothing!”
“Ok,” Todoroki said, again. “Then why don't you want to be friends anymore? Is it because I hit my head on the desk?”
”The fuck? No! I don't care about that!”
Todoroki leaned forward infinitesimally. Bakugou leaned back. “Then why?”
Bakugou couldn’t take this anymore.
The awkwardness finally outweighed his anxiety as he slammed a palm on Todoroki’s desk. “Because I like you!” He shouted.
Fuck.
The words echoed in the quiet classroom, bouncing around Bakugou’s head and settling in the suddenly too-small space between them.
Todoroki’s eyes has widened to saucers.
Either time had actually stopped or Todoroki really wasn’t going to say anything, as five seconds came and left in silence. Bakugou couldn’t take it.
“You're an idiot so I'll fucking spell it out for you, just in case. I want to kiss you.”
Todoroki’s jaw dropped. A flush spread across his cheeks, mirroring Bakugou’s own. He’d never seen an expression anything like it on Todoroki’s stupid face, and in any other scenario he’d be enjoying it infinitely. Even with his heart pounding in his ears and a concerning amount of nausea, he couldn’t look away.
The strange mix of hot and cold perpetually rolling off Todoroki suddenly spiked, nearly punching the air out of Bakugou’s lungs as it slammed into him and filled the room.
Oh god, is he pissed? Fuck. This was a huge mistake, wasn’t it? This was a mistake, this was a mistake, this was a mistake, Bakugou’s brain droned helpfully.
“You want to kiss me?” Todoroki whispered.
“Y-yeah.” Did I just fucking stutter?!? Bakugou grit his teeth, quickly looking down. I should apologize. I should fucking apologize and never speak to him again. I should change my name and leave the fucking country.
As much as he was rapidly spiraling, it was hard not to notice the heavy weight that had lifted off his shoulders. This confession was something he’d been putting off for years. It was something that had lived in the back of his head ever since he met the guy. It lingered on the tip of his tongue every time Todoroki looked at him, every time they talked, in every late-night study session that ended in quiet divulgences of trauma and insecurities, in every wall Todoroki tore down just for him, with every step he took closer to his heart.
And somehow, all it took was a dumb promise to his friend.
He wasn’t sure if it was Todoroki’s out-of-control quirk or his own racing heart that was making it hard to breathe, but he was feeling extremely light-headed.
Todoroki finally opened his mouth. Bakugou stiffened in anticipation.
“Then do it.”
What?
Bakugou’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
There was a rare twinkle in Todoroki’s eyes, the kind that sparked up during combat, the kind Bakugou pulled out of him with snarky come-backs and foul language. “I said you should-“
Bakugou didn’t waste another second to snatch up Todoroki’s tie in his fist, pulling him half out of his seat into a desperate kiss.
The shock that ran up Bakugou’s spine was electric. How were Todoroki’s lips so soft?
It was really fucking weird that one side was scorching and the other was mind-numbingly cold, but Bakugou had expected that. He’d thought about this moment too much not to.
His stomach was doing somersaults, the butterflies that resided there losing their goddamn minds. It was unreal.
His palms crackled, lightly smoldering Todoroki’s collar, and frost spread across the right side of Todoroki’s face, but they didn’t care. Time had stopped. The world around them had disappeared.
All too soon, Todoroki was pulling, sucking in the breath of air he’d forgotten he needed to live.
Bakugou let out a shuddering exhale, pressing their foreheads together. He wasn’t sure when his eyes had closed, but when he opened them he found Todoroki already staring back at him.
God he wished this could last forever.
Todoroki’s gaze flicked down to Bakugou’s lips as he breathlessly whispered, “Again.”
Bakugou groaned. “Fuck-”
With one trembling hand, he yanked Todoroki closer, desk screeching where Todoroki was forced to fall against it. His other hand quickly slid across a searing hot jaw, ignoring the burn to tilt his face into a more convenient angle.
Todoroki gasped, mouth parting. An invitation.
Who would Bakugou be to decline?
Just as he mustered up the courage to lick into Todoroki’s mouth, a wolf-whistle pierced the air.
Both their eyes snapped open in mild horror.
Bakugou immediately whipped around, dropping Todoroki’s burnt tie. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FUCKERS STARING AT?!!” He screamed.
A small audience had gathered outside, peering through the classroom window like a bunch of creeps. He registered Sero, Kaminari, and Mina with a hand slapped over Kirishima’s mouth before red clouded his vision. “I’LL FUCKING KILL ALL OF YOU!!”
He violently pushed away from the desk and rolled up his sleeves with a growl.
Just as he was charging up a blast to propel himself forward, Todoroki caught his wrist. “Wait-!”
The rage coursing through his veins stuttered as he turned back to Todoroki.
“What?!”
“I like you too.”
Bakugou’s stomach flipped. His heart soared.
A grin spread out across his face, a sudden bout of courage overcoming him to reach out and smooth out Todoroki’s hair. “I'll see you later, candy cane.”
Todoroki dropped his wrist with a shy smile, and Bakugou shot out the door.
Sprinting down the hall after his stupid friends, his smile grew, images of Todoroki’s blush and sweet, shy smile pasted in his brain.
Love you, Icyhot.