Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Before the excitement of moving into dorms had even begun to fade, class 1-A was buzzing about something else entirely.

"I hear Sato is going to make a cake!" Kaminari exclaimed, leaning back in his chair so that he could talk to Kirishima whilst keeping an eye out for Aizawa. "I hope he does, his last one was great, but I still think it's unfair that it won him the award for best dorm."

"There wasn't an award," Kirishima reminded his friend, but Kaminari either didn't notice or didn't care, too busy babbling on about the kind of sweets Sato could make for them.

"Maybe there'll be a bouncy castle!" Sero joined in, starting Kaminari on another mini-rant about the pros and cons of such an idea (pros: bouncy castle, cons: it was sure to pop with the classes’ collection of quirks).

"Well I think there's going to be loads of waitresses, willing to do anything for you, feed you or give you a foot rub..." Mineta trailed off, drooling, before hurrying back to his seat when Jiro shot him a deadly look.

Luckily for him, Aizawa chose that moment to enter the room, causing the class to swiftly stop talking and sit to attention. He sighed, glancing at the door a few times as though expecting someone, before beginning to talk. "As you may have heard, it will soon be Yaoyorozu's sixteenth birthday." He waited for the cheering to die down, and continued, "Now, celebrating birthdays is not a part of my job description, but unfortunately the principle has made it clear that, under recent circumstances, this talk is necessary. I was under the impression that Midnight would be coming to do it. But again, it falls to me to inform you of what you already know."

By this point every student was leaning forward as much as Iida normally was when Aizawa spoke, with Iida listening so intently he was at risk of tipping his desk over. "As you will have heard many times, after the initial appearance of quirks, the world was chaos. It was quickly clear that something would be necessary to keep the balance. Luckily, while the government was still scrambling to catch up with evolution, another mutation came about, more common than quirks, to prevent everything from being destroyed. That was, of course, the existence of soulmates. Soulmates are not, as commonly presented in over-dramatized literature, someone who completes you, but rather someone who complements you perfectly. They will know you better than anyone else. And they have the power, when they so choose, to briefly nullify your power and prevent you using your quirk. This will kick in once you turn 16."

Immediately the class fell about to whispering amongst themselves, ignoring the fact that this was all information they knew before. “Having said that,” Aizawa continued loudly, eyeing the class, “the events of this summer have shown us more than ever that it is imperative that you all focus on becoming the best heroes you can possibly be, and make the most of your time in UA. Principal Nezu therefore implores you to remember that you have more important things than your soulmates. So please, everyone, focus on your studies with all that you have. You are the future. That is all.” And with that, the class was dismissed, left to chatter amongst themselves.

"Man, I can't wait to get my soulmate," Kirishima grinned, imagining it. "I bet they love video games, and they'll think I'm so cool."

"Well, mine will have massive -!" Mineta was cut off as Bakugo took a passing swipe at his head, batting it into a wall to keep him from continuing the sentence.

"I don't get what you're all so hung up about," he groaned, walking away from the group without a second glance, "who wants someone to nullify their power? Soulmates are stupid, and I hope I never meet mine."

Silence followed his statement, until Iida turned to Yaoyorozu and announced, too loudly, "We're all so excited for your party!" Only Kirishima, too caught up in watching Bakugo's retreating figure, didn't join the answering cheer.

It wasn't too long, however, before even the excitement of having a posh girl party couldn’t replace the looming fear of their ever-increasing schoolwork. Kirishima was certain that he was already behind in more classes than he even took, a mindset that was shared by many of his fellow classmates. The only ones seemingly unaffected were Todoroki, who barely reacted to anything anyway, and Bakugo.

Unfortunately, this meant that the majority of the students panic-revising English participles for their test the next day were the ones that were already close to failing. The common room was a mess of bodies lounging across the sofas and the floor, desperately trying to explain to each other concepts that they only half-understood themselves, and it was not going well.

"Hey Midoriya," Ashido yelled, noticing him exiting the kitchen with a mug of tea. He turned pale, probably remembering all the questions volleyed at him the last time he had kindly agreed to teach them. "Try getting Todoroki to come help us? He said no to me, but he might agree to you."

"Why would he change his mind for me?" Midoriya blushed instantly, and began to stammer something out when Jiro, with never-ending patience, replied.

"Well, you are friends, aren't you?"

Kirishima took in the way that Midoriya jumped a little when asked and resolved to corner him about it later. For now, though, he sighed and picked up his books, nudging Kaminari's legs off him as he went.

"I give up," he announced loudly as he left, "I'm just going to sleep and hope I dream in English." He swirled dramatically and left, making his way to his room with a heavy heart. As he reached it, however, he paused just outside, staring at the door next to his. Bakugo. He was good at English, and they were friends, right? He wouldn't want Kirishima to fail. Part of Kirishima was unsure if Bakugo even considered him a friend, but he suppressed that feeling with a quick glance at the time to make sure Bakugo wouldn't be asleep, and then, before his courage could desert him, he knocked twice on the door.

There was no response for just long enough that Kirishima began to doubt everything, and then the door was thrown open, and Bakugo's face was inches away from Kirishima's, snarling.

"What?"

"I, uh. I was studying." He held up his books as though to prove that this was not a lie. "Well, actually, I was failing at studying, because English is not a good language and I don't understand why," he began to ramble, cut off by Bakugo leaning back to swing the door shut in his face. Kirishima caught it with his foot, hardened to avoid injury, and took this as a sign to get to the point. "I thought maybe you could tutor me! You're good and I'm," he glanced at the floor, "I'm not." Sneaking a look at Bakugo's face, he expected to have the door fully shut, foot be damned, but instead Bakugo sighed and opened it an inch more.

"And why me?"

"You're my friend!" Kirishima responded brightly, using the almost imperceptible start that Bakugo made at being told this to push himself into the room, confidence returning now that he hadn't been turned around, because that was basically a yes. "My bro! My buddy! My pal! Did no-one tell you?"

"Is there an opt-out clause?" Bakugo grumbled, but his face seemed closer to a smile than Kirishima had seen it in a while as he pulled out his English books.

"Well," Kirishima announced as he left the classroom the next day, happier with how the test had gone than expected, "it wasn't abysmal. I don't think I'll be kicked out, anyway."

"Of course not," Bakugo, who was slightly behind him and Kaminari, scoffed. "They don't kick people out for being bad at English."

Kirishima exchanged a look with Kaminari. Clearly Bakugo, one of the best in the class, wasn't aware of the struggles of the lower-ranked students. "I mean, they can." He said awkwardly, turning to explain further, "If you do consistently badly. I'm not quite there yet, but..." he trailed off, shrugging.

Bakugo looked at him in horror, before muttering, "They can kick you out?" Kirishima nodded, a bit confused as to why this seemed to distress him.

"Don't worry, there's no way they'll do it to you, the fact that you didn't even know it could happen shows that!" He grinned, trying to comfort him, but Bakugo still looked horrified by the thought.

"Come on," Kirishima started as Bakugo wrapped a hand around his wrist, pulling him in the direction of the dorms significantly faster than they had been walking before.

"But I was going to get lunch!" He wailed, catching Kaminari's eye but finding no saviour there, as Kaminari looked away to avoid doing anything that Bakugo could take offence at.

"We're going to have to study a lot more if you want to stay here," Bakugo announced, still tugging him away from the lunch hall. "I'll make a timetable. What subjects are you worst at?" Bemused, Kirishima answered his questions truthfully as he allowed himself to be dragged to Bakugo's room.

"Dude," he put up his hands as he watched Bakugo scratch out a timetable on a spare sheet of paper that, by the look of it, would take up all of their free time. "You don't have to do this. This is a lot of effort."

"Someone has to put effort into you staying here," Bakugo growled, and Kirishima couldn't help but be a little insulted.

"I'm trying! School is hard."

"And I'll help with that." Bakugo tossed him the timetable and pulled out his maths books. At Kirishima's confused glance, he continued, "Starting right now."

"I'm not worth this," Kirishima sputtered, desperately trying to convince his friend that this was too much. Briefly, he considered dragging Bakugo down to Recovery Girl, but what could he say? My friend is being nicer to me than I expected? Recovery Girl knew Bakugo though, she'd agree that there had to be something up for him to put so much into Kirishima's studying.

"Hey! Listen to me!" Bakugo slammed his hands down on the book in front of Kirishima, and he realised with a jolt that Bakugo had been speaking the whole time. His face was red, and immediately his thoughts continued back down their original road - maybe he had a fever? Could Bakugo get fevers? Would his face explode? He was brought back to world by Bakugo gripping his shoulders and shaking him, harder than entirely necessary.

"Earth to shitty hair!" he sighed when Kirishima blinked up at him, "What's got you so worked up?"

"This is just," Kirishima spread his hands out to encompass everything, "too much."

"And you think I'm doing this for you? If you get kicked out, they'll have to get someone to replace you, and I am not having that creepy mind control dude sleeping in the room next to mine. Next thing you know I'll have jumped out of a window or something because I answered him when he asked the time. Plus, no-one else is durable enough to spar with me." And, yeah. Yeah, that made sense. Bakugo wasn't doing this just to help him stay in. There was something in it for him as well. Kirishima nodded a few times, trying to work out how to apologise for freaking out on Bakugo for something as simple as offering to tutor him, especially when it had technically been his idea, but as soon as he seemed calm enough Bakugo moved to sit next to him, pointedly staring at the open books until Kirishima gave in and started reading.

They studied all through lunch, and by the time it reached the end of the day Kirishima was starving. He knew, as he checked his new timetable while packing up from the final lesson, that he was due to be with Bakugo, but surely, he wouldn't begrudge him some time to grab food? This train of thought was derailed, however, when he looked up to see Bakugo standing next to his desk, not looking at him but definitely waiting for him. Without a word of complaint, Kirishima trailed behind him to Bakugo's room.

Embarrassingly, an hour into the exercises that Bakugo had set for him, Kirishima's stomach rumbled. Loudly. He blushed and stared extra hard at his books as though to pretend it hadn't happened, but Bakugo snorted, clearly not allowing him to get away with that. Kirishima waited for the mocking, but it never came, and instead when he looked up Bakugo was already standing.

"Are you coming?" he growled, pocketing his phone.

"Coming where?"

Bakugo stared at him for a second, before shaking his head and muttering, "God, you really are an idiot. Food," he continued, louder, "you're hungry."

"But the canteen isn't open yet."

"We'll go to the cafe down the road. It's not dark, and we'll be back before curfew. Bring your books, we can study there."

"I can just wait for dinner! We don't have to -"

"You find it hard enough to concentrate on your work as it is. Let's just get some food in you, see if you magically gain the ability to do maths." Kirishima chuckled at the idea and acquiesced to having books shoved haphazardly into his bag. They left the room together, passing more of Kirishima's friends bundled in the common room watching superhero movies. Kirishima waved at them happily, though Bakugo made no move to do anything of the sort, and they waved back, looking confused.

"Getting food, be back soon!" Kirishima yelled at them as he exited. He noticed Bakugo looking at him curiously, and asked, "What?"

"Do they need to know where you are at every second?"

"Hey, now," Kirishima began defensively, "they're my friends. They like to know where I am. Besides, it's a good practice and all. What if something happens while we're gone? Someone needs to know where we are." Bakugo hmphed in response, which Kirishima took to mean that he had made a good point that Bakugo hadn't thought of, and they continued to the cafe.

Working there was easier than in Bakugo's room, with less distractions. Kirishima had to say, though, he missed sitting together on the floor, heads bent so close they were almost touching. There was something nice about it. He had always been one for human contact, though. His dad called him a hugger. He wondered, briefly, if Bakugo would ever agree to a hug. Maybe one day.

"Okay then, shitty hair," Bakugo's voice startled him out of his daydreams, and he realised he'd been working for two hours. "Time to go." Kirishima looked up just in time to see Bakugo producing some money out of his wallet and shook his head emphatically.

"Wait, you can't pay! I had more than you, and you're already doing so much for me! Let me pay." He scrambled for his wallet, but Bakugo had already firmly placed the money on the table and was shrugging his jacket on.

"It's okay. It's my fault you were so hungry anyway, I made you study all lunch." When Kirishima continued to protest, he suggested, "You can pay next time?" His face showed that it was meant to be an offhand remark, but a slight lilt to the end of the sentence let Kirishima know that it was a question.

"Sure, sure," he grinned in response, "next time."

When they got back to the common room, he said his goodbyes to Bakugo and flopped face-down on the sofa next to Kaminari, complaining into his pillow about the sheer amount of work he'd done today. Belatedly, he looked up to invite Bakugo to join them if he so wished, but Bakugo was watching him with a peculiar expression, frowning slightly. Before Kirishima could do anything but flash him a thumbs-up, Bakugo had turned his back to the group and was making his way to his room. Kirishima shrugged, assuming that tutoring him had met Bakugo's social interaction quota for the day and twisted back around to give Ururaka's story of how she'd nearly thrown up on Aizawa his full attention.

The next day, after lessons, Bakugo seemed especially agitated. He fiddled with his pencil, frowning at it with such intensity when it broke that Kirishima began to fear for his life. Eventually, after his fidgeting had once again sent Kirishima's neat pile of rubber shavings tumbling across the floor, he broke the silence.

"So, what's up?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Kirishima sighed, looking up from his work to catch Bakugo's eyes. "You're... antsy. What's wrong?"

Bakugo's gaze shifted back and forth for a second, before coming to rest on Kirishima's forehead. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to," he blurted suddenly. "The work, I mean. You were complaining about it to Pikachu." Kirishima sighed, shaking his head softly as he wondered how someone as smart as Bakugo could be as stupid as Bakugo.

"I do want to. I'm really grateful! You're like, my lifeline here. But," he shrugged, "my brain kind of turns to mush after a lot of work. I guess that's why I have to do this to begin with," he trailed off thoughtfully, before returning strongly to the point, "but I want to do this! I like it.” Bakugo stared at him for a while, bringing together what Kirishima was saying with what he had said previously, before nodding slowly.

"We'll tone it down a bit." Kirishima almost pouted, the idea was disappointing somehow. Before any sadness could settle, however, he leaned forward as an idea struck him.

"Why don't we spend some of this time sparring as well?" Bakugo's eyes lit up, he could always be counted on for a good fighting session. "Strengthen the body as well as the mind!" Kirishima pressed, wondering if convincing Bakugo that this would count as tutoring would help or hinder his cause. In this case, it appeared to help, as Bakugo thought for a second more before nodding.

"Great, now I have to rearrange the timetable," Bakugo growled, scowling at Kirishima as he snatched up a plain sheet of paper and began the skeleton of a timetable. He still went willingly when Kirishima grabbed his arm and hauled him up, announcing in a sing-song voice that there was no time like the present, so Kirishima knew that at least some of the anger was just for show.

"Going sparring!" he called out to whoever was in the common room as he left, ignoring Bakugo's grunt - clearly, he still found that unnecessary. When the sparring session ended, the two of them red-faced and sweaty but grinning, Kirishima found himself completely happy to continue on with work.

Loathe though he was to admit it, the balance that Kirishima now found in his life was unlike anything he had ever expected. His work was improving in leaps and bounds, and he could swear that Bakugo even smiled quickly when Kirishima showed him how well he had done on his recent biology test. His quirk, too, was improving, becoming stronger to deal with the harsh explosions that Bakugo threw at him. The one downside was that he didn't get to see his friends as often as before, but even that faded into the background as he reached a new level of ease with Bakugo.

One that he couldn't hope to hide from Midoriya.

"So," Midoriya sidled up to him in the common room late one night, smiling warmly. "You and Kacchan have been spending a lot of time together."

"Yeah," Kirishima smiled back, as everyone always did when they saw Midoriya. "He's tutoring me."

"Oh," that seemed to throw him slightly, "in what?"

"Everything."

"Well, that’s," he paused, searching for words, "that's nice. I'm glad." He took a deep, steadying breath, and ploughed on, "Mineta is telling everyone that you two are, um, are," he coughed, "are sleeping together."

"What?" Kirishima basically exploded, leaping off the couch so fast that Midoriya instinctively jerked back. "Who has he said this to?"

"Everyone..."

"I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna put my hands around that grape and wring his scrawny little neck until - oh shit. Does Bakugo know?"

"Is Mineta still alive?"

"Point. We have to make sure he never finds out. Never ever. He'd never talk to me again! And he'd be in jail for murder. But mainly the talking to me thing."

Midoriya nodded furiously, before asking tentatively, "So.. it’s not like that?"

Kirishima's mouth opened and closed, like the world's most stressed fish, before shrieking, "How could you ask that!"

"Well, you spend a lot of time together. Kacchan doesn't usually, uh, spend time with people. And he's tutoring you!"

"No," Kirishima fought to get his breathing and blush under control, "me and Bakugo are just good friends." Midoriya agreed immediately, but the shock was still in Kirishima's system as he desperately tried to turn the conversation away from him.

"So," he grasped at straws, "what's going on with you and Todoroki, huh?" Midoriya turned bright red, and Kirishima realised that this wasn't a safer topic than the last.

"Wha - what do you mean?" Midoriya squeaked.

"You blush when people mention that you're close. And he smiles at you a lot. I was just wondering," he trailed off awkwardly. Midoriya sighed, sitting down on the sofa and placing his head in his hands.

"Has anyone else noticed?"

Kirishima wrinkled his nose. "Maybe," he offered, "no-one has mentioned it to me though."

"I think he's my soulmate," Midoriya whispered quickly, throwing the words out before he had a chance to take them back, and wow, that was not where he was expecting this to go at all. "When we were fighting all those villains, and I'd already broken all of my bones, I was in the middle of a fight and about to punch him, and then Todoroki came up behind me and yelled Midoriya no, and I just. Didn't." he exhaled softly, "My quirk didn't activate. I asked him about it later, and he said that he knew he could handle it and he didn't want me to break myself further. It was the middle of a fight, so he didn't notice."

"Does he know?"

"No! No, not yet. We're just starting to get close. He's started opening up to me and spending more time with the class. I don't want to push the we're soulmates on him just yet. I'll know when the time is right." He looked up at Kirishima, blinking wetly. "You won't tell anyone, right?" Kirishima mimed zipping his lips, locking them and giving Midoriya the key, which he took with a happier expression. "It feels good to tell someone, though. Thank you."

Kirishima nodded, not seeing the point in yelling once more that it wasn't like that, and they sat there in silence until Midoriya's breathing evened out. "Well," Kirishima clapped his hands, making Midoriya jump. "If you're done with your gay panic," he checked, and continued upon receiving a nod, "onto mine!" With that, he typed out a quick group message to everyone in the class except Bakugo and waited for them to arrive.

They came in dribs and drabs, but eventually the whole class was there. Some, like Todoroki, were yawning and looked ready for bed, while others, like Tokoyami, looked wide awake. Once everyone was accounted for, Kirishima stood up and cleared his throat.

"It has come to my attention that you all think I'm screwing Bakugo," he glared at Mineta, who tried to wriggle further beneath the couch cushions, but Aoyama held him in place firmly. "That is absolutely not the case! Bakugo is tutoring me, and that is all. I will now take questions."

"What about all those cafe dates?" That was Ashido.

"He made me work through lunch once, and then bought food after because I was hungry. Then I had to pay him back by buying him food."

"What about all the times you come in all sweaty?"

"We are TRAINING, Kaminari, get your head out of the gutter."

"What about the way you look at him?"

Kirishima sputtered, unable to answer that question before another was thrown at him.

"Do you think about doing it?" That was it. With that question, Mineta sealed his fate. Kirishima was going to kill him. But first,

"I will no longer be taking questions," he left swiftly, planning on sprinting to his room before remembering the whole reason for the midnight meeting. "If any of you tell Bakugo about this, I'll kill you, put your head on a stick and eat your tongue." Satisfied with the disgusted reactions he got, Kirishima darted away, planning to have a nice, cold shower.

"Hypothetically speaking," Kirishima broke the silence to Bakugo the next day, "if you were going to kill Mineta and didn't want anyone to know it was you, what would you do?" He knew that it was playing with fire to mention this around Bakugo when he couldn't tell him the reason, but Bakugo was probably the best person to go to for this.

"What did he do now?" Bakugo growled, rolling his eyes.

"Made a few jokes about me. It made me kinda uncomfortable," Kirishima's eyes widened as Bakugo began to stand up, a few explosions dancing on his palm, "but it's all good! Just wanted to rant about him, you know? It's no big deal. He says that shit about everyone." He placed a hand on Bakugo's shoulder, trying to force him to sit back down, and some small part of his mind took a second to document how well-defined his muscles were, while another portion of his mind yelled at it to shut the fuck up.

"Yeah, no kidding. The other day he was trying to convince me that us two were fuckin'. I was like if we were don't you think I would know about it?" Kirishima's mind went blank. Bakugo knew. Bakugo knew and he didn't care. All of that panic yesterday for nothing. He tried to school his face into something other than complete shock, and by the third try he thought he'd done a pretty good job. It was probably too late to convince Bakugo that everything was fine, though, because he peered at Kirishima confusedly before deciding it probably wasn't worth pressing, and they continued to work in silence.

"Oh," Bakugo said as Kirishima was leaving, leaning against his doorframe casually, "Aizawa-sensei said we have to choose partners for a test, right?" Kirishima thought back quickly to his lessons, and vaguely recalled hearing something to that effect, so he nodded. "Cool. So, we should start practising together instead of against each other at some point." Confused, Kirishima nodded again, head still muddled as to where this was going. Before he could make sense of it, however, Bakugo had shut the door and he was absentmindedly returning to his room.

It was only once he got there that he realised what Bakugo had meant, and oh. Oh. He sat down on the bed, hands curling into fists around his duvet as he forced his body to breathe and tried to understand why the thought of working with Bakugo in a test had him so nervous. They worked well together, didn't they? Maybe this was all part of Mineta's plan, make him feel weird about Bakugo so that they didn't do as well in the test. It seemed a little devious for the idiot, though. Desperately, Kirishima threw himself into sleep, hoping to avoid memories of the Mineta incident so that he didn't work himself into a panic.

Unfortunately, the furious look on Bakugo's face after Kirishima had said that Mineta made him feel uncomfortable, and the way that he had allowed himself to be pushed back onto the bed with relatively little force from Kirishima, followed him into his dreams.

Kirishima awoke feeling oddly unrested. He checked the time, assuming that he would have a few more hours of sleep, but to his surprise he was - he jolted out of bed in one quick movement and ran to the closet - five minutes late for a sparring session with Bakugo. He chose to forgo breakfast, food the last thing on his mind as he scrambled not to be too late. He made it to the training grounds only seven minutes later, insanely proud of himself, though Bakugo watched his mad dash into the room with a judging raised eyebrow, and a smirk that for some reason made Kirishima's heart jump a little. Maybe he should have eaten after all.

As if in answer to his thoughts, Bakugo held up a muffin and an energy bar. "I didn't see you at breakfast," he said by way of explanation, forcing the food into Kirishima's perfectly willing hands. "You never miss a chance to eat." He studied Kirishima's face uncomfortably closely. "If something's wrong you should tell me, I don't want you puking on me when we spar."

"No," Kirishima mumbled through a mouthful of muffin, "just overslept. Skipped breakfast to run here, wouldn't want to leave you alone for too long," he winked, wondering immediately why he had done that and attempting to cover up for it by saying, "god knows what you'd destroy." Bakugo laughed sarcastically, going through his stretches while Kirishima finished. When he dropped into a lunge, leg stretching in front of him and back pushed forward, Kirishima suddenly found it very hard to swallow. Stupid cafeteria food, he thought to himself, forcing the rest of it down and beginning his own stretches. Bakugo finished before him and watched with an appraising expression. Probably making sure I'm not going to puke on him, Kirishima assumed, smiling up at Bakugo to prove that he was fine. Bakugo instantly looked away.

The training session went a little different to usual. Rather than just going at each other with everything they had until exhausted, Bakugo was taking the time to stop Kirishima and tell him ways that he could improve, like put less of the pressure on his wrists, or how to keep as little of him as possible hardened to preserve energy. Every time he repositioned Kirishima, whether it be by moving his arms or pushing his back in further or bending his knees more, Kirishima's body felt light and tingly long after he let go, even though he was being surprisingly gentle about it. He wants to do well in the test, Kirishima kept telling himself, over and over again as a mantra, this is for the test. This comforted him, the knowledge that Bakugo was only acting different so that they could pass, and not because of - Kirishima swallowed thickly and pushed the thought away.

Once the training session was over, they grabbed lunch together, shoulders knocking against each other as they squished onto the end of the table the rest of Kirishima's friends were on. As usual, the conversation stalled as Bakugo came over, whatever convoluted story Kaminari was telling dying on his lips, but Kirishima was certain that the time it took for it to pick back up was shorter every time. Bakugo even looked less like he was going to kill everyone, but that could be Kirishima's imagination.

"Hey," Uraraka piped up, "I was thinking of going to the cinema today! There's a new superhero movie out and you know how much we enjoy seeing how quickly the heroes would have died in a real fight. Anyone else in?" Everyone agreed almost immediately, until it was only Kirishima and Bakugo that hadn't. Bakugo shook his head, scowling at the idea of such a useless way to pass the time, and Kirishima bit his lip, unsure of whether he wanted to stay and work with Bakugo or go out with the others.

"Oh, just go," Bakugo sighed, rolling his eyes at Kirishima's turmoil, "I'll work you extra hard tomorrow." Kirishima weighed this, trying to act like it had been concern over his studying that had given him pause for thought. Kaminari snickered at the innuendo. "Just stop biting your lip, idiot, you're gonna make it bleed again." He stopped, rolling his eyes back as he stood, agreeing to join the others.

"Just going to the cinema," he called at Bakugo as they left, flipping his hair mockingly as Bakugo flipped him off.

The movie was alright. True to Uraraka's promise, there was a lot to mock about the fight scenes, but Kirishima found himself unable to join in. Something about the hero - brash, rude and arrogant, reminded him of Bakugo. Except Bakugo would never make those mistakes. But that meant that the sidekick, the annoying one that made bad jokes and ran into trouble seemingly without any plan, that was him. Again and again the sidekick's stupidity and the hero's attachment and sense of responsibility to him led to trouble for the hero.

At the climax, the one where the sidekick had gotten himself captured in battle and now the hero had to go in alone to save him, Kirishima felt his stomach twist. Suddenly he didn't want to be here. He excused himself quickly, only Tokoyami really noticing as he hurried down the rows and out of the room, into the relative safety of the bathroom. He sat on the cold tiled floor, leaning his suddenly sweaty forehead against the cubicle door as he tried to slow his breathing, wondering where exactly that had come from. Before he was able to control himself, however, a voice called out, "Kirishima?"

Shit. Tokoyami must have told Midoriya, and now he had come looking.

"I'm in here."

"You alright?" Midoriya sounded worried, and Kirishima hoped that no-one else thought anything of it other than he needed the toilet.

"Fine," he spat out, debating whether or not to blame the cafeteria food.

"After the Kamino incident," Midoriya began without preamble, and Kirishima had no idea where that was going, "I tried to watch those Marvel movies. Captain America always used to be my favourite; he was so like All Might. Just not as good." Kirishima screwed up his face, in the dark as to what Midoriya could possibly be going on about. "But I couldn't. I cried, and I got so scared that I had to just stop. Those kind of movies, once you've really been there, they're not funny. They're just," even through the door Kirishima could hear him shrug, "dangerous."

"The hero was like Bakugo," Kirishima muttered, gritting his teeth. Midoriya hummed in agreement but made no other noise. "And if he was the hero, then I was -" he choked and cut himself off. "He wants to work with me for the test." He had expected some surprise, but there was none. Maybe everyone except him had been expecting that. "I don't want to be the reason he gets hurt. Bakugo doesn't fail in fights, but I do. I can't help but feel like this is just him tutoring me still, he thinks he can carry me through the test. What if it goes the other way? What if I drag him down?"

"I don't think anybody could drag Kacchan down. If anyone could, it would have been me. He's strong, you know that."

"Stronger than I am weak?"

"You're not weak, Kirishima. It can be easy to think that when you spend too much time with Kacchan. He," Midoriya laughed, "he can be too good at things for his own good. But it's obvious you care about him, and also obvious that he wants you to do well. That's about as close to caring as you'll get." Kirishima thought of the food Bakugo had brought for him, of the gentle way he had rearranged Kirishima's body to minimise damage from a blast and wondered if that was true. "You're going to be a great hero, Kirishima. Bakugo or not. And you could always try talking to him." That, Kirishima acknowledged, was the worst idea ever. He would not be doing that.

"Thanks," he stood shakily, leaning on the door a little until he had his balance back, and then opened the door. "Sorry you had to miss the film."

"It wasn't a good one anyway," Midoriya smiled reassuringly, and the two left to stand outside the bathroom, showing no real concern about getting back into the cinema.

"So," Kirishima drawled, smirking, "how's it going with the candy cane?" Spending so much time with Bakugo was rubbing off on him. The thought made him blush.

"With the wha - oh," Midoriya blushed again, and Kirishima noted, offhandedly, that it was cute. "Good! Good, we're friends, and that's good. We're working together for the test as well, so that's, good."

"How is sparring together?"

"Ah," Midoriya blushed an even darker red. "He bites his lip when he's thinking. It, uh, I thought I was going to spontaneously combust. Had to fake that I'd forgotten an arrangement with Uraraka and run out of there. Luckily, she went along with it well. Then she made me explain."

"What does she think?"

"She says she's going to lock us in the broom closet together until I confess. So, she took it well!"

"That's well? God, I'd hate to see what she would do if she took it badly." Kirishima grinned. Midoriya giggled in response, and then the two of them were roaring with laughter, desperation and nervousness at the futility of the situation making way for plain amusement. They were still laughing when the rest of the class emerged, asking them what had happened. Todoroki was eyeing Kirishima very weirdly, so he decided to keep the blame solely on himself, if only to avoid being frozen.

"I felt ill. Luckily Midoriya came to the rescue and got me some water, otherwise I'd still be trapped in the bathroom." He jerked his thumb in the general direction, wrinkling his nose in disgust. A chorus of sympathetic noises followed his lie, so he assumed that he had gotten away with it and felt lighter than before as they returned to the dorms.

Bakugo was in the common room when they got back, sprawled across one of the couches and pointedly not waiting for them as he read a book. He didn't acknowledge their return, barely reacting at all except to stretch out further, stopping Mineta from sitting down. "Hope you feel better soon!" Uraraka called over to Kirishima, and he cursed internally as Bakugo whipped his head to stare at him, eyes narrowing. His paling face probably didn't help any claims that he was fine now, so he hightailed it back to his room, flopping back onto his bed and wondering whether the universe hated him.

It wasn't in his nature to wallow in self-pity for too long, though, and he decided that he had wasted enough time not working. He gathered his books and marched decisively to Bakugo's room, letting himself in without knocking.

"You came," Bakugo drawled, dropping his book - which he didn't seem to have read much more of since the common room - onto his chest so that he could eye Kirishima critically.

"Of course," the fake cheer was a bit too much, but hopefully Bakugo wouldn't notice. "Time to learn!"

"If you're not well, you should just sleep." Bakugo muttered, getting up anyway. Kirishima sighed, debating whether or not it was best to just tell him that it had been a lie. The decision was made for him when Bakugo stepped towards him, saying, "I swear, I will drag you to Recovery Girl myself if I have to. You are not going to get me sick." With a force that would've hurt if he was ill, Bakugo slapped his hand on Kirishima's forehead. Kirishima blinked in surprise, and in the few seconds it took for him to work out what was going on, it was too late to do anything but endure it, Bakugo's hand feeling pleasantly warm against his skin. His knees felt slightly weak, and maybe he was coming down with something. That would explain it.

Too soon, and not soon enough, Bakugo removed his hand, frowning at Kirishima. "You don't have a fever," he allowed grudgingly, but didn't look convinced on Kirishima's wellbeing. Desperate to avoid an embarrassing trip to Recovery Girl, Kirishima clicked his tongue before muttering, "It was a lie. I didn't actually feel ill." Bakugo cocked an eyebrow. "The movie was a bit," he waved his hands in the air as though that explained everything, even though it explained precisely nothing. "Too much," he finished lamely. "And it got me thinking and, why are we working together for the test?" That took Bakugo by surprise, and he shrugged.

"If you don't want to, you don't have to."

"No! No, I want to, and I don't want to, y’know?" Bakugo did not know. This was getting awkward, and any attempt to salvage it was making it worse. "I don't wanna drag you down just because you don't know how to drop a lost cause!" That was, maybe, a bit too far. A lot too far. Kirishima blushed as red as his hair, before finishing in a quiet voice, "You don't have to help me so much."

And Bakugo, well. Bakugo exploded. "Are you that fucking stupid, hair-for-brains? You think that I'd go to this much effort just to stop you looking like a lost puppy? You really think," and if it wasn't Bakugo Kirishima would swear he almost looked hurt, "you really think I don't care if you stay? We're friends, idiot!"

"Well," Kirishima managed weakly, trying to compute those words coming from Bakugo. "Well, that clears everything up. Thanks for the tip. Uh, in that case, we should work together, so."

"I'm not done," Bakugo growled, hands clenched into tight fists by his side. "You're not going to drag me down. Firstly," he flicked a long finger at Kirishima's face, "I won't let anyone drag me down. Secondly," another finger, "you're really not as bad as you think you are. With a bit more practice with form, you'll be good to go. So stop putting yourself down." It was an order, and not one that Kirishima had any issues following. They sat down together to work, and before too long Bakugo had calmed enough to say,

"Also, I don't know what happened, but half-n-half was glaring at you. Do I gotta kill him before he cripples my teammate?"

"Nah, he's fine. I don't know what his issue is. I'll go check it out later." Bakugo grumbled at that, something about not getting into a fight without him - and really, was he so bored with his normal training that he had to go around picking fights with classmates? Kirishima agreed without really thinking about it, trying to work out how he could have wronged Todoroki.

And that was how he found himself standing outside Todoroki's room later that day, under strict instructions from Bakugo not to die so close to the test and ruin all his hard work. Taking a deep, steeling breath, he knocked twice, and waited for the door to open.

"What do you want." Well, that wasn't encouraging.

"Uh, Todoroki. Did I do something wrong?" Wow. He had slipped straight into kicked-puppy mode, that was great.

"No," it might have been his imagination, but Todoroki's glare seemed to lessen, "nothing at all."

"Is this about," Kirishima winced, knowing he was about to put his foot in it but unable to stand his classmate hating him, "the cinema?"

"It's about nothing," Todoroki looked away, trying to shut the door, but Kirishima had way too much practice of Bakugo doing that, and he caught it.

"Midoriya came to help me. He's a good guy."

"He is," the response was wary.

"And a good friend," he pressed further.

"He is," Todoroki relaxed his grip on the door, looking almost entirely back to his usual self. "He likes you."

"He's a good friend."

"I'm sorry. I got," he paused to clear his throat, "ahead of myself. There's nothing wrong."

"Okay," Kirishima knew when to let go. "I'm always here if you want to talk, man."

"Sure," Todoroki called as he shut the door, and Kirishima knew he would never take him up on that.

Kirishima had to admit that Bakugo had been right. With some more practice at keeping his form, his hero training had increased in leaps and bounds, and his schoolwork was continuing in a very similar way. A few weeks before the test, it was finally time for Yaoyorozu's party, which had been planned for months.

"So, I guess we'll have to cancel tomorrow's studying, right?" Kirishima tried not to sound too happy about it. Bakugo grunted in response. "Are you looking forward to the party?"

"Not going," Bakugo responded, knocking all of the wind out of Kirishima's lungs with those two words.

"Why not?"

"What's the point? It's just a party. Plus, I could be training. I don't even know if I'm invited."

"Of course you're invited. Everyone in the class is! Come on, there'll be good food, and you can finish that race against Todoroki and Midoriya!" Bakugo didn't respond to any more of Kirishima's prodding, and eventually he gave up.

Which was why, the next day, Kirishima was shocked to see Bakugo waiting in the common room with everyone else, a towel slung across his shoulder as he scowled at something Iida was saying.

"You came!" he blurted excitedly, grinning unashamedly at Bakugo.

"You promised a rematch with half-n-half and Deku. I gotta shove it in their faces when I win."

"Sure, sure," Kirishima laughed, too happy to call him out on anything.

"Last one into the pool is a loser!" Kaminari shouted, cannon-balling in. Kirishima wasn't far behind, definitely not at the back, when he saw Bakugo, slightly in front of him, ripping his shirt off and casting it aside. He stopped dead in his tracks, feeling almost dazed as he took in the sight of Bakugo diving gracefully in, splashing Ashido as he went. Unbidden, the memory of Midoriya asking if he and Bakugo were sleeping together rose to mind. He shook his head a few times, trying to clear it of whatever the fuck that had been, but by the time the thought was gone he was already the last one to the pool.

"You alright?" Iida called, and he grinned back, confidence returning.

"Just wanted you all there so I could do this!" He leapt into the pool, hardening himself as he hit for maximum splash, successfully getting everyone.

"Still a loser," Bakugo announced to him, flipping his drenched hair out of his eyes, and the sight of him with flattened hair was enough to send Kirishima into a laughing fit, carrying on until he was forced to stop by Bakugo dunking his head under the water.

Soon enough, the conversation inevitably turned to asking Yaoyorozu if she was excited about the ability to find her soulmate. Midoriya gave a guilty start at the mention of the word, and Bakugo rolled his eyes, lifting himself out of the pool in a display that Kirishima was unable to pull his eyes off.

"I'm going to do what Aizawa-sensei said and focus on my studies. My soulmate will come when it's time," she shrugged, blushing a little at the rapt attention on her, everyone hanging on to her every word as though being a 16-year-old made her so much wiser than them. Kirishima stood, feeling awkward for a reason he couldn't put his finger on, to get a drink.

"Does Midoriya have something against soulmates?" Kirishima leapt into the air as Todoroki seemed to appear behind him.

"Midoriya? Why?"

"He looked weird when we were talking about them."

"Just excited, maybe?"

"No. I know Midoriya. He didn't look happy. I was just wondering if he's said anything to you."

Kirishima twisted so that he was facing Todoroki. "He doesn't have anything against soulmates. He's just got some stuff to work through, is all."

"Oh," Todoroki thought about this, and then smiled. "That's okay. I can wait."

"True," Kirishima took this as the only confession he would get out of Todoroki. However, ignoring his assumption, Todoroki continued.

“We’re friends, right?”

“Yes?”

“And if I tell you something, you won’t tell anyone else?”

“Of course not! I’m the best secret-keeper, except maybe Kaminari, but that’s because he forgets everything.”

“Midoriya is my soulmate.”

“What?”

“He doesn’t know! Don’t tell him. When we were training he said not to use my ice for a move, to use fire, and the ice was gone before I’d even taken in what he said. You can’t tell him though!” he pressed again, and Kirishima blew out a long sigh at the disaster gays he was friends with.

“I won’t tell him, but you should think about doing that. He won’t mind, trust me.” And it would save me the stress of keeping the same secret from both of you, he thought to himself. Then he sighed, thinking about his own birthday. It was soon, before the test even. Before school started, he had been excited, thrilled at the idea of being able to find his soulmate, but now it was muted.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"Bakugo."

"What about him?"

"Well, he doesn't like soulmates, right?"

"No?"

Todoroki glared at him like he was being purposefully obtuse. "So, what are you going to do about your crush on him?"

Kirishima's eyes flew open, then shut. His heart thudded painfully as he bent forwards, trying to catch his breath. He was vaguely aware of Todoroki calling his name, and of hands fluttering near his skin, unsure of what to do. Then other hands, warm hands, were on his sides, forcing him to stand upright, and someone was saying,

"Goddamn it, half-and-half bastard, what did you do to him? I’ll kill you."

Kirishima risked opening his eyes and saw red ones staring back at him, so close that he could feel Bakugo's breath fanning his face. He stared, lips suddenly dry, unable to do anything as his brain short-circuited and the only word getting through was 'beautiful'. His eyes flicked down to Bakugo's lips. They were close enough to kiss.

With that thought, he pulled back so fast that he hit his head on a cupboard and winced theatrically.

"He didn't do anything," he forced a smile to his lips, "I didn't hear him come in, and when he started talking it made me jump and I choked on my drink." It was a good story. There was even a glass that wasn't quite full, and Todoroki could be sneaky. Bakugo tch-ed, but otherwise accepted the story.

"Can't leave you alone for a minute without you getting into trouble," he muttered as the three of them wandered back out to the pool before someone noticed they were missing. Todoroki kept trying to catch Kirishima's eyes, but he was steadfastly avoiding looking at him.

The main problem was avoiding looking at Bakugo. He still hadn't put a shirt on, and while Kirishima messed around with Kaminari and Ashido, splashing each other playfully, a large proportion of his time was spent distracted by Bakugo. The way his hair was flat to his skull. The way he grinned when he came up with a devious plan to push Midoriya into the pool. Even the way he argued when Midoriya won the race. And especially the almost-smiled that flashed to his lips for a fraction of a second when he looked over and saw Kirishima watching.

He began to rationalise. Todoroki was clearly still thinking about what Mineta had said. He thought that because they spent a lot of time together, they were together. Maybe he was old-fashioned and thought of it like a date? He looked over at Bakugo, looking away again instantly as his cheeks began to burn. So, he thought he was good looking. A guy could think that about another guy, right? They were just friends. Really good friends.

Actively ignoring what Todoroki had said turned out to be easier than Kirishima expected. The training and tutoring didn't end. If anything they picked up in pace, leaving Kirishima battered and bruised after every session but happier than ever. It got to the point where he thought he could work with Bakugo in his sleep, dropping and running and jumping instinctively when told to, not even having to think about the words being said. He pushed the thought of Todoroki and Mineta and Midoriya out of his mind, and whenever it threatened to return, he chased it away with sheer force of will.

The day before the test was his birthday. No-one wanted to stay up too late, but a celebration was still in order, so they stayed in the common room and had a Mario Kart tournament until there was a clear winner of Sero, and two scorched remotes courtesy of Bakugo. Sato baked an amazing cake, and the class had got together to buy him a Crimson Riot action figure, and he could die happy.

Except. Now that he could find a soulmate, he found it impossible to not think about that. About who it could be. About whether he should be looking for them or not. About whether he wanted to find them. He started up to his room, on the pretence of putting his action figure pride of place on his desk, and Bakugo followed him. When they got to the stairwell, out of sight and earshot of the rest of the class, Bakugo muttered, "Come with me."

He went willingly, following Bakugo to his now-familiar room. Bakugo wouldn't meet his eyes as he handed him a small box, messily wrapped in newspaper, and muttered, "Happy birthday."

Kirishima stared.

"Open it then!"

Mutely, he did as he was told. Inside the newspaper was a brown box, and inside that was a mug. Kirishima lifted it out, spinning it around in his hand to see the full design. It was simple, a white background with the words RED RIOT emboldened upon it in red.

"Holy shit," he breathed out, grinning, "holy shit! It's so cool. I've got a hero mug!" He almost stepped forward, almost threw his arms around Bakugo for a hug, but thought better of it and settled for meeting his eyes and saying, "Thanks so much! You didn't have to."

"Yeah, well," he scoffed, cheeks dusted a little pink at Kirishima's overreaction. "The others didn't ask me for money, I think they're too scared, so."

Still gushing, Kirishima skipped downstairs, with Bakugo rolling his eyes behind him. When they got to the common room, Bakugo made a beeline for the door. He stepped just outside and paused, leg still in mid-air as he turned and announced, slightly too loudly.

"Just going to do some last-minute training."

Hearing his own habit ringing in his ears, gazing at a mug designed especially for him, Kirishima began to entertain the idea that he was completely fucked.

It was hard to sleep that night. Images that he had been pushing back now jumped, unbidden, to the forefront of his mind. Some of them were just Bakugo, close to him, in a detail that Kirishima hadn't realised he'd been memorizing perfectly. Others were different. Bakugo forcing food into his hands, or teaching him physics, or holding a hand against his forehead to check for a fever. Those hurt more because they let Kirishima believe, very briefly, that Bakugo cared about him too. And then reality would slip back and he'd remember that it was because they were friends, because they were teammates. That was all. His mantra of it just being for the test wounded him now, reminding him that he and Bakugo wanted very different things.

He got up before his alarm and got dressed on autopilot. When he got down to the common room, people were already there, allowing him to use the excuse of nerves to explain the bags under his eyes. He forced breakfast down in much the same way, the table more silent than it had been in a while as everyone tried desperately to remember their tactics.

And then it was time. The test, it was announced, was to fight against another group of two from class 1B. Bakugo and Kirishima were assigned Shiozaki and Kendo, and he allowed a small sigh of relief that it wasn't Monoma. It was about fighting well, they were reminded, not just about winning. Although that was important.

He and Bakugo were second, which was good, because he could barely bring himself to concentrate. Even looking at Bakugo almost brought on a new wave of hyperventilation, prevented only by reminding himself firmly that they had to do well in this.

Shoji and Ojiro, going first, defeated Tetsutetsu and Awase, and then it was Kirishima's turn. He waved goodbye to the others, watching from the control room, and entered the arena.

The fight began quickly. Shiozaki's vines wrapped around Kirishima, immobilizing him almost instantly. Bakugo launched himself after her, dodging around Kendo's fist and striking her with enough force that she lost her balance, the vines recoiling to protect her from the explosion. Once on the ground, Kirishima lunged for Kendo, hardening himself to avoid being crushed by her fists.

The two worked well together, he allowed as he panted. Shiozaki was almost a match for Bakugo, and Kendo was more than a match for him. However, he thought with a grin, neither of them were a match for Kirishima and Bakugo.

"Arm!" Bakugo yelled, and Kirishima thrust out his right arm without even thinking about it. Bakugo grabbed it and twisted, using Kirishima as a missile to barrel into Shiozaki. At the last minute, Kirishima tucked into a sideways roll, coming up just to the left of where Shiozaki had formed a shield and slamming into her before she had the chance to react. She staggered backwards, but stayed upright, and Kirishima had to dodge the vines that came his way. As this was happening, Bakugo was using his explosions to force Kendo backwards, but it was slow going. Kendo cried out as he managed a solid hit, and Kirishima took Shiozaki's distraction as a chance to run at Kendo, moving into a slide tackle while Bakugo attacked from the top of the other side, rendering her unable to stop both of them at the same time. She chose Bakugo as a more dangerous opponent, smart girl, and Kirishima slammed into her shin, pushing himself upright with his arms and punching her, hard, in the neck. While she choked, Bakugo blasted her out. One down.

Kirishima would have turned his attention to Shiozaki, but she beat him to it, her vines grabbing him by the ankle and beginning to drag him backwards. He clawed at the ground, planning on hardening his foot and kicking her in the face, when Bakugo yelled out,

"Wait! I've got a plan."

It was too late, though. Kirishima was already halfway to kicking her, his foot already hardened, and then his foot made contact.

And did nothing.

It hadn't been hardened.

Why hadn't it been hardened?

He was vaguely aware of Bakugo blasting the ground next to Shiozaki, of her blinded and choking. What little of him was functioning realised that Bakugo was telling him to do something, and obligingly he turned and punched her, pushing her out of the arena.

And then it was over. It was done, and they had won, and Bakugo was grinning and hi-fiving him, and he thought he was grinning back. He all but fell into the command room, wishing luck to Uraraka and Tsuyu and then blanking out all of their fight as his brain struggled to make sense of everything. Just yesterday he had first realised he had a crush on Bakugo, and now they were soulmates? Much as he wanted to light up at the thought, at the happiness that he had found his soulmate so early, all that he knew was that if Bakugo knew they would never speak again.

Before he knew it Todoroki and Midoriya had defeated Monoma and Honenuki, and they were celebrating and people were clapping him on the back and then he was back in the common room. He muttered something about a shower and dragged himself to his room, collapsing on the floor before he could even reach his bed. He pulled out his phone, worrying at his lip with his teeth until it bled but making no move to stop, typing and retyping a simple message until eventually he just hit send.

He didn't have to wait three minutes for Midoriya, Kaminari, Ashido and Todoroki to arrive in his room, eyes still bright with the joys of winning but faces twisted with concern for whatever had made him leave so fast and call them here. He could only hope they hadn't attracted the attention of anyone else.

"What's wrong?" Midoriya whispered, and Kirishima put his head on his knees. He took two, three deep breaths before looking up and blurting out.

"Bakugo is my soulmate."