Chapter Text
The Aim of The Game
Bakugo remembers hearing about it all throughout middle school, everybody does. It was like how everybody knew about certain tv shows from when they were kids, could talk about the characters and story lines, yet couldn’t recall the first time they’d ever heard about it. It had always just been there, present as long as he’d lived, and long before.
The I love you Game
The game really wan’t too complicated, some schools added twists and additional challenges, stricter rules and some added prizes, but most schools- like Katsuki’s- kept it simple. The students would gather in the beginning of the year, maybe a week or so into the school year, and draw from a hat for their ‘person.’
Katsuki thought it was more like a ‘victim.’
Whoever you drew, you had to get them to say “I love you” before Valentine’s Day. That easy: You win. There were rules, obviously. It had to be genuine- it couldn’t be read from some script, couldn’t be coerced, and couldn’t be said in response. They had to say it first, you couldn’t say “I love you,” that was forfeiting.
It wasn’t the only way to forfeit.
Bakugo didn’t ever participate in such a stupid ‘challenge’, he had other things to focus on. Training, avoiding his mom, building his resume for UA. Nobody would ever tell Bakugo Katsuki that they loved him, anyhow. He doesn’t say this bitterly, or even remotely upset, it’s just a fact. It’s also a fact that Bakugo is going to become the best pro-hero that the world had ever seen, so why did stupid teenager antics matter, in the grand scheme of things?
Most people who had ever drawn his name had just forfeited, thrown the note in the trash at the gathering where they were given out. Bakugo had always done the same, not even bothering to read the name. When the organizers told the girl that her name had been forfeited, she cried,
“Who was it? Who doesn’t want to be with me? Am I so bad?” She said through a teary voice. Bakugo had snorted and left the room, and that had been that.
The only people who didn’t receive notes were those in relationships, it was Bakugo’s only other way out- as if that would happen.
He wouldn’t have to worry about all of this bullshit at UA, it was a school too focused on producing quality heroes, why would they waste their time?
The game was the last thing on his mind on move in day, especially when he’d been sprawled out on his neatly-made bed, shirtless and sweaty and pissed off that the damn air conditioner still wasn’t working, even in the dead heat of August.
When he heard the gentle scrape against his wooden floor, when he’d received the letter under his door, neat scrawl requesting him report to the courtyard at seven pm that night, he wouldn’t have ever guessed what it was. He figured it was at least a request from teachers, some new surprise training.
Looking back, he’d rather it have been anything else.
He walked out the exit and down the steps after pulling on his black tank top that still smelled like home, a pair of grey joggers and his sneakers. He wishes that whoever had written the note had given any inclination of what they’d be doing, he didn’t want to show up underdressed, or not ready for some training exercise. Whatever- it wasn’t his fault, at this point.
The air was warm, though cooler than his room, and the sun was setting behind the school, each of it’s windows reflecting the red and orange and yellow and pink hues of the sky. His mind eased looking at it. It was just like the pictures, just like what all the pros had talked it up to be. This was his chance.
He’d always been excited to come here, to leave his house and leave his mom, but now that his washing was starting to smell less like their choice of detergent and there wasn’t dog hair covering all of his sheets, he was missing it a little more and more each day. He missed his handprints that his mom had him burn into their wooden front porch steps, and the trees outside of his home. He never made any meaningful friends in middle school, just some dickheads who did what he asked.
He did his best to stop thinking as he made his way to the courtyard behind the school, it wasn’t as if it made him emotional or anything, but it was distracting him from his goals here, and dwelling on things wouldn’t help him become a hero.
The courtyard was basked in the golden light of the setting sun, giddy students filing in with their supposed ‘groups’ already. Some of the girls were talking in a circle in front of the water fountain, while the boy with yellow hair with a lightning bolt threw a frisbee with the one with black hair and odd elbows. He slung his tape out whenever the frisbee was too far for him to reach, pulling it down to him while the electric one whined about the unfairness. He saw Deku sitting on a bench next to the boy with the tail, though the two weren’t talking to each other or even really acknowledging one another. Endeavor’s kid was sitting and looking at the flowers. Students were scattered around otherwise, some sitting quiet, and some making loud conversation.
Perhaps the loudest of them all was an obnoxious red-head with far too boisterous of a laugh. He was rolling over in the grass as he was pushed by the one with too many arms. It seemed like some sort of funny training exercise, where he would try to anticipate the hits of the one with the arms, from every angle imaginable. He would do his best to harden his skin in just that area, before focusing his quirk on the next. The hits became quicker and quicker, until he was able to sneak one past him and would push him over. They seemed to be the only ones doing anything ‘productive,’ if you could even call it that.
“Helloooo everybody!” A girl walked out into the middle of the courtyard, speaking in a long, drawn out voice that sounds like it was created to capture people’s attention. Her hair was long and it almost looked like she too was created to capture people’s attention. She walked in long strides, and moved effortlessly to the center, where everyone could see her. She turned around, a stack of notecards in hand.
“Welcome, everybody, to UA! I know you’ve all already been here for what- two weeks now? How time flies!” She smiles the entire time she speaks, an overly-cheery tone present in her voice. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, there is a.. game of sorts that many high schools play!”
No way.
Bakugo felt his heartbeat in his ears as she continued speaking, walking around and passing out the cards.
No way.
“Now, I’m sure you’re all aware that people in relationships do not typically participate, but in order to get everybody to get to know one another, UA administrators have allowed the game to continue despite our rigorous coursework! That means that everybody will be participating, with no forfeiting allowed! It is crucial as pro-heroes to be able to work well with one another, and getting to know each other here will be an amazing foundation to do that!”
A girl within the group raised her hand,
“Yes?” The girl spins around, pointing to her.
“What if we don’t want to play?” The frog girl croaks,
“Well.. there’s not exactly a punishment.. we can’t force you to participate, but we do strongly suggest you get to know your person! Everything is one hundred percent randomized!” She was quickly approaching Bakugo, and handed him a card. He begrudgingly opened it,
Minoru Mineta.
Katsuki let out a snort, and stood up from his bench. He remembered that little fucker’s name, it had bounced around the girl’s conversation in class as they talked about the creep. The girl handing out papers faltered in her steps at Katsuki’s snort, spinning around to face him.
“Hmm?”
“You said no punishment?” The girl nodded. “Alright, see you dumbasses next year, then.” He walked away from the courtyard, ready to be in his bed and have the whole thing over with.
At least he did the whole class a favor, one of the few people who didn’t want to participate got the pervert. It’s a wonder he hadn’t been excluded from the game.
Kirishima chewed on his lip, staring thoughtfully at his still-folded index card. He was slightly nervous, he had been a three year running champion at The Game, and had even met Sero through it. When he’d pulled his card last year, the two had become friends right off the bat, and it wasn’t long before he’d proclaimed his platonic love for Kirishima in a drunken stupor on New Years. Kirishima had confessed then and there that he’d held his card, and the two had a good laugh about it.
He was sure he wouldn’t have a problem winning this year. Not to brag, but he’d become much more social, not to mention stronger- how hard could it be to make friends with one of his classmates and get them to say those three little words?
He used dull fingernails to pry apart the perfect edges of paper, letting it fall open in his palm. In loopy, purple ink:
Bakugo Katsuki.
“Damn.” He murmured, looking up at that moment, after the rude blonde who had just stormed away from the garden. He clearly was not interested in the game, and Kirishima hadn’t seen him speak to a single person since he’s gotten here… besides when he was being super unmanly to Midoriya.
How was he supposed to make this work?
Sero was bounding over to him from where he’d been playing frisbee,
“Dude! Who’d you get?” He asks, clearly excited about his own card. Kirishima lets out a sigh and turns around his card, watching as his friend’s face dropped, “Dude.“ Kirishima just nods. “Well, look at this!” He turns his card and raises his eyebrows, nodding to his right.
Mina Ashido.
Kirishima remembers her, she was the pretty girl with the acid quirk. He knew her back in middle school, she was really cool, and Sero had even mentioned being sort of into her back even as far as last year. Kirishima holds up his knuckles for a fist-bump, to which Sero immediately reciprocates.
“What are you even going to do, man? You’ve never lost before!” Kirishima slumps down,
“I don’t know!” He looks after Bakugo again, who was somewhat stomping in a sort of dickhead way. “He’s like, mean! It’s so unmanly, I couldn’t have pulled a worse card!” Denki laughs from where he’s standing behind Sero,
“Well, somebody had to have pulled Mineta, so.. it could always be worse!” Kirishima grimaced, sucking air through his teeth. It’d hardly been two weeks, and the little creep had already established himself as a pervert.
“Hopefully it wasn’t one of the girls..” He turns to look at them, and sees one of them immediately avert their gaze, blushing madly. Kaminari leans down besides Kirishima,
“You know like- everybody, right?” Kirishima shrugs, he’d definitely become more social, but knowing everybody here was a bit of a stretch. “Who’s this guy?”
Hitoshi Shinsou.
It was definitely someone he’d heard of, but Kirishima can’t remember where he’d heard his name before.. The girl who passed out the cards was making her rounds when Sero waved her over,
“What if you don’t know your person?” She furrows her eyebrows,
“Let me see the card?” Denki shows her discreetly. “Oh.. hmm… It looks like the classes got mixed up but.. geez, I’m out of cards? I- uh…” Kaminari pauses,
“Y’know what, it’s fine! Don’t worry about it, I’ll make it work. What class is he in? I’ll find him!” Kaminari proclaims, a faint pink rising to his cheeks. The girl beams,
“Okay! Please let me know if you change your mind! Here, hold on your hand?” Kaminari does, not breaking eye contact with her, She uncaps a pen with her teeth and speaks around it as she takes his hand, “Here’s my number if you do change your mind.” She looks up over her glasses at him with a smile as she writes the last digit, and it takes everything in Kirishima not to burst out laughing as she does. Kaminari looks like he’s seen a ghost.
“Okay- he will, he’s very grateful!” Sero fills in the quiet, successfully avoiding a very awkward silence as Kaminari begins to short circuit. The girl walks to another group as the two boys laugh overtop of their friend, whose face was bright red.
“Wish I pulled her name…”
Sero was sitting on the floor or Kirishima’s room, asking question after question about Mina, thought Kirishima couldn’t offer too many answers, besides some of the obvious.
“What’s her favorite movie?” Sero asks his billionth question,
“Bro, I told you, we just went to the same school. I- like- barely know her!” Kirishima looks down at his pen and paper, there’s lots of question marks, and a definitive “favorite color: pink” circled in the middle of the page. Sero takes a moment to lean away from the paper before loudly groaning,
“I’m never going to get to even take her on a date! She’s way too pretty!” He slumps against the leg of Kirishima’s desk,
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Kirishima picks up the index card of his bed, corner now soft and rounded from all of the folding he’d done in his pocket. “I don’t even know where to start! Do I forfeit?” Sero sits upright immediately,
“No way- that’s like.. not manly!” Kirishima looks over into his surprisingly determined eyes. “Plus, we aren’t even allowed! We’re gonna be the best pro heroes in the business, we can take on two dates! I mean, with how much of a dick Bakugo is, he probably hasn’t even had any girl show interest in him, let alone a hunk like you! You’ve got this in the bag, man!” Sero holds up a fist, and Kirishima meets him with a fist bump, with a soft ‘clack’ as Sero’s tape dispensers adjust. The first time it’d happened, it sent shivers up Kirishima’s spine just imagining the feeling, but he associates it with a good friend now.
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Kirishima smiles down at his friend. Sero waves off the apology, no need. “Do you want to watch a movie or something?”
“Sure! Your pick this time!”
The two settle in for a movie, dozing in and out at the late hour. These dorm beds were really more comfortable than they looked, maybe that’s where all of that tuition money was going.
Kirishima wakes up with a terribly dry mouth and credits rolling on the screen. He blinks his eyes a few times and looks over to see Sero cuddled up to one of Kirishima’s pillows, drooling all over both the pillow cover and his notebook, the ink that previously said ‘pink’ now fully smeared. Kirishima reaches around for his phone to take a photo and is temporarily blinded by his phone’s screen.
Damn, two AM already?
He snaps a photo of Sero, and one in point-five for good measure, before he slips out of his dorm room, careful not to wake his friend. He walks as quietly as he can to the stairs and to the kitchen, it’s sort of annoying that he has to go all the way downstairs for a drink, he should invest in a mini fridge when he gets a little extra money saved up, not that spare money was something he was exactly tripping over…
Shivers crawl up and down his back as he wanders the still unfamiliar common room, hoping that no teachers are down here waiting to catch students past curfew so early in the school year. The sound of the fridge opening makes him jump, hiccup coming from his throat. The dark room is silent and newly still. Kirishima freezes, body rigid in his fear.
“Who’s there?” A voice calls out from the kitchen, he doesn’t recognize who it is, but it doesn’t sound like any teachers he knows.
“I- uh- I just need a drink.” Kirishima’s voice shakes against his will, he can’t help but feel like his teenage self.
“Hurry the fuck up, then.”
Oh, well, Kirishima thinks he has an idea as to who it may be.
He continues walking into the darkness, he really needs to get a better grasp on his surroundings. He barely manages to miss the end table as he finally sees the light spilling into the open from the kitchen. When he rounds the table, his heart feels just a little bit funny.
Bakugo is in the kitchen in a pair of sweats, the ones from earlier, and his tank top is discarded onto the back of a chair, skin sheening with a layer of sweat, or maybe water. He shuffles around in a pair of slippers, gathering a variety of ingredients from different spots. There are soap suds on the backs of his forearms, and his hair looks ever so slightly damp from a shower.
“Hey, man.” Kirishima tries some sort of greeting, but it comes out nervous and Bakugo pays it little mind. Kirishima keeps walking to the kitchen and notices the pungent smell in the air, something distinctly spicy. “What are you making?”
“Some cheap packet ramen.. it’s all that was left in this damn kitchen.” Kirishima winces internally- that was his ramen, the last one he had from his food for the week. It’s okay, he doesn’t want to confront the guy about it now. “Trying to make it actually edible but they didn’t really give us much.” Kirishima looks at the pre-stocked seasoning cupboard, the crushed red pepper was down by nearly a fourth.
“Smells.. spicy.” Kirishima watches Bakugo adjust his shoulder, “Good! Just, smells really spicy.” Bakugo glances over at him, making eye contact for the first time since he’s come down here. Actually, making eye contact for the first time since the two met.
“You’re a pussy if you think this is spicy.” He snorts, pouring the ramen into one of the bowls the school provided. Kirishima hops up onto one of the counters, cup of water in hand. He sips it and does his best to discreetly examine Bakugo’s physique. He can’t deny that the boy is strong. His forearms ripple with every movement he makes, they would have to be totally jacked to support his quirk, and his shoulders are seriously huge. Kirishima watches as he lifts to put something back above the fridge, how his shoulder and back shifts. Kirishima sips his water as Bakugo turns back to his food and to face Kirishima, he hopes it cools him down enough that his blush isn’t evident.
“How come you’re making food so late?” Kirishima asks, hoping to fill the empty silence.
“Didn’t want to run into anyone after all of that stupid shit earlier.” He huffs, leaning against the counter to eat his food. “I mean, seriously, isn’t that shit for babies? We have a lot more important shit to do. Besides, I pulled someone stupid.” Bakugo lifts the steaming food to his lips, chewing the stuff slowly. He looks somewhat satisfied.
“Have you ever won before?” He asks, Bakugo shakes his head.
“Never played before.” Bakugo checks his watch, he doesn’t seem to be one for small talk.
“I see.” Kirishima taps his fingers against the side of his cup, “I won’t keep you up, you seemed like you were going to eat in your room anyhow.” Kirishima slides off the counter. Bakugo puts the last of the now dry dishes away.
“Yeah.” He shuts off the lights in the kitchen, the two boys now only illuminated by moonlight seeping in through some far windows. Kirishima can’t help but think that the blonde looks pretty with the softer features. “You’re the one with the rock quirk, right?” Kirishima nods, holding up his arm and letting his forearm turn to stone. Goosebumps run up and down his skin as Bakugo examines him.
“Your quirk is really neat, dude!.” Bakugo stares at him. Kirishima was sure it was about the millionth time he’d heard that.
“You got here, didn’t you, Shitty Hair?” What was that supposed to mean? Kirishima sticks out his bottom lip, reaching up to touch his still gelled hair,
“Hey- my hair isn’t bad-“ Bakugo cuts him off,
“You don’t seem like a pussy.” Bakugo says, matter-of-factly. Kirishima blinks.
“Thanks..?” Bakugo walks past him, grabbing his tank top and slinging it over his shoulder.
“I lied.” Bakugo says, stopping in his tracks. “I come down here because I sleep like shit lately.” Kirishima nods, humming in approval. Bakugo continued towards the steps without another word, and Kirishima just stops and listens as he continues up them.
It was certainly a start, even if he is down by a pack of ramen