Chapter Text
The rumor reached Class 1-A on a Wednesday.
Which, considering the academy's complete inability to mind its own business, was honestly impressive.
Lunch had been relatively peaceful up until that point. Kaminari was in the middle of losing an argument with Jirou, Kirishima was working his way through enough food to feed an entire racing team, and Shouto was balancing telemetry notes against her tray with the kind of focus that probably explained half her academic success.
Bakugou was eating in silence.
For approximately seven glorious minutes, nobody had caused a problem.
Then a third-year approached their table.
At first nobody paid him much attention. Students wandered through the cafeteria constantly, and most people had learned not to interrupt Class 1-A during lunch unless they were feeling particularly brave.
This one apparently was. He stopped beside their table and glanced between Shouto and Bakugou "So how long have you guys been together?"
Silence fell immediately.
Bakugou looked up from his food.
Across the table, Shouto lowered her notes.
"...What?" they asked simultaneously.
The third-year blinked, "Wait."
He looked genuinely confused "You're not?"
The silence somehow became worse.
Beside Shouto, Ashido made a sound that could only be described as emotional damage. Kirishima nearly inhaled his drink. Kaminari slid halfway out of his chair.
The third-year looked between them again. "Huh."
Then, with absolutely no concern for the devastation he had caused, he turned and walked away.
No explanation.
No apology.
No clarification.
Nothing.
The cafeteria doors swung shut behind him.
The table exploded.
"I KNEW IT!" Ashido shouted, slamming both hands onto the table.
"You knew nothing," Jirou replied immediately.
"I knew enough."
"You literally didn't."
Bakugou looked like he was considering violence "What is wrong with this school?"
"To be fair-"
"There is no fair."
"There is a little fair," Kirishima managed between laughs.
"There is absolutely no fair."
Kirishima pointed at him. "Look, man, from the outside."
"No."
"From the outside-"
"No."
"It kind of makes sense."
Bakugou stared at him. Shouto stared at him.
Kirishima visibly reconsidered his life choices "...I'm just saying."
Unfortunately, Kirishima wasn't the only one saying it, The rumor spread faster than either of them expected.
By the end of the afternoon, two support students had asked Shouto where her boyfriend was, One first-year had asked Bakugou if he planned on bringing Todoroki to an upcoming academy event.
Somewhere along the line, the story had evolved from dating to serious dating, and according to one particularly creative version of the rumor, they were apparently engaged.
"Engaged?" Kaminari repeated later that evening, nearly falling off the couch, "That's what I heard," Jirou said.
"To who?"
"Each other."
The room dissolved into laughter.
Bakugou looked ready to throw himself through a wall, Shouto wasn't much better.
The worst part wasn't the rumor, The worst part was that everyone seemed convinced it made sense.
Ashido spent most of the evening making that point. By the time training ended, she'd somehow assembled a list.
A physical list.
Nobody knew when she'd had time to create it.
Nobody wanted to know.
"What is that?" Momo asked.
"Evidence."
"No."
"Evidence." Ashido proudly flipped the notebook around.
Across the top of the page, written in large letters, was:
REASONS YOU TWO ARE MAKING THIS TOO EASY
Shouto immediately regretted looking, The list was somehow both ridiculous and accurate.
Garage Three.
Dorm room visits.
The nickname.
The camera roll.
The Ferrari event.
Knowing each other's schedules.
Finishing each other's explanations during debriefs.
The fact that neither of them ever seemed surprised by where the other was.
The list went on.
And on.
And on.
"There are three pages," Kirishima said, sounding impressed "There should not be three pages," Bakugou replied.
"There are four."
"There SHOULD NOT BE FOUR."
The class laughed. Shouto rubbed her temples.
Ashido looked victorious.
Later that evening, after everyone had finally dispersed, Shouto found herself walking back from the simulator wing alone.
The academy grounds were quiet. Rain from the previous day still lingered on the pavement, reflecting the glow of the streetlights.
For the first time all day, nobody was talking.
Nobody was laughing.
Nobody was presenting evidence.
The silence should have been comforting.
Instead, she found herself thinking about the question.
Not the rumor.
The question.
Why did people believe it so easily?
Her first instinct was to dismiss it, obviously they were wrong.
That should have been the end of it.
Except...
The answer didn't come as easily as it should have.
As she walked, memories surfaced one after another.
Garage Three.
The rain delay.
Late-night telemetry sessions.
The camera roll.
The nickname.
The Ferrari event.
None of them seemed significant on their own.
Together, though...
Together they painted a picture she had never really stopped to look at.
Not because it was romantic.
Not because everyone was secretly right.
Just because, for the first time, she could see how it looked from the outside.
She knew where Bakugou was most of the time.
He knew where she was.
They spent evenings together without thinking about it.
Shared spaces.
Shared routines.
Shared habits.
The realization settled uncomfortably.
If she didn't know them...
She might have assumed the same thing.
By the time she reached the dorms, the rumor still annoyed her.
Ashido still annoyed her.
The entire academy still annoyed her.
But one thought lingered stubbornly in the back of her mind.
Maybe everyone wasn't completely insane.
And somehow, that possibility was far more unsettling than the rumor itself.