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There are ups and downs to being a professional hero, which is unsurprising.
It’s always exhilarating to help people, to rescue children and the elderly—to help those in need, and rebuild the city when others have committed crimes. Kirishima’s become everything he wanted to be and more, and he’s still pretty embarrassed when people come up to him, cheering Red Riot, Red Riot, but it’s humbling at the same time. After each interview, each discussion with the police detectives, and each quiet night alone, he comes back to work in the morning to face the darkness of their world with a smile, just as All Might had taught them to do.
Still, at the end of the day, he is still a twenty year old man, and he has his own problems. He hangs out with Mina, Kaminari, and Sero, all of them swapping stories about the agencies they work for and gossip among their peers. “Did you hear about Iida?” Sero says, leaning in close to the others, who all grow wide-eyed as he speaks. “Word is he’s got a girlfriend. Our straight-laced class president. Now that is what I call unfair.”
Mina slaps him on the arm and snickers. “Hey, maybe she’s into that.” Forcing her voice several octaves deeper, the pink-skinned young woman says, “Ah, yes, my twenty rules of bedroom etiquette will surely arouse you, milady.”
Kirishima barks with laughter and Kaminari doubles over, both of them wheezing until they can catch their breaths. Finally, the redheaded hero says, “Ashido, oh my god. Iida’s cool. He’s mellowed out a lot since graduation.”
“If by mellowed out, you mean he’s become a goofy weirdo off the clock, then sure—he’s mellowed out,” Kaminari quips back, grinning. “It’s okay, Sero. Girls like the straight-laced types. Think about Midoriya and Todoroki.”
“They don’t even count,” Sero whines. “After second-year, everybody was all over them. The news outlets, our classmates, the teachers. Bakugou was pissed.”
“When isn’t he pissed?” Mina comments, making the rest of them hum in agreement. “But to your point, isn’t it kinda nice when guys are that straightforward? You don’t have to guess what they’re thinking about. It’s cute.”
Kaminari raises an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’re crushing on Midoriya or Todoroki. They’re both taken.”
“No way. I said they were cute, not that I’m into them. I like the badass types—y’know, the kind of guy that’d pick me up for a motorcycle date and run me around town, then make out with me somewhere quiet.”
Kirishima knowingly nods along with her. “Right. Everything would go well until he dissed your friends, and then you’d melt the bike.”
Mina pouts. “Aww man, don’t crush my dreams. I don’t want him to be an ass, I just want him to be a little rugged.”
Sero scoffs. “Kirishima, you have no right to talk. You’ve had a crush on the world’s biggest jerk for years.”
The redhead sputters, flushing dark red and hanging his head. “I just admire him, like, a lot. He’s my best friend.”
Kaminari pulls out his phone and reads a screenshot of a post Kirishima had made the day before. “Ground Zero’s amazing arms helped rescue hundreds at the collapsed stadium downtown. Wish I could’ve been there to take a picture.”
“Oh, Bakugou,” Sero sing-songs in a high tone, “Your fantastic biceps could change heroics forever. I could stare at them all day.”
“Oh, Bakugou,” Mina chimes in, “Have I told you that the color of your eyes is the only color I need to see for the rest of my life?”
“You’re all terrible,” Kirishima whines. “And Kaminari, why the hell did you have that tweet saved? It was supposed to be private!”
Kaminari gives his friend a dead stare. “Private? You posted it on your main.”
“You don’t just save people’s tweets—there are unspoken rules for social media usage.”
The blonde puts his hand on Kirishima’s shoulder and sighs deeply. “Kirishima, my friend. Nothing is sacred online. It’d be good if you learned that.”
It is then that Kirishima learns one very, very important thing about being a professional hero and having people constantly monitoring his social media. One major downside to heroism is that his friends can now use all of his well-meaning public tweets against him, which is a disaster.
//
Though Kirishima knows that he’s supposed to have learned his lesson and that he should be more discreet about his posts, he can’t just stop thinking about his best friend and the current number-two amateur hero. Bakugou is a joy to watch on the screen, scowling at villains and sternly encouraging unruly teenagers to clean up their acts, knowing well what they’re going through.
He should probably just text Bakugou about this, instead of posting, Really appreciating the work that @groundzero is doing out there; can’t wait for his name to become a household commodity.
Frankly speaking, Kaminari is embarrassed for his friend. Kirishima makes these posts almost every day now, and it’s getting ridiculous.
He happens to run into Bakugou about a week after the nonsense gets truly absurd, where Kirishima has written a string of complimentary tweets about all of the heroes he’d gone to school with, highlighting their efforts, but obviously spending the most time on stories involving Bakugou.
After the police questioning is finished and they’ve arrested the villains, Kaminari walks over to the ruby-eyed explosion hero and puts one hand on his hip. He looks physically pained as he says, "Are you aware that Kirishima has been posting terrible thirst tweets about you all week?"
Bakugou raises one eyebrow. "What the fuck is a thirst tweet?"
This is why Kirishima has gotten away with his rosy-eyed garbage for so long—Bakugou is oblivious to his antics. “It’s—he’s—oh my god,” Kaminari grumbles. Both of them are grimy-faced and tired, making the electric hero sound a bit testy. “He’s like, lowkey in love with you, and he can’t shut up about everything you do. Ever.”
“Huh?” Bakugou tilts his head and scowls.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Kaminari hisses, pulling out his phone and navigating his way to Kirishima’s twitter once they get someplace more private. “Would you just read these yourself? I’m so done.”
It takes several minutes for Bakugou to scroll through Kirishima’s recent tweets, the scowl growing softer on his face the further down he goes. When he seems to get the gist of things, he narrows his eyes at Kaminari and says, “How long’s this been going on?”
“I dunno,” Kaminari replies with a shrug. “A while, I guess. Wait, don’t tell me this is all like, a surprise to you?”
Bakugou rolls his eyes. “I’m not stupid, so no, it’s not. Just think Spiky Hair’s wasting too much time instead of getting to the point. I never check my social media.”
Kaminari gapes after Bakugou stalks off, unsure if he’s helped Kirishima or signed his death warrant.
//
Let’s meet up after work tomorrow, Bakugou texts Kirishima.
Immediately, Kirishima dials Kaminari. “Holy shit, you’re never going to believe this.”
“I’m sorry, and if you need me to write you a nice eulogy for your funeral, I am more than willing to do that.”
The redhead frowns. “Well, now I’m worried. What did you do?”
The blonde coughs on the other line. “Uh, let’s forget about that for now. What is it that I’m not gonna believe?”
“Bakugou texted me—hey, you didn’t tell him anything, did you?” Kirishima narrows his eyes suspiciously when Kaminari laughs nervously. “You wouldn’t happen to know why he’s asking to meet up with me, would you?”
“Bye,” Kaminari swiftly says, hanging up the phone and evading further conversation.
//
Kirishima nervously laughs and scratches the back of his neck. He hasn’t changed out of his hero gear, but Bakugou hasn’t either—it’s just that the blonde had gotten into a scrape, so the top half of his costume is ripped to pieces, and the redhead’s eyes keep gravitating to the patches of exposed skin.
“You weren’t hurt, were you?” Kirishima’s concerned, obviously, but there’s no blood, and Bakugou snorts at the very idea of being badly wounded in action.
“No. Shallow cut. My own explosions sent a lot of shrapnel my way, and that’s why most of this happened. S’no fuckin’ big deal.”
As always, Bakugou is so ridiculous. Kirishima is a moment away from swooning.
“So, err,” the redhead starts, throat feeling a little dry. “Why did you want to see me?”
“Aren’t you the one that wants to see me?” Bakugou puts one hand on his hip and smirks. “I hear you post about me all the damn time, so, here I am. I can go pretend to save some brats if you just wanted to have a photo shoot.”
“What?” Kirishima’s voice cracks a bit and he sputters. “I, uh—it’s not all the time.”
“When will Ground Zero sweep me into his manly arms and take me away?” Bakugou dryly mutters and Kirishima immediately flushes hot.
“I never said that!”
“No, but you thought it,” the blonde quips back, and, well, Kirishima can’t argue with that. “So, are the two of us done playing dumb, or do you have something to say?”
Kirishima offers, “I think you’re an amazing hero?”
“And?”
“And I, maybe, um, admire how strong you are? A lot?”
Bakugou scoffs. “This is fucking ridiculous.” He walks over to Kirishima and presses himself flush against the redhead. “What else, you idiot?”
“You are very close and also very hot, and my quirk is about to make this super awkward, because I’m having sensory overload,” Kirishima mumbles in a rush. “Holy shit.”
“Get all hard, then. If you don’t want me to kiss you, you should probably elbow me out of the way.”
Kirishima whines, “Please don’t ever say it like that again,” and then Bakugou messily slams their faces together. It takes a few tries to get it right, and though Kirishima’s hair gets several degrees spikier than usual, he manages to control his quirk so that his lips stay soft and pliant against Bakugou’s aggressive motions.
//
Kaminari is relieved to see Kirishima at the next weekend get-together. “Oh good, you’re alive. When you didn’t post anything this week, I feared the worst. I’d hate to report Bakugou, because he’d make my life miserable as a rogue hero.”
With a blissful expression, Kirishima murmurs, “I have learned from the error of my ways and I will strive to keep my main Twitter free of all love-struck posts for the foreseeable future.”
Mina takes one good look at him, narrows her eyes, and says, “So what you’re saying is that Bakugou made you promise to keep your mouth shut.”
“Pretty much.”
Sero rolls his eyes. “Man, you’re just lucky it took him this long to figure out what was going on. He would’ve kicked your ass.”
After growing quiet for a time, Kirishima murmurs, “I could be into that,” which makes all the rest of his friends gag and fake-retch in response. “I’m just saying!”
Kaminari puts a hand on Kirishima’s shoulder and shakes his head sadly. “It was nice knowing you, buddy. Another one lost to a happy relationship. Guess it’s just the three of us now.”
“I won’t stop hanging out with you guys just because I’m dating Bakugou now,” Kirishima insists. Sero flips him off. “I have done nothing to deserve this treatment. I love all of my friends equally.”
“Oh, Ground Zero, oh,” Sero and Mina mock him in unison and Kirishima blushes, muttering under his breath.
“Can’t wait until Bakugou rips you a new one for posting pictures of him without his permission,” Kaminari muses, and Kirishima rolls his eyes.
//
Check out me and @groundzero at a charity drive! He’s a little grumpy right now, but he gets to help demolish a dilapidated building where a children’s center is going to be constructed afterwards.
Though Bakugou’s PR team has warned him a hundred times to watch what he says online, and they’ve succeeded in many ways—he simply doesn’t go on his social media, in order to avoid saying the wrong thing at the wrong time—they don’t catch his reply post.
@redriotofficial, he types, delete this, you sappy piece of shit.