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“Hey, I know it’s a little cliché , but do you wanna play Truth or Dare?” Uraraka asked, bouncing onto the couch. The rest of the students had already found their places as well, gathered in a semi-circle inside Height’s Alliance’s living space. Hagakure and Ashido agreed right off the bat, grinning with excitement, while Midoriya and Iida were goaded into it by their friends.
Soon enough, once Yaoyorozu had heard about it, there was a collection of students, sitting together in the area between the kitchen and the couch. Even Todoroki had been convinced to come over and watch, after asking them what Truth and Dare was. The participants were Uraraka, Iida, Midoriya, Ashido, Hagakure, Tsuyu, and Yaoyorozu.
“Alright,” Said Ashido, clapping her hands together excitedly.
“We’ll pick who starts by rolling some dice, whoever gets the biggest number goes first. From there, we’ll go in a clockwise motion so everyone gets a turn. That sound fair?” Everyone agreed to those rules, and Uraraka piped up with a bit of a nervous smile.
“And if we still want to play after that, we can just change around our spots to dare different people.” After all, she had noticed that, while she sat next to Midoriya, based on the clockwise rule, he’d be the one daring her. Everyone nodded in agreement once more, and began rolling the dice. Iida got the highest number.
With a strict expression he turned stiffly toward Yayoruzu, asking his question under the group’s collective scrutiny.
“Truth or Dare?” Yaoyorozu barely blinked before offering an answer, confidence unwavering.
“Dare please, make it challenging.” Iida hummed in acknowledgement, thinking it over.
“I dare you to prepare a bento box for Aizawa-Sensei and give it to him yourself.” While the others oohed and aahed with a little surprise, Yaoyorozu nodded at the boy.
“Alright, he certainly could use better nutrition in his diet.” The other participants face-palmed, disappointed. All of them had realized this was a dare between the two most serious students, so of course it hadn’t been as drama-inducing as they hoped. Ashido, undeterred, offered up a dramatic snicker.
“ Ooh , What if he gets the wrong idea?” Yaoyorozu's cheeks colored a bit but she said nothing, turning to Hagakure to avoid answering.
“Truth or Dare?” The invisible girl didn’t take long to choose, wary of getting dared something she couldn’t handle. So, she chose the truth, to which Yaoyorozu asked.
“Are you single?” Hagakure’s gloves went to her face as if to hide her embarrassment, and she wriggled nervously.
“Y-yes,” She raised a brow in Yaoyorozu’s direction.
“But apparently not for long.” She leaned a little toward Yaoyorozu and the two of them shared a blush before Hagakure remembered the game. She looked over at Tsuyu.
“Truth or Dare?” The frog girl sat up onto her knees, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
“I will choose Truth as well, kero.” Hagakure took a little time to think about her question. Yet it didn’t end up being nearly as embarrassing as the first two.
“What do you think of our upperclassmen?” Tsuyu stewed over an answer, clearly taking it seriously. As always, she gave a blunt, honest answer.
“Amajiki is the most intriguing to me, but the others are quite powerful as well.” Hagakure grumbled, almost a whisper.
“That’s not what I meant.” Tsuyu shrugged, blinking and dismissing the question. She shifted to face Ashido, who squirmed in apprehension.
“Well, which will you choose?” Tsuyu asked. Ashido dug her fingers into her hair, hand latching onto one of her horns restlessly. Tentative, but with a smidgen of excitement, she said.
“Dare.” It came out in a half-whisper and Tsuyu’s face twisted into something like a maniacal grin, which none of them had expected. The frog girl drew out the tension with a long buggy stare, a smile quirking her mouth.
“I dare you to write a love letter to your crush.” Ashido pulled back in surprise, along with everyone else, shocked at the girl’s excellent dare. It was unexpected to say the least, as none of them had ever suspected Tsuyu to be the drama-loving type. After collecting herself, Ashido stiffly withdrew a piece of paper and pencil from her bookbag and did as she was asked, a small blush adorning her cheeks the entire time. When she had finally finished, flinching under the unwavering gaze of her curious peers, she almost forgot to continue the game. Shakily, voice a tad small, she looked at Midoriya.
“Truth or Dare?” Midoriya, ever the cinnamon roll, must’ve chosen as he did to relieve the pressure off of Ashido, and she might’ve felt a little guilty for what she ended up daring.
“D-dare.” He sacrificed shyly, ducking as the attention became suddenly focused upon him. Ashido felt the letter crumple a little in her hand as she thought it over and her eyes locked onto it. They settled for a long moment on the name she had printed for the addressee and her dare was suddenly set in stone. With a determined gleam that had Midoriya shifting nervously, she replaced the name of the receiver and erased her own, handing it to the green-haired boy.
“I dare you to read this aloud during class tomorrow.” She glanced at Tsuyu momentarily, as this would interfere with her own dare, but the girl seemed unperturbed. So, she nodded to herself in confirmation and let a smirk of absolute satisfaction eat away her features as she watched Midoriya read through the letter. His entire face went dark.
“N-no way,” He said, fanning his face as he gripped the letter so hard she thought she might have to rewrite it.
“I can’t read something like this!” Ashido felt a sudden madness overcome her as a grin curled her lips.
“But you have to, it’s the rules of the game. You don’t want to give up already do you ?” Normally, something so childishly provocative wouldn’t work, but considering Midoriya’s past with phrases so startlingly similar, he was hooked.
“F-fine,” He said, and everyone drew in an anticipatory breath. They had much more to look forward to tomorrow after all.
“But does it have to be…this particular person.” Ashido blinked back at him innocently.
“Why, something wrong ?” Before he could answer, a loud shout interrupted them. It was one of their teachers, warning them about the time of night. Uraraka sighed, relieved that she didn’t have to do anything embarrassing.
“Looks like we’ll have to stop here.” She said, and everyone broke apart to go their separate ways. Yet, even though the game was over, Ashido couldn’t help herself.
“We’ll be looking forward to your speech tomorrow, Midoriya~” Which promptly made him blush all the way down to his toes.
Before the bell had even finished ringing, Ashido was already talking over it.
“Everyone, please stay a little longer,” She pinned Midoriya with a prompting gaze and he shrunk in his seat.
“Midoriya has something to share. ” Already, Bakugou was ignoring her, brushing out of his seat like something absolutely awesome wasn’t about to happen. She found Tsuyu and Yayorozu magically appearing at her sides as they barred the door.
“Trust me,” Said Ashido, offering the explosive teen a wink and a shit-eating grin.
“You’ll want to hear this.” The blonde’s brow scrunched in annoyance as he squared up to push past her, but his step faltered when Midoriya began.
“A-Ah, I guess I’ll just start then…” Said the boy, shrinking as everyone’s eyes followed him. He was already an unhealthy shade of red and his stutter only got worse as he continued, not daring to look up even once.
“Dear Ka- Katsuki,” He fidgeted and squeaked after no doubt hearing the way Bakugou froze and turned slowly around, piercing gaze locking onto him like a target. The greenette continued painstakingly, glancing at Bakugou out of the corner of his eye like he was a bloodied serial killer.
“I-I’ve known you for a while now, and I-I have a f-few things to say.” Midoriya straightened a bit, seemingly picking up a sort of confidence in his momentum. He glanced up quite often, and Ashido realized he had most-likely practiced the night before. It was sweet and endearing just watching the way Midoriya fell apart, anxiously gripping the letter like a lifeline.
“F-first being that I a-always have you on my m-mind, and I can’t ignore a-anything you do.” Snickers and giggles filled the room, but Midoriya kept going, and Ashido could honestly say she was surprised he could make it through. She certainly wouldn’t have been able to actually give it to her crush, yet here was this incredibly shy boy reading it to the entire class to someone who might end up killing him for it. She felt suddenly guilty, rubbing her teeth together with a sharp swallow.
“You can claim that we don’t really k-know each other, but that makes me want to g-get to know you more.” Bakugou at this point seemed to have understood what the letter meant, but he wasn’t doing anything. That alone said a lot to those that knew him. The ash-blonde was just waiting there by the door, in the same spot he had been in since trying to leave, listening. And Midoriya noticed. The green-haired boy looked up for the last words, gaze shooting right through the audience to meet Bakugou’s.
“So, if you can accept any part of me, the way I respect every bit of you, then I’d like to be more than friends.” For a long moment, nobody moved. The class just watched as the boys stared at each other in silence. Then, in the background, Hagakure swooned. She seemed to regret it immediately when their moment was broken and Bakugou pivoted toward the door, snapping over his shoulder as he left.
“We’ll talk about this later.” Midoriya took a step back, breathed in a lungful of desperate air, and clenched the letter over his heart, eyes blown wide. Then, the class erupted into cheers.
Bakugou didn’t know what to fucking think. Deku had always been so fucking confusing after all. And now, after all the weird shit that’s been happening in their relationship lately, the little shit decides to spring this on him out of nowhere! In front of everybody! The fucking nerd could’ve at least waited so he didn’t have to fucking humiliate the both of them in front of the entire class like that. No, that wasn’t the problem! Deku shouldn’t have said anything at all! Heck, Deku shouldn’t have ever started liking him in the first place! And where did he get the idea that he was allowed to call him Katsuki ?
Bakugou growled, ripping his hands aggressively through his hair. He was glad he was outside, since the chill nip of an autumn breeze cooled the heat rising in his cheeks. He found himself snarling even more beastly than usual, and he must’ve scared everyone out of the walkway by now. Once he had reached an appropriately sturdy-looking wall, he pounded his fists against it, the smell of glycerin filling his nostrils. The familiarity calmed him a bit, until flashes of Deku’s face entered his mind. Deku running from his flames, Deku flinching back, Deku taking his hits, Deku fighting back…until it was finally just Deku facing him. Offering up that infuriating smile, the fear in those green eyes when he was taken by the villains, the trust in them when he told him about One for All. Everything …just Deku .
His flames flared up again and he went to punch the wall, but stopped short, smoke clogging his lungs as he covered a cough. Fuck! Shitty Deku! His fists fell limply to his sides and yet his whole body still felt like it was on fire. He clenched his jaw so hard he heard it crack, and if he noticed himself beginning to shake, he decided to ignore it. Shit, what the fuck was wrong with him!?
Midoriya didn’t know what to think. Once he had escaped into the relative safety of his room, all he could think about was that letter. He’d given it back to Ashido just in case, and she had apologized for making him do something so risky, and he thought he should’ve felt better afterward. But he didn’t. The apology left that same sour taste in his mouth as the look in Kacchan’s eyes.
Why hadn’t the blonde done anything? Why hadn’t he yelled and screamed and aimed those bright, strong flames at him like he used to? Why did he say his parting sentence in a tone that wasn’t angry? Why, why, why?
Midoriya took a deep breath in, calming himself. He knew there was only one way to figure this all out…why he craved Kacchan’s answer so much, why his heart beat a mile a minute at the memory of those blazing red eyes looking at him. Not past him, not through him, not down on him, just at him. After another shaky breath, fingers curled nervously into his pants pockets, Midoriya practically sprinted for Kacchan’s dorm. He just needed to know why, that’s all, no other reason.
Bakugou had just thrown himself onto his bed when a hesitant sort of knock came at his door. He groaned and dug his face into the mattress, annoyed. It was probably Kirishima coming to reason with him, or maybe it was Round Face coming to mark her territory. He growled and rolled over.
“Fuck off, I’m busy!” He heard a familiar squeak on the other side of the door and his whole body froze. He found himself rising stiffly from his bed to open the door, and sure enough, there stood Deku.
The green-haired boy was shaking, glancing up at him from beneath his lashes with a permanent flush over his freckles. His hair was ruffled and his uniform tie was practically falling off at this point, and Bakugou found himself glancing down at his palms to make sure he hadn’t ignited them by accident. Bagugou swallowed and reminded himself that he wasn’t supposed to be brought down by anyone. Yet, the words that emerged from him made him want to explode.
“Oi Deku, what are you doing just standing there like a useless shit? Get in here.” His hand reached out and pulled the boy into his room and the door clicked back into its place and Bakugou suddenly wished he could throw Deku back out and pretend none of this ever happened. Stubbornly, his hand refused to remove itself from Deku’s arm and he could see the small little thing eyeing it now, like he thought it should’ve burnt him down to his marrow already. When Bakugou’s throat began to clog up in response, from the smoke inhalation , he took his hand back and watched as Deku found a place on the floor.
Now the greenette was just sitting there all fidgety, looking up at him with those eyes, and those rosy cheeks, and Bakugou wished he had incinerated him, if only so he didn’t have to feel the flames roaring in his own chest.
“So?” Prompted Bakugou, huffing as he plopped back onto his bed.
“What do you want?” Deku, who had looked at him when he started to speak, immediately turned away. His face disappeared beneath his unruly hair and all Bakugou could see was the pink adorning his ears. Bakugou twitched, reaching forward. He ignored the way Deku flinched at his touch and gripped the boy’s chin, tilting it so that he couldn’t hide.
“Answer me nerd!” Bakugou’s other hand found purchase on Deku’s shoulder when he tried to turn away, and he watched as the greenette turned all shades of red, squirming in his hold.
Bakugou stared down at him, unwavering, watching the boy’s every move. Deku’s eyes flickered for a moment as he stuttered, gaze dropping to his lips and Bakugou suddenly wished he could just push him away.
“I, uh…” Mumbled Deku, caught in a daze as his wide eyes watched Bakugou’s mouth. Bakugou sucked in a sharp lungful of air and let go of Deku, turning away with a snarl.
“Whatever,” He said, trying to burn the way Deku had looked from his mind. What the fuck was wrong with him!? Deku frowned from his place on the floor, features morphing in confusion, and Bakugou wanted to punch him so badly.
“K-Kacchan, what’s wrong?” That little shit! What’s wrong ? Hell if he knew! He couldn’t believe how this day was going. He kept looking back and wondering why he hadn’t made Deku into a pile of ashes yet. He peered cautiously at Deku, trying to figure it all out.
The green-haired boy looked as tiny and weak as always sitting there on his floor. His cheeks were puffed with a brilliant flush, his legs sprawled out beneath him, his untamable hair twirled around his face, his eyes blown wide like a doll’s, for once void of tears, and the way his eyelashes brushed against his darkest freckles…how had he never noticed that Deku’s eyelashes were green?
“P-please Kacchan,” Said Deku, and Bakugou felt his whole body go rigid. He sucked in a sharp gust and blinked in quick succession, shaking his head back and forth like a dog.
“You can tell me.” Finished Deku, and Bakugou felt his nails dig into his palms so hard he wouldn't be surprised to find blood. Huffing, Bakugou hauled the boy up by the collar of his shirt, snarling in his face.
“I told you to stop calling me that!” Deku didn’t seem frightened by him for some reason, and Bakugou wondered if that's what love did to a person. If so, then he found it irritating.
“U-Uh, B-Bakugou then?” Asked Deku, name coming out all awkward and jumbled. Bakugou realized it was probably the first time he’d ever actually used it, and his lip involuntarily curled with the wrongness of it.
“Not that either!” He snapped, watching with satisfaction as the boy flinched. Bakugou finally released his collar and Deku fell into an awkward position between his lap. Bakugou almost pushed him back onto the floor, but the boy started to talk.
“F-fine then, if I t-tell you what I want, will you tell me w-what’s wrong?” Bakugou scooted back a little so that Deku wasn’t directly in his lap, growling.
“No promises!” Now, Deku really looked at him. And with the boy sitting on his bed, so close, those vibrant green eyes round with life, he found that anything he might’ve yelled evaporated in his throat.
“I l-like you a lot,” Started Deku, and Bakugou wished he wasn’t sitting so close.
“And that means I uh…I-I…” Deku squeezed his eyes shut, fists clenched, and said something entirely unexpected.
“I want you!” As soon as the words left him, Deku scrambled backward, slapping a hand over his mouth as his face went pale. Bakugou caught him just before he could fall onto the floor, and they stared at each other. After Bakugou had returned him to the bed, Deku began to babble nervously. Meanwhile, Bakugou’s mind had gone eerily blank.
“T-there, you got your answer. So tell me what’s wrong.” Bakugou cursed under his breath, hand fisting into his shirt as he tried to calm his racing heart. For some reason, he felt like they had just left the battlefield, adrenaline pumping through him at an alarming rate as his Quirk went haywire, causing him to sweat uncontrollably.
“N-nothing’s wrong.” He stuttered, eyes widening when his voice lodged in his throat. What the actual fuck! ? Since when was he the nervous wreck? Apparently, he had taken too long to give a real answer because Deku began to back away. Instinctively, Bakugou’s hand trapped him before he could and now they were both stuck. Just staring into each other’s eyes and breathing. Bakugou watched as Deku’s cheeks blossomed with color and his lips parted.
“Uh Kacc–Katsuki, what are you d-doing?” Bakugou felt heat flare all the way from the bottom of his gut to his neck and his breath grew uneven.
“Just shut the fuck up and don’t move.” He said, more of a whisper than anything. And Deku listened so much better to that than he ever had before. Bakugou knew it should’ve irritated him, but while he did picture murdering the boy, it was in whole different way than usual.
Bakugou felt Deku gasp in shock and try to pull away as soon as their lips connected, and he growled. His hands somehow found their way onto the back of the boy’s neck and he dug his nails in purposely. The sound of pain leaving Deku’s mouth was something he took advantage of, biting the boy’s bottom lip and sucking it.
It did not start gentle, as Bakugou wasn’t a gentle sort of person, but it wasn’t exactly an angry kiss either. It was more of a desperate thing, hisses of air sounding like doused flames escaping from the space between them. And when Bakugou shoved his tongue into Deku’s mouth they both groaned. The explosive teen couldn’t help yanking the smaller boy fully into his lap so he could pull off and lick at his neck, nibbling the spots with freckles and smirking at the marks he left. He could hear Deku’s gasp as he bit his ear, and he shifted to devour the sound out of the boy’s mouth, tasting it.
Deku’s hands fell warmly onto his chest as the kiss slowed into something a little deeper, tongues dancing together as they explored each other’s mouths. Bakugou found his hands raking over Deku’s shoulders, his back, his neck, his hair, wildly snatching whatever they could. As he let his lips latch onto the boy’s neck once more, he felt Deku shiver and gasp.
“ Haah , K-Kacchan…” What the fuck!? Shit, why does that sound so much better than fear ? When they came up for air again, this time, Deku pulled back, and Bakugou only felt a little embarrassed at the possessive sort of noise that left his throat.
“S-sorry,” Said Deku, breathless. And suddenly Bakugou just wanted to chain him to the bed so the little shit couldn’t even think of escaping. Then, one of those ridiculous smiles split the boy’s face as he brought a finger to his lips, gaze dancing with mischief.
“That comes with b-boyfriend privileges.” Bakugou suspected that it might've been sexy if it had come out right, but now it was just cute. He also suspected that Deku was just as ready to get back to what they were doing as he was, so he felt a smirk curve his lips as he pushed Deku so that he fell onto the bed. Allowing his canines to flash dangerously, Bakugou watched Deku shiver beneath him, allowing a hand to curl over his chest suggestively.
“Oh really?” He ran it momentarily down Deku’s pecs in a smooth, predatory movement.
“What else comes with boyfriend privileges?” And before the boy could answer, he leaned down to kiss him again.