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Bakugou liked taking on and overcoming challenges. He’d take on anyone in class that would challenge him. Of course, he couldn’t win them all but he did savor the victories he did get. But he dominated the class wide spicy food challenge. Everyone had passed out in a pool of their own sweat and saliva. Aizawa had to cancel class because they were all locked in their private bathrooms for hours.
However, the only person who continued to challenge him was Kirishima. The others were too afraid to lose. Well, actually, they just didn’t want to suffer anymore at his hands. Bakugou also refused to accept certain kinds of challenges. Scary storytelling with Tokoyami, races with Iida, dance battles with Ashido, arm wrestling with Shouji, and baking with Satou were all out of the question.
“Yo Blasty!” Kirishima called. “I challenge you!”
Aizawa stood up in his sleeping bag. “No! No more challenges!”
“Don’t worry sensei,” said Kirishima, “I promise we won’t break anything.”
“That’s what you said about game night,” Aizawa huffed.
Bakugou grimaced, thinking back to when they decided to play Monopoly. Bakugou accused Kaminari of cheating and then the couch ended up torn in half. He had to admit, he probably shouldn’t have gotten so mad about ending up in jail but it was the fifth time in a row.
“Let’s hear the challenge first,” said Bakugou, tilting the chair back and tossing his legs on top of the desk. The rest of the class watched the pair with wary eyes, ready to make a break for it if things took a turn for the ugly. He was slightly annoyed that they didn’t realize he tried his best not to blow up at the redhead. After all, the boy was insecure enough at times. “Out with it, Shitty Hair.”
“Whoever can make the other laugh first wins,” said Kirishima.
“Huh?”
“Okay, here are the rules,” Kirishima continued despite everyone’s perplexed expressions, “no tickling or physical contact. Only jokes and stupid faces and stuff like that. The moment one of us laughs, he loses, simple right? So you in?”
Bakugou didn’t usually turn down challenges from Kirishima. But this didn’t sound like something that the other boy could win. After all, he was usually smiley and cheerful so the idea that he thought he could win this competition between them was kind of absurd. And amusing.
“Heh,” Bakugou smirked. “Alright, let’s do it then.”
Kirishima bumped his fists together. “Hell yeah, then it starts now!”
Aizawa let out a grunt to get their attention. They were the only ones not properly seated and class was just about to start. Their class rep was stiffly swinging his arms in various directions in an attempt to silently convey to them to sit.
“You can start afterwards,” their teacher said. “You also have your supplementary lessons, Kirishima.”
The redhead chuckled nervously before returning to his desk. “Sorry sensei.”
“The competition starts after class,” Bakugou stated.
“This time, I’ll definitely win.”
The others did their best to avoid Bakugou for the rest of the day. The blond sat on the couch in the common lounge, looking up jokes on his cellphone. The deep scowl, stitched together eyebrows, and multiple creases in his foreheads showed just how focused he was on this task. He even forgot about his homework which he always completed within an hour after classes were out.
If Midoriya has his muttering then Bakugou has his grumbling. The words escaped his mouth and filled the air as he glared at a screen of terrible puns. He felt like he was losing a brain cell which each one but he couldn’t think of a proper joke on his own. At least, one that would be funny to more than just him.
“I hate this,” Bakugou groaned. “Tape-face could think of a better joke than these.”
He paused, holding the device close to his chest as he glanced around, hoping Sero hadn’t hear him. It seemed like the lounge was empty though. Everyone else was either in the rooms, out for the day, or still in supplementary lessons.
Abruptly, the front entrance swung open and Kirishima jumped out. He managed to stay completely still in midair posed as if he was in a running motion. Bakugou just stared in stunned silence before he noticed a shadow stemming from the redhead’s waist out the door.
“I can see Bird Brain’s Quirk keeping you up,” said Bakugou.
Kirishima let out a sigh. “Alright, you can put me down Dark Shadow.”
A smug grin appeared on Bakugou’s face. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
Kirishima separated from the intern group who all seemed extra tired. Uraraka and Tokoyami seemed like they had been put through the wringer with their backs hunched over and eyelids falling. They were saying something about not understanding what Aizawa was trying to teach them which was not unusual. Midoriya and Asui promised to help them out later.
Kirishima made his way over to Bakugou, collapsing onto the couch beside him. The other boy glanced at the time on his phone, he hadn’t realized that he’d been sitting around for hours just going through jokes. The battery life was low too. Too bad Kaminari wasn’t around to charge it.
“Were you looking up puns?” Kirishima asked.
Bakugou glanced from the screen to the other boy. “Yeah…”
“Got any good ones?”
Bakugou despised each and every one of them. But some might get a chuckle from his classmate so he figured it would be worth a shot. So he swallowed his pride and said, “I tried to catch fog today…” His eye twitched involuntarily. “I mist.”
Kirishima’s mouth remained closed but a smile stretched from one end of his face to the other as he started trembling. His cheeks puffed up ever so slightly so it was clear that he was holding back his laughter. Bakugou stared back intently, waiting for it to happen but Kirishima had more self-control than he thought.
“The pun wasn’t that funny,” said Kirishima. “But your face was when you said it!”
“Shut it!” Bakugou snapped. He turned his back to Kirishima. “This whole thing is stupid.”
“Why? Afraid you’ll lose?”
Bakugou couldn’t believe this guy had the audacity to try and manipulate him. Well he didn’t have to take it. As if he’d fall for such a simple ploy when he could forget this whole thing happened. There was no way that Kirishima’s pretty, lopsided grin could convince him otherwise. So to show his rage towards this particular challenge, he slapped the couch loud enough to cause the sound to echo.
“You’re on, Shitty Hair!” Bakugou shouted. “But don’t come crying to me when you break your sides in laughter!” Crud, those words just slipped right past his giant, cocky smile. When it came to Kirishima, no matter how ridiculous the request, it was so damn difficult to say no.
“Alright!” Kirishima cheered. “Now, it’s my turn to tell a joke!”
“I’m thrilled,” Bakugou replied, deadpan.
“Okay, knock knock.”
Bakugou exhaled, not wanting to groan in response. A knock knock joke? Kirishima really thought that he’d fall for a knock knock joke? He wondered for a moment if Kirishima and Midoriya had a private talk about the things that used to get him in the past. As if his humor was the same as it was back then.
“Who’s there?” Bakugou asked.
Kirishima’s grin could crack his face. “Todoroki.”
Bakugou raised a brow, suddenly intrigued. “Todoroki who?”
“Todoroki in a bikini.”
“The fuck?” Bakugou turned to face the other boy directly only to come face to face with a poster of a really well-photoshopped image of straight-faced Todoroki in a bikini, posing on the beach. It took all he had not to burst into laughing fits but the longer he stared at the image, the harder it was. “W… What the fuck.”
“Damn it,” Kirishima sighed. “That was my secret weapon too.”
Bakugou grabbed the picture and tore it in half. “Where did you get this?”
“Midnight-sensei.”
“Of course.”
They traded off jokes for a while and it was admittedly really difficult not to laugh. Not because they were funny but Kirishima’s attempts at delivering the punchlines properly and every time he tried not to cackle by covered his mouth and looking elsewhere was funny in itself. It was a good thing there were no rules against smiling because Kirishima’s was contagious.
At some point the clock struck midnight and they realized they hadn’t done their homework. More than that, Bakugou had stayed up way past his usual bedtime for a school night. He needed it to make sure he’d pay attention in class. That was one of his methods for keeping himself from becoming a dumbass. Though he felt like a dumbass at the moment.
“Fuck, it’s late,” Bakugou huffed. “I need to do Ectoplasm’s stupid worksheet.”
Kirishima frantically jumped for his bag. “Crap, I forgot too!”
“We can do it together,” said Bakugou.
They sat around the coffee table cross-legged, noses in their books. Every couple of seconds, Kirishima stopped to ask a question. Bakugou was terrible at explaining concepts since he liked to use random explosive sound effects in place of certain terms.
Something felt different this time around though. Bakugou couldn’t quite put his finger on it though until he went to get some tea from the kitchen and accidentally spilled some on himself. He swore loudly and Kirishima snorted but didn’t laugh. That was it. Their study nights were often spent with stupid jokes (mostly made by Kirishima) and then the room filling with his boisterous laughter.
The silence, or at least, the lack of his jingling voice, was suffocating. Bakugou hated every second of it. He had to make Kirishima laugh at some point before the night was over. But he couldn’t think of any good jokes. What were the rules again? He could make stupid faces?
“Shitty Hair!” Bakugou called, still in the kitchen.
Kirishima turned around and immediately spit out the chips he had been crunching on. Bakugou stood there cross-eyed, tongue sticking out the left corner of his mouth, and head tilted. Kirishima clutched at his stomach as he doubled over and puffed up his cheeks like balloons. He was doing everything he could not to laugh.
“Oh my god!” he gasped, trying to grab his phone without looking. “I need a picture!”
Bakugou’s fingertips went off with tiny explosions. “Don’t you dare!”
“But I’ll never get a chance to see this again!” Kirishima yelled back.
“Then I definitely don’t want you taking pictures!”
They quieted down when a stomp came from above. They were apparently annoying some of their classmates. It made sense, everyone was expected to be in their room at curfew and for a while, Iida enforced that rule by reprimanding anyone that was out too late. He gave up when he realized it was too difficult to corral them all.
“Let’s just finish working,” Bakugou grumbled.
Kirishima covered his mouth to yawn. “Yeah, I’m pretty tired myself.”
As they settled back into the quiet, a thought occurred to Bakugou. He could lose on purpose and then he wouldn’t miss out on Kirishima’s laughter. All he had to do was laugh at any joke that he made. But was it really worth it? He prided himself in not just taking on big challenges but also winning them. Could he just give it up for this silly contest?
“Hey Bakugou,” said Kirishima. “What’s the formula for—?”
Bakugou had tuned out everything except his thoughts so he was rather violently yanked out. Without thinking, he made the assumption that his study partner had made a joke and he forced out some loud and rigid laughter. It was in the middle of that and after seeing Kirishima’s wide-eyed face that what he actually said registered. Bakugou spun around, burying his face into the couch.
“Fuck! Fuck! Forget that happened!” he screamed into the cushion.
Kirishima sighed, slamming the textbook closed. “Man, it would be totally unmanly to count that as a victory.” Slowly, Bakugou pulled his face out to see the other boy scowling and pouting. “I didn’t even say or do anything funny.”
Bakugou stared at the profile view of this other boy, lip jutted out, eyes narrowed, and brow set. He was really cute like that. And all of sudden, Bakugou started laughing. It was lighthearted and soft, but more importantly, genuine. It sounded like distant firecrackers going off and Kirishima jerked his head in shock when he heard it.
“I lose,” Bakugou smiled.
Kirishima felt a blush creeping onto his face at the sight. “Wh-What did I do that was so funny?”
“I’m not telling you,” Bakugou chuckled. “Or you’ll use it against me.”
“Come on, I want to know!” Kirishima whined.
“Too bad,” Bakugou smirked.
Kirishima threw his body over Bakugou’s in a poor attempt to get him to talk. But the blond, realizing that he still hadn’t heard Kirishima laugh all day, decided to take this chance. The rules no longer applied since the challenge was over so he lunged at the redhead, viciously tickling him on the sides and the underarms and Kirishima burst into riotous fits of laughter.
“No fair!” Kirishima laughed, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. “In that case, Red Counter!”
They filled the entire dorm with their laughter. One like firecrackers and the other like silver bells. They couldn’t even catch their breaths as they rolled around. Nothing could stop their hurricane of laughter whether it was thumping from upstairs or them bumping into the coffee table. Finally, they laid down side by side on the carpeted floor, staring up at the ceiling, panting heavily.
“We really should get back to our homework,” Bakugou remarked.
“Yeah, but I’d rather stay like this,” Kirishima replied. “Forever.”
That last word got Bakugou to sit up. He didn’t like sticking around in one place because that meant he wasn’t moving forward. But he also didn’t like the idea of moving without Kirishima by his side. How would he live without hearing this guy’s laughter for more than twenty-four hours when he couldn’t even do it for a silly competition?
“I do too,” Bakugou confessed.
Kirishima shot up. “Whoa, really? Is Blasty getting emotional?”
Bakugou swatted at his arm though not really hard. “Shut it!”
“I’m kidding,” Kirishima chuckled, “To be honest… this challenge was really dumb but I thought it would be the only way I could win.” He leaned into Bakugou’s shoulder, resting his head there. “And I couldn’t really think of anything else.”
“I… have a challenge,” said Bakugou. The red hair smelling like strawberries.
“Hm?”
“Stick by me forever,” Bakugou muttered, looking away. “If you don’t, you lose. And… so do I.”
Kirishima’s eyes went wide but then he smiled brightly. “Finally, a challenge I can win!”
Bakugou refused to let his joy be seen. But he was happy. “Let’s get back to work already.”