Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Why’s your number always at zero?”

Izuku turned his head to look at the young girl who was suddenly looming over his desk, her brows furrowed in confusion. Izuku followed her line of sight and glanced down at the numbers on his forearm, the dark ink stark and clean against his skin like that of a tattoo. It read, very clearly, “00:00:00”, just as it always had. Before Izuku could launch into an explanation, someone else butted into the conversation- a classmate with blond, spiky hair, and eyes like fire with a temperament to match.

Katsuki Bakugou was Izuku’s friend. Sort of. He had been his friend for a long time, but it seemed that recently the other didn’t want anything to do with him. Izuku still didn’t really understand why.

“It’s ‘cuz Deku doesn’t have a soul mate!” the other burst out, grinning, “He’s a freak!”

Startled, Izuku turned to the other boy and immediately tried to defend himself, “K-Kacchan! That’s not true! I just-” Izuku looked back at the girl, whose eyes had softened with what was both pity and fear. He hated the pity more than anything. He swallowed thickly, voice caught in his throat, “I just…”

“C’mon, Deku, get real. Everyone knows what counters are for. They count down to when you’re gonna meet your soulmate and yours has always been at zero!” Bakugou laughed, baring his teeth in a mock grin.

Izuku brought his gaze down to his desk, turning his palm flat against the surface so that his forearm followed, the numbers disappearing from sight. His ex-friend wasn’t wrong. His counter had always been at zero, from the moment it appeared on his skin. Bakugou had been around him long enough to be well aware of this fact.

“It doesn’t mean I don’t have a soulmate, Kacchan. It just means...well, it might just mean something happened to them. Or maybe that I passed them before the soulmark appeared, you know? There’s a lot of reasons people don’t have soulmates....” Izuku tried to explain, pulling from all of the knowledge he had from his cumulative months spent researching the way soulmarks worked. He'd made good use of his library card in the past, obsessively looking into every case of timed-out soulmarks that he could find.

Bakugou snorted, “Yeah, keep telling yourself that, nerd. I can see why you don’t have a soulmate- you’re so annoying, who’d wanna be with you, anyways? Even if you did have a soulmate I bet they’d leave you! I’d rather die than have a soulmate like you!”

Izuku didn’t look up; refused to meet Bakugou’s eyes. He never liked what he saw in them any more. He didn't reply.

“Uh...sorry I brought it up, Izuku,” their classmate spoke up suddenly, twisting her hands together in a way that showed her obvious discomfort. She left quickly, clearly feeling unwelcome in the new atmosphere. She probably agreed with Bakugou- most people did- that he was weird for having a broken timer. Only old people were supposed to have timed out soulmarks, since they'd already met their soulmate usually. For a kid to just be born with a bunch of zeroes? It wasn't natural. He'd heard other adults call him 'unfortunate' when talking to his mom, and other kids whispering that it was weird.

“Kacchan...why did you do that?”

There was a brief pause before Izuku felt the palm of Bakugou’s hand on the back of his head, fingers tangling in his unruly hair- and then it shoved his face down against his desk, hard enough that when he managed to sit up straight in his chair again, he felt blood dripping down his nose to his lips, copper on his tongue. He used the back of his hand to wipe some of it away, tears stinging at his eyes and threatening to spill out at any moment.

“Because everyone should know you’re a freak, Deku, that’s why. Don’t you think there’s a reason you were born without a soulmate?”

“...right,” Izuku agreed, his throat feeling dry. He watched Bakugou stroll out of the classroom, seemingly undisturbed by the entire exchange. Taking a deep breath to steady his emotions and stave off any stray tears, Izuku gathered his belongings and packed them into his bag. He found an old package of tissues and used it to clean his face as best he could, tossing the wad of bloody ones away as he started on his way back home.

Bakugou was supposed to be his friend, but it had been a very long time since he’d acted like it. It had started once they were in classes together- as soon as everyone around them gained enough self-awareness to start showing off their soulmarks, giggling and chattering, Bakugou had lost all interest in their friendship. It had continued all the way through middle school, relentlessly.

Izuku never got to find out why, and that bothered him more than the bullying sometimes. not understanding Kacchan was something new to him. Sure, the blond had always been crass and rude- but his better qualities always shown through above all else. He was smart, reckless, athletic, and competitive to boot. It seemed that anything he did, he excelled at. So, despite his behavioral problems, he had always been doted on by those around him, including Izuku.

The ending of their friendship had been abrupt, leaving no room for talking or working things out. Bakugou had been perfectly clear that he hated Izuku, and at the same time he managed to get most of the school on his side when it came to picking on him. It was a blessing when he and his mom finally moved away after his last year of middle school. It was a chance to start over, to focus fully on his studies, and to finally hide his soulmark behind long sleeves or bandages and tie off a piece of himself to keep it a secret, at least for a while.

Izuku smiled wearily at his mom, who had just burst into tears for the fourth time today. She was wiping at her eyes with the long sleeve of her cardigan, her cheeks and nose slightly pink as she sniffled a little.

“Mom, please, you have to stop crying…”

“I know!” She fretted, her voice a little shaky as she wiped her eyes more furiously, “I just can’t help it! My baby boy is going away to college, I’m just so….I’m just so proud of you Izuku!”

Izuku was sure she would have pulled him into another hug if he wasn’t holding two cardboard boxes in his arms at the moment. Izuku looked around at the others bustling around the dorm’s parking lot, cars honking and flashing hazards everywhere. They’d been lucky enough to grab a parking spot, but they had barely gotten five feet from the car before his mom had started the waterworks again, and now they were standing in the middle of various kinds of traffic, not moving, while she tried to hold herself together.

At home it had been endearing, but right now it was a little embarrassing. He loved his mom, but she’d cried twice this morning at home and once while driving them to campus. Izuku knew it was a big step for her, to accept him moving out and into the dorms to attend the most prestigious university in Japan, so he tried to be considerate and not rush her too much.

His arms were starting to hurt from holding the boxes up, though.

“Okay, sorry, sorry,” Izuku’s mom found a napkin in her purse and dried her eyes, taking a deep breath, “Sorry dear, let’s get going”. She picked the duffle bag up again and Izuku hurriedly began leading the way towards tower C, where his new dorm would be. The elevators were terribly crowded- people pushing bins and roller suitcases and boxes and blankets in before climbing in afterwards. It took twenty minutes for Izuku to get to his floor, twelve stories up, arms straining the entire time. He dreaded knowing it was definitely going to take a few more trips, and he was suddenly grateful that he’d hadn’t packed all of his collectible superhero memorabilia.

“It’s room 1217,” Izuku said to his mom as they shoved past some people to get off the elevator and started down the hall. They found a little map by the elevator doors and used it to find where Izuku's room would be. The halls themselves were plain and it seemed that most decorations hadn’t been put up yet. A nearby bulletin board sat empty with colorful paper prepped as though it would soon be decorated, a box of what looked to be crafting materials sitting on the floor below. On the door to his room, there was another, smaller bulletin board with little cutout stars placed all around it. There were two giant stars where, presumably, the names of the occupants were supposed to be written, but clearly they either hadn’t gotten to their floor yet or their particular RA was a slacker. Izuku wasn't going to pass judgement yet, but it did mean that he had no idea who his roommate was going to be. Not even a name at this point. He put the boxes down by the door and fumbled in his pocket, pulling out a folded white envelope containing the brass key to the room. He unlocked the door with ease.

The room itself was also plain- sterile and inoffensive in its simple decor. Tower C was newer, built recently for honors students, so the floor was light-colored faux wood, matching the desk, bed frame, and built-in closet. The walls were painted a mellow off-white, the window curtains drawn and allowed a lot of natural light in. Nothing seemed badly damaged or dirtied since these rooms had yet to be forced to endure endless years of college-aged stupidity.

Izuku had been expecting a terrible, dimly lit cinder block cell with particle board furniture, so he and his mother were both pleasantly surprised by the modern, comfortable space.

One half of the room was already half moved into, though, Izuku noted. The bed on the right side was already made up with red flannel sheets and a black comforter, a half empty suitcase sitting top with some clothes still in it, folded neatly. On the desk were a couple of boxes, one filled with what looked to be posters and various knick-knacks. On the floor next to the bed were various bags and boxes, things clearly still packed away in them. It seemed that his roommate had already started setting themselves up. Izuku didn’t mind that he’d chosen a side already and put his own boxes down on his desk, wanting to inspect the room further.

“Wow! My dorm was never this nice,” Izuku’s mom marveled, propping the duffle bag up on Izuku’s bed, plastic mattress cover crinkling under the new weight, “I’d expect nothing less for my little scholarship student!” Her face was aglow with pride, eyes shiny with more tears. She pulled Izuku into a hug before he could protest, telling him how proud she was for the nth time. Izuku laughed and thanked her again, hugging her tight to his chest. She was quiet when she pulled away, her hands holding tight to Izuku’s arms, her expression fond and loving.

“I can’t believe how tall you’ve gotten.”

“Mom, you see me every day,” he laughed, and they headed out the door and back to the hall, knowing they needed to make a few more trips yet.

“I know, honey, but it always amazes me how quickly you grew up. You’ll get it when you’re a parent.” She laughed, and they found their way back to the crowded elevator.

It took four trips total to get all of Izuku’s stuff out of the car and into the dorm room. The whole time, there was no sign of his roommate, either in the halls or in the dorm itself. Considering it was early afternoon, Izuku figured he’d gone to lunch with his family or something. To be honest, he was nervous about meeting him. He’d heard so many horror stories about roommates gone wrong- what if they played loud music at midnight or slept with the lights on? What if they never cleaned the microwave? Cleaned the microwave too much? Never showered? Had people over all the time and locked him out? Got a sudden urge to learn how to play the saxophone mid-semester?

There were too many variables to consider, so Izuku tried not to. He’d already had several anxiety spirals over this issue, and he figured there wasn’t anything he could really do about it, anyways. He’d just have to wait and see what his future held.

Before he could even start unpacking, Izuku’s mom dragged him outside and demanded she treat him to a nice, late lunch. Knowing it might be his last decent meal for a while before he filled his life with cheap microwave meals and cafeteria food of a yet to be determined quality, he gladly indulged her. They ate and toasted his new adult life (his mom may have cried again) and, as a final parting gift, she foisted a bag full of leftovers she had made on him, so that he wouldn’t have to miss her home cooking for the week,

They hugged again in the parking lot and quietly, by himself, Izuku made the elevator ride back to his dorm. He was quickly becoming accustomed to the route. Without his mom, he felt a bit of a lonely pit in his stomach. He was excited, sure, but it was his first time really being on his own as well. It was as intimidating as it was exhilarating.

When Izuku found his room again, he could hear music behind the door- loud, lots of screaming and guitars. His heart sunk a little, but he tried not to pass judgement too quickly. The guy was alone right now, after all. He’d probably use headphones once he met his new roommate, right? Izuku took a deep breath and twisted the doorknob, pushing it open as casually as he could to hide his nerves. He thought about the greeting he'd rehearsed in the mirror earlier today.

“Hey! I didn’t see you here earlier! It's nice to meet you, I’m--”

Izuku froze in the doorway, the other man in the room mirroring him. He was holding up a sweater, clearly in the middle of putting it on a hanger when Izuku had barged in. Izuku had been preparing for a lot of possibilities behind the door, but this was not on his list.

Blond, spiky hair, and eyes like fire with a temperament to match.

Katsuki Bakugou, undoubtedly.

The two of them stared at each other silently for a moment, the loud electric guitar blasting from the small speaker on Bakugou’s desk suddenly deafening.

There was no mistaking that it was his old childhood friend-- his jawline had gotten sharper, any boyish features gone now. On top of that, he’d gotten taller and more built as well. He’d always had an athletic build as a kid, but with age he’d filled it out with muscle, clearly focused on his upper body strength.

It wasn’t immediately obvious that Bakugou recognized him back. He seemed to furrow his brows deeply before his pupils contracted and his eyes went wide. It wasn’t a hard expression to read- Izuku had gotten adept at reading him so many years ago. He was very clearly more surprised than he was angry, despite how he bared his teeth in a grimace.

Izuku was the first to speak up as the song in the background broke into a harsh drum solo, “K...Kacchan?”

“No shit, Deku. The fuck are you doing here?”

Izuku didn’t know how to answer that without making it sound like Bakugou had asked a stupid question. He frowned and looked away for a moment, thinking, “Uh, I mean...this is my room. 1217”. Quickly, Izuku backed up a couple of steps and looked up at the outside of the doorframe. The numbers were clear, bright white against the dark metal plaque. Yeah, he definitely had the right room, as if he'd really had any serious doubts about that in the first place.

“No, you idiot, I meant what the fuck are you doing here? At Yuuei?” Bakugou rolled his eyes, finally breaking from his shocked stupor so he could finish the task of putting his sweater on a hanger. He laid it neatly on a stack of other clothes he had also been neatly prepping for the closet.

Izuku, despite his nerves, actually managed a smile at that, “Well, to be fair, I did always tell you I’d be able to get in, too.” He laughed and shut the door behind him, finally. Once Bakugou had started moving again, some of the tension in the room had diffused, “You’re not the only one who apparently worked hard during high school, y’know.”

At that, Bakugou’s fists clenched around the dress shirt in his hands, wrinkling the dark red fabric, “Fuck off, like I don’t know that. I just didn’t think they’d lower their standards for someone like you,” He practically spat, his motions harsh as he draped the shirt over the hanger and began angrily buttoning it up.

Years ago, this kind of talk would have hurt Izuku more than he could say.

But he’d gone to a new high school after his miserable years in middle school dealing with Bakugou’s constant teasing. He’d made new friends with the same goals as him, even if he wasn't the most popular there either. He’d proven himself to be in the top percent of his class, academically speaking. He’d made peace with the fact that his soulmark was timed out, and even found people around him who were the same. He’d absolutely earned the position he stood in currently. He'd earned being able to stand in his dorm, at his school, despite anyone trying to drag him down. It had been four years since he’d seen Bakugou Katsuki, and like hell he was going to let him think nothing had changed or that he could still affect him in the same way.

Playground bully or not, they were not on the playground any longer.

Izuku calmly put the food his mom had given him in their shared mini-fridge. Then, he walked over to Bakugou’s desk and shut his music off, heart pounding in his chest at the way Bakugou whipped his head around to glare at him and yell. Okay, so maybe Bakugou still affected his nerves a little bit. Still, he wasn't going to let it show.

“They didn’t lower their standards for me, Kacchan. I got into this school just the same as you. I worked hard, and I’m going to keep working hard. We’re roommates, okay? That’s an unavoidable fact, so we’re going to have to at least try and get along.”

Bakugou’s nose crinkled, “I know that! Doesn’t mean I have to be happy about being stuck with you, Deku. What, you think that just because you ran away to some other high school and got into Yuuei too you get to boss me around now? Huh?”

“I’m not trying to boss you around Kacchan, I just- I just don’t want to start this semester on the wrong foot--”

“Too damn late for that.”

“-- and I just think things will be better if we talked.”

Bakugou turned to look at him as though he’d grown another head. He looked confused before he went back to putting clothes on hangers, now at a messy and furious pace, “Nothing to talk about, nerd. Stay on your side of the room and I’ll stay on mine. And don’t fucking touch my stuff ever again, you got it?”

Izuku let out a heavy sigh, but put his hands up in defeat. It was like talking to a brick wall. “Okay, Kacchan, whatever you say.”

As soon as Izuku went back to his side of the room and began unpacking his own things, Bakugou smashed the play button on his speaker and twisted the volume knob as loud as it could go.

Sure, Izuku had heard all sorts of horror stories about bad roommates, but he was certain none of them had to deal with the one and only Katsuki Bakugou.

The first few days were rough. He’d been close to Bakugou as a child, sure, but living with him was an entirely different beast. His standards of cleanliness turned out to be beyond anything your typical college student should possess, to the point of being insufferable. Izuku had found this out when he’d come home from his first day of classes and immediately had a broom shoved into his arms, before he’d even gotten the chance to put his backpack down or take his shoes off.

“Clean up your mess.”

Clutching the broom and dustpan in his hands, he didn’t reply, only giving Bakugou a blank stare. He had no idea what mess he was even talking about, considering they'd been in the room for a total of three days at this point. The blonde practically growled and pointed at the floor under Izuku’s desk. Izuku tilted his head and looked, but couldn’t see much. He walked over to inspect further, finally seeing the small gathering of crumbs under his chair.

“You were eating granola last night and it got fucking everywhere.”

“Everywhere? What are you talking about? It’s just a little-”

“Do you want mice in our dorm?”

Begrudgingly, Izuku had swept up the crumbs and emptied the dust pan into their shared trash can. It wasn’t as though he had a good rebuttal for not cleaning up, anyways. If it diffused Bakugou, it was worth the minor strain.

Beyond that, Bakugou was...unconventional. He didn’t adhere to any of the usual college stereotypes, it seemed. He kept himself on a strict schedule. He woke up, willingly, at 6 am to go running and go to the gym before his classes. Izuku worked out, too, but even he did so more sporadically and at more normal hours of the day, when he could squeeze it in between his classes. Because of his workout schedule, Bakugou went to bed by 9 pm almost every single night, often shutting the lights off without asking and putting in his earplugs to pretend he couldn’t hear Izuku’s protests.

He was keen on forcing Izuku to deal with and adapt to his schedule. It was Bakugou's way or bust, it seemed. Izuku didn't particularly want conflict, so he often found himself working in the dark or moving to the lounge if he wanted to stay up.

It all struck Izuku as fundamentally petty.

Bakugous had moved away from schoolyard taunts, sure, but it wasn’t entirely clear if this was any better or any more mature.

Izuku was eternally grateful that a few of his friends from his high school had ended up going to Yuuei as well, otherwise he might have found the situation outright miserable. On a Friday night after their first week of classes, he was glad to be going out to dinner rather than going back to his dorm to get chewed out for the next thing he’d done wrong.

His friend Iida was the first one to spot him and flag him down when he entered the little ramen shop. It was good and cheap, so naturally it was also crowded and small. They’d managed to push two tables together and barely fit at it all together, but they didn’t really mind pressing close.

“Midoriya!” Iida called, smiling before he made everyone scoot down so that they could fit their final puzzle piece in.

“Hey guys!” Izuku said, slinging his backpack off his shoulders and putting it under his chair to try and save space in the tiny establishment. They all greeted him back, looking happy and hungry.

“I know it’s only been a week but it feels like for-ev-er since I’ve seen you all!” Uraraka grinned up at him, all bright smiles and flushed cheeks. She had been the first friend Izuku had made back when he'd moved schools, a kind girl with a soft spot for him and by extension, the most investment in his current situation with his past tormentor. It didn't surprise Izuku when it was the first thing she asked about. “How’s the roomie situation? Still as bad as your last group chat update?”

Izuku laughed softly and settled in at the table, “I’d rather not talk about it right now.”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?” Tsu spoke up next, her voice low and nasally, easily distinguishable from anyone else. She was generally quiet, hunched over in her chair and tilting her head at Izuku questioningly. Her long hair was pulled into an elaborate updo resembling a bow, given the unseasonably warm weather outside.

“Ugh, it’s fine, guys. I’m just adjusting is all. It’s weird since we haven’t seen each other in so long-”

“He treated you like shit! I still think you should submit a room request change.” Uraraka pouted slightly. She’d been vehemently against Izuku trying to just deal with the situation on his own in the first place.

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, smiling nervously, “Ah…I know, I know. I just think that’s a bit rash. Besides, the honors dorms are so nice. Right Todoroki? Who knows where they'd place me if I aksed to move out.”

“Hm?” one of the others glanced at him as his name was mentioned, then nodded slightly, “He has a point. The building is practically brand new. It’d be hard to give that up.”

Todoroki had actually ended up on floor 5 of Tower C. Izuku hadn’t known at all until he’d ran into him in the student lounge one night. He was their friend, but he was tight-lipped about a lot of things and had trouble keeping up with their online group chat. It got so bad that when they actually needed to get him to reply to things, they changed the name of the entire group to “RED AND WHITE ALERT!!! TODOROKI READ THIS” or some variation thereof so that he’d know they needed his attention. Failing that, the plan was relentless phone calls.

He was soft-spoken in a lot of ways, but Izuku really liked having him around, and he knew the feeling was mutual even if he wasn't the best at expressing it. He and Todoroki had actually started off on terrible terms back in his junior year of high school. Todoroki had been the first person his age that he’d ever met in real life who had a soulmark like his. Izuku had seen it one day in gym class, on his shoulder blade. It sat, unmoving, at 00:00:00. Admittedly, Izuku had been so excited that he’d approached him about it rather directly, not realizing it was a terribly sensitive subject for the other kid.

After a lot of apologies and some time, they slowly absorbed him into their friend group.

“You shouldn’t put up with a bad roommate just because you like your room!”

“He’s not a bad roommate, per se... Kacchan’s clean, and after the first night he mostly uses headphones to listen to his music, and doesn’t usually bother me very much aside from nagging about cleaning. He’s actually out a decent amount, too, so-”

“Yeah but it sounds like his personality is so sour. You totally deserve someone better.” Uraraka stuck out her tongue in distaste, making Izuku laugh.

“Come on, you haven’t even met him before-”

“Don’t defend him!” She shouted back, insistent. If Uraraka was anything, she was Izuku’s biggest cheerleader.

Izuku shook his head, “I’m not! Sour is definitely the right word. I’m just saying- I could always end up with someone worse, y’know? I’m just going to play it by ear for a while, okay?”

“Yeah,” Tsu piped up, “I think Izuku is doing the right thing. It sounds like things could be worse. My roommate is fine, but there’s this guy a floor above us. He’s terrible. He keeps wandering into the bathroom on the girls’ floor!”

“No way!”

Izuku sighed, grateful for her change of subject. They all latched on to the new topic, listening to Tsu’s stories of woe and perverts. Iida, in particular, took great offense to this clear violation of school rules. When their food arrived, they did a bit of a round-robin style of discussion, taking turns to update each other on their roommates and their new classes. It was the best Izuku had felt all week, full of warm food and comforted by being back with his friends again, rather than tiptoeing around someone who reminded him so much of the past and seemed to find fault in everything he did.

They stayed out late together, hopping between each other’s dorms to show them off (Izuku was amazed and relieved to find Bakugou wasn’t home and asleep already, but he figured it was a Friday night. Bakugou seemed to have friends on campus as well). They ended the night playing card games in the lounge of Tsu and Uraraka's dorm, not wanting to make the ladies walk home in the dark.

It was around 2 AM when Izuku got back to his own dorm again, surprised when he could see the light was still on. Regardless, he made an effort to open the door quietly and poked his head in first, only to see Bakugou sitting on his bed and tugging his socks off. The blond looked up at him, his eyes a little unfocused, and then the vague smell of alcohol hit Izuku’s nose.

Oh.

Izuku couldn’t help but smile, finally getting some proof that Bakugou was a typical college student after all. “Hey, Kacchan. Were you at a party?”

“Shut the fuck up, don’t wanna hear it from a nerd like you. Probably doin’ boring shit all night, fuckin...nerd,” he grumbled, shifting in his bed to get under the covers. He was a bit too tipsy to bother changing his clothes, apparently, despite that they clearly smelled like beer, “turn the fucking light off, too, shit.”

He wasn’t very articulate when he’d been drinking, was he?

“In a minute,” Izuku replied, pulling off his shoes in the doorway. He was going to change into pajamas, anyways, since he hadn't been drinking all night. He took his time doing so, biting his lip to keep from laughing aloud as Bakugou shifted restlessly in his bed, clearly feeling impatient about the whole light situation but unwilling to get out of bed himself. It wasn’t much in the way of revenge, but it was kind of funny to see Bakugou like this, silently and drunkenly fuming at him. After a few minutes, Izuku had mercy and turned the light switch off before he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he finally crawled into his own bed, he could hear his roommate's breathing had evened and he'd clearly passed out.

He’d never taken Bakugou to be the type to go out to parties. He came off as though he always felt above all of that kind of stuff, so it did leave Izuku wondering who on Earth had the magical power to convince the Katsuki Bakugou to go out.

He figured it wasn’t really much to concern himself with. Maybe this sort of thing helped Bakugou unwind and he definitely wasn’t going to interfere with that whole process.

Izuku shifted on his mattress, the cheap springs creaking under his weight. It didn’t take long before he also passed out, first week of college under his belt. He felt this was no small feat considering the challenge he’d been given- namely, the grumpy childhood friend sleeping roughly seven feet away.

Chapter Text

The answer to Izuku’s question as to who had the magical power to convince Bakugou to go out to a party came in the form of a redheaded boy who knocked on their door early Saturday morning. Okay- to be fair, it wasn’t that early. It was 9 AM, but for a college student that may as well have been at daybreak. Even Bakugou, surprisingly, had the sense to sleep in on a Saturday. And by “sense”, Izuku definitely meant that he was almost certainly hungover, judging from the fact that he’d seen him get up around 8, shuffle to the bathroom, and then down 2 ibuprofen before diving back under his covers.

Izuku ended up being the one to open the door after Bakugou threw his spare pillow at it, grumbling a complaint about the loud knocking and how it needed to shut the hell up.

“Oh, hey! Is Bakugou in?” the man on the other side of the door asked, looking down warily at the pillow on the ground. He’d probably heard the thud moments ago and put two and two together.

“Uh…” Izuku’s voice was quiet, and he glanced back at the lump of sheets on the bed, knowing Bakugou was under them, but…

“Fuckin’ tell him to go away, useless, shitty Deku,” A disdainful voice called out from under the duvet. Bakugou must have known who was at the door based on voice alone. Izuku briefly wondered if it was a friend that Bakugou had made back in highschool. Whoever they were, they were also clearly familiar with Bakugou’s brand of grouchy. Izuku and him exchanged knowing looks before Izuku stepped aside, gesturing for the other to come inside.

“I’m Izuku Midoriya, by the way. Kacchan’s roommate.”

“Kacchan?”

“He means me, hair-for-brains,” Bakugou poked his head out from his blankets and propped himself up on his elbows, eyes squinting at the sudden brightness of the room assaulting his senses. After a moment he glared at Izuku, “Deku, you’re a shit doorman.”

“Good thing I’m not paid to take your visitors then, right?”

“Fuck off.”

“Kacchan?” the redhead echoed, still stuck on that. It was easy to forget sometimes that not everyone called Bakugou by that nickname- Izuku had just been in the habit in his younger years. It was likely that Bakugou had never mentioned or brought up the childish nickname to anyone else.

“Don’t you dare start that bad habit, Kirishima. Why are you here?”

“Oh shit, wait!” the redhead turned to Izuku with a sudden sense of urgency, “I totally forgot to introduce myself! I’m Kirishima Eijiro! Bakugou was so tight-lipped about his new roommate last night, it’s cool to meet you!” Kirishima extended his hand, grinning widely. He had weirdly sharp-looking teeth, but his affectation was so kind and excitable that it wasn’t off-putting in the least.

Izuku returned the smile and held out his hand as well, the other giving it a very firm and confident shake in return. He looked Izuku in the eye as he did so, as though he was scrutinizing him. After a moment, he clasped his other hand over Izuku’s and nodded in approval, “you’ve got a good, strong handshake, man. Good on ya.”

“You gonna fucking make out with him, too, or can I go back to bed?” Bakugou grunted, not exactly excited to be dealing with this exchange right now.

Izuku couldn’t help but grimace, cheeks turning a bit red at the implication, but Kirishima took it in stride and laughed.

“C’mon, man. You’ve way overslept, it’s so late already!”

Bakugou snarled and grabbed the pillow under his arms this time, flinging it violently at the redhead. The other man caught it with ease and just grinned, unperturbed by the aggression. He must have been a close friend-- no one who was new to hanging around Bakugou was so accepting of his angry outbursts.

“Chill, dude. We’re all gonna go get brunch at a cafe, I just figured I’d stop by and drag your ass out with us, since your dorm is on my route anyways.”

Bakugou flopped down on his sad, pillow-less bed, head buried in his folded arms now instead.

“You should’ve just texted me, idiot.”

“You wouldn’t have answered.”

Bakugou groaned again, and then went quiet.

Kirishima glanced at Izuku, “Yo, Midoriya, you wanna come too? Everyone wants to know who Bakugou’s mysterious unnamed roomie is. Bakugou won’t say a word about you, and we’re all dying for some deets.”

Izuku had no idea who the hypothetical “we” in this situation was- presumably, a group of friends Bakugou belonged to? It was hard to wrap his head around it. Bakugou was universally loved back in their childhood. People admired him, people looked up to him, people were impressed and terrified, but they generally weren’t his friends. After a certain age, Bakugou had all but forsaken friendship- people stuck with him and followed him around, sure, but it was clear they were not his friends.

Kirishima, though? Kirishima was definitely a friend. That much was clear.

He wondered what else had changed about Bakugou in the 4 years they hadn’t seen each other. Izuku had assumed not much, given his current behavior, but he was starting to think maybe he’d been quick to judge.

“I'd love to, but are you sure no one else would mind, Kirishima? I don’t want to intrude-”

Bakugou interrupted him, “yeah, you shithead, you can’t just invite my roommate without fuckin’ asking anyone else, what’s wrong with you?”

Ah. It was clear at least one person minded, then.

But Kirishima was insistent, smacking Izuku’s back with his hand in a friendly manner that may or may not have actually hurt a little, “C’mon, man. I’m sure everyone’s chill with it. You can get to know the little green dude better over some crepes at the cafe. Now get up and shower, you stink like shit and we gotta get going soon.”

Bakugou was out of ammunition on his bed after throwing his two pillows, so instead he settled for launching a verbal onslaught of curses and insults Kirishima’s way. The other brushed them off with ease, mostly just ignoring them. Disgruntled, Bakugou tore himself from his sheets and gathered up his things to go shower the scent of sweat and stale beer off himself.

It was eerily quiet the moment Bakugou slammed the door shut behind him, leaving Izuku alone with Kirishima. Izuku shuffled his feet awkwardly, not liking the sudden silence.

“Uh, so….do you...want something to drink?”

“I’m good!” Kirishima chirped, totally unaffected by any perceived awkwardness. He lifted his water bottle towards Izuku in a little ‘cheers’ motion and then took a few gulps from it, “I run in this area in the mornings when I can! I live off campus with some of the others, but it’s nicer here.”

“Oh, Where do you run around here? Are there any good parks or anything?” Izuku knew that running was a topic he could keep up with, at least. He gestured for them to sit down in his and Bakugou’s desk chairs so they weren’t just standing around awkwardly. As they sat down, Izuku continued, “I’m still so unfamiliar with the area. Back in high school I did track, so I’ve been hoping to get back into-”

Kirishima was looking at him with bright, excited eyes now, “Whoa! No way, dude! I did track too! What did you do?”

Izuku shrugged, feeling embarrassed suddenly, “Oh, a bit of everything. I was best at sprints and I broke all of the jumping records at my school. We were a small school though, so that’s not really saying much, to be honest-”

“Don’t sell yourself short! That’s awesome! Bakugou was always obsessed with trying to break school records for the weight room, too,” Kirishima laughed. The way he talked about Bakugou with such ease was fascinating.

Izuku found another opening and jumped on it, wanting to steer away from talking about his own records, “You and Kacchan went to high school together? That’s how you met him?”

“Yeah! We actually played soccer together. And wrestling for a year, but Bakugou got kicked off the team for being waaaaay too aggressive with the other kids and it wasn’t really fun without him so I quit, too. So, yeah, just soccer after that. Low contact, easier for him to keep from punching other kids. Not that it always stopped him. He almost got kicked off the volleyball team one year, too.”

Izuku snorted out a laugh, finding it too easy to imagine that. He hadn’t seen Bakugou do any school sports back in middle school, but their last year had been when he’d started working out in earnest, so it made sense that it extended to sports later on in high school. He was not surprised that Bakugou didn’t exactly possess the necessary sportsmanship to do well in the athletics department.

“So, uh…’Kacchan’?” Kirishima asked again, and Izuku filled in the unspoken gaps to figure out this was his way of asking how Izuku had met Bakugou.

“Right, right. I forget that sounds weird to most people, I’ve just been saying it for so long. It was his nickname back in, like, kindergarten,” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Bakugou was going to kill him, definitely, if he found out he was talking about their childhood behind his back. Still, it would be rude to ignore Kirishima’s question. He decided that maybe keeping things vague for now would be the best course, “We lived in the same neighborhood when we were younger. Our moms were friends, actually, so we kinda grew up together, that’s all.”

“Oh! So you two were childhood friends?”

“Friends...isn’t the right word, necessarily.” Izuku tried to explain, not wanting to make it sound complicated or weird when it was, in fact, both of those things and more.

Kirishima raised an eyebrow, but he seemed more interested in pursuing another line of thought, “Okay, but that means you have stories from when he was a kid, right?”

“I-I guess? But-”

“No wonder he didn’t wanna tell us about you! Shit, Midoriya, don’t say another word. Save it all for brunch. The others are gonna lose their minds when they find this out. You are about to be the life of this get together, my dude!” Kirishima reached over and gently punched Izuku’s shoulder.

“Wh-what? No, there’s no way! Do you want me to die, Kirishima? I don’t think you really understand but Kacchan will absolutely kill me if I-”

The door to their room opened, revealing Bakugou in a fresh set of clothes, towel slung over his shoulder and a carrier full of toiletries in his hand. He looked more awake but no less pissed off, currently glaring at Izuku. “I’ll kill you If you do what, Deku?”

The color drained from Izuku’s face slightly, and he held up his hands in defense, “Nothing, nothing! We weren’t talking about anything, right Kirishima!?”

“Nope! Nothing at all,” the redhead threw him a wholly unconvincing wink and Izuku could have buried his face in his palms for how not-subtle this man was.

Bakugou’s gaze lingered on Izuku for a few seconds longer, before he made a small, “tch” noise and hung the damp towel up on a hook by his closet, “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with, I guess.” Bakugou paused and glanced back at his roommate, “Well? If you’re coming, aren’t you going to get dressed, idiot?”

Izuku blinked at him and then looked down at himself- he was still wearing an old, oversized T-shirt with a vintage comic book cover from his favorite superhero series screenprinted on it and a pair of plaid pajama pants. He’d honestly gotten so distracted by his conversation with Kirishima that he’d totally forgotten. Izuku practically jumped up from his chair and moved to his dresser to pull out an outfit for the day, before running to the bathroom to change. He didn’t normally do that last part, but he figured Kirishima was technically a guest, so it would probably be weird to change right in front of him. It only took a minute or so for Izuku to make himself presentable, and soon they were taking the elevators down to the lobby.

They walked side by side, with Kirishima in the middle to guide them via Google Maps to the small cafe where they were supposed to be meeting some other people. The whole time, Bakugou looked furious with Izuku. He was pleasant enough when it came to Kirishima, though he never lost that rough edge he was known for, but Izuku’s presence seemed to be ticking him off.

Izuku got the distinct feeling that Bakugou had only been okay with letting Izuku tag along because Kirishima had insisted.

It was a weird feeling. He knew Bakugou hated him, but it was undeniable that things had also changed. Seeing a glimpse of this Bakugou-- a Bakugou with friends who cared enough to coordinate brunches with him, a Bakugou who seemed to sometimes give in to the whims of someone else...it was enlightening.

Bakugou had changed in a lot of little ways that were so, so hard to notice at first. Izuku knew that objectively, he had as well, and he definitely didn’t have the right to find this so surprising. Everyone changed from the end of middle school to their freshman year of college. Everyone changed after 4 long years. It was inevitable. But it was weird to acknowledge it, too.

There were pieces of Bakugou’s life that Izuku had just entirely missed, and Kirishima was living proof of that.

And then, Izuku noted as Bakugou hurled another set of vulgarities at his redheaded friend who’d apparently taken them down a wrong turn, there were equally as many pieces that had remained totally and completely static.

Katsuki Bakugou was still very much Katsuki Bakugou.

At brunch, Izuku was introduced to 3 other people:

Mina Ashido, a tanned woman with wild pink hair and an outlandish fashion sense of clashing patterns.

Denki Kaminari, a guy with medium length blond hair in a black leather jacket and a kind of electric, excitable energy about him.

Hanta Sero, a guy with flat black hair and a toothy grin who waved eagerly at them when they first came through the door.

They had saved 2 extra chairs, but when they saw Midoriya they immediately began asking the other tables around them if they could steal any open chairs and, eventually, they managed to grab one from someone who was sitting alone with their laptop at a corner table. Kirishima had let Izuku sit in his place, and instead pulled the new chair between Ashido and Kaminari for himself.

“Come on, Bakugou, you gotta introduce Midoriya to everyone!”

“I think you just did, Kirishima.” Bakugou sighed, but then made a vague gesture between Izuku and the others, “Deku, everyone. Everyone, Deku.”

“Uh, Midoriya. Izuku Midoriya, please. I’m Ka...uh, Bakugou’s roommate.”

In the end, Kirishima ended up introducing the others to Izuku, with Bakugou too busy looking engrossed by the slim menu pamphlet that had been placed on the table.

“Ugh, who chose this place? Everything looks so damn sweet,” Bakugou glanced around the table briefly.

“Ashido chose it, don’t look at me,” Kaminari chimed in, voice a bit defensive.

“Hey!” Ashido pouted, puffing out her cheeks angrily, “you all agreed! I even sent the menu out ahead of time, you traitors. Besides, this place has a crepe with this kind of caramelized sugar coating and a creme brulee filling that is literally to die for!”

“I didn’t even think you liked sweets that much, Ashido,” Sero chimed in, not looking up from his own menu.

“I don’t. That’s how you know it’s good! Besides, they have savory crepes too, Bakugou.” Ashido stuck her tongue out at the blond, who responded by giving her the finger. She gasped in mock surprise.

Izuku felt the whole scene was so surreal. It was that same sense that he’d missed something that he’d gotten earlier.

Bakugou really, truly, had an entire group of friends, who did normal friend things, like teasing each other and going out to brunch. They were all seemingly nice and normal people who put up with his grouchy roommate, and in turn, Bakugou put up with all of them. No, Bakugou wasn’t the kind of person to settle. He wouldn’t have come if he didn’t at least enjoy their company a little. Somehow, they’d all chipped away at him and found something decent deep, deep, deep down.

Izuku wanted to know everything.

He studied every interaction they had a bit too intently. He almost missed when Kaminari called his name, “So tell us, Midoriya, what’s Bakugou like as a roommate? He never even invited us over to his house back in high school.”

“Huh?” Izuku blinked at the blond currently addressing him, and then glanced at the other blond currently staring daggers at him, “Oh, um, it’s fine, I guess. Kacchan’s fine. A neat freak?”

Bakugou sat up straight at that and gripped the edge of the table, “just ‘cuz you’re willing to live in filth doesn’t mean I have to sink so low, Deku.”

“Kacchan, not wanting to sweep the floor every single night is more normal than you think it is, I promise-”

“Who the fuck is Kacchan,” Ashido deadpanned, raising an eyebrow and breaking the tension between the two of them instantly. They both looked at her, and then back at each other, Bakugou’s eyebrows furrowed as though he were weighing his options for explaining things or not while simultaneously daring Izuku to say anything.

As it turned out, Kirishima chimed in first, “They were childhood friends!” the words practically burst from his mouth, like he’d been waiting to spill this at the exact right moment. As predicted, the whole table broke into various shocked reactions.

“What! No way!” Sero exclaimed, with that being the calmest of them.

Kaminari immediately reached over the table and grabbed Izuku’s shoulders so tight that he could feel his nails digging into his skin through his shirt, “Tell us everything, Midoriya. I. Need. Every. Detail.”

“Spill the deets!” Ashido cheered, raising a fist in the air in her excitement, “do you have baby pictures!?”

“Th-there’s nothing to tell, really, guys!” Izuku insisted, right before a nice waitress came by to take their collective orders and just barely saved Izuku’s ass. It gave them all time enough to calm down so that, at least, when they jumped back to the topic, no one had a death grip on him.

Well.

Okay, so Kaminari’s hands were quickly replaced by Bakugou’s, his grip so tight that his knuckles were turning white. Izuku wasn’t sure this was any better. It felt like a thinly veiled threat, where if he said the wrong thing, his shoulder might be dislocated.

“Seriously, ‘Kacchan’ though? We never get to call him cute nicknames,” Ashido crossed her arms, though Izuku didn’t really understand why that such an issue.

“That’s what I said!” Kirishima threw his arms into the air, exasperated, “remember when I tried to get Baku to stick, but he wouldn’t even have that. That wasn’t even like a cutesy thing! It’s just his name! This whole time we should’ve stuck with Kacchan! Apparently that was what they used to call him as a kid.”

“How do you feel about that, Kacchan?” Sero teased, eyes squinting in a grin as he laughed.

Izuku felt the grip on his shoulder tighten further.

“If any of you call me that one more time, I’ll cut your damn tongues out so that you never get to call me or anyone else anything ever again, period. Got it?”

Izuku had a distinct feeling that threat didn’t apply to him considering he’d been calling Bakugou ‘Kacchan’ for over a week now without issue, but he’d avoid saying it for a while anyways.

“Don’t you have any embarrassing stories to tell, Midoriya?” Kaminari asked, his eyes gleaming with hope, “this asshole’s always trying to seem better than all of us, it’d be great to finally get some dirt on him.”

Izuku chewed his lower lip in thought for just a moment, “Ah, well, there was this one time...ow!” Izuku winced and turned to look over at Bakugou, then down at the hand on his shoulder. Nails. What the hell was it with everyone trying to dig their nails into his skin today? “Nevermind, nope. I don’t have any amusing, mortifying stories about him. None at all,” Izuku insisted, finally shifting slightly and using two of his hands to try and pry Bakugou’s death grip from his shoulder. Bakugou snatched his hand away, as though offended that he’d been touched at all. Izuku couldn’t help but roll his eyes and keep talking, “and I definitely won’t tell you guys later when I’m not under duress by a certain someone. So don’t ask me later.”

“I know where you fucking live, Deku.”

“Well gee, I sure hope so, roomie.”

“Don’t get smart with me, you motherfucker-!”

The server came over with their food in that moment, placing the plates of various crepes around the table. It was enough of a distraction to settle them all down a bit again. Thank goodness for food service, which had effectively saved Izuku twice this morning.

“I like him, Kirishima,” Ashido laughed, elbowing the redhead playfully, “You did good picking Midoriya up. I can’t wait to hear all those stories about itty bitty Bakugou-”

“Yeah, I just hope Bakugou doesn’t actually try to kill him at any point,” Kirishima replied, his own laugh a lot more nervous as he eyed his friend across the table. Bakugou stabbed his fork into the crepe hard enough that the metal screeched against the porcelain in a wholly unpleasant manner.

“Aw, c’mon, it seems like Midoriya’s been dealing with Bakugou’s bullshit longer than any of us,” Kaminari rolled his eyes, picking up his smoothie and sucking at the colorful straw.

“Fuck all of you, I am a goddamn delight.” Bakugou huffed, waving the forkful of food at his friends before popping it in his mouth. There was a hint of amusement to his tone that was new, subtle enough that Izuku almost missed it. It helped him relax and start eating his own food, chewing quietly as the rest of them picked the conversation back up. Clearly, they weren’t going to be able to squeeze any details out of Izuku while Bakugou was around, so they moved on.

Off the topic of his childhood, Bakugou was a lot more tame. He was much more relaxed and even laughed a couple times. The sound was so foreign to Izuku- it had been so many years since he’d heard it. Not since they were kids. But he wasn’t about to say as much.

The walk home together was more tense than Izuku wished. They’d parted ways with the others at the cafe- their off campus place was in the opposite direction, so it just left the two of them to walk back to their dorm alone.

After a few moments, Izuku managed to think of something to talk about, “Say, Kacchan, why didn’t you live off campus with them?”

“And give up the swanky honors dorms we got? Fuck that. The place they rent is a dump compared to our place. Besides, I think I’d literally kill one of them by the end of month one. Probably Ashido. Girl fuckin leaves a trail of her belongings behind her wherever she goes.”

“Ah, that makes sense.”

“Yeah, it would’ve,” Bakugou huffed, shoving his hands into his pockets and absently kicking a rock down the sidewalk, “‘cept I got stuck with someone just as fuckin’ bad. Guess it was always a gamble, but still. Shitty, nerdy Deku. Never thought I’d see your ugly mug again, to be honest.”

Izuku glanced over at Bakugou. Behind the rudeness, the sentiment was still there. He was actually admitting to the fact that, if nothing else, he really was surprised to see Izuku after all these years. Izuku smiled and let out a soft, breathy laugh.

“The hell you laughing at, huh?”

“Nothing, nothing. You’re just still so…you, y’know?”

“The fuck else am I gonna be?” Bakugou looked over at him, the corners of his mouth tugged down into a scowl.

“Ah, nevermind. I was just thinking too much.”

For a beat, Bakugou didn’t say anything. He pursed his lips and seemed to study Izuku for a sign of what he was thinking, but as per usual, he didn’t dwell. If Izuku thought too much, then Bakugou preferred to be just the opposite, “That’s always been your damn problem, nerd.” Bakugou brought a hand up and waved it lazily at Izuku as they approached an intersection, “anyways, I’ve got homework to do. Gonna go to the library. Seeya.”

“Oh? Okay, I’ll see you back at the dorm, Kacchan. Good luck,” Izuku waved back, and then hurried across the street when he noticed the light was about to change.

After he'd crossed the road and made it a few more blocks, it hit Izuku that their conversation just now had actually been relatively normal. At least Bakugou hadn't spent the entirety of it yelling at him, so, yeah. Normal by their standards. That was improvement, right?

Chapter Text

“No, Uraraka, we need to do chapter 3 for the next class. I wrote it down on my agenda, see?”

“Aw, jeeze, I spent an hour reading chapter 4 earlier...are you sure, Midoriya?” Uraraka scrunched up her nose, suddenly rolling over on the bed and reaching for her backpack on the floor to fish out her copy of the syllabus. She flipped through the pages quickly and then solemnly returned it to her bag, defeated and grumbling, “ugh, no wonder it was so confusing…”

“We can work on chapter 3 together, don’t worry- besides, I’m sure we’ll be doing chapter 4 sooner or later, so it’s not like you wasted your time, per se…” Izuku offered, smiling softly at his brunette friend. She looked exhausted already, and they were only on week 3 of their classes, “Come on, let’s get it over with.”

Uraraka groaned and sat up, her hair sticking up a bit wildly from leaning over the bed. She puffed her cheeks out in a pout, “I hate biology so much.”

“You’re on the wrong career path, then,” Izuku hummed, opening the heavy textbook in his lap.

Uraraka nodded in agreement, but rubbed her fingers together in the universal sign for money, “Yeah, but being a doctor is just so lucrative. Damn you, six-figure salary, you devious temptress…”

“I still think you need to find a better motive than that.”

“Oh, shut up. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be able to buy my parents a nice condo on a tropical island when they retire. Helping people is just a nice plus,” Uraraka stuck her tongue out at Izuku for good measure before following suit and pulling out her own notebook and textbook, “besides, we can’t all have untainted hearts of gold, Mr. Pediatrician.”

“That’s Doctor Pediatrician to you, Uraraka.”

“Not yet it isn’t!” She said with a laugh, kicking Izuku’s leg playfully. Soon they both settled in and began reading the chapter separately, asking each other questions once in a while if they didn’t understand something. After about an hour, Izuku heard the door knob of their room twist, followed by the door itself opening.

“Hey Kacchan,” Izuku said, casually, not looking up from his book. Uraraka’s legs were draped over his lap currently, but she moved to sit upright the moment Bakugou walked in. Izuku looked up at that, shaken from his focus, and put his book down. He’d almost been too distracted by the reading to remember that Bakugou had never met Uraraka. Izuku was about to apologize and introduce them, but Uraraka was already climbing off of his bed and packing up her things. She’d heard all of the stories about Bakugou and decided a while ago that she didn't like him very much.

“I’m gonna get going, I think Tsu said she wanted to get dinner tonight. We can finish the chapter tomorrow before class, right? Let’s meet at the library at 10 to do the questions.”

“W-wait, Uraraka, you don’t have to go,” Izuku said, glancing at Bakugou, who grunted in agreement as he pulled his shoes off.

“Yeah, fuckin stay if you want, round-face.”

Izuku froze.

“Uh, excuse me?” Uraraka said, turning slowly as she slung her backpack over her shoulder. She was smiling pleasantly, but Izuku had known her long enough to know that it was a thinly veiled facade of politeness, and behind that veil she was furious.

“I said you can fuckin stay, it doesn’t bother me,” Bakugou repeated, putting his own bag down and taking off his hoodie, hardly even paying attention to their visitor.

Izuku practically launched himself off the bed and jumped between the two of them, putting his hand on Uraraka’s upper arm in what he hoped was a calming gesture. This was not helping her predisposition for disliking Bakugou. He needed to reboot this whole encounter, start over.

“Uh, Kacchan, this is Uraraka Ochako, she’s a friend of mine from high-school. I invited her over to do our biology homework-”

“Didn’t ask,” Bakugou said, only briefly looking over his shoulder at both of them.

“...and, Uraraka, this is my roommate Bakugou Katsuki.” Izuku finished, lamely. So much for his hope of diffusing the situation.

Uraraka’s face briefly flared with anger, and she looked at Izuku as though she wanted permission to punch Bakugou. Uraraka was no weakling- she worked out pretty regularly and did her fair share of martial arts, but Izuku very much did not want a fistfight to break out in his room.

“O-kay!” Izuku said, loudly, pronouncing each syllable. He laughed nervously and tugged at Uraraka’s sleeve, guiding her gently to the door. He handed her her jacket, “It’s getting late. Let’s do like you said and meet at the library tomorrow morning. Come on, I’ll walk you out, Uraraka,” Izuku insisted, and luckily, his friend did not protest.

In the elevator, however, she exploded, “Round-face!?”

Izuku sighed, exasperated, “I know, I know. I’m sorry. He’s kind of an asshole most of the time. He’s not great with names.”

“Midoriya! I don’t think I’ve ever met someone that outwardly rude before and I have a job waitressing!”

“I know! I’m sorry! I want to say he gets better when you get to know him, but...he’s just...kind of like that. Always. I’ve told you that before,” Izuku shook his head, “God, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize he’d be so rude to you so immediately.”

“It’s not your fault, Midoriya, stop apologizing.” Uraraka sent him a stern, meaningful glance. He opened his mouth to apologize again, but quickly shut himself up. Uraraka gave a resigned sigh, “It’s fine. I’m fine. If he wants to be angry and mean, that’s his problem.”

“Yeah, that’s the spirit.”

“I still can’t believe you put up with that kind of personality, though.”

Izuku was quiet for a moment, then gave a small shrug, “...The dorm is pretty cool though, right?”

Uraraka looked suddenly crestfallen, voice whiny when she spoke, “Your furniture is nicer than the stuff we have back home, you scholarship-winning jerk…”

The mood between them had lightened considerably by the time they got to the lobby and out onto the street, Uraraka’s anger with Bakugou fading slowly with the distance gained from him. Uraraka gave him a quick hug before setting off down the street towards her own dorm building. Izuku waited until she was out of sight before heading back to his room, muttering about the other homework he needed to start tonight. When he got back inside, Bakugou was sitting with his feet up on his desk, relaxed in his chair. He was on his phone, a textbook unopened in front of him for the moment.

Izuku kicked off his shoes and stared at the other for a moment, as if expecting a greeting or an apology for his rudeness, or something. Bakugou didn’t look up at him, his thumbs tapping at the screen mindlessly. Izuku wanted to say something, but decided against it last minute. It probably wasn’t worth getting into it with him. An apology was far too much to expect.

Instead, he just flopped down on his bed and looked over his agenda to start planning the rest of the week’s workload. He was in the middle of giving each assignment a deadline when Bakugou spoke up.

“So, friend from high school?”

Izuku looked at him, jumping slightly with the sudden break in the silence. Bakugou himself had finally looked up from his phone, too, a bored expression on his face.

“Oh, uh... yeah. We met freshman year. She was the first friend I made after moving away,” Izuku shrugged a bit, turning back to his task at hand. He figured that would be the end of it, but to his surprise Bakugou kept the conversation going.

“The hell was her problem, anyways? Running out the moment I came in.”

Izuku looked up again, and just barely missed the tail end of what might have been an almost suspicious glance. Suspicious? Of what? There was absolutely no way Bakugou would have known that he’d told Uraraka everything about their childhood together, that she knew all the horror stories about their relationship in middle school. It was impossible, and yet the way Bakugou was looking at him made him think that he’d started to figure it out on his own. Izuku may have known the reason behind her anger, but there was no way Bakugou could have guessed it, right? It made him feel a bit panicky, well aware that the other probably wouldn’t be happy to find out he’d been talking about him behind his back.

“Well, you weren’t exactly nice to her either, Kacchan. You called her round-face before you even knew her name,” Izuku deflected, voice only slightly betraying how worried he was.

“So? Her face is round. Nothing rude about the truth.”

Izuku sent him an exhausted look, “You sure have a way of making the truth sound rude.”

“Then you think her face is round, too.”

“What? No, I--” Izuku shook his head, realizing the implications of what he’d just said, “damn it.”

Bakugou hid a snicker behind his hand, clearly feeling proud of himself. Izuku rolled his eyes and refused to respond further. He was determined to get back to his agenda and week-planning.

“Just text me next time if you’re having someone over and want to be left alone, okay? Idiot.”

Izuku blinked at the agenda in front of his eyes, tapping his pen against it intently and trying to force himself to focus and ignore whatever annoying thing Bakugou was saying now--

Wait, what?

Izuku felt his cheeks heat up suddenly and he almost got whiplash from how quickly he looked up at the blond across the room. Was that the reason Bakugou had been eying him suspiciously earlier? It was almost a relief, if it hadn’t been such an embarrassing mistake for a multitude of reasons that Izuku didn’t really want to get into right now.

“No, no, that wasn’t- we were just doing biology homework together. Seriously, she’s like a sister to me, you can’t just assume things like that! Besides, she has a girlfriend.”

“Oh,” Bakugou looked confused. He seemed to have been pretty certain he’d had it all figured out, but the firm shut down from Izuku had proved him wrong, and he hated being wrong. “Then why the hell did she storm off in such a huff?”

Izuku feigned innocence and shrugged, “I guess she got caught up in reading and just forgot that she was supposed to meet her girlfriend for dinner, so she might’ve been running late for that? I don’t know.”

Bakugou’s eyes lingered on him; he could feel his gaze even when he went back to working on organizing his agenda. It was clear he didn’t quite buy that excuse, but he had believed what Izuku said about her absolutely not being anything of a romantic interest. He was trying to calculate the real reason Uraraka seemed so adverse to meeting him, but he didn’t seem to dwell on it for long before he threw his phone on his bed and flipped open his own textbook.

Silently, they both kept on with their work.

It was a Wednesday night that Izuku received the following text:

Unknown Number: Hey midoriya!!! Stole ur number from bakugous phone, hope u dont mind. Theres gonna be a house party friday night. come around 10!!!! bring friends? Text u the address in a sec

Unknown Number: this is kirishima btw

Izuku was grateful for the last clarifying text, since the first one gave no context whatsoever. A moment later his phone buzzed again, and another text with the promised address appeared in the conversation.

Izuku added Kirishima to his contacts and replied, promptly.

Midoriya: Hello Kirishima! That sounds fun, I’ll see if any of my friends wanna come. I’m sure they’d all love to meet you guys! :) Who else is coming?

Kirishima: everyone will be there!!! Even bakugou but maybe dont mention that i invited u yet, he doesnt know i stole his phone and took ur number lol

Kirishima: he has u listed as fuckin deku it took forever for me to find ur contact lmao

Izuku frowned at his phone, then looked over at Bakugou, who was currently sleeping. It was close to midnight and Izuku had just come back from the study lounge on their floor, having been kicked out of their room earlier due to Bakugou’s apparent need to maximize his beauty sleep.

Even in his phone contacts Bakugou couldn’t resist a jab, huh? It didn’t surprise him, to be honest.

Izuku sighed and began tapping his thumbs across the keypad on his phone.

Midoriya: Does he not want me there?

Kirishima took a while to reply to this text, comparatively.

Kirishima: no thats not it he just gets weird when i mention u sometimes idk. but like dw abt it dude, just come and have a good time

Midoriya: Weird how??

Kirishima: ah man i shouldnt have said anything, its just bakugou being bakugou u know? Hes weird and angry about everything lol

Midoriya: Well, okay. If you’re sure it’s fine for me to come, I’ll be there with some of the others if they can make it.

Izuku took a moment to send out an invite to the group chat he had going with his friends from high school, making sure to specifically tag Todoroki, since it was unlikely he’d see the message in the morning otherwise. He tucked his phone away on to his desk after silencing it and plugging it in to charge, and then rolled on to his stomach and hugged his pillow to his face.

He’d spent most of his weekends so far bouncing between small friend hangouts, working out, and doing school assignments- he’d not branched out much further than his own friends at this point. Bakugou’s friends had been nice, but until now they hadn’t really reached out to him much beyond some social media friend requests. Kirishima seemed to be the one extending the olive branch once again, but that made sense given his apparent closeness to Bakugou, who was really the only connecting thread between them at the moment.

That meant that this was going to be his first college party. He wasn’t nervous or anything thought. Okay, no, that was a lie. He was nervous. It wasn’t like he’d never been to parties before, but these kinds of situations always made him slightly anxious. He’d have to pick out something to wear, he’d have to work on introducing himself to people, and remember how to make good small talk if he ever got left alone with a stranger. He was sincerely hoping that at least some of his high school friends were going to be able to make it. If they were there, he’d have an excuse to just be antisocial in a corner with them should things go south at any point. He wasn’t bad with people or anything, he just preferred not going into these kinds of things alone.

He buried his face in his pillow and willed himself to brush off the tiny prickles of anxiety in his brain so that he could sleep.

Izuku woke up that morning to 87 unread messages in his high school group chat. Groggily, he unplugged his phone and rolled onto his back, scrolling back up to his last message. Iida had been the first to reply that he couldn’t make it that Friday (he was going to be visiting his brother), but it seemed that Tsu, Uraraka, and Todoroki were going to be able to make it. Todoroki’s status was still a bit up in the air- his response had been a very non-committal thumbs up emoji, which Izuku chose to interpret as an affirmation.

Izuku finally caught up to reading all the messages and joined the conversation, mentioning that Tsu and Uraraka’s dorm was closer to the address that Kirishima had sent him. Todoroki and him agreed to meet the other two at their building and walk together from there. Izuku felt a bit rude not inviting Bakugou to come with them, since they’d be heading in the same direction anyways, but Kirishima had been insistent that he not mention anything to him. Izuku assumed he was afraid Bakugou might not want to go if he knew he’d be there, which was a little disheartening, but understandable given their shaky relationship.

Thursday passed quickly to Friday, and soon enough Izuku was muttering to himself in front of the shared full-length mirror hanging on the back of their dorm room door. He was inspecting his third outfit change of the evening. He’d started off wearing a dress shirt and a nice sweater but decided that was too formal and stuffy (nerdy, Bakugou would have said), so he’d switched to an oversized T-shirt but it looked too much like pajamas. The superhero-themed hoodie he was wearing currently also made him look like he was heading to an 8 am class and had given up on trying to look good, so he tugged that off as well, thoroughly disgruntled. He tossed the article on to his bed and began looking through his closet again, pulling out a baseball tee. It was white with grey sleeves and had a slim fit when he put it on, unlike most of his other clothing.

He mostly lived his life in various forms of loose-fitting lounge and athletic wear, so it was weird to see himself in the mirror with jeans and a decent-looking shirt that actually did something to show off that he had a muscular build. Most of all, though, he noticed that this shirt was only quarter-sleeved. It easily showed off his soulmark, and he tugged uncomfortably at the hem of the fabric. He used to avoid shorter sleeves altogether when he was younger. In the summer, on particularly hot days, he’d just wrap his forearm in bandages, but that was usually more trouble than it was worth. As he'd gotten older it had gotten less and less weird to have a timed out soulmark, so he didn’t mind it as much nowadays- on most days, he had no problem showing off his soulmark.. But just knowing he'd be doing a lot of socializing tonight made him feel anxious about it all over again.

A moment later, the doorknob twisted and Izuku had to hop backwards to avoid being hit as the door swung open, effectively cutting off his access to the mirror. Bakugou blinked at him, surprised to see him standing right in front of the doorway. He gave Izuku a once-over, raising an eyebrow.

“You going out?”

“Oh, yeah,” Izuku nodded, not exactly feeling any more comfortable in these clothes now that someone was looking at him. The fact that it was Bakugou made it worse. Subconsciously, he turned his forearm inward towards himself, shielding his soulmark from view, “Th-there’s a party-”

And then a moment later, Todoroki appeared in the doorway behind Bakugou.

“Midoriya, you were supposed to be in the lobby fifteen minutes ago.”

Bakugou spun around, cursing loudly in surprise, “who the hell are you!?”

“Oh- hello. Todoroki Shoto. I’m a friend of Midoriya’s. And you must be Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya’s roommate.”

Bakugou stared for a moment before pushing his way past Izuku into their room, “yeah, that’s me.”

Todoroki, unlike Uraraka, seemed mostly unbothered by the rude behavior. Instead, he turned back to Midoriya and picked up where he left off, “Anyways, we should get going. Uraraka was wondering in the chat room if you were getting hung up on your clothes so I came up to check on you. Your outfit looks nice, though.”

“O-oh, thanks,” Izuku said, trying not to show the obvious relief the brief compliment brought. Todoroki didn’t exactly have a way with words, but when he spoke he was honest, so it was comforting enough to convince Izuku to grab his wallet and keys and pull his shoes on, “Seeya Kacchan!”

The other only waved his hand in acknowledgement, busy gathering his things for a shower. Izuku shut the door behind him and glanced at his phone- it was already past 9:30, so he hoped Tsu and Uraraka would at least be ready to go when they got there. He quickly opened their chat and told them they were on their way as they got into the elevator.

When they arrived at their dorm, Uraraka and Tsu were waiting for them outside the building, holding hands and ready to start walking right away. Tsu was wearing a cute pair of overalls over a cropped t-shirt, and Uraraka had settled on a patterned button-down tucked into a pair of high-waisted shorts.

“You two look cute!” Izuku chimed, smiling at his friends as they got closer. Tsu and Uraraka grinned at him.

“You look good too! I was a little afraid you were going to show up in basketball shorts and a hoodie, to be honest,” Uraraka laughed and Izuku nervously joined in, neglecting to mention the trouble he’d had picking something out. He was glad he’d thrown the hoodie off.

“So, Midoriya, who invited you out anyways?” Tsu asked as they began walking, Izuku pulling up the address on his maps app.

“Oh, Kirishima- one of Bakugou’s friends I met a while back. I think I told you guys about him and the others? They’re all gonna be there.”

Uraraka groaned, “Even Bakugou?”

“Play nice, please Uraraka,” Izuku said, his voice warning, “it sounded like it’s gonna be pretty big, so just avoid him if you don’t want to see him. For my sanity, do not throw down with my roommate tonight.”

“No promises,” Uraraka said, mostly joking.

The address led them to an older house on the outskirts of the downtown area and into the more residential part of the city. They could hear loud music from outside, the deep sound of the bass standing out in particular. Izuku had texted Kirishima a few minutes ago, so he was already outside leaning on the banister of the small porch, waving wildly with one hand and holding an inconspicuous red plastic cup in his other.

“Midoriya! You made it!” he smiled, seeming genuinely excited to see him again. Izuku flashed him a grin in return and picked up his pace to greet the other. Kirishima held out his hand for what seemed to be a handshake, but immediately pulled Izuku into a hug once he’d clapped their hands together. It was brief, and immediately he moved on to introducing himself to all of Izuku’s friends with an almost enviable ease. Izuku would have blamed it on the alcohol if it weren’t for the fact that he knew Kirishima was just like that; confident and outgoing.

He ushered all of them inside to the crowded living room. The music was still a bit muffled, coming from the basement, but it was so much louder inside. He was practically shouting when he spoke, “Let me get you all some drinks! What do you guys want? We got beer, jungle juice, soda...I can mix something if you want, I know the host so we’re good on whatever, just say the word.”

Izuku shrugged, “beer sounds good,” he said, trying to sound as casual as Kirishima despite the fact that he’d never drank before and was definitely hyper-aware of the fact that this was illegal. This was the peer pressure his mom had warned him about and it was working despite her best efforts.

Uraraka looked at him and giggled like she could read the barely hidden anxiety on Izuku’s face, but she didn’t comment. Instead, she just asked Kirishima for two rum and cokes, ordering for Tsu as well. Todoroki passed for the time being, and Kirishima respectfully took it at face value and disappeared into the kitchen.

Midoriya excused himself and followed him, unable to resist the urge to help out- considering carrying 4 cups wouldn’t be the easiest task even if he were totally sober. Kirishima graciously accepted the assistance and together they mixed and poured the drinks and then returned to the small group and handed out the plastic cups.

“Oh, man, let’s go introduce the others, Midoriya- they’re all psyched to see you again and meet your friends!”

Kirishima grabbed Izuku’s arm and they all shoved their way through the small crowd to the small backyard, where Kaminari, Ashido, and Sero were all currently hanging out.

Another round of introductions followed by another round of drinks. Izuku didn’t particularly enjoy his beer, so he drank it down quickly to get it over with and decided to try a rum and coke this time around instead. Uraraka had never steered him wrong before, and he figured it couldn’t be any worse.

He was wrong- it tasted like gasoline and sugar- so he downed that one quickly too and decided to try the jungle juice, whatever the hell that was, once they headed back inside. It ended up being way better. It was just too sweet and fruity to even taste any alcohol, so he stuck with nursing that drink as they all chatted together in the living room for a while.

It was all a bit of a blur, trying to keep up with the conversations going on between everyone around him, but it was also a relief- they all seemed to be getting along really well, asking each other questions about majors and where they lived and other basic icebreakers. At least, that’s what Izuku gathered from the bits and pieces he heard over the music. Izuku could practically feel his nerves easing the more time went on.

It spiked again when Kaminari shouted, “something something DANCE!”

Izuku hadn’t been able to make out the first part of the sentence, but context clues told him it must have been something like, “let’s go dance,” because soon they were all shuffling downstairs to the basement, where the floor had been cleared and a makeshift DJ station had been set up to imitate a club. If the living room had been a crowd, the group downstairs was a mob. It was chaotic- the floor was sticky, the lights were bright and colorful and flashing in the dark, and it was so loud that Izuku wasn’t sure he could hear himself think. Talk about sensory overload.

They managed to squeeze into the outskirts of the dance floor, which normally would have sent Izuku into a near-panic attack à la his high school prom, but for some reason he didn’t quite feel as nervous.

Actually- he had fun. He saw one guy who looked so drunk that he was just swaying on his feet, eyes closed and arms in the air, and he figured he could never look that bad, so by comparison he was sure he looked fine.

It was about an hour later that he had to run upstairs to hunt down and use the bathroom, ears ringing and head spinning just a little as he gripped the edges of the sink and splashed water on his face, both to ease the creeping warmth from so much exercise and close contact and to clear his foggy mind a bit.

He took his now-empty cup back to the kitchen, intent on trying beer again, but as he was pouring the can into his cup, someone called his name and startled him.

“Deku!”

He jumped a bit and his unsteady hand accidentally began pouring beer on to the countertop instead of its intended destination. He cursed and set the can down, picking up his cup and moving it away from the mess.

“Shit!” he muttered, looking over his shoulder to see who it was, even though he knew there was only one person who called him that.

Bakugou had already grabbed the roll of paper towels on top of the fridge and tossed it towards Izuku, who reflexively caught it, even in his startled and tipsy state.

“What are you doing here?”

Izuku unrolled a swathe of paper towels and began mopping up the beer as best he could. Bakugou approached him and reached over his shoulder to grab one of the cans of beer for himself. He cracked it open, not bothering to grab a plastic cup.

“Kirishima invtied me,” Izuku spoke before his brain caught up with his words, then paused, “Wait. No he didn’t. Kirishima didn’t invite me. I uh…I just stumbled in on my own. Randomly. Yeah, I’m crashing this party, that’s it.”

“Bullshit. I’ll have to kill him,” Bakugou grunted, taking a swig from the can, “where the hell is he, anyways? I haven’t seen anyone yet-”

“We’re dancing!” Izuku interrupted, excitedly, looking at his roommate, “you should come dance with us downstairs!”

Bakugou stared for a moment and then took a long drink.

“How many have you had, Deku?”

“Uh...three. A rum and coke, a beer, and jungle juice...and now,” Izuku looked sadly at his cup, which was only ¾ full, “beer again.”

Bakugou made a face at him, sticking his tongue out in disgust, “you’re not supposed to mix liquor and beer, you know that right?”

“Huh? What’s the difference?”

Bakugou almost looked concerned for a moment, then seemed to shrug it off.

“Anyways, come dance with us!”

“No,” he said, bluntly, turning away as though he was going to head back into the living room. Izuku caught his shoulder without thinking, and Bakugou turned to him. Izuku had been expecting anger, but he got confusion instead.

“Do- do you just wanna hang out up here, then?” Izuku asked, unsure of what he was really saying. It didn’t really matter to him what Bakugou did, but Izuku also knew all their friends were downstairs dancing, too. The idea of Bakugou brooding upstairs and drinking alone was kind of depressing.

Bakugou shook Izuku’s hand from his shoulder with a huff, “I don’t care what you do,” he said, taking off towards the living room as Izuku had suspected. He plopped himself down on the couch. Izuku followed and sat next to him, despite his harsh words. He pulled his legs up on to the couch and now that he was sitting still the room felt a bit titled. He sipped at the cup in his hands, the taste of the beer more tolerable now for some reason.

“The hell are you smiling at?”

Izuku blinked, not realizing he’d been smiling. He shook his head, “nothing, nothing. We haven’t really talked much even though we’re roommates is all. I just realized I don’t even know your major, Kacchan.”

Bakugou took a moment to think, as though deciding whether he wanted to deal with Izuku or go find his friends and be forced to dance with them. He settled on choosing Izuku as the lesser of two evils at the moment.

“Chemical engineering.”

“Whoa! Really?”

“Why are you so surprised!?”

“That’s like, a lot, is all. Credit intensive I bet.”

“Of course it is, but I can fuckin’ handle it, so don’t you dare sound worried. Gonna get the best grades outta any of these other losers. What about you, anyways?”

“Huh?” Izuku took a moment to realize what Bakugou was asking, but answered excitedly, “Oh! I’m pre-med. Hopefully studying to be a pediatrician. That’s the, like, ultimate goal anyways.”

“Oh, that explains why you’re in some of my classes.”

Izuku didn’t say anything for a long moment, looking at Bakugou in amazement, “I am?”

Bakugou, in turn, furrowed his brows and tilted his head, disbelief coloring his voice, “you hadn’t noticed? We’re in the same biology and chemistry 101 courses, you fucking idiot.”

This was news to Izuku, and they’d been in classes for around a month by now. He’d never noticed Bakugou at all during the lectures- granted, the classes held around 150 people since they were general education, but still. He screwed up his face, gears turning in his brain as he tried to access the memories he had of the lecture halls, “do you sit in the back?”

“I sit in the front.”

“Oh.” Izuku felt a bit bad- how could he not have noticed his roommate? He usually sat near the middle seats, so they must have been sitting on different sides at least.

“You’re always sitting with round-face,” Bakugou noted.

“Uraraka, you mean.”

“No, I said and meant round-face, don’t you dare fuckin’ correct me.”

Izuku rolled his eyes and sunk back into the couch, drinking down a few gulps of his beer, “Jeeze, I can’t believe I didn’t notice you were in those lectures. Can’t believe you never said anything either! You should join me an’ Uraraka when we study next time! The exam next week- let’s all get together before it to study!”

Bakugou traced his thumb on the edge of the beer can in his hands, looking unusually thoughtful for a moment, the features on his face softer than normal now that they weren’t crinkled up with anger. He glanced up at Izuku to say something, but seemed to freeze when their eyes met and he noticed that the other had been staring at him.

The softness was short lived as Bakugou creased his brows together and frowned, returning to his default grumpy state, “Stop fuckin’ staring at me, christ.”

Izuku spoke without thinking again, “you should smile more!”

Neither of them had been expecting him to say that.

“What?”

Izuku rolled with it, despite a smarter part of his brain sending off alarms and telling him this was a dumb thing to say, that Bakugou was surely going to punch him, “You used to smile a lot when we were kids, y’know? Sure, it was usually when you were being smug about one thing or another, but it suit you better than this face” Izuku pointed to his own face and did his best impression of Bakugou, frowning deeply and narrowing his eyes like he was angry.

Bakugou chugged the rest of his drink and crushed the poor can in his hand, the tin crumpling under his fingers with ease. He stood up and hurried back into the kitchen. Izuku waited patiently on the couch, but when Bakugou emerged again, fresh drink in hand, he made a beeline for the door to the basement. Izuku scrambled to his feet and quickly pushed his way past a few party-goers, not wanting to be left alone upstairs.

“Kacchan, where are you going?” he called.

Bakugou tossed his head back to look over his shoulder at Izuku, “to dance, apparently.” The alternative social interaction of talking to Izuku had evidently lost its appeal as the lesser of two evils.

How they all ended up in the backyard again, Izuku had no idea. After he’d downed his fourth drink and followed Kacchan back to the dance floor, things got a bit blurry. He’d nearly fallen down the stairs on his way down, and Bakugou gently suggested that he stop drinking after that.

Okay, so he’d phrased it like, “If I see you with another fucking drink, I’m gonna leave your sorry, passed-out ass wherever it falls to drown in your own vomit.”

It was one way of showing concern, Izuku figured.

Anyways, he’d taken Bakugou’s advice as the more experienced drinker and started sipping from a water bottle instead. An hour or so later, laying with his friends on the damp grass outside of the house and away from the dizzying crowds, he felt much more clear-headed.

They were all chatting about this and that, but Izuku wasn’t exactly paying attention- now that he was starting to sober up, he felt very tired. He let out a yawn and stretched his arms out in front of him, up towards the dark sky.

“Midoriya!” Ashido gasped, suddenly, her voice cutting through the clear, warm night air. Izuku opened his half-lidded eyes and propped himself up quickly, surprised at the sudden call of his name. In a flurry of motion, Ashido was at his side, kneeling next to him and grabbing at his arm. She was also maybe a bit tipsy, which only half explained her behavior. Izuku was about to ask what she was doing, when she started to turn his arm. She gasped again when her eyes fell on his soul mark.

Oh.

“You jerk! You never told us that you’ve met your soulmate! I want to hear every single detail!” She exclaimed, her face bright and flushed with excitement.

He felt his throat go dry for a moment, chest hurting with an old, familiar pang. She looked so expectant.

Behind her, Uraraka, Tsu and Todoroki all exchanged looks. The others seemed to pick up on the atmosphere too, going quiet and suddenly paying close attention to Izuku and Ashido. Ashido looked back at them when the sudden hush fell, and then turned to Izuku again, her smile fading. She loosened her grip on Izuku’s arm.

“O-oh, Midoriya, I didn’t mean to- I shouldn’t have asked something so personal, you don’t-,” she started, her eyes widening as she realized what she’d done. It wasn’t typically socially acceptable to talk about other people’s soulmarks if you weren’t close to them, though their generation seemed to be the more relaxed about it than their parent’s.

Izuku swallowed thickly and shook his head, knowing it had been an innocent mistake, “I-it’s okay, really. I don’t mind,” Izuku took a deep breathe and kept talking before he could back out. It was better to just explain it, right? His story wasn’t complex and emotional like Todoroki’s- it was very simple, really. Straightforward.

“My timer was at zero when it appeared. I mean, I don’t really remember that far back, but that’s what my mom tells me. There’s baby pictures, too, I guess.” Izuku shrugged, trying to keep the discussion light.

He could see the shift in Ashido’s face. It was pity, undoubtedly; he’d seen it in some capacity on the faces of everyone he’d told before. She opened her mouth to say something, to apologize again, but Izuku held up his hand.

“Don’t,” he said, voice soft but firm. He didn’t want an apology. She hadn’t done anything wrong- no one had. It wasn’t something that was anyone’s fault, it just was. “It’s okay, I came to terms with it a long time ago. It’s actually fairly common, you know. Most studies place it at about 1 in 5,000 people who aren’t born with working soulmarks.”

What Ashido did next was a very different reaction than the usual. She dropped Izuku’s arm and twisted around, tugging at the strap of her tank top and pushing it down her shoulder, where her own soulmark was on display atop her shoulder. It was counting down steadily, but the string of numbers was almost absurdly long. “7952:09:33”.

“My soul mark is soooo long,” she whined, fixing her tank top straps once Izuku had a chance to see it, “It’s like 9 years away, basically. I have to wait forever to meet my soulmate! I’m not trying to, like, compare struggles or whatever, and I’d be lying if I said I’m not excited for the day to come eventually, but waiting is the absolute worst. There’s gotta be something kind of nice about being free from that, right?”

She was clearly trying to cheer him up, and Izuku couldn’t help but smile. It was a lot more complicated than that, but she was right in some capacity.

Surprisingly, Bakugou was the one who spoke up next. He was sitting in a broken plastic lawn chair next to Kirishima, avoiding eye contact by picking at some fraying plastic on the arm rest.

“Yeah, you don’t have some cosmic force trying to shove a weird destiny down your fuckin’ throat, at least,” he mused, the vitriol in his voice strong in a way that Izuku hadn’t heard before. It shocked him to the point that he almost missed the vicious irony of what Bakugou was saying.

Izuku wasn’t one to usually feel bitter, but there was a righteous fury that flared in his chest with the way Bakugou's spoke. He wanted to ask Bakugou what right he thought he had to comment on his soulmark at all at this point, but Uraraka beat him to it, as though she were reading his mind.

She scoffed. “Like you have any right to say that to Midoriya, of all people.”

Izuku’s anger flipped to mild panic at Uraraka’s words- she was not supposed to tell Bakugou that she knew about their past. Bakugou snapped his attention to her immediately, eyes wide.

“What the hell do you-” He started to talk, but Kaminari spoke up and drowned him out, seemingly oblivious to their side conversation. He might have just sensed that a fight was about to break out, though, and wanted to change the topic. Either way, Izuku was grateful when everyone turned their attention to him instead.

“I mean, Bakugou has a point, in his weird way. Don’t you guys ever worry about the universe screwing it up? Just because people are soulmates doesn’t mean it always works out. I’m, like, so terrified. What if I don’t like them? Or they don’t like me?”

From the corner of his eye Izuku saw Tsu hold tighter to Uraraka’s hand as she chimed in, “My parents got divorced when I was little, and they were soulmates. Soulmark or not, it doesn’t matter if you don’t work on it...some people end up taking their partners for granted because they think they’re entitled to them, you know?”

Sero, who was also laying on his back and staring at the sky, grimaced, “Yeah, but can you imagine not having soulmates? And it was just one big dating free-for-all?” Kirishima swiftly kicked him and nodded towards Izuku to remind him of how this whole conversation had started. Sero backpedaled, “I-I mean, not that it can’t happen that way of course! It’s just, uh, really different from how I think about the world, is all. Sorry, Midoriya.”

Izuku shook his head, letting out a genuinely relieved laugh, any anger and nervousness fading slowly the more they all opened up. It was nice, in a way, to know everyone had their own unique relationships with their soulmarks, whether they were still ticking down or sat at zero. When he was little it had all seemed so romanticized, so black and white- people without soulmarks were unlovable monsters and people with soulmarks were ultimately destined to live fulfilling lives with perfect partners. Obviously, that wasn’t the reality. People were still just people no matter what- capable of great love and great cruelty.

“It’s okay, really! Soulmates are cool I guess, but I probably wouldn’t even have the time to deal with a relationship for the next 8 years or so between school and residency. At least I don’t have to stress about meeting some mysterious stranger on top of trying to pass all my classes.”

Sero looked at his elbow and sighed, “I calculated mine a while ago and I’m going to meet my soulmate next year during finals period. Can you imagine a worse time to try and deal with that?”

The conversation turned from then, taking on a lighter note and avoiding the deeper nuances of navigating soulmarks. Izuku was glad, noticing that Todoroki was able to relax better now as well.

“You heading back to the dorm, Deku?” Bakugou asked, noticing that Izuku had gone back to the living room with Uraraka, Tsu and Todoroki. He’d followed them through the kitchen from the backyard, tossing his empty drink into the recycling bin as he went.

Izuku turned to him and nodded, a bit lightheaded but feeling entirely sober by now.

“Yeah, it’s already 2 am. I’m exhausted,” he laughed, and after a beat, spoke up again, “Are you gonna come with us…?”

Bakugou gave a grunt of agreement, “someone’s gotta make sure you get your sloppy ass home, don’t they?”

Todoroki, who as far as Izuku knew, hadn’t had anything at all to drink, raised his eyebrows at Bakugou, “You know I live in the same dorm as both of you, right? We met earlier? It’s not like Izuku’s going home alone.”

Bakugou frowned, “who the hell are you?”

Todoroki rolled his eyes, figuring Bakugou was just trying to push his buttons, considering he hadn’t drank enough to completely forget their earlier transaction. Izuku, however, knew this was just Bakugou’s prideful way of not having to walk home alone himself, especially considering Izuku was far from sloppy at this point.

“You can walk with us, Kacchan,” he smiled at his roommate. It was probably just the lighting, but he could have sworn he saw a blush rise to Bakugou’s cheeks at the embarrassment of being called out.

“Shut up,” Bakugou said, pushing the front door open and deciding to wait for them out in the front lawn. Izuku waved and shouted a final goodbye to the others, who’d hung back in the kitchen to make their last drinks. Then he followed Bakugou out the front door and they all started down the sidewalk. It was fairly empty on this side of town, the sudden quiet resonating between them all. No one wanted to break it by talking until they got closer to the downtown area and the noise of nearby bars picked up, comforting them with familiarity. They stopped briefly at a food stand that was still open outside of a bar- it was busy, but Uraraka complained enough about her hunger until they all agreed to stop and get some food, leaving the crowded stand with imagawayaki and taiyaki. It was rare for street food to be open this late, but the young man running it seemed to be catching all of the stray drunkards in his net with ease, so it must have been a solid business plan.

“Hey, Uraraka, maybe you should open a late-night street food stand if you really wanna make some cash. That guy looked like he was making tonight what most people make over a week…”

“Don’t tempt me with those kinds of ideas, Midoriya, or I'll drop out of school” she laughed, in a much better mood now that she had warm food in her hands.

“They’re really good, too,” Izuku agreed, taking another bite of his taiyaki. He looked over at Bakugou, “You really should’ve gotten something, Kacchan. Do you want a bite?”

He held out his hand, but the other promptly pushed it away, refusing the offer, “I don’t want your shitty food, the custard ones are always too damn sweet.”

Izuku shrugged; more for himself, then.

They all fell quiet again, but this time because they were preoccupied with eating. It wasn’t long after that, that they parted ways with Tsu and Uraraka, and then eventually Todoroki as well. Izuku wished him a good night as the elevator stopped on his floor of the building. Izuku had been tired before, but now that he was full of food and so close to his bed, he felt ready to pass out by the time he and Bakugou returned to their room.

They both changed into their sleep clothes, backs turned to each other, and then brushed their teeth in the communal bathroom before getting into their respective beds, too tired to stand up any longer.

Izuku rolled onto his stomach, feeling a little gross and sweaty, but he definitely wasn’t going to shower tonight.

Something else had been bothering him since their earlier conversation about soulmarks. It nagged at him, keeping his eyes open even as he rested his cheek against the pillow and wanted desperately to just sleep.

“Hey, Kacchan?” he said, quietly. Tentatively.

He heard a groan on the other side of the pitch black room.

“How long now till your soulmark times out, anyways?”

He didn’t get a reply, and assumed Bakugou had passed out finally. He turned to his side, but just as he closed his eyes Bakugou replied, his voice soft and tired.

“About two years, still.”

Izuku figured that sounded right- it had been so long since they’d talked about soulmarks and even longer since Bakugou had mentioned his own. Izuku might have pursued his line of questioning, but he was too damn exhausted, and his body surrendered to sleep before he could even think of anything else to ask.

Chapter Text

Izuku tapped at the phone sitting on the desk in front of him, scrolling through various social media accounts. He’d arrived a good fifteen minutes early to his lecture, which wasn’t unusual- in a class this size; if you wanted your seat, you had to make sure you got there in time to claim it. His phone buzzed against the hardwood, rattling a bit noisily. He glanced up at the notification dropdown on the screen.

Kacchan: Hey nerd.

Kacchan: Look up from your fucking phone.

Izuku’s eyes widened slightly, but he did as instructed and looked up. Bakugou was sitting a few levels down, turned around in his chair and promptly giving Izuku the middle finger. He was smiling, though- well, he was smirking. Izuku couldn’t help but bite his bottom lip and laugh, not offended in the slightest. He was far too used to Bakugou’s way of communicating to be hurt by something so small.

“Hey Kacchan!” Izuku quickly grabbed his backpack and moved down to the second row where Bakugou was sitting. He took the seat next to Bakugou and then plopped his backpack down in the seat next to himself with the intent of saving it for Uraraka whenever she arrived.

“Y’know, Deku, that wasn’t exactly an invitation. Usually when I flip people off it has the exact opposite effect.” Bakugou mused, his smile replaced with his usual grumpy look. He didn’t sound very grumpy, though. Izuku flashed him a grin.

“Yeah, but you have to know that I’m not like most people by now.”

“You’re right, I never could shake you that easily.”

Izuku pulled his phone out again and shot Uraraka a short text to warn her that he wasn’t in the usual spot- and to warn her that Bakugou was here too. She’d warmed up to Bakugou ever so slightly after spending the night at the party with him around- it gave her a chance to reconcile the stories Izuku had told with the fact that Bakugou was more than that and had, undoubtedly, matured since then. He was still kind of rough around the edges, but Izuku had a feeling that wasn’t ever going to go away. He would probably have a heart attack if there came a day that Bakugou was outwardly and unabashedly nice to him.

He had to specify outwardly and unabashedly, because Bakugou was nice to him, in his very unique way. “Nice” may have been too strong of a term, but for Bakugou’s standards it seemed fitting. For instance, Bakugou was never going to directly invite Izuku to sit with him in class- he’d fight tooth and nail to deny he’d done so entirely. His social interactions all had their own code, and Izuku felt like he was slowly putting together a solution for it. Izuku knew that he’d always been this way- even when Bakugou had been at his worst with him, he’d always sensed he was missing something, some piece of the puzzle that just never clicked into place. He’d moved before he’d ever gotten a chance to fully solve it, and now the pieces had all shifted.

Izuku really enjoyed puzzles. Having another chance to figure Bakugou out was proving to be kind of fun in some ways.

“So, you go to the gym this morning?” Izuku asked, but his phone buzzed in his hands again to signal Uraraka had replied. He looked down at it and started reading, immediately distracted.

Uraraka :D: oh i forgot to tell u! One of tsu’s frogs isn’t feeling well, so im skipping to help her take him to the vet. Shes rlly worried :(

Midoriya: You’re not making up some elaborate lie to get out of seeing Kacchan right?

Uraraka :D: i would never joke about Green Beans being sick! How dare you! Take notes for me tho, pls & thx

Midoriya: K. Hope Green Beans is okay.

Izuku frowned a bit at his phone. Tsu had a bit of an odd hobby of raising frogs, and it had carried over to college once she’d learned she’d be living in a single. They were easy enough pets to hide from the prying eyes of an RA. Her and Uraraka had ended up in the same building, but there wasn’t really a way to choose your roommate with the lottery-like system the school had in place. It didn’t really bother either of them, since they’d decided a while ago to take their relationship slowly. They’d met senior year back in high school when their soulmarks ran down at the same time, but Tsu was hesitant given her parents’ soulmate situation, so they didn’t want to rush into anything.

And in the meantime, Tsu raised frogs and let Uraraka name some of them. Hence, Green Beans.

“Are you even fucking listening to me, Deku? You asked me a goddamn question and then ignore me!?”

Izuku looked up from his phone to Bakugou, who was glaring at him. Izuku had totally gotten lost in thought.

“The hell are you even thinking about with that zoned-out look on your face, space cadet?” Bakugou asked, slouching over the desk in front of them and resting his head on his hand, eyes narrowed and intent. Izuku noted that particular nickname was a new one.

“Uh, frogs?”

Bakugou didn’t say anything for a long moment before he sighed and decided to pull his laptop out, “forget I asked, jeeze. Don’t know why I even fuckin’ try with you, sometimes.” He sounded exasperated, but Izuku just shrugged it off and grabbed his own laptop from his bag to set it up as well. Class was going to start in a few minutes and the seats around them had quickly started filling up. Not to be rude, Izuku moved his backpack from what was supposed to be Uraraka’s seat, and in a few minutes it was taken by stranger.

Izuku was a meticulous note taker. He had a separate word document for each lecture that was outlined and color-coded. Everything was written in shorthand during the class, but he always went back and filled the notes out with proper grammar later on to make studying easier. It was probably the reason Uraraka felt okay trusting him to fill her in on what she’d missed.

Bakugou, however, was much more chaotic. He seemed to boot up one long, running document just labelled “Chemistry 103”. It was messy, but it definitely looked thorough. Not great for sharing with other people, but Izuku figured there must have been a method to the madness if Bakugou was to be believed about his grades. And Izuku had no reason to doubt him about that- he’d consistently been at the top of their classes back in middle school. The contrast between his clean-freak side back at the dorm and his totally relaxed, almost messy learning style was fascinating.

They both fell silent as their professor, Dr. Kayama, took to the podium and smacked her hands against the wood loudly to call everyone to attention. She was a fairly excitable woman and had a way of cracking jokes that kept everyone interested or, at least, awake for the lecture.

It ended early at 45 minutes with the professor assigning them a surprise round of online, open-book quizzes. She added a mandatory reading when everyone groaned about the assignment, refusing to sympathize with the plight of the poor college students. It was like she enjoyed seeing them suffer, or something. Izuku couldn’t help but feel annoyed at his fellow classmates for their complaints, but he jotted the extra assignments down in his agenda nonetheless and packed up his things. This was his last lecture for the day and thus had plenty of time to get his notes to Uraraka and maybe get a head start on the assignment. He normally just went to the library with her after this class, but he figured he’d walk back with Bakugou to the dorms today, instead.

Once they were outside, Izuku couldn’t help but glance at the sky with a worried look on his face as they walked down the sidewalk. The sky had seemed to darken significantly in the hour he’d been inside. He frowned. “Do you know if it’s supposed to rain today…?”

Bakugou, with his bag hanging on one shoulder, shrugged, “no idea. I didn’t check the reports this morning.”

“Ah... it’s just I didn’t bring an umbrella and this jacket doesn’t have a hood-”

And with perfect timing, a drop of rain fell right on Izuku’s nose.

“You just had to jinx it, didn’t you?” Bakugou groaned. It was evident from his tone of voice that he also hadn’t prepared at all for the rain either.

“It’s okay, we’re only a ten minute walk from the dorms, I’m sure it’ll hold off until we get back!”

There was a loud crack of thunder, and the rain picked up. They both had the same idea and ran for cover under the awning of a nearby shop. It didn’t offer much in the way of shelter, but it was better than nothing. Quietly, they both watched as the shower turned to a harsh downpour, water splashing at their feet. Bakugou sent Izuku a look. “I hate you so much.”

“It’s not like I control the weather!” Izuku shouted, defensively. He turned around and read the name of the store in the window-front. It was a small, used book store. The sign on the door said they were open. Izuku tugged at Bakugou’s sleeve and nodded towards the front door, “hey, let’s go inside and wait this out, yeah?”

“Whatever,” Bakugou said, and lightning flashed in the sky above them. He sighed and nodded, realizing that it was the best option. Better than getting drenched by wind-whipped rain, anyways. He tore his sleeve from Izuku’s grasp and lead the way inside the small, rustic-looking store. A bell chimed as they entered, and a bored-looking girl at the counter with heavy eye makeup and dark clothes jumped slightly when she heard the noise. She scrambled to grab her phone and checked it, before cursing softly and saying, “No, still too early.” She had an earbud in one ear and was seated on a stool, book open in front of her. She seemed bored, but not relaxed in the slightest.

Izuku smiled at her, regardless, “Hey there. I hope you don’t mind, we really just wanted to get away from the storm.”

“Uh-huh. Feel free to look around, anyways,” She hummed, turning her attention back to her book. Izuku briefly wondered if she was a student like them. A lot of people in this area who were around their age were university students, but it was a big city and thus it was hard to make snap judgments.

The two of them started wandering around, keeping an eye on the front windows to watch and see how the rain developed. Izuku pretended to be interested in some of the nonfiction books as he made his way casually to the back, where he’d spotted the section for comics and graphic novels. He actually did enjoy reading in pretty much all forms, even textbooks to an extent, but he had a soft spot for comics. He and Bakugou had both grown up with them, so it was hard not to find them appealing.

Bakugou was giving a copy of some fantasy novel a disinterested once-over and Izuku was flipping through a vintage comic he’d found when they both heard the bell above the door chime again. Izuku looked up briefly from the book in his hand.

A woman a few years older than them walked in, her dark hair done up in a messy updo; it looked like it had been neat and proper at one point, but she’d gotten stuck in the rainstorm as well and it currently looked just a bit unruly. Her outfit was nice, but had also been an unfortunate victim of the rainstorm. She also looked like she was about to cry, which caught Izuku’s attention more than anything else- he almost wanted to ask her if something was wrong, but she spoke up first.

“Do- do you sell umbrellas here!? I’m going to be late, please-”

She paused and tugged at her shirt a bit, seeming to look down at her own chest. Her eyes widened and she looked back out at the sidewalk, panic evident in her voice, “Oh, no, no, no, I think I missed it! Oh, god, what do you even do in a situation like this?”

She turned back to the lady at the front desk, who was staring at her, slack-jawed but silent. The soaked woman kept talking, “Did anyone come in here recently?” She suddenly seemed to noticed Izuku and Bakugou in the back. She blinked at them, then at the employee.

The woman behind the counter didn’t say a word. She slowly turned her head and brushed her hair away from her neck to uncover the soulmark behind her ear. It was at zero.

The realization of what was happening hit Izuku instantly- he was watching someone meet their soulmate for the first time. He’d never seen this happen before. Uraraka had met Tsu when she’d transferred into their highschool, in a class that Izuku wasn’t a part of. The stories he’d heard about it were the closest he’d ever come to witnessing a meeting, but it wasn’t anything like seeing it happen realtime.

The woman who had come in from the rainstorm seemed to grasp what was happening as well. She covered her mouth, a smile hiding behind it. This time, when she spoke, her panic had turned completely to joy, “So I didn’t miss it! It went just as planned, after all.”

The employee jumped over the counter with ease, her own smile soft, “The name’s Jirou.”

“Momo Yaoyoroza. But please, just call me Momo.” She giggled, holding out her hand in a greeting, “I’m sorry I barged through the door in such a huff! And I look so dreadful, too,” She suddenly said, looking down at herself. She may have been soaked, but she still looked fairly nice, if not a bit fancy, Izuku thought. She’d clearly dressed up for this moment, for this precise second that she’d probably been waiting for her entire life. He couldn’t blame her; not that he ever had to worry about it, but he was sure if he had a soulmate he’d want to make the best first impression possible as well.

That thought shook Izuku from the moment. Everything felt wrong all of the sudden. He and Bakugou were invading on something terribly private just by being in the same space, he felt. Not that the two women, Jirou and Momo, seemed to care very much. They were a bit lost in their own world, understandably.

Izuku put down the comic book in a hurry, and glanced at Bakugou, who was already looking at him. The glance they exchanged was a bit awkward, but Bakugou subtly tilted his head towards the door and Izuku nodded in agreement. Quietly, they slipped past the two new soulmates and out onto the sidewalk again. The rain hadn’t totally let up, but it was more of a bearable drizzle by this point.

The mood between them was weird after that. Soulmates weren’t exactly a comfortable topic for either of them, and Izuku couldn’t help the small tinge of jealousy eating at his stomach. He could only imagine what it must have felt like to have a perfect stranger walk into your life out of nowhere and change it forever, for better or for worse. To know without a doubt that other person was The One. Even a meeting as casual and mundane as theirs- a woman taking shelter from the rain in a lonely bookstore- became a romantic spectacle. It wasn’t lovely in spite of its monotony, but because of it.

And it was too lovely to be ruined by Izuku’s own resentment. Izuku tightened his fist around the strap of his backpack. Nowadays, it was more rare for him to feel this kind of sting- like he’d told Ashido at the party: he’d come to terms with it years ago. He knew it wasn’t a loveless death sentence. Feeling this way wouldn’t change that he’d been born without a soulmark. He was staring intently at the sidewalk under his feet, trying to reign back his emotions, trying to remember-

He was thrown from his spiraling thoughts when he felt a sharp pain on the side of his head as Bakugou flicked him.

“Earth to space cadet. You hungry?”

Izuku gave a start and snapped his attention to the blonde walking next to him, realizing now that the other’s hand was still posed at his temple, middle finger tucked under his thumb in what was clearly a threat to flick him again. Izuku frowned and tilted his head away from Bakugou’s hand.

Without getting an answer, Bakugou stopped at the next store front and held open the door for Izuku in an oddly polite moment. Izuku was suspicious, wondering if he was going to let the door slam into him as he walked in or something, but his own polite and trusting side forced him to go inside anyways. He was relieved when Bakugou simply followed him inside what appeared to be a convenience store.

“Kaminari works here part time. Don’t know if he’s in today, but that’s how I know it’s here,” Bakugou said, as an explanation for why he’d chosen this place. He moved to the cold food case without a second thought and grabbed two onigiri - spicy tuna - and a small carton of milk tea.

Izuku took the hint and picked out his own typical convenience store meal of an egg sandwich, an All Might branded raspberry soda, and a pre-packaged serving of castella. Bakugou looked down at the meal he’d gathered in his hands, clearly judging him.

“I can’t believe you still eat the same shit you did when we were five. What is all that garbage? We’re not toddlers any more, Deku.”

Deku looked down at his chosen meal and laughed. It was true that he hadn’t really changed up his convenience store food preferences in years, “is it the superhero soda that puts it over the edge?”

“You still like that fuckin nonsense a lot, huh?”

Deku scoffed, “As if you didn’t used to be as obsessed as me. You’re just jealous of my collector’s edition poster, signed by Toshinori himself. I’ve seen you eying it back in our room. Well, you can’t have it- I waited in line for five hours to meet him and-”

“Like I want your dumb poster!” Bakugou nuffed, leaving Izuku behind in favor of approaching the check-out counter. Izuku followed, a small feeling of victory bubbling in his chest as he laughed.

“You still think it’s cool too, don’t you?” Izuku teased, “Besides, you literally own All Might boxer briefs. I’ve seen them. Don’t try to lie to me.”

Instantly, Bakugou’s cheeks went red with embarrassment, “Fuck off, how would you even know that?”

“We’re roommates? You fold your laundry in our room all the time? It’s not like I went out of my way to learn that fact about you, Kacchan.” Izuku rolled his eyes. Bakugou pointedly ignored his comment and put his food down on the counter and motioned for Izuku to put his stuff down, too.

The petite teenage girl behind the counter greeted them both pleasantly with a small hello, and began ringing them up. It didn’t seem like Kaminari was working this afternoon, after all.

“C’mon loser, I have a card here, put your shit down on the counter so I can pay.”

“What?” Izuku asked, incredulously. He eyed the blond with suspicion, holding on tight to his food defensively, “Why would you want to pay for my food?”

At the question, Bakugou bristled, hand tightening around his card. he pointedly looked away from Izuku. He clearly hadn’t been expecting any kind of backtalk to his kind offer, “Does it matter? I said I have a fucking card here. I get points and a discount, or whatever. Just put your shit down on the counter already.”

Izuku stared for a moment, then hesitantly handed the girl behind the counter his items. She seemed grateful to relieve the tense atmosphere and scanned each item quickly before either of them could change their mind. Bakugou paid, and then shoved the plastic bag with Izuku’s food into his chest as they made their way back out of the building.

Izuku held the bag to his chest, trying to process what had just happened. He couldn’t help but smile- Bakugou really had changed a lot since middle school, no matter how hard he tried not to show it. Happily, Izuku dug into the bag and pulled out his sandwich. They both ate as they walked back to the dorms, the rain having let up significantly in the time they’d spent shopping.

“You feel better?” Bakugou asked between bites of his onigiri.

“Feel better?”

“Is there a fuckin’ echo in here or what?”

“Ah- I mean, I guess so? Thanks, by the way.”

He supposed he did feel better. He’d completely forgotten about the incident back in the bookstore until just now- which Izuku suddenly understood was exactly what Bakugou was talking about. He’d intended on getting him distracted, and it had worked, even if he’d been a bit crass through the whole process.

Izuku grinned down at the sandwich in his hand.

Maybe Bakugou wasn’t as much of a mystery as he thought. Maybe he was just another kid that had fucked up in the past and was just trying to make things right, in his own way. Maybe being his roommate wouldn’t be so miserable, after all.

“Don’t mention it, nerd. Like, ever again.”

“You two need to keep up better!” Iida called, turned around on the sidewalk and jogging in place as he waited for Kirishima and Izuku to catch up to him. The three of them were on an evening run, with Kirishima and Izuku looking much more exhausted than their taller friend. Izuku, in particular, felt like he was dying. He’d been slacking on his workouts all summer since graduation, and it was all catching up to him now.

A little while after Kirishima had started texting him, the two started talking about running together, and naturally Izuku felt it would be good motivation to invite his former track team captain, Iida, along with them. He’d forgotten just how much of a hardass he was, though, in his brief time off.

“Midoriya! I’m disappointed in you! How long has it been since your last run?” Iida began moving again the moment they caught up to him, giving no room for a break. Izuku groaned.

“About,” he huffed, “I think,” he was struggling to talk, “two,” deep inhale, “months,” shallow exhale.

“No wonder you’ve lost all of your stamina. Unacceptable! We’ll just have to make our run twice as long to start making up for lost time!”

Kirishima shot Izuku one hell of a look. He was faring better since he’d been on a regular workout schedule, but anyone would have felt miserable with that news, “man, your friend is kinda crazy, huh?”

“I can hear you, Kirishima!” Iida called back, throwing them both a stern look over his shoulder.

“Sorry dude! But you’re kinda crazy! I like it though!” Kirishima gave a brief laugh, grinning as they jogged along the blacktop path. A couple people in bikes whizzed past them, “gets me pumped! Such a manly spirit!”

Izuku was surrounded by masochistic freaks.

“I want,” Izuku gulped for air, “to die.”

“Sorry Midoriya, not an option. Still have 2 miles left.” Iida shot back, and Izuku felt a part of himself go numb at the thought.

It was a grueling 45 minutes before they all stopped near a park bench and Izuku collapsed onto it, downing what was left of his water before putting his head between his knees. He had definitely pushed himself too hard. Well, he hadn’t exactly been the one who pushed himself- Iida had.

“Midoriya, you need to stretch or your muscles will be stiff later,” Iida said, already grabbing his ankle behind himself to stretch the front muscles of his thighs. Kirishima ignored the advice as well and took a seat next to Izuku instead, pouring some of his water over his head, his normally spiked-up hair sagging as he drenched it.

“Give us five, man. I feel like I’m back in Hell Week,” Kirishima groaned, patting Izuku encouragingly on his back. Izuku kept his head down for another minute before he sat up straight, still feeling a bit woozy and out of breath.

Iida leaned over to touch his toes now, “Don’t worry, you’ll both build up your stamina quickly. I know for a fact that you used to do this kind of run with ease, Midoriya, so I won’t be hearing any excuses from you until you’re back up to snuff.”

Izuku made a low noise of discontent, already missing his lazy days of laying on his bed rewatching superhero movies and munching on junk food. He’d made a terrible, unforgivable mistake by inviting Iida on their run, because he’d never hear the end of it now. He’d doomed himself.

“And Kirishima- you did very well today. I think you just need to work on speed, but your stamina is already well developed.”

At the praise, Kirishima’s face lit up. He flashed Iida a toothy grin, his mood wildly changing, “Thanks man! You’re like some kinda machine, though. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to keep up with you, dude.”

‘Well, then, you have a goal, don’t you?” Iida smiled gently in return. He had a way with encouraging others- he was disciplined and unrelenting, sure, but he definitely made people want to better themselves. Izuku supposed that was why he’d been their captain come senior year.

Finally, Izuku felt his breathing even out and he leaned back against the back of the park bench, letting out a heavy sigh. He tugged his sweaty tanktop from his chest in disgust, sticking his tongue out. “I need the longest shower of my life, I think.”

“You and me both, bro.” Kirishima agreed, and stood up, “I’d say we should go get dinner somewhere, but I don’t even think the school cafeteria would let us in.” He laughed, and Izuku resigned himself to standing up as well, his legs protesting the movement. Everything felt so sore.

“I’m gonna just head back to my dorm and crash,” he sighed. Kirishima and Iida nodded in agreement.

“Right, well, my home is this way,” Iida pointed behind himself, knowing that at the very least, Izuku lived in the opposite direction.

Kirishima nodded, “I think Izuku and I need to head the other way. It was nice meeting you, man. I’m already hyped for next time!” He held out his fist, and Iida awkwardly met it with a gentle fist bump. Kirishima accepted that as their parting and Izuku managed to muster up a goodbye as well.

The walk back home wasn’t going to be too long- they’d kept their run restricted to a roughly mile loop around a park near campus. It was paved and even, and the 1-mile mark made it easy to keep track of how much they’d done. It was only about 10 minutes from Izuku’s dormitory, and about 20 from Kirishima’s.

Admittedly, even though he was exhausted and sweaty, it was kind of nice to feel the dull ache of a good workout again. Now that it was over, Izuku could look back on it more fondly. Kirishima seemed genuinely happy, too, despite their previous suffering.

“Hey, Midoriya, can I ask you something?”

Izuku nodded at his friend, “Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

“What happened between you and Bakugou?”

Well, Izuku wasn’t really expecting that. Especially not with how causally Kirishima had brought it up, “I’m...not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, it’s just...remember a while back I mentioned he gets kind of weird when I mention you?”

Izuku absolutely recalled that conversation. He’d been thinking about it on and off for a few weeks now, since the party. It still bugged him. “Oh, yeah, I vaguely remember you saying that, I guess.”

“I just can’t help but wonder why. You guys grew up together- you were childhood friends. It’s just odd that he never even mentioned you to any of us.”

Okay, that stung a little bit. Izuku had kind of figured that was the case considering how badly their friendship had ended up, but having it confirmed still didn’t feel great. Izuku just shrugged a little- he didn’t feel it was his place to really talk about their past. It didn’t feel right without Bakugou being here, since Izuku knew the stories made him sound like a terrible guy. Kirishima and the others were certainly aware of his bad attitude, but for the most part they all just accepted him as he was; kind of an asshole but fun to tease and be around. Generally harmless.

Izuku decided to keep it vague, “We were friends when we were really little, but we kind of grew up and took different paths, I guess. Drifted apart, is all. I’m sure you know how it is- it’s a pretty common story.”

Kirishima stared at him as though he were trying to decide if Izuku was telling the whole truth or not, but he eventually took it at face value. Or, at least, he didn’t question Izuku about it further. He just smiled, “Yeah, we all have people like that. I think it’s nice, though, that you two got a chance to reconnect. What a small world you ended up not only in the same college but as roommates too!”

“You’re telling me,” Izuku said, “I mean, I’m not really surprised we both ended up here. This was our dream school, ever since we were old enough to know we wanted to go to college. The roommate thing was a heck of a shock on move-in day, though.”

“You don’t hate it, though, right?”

Izuku sent Kirishima a confused look. It was kind of a weird question, but he shook his head slowly, “What? No, no. I don’t. He’s not a bad roommate.”

“Good, I don’t think he hates you either.”

Izuku smiled and sighed, “Well, that’s a relief to hear from you of all people. You guys seem close. Bakugou didn’t really have a ton of friends in middle school, I was kind of amazed to see him with everyone…”

“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” Kirishima laughed, “he was so scary back in our freshman year! He’s definitely calmed down a lot since then, even though he’s still kind of...well, you know how he is.” Kirishima clapped his hand against Izuku’s back, “It’s probably better that you ended up as his roommate- a lesser person would’ve moved out after a week.”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re back to being friends yet, but...it’s a lot better than it used to be. Don’t tell him I said any of this, though,” Izuku looked to his left and stopped as they approached the front door to his dorms. Kirishima punched his shoulder playfully.

“You got it, man! Good workout, though. I’ll see ya later! If you ever wanna do weight-lifting in the gym, I go with Bakugou on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’m sure it’s fine if you ever wanna tag along. We go early, though I’m sure you know that already since you live with him.”

Izuku nodded, “I usually do weightlifting with Uraraka, but I’ll get back to you if I ever wanna get some extra time in. Seeya!” He turned and scanned his student ID at the front door, granting himself access to the dormitory.

The moment he made his way into his room, something was flung at his face. He didn’t have time to react, so the offending object hit him square in the nose and fell to the floor. Izuku sputtered and looked down, finding it was a roll of paper towels that had hit him.

“Where the hell have you been, nerd? I hope you’re ready to start cleaning, ‘cause I already did my half of the room.”

Izuku felt his heart drop. He was so tired- he did not want to finish off his Sunday with cleaning. He didn’t even know what needed to be cleaned right now- he’d dusted and vacuumed last weekend! What else could Bakugou want from him? He stared at the paper towels sadly and crouched down to pick them up, leg muscles still screaming. When he stood and looked back at his roommate to protest, he had to give pause.

The other was sitting on the edge of his neatly-made bed, laptop pushed aside for the moment being. He was leaning back on his palms, feet barely touching the floor. Most notably, he was grinning in amusement at the distress on Izuku’s face.

He gripped the roll of paper towels tightly in his hands. Bakugou looked almost happy. Izuku had grown so used to exclusively seeing scowls and glares sent his way, that it was jarring to see something more genuine flash across his face.

It reminded Izuku of when they were kids, before things had gone bad between them.

Chapter Text

“Kacchan, I think we’re lost. Where did the others even end up?” Izuku said, looking around. It was hard to see in the darkness of the night. The dim lights in the distance and the almost-full moon only did so much to counter the late hour and the tall stalks of corn surrounding them.

“And whose fault is that, anyways?”

In the distance, Izuku heard someone scream- sure, it turned to laughter after a moment, but it still spooked him so bad that he jumped and grabbed Bakugou’s shoulders instinctively. Bakugou, for his part, shook Izuku’s hands off of him and rolled his eyes.

“Come on, Deku, it’s just some shitty corn maze,” Bakugou gestured to the tall dead stalks. There were some red lights set up to the left of them that were positioned to look like eyes staring eerily out of the thick vegetation. It was unsettling. “None of this shit is real, idiot. Get it together.”

“Excuse me for getting into the Halloween spirit! People worked hard on this to make it scary, the least I can do is act scared.” Izuku argued, eyes darting back and forth, his body tense.

It was kind of his fault they’d been separated from the others. Back at a fork in the corn maze a man dressed as a scarecrow had jumped out of the corn, chainsaw revved, and Izuku had just grabbed the person closest to him and ran. It happened to be Bakugou, and the others had happened to run the opposite direction. Thus, the two of them were now totally on their own. Iida had been holding on to the collected pieces of the maze map, and without him, they basically had to start the hunt all over or just get very lucky and find one of the exits.

“Act scared, Deku? You looked like you’re going to piss your pants back there.”

“He had a chainsaw! How was I supposed to react!? Just stand there and die!?”

“It’s not real, you useless idiot!”

“That was definitely a real chainsaw!”

“So?” Bakugou barked back, looking at the one piece of the map they’d managed to collect so far, “it’s not like he was gonna fuckin’ murder us for real. He was an actor.” He frowned at the slip of paper, then looked back up at the intersection they’d come to a stop at. He sighed and chose to just keep moving forward. Izuku didn’t question it and followed.

Quietly, Izuku kicked a rock on the path into the dense corn stalks, muttering, “you don’t know that. Maybe he was a real serial killer and I saved you.”

“He wasn’t a real serial killer, Deku.” Bakugou’s voice was deadpan, frustrated.

“You don’t-!”

Izuku cut himself off with a scream as several hands suddenly reached out from the corn, fingertips bloody and long nails clawing. A shaking voice warned them not to stray from the path, lest they also become one with the corn. Izuku jumped away from the hands and stumbled a bit before falling into a fighting stance. It took him a moment to realize nothing was coming out to attack them- it was just some actors and actresses messing with them from off the path. The hands slowly retracted, waiting for whenever their next victim came by.

“Man, your fight or flight signals are out of wack. You think a serial killer is coming, and you go with flight- but you see some disembodied hands and try to fight?” Bakugou tugged down the hood of Izuku’s costume to cover his eyes, laughing at the indignant noise Izuku made.

“Well, I got us away from that serial killer safely, didn’t I?” Izuku asked, cheeks puffed out slightly as he pouted, fixing his hood and his hair.

“If by ‘got us away safely’ you mean you got us lost and separated from the others then, yes, you did a great job, Deku.”

“Look, I said I was sorry,” he whined in response, genuinely starting to feel bad. It was getting late and prior to being separated from their friends, they’d already been in the maze for almost half of an hour. At this point it felt like it had been closer to an hour. Izuku confirmed it by glancing at his phone. He’d gotten a text fifteen minutes ago from Uraraka, telling him to call her when they made it out.

He’d texted her initially after they got lost, asking for a picture of the map but she’d just told them to have fun figuring it out together. He’d tried Iida next, but apparently Uraraka had taken the map pieces hostage to keep them from cheating. Izuku knew eventually she’d give in and send them a picture if they took too long. If she was doing this as some kind of revenge against Bakugou, it was surely going to backfire and just make things worse. Their fledgling friendship was already on shaky ground, he did not need getting lost in a corn maze for 3 hours to be the thing that finally made Bakugou snap.

As he was looking down at his phone, he crashed into Bakugou’s back. The other had stopped short on the path for some reason. Izuku started to apologize, but Bakugou lifted a finger to his lips, glancing back at Izuku with an intense look in his eyes.

“Do you hear something?”

This put Izuku on edge immediately.

“What? Ka-Kacchan, I swear to god if you’re messing with me right now I’ll-”

“No, no. Really, do you hear that?”

The two of them fell silent for a long moment. At first there was nothing, and then- laughter? It was laughter, low and feminine.

From the corn, a lady dressed in pure white appeared, her pale skin almost glowing in the moonlight. Her powdery dress hung to her thin frame, dark hair stark against the ethereal glow about the rest of her. Slowly and without a word, she raised a finger and pointed to the pair, and began walking towards them.

By far, her slow and stilted movements were scarier than any of the other gimmicks they’d encountered that night. She was a hell of an actress. Even Bakugou’s skin had gotten goosebumps and, without thinking, Izuku and him both started running again. No fight this time, just flight. Izuku figured he didn’t actually want to punch one of the actors, but he sure as hell did want to get away from her creepy ass.

When they started running, she picked up her pace as well- she ran like her ankle was injured, her arm still outstretched towards them. Unlike the other actors, she was persistent, and kept after them longer than what seemed necessary. Once they’d gotten some distance on her, Bakugou grabbed Izuku at the next fork in the path and shoved him into the dense stalks, following afterwards.

He wanted to protest, to insist they keep running and not hide, but Bakugou clamped his hands over Izuku’s face, wordlessly insisting he shut the hell up. This lady had actually managed to freak him out, it seemed- so much for his brave speech from earlier about how none of this shit was real. Izuku swallowed thickly and then nodded, the movement almost imperceptible. The corn was dense and Izuku could barely see the path from over Bakugou’s shoulder. He kept his eyes trained there, though, waiting for any sign of the mysterious spectral actress. After a minute or so, they heard the low laughter again. It got closer, closer....then, it faded into the distance.

Izuku practically melted with relief. He finally chanced to look back at Bakugou, who slowly removed his hands from Izuku’s mouth. The blond let out a quiet sigh, his breath ghosting over Izuku’s collar, suddenly making him aware of just how close they were. Bakugou seemed to realize this at the same time, too, now that the danger had passed. He practically jumped backwards, cheeks darkening with a blush as the stalks parted and he stumbled backwards on to the dirt path.

“W-We should keep going. Let’s get outta this dumb place.” he insisted, turning away from Izuku quickly and starting off down the path, determined to not turn back around. Izuku hung back for only a moment before jogging lightly to catch up with his friend. His heart was still pounding, for some reason.

Suddenly, the woman jumped out in front of them again, her arms outstretched to block the way. The two of them both screamed and turned on their heels, scrambling to run in the other direction. They took the other direction at the fork and, as they were running, Izuku spotted something.

He grabbed the sleeve of Bakugou’s jacket and practically pulled him down a side alley, the blonde yelling curses at him the whole time until Izuku pointed up at a sign. “Kacchan calm down. Look! It’s one of the exits!”

They both ran towards the wooden arch, a sign hanging from it that read “EXIT” in red paint, and practically leaped past the threshold, as if the lady wouldn’t be able to follow them outside of the boundaries of the maze if she had really wanted to.

Bakugou pumped his fist in the air and hollered, spinning around to point back at the maze, “Fuck you, shitty corn maze! No one fucks with the Bakugou Katsuki!” He flipped the corn maze off with both his hands, out of breath from their final sprint but grinning wildly.

Izuku was also panting and smiling with the adrenaline their victory had given him, but he smacked Bakugou’s hands, “hey! There’s kids around here, cool it.”

“Like I care. Too late for any damn brats to be out here, anyways,” he said, swatting Izuku’s hand away from his in turn.

The lady in white appeared at the end of the path they’d just come from, and Izuku jumped at the sight. He grabbed Bakugou’s wrist with one hand and dragged him off as he started taunting her. With his other hand he dialed Uraraka’s number and gave her a call to see where she and the others were hanging out.

They found her, Tsu, Iida, Kirishima, and Ashido all sitting on some bails of hay by a small stand that was selling various hot drinks and cider donuts.

“We thought you guys died!” Ashido yelled to them once she saw they were approaching. Midoriya waved at her, grinning sheepishly, “you sure hoofed it when that chainsaw dude came outta the corn, Midoriya!”

“Ah...yeah, sorry for making you guys worry. I didn’t mean to get us separated…”

“It’s okay! At least you had Bakugou,” Kirishima chimed in, blowing on the drink in his hands. He looked at Bakugou and smiled widely. In turn, Bakugou rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, only ‘cause his cowardly, dumb ass dragged me along with him in a panic.”

“Kacchan! I told you, I wasn’t scared! I was protecting you.”

“Like hell! I don’t need any protecting!” Bakugou turned to Izuku, a fist playfully raised at him, “besides, you didn’t do shit to protect me! If anything, I protected you! I’m the one who shoved you into the cornstalks so we could get the slip on that lady!”

“Oh, hiding in the maze together? How romantic and brave of both of you,” Ashido said with a snicker, kicking at the hay bales under her. She’d climbed to the top of the stack to take a seat above the rest of them.

“Shut up pinky! It was strategic, tactical hiding!” Bakugou focused his anger on her instead, practically snarling, which only made Ashido laugh harder.

Izuku put a finger on his chin and mused aloud, “Your strategic, tactical hiding didn’t really work well. She found us, after all. Come to think of it, though, she might’ve just been trying to guide us to the exit. They probably have a few actors set up near all the exits to help push people in the right direction,” the placement of the exit had seemed fairly convenient, after all. “It would keep things moving a lot more smoothly.”

“Well, whatever, You two made it out just fine, and it’s been….exactly 38 minutes since we noticed you were gone. Which means Kirishima is buying us all drinks!” Uraraka stuck her tongue out at the redhead, “I told you it’d take ‘em longer than a half hour without the map.”

Kirishima looked defeated and sighed, digging out his wallet, “yeah, yeah. What do you guys want?”

The group all ordered their drinks and Kirishima, sadly, forked over the cash. Izuku and Iida took pity and helped him distribute the drinks, at least.

Izuku handed a styrofoam cup to Bakugou, who’d taken to sitting on a nearby stump, “Coffee? No sugar, a splash of whole milk.”

At this, Bakugou took the cup but shot him a questioning look, “How’d you know that, nerd?”

“Well, you make coffee in our room all the time and you keep a pint of whole milk in the mini fridge, so I just figured.”

Bakugou hummed in agreement, staring down at the dark coffee. He seemed to contemplate it briefly, “Do me a favor and stop noticing the details. You get so creepy when you go all analytical on me.”

Izuku smiled down at his roommate and laughed softly, “Ah, sorry. Can’t help it. I’ll try to be less observant in the future, just for you, Kacchan.”

Bakugou glanced up at him briefly, then huffed, deliberately taking a sip of his coffee, “Yeah, well, you better.”

“I didn’t say it earlier, but your costume is cool, by the way. I’m really glad you came out with us and even dressed up! I didn’t think you’d go with a werewolf, but it suits you. The ears are cute.”

Bakugou looked back up at him, eyes a bit wide. He absently reached up and touched one of the fake ears that were sitting atop his head, like he’d forgotten about them, “Sh-shut up. I’m only wearing it because Kirishima bought the damn thing for me last year. It’s the only costume I have.”

Izuku blinked at him, “Kirishima…?”

Oh. Yeah, of course, that made sense. Bakugou hadn’t ever been one for celebrations and holidays, after all. Izuku looked down at the cider in his hands and excused himself suddenly, “Uh, anyways, I’m gonna go see what Iida’s up to.”

“Wait.” Bakugou looked like he wanted to say something else, so Izuku gave him a moment.

“Yeah?”

“Your...uh, your costume looks stupid as hell.”

Izuku frowned and tilted his head, “...right. Well, like I said-”

“N-no, I mean, it fits you.”

“Jeeze, there’s no reason to be an ass about it,” Izuku looked down at the costume he was wearing- it was a few years old at this point, just a heavily modified bedsheet that he’d sewed some patchwork and a hood on to. It wasn’t the scariest, sure, but it was at least more than your stereotypical lazy ghost costume. He’d actually put a decent amount of effort into the accessories and patches.

“No, I didn’t-” Bakugou looked flustered for the first time Izuku had ever seen, “I meant that its...uh, it’s cute too. I guess. It’s not fuckin’ scary at all. But that suits you.”

“Oh!” Izuku paused, looking back up at his roommate, and then down at his costume again. Then, he grinned, “Oh, thanks, in that case!” It hadn’t exactly been a compliment, but with Bakugou you took what you could get.

“Whatever, nerd,” Bakugou was looking away again, and before Izuku could say anything else, Ashido called out to them from her place atop the hay bales.

“Yo! Kaminari and Sero just hit us up about the halloween party they’re at! They say it’s lit and we gotta go! You guys in!?” She yelled, cupping her hand around her mouth.

“Heck yeah!” Izuku shouted back, raising his hot cider and splashing some of it on the ground accidentally. Ashido gave an excited yelp and raised her own drink in solidarity before she downed it in a few gulps (which was impressive, considering it was hot chocolate). She jumped down from the hay bales, landing on her feet with a dull thud.

“C’mon Kacchan! It’ll be fun!” Izuku held out his hand to help Bakugou stand up. The other ignored it, unsurprisingly, and stood up on his own. He shoved his hand in the pocket of his long jacket, and they moved back towards the others.

“Kaminari says they even have homemade vodka infused with candy-corn!”

“Ashido, that sounds super gross,” Tsu said, sticking her tongue out in disgust- her timed out soulmark showing as she did so, “and maybe a little dangerous.”

“I know! I’m gonna drink so much of it!” Ashido agreed, her hands balled into fists in front of her, misplaced determination glittering in her eyes as they all made their way to the bus station down the road.

Chapter Text

There was a knock on the shared dorm door, startling Izuku from looking at his laptop. He shut the screen and hopped down from his mattress, exclaiming, “I got it!”

Bakugou made no effort to move from his desk, or any other kind of acknowledgement that he’d heard the knock at all. He was wearing his bulky over-the-ear headphones, and Izuku could hear the thin sound of someone screaming lyrics from them. He frowned. His poor roommate was going to end up with tinnitus if he kept that up. Shaking the thought off, Izuku answered the door.

“Hello, Midoriya,” Todoroki greeted him, pleasantly, “Iida has started yelling at us for being late in the group chat. He’s fifteen minutes early, of course, but I figured I’d come get you so we can just head out now so he’s not waiting too long. You ready?”

Izuku sighed and briefly checked his phone; he did indeed have 4 missed messages from Iida in the groupchat. He looked back up at Todoroki with a understanding smile, “yeah, let me get my shoes on.”

Izuku pulled on his red converse and grabbed his keys and wallet. He yelled a loud goodbye to Bakugou, but the other didn’t flinch from staring at his screen and typing intently. He had an essay due for his elective photography class tomorrow, something about the history of some technique or another. He’d warned Izuku earlier that he wasn’t going to tolerate any distractions, so Izuku didn’t make much more of an effort to say goodbye. He figured eventually Bakugou would realize he was gone, anyways.

He tugged his arms through the sleeves of his jackets in the hallway, happily chattering away at his friend about some drama that had happened earlier in the day during one of his classes.

“And- get this- he came into the lecture hall with a huge bouquet and a teddy bear, like, the whole shebang. This poor girl he was confessing to stood up and just went off on him! It sounded like the dude had been harassing her for months- I can’t believe he’d just barge into a classroom like that and think it would work, y’know? Can you even imagine-”

Izuku noticed a door at the end of the hallway open amidst his story, recognizing the room as his RA’s single. For the most part, he didn’t know much about their RA aside from the few times he’d made mandatory rounds to check on them. He and Izuku were on pretty good terms- Bakugou, on the other hand, had received several noise complaints for both screaming while playing video games and for blasting his music on his speakers whenever Izuku wasn’t around.

Izuku and their RA, though? They didn’t have any beef. Izuku waved when the man at the end of the hallway was done locking his door behind him, “Hey there Yoarashi! What’s up?”

Yoarashi turned at the sound of his name. He recognized Izuku immediately and grinned, raising his hand to wave back.

He stopped mid-motion, though, grin falling as quickly as it had appeared. This confused Izuku- Yoarashi was generally a very intense and excitable person. He’d rarely seen him not grinning. Except for when he was chewing Bakugou out, of course.

It was then Izuku noticed Todoroki had fallen a step behind him, too. He turned back to his friend, a questioning look on his face. Todoroki had gone totally still, eyes wide as he stared straight down the hallway at his RA. Izuku bounced his gaze back to Yoarashi; the other was starting to approach them, his mouth forming a thin line and eyes staring intensely at Todoroki.

He breezed past Izuku and stopped in front of his friend, squaring his shoulders and looking down at him with an intimidating air, “Todoroki.”

“Yoarashi.” Todoroki said back, his expression unreadable. If it weren’t for the nearly imperceptible shake in his voice, even Izuku wouldn’t have been able to tell he was at all shaken.

Izuku nervously glanced between the two of them, the tension in the air thick. He had no idea what was going on. It was clear the two of them knew each other, but how, Izuku couldn’t have guessed. After a couple seconds of silence had passed, he made an attempt to diffuse the situation and cleared his throat before speaking up, “S-so, uh, you guys have already met, then...?”

“Oh! So Shoto’s never even mentioned me to his friends, has he?” Yoarashi asked, not bothering to spare a moment and look over at Izuku. Izuku was kind of grateful- his eyes were burning with an fierce resentment and he was happy to not be on the receiving end of it.

Izuku couldn’t stand staying on the sidelines for this confrontation, feeling like he was intruding on what seemed to be some kind of personal grudge. He suddenly made a show of patting his pockets down, “Oh no, Todoroki, I, uh...forgot my phone back in the dorm. So I’m just...gonna...go get it while you and...Yoarashi, um, talk,” he muttered, taking a step back from the situation so he could escape.

Before he could move another step, Todoroki reached out and grabbed his arm, eyes never dropping from Yoarashi’s. It was like the two of them were locked in a fight for dominance and neither of them were planning on backing down yet. The way his fingers dug into Izuku’s arm, thought, sent a very clear message that he did not want to be left alone with Yoarashi.

Izuku looked down apprehensively at the hand gripping his arm, “uh...or not. Turns out my phone was just in my other pocket all along, I guess,” he muttered.

Todoroki ignored what he was saying and took in a deep breath. He finally allowed himself to glance over at Izuku, and then back at Yoarashi, as if he were trying to think carefully about what he said next.

“Midoriya, I’d like you to meet my soulmate.”

Izuku had made a total ass of himself the first time he met Todoroki.

He’d seen him changing in gym class and, noticing the soulmark low on his shoulder blade was at 0, he had immediately jumped at him with questions. He’d started nervously- showing off his own soulmark to this kid he’d never really talked to before and rambling about how he’d never met anyone his age with a soulmark at 0, either.

Todoroki’s immediate and admittedly rational reaction was to tell him to fuck off, albeit much more politely than that. He’d grabbed his backpack and booked it out of the locker room so quickly that Izuku had trouble catching up to apologize. He tugged on his own T-shirt and ran after him, out of the locker room.

“Wait! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up out of the blue like that! I just got overly excited, I’ve...I’ve never met anyone else besides adults who…” Izuku trailed off as Todoroki spun around and glared at him, eyes wide and angry. Izuku had followed him out into the very open and public halls of their high school, and several students were staring at the commotion Izuku had caused, waiting for the drama to unfold so they could gossip about it immediately.

Izuku realized that he had almost just shouted to the whole school about this stranger’s soulmark, without even having a clue who he was or if it was a secret or not. The other was lucky to have the luxury of his mark being on a place that was easy to keep hidden most of the time, unlike Izuku who quite literally wore his soulmark on his sleeve.

“I-uh... sorry.” Izuku apologized again, voice quiet this time. He wrung his hands together, fidgeting. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say next. He hadn’t planned any further.

“What do you want from me?” the other spoke with venom on his tongue.

“I...I guess I just wanted to apologize. I’m Midoriya. Izuku Midoriya. From class 3A. I haven’t seen you around until this year.”

The other looked him up and down, eyes cold and scrutinizing, “Well, Midoriya, I’m going to ask you to leave me alone now.”

“I really mean it; I’m sorry about the way I acted. I shouldn’t have asked you about your, uh, y’know.” Izuku glanced around. Most of the other students were ignoring them now that there was no apparent drama happening, but he was still worried after almost majorly screwing up a few minutes ago, “I was just hoping maybe you’d want to...I don’t know, talk about it. But I shouldn’t have assumed anything. Can I ask your name?”

“I would have already given you my name if I wanted you to have it. I’m going to go now. Please don’t follow me.”

Izuku sighed softly,“Yeah...that’s fair. I won’t mention it again. See you next gym class!”

The other didn’t turn around and kept on his way down the hall.

Izuku quickly learned Todoroki’s name through their class roll call once he’d started paying attention, but it was weeks before the two of them had to interact again. Occasionally, they ended up as class partners, and the whole time Todoroki refused to be anything but forcibly polite with him.

Izuku found it hard not to notice that Todoroki didn’t seem to have any friends.

So, Izuku was determined to be relentlessly nice. Recklessly nice, some might say. He made an effort to talk to him whenever possible and even sought him out during lunch sometimes to sit and eat with him. The first few times, Todoroki picked up his tray and moved to a different table, but eventually he sat through Izuku’s attempts at small talk and gave one-word replies. Slow but steady progress.

And then, one day, Izuku brought his other friends with him, too- he invited Uraraka and Iida to come sit with them. Todoroki was quiet at first, and even seemed annoyed at times that his life had been invaded...but he didn’t leave any more. He actually began opening up and talking and, over time, even laughing with them.

Before they knew it, Todoroki had joined their little friend circle whether he’d liked it or not (it was hard to tell with him, but Izuku was fairly certain he liked it).

It was at a party towards the end of their junior year-- 8 months since they’d met-- that Todoroki pulled Izuku aside from the rest of the small crowd. There was a bonfire in the backyard of the house where most of their classmates were gathered. Todoroki brought him to the steps at the front of the house, and sat down. Izuku followed suit despite his confusion, unsure of what it was that Todoroki wanted from him.

“When we first met, you asked me about my soulmark.”

Izuku felt instantly embarrassed at the memory- it had been months since the incident, but he still felt pretty terrible about it. He looked at the ground and opened his mouth to apologize again, but Todoroki cut him off before he could start.

“Do you still want to know…?”

Izuku looked back up at his friend, frowning, “What? I mean...not if it’s something uncomfortable for you to talk about. It’s really not any of my business if you don’t want to-”

“No, Midoriya, I want to talk about it. With you. You’ve told me about your soulmark already, and I would like to return the favor.”

Izuku would have been lying if he said he wasn’t intrigued. He was fairly open about his soulmark among his friends, but Todoroki had remained tight-lipped about his the entire school year. Izuku had not dared to ask him about it again, after he’d messed up so badly on their first meeting. So he just nodded encouragingly at his friend.

Todoroki took a moment to collect his thoughts, and then began, “My timer didn’t start at zero. I was actually just born with a fairly short timer. I met my soulmate in middle school. I had been dreading the moment since I understood the concept of soulmates well enough.” Todoroki looked at Izuku briefly, “you know how my father’s an ass? Well, a big part of that is how he treats the idea of soulmates. How he treats my mother.”

Todoroki did not elaborate on that point. He didn’t have to.

“I don’t like the concept of soulmates. In fact, I think the whole thing is...insane. I think it drives people to be their worst. To throw away who they are to be with a certain person. For every pair of soulmates that are happy, there’s so many who force themselves through misery to chase after this nebulous concept of destiny.”

Izuku didn’t say anything, watching Todoroki intensely as he spoke. The other shook his head, red and white dyed hair falling into his eyes.

“I’m getting off track. I met my soulmate back when I was twelve. I’d been hoping to avoid the whole interaction altogether by hiding in a supply closet, but it unfortunately made it worse- he walked in to get something for a teacher right as my soulmark counted down, and since I was the only person there, it was obvious we were each other’s soulmates. He was so excited, but I told him I wanted nothing to do with him and I just...left. I brushed him off entirely- I didn’t even explain anything.” Todoroki looked frustrated with himself. He put his head in his hands.

“We’re always told growing up that it’s supposed to be the best moment in our lives. I resented that, and I still do, but looking back on it...I absolutely ruined that moment for someone else, for entirely selfish reasons.”

Izuku gave his friend a few moments of quiet before he spoke up, “Did you ever see him again…?”

Todoroki lifted his face from his palms and rested his chin on them instead, “He reached out a few times, but we moved here once I was thirteen and I was happy to get away at the time. Part of me wishes I could apologize now.”

Izuku bit his lower lip in thought, not sure what to say to comfort his friend. He settled for putting a hand on his shoulder, “It’s not your fault that you weren’t ready. Twelve has gotta be the weirdest age to meet a soulmate. When you’re young enough, you don’t care about that kind of thing- but...but when you’re a little older, you have just enough time to start thinking about that kind of thing seriously, but not enough time to actually settle any emotions around it, you know?”

The other looked unconvinced, staring into the distant darkness of the front yard, “I took my resentments towards my father out on him. I’ve forced someone to live without a soulmate- how can you not think I’m a horrible person now that you know that? You, of all people?”

“There are worse things than not having a soulmate, don’t you think? Like agreeing to a commitment you’re not ready for just because a number on your shoulder tells you that you should?” Izuku asked, tilting his head at Todoroki.

Todoroki didn’t say anything. He just looked straight ahead, clearly unconvinced and still troubled. Izuku had to wonder how long this had been building up and bothering him. No wonder he’d reacted so poorly to Izuku when they’d first met.

Izuku squeezed his shoulder, “You’re not a bad person, and you’re not your father just because you made a mistake when you were twelve and hurt your soulmate. The fact that you feel remorse about it is already telling, isn’t it?”

At that, Todoroki finally looked over at him, his eyes searching and uncertain. Izuku smiled gently in return. At this, Todoroki’s face softened, “...I suppose you have a point.”

Izuku was relieved to hear this, “If you ever meet him again, you can set things right. At least explain yourself, so that he can understand. I'm sure things will be okay, but don't worry about it until then.”

Inasa Yoarashi was Todoroki’s soulmate.

The one he’d snubbed 6 years ago, that Izuku had only heard about briefly during that party. He’d been talking casually with Todoroki’s soulmate for months at this point, totally clueless.

“It's a bit late for you to be calling me your soulmate at this point.” Yoarashi said, unflinching in his animosity.

“Yoarashi...I-”

“I don’t really want to hear whatever you have to say.” Yoarashi frowned at the other and looked down at him, fists clenched at his side. If he was expecting some kind of fight, he did not get it.

Instead, Todoroki bowed his head and spoke quickly as though he was either afraid he’d chicken out or Yoarashi would leave before he’d finished, “I’m sorry. I treated you poorly in the past. I completely understand you don’t wish to talk to me. If you would ever allow me the chance to explain myself, I live on the fifth floor.”

The other crossed his arms, nose crinkling in distaste to disguise the flash of surprise that had passed across his face. He obviously hadn’t been expecting an apology right off the bat, which was understandable.

Bakugou wasn’t the only person who’d changed over the years. Todoroki had been standoffish and cold even when highschool had rolled around and Izuku had initially met him. If Yoarashi had been expecting that Todoroki, then of course he’d be surprised.

The taller man left in a huff, turning on his heel and heading down the hallway towards the elevators without a word of reply. Todoroki didn’t move, keeping his head bowed until Izuku put a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you okay?”

He didn’t look okay, but he nodded regardless, mouth set into a grim line.

“...let’s take the stairs down to the lobby, yeah? The others won’t mind if we’re a little late, I’m sure.” Izuku suggested, pointing his thumb over his shoulder to indicate to the stairwell that was on the opposite end of the hall from the elevators. It wouldn’t be good to run into Yoarashi again right after their brief but tense meeting. The other nodded silently.

“For what it’s worth, Todoroki, I still don’t think you’re a bad person.”

“...Thanks, Midoriya.” he replied, softly. They made their way down the stairs in comfortable silence. Izuku knew by now to let Todoroki have his space when he needed it.

Izuku was certain he didn’t want to look at another text book for the rest of his life. Nearly three months into classes and he was already going to be a dropout. He had no idea why he ever thought being a doctor was a good idea, considering he’d doomed himself to roughly eight more years of this kind of intensive study workload. He knew these general education courses were only the tip of the iceberg, too. It wasn’t that he found the work itself difficult; it was just the juggling of five different mandatory subjects on top of a sixth, optional history class he’d signed up for. He’d maybe been too ambitious for his first semester.

He groaned and put his head down on his book. It hurt his forehead after a minute, but he couldn’t be bothered to move. He was on his seventh near-consecutive hour of studying, since he had three exams coming up on Monday and one on Tuesday. He’d blocked off this whole weekend to study- today, he was studying for the aforementioned history class. Tomorrow, he was meeting up with Uraraka and possibly Bakugou to work on chemistry and biology.

History was the most grueling because of the sheer amount of pure memorization. At the very least, he was grateful that he had a knack for absorbing this kind of information. He was very good at studying, but he was also very good at being paranoid- he worried often that, despite his good grades, he was never doing enough. It was what drove him to have moments like this, where he sat with his nose quite literally in a book at eleven PM, contemplating all his life choices leading to this moment.

He told himself he was just going to rest his eyes for a few minutes. Take a short mental break, and then power through his last two lecture notes and chapters of the textbook. Just five minutes…

“Yo, nerd, what the fuck?”

Izuku jolted awake as he felt something shake his shoulder rather violently. The page of his textbook that he’d fallen asleep on stuck to his cheek and tore slightly as he sat up straight in his wooden desk chair.

He looked up at Bakugou, eyes squinted slightly, one cheek red from where he’d been resting it on the book, and his hair a bit tousled. He brought the heels of his palms to his eyes and rubbed away the sleep.

“Shit...what time is it, Kacchan...?” he asked, his voice sounding a bit scratchy. He answered his own question by tapping on his phone. It lit up, “12:23 AM”.

He’d fallen asleep for nearly an hour and half.

“Have you even moved since I left?” Bakugou asked, putting his hand down on Izuku’s desk and leaning in close to his face, frowning as he inspected the other.

“I mean- to, like, go to the bathroom and get water and stuff, yeah.”

“So you haven't left the dorm all day, then?”

“Uh...no, I guess not,” Izuku muttered. He’d eaten a granola bar for breakfast and done some homework assignments in the morning and afternoon before he’d started studying around four PM.

“Have you even eaten dinner? Or lunch, for that matter?”

Izuku laughed, uncomfortable. He looked away from Bakugou, scratching his jaw as a nervous tic, “I...I forgot, is all.”

“Alright, space cadet, it’s break time.”

“C’mon, Kacchan- I promise I’ll go to bed after I finish looking over these last few lecture notes. I won’t have time to read them tomorrow, so I really need-”

“What you really need is a fucking meal, you idiot. No wonder you passed out at your desk. You haven’t eaten anything in over twenty-four hours.” Bakugou insisted, his voice more aggressive than what he was actually saying.

Izuku protested, “That’s not true! I, uh, had a granola bar this morning.”

Bakugou glared down at Izuku and then, in one swift motion, grabbed his arm and dragged him up out of his desk chair, “C’mon. I keep some shit in the kitchen downstairs. Let’s throw something together- I’m starving, too.”

“Wait- what? Kacchan, it’s almost one AM!”

“What’s your point?”

Izuku didn’t really have anything to say to that. It was getting late, sure, but it’s not like he’d been planning to sleep for another hour or so anyways, so it wasn’t like that was the issue. Bakugou seemed to take his silence as permission to continue pulling him out the door by his forearm. He finally let Izuku go when they were out in the hallway.

Izuku didn’t even know where the communal kitchen was- he wasn’t much of a chef himself. The most he did in the way of cooking was heating up his mom’s leftovers or boiling water in the electric kettle for cup ramen. He was actually kind of surprised that Bakugou, apparently, had food and supplies he kept down there.

It turned out that the kitchen was buried in the basement of the building- it was well lit, relatively clean, and currently barren of other students. Izuku figured the late hour and the fact that it was a weekend had everything to do with that.

Bakugou set to work immediately, grabbing a tupperware from the freezer and tossing it on the counter. Izuku caught a glimpse of the labels he’d put on the lid of the container, written in thick sharpie and scrawling print- “CURRY 11/13 - TOUCH THIS AND DIE”. Izuku covered his mouth to hide a laugh. He had to wonder if Bakugou had experienced someone stealing his food in the past. He wouldn’t doubt it since there were a lot of people living in this building. College kids got desperate sometimes.

He pulled down a bin from one of the cupboards, which was also labelled with his name and a similar message. He seemed to take a quick inventory of his stuff before plopping a half-used bag of rice and a medium sauce pot on the counter.

Izuku took a seat at one of the communal tables, folding his legs up under himself. He rested his elbows on the table, and then rested his head in his hand with a sigh. He watched Bakugou do his prep work quietly for a few moments, before he started feeling a bit awkward. He would have offered to help if he didn’t already know that Bakugou would have refused. Instead, he settled on some small talk to ease the quiet, “Do you cook often…?”

“Yeah. Didn’t buy a meal card from the cafeteria- way too expensive. You can get groceries and takeout for a lot cheaper. The food’s better, too. I’m pretty fuckin’ good in the kitchen.”

Izuku hummed and fiddled with his ID card. He had personally gone ahead and gotten a full meal plan with the school, considering he had no idea how to cook for himself. Even if the cafeteria food was mediocre, it was definitely better than trying to scrounge for himself or attempting to learn how to cook on top of all his studies.

“That’s pretty cool, actually. I didn’t even know that you knew how to cook. You don’t really seem the type.”

Bakugou angrily turned the water on in the sink to start washing the rice, “The fuck is that supposed to mean, huh!?”

“I-I didn’t mean anything bad!” Izuku said, nervously, trying to backpedal and correct himself, “I just meant that it’s a bit domestic, is all. And you’re not really...the domestic type, at a glance. That’s all.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Deku,” Bakugou huffed, using his hands to wash the rice, his movements harsh but practiced, “Don’t start thinking you know everything.”

Izuku conceded at that- since it was definitely true. At one point in time he’d known Bakugou better than anyone else, but these past few months had proven to him that he had a lot of catching up to do still.

He let his elbow slide on the table until he was sitting hunched over with his head laying down in his folded arms. His eyelids felt heavy. He really was tired, now that the panic of studying wasn’t an option presented to him. His little nap from earlier had just been a tease of sleep and now he felt like he wanted to do nothing more than crawl into bed. He shook his head after a few seconds and reached for his phone in the pocket of his shorts. He tapped a few buttons until music started playing, loud and a little bit tinny as it rattled from the small speakers.

Bakugou drained the water from the rice and looked back at him, one eyebrow arched in a silent question.

“Just put on some top 40s playlist. I’m gonna fall asleep waiting if I don’t have something to keep me up,” Izuku explained. He didn’t even really love pop music or anything, but it was usually upbeat and fast-paced and would keep him attentive, hopefully.

Bakugou didn’t say anything or complain, even though Izuku knew this also was not the music of his choice. He just kept on with his cooking- filling the pot with water and leaving it on the burner to boil while he moved on to thawing the frozen, pre-made curry in the microwave. Despite the music, Izuku found himself starting to drift off again, eyes drooping slightly as he watched Bakugou work.

After about ten minutes or so of prep, everything must have been set in motion, because Bakugou started up a timer on the oven and took a seat on the counter, pulling out his own phone and glancing over at Izuku only briefly before barking at him, “Oi! The least you can do is stay awake, you ingrate.”

Izuku whined and closed his eyes completely, putting his head down, “you’re the one who wouldn’t let me sleep.”

“You wouldn’t have gone to bed, anyways. You would’ve tried to keep yourself awake to study more. Hence why you passed out on your textbook in the first place, idiot.”

Izuku knew Bakugou was right, but he still grunted in protest. He let out a deep sigh and forced himself to sit upright in the chair, eyes needing to adjust to the brightness of the room from the short time he’d had them closed.

Another boppy song started playing on his phone, and Izuku suddenly got an idea for how to stay awake. He peered over at Bakugou with a devious smile. The other looked kind of sleepy too- or, at the very least, he looked bored as he scrolled through his phone absently. Izuku stood up, pushing the chair out behind him.

He approached Bakugou and snatched the phone from his hands, holding it above his head playfully.

“Hey!” Bakugou yelled, eyes widening as he realized what had happened. He hopped down from the counter and reached up to grab his phone back- Bakugou had a height advantage on him, but Izuku had quick reflexes. He sashayed out of the way and to the side of Bakugou, sliding his phone down on to the counter. When the blond turned on his heel to grab for his phone again, Izuku intercepted him and took hold of his wrists so he could tug him out towards the open floor space between the kitchen and the dining room. Bakugou for his part stumbled slightly and resisted the pull at his wrists, looking terribly confused.

“The hell are you trying to do, Deku?”

Izuku had to laugh- Bakugou looked almost cute with how lost his expression was, “Isn’t it obvious?” he asked, taking his hand from one of Bakugou’s wrists and putting it on his upper arm. He outstretched their other arms in a mock waltz-like pose, “Dancing! To keep us awake!”

Bakugou looked like he might punch him at any moment.

“I don’t dance” he insisted, stiffening as Izuku tried to get him to move along with the beat of the music, “this is stupid.”

“Oh, come on! That’s not true, I’ve seen you dance, Kacchan. At parties? You’re good at it!” Izuku figured if Bakugou wasn’t going to move, he still could. He took Bakugou’s hand into his own and raised their extended arms up, spinning himself under the little arch they’d made together. Unlike a certain someone, he was fairly willing to make a fool of himself if it meant having fun, and especially if it meant he might be able to make Bakugou smile.

Bakugou watched him intently, brows furrowed. He instinctively tugged Izuku back, and the other obliged by performing another secondary twirl, right back into their starting position. This time, Bakugou fell into the stance more naturally, resting his free hand on Izuku’s back without thinking. Clearly, he wasn’t as unfamiliar with the basics of dancing as he claimed to be.

“There’s a difference between being good at dancing and being drunk. And you were drunk, Deku.” Bakugou mused, looking down at him.

Izuku grinned, something smug about his smile, “We’re not talking about me, though, are we?”

Bakugou let out a snort of laughter, “Well, there’s a difference between thinking someone is good at dancing and being drunk, too.”

“You got me there, I guess,” Izuku agreed, guiding Bakugou by the shoulder gently to move with him. Bakugou, however, resisted again. This time, though, he instead pulled Izuku to move in his direction, to step with him and follow his lead. Izuku had to resist rolling his eyes- honestly, did everything have to be a competition with him? He let Bakugou have his way for now, deciding it was better not to push his luck.

He didn’t really mind letting Bakugou take the lead- it meant he was having fun, right?

“How much do you know about dancing, anyways?” Bakugou asked, the two of them moving their feet in step, albeit a bit awkwardly. It wasn’t elegant in any kind of way- showing that in reality, neither of them had a very solid grasp on proper dance moves beyond some beginner steps. It had certainly been a while since Izuku had needed to dance formally, at least.

“Not much,” Izuku admitted, feeling his face heat up. He tried not to focus too hard on his footwork- if he did, he knew he’d be sure to mess it up, “Todoroki taught me some basics.”

“Todoroki…?”

“Yeah, my friend with red and white hair? He’s definitely been around our dorm a few times and to some of those parties? We went to high school together-” Izuku explained. He knew Bakugou was bad with names, but surely he’d remember someone like Todoroki; he had a fairly unique look with his dyed hair and the scar by his eye.

“No, no. I know who you’re talking about, idiot. I just- how the hell was he the one who taught you dance steps?” Bakugou asked, tilting his head a bit.

Izuku blinked up at him and shrugged his shoulders, “There was a big, formal family event he invited me to our senior year. It was a wedding for one of his older siblings, I think. The whole family was there and he took me as his plus one!”

“You dated half and half?”

Izuku frowned at the nickname but didn’t comment on it. “Sort of. He more invited me as the most likely to provide emotional support and least likely to start a scene if his dad did something shitty. Also, he felt I was the most likely to stop him from making a scene with his family,” Izuku explained, without getting into too much detail. It had been a fun, if not emotionally taxing, night.

Bakugou lead Izuku into another twirl, and Izuku happily spun on his feet, socks slipping slightly on the linoleum floor. He was internally delighted that, somewhow, he’d gotten Bakugou to play along with him just this once.

Bakugou, despite his actions, still sounded as grumpy as ever, “what does sort of mean?”

Izuku pulled himself back from the twirl and fell into their step motions again. It was weird for Bakugou to be so interested in his past all of the sudden. Normally they didn’t talk about this kind of stuff, but Izuku didn’t really mind, “We went on a couple of dates, I guess, but we were better as friends. Does it matter...?”

“What?” Bakugou asked, looking a bit taken aback. He messed up his footwork and ended up stepping on Izuku’s foot. Izuku winced slightly, but didn’t comment on it out of politeness. Bakugou looked down at their feet and cussed before falling back into the proper step pattern, movements a bit stilted now, “No, of course not. You’re just so fuckin’ vague sometimes, is all. I don’t care.”

“Of course not. How’d you learn, anyways?”

“Huh?”

“To dance. How’d you learn to dance?”

Bakugou grumbled something under his breath, sounding annoyed, “Don’t laugh, it’s so stupid. I got stuck in a dance elective for a semester of gym class last year. We were called randomly to choose from a bunch of different electives, and I went dead fuckin’ last, so it was the only thing open. Never heard the end of it from Ashido and Kaminari.”

Izuku laughed.

“I said don’t laugh, you dick.” Oh, if looks could kill.

“I’m sorry, that sounds so awful,” Izuku laughed a little harder despite the threatening look in Bakugou’s eyes, but his tone of voice was earnestly sympathetic. Every kid had suffered through a gym dance class at some point or another, but a whole semester sounded like torture. However, the mental image of Bakugou in some basketball shorts and a graphic t-shirt trying to learn ballroom dance politely with a bunch of equally awkward teenagers was pretty funny.

He felt Bakugou’s hand on his back tighten its grip, so he bit his lower lip to keep himself from giggling any more, “Sorry, sorry! But I bet you never thought it’d be a skill that came in handy at one AM in a communal dorm kitchen.”

“Handy? I think it’s more of a nuisance,” Bakugou scoffed.

“No one’s forcing you to dance with me, Kacchan.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes, despite the blush that had showed up on his cheeks, “Fuck off, you know damn well your ass would be asleep on the table otherwise, and then I’d just have to drag you back up to the twelfth god damn floor. No thanks.”

Izuku sometimes wished Bakugou could just admit he was capable of having fun and being a normal young adult like the rest of them. Then again, it just wouldn’t be Bakugou if he wasn’t always putting up a defensive, angry front. Izuku sighed in mock defeat, “you’re probably right, Kacchan. As always.”

“Oh, don’t start with your sarcasm, smartass. I don’t wanna hear-”

Bakugou was cut off by a loud, shrill beeping that came from the oven. They both jumped slightly, having forgotten about the alarm that had been set for the rice. Bakugou dropped his hands from Izuku’s quickly, stepping away from him and out of their dance position to turn back to the kitchen. After punching the “timer” button again to make the oven be quiet, he pulled the lid off of the pot and used a wooden spoon to fluff the rice.

Izuku was left with some kind of whiplash with how quickly Bakugou had retreated from him. After a moment he shook it off and returned to his seat at the table where his phone was still playing a loud pop song. He pressed a button on the side and turned the volume down a bit, the room now mostly quiet aside from the clanging of Bakugou plating their very late dinner.

“Here’s your fuckin’ food, lazy bastard.” Bakugou said when he loudly placed a plate of curry in front of Izuku, spoon cradled under the rice. It looked amazing and Izuku suddenly realized that he really was starving. So he dug into it after a quick thanks, grateful to find it didn’t just look amazing.

“Oh my god, Kacchan, this is so good. Why have you been hiding this secret skill from me while I suffer and eat terrible cafeteria food and dollar-store ramen?” Izuku whined, lamenting all of the bad meals he’d had in the past few months. He really missed home cooked meals now.

“Don’t get used to it. Learn how to cook for yourself, dumbass, I’m not your personal chef.” Bakugou said, pointing his spoon at Izuku accusingly between bites, “and don’t think I’m going to do this every time you space out and forget to eat. Next time you can damn well starve.”

“It’s too late. You’ve already conditioned the bad behavior by giving me food. I’m gonna start passing out on my text books more than ever,” Izuku said, only half joking. He’d easily give up two shitty meals if it meant he got one good, homemade one.

“If I see you passed out at your desk again, I’m just leaving your ass there. Your sore neck’ll be karma enough for trying to trick me into making food for you.”

Izuku swallowed his next bite and snickered, “you’re as mean as ever, aren’t you?”

At this, Bakugou let out a short laugh himself, “Only ‘cause you’re still a weakling after all this time.”

Izuku rested his head on his fist, looking over at Bakugou with an amused smile, “Some things never change, I guess.”

For a moment, Bakugou’s eyes lingered on him, expression thoughtful. He turned his gaze back to his plate, pushing at the food with his fork, “Yeah, guess not. Nerd.”

Chapter Text

“Hey nerd,” Bakugou said as he shoved past the door and into their dorm room. It was a Wednesday evening and Izuku was laying on his stomach in bed, watching the newest episode in a spin off show about his favorite superhero’s sidekick.

Izuku didn’t look up from his laptop, but waved his hand silently in acknowledgement. He was determined to stay focused on the screen in front of him, watching some building explode dramatically.

Clearly taking issue with Izuku’s decision to mostly ignore him, Bakugou tugged an earbud from Izuku’s ear.

“Hey!” Izuku yelped in response, quickly tapping the spacebar on his laptop to pause the video. He snatched his headphone back, frowning up at his roommate, “what gives, Kacchan? I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

“You’re about to be in the middle of something more important. Get up, get out of your pajamas, I need a favor.” Bakugou demanded, putting his hands on his hips.

Izuku raised an eyebrow, “A favor? You need my help with something?” He was skeptical. Bakugou didn’t ask for help. That either meant he was planning something, or he was actually desperate. Either way, it caught Izuku’s attention. He glanced at his frozen laptop screen and finally popped his other earbud out, shifting so that he was sitting now and could look up at the blond more comfortably.

“More like I’m giving you the privilege of helping me out.” Bakugou scoffed. It was his way of saying, yes, he needed help.

“Well, what is it?”

“I need a model for my photography assignment due on Friday. Like, this Friday.”

That gave Izuku pause. He tilted his head, thinking he hadn’t heard Bakugou correctly for a moment. He knew Bakugou was in a photography elective, so that much made sense, but it was still an odd request.

“...Are you asking me to model for you?” he asked, disbelief clear in his tone, “Also, why so last minute? You’re not one to procrastinate on assignments.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest defensively, “Look, Kirishima had agreed last week, but he cancelled on me. So now I need someone else, the assignment requires a person who isn’t ourselves in the photo.”

Izuku looked at his laptop again, longingly, and then back at Bakugou, who was glaring at him, “...why not Sero or Kaminari? Or Ashido?”

“Are you joking?” Bakugou asked, tone incredulous. When Izuku didn’t say anything, he explained himself further, “Kaminari or Ashido would absolutely refuse to take the whole thing seriously. They’d be nightmares to work with. Sero might be fine, but they all live pretty far off campus anyways. You’re here, which is convenient.”

“Yeah, convenient for you,” Izuku said, “I kind of already had plans tonight.”

“You’re just gonna lay in bed watching TV all fuckin’ night, don’t lie to me.”

“You misunderstand. Those are the plans I’m referring to.” So what if his plans were to laze around in bed and eat cup ramen while catching up on his TV shows? He had earned this free time after submitting two essays and having had another grueling workout with Iida earlier in the day. He was tired.

“Come on, stop being a fat-ass and get dressed.”

Izuku frowned at his roommate, but gave it some consideration. Bakugou really must have been pretty desperate to come to him of all people and ask for help. He made a small ‘hmph’ noise and turned back to his computer, “Well, if you’re going to be rude to me, then I’m really not going to help you out.”

“Deku.” Bakugou growled, baring his teeth. It was almost funny how dramatic he was.

“Kacchan?” Izuku asked, feigning innocence as he put his earbuds back in, hand hovering above the space bar threateningly.

The other threw his arms up into the air. “Alright, fine! I’ll make you dinner whenever you want if you do this for me, you piece of shit!”

Izuku had been expecting an apology, but of course Bakugou would rather strike up a deal than apologize for anything. Izuku didn’t mind and grinned at him, “make it three dinners!”

“Fuck off. Two dinners.”

“Deal!” Izuku held out his hand to his roommate, and the other reluctantly shook on it. He hopped down from his bed and quickly changed out of his pajama pants and back into jeans. He looked down at his t-shirt-- it was an old tie-dyed relic from a summer camp he’d gone to a few years back-- and then looked at Bakugou, “Uh, should I change out of this shirt too?”

He’d never modeled for anything before. The closest he’d been was that one summer Tsu had gotten a polaroid camera and didn’t stop taking pictures at all their hangouts for 3 months, so he didn’t really know what to expect. Bakugou looked him over briefly and nodded.

“Yeah, you kinda look like shit. Hold on.” Bakugou shoved past him and began carding through the clothes hanging in Izuku’s closet. As far as fashion went, Izuku wasn’t very trendy, so he wasn’t sure what Bakugou was trying to find.

It seemed the other didn’t find what he was expecting after all. Bakugou looked back at Izuku with disdain but mercifully chose not to comment on his wardrobe. Instead, he moved over to his own closet and began digging through his belongings. He pulled out a red flannel and a black sweater and held them both up to Izuku, before throwing the black sweater at him and putting the flannel back. Izuku caught the sweater and traded it for the t-shirt he was currently wearing.

It was clearly meant to be baggy, the cuffs of the sleeves falling halfway past his hands. He pushed them to his elbows, tugging at the unfamiliar article with some discomfort- it was actually very comfortable and warm, but it was just weird to be wearing something that wasn’t his. Bakugou nodded, “Your converse and those jeans’ll be fine. You’re probably not gonna be the main focus of the picture, anyways.”

Izuku listened to Bakugou and pulled his shoes on, pausing briefly to look in the mirror.

“Roll the cuffs of your jeans, too. It’ll look better.” Bakugou commented, standing by the doorway, clearly waiting to go. Izuku sighed and did as instructed; he kneeled and rolled the fabric twice so that his ankles showed.

“Happy?” he asked as he stood up straight again and grabbed his jacket on their way out into the hallway.

“No,” Bakugou said, locking the door behind them and promptly shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. Izuku laughed. Of course not- Bakugou was never happy.

“Where are we going, anyways?” Izuku asked, glancing at the time on his phone. It wasn’t too late- just a bit past 9 PM at the moment.

“Dunno. The street. I’ll know the right place when I see it, I have a basic idea of what I want to do for this shoot.”

Izuku groaned, “Really? You dragged me out of bed and you don’t even know where we’re going?”

“You weren’t doing anything else, so shut up.” Bakugou pushed the button to call the elevator.

“I was! I was watching the newest episode of Shield- you know, that show about All Might’s sidekick?” Izuku asked, leaning forward and looking over at Bakugou with a knowing smile. Try as he might to deny that he still liked their shared childhood hero, Izuku knew the truth.

Bakugou stared straight ahead and didn’t say anything. The down arrow lit up and there was a ding before the doors opened and they stepped into the elevator, standing next to each other in the small space. Bakugou glanced at him briefly from the corner of his eyes.

“...Is it any good?”

The doors shut as Izuku’s face lit up with delight and he launched into a thorough analysis of the show.

“What about here?” Izuku asked, pointing to a park bench near a lone tree that had lost most of its leaves in the cold. They were still looking for a good place to shoot, even after a forty-five minutes of wandering around. Dead trees were artsy, right? Symbolic?

Bakugou glanced at the bench and the tree and then sent Izuku a look, as if to ask, ‘what the fuck?’.

Izuku shrugged, and then sighed, burying his face in the fur collar of his coat. It was cold tonight, and he really just wanted to go back to his warm bed. He regretted agreeing to this- even Bakugou’s cooking wasn’t good enough to be sacrificing his spare time so completely. At this rate, it didn’t seem like they were ever going to find a spot that fit Bakugou’s “artistic vision”.

“Well, okay, what are you looking for, Kacchan? You’ve turned down all my suggestions.”

“‘Cause they sucked,” he muttered, eyes scanning the streets and alleys as they walked around, “I told you, I’ll know it when I see it. I haven’t seen it yet, so shut up and stop complaining.”

“Y’know, I’m a little surprised by how seriously you’re taking this. It’s just an elective. Can’t we just take the shot anywhere?” Izuku asked, voice muffled by his collar as he spoke. Bakugou let out a frustrated huff in response.

“Elective or not, I’m not here to half-ass anything. It all goes towards our cumulative GPA, dumbass, and if I’m gonna fuckin’ crush everyone else, this counts just as much as anything else. Now, seriously- shut up,” Bakugou insisted, as if Izuku’s talking was breaking his concentration.

Dejected, Izuku pulled out his phone and started scrolling through it. He opened his group chat with Iida, Tsu and Uraraka and sent a message complaining about how cold it was out and how his legs hurt from his earlier run- he was hoping someone would listen and care about his plight.

He waited a few seconds. No one seemed to be immediately online. Wonderful.

He sent a text to Kirishima in the meantime.

Midoriya: Hey Kirishima! Hope everything’s alright, Kacchan told me you had to cancel on him.

Kirishima: hey man!!! Im good but what r u even talking abt lol

Midoriya: The photography assignment? Kacchan said he asked you to-

In the middle of typing the reply, Bakugou smacked his upper arm, “Yo, nerd, I think I found it.” Izuku looked up at the other and saw he was pointing ahead of them. Abandoning his text conversation, he turned his head to look and saw a small, unassuming liquor store with gaudy neon signs in its window, a myriad of colored lights glowing through the glass and pouring into the dark street.

Izuku was kind of surprised. There wasn’t anything remarkable about this store front aside from the mass amount of bright advertisements. “We walked around downtown for forty five minutes and this is where you want to photograph?”

“Yes,” Bakugou said, his voice curt and sure. He grabbed at the bag slung across his chest and unzipped it, carefully pulling the sizeable camera from its case. He fiddled with it for a moment and turned it on, seeming to adjust some things before putting the camera’s strap around his neck.

He directed Izuku to go stand near the window of the store. Awkwardly, Izuku did as he was told, standing stiffly by the storefront. He turned back to his roommate, “So, uh...do you want me to, like, pose? Or something?” He asked, suddenly unsure of what to do with his limbs, or how to turn his feet, or which direction to look. It didn’t help that there were still people occasionally walking down the sidewalk, gawking at them briefly. It wasn’t entirely unusual for friends to take pictures of each other in the more tourist-friendly parts of the city, but this was definitely not a tourist site.

Bakugou gave it some thought, staring at Izuku and seeming to mull the question over very seriously. He held up his camera and looked through the little window on it before approaching Izuku.

“Back up a little,” he instructed, pushing Izuku backwards by his shoulders. He unzipped Izuku’s jacket, looked him up and down with scrutiny, and then told him to just take it off. Begrudgingly, he did so and handed the article to Bakugou, bracing himself for the cold. He hoped the shoot wouldn’t take as long as finding this damn store had.

Bakugou backed up and held his camera to his face again. He gave Izuku a few different instructions- “Lean against the window.” “Turn your head to the left. No, your left, dumbass.” “Crouch down...okay, not like that. Nevermind, stand back up, that looked dumb as shit.” “Move your bangs outta your eyes, for fuck’s sake.”

This went on for probably twenty minutes, but it felt like an eternity to Izuku- he was trying to act cool, but he found the whole thing kind of embarrassing; he didn’t actually enjoy being on the this end of a camera, and the tips of his fingers were starting to feel numb in the cold. Bakugou seemed to think the temperature only added to the atmosphere of the photo- apparently the fact that it was cold enough that Izuku could see his breath made for some cool photos. Izuku just wanted to put his jacket back on.

As if reading his mind, Bakugou tossed Izuku his coat and declared them finished. Izuku happily grabbed at it and pulled it back on as quickly as he could, rubbing his hands together to warm them up.

“Alright, dweeb, that’s a wrap. I think I can work with the stuff I got.” Bakugou took a seat on the ledge by the store’s window, clicking through the photographs he’d taken, turning the camera every once in a while. Izuku was busy keeping himself warm, but soon enough his curiosity got the better of him. He sat down next to his roommate and put his chin on his shoulder, peering at the camera’s screen.

Bakugou grunted and half-heartedly tried to shake Izuku off, but didn’t try too hard when the other didn’t budge.

Some of the photos definitely turned out better than others, but Izuku was overall quite surprised. “Wow. I’m not very photogenic, but some of these are really cool,” Izuku said, staring as Bakugou flipped through them. Looking at the final product, he now understood why Bakugou liked this location- it was farther from the main downtown area, so it was a bit darker and the colors from the neon lights reflected off of his skin in a way that contrasted that darkness well. It looked like something out of some gritty cyberpunk movie. He was glad he hadn’t worn his stupid summer camp t-shirt; the black sweater fit in perfectly, understated and simple.

“They look good ‘cause I’m the best, obviously. Don’t start thinking it has anything to do with you, Deku,” Bakugou replied, clicking a button twice and zooming in to inspect something.

“Send me these, I wanna make one of them my profile picture!” Izuku exclaimed, feeling genuinely excited for the first time tonight.

“Yeah, yeah.” Bakugou muttered, still singularly focused on the screen. They were quiet for a moment, before Izuku held out his hand towards Bakugou, palm up.

“Can I see it?”

“What? The camera?” Bakugou asked, turning to him. Izuku nodded. “No. It belongs to the school, and these things are expensive. If you break it, I can’t afford to replace it.” Bakugou said, frowning.

“Oh come on, I won’t break it!” Izuku kept his hand out, insistently, “I just wanna look at it. I’ve never seen a fancy camera like that before, it looks so neat!”

Bakugou looked down at the outstretched hand for a moment and then hesitantly took the camera strap off of his neck. He placed the strap around Izuku’s neck instead and gingerly put the camera in his palm, “if you do break it, you’re paying for it. Got that, nerd? And don’t touch any buttons that you don’t know what they do.”

Izuku nodded, “how do I turn it back to the mode that takes pictures?”

Bakugou pointed out the correct button. The moment it switched back to camera mode, Izuku raised the camera and took a picture of Bakugou. Before the other could react, Izuku stood up and told Bakugou to stay where he was. He attempted to find some nice compositions while Bakugou was still processing what had happened, but it wasn’t long before the blond got up and snatched the camera back, growling something about lost privileges.

Bakugou flipped through the most recent pictures that Izuku had managed to take: one close-up of his dazed-looking face, followed by a couple decent shots of him sitting on the ledge, and then a series of him getting closer and closer to the camera with his hand slowly obscuring more of the lens.

“I call that series Anger in Motion,” Izuku said, laughing at Bakugou’s expression in the photographs.

“Yeah, well I’ll call mine Fuckhead at a Liquor Store.”

Izuku snickered at that, but pointed at the camera, “go back to that nice one, before you realized what was happening and got mad at me for taking your picture.”

Bakugou pressed the left arrow button to scroll back to one of the ones where he was sitting on the ledge, looking up at the camera. His expression was uncharacteristically soft, maybe a little confused or taken aback, but lacking the usual harsh lines and set frown. Bakugou actually looked nice when he wasn’t being pissy.

“You should make it your profile picture, too!”

“I haven’t changed my profile picture in like three years and I’m not about to start now.”

“But these pictures are really cool! The colors reflect off your hair so well, since it’s so blonde. My hair’s too dark to see much of that,” Izuku mused, mindlessly reaching out to touch Bakugou’s hair. It was surprisingly soft. Perhaps more surprisingly, Bakugou didn’t slap his hand away. “You would’ve made the better model. Too bad it wasn’t a self-portrait assignment.”

Bakugou’s hands curled into fists at his sides, eyes trained on Izuku’s, “Your freckles.” he said, suddenly and without context.

His voice was quiet enough that Izuku wasn’t sure he’d heard him correctly the first time, so he furrowed his brows slightly, “huh?”

“Your freckles. Y’know- the things on your face, space cadet,” Bakugou repeated himself, “I thought the lights would look good with your freckles.”

Izuku’s eyes widened at the sudden honesty. He glanced over at the neon lights in the window, then back at Bakugou, a small smile tugging at his lips, “Yeah? Do they?”

“No,” he lied, uncurling one of his hands and bringing it up to Izuku’s face, brushing a thumb over his cheek. He knew Bakugou was tracing over the freckles there. He had them all over- on his cheeks, nose, neck, shoulders...they were fading a bit with winter and a lack of sun exposure, but they never truly went away, they just got more prominent in the summer.

He could see the way Bakugou’s cheeks flushed in the cold, white plumes of their breath mingling together with how close they were, “you’re a terrible liar.”

Bakugou frowned, “you don’t know the half of it.”

Izuku layered his hand on top of Bakugou’s, his motions slow as though he was afraid of startling the other out of this moment. It wasn’t often that the Katsuki Bakugou allowed himself a moment of vulnerability. Izuku’s voice sounded breathless when he spoke, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Izuku’s question was met with silence from the other- there was nothing but the soft, buzzing hum of the neon lights and the sounds of the city that seemed so far away right now. He tightened his grip on Bakugou’s hand, stealing some of his warmth. It was much needed on a night like this. Bakugou remained quiet, but he was staring straight into his eyes with an intensity that made Izuku’s heart hammer in his chest. He had to wonder if Bakugou could hear it in the quiet-

Suddenly, the sound of a door sliding open interrupted the peace between them; a harsh reminder that they were still standing in the storefront of some old liquor store. Both their hands dropped from his face as he spun around to look in the direction of the noise.

An older man wearing a nametag stormed out of the doorway. He was waving a broom in their direction and yelling something about loitering. Izuku didn’t catch it all, too startled and still focused on the sound of his own heart pounding. The only thing he clearly heard were the words, “call the police if you don’t leave”.

Izuku was thoroughly broken out of his stupor by this, "O-Oh, sorry, we don't mean any trouble! We'll get going now!” He could feel his entire face glowing bright red.

Unfortunately, at the same time as he’d stuttered out his apology, Bakugou lifted up his middle finger at the old man and told him to fuck off.

The older man completely ignored Izuku and seemed to only hear (and see) Bakugou's remark. He angrily tossed the broom in their direction. Bakugou grabbed Izuku's wrist, reaction time as quick as ever, and pulled him along as he took off in a sprint down the street. The old man gave chase briefly, but soon slowed to a stop, panting and hollering at them. Over his shoulder Bakugou yelled back, "Suck my dick you old geezer!"

"Kacchan!" Izuku exclaimed, his tone of voice chiding, but he couldn't help but laugh too. Bakugou sent him a surprised look, his anger briefly turning to a triumphant grin as they both slowed to a jog and eventually a walk when they were far enough away. Izuku was grateful that he'd gotten back into running- it would have been quite pathetic if he'd been too out of breath from sprinting just a couple blocks.

"Why'd you have to go and talk to him like that?" Izuku asked, once he’d caught his breath. Bakugou finally dropped his hold on his wrist in favor of shoving his hands into his pockets.

Bakugou barked out a terse laugh, " 'Cause we weren't doing anything wrong. He was just an asshole who gets off on yelling at people younger than him. Bastard thinks he can talk to me that way, well, I fuckin’ showed him."

"Oh, yeah, he looked so scared when we ran off."

"Look- I wasn't about to wait till he actually called the cops. I'm impulsive but I'm not an idiot, Deku. If you wanna go back and apologize and get arrested by some bored pig in a uniform, fine, but leave me outta it," Bakugou scoffed. He looked down at himself and checked on the camera still around his neck, inspecting it to make sure it was still working despite their impromptu sprint. He packed it back into the case as they walked down the sidewalk.

For a few moments, they didn't talk, and Izuku's smile and residual adrenaline quickly began to drop the further they went.

"Hey Kacchan?"

"Yeah, nerd?"

"Where are we?"

Bakugou blinked at him, and then looked around. They definitely hadn't come from this direction- or, at least, none of the landmarks looked familiar. The blond grumbled a curse under his breath and hastily pulled out his phone to bring up a map.

It was past 11 PM when they got back to their dorm, both of them chilled to the bone, noses red with cold and fingertips starting to go numb.

"If it wasn't late," Izuku muttered, pulling off his shoes in the doorway, "I'd make you make me some soup right now, because I'm so damn cold." He regretfully took his jacket off as well- luckily their dorm was kept nice and toasty in the cold winter months, so warming up wouldn’t take too long.

"Shut up with your whining," Bakugou rolled his eyes, taking off his own jacket and hanging it up on a nearby hook. Izuku tossed his jacket to Bakugou, who hung his up on the other hook, "My cooking will make it all worth it."

"Yeah, probably. Future me will be grateful," Izuku conceded, rubbing his arms through the thick sweater he was still wearing, "But current me is cold and tired and has a class at 8. So I'm gonna crash." Izuku said, grabbing his toothbrush and wandering to the dorm bathroom to brush his teeth. He browsed his phone with his free hand while he did so, noting he had a text from Kirishima, timestamped from nearly an hour ago.

Kirishima: ????

Izuku tilted his head at this strange text, but put his phone down in favor of spitting out his toothpaste and washing his face. He passed Bakugou in the hall on his way back to the dorm, the other carrying his own toiletries to get ready for sleep. He changed into pajama pants but kept the sweater on; it was warm and he figured he was going to wash it before giving it back to Bakugou anyways, so whatever.

In bed, he turned his phone on again and tried to decipher the strange text. It wasn't until he realized he'd never finished or sent his last text back to Kirishima that it made sense. He quickly finished typing out what he’d meant to say before he’d gotten distracted by the photo shoot.

Midoriya: The photography assignment? Kacchan said he asked you to model for him originally! We went out to take some pictures tonight. Glad you’re okay :)

It was a few minutes before Kirishima replied.

Kirishima: lol he never asked me to do that??

Okay, now it was Izuku’s turn to be confused. He rolled over onto his stomach, more alert now, and squinted at the screen in front of him in confusion. If Bakugou hadn’t asked Kirishima to work on the photography assignment with him, that meant he hadn’t been telling the truth earlier.

“Why lie about that…?” Izuku muttered, bringing his hand to his mouth in thought. Bakugou was usually very on top of his assignments, so it was weird that he’d wait to do this so last minute, unless…

Unless, Izuku reasoned, he’d been too embarrassed that he’d forgotten about the assignment until tonight and hadn’t wanted to admit his screw-up to Izuku. That made the most sense, he figured.

Midoriya: Oh, I think I misunderstood Kacchan earlier, then. Nevermind haha! Have a good night!

Kirishima: ‘s all good dude, night

Izuku locked his phone and set it down on his desk, rolling over to his side to attempt to sleep, finally. He closed his eyes and tugged his blanket up to his chin.

A minute later, his phone buzzed. He ignored it the first time, but it went off three more times in succession, which prompted Izuku to let out a frustrated noise and reach out for his mobile in the dark and bring it back to his face, the bright light hurting his eyes initially.

He’d unlocked it with the intention of turning it on Do Not Disturb mode, but the messages caught his eye. Ashido was texting him?

No, Ashido wias texting the group chat she’d made to merge Izuku and Bakugou’s friend groups a while ago. Izuku tapped on the notification and opened the group.

Ashido: @BAKUGOU I CANT BELIEVE U ASKED MIDORIYA TO BE UR MODEL FOR UR PHOTOGRAPHY THING WHEN U HAVE ME HERE!!

Ashido: u KNOW ive always wanted to be a model u JERK

Ashido: good job finally working up the nerve tho i guess lmao

Kirishima: uhhh srry midoriya i made the mistake of letting her see my phone lol ashido ur literally gonna get him killed

Izuku could only watch in horror. Kirishima was right. He was going to die if Bakugou knew he’d been talking to anyone about tonight.

Uraraka: ??? What r u guys talking about!

Ashido: bakugou and midoriyas little date that they apparently went on :P where’d ya go?

Kaminari: yeah man, where’d our lover boy take you?

Oh, no- this was getting worse by the second. Damage control needed to be done fast, before he got the little notification at the bottom of the screen to indicate his roommate had read the chat. Izuku knew Ashido and Kaminari were just teasing him, but Bakugou wasn’t one to shy away from overreactions.

Midoriya: Kacchan just had an assignment for his photography class due! Ashido, you have it totally wrong, haha.

Tsu: Oh!! That sounds fun! Send us the pics, Bakugou! I didn’t know you liked photography.

Kaminari: unless theyre tasteful nudes. Keep those to yourself.

Ashido: OMG LOL

Uraraka: KAMINARI DON’T SAY THAT!!!

And then, suddenly, that dreaded ‘Read by: Katsuki Bakugou’ popped up. Four little words; so seemingly innocuous. Moments later, Izuku heard Bakugou yell his name from the bathroom. He didn’t sound happy.

Quickly, Izuku dived under the covers and typed out his last will and testament to the group chat.

Midoriya: When I die, tell my mom I love her. I leave my laptop to Uraraka because I know she needs a new one, and Iida can have myiadsfnwpoe dssssssss

Ashido: RIP

Chapter Text

Izuku realized it a few days into their winter break.

Finals week had kicked both his and Bakugou’s asses pretty thoroughly. He’d gotten a cold after his third exam and passed it on to his roommate, despite Bakugou’s precautionary use of disinfectant and face masks. Regardless, they both survived finals season by staying up late together to study for the classes they shared, Uraraka joining them whenever she could (and even bringing chicken soup for the both of them while they suffered through their illness).

Izuku had his last final of the semester a day before Bakugou, so he left for home early, packing his backpack full of clothes and taking the trains back to his hometown alone late at night. He hadn’t really gotten much of a chance to say goodbye to his roommate beforehand, so he just left a little note on his desk:

“Good luck on your last final Kacchan!

Seeya later!

-Deku :)”

He got home late and let himself into the apartment he and his mom called home. It was dark inside and he quietly took off his shoes, wondering if his mom had already gone to bed. As he was thinking that, the kitchen light suddenly turned on and his mother came waddling into the room in her pajamas, her arms outstretched. She gathered him into the biggest hug her short frame could manage and made them both some tea. She heated up leftovers from dinner and Izuku almost cried as he told her how much he missed her cooking and how terrible the cafeteria food was.

They spent a good hour catching up- it wasn’t like Izuku never called or anything (he knew he could be better about it, though) and his mother had come down once to visit during the semester, but otherwise he had a lot to tell her.

He fell asleep instantly when he crashed in his childhood bed; passed out for nearly 10 hours in the warm embrace of comfort and familiarity and love.

When he woke up in the morning, it was to the smell of his mom cooking breakfast - a simple meal of eggs and bacon. He spent the first of his days off being lazy and nervously checking his school email for any exam results. He’d already gotten a couple back, and passed them just fine, but he was still waiting on the two most important results.

It was unspoken, but Bakugou and him sort of had a competition to see who was going to get the better scores on their Chemistry and Biology finals. They’d all helped each other study, sure, but Bakugou had spent half that time muttering about how he was gonna kick their asses, nose stuck into the textbook to scan every detail.

Uraraka wanted to do well, but Bakugou wanted to win. It kind of made Izuku want to show him up, and he’d studied twice as hard as a result. Both of those exams had been a breeze, in the end.

It was three days into his break that an onslaught of texts from Bakugou alerted him to the fact that their grades had been released before his email app ever got the chance.

Kacchan: Ha! Read it and weep, nerd. [2 images attached]

The text contained two somewhat blurry pictures of a monitor displaying his Bio and Chem results (how did Bakugou know how to work a high-tech professional camera, but not his own cell phone camera?). He’d gotten a perfect 100 on both of them, which made Izuku nervous as he quickly opened his inbox and found the links to his own results.

Midoriya: Congrats Kacchan! You didn’t get the extra credit on the bio exam though, huh? :P

Izuku attached two screenshots of his phone, displaying the losing 92 in chemistry and the triumphant 102 in biology. In the end, they’d tied after all: one win and one loss for them both.

Kacchan: ffffffffuck you

Izuku laughed aloud at that and plopped down on the living room couch, curling up by the arm and typing out another reply.

Midoriya: Don’t be a sore loser! Or a sore winner, for that matter. You did an amazing job!

Kacchan: Stop patronizing me.

Midoriya: I’m not! I think it’s awesome how you aced them both. I’ll have to study my chem even harder! Don’t suppose you’ll tutor me?

Kacchan: Not a chance in hell.

They texted back and forth for a bit, Izuku grinning at his phone the whole time. His mother walked by, carrying a broom and dustpan, and noticed him smiling.

“Oh, who are you talking to, honey?” She chirped up, bending over to put the dust pan down. Izuku looked up from his phone, startled. He shoved his mobile into his pocket and hopped up from the couch, offering to take the broom from his mother and finish sweeping the living room for her.

“No one, just, uh...my roommate, is all.” He explained, a bit sheepishly. He’d told his mom about the roommate situation already, so the surprised look on her face wasn’t unexpected.

She happily let her son take over sweeping and instead went to grab a glass of water from the nearby kitchen, “Your roommate? You mean Bakugou?” She asked, and when Izuku nodded she sent him an interested look, “Hm. You looked happy, just now. Does that mean things are going well between you two now?”

Izuku felt his face go a bit red from embarrassment. He’d told his mom about Bakugou within the first week of school, but he hadn’t really brought it up much since then. She wasn’t the prying kind, so she’d asked about it a few times early on but never followed up. They both knew it was kind of a sensitive topic.

He focused on cleaning, “Well...he’s changed a lot. He’s not as mean nowadays. I mean, he’s still rude, but we actually...get along, I think. He probably wouldn’t like it if I said we were friends, but it’s something close now.”

Izuku’s mother clapped her hands together happily, “Good! You two were so close when you were little, it broke my heart to see you drift apart like that. It’s almost like destiny that you ended up as roommates! I’m glad you’re finally getting along again!”

She sounded genuinely excited; she’d obviously been worried about her son suffering through a terrible roommate situation while he was away at college and seemed immensely relieved to know that wasn’t the case.

Izuku agreed and spent the rest of the day helping his mom around the house, sporadically keeping his conversation with Bakugou going.

It wasn’t until he flopped into bed late at night that everything around him seemed too quiet and too still. If he’d spent the first two days enamored by the familiarity of his old home, he was starting to now realize the stark differences between the settings. Compared to the loud downtown area the dorm was in, their residential street here was dead silent. It was much darker outside his window here, too. The old apartment building creaked and groaned in its own way that Izuku wasn’t accustomed to any longer.

And he was lonely. He knew his mom was in the other room across the hall but, back in his dorm, there had been something equal parts weird and comforting about being able to roll over in bed and see Bakugou there at night, in the morning, or whenever their schedules matched up.

Right now, all he could see on the other side of the room was the wall covered in All Might posters, staring back at him with huge grins. They were surely mocking him for already feeling lonely after a few days off campus.

He was home, wasn’t he? He’d never felt lonely at home before. He wanted to take a break from the stifling life of sharing a bedroom, a bathroom, and an entire building without an ounce privacy. It was supposed to be a relief.

So he picked up his phone and texted Bakugou goodnight, the itching feeling of loneliness under his skin and inescapable.

It was only a few minutes later that he got a return text telling him to fucking go to bed.

Izuku realized it the moment his phone lit up and he excitedly grabbed it from his desk. He realized it the moment his heart fluttered when he saw Bakugou’s nickname light up the screen.

He realized that he wasn’t lonely. He’d always been content to spend time with his mom, and he already had plans to get brunch with Uraraka and Todoroki in the morning since they were in town.

He wasn’t lonely at all.

He missed Bakugou.

Then, there was the natural conclusion that followed that: he liked Bakugou.

As a friend, of course.

Of course?

Izuku pressed his palms against his face, feeling his cheeks heat up all of the sudden. His phone was resting on his chest while he had this strange flurry of emotions, butterflies flitting in his stomach anxiously. His phone vibrated once again. He worked up the nerve to check it after a few moments, the feeling in the pit of his stomach reappearing as he read the screen.

Kacchan: and g’night or whatever, nerd.

Izuku felt like throwing his phone across the room and smashing it against the wall; he could just imagine Bakugou back in their dorm, half asleep and kind of pissed, voice hoarse with tiredness, saying that to him.

That probably wasn’t a good sign.

Izuku did not throw his phone against the wall. Instead, he locked it and plugged it in and ran to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth and calm down so that he could get some sleep tonight, his chest pounding.

In the morning, Izuku woke up late and had to hurry to the restaurant where he was meeting Todoroki and Uraraka for brunch. He ran most of the way there and arrived slightly out of breath, his eyes scanning the tables for the familiar heads of his friends.

Todoroki stood out in a crowd, luckily, and after a moment Uraraka noticed him and flagged him down. Todoroki turned around and smiled at him softly as well, waving his hand. Izuku plopped himself down into the free chair, “Hey guys! Sorry I’m a little late, I forgot to set my alarm.”

“Midoriya, it’s 11 o’clock,” Todoroki said, tone flat, “We’re only a couple days into the break and you’ve already let your sleeping schedule slip.”

Izuku sighed; in reality, he’d been kept up for a long time last night with the realization that he might like Bakugou as more than a friend. Maybe. He wasn’t sure yet; a night of debating it in his brain had apparently proven fruitless.

He scratched the back of his neck nervously, “Yeah, sorry. I didn’t really sleep well last night.”

“Oh?” Uraraka asked, looking at him curiously, “What’s wrong?”

Izuku looked to the side and shrugged, “Uh, y’know, just...one of those nights,” he laughed it off and picked up the menu in front of him, pointedly ignoring the way Uraraka furrowed her eyebrows and eyes him suspiciously.

Luckily, Todoroki chimed in before she could pry further, “This place is known for its omelettes, apparently. It’s only been here about a year but it’s gotten quite a reputation.”

Izuku was grateful for the idle banter and jumped on the line of small talk, “Oh! Sounds good- I’ll get one of those, then, I think.”

They all spent some time catching up with each other- it hadn’t been long since they’d seen each other, but they talked about finals and their scores and how the first couple days back from vacation were going. Tsu was out of town for a few days, so Uraraka was sad about that, and Todoroki always hated being home for a variety of reasons.

Enamored by the idea of not being left alone with his thoughts again, Izuku suggested they go back to his place after they eat. It seemed they could all use a distraction, and the others seemed to agree. They ate quickly and shared good friendly conversation between bites.

On the way out of the diner, Izuku pulled his phone from his pocket and checked it for about the fifth time this morning, feeling a bit disappointed when he didn’t have any new notifications.

“You keep looking at your phone,” Uraraka observed, tilting her head towards Izuku and squinting at him as though she were trying to read his expression.

“You do seem kind of distracted today, Midoriya,” Todoroki agreed, his hands in his pockets, voice muffled slightly by the scarf wrapped around his neck.

Izuku bit his lower lip, “Really, it’s nothing, you guys…”

“Fair enough,” Todoroki said, willing to drop the subject.

Uraraka wasn’t.

“Come on, Midoriya, you’re practically begging us to ask more with an answer like that!”

Todoroki shook his head, “I want to clarify that I did not ask Midoriya for any more details.”

“No, no, I get it; I’m sorry I’ve been kind of out of it today, I’ve just been thinking about something a lot…” Izuku paused, and the other two looked at him expectantly. He debated internally for a few seconds on whether or not he should say anything- wouldn’t it be awkward to mention something like this out of the blue? Especially since Bakugou was basically their friend now, too. He felt a bit like he was in middle school again; it had been a while since he’d had a crush on someone. Well, maybe had a crush on someone. He decided to keep it vague.

“What do you guys think of Ka- er, Bakugou?”

It didn’t seem like either of them were expecting that question.

“Why? Did something happen between you two?” Uraraka asked, her voice instantly getting defensive. She’d begrudgingly come to accept Bakugou was a part of their friend group over the past few months. His harsh personality had grown on her, though she was loathe to admit it, but it seemed she was still quick to jump to Izuku’s side if need be. It was with good intentions- through this whole roommate ordeal, she’d always been skeptical of whether or not Bakugou had actually calmed down and matured a bit. She was loyal through and through.

Izuku held up a hand in her direction and quickly clarified, “No, no. It’s nothing bad. I just, uh, was wondering. Since you know, I had kind of told you guys all those horrible stories about him from middle school. I guess I just feel bad that was your first impression of him now…”

“I mean, it’s not like you were lying,” Todoroki mused, “but the past is the past, and it’s not our call to tell you whether or not it’s alright that you seem to have moved on. If that’s what you’re asking.”

“Oh...no, that’s...not really what I meant,” Izuku mused, “I haven’t ‘moved on’, either, I guess. It still kind of stings to think about back then, but lately he’s just been...I don’t know. Nice?”

“Nice?” Uraraka echoed, and then scoffed, “I’d say he’s been decent at best. He’s still kind of an asshole, Midoriya.”

“No, that’s the thing- he’s not! I mean, he is, but there’s been these weird moments between us where he’s really genuine. It- it kind of reminds me of how he was when were little- like, really little, before he...y’know…”

Todoroki looked over at Izuku as the trio stopped at a crosswalk to wait for the light to change. Neither of his friends said anything, so Izuku kept talking, wanting to keep the silence away and stave off any awkwardness, “And I guess I just don’t know how to feel. He did a lot of bad things. But I get that people can change and I think some of the others really helped him grow into who he is now, and part of me hates that I missed that piece of his life and that we were apart for so long, and another part of me feels like I shouldn’t care or forgive him. I always admired him so much when we were little, I always really hoped that he’d change one day and now it’s actually happening. It’s not even like he’s apologized or anything, but I feel like he’s trying to say sorry to me in his own way. Did you guys know he made me dinner one night because I hadn’t eaten all day? We danced in the common room and he also buys me food after class sometimes. He fell asleep on my shoulder once during a study session in our dorm. Not to mention that whole thing with the photo shoot- he lied to me about Kirishima! He told me that he asked Kirishima to be his model first, but he never did, so like, what’s up with that?”

Izuku went off. He rambled for a good couple of minutes, voice getting faster and more exasperated as he went on relaying the events of the past semester that he’d kept totally secret until now. His two best friends were staring at him now, trying to catch up with his long-winded explanation.

“Oh.” Todoroki said, finally breaking the stunned silence that he and Uraraka had fallen into, “you like him.” He stated it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What!?” Uraraka and Izuku said in unison, whipping their heads around to look at Todoroki.

He blinked at the two of them in response, confused, and glanced at Izuku, “Sorry, was I wrong?”

Now Uraraka had turned to look at Izuku too, her eyes wide and questioning.

Izuku covered his face, sure that it was bright red now. He could feel the heat from his cheeks searing his palms, “You can’t just say things like that Todoroki!”

Uraraka grabbed his wrists and pried them from his face to force him to look at her, practically shouting, “Is he right!? Do you like him!?”

“I don’t know!” Izuku shouted back.

“I am your best friend, Izuku Midoriya! How dare you not tell me!” She reprimanded him, “You danced with Bakugou in the common room!?”

“T-Technically in the dorm kitchen,” Izuku squeaked out, “It was...while he was making me dinner.”

“He made you dinner!?”

Izuku nodded.

“Oh, my god, you’re an idiot,” Uraraka let Izuku’s wrists go and threw her arms into the air, “I’m an idiot! I can’t believe I didn’t realize something was up sooner. You’re a sneaky little thing, Midoriya.”

“I wasn’t trying to hide anything! I just...I just thought Kacchan wouldn’t like it if I told anyone. Actually, he’d probably punch me if he knew I’d said all that. Please don’t tell him,” Izuku said, dragging his hands down his face dramatically, “Look, I didn’t even...I don’t know. I just started missing him last night, and well...I might?”

“You might like him?” Todoroki asked, for clarification. Izuku nodded again, looking away in embarrassment. He asked another important question, “Do you think he might like you?”

Izuku shook his head violently, “No way! I’ve known Kacchan for years, he never had a crush on anyone when we were kids. He’s too focused on school for that kind of stuff. Besides, I can’t imagine he’d ever like someone like me- ow!” Izuku flinched as Uraraka punched his shoulder a bit too hard to really be playful.

“You’re. An. Idiot.” She repeated, punctuating each word with less harsh punches, “A boy buys you food, makes you dinner, dances with you, asks you to model for him, and you can’t reach the conclusion that maybe he likes you?”

Izuku let his shoulders sag, “It’s different with Kacchan…we’ve got a weird history. I kind of think he might just feel guilty and this is his way of apologizing without ever having to actually say the words. I’m not really, uh...in his league, am I? He’s- ow! Stop hitting me!”

Uraraka had punched him again, her cheeks puffed up in a pout, “Not until you stop being so down on yourself for no reason! If anything, you’re out of his league. He’s a mean-spirited loudmouth and you’re one of the kindest, most genuine people I know.”

“Thanks, I think,” Izuku grumbled, rubbing his shoulder. Uraraka was stronger than she looked, honestly. He grimaced at her, “It doesn’t really matter, though, does it?”

Todoroki and Uraraka both looked at him, puzzled, so he offered further explanation: “He has a soulmate.”

“He does?” Todoroki asked, seeming genuinely surprised, “he’s never mentioned them.”

“I mean, he hasn’t met them yet, but he definitely has a soulmate. I think he said it’ll be about two years before he meets them, but… I can’t… I’m not a mate breaker” Izuku said, sounding scandalized at the thought.

“Oh, my god- Izuku, you can’t be a mate breaker for someone who hasn’t even met their soulmate yet. A lot of people date before their timers run up. It’s not that weird nowadays!” Uraraka insisted, rolling her eyes at her friend.

Izuku played with the hem of his jacket sleeves, the fabric starting to fray from years of use, “Yeah, yeah...I know. You have a point. But it’s kind of weird if one person has a soulmate and one person doesn’t, isn’t it? That's still not, like, super conventional."

"You know what I think?" Uraraka asked, though it was a rhetorical question, considering she had never shied away from letting either of them know what she thought, "I think you're just scared and making excuses for yourself. If you think you like him, you should ask him out!"

Izuku shook his head wildly, making an X shape with his arms in a series of distressed gestures that would've made Iida proud- "No way, Uraraka! Regardless of the whole soulmate situation, he's my roommate! If he says no, do you have any idea how awkward that'll be? Even if he says yes, that's still kind of a weird situation! No way, I'm just...I'm just going to..."

Izuku didn't know what he was going to do.

"Bottle up your emotions and let them fester inside of you, untouched and brewing into a terrible mix of resentment and regrets until you can't stand it any longer and start numbing yourself to all emotions as a coping mechanism?" Todoroki offered as a potential solution.

"Yeah, what Todoroki said! I'll just kill off all emotions until I'm dead inside and never have to worry about soulmates again."

Uraraka looked at Todoroki briefly, "Right, Todoroki, we'll unpack that whole thing you just said later, I guess. But Midoriya, you- you have cried at every single Pixar movie we go to see. You catch bugs in cups and bring them outside because you don’t want to kill them. You wouldn't last a day trying to be emotionally stagnant." She sighed and they all rounded a corner, coming up on the street to Izuku's apartment complex, "Besides, I'm not saying you need to, like, confess your undying devotion to him or anything. I'm just saying you should try and hang out with him over the break, see if anything happens, that's all."

Todoroki suddenly reached into the pocket of Izuku's jacket and grabbed his phone. Before he realized what was happening, he’d tossed it in Uraraka's direction, "why don't you ask Bakugou out for Midoriya?"

Uraraka caught the phone easily, grinning from ear to ear. Izuku felt his face heat up as she quickly tapped in his passcode (he hadn't changed it since middle school, so she guessed it with ease) and unlocked his phone.

Izuku reached for the device but Uraraka held it at arm’s length from him and ran ahead of them down the sidewalk, "Where do you wanna take him, Midoriya? To a cafe? Rollerskating? Bowling? A concert? Oooh, let's plan it for when Tsu gets back and we can make it a double date!"

"Uraraka, stop! Don't you dare- c’mon, give me my phone back!" Izuku shouted after her, giving chase as she ran ahead of them, but Todoroki grabbed his arm and held him back. Izuku looked back at his other best friend, eyes wide with betrayal.

Todoroki shook his head, unaffected by Izuku's puppy-dog stare, "I'm sorry, Midoriya. It's for your own good. You'll never make a move without a push."

"You two are monsters." Izuku implored, narrowing his eyes and shaking off Todoroki's grip- but by the time he'd turned back to Uraraka, she was already tapping away at his phone.

"Tsu and I actually already have something planned for the day after she gets back! I'm sure she won't mind if you two tag along, too. We were gonna go visit the arboretum nearby- they have a really lovely winter flower showing- and then go ice skating on the little lake by the light decorations they put up in the park!" She sighed, dreamily, "It'll be perfect!"

"Uraraka, I swear to god, if you hit that send button-!"

"Too late!" she declared, with one last definitive tap on his phone screen. She sauntered back to her friends and held up the phone in front of Izuku's face, the proof that she'd sent the message clear as day- his eyes scanned the message and, thank god, it was innocent enough:

Midoriya: Hey Bakugou! Uraraka and Tsu and I were gonna go ice skating on the 27th. Wanna come with us? We're going to a park here where they put up the prettiest lights for the season!

Izuku grabbed his phone back and shoved it into his pocket, burying his face in his hands, "I hate you two. You're the worst friends ever."

"Oh, hush. It's harmless, Midoriya- besides, you'll thank us when he says yes."

"And if he says no?"

"Well, then you can come ice skating with us anyways and I'll buy you a latte. And we'll have a ton of fun without his grumpy ass, anyways." Uraraka insisted. She looked over at Todoroki, suddenly feeling a little bad for excluding him, "Oh! If you wanna come, too, Todoroki that'd be fine! It actually might make things a little less awkward...it might take away from the double-date kinda vibe, though," she hummed, thoughtfully. Then, she tilted her head, “Did you ever patch things up with Inasa…? Maybe it could be a triple date!”

Todoroki looked to the side, “Um, not yet. He hasn’t reached out, and I don’t exactly think it’s my place to push any further. Anyways, I'll be away for a while that week. My mother and sister and I will be taking a vacation to visit her side of the family then, so I appreciate the invite but I'm afraid I won't be around to save you from the fate of a double date, Midoriya."

"Monsters" Midoriya hissed, but there wasn't any real anger or bitterness in his voice. He was used to his friends' antics at this point- and besides, it wasn't as though Uraraka had actually sent anything bad. It was just an invite to a totally casual, friendly affair. Not a love confession, not even a real date. Izuku fished out his key from the pocket of his coat as he hopped up the steps to the door of his apartment complex, opening it up and letting the others in before him. They quickly went up the two flights of stairs it took to get to their unit on the second floor.

When they entered his apartment, Izuku's mom greeted his two friends with loving hugs and offers of tea and cookies she'd baked yesterday, which they all politely accepted on their way to Izuku's bedroom.

Uraraka and Todoroki plopped themselves down on his bed while Izuku pulled up his desk chair and sat on it, cross-legged, balancing his phone on one knee. The three of them were partway into a discussion about what movie they should watch or what game they should play when Izuku's phone buzzed and the boy nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise.

"O-oh, it's Bakugou," he announced aloud, gingerly picking up the device and swiping the screen. Uraraka jumped off of the bed, reading over his shoulder while he opened the text. She seemed more excited than him- she had, after all, been rooting for Izuku to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend for years. She'd been visibly disappointed after his few dates with Todoroki had fizzled into just a friendship. It seemed even her dislike of Bakugou didn’t outweigh this.

Kacchan: With round face and frogger? Sure, I guess. Anything to get away from the old hag for a while. Where/when, nerd?

Uraraka scrunched up her nose, "Old hag? Who's that?" Todoroki sent them a curious look and Uraraka read the text aloud for him so he could have some context.

"Well- it's..." Izuku gave pause, knowing that Uraraka hated all of Bakugou's nicknames, "it's his mom. They've always had a very...tenuous relationship, so to speak," Izuku mused. He hadn't asked directly, nor had he seen Bakugou's mom since they were little, but even back then Bakugou had always been kind of a brat. To his credit, though, his mom also had a temper back then; it was incredibly clear which half of the family Bakugou got his personality from. It didn't seem much had changed, from what Izuku could gather between Bakugou's complaints and what he heard whenever Bakugou called back home and, now, this text.

"Oh, that's...pleasant as always," Uraraka said, sending Izuku a sideye, "you sure know how to pick 'em, don't you?"

Izuku sent Uraraka an equally exasperated look, "I don't have to explain myself to you.”

Uraraka quickly laughed and playfully pinched Izuku's freckled cheek, "well, whatever! He said yes! Our little Midoriya has a date!"

Izuku let out a small whine and gently smacked Uraraka's hand away, rubbing his cheek when she let him go, "It's not a date if the other party didn't even agree to it being a date, jeeze,” Izuku tried to explain, looking down at his phone and promising to send Bakugou the details later when they’d settled them all.

“Isn’t that the beauty of it?” Todoroki asked, smiling faintly, “If it goes well, then you can tell yourself it was a good first date and if it doesn’t, then you’re just friends who had a bad day. You really should be thanking Uraraka for this perfect setup.”

“I will do no such thing,” Izuku replied, finishing his text and glaring at Todoroki now, “In fact, I’ve decided that I get to pick the movie we watch because you were both so mean to me earlier.” Izuku stuck his tongue out at his friends and flipped open his laptop, pulling up his favorite movie: the 2010 remake of All Might. Hailed as one of the most inspired and critically acclaimed superhero movies of their generation, it had stirred somewhat of a cultural revolution and renewed the entire genre itself, almost single handedly.

Todoroki and Uraraka both groaned. Uraraka threw her arms into the air dramatically, “Izuku, you always make us watch this movie. Why do you think we banned you from choosing movies on squad nights?”

“If I have to suffer because of you, you both suffer for me. We’re watching it.”

“I got you a date! How ungrateful can you be!” She puffed her cheeks out, but in the end, they all ended up cuddled on Izuku’s bed, watching the tiny screen of his laptop as Izuku yelled and provided movie trivia they’d both heard a thousand times.

Kindly, the other two endured it.

For Izuku and his mother, the holidays were a small affair - they had a little gift exchange, made a nice meal, and otherwise spent the day just by themselves. It had been that way for as long as he could remember, with his mother trying her best to make his holidays special despite the fact that her side of the family lived far enough away to make travelling to them inconvenient. They’d managed it some years, but more often than not they were happy to stay home and relax.

His mother had told him that they used to visit his father’s family when he was really little, since they had been closer to their old home, but Izuku had no memory of it. He hardly had any memories of his father, to the point that he was sure he wouldn’t have known his face at all if it weren’t for some old photographs tucked away in a box he’d found years ago.

His holidays with his mom were comfortable and warm, and he couldn’t complain.

The days following, however, he felt like a nervous wreck.

He’d continued his on and off texting with Bakugou the whole time, idly chatting about dumb things that always managed to make him smile regardless. It still didn’t do much to calm his nerves. He knew it was stupid to be nervous about what was, by all means, just a hangout between some friends, but he found himself fretting over what clothes to wear a whole entire day ahead of time.

Bakugou was waiting for him at the train station on the day they’d planned to meet up, tapping the toe of his signature combat boots against the cement impatiently, his face half-buried in a huge orange scarf and hands dug into the pockets of his black winter jacket. He was scanning the area, clearly looking for someone-

“H-hey Kacchan!” Izuku called out, cupping his hand to his mouth. The other snapped his head to look over in his direction, nodding before he started over towards him.

“Jeez, space cadet, took ya long enough. I’ve been out here in the fuckin’ freezing cold for fifteen minutes. Your little hick town really can’t even get a heated train station?”

Izuku looked around at the station, if it could be called that- it was more or less a glorified bus shelter, with nothing but a small building that only had three walls and a roof hanging over the platform next to the rails.

It was a pretty small town.

Izuku shrugged but grinned at his roommate, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to make you wait,” Izuku looked at his phone for the time. He’d planned well enough, but Bakugou’s train must have gotten in a bit ahead of their scheduled arrival, “We can get going right away though! Uraraka and Tsu got coffee ahead of time, so they’re already near the arboretum. It’s a little bit of a walk, but...everything’s kind of a walk here, sorry about that.”

Bakugou let out a grunt, “yeah, yeah, ‘s fine. Never had some stupid cold stop me before.”

“That’s the spirit!” Izuku cheered, and he motioned for Bakugou to follow him down the sidewalk. He knew the general direction- it was just a bit past the downtown area of their little town.

It was quiet for a little while, which only served to make Izuku more nervous, so he started up a conversation to fill the silence. “So, uh, how’s your holiday been so far?”

“Being home kinda sucks,” Bakugou shrugged, “the old lady won’t get off my ass about finding a summer job already, so it’s been a real fuckin’ treasure.”

“Really? It’s not even the end of the year yet, I’m amazed she’s thinking that far ahead,” Izuku agreed, sensing how tense Bakugou was.

“No shit, nerd. You and me both. It’d be nice to get some goddamn breathing room sometime, y’know,” Bakugou rolled his eyes, “Fuckin’ vacation my ass.”

Izuku bit his lower lip nervously- he didn’t like the idea of starting their day together on such a sour note, so he attempted to change the subject, “Well....maybe today can be like a little vacation from your vacation? The arboretum is really nice, it’s owned by this small private university in our town- they specialize in agriculture! And don’t worry, we’re just going to see the indoor conservatory, it’s really pretty all year long, and, most importantly it’ll be warm! Did you know they have a really rare collection of orchids? I looked them up online last night, there’s some really interesting-”

Bakugou jabbed Izuku with his elbow, “Stop your muttering, nerd, you talk too much. At least wait till we get there to lecture me on orchards and shit.”

“Orchids, Kacchan. Though they probably also have orchards on campus, too.”

“Whatever. I don’t know shit about plants and I don’t, frankly, care very much.” Bakugou huffed, clearly a little annoyed at being corrected by Izuku.

“Oh?” Izuku felt a smile creep onto his lips, “Then why’d you agree to come?”

“Nothin’ better to do,” Bakugou’s answer was quick and short and muffled as he buried his face into the oversized scarf on his shoulders.

“Right,” Izuku agreed, feeling a slight bubbling of happiness lift away some of his nerves- if Kacchan really didn’t care about gardens, he must have had a different reason to come along, right? “Well, anyways, don’t worry- I don’t know a ton about plants, either, so we can be clueless together. Besides, Tsu is pretty much our resident biology and botany expert. She’s really good at that kind of stuff- she’ll be a great guide. I think she used to spend a lot of time there back in high school, actually…”

Izuku rambled on, finding small talk wasn’t as hard to come by during their walk as he had feared it might be. It was about a fifteen minute walk before they found the cafe on the tiny campus and met up with Tsu and Uraraka. From there, it was another shorter walk to the greenhouses. It was a small fee to get in, which Izuku offered to cover for Bakugou (it was met with reluctance, some bickering, and eventually Bakugou’s annoyed acceptance of Izuku’s generosity- only because Tsu nabbed the ten dollar bill from Izuku’s hands and gave it to the poor clerk who’d been watching their entire exchange with mild despair).

Inside, the greenhouses were warm and humid, and they all immediately shed their outer layers in the tropical atmosphere of the place. Tsu had a field day- she knew the place like the back of her hand, having volunteered there often through high school. Uraraka was enamoured, like always, by the way her girlfriend could rattle off plant names and fun facts at-will.

Unfortunately, after about ten minutes, Bakugou seemed more or less bored, and admittedly Izuku wasn’t exactly fascinated either. Tsu was certainly making the whole thing more interesting, but...they were still just kind of staring at plants, in the end.

It was painfully obvious this was a much better date spot for Tsu and Uraraka (not that he and Bakugou were on a date or anything), but Izuku was determined to find something that would make the experience entertaining if nothing else. He looked around the building, trying to find something-

“Oh! There’s a koi pond over there!” Izuku remarked, pointing down a path. At the end, there was clearly a small pond with a trickling waterfall running into it, covered in lily pads and flowers, dots of purple and white on the surface.

“So?” Bakugou said, arching an eyebrow and deflating Izuku’s excitement significantly.

“So...we can go feed them? They have little thing where if you put in a coin you get a little bit of food,” Izuku grinned, regardless of the fact that he was starting to feel terribly nervous. Maybe this whole thing had been a bad idea, after all-

Bakugou reached into his pocket, pulled his wallet out, and found two 50-yen coins. He balanced one of them on top of his thumb and flicked it in Izuku’s direction. He managed to react quick enough to fumble it in the air and eventually grab it. By the time he looked up, Bakugou was already walking down the path towards the little pond; Izuku sighed with relief and felt a little of the tension drain from his body. He jogged slightly to catch up with his friend.

At the pond, there was indeed a little machine where you could purchase a small amount of fish food- it was clearly meant for small children, since both of them had to bend down to use it and receive a few of the little pellets. Izuku squatted at the edge of the pond and waited to see if Bakugou would follow.

To his mild surprise, the other did. He balanced himself on the toes of his combat boots, staring down at the white, orange, and rusty red colors moving through the dark water silently. Still looking kind of bored, he tossed one of the pellets into the pond, and Izuku took it as a sign to do the same.

The tension returned full force as they were both silent for a moment. Granted, koi ponds were sort of meant to be silent, tranquil places for reflection. In general, gardens and arboretums didn’t exactly lend themselves to excitement, but Izuku was so high-strung about this whole thing that he felt like he needed to fill the silence.

“What do you think their names are?” he blurted out the first, stupid thing that came to his mind.

Bakugou laughed- harsh and mocking, “I don’t think they have fuckin’ names, Deku. They’re just fish.”

Izuku pouted, puffing his cheeks out slightly as he huffed, “Well, that’s not right. We should name them!”

“There’s, like, fifteen of ‘em in there and I dare you to tell me in earnest that you can tell any of them apart.”

“Oh, come on,” Izuku insisted, pointing at one of the fish swimming at the edge of the pond. It was medium-sized, mostly black with some orange spots, “That one is gonna be Kacchan, obviously.”

“What!?” Bakugou snarled, clearly offended at Izuku’s suggestion, “Why the fuck are you naming one of them after me?”

“Black and orange are your favorite colors!” Izuku explained, snickering at Bakugou’s misplaced anger and not at all surprised by it at this point.

The other glared at him, then quickly turned to glare at the water and study it for a moment, eyes darting from fish to fish. He jabbed his finger in the direction of the smallest koi in the pond, “Well that one’s Deku, you piece of shit!”

Izuku knew laughing was only going to make Bakugou angrier at him, but the absurdity of the situation was too much to handle. He really could get angry about anything, couldn’t he?

“I’m gonna fuckin’ push you into this god damn pond, Deku, I swear to god-”

“What are you two doing?” a voice floated behind them - it was Tsu - but it startled Izuku so badly he nearly did fall forward into the pond. Luckily, Bakugou had reaction time quicker than his heart and he’d reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Izuku’s shirt before he totally lost his balance. So much for pushing him into the pond, then.

Izuku quietly thanked his roommate, his face turning red with embarrassment.

“Deku wanted to feed the stupid fish,” Bakugou explained, refusing to comment on Izuku’s gratitude. Instead, he stood up from his crouched position and threw the rest of the fish food into the pond.

“Oh!” Tsu’s face lit up, “That sounds fun!” She commented, her face bright and amused. Izuku kindly handed her the rest of his own food pellets, letting her have all the fun she wanted with the task. Uraraka sighed softly, a smile on her lips. Her gaze lingered on Tsu for a moment, then she turned to Izuku and Bakugou.

“Tsu and I were going to go see the butterfly garden. Wanna come with, or are you two, um, good out here?” She asked, flashing Izuku a knowing look. He was grateful his cheeks were already tinged pink from earlier, otherwise they definitely would’ve been from her remark.

“Butterflies sound good,” Izuku agreed, quickly, before Bakugou could protest or question Uraraka’s statement.

“Great!” she chirped, and then went to take Tsu’s hand and guided her away from the pond and back to the path so that they could continue their date. Awkwardly, Bakugou and Izuku hung behind them until they were at the enclosed butterfly exhibit.

“I don’t need your fucking help, nerd,” Bakugou hissed, his eyes narrowed and nose scrunched up in clear anger, as though the vitriol in his voice wasn’t enough to indicate how angry he was. Izuku was honestly surprised the ice wasn’t melting around him from the sheer amount of seething the other was doing.

“You know, you could have told me you didn’t know how to ice skate, Kacchan,” Izuku hummed, holding out his hand only to have it slapped away for the eighteenth time that night.

After the arboretum, they’d moved on to a local park also located on the college’s campus- they always put up a pretty light display and opened part of the lake for ice skating if it was cold enough to freeze over. There was a little concession stand and a little place to rent skates, too- it was cheerful and full of holiday spirit.

Unlike the absolute ball of rage that was currently sitting on his ass by the edge of the lake, trying to calculate the best way to get up without relying on Izuku’s hand for help.

“Shut up,” Bakugou growled, shifting until he was on his knees, placing the palms of his gloved hands firm against the ice under him and using it to push himself up, unsteady and wobbly on the blades.

Izuku kept his hands up, ready to try and catch Bakugou if he fell over again, “This isn’t really the best place to start for a beginner, you know. We could have planned to do something else.” Izuku tutted, and- oh, if looks could kill, Izuku would have been stricken down on the spot.

“I said shut up!” The other insisted, raising his voice enough to get the attention of some of the other skaters. A couple holding hands glided past them, staring with no small amount of concern at Bakugou.

It’d been about thirty minutes now, and Bakugou had spent more of that time trying to get up than he had making any progress in learning. It absolutely didn’t help that he refused to take any pointers from Izuku, despite it being clear that the other knew what he was doing.

It was a regular wintertime activity for him and his friends back in highschool- Izuku had actually learned to skate his Freshman year, on this same exact pond. Except he had actually listened to Iida, who’d been skating since he was five. Surprisingly, the process wasn’t actually that bad if you held on to someone who was good at it and listened to them.

“Kacchan.” Izuku said, his voice frustrated as Bakugou hunched over, struggling to just keep himself still on the ice without his blades sliding around under him. At this point, if Bakugou was able to keep himself standing and balanced on the lake for any significant amount of time, it was going to be considered a victory.

“What?” he whispered, voice dripping with anger, but afraid to break his own concentration by speaking too loudly.

“Just hold on to me, it’ll make things so much easier if you take my arm.”

“Over my dead body,” he insisted, not even looking over in Izuku’s direction in favor of staring intently at his own feet.

Izuku felt his shoulders sag when he sighed, defeat settling into him. Bakugou was in one of his unreasonable moods. He’d donned the rental skates with confidence and subsequently fallen flat on his back all within about the span of five minutes and ever since then he’d been acting like a cat tossed into a bath; he was angry, fidgety, and absolutely refused to let Izuku get near him to help.

Izuku had known this whole “double-date” thing was probably a bad idea, but it was becoming increasingly clear just how bad it really was. With a huff, Izuku dug the toe of his skate’s blade into the ice, “Fine, Kacchan. If you wanna do this by yourself, I get it,” with a bit of unnecessary flourish, Izuku pushed himself backwards and gained a bit of momentum before spinning and turning around to skate in a forward direction again.

Izuku didn’t see the way Bakugou stared at him, mouth slightly agape. Instead, he simply heard a dull thud when Bakugou’s legs gave out, followed by a loud, long string of expletives that earned him the scorn of every parent on the ice that night.

Izuku couldn’t help but feel a little smug about that. He wasn’t even that good at skating, but it was kind of fun to have something that he was definitely better at than Bakugou. If someone had told a younger Izuku that there was something Bakugou couldn’t do, he wouldn’t have believed it for a second.

But older, current-day Izuku lapped Bakugou three times before he finally brought himself to a halt again in front of his roommate, who had managed to finally stand up straight and still. Izuku twirled himself in circles around the other, having a bit of fun showing off. He knew he was asking to get punched.

“Do you want to try moving now, Kacchan?”

“Fuck off.”

Izuku approached Bakugou from behind this time, since he always got batted away when he came in from the front. He grabbed his shoulders gently, and Izuku saw the way his body stiffened. Bakugou twisted slightly, but faltered when his left foot slid forward without his consent. He wasn’t quite balanced enough yet to both stay on his feet and turn around to shove Izuku away. Bakugou quickly decided that staying balanced took priority over punching Izuku’s lights out, and for that Izuku was grateful- it gave him a window to try and help Bakugou.

“Your stance is really poor,” Izuku commented, getting only an angry grunt in response. He ignored it in favor of pulling Bakugou’s shoulders back towards him slightly. He moved his hand down to press at Bakugou’s lower back with the goal of straightening his spine out so he wouldn’t be so hunched over.

Now, the noise Bakugou made in response to that was interesting- kind of a surprised gasp, totally innocent in context, but it still made Izuku hesitate for a moment.

It was kind of cute, actually. Had the tips of Bakugou’s ears been red this whole time?

“Uh, you should bend your knees more too,” Izuku piped up, clearing his throat. Surprisingly, Bakugou listened without backtalk and did as instructed, bending his knees slightly to relax into the pose, “and keep your feet parallel for now. Just while you’re trying to balance...about shoulder-width apart or a bit less is good.”

When Bakugou seemed steady enough, Izuku removed his hands and let the other stand there, unmoving but more well balanced than he had been all night. After almost a full fifteen seconds of not wobbling or sliding around, the other let out a small victory cry and flung his arms into the air.

The momentum immediately made him stumble backwards, directly into Izuku. Izuku let out a squeak of surprise and tried to steady both of them by digging his blades into the ice and bracing himself against the pond, but Bakugou just barely surpassed him in height and mass, so it was a fruitless effort.They both toppled to the ground, Izuku cushioning Bakugou’s fall as he landed square in his lap.

Bakugou was quick to get off of him, scrambling a bit on the ice, face bright red with what Izuku assumed was embarrassment at having fallen over again.

Instead of being angry, Izuku grinned and put his arms up in the air too, “Woo! Kacchan did it!”

The other’s face went from looking surprised to looking confused, and then to looking smug, “Ha! Of course I did it! I bet it took you weeks to be able to stand on the ice when you were learning, dweeb.”

Izuku gave his roommate an exasperated look and then fell onto his back, letting himself rest against the cool ice, slightly out of breath from both skating around and the fall, “Yeah, whatever you say, Kacchan.”

“I’m gonna master moving around next, and I’m gonna kick your ass in a race within the hour, mark my fucking words!” Izuku didn’t have to look at Bakugou to know his eyes were burning with that intense competitive drive he always got whether or not a challenge had even been issued.

“I’m gonna go get some nachos.” Izuku echoed, his voice meek. Being with Bakugou was exhausting, he thought.

Bakugou was quiet for a moment, catching his own breath from all the yelling. His grin died down into something more tame.

“Nachos sound good, too.”

Izuku sat up quickly before he could lose motivation. Expertly, he stood up from the ice and found his own balance with ease. Bakugou took a little longer to get back into his standing position. Without waiting for permission, Izuku grabbed his arm and pulled him forward a few feet until they were at solid ground again- otherwise it might have taken Bakugou five minutes to get to solid ground by himself. The frozen ground was a lot easier to move on. Sure, they had to stomp around when they walked and it looked a bit funny and stilted, but their belongings weren’t far away (Bakugou hadn’t actually managed to get very far from where they’d started).

Tsu and Uraraka saw them taking their leave of the ice and glided over, hand in hand, to join them in grabbing a bite to eat.

Izuku and Tsu were the first to get their normal snow boots back on, so they both volunteered to go get food for the group, leaving Bakugou and Uraraka alone on the park bench. Bakugou watched the two intently as they got further away, waiting until they were out of earshot to speak up.

“So, round face,” Uraraka flinched slightly at the nickname, but didn’t comment on it, “Which one of you invited me out here, anyways? Was it you or frogger?”

Uraraka was clearly thrown off by the question. She laughed, a nervous lilt to the soft sound, “What? What’re you talking about, Bakugou?”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about- that, just now. You called me Bakugou.”

“That’s your name, duh.” She offered, furrowing her brows in confusion, “You know, normal people do call each other by their names. Maybe you could learn a thing or two from me.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest, “Not what I meant. In Deku’s text asking me to come, he called me Bakugou. I haven’t heard him say my real name since we were...Well, now that I think about it, I’m not sure I ever have heard him say my real name.”

Uraraka laughed again, just as nervous as earlier. She was avoiding eye contact by fiddling with her snow boots, “Um, what text? I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

“You’re the worst liar I’ve ever fuckin’ seen.” He glanced over at her for a moment and she refused to look up at him, “It was you, then, wasn’t it?”

“No! It was all Midoriya’s idea! I really don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Right. So, why’d you ask me to come?”

Uraraka sighed in defeat, since it seemed Bakugou really wasn’t buying it. She kicked at some of the snow under her boot. She was debating internally on what to tell Bakugou- the truth wasn’t exactly an option. Stealing Izuku’s phone to send a harmless, innocent text was one thing, but telling Bakugou that Izuku might like him was crossing a very visible line that she wasn’t willing to cross. It wasn’t her place to let Bakugou know about that.

She shrugged a bit, “I don’t know. I think it’s nice seeing you two get along, I guess, after everything that-”

Uraraka covered her mouth quickly to stop herself from talking, but it was too late. To her surprise, Bakugou was fairly calm. The only hint of anger on his face was the twitch of his lips, tugging downward into a frown.

“So he has told you about me and everything I did when we were little. Figures. Crybaby can’t keep a secret to save his life.” Bakugou had suspected as much since he’d first met Uraraka, figuring there had to be some reason she’d disliked him so much right off the bat.

“I shouldn’t have said anything, but it wasn’t really a secret, Bakugou. He had a right to tell me about it. You kind of treated him like shit back then, from what I heard. But now… it seems like you might at least be attempting to be better. You act all huffy and angry, but...” Uraraka sighed, pausing to choose her words carefully. It was a bit of a fragile situation.

“But…?”

“But you...want to make amends, right? You don’t really hate him, that much I can tell. I can’t speak for who you used to be, but who you are now is clearly trying to make things right. You wouldn’t have come otherwise.”

Bakugou didn’t look at her, choosing to stare straight ahead at the lights in the distance.

“...And for what it’s worth, he definitely doesn’t hate you.”

At that, Bakugou finally turned to face her, eyes widened almost imperceptibly with surprise.

“He doesn’t hate you, because I don’t think Midoriya is capable of hating anyone. I, however, am perfectly capable of it.”

Bakugou narrowed his eyes in confusion, “Huh?”

Uraraka smiled, a fake sweetness hiding behind it as she stared up at him with her big, brown eyes, “I’ve been training in martial arts since I was ten. I’m proficient in three different styles, including Muay Thai, and if I ever catch wind of you hurting him again I won’t hesitate to kick your ass so hard that you won’t be able to sit down for a week. Got it? He’s my best friend and the kindest, most big-hearted person I know, and you’re already on thin ice. No pun intended.”

Moments later Izuku and Tsu announced their triumphant return, carrying drinks and hot food- mostly just a couple plates of nachos to share with some sodas. Bakugou was still gawking at Uraraka as Izuku plopped down next to him on the park bench. Startled out of his stupor, Bakugou turned to the other, who was happily holding out a gigantic soft drink with two straws stuck into the cup for them to share. Izuku assumed he looked distressed because of the straw situation.

“Oh, um, it was cheaper to just get two big drinks rather than four smalls. Hope you don’t mind too much?” Izuku said, suddenly looking concerned that he’d made the wrong decision.

Bakugou glanced back over at Uraraka who was now laughing again, all genuine smiles and sweet, flirty conversation- a total 180 from her previous threats. He snapped his attention back to Izuku and grabbed the drink from him, angrily sucking down some of the soda before shoving it back into Izuku’s hands.

“You feeling okay?” Izuku asked, looking suddenly worried. After a moment, he got a bit panicked, “You’re not still mad about falling a bunch, are you? Honestly, you did really well, Kacchan! Most people learn how to skate in a rink for their first time, since the ice is even and there’s something to hold on to, but it’s so much harder on a natural water source! But that just means it’s even cooler that you’re making progress!”

Izuku was being earnest- he really was proud of Bakugou for his determination, despite his stubbornness. A lot of people would have given up entirely and waited to try again under better circumstances, but Bakugou had never been one to quit anything. It was part of the reason Izuku had always admired him so much, and he supposed that wasn’t going to change any time soon.

Bakugou made a small “tch” noise and stole a couple nachos from the plate before they could start getting cold, “I’m gonna beat you in a race by the end of the night or my name isn’t fuckin’ Katsuki Bakugou. Just ‘cause you got a head start doesn’t mean I can’t still whoop your ass.”

Izuku swallowed down his own bite of food and smiled, eyes glinting with a fire of competition, “Oh yeah? I’d love to see you try and beat me, jello legs.”

“Jello legs!?” Bakugou sputtered

“You heard me!” Izuku yelled, laughing and chowing down on more of the food. As soon as they’d both shoveled the nachos into their mouths, they were both tugging their skates back on, hyping each other up with their playful trash-talking.

“Oh, I’m gonna make you eat your words, you little shit!” Bakugou tugged at the laces, tying them tight up around his ankles. Izuku was doing the same, still chewing the last of his food.

“Bring it on, Kacchan!”

Bakugou seemed to entirely forget that he still had no idea how to actually skate- spurred on by competition and aggravation alone. On the ice, he was just as shaky as before and instantly grabbed Izuku’s shoulders, yelling in his face, “Fuckin teach me how to skate so I can kick your damn nerd ass!”

Izuku blinked at Bakugou before he registered what he’d just asked him to do- he laughed and steadied the both of them by lightly taking Bakugou’s arms in his hands and helping him balance. Once Bakugou was back to being steady on his skates, Izuku demonstrated the proper way to move his feet on the ice, how to shift his weight, how to have the correct posture, and how to stop when needed.

Tsu and Uraraka watched the two of them from afar, still happily chewing on their nachos.

“They’ve got a weird thing going on, huh?” Tsu said, leaning on Uraraka’s shoulder for some warmth.

Uraraka smiled, looking just a touch worried, “...I think they’ll figure it out.”

Chapter Text

Izuku found that the break both went much too slowly, and much faster than he wanted. About two weeks into it, he started getting antsy- the loss of structure and the sudden surplus of free time was disastrous for his sleep schedule and workout regime (at least until Iida was back in town from visiting his family for the holidays). Izuku filled most of his days with helping his mother run errands, hanging out with his high school friends, and talking to Bakugou.

They talked a lot, actually, and met up a few more times over the break- Izuku hadn’t even needed Uraraka to push him.

It was nice. Izuku couldn’t help but feel like a weight in his chest was lifted whenever he was out with his roommate- briefly, his anxieties and worries could be forgotten whenever he would see Bakugou’s lips briefly upturn with laughter, or when their hands would accidentally brush as they walked down a sidewalk together.

The worry always came rushing back to him like air to nearly drowned lungs, however, when he got home and slumped against his shut bedroom door. He would slide to the floor holding his head in his hands, torn between the giddy, heady allure of a crush and the suffocating fear and uncertainty of how Bakugou felt in return combined with the muddy soulmark issue.

The soulmark issue was perhaps the biggest point of contention- Izuku had made an informal promise to himself years ago that he wouldn’t fall for anyone who had a soulmark that was still counting down. It couldn’t possibly end well for him, and he knew it. Bakugou made it so easy to break his promise, and that was scary.

It was possibly the wildest roller coaster of emotions Izuku had been on since he was younger. He was a decently level-headed person, he liked to think. He was logical, straightforward and honest with others, but all of that was difficult with Bakugou. For years, he’d felt like he was walking on eggshells around him and suddenly they were gone. Suddenly, Bakugou had been dropped back into his life, and while the initial adjustment had been kind of rough, he was more than comfortable around him at this point.

They’d spent New Year’s Eve together, pleasantly sipping shitty champagne that Izuku had to mix with orange juice to make palatable while playing Mario Party on Sero’s old Nintendo 64 that he’d brought to the apartment he shared with Ashido, Kaminari and Kirishima. They watched some news coverage of the countdown, and if only Izuku had let himself have more of that terrible champagne, he might have accidentally dragged Bakugou into a kiss when the clock hit midnight.

It was enough just to start the new year with Bakugou at his side again, their shoulders brushing amicably as they all toasted and downed the last of the contents of their plastic champagne flutes.

It was enough to just be back in Bakugou’s life, he told himself then, the slight buzz of alcohol disagreeing. But the more anxious part of Izuku that was scared of losing Bakugou for a second time was stronger than the meager amount of alcohol in his system, and so he kept his mouth shut.

They were all back in school for their second semester quicker than Izuku could have imagined.

The first night back in the dorms Izuku flopped himself down onto Bakugou’s bed, laptop open to his new schedule for the semester, “Okay, Kacchan, I’m not making the same mistake as last semester. Do we have any classes together?”

Bakugou gave a grunt of disapproval as Izuku invited himself on to his bed to set himself up at his side so that they could compare their schedules. Bakugou clicked off of whatever video he’d been watching and begrudgingly opened his calendar app instead.

After a moment, Bakugou reached over and tapped on Izuku’s screen, “Chem 102 and...Oh, you got stuck in that dumb writing workshop too, huh?”

“Yeah. It’s a core requirement, I figured it’s better to get it out of the way sooner rather than later. That’s what the advisor suggested anyways.” Izuku shrugged. It seemed like they were taking some other similar lectures, but at different times of the day so they weren’t in them together. He leaned in a little closer to inspect Bakugou’s calendar, “You’re taking another art class? Figure drawing?”

“Mm-hmm. What of it?” Bakugou asked, sounding defensive.

Bakugou had kind of brushed off the photography class as just being something to fulfill his requirements. He had taken it very seriously and gotten A’s on all of his projects (including the shot from the night he’d asked Izuku to model for him. Izuku currently had that image as his profile picture everywhere, despite all of Bakugou’s bitching at him and all of Uraraka’s teasing). However, Izuku had sort of assumed that would be the end of it. Bakugou wasn’t exactly the artsy type back in elementary and middle school.

“N-nothing, I just...didn’t know you liked to draw.” Izuku explained.

Bakugou let out a sigh, looking away from his roommate, “I don’t. I mean, I guess I like it. The photography professor suggested it, and it’ll finish up the last three arts and humanities credits I need. I don’t know, I’m just giving it a try.”

There was a tinge of something unfamiliar in Bakugou’s voice that Izuku recognized as uncertainty. It was something foreign and sour on Bakugou’s tongue, but Izuku himself wasn’t a stranger to insecurity.

“I wouldn’t worry, Kacchan. You’ve always been amazing at all the new stuff you try.”

Instantly, the other bristled and leapt from the moment of vulnerability like a startled cat, “Duh! Of course I’m gonna be amazing. I don’t need a dork like you to tell me that.”

Izuku laughed at the sudden change of disposition and turned their attention elsewhere, tapping on the screen of Bakugou’s laptop, “Oh, hey! We both have our Fridays off!”

“I took Fridays off so I can work.”

Izuku’s eyes widened slightly and he looked at his roommate, questioning, “Work?”

Bakugou’s mouth turned down into a snarl, “Yeah. The witch doesn’t wanna pay for my food any more, so I applied for a work-study. Guess I can’t be too pissy; She and my old man are still paying for my room and board, so, whatever.”

“Oh,” Izuku said, kind of surprised Bakugou hadn’t brought it up before now, “Where at…?”

“The school gym. Kirishima’s got a gig as a personal trainer there. He said the position at the front desk is easy and I can just do my homework when it’s slow, so it seemed ideal. He recommended me so I got in, no problem. Not that I needed that idiot’s help.”

Izuku let out a small laugh, “Oh, I guess I’ll have to start going to the gym more often! I usually like running outside, but it is pretty cold outside these days.”

Bakugou closed his laptop with a clack and pushed it aside, “Yeah, you could stand to build some muscle.” Bakugou turned and grabbed Izuku’s elbow, lifting his arm and feeling his biceps. Izuku wasn’t a wimp by any means, but his leg muscles were more defined than his arms given his history in track and field.

Blush creeping high on his cheeks, Izuku tugged his arm free and gently punched Bakugou’s shoulder, “Well, gee, not all of us like getting up at 6 in the morning to go lift weights!”

“Clearly, Mr. Never-Text-Back-Until-Noon,” Bakugou teased, glancing at Izuku’s calendar, “You have a 9 am lecture tomorrow- you sure you’re gonna make it?”

“I am not the weird one here, Kacchan. It’s way weirder to go to bed at, like, 10 pm at our age.”

“No way.”

“Ask the group chat! They’ll agree with me!” Izuku implored, huffing slightly.

Bakugou scoffed and flicked Izuku’s nose, watching with amusement as the other brought his hands up to cover his face and made a whining noise, “Like I really care what those idiots think is normal or not. Kaminari used to think sticking his fingers in electrical sockets was fun when he was little and Sero collects washi tape as a legitimate hobby.”

“Kaminari used to do what?”

Bakugou ignored the question, “I want to go get dinner.”

Izuku let that slide, deciding he wasn’t going to get any more information from Bakugou at the moment. He could ask Ashido later, anyways. Right now, he felt his heart skip a beat and removed his hands from his face, “Together?”

“Yeah, I don’t wanna cook. Swipe me in to the cafeteria?” Bakugou asked, pushing himself off of his bed. Izuku followed, a smile plastered to his face.

“Of course, freeloader.”

“Oh, shut up, you said you didn’t even finish all of the meals loaded on your card last semester. I’m helping you out so you’re not wasting money.”

Izuku pouted, “You better show me some respect or I’ll let you starve.”

Bakugou tugged on his winter jacket, “As if. You’re too much of a bleeding heart to refuse me anything.”

Izuku hated how right Bakugou was. He sighed and pulled on a warm hoodie and his hat and gloves. He grabbed his ID card and his keys before he flicked the lightswitch off and the two of them made their way to the elevators.

Outside, the wind was harsher and more biting that Izuku could have guessed. He grabbed Bakugou’s arm and retreated into the warmth that always radiated off of him like a heater.

Bakugou grumbled, but let him. Izuku had to admit he felt warmed by more than just Bakugou’s incessantly high body temperature.

“A toast to our first party of the new year, y’all!” Ashido screamed, lifting her glass into the air so quickly that some of her drink sloshed out and splattered on the floor, splashing up on Izuku’s sneakers. He looked down, briefly distracted, but Kaminari elbowed him and downed his drink, wordlessly urging Izuku to join in the cheers.

With a small grin, Izuku followed suit and downed what was left in his cup- some vodka cranberry mix that Tsu had made for both her girlfriend and him.

It was his second one, an hour into the party, and that wasn’t including the pregaming they’d done earlier at Ashido and the others’ apartment.

It had actually been a while since they’d all (well, almost all) managed to go out together, so their “first party of the new year” had landed them solidly in the middle of February, on a freezing Thursday night. They’d all had badly synced schedules this semester, so finding time to hang out together hadn’t been easy. Izuku was grateful for the time to relax away from his studies.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t truly all of them- since Bakugou had work in the morning on Fridays, he’d refused the invite. That had admittedly taken away some of the usual giddiness that followed on the heels of Izuku’s fruity cocktails. It was also probably part of the reason he was drinking more than he usually allowed himself, despite Iida’s disapproving looks and pointed explanations about how long the body takes to metabolize alcohol.

The funny thing about alcohol really, though, was that Izuku was finding it harder and harder to care about consequences the more he drank. Bakugou wasn’t here to make bad decisions with, so he figured it hardly mattered.

Another hour longer into the night, Todoroki grabbed his arm and dragged him out into the bracing cold of the night. The rickety wraparound porch was mostly littered with people taking smoke breaks since they were the only ones desperate enough to stand out in the cold, and the sudden assault on Izuku’s senses was enough to sober him up a little.

He could barely hear what Todoroki was saying- the porch was quiet compared to the interior of the frat house, but his ear drums hadn’t gotten the memo yet. Everything sounded muffled, like there was a fresh powder of snow piled on the world around him.

Izuku squinted at his friend, as though that would help him hear better. Drinking could make a fool of the most logical people.

He caught what Todoroki was saying on the third try, when he finally leaned in and spoke into his ear: “Yoarashi’s here and I need you to hide me.”

“Hide you…?” Izuku mused, gears turning in his brain, “Why? Don’t you want to talk to him?”

“Yes,” Todoroki hissed, “but not now, Midoriya. I’m not as drunk as you, but even so I don’t think this is the best venue to...run into him, so to speak.”

Izuku, under better circumstances, would have agreed. A house party was not ideal for hashing out old grudges and soulmark issues from childhood.

But under the current circumstances, Izuku grasped Todoroki’s hand in both of his and looked at him, bleary-eyed and sincere, “We need to go find him, together. You should tell him how you feel.”

“H-how I feel?” Todoroki looked slightly taken aback, his generally stoic face betraying his sudden worry. It was clear he was regretting his choice to ask Izuku for help.

“Yes! You guys...you’re soulmates! Soulmates are meant for each other. You need to talk to Yoarashi! You need to explain why you acted the way you did!” Izuku squeezed Todoroki’s hand harder. He didn’t realize he was practically shouting, “You- you should tell him about your family, your history, everything- including why you ran.”

“This was a mistake,” Todoroki grimaced somewhat, looking between his hand that was currently being crushed and the distraught face of a very emotional Izuku. Then, he locked eyes with something behind Izuku. Izuku did not notice this.

“No! No, no, no! Not a mistake!” Izuku shook his head imploringly, “This is...this is a good opportunity! Here- let’s go find Yoarashi right now.” Izuku tugged on Todoroki’s wrist and backed up towards the front door of the house with the intent of dragging him, but the other kept his feet firmly planted on the ground and did not budge.

“Come on Todoroki! I’m sure it’ll make things better if you just- oof” Izuku let out a little huff as he took a step backwards and bumped into something solid. For a moment he thought it might have been the side of the house that had just snuck up on him, but then something grabbed his shoulder and steadied him. He whipped his head around and came face to face with Yoarashi.

Well, not exactly face to face- with their height difference, it was more like face to chest. Izuku looked up at him and grinned, “Oh! Yoarashi! I was just going to try and find you- well, we both were!”

“I know, Midoriya. You’re being very loud out here.”

Behind Izuku, Todoroki buried his face in his hands, clearly embarrassed by how badly his plan had backfired. Izuku himself didn’t seem to notice any tension in the air, but bit his lower lip and had enough sensibility to look sheepish, “Oh, sorry. I wasn’t trying to be loud. I can’t hear myself too well after being around those speakers in the basement, yknow?”

Todoroki spoke up quickly, “I’m sorry, Yoarashi, I didn’t mean to involve you-”

“It’s fine, Todoroki. I think talking might be a good idea, actually. Meet me in the kitchen for another drink?” He smiled, but it wasn’t as intense as his usual wild grin. It was softer, more tentative and wary.

Todoroki stared for a moment, but found he couldn’t refuse. This wasn’t how he had planned for things to happen, but...Yoarashi was reaching out. It might be his only chance to offer an apology and an explanation. So he nodded, and Izuku got a happy, prideful look on his face as though he’d been the one to set up the meeting between them.

“I’ll meet you in the kitchen in a moment, I promise. I just want to make sure Izuku gets inside and is in someone else’s line of sight before I leave him,” Todoroki spoke, his words of false concern disguising the venomous tone behind them. Izuku was too drunk to notice.

Yoarashi still seemed skeptical, but he agreed nonetheless and went back into the house, door shutting behind him. Immediately, Todoroki asked if he could borrow Izuku’s phone.

Izuku blinked at him but didn’t think anything of it, “Uh, yeah, gimme a sec,” he reached into his back pocket for his mobile, unlocking it before handing it off to his friend, “Did yours die or something?”

“No,” Todoroki said, calmly. He scrolled through Izuku’s contacts and promptly tapped the call button next to ‘Kacchan’, waiting until the call connected before handing it back to Izuku.

Izuku stared down at the screen blankly, brain too addled to understand what Todoroki was doing. He furrowed his brows and looked at his friend, “What?”

“You have someone you should probably talk to, too, don’t you? Maybe you should tell him how you feel. Good luck.” Todoroki explained. Satisfied with his petty revenge, he pushed past Izuku and went back into the house to make good on his promise to meet Yoarashi in the kitchen.

Izuku’s brain clicked into high gear, realizing that he was calling Bakugou- it was past midnight, and it would definitely be waking his roommate up. He frantically tried to tap the bright red end call button that was calling to him like a beacon, but it was too late.

What was it with Todoroki and stealing his phone to torture him?

On the other end of the line there was a groggy voice, “You’d better be fucking dying in a ditch somewhere, Deku, I swear to god.”

Oh, god, he sounded so angry and so attractive when his voice was like that- lowered an octave and gravelly with sleep. Izuku felt his throat go dry, mouth opening but no words coming out.

“Hello? Deku?” there was a tinge of concern in the way he said the nickname, but then there was a low growl, “For fuck’s sake, if this is a fucking butt-dial, I will kick your ass so hard-”

“S-sorry Kacchan!” Izuku squeaked, suddenly finding enough of his voice to say something.

“Oh, good. You are alive. That means I can kill you after my shift tomorrow. My 7 AM shift. Start talking, nerd.”

Shit.

Izuku didn’t have a reason for calling Bakugou- he hadn’t even been the one to do it, but now that he had Bakugou on the other end of the line he desperately didn’t want to lose him. He’d been pretty successfully ignoring how much he wished Bakugou was here with him for the entirety of the party, but hearing his voice had ignited some kind of flame in him. Alcohol was highly flammable, after all.

“I, um, I just...wanted to talk?”

Oh no. Abort, abort, abort. That sounded so stupid.

“It’s fucking-” Izuku heard some shuffling on the other end of the phone. Bakugou was definitely shifting in bed to see his alarm clock. “It’s fucking 12:18 AM, and you called me to talk.”

“Yes?”

“Good night, Deku.”

“Wait!” He exclaimed before he could stop himself, and then said the first thing that came into his head, “I...miss you?” Izuku tried again, wincing slightly at his own words.

“...Excuse me?” Bakugou asked, sounding exasperated, that handsome grit to his voice intensifying with his anger, “I saw you before you left for the party, Deku. That was, like, four hours ago. What the hell is up with you?”

“I mean, uh...I mean,” Izuku paused and took in a sharp breath as the wind picked up around him, reminding him that he was still out on the porch in the freezing cold in only a t-shirt and a flannel, “What I mean is, it’s not the same here without you.”

Sober Izuku was going to drown drunk Izuku in the morning before Bakugou would even get a chance to lay a finger on him.

There was a moment of silence on the other end, and then some more shuffling. Bakugou let out a soft groan as he settled back into bed, and the sound did things to Izuku.

“Christ, man, how drunk are you?”

“Three vodka cranberries and a few shots?”

There was a smile to Bakugou’s voice, “tsk, tsk. How irresponsible.”

“I’ve seen you drink more than that in a night, don’t chastise me!” Izuku balked, happy that he wasn’t being chewed out for a moment.

“Yeah, well, I hold my liquor a lot better than you.”

“That’s-!” Izuku was going to protest that it wasn’t true, but it was hard to deny that Bakugou could drink him under the table. They’d actually had a drinking contest one night at a particularly rowdy party in this very same house, and it had ended miserably with Izuku spending a good portion of the night sick in the bathroom and Bakugou with the worst hangover he’d ever had in the morning.

They’d never competed again, but Bakugou still knew that even a grim victory was a victory.

Izuku huffed instead of finishing his sentence, and Bakugou barked out a sharp laugh, “So, what- you want me to call you an uber or something, idiot? I’d like to get back to bed, so what the fuck did you actually call me for?”

Izuku didn’t have an answer to that, considering Todoroki had been the one who had called Bakugou, technically speaking.

“You should come out,” Izuku said, honesty leaping from him again. He wanted to shut up but he couldn’t, “It’s not that late!”

“...I have work at 7.”

“So? We’re young!” Izuku reasoned, knowing fully that he sounded unreasonable.

“Right. I’m gonna call Kirishima and make sure he does get you an uber. You’re delusional.”

“Nooo,” Izuku whined again, “I don’t want an uber, I’m fine! I just want you to come out and have fun!”

“Deku. I’m not fucking getting out of bed, getting dressed, and going to a house party to get plastered tonight. I’m going to sleep, and then I’m going to wake up and go to work tomorrow. Got it? Good night, nerd.”

“But Kacchan-” Izuku heard a little click noise, and then dead silence on the other end. Bakugou had hung up on him! Izuku, with unjustified idignance, glowered at his phone and managed to tap the green call button again.

Ring, ring-

“Deku, what the fuck. Go back to the party, you little shit.”

“No.”

“Okay, then fucking come back to the dorm, I don’t give a damn, but leave me out of this.”

Bakugou hung up again.

Izuku pressed the green call button again.

Bakugou didn’t pick up, so Izuku tried twice more and-

“I swear to fucking god-” Bakugou started, that same low growl in his voice again- this time it was all anger, no sleepiness.

It was still just as attractive. Izuku pouted, cheek pressed against the glass of his phone screen as he interrupted him, “I’m gonna keep calling till you come get me.”

“Why the hell did you even go out if all you wanted to do was get wasted, drunk dial me, and then annoy me till I’m truly, genuinely tempted to hunt you down and kick your ass for disrupting my sleep schedule?” Bakugou asked, sounding somewhat exasperated.

Izuku sucked in a breath, cold air hurting his lungs as he mustered up some unwarranted bravery, “I want you to take me home.”

There was a sound like someone choking on the other end, followed by a higher-pitched, “Wh-what!?”

“Take me home,” Izuku repeated, with the kind of confidence only a man who’d probably had about six shots over the past couple hours could be capable of.

“Y-you have no idea what you’re saying, do you?” Bakugou replied, voice faltering for a moment. Izuku was in tune enough to recognize it, and felt a swell of pride in his chest at being able to make his unbreakable roommate stumble for even a second.

Izuku leaned against the balcony, glancing back towards the door of the house. He could feel the thrum of the bassline for whatever party song was playing through his feet. His friends were all inside, still, dancing and having fun and drinking. He still needed to catch up with Todoroki later. Izuku was free all day tomorrow, could stay out as long as he wanted, drink as much as he wanted. There was absolutely no reason to leave early- theoretically, everything and everyone he needed to have a good time was about 10 feet away, but with Bakugou on the other end of the line all he wanted to do right now was see him. It was kind of frightening, to feel so elated at just his voice.

“I know exactly what I’m saying, Kacchan.” Izuku replied with certainty.

Bakugou was quiet for a moment, and Izuku could practically hear the gears in his mind turning as he thought through his current options. Finally, with a deep sigh, “Where are you, nerd?”

“Remember the house where we had that drinking competition?”

“How could I forget.”

“I’ll see you soon, then?”

“Yeah, yeah. But I’m just coming over to drag your sloppy ass back to the dorms, got it? You’ve clearly lost your mind, so don’t try to rope me into anything.”

“Mm-hmm,” Izuku agreed, humming pleasantly and picking at some of the peeling paint on the old wooden railing that lined the porch, “you're the best, Kacchan” he added, with a sing-song tone to his voice.

“you're damn right I'm the best,” Bakugou agreed, sounding a good mix of annoyed and proud, “and you fuckin’ owe me, space cadet.” Izuku smiled into the receiver as the other hung up.

Several blocks away, about a fifteen minute walk from the house party, Bakugou sat up in bed, his head in his hands, face burning red and his phone flung at the foot of his bed. He couldn’t understand why his heart was beating so fast, or why he’d agreed to any of this, but he flung the blankets off of himself so he could get dressed.

Back at the house party, Izuku was feeling a similar sense of oncoming panic as his brain caught up to the terrible, horrible mistake he'd just made.

He'd drunk-dialed Kacchan. Literally the last person he should have been left alone to talk with while under the influence, and he'd just fucking drunk-dialed him and hit on him and…

And it had worked?

Izuku felt his grip tighten on the railing of the porch, and swallowed hard. Despite the bone-chilling cold, he suddenly felt way too warm and dizzy. Why on Earth had he said all of those things to Bakugou? More importantly, how on Earth had it actually worked!?

Then, there was the doubt that washed over him, coating the anxious, giddy feeling of booze and success. His mind was trying to rationalize the scenario again. Maybe it hadn't worked; Bakugou had sounded kind of pissed (when didn't he, though?) over the phone, and maybe he really was just coming over to kick his ass for being annoying.

Would Bakugou really get out of his warm bed, get dressed, and walk in the cold for fifteen minutes just to yell at him in person?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question was a resounding "probably".

There was a small satisfaction in knowing that for anyone else the answer would be "no", but Izuku was a special case. He'd always been a special case. Bakugou had done everything in his power to go out of his way and torment him as children, so the idea wasn't foreign and that gnawing doubt was the crux of his panic.

He could tell his thoughts were spiralling and it wasn't going to get him anywhere, so he shook his head as though to clear it, and looked at the time on his phone. He estimated he had about 25 minutes or so before Bakugou would get here if he really did show up, so he decided to find someone- anyone- to talk to.

He just so happened to run into Iida first. The taller man was having a conversation with a group of people Izuku had never seen before. Without his usual politeness or even an explanation, Izuku grabbed Iida’s shoulders and steered him away from the small group. Izuku entirely ignored the confused protests and barrelled through the crowd until he'd found a more secluded corner to talk to his friend in.

"Midoriya, what has posessed you to be so rude? Are you okay? You look like you might be sick, how much more have you had to drink?" Iida asked, a mix of indignant and concerned. He pressed his hand to Izuku's forehead.

Izuku launched into talking, "Kacchan is going to be here in, like, 20 minutes and I'm going to die."

"Bakugou? He has work in the morning, doesn't he? Why the change of heart?" Iida asked.

"Because my stupid ass called him," Izuku explained, leaving out the whole interaction with Todoroki for simplicity's sake, "and asked him to come out."

Iida's eyebrows raised, eyes widening visibly. Then, his lips twitched into a knowing smile, "isn't that good, Midoriya...?"

Izuku groaned. Of course Iida already knew about his crush; Uraraka was always way too excited to share this kind of gossip. He just hoped she'd kept it to Tsu and Iida only.

"No, it's not. Well, maybe it is. I don't know. I called him like three times before he agreed so I think he might be mad at me."

Iida's smile turned into a contemplative look, "Hm, that would be unfortunate. I doubt he's that angry about it, though, otherwise he wouldn't be trekking all this way. He could have just blocked your number. He doesn't seem the type to shy away from extremes, after all."

Izuku grimaced, but admitted internally that Iida was probably right, "I guess so, but that’s kind of the whole reason I’m worried."

"Well, you must have said something to convince him to come out."

Izuku's face went red, "I, uh, might have asked him to come take me home. And I don't know if my flirting worked or if he's going to throw my body in the river. I need guidance."

"Ah," Iida agreed, with a small hum of sympathy, "perhaps you should find Kirishima. Out of the rest of us, he seems the most able to navigate Bakugou's emotional outbursts."

Izuku was frustrated that his friend didn't have any better advice, but it wasn't as though he should have expected much- Iida was a great friend, but he wasn't exactly close to Bakugou in any way. The two of them had hardly spent any time together, so it was understandable that he didn't have a proper read on the situation. He probably shouldn’t have panicked and just grabbed the closest person he knew.

With a sigh, he agreed and apologized for dragging him away from his friends earlier. Iida didn’t seem too bothered and excused himself to return to the same group of people again. Izuku now had about 15 minutes to hunt down the redhead for some advice. He wasn’t keen on confessing the fact that he had a crush on Bakugou to anyone else, but he’d spent enough time with Kirishima by now to know he could trust him. Kirishima was a pretty loyal guy, it seemed, so out of all of Bakugou’s friends he was definitely the best choice. Kaminari or Ashido would definitely tell everyone, and Sero would probably tell Kaminari, and that was an issue. Kirishima was a touch more sensitive, emotionally speaking.

Izuku started on the first level of the house, where he currently was, and wandered from room to room. He may or may not have accidentally opened the door on a couple making out in a storage closet, but that was irrelevant in his search for Bakugou’s best friend. He checked the basement and found Sero and Kaminari hanging out by the makeshift bar (they tried to wave him over but the idea of drinking anything more made Izuku feel like he might actually throw up, so he just waved and went back upstairs).

He glanced out in the backyard quickly- there weren't many people out there right now considering the weather, but there were a few groups milling about and laughing loudly.

There was one lone person, too, sitting on the low rock wall and looking rather pensive. Izuku pressed his face to the sliding door and squinted, spotting tell-tale red and white hair before his breath fogged up the glass.

He suddenly forgot his issues with Bakugou and tore the door open.

"Todoroki?" Izuku asked and the other looked up at him, face expressionless. Izuku hated it when he couldn't read his moods; it reminded him of the lonely, repressed kid he'd met early on in highschool.

"Hello, Midoriya." His voice was steady, and it was worrying.

"What are you doing out here? You didn't even bring your jacket. You should-"

"I'm fine."

Izuku shut his mouth and bit his lower lip. Oh.

He sat down next to his friend and pressed his arm against his, radiating warmth against his cool skin. He didn’t say anything.

After a moment, Todoroki's shoulders sagged and he put his head on Izuku's shoulder, allowing himself a moment of weakness. Izuku knew he had that effect on people. He kept quiet tho, and let Todoroki speak when he was ready.

"Yoarashi would like to be friends."

Izuku was a bit surprised- he'd been expecting worse, with Todoroki's grim expression, "Well, that's good, isn't it? It's a start. All you really wanted was a chance to explain yourself."

"I...it's true. I am grateful he allowed me the opportunity to talk..."

Izuku gave him a moment, but when he didn't continue, he prompted his friend, "but...?"

Todoroki closed his eyes with a small sigh, "but, he asked if I wanted to go on a date to get to know each other better and I told him I needed time to think about it. He said that was fine, but the look on his face...Midoriya, it felt like I was breaking his heart for a second time. Why am I so bad at this."

Izuku felt himself sober up a touch, for the sake of his friend, "Shoto..." Izuku said, a gentle lilt to his voice as he used his friend's first name, "You take a long time to open up, but it's worth the effort. Someone who wants to be with you will see that. Your soulmate will see that."

At that, Todoroki snapped, his voice as collected as before but a touch sharper in a way that Izuku could distinguish after years of friendship, "please, Midoriya. I can't deal with soulmate shit right now, or you being so nice to me. I screwed up again, okay? I'm not ready for this and- and I don't know when I will be, and I hate that someone else has to be involved at all. Sometimes I'm envious of your position, that you don't have to worry about soulmates."

Not worry about soulmates...? Izuku had spent most of elementary school obsessively researching soulmark outliers like his. He'd grown up feeling alone and unlovable. He was more at peace with it now, but it was still a deep fear of his that everything he’d been taunted about when he was little was true. Izuku felt those words like a stab to his chest, but he knew Todoroki didn't mean it that way.

Todoroki sensed this and his apology was instant, his voice losing its cold edge, "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I'm just-"

"It's alright," Izuku said, a little too quickly, too drunk to hide the hurt in his voice. He moved on with the conversation regardless, "I just don't like seeing you so unhappy. Back in highschool, you opened up enough to let me in, to give me a chance- you don’t think that was a mistake, right?"

"O-Of course not, Izuku," Todoroki said, sitting up and taking his head off of Izuku’s shoulder to look at him, eyes a bit wide with confusion at the sudden comment. He seemed almost offended at the suggestion.

"Well, why not give Yoarashi a chance, too? Soulmates are what we make of them, so please don't let that be the thing that keeps you from trying this out," Izuku explained, putting his hand on Todoroki's knee. Suddenly, he had a flashback to almost 4 years ago- the same kind of scene; at a party together, away from everyone else in the yard of an unfamiliar house, Izuku trying to comfort his friend - "I met Yoarashi before I knew he was your soulmate. He's a good person. Just focus on being his friend first and see where it goes. Don’t get hung up on the fact that he’s your soulmate. He's waited this long, hasn't he?"

Todoroki looked pensive, and then he smiled, and then he laughed, "This seems familiar," he noted, echoing Izuku's earlier thoughts. He looked away from Izuku to stare into the distant dark of the yard, “You’re right. I may be overreacting. I’ll give Yoarashi’s offer some more thought.”

This time, however, Todoroki had some advice of his own to offer as well, "Midoriya, I’ll try not to focus so much on the soulmate thing, but only if you do the same. You’ve always been so hesitant over relationships because of your mark.”

Izuku couldn’t dispute his friend’s blunt remark. He wanted to tell Todoroki that he didn’t understand, but out of all of his friends, Todoroki probably understood the best. Their situations were unique from each other but all of their other friends had relatively normal relationships with their soulmarks and soulmates.

“Is that Bakugou?” Todoroki suddenly nodded towards the house and Izuku turned just in time to catch a familiar figure turning away from the glass sliding door and towards the kitchen, “ What did you say to your boyfriend to make him drag his ass over here?"

Izuku didn't even take the time to protest Todoroki calling Bakugou his "boyfriend"- he stood up quickly and looked down at his friend apologetically, panic taking over again, "S-sorry, Todoroki, I should go. Kacchan might want to kill me for waking him up."

"Oops, my bad," Todoroki said, sounding deeply unapologetic.

"I'll talk to you later?” Izuku gave his friend a slightly worried glance, but Todoroki gave him a little wave as a send off. Taking that as a sign that Todoroki was fine, Izuku rushed into the house to catch his roommate before he could get too far.

“Kacchan!” Izuku called, peering through the archway that led to the kitchen. He saw Bakugou throw back his head and then slam a red plastic cup down on the counter so hard that it crumpled slightly. Izuku swallowed nervously; Bakugou was definitely mad at him. He glanced at the still open bottle of raspberry vodka on the counter with some concern, considering Bakugou had been quite clear that he hadn’t been planning on drinking anything. He didn’t even like flavored vodka.

“Kacchan?” Izuku tried again, his volume a bit lower now. Bakugou turned around and folded his arms across his chest, leaning back against the counter and furrowing his eyebrows.

“Oh, no, don’t cut your conversation with half-and-half short on my account, Deku. I’ve only been wandering around trying to find you for ten minutes after you begged me to come out in the middle of the god damn night.”

Izuku flinched at how unexpectedly harsh his words were. He hadn’t been so biting on the phone. Or maybe he had- Izuku’s memories were a bit fuzzy at the moment. Everything was still kind of fuzzy, to be honest, especially now that he was back in the warm and loud house.

“I-uh, I’m sorry, Kacchan, I’m kind of-”

“Tipsy, I know,” Bakugou said, rolling his eyes. Izuku managed a sheepish smile and a small, ‘yeah’ in agreement.

Bakugou crushed the solo cup on the counter, loudly and suddenly, “God, I can’t believe you.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Izuku said, stupidly. It was the wrong response apparently, because Bakugou chucked the crushed cup in his direction and Izuku barely managed to duck out of the way so that it didn’t hit him squarely in the forehead.

“I’m talking about you, you idiot!” Bakugou was fast approaching him, red eyes darkened and burning. Izuku backed up, nearly tripping over his own feet, until his back hit the fridge and Bakugou had the collar of his t-shirt balled up in his fist, “Is this some kind of joke? Your sick idea of revenge?”

Izuku stared up at the other, mouth hanging open in surprise. Bakugou wasn’t always the nicest person to him even nowadays, but it had been a while since he’d been so outwardly aggressive. The panic was rising- his mind running through a list of all of the things he’d done recently that might have pissed his roommate off to this degree.

Izuku didn’t think it was just because of the unwanted wake-up calls. He really hadn’t sounded this angry over the phone. His brain felt like a roulette wheel, spinning through the possibilities before it slowed and slowed and landed on the only logical conclusion he could come to at the moment.

Bakugou had been wandering around the party for ten minutes. Enough time to run into a certain loose-lipped friend of theirs who must have let it slide that he had a stupid crush on Bakugou, and now he was angry because Izuku had gone and ruined their budding, totally platonic friendship. Bakugou must have hated the idea so much-

The thought hurt Izuku, and his voice showed it when he tried to speak up, “Sh-shit Kacchan, I’m sorry, I don’t-”

“Is this how you planned on letting me know that you and half-and-half were a thing again? Of all the petty ways- Really?” Bakugou barked, drowning out Izuku’s shallow protest.

Izuku had not been expecting that at all.

With this new information, his brain kicked into high gear trying to formulate a new logical conclusion to jump to by running through some more facts.

Bakugou had been looking out the sliding glass door. He’d seen him and Todoroki sitting in the backyard together, admittedly quite close. He’d been resting his hand on Todoroki’s knee, even. It made some sense for Bakugou to think something was up, Izuku supposed. This wasn’t even the first time Bakugou had asked him about his history with Todoroki, he realized.

Bakugou was jealous.

Izuku melted with relief, and then very quickly began laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Bakugou didn’t seem to take kindly to this and Izuku quickly spoke, his voice rushed to stave off any further misunderstandings, “We’re not! We’re not a thing!”

Bakugou loosened his grip on Izuku’s shirt, but his eyes narrowed with clear doubt, “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not, I swear!” Izuku insisted, gently taking Bakugou’s hand and unfurling his fist, “He just- he had a hard time with something tonight. I was helping him out. I know it’s not something you’re the most familiar with, Kacchan, but we were having a heart-to-heart out there. Emotional support. Things that friends do. Emphasis on friends.”

“F-Fuck you,” Bakugou responded, intelligently.

“Why do you care, anyways?” Izuku asked, bolder than usual. He definitely wasn’t sober yet.

“I don’t. I just- I was gonna be real fuckin’ pissed if you’d forgotten about me coming to pick you up and I’d gotten outta bed in the middle of the night for no damn reason,” Bakugou explained, his expression sour but diffused. Izuku was glad his ferocity had fizzled down to something he could temper.

“What did you mean by ‘revenge’?” Izuku pressed him again, and this time Bakugou had to look away, flush rising on his cheeks. He looked a bit embarrassed. Izuku had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he might have known the answer to his own question.

Bakugou twisted his face up slightly, refusing to make eye contact with Izuku. It was the first time he’d seen him look rueful in the wake of one of his temper tantrums. “Nothing, you idiot. Jeeze, for someone who’s knee-deep in booze you’re still annoyingly perceptive, fuck.”

“I don’t want revenge for anything, Kacchan. Past or present.” Izuku assured him, continuing as though Bakugou wasn’t deflecting, “If that was a reference to-”

“It wasn’t a reference to anything!” Bakugou exploded and faced Izuku again with wide eyes, looking less angry and more shaken.

Izuku sent him a long, knowing look but kept his mouth shut. It was hard to talk to Bakugou sometimes and he didn’t want to do this while he was drunk. This conversation was too important. Bakugou was too important.

Some people take a long time to open up, but it’s worth the effort.

“Okay,” Izuku agreed, finally. He squeezed Bakugou’s hand that he was still holding tightly, “I’ll give you time.”

Bakugou’s expression softened, unexpectedly. He let out a puff of air, the last of his anger leaving him with it, replaced by relief and gratefulness.

“Stupid,” Bakugou said, no malice in his tone. He shifted their still interlocked hands and pressed Izuku’s knuckles to his forehead, bowing his head slightly and muttering, “You’ve given me enough.”

“Kacchan, I-”

“Just shut up, okay? You’re absolutely exhausting.”

Izuku made a small noise of confusion at that, but Bakugou didn’t answer. Instead, he looked up at Izuku, his pretty red eyes half-lidded now and glinting in the dim light of the dingy frat house kitchen that smelled like alcohol and stale fruit juice.

It was, by all means, a terrible place to have a first kiss.

Izuku caught himself thinking this, his breath hitching in his throat as he was hit with the urge, a deep pulling in his chest, to kiss the living daylights out of Katsuki Bakugou. It wasn’t the first time he’d ever thought about it, especially in more recent times. The boy in front of him looked like he had a million things he wanted to say right now, clawing at his throat only to be swallowed down by his relentless pride, as usual.

Izuku wanted so badly to open his mouth and talk to him. He wanted to understand why Bakugou had been so angry moments ago, to understand what he meant or what he wanted from him, to ask a million questions and pry and pry and pry until he’d exposed the most raw layers of him. Until he learned every detail of Bakugou that he’d lost over the years of shared absence. Until he got an apology. Until they sorted out all of these messy feelings about their past that neither of them could bear to bring up.

But Bakugou needed time, and Izuku knew this. There were a million reasons why this was the wrong place and the wrong time. He was drunk. Bakugou was probably still a little angry with him. They could ruin their friendship, so new and still so vulnerable. Above all else, Izuku couldn’t help the nagging thought that Bakugou still had a soulmate.

For all of those reasons, Izuku was not going to kiss Katsuki Bakugou tonight; not here and not now.

Bakugou, however, refuted that decision- he was going to kiss Izuku Midoriya. Here and now.

Bakugou was as smooth as ever, the gesture fluid and perfect, like everything he did. He had moved his hand to cup Izuku’s cheek at some point, thumb brushing over his freckles with the care of an artist’s hand over canvas, and it only took a small lean forward to close the space between them.

When Izuku closed his eyes, he could hear sirens in the distance over the pounding house music. It was probably some ambulance from the nearby downtown, but the irony wasn’t lost on him as Bakugou brought their lips together, the taste of cheap berry-flavored vodka on the tip of his tongue. It was everything Izuku imagined- Bakugou was as aggressive with kissing as he was with most things, treating it like a competition he wanted to dominate. There was no give at all, just a self-assured raw desire that left Izuku breathless. Bakugou had always expressed himself better through action when words failed him, as they so often did.

If Izuku’s mind wasn’t so busy short-circuiting he wouldn’t have taken such a passive route himself, but as it were he let Bakugou tilt his head and deepen the kiss, hastily crashing the back of Izuku’s skull into the fridge as though he couldn’t get close enough. It was like a dam had broken, pent up emotions coming out all in one single motion. Izuku hummed, the deep joy he felt at knowing that Bakugou liked him too overshadowing any hesitance or anxiety for the time being.

Bakugou liked him, too.

That sentence alone was enough to send Izuku’s mood into the stratosphere. Alcohol had nothing on this kind of buzz.

He vaguely felt a hand come up to grab his hair, and the sensation jolted him out of his stupor. He clutched at the material of Bakugou’s hoodie with desperation, torn between dragging the other in for more and pushing him away.

He took too long deliberating on his choices, because Bakugou pulled away from him first, cheeks pleasantly flushed and an alluring smirk on his lips. Izuku opened his eyes halfway, as though he was slightly afraid opening them completely would reveal that this was all a dream and he’d just drunkenly passed out in one of the bedrooms of the house. He tightened his grip on Bakugou’s shirt, suddenly feeling a bit dizzy.

“Hey, nerd,” Bakugou moved a hand to Izuku’s arm to steady him, the motion more gentle than Izuku could process, “let me take you home now, okay?”

Izuku melted into the touch, a yearning in his chest finally feeling sated after years and years of shoving it down. How Bakugou could have this effect on him even after everything he’d done, he had no idea. Izuku still knew in the back of his slow mind that this didn’t change anything.

He wasn’t Bakugou’s soulmate.

As he nodded in agreement and felt the way their hands fit so perfectly together, he let himself pretend that he was, if only for a moment.

Chapter Text

When Izuku woke up, he was in his own bed, still wearing his clothes from last night- minus the flannel and his signature red shoes. He was woken up by the incessant buzzing of his phone, which had somehow been plugged in and left on his desk where he usually kept it at night. He didn't remember doing this. Blindly, he fumbled around until he was able to grasp his mobile and he answered it without even looking at the screen, voice mumbly and scratchy when he said, “hello?”.

“Oh my gosh, Midoriya! You're alive!” the voice that came from the other end of the phone was vibrant and colored with obvious relief, which was confusing to Izuku. His head was pounding and his stomach hurt- so yes, he sure as hell felt like he was dying, but he was in fact very much alive.

“Uraraka…?” Izuku asked, closing his eyes and rolling over in his bed, facing away from the morning sun filtering in through their cheap dorm curtains, “of course I'm alive…”

“Well, you disappeared without a trace from the party last night! No one seemed to be able to say where you went, so when you weren't answering your phone, can you blame a girl for worrying?”

Izuku groaned, senses coming back to him slowly. Right. Party. Drank too much. Acted like an ass to Bakugou. Still got a kiss out of it.

A kiss? If he'd disappeared from the party last night, then Bakugou really must have come to pick him up, and they really must have kissed, and it really hadn’t been an alcohol-induced dream. Izuku suddenly turned in bed again, so he could look at Bakugou's side of the room. His bed was empty. Izuku glanced at the digital clock on his desk and squinted, eyes still bleary with sleep. It was almost half past 10 AM, so Bakugou was no doubt at work, well into his shift at this point.

Uraraka was still talking, her voice going up in pitch as she got slightly more frantic, no doubt chastising him for leaving without telling anyone where he was going or who he was going with.

“So, you gonna tell me where you are and what happened?” she said, her sharp voice managing to lasso Izuku's runaway train of thoughts RE: his kiss with Bakugou.

“Uh, I'm at my dorm right now. I-” Izuku bit his lower lip, cutting off his thought. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell Uraraka what had happened, but...right now wasn't the best time. He should probably talk to Bakugou before anyone else. “Ugh, I'll tell you later, but I got home just fine last night, so don't worry. I just kind of feel terrible right now…”

“Well, you were a /bit/ more tipsy than usual,” she teased, with a small laugh, “but it's fine, as long as you’re okay. I won't talk anymore. Go drink some water and eat something greasy! Bye-bye!”

Uraraka hung up, but not before Izuku heard Tsu groggily asking her who she was talking to. No wonder she was in a hurry to get off the phone. Izuku laughed, dropping his cell phone on his pillow and covering his face with his arm.

The last thing he wanted to do right now was go to the gym, but the only thing he wanted to do right now was see Bakugou. It was a shame one required the other. At least he didn’t have to work out.

Okay, seeing Bakugou wasn't really the only thing he wanted to do. He wanted to get some advil and some water and take a shower, too, because his clothes still reeked of cheap beer and some lingering cigarette smoke from hanging out outside of the party too long.

Getting out of bed felt like a monumental task, but he managed it- he found the advil and his water bottle, a slice of cold takeout pizza from about two days ago in their mini fridge, and then he took his toiletries to the bathroom so he could at least stop feeling so gross.

Within a half hour, he’d managed to shower and get dressed in something more presentable. The walk to the campus gym was relatively short- it was cold out again, unfortunately, so Izuku ended up jogging about half the route anyways. He threw open the doors to the large, newly constructed building that housed the campus gym and let the warm air from inside wash over him. He rubbed his hands together to take the chill off. He had to round a corner and head down a small hallway before he would end up at the reception desk-

When he did, he found Bakugou sitting behind the counter, dressed in a dark blue polo with a small logo for Yuuei embroided in gold thread. It was pretty dorky, Izuku thought with a small laugh, but it didn’t seem that BaKugou heard or noticed him. He was staring down at a notebook, earbuds in, tapping his pencil aggressively against the paper. Ironically, as Izuku got closer, he noticed a small poster pinned up behind the desk that read: “Friendly Reminder: This is a work-study program, but you are not being paid to study. Keep all schoolwork at home.”

Bakugou was rebellious in probably the least rebellious ways possible sometimes.

It wasn’t until Izuku placed his elbows on the counter and leaned over slightly to look down at Bakugou, that the blonde seemed to notice someone had showed up. He looked up as he popped his headphones out.

“The sign-in sheet is over there, so-" Bakugou gave pause from his usual customer-facing spiel, eyebrows shooting up just a bit as he realized it was Izuku. He hid the faintest smile by pointedly turning back to his notebook. Izuku followed his eyes, recognizing the equations from the math homework he’d already started.

“Oh, it’s just you, Deku. Color me fuckin’ amazed that you got out of bed before noon with the condition you were in last night.”

Izuku felt his face heat up with embarrassment, “Yeah, um...sorry about that. Like, all of it. Calling you in the middle of the night, dragging you out to the party and...everything.”

The lead of Bakugou’s mechanical pencil made a small noise as it snapped on the paper, leaving a dark mark in the middle of an equation. Slowly, Bakugou looked up at him. His voice was measured when he spoke, like he was trying to step around land mines, “You’re sorry? About everything?”

Izuku blinked at him for a moment, and then recognized where the accusatory tone was coming from. No way, he was not going to let this all be ruined by a miscommunication. He’d seen enough romantic comedies to know where this was going- he quickly spoke up, “Oh-! No, no, I mean, I’m not sorry about that part! That part was a good part! I mean, if, uh, if you think it was a good part, too, then...um. What I really mean is that I’m sorry that I was drunk for it, I guess.” he laughed nervously, “And thanks, too. For actually taking me home. I don’t really remember much after we got back into the dorms, but, I trust you didn’t, um…”

At this, Bakugou wrinkled his nose, “What are you even saying? Of course not, you were drunk as shit, you idiot. You practically passed out in my arms in the elevator, anyways. Besides, I did still have to get up at 6 this morning.”

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “Yeah...I know, I’m sorry about that part, too. It was really selfish of me to make you come out so short-notice…”

Bakugou looked to the side, a small pout on his lips, “Shut up, Deku. You didn’t make me do shit.” there was a small pause, and then in a quieter voice, Bakugou clarified, “I wanted to.”

“That’s a relief!” Izuku exclaimed, unable to help the way his face split into a grin, and when Bakugou looked back at him it was his turn to blush.

The blonde rolled his eyes despite that, letting out a small, “tch” before he glanced behind Izuku, noting there were a few people who’d just walked in. He stood up and greeted them a bit abrasively, but the two kids just waved and swiped their ID cards in, hastily making their way towards the weight room.

“Fuckin’ rude,” Bakugou grunted, plopping himself back down into the chair. He looked at Izuku, who was just staring at him, still grinning, “What’d you want, anyways, nerd? You didn’t really come here to work out with what I must imagine in the world’s worst hangover, did you?”

“Oh, no, I just came to see you!” Izuku explained, laughing at the way Bakugou ran a hand through his hair, looking exasperated and slightly flustered, “Well, not just to see you. I kind of wanted to talk, too. I mean, not now, I guess. You’re off at noon, right?”

Bakugou nodded in agreement. Izuku spoke before he could let himself lose his nerve, “Great! Would you let me take you out for lunch? Like, properly?”

The other narrowed his eyes, “No.”

Okay, Izuku hadn’t been expecting that. He was about to protest, to ask why the hell Bakugou had kissed him at all if he didn't want to go on a date, but Bakugou continued before he could, “But I’ll take you out, nerd.”

Izuku folded his arms on the counter and rested his head in them, relief filling his lungs. God, he hated Bakugou sometimes, “Kacchan,” he whined, “it’s not a competition. You could have just said yes and not scared me half to death.”

“Everything’s a competition,” he said, a smirk on his lips, “if you don’t think it’s a competition, that’s because you’re not winning.”

Izuku lifted his head weakly, “Well, I still got you to go on a date, so I think I’m the real winner here.”

Bakugou pinched the bridge of his nose, “Christ... You’ve got to stop that kind of sappy bullshit.”

“Why? Your face is all red, so I have to think-”

Bakugou looked like he was going to explode, when suddenly, Izuku was side-swiped out of nowhere and spun around in a hug that lifted him just barely off of his feet.

“Midoriya!”

It was Kirishima, holding him in what was possibly the most crushing embrace Izuku had ever received.

“You’re alive!” he exclaimed, finally setting Izuku down and clasping his hands over his shoulders as the other struggled to catch his breath, “No one knew where you went last night! Todoroki and Iida kept saying something about you being fine, but they were so tight-lipped about it. Plus, you were kinda plastered the last time I saw you, so I was a little afraid some creep had taken advantage of our Midoriya! There’s a lot of shitheads who’ll try to make moves on drunk guys, y’know?”

Behind him, Bakugou cleared his throat. Izuku bit his lower lip to keep himself from actually laughing out loud.

Kirishima turned to Bakugou, unperturbed, “Man, you really missed it last night. Midoriya was almost as drunk as that one time you guys had that wild drinking competition- oh, wait,” Kirishima turned back to Izuku now, looking concerned again. “You didn’t get sick, did you?”

“No,” Izuku said, holding up his hands to try and assuage Kirishima’s worries without revealing too much. Clearly, Bakugou had managed to mostly stay under the radar when it came to their group of friends and he hadn’t said anything to Kirishima, so he didn’t feel it was his place to reveal their kiss yet, “No, no, no. I’m fine. I just went back to the dorms, is all. I learned my lesson from that drinking competition, so I went back when I wasn’t feeling well, is all.”

Kirishima was smiling again. His concern was incredibly endearing, “Damn, man, tell your friends not to be so cryptic about it next time. They just kept sharing these, like, knowing glances and telling us not to worry. Kaminari and Sero kept saying they were going to give it 24 hours before they started a rumor that those two had secretly put a hit out on you or something,.” Kirishima laughed, to be clear he was joking.

“Ah, right. Sorry for making you all worry so much,” Izuku said, remembering that Uraraka had expressed a similar concern over the phone this morning, “I’ll make sure to just tell Tsu in the future. She’s pretty blunt.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter! You’re all good, it seems, so-”

“Hey, Shitty Hair?”

Kirishima turned around when Bakugou spoke up to see him with his arms folded over his chest, “Can you cover the front desk for a bit? Deku wanted to see the way the pool’s set up, and I’ve been sitting in this fucking chair for four hours because our shitty coworker called out.”

“Huh? Oh yeah, bro, go ahead. You know I don’t have another session till…” Kirishima checked the digital watch on his wrist, frowning, “Like, in ten minutes, actually. Keep it brief, dude.”

“Will do. Don’t let the place burn down while I’m gone,” Bakugou said, choosing to vault over the section of moveable counter top that would normally be lifted to move in and out from. He gestured for Izuku to follow him, “C’mon nerd, let’s hurry this up.”

Izuku was thrown by the entire exchange, mostly because he definitely hadn’t asked Bakugou to show him the pool. He furrowed his brows but nodded nonetheless and jogged a bit to catch up to Bakugou.

“So, the pools are down this hall a ways. It’s empty right now. It’s only open to students at certain times, otherwise it’s usually reserved for the athletes, but no one has it scheduled this time today.” Bakugou explained, as they both walked, only confusing Izuku further. Had he gone into a fugue state at some point? Or maybe he’d asked about the pool in a drunken stupor last night? Izuku didn’t even like swimming, though, so that hardly made sense..

“And the locker rooms are through this door,” Bakugou explained, sounding annoyed and Izuku really had no idea why, but Bakugou was holding the door open for him, so he went in anyways. It was empty. Izuku, confused, turned around to see Bakugou letting the heavy metal door close behind them.

“Uh, Kacchan?” Izuku questioned, tilting his head slightly, “What are you-- ?”

For the second time in under 24 hours, Bakugou kissed him. Izuku’s memories of last night’s kiss were kind of blurry, shaky, masked under a fog- but now the detriment of alcohol was gone. Bakugou didn’t taste like raspberry vodka this time, and Izuku didn’t mind at all. He was so glad he’d brushed his teeth before coming to visit, though.

In comparison, this kiss seemed less desperate, more timid and, more importantly, Izuku was lucid enough to respond properly. With only a little hesitance, he wrapped his arms around Bakugou’s waist, holding him close while he smiled into the kiss.

Bakugou was the first one to pull back after a few seconds, a pout on his lips as he glared at Izuku.

“There. Now I’m not just some shithead who made a move on a drunk guy.”

Izuku couldn’t help but laugh, “Oh, my god, Kacchan- Kirishima was just joking around.”

It suddenly made sense why the blond had lied to bring him to the locker room and get him alone for a few minutes- Bakugou had always felt an incessant need to prove himself, and it was clearly acting up again.

Izuku pressed a chaste kiss of his own to the side of Bakugou’s mouth, surprising himself with the ease he felt upon doing so. Nothing with Bakugou had ever been easy after a certain point in their childhood- from strained, emotional fights up until their star-crossed meeting in the dorms.

But this? This felt easy, somehow. It felt right, even, for a brief moment, until a vicious voice in Izuku’s head reminded him not to get too comfortable. He could practically feel the zeroes on his arm burning his skin, reminding him that Bakugou wasn’t his soulmate, in the end.

Izuku felt a wave of nausea return, and he quickly but gently used his hands, still clinging to Bakugou's waist, to push the other away. He blamed the churning in his stomach on the lingering hangover and lack of any kind of real meal in the past 12 hours, trying desperately to filter out the noise in his head.

Bakugou must have sensed something had changed, because he furrowed his brows in confusion. He opened his mouth to speak, too, but Izuku sent him the brightest smile he could manage and spoke up before he could get a word out, “You worry too much, Kacchan. I wouldn’t have kissed you back last night if I hadn’t wanted to.”

At this, Bakugou gave a small grunt of agreement and seemed to give up on asking Izuku whatever he’d originally been planning on asking, “Whatever, nerd.”

“So romantic.” Izuku sighed, “I’ve heard of a lot of pet names, but ‘nerd’ is certainly unique.”

“I can get more creative,” the blonde was grinning again, “Take your pick: dweeb, dork, space cadet, dumbass…”

Izuku snorted with a laugh; he was used to hearing Bakugou rattle off insults and obscenities, and had learned to not take it to heart any more. Hopefully, whoever Bakugou’s soulmate really was, they wouldn’t be very sensitive.

Finally, Izuku interrupted the list that Bakugou was prattling off, “How about ‘baby’, or ‘honey’?”

Bakugou made a face and stuck out his tongue, “Gross.”

“Oh, so you don’t like pet names, Kacchan-sweetie?”

“Don’t.” Bakugou narrowed his eyes, a warning edge to his tone. Izuku didn’t miss the flush of his cheeks, though.

“Come on, honey bun, what’s in a name?” Izuku egged him on, and Bakugou immediately shoved a hand in his face, yelling at him to shut up. Muffled now, Izuku kept talking, “What about cupcake? Darling?”

Bakugou genuinely looked like he might strangle him, but Izuku didn’t mind- the lingering threat of death was just part of the fun of being friends with Bakugou, after all.

Izuku rattled off a couple more names of his own and just as it seemed Bakugou was at his breaking point, he pointed to the clock on the wall that he’d been watching diligently, “Sweetheart, don’t you think you should get back to work?”

Bakugou looked at where Izuku was pointing and swore under his breath, realizing that almost ten minutes had easily passed. He glared at Izuku, “If you so much as utter any stupid pet name near anyone else, I’ll personally arrange your funeral.”

“So I can do it in private?”

Bakugou, sensing that his own dorm room was about to become a personal hellscape, shouted, “Fuck no, dumbass!”

“Aww, but you’re using one of your pet names for me! 'Dumbass' has the nicest ring to it." Izuku said, a mocking sing-song lilt to his voice.

“That was a joke and you know it,” the blond growled, “C’mon, let’s go before Kirishima gets chewed out for missing his appointment and I have to deal with his whining for the next three days.”

“Okay, Kacchan,” Izuku happily dropped the teasing pet names for now. In a way, ‘Kacchan’ already kind of filled that role- that hadn’t been the original intention of the name, but it was something unique that no one else called him.

When they got back to the reception area, Kirishima was bouncing in the desk chair impatiently and glancing at his phone clock. The moment he saw Bakugou, he hopped up and vaulted over the desk, running to meet his next client for their personal training session. Bakugou threw him an unconventional, 'thanks' as he flew out the door.

Despite their earlier playfulness in the locker room, the actual lunch date was more awkward than Izuku thought it was going to be.

Izuku had spent the remaining half hour hanging out with Bakugou behind the desk at the gym- he hadn’t wanted to for fear of getting in trouble, but Bakugou assuaged that fear by saying his supervisor never came in on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays. How they got away with that, Izuku didn’t know, but if it meant he wasn’t going to get Bakugou fired, he didn’t question it and just took the open chair next to Bakugou.

After Bakugou’s shift had ended, they quibbled over where to go for lunch- Izuku insisted they should just go get some fast food somewhere casual, but Bakugou was irritable at that suggestion.

“I’m treating you, dumbass. We’re not getting god damn Chipotle for a first date,” he had said, and the words ‘date’ had made Izuku’s heart flutter in his chest uncontrollably, “There’s a nice sushi restaurant nearby.”

Still, he tried to argue back: “Kacchan, I’m wearing sweatpants and you’re in, like, your work polo and jeans. I didn’t exactly dress up expecting to go anywhere nice. Besides- you’re always treating me. Can’t we split the bill?”

“Who gives a shit what people think. They’re not gonna turn us away as long as we can pay.” he shot back, ignoring Izuku’s request to split the cost.

As it turned out, Bakugou was right about the dress code- the apathetic man working as the host didn’t seem like the type to give two shits whether they were wearing 3-piece suits or basketball shorts.

Regardless, Izuku couldn’t help feeling out of place in the restaurant- it was decorated with modern furniture and dim lighting, white linens on the square tables, with hard-bound menus that didn’t even have prices listed on them. And there he was, sweatpants and all, nervously fidgeting with the hemmed edge of the neatly folded cloth napkin.

Bakugou, for what it was worth, really didn’t seem to care at all. He ordered a special for them to split, but after that, things got a little more awkward for reasons unrelated to their outfits.

Despite the fact that they had effectively been on a number of dates prior to this, there was something about actually labeling the affair that seemed to leave Izuku a bit of a mess. Bakugou wasn’t one for small talk, and usually Izuku was good at filling in those gaps and seeping into silence with words (to an extent that Bakugou often claimed it to be annoying), but suddenly he was afraid of saying the wrong thing.

It took about ten minutes of nervous stuttering and bad conversation starters before Bakugou kicked him under the table, gently, and asked him what had him so on edge.

“I- uh, this is going to sound dumb, but I’m just kind of nervous, is all,” he admitted, scratching the back of his neck, “It’s been a while since I’ve been on a proper date, and even that was-” Izuku gave pause, realizing that bringing up the fact that his last real date had been with Todoroki a couple years back wasn’t the best idea given their conversation last night, “-uh, even that wasn’t very serious.”

Bakugou placed his elbow on the nice table, resting his chin on his curled fist, “Yeah, you’re right. That does sound dumb.”

Izuku rolled his eyes, “Thanks. You always know what to say.”

“Look, Deku- you’re making me feel nervous with the energy you’re giving off, okay? This doesn’t change things, chill the hell out.”

Izuku bit his lower lip. Doesn’t change things? How could it not? Didn’t a date- a kiss- change everything? How could Bakugou be so adjusted to this shift between them already? Was he just trying to make him feel better, or was it really not that big of a deal? Did it just not matter that much to Bakugou- was he even that serious about this? Wait. Of course it wasn’t a big deal to him. They both knew there was no way this could be a permanent thing. Bakugou still had a soulmate to meet in the future, so this really was just something casual until-

“Deku.”

Izuku snapped to attention, eyes wide as he realized he’d been totally zoning out, probably muttering to himself as he tended to do, “Sorry!” he blurted, that same feeling of nausea from earlier sitting in his stomach like a rock.

Bakugou nudged his shin with his boot again, glaring at the other, “What the hell’s up with you?”

“N-nothing, really.” Izuku insisted, averting his eyes from Bakugou. He didn’t want to completely ruin what was apparently their first official date with his emotional baggage. He was trying to take his friends’ advice from over the years to heart- to just not think about soulmarks and such for once. He tugged at his sleeve nervously, a gesture that Bakugou didn’t miss.

“H-hey, can I ask you something?” Izuku said, suddenly, mostly to distract Bakugou. The other eyed him suspiciously before he nodded slowly.

“Well, I...I’ve been kind of curious. You never talked to me much about what happened after I moved away. I know a little from Kirishima and the others, but, I don’t know. You’re still the same you I knew as a kid, but you’re also really different and I feel like I missed so much.”

Bakugou considered him for a moment, tilting his head with curiosity, “That’s what’s got you so worked up?” he sounded doubtful, but Izuku nodded anyways. It wasn’t a total lie- he was genuinely curious about how Bakugou had ended up the person he was now. The Bakugou sitting in front of him now reminded him a lot more of the Bakugou he’d known as a young kid than the Bakugou who’d bullied him throughout middle school. How that switch had come about was still a mystery that Izuku wanted to piece together.

Bakugou let out a loud huff, "Well, fine. If that's really all it is, ask me anything."

Izuku smiled, glad to have the subject changed. He hummed with thought for a moment, trying to think of something to ask. It was kind of hard to ask a question when he didn't really have any context or knowledge of the subject at all.

"Did you date anyone in high school?" He settled on, eventually- After all, Bakugou had managed to drag out his own history with Todoroki a few times now, so Izuku felt it was only fair.

Bakugou grinned at him across the table, "Oh, so that's what this is actually about, huh?" He took a drink of his water as Izuku tried to stutter out some excuses ("N-no! I swear, that just happened to be the first thing that came to mind!").

When Izuku was done protesting, he put his glass down, “To be frank, I didn’t.”

"Really?" Izuku asked, genuinely surprised- he wasn't sure why, exactly. It wasn't entirely unexpected or unreasonable. Bakugou was an incredibly driven person; he'd never shown an ounce of interest in girls or boys back in middle school, too focused on grades at the time to deal with socializing much beyond his crew of lackeys that followed him around. Izuku had overheard him time and time again scoffing at the idea of soulmates when others brought it up. He'd always found it painfully ironic that someone who claimed not to give a shit about soulmarks himself made such a point to socially ostracize Izuku for years because of it.

"Yeah, really. I don't know what else you want me to say."

"Oh," Izuku tried to process that. Did that mean, if they were dating, he was Bakugou's first boyfriend? The idea carried such a childish innocence to it that Izuku had to know how far this went. "Was- was I your first kiss, then?"

"What?" Bakugou furrowed his brows, face turning red, "No, you idiot. You don't have to date people to kiss them."

"Who was your first kiss, then?"

Bakugou groaned, "Come on, Deku, what is this? An 8th grade sleepover?"

"You said I could ask anything!" Izuku reminded him, helpfully.

"Eating my own god damn words, I guess," Bakugou grumbled, "Fine. Kaminari. It was a dare."

"Not Kirishima?" Izuku asked, before he could stop himself.

Bakugou's eyes went wide for a moment, then narrowed suspiciously, "Why the fuck was Shitty Hair your first guess?"

The fact that Bakugou had to ask that was a little surprising- it had been pretty obvious to Izuku that was who he was closest with among his friend group. Not that it meant he had any romantic inclinations towards him, necessarily, but... "I mean, out of all of your friends that I know, he kind of seems like the safest bet, since you guys are pretty close?"

"Well, Kirishima wasn't my first kiss..." Bakugou strategically waited until Izuku was taking a drink of water to finish his thought, "but he was the first guy I gave a blowjob."

He nearly tipped his chair over with the force of his laughter at Izuku’s reaction- he forced himself to swallow instead of doing a spittake in a fancy restaurant, followed by a two-minute long coughing fit.

"Kacchan!" Izuku reprimanded, when he could finally breathe again. His voice was kind of hoarse, "You can't just say things like that in public!"

"Relax, nerd, it was a joke. Your face is so goddamn red right now."

"I almost died!" Izuku exclaimed, voice cracking as it went up an octave with the indignity of it all, "I can't believe you're still so mean to me," he whined, pouting slightly at the blonde who looked off to the side, something hurt flashing on his face briefly.

A moment later, their waitress brought their food and set it down in front of them, derailing their conversation entirely as they both dug into their meals and Bakugou flipped the topic to reminisce about the shitty band he and his friends tried to start back in high school.

“Why are you doing this?”

Bakugou sneered down at the shorter, dark-haired kid who was knelt on the floor, trying to pick up his school supplies. More than anything, he just sounded annoyed when he spoke, like Bakugou was some kind of inconvenience to him. The nerve of him.

Izuku’s hand was a bit shaky as he reached out to grab his binder, but Bakugou kicked it away before he could. The bright red plastic skittered across the linoleum floor of their middle school until it collided with the metal lockers lining the walls. Two of Bakugou’s supposed friends stood behind him, and they both laughed; Bakugou did not. He kept the ever-present snarl to his lips, and quickly kicked away Izuku’s other notebooks as well.

Izuku sighed in defeat, sitting up and placing his hands on his thighs, fists bunching up the pants of his middle-school uniform. He didn’t understand. He’d just been trying to put his things away in his locker when Bakugou had shown up and shoved him, causing him to drop everything.

One of the nameless lackies had picked up a notebook off of the floor. He carded through it lazily, then smirked, “Oh, Bakugou, you’re gonna wanna read this one,” he tossed it to the blond, grinning.

Izuku recognized it, of course.

It was a notebook he kept of his research on soulmarks, of course.

He launched himself up from his position on the ground and tried to snatch the notebook from Bakugou’s hands, but his reaction time was faster. He easily sidestepped Izuku and began reading one of the pages aloud, “‘People without soulmarks aren’t well studied since they’re more rare. Most people think soulmarks are miracles or magic, but the scientific community generally calls them a biological phenomena… I think they’re a curse, but I’m kind of biased’” Bakugou let out a sharp laugh, "...oh, poor Deku.”

“Kacchan, come on, give that back!”

One of Bakugou’s friends grabbed the collar of Izuku’s uniform from behind and held him back from lunging at the blond, who didn’t even look over at them. His eyes were transfixed, searching through Izuku’s scrawled handwriting for something, anything of interest.

His eyes lit up, “Oh, this part looks more like a journal entry more than some stupid notes from a textbook or study you read somewhere. Shall I?”

Izuku did his best to twist and wriggle out of the grasp of the hand holding him back, but while he struggled, Bakugou kept going. He skimmed the page, finger tracing down the edge of the paper as his eyes followed. They got wide for a moment with recognition, “Oi, what the fuck? You writing about me in here, nerd? ‘Where is Kacchan’s soulmark, anyways?’ What, you got some kinda obsession?”

“What?” Izuku asked, his cheeks burning with embarrassment, “That’s completely out of context, I don’t-”

“Shut it,” one of the other boys said, smacking the back of Izuku’s head so hard it stung.

Bakugou was quiet now. He read through the rest of the journal entry, eyes narrow and nose scrunched up in disgust. He flipped through the rest of the pages quickly, not seeming to find anything else of interest. To be fair, most of the notebook was filled with Izuku’s research notes from the past couple years- he took in every new study and every new article about soulmarks and compiled all of those into condensed notes with some of his own opinions or stories sprinkled between the objective findings.

He did have an obsession, but not in the way Bakugou had been implying.

The other clicked his tongue at the notebook and without a moment of hesitation, began tearing pages out of it and scattering them on the floor carelessly.

Izuku froze, watching in mild horror as Bakugou desecrated about three years of dedicated research he’d done on soulmarks- nights of carefully made notes and thoughts and feelings, tearing at his fingertips. He flinched slightly when Bakugou let the remainder of the notebook fall as well. The blond turned to his friends and nodded for them to follow him, and without another word the hands that had been holding Izuku back were gone. He was free, but found it hard to move.

Bakugou turned to leave and still Izuku stood, frozen and staring at the mess he’d made. He hated always being left behind to pick up the pieces.

Before Bakugou could round the corner and leave, Izuku willed himself to speak up- to say something, to say anything to Bakugou.

“You didn’t answer me.”

It was Bakugou’s turn to freeze, now. Slowly, he turned back to Izuku, “Hah? What’d you say to me? I don’t fuckin speak loser, Deku.”

“I said, you didn’t answer me, Kacchan.” God, his voice was shaking, “Why are you doing this?”

Bakugou casually slung his bag over his shoulder, the glimmer of malice in his red eyes betraying his calm outward demeanor as he approached Izuku. The papers crinkled under the soles of Bakugou’s shoes and Izuku shut his eyes tight in preparation for the worst. When the sound of footsteps had stopped and Izuku had yet to feel a punch to his face, he opened one eye and found himself looking straight into Bakugou’s eyes, “do you really think I need a reason to put a freak like you in your place?”

The following silence was so loud. It wasn’t a rhetorical question, but Izuku wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of an answer, not when Bakugou was so pointedly ignoring his own burning question. Bakugou let it linger for a moment, and then he grinned and turned around again.

That interaction, a few days before their final year of middle school let out for the summer break, was going to be their last for a long time.

The other hadn’t even told Bakugou that he’d be leaving; he hadn’t told anyone at all, it seemed- when high school began and there was no Izuku Midoriya to speak of, no one really noticed except Bakugou. For almost a full year, he’d skulked around the halls of the school, around their neighbourhood, around the libraries- but he never saw him. Izuku had simply vanished overnight, a constant in Bakugou’s life since the day he was born that had so easily slipped away.

Izuku had left without ever getting an answer.

Bakugou woke up in a cold sweat that night. He realized the lights were still on in their room, and that he wasn’t in his own bed. Instead, he was sitting on Izuku's, back against the wall and text book open in his lap. Izuku was next to him with his head lolled on his shoulder, mouth open and drooling on the sleeve of his old T-shirt, calculator still loosely gripped in his hand.

It was past 1 AM. They’d both passed out while doing calculus homework together, Bakugou realized, his groggy brain trying to catch back up to reality- his heart was still pounding from the dream he’d had. Well, it wasn’t a dream, exactly- more of a memory and a recurring nightmare.

His throat felt dry and he felt almost sick, anxiety gripping his stomach, its presence not unfamiliar when faced with a certain green-haired boy. He moved his text book quietly and tried to push Izuku off of his shoulder without waking him up, but the other shifted in his sleep.

“K-Kacchan…?” he muttered, but he didn’t seem to be fully awake. He curled his legs up close to his chest, moving into a more comfortable position and grabbing Bakugou’s arm. He buried his face in the sleeve of his shirt with a small groan, “No…’s so bright...don’t go...”

Bakugou couldn’t bring himself to push him away after that. Instead, he brought a trembling hand to cradle the back of Izuku’s head, fingers tangled in his thick, unruly hair. He held him close and let the other sleep, if only for a little bit longer. It was the least he could do, after all.

Chapter Text

Dating Bakugou was exhilarating, but it wasn't exactly easy.

It took a while before they decided to tell everyone else they were dating- their friend groups were so intertwined by now that they were always together, so telling any of them meant they were all bound to find out about the truth, so for a while they had kept it secret from everyone.

The initial decision to keep it secret was mutual; trying to feel out the situation between just the two of them was hard enough and they both decided they didn’t need the external commentary of their nosy friends on top of trying to figure out being roommates, friends, past enemies, and current boyfriends.

For a while, it was easy enough to excuse why they left parties at the same time- they lived together, duh. It was less easy to excuse things like why they disappeared and then reappeared ten minutes later, hair and clothes more disheveled than usual.

After a couple weeks, they knew it was probably hopeless to keep it under wraps, so the decision to finally just let everyone know was also mutual.

By the time they told their friends, it had kind of been figured out anyways, but they were all happy for the two of them nonetheless.

Ashido, especially, had freaked out.

“I knew it!” She cried, pumping her fists in the air enthusiastically while Izuku buried his face in his hands, cheeks burning bright red.

“Uh, yeah, we all knew it. Not impressive, Ashido.” Kaminari commented, kicking her gently in the ribs. She retaliated by grabbing one of the pillows on the couch they were sharing and launching it at his face.

“Shut up! Of course we all knew, but you could at least pretend to act like you’re surprised! Or happy for them!”

Kaminari wrenched the pillow from his face and sent it back in Ashido’s direction, “Hey! I never said I wasn’t happy for them! But they’ve clearly been a thing for like, at least three months-”

From behind the palms of his hands, Izuku interrupted weakly, “Kaminari, we’ve only been dating for two and a half weeks.”

At that, Ashido turned her attention back at Izuku and Bakugou, “What!? No!”

“I told you!” Sero finally chimed in, looking self-satisfied, “I told you these idiots were going to take forever to realize what was going on- you all owe me five bucks, pay up suckers!”

“You motherfuckers!” Bakugou yelled, about to launch himself up from his seat on the floor. Izuku placed his hand over his forearm in an attempt to hold him back, but the other shook it off easily, “Making bets behind my back; I’ll kill all of you!”

“Well, perhaps if you hadn’t been so obvious...” Todoroki began, smirking when Bakugou whipped his head around to face him.

“Do you wanna say that to my face, Half and Half!?”

“Certainly,” Todoroki cleared his throat and began repeating himself, either oblivious to the threat or uncaring towards it, “Perhaps if you hadn’t been so-”

Izuku had to wrench Bakugou back to the ground by his wrist, “Come on, you two! Kacchan, it’s not a big deal. It just means they support us, right?” he reasoned, trying to soothe Bakugou with some rationality and bring down the tension.

“Some kinda half-assed support this is where they try to make a quick buck off of us,” Bakugou sent a pointed glare in Sero’s direction. The other had the sense to at least look sheepish as Kaminari dug through his wallet to find any spare change he could pawn off on the other.

“None of your friends went in on this bet, Deku,” Bakugou said, pointedly, staring Izuku down as though it were his fault.

“Oh, I mean, they probably didn’t even know about it-”

“No, we knew about it,” Uraraka interrupted, looking up from her task of bringing Tsu’s hair into a french braid, “We just weren’t clueless enough to go in on it because one of you doesn’t actually mind talking about his feelings from time to time. We knew you two weren’t dating yet- I’m actually kind of offended you didn’t tell me first, Midoriya.”

“Uraraka, why didn’t you tell me they hadn’t started dating yet!?” Ashido whined, absolute betrayal ringing in her voice, “We all kinda assumed this thing started like 3 months ago at the new year’s party-”

“Huh?” Izuku asked, furrowing his brows, “The new years party?”

“Yeah! You two kept making eyes at each other across the room for, like, the whole night! Kaminari kept saying it was borderline gross but I want you both to know I totally supported it from day one-”

“Ashido!” Kaminari yelped when Bakugou’s infuriated glare turned to him next, “Stop throwing me under the bus!”

Ashido let out a loud laugh, “I’m kidding! We’re all super chill with it,” she gave a moment of pause and flipped over on her side to face them, propping herself up on her elbow and glancing st Izuku, “I don’t know why anyone would wanna date Bakugou the gremlin, but you’re a cute couple somehow. The ‘childhood friends’ schtick is so romantic.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it all friendship,” Uraraka mused, her smile betrayed by the small noise of pain Tsu made when she accidentally tugged too hard on her hair. She quickly apologized to her girlfriend with a kiss to the top of her head and a small, ‘sorry!’.

Izuku knew she was still kind of mad about the whole bullying thing, but she’d come to terms with it more ever since their ice-skating get together and after making Izuku promise that he’d confront Bakugou about it eventually.

He wasn’t exactly sure how or when to do that. They both still had a lot they needed to talk about, but Bakugou didn’t exactly make it easy. Izuku knew Bakugou well enough to know that he’d need to wait for the right moment and be sensitive about it. He wasn’t afraid, but he was nervous. He got the feeling it was probably Bakugou who was afraid.

The thought was fleeting as Bakugou let out a soft huff of disapproval and wrapped his arm around Izuku’s shoulders- an action that Izuku still wasn’t quite used to, despite the fact that they’d spent the past few months closer rather than farther apart. He softened into the touch easily, a small smile on his face that he couldn’t help.

“Aww!” Ashido cooed, sending the scene back into chaos as Bakugou decided he’d had enough teasing and actually launched himself up for an attack this time.

It was going to be perfect.

Izuku had been looking for an opportunity to talk with Bakugou, and he found it presented itself in the form of their spring break.

When asked, Bakugou mentioned he was going to be staying at the dorms over break since he needed some extra cash and was free to cover for some of the other students who worked at the gym. In response, Izuku told him he planned on going home for the break, which wasn’t a total lie, but-

He decided to just go home for the weekend before the week-long break, and then he was going to surprise his boyfriend with some flowers and an entire day of fun activities he’d planned for Monday. He’d confirmed the days Bakugou had off with Kirishima, who’d been beyond enthusiastic in his desire to help Izuku plan.

He really was lucky he had such supportive friends.

It was an incredibly cheesy move, and no doubt Bakugou was going to tease him all while happily arranging the flowers in a vase and trying to hide his smile behind a scowl. But Izuku wasn’t one to do things lightly; once he was in, he was all in, and he knew Bakugou was just the same. Even though he wasn’t the most romantic person, Izuku knew for a fact that Bakugou was going to scheme up his own big gesture to one-up him after this. A romantic competition sounded exactly like some dumb thing they’d get into.

It’s going to be perfect, Izuku assured himself, fixing his hair in the mirror of Tsu’s dorm, where her and Uraraka had been hanging out. They were both delighted by Izuku’s scheme and had even helped him pick out a bouquet at the floral shop earlier that morning (Izuku had gotten something with orange tiger lilies, since they’d always reminded him of Bakugou).

“Don’t worry so much, you’re gonna give yourself wrinkles,” Uraraka said, with a small smile, watching Izuku try to fix his hair. She must have seen the worry in his eyes. “You look great! That boy would be head over heels if you came to his door wearing a potato sack. I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” Uraraka laughed when Izuku’s face turned bright red.

“Y-You can’t just say those kinds of things!” he protested, trying to focus on smoothing down the same stubborn green curl over and over.

“It’s true,” Tsu chimed in, looking up from her laptop, “He’s going to be really happy, Izuku.”

“You think so…?” Izuku bit his lower lip, and he saw Uraraka hop off of Tsu’s bed behind him in the mirror. She approached him and spun him around, taking his shoulders none too gently. He always forgot how strong she was.

“I’ve never been more sure of something in my life. Now come on, you need to go. Kirishima texted you ten minutes ago confirming Bakugou was at your dorm, so you better go before he decides to go get lunch or something,” Uraraka turned him around again and shoved him towards the door, “Go! Go embarrass your boyfriend!”

Izuku laughed, but did as he was told- he grabbed the lovely bouquet from the top of Tsu’s dresser and made the short walk from their dorm to his own. The ride up to the twelfth floor felt like the longest elevator ride of his life; he kept fidgeting nervously with the ribbon tied pristinely around the stems of the flowers, tapping his feet and wondering if this all would be enough to show Bakugou how much he meant to him.

He wanted to be open with him. Wanted to be honest about his feelings, about his affection and about his anxieties. He was hoping if he showed his own vulnerability, Bakugou might feel safe enough to show some in return, if he were to ask. He wasn’t going to push it, but it was the hope.

When he finally reached room 1217, he knocked on the door gently. After a moment without an answer, he knocked a bit louder and pressed his ear against the cool metal. He didn’t hear anything, but he knew Bakugou was in the dorms. Kirishima had been an accomplice of sorts, and it hadn’t been that long since he’d asked Bakugou what he was up to today and the other had replied that he was going to stay in and study.

Maybe he’s gone to do laundry or something, Izuku reasoned. He figured he’d just let himself in and surprise Bakugou when he came back. He fished his key from his pocket and let himself into the dorm.

When he opened the door, Bakugou was already there, much to Izuku’s surprise. He was laying in his bed, turned on his side with his hand loosely gripped around his phone- the white cord of his earbuds explaining why he hadn’t heard Izuku knocking. Their dorm room was always way too hot, so the blond had shed his usual jeans in favor of just sleeping in his briefs and a T-shirt. It was an unusual look- Bakugou was pretty proper about his clothing, to the point that Izuku had never seen him in anything less than a full outfit (excluding the treasured towel-only view he got after showers, of course). Izuku really hadn’t expected him to be napping, but then again, Kirishima had mentioned that he’d worked two double shifts at the gym over the weekend so it stood to reason he was tired.

Izuku bit his bottom lip to stop himself from grinning- Bakugou looked adorable when he was sleeping, but this did throw a bit of a wrench in his plans. He shut the door softly behind himself, wondering if he ought to wake the other up. Would that be romantic, or was Bakugou likely to rip his head off before he even had the chance to say, “good morning”?

While Izuku stood there trying to make a choice, it soon seemed that his decision wouldn’t matter. The other stirred, and Izuku realized he must not have been fully asleep at that point (Bakugou took a lot to wake up- his alarm clock could probably be heard three rooms down in the mornings). He’d just been dozing off and now came to, half alert as he turned over on to his back and blinked at Izuku with some confusion.

“Don’t freak out!” Izuku said hastily, worried his boyfriend might start panicking about someone unexpectedly coming into their dorm.

“Deku?” He asked, sitting up and pulling his headphones from his ears hastily. It was during this that Izuku noticed something off, something that he’d never gotten the chance to see before- when Bakugou had turned over, he’d ended up in a bit of an awkward position with his legs splayed open, his briefs riding up his thigh slightly, exposing a clear view of his soulmark high up on the inner thigh of his right leg.

This in and of itself was unremarkable. Izuku had long suspected Bakugou’s mark was somewhere that was often hidden- after all, he’d been friends with him since childhood and never seen it, and even when the other had come back from the showers in nothing but a towel, there was no sign of it (yes, Izuku had been looking for it). On top of that, none of Bakugou’s high school friends seemed to have ever seen it, either- so it wasn’t hard to conclude that his soulmark had manifested somewhere intimate.

No, that wasn’t surprising at all.

Izuku felt his throat go dry, openly staring at this point. Bakugou came to a bit more and followed Izuku’s gaze, quickly slapping his hand over his own thigh when he realized where it landed, covering the stark black mark that stood out against his pale skin. But it didn’t matter- Izuku had seen it.

00:00:00

He didn’t understand.

Zero? Bakugou’s soulmark had zeroed out. His timer had already run down.

“K-Katsuki…”

Bakugou practically flinched at the use of his real name that broke the long silence between them, but he didn’t move. He kept his hand over the mark, staring intensely at his roommate. Izuku heard the paper wrapped around the bouquet crinkle, realizing now that his hands had tightened around the fragile stems, knuckles white. It surprised him.

“I…” Izuku didn’t know what to say. What could he say? What was he supposed to say? “I got these for you,” he settled on, lamely, holding the flowers out.

Bakugou looked at him carefully, but didn’t budge from the awkward position on his bed. He opened his mouth a few moments before he actually spoke, “Um. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Izuku said, voice soft as he set the bouquet down atop Bakugou’s dresser. Slowly, he approached the other and grabbed his wrist. Bakugou resisted for a moment before Izuku tugged his hand away and got another look at his soulmark to confirm what he’d seen.

Breathlessly, he asked, “Who is it?”

The air between them was stuffy. Izuku didn’t think he could stand to breath it much longer. It was so quiet he could still hear the tinny sound of an electric guitar through Bakugou’s earbuds, music blaring loudly and unaware of the mounting tension.

“What?” Bakugou questioned, as though he had the right to be acting confused.

“Who is it?” Izuku repeated without further clarification. He took a deep breath to steady himself, but all it did was make him feel lightheaded. Still, he pressed on, “Your soulmate. Who is it?”

“What?” Bakugou practically hissed the word this time, and Izuku felt a justified flare of resentment in his chest. Why was Bakugou the one getting angry in this situation?

“Your soulmate!” Izuku raised his voice, startling himself in the relative quiet of the room. He heard his own voice echo in the answer that Bakugou seemed unwilling to give to him, the blond finally dropping eye contact and pulling his wrist from Izuku’s grasp. Izuku hadn’t even realized he had been holding tightly to him this whole time. Everything felt kind of numb at the moment. Bakugou pulled his legs together, bringing them to his chest as he backed himself against the wall defensively.

“Are you really that stupid?” Bakugou said, and it seemed that he was fully awake and aware now, going straight into his old habits of shutting others out.

“S-Stupid?” Izuku sputtered, feeling the heat of his anger in his lungs pouring out through his voice, “Your soulmark is at zero! You never- you- you told me that it was at two years! So who is it!?”

Bakugou didn’t say anything, absolutely refusing to meet Izuku’s eyes. His lips were shut tight, face twisted into a scowl.

Izuku swallowed the lump in his throat, eyes burning with sudden tears. Furiously, he wiped at his eyes with the heel of his hand, annoyed at his body's betrayal, “Please, Kacchan, just tell me.” Izuku couldn’t stand the quiet, but if Bakugou wasn’t going to say anything, Izuku couldn’t stop himself from filling in the silent gaps in the air, “I won’t- I won’t be upset,” that was a lie, “I just want to know. I just want an answer. Your soulmark’s already timed out, so you must have already met them, right? What happened? Who is it?”

A deep breath, another moment of silence, and then Izuku filled that in, too, “Do I know them? Is- is it one of your friends? Is it Kirishima? Kaminari?” Izuku was desperately trying to recall every interaction he’d had with them, and every moment he’d seen them with Bakugou, trying to make some semblance of sense from what he’d seen earlier, “No, Kaminari’s definitely talked about his mark before. Ashido mentioned she has a really long countdown a while ago, she showed me her mark...Has Sero ever mentioned his-”

“Shut up!” Bakugou finally snapped, nose crinkled up in a snarl that bared his teeth. It was a raw anger that Izuku hadn’t been on the receiving end of in a long while. He flinched, and Bakugou’s expression softened slightly as he spoke, “It’s not any of those fucking losers.”

“Then tell me!” Izuku felt like getting on the floor and pleading, but some shred of his dignity and sense reminded him that it wasn’t likely to change anything. If pleading had ever worked on Bakugou, they might’ve had an easier relationship in middle school. Instead, Izuku reached out his hand, gently layering it over Bakugou’s shoulder.

The blonde reacted immediately, tensing under Izuku’s touch and harshly shoving his arm away as though it burned, “I don’t know, okay!? So stop fucking asking me!”

Undeterred, Izuku kept going, “What do you mean you don’t know?”

Bakugou rarely hesitated, but Izuku could see the words forming and reworking on his tongue before he finally said them, “I don’t know because it’s always been at zero.”

Again, Izuku was suffocating. Repeating himself. He felt like a broken record, “What do you mean?”

“I mean what I said.” Bakugou said, simply, and Izuku felt himself move without telling himself to do so.

In an instant, he was holding Bakugou’s shoulders tightly, gripping him as though he was afraid he’d really run away, “Stop! Kacchan, please just explain yourself, none of it makes sense! What are you talking about, saying your soulmark has always been at zero? That would mean that...all those years, you were lying. You hate lying. You’ve been lying to me for the past seven months, even though I thought we… I thought we were past that kind of thing.”

Bakugou was looking away again, shifting uncomfortably under Izuku’s grip. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to run, glancing around like he was trying to spot an out. His voice was quiet once he realized running wasn’t an option, “Yeah, well, it’s kind of hard to undo a huge, stupid lie like that when you’ve been telling it to people since you were five.”

Was that it? That was the reason Bakugou had been lying to him throughout elementary school, middle school, and most recently (perhaps most importantly) college?

“You- you kept up a lie like that just because you didn’t have the guts to tell anyone otherwise?” Izuku had never known Bakugou to be a coward.

“Of course not!” The other practically exploded at the accusation. He finally shook himself free of Izuku’s grasp, pushing himself off of the bed and shoving the other out of his way as he did so. Izuku whirled around and stood up now, too, inflamed.

“Then why!?” Izuku’s vision was blurred with tears again, but he’d long given up on trying to wipe them away, “Why can’t you just answer me? Why can’t you just talk to me, Kacchan?”

Izuku felt his fists clench at his sides, wanting to grab Bakugou again and hold him and make him meet his eyes and fucking answer him for once. It was all he had ever wanted, ever since this whole thing started, over a decade ago.

“Why did you treat me like that for all those years, if you were the same as me- you made my life miserable! I didn’t have a single friend until I went to high school because of you, because you chased everyone away from me! You told everyone I was a freak!” Izuku didn’t noticed the way his breath hitched at the word ‘freak’, but it made Bakugou finally look back at him, “I...I thought I was a freak because of that, Kacchan. Why did you hate me when you were exactly the same?”

Bakugou didn’t say a word.

Izuku filled in the gaps.

There was a beat of silence and then Izuku’s low voice, unsteady with his realization, “...You really hated yourself that much, huh?”

At that, Bakugou snapped and shoved Izuku away, pushing against his chest hard, “Shut up!”

Izuku could see the way his eyes shone in the dim light of their dorm, the room darkened by the shades Bakugou had no doubt drawn before his nap. It was still bright enough to see the way he’d pressed his mouth into a thin line, biting his lower lip in a way that gave away how hard he was trying to hold back his own emotions.

Izuku refused to be filler any more. He stared at Bakugou, the other clenching and unclenching his fists at his side, as though he couldn’t decide if he wanted to punch Izuku or not for that comment.

He decided not, eventually, and when he spoke next his voice was hoarse, “No matter how hard I pushed you away, you never did know how to stop, Deku.”

“Kacchan, I-”

“I said shut up!” Bakugou insisted, but it wasn’t meant to be mean or harsh this time- it felt more like he knew that if he let Izuku talk too much again, he might not be able to work up the nerve to say anything himself, “Everyone knew about your mark first. And when they did, I just...I saw how everything changed. You didn’t see it, but I did. The way everyone looked at you. They pitied you. I couldn’t stand the idea of being pitied.

So I- I pushed you away when I started seeing how everyone reacted. It was a stupid, gut reaction, but you can’t imagine how angry I was. I couldn't have let anyone find out about my soulmark, especially not you”

Izuku’s reaction was immediate, “Why not, Kacchan? If you knew we were both born without a soulmate- we could have...I could have helped you. I did all that research, I didn’t even feel that bad about not having a soulmark at first, once I knew it was fairly common, so why-”

“Do you think I wanted your pity?” Bakugou bit back, eyes narrowing, “That’s exactly what I expected you to say, to do- I saw the way you were taking it in stride at first, totally oblivious to how everyone around you started treating you like you were so fucking fragile all of the sudden. You just...you used it as motivation, but it just made me angry. You thought you were so much better than me-!”

“Kacchan!” Izuku frowned, taken aback by the long-harbored spite he heard in Bakugou's voice, “I never even knew about your soulmark, how on Earth did you get it in your head that I thought I was better than you?”

Bakugou brought one of his hands up and ran it through his hair, frustrated. He let out a sigh. It was clear he was itching to do something, fidgeting and tapping his foot like he was restless. He was always one who preferred to resolve conflicts with physical action, but it wasn’t like they were going to go have a full-on brawl outside of their dorm.

“Look, I was- I was a stupid, emotional kid, alright? I don’t know! I just thought that you- you took it so well, and I couldn’t, so I took out my anger on you. And at first you just kept coming back to me even when I was awful to you. I didn’t understand why you wouldn't keep away, but then… I figured out that you were a really good way to distract everyone else. No one asked me about my soulmark if they were busy making fun of yours.

It got so out of hand. I always told myself I’d stop one day, but then you were gone and I never got the chance to do anything about it,” Bakugou’s breath hitched and he finally seemed to notice that his cheeks were wet. He swore under his breath, muttering something about how much he hated this whole thing, using the back of his hand to brush some of his tears away.

Izuku wasn’t sure how to feel. It wasn’t that he wasn’t angry, because he absolutely was. But he didn’t hate Bakugou. He never had, and he never could. He had a relentless soft spot for him, despite everything. Still, he wasn’t completely satisfied, “Why didn’t you tell me when we met again?”

“I’m pretty sure the last thing I did to you was kick your ass into a locker and tear up one of those notebooks you spent months documenting research in, so I couldn’t exactly just say, ‘Hey there! Remember me? I’m the fucker who made your life a hellscape in middle school! We’re roommates now? Cool, cool. By the way, I lied to you for years and I actually don’t have a soulmate either so really everything I did was meaningless and fucking inexcusably terrible! We cool?’, now could I? So I just...stuck to what I knew.”

“Why didn’t you tell me when we started dating?”

At this, Bakugou paused. His face burned red in what may have been shame, and he looked at the ground. He had an answer, clearly, but he didn’t want to say it.

“I think you owe me this much, Kacchan.” Izuku was resolute in his questioning, refusing to let the other wriggle his way out of this one. He already knew the answer, too, but that wasn’t the point.

Bakugou let out a frustrated huff, “I was scared, okay? Is that what you want from me? We were- we were finally on good terms. You didn’t hate me, against all the fucking odds in the world, and in fact, once I realized I actually liked you, you miraculously liked me back, too. I was...I am scared you won’t anymore. Now that you know.”

“Kacchan…” Izuku started, eyes softening immediately. He reached out, slowly, and took Bakugou’s hand so that he could lead him back to the bed and they could sit down, facing each other. He held tight to the other’s sweaty palms, not really minding as he laced their fingers together, “When were you planning on saying something?”

“I was going to, I swear to fucking god- I had to- I knew I had to to, so like, I was definitely planning on telling you eventually but-” Bakugou started, uncharacteristically stumbling over his words.

Izuku shushed him, “Kacchan. Stop. You don’t have to lie to me, okay? It’s okay if you don’t have an answer.”

“It just never seemed like the right time to bring it up-”

“It’s okay. To be honest, I was- I was kind of planning on waiting for the right time to bring this stuff up, too. I had all these big plans for today,” Izuku said, and he startled himself with a small laugh, “The surprise visit, the flowers- hell, I have tickets to the theatre downtown in my back pocket right now. I wanted to make things comfortable so we could talk tonight, if you were willing, so… I guess I’m kind of glad it happened like this.”

“I’m not. I didn’t want you to find out this way.” Bakugou scrunched his nose up, frowning. Looking away. Always looking away, like he was still afraid of being rejected.

Izuku brought a gentle hand to his chin and turned him to look forward, at Izuku. The other didn’t resist, and Izuku managed a smile, despite the whirlwind of emotions in his chest, “It’s going to be okay, Kacchan. I just want to hear one more thing.”

For a moment, Bakugou looked confused, and then it clicked into place. It was obvious. There were still some important words he hadn’t said yet. Izuku knew Bakugou believed actions spoke louder than words, but he wasn’t going to let him get away with this that easily.

“I’m sorry.”

Izuku kissed him immediately- leaned in and placed his soft lips against Bakugou's. The kiss was short, and Bakugou unexpectedly bowed his head and brought their hands upwards so that he could kiss Izuku's knuckles, the gesture making his cheeks flare bright red.

“I'm sorry, Izuku, I- I can't even say I never meant to hurt you. I was just so fucking selfish, and I didn't know how to handle my own God damn emotions. I still don't.” Bakugou muttered, sinking lower until his forehead was pressed against their folded hands, “but I'm not a fucking quitter.”

Izuku wanted to ask what he meant by that, but he was fairly certain he understood. It was obvious Bakugou had been thinking about all of this for a long time- years ago, he never would've been able to say the things he was saying now.

Years ago, they never would have been able to make this work. The distance between them that had grown in their years and miles apart seemed to be converging, finally, with the two of them able to handle each other and Bakugou able to handle himself, at least a little bit. Izuku had grown in those years, too- learned there was more to life and love than a mark on your body.

Right now, they could make this work.

Izuku couldn't help the small smile on his lips, using his free hand to gently pet the top of Bakugou's head, “you know, I think if we had soulmarks, they'd be hitting zero right now.”

Bakugou let out a snort of laughter without looking up, “Stupid. What are you saying? We met years ago.”

“I know.” Izuku laughed as well, and that was all he said for now.

Bakugou was smart. He could fill in the gaps this time.

Chapter Text

“C’mon nerd, quit it. Our chemistry final is at 8:30 tomorrow, and then bio is at 3. We don’t have time to-”

Izuku pressed a kiss to Bakugou’s inner thigh, lips grazing over the row of zeroes that marred his skin. He grinned at the way Bakugou’s breath hitched, sure that he’d easily win this little game.

Unfortunately, he’d overestimated Bakugou’s self-restraint this time around. Izuku let out a small yelp when his boyfriend none-too-gently hit him over the head with his notebook. When he looked up, he saw the way Bakugou’s cheeks were flushed bright red, betraying his scowl.

“Deku. I’m serious. We have to actually study, or I’m leaving your dumbass here and going to the library.”

Izuku looked scandalized, “Kacchan, you wouldn’t dare! Besides, I don’t think you’re being honest. You’re already getting-”

Bakugou hit him again, but Izuku laughed this time, thinking he probably deserved it for teasing him so much, “Okay, okay, I’ll stop-” he was cut off when Bakugou leaned forward and grabbed Izuku’s face with both his hands, pulling him up for a kiss and coaxing him to sit properly in his lap, instead of between his legs like he’d been doing.

“After,” Bakugou breathed, kissing the side of Izuku’s mouth, “After we’re done with exams, Deku. Till then, there’s no way I’m letting you fuck up my 4.0 GPA.”

Izuku snorted, “I can’t believe you’d rather get a 100 on your finals than let me give you-”

“Deku!” Bakugou said, grasping his boyfriend’s face so tightly his cheeks were squished, “If you think I prefer studying, you’re fucking insane. I’m not going anywhere, nerd, but these stupid exams are tomorrow only so just have some patience, you insatiable bastard.”

“Your pet names are getting more creative,” Izuku pouted, but eventually he gave a sigh, “but okay, I get it. I’m just getting bored, is all. Can’t we take a short break, at least?”

“It’s never a short thing with you, Deku.”

“No, I didn’t mean to do that! Just a normal, fifteen minute break. Here, I’ll set an alarm on my phone.” Izuku crawled off of Bakugou’s lap to get his phone, charging on the other side of the room. He quickly tapped at the screen and held it up for Bakugou to see, and the other grumbled a short word of approval.

Izuku went back to their bed (they’d pushed the two beds together at some point a couple months ago, since it seemed silly to them to sleep apart) and straddled Bakugou again, taking his notebook from him, “We’ve been studying for hours. I demand you take a break. No ifs, ands, or buts. Got it?”

Bakugou let out a frustrated sigh, but relented to his roommate’s whims with a roll of his eyes, “Alright, fine. I guess it can’t hurt.”

“It’s fifteen minutes, Kacchan, of course it can’t hurt. Besides, we both know you’re going to get top marks.”

Bakugou flashed a bit of a cocky smile, “Well, duh. That’s a given.”

“Good,” Izuku said, snuggling against Bakugou’s chest with ease.

Bakugou naturally wrapped his arm around him, nestling his face in the mess of Izuku’s green hair, “We should eat soon, too.”

“Are you cooking?” Izuku asked, his voice clearly lighting up at the prospect.

“Fuck no, you think I have time for that right now? We can order takeout. Or we can get out of the dorms and you can swipe us into the cafeteria.”

Izuku tried not to sound disappointed. Going out or even answering the door for takeout meant he would need to get dressed. He groaned, “I guess let’s go to the cafeteria. I still have a bunch of meals I need to use up before the semester officially ends.”

“It ends in two days, Deku.”

“Well, I guess we gotta go out to eat a lot then, huh?” Izuku asked, lazily. He let his eyes close for now, resting them. He kind of had a headache from the relentless studying they’d been doing, “Uraraka always likes going out for free food. Do you think they’d get suspicious if I swiped in Kirishima and the others, too? I know they don’t have meal plans, so I bet they’d like a free meal too.”

“Considering it’s mostly students on work-study staffing the place, they definitely don’t give a shit.” Bakugou replied, mindlessly rubbing his thumb across Izuku’s back in a way that was making the other quite sleepy.

“Cool, cool. Can you text them and see if they wanna go in like...I don’t know, an hour?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Bakugou agreed, but he didn’t move to grab his phone immediately. He’d get to it in a few minutes, loathe to disturb Izuku, who was curled up in his lap like a cat at the moment.

They were both quiet for a moment, together.

Things had gotten better since spring break. Izuku hadn’t immediately forgiven Bakugou; he’d gotten the apology, but it wasn’t an immediate resolve. It wasn’t that he felt Bakugou needed to prove he was truly sorry or anything, that much was clear. He’d had an inkling that Bakugou felt guilty about things even before they’d started dating- he’d seen his non-verbal attempts at apologies through his actions over time. Izuku had really just wanted some time to himself to reflect on everything Bakugou had told him that day. It was all important. He wanted to document it, file it away in his mental notes about Kacchan so he could understand him better.

He’d sat him down a few days after their fight and together they had a long and admittedly terse conversation about their wants and boundaries, and Izuku in particular explained that he wanted to work on communication in the future. Bakugou had been surprisingly receptive.

After all, he was ambitious in everything he did- he wanted to be the best, despite the unique challenge of emotional vulnerability when it came to their tentative relationship.

Things weren’t perfect, but there were easy times, like right now, where he felt more than content. There was warmth that swelled in his chest and while he was perfectly happy to tell Bakugou how much he cared for him, Bakugou preferred to show it through action. The way he rubbed his back, curled Izuku closely in his arms, didn’t complain even though Izuku knew his legs were probably falling asleep by now. Quiet, silent love and apology.

Izuku wasn’t great at quiet, though; “You know, I’ve been thinking…”

“Dangerous,” Bakugou grunted in response, his voice low.

Izuku snorted, “Shut up. Anyways, I’ve been thinking. What if we are soulmates?”

It was Bakugou’s turn to let out a short laugh, but Izuku kept going, “I’m serious! Our moms have been friends for a long time, right? It’s possible...I mean, it’s a theory about people who are born without soulmates. I've read about it. Potentially, if you meet your soulmate before your mark appears, then…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Bakugou buried his face in Izuku’s wild green curls, eyes closed. In a rare moment of sincerity, he breathed, “It doesn’t matter, Deku. Soulmate or not, we found each other. That's enough.”

Doesn’t matter? Izuku had spent years researching soulmarks, trying to puzzle out the reason behind his being at zero. With no way to prove it, though, Izuku supposed a theory was the best he could hope for. It was a nice thought, but all the research in the world wouldn't resolve anything. Izuku shifted slightly and let his heavy eyelids close so he could rest, clearing his mind of the thought for now, “I guess you’re right, Kacchan.”