Chapter Text
For most of his seventeen years in this shitty earth, Bakugou was under the impression that he was immune to any sort of romantic feelings whatsoever, and he was perfectly content with that reality, not exactly wanting anything to distract him from his goals in becoming the number one hero.
But of course, with how merciless the universe had proven to be since he entered UA, that belief crashed unexpectedly as well during one of their morning classes.
For some reason, instead of focusing on the lesson that Present Mic had been teaching, his eyes found themselves fluttering about the room, landing directly on Kirishima who was chewing his pencil all intently in a manner that was actually cute.
At the observation, heat seeped into Bakugou’s cheeks, painting his cheeks a messy blot of red as a certain revelation struck him, causing his eyes to widen to the size of saucers as his mind short-circulated, unable to come into grips with his newfound dilemma—
He had feelings for Kirishima.
In the midst of his inner turmoil, small explosions crackled through the explosive teen’s clenched palms, unwittingly catching the attention of everyone in the classroom.
With all the sudden attention that he was subjected to, Bakugou was now flushing red for a different reason this time around as embarrassment shot through to his veins, and he swiftly stood up, making a beeline for the door. “I forgot something in my shitty dorm!”
Paying no mind to his classmates’ frantic calls of his name, Bakugou dashed through the hallways, bolting over to the elevators where he swiftly pressed on the button for the fourth floor, bits of explosions forming in his hands all the while.
Instantly, upon reaching the designated floor, Bakugou quickly scrambled his way inside as he curled his fists, attempting to get his quirk under control to no avail since the explosions had remained relentless, somehow unable to be pacified.
Letting out a groan in frustration, Bakugou shook his head, trying his best not to give into the temptation of blowing something up.
Thankfully, distraction came in the form of knocking, and Bakugou slowly trudged over to yank his door open, coming face to face with the alarmed gaze of his heart’s affection.
Wordlessly, Kirishima’s eyes flicked about, straying over to rest on the slight crackles of explosions forming on his best friend’s palms.
And then, without missing a beat, Kirishima activated his own quirk, laying his hardened fingers atop Bakugou’s own in order to help simmer the explosions down.
Selfishly, for the next couple minutes or so, Bakugou basked in the feeling of rugged yet comforting hands latching onto his fists gently, warmth cascading throughout his body as he relaxed into the hold, his explosions gradually coming into a stop.
Much to the blond’s dismay, Kirishima had soon deactivated his quirk, extricating his hand away from him as he questioned him with concern in his voice. “Is everything good, bro?”
Not wanting to prolong his friend’s worry, Bakugou immediately went on to reassure Kirishima, shoving his most recent realization aside to the back of his head. “Yeah, everything is fuckin’ fine now.”
However, just from the sight of Kirishima’s resulting smile of relief, Bakugou’s earlier success in suppressing his feelings were in vain as it had resurged with a vengeance, causing his heart to thunder tremendously loudly in his chest.
Amongst all of the internal ruckus going on, Bakugou cursed silently to himself, knowing that he had a new problem at hand.
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Much to his dismay, in spite of the fact that an entire week had already passed since that day, Bakugou still found it difficult to get a handle over his newfound feelings as he struggled to even act normally around Kirishima, getting all jittery from his best friend’s mere presence alone.
To make things worse, throughout the week, Kirishima had taken it upon himself to hang around Bakugou more for whatever reason, barely giving the blond a breathing room from all of the repercussions brought about by his feelings for his friend.
With his shitty brain relentlessly projecting romantic fantasies of a certain redhead holding his hand tenderly, Bakugou had turned to one his favorite leisure activities— cooking, hoping that such recreation would help steer those unrealistic fantasies away from his head.
Fortunately, as it had turned out, cooking was indeed effective in warding off any unwanted thoughts as he focused completely in the task of frying the pork that he was cooking, zero traces of anything Kirishima related lingering in his mind.
However, in the midst of his frying, an arm had suddenly draped itself over the blond’s shoulder, startling Bakugou to the point that he let out an involuntary screech, nearly dropping the spatula from his hands.
“I-Idiot, what the hell are you doing?!” Shoving the arm off of his shoulders, Bakugou exclaimed, face aflame as he glared angrily at the culprit of the act—Kirishima, the rate of his heart quickening ever so slightly. “Can’t you see that I’m busy here?!”
“Sorry, sorry, I just got too excited to see you.” Kirishima mumbled out sheepishly, scratching a hand over the back of his head. “Whatcha’ making over there, bro?”
Just as Bakugou was about to open his mouth in order to respond to his friend’s question, Kirishima sidled up closer to his side, peering into the frying pan in order to investigate for himself. “Ah, you’re making pork chops.”
“Get the fuck out!” Through his burning face, Bakugou barked out, raising one of his legs up to kick at the redhead’s back. “You’re distracting me from my cooking!”
Weirdly enough, Kirishima’s eyes traveled downwards, glancing at Bakugou’s exposed biceps for a split second before they roamed back upwards to the explosive teen’s face. “Haha, alright, I’ll leave you to it then.”
For an indiscernible amount of time, Bakugou remained stiff frozen, unable to even move a single finger of his body as his brain replayed the events which had just taken place just moments ago, heat seeping its way to color his face a cherry red hue.
All too suddenly, Bakugou’s ears caught wind of the sound of his classmates’ chattering as they trickled in the common area, effectively jolting him out of his funk as he shifted his focus back into checking the state of the pork chops, panic rising up within the blond at the realization that the chops were practically seconds away from getting burned.
Unwittingly, amidst Bakugou’s frantic attempts in trying to salvage the food, some sense of exhilaration coursing through his veins as bits and pieces of hope swelled up his chest, his earlier fantasies involving Kirishima somehow seeming a little less improbable now.
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Recently, ever since that incident in the kitchen, Bakugou would find himself unconsciously scrutinizing practically every single one of his interactions with Kirishima, searching for any indications of even the slightest tinge of underlying attraction from his best friend’s side.
With every almost longing glance that Kirishima would direct to his palm, a swarm of butterflies would crawl up Bakugou’s body, and the corners of his lips would tick upwards ever so slightly, reveling in the inexplicable amount of joy pooling throughout his veins.
Somewhere along the line, the prospect of confessing his feelings to Kirishima had begun crossing Bakugou’s mind more and more often, and the blond hadn’t even bothered writing the idea off as something foolish, knowing that he had stood an actual chance of progressing their relationship further.
With an ample amount of confidence fueling him, Bakugou hadn’t spent much time wrestling with the idea before he made the decision of confessing to his best friend, wanting nothing more than for his delusions to become his new reality.
As such, Bakugou turned into novels as well as manga in order to research the best possible ways to go about the whole confession, burying himself in the books for the next few days whenever he was in the secrecy of his dorm.
Finally, after being exposed to tons and tons of love stories containing the cheesiest confessions, Bakugou managed to work out a doable plan, and he stepped foot inside the kitchen once again during the early morning shortly just before their morning jog would take place, cooking up a bento for the redhead to eat.
Keeping in mind the redhead’s favorite meal, Bakugou’s bento for his best friend was primarily a meat centered one, and the meat pieces were plated elaborately as he had wanted for his surprise bento to Kirishima to be as perfect as it possibly could.
Once the bento was prepared and packed safely in his bag, time passed by fairly quickly after that, and they had both just finished working up a sweat from jogging around the grounds outside the Heights Alliance.
Acting quickly, before the redhead could declare the end of their jogging session, Bakugou kickstarted the start of his plan as he shoved the bento into a startled Kirishima’s arms. “Here, I made this for you. Be sure to eat it before you head to class.”
“Aww, thanks man,” Kirishima beamed, his grin practically radiating sunshine. “But what brought this on all of a sudden? It’s unusual for you to just make me bento without me asking you to do so.”
“Tch, well, there’s no big reason,” Bakugou murmured, blushing as red as a tomato. “I just wanna fuckin’ make you happy is all ‘cuz I like you and all that shit…”
“The same goes for me,” Excitedly, Kirishima enveloped the blond into a tight embrace, holding Bakugou delicately. “You’re my best bro, so I’ll always want to do the little things in order to make you happy.”
At once, Bakugou’s whole world had crashed as his ears took in the words that Kirishima had just told him, and his body had gone completely rigid in Kirishima’s arms, unable to quite recover from the rejection just yet.
Until the blond was able to collect himself, finding his voice in a matter of seconds as he tore his body away from Kirishima’s grip. “G-Get off of me, you’re too damn sweaty, you moron!”
Without even acknowledging Kirishima’s inquiries if he was alright, Bakugou hiked his bag up his shoulder, racing back inside the Heights Alliance as he sped to the elevator, bile rising up his throat the entire time.
By the time that the elevator’s doors were open, Bakugou dazedly staggered into his dorm room as he found it difficult to even move with the tightness which had somehow lodged itself around his throat, suffocating him immensely.
Scrambling over to the trash can located near his front door, Bakugou knelt down next to it, hacking his guts out as he coughed into the trash can, one of his hands clutching at the center of his chest wherein the pain was most prominent.
Once his coughing spell had ended, tears had gathered around to prick the corners of Bakugou’s eyes, and he raised his arm upwards to wipe his face clean, not exactly liking how the blurriness had made it hard to see.
Instantly, upon regaining his more vivid vision back, Bakugou peered into the contents of the trash can to see the phlegm which had resulted from his nasty coughing bout, only to gasp aloud, his carmine eyes shooting to the size of saucers because well—
In the place of any phlegm, there were instead petals of red camellias in the trash can, all of them coated with blood.
