Everyone slept in during the weekends when there was nothing to do. And Aizawa enjoyed those rare occasions when his all-nighters of grading papers paid off. He'd taken a nice long shower, was airing out his sleeping bag, finished doing laundry and even prepared food for the next two days.
He was getting ready to go to bed properly, curtain shut tight and lights out. Everything was dark and quiet and clean.
Until it wasn't quiet.
"A student is looking for you, Aizawa." a monitor lit up from across the hall, blue light seeping from underneath the door.
Said man turned away from the door and slipped on his eye-mask. It would be a problem from another day–
"Your student is asking to see you, Aizawa." the monitor repeated, "They say it's of great importance regarding the Shie Hassaikai."
A string of mumbled curses left Aizawa as he stumbled out of bed, "I'll be out in a couple minutes..." he replied irritatingly.
* * *
Bakugo was pulled out of his sleep by the growing itchiness to his face. He annoyingly groaned trying to scratch away the feeling only to feel his arm had gone numb and pins and needles were beginning to scatter from the tips of his fingers to just past his shoulder. He tried to push himself up but was being weighed down. Blinking away the sleep he lifted his head to see what the fuck was ontop of him.
The first thing he noticed were black hair stands spread across his chest and his face. The second thing he noticed were long limbs holding him down. And the third was Yuki softly snoring away. Honestly Bakugo should have known Yuki was a hugger in his sleep. He'd seen how tightly Yuki was cocooned into his blanket in the mornings.
He gave into a deep sigh, putting up with the eventual numbness of his arm and flicked aways any hair off his face with the other.
There had been a lot of crying on Yuki's part. And a lot of feeling of helplessness on Bakugo's part. There hadn't been much he could do besides hold him and listen, hoping he had somehow eased the healer's pain with the occasional tight squeezes and back rubs.
Yuki had told him the weight he carried on his back. The weight of needing to do things right for all the times he got it wrong. His drive to save lives on the scene, to pull them back from their end just enough to make it to the nearest hospital. His thoughts itching to revisit things he'd learned just 2 days ago, refreshing his memory over and over and over until it would become something he could recite. Because if he didn't know enough, he understood a life would slip from his fingers.
The case of not being enough, not knowing enough, and not understanding enough to have done something else-- to have done something more, was something Bakugo resonated with and knew about all too well.
The things that haunted Yuki in his sleep seemed to have left him once he'd finally spoken of it. Bakugo noticed the light frown Yuki had every morning wasn't there now. The corners of his eyes, tinted pink with puffiness. His usual frown was replaced with an almost serene look and a light pout. Gently moving his hair away from his face he noticed the softness and coolness of his skin. Small, light scars one could have missed at a glance littering his face.
He's liked Yuki for sometime now and had only recently realized what that feeling actually was. Even amongst his chaotic thoughts and everything else around him, Yuki was the most collected and level headed amidst everything. He now knew it was something he'd been conditioned to be and didn't have much of a say in, but it was something he could help.
Yuki slowly began to shift and Bakugo froze suddenly, realizing he'd been playing with a hair strand.
A whisper of slurred words, "You're awake..."
Bakugo felt the grip on him loosen, "yeah." he too whispered.
Both continued to lay still, as though in a trance.
"...m'sorry." Yuki mumbled. "About last night."
"I told you my shit. You told me yours." Bakugo shrugged, his eyes still holding sleep.
Yuki shifted off of Bakugo and sat up, his hair in absolute disarray. A couple loose strands sticking to his face and some noticeable knots on the ends. Bakugo follows, sitting up after wigginly his fingers to return the feeling in his arm.
What now? Yuki asks himself, rubbing his fingers through his hair and leaving his hands to sit at the base of his neck.
The golden rays began to pour into the room. In those few minutes, Yuki felt like he was floating. His head fuzzy, chest light and it felt time was moving slower as though to tell him to just be there. To not think of anything else and simply enjoy those few minutes.
* * *
"Yuki-kun, Yuki-kun!" Uraraka called out to him upon stepping into the kitchen for some breakfast.
"Mornin'" Yuki sluggishly waved back.
Uraraka momentarily abandoned her breakfast and shuffled over to the kitchen beside him.
"Yuki-kun, it's our turn to go buy food for the week." she excitedly whispered.
"Where is this schedule?" Yuki looked around the dorm, "I wasn't informed of this decision."
"Oh it's over there." Uraraka waved to the lounge's general direction, "Jiro, Tsu and Kaminari are also coming along."
"Oh." Yuki mumbled, grabbing a bowl from the cupboards. "What time are we leaving?"
"We were thinking around 12, but we can leave earlier. We kinda wanna check out some other stores on the way-- have you been crying?" she maneuvers under his arms before opening the fridge to get a better look.
"Uh... yes." Yuki tells her, shifting her to the side to get to the milk.
"Why? Did something happen?" Uraraka worried softly but quickly cupped his face and pulled it towards her to examine.
"Sad movie." Yuki allowed her to turn his head his whatever way before she moved on to his arms, checking for injuries.
"Are you sure?" she whispered, "Has Bakugo been holding you captive? I'll give him an extra beating in the next hero's class."
Yuki chuckled, "I'm fine. And he's not holding me captive. Can I get the milk now?"
Uraraka made sure to look into his eyes, trying to decide if he was really telling the truth. "Hmmm... okay." she released him, "but we're talking about this later good sir." she sternly added.
"We can talk later." Yuki agreed, reaching for the milk.
"We're out of cereal by the way."
Yuki groaned, "Thanks for telling me."
"You got one bowl of rice left in the rice cooker though."
"I'll take it."
Throughout breakfast Yuki sat beside Uraraka as she eagerly told him her stories from the beginning of her internship. Yuki being the (hungry) good friend listened to her, sneaking some fish off of her plate.
"Tsu-chan was so cool too." Uraraka smiled, her eyes lighting up as she took another spoonful of rice.
"What about you?" she asked, catching Yuki mid-drink on the last of Iida's orange juice.
"Internship?" Yuki asked, his voice echoing in the cup. She nodded.
"You didn't talk much about it in the beginning." Uraraka pointed out, scrapping her plate.
Yuki hummed, "Well there wasn't much I was doing. Just taking the patient's temperature, height, and blood pressure--"
"Check-ups." Uraraka summarized.
"Yeah. Just check-ups." Yuki sighed. "I think that was just Dr. Nozawa's way of getting back at me for blackmailing him out of retirement."
Uraraka went wide eyed. "You blackmailed him?" she whispered, surprised.
Yuki stiffened, "Pretend I didn't say that. Chiyo-sensei would have my head."
"Wow." Uraraka replied, her mouth full with the last of her food, "Rich kids are scary."
Yuki laughed, "I'm not rich."
Uraraka nodded, humming a 'Yes you are' as she got up from her seat. Yuki followed, he too had been done with breakfast.
"You might not be YaoMomo or Todoroki or even Iida rich," Uraraka said, "but you're rich."
"Never in my life have I been called rich." Yuki chuckled. "And I've never been called Young Master just so you know."
"Ah! So you're the humble rich. That makes more sense."
"I'm not!"
"Yes you are. I'm gonna ask YaoMomo if she knows anything." Uraraka grinned, "What dirty secrets is your family hiding."
"Ask her. I'm sure all she'll say is something about a doctor." Yuki confidently claimed.
"Aha! See! Humble Rich."
-.-.-
"What's their name?" Yaoyorozu asked.
"Nikola Young– 'raraka, could we please drop it?" Yuki complained, though the grin on his face said otherwise. He was finding opposing his dear friend quite amusing.
"Nikola Young..."
"Oh, European name." Kaminari beamed.
"He's from overseas." Yuki clarified.
"I might have heard of him." Yaoyorozu tries to recall where she might have heard that name.
"Yuki-kun, how dare you lie to me..." Uraraka held onto his arm, wiping away her very imaginary tears.
"I didn't lie because I actually don't know how much he makes."
"But he's like, your guardian. Doesn't he send you money or something?" Kaminari asks.
"Yeah, how did you get food while he was away? Did you have a butler?" Jiro smirks, joining on with the jest.
"He sends money. I bought food, paid the bills, and took care of chores myself." Yuki explained. "Though I never spent more than I needed to, unless it was for a textbook of some sorts."
Teasing Yuki seemed to be on the list of things he'd have to put up with so long as Uraraka continued to be insistent about his guardian's income.
Being able to go to any type of outing that didn't involve expanding their work as heroes was refreshing. The class had made a list of things to get and each of them divided and conquered, meeting up around the check-out area before assessing the expenses and deciding whether they would be able to buy some sweets or desserts to add onto the schools tab.
Yuki went ahead and paid for his own set of snacks to restock his cart and mini-fridge.
"Ne, Yuki-kun." Uraraka glances up at him, the rest of the grocery group walking a bit ahead of them, each holding at least 2 bags worth of food. "Do you like Bakugo?"
Yuki's perfect reflex he's had for survival up until that point malfunction, choking on his spit and tripping over his own feet. Uraraka doesn't say anything but grins as he's momentarily in a coughing fit.
"So you do." she gleams, quite proud of herself she even figured it out.
Yuki glances over to the group ahead of them, fortunately having missed what could have been the end of him. And then he met Uraraka's gaze, letting out a grumble.
"What makes you think so?" He could feel warmth slowly begin to seep onto his face.
"Honestly?" She began. "You have these small ticks I've noticed become more frequent."
"Ticks?" Yuki wasn't aware of this new tick thing.
"Yeah, I'm actually surprised I caught them at all." Uraraka points at his face, "There's always a small dimple when you try to hold back a smile. It's not there when you actually do smile, which I found weird at first. Until I realized it only appeared when he was around."
Yuki snapped his head towards her, "I have a dimple??" No. He couldn't have one. He knew just about everything that was on his body and how it functioned.
"Yup," Uraraka continued, "And then I've caught you staring at him when you think you're zoning out. Oh and also the sighing through the nose during class– Yes I hear them and it's visible when you keep taking deep breaths during class–"
"You must have a lot of time to figure all of that out and be able to confidently say I have a crush on him." Yuki grinned, bringing her into a headlock, "When are you gonna worry about your love life? I doubt he has enough information about love to point it out!"
"Oh because your crush knows more about it than he does?!" she quickly retorted, pulling on his arm. Her bright red face did not go unnoticed.
Yuki released her, got on down to her eye level with a smug smile, "EH~ Are you getting defensive~"
"I'm not!" she slapped his arm, "and we were talking about you!"
"I've decided we should talk about you." Yuki grinned, continuing their journey back to campus.
"No." Uraraka groaned, leaning onto the boy. "It looks like you two are already dating anyway."
Yuki's eyes widened, "What the fuck makes you say that?!" His voice a ridiculous pitch.
"Are you not?" she perks up, "Did you confess already? Or was it him? When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me? Does Iida know? Who knows besides me?"
"Slow down." Yuki nervously laughed, adjusted his grip on the bags, the rosy tint on his face very much visible now.
Uraraka eagerly waited, her walk having a small bounce to it.
Yuki sudden't became aware of the silence around their surroundings and how open it was. He looked over to the group ahead of them, not nearly as chatty before whispering to Uraraka, "I'll tell you when we get back."
He's seen Uraraka in a hurry before, mostly on her way to class in the mornings and to the lunch lines. But having a 20 minute walk cut down to 7 was a talent. Everyone was a panting mess and the shops they'd planned on going to were completely missed as his friend ushered everyone away. Forcing the majority of them to break into a sprint.
Once back at the dorms, she'd efficiently placed everything away, grabbed Yuki's wrist and dragged him to the top floor to her room, his bags of snacks tagging along.
And so, he told her everything. Skipping over what complicated things he'd had to do during his internship and a good chunk of his trauma. She didn't ask about what he was purposefully skipping over, she knew, and hoped he knew she would be there when he wanted to talk about it.
Yuki spoke for the majority if it and Uraraka listened, throwing a comment or a question in, asking if this was all in chronological order. Of course he didn't mention the reason Bakugo had appeared outside his door and instead lied that he was getting annoyed with the people on his floor.
"So he told me he liked me." Yuki finally reached up to the most current event.
"And you said 'like friends?' Wow. I'm actually not that surprised." she laughed.
"Oh cause you'll handle love confession better than I did. Tell you what, I'm 60– no. 95% sure neither of you will admit to it." Yuki scoffed, reaching for a bag of chips.
"Don't say that." She blushed, clutching onto a stuffed animal. "I haven't figured things out yet."
"Well," Yuki sighs, "I probably haven't either. But this is about as peaceful as I've felt in a while."
Uraraka softly asks, "So are you gonna tell him now?"
Yuki nibbles on his chip in thought. "I think so."
"It's there again."
"Huh?"
Uraraka smiles, pointing to the bottom corner of her mouth on the right side. "You're dimple."
Leaving the chip half eaten he swallows and can't help but actually smile, bringing a hand to his face. His flushed face had nowhere to hide even then.
* * *
Yuki laid on his beanbag, his head grazing the floor. Bakugo's busy immersing himself into a book Yuki had asked Shoji for on his behalf. Not that Shoji needed to know.
Yuki turns to look at Bakugo, his vision adjusting to being upside down.
"Bakugo."
"Hm." Bakugo grunts, turning the page.
Yuki softly smiles and whispers, like a secret he didn't know and is sharing it with the first person he sees out of excitement,
"I like you, too."
Yuki could hear Bakugo scream from within. The blonde very much not reading anymore, his red eyes blaring onto the pages. Yuki couldn't even see him breathing. Just the sight of his reaction made him smile wider before a soft laugh slipped through his lips.
Bakugo snapped his gaze towards him, fully prepared to tell him off but his reaction only made Yuki go further into a laughing fit, causing him to roll off the bean bag.
"Why the fuck are you laughing?" Bakugo complains, unsure if he should continue adoring the way Yuki laughs or feel confused or maybe overjoyed to have heard him confess.
Yuki isn't sure why he's laughing either. Maybe it's the way the words finally left his tongue and out into the world solidifying what he'd felt. Or maybe it was how caught off guard Bakugo had looked and then reacted in a way Yuki didn't even know how he'd react to but the way he did made sense to him. If that makes sense.
Yuki slowly sat up, his laugh turning into little giggles. Strands of hair cascading over his face, framing it in such a way that would just steal your breath away.
"I like you." He repeats louder.
"I–" Yuki places a hand on his chest, "–really really like you."
The book falls onto his lap, not caring about his place in the book. A very warm feeling encapsulates Bakugo just as he sees Yuki's face also turn a rosy amongst his smile.
Yuki crosses his legs and faces Bakugo, giving him his undivided attention.
"I like you." he smiles. Grey eyes saying more than those words could at the time.
"I haven't been stable lately and I don't know how things will turn out with the answers I have now but... I want to feel and be happy." Yuki looks away from Bakugo, face becoming more flushed with warmth,
"And just saying 'I like you' to you... really, really makes me happy."
Bakugo instinctively brought his hands to his face, knees to his chest. He was going to explode, he thought so for sure, "Stupid." he barley managed to force out.
Peeking through his hands he sees Yuki looking at him again with such tenderness he groans and topples over, "Don't say such embarrassing things looking like that."
Yuki continues to smile through his own embarrassment and watches as, a boy he'd initially seen as impulsive, harsh, and rash, curl into a ball, red all over in his own embarrassment and happiness.
A rare smile from Bakugo would not go unnoticed from Yuki even if hidden behind a pair of hands. A rare sight for only Yuki to see made his heart swell more with happiness.
A certain type of happiness Yuki was more than relieved to feel again.
"Bakugo," Yuki's voice trembles. Bakugo nervously looks up at him.
"Will you go out with me?"
"Dumbass...
obviously."