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Uraraka let out an exhausted sigh and stretched her arms above her head.
“I really don’t get how you’re able to understand all of this,” she said with a small laugh. “ Quirk analysis is by far my worst subject… Though I’m starting to get the hang of it thanks to you!”
Midoriya scratched the back of his head bashfully. “Ah, well… You know I really like to watch and analyse heroes’ and villains' moves and quirks. I have several notebooks filled with information and my speculations of our class! I’ve filled a couple with class 2-B too, as well as one with the people I saw at the Sports Festival this and last year,” he explained happily. “Oh, and the ones of all pro heroes I’ve ever seen… And I think I have at least five about only Kacchan. He’s really got amazing battlesense, and the way he-”
“I’m going to stop you right there,” Uraraka said with a small smile. “But this is exactly what I’m talking about! I don’t have the interest or patience to do something like that… I learn and improve from hands-on experience, not from...watching other people get that hands-on experience.”
Midoriya gave her a sunny smile. “There’s nothing wrong with that, Uraraka-san! Everyone learns differently.”
“I know that, that’s not what I meant,” she said with a shake of her head. “I meant that your dedication and determination of becoming better, the best , and how you literally spend all your time on that-”
“Well, not all my time-”
“-is exactly what is going to make you the greatest hero out there!” Uraraka finished, looking at her hands.
Midoriya felt his face heat up at the compliment. “Wh-what do you mean? You’ll be a great hero too, Uraraka-san!”
She turned to face him, smiling brightly. “Oh, I know that. But you’ll be the greatest hero ! Isn’t that your goal?”
Midoriya spluttered. Yes, that was his goal. But he’s never heard anyone else agree with him on that point before, which made him really flustered. Did she really believe he could do it? That it wasn’t just a childish dream? That he , Midoriya Izuku, could become the greatest hero ?
Uraraka laughed at her friend’s blank stare and flushed cheeks. “Well, thanks for your help, Deku-kun!” She gathered up her pencils and notebooks and stood up from the couch, walking back to her room. “I’ll see you later!”
Midoriya barely registered her leaving, too caught up in his thoughts on becoming the greatest hero, and if she was the only one who believed in him. Did All Might think he could do it? He must at least believe he could be a good hero, since he gave him his quirk and all that but...the greatest hero ever? Surpassing even All Might? Well, taking into consideration who All Might is as a person, Midoriya was sure he believed he could be surpassed, and that Midoriya would be one to do it. But did Kacchan think he could be the greatest hero ever? Yeah, probably. They would be the two greatest heroes together, both surpassing All Might. They would-
“Eep!” He started as he felt an arm wrap loosely around his shoulders. Then a pink face popped into his field of vision. “Ashido-san!”
Ashido smirked. “So…” she leered. “When are you going to tell her?”
Tell her? Tell her what? And who is she ? Midoriya wondered. He asked her as much.
Ashido rolled her eyes. “Tell Ochaco that you like her , of course!”
A snort and loud bark of laughter came from somewhere behind them, startling them.
“K-Kacchan!”
“Blasty!” Ashido turned around with a nervous smile. She hadn’t meant for anyone to overhear. “Did you hear what I said?”
Bakugou was sporting a wide smirk as he turned to them, looking Midoriya directly in the eyes. “Oh I heard, alright.”
Midoriya gulped.
Ashido chose to ignore the growing tension and said, “Well?”
The staring-contest between Midoriya and Bakugou ended when Bakugou met Ashido’s eyes with a glare. “Leave me out of it, Raccoon Eyes.”
She rolled her eyes and turned back to Midoriya when Bakugou, with a final glance at the green-haired boy, turned his back and walked towards the lift. “You should tell her, Mido! It’s obvious that you like her, and I am like 99% sure she likes you back!” she said enthusiastically.
“I- Uh- Wh- 99%?” Midoriya stuttered.
“Only because I haven’t actually asked her about it… Yet.”
Midoriya turned to her with wide eyes. “Don’t do that! And I don’t like her like that ,” he added in a whisper, “We’re friends! I like her as a friend .”
Ashido patted his shoulder encouragingly. “Now, now, don’t be shy. The way you blushed when she complimented you was very telling. It merely confirmed my previous suspicions.”
“No, Ashido, you don’t understand! I really don’t like her like that!” Midoriya tried to emphasise, but it didn’t seem like Ashidod was really listening to him. What even made her ‘suspicious’ in the first place? Because Midoriya was already in a very happy committed relationship with his childhood friend and rival. And judging by said childhood friend and rival’s reaction he found the situation rather amusing. Which Midoriya did not.
“Don’t worry, Mido. I’ll go talk to Ochaco and help you out. I’m sure she likes you too!” With that she released Midoriya from her casual grip and stood up from the couch. She looked almost gleeful and Midoriya did not trust that look.
“Wait, Ashido-san! Don’t talk to Uraraka-san!” he tried desperately, reaching for her arm. Unfortunately she was already out of his reach, and too caught up in her head to hear him. He watched her go with a distressed expression.
He gathered up his notes from class that he brought down for Uraraka and quickly walked to the lifts, pale-faced and wondering what in tarnation was going through Ashido’s head.
After their fight at Ground Beta, after Bakugou was told the truth about Midoriya’s quirk, their relationship slowly but steadily started improving. Since Bakugou was now a permanent part of Midoriya’s meetings with All Might, and after they started quirk-training together, they spent a lot of time together.
Of course, the whole business with the merging of The League of Villains and the Liberation Army came in between (luckily the pros managed to stop their plans before it got out of hand, and they could arrest most of the supporters)... But starting second year, the students of 1-A, now 2-A, could finally focus on becoming heroes without the imminent threat of the League and All For One hanging overhead. And with the pressure off of their shoulders it was much easier to let go and have fun.
Since All For One wasn’t completely out of the picture, even though he was locked up tight in Tartarus, Midoriya was still forbidden from telling anyone about One For All. Having at least one person except for All Might knowing was a great comfort, though, and it only brought him and Bakugou closer. And well, after finally working out their feelings and overcoming at least some of their emotional constipation, they finally got together during summer break. Which was why Midoriya was so confused why Ashido, three months after he and Bakugou got together, suddenly got the idea that he had a crush on Uraraka of all people! It didn’t make any sense.
Midoriya put away his notes in his room and then took the stairs up to the fourth floor and to Bakugou’s room. He knocked on his boyfriend's door rapidly, trying not to gain too much attention. Honestly, it was a miracle that the class hadn’t suspected anything after literal months of them sometimes sleeping in each other’s rooms and just- being together.
“Kacchan!” Midoriya whisper-yelled and knocked again.
He heard the scraping of a chair against the floor from the other side of the door and soon after the door opened.
“What, Deku?” Bakugou asked with a raised eyebrow. After taking a good look at his boyfriend’s face, though, his eyes widened. “The hell happened to you?”
Bakugou stepped aside to let Midoriya in and closed the door behind him.
“D-did you hear what Ashido-san said?!” Midoriya burst out waving his arms around for emphasis.
“...Yeah,” Bakugou answered. “So what? Tough luck for Round Face, but it doesn’t really matter.”
Midoriya stared at him blankly before furrowing his eyebrows. “...Right,” he said sceptically. “But what if Ashido-san tells her that I like her, and Uraraka-san decides to confess to me, thinking that I like her back? I’ll of course have to reject her, but what about her? Will she be embarrassed? Angry? Thinking I led her on? Even though I told Ashido that I didn’t like Uraraka-san that way. Will it affect our friendship? Will it be awkward when we hang out together? Will she start acting differently? Will she start hating me? Will-”
“Shut the fuck up, nerd,” Bakugou ordered with a fond eyeroll. “It’ll be fine. If she starts acting differently or awkwardly, that’s her problem. You didn’t do anything wrong, and the only thing that changed would be you knowing about her crush, and her knowing that you don’t like her. No big deal.”
“Yeah, okay.” Midoriya sighed and fell onto his stomach in Bakugou’s bed. “I just hope they don’t make a big deal out of it.”
Bakugou snorted. “Right. ‘Cause subtlety is totally Racoon Eyes’ thing.”
Midoriya groaned at the reminder. “Whatever. That’s tomorrow’s problem,” he said with conviction, voice muffled by the bedsheets. He turned his head towards Bakugou, who was still standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed. “You going to stand there all day or you coming to cuddle?”
“Oi, nerd. No need to get sassy.”
Bakugou did indeed come to cuddle his boyfriend. Wrapping him up in his arms and a blanket, letting Midoriya wrap his arms around Bakugou’s middle as well. They ended up falling asleep before long.
Over the next few days Midoriya got a lot of not-so-sneaky thumbs up and what was probably supposed to be encouraging looks from Ashido. Instead of encouraging and making him feel better it only served to make him feel embarrassed and anxious. He just knew something was going to happen. But not when. Not what . And it freaked. him. out.
“Hey, ‘Zuku,” Bakugou said softly, running his hand through his boyfriend’s hair. “Just talk to her. And if she doesn’t listen I’ll come and make her listen, alright?”
They were lying on Bakugou’s bed, Midoriya resting his head on the blonde’s chest.
Midoriya groaned. “But she’s already talked to Uraraka-san! I know she has, or she wouldn’t be sending me those...uh- looks.”
“Yeah, well, then just talk to Round Face.” Bakugou rolled his eyes. “What’s the big deal?”
Midoriya tried to send an unimpressed look Bakugou’s way but was only mildly successful because of the angle from his boyfriend’s chest. “And tell her what , Kaccan? ‘Hi, Uraraka-san! You know, I’m totally not in love with you. So don’t try to confess, I’ll definitely reject you! Bye!’”
Bakugou let out a short laugh. “Hell yeah, that’d be hilarious!”
“Be serious, Kaccan! This could really damage our friendship! I don’t want to hurt her!”
“...Fine, whatever.” He sighed. “Look, I don’t fucking know, okay? I’m not saying this is all your fault, ‘cause it’s definitely on Raccoon Eyes for being fucking delusional, but it’s kind of your fault for not clearing things up when you had the chance.” He patted his boyfriend rather apathetically on the head.
“Gee, thanks… Such a great boyfriend. Such awesome emotional support. The best advice I’ve ever been given,” Midoriya deadpanned with an eye roll.
“Sassy bitch.”
“But you still looooove meeeeee,” Midoriya teased, sticking out his tongue.
“I admit, that one’s on me,” Bakugou said with a dramatic sigh.
Midoriya pouted.
The blonde pulled his boyfriend further up so he could plant a kiss on his cheek. Midoriya smiled brightly at the action, nuzzling Bakugou’s neck.
“Awww, you do love me!”
“Shut up. Don’t get used to it.”
“I already am! You spoil me with your affection every day, Kacchan.”
“Remind me to stop that.”
“Nooooooo!”
After a few minutes of silly teasing they got serious again.
“You really should tell her to stop meddling though,” Bakugou said. “I know she doesn’t mean any harm and is only trying to help, but she’s obviously dead fucking wrong this time. And it’s doing more harm than good.”
“...yeah. Tomorrow though.”
“Alright.”
He did not get the chance to tell her the next day. Instead he was ambushed by the very person he needed to see, though unable to get a word in.
“Midobro!” Ashido jumped in front of him and pulled him into an empty hallway.
The boy in question squeaked at the sudden ambush before gathering his bearings. “Oh, Ashido-san! I-”
“I see you haven’t confessed yet…” She tutted before grinning widely. “Don’t worry, though! I’ve got you covered!” She winked before sweeping away again, as quickly as she came, leaving Midoriya dumbfounded and with a feeling of dread.
He stared straight ahead, unblinking, for a few seconds before shaking himself out of the shock. “Shit!”
The feeling of oncoming doom only worsened as the day went on. He was acting distracted and jumpy all day, making his friends worry.
After the school day was done he immediately slipped off after his boyfriend to the fourth floor and Bakugou’s room.
Midoriya gulped. “Y-you know how I was supposed to tell Ashido-san today? And r-really get her to listen?”
Bakugou slammed the door shut and slowly turned around to face the greenette. “You fucked up?”
“I fucked up.”
“Damn nerd can’t do anything right.” Even as he said it he tucked his boyfriend’s head under his chin and hugged him close.
“She really wouldn’t listen, though! She ambushed me, talked straight over me, and was gone, quick as lightning!”
Bakugou snorted. “You know that sounds really fucking dumb when your quirk literally makes you quick as lightning.”
“Meanie!”
“Yeah, whatever. Let’s do some homework before dinner, alright?”
Midoriya nodded, squeezing his boyfriend one last time and giving him a quick kiss, before pulling his schoolwork out of his bag. “Let’s do this!”
To think he was safe in a room full of people was foolish, as Uraraka, while the dish squad were washing up after dinner and everyone else was hanging around, walked up to Midoriya.
“Hey, Deku-kun?”
“Eep!” He quickly turned around to face his friend, his relaxed posture immediately turned rigid. “U-Uraraka-san!”
She smiled sweetly at him. “Can I talk to you for a second? In private?” When she saw his face she quickly added, “It’s nothing bad, I promise! So you don’t have to worry!”
Midoriya quickly looked around himself, but since Bakugou wasn’t in sight there was no way out of this conversation. “N-no, that’s fine! What do you want to talk about?”
Uraraka smiled and led him by the arm to a private corner, away from spying eyes. “Well… I heard you had a crush on someone?”
Midoriya gulped. “Wh-what? No way! Not me!” Unfortunately he wasn’t very good under pressure, and couldn’t lie to save his life. At Uraraka’s disbelieving look he changed track, I mean, she wasn't technically wrong with that assumption… She was just wrong about the who . “I mean- I wouldn’t call it a crush , exactly…”
Uraraka blushed. “Well, Deku-kun. You don’t have to worry about it,” she looked down at her hands, clasping the edge of her shirt, “because I feel the same.”
A strangled laugh escaped from his throat. “You really don’t know what you’re talking about, Uraraka-san! You really don’t feel the same!” ...Unless he was under the wrong impression and Uraraka really was in love with Bakugou, though the chances of tha-
“E-excuse me?” She sounded shocked. Hurt. Angry. “Don’t tell me what I feel.”
He whipped his head up to meet her eyes. Oh no. He didn’t mean to say it like that . “No! No, it’s just-” He sighed. “C-can you explain wha-what you mean exactly? ‘Feel the same’, how?”
“You’re really making me spell this out for you, huh?” she huffed out, sounding resigned, but still hopeful.
He didn’t want to hurt her like this, but what else could he do? “Yes. Please.”
Uraraka looked to the side and took a deep breath before steeling herself, folding her hands into tight fists. “Deku-kun. Midoriya. I-I like you! I have for a really long time now, but I didn’t want my silly feelings to come in between our friendship, so I had planned to just keep them to myself…” She let out a long breath and relaxed her muscles, looking up, straight into Midoriya’s eyes. “But then Mina-chan told me that you almost certainly liked me back, and- She encouraged me to tell you. ...So now I did.”
“Right. Right. Yes. Um-” Midoriya didn’t know where to look, eyes flitting around the space, looking everywhere but at the girl standing in front of him. “It’s just that-”
“-You don’t feel the same, do you?” She sounded defeated, but like she was trying to hide it behind a cheery smile. It didn’t quite work. Her eyes were open a little too wide, like she was truly shocked that Ashido was wrong.
“Please let me explain!” He burst out, not wanting this to be another misunderstanding. “Ashido-san… I honestly have no idea where she got that idea from. I even told her multiple times that she had it all wrong, but she wouldn’t listen! I am so so sorry, Uraraka-san! I really didn’t want to lead you on, or-or make you feel toyed with. But I didn’t know what Ashido-san told you, so I couldn’t come talk to you about it in case I just made everything worse… I really am so, so sorry.”
Uraraka let out a pained laugh, her fingers wiping her wet eyes. “I-It’s fine, Deku-kun. I understand. Um. I just need- I just need some time to process this, alright?” She showed him a phantom of her usual cheery smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? Will you tell the others I went to bed for me?” She paused. “I- I honestly thought that you liked me back. But I guess I was just projecting my own feelings onto you, huh?” she mumbled, probably not even aware of it herself.
“Oh. Yeah. Sure.” He watched her leave, hand twitching at his side to reach out to her, but he refrained. He took a deep breath, trying to reign in the tears threatening to fall, biting his wobbling lip. “I’ll tell them…”
He didn’t know for how long he was standing there before he felt arms wrap around him, a chin coming to rest on the crown of his head. “Let’s just go to bed, Deku.”
He couldn’t even make himself answer, but allowed himself to be led to the lift and to his own room. Silent tears ran down his cheeks without him even really knowing why. Though, he always did have a hard time holding back tears when someone else was crying. Or just in general, really. And he was sad, after all, for hurting his friend. So maybe it wasn’t so out of place.
They brushed their teeth in silence and climbed into Midoriya’s bed, burrowing underneath the covers. He was grateful that Bakugou just knew what to do, held him close, stroked his hair, and let the greenette breathe.
“Kacchan,” Midoriya whispered after a few minutes of silence. “Maybe we should just tell everyone?”
Bakugou clicked his tongue. “It’s none of their fucking business. If everyone just kept to themselves and didn’t poke into other people’s goddamn lives, this never would’ve fucking happened.”
“ Kacchan ,” Midoriya reprimanded tiredly. “Ashidio-san just wanted to help. And it’s not like there’s really a reason to keep this a secret anyway…”
Bakugou huffed. “Whatever. Do what you want. Tomorrow . Now, sleep.” He tightened his grip around his boyfriend’s frame and lightly kissed his forehead.
“Goodnight, Kacchan.”
“‘Night, Deku.”
The next morning, Bakugou woke up first. During the night Midoriya had stolen all the blankets and cocooned himself, and Bakugou somehow woke up with the Deku-cocoon in his arms, green hair tickling his chin. He tilted his head down to nuzzle his boyfriend’s hair lightly, hugging him tight, before carefully untangling them and leaving the bed. He needed to use the bathroom, and it was actually pretty late in the morning anyway, so he might as well get up.
As he got back from the bathroom he took a few seconds to watch his boyfriend’s sleeping face. His eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, his cheeks a little flushed, but he looked untroubled and at peace. Calm.
Although Bakugou was initially amused by the situation, it really wasn’t very funny anymore. Sure, if Pinky was trying to set him up it never would have gotten this far. He’d have just exploded her face and made her listen , but. Midoriya wasn’t him. And he didn’t know Ashido as well as Bakugou did. So it wasn’t really much of a surprise that it turned out this way. And even if his thoughts on the situation were ‘just get over it already, fucking idiots’, he’d like to think he’d made some kind of progress since middle school. He understood that voicing his thoughts, even though Midoriya could probably guess them, wouldn’t help anyone. Though he couldn’t really understand how telling everyone about their relationship would help either…
He sighed. He’d just wait until Deku woke up and they’d figure something out. Something that wasn’t a fucking announcement in front of the whole class . He’d rather die than do something so stupid.
Middoriya woke up feeling warm and safe, not wanting to leave the bed. Though he did notice that something was missing.
“Kacchan…” he mumbled. “Kacchan, come back.”
Bakugou snorted, watching his boyfriend burrow further into the bed. “Wakey, wakey, shitty nerd. I’ve been up for an hour already.”
“Don’t wanna.” Midoriya frowned. “What time is it?”
“Half past eleven.”
“Ugh, already? I’ve slept for like…” He paused, his sleep-riddled mind not able to do the math.
“Eleven hours,” Bakugou filled in.
After a long groan from Midoriya and a couple minutes of silence Bakugou decided it was time to do something with the day.
“Ya want me to get you breakfast, nerd?”
“Mm-hm!” Midoriya hummed, turning his head away from the blankets and facing his boyfriend. “And a kiss!”
“Cheeky bastard,” Bakugou grumbled, but complied all the same. He was glad his boyfriend felt better now that the anxiety of not knowing what was going to happen was gone, though he could tell he still felt bad for Uraraka.
With one last peck on Midoriya’s forehead he left the room to go down to the kitchen. it didn’t take long before the sounds of his annoying classmates reached his ears, and he immediately scowled. One thing, out of many, he hated about living in the dorms was that no matter what, you were never alone. Ever. It didn’t matter if you woke up at 3 in the morning on a school day to get some water, someone would inevitably wake up at the same time to do the same thing and you would have to hope the other would leave you the fuck alone. But with these people the chance of being ignored, even at 3 am, was slim. It was even slimmer now, at almost noon.
“Bakubro! Good morning!” Kirishima yelled from in front of the TV.
Bakugou clenched his fists. “Fuck off, shitty hair!”
“Ah, not a very good morning, then,” Kaminari said with a solemn nod.
Bakugou’s eye twitched. And then he saw the one person he least wanted to see this fine morning.
“Bakubro! Have you seen Midoriya today? He doesn’t usually sleep this late!”
He slapped Ashido’s arm away when she tried to put it around his shoulders. “Fuck. Off.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Wow, someone’s in a bad mood…” She shrugged. “But seriously, have you seen him?”
Bakugou stopped. He knew the anger creeping upon him was a little bit irrational, but she was still to blame for this whole situation. He turned to her with a murderous glare. “And why the hell would I know where the fuck that nerd is, huh? Go ask fucking Round Face.” He immediately regretted his choice of words when he saw Ashido’s face light up.
“Oh my god. OH MY GOD,” she squealed and put her hands over her mouth in surprise. “Does this mean tha-”
“IT FUCKING DOES NOT,” Bakugou yelled, cutting her off.
Okay, so… He and Midoriya hadn’t technically talked about what to do about the situation, but his boyfriend had said that he wanted to tell everyone about them. And while Bakugou didn’t really want to make an announcement, he couldn’t just shut up and feign ignorance when someone was clearly under the impression that his boyfriend was cosying it up with someone that wasn’t him . So, fuck it all.
“Your stupid ass plan was doomed from the very fucking beginning, since you didn’t think to get all the fucking facts before trying to SET MY FUCKING BOYFRIEND UP WITH SOME SHITTY ASS EXTRA!” The expression on his face promised hell to come if she ever did something like this again.
The room went dead silent. Ashido looked too shocked to even move. Most of the class had no idea what he was talking about, and were just shocked that he would explode about something like that . And then they realized-
“Wait… Boyfriend who??” asked Kirishima.
Bakugou turned to face Kirishima but instead met the eyes of a ghost-white Uraraka. He froze.
Uraraka opened her mouth. “Y-you’re together with Deku-kun?” she asked quietly. “Wait. You are together with Deku-kun ?!”
He sneered at her, mostly because he didn’t know what other expression to make. It was the default. “Yeah. What the fuck about it?”
“Wait a minute!” Kaminari interrupted. “You’re gay ?!”
Bakugou scoffed. “Yeah. And?”
“ Midoriya’s gay?!”
This time he growled. “No. He isn’t. Any more stupid fucking questions or can I get us some breakfast in fucking peace ?”
Silence.
He turned back to the kitchen and made their breakfast without any disturbances. Before he left for the lift, though, he turned on Ashido. “And you . You better fucking apologise to both of them. Your stupid fucking meddling made everything way fucking worse.” Then he stomped away, leaving a stunned silence behind.
“Oh my god,” Mina cried, eyes tearing up, and turned to Ochaco. “I’m so sorry, Ochaco-chan! I really thought I was right about this but I just ruined everything!”
When Bakugou finally got back to Midoriya’s room, his boyfriend gave him a wary look.
“Um. I heard you screaming?” Midoriya said uncertainly while thanking Bakugou for his breakfast with a kiss on the cheek.
“Yeah,” Bakugou grunted. “I fixed it.”
“Fixed it?”
“Yeah, I fucking said so, didn’t I?” he said, without bite. “Now everyone knows about us, and about stupid fucking Pinky. I told her to apologise, so it’s all good now.”
Midoriya smiled softly at his Kacchan. “Thank you, Kacchan. You always take care of me.” He put the breakfast on the bedside table and made grabby-hands for his boyfriend. “Come hug me!”
Bakugou snorted at the sight, but gave in. He made his way to the bed and snuggled down underneath the covers, pulling his boyfriend into his arms.
“You’re such a softie, Kacchan,” Midoriya said quietly, kissing Bakugou’s collarbone.
“Shut up.”