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It was a long time coming, he thought, when Mina had finally sat him down and broken it off.
Kirishima liked Mina. Loved her, even. Just not how he was supposed to. He thinks Mina might’ve noticed that too.
She’d told him that she thinks they both would benefit from it.
It honestly felt like a relief. He felt awful for thinking so, and then saying so out loud, but Mina had agreed with him.
She’d said something along the lines of ‘I was never really your type, was I?’, but despite the somber tone of the words, she had a smile painted on her face.
Kirishima didn’t really understand what she meant by that. He liked her hair, thought her pretty pink skin and unique black eyes were beautiful.
He enjoyed kissing her. Sure, it wasn’t something he’d put high up on his favourite things to do, (his study sessions with Bakugo placing further up), but it wasn’t like he didn’t like it.
He didn’t feel sparkles and fireworks at the thought of her like they did in the movies, but then again, movies didn’t always reflect reality accurately.
The first few days after their break up were,.. awkward. Sure, they’d both smile at each other, and would hang out together alongside the rest of their friend group, but there was some tension.
Luckily, it all very quickly resolved. Kirishima wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to endure the awkwardness of it all if it didn’t.
Soon enough, things were back to normal, the ‘bakusquad’ was back full force, and his and Mina’s short lived relationship was left in the past.
The only thing that was holding Kirishima back from calling life as it was right now ‘perfect’ was the increasingly strange behaviour of his explosive best friend.
The blonde, although usually always aggressive and somewhat agitated, had been in an even worse mood the past weeks.
He wouldn’t hang out with the bakusquad if Mina would be there. If he was forced downstairs, he’d snap at everyone, but his behaviour was at its worst towards Mina.
Sometimes his outbursts aimed at the acidic hero in training would even be on par with his outbursts aimed at Midoriya.
Mina would also visibly retort at Bakugo’s behaviour, which was physically painful to watch.
Mina would usually never have much of a reaction whenever Bakugo would have one of his crash outs, so it getting to the point of her visibly recoiling at the mere sight of him, meant it was really getting to her.
Bakugo wouldn’t stop unless Kirishima yelled at him, and then he’d just go sulk in a corner or stomp back to his room.
His mood remained tortuous until Kirishima had told him Mina had broke it off.
They’d been having one of their study sessions - which had also been steadily decreasing ever since Mina and Kirishima got together, alongside their group hangouts, - when Bakugo had snapped at him for not concentrating properly and asked him “What the fuck he was thinking about”, and Kirishima let him know about the breakup.
Bakugo had gone silent at first, his face turning unreadable, before he’d asked him how he felt about it. Kirishima told him he actually was kind of relieved, even though that kind of made him feel like a monster.
Bakugo’s scowl had lessened by the time Kirishima finished telling him all about how he doesn’t think it would work out in the long run anyway, and what Mina had said, and how he wasn’t sure if he ever really liked Mina in **that** way anyway.
Kirishima had expected a pillow to the head and a comment along the lines of:
“Get back to work, shitty hair.” from his friend.
But he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Instead of the expected events unfolding, he got an awkward pat on the shoulder and a quiet, barely audible,
“S’kay. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”
Kirishima thought he’d misheard it, Bakugo? Trying to comfort him? Especially after having been so aggressive for a literal month? That couldn’t be right.
He’d asked him to repeat it, but apparently Bakugo was done with the soft ‘act’, (Kirishima didn’t think it was an act, but Bakugo would kill him if he knew he thought so,) because Bakugo didn’t repeat it, he slapped his shoulder - lightly, might he add - and said:
“You know what you heard, goddamnit.”
That was confirmation enough that he had indeed heard him right.
He felt the corners of his frown twitch up into a smile, and Kirishima swore he saw Bakugo soften up too.
The next time Kirishima dragged Bakugo to a hangout, he actually came along without much of a fight, even after Kirishima told him that Mina would be there too.
They met up in Denki’s room to watch a movie Mina had picked out. It was some older, over-the-top, gooey, feel-good romcom, that actually had a cameo of all might as the main character’s ex lover. (That explained why it had a 4-star rating. And why Mina had borrowed the dvd from Midoriya of all people.)
When Kirishima and Bakugo showed up, Mina had visibly tensed up at the sight of the blonde. She was expecting an outburst, but it never came. She still didn’t relax her shoulders before Bakugo quietly sat down next to Kirishima on Denki’s bed. That was fair. It was actually surprising how quick she forgave the walking bomb.
Everything remained relatively calm, Denki giggling and pointing whenever cleavage was shown, Mina smacking him over the head for it, Sero laughing at them both, Kirishima joining him, and Bakugo grumbling at them all in annoyance and telling them to “Shut up and watch the stupid movie.” (He was invested. Kirishima giggled a little at that.)
Atleast, the comforting mood remained until about halfway into the movie. Denki was sat on a pillow on the floor beside Sero, while Mina, Kirishima and Bakugo sat on Denki’s bed. The bed wasn’t like Yaoyorozu’s, so it was already quite crowded with three teenagers in it.
Kirishima was in the middle (mostly because he was still scared Bakugo would have an outburst, even if things seemed to have calmed down,) with Bakugo and Mina on his respective sides.
Things started getting more tense when Mina had shifted and leaned against Kirishima. He didn’t really think much of it, letting her lean on him and actually fiddling a little with her hair.
Then, he felt Bakugo shift against his other side. He looked over at him, and to his horror (and probably everyone else’s, once they notice,), Bakugo’s expression had all of a sudden, darkened. His eyes were focused on Mina’s slumped form, specifically were Kirishima’s fingers were canoodling her pink hair.
Kirishima watched as his jaw ticked and he sat up straight. Calm before the storm, he thought.
And he was right. Approximately five minutes later, Bakugo had shot up and mumbled (honestly more growled.) something about being tired, and had left the room with a slam of the door.
The quiet chatter that the dorm had been filled with died out pretty quickly after Bakugo’s sudden departure.
All of his friends’ eyes shifted to him.
“What?”
“Man someone’s gotta go check up on him.” Denki looked up at him.
“Not it!” 2x from Sero and Mina.
Kirishima shot them all an ugly glare.
“Freaking hell.”
He shook Mina off of him and mumbled curses to himself as he headed off to follow his grumpy best friend.
He didn’t really expect Bakugo to be anywhere except for his room, so that’s where he went.
He’d knocked on his door first,
“Bakugo! It’s just me. The others stayed behind.”
“C’mon man, open the door.”
“Dude I know you’re not sleeping!”
“I know something’s bothering you, open the door-”
“Nothings wrong, shithead!”
Bakugo had kicked his door open, and was scowling at Kirishima.
“Got you to open the door.”
Kirishima smirked. Bakugo wanted to punch him.
A foot stopped the door from slamming close again.
“Move your fucking foot, shitty hair.”
“Only if you let me in.”
“I’m not letting you in.”
“Yes you are.”
“Go away.”
“No.”
Kirishima forced the door open and himself into the room afterwards, he locked it behind him.
“What’s the deal with you?”
“What?”
“You know what! You’ve been acting like an asshole towards Mina all month! And now, just when I thought you’d gotten your fucking act together, you storm out mid movie?!”
“It’s nothing!”
“No it’s not! Stop it, Bakugo!”
“You really don’t fucking get it, do you?”
“Get what? That you’ve been treating everyone, especially Mina, like trash?!”
“Think about it, you idiot! What reason would I have to be mad at fucking Mina for?!”
“I don’t know! I don’t fucking know, Bakugo!”
Bakugo stared at him like he was stupid. Then he clenched his jaw and yelled:
“I’m in love with you!”
“Fuckin’ idiot…”
Bakugo mumbled that last part. He’d averted his gaze now. Staring at his feet. Kirishima could nearly hear his heartbeat.
“…what?
Kirishima was in too much of a shock to come up with a better reply. Bakugo was in love with **him**? Was that why he’d been treating Mina like shit when he and her got together?
“I said I’m in love with you, you idiot.” Kirishima thinks he can see tears brewing in Bakugo’s eyes.
“Is that why you’ve been an ass to Mina? Because we were dating?”
“Yeah genius. Thought that much was obvious.”
Kirishima wasn’t sure what to think. He wasn’t sure what he felt. All he knew was that something had triggered an explosion of heat throughout his chest. His heart felt like it was swelling up so big it was choking him. He thinks he was crying a little, too.
“You gonna say something? Just leave if you’re so disgusted you can’t even say anything to me.”
Fuck. Bakugo thought he was disgusted. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was feeling, but he was sure as hell not disgusted.
“What? No! I- I’m not disgusted!”
“Don’t take pity on me.”
“Bakugo, I’m not!”
“I know you’re not into men. You don’t have to pretend like you get it.”
“Who said I wasn’t into men?”
“Kirishima. Mina.”
Kirishima was angry now. Bakugo couldn’t just go deciding what he felt or who he felt it for.
“I thought I made it obvious that my feelings for her wasn’t how they should’ve been.”
“You still fucking dated her.”
The flames inside his chest continued burning.
“Because I thought I liked her in that way. I didn’t.”
“Then why’d you date her then?”
“I’m telling you! I thought I had.. romantic feelings for her! She was pretty. I liked hanging out with her.”
“So you don’t think so anymore?” Bakugo snarled.
“Stop twisting my words! I still think she’s pretty and fun to hangout with, but that doesn’t mean I love her!”
Bakugo went quiet.
“And it’s not like I can’t like both men and women. I’ve heard of people like that. Maybe I’m like that.”
“… Fat chance. Bet you’re just trying to make me feel better.”
Okay, Kirishima was getting really tired of this self pitying. He didn’t know what he felt for Bakugo yet, but he knew it was stronger, way stronger, than what he’d felt for Mina.
So, at a loss for what he was supposed to say, he kissed Bakugo.
And- fuck him, that felt right. He didn’t just enjoy it- he loved it.
He kept their lips smashed together awkwardly, their noses had clashed when he crashed into Bakugo’s mouth, he wasn’t sure if Bakugo had closed his eyes, and both their lips were dry, in stark contrast with their wet cheeks.
When he pulled away, he only did so because he really, really needed to breathe properly. And even then, he didn’t dare to move his face away too far, in case Bakugo took that as him regretting it. Because he didn’t. At all.
He could smell Bakugo’s caramel like scent in their close proximity, which he was actually pretty sure was his nitroglycerin sweat. He loved it. He wanted to bottle it up to use it as a perfume.
“Was that enough to prove myself?”
“…Bastard. No. I- I think you need to do it again.”
Kirishima smiled when he leaned back in, more coordinated this time.
It was even better than the first kiss. He could really get used to this being a thing.