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It started with a fight, as most things did when it came to Bakugou Katsuki.
Shinsou had officially transferred out of general studies to the hero course and was welcomed with open arms when he entered the room for class 2-A. Everyone was excited to see Shinsou; Bakugou was indifferent. Deku and Kaminari flocked to his side, badgering him with questions about how he felt officially joining their class. He seemed uncomfortable with all the attention, not that Bakugou cared. He grunted, then turned his attention to Kirishima who was scrambling to finish his English homework. Bakugou chastised him for waiting until the last minute and pointed out the misplaced adjective he was struggling with.
He flicked his gaze up briefly, scarlet eyes meeting indigo for the faintest moment, then looked away again. Shinsou was rubbing at the back of his neck when their teacher came in and ushered everyone to their seats. He took his new seat next to Shouji and class proceeded.
The fight was brought on thanks to Shinsou’s lack of experience in the hero course. He was overconfident – reckless. His small amount of real-world combat experience and training with Eraserhead wasn’t enough to make up for the fact that he was still an entire year behind the rest of the class. Bakugou had watched his friends grow exponentially in the last year, while Shinsou was leaps and bounds behind them and overcompensating for that. His ineptitude put them in danger when it came to hero training that afternoon.
His lone wolf attitude by itself was enough to make Bakugou’s skin crawl, but when Jirou almost took a blow to the head, Bakugou snapped. He managed to blast the debris into small pieces in the nick of time, protecting Jirou, and scooping them into his arms to carry them to safety. They were thankful like always, and Kaminari cast him a look of silent relief. Bakugou ignored it, turning his attention fully to the class newbie.
“Shit like that is gonna get someone killed!” he snapped. Bakugou marched up to Shinsou, gloved finger pointed directly in his face.
“I’m sorry,” Shinsou apologized, throwing his hands up defensively.
A blond brow twitched on Bakugou’s face, and he grit his teeth. “Sorry wouldn’t have done Ears any good if that slab of concrete hit them in the head.”
A hand came down on his shoulder and he turned to see Jirou at his side. “Bakugou, chill. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
Shinsou apologized to Jirou again, but Bakugou stalked off. He was not going to waste his time on someone so reckless. He had fallen behind Deku in his efforts to become number one, and Bakugou needed to focus on his goal.
As he did with most things, Bakugou made his dissatisfaction towards Shinsou everyone’s problem. Shinsou had moved into the vacant room to the left of Bakugou’s. He now had to see him in the classroom and the dorms. It would be just his luck that the purple-haired man didn’t end up in the vacant room on the fifth floor instead.
He tried to avoid Shinsou like the plague. Any time Shinsou entered the room, Bakugou left, with the exception being the classroom. He wasn’t going to lose a limb to the guy, not when he had already taken enough damage in the last year.
It worked well for a while, at least until they were paired together for a training exercise. Their bad rapport made them easy targets for Deku and Kirishima, who were acutely aware of the inner workings of Bakugou’s quirk. Kirishima’s hardened skin was impregnable, and Deku’s Quirk had made him incredibly versatile over the last year. He moved around Ground Gamma with ease.
“This fucking sucks!” Bakugou complained, as they stood behind a brick building in a tactical retreat. “We’re never gonna beat the damn nerd this way.”
Shinsou folded his arms across his chest, scowling at Bakugou from behind his face mask. “Well then, what do you want to do?”
“I wanna fucking win! But I’m too busy making sure Deku doesn’t capture you in order to fight Kirishima.”
“You don’t have to babysit me.”
“Don’t I?” Bakugou snapped.
Shinsou sighed and shook his head. “Look, I’m sorry about last time, but I’ve been more careful lately. I do not want anyone to get hurt. I’m here so that I can be a hero too.”
“Tch.” Bakugou clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. “Fine. This is what we’re gonna do…” He explained his plan to Shinsou before taking off into the air to draw Deku’s attention. He could be bait if it meant they would win.
It worked. When All Might declared their team the victors of the exercise, Bakugou smiled wide. Shinsou held up a hand sheepishly for a high five, and after a moment of contemplation, Bakugou slapped the waiting palm. They smiled at each other and walked off the field so that the next two sets of teams could take their turn to fight.
Their battle together seemed to thaw the frosty waters they had previously found themselves in. And while Bakugou would never admit it, he was thankful. He hated seeing his friends on edge. Kaminari’s forlorn expression was impossible to ignore. So, when they had to walk on eggshells around him to talk to Shinsou, it annoyed the fuck out Bakugou. Now, the purple-haired brainwasher had been indoctrinated into their weird friend group. And it admittedly wasn’t terrible.
It was slow, gradual, but when Bakugou realized he might harbor something akin to more than just friendship for his new classmate, it hit him like a freight train. They had started spending more time alone, without the rest of the idiots tagging along, and he had no idea how it even happened. One minute everyone was gathered in Bakugou’s dorm room – much to his disapproval – the next, Shinsou was helping him clean up, lingering long after the others had left. With them being neighbors, Kirishima was usually the one to stay behind at the end, but even he started slipping out with everyone else.
Even that dumbass Kaminari had shot him a knowing glance as he walked out of the room one night. Shinsou nodded off. His head had found purchase on Bakugou’s shoulder, and purple hair tickled his cheek. For some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to shove the sleeping man off him. Instead, he sat there, heart racing, and stared at his phone. It was late when Shinsou finally woke up to see them alone together.
“You should head to bed,” Bakugou told him. “You don’t want to make your eyebags worse.”
Those droopy, dark eyes peered up at him from beneath half-lidded lashes and it felt like Bakugou’s heart stopped. He couldn’t breathe.
“You look beautiful,” Shinsou confessed, voice thick with sleep. He blinked his tired eyes open, never taking his gaze off of Bakugou.
Blood pounded in his ears, and his face flushed. He must have misheard him. “What?” he asked. His voice croaked.
“I think I like you,” said Shinsou, as a follow up. He pulled away from Bakugou, and there was a chill leaving goosebumps on his skin from where the heat disappeared.
Bakugou’s cheeks burned, and he pulled his shirt collar up to his nose to shield his face. “Yeah,” he muttered.
“What?” asked Shinsou, with a knowing smirk. He brushed his thumb across the apple of Bakugou’s cheek and tugged the collar down.
Bakugou groaned and turned his head away. “Like you too.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that smirk on Shinsou’s face stretch and widen from ear to ear. It was strange seeing him smile so big, but Bakugou didn’t hate it.
“I’ll head to bed now,” Shinsou told him, and Bakugou turned back to see the purple-haired man rise to his feet.
They exchanged an awkward hug goodnight, and Shinsou left the room, leaving Bakugou alone in bed, thinking about how he has a boyfriend now.
It didn’t change things between them much. For the most part, their relationship was exactly the same. To outsiders, it might not even look as if they were dating, but they were, they just didn’t go about it in the traditional sense. Their intimate moments were just that – intimate. They still spent time as a group with their friends, but they also spent more time alone together. They would cuddle into one another while seated on the couch or on the bed. They would hold hands and go on dates. It was comfortable. Bakugou wouldn’t dare ask for more because he was happy just the way things were.
He didn’t need kissing, or sex, or loud confessions of love. His whole life was loud. His relationship was a welcomed calm. Bakugou could be himself around Shinsou without all the showboating. While his classmates talked about the more lascivious aspects of their respective relationships, he kept to himself – partly because they didn’t need to know, and partly because there was literally nothing to talk about. They hadn’t gone past cuddling and handholding, but he was happy, truly.
So, when they were six months into their relationship, Bakugou was thrown for a loop. They were in Shinsou’s room watching a movie, curled up together on his bed. It was some D-rated horror flick with terrible acting and even worse CGI, and Bakugou was ranting about one of the characters. He was in the middle of making a snide comment about one of the girls that had just run into a meat locker, and his hands were moving expressively to match his heated argument, when Shinsou suddenly caught his face between his hands and kissed him.
Bakugou was stunned silent. He sat there in shock, their lips pressed together, his eyes wide open. When they pulled apart, he asked, “why?”
Shinsou smiled at him softly, those dark eyes melting Bakugou’s heart. “You just looked too cute not to kiss,” he admitted. “And it felt right.” Shinsou cocked a purple brow, studying Bakugou’s face. “Is that okay with you?”
Bakugou was silent for a long moment as his heart caught up to his mind. He was surprised by exactly how okay with it he actually was. His heart thumped wildly in his chest, and blood pounded in his ears. His cheeks burned, and his tongue felt thick in his throat as he tried to work the words out of his mouth. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah. It’s more than okay.” And it was.
He grabbed Shinsou by the cheeks, leaning in quickly to initiate the second kiss of their relationship. Bakugou breathed him in and parted his lips, giving way for Shinsou’s mouth to slot together with his own. He hadn’t realized just how much he had wanted this all this time, but it was perfect – they were perfect together, and he couldn’t be happier. It was nice to get a little more affectionate every once in a while, and while they still may not be the same as everyone else, they made it work in a way that was wholly and uniquely them, and that was all that mattered.
(Source: Emily)