Thank you so much for 5k+ reads. This makes me so ao so happy.
Also, I have made some changes in chapter 5 in the part that talks about Izuku and Ikuyu training together. I really wanted Ikuyu be more of the unathaletic boy with fat rolls or love handles that I was writing him as and very conveniently forgot that I wrote the part where they trained. It struck me and started to bother me a lot, like a very annoying plot hole so I changed it a little
On a different note, I had this really had this very strong urge to write Ikuyu's friend circle, dare I say, the Iku Squad, just messing around. I hope you like it.
On with the chapter now.
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Ikuyu stared at his phone screen and groaned loudly before slamming it on the bed beside him. Instagram DMs opened, Bakugou's name and profile picture visible at the top of the screen. His entire group of friends aka squad, Yui, Ranma, Asuta and Shinso, was currently gathered in his room, this was supposed to be their movie night but they were trying to solve Ikuyu's very real delema instead, should he or should he not message Bakugou.
"Oh My God Ikuyu, just fucking text him already. It's not that big of a deal!" Ranma yelled, dramatically throwing their hands in the air. Ikuyu's dramatics was really rubbing off on his entire squad now.
"But it is! I really want to text him but I don't want to sound too eager and scare him away." Ikuyu shot back, he fumbled around in the air with his hands searching for Ranma's, he grabbed it and brought it back to his head so they could go back to running their fingers through his hair, it was a nice relaxing feeling. Right now Ranma was sitting on Ikuyu's bed while the greenette's head rested on their lap.
"Seriously Ikuyu. You think you can sound too eager with a single text. Is this really coming from you after how agressivly you've pursued him earlier. You literally spammed him on every social media platform you could find when he was ignoring you." Asuta pointed out, momentarily looking up from the sketchbook she was doodling in. She was sitting on the floor rug with her back resting against the bed.
"But that was different." Ikuyu whined defensively, he was shut up by Asuta's glare.
"Seriously Ikuyu, you should just text him if you want to. Friends text all the time after all. It would take a lot more than a text for him to have any clue about your crush." Yui tried reason with him. She was sitting on a bean bag. It belonged to her but she tended to often bring it with her everytime they hung out at anyone's room beside her's and Shinso's.
"They're right. You're overreacting." Shinso spoke from his spot on the study table chair.
"Come on Bish. You're going to message him now or I'm going to do it for you instead" Asuta threatened.
"No! There's no way you could get your hand on my phone!"
"Think again Ikuyu. I can make you hand it over to her. I've already had to do this once to make you talk to Bakugou. Don't assume I'd hesitate to do that again." Shinso said in a dry tone, everyone knew it was a lie, he hated using his quirk on any of them. It had taken him Loads of emotional blackmail to convince him for that one time. Ikuyu still remained silent for some time just to be on the safe side.
"You know Ikuyu, they don't really need to. Your phone is already in my hands now." Ranma dangle the device in question in front of his face. Yeah right, Ikuyu had just casually slammed it in the mattress not very long ago. He tried to reach out and grab it but Ranma already knew he'd do that and lightly chucked it towards Asuta who caught it easily.
"Ugh, you all are cruel. Don't force me into it when you all don't have your own crushes yet! I'll text him when he does." Ikuyu whined.
"Hey! You didn't have to say it like that! It's not my fault that no one has captivated my heart yet." Ranma slapped him on his forehead, making him cry out an "ow" .
"Wait! Doesn't that make me superior to you and you should follow what I say since I actually got a date with my crush, even if it was just you." Yui pointed out.
"Just you? Damn Yui, i thought i was supposed to be the savage one here.." Asuta chuckled, she knew Yui didn't mean it like that. Ikuyu gave her a borderline guilty look.
"Oh come on Ikuyu! Stop with the look, I'm not sad or anything okay. I'm over you, it was a small little crush. I'm not interested in boys who are emotionally taken. Let's just go back to focusing on you texting Bakugou." Yui dragged her beanbag closer to Asuta to look into Ikuyu's phone.
" Please no, can we just not, what if he sees the message and figures out that I have a crush on him! He'll probably break of our friendship after that!" Ikuyu protested but made no move to get out of his comfy position. He really didn't mind his friends going through his phone, there was nothing they didn't knew about him already. The only apps he ever used were wattpad, pintrest, tumblr, Spotify, youtube, the chrome browser and occasionally instagram and Snapchat. Even his gallery was just notes, memes, quotes and the blurry selfies of them. He trusted his friends to not do something really irrational, maybe not Ranma but Asuta and Yui were fine.
"And he won't. Friends text all the time, what are you, am Elizabithian prude? A simple hi is not a big deal. - Oo he looks pretty hot in this one, Kirishima and Ashido too." Asuta got distracted midspeech by the picture.
"I didn't knew Kaminari and Sero had fine toned abs too." Yui piped in.
"Tch, they're hero course students Yui. Even that shorty Mineta would have started getting some abs by now." Asuta quipped.
They were currently stalking Bakugou's instagram profile from Ikuyu's account. He knew exactly which picture the two girls were talking about, it was a picture of Bakugou that Kirishima had posted a while ago, it was a gym selfie of the Baku squad flexing after a workout session standing strategically to also include Bakugou who was still bench pressing weights.
Ranma leaned over to look too and let out a wolf whistle, "jeez Shinso, I'm so jealous, soon you'll be training and working out with them. I'll kill you if you don't share pics like these with us normies." Ikuyu really was rubbing off on all his friends, the Ranma from the start of the year would have been comparing their bodies to their own instead of admiring them.
They knew that Shinso would be transferring to the Hero course soon, he'd probably be changing dorms but they didn't talk about it much, they were going to cross that bridge when they actually got to it.
"Seriously Ranma, stop talking like you don't have killer washboard abs. It's me and Asuta who actually have to deal with fat rolls." Ikuyu said, enaunciating his voice with extra dramatics.
"Talk for yourself Ikuyu. I love my fat rolls. I'm sexy and I know it." Asuta quoted the song.
"You think we'll get a invited to some of their more casual workout and hangout sessions if Ikuyu and Bakugou started dating?" Ranma asked.
"Uhun .. see Ikuyu, another reason why you should text and approach Bakugou." Yui hummed as she ran her finger on the screen, scrolling ahead. The rest of the group hummed or muttered something I agreement.
"Seriously?!- 'the fuck you all! Is that all I am to you! And you traitor, what happened to it love my fat rolls, miss Asuta- I don't need exercise or workout- Tamaraki?"
"Who said anything about working out. But as an artist I feel like it would be a shame to not study and portray such fine specimens of the human anatomy. Don't you think ?" Yep, totally all Ikuyu's influence, only Shinso was still unaffected.
Ikuyu let out an exasperated sigh.
"Ikuyu, chill out a little would you. They're just messing with you." Shinso said, barely looking up from the Hero costume handbook that Aizawa Sensei had given to him. He was consulting it for some changes he had to make to his initial costum idea, he was going to ask for Asuta's help later.
"Shinso's right. Though I still think you should text him. You keep checking your phone to see if he there's any notification from him. We se how badly you want to talk to him, but waiting around isn't going to make anything happen. Just go for it." Yui said, in a soft calm tone, everyone agreed with her.
Yui was the most childish and immature one in the group, even Ranma, they were mischievous yes, but still more mature. She wasn't the kind of person you'd expect to dish out legit advice so hearing this from her somehow hit different.
Ikuyu sighed in defeat, "I can't, I literally can't, no matter how hard it try, I'll just chicken out before pressing the send button. Just yesterday I fussed over a Hi for almost over an hour. I kept trying different variations of the greetings before erasing everything and chickening and not sending anything at all. I tried sending him a snap but the same thing happened." He finally admit.
Asuta stretched her hand over the bed, pressing it and squeezing with understanding and reassurance on whatever she could reach, which turned out to be his calf. "Do you want me to message him for you? Just the first text or something?" She asked, it was different this time, when she said it earlier it was a joking threat but this time she said it in a very genuine and kind tone. She may often come off as brash and rude and she was a ruthless savage sometimes but she was also the closest thing to the mom friend of the group. She always had this strange duality in every aspect of her character that both drew and scared people away from her.
"Yes please." Ikuyu muttered, tone soft and borderline begging.
"Okay then." Asuta replied, opening the DMs, her voice equally soft and devoid of any sass or sarcasm, a very rare sight. Ranma ran their fingers just a tad bit gentler and more soothingly.
"H-E-Y, hey, Pomerian? How does that sound ?" She asked. Ikuyu thought for a moment, it really did sound like what he'd say, quite genuine.
Ikuyu gave her the go for it but the moment she pressed the send key, he spoke again, "No, wait don't. What if it angers him?."
"Uh, I already sent it." Asuta stated.
"Unsend it, now. Quickly, before he sees it." Ikuyu panicked.
"Okay okay, he won't see-" even before select the text to delete it a ping was heard from the phone, signaling the reply from the human explosion.
"Ah Ikuyu, I think you were fussing over nothing. It looks like he was equally eagerly waiting for your message, there is no other explaination to why he replied so quickly." Asuta smirked.
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1789 words
Well, that turned out a lot different than what I had planned initially,also shorter, the part with the Iku squad was supposed to be short and followed by a bigger part with Ikuyu and Bakugou but then I got trapped in the flow and turned out being longer that I planned and then I started writing the Ikuyu and Bakugou part but then I realised that if the kept writing it the way I was then the chapter would definitely cross 3000 words and I didn't want that and I also felt that that part deserved a whole chapter on its own.
I hope you liked this chapter though. Do Vote, Comment and Share. I'll try to upload the next chapter quicker. Remember that your comments (even if you decide to write the randomest thing) keep me going and motivate me to write.
Have a nice day/night.
~love, Vianna_spt.