No, the title is not referring to what you probably think it is xD
I'm not a huge fan of this chapter but ehh.
Also I'm still really sorry if the images are so big, I don't know how to change it ;-;
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Bakugou
The next couple of weeks seemed to drag on, but that was what happened when you'd rather be literally anywhere else than at school. That fucker Aizawa would hardly leave him alone, either, and he swore the dude was fucking stalking him as he'd run into him inadvertently twice within one week and was bombarded with questions he only quipped answers to. The week after that he was called to his stupid office twice, too, and asked virtually the same questions.
"How are your classes going?" "Have you been making it to them all on time?" "Have you been doing your homework alright?" Blah blah, fucking blah.
And what pissed Bakugou off the most was how mundane the jackass was, how even he seemed annoyed by having to ask these shitty questions despite somehow actually seeming to care at the same time. The entire time Bakugou sat in that little office and mindlessly provided bored, disinterested, and annoyed answers, his mind was preoccupied with trying to figure out just how damn much the shitrag smoked in a day. Seriously—he was too damn sleepy all the time and Bakugou had never seen him without insanely bloodshot eyes.
"And how about Kirishima?"
That question somehow jolted Bakugou out of his pondering thoughts. "What about him?" he mumbled almost... defensively.
Aizawa's brows lifted. "Are you two getting along all right?"
"What, have you not asked him like you keep saying you would?" the blonde muttered, sliding even further down into the uncomfortable wooden chair he sat in.
"As a matter of fact, I have. But I'd like to know your opinion."
"'S fine, I guess."
"Just fine, hm? Sounded to me like you two are getting along pretty well," Aizawa said, his tone almost patronizing.
Bakugou's eyes narrowed. "Guess so," he quipped.
"Well, Kirishima thinks so, anyway, and I'm glad to hear it. New friends are always a good thing."
The blonde only grunted. Outwardly he kept himself passive, even trying to appear bored in the hopes that this asshole would let him go soon, but inwardly his stomach had jumped at the mention of the dumb-haired weirdo. Which only made sense—he sure as fuck wasn't used to people thinking they were friends with him as easily as Kirishima, if at all. But of course, Kirishima was already proving himself to be one of those suckers who saw the best in people.
Then again, Bakugou hadn't been completely closed off to him, either. Still, it was only because he was a major improvement over the four-eyed prick he used to be stuck with, and he was happy to finally be rooming with someone who wasn't a complete shitrag.
As usual, Bakugou's departure from Aizawa's office was quick and smooth, and he didn't bother going back to the class he was pulled out of. If the principal knew about the past couple of times he'd ditched class, he didn't say anything about it. But give him some credit—Bakugou was trying to pass, and that, unfortunately, meant he needed to actually show up to these shitty classes he gave less than a fuck about.
That particular day didn't matter much, though—his 6th period teacher was doing some boring seminar about choosing colleges to apply to, and Bakugou sure as fuck had better things to do with his time than pretend to look at the shitty list she had and act like he was at least vaguely interested in college. Spoiler alert: he wasn't, and a nap sounded way, way better.
After waking from said nap, he wasn't even surprised to find another notification from Instagram that 'redriot mentioned you in a comment: @fuck_off dude, this is you. 2h'. The two hours meant he'd accidentally slept through his last two classes, but he figured after two weeks of damn near perfect attendance, he probably wouldn't get in too much trouble.
The thought was brushed aside as he tapped the notification and flopped back onto his pillows, dry eyes squinting up at the screen to see whatever meme it was this time.
Bakugou snorted as he double tapped the image and then scrolled down a bit to like Kirishima's comment to let him know he saw the stupid meme. With that he tapped reply and typed a short '*every day' before hitting send.
Ever since the first two tags the day they studied together, Kirishima seemed to have made it a habit to tag Bakugou in at least one meme a day and, strangely enough, it didn't bother the blonde nearly as much as it usually would. He didn't really get why Dumb Hair liked the stupid trend so much, even if they were relevant, but even he had to admit some of them were at least moderately amusing.
As he continued to mindlessly scroll through his feed, passing up random shit posted from people he rarely talked to anymore from the last couple of high schools he went to and only stopping on pictures of fucking gorgeous bikes and tattoos, the phone vibrated and the little red 1 popped up at the bottom of the screen. Tapping it took him to another notification from Dumb Hair having tagged him again.
'redriot mentioned you in a comment: @fuck_off how bout this one?'
Rolling his eyes, Bakugou went through the same motions as before, replying with 'better.' It was almost lightning speed at which another notification popped up to indicate that Kirishima had liked his comment and responded with a ridiculous smiley emoji that uncannily resembled the loser's own toothy grin. It was a stupid grin that Bakugou found himself starting to mirror himself before instantly wiping that shit off of his face as soon as he realized his mouth was quirking upward.
Fuck.
Okay, so maybe shit with Kirishima was going better than 'fine' the way the blonde had quipped to Aizawa earlier. Maybe he actually did like the little fucker (ignoring the fact that he'd already internally admitted that to himself), and maybe he could see himself becoming friends with the idiot. As Bakugou had already thought, he was hard as fuck to ignore, and so far the blonde hadn't found anything about him he particularly hated the way he always managed to with literally everybody else he knew. Yeah, Dumb Hair could be kinda nosy sometimes, but almost every time he asked a question he thought might be too personal, he'd apologize with a sheepish glance to the floor. Sometimes he left some things lying around in the room, but they were always on his own side of the room and they were never there for very long, and his taste in music was... better than most people's.
"Great," Bakugou grumbled to himself, letting his phone slip from his fingers and land on the bed beside him. "I actually made a fucking friend in this shithole of a school. Can't wait till my damn mother finds out..." He rolled over and stuffed his face into his pillow with a sigh.
Kirishima
"Yo! Earth to Kirishima!"
Kirishima's head snapped up at the sound of his name and a hand waving in front of his face. Sero stood in front of him, brows raised and a sly grin on his face. "Huh?" blurted the redhead.
"You in there, man?" Sero asked with a laugh.
"Yeah, sorry. What's up?"
"Nothin'. You're just super out of it."
Kirishima grinned apologetically. "Sorry," he said again as Kaminari came around the air hockey table and flopped down onto the couch beside him.
"You texting Bakugou?" the blonde teased, waggling his eyebrows and leaning over to snoop on Kirishima's still unlocked phone.
Instinctively he held it away, saying a quick, "No."
"Has anybody ever told you how awful of a liar you are?" Jirou asked as she and Sero readied to play another game. Her own smirk was trained right on the redhead.
"What? I'm not lying!" But the heat was already creeping its way up his neck, snaking into his ears. "I'm just sending him some memes," he mumbled, knowing there was no way to get around the teasing now.
"Why don't you invite him to come hang?" Kaminari asked. "You've been sending the dude memes all week. Why not actually hang out with him?"
"I do," Kirishima defended. "We hang out in the room all the time."
"That hardly counts," Sero called over the clacking of the puck on the table.
"Yeah. You're never gonna get to know him just through memes and sitting in your freaking bedroom," Kaminari said. "Or know for sure if you like him, since you're somehow still in denial about that."
Kirishima, totally flustered now, looked back down at his phone and sunk further into the couch as though it would erase the flaming of his cheeks. He was almost sure his cheeks matched his hair by then.
Truth be told, he actually wasn't even in denial anymore—not to himself, anyway. In every corner of his mind he knew he liked Bakugou, and quite a lot. He was almost forced to admit that to himself after his stupid stomach kept fluttering like crazy whenever notifications popped up on his phone with the blonde's username. The second he knew for sure was when he'd woken up, startled by his alarm, from a dream about his roommate. It wasn't a dream he remembered aside from the fact that it centered around the blonde, but it was... awkward waking up in the same room with a guy you just had a dream about who you've only known for about a month and a half.
Admitting it to himself was one thing, but actually finally coming forth and telling his friends was a whole other thing. If he was being teased now, who the hell knew what kind of shit they would come up with when he finally told them for sure? He wasn't ready for that. Not nearly. Especially when he was so desperate not to make things awkward between himself and his roommate, because liking Bakugou or not, he was stuck rooming with him for the rest of the year.
He'd only narrowly avoided actually being pressured into inviting Bakugou to hang out with them because the air hockey match between Sero and Jirou got so heated that the puck actually flew off the table, distracting the three of them to arguing about whether it was a 'foul' or not. He let out a long breath and relaxed. He was safe. For now.
⚜️
"...oh shit."
"What?"
Kirishima stared at his phone in horror—at the little message at the top of the screen indicating that his message was sent successfully. His message. To Bakugou. Of a post that he'd totally only meant to tag him in as a comment, like usual. He'd completely forgotten to switch the setting over to tag him in a comment rather than send the whole freaking post as a direct message.
"Kiri, what?" Kaminari pressed, shaking his shoulder.
"I totally just sent this as a fricken DM instead of a comment," he told Kaminari, practically shoving the phone at his friend to show him. "I didn't mean to do that!"
To Kirishima's dismay, Kaminari laughed. "Dude, chill! 'S just a message."
"But I seriously didn't wanna send it like that, man."
"So? Does it really matter? If you're that freaked out about it you can just unsend it."
"Wait, what? That's a thing?"
"Yeah, look." Kaminari took the phone from Kirishima's hand and maneuvered into the direct messages. He tapped on the one with Bakugou's username to reveal the image Kirishima had accidentally sent. "...well, you could," Kaminari said, "but it's kinda too late." He turned the screen back to Kirishima and pointed to directly below the message to one small, gray word: 'seen.'
"Aw, goddammit," Kirishima mumbled, rubbing a hand over his forehead in embarrassment. He took the phone back and, with slightly shaky fingers, typed in a quick message:
Whoops, didn't mean to do that lol
Bakugou's response was surprisingly quick.
Moron.
Kirishima was just getting ready to blow out a sigh when the phone vibrated again.
It's funny tho
And just like that the embarrassment turned to elation and Kirishima grinned as he sent an emoji mirroring his face right back.
Having witnessed the whole thing, Kaminari snickered from beside him, leaning away and folding his hands back behind his head. Kirishima glanced up at his friend, who had a sly grin on his face that was one that told the redhead he was about to get teased.
"Dude, stop reading over my shoulder!" he said.
Kaminari completely ignored him. "Look at it this way, man, you're basically texting the dude now. Plus, if you really don't like him and he's just your friend, why's it such a big deal?"
Kirishima narrowed his eyes, but he knew he probably looked more like he was pouting than actually annoyed with his friend. "You can be a real asshole sometimes, ya know that?"
The blonde shrugged casually. "Yeah, Jirou tells me all the time. Doesn't bother me."
Kirishima was still shaking his head when he looked back down at the phone. While Bakugou hadn't responded, he had seen the message. Just as he was closing the app and locking his phone, their group finally trampled up to the table he and Kaminari were seated at. Mina, Jirou, and Sero all took their seats around the table as they were saying their greetings to the two of them.
"Where the hell have you guys been?" Kaminari asked.
"Someone's soda got stuck in the vending machine," Mina said, jokingly eyeing Sero who was in the midst of cracking open his Dr. Pepper.
"Hey, don't say that like it's my fault!" he defended. "You can't blame the customer for a faulty machine."
"It would help if you hadn't punched in the wrong numbers the first two times," Jirou said.
"My point still stands."
"So what's with the smug smile, Denki?" Jirou asked, changing the subject as she eyed her boyfriend out of the corner of her eye. "You're creeping me out."
"Aw, nothin'," Kaminari said, slinging an arm over her shoulders. "Kiri could tell you, though."
And just like that, all eyes landed on Kirishima, who automatically stuffed his hands beneath the table and blinked at his friends. "What?" he mumbled.
"There's somethin' new with your cute new roomie, huh?" Mina teased, nudging him in the arm with her elbow with a smile that uncannily mirrored Kaminari's.
A small but unexpected surge of annoyance bubbled up. "Man, 'm starting to think you guys like him 'cause you bring him up so much!" he said, hooking his fingers on the seat between his legs and leaning back, his feet coming off the ground. "Ya want me to get him to come so you guys can confess or somethin'?"
As Mina playfully swatted at him (something he promptly dodged), Sero said, "No man, we can't like him 'cause we don't even know him since you never get him to come hang with us!"
"Which you should," pressed Mina.
"Hey, I invite him all the time!" Kirishima defended. "He just never agrees."
"That's hard to believe, 'cause I heard from a little birdie that you guys had dinner together the other night," said Sero.
"What? Dude, that was over a week ago!"
"So he admits it!" Kaminari said.
"So what, are you guys asking around about me now? That's pretty harsh considering I thought you'd ask me first," Kirishima said, a hand on his chest pretending to be hurt, trying to remain playful despite his irritation. "I'm wounded."
"It's 'cause you never tell us anything about him, man!"
"What, am I s'posed to tell you guys everything I do? Jeesh, are you my parents?" he mumbled, looking down.
Both Kaminari and Sero were opening their mouths when Mina came to his rescue, her hands coming down on the table—gently, but it was enough to shut them up.
"Guys, I think we're being a little too nosy," she said. "If Kiri's gonna tell us anything, he's probably not gonna do it by being pressured and teased into it." Her bright eyes fell upon Kirishima himself again. "Sorry, Kiri. If you wanna tell us we're here to listen, 'kay? But I, for one, am done teasing you about it."
Kirishima couldn't help smiling at her, grateful she'd been perceptive enough to pick up on his annoyance. "Thanks, Mina," he said.
"Hey, we don't really mean the shit we tease you about, you know that, right?" Kaminari said.
"Yeah, man, but Mina's right. It can get kind of annoying and 's like you guys just assume how I feel before I even know, and then I just get super confused, which is why I barely tell you guys anything."
"Aw damn," Sero mumbled. "Sorry, Kiri."
"Yeah, dude, sorry," Kaminari said, sincere. Jirou nodded along with his apology.
"Hey, no hard feelings, guys. Just lemme come to you guys about it first, alright?"
"Yeah, sounds good."
Kirishima let himself relax and lean forward again. "Alright, so then, uh, I have a question..." he mumbled, habitually reaching back to scratch his head.
"Sup?" Sero asked.
"How're you supposed to flirt with someone without chickening out?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the table.
"Wait, what? You're trying to flirt with him?!" Mina squeaked.
"Well, kinda. Every time I get an opportunity, I always lose my nerve—"
"Dude! So you do like him?!" Kaminari blurted. "What the hell happened to telling us?! You just said you would!"
Kirishima laughed, a bit sheepish. "...yeah, but I figured you guys basically knew already so I didn't really think I needed to, like, come out about it."
"Bro, you've been dancing around that question for like a month now, won't tell us directly, and then ask us to let you come to us first, and now this?!"
"You make no damn sense, Kirishima," Jirou agreed, shaking her head.
Kirishima quickly backtracked, holding up his hands. "Okay, I'm sorry!" he said. With a mildly nervous swallow he continued, "So yeah, I do, okay? I like him... more than I probably should at this point. Happy?"
"The fuck!" exclaimed Sero. "Yes, we're happy! It's about freaking time!"
"Okay, okay! Jeez! See, this is part of why I don't say anything 'cause you guys freak out on me!"
"Ah, you're right, sorry," Kaminari apologized quickly. "We're just super happy for you is all."
"So flirting, huh?" Mina propped her chin on her hand and waggled her eyebrows.
"Um... well, yeah," the redhead mumbled, flustered. "Like, I keep thinking it might be a good idea just to see how he responds, y'know? But like I said I just keep chickening out whenever I get the opportunity. Guess I thought you guys might have some ideas...?" He trailed off, embarrassed. For some reason it felt silly to be asking them for advice on this, especially because he'd only had the inclination to flirt a few days ago. He'd decided that yeah, he was worried about making things awkward between them, but he figured he would never get anywhere if he didn't try.
Mina shifted her attention across the table. "How'd you flirt with Jirou, Kami?" she asked.
"He didn't," Jirou said before Kaminari could even open his mouth. "He just kept saying really stupid stuff until I decided to spare him anymore pain and ask him out myself."
"Hey, I flirted!" defended Kaminari.
"I don't think staring with a stupid look on your face classifies as flirting, Denki," she said. She was grinning as she said it, though, which only served to make Kaminari pout.
"Hm..." hummed Mina. "I wish I knew what to say, but I'm not really the type to take the initiative," she told Kirishima ruefully.
"S'okay," he told her with a smile. "Guess I could always google some ideas or somethin'. Maybe ask Midoriya or somebody 'cause he's known Bakugou forever."
"Hey," Kaminari said with a joking laugh as he nudged the redhead under the table with his foot, "you could send him memes to flirt!"
The rest of the table blinked at him for a moment, some eyes incredulous, some confused. When no one said anything he continued, "What? I was joking!"
"...except that's actually not a terrible idea," Jirou said.
"Seriously?"
"Actually yeah, man," Kirishima said. "'Cause then it can be super subtle at first, and if he responds badly I can just go back to normal memes and pretend it never happened, right?"
"But if he responds well then you can start sending more obvious ones and then start flirting in person and go from there!" Mina said, sitting up straight in the midst of her excitement and pressing her palms together. "And then in twenty years you can tell your adopted kids that memes brought you together," she said with a laugh.
"Whoa, okay, slow down!" Kirishima said quickly.
"Ah, let a girl dream, wouldja?" she mumbled.
Kirishima only shook his head at her as he picked his phone back up and unlocked it. "Alright, I think I'm gonna need your guys' help with this. I'm gonna need the best memes you can find."