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Bakugou woke up to a blaring alarm, smacking it harshly to turn it off. He grumbled, sinking his head into his pillow and staying there for a minute or two before groaning and getting up.
It was February 14th, aka Valentine’s Day, aka one of Bakugou’s least favorite days. He is aroace, and not out to anyone yet, which is somewhat difficult to keep hidden, in some situations. He’s known for a while, but didn’t know how to label himself until recently.
Katsuki got dressed in his messily-put-together uniform as usual and brushed his teeth. He shimmied on his shoes and stepped out of his dorm room door, about 20 minutes before the first bell would ring. He gave himself time to walk to school and stop at the lockers, as well as chill in his first period for a few minutes.
Izuku was in the hallway when he stepped out, which wasn’t unusual, but this time he turned and walked up to Bakugou.
“Hey Kacchan? Can I ask you something?” Midoriya asked timidly.
Bakugou huffed a reply, “You’re probably going to find a way to ask it anyway so I guess.”
“Since it’s- uh- cough Valentine’s Day today, I was going to ask if you’d like to- um- go out on a date after school..?” Izuku was rubbing the back of his neck and talking quieter than normal.
Katsuki was stunned. Deku? Asking him out? That was unexpected. He’d bullied him most of his life, and Deku seemed too wimpy to ask anyone out anyway. Maybe he was joking, Mina or Ochako probably put him up to this. He would just brush it off and Deku wouldn’t get the reaction he wanted.
“That was a horrible prank, nerd. It didn’t get me. And it’s not even funny. Now I’m going to class.” Bakugou started to walk forward, shoving past Izuku with his shoulder. He didn’t stop, but he got slightly worried when he saw his disappointed, almost sad expression. Could he have been being serious? Bakugou decided to pick up his pace and walk a bit faster to the lockers, refusing to think about it further.
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Katsuki sighed when he got to the locker area. Deku was far behind by now, and he could walk slower than a speed walk. While walking, he overheard two girls talking nearby, at one of their own lockers. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he heard his name and decided he needed to know what was going on. He walked slowly to his locker, as to look normal but also to take time to listen. He recognized the voices as Uraraka and Yaoyorozu. They seemed to be having a mild disagreement, as he wouldn’t call it a fight. They both seemed too kind to fight with each other… maybe.
“...we can’t both ask him out. At least not at the same time. Why don’t you-”
“I can ask Bakugou out whenever I want. He’ll just have to pick between us then.”
Bakugou let out a small gasp when he heard that, maybe a bit too loud, as they seemed to have noticed him. He quickly rushed to his locker to put away and also get his stuff. The girls were already coming around the corner when Katsuki ran past them, being careful as to not bump into them.
“Wait! Bakugou! I didn’t mea-” Ochako yelled out to no avail. Bakugou was already in the other hallway, around the corner. Two more? Was this a coordinated prank against him? But how did they know he was coming? This is a nightmare. Maybe it was a nightmare. Bakugou simply has to wake up. He pinched his arm, feeling the pain. Okay- that didn’t work-
“Hey Bakugou. Got a sec? I want to ask you something.”
Katsuki whipped his head up, now facing Todoroki. He stopped in his tracks. Todoroki couldn’t possibly want to ask him the same thing, could he? No, that’s ridiculous. Horrible odds, even. He just has to calm dow-
“Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I wanted to see if you would like to-”
Bakugou shouted, “No! Leave me be!” He was stressed out. He ran again, faster this time. Maybe that was a little rude, but everyone should be used to that by now. And Bakugou didn’t have time to care. He glanced up at a clock on the wall. He had about a minute or two to get to class. Luckily, the door was right there. He ran in, startling a few people, and sat down in his chair abruptly. Aizawa looked to be late, or is going to be exactly on time. This left only the students in the classroom for now.
Katsuki put all of his stuff down on the desk and took a moment to breathe. He made it just in time. Now, hopefully no one else would try and ask him out. It wasn’t even technically first period yet, and already four people have shown interest in him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His heart rate was starting to slow from its earlier adrenaline rush.
He could only be safe for a few seconds, since he felt hands on his shoulders. Bakugou’s eyes shot open and he turned to look at who it was. Sero. Bakugou was about to kill someone.
“Heyy man. What’s got you so stressed?” Sero started to rub Katsuki’s shoulders, massaging them. “You’re very tense.”
“Get your hands off me. I will blow your head up,” Bakugou said through his teeth. He was fed up by now, and not joking. Sero had been subtly blushing, but that had all drained away with the rest of his face’s color. Sero yanked his hands back and sulked back to his seat, embarrassed.
Bakugou turned back around and tried to work on his breathing as the bell rang. Aizawa had walked in right before, technically not late. He started class once everyone settled, which wasn’t long thanks to Iida. Maybe this whole ordeal would finally be over.
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About half of the day passed and now it was lunch, Katsuki was walking to the lunchroom when Kirishima ran up behind him. He only noticed because Eijiro had slung his arm over Bakugou’s shoulder, unintentionally lurching him forward. Bakugou was quick to straighten back up.
“Hey Bakubro! What’s up? Let’s talk.” Kirishima was smiling ear to ear, showing off his amazingly sharp teeth. Could he like Katsuki too? Maybe he was simply paranoid. Kirishima liking him was such a weird thought, and not everyone in his class was planning on asking him out today. That’s just dumb.
Bakugou realized he hadn’t yet replied, and it’s been a few seconds, so he quickly blurted out a reply, “Uh- yeah- yeah, sure. Whatdidja wanna talk about?”
Katsuki had tried to be more careful about avoiding people in the hallways today, taking different routes that may have been longer, entirely in case someone else wanted to ask him out. This made him one of the last people to make it to the lunchroom. The doors were closed, yet still unlocked, and the hallways were clear except for him and Eijiro.
Kirishima slowed to a stop, just a few feet from the lunchroom doors. He turned to face Bakugou, and his expression was almost nervous or worried.
“There’s no easy way to tell you this…” Bakugou immediately thought of one hundred different things that could have gone wrong. Did someone die? Was Kirishima quitting school? Does he have a life threatening disease? Was HE gonna die?
“I… like you. As in I want to date you.” What the fuck. What villian cursed Bakugou into everyone liking him? Katsuki must have been spaced out while thinking because the next thing he knew, Kirishima was kissing him, without him getting the chance to retaliate.
Bakugou immediately shoved Eijiro off of him and yelled, “What the hell?!” Kirishima gasped with his hands over his mouth, seemingly shocked by his own actions.
“I- I wasn’t thinking! I’m so sor-”
Kutsuki once again cut someone off by running away.
“Don’t even talk to me after that!” Bakugou yelled. He had bolted away from the lunchroom and Kirishima didn’t follow. Katsuki was wiping his mouth with his sleeve, disgusted. Someone had kissed him! And he didn’t do anything to prevent it when he could’ve.
Bakugou was extremely upset by now. The whole asking him out thing was already driving him up a wall, but now being kissed? That was his last straw. His vision started to get glossed over with the beginnings of tears. This hadn’t happened in a while. Katsuki had found ways to deal with his emotions, not letting them build up till he exploded. Today had just been different.
Bakugou rushed into an empty bathroom, slamming the stall door shut and locking it. He slumped to the floor and tried to focus on taking deep breaths, but they were very jagged from gulping in air since he was now fully crying.
He tried not to let stuff get to him to the point of crying, but things overwhelmed him way too much from time to time. Bakugou decided to stay in the stall for a good few minutes until he stopped crying, then stayed there for another few minutes till he felt fine enough to get off the dirty ground. Katsuki slowly stood up, unlocking the door and stepping out. He went up to the sink and stared at himself in the mirror, his eyes were a little red and puffy. To try and help with this, Bakugou splashed his face with cold water a few times. It only helped a bit.
Lunch was almost over, and Katsuki didn’t really feel like going into the lunchroom and being bombarded with questions from the people at his table, so he just headed to his locker to get a snack. He made sure to stay out of sight of any teacher or students, which there weren’t many anyway, but it was good to be cautious.
He got to his locker and put in the code, opening it quietly. He had a small stash of candy, granola bars, beef jerky, and stuff of the sorts for emergencies like this. But, Katsuki noticed there was a folded piece of paper in there too. It definitely wasn’t his, and he realized what it must be. Not something he wants to deal with right now. He opened it up anyway.
As he thought, it was a love letter. But, kind of surprisingly, it was from Kaminari. He only glanced at a few words, seeing who it was from and what the gist of it was, then crumpled it up and blew it up. He decided not to let it get to him, or even think about it. There was already enough crying today.
Bakugou gathered his stuff for his next class and mindlessly sat by the lockers until the bell rang. Once it did, he booked it to the room. There would be no interactions with anyone from 1-A, he decided. His other classes didn’t really have anyone he was necessarily close to, and he avoided talking to everyone either way, so the afternoon was mostly incident-free.
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The final bell rang and Katsuki was one of the first people out of the school. He would get to his dorm and stay locked in there till that damned Valentine’s Day was over. He was taking no chances, choosing to bolt down the path rather than walk. This was deemed a bad idea when Iida, the only other person out first, called out to him.
“Hello Bakugou! You’re out early,” Tenya greeted. Katsuki turned his head but didn’t stop running. He was going to reply but he saw Iida yell out, telling him to watch out. He looked back forwards entirely a millisecond too late to see, right in front of him, a giant tree trunk. What followed was pure darkness.
~~~
Bakugou’s eyes fluttered open, groaning in pain. He felt like he just woke up from a nap. The feeling was accompanied by a raging migraine. Naps always made him feel bad. Maybe everything was just a nightmare. Katsuki smiled contently at that thought, but all went to shit when he saw Iida’s mildly blushing face.
“Oh- uh- sorry about that. I couldn’t stop you from running into that tree in time, but I caught you so you wouldn’t fall over. Do you need me to take you to the nurse?”
Bakugou sat up a bit, still technically in Tenya’s arms. He glanced around, seeing both of their books scattered on the ground. Bakugou inferred that Iida dropped his books so he could catch him freely. He then noticed everyone around him. They were all staring as they walked and some whispered to their friends.
Katsuki immediately grabbed his books from the ground and stood up, Iida’s arm fell back down as he stood up, since it had nothing to hold on to. His hand grazed Bakugou’s back and Bakugou shuddered.
“No and thank you. I’m leaving,” Katsuki sputtered out. Instead of saying bye, he just kind of yelled. Basically saying “Ah!” but in a deeper tone and more deadpan. Then, right after, he bolted off again, this time using his quirk to boost him in the air and travel faster.
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Bakugou was lying in his bed, wide-eyed. A lot had happened to him that he wasn’t expecting and really didn’t enjoy. He was waiting for the aspirin he took to kick in, the migraine still there. He was about to nod off when there was a knock on the door. Bakugou planned to ignore it and pretend he was sleeping before he heard Tenya’s voice through the door.
“Bakugou? Are you awake? I wanted to check on you and see if you were okay.”
Katsuki couldn’t ignore that. Iida may have been slightly blushing, but he was only doing a good deed he would do for anyone. And maybe he doesn’t like him anyway! It could’ve meant nothing.
Bakugou cautiously got up, trying not to disturb his head, as moving it hurt. He walked to the door and opened it. There he saw Iida with a steaming cup of tea and a worried smile on his face. Bakugou assumed he currently looked like shit, as his hair got messed up, his eyes had a lingering puffy look from his crying, and he felt like shit overall. Tenya didn’t seem to mind.
“...Yaoyorozu made some tea, so I brought you a cup. Would you like it?”
Katsuki couldn’t decline, “Yeah. Thanks for thinking of me.” He took the cup and gently took a sip, too tired to act like he didn’t care. Iida seemed pleasantly surprised, but tried not to show it.
“May I come in?” Bakugou stepped out of the way of the door. Tenya walked in and closed the door while Katsuki sat down on his bed. His eyelids felt heavy and hooded, barely managing to stay open.
“So… are you feeling okay? I hope you didn’t get a concussion or anything. I can still take you to the nurse if you change your mind,” Tenya talked softly and kindly.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. I took an aspirin, just waiting for it to kick in.” Bakugou took a large sip from the tea. It wasn’t that big of a cup, so it looked to be emptying quickly.
“You look really tired, and your eyes are puffy… Oh- did I wake you up? I apologize. I wasn’t aware you were sleeping.”
“No, no, you're okay. I was only starting to fall asleep, I hadn’t yet.” He quickly gulped down the rest of the tea and placed it on his desk.
“With the lights on..?” Iida thought out loud. “Anyway- why don’t I take that cup back and turn off the lights so you can sleep?”
“Uh, sure.” Katsuki started to climb under the covers when Iida went over to the lightswitch and flicked off the lights. Bakugou was out in mere moments, before Tenya could even turn around. He let out a chuckle at the sight and went back over to him to grab the teacup.
Iida hesitated for a moment, his hand lifting up by Bakugou’s head. He gently ran his fingers through Katsuki’s hair. It was surprisingly soft. Tenya was sure no one had touched his hair before. Let alone get close enough to try. He, weirdly enough, expected it to be crisp with hair gel or something.
Bakugou subconsciously smiled at the feeling of Iida’s hand in his hair. He would never admit it, but he was enjoying this. Maybe Valentine’s Day wasn’t so bad. Just kidding, it still sucks. But Iida doesn’t. He really wouldn’t mind if Iida had a crush on him. As long as nothing came of it, of course.