Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Walk behind me, asshole," Bakugou repeated. Despite his immaculate immune system, he had somehow caught an illness that was called Shouto Todoroki. More often than he liked, he found the younger boy randomly walking beside him, like a gift sent from hell specifically to get on the alpha's nerves, as if the rest of the class wasn't good enough at giving him a migraine already.

"What do you want to buy in the city?" Todoroki asked conversationally, ignoring the command, as if he hadn't even heard it. It still irritated Bakugou to no end that the beta seemed so utterly dismissive of his every threat. Both in fights and in everyday situations, he never showed even a hint of submission, no sign of fear or crack in his composure. Even his scent was basically nonexistent, betraying absolutely no emotion.

Every once in a while, when pushed to the edge during fights, there was some anger in his words and actions, but that was about the extent of it. Even that was carefully restrained, never going past a certain point.

It was always just that detached gaze, amplified by the mismatched eyes; sometimes Bakugou wondered if something was actually wrong with Todoroki's head. Some wires had to be crossed in there, considering that he had the nerve to just fucking attach himself to the strongest alpha in the class like a damn tick.

"None of your fucking business, Half and Half. I don't recall inviting you to a damn shopping trip," Bakugou replied, "so remind me again why the fuck you are following me."

"Because I needed to go the the city, too," the reply came, as if it was a totally obvious fact. Bakugou made an angry noise instead of bothering to explain that this wasn't a sufficient answer to his question.

"You were less exhausting back when you didn't open your mouth as much," he said instead, feeling those eyes on him but refusing to look anywhere other than forwards. Maybe if he didn't acknowledge him, he'd go away.

"You're also less stressful to be around when you're quiet," the cheeky bastard replied, and before Bakugou could ask him why the fuck he was following him then, Todoroki ran his stupid mouth, as if trying to prove just how much of an idiot he was. "I never really expected us to become friends."

The way he said that bugged Bakugou almost as much as the statement in itself. He'd mentioned the f word a few times already, and if the beta was trying to speak that into existence, he was failing terribly.

He had barely learned to tolerate the fact that Shitty Hair called him that.

"You're delusional, we aren't friends," he growled, walking just a little bit faster. Of course, the other adapted to his pace.

"I don't suffer from delusions. You know that they do mental health checks every year."

"Of course I'd fucking know," Bakugou replied, remembering the mandatory anger management lessons he had to go through after the last check up.

"Ah," Todoroki said, as if he'd realised something that Bakugou didn't care to be informed of, "that reminds me. I need to go to the pharmacy."

The blonde raised a brow at that, "You sick or something?" He made sure that his voice didn't sound concerned, because he definitely didn't give a fuck. It was mere curiosity; knowing your rivals' weaknesses was never a bad thing after all.

"No."

It almost felt like the other wanted him to ask further questions, so Bakugou deliberately didn't do that. He just kept walking, annoyingly aware of the presence by his side.

After a minute of silence though, he snapped, "then what the fuck do you need to go to the pharmacy for?"

It earned him a another one of those slightly confused expressions that made the heterochromatic boy look like some crucial program in his head had stopped running. Bakugou refused to look away this time, particularly annoyed with his presence today. It was unnerving how Todoroki simultaneously tried to hold conversations but was also completely fucking horrible at it.

"Scent blockers," the unexpectedly short answer followed.

Bakugou nearly laughed at that, but thankfully caught himself in time.

"As if you of all people need fucking scent blockers. You don't even have a scent in the first place," he told the other. It was true; Todoroki always looked like he secretly carried a hairbrush and he always smelled like... absolutely nothing. Maybe a hint of soap or some shit that Bakugou couldn't be bothered to notice.

Bakugou however had a reason for using scent blockers, the reason being that he was a fucking powerful alpha. It was easy to tell, blockers or not. All they did was tone someone's scent down significantly, but they didn't erase it entirely. Most of the alphas in their class also used them as means of keeping things fair during training and such, but barely anyone truly needed them.

And a beta like Half and Half sure as fuck didn't.

"Of course I do," Todoroki replied, tilting his head slightly, but looking at the street ahead of them. Bakugou wondered if he practiced those forlorn looks in front of the mirror when he was alone.

"Bullshit," Bakugou said, "a beta's angry scent won't make anyone piss their pants or drop to their knees. Waste of money."

Todoroki actually stopped walking at the words, and Bakugou would have just left him standing there if he wasn't sort of curious about his reaction to his words. Truth be told, Bakugou would have been fucking pissed if he hadn't turned out to be an alpha. Being a beta in the hero business just seemed utterly... unspectacular in comparison.

Especially when your father was the big bad number two alpha hero Endeavour, he could only assume.

He almost hoped that he'd hit a nerve there; there was just something about driving the beta to the point of anger that he found entertaining, in comparison to the awkward, annoying small talk Todoroki threw at him, at least.

"No, angry pheromones are not the issue," Todoroki told him, pausing for a long moment before he deadpanned, "I also need heat suppressants."

That sure as hell had Bakugou doubting his hearing. And he didn't doubt his own perception often.

Worse yet, he could almost swear that Half and Half looked uncomfortable, standing there uselessly once the words were out.

"The hell, Icyhot? Why the fuck would you need those."

Mismatched eyes narrowed, a hint of defensiveness in them. "It's not that hard to figure out, is it?"

"Are you seriously trying to tell me that you're a damn male omega? As fucking if."

Todoroki actually had the guts to sigh exasperatedly in response to the question, crossing his arms. Bakugou let his eyes travel across that soft looking hair, down his stupidly pretty face and then then down his body. He was pretty sure that the asshole was trying to develop a sense of humor and this was some weird ass joke he didn't get because it wasn't funny.

While his face could pass as that of an omega, neither his body type nor his attitude fitted that label. He wasn't overly muscular, but nowhere near scrawny. And, as much as Bakugou hated to admit it, Todoroki would be a worthy opponent if he weren't so fucking stuck on the idea of using only half of his power.

None of that seemed particularly omega-like.

Omegas weren't made for the hero business, too likely to get emotional or submit in the face of danger, and there was no fucking way that the ice king of all people was one. Besides, male omegas were even rarer than female ones, and the likelihood that one of them went to UA was pretty much zero.

"It's not like I run around telling everyone about it," Todoroki said drily.

"Even if it were true, then why the fuck would you tell me?"

"Because you asked what I need from the pharmacy."

"I don't buy it," Bakugou declared once again, "if anyone in our class is secretly an omega, it's Deku, that fucking crybaby. Not you, so stop bullshitting me."

"Midoriya doesn't cry as much anymore."

"Not the fucking point here at all, Half and Half. God, you're annoying."

The entire conversation felt fucking weird to the blonde, entirely too personal and out of the blue. Whether or not what the candy cane hero had said was true, Bakugou was entirely unwilling to have a conversation with Shouto Todoroki about secondary genders. He could go to his group of extras and chew their ears off about his apparently very much existent delusions for all Bakugou cared.

He couldn't and wouldn't see Todoroki as anything other than the stone faced, socially challenged beta with a tendency to be an asshole at times. Because Half and Half was clearly not an omega; Bakugou straight up refused to imagine Todoroki going through a heat or being needy or building a nest or whatever it was that omegas even did.

His mind went ahead and tried to create a picture of those scenarios nonetheless, and that only served to piss him off more. Thankfully, the two of them had shit to do in the city, and that was a good enough reason to end this conversation right there.

"Whatever. Walk behind me, asshole," he commanded, heading towards the supermarket.

Once again, the other disregarded his words.

...

Todoroki wasn't so sure what exactly had possessed him to be so very open about his secondary gender with Bakugou, out of all his friends. Not Midoriya, who he was much closer to, or either other member of their usual friend group, but Bakugou.

The blonde, aggressive alpha wasn't exactly the kind of person anyone would approach with such matters. Or at least Shouto didn't think so. But something in him had been less than pleased with the knowledge that Bakugou didn't think he even had a scent at all. Sure, all things considered, it was a good thing that the blockers worked that well...

But it also was utterly frustrating.

Because he didn't really care to make such a big secret out of it. It was his father who had told him to 'keep his shameful disposition a secret and make sure to never forget to take his medication.'

Which he did, religiously. Scent blockers every day, along with heat suppressants whenever the first signs of that came up. Coupled with years of special training and being exposed to the scent of a nearly constantly furious alpha as a father, there was no way to tell him apart from a beta. He could stand his ground against anyone, alpha or beta alike.

And yet, he'd gone ahead and told the very alpha who would just refuse to acknowledge it entirely. Bakugou had even refused to come along to the pharmacy, claiming that 'whatever it was he needed to buy, he could buy by himself.'

So, Todoroki had been left on his own, feeling strange about the personal fact that he'd revealed... way too casually, apparently.

The only hint that the conversation had actually happened was the slight change in the way Bakugou now looked at him. Whenever they were in the same room, the blonde would somehow end up giving him that particular, calculating look. Once their eyes met, his expression would return to the default annoyance.

He was sitting in the common room, listening to Midoriya as he rambled on and on about quirks that amazed him, when it happened again. From the other side of the room, red eyes were staring at him, and Todoroki turned towards the culprit, unsure what exactly he was supposed to do with this weird sort of attention he received from Bakugou. He felt almost like an animal in a zoo, being studied in this way.

Once again, the alpha's face twisted into a murderous expression upon being caught, and Todoroki held his gaze for a moment before Midoriya pulled his attention away.

"Are you alright, Todoroki? You seem distracted," he asked.

"Sorry. I'm fine, just a bit... worried about my hand to hand combat skills. Aizawa told me that I've got a lot of improving to do in that regard," Todoroki half-lied. While that had happened and did concern him, he was truthfully more occupied with.. other things. Like the fact that Bakugou didn't believe him when he'd said that he was an omega. And now, he didn't know how to interpret those looks he received.

Apparently, Midoriya noticed the way his eyes kept drifting back to the explosive hero.

"You could ask Kacchan to help you train, after all that's what he's best at," Midoriya suggested, as if Todoroki could just walk up to Bakugou and ask him for that sort of favor. Or could he?

"I don't think he'd be too keen on spending his free time helping me out," Todoroki commented drily. While it was true that Bakugou was the best at close range fighting, he wasn't so certain it wouldn't be weird for the two of them to train together (assuming he'd say yes in the first place). Over the course of the last few days, he'd kept his distance from the blonde altogether, simply because he didn't know what to say.

"Kacchan is always up for a fight if you word it the right way. I've gotta go meet up with All Might now, but if I can help you out in any way, I'll do that of course," the green haired boy offered before standing up.

Todoroki nodded his head, "Thanks, I'll think about it. See you later, Midoriya."

Sitting alone on the couch now, he wondered if asking Bakugou was actually an option. Shouto simultaneously felt like it was a bad idea, but he also wanted to achieve whatever normalcy was between him and Bakugou again. And most likely, that wouldn't be achieved by avoiding the blonde entirely.

He was still sort of clueless to the mechanics of interpersonal relationships, but it seemed pretty clear that a strange sort of friendship had developed between Bakugou and him over the course of the last few months. Not the sweet and caring kind of friendship he shared with Midoriya; something a bit rougher around the edges.

Something that was far from easily understood.

Despite the reoccurring insults, the blonde still allowed Todoroki to stick around, and Todoroki couldn't deny that Bakugou was an entertaining person, in his own way. He was so straight forward and outspoken about things he had issues with, and it ironically made it easier for Todoroki to be around him.

He'd spent most of his life learning to internalise his feelings and thoughts, and it was refreshing to be around someone with so little inhibition when it came to expressing the uglier emotions. Anger, pride and frustration - those were all things Todoroki could easily handle in others. He was used to it, after all.

And he held the strong belief that beneath that brutal and angry layer of the alpha, there was actually a decent person hidden.

Because over the course of the last few years, he'd come to realise that Bakugou wasn't always just loud or hateful. In some ways, his presence could even be borderline comforting. And if he ever said that aloud, Todoroki was sure he'd earn himself a punch in the face in return.

Bakugou pretended not to care, but Todoroki was convinced that deeper down, people actually did matter to him... Just the opposite of his father, really.

He just needed to learn how to be more open, and then Bakugou was sure to become an extraordinary hero without a doubt.

But as things stood, Bakugou didn't have that many friends either. It always seemed like he wanted to make people fear him rather than like him. But Todoroki wasn't afraid of the alpha, not in the slightest.

He wouldn't allow one strange situation to just ruin their friendship.

So, the omega gathered his courage and crossed the room until he was standing in front of the blonde alpha.

"Bakugou," he began, red eyes on him as soon as he was halfway there. Kirishima gave him a friendly grin, and Todoroki awkwardly waved in response to that.

"The fuck do you want, Icyhot?"

"Train with me," Shouto replied, apparently unable to do as Midoriya said and word it properly. When red eyes sharpened on him, he added, "You're the best at hand to hand combat, so I'd appreciate if you could help me out."

Kirishima's eyes widened, and Todoroki wasn't so sure why. Bakugou just crossed his arms, and another stare down happened.

"Damn right I'm the best. But what would I get out of that?"

Now, that question had Todoroki confused. It wasn't as if he had much to offer in return, and maybe he should have expected something along the lines. Once more, he felt utterly unprepared for the conversation, wondering if he should have even tried.

"What do you want?" he asked instead, head tilted to the side.

It took no less than one second until Bakugou answered, "I want a fight. A real fucking fight without any of that 'I'm too sentimental to use my fire' bullshit. Got it?"

Todoroki gave him a blank stare. In retrospect, Todoroki should have known that this would be Bakugou's condition. He was ready to just say no and turn around, but stopped himself in that thought process. Instead, he asked, "Why?"

"Because winning against someone who's not even trying is worse than fucking losing."

"That attitude is manly as hell," Kirishima commented. Todoroki wasn't entirely sure he agreed with that logic, but a part of him still understood Bakugou's frustration. The blonde was stubborn, and Todoroki could relate to that. He was just as stubborn.

Which was why it came as a surprise to himself when he quietly said, "Alright."

Bakugou frowned at him, apparently just a little caught off guard as well.

"Well, that was easier than expected. Finally getting over your ridiculous daddy issues?" he asked then.

And Todoroki's eyes narrowed.

Bakugou didn't know the full extent of his back story, but he should know enough to not write it off as 'daddy issues.' It went much deeper than that, after all - Shouto wondered if he'd given the other too much credit in the 'maybe secretly a decent person' department.

Even more so than before, he felt naive for actually putting some trust in him. Not that Bakugou had asked him to; it had just happened naturally.

But maybe it shouldn't have.

"You know what, I changed my mind," the heterochromatic boy said, taking a step away from the other two. "I'll ask Midoriya to help me."

The statement left both Bakugou and Kirishima stunned for the moment it took Todoroki to make his disappearance. He could feel the warmth in his blood that never failed to remind him of the fact that fire and aggression went hand in hand. Quickly heading to his dorm room, he tried to balance it out with his other side, as if keeping his temperature in check would somehow get the uncomfortable feeling out of his chest.

It wasn't like him to try and reach out to someone. The friendships he had, had developed mostly because people had come up to him, and he hadn't been opposed to it. But Shouto wasn't going to chase after someone who truly only saw him as a stepping stone to inflating his ego further. Obviously, Bakugou didn't want him around, didn't want to understand him - he just wanted to beat him, and Shouto wasn't so sure why in the world this realisation bothered him.

He dropped down on his bed, laying still and facing the ceiling as he thought it all over.

Surely, Midoriya would train with him, and that would also be very helpful. But then again, what Aizawa had said to him wasn't the real issue that occupied his mind.

He still wondered if he'd overstepped a boundary by making Bakugou aware of his secondary gender. Then, there was also the matter that he wasn't so certain the blonde even believed him at all; that was another thing that weighted on his mind. He'd revealed a part of himself only to have it disregarded entirely.

And that... that was all too reminiscent of his upbringing, of old wounds so to speak. Being dismissed as a person, and worth nothing more than what his quirk could offer. Bakugou wanted to fight him, and win.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Just as he was about to throw himself deeper into the dark waters of his reoccurring insecurities and his past, the sudden sound of a door being torn open caught his attention. Todoroki moved into a sitting position, and stared blankly at Bakugou, who was glaring daggers at him from the other side of the room. Again.

"Bakugou, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"What the fuck is up with you?"

"I don't know what you mean," Todoroki replied, the anger now less prominent and a distinct emptiness in his voice that he knew all too well.

"Like hell do you not know what I mean! You're acting fucking weird. Even weirder than usual."

"I don't know what you-"

"Stop saying that. Hell. You sound like a broken record. You can't just ask for something and then change your mind a minute later," the blonde growled, somewhere between annoyed and perplexed.

"It was a stupid thing to ask for."

"You only ever ask stupid questions, Half and Half. So that's nothing new."

"Mmh," Todoroki muttered in mock agreement, not all that pleased with the alpha who apparently came to his room just to insult him. He usually didn't mind the random insults so much, but with this certain bit of tension already between them, Todoroki found it harder to just brush the words off.

"Don't you fucking 'mmh' me!" the alpha threatened, stomping closer to the bed with his fists clenched. Shouto refused to let that bother him, and only gave him what was hopefully an unimpressed look in return.

It felt strange to have Bakugou in his room, and the blonde only halted when he was right in front of the bed, staring down at Todoroki.

He briefly wondered if Bakugou was going to punch him in the face or something. Bakugou smelled like anger, the scent strong enough to be noticeable even through the scent blockers the alpha was most likely using. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly enough to seriously affect Shouto. If anything, it had him just a bit on alert, and that wasn't unfamiliar.

On the contrary, he was an expert at dealing with angry alphas and showing no response whatsoever. While his body wanted to react, he easily had those urges under control.

It had happened before during fights with his alpha classmates, and it always was the same. His body noticed the pheromones, felt the instinctual pull to submit, and Shouto fought against it, easily pushing those urges into the background. Thankfully, he could end most fights without even getting too close to his opponents; in that regard, the ice helped him better than anything else he could ask for.

Just another reason why his close combat skills weren't the best - when he could, Todoroki avoided unnecessary closeness. With Bakugou, that was sometimes hard, because the blonde had a tendency to just bomb his way through his ice.

Bakugou's proximity didn't really bother Todoroki though.

What bothered him was that Bakugou didn't yell or physically try to assault him. Instead, he stood there, right in front of the bed, just watching him for a very long, uncomfortable minute.

"Fucking fine. I'll help you with your shitty training and you don't have to fight me in return," he eventually said, sounding almost calm for his standards. Or more like he was trying to stay calm. Todoroki could practically hear his effort.

"You.. what?" he asked, feeling like the ground had just been pulled from underneath him. Out of all the things he'd expected to hear from the other, this one certainly hadn't been it. His general confusion only grew at the development, and Todoroki told himself to start taking the heat suppressants tomorrow. His felt a bit off balance, and that was a telltale sign.

"You heard me, didn't you? I'm not fucking repeating it."

"Okay," Todoroki agreed.

"You could at least thank me, asshole."

"Thank you," the omega tried absent-mindedly, still busy processing this act of... what, kindness?

"Whatever," Bakugou said, standing in the very same spot and scowling at Todoroki. It left the younger of the two wondering if he was supposed to say anything else or not. If he was, he wasn't sure what that would be. Maybe staying quiet was actually the better option.

"I still don't buy that shit you said about being an omega, but even if it's true, don't think for a minute that I'll go easier on you. Got it?"

Todoroki nodded, dumbfounded. The warm side of his quirk was acting up again, and he couldn't identify why that was. He wasn't angry, in fact he would have disliked it if Bakugou would treat him like he was less of a worthy challenge now.

"Fucking great. We'll train tomorrow at 6 PM after class, in the gym. I'll kill you if you're late," he announced, and was out of the room just as quickly as he'd come in. Todoroki dropped back down on the mattress, and stared at the ceiling. His phone started ringing after a while, pulling him out of his musings, but he turned it off when he saw that it was just an incoming call from his father.

Chapter Text

Bakugou threw the door to the gym open with the energy of a soldier rushing into a battle. Head held high, he looked around the room, and made an angry noise when of fucking course Half and Half was nowhere to be found. He was five minutes early, as per usual, but annoyance still coursed through him at the fact that the asshole wasn't here already.

Truthfully, he was looking for reasons to be mad, because he still couldn't get it into his head that he'd agreed to help Todoroki with his training. Without getting anything out of it, no less. He wasn't some fucking saint or martyr, so he shouldn't feel obligated to sacrifice his free time for someone as annoying as the self proclaimed omega. His lack of abilities was very much his own problem, not Bakugou's.

And yet, he'd agreed. And the only thing he could blame that on was Half and Half with his shitty mood swings and his fucking sensitive soul. Seriously, it was beyond him how someone could be entirely unbothered by the most colorful insults and then make a drama out of one small comment about his obvious daddy issues. He'd earned himself a lecture by Shitty Hair just for commenting on Icyhot's back story. Apparently, disregarding someone's issues with their family was 'not very manly.'

Not that he fucking cared to be considered manly by anyone else; Bakugou knew very well what he was and what he wasn't - and he wasn't the type of guy to crawl up someone's ass begging for forgiveness. He didn't need anyone's validation to know that he was a decent fucking person, and a prime example of a powerful alpha, thank you very much.

But here he was, five minutes early, muttering a displeased, "shitty bastard," into the empty gym hall in front of him.

Todoroki better be fucking thankful, he told himself, because this was definitely a one time thing. If news got around that Bakugou was now approachable and the other extras started coming up to him asking for favors, he'd make something explode. Literally.

He already sort of felt like doing that.

Had Halfie asked him to train before he began with this whole "I'm an omega" bullshit, it wouldn't have been as irritating. Now, Bakugou's mind had that information filed under 'potentially true' and it had him even less eager to do exercises that required a good amount of proximity. Although he wasn't a total asshole about secondary genders and stereotypes that came along with them, a part of him still found the thought of hitting an omega particularly fucked up.

But this was Todoroki. Someone he'd beat up before, without a fucking care in the world. The annoying bastard who walked around thinking he was something special with his fucking ice crystals or whatever. Whether he was a beta or actually an omega, he was still a pain in the ass. And he'd signed up for this, so it was pointless to even consider going easy on him.

He'd even made that much clear the day before - although Bakugou wasn't entirely sure whether those words had been a reminder for the other or himself.

'Why am I thinking about this again,' Bakugou yelled at himself, in his head.

"You're already here," the all too familiar voice came from behind him, and Bakugou twisted around to glare his angriest glare at him. Dressed half casually in training pants and a loose, grey t-shirt, Half and Half just stood there, waiting for Bakugou to make space and let him pass through.

"Well, a decent fucking person knows that being early equals being on time," he snapped.

"Does being a decent person also require fitting a curse word into every sentence that leaves your mouth?" Todoroki asked, having the fucking nerve to add the hint of a smirk to that.

"Only when I have to deal with idiots," Bakugou growled at him, making a point of staying right where he was, blocking the entrance. Todoroki said nothing in response to that and instead went ahead to try and squeeze his way through the doorframe, disregarding Bakugou's presence entirely.

Once again, he smelled like absolutely nothing... Not that Bakugou was actually trying to catch a hint of his scent in order to confirm or disprove what he'd said. Fuck no.

"Bakugou?" Todoroki asked with a hint of surprise in his voice, snapping him back into reality.

A reality in which Half and Half was way too fucking close, and Bakugou was not so subtly staring at the skin beneath his jawline, his own jaw clenched tightly. Todoroki seemed clueless as ever, confusion evident in his eyes.

Bakugou stepped into the gym the moment he noticed their closeness, nearly making the other stumble.

"You better be ready to get your ass kicked," he muttered, refusing to even acknowledge that short moment where this damn curiosity had apparently overtaken him. He couldn't even be blamed with all the bullshit the other had been spewing lately.

Half and Half had even less of a scent than a regular beta would, and it was bad enough that Bakugou was now focused on his scent of all things in the world. Or rather, the lack thereof.

Thankfully, he'd get a chance to let off some steam any minute now. That seemed like the only logical course of action here, because he wasn't about to ask further questions.

What else was there to ask, really? The answer would be the same anyway, most likely said in the same tone, too. Besides, Bakugou didn't exactly want Todoroki to think that he cared about what he had to say. That would only amplify his belief that they were friends.

"If either of us gets hurt, Aizawa and Recovery Girl are not going to be very happy about it," was all that Todoroki said. His voice was about as enthusiastic as that of a 90 year old who'd forgotten to bring bread crumbs to feed the birds in the park.

"Are you doubting my ability to control my punches, Half and Half?"

"You're not exactly the epitome of self control."

"I'll show you fucking self control," he growled, already frustrated beyond belief and they hadn't even started yet.

When Todoroki started fucking stretching like a middle aged woman in a yoga course, he could only stare in disbelief. "Are you fucking done over there? I don't have all evening for this!"

"Warm up is important," the idiot said, nearly making Bakugou punch himself in the face, once again very much unable to handle the factual way he'd said that. He tried his hardest to just ignore the manner in which the other boy was going about his business, stretching his arms and legs deliberately and slowly, like he was doing it for a damn audience.

"Just show me your damn fighting stance," he commanded, daring to walk a little closer now that the other was done with his ridiculous warm up. Todoroki nodded before positioning his feet and holding his arms up, elbows bent at chest level.

"Your legs are too close and your arms aren't high enough," Bakugou told him after a short glance at this disaster of a stance. Todoroki momentarily glared at him, before apparently realising that he was the one who asked for his opinion in the first place.

"Okay, that's a little less horrible," the blonde told him, walking in a circle around him. Once he was sure that this could be worked with, he said, "Now, throw a jab."

"Aren't you going to fight with me?"

"I will, once I've got an idea of all the mistakes you make. Jab. Now."

Todoroki did as he was told, his fist flying forward but his body too stiff to really make use of the entirety of the momentum. Bakugou wondered if that was quirk related. In most fights, the other didn't exactly need to focus on the impact, because his ice did that job for him.

Either way, he scowled at the other, "Try it again and imagine punching someone in the face. Someone who's made of fucking iron. Imagine the impact."

"I doubt that punching someone made of iron would be a good idea. I'd break my hand," Half and Half intelligently supplied.

"I'll break your hand if you don't do what I say. Put some damn energy into your movements, this shit needs to be fluent."

The other tried again, and again, and again. And with each one of his attempts, Bakugou became more frustrated. He was about ready to just give up entirely on this hopeless case, but instead he said, "Fuck this, do kicks."

Once again, the obligatory nod followed, and Bakugou noticed the way his red and white hair was beginning to stick to his forehead. At times, he found it weird as fuck that other people couldn't use their sweat to make explosions, but this time his thoughts didn't exactly go down that path.

In fact, he wasn't sure where his thoughts went.

"Like that?" Todoroki asked, and Bakugou's eyes only now left his face, having missed the kick.

"Do it again," he growled, deciding that being a teacher definitely wasn't his fucking thing. Besides, it infuriated him that Icyhot somehow managed to make kicking a non-existent enemy make elegant.

He let Todoroki repeat that a few times as well, before deeming his technique alright.

"Good enough. Now, try and land a punch," he challenged, having enough of watching the other. Bakugou stepped forward until he was at an appropriate distance, holding his own arms up and standing in a way that allowed him to move quickly and efficiently.

Todoroki's attempts were almost laughable, his entire posture betraying his next movement, and Bakugou easily caught his fist in his hand as he swung it forward.

"Too slow," he commented, glad to very obviously have the upper hand.

"I'll try again," Todoroki nearly whispered, frustration clear on his face at being stopped so easily. He was already slightly out of breath, and clearly spurred on by his desire to prove something to himself. Bakugou liked this side of Todoroki better than the passive and calm one.

"Then try," he said, pushing the arm back out of his hold with quite a bit of strength. At least Icyhot didn't stumble backwards, so the tip about keeping his feet further apart for balance had apparently helped a little.

It took him about 20 more attempts until Bakugou was relatively satisfied with the result. They repeated the same thing with the kicks, and at some point, Todoroki actually managed to land a kick just below Bakugou's knee.

"Fucking finally, took you long enough," the alpha commented, ignoring the pain in his leg. A kick with that much force wasn't exactly something he'd expect from an omega... and there the question was again, always at the fucking back of his head. Bakugou gave the other a calculating look once more, but Todoroki gave nothing much away other than the fact that he sucked at this.

Todoroki's breathing was heavier now, and it was painfully obvious that fist fights really weren't his strength at all. Bakugou was nice enough to hand him his bottle of water after drinking some himself, and the other grabbed it with a look of surprised thankfulness on his face. For once, he had nothing clever to say in return. Bakugou watched him down a large gulp of water, and turned away before the other opened his eyes and made a relieved sound.

"Now that we've made some progress with the offense, try to block my punches or evade them," Bakugou told him, done with just playing the punching bag here, "And keep your elbows high, your arms are not fucking useful down there."

Another nod from Half and Half confirmed that he'd apparently processed the information, so Bakugou went ahead, banning all thoughts about secondary genders from his mind, and moving at the fast pace that came naturally to him.

Todoroki wasn't fast enough to move out of his way or block the punch, and he made a pained sound as Bakugou's fist collided with his stomach. The blonde couldn't help but think that he was overreacting a bit, because he definitely hadn't packed all his strength into that punch. Another disgusting part of him wanted to make him feel bad for this, but Bakugou ignored that ridiculous thought. Alpha instincts really sucked sometimes, especially when they acted up in situations that clearly didn't require them.

"Quit moaning, you've gotta watch the way I move and anticipate where the punch is going to hit," he said, sounding almost a bit too helpful and also a little less annoyed than planned.

"Alright," Todoroki confirmed, his mismatched eyes on Bakugou's arms already.

Bakugou used his left hand this time, aiming for the chest area. That didn't leave much room for Todoroki to fuck up, so Bakugou's fist just collided with the back of his arms. A little bit of a positive affirmation in between the critcism and failed attempts couldn't hurt, he figured.

They repeated that a number of times as well, but somehow Todoroki didn't really seem to get better at it.

"How can you even be so fucking slow?" Bakugou growled upon breaking through Todoroki's defense again, for the tenth time or so. It had become obvious pretty fast that reaction time was Icyhot's biggest issue here (not that it was the only one). Bakugou himself was blessed with the ability to react and move fast - faster than anyone, really.

He couldn't exactly teach the asshole's brain to work faster though. The blonde briefly wondered if he was perhaps the wrong person to train with - maybe fucking Deku would have been less of a discouraging training partner. Not that Todoroki appeared particularly discouraged yet, despite the fact that he looked like he'd run a fucking marathon.

Bakugou's heart rate was slightly faster than usual as well, thanks to the many punches he had been throwing.

He decided to let the other practice some more punches instead.

"You try again," he announced, and Todoroki didn't waste a second before swinging his fist in Bakugou's direction, apparently not as calm and collected as before anymore. Frustration rolled off him in waves at this point, no scent was required to tell as much. The blonde grinned as he once again not only managed to block the punch. He was fast enough to grab his wrist and let the clenched fist stop just a few centimetres from his face, taunting Todoroki.

The brief murderous look he received in return was fucking worth it, at least until the point where Todoroki's expression changed into something indecipherable all of a sudden. His heterochromatic eyes widened, and he tried to pull his arm backwards, only for Bakugou to respond by tightening his grip. Bakugou had never seen this exact expression on his face before, he vaguely noted.

"Let go," Todoroki whispered, his voice raspy from exhaustion.

"If your punches were faster, I wouldn't be able to stop you like this," Bakugou told him, daring the other to argue with that logic.

"Just, don't grab my wrist there," was the only reply he received, and it took a moment or two until it clicked in Bakugou's brain. When it did, he let go of the other's wrist as though it was on fire, which it wasn't - but this was just as bad.

In contrast to alphas, omegas didn't just have scent glands on their necks. Bakugou recalled that information with a special sort of terror, having an instant flashback to Sex Ed years ago.

This wasn't the sort of knowledge he'd ever needed in his day to day life, up until this point apparently. It wasn't like he knew many omegas, and the ones he did know, he'd never touched or fought with. He wasn't even entirely certain what in the world the expression on the other's face meant. All he knew was that his was fucking inappropriate and Bakugou couldn't help but make a disgusted sound at the absurdity of it all.

Todoroki's eyes met his again when they left his wrist after a few seconds.

"The hell, Icyhot! You could have fucking warned me!" Bakugou managed to get the words out, still somewhat shocked.

"I told you that I'm an -"

"Yeah, yeah. Fuck. So you're actually fucking serious about this?" he couldn't help but ask, now seriously doubting that the airhead was making the whole thing up.

"Of course, why would I lie about that?" Todoroki asked, sounding just a bit off.

"The hell if I know! We're fucking done here for today," Bakugou declared, wanting nothing more than to get out of this trainwreck of a situation as soon as possible. He grabbed his water bottle and allowed the rest of it to help his suddenly very dry throat.

Todoroki was staring into space, the adrenaline from the training seemingly wearing off.

"Thanks for helping me," the omega (Bakugou still struggled to attach that label to him) said, running a hand through his soft looking hair and exhaling way too loudly for Bakugou not to hear it.

"Whatever, Icyhot. Just work on your damn reaction time," Bakugou growled, already on his way out. He wondered once again why in the world he had agreed to help the asshole with his training.

...

"Shouto, I've been trying to reach you for days," his father's voice came through the phone, and the omega felt like hanging up already. "How have your grades been lately?"

The question was just such a typical first thing for his father to ask that he almost let out a bitter laugh at the words.

"My grades have been the same as always. Good. Anything else?" he replied, hoping that there was not going to be anything else. After almost an entire week of ignoring him, Shouto had finally cracked, mostly because he'd wanted to get this conversation over with.

"I'm allowed to ask that."

"Yeah and I answered. So?"

"You could show a bit less attitude towards your father, son," the man said, and it was easy to tell that he was trying to stay relatively calm. His tone of voice gave his real thoughts away, however. Enji Todoroki was very traditional in the sense that he believed that no omega should go against an alpha - a pretty mixed message if you asked Shouto. Because that very same man had no problem telling him to be better than all the others (alphas included) at his school and become number one.

Although he had been trying to be a bit less of an ass lately, Shouto didn't exactly buy it. It mainly felt like the man was trying to guilt trip him into forgiving him. Not just him, but his siblings as well.

"The pills still do their job?" his father asked instead of trying to argue, but that topic was just as annoying to speak about.

"Yes, no one knows a thing," Shouto lied. If there was one thing he knew he'd never do, it was telling his father any amount of personal information. Now that he finally had some privacy and the chance to actually have friends, he wasn't going to let the man get in the way of that.

"Very well. Make sure it stays that way."

"Sure. Night," Todoroki replied and ended the call before his father could drag the conversation out any longer. He was already exhausted, and an extended father-son conversation really didn't need to be added to the list of the day's events.

He had more than enough to think about already. The omega quickly emptied another cup of tea, before sitting down on his bed and focusing on his wrist.

He recalled the feeling of the alpha's fingers on his scent glands there all too clearly. Out of all the space on his arm Bakugou's fingers had sunk directly into this particular spot, with such a pressure that it had been impossible to ignore.

And he would have, had he been able to just do that.

But that hadn't been a possibility. Scent blockers or not, one thing about his secondary gender that he couldn't just get rid of were his scent glands - the ones on his wrists and the ones on his neck. They weren't visibly noticeable luckily, but one thing they were was horribly sensitive to touch.

And the earlier incident had shown Shouto just how sensitive exactly. That had felt very different from anything he'd experienced before, and he didn't know what to think about it. Or Bakugou's reaction. Or his own.

All of it had him incredibly confused, but the situation had been good for one thing at least (assuming that thing was actually good); it had apparently been the proof Bakugou had needed to believe Shouto that he was what he'd said he was.

Aside from that, their training had been nothing short of an embarrassment. He'd been unable to really stay focused, overwhelmed with Bakugou's speed, and had earned himself a lot of punches for that.

Shouto was pretty sure that there would be purple and blue bruises all over his body tomorrow. Bakugou probably had as good as none. Todoroki was truthfully amazed by the fact that Bakugou was just as deadly without using his explosions as he was with them. He couldn't really say the same about himself.

Had Bakugou not been uncharacteristically patient with him, he wouldn't have even landed one punch or kick.

But still, he certainly hadn't managed many.

Shouto made a face as he once again recalled the moment when Bakugou realised where he was holding his wrist, and something akin to guilt washed over the omega. Even he could tell that the shock had been real, that Bakugou hadn't even thought of that issue beforehand.

Turning his phone on once more, Todoroki went to the mostly empty chat with the blonde, and typed out a message.

'I really am sorry. It was thoughtless of me not to remind you of that.'

He pressed send, and wondered how awkward that situation could have possibly been, had he trained with someone else. Someone who wouldn't have been aware of his secondary gender. Usually, with the bracelets belonging to his hero costume, he didn't have to worry about someone accidentally touching his wrists and figuring anything out.

If his father knew that he'd been so thoughtless, the man would have thrown another fit for sure.

His phone vibrated, and a message popped up.

'Stop apologising and go to sleep. It won't happen again'

'Okay. Goodnight,' Todoroki typed before setting his phone aside again. He was certain that it wouldn't happen again, now that Bakugou actually knew and believed that he was an omega. That thought shouldn't bother him, but something about it did.

Todoroki couldn't figure out how to even explain it to himself.

It wasn't like the alpha's touch had hurt badly - so really, it wasn't a big deal. But something strange had happened to him when Bakugou's hand had wrapped around his wrist like that. Shouto could still recall the feeling, but he had no word for it, no way to really grasp what it was that had bothered him. Even now, just thinking about it, his chest felt weird.

It was almost like a part of him, some instinct-driven part that was a stranger in his own body, had enjoyed it. And that was alarming, because the issue had never come up before. While he was an omega, he'd pushed that part of himself away for as long as he could remember, under the strict supervision of his father. He wasn't supposed to show any omega behavior after all.

But had Bakugou not let go when he did, Todoroki wasn't sure what would or could have happened. Nothing probably. Hopefully. In the worst case, he'd have bared his neck or something like that - in front of Bakugou. That idea was terrifying, embarrassing and utterly uncalled for, all at once.

It took Shouto a solid minute of deep breathing until he thankfully got that thought out of his mind.

'why the hell are you texting me goodnight half n half that's fucking weird' the message lit up his phone screen.

Todoroki frowned at it, before typing out another, 'sorry', and sending it.

About five seconds later, he received a message that consisted only of a middle finger emoji.

Chapter Text

"You're doing it again," Bakugou stated, giving Todoroki an annoyed look.

"Doing what?"

"Following me around."

"Following you would require that I walk behind you," Todoroki said, in the same tone of voice that always managed to get on Bakugou's nerves. Once again, it did its job perfectly, and the blonde let out an angry breath.

"You fucking should, walk behind me," Bakugou declared, "Or just walk to class with Deku and the other extras."

"It's a two minute walk," the omega said, and Bakugou wasn't so sure where the argument in that was. Shouto Todoroki's brain wasn't the kind of mystery anyone could hope to figure out, ever, and he'd be an idiot to try. Fuck no, not at just past 7 in the morning.

"I wanted to talk to you," Half and half added, and it instantly registered in Bakugou's brain that this couldn't be a good thing. Bakugou wondered where Shitty Hair was when he needed him; for once, company would be more than fucking appreciated.

For whatever reason, he felt weird, walking next to the ice hero. It was a hard feeling to explain, perhaps something between exhaustion and dread. Not fear or anything of that sort, like hell was Bakugou afraid of him - just a certain bit of tension in the air, most likely because of what had happened yesterday. He still recalled that look on Todoroki's face as he had pressed his fingers into his scent glands unknowingly.

Fuck if that look wasn't going to haunt him for a while.

The knowledge that Todoroki was actually an omega and not just trying to fuck with him still felt unreal. Even though he wasn't trying to do it consciously, it still fucked with his head in inexplicable ways.

Bakugou didn't know what to do with the information, didn't know what in the world made Todoroki feel like telling him about it was a good idea. Didn't know if he was somehow required to be nicer around him now or offer some sort of.. mental support? Both sounded like horrible options to him.

But then again, it wasn't like it fucking mattered. The other had managed to make this work for a long while now, all the while keeping the whole thing a secret, so it was safe to assume that he didn't need Bakugou to...

To, what exactly?

The simple fact that Bakugou was wasting precious time and thoughts on the matter had him ready to punch a wall.

"Huh? The fuck is there to talk about?" he asked, irritation more than evident in his voice. Nothing like a weird conversation with Icyhot first thing in the morning.

"Would you train with me again?"

"After what happened yesterday you still want to train together," Bakugou asked but it wasn't really a question. The real question was implied by the tone of his voice, and it went something along the lines of 'what the hell is wrong with you.'

"As I said, I'm sorry about that. But since you knew about it anyways, that shouldn't matter, right?" Todoroki asked, and Bakugou gave him a short look before turning away again. Still that same stupidly silky texture of hair, still that same scar, same mismatched eyes.

Absolutely nothing had changed about Shouto Todoroki, so why in the world did it feel different to look at him?

It shouldn't matter.

The worst thing about what he'd said was that the idiot was right for once. None of it should matter, and those weird ass thoughts should pack their things and crawl back to wherever the hell they came from. Secondary genders were just that - biology - and not a big deal.

"It's not like I give a fuck," the alpha muttered, "but not today. I've gotta learn for the English test tomorrow."

"Oh right. We could learn-"

"No, don't even suggest it," Bakugou interrupted him, wondering when the hell Todoroki went from avoiding all interactions with people to forcing himself on Bakugou like this on a regular basis. He blamed Deku turning Icyhot into such a wannabe social butterfly, like he blamed Deku for many things that made his life more exhausting.

"Why not?"

"Because why the fuck would I? I get more done when I learn by myself," Bakugou told him as they finally entered the classroom. No one was there yet, except for Iida, who said "Good morning," a bit too loudly for it to not piss Bakugou off.

He made an acknowledging noise, while Todoroki went out of his way to reply with his own friendly (but still freakishly monotonous), "Good morning."

Bakugou half expected Todoroki to bug him further about learning together, but the omega just went to his seat, and rested his head on his folded arms, yawning. And that was very welcome, because Bakugou had absolutely no desire to continue the conversation anyway.

He was left alone with his thoughts up until the point where Kirishima entered the room, naturally heading right towards Bakugou with a smile way too bright for such a mediocre morning.

"I've had the freakiest dream tonight," the other alpha began, slamming his hands down on Bakugou's desk, and proceeding to tell him about said dream. Not much of it registered, except for some key words.

Motorbikes, chasing down villains, testosterone, manliness. It was almost amazing, the way his obsession with all things alpha even translated into his dreaming state so flawlessly.

At some point in the story, Kirishima stopped and fixed Bakugou with a look that bordered on concern.

"You okay bro? Midoriya just walked by and you like, didn't yell at him."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Bakugou challenged. It wasn't like there was a law saying that he needed to insult Deku whenever they were in a 2 metre radius of each other. It just naturally happened most of the time, especially in the morning.

"Ah, there's that fire again. That reminds me, did you apologise to Todoroki?"

Bakugou just made a noise in response.

"That a yes?"

"Doesn't matter," Bakugou told him.

"Of course. Because owning your mistakes is totally the most hero like thing to do," Kirishima said, "and even you know that some things are off limit, or do we need to talk about how people have feelings again? And a movie."

At the implication of yet another one of those horrible children movies with their obvious and ridiculous moral lessons, Bakugou made a face.

"First of all, I don't make mistakes. People just overreact, not my fault. In fact, I'm the nicest person in this class and we're not watching another fucking Little Heroes movie," he declared, nearly breaking his pencil in half when Shitty Hair had the guts to laugh at the second part.

And then he heard it. A quiet chuckle right behind him that had Katsuki turning around with the most threatening expression he could muster on his face.

"Something funny here, Deku?"

The beta instantly noticed his mistake and made some weird hand gestures while denying it, "No, Kacchan! Absolutely nothing is funny. Uh. Definitely not you, I mean."

"Keep your fucking ears to yourself or I'll tear them off," the blonde hissed, turning back around. Thank God for the dead looking Aizawa that had spawned in the meantime. Aizawa sighed with the level of exhaustion that only a teacher could ever reach, massaging his head with one hand.

"Everyone, sit on your heroic butts and stop making noises," the raven haired man said with the enthusiasm of a dead fish, but of course it took about two more minutes until everyone managed to complete that task. Even Bakugou could tell that he seemed particularly inclined towards sarcasm today. And his eyes looked extra red and unhealthy.

"Don't pee your pants with excitement but we'll have a shared practice with the Shiketsu in the afternoon. Yay," he supplied, making a less than excited gesture.

That had the entire class whispering things back and forth again. The extras were too easy to predict, honestly. Like laughter in a fucking comedy show. Bakugou didn't particularly give a damn about joined practice, as long as he got to kick some asses, no matter which ones exactly.

...

"Well done, Todoroki. We're a great team," Inasa Yoarashi said with a broad grin, slamming a hand on Todoroki's back in approval as they entered the room where the other students were already focused on a screen. Ever since the two of them had resolved their initial issues, the alpha seemed more than happy to try and become friends. In fact, it felt almost like he was forcing it in order to prove something to himself.

Which was why it hadn't come as a surprise that he'd asked Shouto to be in his team, both of them playing the part of the villains against two other Shiketsu students in the hero role. They'd won without much of a struggle, and were currently watching the next teams as they fought each other.

Bakugou and Kirishima were out there, trying to capture two makeshift villains before they could escape the building. As expected, there was a lot of noise, a lot of property damage, and a very manic-looking Bakugou shouting death threats at his opponents.

"Oh, yes. We are," he agreed, eyes stuck on the screen. The cameras now showed that Bakugou had already managed to capture one of his opponents (within the span of half a minute because he was quick-moving like that), grinning like a madman as he put handcuffs on the girl. Kirishima was still caught up in a fight, but things weren't looking too bad for him either.

"Todoroki, I am always proud to see a fellow hero in the making grow and develop his powers! Your eyes don't look as cold anymore," Yoarashi went on, his voice a bit loud for how close they were standing. Not that Todoroki wasn't used to screaming alphas by now.

"Thank you?" he half asked, and the other smiled brightly before going on a rant about how heroes should always have that spark in them and be able to inspire it in anyone who watched them.

Todoroki nodded, as always a bit overwhelmed with his optimistic views voiced in such a descriptive manner. He felt like taking a nap, but it would still take about twenty minutes until they'd be in the bus, so he accepted his fate and kept listening to Yoarashi's speech.

"... And that's why I always make sure to ask myself what I stand for. We are all standing on the same side after all, so we've got to be careful about the kind of message we put out there!"

"Keep your voice down, Baldy," Bakugou interrupted him the minute he and Kirishima entered the room. The distinct smell of smoke entered along with him, Todoroki couldn't help but notice.

"Bakugou! That was impressive. If you weren't so aggressive all the time, you'd be able to inspire so many people positively," the alpha said, and Todoroki counted the seconds it took before the volcano that was Bakugou erupted.

One.

Two.

"Who the hell asked for your opinion! Did your damn wind blow the rest of your brain out of your large ass ears?!"

"Bakugou, remember what we said about non-manly insults," Kirishima piped in.

Yoarashi laughed, loudly. "You guys from UA have a strange sense of humor."

"It's not humor," the blonde informed him, while Kirishima thought it was a good idea to reconfirm it and on top of that, call Bakugou the comedian of UA, which earned him a few very colorful insults. Todoroki just watched quietly as the two of them bickered in the same way they always did.

The tall alpha turned back to him, seemingly amused by all of it, "We should really get to know each other better. There are still many things we can learn from one another. Tell me about yourself. Your motivations and morals, what defines you as a person and a hero."

Todoroki blinked at him, wondering if that really was necessary, right now. While he didn't mind the alpha, he also didn't have the greatest desire to be around him either and lead deep, meaningful -

"When the hell did you two become fucking BFFs? And who just says 'tell me about yourself' to someone?!" Bakugou yelled, apparently particularly bothered by the Shiketsu student today.

Yoarashi's eyes widened as he looked at Todoroki, mortified.

"Have I overstepped my boundaries? I get too excited when I'm trying to make friends."

"No, it's - " Shouto began.

"Fucking yes," Bakugou growled and even Kirishima looked confused by his (more so than usual) outlandish and rash behavior. Todoroki wasn't entirely sure, but he didn't recall the blonde having such an issue with Yoarashi the last time they'd met. Then again, who did Bakugou not have an issue with? It wasn't like there was a particular pattern to his moods. Except, the 99% possibility that the alpha would find a reason to be bothered by just about anyone.

"Is it too much to ask for you to just look at a screen like normal teenagers do all day? Keep your mouths shut over there," Aizawa's voice broke through the banter, not very amused-sounding. Several eyes turned to them, and even the explosive hero shut his mouth, though that didn't stop metaphorical sparks of anger from surrounding him.

"Yes, Mr. Aizawa!" Yoarashi replied, saluting like this was the military.

The next fifteen minutes were less than exciting, one team after another completing the given task and the rest of them watching. Or maybe Todoroki just didn't find it very exciting because he was tired, which was also very much a possibility. Every now and then, he could feel the glares that Bakugou sent the other alpha's way, and Todoroki ignored that entirely, unwilling to be chewed out by Aizawa for talking again. Because he knew that as much as a questioning look would make Bakugou yell at him when he was in this wort of mood.

"Everyone, go shower and change your clothes, we're done for today. Good work. The bus leaves in fifteen minutes," the teachers eventually announced.

Shouto made a point of escaping the room before anyone could try to talk to him, and skipped the shower since he barely needed one anyway. His ice had been enough to complete the exercise, and he hadn't even been pushed to the point where he had needed to move much, so a shower could easily wait for a few more hours.

He was the first person on the bus, and didn't even notice as his classmates entered, fast asleep about two minutes after shifting into a comfortable position.

"Todoroki, wake up."

It was Midoriya's voice that tore him out of his dreamland, and Shouto rubbed the side of his head that had rested against the window. He felt like only two minutes or so had passed, but the exhaustion wasn't quite as bad anymore.

"Thanks," he said, and Midoriya smiled brightly back at him, standing up to get off the bus.

"So, do you still need someone to practice with?" the green haired beta asked as they walked towards the entrance. Todoroki shook his head. At least as far as he could tell, he still had a training partner in Bakugou.

"Bakugou actually offered to help," he said, and emerald green eyes widened.

"Wow that's great.. and suprising, how you accept help so willingly and Kacchan is actually.. willing to help? A good kind of surprise! How is it working out?"

His mind wandered back to the events of yesterday's practice, and Todoroki was entirely unsure how to answer the question. Had it gone well? Or badly? Maybe both. It could have probably been worse, realistically.

"My reaction time is too slow," he admitted when he didn't find the proper adjective.

"That makes sense since your quirks aren't as physcial, keeping people at a distance allows you more time to react," Midoriya said, making the same face he always did when he was analysing quirks, "But Kacchan's reaction time is honestly supernatural or something. Don't let that discourage you!"

"I'm not discouraged," Shouto told him. Midoriya smiled at him.

"We all want to meet up at the library later to study for the test tomorrow, wanna join as well?"

Todoroki took a few moments to think it over before nodding softly and pushing a lock of hair out of his eyes.

...

Armed with his English book and a folder full of information, Todoroki sat down at one of the unoccupied desks in the library. He was a little early, and the others had yet to show up, so he went ahead and opened the folder, going through the list of topics they'd been given while running his fingers absent-mindedly across his right wrist.

The touch had his thoughts wandering back to yesterday, to the strange sensation that had traveled through him as Bakugou had grabbed him. It was such a small thing that probably didn't require much analysing, but Todoroki still found it hard to tell just what that touch had even felt like.

Horrifying, weirdly personal, suprising, good? Something in between? Even English grammar sounded like a better option that working that out.

He sighed at the long list of topics, willing his mind to focus on what was essential right now.

Just as he readied himself to face the dreaded subject of if clauses, the door opened. Todoroki had expected Midoriya, Iida and Ochako, but he didn't expect the blonde alpha and subject of his distracting thoughts to slam his English book on the table right next to where he sat.

"Bakugou," he said, eyeing the book sceptically, "didn't you say you wanted to learn by yourself?"

"Who said I want to learn with you. You're sitting at my desk!"

"I don't think the desks here belong to -"

"Keep talking and I'll punch you in the face with my book," the alpha replied, voice growing louder.

"This is a library."

"So. What."

Todoroki sighed, and decided to ignore him, focusing on the exercises in the book. The others should arrive any time now, and perhaps that would make for a calmer learning atmosphere. He'd barely written five sentences when Bakugou interrupted him.

"What the hell. This is all wrong, idiot. Did you just mix the first and third conditional?! Do you even know how tenses work?"

Had he worded it differently, Todoroki might have found it easier to consider this constructive criticism, but the 'constructive' part was definitely missing. He rolled his eyes, and made a point of continuing with the exercise.

"Are you fucking ignoring me, Icyhot. The hell do you learn this shit for if you're just gonna teach yourself the wrong things."

"It's not wrong," Shouto claimed, his voice bordering on frustration. Truthfully, he wasn't entirely sure he had the sentences right, but Bakugou's behavior today (coupled with the knowledge of the test tomorrow) had him at a point where he didn't feel like just agreeing with him.

"Of course it's fucking wrong."

The blonde slapped a sheet of paper down in front of Todoroki, pointing at it angrily. It took a moment or two for the heterochromatic boy to focus on what was written there, because he was temporarily distracted by the warm skin brushing against his right arm. That touch didn't last too long, however.

"This is frustrating," he commented as he read through the rules for conditionals once more, most of it going over his head. His sentences were actually wrong, and he expected a condescending, evil grin from the alpha. Coupled with maybe another insult and a 'Told you so.'

"It's not that hard, anyone who can bring a villain down can beat some stupid grammar exercises," Bakugou said instead.

That was almost as encouraging as it was untrue. Bakugou logic at its finest - if it exists, I can probably kill it. If the word 'probably' even existed in his head, that was.

"It's different," Todoroki argued.

"Bullshit. What the hell do you not get about this?"

Bakugou didn't wait for an answer before he went on a rant, "Pay fucking attention because we're going over this once. Zero conditional is just a fucking rule. Okay? Translated into your reality, something like, 'if you heat ice, it melts', or 'if we fight, I win and you lose.' Things that are always true."

"Very funny," Todoroki commented drily.

"Shut the hell up and listen. First conditional is easy, 'if you fucking listen to me and use your half-frozen brain, you won't be an idiot who sucks at this forever'."

"Stop insulting me with conditionals."

"If you were better at this, I wouldn't have to, Half-and-half," Bakugou continued, earning himself a glare from Todoroki, "that's type two."

"This isn't helping," Shouto commented, not only because the conversation was becoming more pointless with every semtence, but also for another reason.

The insults lacked their usual bite, and Todoroki wasn't entirely sure whether he was misinterpreting this but... Bakugou seemed to be in an unusually good mood, or something like that. All of a sudden, with no clear explanation. He even laughed because he apparently found his own joke that funny, and that was too much.

Todoroki wasn't sure what was going on anymore.

Maybe Bakugou was somehow into.. English grammar?

"Of course it helps because I'm the best at everything, that includes teaching! Third type is for imagining things that could have happened under different circumstances. Something like, 'If you had used your fire against me at the sports festival, I would have still kicked your ass.'"

"Uh-huh."

"Then fucking try again," Bakugou said, pointing at the sheet of paper. The blonde kept making comments as he went through the sentences, and managed to come up with yet another creative example whenever Shouto made a mistake.

"If you make this mistake one more time, I'll end you."

"First conditional," Todoroki said, to himself mostly, as he corrected what he'd written. Despite his initial annoyance, Bakugou was forcing the rules into his head, and repeating the type of conditional after each sentence helped him sort them out in his head.

"Damn right, took you long enough," the blonde commented, "do the next one, this bullshit exercise is almost finished."

Todoroki read over the sentence, and wrote his solution down before turning to the blonde, "Second conditional?"

"Yeah, obviously, genius. And pay some damn attention, there's a difference between 'your' and 'you're'!"

"I know that, stop acting like I'm stupid," Shouto told him, but Bakugou had already stolen his pen and corrected the word himself, apparently incapable of handling any mistake, even the smallest ones.

"Or what?" the blonde asked, having apparently detected some sort of challenge in the words. Where, Todoroki wasn't even sure. The omega didn't react to that, because a library really wasn't the place for a fight, books were very flammable.

"Bakugou, give me the pen back," he commanded instead when the alpha deliberately held it out of his reach.

"You should thank me for being so damn helpful first. I saved your incompetent ass," Bakugou told him.

"I didn't ask you to bully the rules into my head," Todoroki said in return, trying to grab the pen while simultaneously not wanting to play into Bakugou's game. The other was trying to get a rise out of him again, nothing unusual.

"Ha? You want to fail the test or what are you saying?"

"No, I-," Shouto started, took a breath and said, "you're right. Thanks for helping me. Even though I didn't ask you to. Now give me the pen."

"You asked earlier! Got memory issues?"

"You said no," Todoroki said as he leaned across the table and finally managed to get his pen back.

"Yeah, but I'm too fucking friendly," Bakugou replied and Todoroki gave him a look, silently asking if he actually believed that.

The ice hero only registered that other people had entered the room when he heard a silent whisper.

He looked in the direction of where it had come from to find Midoriya and Ochako standing on the other side of the desk, staring at the two of them like people stared at car accidents. Just more amused.

"You're seeing this too, right?" Ochako asked Midoriya, who started mumbling something under his breath before he noticed that the two of them had been spotted.

"Kacchan! Todoroki! We didn't want to disturb your, uh. Learning? Should we use another desk?"

"Of course you can sit with us," Todoroki said at the same time as Bakugou growled, "Is this some sort of extra meet-up or what."

"Iida said that he has some 'class representative duties' to fulfill before he can join us," Midoriya said and everyone ignored the sarcastic, "great, more of them," that Bakugou muttered.

"So. Haha. Conditionals, right?" Ochako asked, grinning weirdly.

Todoroki nodded, while the blonde silent-yelled (silent for Bakugou standards), "Like hell am I going to help all of you idiots with that."

In that moment, Todoroki wondered if he'd just imagined the change in his mood minutes ago. Bakugou was making one of those particularly pissed off faces again. He grabbed his book and leaned back in his chair, now apparently done with any sort of group work for the day.

"I can help you if you have problems with them, I think I get them now," Todoroki offered to his friends, and earned himself another glare from the alpha, red eyes lingering on his for a moment before turning back to the page.

Chapter Text

"Still too slow," Bakugou commented, a satisfied smirk stretching across his face as he managed to block yet another punch without much of a struggle. Although he couldn't deny that the other was getting better, he still had the upper hand in their training, which wasn't much of a surprise to him. There was always a brief moment of hesitation to the other's punches, a brief moment that he could easily make use of.

The both of them were breathing heavily after almost an hour and a half of back and forth, throwing punches and aiming kicks at each other.

The omega made a frustrated noise, and Bakugou's eyes got stuck on his flushed face for a second before he said, "Should be enough for today."

They'd been doing this for almost two weeks now, and although Todoroki of course wasn't at his level yet, he still had improved. His attempts weren't quite as hopeless anymore and Bakugou wondered at what point he'd be happy with the progress they made and decide to end their arrangement.

Meeting up in the gym was basically part of his evening routine by now, and it wasn't that bad. The extra hour of fighting allowed the alpha to feel a bit less unbalanced by burning up more energy. It was better than just sitting around in his room or listening to the inescapable noise people made in the common room.

Then again, Bakugou had been feeling off balance for different reasons lately, like the fact that he found it hard not to notice the way Todoroki's face changed color just a little bit when they pushed each other like this. Or the way he'd sometimes push a loose lock of hair behind his ear, only for it to fall back into his face again.

That was engaging, because it was fucking weird and unplanned.

"No," Todoroki said, although he sounded and looked like he was about to collapse.

"That wasn't a damn question, Half and Half. We spent the entire afternoon pushing our quirks to the limit and added more than one hour of training to that just now," the blonde replied, grabbing his water bottle and sending an unimpressed look Todoroki's way.

Even without the ability to read his scent, it was easy to tell that the other wasn't in a particularly good mood today. Not that it was Bakugou's business, but he sure as hell knew what it was like to overwork yourself out of frustration or anger. Sometimes needed, but never the best idea, honestly.

"Fine," Todoroki said the word without as much as a hint of emotion and just stood there, chest rising and falling still.

He tried not to pay any attention to that whatsoever, or to the way pale lips were slightly parted.

"Drink something," Bakugou ordered, holding his bottle out. Somehow, the idiot never thought to bring his own water, and although maybe Bakugou shouldn't give him any to teach him a damn lesson, he somehow always ended up sharing his. Todoroki gave the bottle a long and calculating look before his pale hand reached out.

"I still don't get how the fuck you don't smell like anything. It's fucking weird," he thought aloud as the younger of the two took a sip, and somehow ended up choking on the water. The blonde raised a brow at the odd behavior, and their eyes met.

"I've told you that I use scent blockers," Todoroki said after a short pause, sounding strangely detached even for his standards.

"Scent blockers only do so much. After a day of training, even people who use them should have somewhat of a scent," he replied, crossing his arms. Truthfully, he wasn't sure why exactly that topic had been bothering him, but it had. Bakugou didn't have the biggest interest in other people's business, but this was something different. That was what he told himself at least.

It just didn't seem to add up.

"It sounds almost like you want me to have a scent," Half and Half stated, matter-of-factly. Bakugou let a noise of angered disbelief slip past his lips in response, but the other didn't seem to mind. Mismatched eyes were now focused on the water bottle in his hand, making Bakugou wonder how the fuck that even held his interest.

"I don't care. Just wondering how the hell that works," he corrected, and grabbed his bottle out of Todoroki's hand, leaving the other looking mildly confused for a moment.

"The ones I take are stronger than normal scent blockers. The whole point of taking them is to make sure that no one knows," he explained after a moment of silence, "that's why."

It annoyed the alpha that he sounded so emotionless, saying that. As if he'd shifted right back from anger into apathy.

"So that's your fucking plan or what? To hide it from everyone, forever," Bakugou asked, unable to keep the bitter edge out of his voice. The idea of hiding something so big for one's entire life seemed utterly headache-inducing to him. It'd be like playing a role all day, every day, the risk of making a mistake a constantly looming threat.

At some point, Bakugou would inevitably lose his shit if it were him in this position, that much was for sure.

"Not from everyone. You know," Todoroki supplied, and his conversational skills had Bakugou wanting to smack his head into a surface once more.

"Obviously, idiot. We wouldn't be having this conversation otherwise. I just don't see how this can be healthy. Weaker blockers already have shitty side effects, and that's not even all you're taking," Bakugou voiced his opinion, daring the omega to deny the fact that this whole thing seemed utterly fucked up in many ways.

"It's not like I have many options. If I don't take the pills, everyone will figure it out. And so far, it has worked for me."

"Don't see how that would be such a big fucking issue," Bakugou said, turning away, "If you were open about it you could focus on other shit rather than keeping your secondary gender a secret."

That was perhaps one of the things that bothered Bakugou most about Half and Half; the way he seemed to be so adamant about making his own life harder than it needed to be. Whether it was by holding on to the past and tearing open old wounds at any given chance, holding back half of his power, or keeping a crucial part of himself a secret. Bakugou found it hard to understand how someone could let themselves get so distracted from the end goal.

Not that many people had the same forward-moving energy as Bakugou, but at certain moments he could swear that he caught glimpses of it beneath that icy facade. And if the other wasn't so fucking inhibited and distracted by his struggles all the time, he might just be the kind of rival that would present a real challenge, even to Bakugou.

"I'm sure you understand that villains would exploit a weakness like that without thinking twice about it."

Todoroki's voice was factual, but a hint of bitterness was undeniably packed into the words.

"How the fuck would they do that when you're apparently immune to pheromones or something. Stop acting like you're some defenseless omega," Bakugou told him, and a voice in the back of his head wondered if maybe he was overstepping a line. But then again, overstepping lines was his thing. Just not in terms of personal questions, usually.

"I'm not immune to pheromones," Todoroki denied, and Bakugou turned around to send a sceptical frown his way.

"You train with alphas and betas on a daily basis, Icyhot."

"And that's why I don't react strongly. I'm used to it. Besides, most people here do use scent blockers," Todoroki said, as if that was just totally fucking obvious. Bakugou gave him the once-over and wondered if shit like that was actually possible - if omegas could just get used to pheromones in the way the other claimed, then wouldn't every omega fucking do that?

"So you're telling me that you just.. manage to ignore your instincts because you decide not to react?"

Todoroki nodded his head after a few seconds of apparently thinking about it, "Thanks to my quirk I can mostly keep people at a distance. It's bothersome when there's more proximity involved, but I can handle angry alphas, even powerful ones."

In that moment, a thought came to Bakugou that instantly filled him with anger and had him balling his fists.

"Are you telling me that I wouldn't be able to make you submit if I wanted to?! But you're worried about some weak ass villain being able to do that," he challenged, but Todoroki still had that blank stare on his face. Judging from what happened weeks ago, and that look he received upon touching the omega's scent gland, he sure as fuck could make him submit if that was Bakugou's goal.

What bothered him was the idea that the other didn't seem to think so. That had the alpha inside him raging, and fucking frustrated, because it felt like a personal insult. The all too familiar feeling of rage pulsed through his veins, coupled with something instinctual that he couldn't be bothered to analyse right now.

"That's not what I said."

"It's what you were fucking implying though so answer the damn question."

Todoroki sighed heavily before saying, "I doubt it, but this is not a ch-"

"You doubt it?! Okay, then fucking prove it."

"Prove what."

"That you're as fucking unaffected as you said," Bakugou snapped at him, taking a step closer to the other and feeling sparks dance beneath his palms. But he sure as hell didn't need his quirk to overpower Half and Half.

"How would I even prove that?" Todoroki asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Fucking figure it out," Bakugou growled, coming to a halt right in front of the omega. The lack of a scent surrounding Todoroki only served to aggravate him further. He hated how Todoroki basically bragged with the walls of indifference he'd built around himself. For once, Bakugou willingly used his alpha pheromones, driven by the desire to see a crack in his facade.

Mismatched eyes stared back at his, and the lack of fear or distress in them had the alpha even more on edge. This whole thing felt like an insult to his ego just as much as it felt like a challenge.

And Bakugou sure as fuck wasn't going to back down.

So, when Todoroki didn't even bother to react to him at all, he grabbed the other by the shirt, pulling him closer.

...

"Bakugou," Todoroki said, his tone of voice somewhere between a warning and an urgent question as to what was going on.

Todoroki wasn't entirely sure what had prompted the sudden change in Bakugou's attitude, but obviously one of his words had somehow flicked a switch inside of the blonde. Again. While he was used to Bakugou's anger by now, this was different. His scent wasn't a byproduct of the fire that was always burning inside him, but something deliberate and loud. Like a metaphorical knife held to his throat; the other was actually trying to make him submit with his scent.

And Bakugou was close. Closer than they stood during training; much closer than they walked beside each other regularly. So close that Shouto could have counted his blond eyelashes if he wanted to - if he wasn't busy trying to suppress the telltale signs of his instincts acting up, the omega in him reacting to the situation.

His heart was beating fast, pumping blood through his veins almost violently. The hand that had his shirt in a steady grip had caught him just a little off guard, his balance compromised with the sheer strength Bakugou was packing into holding him in place.

And then there was his scent, which was another matter altogether. Angry, volatile and wild - an explosion waiting to happen. It was heavy as it wrapped around him like fog. Despite the scent blockers Todoroki knew he used, the effect it had on him seemed to be different this time.

The desire to avert his eyes was incredibly strong, but he didn't allow himself to give into that. Bakugou's eyes were hard, once more clouded with the kind of anger that overshadowed all else in them.

"Bakugou," he forced the name out of his mouth again, a wordless demand for the other to step back and give him space to breathe.

"What is it, Half and Half?" the alpha asked condescendingly and Todoroki wondered if he could see his internal struggle on his face. His legs that had already been shaky from the training were threatening to give in beneath him. While he was indeed used to alphas and their tantrums, the prolonged exposure to the scent was another matter.

After all, his face was just centimetres away from Bakugou's.

"Stop," he said, but his voice sounded higher than usual, betraying the fact that this didn't leave him entirely unaffected.

"Then fucking admit it," Bakugou demanded but Shouto's brain couldn't exactly keep up. He felt like he was being pulled in twenty directions at the same time. The room seemed too hot, and he had to force himself not to make use of his quirk in order to get the alpha to step away. If he did, he might just accidentally freeze the entire gym or set them both on fire.

He only glared at Bakugou with all the defiance he could muster, trying his hardest to stand his ground.

But apparently it wasn't the best thing to do. Because the next thing he noticed was the low growl at the back of the alpha's throat, and another wave of pheromones, followed by a pitiful sound falling from his own lips. He closed his eyes, head slightly tilted to the side and feeling his pulse in his neck from how hard his heart was beating.

His body was forcing him to submit to the alpha, and it felt like years of practicing self control were washed away like sand on a shore.

The humiliation and anger he felt were short-lived though, because whatever exactly happened in that moment, something shifted between them. The sharp edges disappeared from the blonde's scent, only to be replaced with something else altogether.

Something the omega had no words for. A strange promise of comfort that was so utterly unexpected, it had Todoroki essentially falling forward, his head coming to rest against Bakugou's chest as if that was where it was supposed to be.

He breathed in, and out, and somehow there was no remark or insult from the other, only the oddly rhythmic sound of his quick paced breathing. And despite his best efforts to find some sort of mental clarity again, Shouto was entirely too lost in the onslaught of feelings coursing through his body.

The uncomfortable hotness had turned into a soft warmth, all heaviness lifted off of him. His brain was utterly silent, much more silent than he was used to, and the entirety of the day and the situation leading up to this was forgotten.

"That was," Bakugou said, after what could have been minutes or maybe just a few seconds, "- fuck. I don't know what the hell I was thinking."

It was his usually quiet tone of voice that sort of managed to make Shouto snap out of his daze, and it slowly began to register in his brain what was going on. Bakugou was apologising, was using his pheromones to calm him down and more than that - it was working. Too well.

That realisation struck him like lightning and Todoroki moved in the blink of an eye, pushing both his hands into the alpha's chest to push himself away from him as fast as possible. His legs felt unsteady as he finally opened his eyes, this time unwilling of make eye contact with Bakugou.

He took a deep breath, but didn't trust his voice to say anything. So instead, he stepped backwards and headed for the door as fast as possible, needing to get out of the situation quickly before panic and shock could overtake him.

Thankfully, Bakugou didn't even try to follow him.

...

"You look like you haven't slept at all, do I need to worry?"

"I slept like shit but you don't need to fucking worry about me," Bakugou growled, eyes on the floor.

Kirishima and Bakugou were on their way to class, and for once in his life, Bakugou dreaded it. He had absolutely no desire to face Todoroki, not after the fucking mess he'd made the day before. Even for his standards, that had been goddamn impulsive. Impulsive to the point where he felt fucking guilty. Whatever he'd been trying to prove to himself had seemed utterly pointless once Todoroki had actually bared his neck to him.

Once again, it was that fine line between rough play and straight up bullying that he'd struggled to find when he was younger.. And Todoroki of all people had pushed him to the point where he'd acted the same way he would have in middle school.

"On a scale from 1 to 10, if someone accidentally forced an omega into submitting to them, how fucked up would that be?" the question left his mouth before he could stop himself, and it earned him a concerned look from Kirishima.

"Accidentally? Like, how would that be accidental?"

"I don't fucking know, just accidentally," he snapped back, the lack of sleep making his mood in no way better.

"Oookay. So. If someone accidentally did that to an omega it would be a solid 11," the redhead said and Bakugou groaned, smacking his hand into his face.

"You know that I love you like a brother but if this isn't hypothetical, then you really fucked up. Using pheromones to make someone submit is like, medieval practice or something. A real villain move."

The blonde said nothing in reply to that, because that was just the kind of answer he'd fucking expected, and it only served to make him feel even shittier.

"If you did that to someone you need to make it up to them," Kirishima added after a short while, and Bakugou could feel his eyes on him.

"How the fuck would I even make that up to someone?" he asked, noticing only a second later that he'd incriminated himself there, in more ways than one.

"First of all, since when do you hang out with omegas? You should tell me about stuff like that. But to answer your question, you should apologise and try to understand what that must have felt like, show that you get it and aren't just saying sorry. Maybe an apology gift on top of that, like - I don't know - flowers or something, maybe food? And most importantly, never pull shit like that again."

Bakugou let the information sink in, but the task still seemed utterly impossible, which was a kind of feeling he didn't feel often. Something was fucking wrong with him and he really wanted to blame Todoroki for it, but that currently felt like the entirely wrong route to take here - this anger or whatever it was he felt towards him had already brought him into this situation after all.

Most of the time, people honestly deserved it when he lashed out at them these days. And sure, being an alpha did help emphasise the fact that he wasn't to be fucked with. But this had been more than that. Somehow, actually seeing Todoroki drop his head hadn't caused the expected sense of victory. If anything, it had felt painful, messed up. Like a misuse of his own power.

That was why he'd attempted to calm the other down as soon as the gravity of the situation had hit him.

He could still recall the weight of his head against his chest, and didn't know what to do with the memory. The instinctive need to drown the other in calming pheromones to this degree had come as a surprise even to himself. Before, Bakugou had never even bothered to consciously try and calm anyone down, and it still shocked him that it had worked for a brief amount of time.

But that shouldn't have been needed, he thought to himself, not if he hadn't fucked up in the first place.

How in the world had he thought that it was a good idea to try and force him into submission? What for? Bakugou was far from stupid, but that - that had been fucking stupid. Even he could recognise that much.

"You actually think this would work?" he asked, going over the suggestions in his head once more.

"I don't know how well, but it's better than doing nothing. Especially the apology part is essential, so keep that in mind," the other alpha said, and Bakugou tried to ignore the fact that he was talking to him as if he was talking to as child.

As the two of them entered the classroom, his eyes immediately scanned the room, only to land on a very much asleep Icyhot. The omega had his arms crossed, using them as a pillow replacement, and his hair covered most of his face, messy and somehow still soft looking.

He didn't allow himself to stare and instead sat down, talking to Kirishima some more before Aizawa eventually arrived and everyone scattered to their seats. Bakugou found it hard to focus on any of the subjects they went over however, and his mind instead insisted on devising a plan to make it up to Todoroki. If he was going to make up for his bullshit behavior, he wasn't just going to half-ass it.

Chapter Text

"Spit it out, Deku."

"I don't get what you're asking me right now, Kacchan," the green haired boy replied, somewhere between panicked and confused. The two of them were alone in the common room, because Bakugou had dragged him in there while everyone else was on their way to lunch, making it clear that they had something to discuss.

"It's a simple fucking question. What does Icyhot like."

"But what.. like, in what sense?"

"I don't fucking know, just. Anything. Whatever."

"Why are you asking me that? Wouldn't it make more sense to ask Todoroki himself?"

"Too damn complicated to explain, and also none of your business. You two are friends or something, so you should know what he likes," Bakugou replied, and from the look in his eyes he could tell that Deku was about to start mumbling to himself again, trying to analyse the situation and Bakugou. Before that could happen, the alpha begrudgingly added, "I fucked up, alright? I treated him like shit and want to make it right somehow."

"You.. want to make it right."

There was an equal amount of astonishment, doubt and maybe melancholy in his eyes as Deku said that, and Katsuki swallowed, throat dry. He really wanted to break something - maybe let something explode violently or just punch a hole in a wall... As if Bakugou hadn't felt like shit before, somehow the look he received made it even worse.

That wasn't supposed to happen, but like hell did his psyche care about his desires. With quite a few metaphorical walls fucking crumbling, he felt disgustingly cognizant of cues he'd otherwise be able to overlook.

He breathed in, and out. Told himself that this was not the time or place to start a fight.

Because maybe Bakugou fucking deserved all of this shit, but nevertheless, his first instinct was to deny that idea completely. He wasn't the type of guy to throw himself a damn pity party. How the hell his life had become such a parody with just one damn incident as the catalyst, he couldn't even say. Because Bakugou Katsuki had just admitted to Deku that he wanted to apologise for something.

'Shit,' he repeated the word in his head.

Initially, this had seemed like a better idea.

Feeling desperate was something Bakugou was not fucking used to, but he actually, seriously felt that way. Conflicted and overwhelmed. His damn instincts were pulling at him, telling him over and over again how badly he'd fucked up, and urging him to make it right. Why exactly it bothered him this much, he didn't dare to investigate.

But Todoroki hadn't talked to him at all today, had not appeared by his side or followed him anywhere or even looked at him.

Had not gone out of his way to annoy Bakugou.

Ironically, this lack of one-sided conversation attempts annoyed and frustrated him more than anything else. He wanted to be mad, but the only person he could currently blame this on was himself, and that was a whole new level of fucked up, because his anger wasn't something calm or controllable.

It was wild, like a fire set in a dry forest, inevitably expanding and growing and threatening to consume his opponents whole. Only this time, he was that very opponent.

The alpha felt like he might just lash out at the people around him, out of frustration. Nothing new, of course, but it felt different.

And he had absolutely no fucking clue how to go about saying sorry without accidentally making his apology offensive. Or mediocre. Or generally a bigger embarrassment and pain in the ass than it was already going to be.

And Deku was the closest person to Todoroki, as bothersome as this fact was.

He was also the one person who had some insight into the variety of ways in which Bakugou could manage to make people feel like shit. And some fucking insight was exactly what he needed, because at this point, Bakugou had absolutely no idea what was even going on with him anymore.

Standing here with Deku and admitting guilt was like standing in front of a mirror that showed him exactly the flaws in his behavior he'd been trying to ignore for years. And maybe nothing much had changed about him after all. Maybe he was somehow fucking doomed to repeat the same destructive patterns he'd learned at an early point in his life over and over again.

Unless Bakugou fucking refused to. And if that meant holding a conversation with the his childhood whatever, he would fucking do that.

Anything, if it makes him forget about that disgusting feeling that settled over him after the.. incident.

"Look, I get it, Deku. I've treated you like shit for years and you're surprised that I'm trying to be a decent person now but I'm trying to break a damn cycle or something, so don't give me that fucking look."

Trying wasn't really a word that he usually used; the possibility of failure was inherent in it after all. Bakugou wasn't the type to 'try to win', he was the type to just go ahead and do it.

So where the hell was his confidence all of a sudden?

It was hard to keep the anger out of his voice as he spoke to the other in actual sentences rather than insults or threats, because he was essentially pushing himself into a corner. Feeling vulnerable sucked and the alpha realised how much he hated it all over again.

"Kacchan. You didn't just treat me like shit, you told me to kill myself in middle school. You didn't say anything of that sort to Todoroki, did you?"

"No, you-" Bakugou replied, voice sharp, an insult on his tongue. He hadn't exactly expected Deku to dig that memory of all out and throw it right in his face like a brick. That was more damn insight than he'd been prepared for, and he forced himself to use a calm and non-threatening voice as he muttered, "that was fucked up. Telling you to kill yourself."

Kirishima's words from earlier unwillingly entered his head, and he seriously had to kick himself in the ass to get the next words out, "I'm sorry. Alright? Probably doesn't mean shit to you after everything, but I didn't actually want you to jump off a building."

"Uh," Deku said, mouth hanging open in shock. "Kacchan? Are you... feeling okay? I mean. Did you get hit by a quirk or something? You look tired and a bit.. confused? Is everything -"

"I'm fucking peachy," Bakugou interrupted, annoyed with the way Deku was acting as if this was so damn out of character for him.

But realistically, it probably was... Not probably. It definitely was. He was taking a different route than he usually would, and he didn't need anyone to fucking comment on it. It wasn't like he didn't have the ability to fucking grow as a person.

Of course, alternatively, he could have just ignored what had happened and focused on his one and only task, to become the best fucking hero in the world. He didn't have to be standing here, experiencing this, passively. Calmly. Why the fuck was he even bothering?

Then again, would the best hero in the world have told someone to kill themselves and never apologised for it? Or forced someone to submit to him when it was clearly uncalled for?

He took a deep breath in, counted to five in his head, and wondered if somehow Todoroki's sentimentality had begun to rub off on him or something.

Because he'd just went ahead and apologised to Deku. What the fuck? Maybe he did get hit by a quirk. Some reality-altering quirk that made him go to such lengths for Shouto Todoroki.

Green eyes seemed to be analysig him, and Bakugou could practically see the thoughts running through Deku's head at high speed.

"Of course that means something. Just - I don't know how to say this, because I know how much it means for you to actually go out of your way and apologise. But that doesn't change what happened, it's...," Deku stopped there, and Bakugou tried his best to show no emotion whatsoever on his face, fucking overwhelmed with the direction this conversation was taking.

The damn psychologist he used to talk to (or rather, had been forced to talk to) would have been overjoyed with this development, he couldn't help but think. He could already imagine his stupid face, saying something along the lines of, 'Recognising your mistakes is how you grow. You have to sit with feelings that are uncomfortable.'

Bakugou frowned.

"It's not like I'm asking you to forgive me or anything, nerd. I just wanted to say it, so do with that information whatever the fuck you want," he growled, looking away from the beta.

"No! I didn't mean it like that. I'm just surprised, and honestly a bit overwhelmed right now. And I'm glad you're willing to apologise to Todoroki, he isn't close to many people after all."

"Hah?! We aren't close or anything."

"Uh. Yeah, sorry? Anyway, I don't think I can tell you much. I mean, he likes cold soba, that's not a secret... and, uh, sleeping? And tea, I think. Also maybe those channels where they talk about conspiracy theories? He watches them sometimes. But he isn't exactly the type to talk about his interests a lot, so ... Maybe, uh. I think Todoroki likes deep conversations but that's..."

"That's what."

"Probably not the kind of answer you were looking for?"

"Like I fucking know what kind of answer I'm looking for," the alpha muttered, and Deku turned his head to look at something behind him, eyes widening for a brief moment before a stupid smile came to his lips.

"Oh, hey Todoroki," the beta yelled next, and Bakugou spun around to see the omega standing in the doorway, cellphone in his hand and a frown on his face. It didn't even disappear as he said his usual, "Midoriya" as a way of greeting Deku.

For once in his life, Katsuki wasn't sure what to do with himself. Todoroki acted as if he wasn't even there, and although he'd expected something of that sort, it still bothered him when his entire body language suggested that Deku was the only other person in the room.

"Shouldn't you be eating lunch, Half and Half?" his mouth worked faster than his head, and the words came out naturally. Instinctively, almost.

Maybe Bakugou was losing him mind - that was becoming more and more of a plausible explanation. Todoroki's eyes turned to him, and Bakugou held his breath for a second as the events of yesterday played out in front of his eyes like a damn movie.

"Not hungry," Todoroki replied, but his eyes were on his phone again, voice dismissive.

Deku gave him a helpless look and that was Bakugou's cue to get the fuck out of there before he could dig himself a deeper hole or somehow start telepathically communicating via looks with Deku. No thanks.

At least, he had some information, and it was up to him whatever the fuck he could manage to do with that.

...

Midoriya had sat down beside Todoroki on the couch, and it was easy to tell that he had something to say. By now, the omega knew the beta's habit of shifting around and fumbling with his hands for what it was. Or maybe he just recognised it from his own anxious moments; Midoriya was way more of an open book though, and that was one of the reasons why Todoroki found it relatively easy to interact with him.

Eventually, after just sitting there in silence for a while, the smaller of the two asked, "are you okay?"

Shouto looked at him, slightly confused, wondering if he should have asked the same thing.

"My father has been discovering emojis," he said helplessly, "and I don't like it."

He showed his phone to the other as proof (well aware of the fact that his father would never ask about anything omega-related in a chat, so it was mostly just one-sided attempts at communication from his father's side), and ignored the fact that this bothered him less than it otherwise would have. Even though it was really uncomfortable. He couldn't possibly explain the real issue that was bothering him though, the issue that had left the room a few minutes ago. Midoriya seemed stunned for a moment before chuckling softly.

"Do you always leave him on read?"

"He calls me after I do it for too long," Todoroki replied, and sighed heavily.

"So you're sure that you're alright?"

"Why?"

"I don't know, uh. I mean. I'm slightly freaked out. Kacchan just came up to me and told me that the two of you fought and he seemed really... not like himself? And if Kacchan feels bad for it, it's gotta be bad. He even apologised to me and that's like - you know that I analyse people all the time and this is freaking me out, so I'm worried about what must have happened that caused him to act that way. Because I know the kinds of things he's capable of saying and doing without bothering of reflect on them afterwards or actually attempting to change his behavior," Midoriya rambled, and Todoroki's eyes widened as he processed the words. Not only did it sound absurd that Bakugou had had an actual conversation with Midoriya from the sound of it... absolutely everything about that statement seemed absurd.

This was also the exact thing he currently didn't even want to think about at all, and he cursed his luck for not being able to escape the conversation apparently.

"I'm okay," Shouto lied smoothly, "It wasn't that bad. But it's good to hear that he apologised to you. That was long overdue."

"Are you mad at him?" Midoriya asked again, "I mean, I obviously don't know what happened, but it's like - I just don't.. I'd understand if you were mad."

"I'm not mad at him, Bakugou is.. well, Bakugou. It would be stupid to expect normal behavior from him," Todoroki replied, and it was mostly true. He wasn't exactly mad, more like.. hurt. And he blamed himself for handing Bakugou a loaded gun by offering his secret up to him like that. Something like this was bound to happen, probably.

Still, having his own limitations and weakness shown to him in such a way - it had him feeling like maybe he wasn't as in control as he wanted to be. Needed to be, really. Or maybe the mistake was letting his guard down around Bakugou.

He couldn't exactly be mad at the alpha for crushing some sort of hope that he shouldn't have had in the first place - some strange illusion of respect and trust shared between them.

He wasn't mad. He was disillusioned. Aware of the fact that maybe avoiding social interaction as he'd used to wasn't that bad after all... He was also aware of the fact that he had somehow, subconsciously or not, let Bakugou become important to him.

And maybe this situation was the wakeup call he had needed all along.

Shouto gasped when strong arms were wrapped around him all of a sudden, nearly pulling away just out of surprise.

"Hey, it's fine," Deku said, and only now did the omega feel this familiar sensation of hot tears on his cheeks. He took a shaky breath, wondering when that last time was that he'd had a breakdown in front of someone.

That didn't usually happen.

Tears and bitter sadness were usually something he'd share with an empty room to keep him company, ever since he'd been a child. Or, if possible, not at all.

He was an expert at burying emotions deep inside of himself in a sort of emotional graveyard that he could take a stroll through without burying himself in the many graves, filled to the brim with thing that had happened at one point or another in his life. Sure, every now and then it was hard, but he was sure that he was on a road to healing. Overcoming his issues... Growing, and getting stronger.

How in the world was this any different?

"I'm sorry," he whispered, awkwardly trying to return the hug, "maybe I should go to my room and sleep for a bit."

But Midoriya shook his head against him before detaching himself, his eyes full of concern, so much so that it had Todoroki feeling guilty. It really wasn't that bad, was it? He was overreacting to this for sure.

"Just, talk to me. Can I help you somehow? Should I tell Kacchan to leave you alone? I mean, he might kill me and I doubt he'd listen anyways, but whatever he did - You didn't deserve it. He's... so thoughtless sometimes."

"No, that's not," Todoroki began, but stopped himself. Here it was again, this strange desire to claim that Bakugou wasn't that thoughtless or bad. Even though he'd witnessed it himself; how easy it was for the blonde to fall on the toxic end of the friendship spectrum.

But maybe he was over-dramatising the whole thing. He'd had worse things happen to him after all.

Still, it hurt worse to trust someone and have them stab you in the back, compared to not trusting in the first place.

"I just," he started again, keeping his voice as neutral as possible and pretending like he wasn't even crying, "I didn't sleep very well. I should go and do that."

A moment of silence passed between them, and Todoroki hoped that the other would just let it go. Just for once, not even Midoriya's understanding nature was enough to help him sort out this entire mess. Because if he started explaining, there would be too much to explain - the very things that he should have kept quiet about in the first place.

The simple fact that he was crying now served to remind him effortlessly of the fact that he was something the world didn't need him to be.

An emotional omega who'd convinced himself that his nature would not prevent him from doing the things he wanted to do with his life. Now, he wasn't entirely sure anymore about the strength of his willpower.

Thankfully, his father wasn't here to see this shameful display of weakness and sentimentality.

Midoriya, ever the attentive friend, seemed to notice that Shouto wasn't capable of talking about any of it at the moment, and squeezed his shoulder.

"I'll tell Aizawa that you didn't feel good? Maybe sleeping a bit will help, but... you know, you can always come to me if you need to talk."

"I know," Todoroki confirmed, "Thank you."

And with that, he stood up, wiped his eyes with his sleeve and walked out of the room like some kind of self-aware zombie, trying to somehow keep his thoughts quiet. It didn't really work though, not while he walked through the empty hallways, not as he closed his door behind him, and definitely not when he laid down in his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

And it wasn't just thoughts.

Somehow, they were entangled with feelings, strange feelings of various nuances between disappointment and doubt that he couldn't even put a label on if he tried. All he knew was that he felt cold, and usually, the less angry and more depressing types of thoughts were the ones that had the ice threatening to eat him up from inside.

So Todoroki wrapped himself up in his blanket, and allowed himself the comfort of warmth; the fabric was soft against his skin, and he somehow ended up sort of... hugging his pillow. His instincts were more present than usual today. After all these years, it still surprised him when the part of him spoke up that wanted closeness and warmth and connection, so very badly. It conflicted with the way he tended to keep others at a certain distance, so a pillow wrapped up in his arms would have to do.

He could almost fool himself into thinking that it was -

No. Todoroki stopped that thought process as soon as it began to take shape, squeezing his eyes shut. Now the omega instincts inside of him were just trying to get him to cry again. Conspiring against him, really.

He ignored it as best as he could and struggled for about half an hour before the thoughts were silent enough to allow him to slip into a deep and somehow empty sort of sleep.

When Todoroki awoke, it was to the sound of knocking against his door, and he found it hard to tell what time it was, and who could possibly be visiting. Midoriya most likely; he doubted that his absence from the afternoon classes had his classmates worried enough to check up on him.

"It's open," he said, rubbing his eyes and yawning, not entirely a part of this world yet.

At first, he struggled to identify the person entering his room. It was dark by now, and the only light fell in from the hallway through the opened door.

But the voice was unmistakable.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

...

Bakugou had actually put thought into what he was going to say. He'd basically prepared an entire damn script, carefully evading any words that might be considered offensive or unfitting for.. this.

But somehow, the first thing that tumbled out of his mouth as he entered the surprisingly dark room and saw the outlines of a half-asleep Icyhot on his mattress on the floor was: "What the fuck are you doing?"

The question was half-yelled, but he could not deny that he felt entitled to ask this despite the fact that it wasn't part of the script. Had the other seriously skipped class so he could waste all day sleeping in his room? The same guy who was meticulous about working hard and went out of his way to practice during his free time just so he didn't receive a hint of criticism from teachers.

"I was sleeping," Todoroki supplied, sounding a little off.

"Obviously. Are you sick or something?"

"No, just sleepy," he replied, and Bakugou sort of felt like getting the fuck out of here and making an escape before he could mess up further. This conversation already seemed fucking weird, and the room smelled like... Well, Todoroki.

Or maybe he was making it up, because obviously the other didn't have a scent. Of course.

"What the fuck. Okay. Whatever," he said, mostly to himself, and added, "Cover your eyes or something because I'm turning the light on."

Of course Todoroki didn't listen, and Bakugou should have kept the lights off, he couldn't help but think. Because something inside of him came to a screeching halt when his eyes fixed on the omega, blinking up at him stupidly, arms wrapped around a pillow and his hair a mess.

He took a deep breath, centered himself - gave himself an internal lecture about why the hell he was here.

"Why are you in my room?" Todoroki asked the one million dollar question, shifting into a sitting position and rubbing his eyes.

Bakugou had a script. In his head. Somewhere.

And like hell was he capable of remembering any of it.

Instead of just standing there and trying to remember, he took a few steps forward, entirely too aware of the mismatched eyes glued to him. He tried not to look angry, but had no clue at all whether that even worked, because stress tended to put him into that space where anger seemed like the only warranted emotion and...

Crap.

He was already standing in front of him, holding the box into the air, and trying not to get distracted by the look of utter confusion on Todoroki's face.

"Eat this," he commanded, angrily.

Then pulled the box back, held his breath and held the damn thing out again.

"What I meant to say," he began, entirely overwhelmed with this fuckery of a situation, "You haven't eaten much today. I made you food, so. Eat. This."

The second attempt didn't come out much better, and it left the both of them in a mild state of shock apparently. Todoroki wasn't moving, probably wasn't going to accept the food and just tell him to leave his room. And Bakugou shouldn't have come here in the first place because how in the hell had he thought he could pull this shit off, really?

"Why?"

"Why what."

"Why do you care about how much I eat?" Todoroki asked, like the answer wasn't fucking obvious. Which it really wasn't, because Bakugou himself had no idea how to answer that.

"Ca- I don't care! Starve for all I care. I mean - no. Fuck, why are you making this so hard?"

"Making what hard?"

Bakugou took a deep breath, again. Looked at the box in his hand, looked at Todoroki. Contemplated throwing it at his head and making a run for it.

"I'm," he started, evading eye contact, "trying to apologise. For yesterday."

The omega's eyes widened for half a second perhaps, before his face went back to the usual, indifferent expression. Bakugou had absolutely no way of deciphering what that meant, so he opened his mouth again, "Look, I know that I fucked up badly and I don't even know why the hell I even did that or what the fuck I thought it was going to accomplish, but. Something like that won't happen again, alright?"

"You didn't need to-" Todoroki started to say, but Bakugou cut him off.

"Yes, I fucking needed to and I made tea as well, so whether you accept the apology or not, at least eat and drink the damn stuff I made."

Todoroki nodded stupidly, soft hair moving along with his head and then he reached out to grab the box he was offered. Fucking finally. That had the alpha instincts in Bakugou calming down just a little bit, thank God. It felt like he'd done something right at least, and that was one hell of an achievement, considering that he had no clue what he was really doing here.

"It's... soba," Todoroki whispered as he opened the box, questioning eyes turning to Bakugou.

Who, in turn, wondered if making Todoroki his favorite food maybe was.. laying it on a bit thick.

But then the other actually went ahead and said a quiet, "thank you."

And Bakugou was so overwhelmed with whatever was in his voice that he couldn't help but snap, "don't fucking thank me. This is a damn apology gift."

"But it smells good," the omega argued, his attention on the food again, "and you really made this?"

"Are you implying that I didn't?"

In response, Todoroki simply shook his head, eyes still glued to the soba as though it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen. Something in Bakugou's chest felt weird, and he briefly wondered if apologising to someone could give you a stress induced heart attack. But it actually felt like the very opposite of stress - the alpha in him was too damn pleased with the way Todoroki was looking at something that he gave him. Made for him.

And that realisation was alarming. Because, really, what the hell was he even doing here?

Deciding that he'd probably been in there for long enough, the alpha put the thermos filled with tea down beside Todoroki's mattress, and clenched his jaw. Whatever was going on with him, maybe it was getting worse. He wasn't sure whether it would be a good idea to watch the omega actually eat the food he'd made him.

Perhaps the thing that made him feel like getting out of here most, was the fact that his instincts fucking demanded that he stayed. Right there, up until he'd get thrown out of the room.

"You can stay for a bit, if you want," Todoroki told him, as if he'd read his mind and decided to pour gasoline into the fire that was Bakugou's internal war with himself.

"I don't have ti-" he said, but somehow the usual edge to the words was missing, and the last one tumbled out by accident, "fine."

Chapter Text

Todoroki was partially convinced that he was still asleep and dreaming a very convincing and equally as unrealistic dream. Absolutely nothing about this situation made sense to him, but he wasn't the type of person to ask too many questions when there were soba noodles to eat. Still, he found it hard to come to terms with the fact that Bakugou had made these. That he'd stood in the kitchen, spending his precious time preparing food and tea for him.

That he'd gone out of his way and invested thoughts into this.

For Shouto.

That sounded slightly unreal, and a part of him refused to just accept it, while another part was... happy. A surprised, and overwhelmed kind of happy that he wasn't too familiar with.

Maybe he'd subconsciously been waiting for an apology (not of this calibre however, because it was.. well, Bakugou) but hadn't allowed himself to even consider it something that might actually happen. Strangely enough, Shouto hadn't been too angry at him in the first place, but what little anger he had felt, it was shoved even further into the background now.

He brought his chopsticks to the box, caught some of the noodles in between them, and spoke before guiding them to his mouth.

Bakugou sat next to his mattress on the floor, with quite a bit of distance between them. He was looking around, as if he hadn't ever seen Todoroki's room before.

Or maybe he was avoiding eye contact; he only looked at Todoroki when he started speaking.

"I should not have told you that I'm an omega, should I?" Shouto wondered aloud.

Because had Bakugou not known about his secret, the situation wouldn't have developed like this in the first place. So he was to blame as well, he reasoned. While Todoroki didn't understand much about secondary genders or... people, he wasn't oblivious enough to not realise that the whole alpha and omega combination could be complicated.

Both biological and societal things went into that after all... and Shouto couldn't exactly claim that he was an expert at any of it.

"Maybe not," Bakugou agreed after a moment, voice astonishingly quiet and red eyes heavy on Todoroki, "depends. Why?"

"You've been acting different," Todoroki said, before eating the first bite of his food. It tasted good, different than when he ate it at home or made his own version here, but good nonetheless. Bakugou had gone out of his way to add some vegetables and sesame.

"Bullshit, I haven't been acting different," the answer came, louder this time. The fact that he was raising his voice was almost reassuring in a weird way.

"This.. is really good," Todoroki said, eyeing the food again as though there was some message hidden within that he had yet to figure out.

"It doesn't take a genius to make soba."

"Mmh. What I mean is," Todoroki began, and chewed on another mouthful before continuing, "I didn't tell you that I'm an omega to guilt trip you into being nicer to me."

"Hah?! How the fuck am I being nice to you, Half and Half? Maybe it fucking went over your head but I forced you into submission yesterday, there's nothing nice about shit like that," Bakugou yelled, obviously mad, though it sounded more like he was mad at himself.

And that was just another one of those things that seemed... odd. Bakugou would get mad at anyone, could always find a reason to be, but he hardly ever seemed bothered by any of his own behaviors. Sure, self hatred tended to be a concealed thing and Todoroki could attest to that, but that was exactly why he found it surprising to see genuine regret in Bakugou's eyes now.

Todoroki shook his head, and the two of them looked at each other for another moment.

"I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about how you've been helping me with... things. And now, this," he said, raising the box slightly.

"What about it, huh?! You're the one who runs around claiming that we're friends, so why the fuck are you complaining now?" the alpha huffed, and looked away again.

Todoroki had definitely claimed that a few times before, but this didn't answer his question in the slightest. Because, at some point, Bakugou had gone from replying with 'We aren't friends, are you stupid' to learning for tests with him (even accepting Todoroki's help sometimes) and giving him apology presents for messing up. And that certainly was a shift that hadn't just gone unnoticed.

On the contrary, it was seriously confusing.

Nevertheless, the message between the lines brought a small smile to Shouto's lips, and he couldn't help but ask, "So, you're saying that we are friends?"

"Eat your damn food, Half and Half."

Todoroki did, not because he was told to, but because his stomach was more than happy to receive some food after a day of feeling horrible and eating almost nothing. Bakugou sat there in silence, and when Todoroki shifted his eyes towards him, he was rather surprised to find the alpha pretty much staring at his face with an expression Shouto couldn't really make sense of.

Bakugou seemed surprised as well at being caught, and a frown settled over his face. Todoroki observed him as the alpha ran a hand through his hair, only for it to fall back into its former state.

"Do you really not know why you did that? Yesterday, I mean?" Todoroki asked, softly because he wasn't certain how well the question would be received. Still, he found it hard to belive that someone like Bakugou would do anything at all without having some sort of reason for it.

He continued to eat as he waited for an answer. By the time Bakugou spoke, Todoroki was mournfully looking at the last bite that was left. He refrained from giving Bakugou another compliment for his cooking.

"I doubt you'd fucking understand."

"Not unless you explain it, no," Todoroki half-agreed.

The alpha's eyes looked almost crimson in the artificial light as he stared Shouto down, daring him to drop the subject. But Shouto stared right back, not feeling very threatened.

"Why would I."

"Because you came here to apologise?"

Bakugou made a noise then, covered his face with his hands and took a loud breath. In and out, before he started speaking.

"Well, for your goddamn information, it's fucking confusing to think of someone as a beta for years, then be told that they're an omega, but one who doesn't smell or act like an omega. And it's you of all people, but no one else fucking knows so I-"

He stopped there, and Todoroki tilted his head to the side, because maybe he really didn't understand. That the whole thing was a bit of a mess, he could tell. But how that had lead to such instinctive behavior... There probably was some sort of missing link. Something he couldn't grasp.

"How does an omega even act?" he asked instead. Though he'd been trained all his life not to act like one, Shouto found it hard to tell what a normal omega would be like. Less... competitive, perhaps? Weaker? More submissive?

Wasn't that just stereotypical thinking?

And none of those options sounded like the kind of thing that Bakugou would appreciate, so why was he bothered by the fact that he didn't act or smell like an omega? Bakugou was the one who went on and on about how winning was useless when the opponent wasn't giving it their all.

So wouldn't he... like the fact that Todoroki managed to keep his instincts and nature out of the picture?

"Omegas react to.. fucking things, dumbass."

"Things?" Shouto asked, because somehow that answer only served to confuse him further.

"Do I really need to spell it out for you, Half and Half."

"Spell what out?"

Bakugou glared at him, like he'd asked the wrong question. Then, sounding as though he was suddenly very exhausted on top of annoyed, he said, "Alphas. Omegas react to alphas. It's fucking irritating that you never react to anything."

The answer stunned Todoroki into silence for about a minute as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that Bakugou seemed so bothered by his lack of... reactions? He wondered if he'd get punched in the face for asking for further clarification, and decided that it would be worth it, should that happen.

"So, you wanted me to react," he repeated, "But, to what exactly?"

"Just drop it, Half and Half. As I've said, this shit won't happen again so it's not like it fucking matters."

The omega wanted to disagree, but at the same time he didn't want to push Bakugou too far, conversation-wise.

"I'm sorry," he said, "for making my issue yours. And for not realising that it bothered you."

"Would you stop it with the damn apologies?! That's what I'm here for! And you always bother me, so nothing much has changed."

Todoroki smiled at that. The statement was just so typical Bakugou that he couldn't help it. Somehow, the blonde looked shocked when he saw his expression though - and seconds later, Bakugou was up on his feet and already standing by the door.

"Don't forget the tea," he said, making it sound like a threat.

Before Todoroki could even answer in any capacity, the door was opened and shut and Bakugou was gone. The second he was alone in his room, the dream theory seemed entirely plausible again.

But the now empty box was resting on Shouto's lap, and he walked towards his desk on autopilot. He grabbed the mug that stood on it, and made his way back to the mattress, before filling it up with the steaming hot green tea.

Below the scent of tea, he could smell a hint of the blonde alpha still, faint but undeniably there. Todoroki almost wished he'd stayed a little longer, but a bit of alone time to process what had just happened wasn't too bad either.

His mind seemed empty, but he felt strangely content as he took a sip of the tea, warming his right hand on the ceramic.

...

Bakugou was starting to doubt that apologising had been the best course of action. Sure, it had been the right choice morally, but he'd only created new issues for himself in the end.

Now that he knew that Todoroki liked the food he made him, a strange and horrifying part of Bakugou pulled at him from inside, screaming about how he should cook for him again. That stupid smile he'd received in response to the simple meal had burned into his head like acid. And it refused to go away.

On top of that, Todoroki had become even more... bothersome. In the days following his apology, the omega had picked up his habit of following Bakugou around again, complete with his irritating remarks and even more irritating questions. The horrible truth was that Bakugou had sunk so low, he was actually starting to appreciate it, though he'd never say that aloud.

After just one day of thinking that maybe he'd fucked up this entire thing for good, he was glad that he hadn't managed to get rid of Todoroki that easily. And he wasn't entirely sure how to deal with that realisation. Or the fact that his eyes kept doing this thing - when he wasn't consciously avoiding it, he started staring at him from across the room, sometimes from up close. Picking him apart.

Todoroki looked just the same though. Stupidly soft hair, a clueless expression on his face most of the time, dressed in simple clothes. One eye ice blue, the other a warm grey; Bakugou could swear there was the faintest hint of some freckles on his nose, but he hadn't been close enough to entirely confirm it.

Not that it really mattered.

Bakugou had no reason to stare at him whatsoever, and the fact that he couldn't help it was only another bit of proof that he was losing his damn mind. At least, the omega either didn't notice or maybe he noticed and didn't care.

Whichever it was, both options made Bakugou feel conflicted, so utterly fucking conflicted.

That irritation reached its peak when they were preparing for another shared practice with the Shiketsu. Todoroki was leaned against the wall, looking as if he was about to fall asleep, and Kirishima was telling Bakugou some sort of story that he wasn't entirely listening to because he was focused on... things.

Like how Todoroki suddenly looked up when an all too familiar and fucking loud ass voice greeted him.

The alpha didn't need to turn around to knew who it was, and Kirishima stopped talking when he took note of the murderous expression that surely took over his face. Bakugou didn't bother to disguise it.

"Todoroki! How are you?" the asshole asked, and before he knew it, Bakugou had taken a step closer to the wall where the omega was standing, biting back a growl that threatened to escape him.

"I'm okay," Todoroki replied, and Bakugou was annoyed with the way that his attention was so clearly not on him, "how about you?"

That had Baldy opening his mouth as though keeping his damn booming voice quiet was a foreign concept to him, and Bakugou stood there, glaring silently.

"You okay there?" Kirishima asked him, looking something between amused and worried. Bakugou grunted a response, but his attention was back on the conversation between the other two the moment the alpha asked, "Do you wanna be my partner for the exercise again?"

That moment, something inside the blonde snapped, and he wasn't exactly aware of the fact that he was moving forward until he was standing in front of Todoroki, giving the larger alpha a death stare.

"No, he doesn't. He's doing this with me," he growled, barely able to keep the 'so get your freakishly large hands off him' from spilling past his lips.

A moment of silence followed, and in that moment Bakugou suddenly became aware of what he'd just done. But that knowledge wasn't enough for him to back down now; not when the other alpha just seemed a bit too interested in Todoroki. He needed to back off; Bakugou fucking needed him to back off.

"I am?" the omega asked calmly from behind him. Bakugou twisted his head around and nodded slowly, daring him to say otherwise, "Yes, you are."

Baldy didn't seem offended, and he actually had the nerve to smile brightly at them. Once more, the blonde felt like committing murder.

"I didn't know," he laughed, "but that's fine then. I mean, your quirks work nicely together as well."

"Damn right they fucking do," Bakugou told him, unable to keep the smugness and anger out of his voice. He caught a glimpse of Kirishima's now rather shocked expression, and just hoped that he wouldn't ask questions. Bakugou had no fucking answers to give. At least, Baldy took the hint and fucked off, which was a good thing.

But it also left him standing there, more or less alone with the omega. Bakugou turned around, caught off guard by the scepticism written all over Todoroki's face.

"What was that about?" the omega asked him, eyes and attention now entirely on the blonde.

A brief flicker of panic worked its way through the alpha, but he resolved it in the same way he always did, before it held any power over him. He yelled, though at a relatively silent volume, "The hell do you think it was about. We're working together today."

"We never do that."

"Then we fucking start doing that today."

For a second it looked almost as if Todoroki was about to disagree, but then he sighed, and nodded his head. "Okay."

...

Bakugou was staring at the screen, but not entirely following the things happening on it. As per usual (when Kirishima wasn't purposely trying to torture him with children's movies) they were watching an action movie. Kirishima was sprawled out across his bed, looking almost too comfortable and chewing loudly on handful after handful of chips.

"I swear to God if my bed ends up covered in crumbs again, Shitty Hair," he threatened, half-heartedly.

"It's what happens when you eat chips," the redhead argued, his eyes still stuck on the fight that was taking place.

"Not if you eat like a civilised human being!"

The laughter he got in return had him glaring a hole in the side of the alpha's head. "No offense, but you aren't very civilised," Kirishima told him.

"I'll fucking throw you off my bed."

"That's what I mean."

Bakugou growled something in response, considering the pros and cons of fulfilling his promise and throwing him on the floor with maybe just a hint of explosions added for effect. But then, red eyes turned towards him, and Kirishima said, "By the way, you owe me one anyways. For ditching me earlier, so I get to eat my chips however I want to."

As if to prove it, he shoved an excess of them into his mouth, and Bakugou eyed the bits and pieces that fell down with disgust.

"I don't owe you anything," he claimed, unwilling to talk about that particular embarrassment.

Sure, Todoroki and him had made a practically undefeatable team, which was not fucking unexpected. They'd won, worked pretty damn well together, had set things on fire, covered them in ice, let things explode and everything - but it had been a spur of the moment decision, and the asshole had actually been more useful than Bakugou. Because the alpha had felt ever so slightly distracted by the knowledge that his damn instincts or whatever were acting up in more noticeable ways.

It was both frustrating and relieving that Todoroki, as a rule, was an oblivious idiot. He'd been surprised, but hadn't managed to figure out why Bakugou was so adamant about teaming up all of a sudden.

"So," Kirishima said, grin obvious in his voice, "Todoroki, huh?"

Bakugou cursed internally. And then, externally, "The fuck is that supposed to mean. What about Icyhot?"

"I was gonna ask you that. You've been spending more time together lately. I mean, you... cooked for him. And this afternoon, you seemed.." he stopped there, perhaps evaluating if he was going to be murdered for whatever he was going to say.

"I seemed. What," Bakugou pushed.

"Sort of, really jealous?"

"Are you out of your mind? Why the hell would I be.. ugh. No, you dumbass. No to all of that," Bakugou snapped, but he felt strangely off balance, sort of like a villain must feel when they got caught. Still, he wasn't going to admit to anything. At all.

It was frustrating enough that his behavior was getting weird enough for Shitty Hair to take notice.

"Come on, I'm not stupid. And it's totally understandable, I mean. There are lots of alpha beta couples, and Todoroki is one of the few people you consider a worthy opponent, so it's not that hard to believe that maybe you sort of.. Like him? In a way."

"Stop talking about this. I like him as much as I like the cockroaches that are surely hiding somewhere in the fucking canteen. "

"There are no - don't say that, their food is amazing! And it's totally manly to talk about feelings, like. No need to be defensive with me," Kirishima said, and Bakugou was counting to twenty in his head, remembering to breathe.

"I'll show you defensive!"

"You sort of... already are? I'm not trying to mess with you, I wanna help."

"I don't need any fucking help!" Bakugou yelled, the volume of his voice increasing.

"So, you don't like him."

"Fuck no, that's disgusting," Bakugou replied, trying his best to make both his voice and his gaze threatening enough for the other to back off.

"Alright then, that's good. Then I can ask Todoroki out, been wanting to do that for months now. I mean, he is pretty for sure," the redheaded alpha said, casually. Like it wasn't a big deal.

Bakugou had him by his shirt in an instant, pulling the alpha close to his face, his scent about as explosive as his sweat was.

"Don't you fucking dare," he commanded, his breathing uneven.

Kirishima's breathing, too, became uneven. He started shaking with laughter, and Bakugou could do nothing more than to stare at him in utter confusion.

Gunshots from the movie rang through the air, along with dramatic music.

"Oh my God. Wow! You're like, what is even up with you?! That was too easy," he said, in between bellowing laughs.

"Fuck off!" Bakugou yelled at him, understanding dawning on him now that his instincts weren't as goddamn loud anymore. He'd walked right into the trap, and he let out a frustrated noise as he realised just how damn obvious that had been.

He released his hold, but the other stayed rather close to him.

"Soo," Kirishima began when he'd finally calmed down a little, "Are you going to do something about it?"

"No, I'm doing nothing about anything," Bakugou replied, crossing his arms. If he had thought apologising was bad, then this was... straight up the worst case scenario. He felt physically incapable of admitting it, even to himself.

Although there was hardly a way around realising that he felt something.

Like hell was he going to put a label on it, especially since it was most likely just some alpha-related shit.

"That's.. not like you," Kirishima said, sounding more serious this time.

"How the fuck can I not be like me?"

"Well, you go after what you want, you know? It's not like you to just sit there and deny it and stand in your own way."

Bakugou knew this. He was very fucking aware of the fact that he was usually the type to get what he wanted, but this was... different. And Todoroki may be an idiot and oblivious as hell, but he was just as complicated. And on top of that, hurt.

Bakugou couldn't just disregard that in the same way he disregarded most disgustingly emotional things and people.

..Why couldn't he, though?

Taking a deep breath, the blonde hated himself for asking, "So, hypothetically, if I wanted to - I don't know - do something about it. Then.. Shit. How would I even do that?"

The look Kirishima gave him told Bakugou one thing and one thing only.

He was so, so fucked.

Chapter Text

'You can do this, you're the best,' Bakugou told himself, standing in front of his mirror and looking himself straight in the eye. He looked tired, because he had once again spent almost the entire night thinking about... fucking things.

He took a breath.

"You've got, nice - a nice... fuck," he tried, glaring at his reflection.

"Your hair looks weird and.. disgustingly soft," he tried again, but it sounded like a fucking alien trying to imitate human language. Even like this, having only himself as a witness and practically no pressure on him, his default expression was on his face - and the half-disgusted, pissed off expression did absolutely nothing to make the compliment sound sincere. Or, like a compliment at all.

"It's nice how asymmetrical your - fuck that's not a compliment, is it?!"

"The red of your scar really brings out your.. one of your eye colors."

"I don't - really hate that vacant look you have on your face as much as I thought I did."

He punched his fist against the mirror, sparks dancing around his fingers and had he hit it a little harder, the damn thing would be all over the floor and a pain in the ass to clean up.

Kirishima had told him to take 'baby steps.'

Fucking baby steps, he'd called it. Bakugou had almost strangled him.

As if handing out compliments was a totally normal thing that people just had the innate ability to do. But the more that the blonde thought about it, the more he realised that he couldn't remember the last time he'd complimented anyone on anything. Especially when it wasn't fighting-related, he had no clue how to express approval for anything people did.

Let alone someone's appearance.

Seeing the ways in which people fucked up was way easier and more useful anyway, because that gave them the ability to maybe fuck up less horribly the next time. But what good could a damn compliment do?

According to his self proclaimed love expert friend, a whole fucking lot. But Bakugou wasn't entirely sure he believed him. Because honestly, if anything, he sounded like some creepy fucker when he tried to be nice...

Even to himself. Bakugou felt disgustingly unsure about this plan, which in turn made him angry. None of this shit came naturally to him.

"Your plain ass clothes look good on you," he attempted to make himself sound casual.

It didn't sound casual.

"Fucking fuck, this isn't working," he growled at his reflection, and turned away from the mirror. It wasn't like he had a time limit for this. Maybe practicing every day for a damn year or something would bring... some improvement. Or not.

But he wasn't a very patient person.

Either way, the alpha was unable to keep practicing this any longer, because it was honestly starting to make his blood boil. And he was already late - not that he really had much of a program for the day, but Bakugou liked to keep somewhat of a routine. Getting up and having breakfast early was part of that. Thankfully, it was a Saturday, so he could spend the majority of his day trying to figure this shit out without missing anything in class.

Paying attention during lessons was becoming more and more of an issue, because his mind just seemed to keep going back to this damn riddle that he had no way of figuring out. The riddle being Shouto Todoroki.

He was pretty damn sure that Todoroki had never given a thought to any of this stuff that Bakugou refused to put a label on for now - and Bakugou just had the luck of wanting... something from him. With him. Something. And he wasn't even sure what that entailed.

But he definitely wanted that, and from the most oblivious and socially challenged guy in class. There was a good chance Todoroki wouldn't even notice it if he made him a compliment.

Maybe he should give up on it before this shit could get even messier than it already was. Bakugou contemplated this as he walked through the hallways and headed to the kitchen, going back and forth between confidence and ugly insecurity that he never thought he'd had in himself.

Or rather, he hadn't thought that it would resurface anytime soon. Apparently he hadn't entirely managed to drown those self doubts he'd buried in the depths of his mind, and now they were floating back to the surface like trash being washed up on a shore. All of this was making him entirely too vulnerable and distracted.

He wasn't prepared when he walked into the room to see Todoroki and Deku sitting at a table together, eating and talking. Not that there was anything particularly unusual about that sight probably, but he usually ate earlier than this on Saturdays and had he not been standing in front of a mirror, attempting to practice compliments, he would not have to deal with this disgusting feeling filling up his chest again.

They were sitting fucking close together, not even noticing him.

Todoroki was dressed in a loose beige pullover and he looked sleepy, which was also a very usual morning thing. Bakugou hated that he looked so soft and tired, because these days that somehow made him want to carry the omega into a bed and put a blanket on him and say cheesy shit like, 'sleep a little longer, you deserve it.'

Instead of doing that, Bakugou stomped towards the kitchen counter, and poured cereal into a bowl before drowning it in milk, glaring at the damn thing before punching a spoon into it. His damn instincts were getting out of hand, and fuck was it frustrating. Couldn't he catch a damn break?

Apparently the answer was a big fucking no.

"Good morning Kacchan! You want to, uh.. Sit with us?" Deku had the guts to ask with a nervous smile, instead of looking like he was fearing for his life like he usually would when the alpha glared at him.

Maybe he shouldn't have fucking apologised. Of course Deku had to take that as an invitation to start being friends.

"Morning," Todoroki added, and Bakugou slammed his bowl down on the other side of the desk. He made a noise that probably counted as a 'morning,' and busied himself with eating so he didn't have to speak. For some reason, it felt awkward as hell, sitting there at a desk with the person who had him practicing compliments in front of a mirror.

Thankfully, Deku was in a talkative mood, and he started rambling about a new line of All Might merchandise and how he couldn't get everything he wanted because his mother was worried about his hoarding tendencies or some shit, but Bakugou wasn't really listening. He was busy not looking at Todoroki, not thinking about him, not fucking reaching across the table to fix that one lock of white hair that wasn't where it was supposed to be...

He was failing miserably at the not looking part, obviously.

When his eyes found the other's, he almost dropped his spoon, literally. Because the omega was staring right back at him, and Bakugou was somehow caught off guard by that.

"Quit staring, Half and Half," he growled, holding the spoon in his hand up like a weapon.

"I'm not staring," Todoroki told him, still staring. Bakugou growled in response, and great, now he felt the weight of Deku's eyes on him as well.

Before he could even reply, Todoroki added, "You look tired."

"If anyone looks fucking tired here, it's you!" he accused, wondering if the damn compliment practice could have been any more useless.

"Are you sleeping enough?" Todoroki asked as though he hadn't even heard him.

"How the fuck is that any of your business?"

"Studies have shown that a lack of sleep results in impaired memory and general decrease in health and productivity," the omega said, once again listing off facts that no one asked for.

"Are you fucking insulting me right now? I'd be the best even if I got absolutely no sleep," Bakugou said, slowly. It had sort of sounded like an insult, but it was hard to tell with Todoroki sometimes.

"I'm telling you to pay attention to a healthy sleep schedule."

"I didn't fucking ask for your advice, idiot."

"A lack of sleep also causes irritability," Todoroki just had to add. The hint of a smirk was playing at his lips, and Bakugou reminded himself not to fucking look at his lips in the first place.

"You know what else causes irritability?" the blonde asked.

Todoroki nodded, as oblivious to sarcasm as ever, "Low blood sugar, boredom, tense muscles, prolongued exposure to loud noises, headaches and also some mental illnesses, to name a few."

Bakugou wanted to smack himself in the face, but suppressed the urge, instead saying, "add conversations with you to the fucking list."

Todoroki looked stunned for a moment, before the clouds in his head apparently parted for a fucking hint of awareness to break through, and then he did the thing again. Bakugou had to look away when the omega chuckled softly at his words, like it was no one's business. At the rare instances when Todoroki laughed or smiled, he had to keep his eyes off him, because of this dreadful internal urge that made him want to pull the corners of his own lips upwards in response.

Todoroki had the weirdest and most random sense of humor, and fuck if Bakugou could tell what had been so damn funny about that just now.

When he averted his eyes, they met green, wide ones, and maybe the beta was still afraid of him - because Deku shot up like he'd been bitten by an insect or something.

"Uh, I'll go for my morning run with Iida!" he announced, too loudly.

Both Bakugou and Todoroki watched as he left, looking as if he was in a hurry all of a sudden.

And then it was just the two of them.

Bakugou quickly ate the rest of his food, pretending like the omega wasn't even there, while Todoroki was looking at his phone again, doing God knows what. It seemed almost like a good opportunity to try and say something nice to him.

So, when he was finally done with breakfast, Bakugou slammed the bowl down on the table with an extra bit of aggression, and it had the desired effect. While Todoroki didn't exactly show surprise, his eyes still moved in Bakugou's direction, almost curious looking.

The alpha opened his mouth, closed it.

Forgot how to form words, let alone goddamn compliments.

And being the traitor that his body was, he was certain that his cheeks were burning up with embarrassment thanks to his failed attempt at speaking.

Todoroki tilted his head to the side, and Bakugou cursed him for probably not even realising the fact that it was such a damn omega-like thing to do. Or maybe he was losing his mind and imagining things. He grit his teeth, and made a frustrated noise, glaring at the empty bowl so his eyes wouldn't get stuck on the skin of Todoroki's neck.

"Did you still want to train together?"

Bakugou choked on air, unable to believe that he'd even ask that.

"Are you fucking serious? After what happened, you still want to?!" he almost yelled, but managed to keep his voice a bit below that.

"Do you not want to?" Todoroki asked, sounding pretty much indifferent, though there was a hint of.. something in his voice.

"I don't care," he managed to get out, both liking and loathing the idea for a multitude of reasons. Mostly because he still felt guilty for the last time they did that, and he didn't exactly want to give himself the opportunity to fuck up again. The blonde stood up to go and put the used stuff into the dishwasher, and once again, Todoroki followed him, as though it was the most natural thing to do.

"You don't care."

"That's what I said," the alpha commented, almost flinching when their arms brushed together.

"Is that a yes or no?" Todoroki asked, with that confused sort of look on his face that made Bakugou want to pinch him in the arm or something. Or maybe himself. He noticed too late that he was staring again, and told himself to stop being such a damn coward about this.

He tried to keep himself from looking like he wanted to murder someone, and opened his mouth without a real idea of what exactly to even say.

"Your... hair."

The blonde almost didn't recognise his own voice and stopped himself from saying another word, unable to stand it. How in the goddamn world did this idiot make such a fucking nervous wreck out of him? It was so bad that it was fucking audible in his tone.

"My hair?" Todoroki asked and Bakugou felt the strangest sort of panic washing over him, because he'd fucking overestimated himself for once in his life. Greatly.

He was so not fucking ready to make Todoroki a compliment.

...

Todoroki had the sneaking suspicion that Bakugou was getting sick or something. Not only did the blonde look really tired, he also made absolutely no sense, which was defintely unusual. And Todoroki had no idea what was wrong with his hair, so he asked again.

"What's wrong with my hair?"

He received a look in return that he couldn't entirely interpret. Something between anger and terror, or maybe just confusion.

His fingers automatically came up to run through the different colored locks, but nothing seemed off, really. It felt the same as every day, and he took a closer look at the alpha. Though it wasn't obvious, he could swear that his face looked sort of red, and the omega reached out without even thinking about it.

He pressed his right palm to Bakugou's forehead, checking his temperature.

Shouto watched as Bakugou took a deep breath, and he wondered if the alpha was going to try to hit him.

Bakugou's forehead was warm.

Nicely warm.

The blonde exhaled, sounding almost pained, and asked, "What the fuck are you doing."

Todoroki looked him in the eyes, once again taking note of the fact that something was off about the blonde. His eyes weren't as hard as they usually were, and he hadn't threatened to hit him yet either for doing this.

"Checking your temperature," Todoroki replied, matter-of-factly, "you're warm."

"I'm warm," Bakugou repeated, apparently to himself.

They stood there for another second or two like that, before the blonde growled, "my forehead it not some sort of heater, and I'm not fucking sick."

"But you're warm," Todoroki told him. He'd figured that Bakugou would be the kind of guy to deny it when he got the flu.

"Your hand is just fucking cold, you're the worst person to judge someone's temperature," he said, and that wasn't exactly untrue. Todoroki's right hand did tend to be more sensitive to warmth than the left.

So he pulled his hand back and placed the other there, his fingers caught in between blonde locks as he tried to make an assessment.

"Still warm," Shouto said.

Bakugou glared at him, and it made the alpha look a bit more like his usual self. "I didn't know you were a fucking health expert now," he snapped... which meant that maybe he was not getting sick after all.

Todoroki pulled his hand away, wondering if maybe Bakugou was just... always this warm. He found it hard to tell, because most of the time when the two of them ended up touching, it was in the sorts of situations where appreciating someone's warmth was the last thing on Todoroki's mind. During fights, there were more important things to focus on.

"So," he said, really wanting to know, "what about my hair, then?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Just," Bakugou said, red eyes turning towards his hair, and Shouto held his breath for a brief moment.

The alpha came a little bit closer before reaching out and touching his hair with a surprising amount of gentleness that Todoroki wasn't entirely sure how to process. It was over just a second later.

"At least part it the right way," Bakugou said, sounding greatly offended. Todoroki had absolutely no clue what that was about.

He stayed silent, observing Bakugou.

Who proceeded to make a face and said, "what I fucking meant is - it looks better this way. That one lock was out of place."

Shouto titled his head to the side in confusion.

"And it's better now?" he asked, trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was talking to Bakugou about his hair.

"Yeah, it's better," Bakugou repeated, emphasising the last word, agitated for unknown reasons.

"That's.. good," Todoroki said. He was suddenly very aware of how close they were standing. If he wanted to, he could easily press a hand to Bakugou's face again. He sort of wanted to, but ignored that thought, wondering where it had even come from.

Bakugou turned away and started walking towards the door, and Todoroki walked along with him. He didn't exactly have anything to do anyways.

"Why the hell are you following me," Bakugou asked when they were in the hallway.

"Are we going to train later?" the omega asked, having received no answer earlier.

"I fucking asked you something."

Todoroki looked at him, "So did I."

It was easy to see the irritation growing in the other, Todoroki could smell it as well as see it on his face, but this time the scent was not nearly overwhelming enough to get a reaction out of him other than quiet amusement.

"Stop looking so damn smug," the alpha told him, and Shouto had to hold back a laugh.

"You're one to say that."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you still haven't answered my question," the omega told him, looking around. They were standing in front of Bakugou's room now, and his eyes remained stuck on the door for a moment. Then Bakugou moved to open it, and Shouto's eyes followed the movement of his hand as it wrapped around the door knob. Todoroki had never been to Bakugou's room before, had no clue what it even looked like.

He was sort of curious to see where Bakugou spent most of his free time, but he doubted that the blonde would ever let him into his room either way.

"No shit," Bakugou said, and followed that up with an annoyed noise, "maybe you shouldn't fucking ask shit like that."

Before Todoroki had a chance to inquire about that, the door was opened and he was dragged into the room behind the other. Bakugou's grip on his arm was not even close to his wrist this time.

Shouto was stunned for a moment, his eyes on his arm.

Then he looked around the room, taking note of random All Might things like a poster on the wall and a small figure on the table. Everything was astonishingly clean and orderly, but then again - that wasn't much of a surprise. He'd figured out by now that Bakugou was sort of obsessed with doing things in certain ways. And cleaning just happened to be one of them.

Other than that, it wasn't half as spectacular as Todoroki had expected it to be. There were no voodoo dolls that looked like their classmates, nothing looked like it had been damaged by explosions, and even the bed was made as though he'd used a triangle ruler to make sure every folded corner was exactly 90 degrees.

Something that seemed both utterly fitting and also very out of place were the small cacti lined up on the windowsill.

The most noticeable thing though, was the scent of the room; of course it smelled like Bakugou, like sweetness mixed up with smoke.

"Want to take a fucking photo or something?"

Todoroki nodded his head, got his phone out, and Bakugou pushed his hand back down when he held it up and opened the camera app. The omega frowned, convinced that Midoriya would have been interested in the mystery that was Bakugou's room as well.

"That was not an actual suggestion, you stalker."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh," the blonde agreed, and wandered over to sit down on the edge of his bed, looking at Shouto like he had something to say. Feeling out of place in the room, the omega just stayed there, standing very still.

"You have improved, haven't you?" Bakugou asked then, and it took Shouto a bit until he realised what exactly he was talking about.

"Yes," he confirmed.

"So, why the hell do you even want to keep training with me?"

That was a good question, Todoroki realised as he thought it over. He answered with the first thing that his mind came up with, "there's always room for more improvement, and.. it's actually fun."

"Fun?" Bakugou spat out the word like it had personally insulted him, "how- what. Just, how the hell is that fun to you."

With red eyes analysing him again, standing still was a little bit harder, but Shouto forced himself not to appear nervous. He had no reason to be, really.

Why should he be nervous? It was just a room. Just Bakugou.

Except, he wasn't entirely sure how to answer that question.

"Look, after what happened last time, maybe we shouldn't fucking continue that. I told you shit like that wasn't going to happen again, but it's not like we have to fucking put it to the test," Bakugou added then, and Todoroki hadn't really expected him to still be so occupied with that. He gave the alpha a disbelieving look, not at all used to this considerate and careful version of him.

Or maybe Bakugou just didn't want to spend an hour or two every evening training with him anymore.

Somehow, he felt like maybe that was the real reason, and the thought wasn't all that nice.

"It wasn't that big of a deal," Shouto said with a hint of irritation in his voice, "I wasn't focused enough, and situations like this shouldn't affect me in the first place."

"Stop blaming yourself for this shit," Bakugou countered, looking like he was having a hard time keeping himself from yelling, "you told me your secret and I used it against you, so fucking - I don't know - get angry or something!"

"You've already apologised days ago, why would I get angry about it now?"

"Because," Bakugou started, but stopped there, taking a heavy breath.

Todoroki watched the alpha as he forced himself to calm down, or that's what it looked like at least. The whole thing was strangely fascinating to Shouto; he could still recall the version of the blonde that had never even attempted to regulate himself in any capacity. He stayed silent, not wanting to interrupt the process.

"Because I," he started again, stopped again. Todoroki almost felt bad, watching the alpha struggle to find words.

"I would be fucking angry if I were you, alright? Apology or not, it would piss me off. Just the fucking fact that as an omega you have to worry about shit like this," he said eventually.

Todoroki didn't entirely get it.

"So, you apologised, but you didn't want me to.. accept it?"

"Of course I fucking wanted you to accept it!"

"Then, what is the issue?" the omega asked, "people have different reactions to things."

"The fucking issue is that you," Bakugou snapped. And stopped again, before adding, "just, how are you so damn trusting and understanding after all the bullshit you've experienced?"

Shouto hadn't seen that question coming. He was shocked for a brief moment, wondering what exactly Bakugou was referring to. He didn't know the full extent of the things Shouto had experienced, but apparently enough to ask that question of all.

"I'm not very trusting," Shouto denied.

"You just asked me to train with you again."

"You act like I should be scared of you," Todoroki noted, making a point of looking the alpha in the eyes, "It just takes more than that for me to get angry. You do know who my father is. So I'm sure you can tell that I'm able to see the difference between someone who does and someone who doesn't care if they messed up. You didn't beat me up for being weak afterwards or tell me how much of a disappointment I am, and you apologised."

He hadn't meant to say that much, but the words just kept tumbling out once he began, without his permission. There were still so many things about his past that he'd never expressed, and sometimes it was hard to draw the line when the omega did start talking about it. Shouto watched the many expressions that passed over the alpha's face in response. From astonishment to mild anger to absolute rage. Rage at what exactly, he wasn't sure.

"How the fuck does anyone consider that asshole a hero," Bakugou asked, voice as sharp as a razor blade, "he actually fucking beat you up for being an omega?"

Shouto shook his head and corrected, "not for being an omega. For being a weak omega."

"You're not weak," Bakugou said without hesitation.

"I was when I was younger," Shouto replied, trying his best to remain detached from the memories threatening to overwhelm him again. He wasn't afraid of alphas now, but that didn't mean that he hadn't experienced just about every shade of terror in his childhood, all for the sake sake of making him less reactive. A quirk as perfect as his couldn't be wasted on an omega who'd cower in front of an alpha, he remembered being told.

Bakugou just looked at him, not saying anything.

Shouto took a deep breath, and a step backwards, feeling like he'd just seriously over-shared, "I should.. probably go."

He really didn't want to be the type of person to push himself and his issues on others.

He felt like sitting in his room and giving himself a mental pep talk or something. Or maybe just thinking about the past again and trying to process the same old things all over again - it was crazy how he could spend hours at a time doing that.

"You've got something planned or what?" Bakugou asked, and Todoroki turned around, shaking his head.

"Not exactly."

"Then just fucking sit down somewhere," he commanded without any real force.

"Why?"

"Because," the blonde said, "you don't look like the type who's ever played video games."

Once more, Todoroki was entirely confused by the sudden change in topic, and he briefly reconsidered the option that maybe Bakugou did have a flu, or maybe he just suffered from severe sleep deprivation. He watched him turn on the TV beside his bed, and grab a controller.

Shouto was about to ask for further clarification when the alpha said, "Unless you've got something better to do."

He shook his head again, and just as the omega was about to sit down beside the bed, Bakugou moved into the corner, and pointed at the now empty space.

Todoroki looked at him, then down at the floor, then back to the bed.

"You don't have to sit on the floor like some dog," Bakugou explained, but Shouto found himself hesitating. He'd never sat on anyone else's bed, having spent most of his life without friends and most of his time here either going out with the others or just sitting in the common room. Hardly ever in anyone's bedroom. It seemed a bit unreal to think that Bakugou's bed of all people's was the first one he was invited to sit on.

It probably wasn't as big of a deal as he thought it was. But still, he couldn't help himself and felt a smile coming over his lips as he sat down, saying a quiet, "thanks."

...

There weren't enough words to accurately describe the amount of fucking emotions Bakugou felt at the sight of Todoroki sitting on his bed, trying to figure out how a controller worked. He was still pissed as hell from the new bit of information he'd been given about Endeavour, and had the strong desire to walk up to that man and kick him in the balls. Or let his head explode. Or maybe punch him in the face first, pour water all over his weird burning mustache.

Perhaps all of that.

Asking Todoroki to stay here had not been part of the plan for today. Neither had allowing him into his room in the first place been. Or asking him to play video games. Absolutely none of this had been planned, but here they were. And fuck if the alpha in him wasn't obsessed with the concept of having the other boy in his room. On his bed. Holding his controller.

This was probably not very good for his sanity, Bakugou thought to himself without really managing to give too much of a fuck about that fact.

He'd already experienced a brain aneurysm or something when Todoroki had randomly decided to press his hands to his forehead earlier. There wasn't much more damage that could he done at this point, because his hands had been soft, the touch in general had been.

The idiot had actually been worried that he was getting sick, and it was about as irritating as it was adorable.

Seeing such sides of him made it even harder to understand how the hell his father could have treated him this way, and Bakugou was now more set than ever before on doing his fucking best to prevent those mismatched eyes from getting that faraway, sad look.

Like hell would he have let the other walk out of here when he was obviously about to get stuck in a downward spiral of past-related thoughts. Maybe his protective instincts were just overactive or something (they most certainly were), but Bakugou hadn't been able to ignore the look on his face. No chance in hell.

And maybe he was projecting or something, but it seemed like Todoroki was actually glad to be sitting here.

On his bed.

The alpha told himself once again to tone it down with the staring.

"The hell are you doing? You'll fall off the cliff!"

"Someone tried to shoot me, I don't get this," Todoroki said, looking entirely too focused on the screen.

"That's what the game is about," Bakugou told him, "you fucking shoot back!"

"I thought it was about cowboys," the omega replied, entirely new to the concept of video games and the shit people did when playing online. Bakugou didn't know anyone their age who hadn't at least played some stupid car race game. Well, no one other than Todoroki, and it was strangely amusing to watch him try to make sense of it all.

"What the fuck do you think cowboys do all day? Especially online, everyone is just trying to piss each other off," he informed, "pick out a gun and kill the bastard!"

"Didn't you say something about how killing people makes your honor go down?"

"It's already at zero."

"That's not very hero-like," Todoroki said, and proceeded to feed the horse instead of pulling a gun out.

"I didn't buy the game just to ride through the fucking landscapes."

"You even named your horse Murderer," Todoroki stated, a hint disbelief coloring his voice.

"How else would I name it?" the alpha asked, eyes momentarily stuck on the profile of Todoroki's face.

There was not a hint of a joke in his voice when Todoroki suggested, "Snowflake?"

"Snowflake? You're fucking with me, then I might as well call it fucking Pegasus."

A shot rang through the air, and the next thing Bakugou knew, Todoroki backed away as though an actual gun had hit him.

"I got shot," he said in utter disbelief, the screen black.

Bakugou laughed at that for a moment before he caught himself, their eyes meeting. The omega didn't look half as amused by the fact that someone had killed him unprovoked, but he did look a little shocked at Bakugou's outburst.

"So you go and hunt him down now, make the asshole pay," the alpha instructed, and the other nodded his head slowly, beginning to catch on.

Just seconds after the character had respawned, and while Todoroki was asking, "How do I use a gun again?" he got shot again. In the head.

"Ah, it's one of those fucking assholes who don't let up," Bakugou muttered to himself. "You gotta be quick."

He pointed at one of the buttons, careful not to brush their fingers together because he wasn't sure he could fucking handle that, and said, "this one's for picking a gun. Use this gun, the one down there."

As it turned out, Todoroki didn't remain calm for long when it came to video games. After the fifth time of getting himself killed, he was pushing the buttons so violently that it almost resembled Bakugou's way of gaming. He was fucking invested in it.

And then it happened, unexpectedly, "This asshole! I almost had him!"

Bakugou's brain took a few seconds to process it, before he slowly turned towards the agitated omega, and asked, "Did you just curse?"

But he was ignored when Todoroki started another attempt at taking revenge. It wasn't even that he was bad at this, but his opponent was obviously someone who'd played this game for a long-ass time. Bakugou almost felt grateful that the stranger didn't seem to lose interest, because it was fucking fascinating watching Shouto Todoroki lose his shit over a video game.

"He just killed the horse," the omega said a few seconds later, and Bakugou made an annoyed noise himself. Those who went for the horses were the worst.

"Want me to kill him?"

Todoroki looked over before shaking his head and saying in the same way an addict in a casino would, "let me try one more time."

Bakugou nodded, and refrained from commenting on it when he was only handed the controller five deaths later. By that time, Todoroki looked just about ready to throw the controller in a corner or break the TV.

"Kill him," Todoroki demanded, his voice defintely more reminiscent of fire than of ice. Bakugou briefly wondered if it was weird that hearing the usually composed and peaceful omega say those words did something to him.

Something strange that had his throat feeling dry. He didn't dwell on it.

Their hands brushed together when he was handed the controller, and Bakugou was once again becoming very aware of the current situation. The two of them - on his bed. Alone.

With their hands touching for a brief second.

It felt so fucking natural that it was almost terrifying. They had absolutely no excuse or reason to be spending their morning together, and somehow that made it better.

Bakugou could swear that he heard an intake of breath from Todoroki in reaction the brief contact. Maybe it was wishful thinking. He ignored the fact that he sort of wanted to reach out and touch his hand again, for more than just a split second.

Just to see what would happen.

But he forced himself to pay attention to the game instead, after all he was on a fucking mission, and the fucker was going to suffer. Both for killing the horse, and because Bakugou sort of really needed to show off a little. He didn't even question that particular urge anymore, because of course his instincts were through the roof with Todoroki on his bed, looking pretty comfortable there.

'Pretty and comfortable,' Bakugou's mind helpfully supplied like the asshole that it was.

"There he is," he whispered as he spotted the other player, all too aware of the fact that Todoroki now sat with his legs crossed, because his knee brushed against Bakugou's leg and that wasn't nearly as insignificant as it should be. He aimed the sniper rifle at the other, muttered a, "You're dead," and had him tumbling to the ground with the first shot.

"That's what he gets for attacking innocent players," Todoroki said, sounding very pleased to see the other going down.

"That was just the beginning," Bakugou told him, "how many times did he kill you?"

Todoroki seemed busy counting for a moment, before he admitted, "Twenty times or so."

"Then he's going to die thirty times. In multiple ways," Bakugou promised enthusiastically. Todoroki didn't argue with this logic at all, and the alpha appreciated it.

"And we'll remember his name so you can hunt him down take your own revenge once you've practiced a bit," he declared. Bakugou had an entire blacklist of players that had gotten on his nerves a little too often, and some might argue that he had the tendency to obsess over the people he considered his rivals, but honestly, they deserved it.

He only noticed the implication of his words a few seconds later, namely that he'd basically just offered that they to this again - the spending time together in his room thing. But the omega didn't comment on that, apparently alright with or oblivious to it. He just watched the screen and said a quiet, "okay."

Bakugou went about his business of murdering the other player again when Todoroki suddenly said, "I never actually knew that an alpha's scent could calm people down, too. Or well, I knew - I just never experienced that."

A second later, Bakugou was shot, he almost dropped the controller, and twisted around with a wide-eyed stare. Todoroki looked back at him, more surprised than anything else. It was beyond him how Todoroki could just casually say shit like that.

"You - what?!" the blonde managed to get out, watching him closely and completely forgetting about the game.

"It surprised me," Todoroki replied, and Bakugou officially had no clue what they were talking about anymore.

So he eloquently asked, "just, what the fuck are you talking about?"

"You usually smell angry," the reply came, and Bakugou was about to ask if that was another damn insult, but the omega continued, "but right now you really.. don't. Your scent just reminded me of that thing you did when you felt bad and tried to calm me down."

Bakugou wanted to tell him that this conversation was officially inappropriate and should end right here, but the alpha part of his brain also wanted to hear exactly what the other had to say about that.

Most of all though, Bakugou found it fucking bothersome to even admit that he'd even used his pheromones in that way in the first place. In such a fucked up situation no less; he couldn't even blame the other for his confusion. After all that whole 'I'll make you submit' stunt followed by the 'Oh fuck what am I doing' moment had been a shitshow of mixed signals.

But Bakugou still remembered the feeling of Todoroki's head resting on him, and that small noise he'd made and now he was talking about his scent and that was really fucking -

"Don't fucking, don't just say that," he manged to snap, mentally adding the words, 'Unless you want me to pull you against me again.'

"It's just interesting."

"Interesting?! The hell. I'm not some fucking science project," the blonde growled.

"I didn't mean it in that way, I just... never mind," Todoroki said, his face unreadable or maybe Bakugou was just overwhelmed with the information that Todoroki found his scent 'interesting'. He cursed that word for its ability to be interpreted in a million different fucking ways and couldn't stop himself from asking, "then, what did you mean?"

Todoroki blinked at him with his mismatched eyes, and the alpha could swear that he looked just a little bit embarrassed when he said, "Nothing."

"Spit it out," the blonde commanded.

"I can't explain it," Todoroki said, helplessly.

"Then at least fucking try."

"It's just," the younger of the two began, "surprising. When you don't smell angry. A good kind of surprising. It's nice," Todoroki said, softly, and looked away.

And Bakugou was convinced that he'd just made that up in his head.

Because.. had Todoroki actually just gone ahead and made him a damn compliment for his scent? Fuck. The room felt entirely too warm and he was entirely unsure how to even reply to that. Perhaps Kirishima hadn't been that wrong after all.

Bakugou had received a shit ton of compliments in his life, but none of them had ever really been noteworthy, just useless comments about things he already knew he excelled at.

This was different.

This felt different.

He pressed the controller back into Todoroki's hands, and didn't know what else to say except, "Here. Feed the damn horse or something."

Chapter Text

The concept of friendship was as confusing to Shouto as it was fascinating. The first person he'd really considered a friend at UA was Midoriya; something about the beta's fighting spirit coupled with his kindness and caring nature had made Todoroki feel safe enough to open up to him. And once he'd opened up and revealed a bit of himself, it had been like a foundation was built, like healthy earth that flowers had inevitably started growing on, spread over the cold asphalt of a lonely childhood.

It had happened so naturally that he hadn't really second guessed himself too much. Maybe because it had felt like Shouto couldn't really mess up too badly, because there was some sort of understanding that the two of them shared; a sense of mutual respect perhaps. Besides, things hadn't been too complicated with the both of them being natural peacekeepers who still managed to push each other forward when necessary.

Midoriya had shown him what it looked like to have a friend who would support him, no matter what.

And Todoroki had tried and was still trying his best to be a good friend in return, to listen to him and even go out of his way to spend time together, with or without others around. They'd talk about other heroes, their personal struggles at school and in life, and sometimes completely random things that had absolutely nothing to do with their shared life goal of becoming heroes.

He actually got along with most of his classmates when he thought about it, though the other friendships were definitely not as close. Mostly small talk during school hours, short conversations at lunch - Todoroki found it hard to tell whether things like that counted as signs of a friendship, or maybe just a sort of camaraderie among people who shared the same space. But, he didn't particularly mind either way; it wasn't like he spent too much time thinking about whether or not Iida or Uraraka for example would call him a friend.

And they probably would consider him part of their friend group; it wasn't that other people didn't matter to him, but Shouto had no need to be important and close to everyone. He didn't spend his time wondering about what they all thought of him, that was the point.

But then, there was Bakugou. When it came to him, he did wonder.

At this point, there wasn't a doubt in Shouto's mind that the two of them were friends, and Bakugou didn't even go out of his way to really deny it anymore either. Every now and then, he'd say something along the lines of, 'Why do I even bother with you,' or 'did someone actually teach you how to be this annoying or did you learn it all by yourself?'.

But something about the way he said those things had changed, and it was obvious enough for Todoroki to be sure that he wasn't just imagining it.

He wasn't just imagining that Bakugou had started arriving to breakfast later on Saturdays and spent it sitting there with him and Midoriya. Or that once they'd finished eating, he'd give Todoroki that one look - an expectant one almost. Then somehow after breakfast they'd always end up walking to Bakugou's room, where Shouto was taught about a multitude of video games as though it was essential knowledge for a hero in the making.

It was... nice.

And confusing. Not the video game part; in just a few weeks, he'd actually become much better at that. In games where the two of them played against each other, he now usually won and that never failed to make Bakugou absolutely livid. The confusing part was that this didn't get him thrown out of the alpha's room or insulted too badly though.

He did not have much experience with friendships, but what Shouto could tell that this was... different, compared to the way Midoriya and him had formed their friendship.

He couldn't exactly pinpoint all the ways in which the two relationships differed from each other, and maybe the best way to describe it was that it just... felt different. Then again, perhaps that was just a natural thing. People were different, and therefore relationships also were - that made sense. It was a strange sort of up and down, of push and pull, between him and the alpha, but something steady was growing beneath that.

Maybe there wasn't much to overthink, but that was exactly what he did nevertheless; Shouto more often than not found himself picking apart their interactions as though he was searching for an answer to a question he couldn't even put into words.

They'd picked up their training again, and combined with the Saturday routine, there was hardly a day of the week when the two of them were not spending at least an hour alone together in some capacity. This had one particularly strange side effect that was more foreign to Shouto than anything.

In a way he could barely explain to himself, he'd begun to get used to Bakugou's scent. Not just used to it though - he sometimes found himself weirdly on edge when for one reason or another, their routine was interrupted. He'd known the alpha's scent for a long time, but for months, he hadn't really spared it a second thought.

Something had shifted though, because these days, when it was just the two of them, the blonde's scent didn't just speak of anger and the willingness to challenge anything and anyone.

Of course, that was still there sometimes, and it would be worrying if it wasn't, but there was another layer added to that. Something calm that was barely noticeable but somehow Todoroki still managed to notice it, and by extension, he'd also started noticing when it wasn't there... When Bakugou wasn't there.

He stared at his phone again, rereading the message he'd received more than an hour ago, feeling a strange sort of restlessness yet again.

'fucking train is late, can't make it today'

Todoroki had seen Bakugou and Kirishima leave earlier and though he had no idea where exactly they had gone, he hadn't exactly expected it to get in the way of their training plans. Of course he couldn't and wouldn't blame anyone for that - but it still had the omega feeling a bit down as he sat in his room, drinking a cup of tea and watching a dramatic documentary about the Bermuda triangle.

He'd replied with a simple, 'ok thanks for telling me' and hadn't received an answer.

Which was fine, of course. There wasn't much to say to that anyways.

But still, it was shocking to think that such a small shift in their routine affected Todoroki at all. It was even stranger to experience the feeling of more or less subconsciously hoping and waiting for a message from someone - he was usually not the type to care much for extended text conversations. Mostly because they usually involved his father (because Shouto did not text many people), but still.

When his phone actually vibrated a few minutes later, he had it in his hands in an instant, so fast that the omega almost considered putting it away again just to prove to himself that he wasn't this preoccupied with something so trivial.

Almost.

Instead of doing that, he clicked on the message he'd received.

'kirishima and I are gonna watch a movie, you wanna join?'

Shouto read the message once, and then two more times just to make sure he didn't misunderstand anything. Because this was new - usually it was the two of them, and it was always video games. Never movies, and never with Kirishima. Todoroki wondered why he would be invited to that in the first place, and he had no desire to be a third wheel when the two of them apparently had already made plans.

'thanks but I think I'll sleep soon' he typed...

And deleted the message before he could even send it.

Thinking about it, Todoroki seriously doubted that Bakugou would have invited him to this if he didn't mean it. There was no reason to, after all - when did Bakugou do things he didn't want to do? Todoroki didn't mind Kirishima, and the documentary he was watching wasn't that great. He took another sip of his tea, and started typing again.

'ok, I'll be there soon'

Ten minutes later, Todoroki was knocking at Bakugou's door, a little thrown off balance by the fact that it was not a Saturday morning but a Friday evening for once - it somehow seemed different, to be standing here in the evening hours.

He heard Kirishima yell a somewhat breathless sounding, "come in," and opened the door. And blinked at the sight. The redhead was holding what looked like a bar of chocolate out of Bakugou's reach while the blonde tried to get his hands on it, cursing loudly.

"You're not eating this shit on my bed you fucking ass!"

Todoroki just stared as that scene unfolded itself; it took about thirty seconds for Bakugou to acquire the chocolate bar and throw it like a burning molotov cocktail into the furthest corner of the room. From the sound of it, the chocolate didn't come out unharmed.

"Man, I wasn't going to leave any stains, you demon," Kirishima complained, while Bakugou only now seemed to become aware of the fact that someone had entered his room. Chest still heaving, the alpha turned to look at Todoroki, and another one of those strangely intense looks was exchanged - that was another particular detail that somehow had become a part of their friendship.

"Hi," Todoroki said, waving his hand uselessly.

"What the fuck are you wearing?" Bakugou asked instead of greeting him, and Todoroki looked down on himself with a frown on his face.

"My sister gave this to me," he explained, eyeing the red and white stripes on his pullover.

"You look like a fucking human candy cane," Bakugou replied, sounding almost bewildered by that fact.

Todoroki hadn't given much thought to his choice in clothing; he'd just been grateful for the random gift from his sister and had put it on because it was freshly washed and nicely soft. But now that Bakugou was looking at him like this, the omega wondered why he hadn't chosen something that was a little less... his hair colors. He looked away and crossed his arms.

"Good thing you're secretly into sweets," he heard Kirishima mutter in silent amusement, but Todoroki still caught the quiet words and watched in confusion as the blonde attacked the other alpha yet again. He wondered if the two of them were always like that privately - attacks such as this one seemed to be less frequent in class.

Kirishima winced at the bruise he'd probably just earned himself, and Bakugou still didn't seem satisfied with that, glaring daggers at his friend who'd fled to the other side of the bed. Todoroki started wondering once more whether he should have come here at all, but his thinking was interrupted a few seconds later.

"You growing roots over there or something?"

"I - no," Todoroki replied, and wandered towards the bed, coming to a stop in front of it. As usual, Bakugou moved over to make space for him, and the other alpha was already browsing through different movies, sitting on the other end of the bed. Todoroki felt this strange feeling wash over him as the all too familiar scent of Bakugou's room was starting to register in his head. A sense of calmness that almost had him sighing.

Maybe he even did.

"Oh, wow - oh no," Kirishima spoke up suddenly, and both of them turned towards him.

"I totally, completely forgot that I have this thing to do. Very urgent," he added.

"I'll kill you," Bakugou threatened, and once again their exchange was nothing short of confusing to Shouto. The two alphas were looking at each other, and Todoroki was not entirely sure where to look.

"You can kill me tomorrow, I really - really gotta get going! How could I have even forgotten that. Have fun, I'm sure you'll find something to watch or do!" the redhead yelled with the brightest smile in his voice as he bolted out of the room, grabbing the bar of chocolate that Bakugou had thrown into the corner on his way out.

"This goddamn asshole," the blonde muttered to himself once the door was closed, and Todoroki fixed Bakugou with a confused stare.

"That was... surprising," he deducted. Bakugou made a noise in response that sounded like disagreement more than anything. Todoroki wasn't sure what to make of that, so instead of trying to figure it out, he asked, "are we still going to watch a movie?"

Because a part of him wondered if Kirishima's sudden departure meant that he should also just go back to his room. That very same part of him hoped that it didn't mean that. The thought of sitting in his room by himself didn't sound very appealing, compared to being here.

"Might as well, but I'm choosing the movie."

"Why do you get to choose?" the words were out of Todoroki's mouth before he could really help it, and the flicker of a challenge in Bakugou's eyes told him that maybe he shouldn't have bothered to ask.

"Because I say so," the alpha argued.

"That's not a very convincing argument."

"Shut up. What the hell would you even want to watch?" Bakugou asked, careful not to make it sound like the answer would influence his choice in the slightest. Though his expression looked less than pleased, his scent held no real annoyance.

"A documentary about wildlife or something?" Shouto suggested creatively. He didn't really have anything in mind - it really was a matter of principles more than anything.

"A - what. No, we're not watching a documentary about penguins or fucking birds or shit."

"Sea creatures?"

"Fuck no."

"Rabbits."

".."

"Sloths?"

"I swear to God, what the hell is even wrong with you. If you want to watch animals being useless fucks, then go to a zoo or something."

Todoroki couldn't help himself - he laughed at that, entirely too pleased with his ability to get on Bakugou's nerves without much effort. He shook his head.

"Too many fences - it's depressing," he commented as soon as the laughter had quietened.

"You're depressing," the blonde said, though it didn't sound like much of an insult, "and we're not watching any of that boring shit."

"You're boring," Todoroki copied, and it earned him a deadly glare, "documentaries are informative at least."

Bakugou apparently didn't consider this worthy of an answer, and he instead started going through the different movies in the horror genre, while Todoroki watched him. A horror movie seemed relatively pointless to him - both him and Bakugou weren't the type to be frightened easily after all, and most horror movies weren't too well known for their good plots or actors.

The blonde eventually stopped at a particularly trashy-looking zombie movie, and Shouto couldn't stop himself from letting a less than impressed, "really?" slip past his lips.

"You got a problem with my movie choice?" Bakugou challenged.

"Yes. A zombie movie?"

"Got a better idea? Documentaries excluded."

"Anything is better than a zombie movie," Shouto replied.

"So you'd rather watch a soap opera or fucking rom-com than a zombie movie?"

Unwilling to back down, Todoroki just nodded even though he wasn't particularly fond of either of those options. His attention was once again not entirely there anyway, and thankfully, a mindless argument such as this was second nature to him by now and didn't require much thinking. Because he found himself preoccupied with Bakugou's scent once more, his head blissfully empty.

Shouto eyed the pillow at the head of the bed, wondering what it would feel like to bury his face in it; he didn't even dare to look at Bakugou and let his thoughts travel in that direction. Thinking about pressing his face against that pillow was a strange enough impulse - he really didn't need to imagine what it would be like to bury his face in Bakugou's neck.

The existence of that though process in his head had Shouto baffled all over again; it came with a feeling of surprise, panic and a hint of curiosity in its wake.

And then that very same pillow came flying into his face, soft but hard. He involuntarily tensed up, and somehow every fiber of his being relaxed at the same time. He felt like he'd been hit in the face with a brick, but there was no pain to accompany it, just the slow realisation that Bakugou's scent was all over it -

and then just half a second later it sank down onto his crossed legs, a blue and a grey eye following in astonishment before turning to the alpha.

"Fucking listen to me when I'm speaking you airhead."

"I-" Todoroki began, but he'd opened his mouth too fast and wasn't quite certain what he even had to say.

"Did I just kill your last brain cell with that throw?" Bakugou asked, an amused smirk spreading over his lips but Todoroki didn't really register any of it. Instead, he nodded his head thoughtlessly.

"I made a damn compromise and suggested a survival show."

"A survival show," Todoroki repeated, feeling like a child that was just learning how to use words. He looked back down at the pillow in his lap, feeling something akin to a crawling beneath his skin. His fingers itched with the desire to reach out and hold the soft fabric to his face.

He ignored it as well as he could, and without really having an opinion on the matter, nodded his head again, "sounds good."

This time he received a more sceptical look from the blonde, but no comment followed and Bakugou instead picked out an episode, before making himself comfortable and leaning his back against the wall. Todoroki watched him for a few moments before he realised that they were supposed to be watching the show.

He felt like something was wrong.

Even as he attempted to focus on the things happening on the screen, his mind refused to process much of it; he tried his best to find a more comfortable position on the bed as well, and pulled the sleeves of his pullover up his arms and then down again. Some strange mixture of warmth and coldness seemed to envelop him, and though Todoroki wasn't a stranger to that with his quirk, the sensation still felt foreign.

"Something wrong?" Bakugou asked, and Shouto turned to find him looking at him.

"No," he replied quietly, "I mean, I don't think so."

"You don't think so. What kind of fucking answer is that?"

Todoroki made the mistake of letting his eyes travel lower than eye level, and he swallowed when a lump worked its way into his throat. He found it hard to answer the question, because he honestly didn't know what was up with him - and something was. That much was for sure, because he felt unable to detach his gaze from Bakugou's jawline.

"If you didn't want to watch anything together, you could have just fucking said so," Bakugou snapped at him, and that had Todoroki's eyes widening when he noticed that his fingers had moved to hold onto the pillow, tightening on it. He released a somewhat shaky breath, and allowed himself a few seconds to find his voice.

"That's not it," he managed to get out, forcing himself to look at the screen as though that would be enough to end the questioning. It wasn't.

"Then what the hell is it, you look like you've - I don't know, seen a damn ghost or dropped a bowl of soba or something."

It was hard to say why exactly his facial expression even concerned the alpha so much, and at any other time, Todoroki would have been able to appreciate the concern more. But he currently felt no real desire to talk about this when he didn't even understand what his problem was in the first place.

"I just feel weird," he admitted.

"If you throw up on my bed I'll kill you."

"Not that kind of weird. I mean, not sick or anything."

For whatever reason, in that moment Shouto remembered the warmth of Bakugou's skin beneath his hand, and the smallest of shivers worked its way through his body. He added, without really thinking about it, "I'm just a little.. cold."

It was a half-truth at best.

Another look was exchanged between the two of them that could mean anything while the show kept running in the background.

"Then take the fucking blanket," Bakugou commanded, and Todoroki just stared at it. Until the blanket was pulled out from underneath him, that was. The omega held his breath as Bakugou proceeded to wrap it around him in the same way an impatient person would put wrapping paper around an oddly shaped present.

Something inside of him died a little bit at that point, for unknown reasons.

He didn't dare to move, and sat there, stupefied, while Bakugou looked at him for another moment and then turned around, muttering a, "that should fucking help."

It did help, in some ways.

In others, it made Todoroki feel... worse. He inhaled slowly, and told himself to relax. If there was one thing he was good at, it was controlling strange impulses. Usually, at least. Sitting there cocooned in Bakugou's blanket however, he felt oddly incapable of controlling much of anything. It was some sort of a miracle that he didn't randomly set the bed on fire or freeze the room, really.

Shouto hugged the pillow a little tighter to his chest and pulled the blanket up a little further, his eyes going back and forth between the show they were watching (though he might as well be staying at a black screen considering how much of the things happening in there he took note of) and the alpha. And somehow, at some point, he felt himself calm down, blanketed by warmth and the familiar scent.

...

Bakugou found it hard to tell which level of hell this was exactly.

The evening had been nothing short of a shitshow. It had begun with the fact that Shitty Hair had stolen his phone and told Todoroki to join them, and progressed into further madness when the asshole had then proceeded to excuse himself and leave him alone on his bed with the omega.

It wasn't like he wasn't used to Todoroki's presence in his room, in his life - on his bed - by now. But for some fucked up reason, he had still felt utterly unprepared to spend an evening watching movies with the omega.

To top it all off, Todoroki was being weird, even for his standards.

From the not so discrete staring to the borderline nervous shifting around, to the more-than-usually obvious absentmindedness; his weird ass behavior had the alpha even more confused than he already was. One would assume that the absolute height of madness was the fact that he'd allowed Bakugou to wrap him up in his blanket (which had the alpha feeling like a damn creep all over again because he couldn't stop himself from thinking about how there was no way in hell the omega wouldn't have his scent on him for days to come), but that wasn't all.

No, the current source of just about every internal conflict happening within the alpha was something else; it was the fact that Todoroki had managed to fall asleep before the first episode of the show was even over. Which meant that Bakugou was now blessed with the sight of fucking Shouto Todoroki, asleep with his lips slightly parted and his face cuddled into Bakugou's pillow. That sight did things to his instincts that were hard as fuck to ignore.

He could easily lean over, run his fingers through Todoroki's hair, down his face, across his lips. Hell, he could lean in and figure out whether there really wasn't even a damn hint of a scent on him; or else, he could confirm for his own sake that his own scent was spread across him like a big warning sign for everyone else to back the fuck off.

Of course he did neither of those things.

In fact, the only thing Bakugou felt capable of doing was to stare. To stare at this terrifyingly pretty creature like a man in the desert might stare at an oasis. And fuck if thirst wasn't an accurate description for what he felt in his body right then and there.

He barely even dared to move, unsure how to proceed. He could hardly just let Todoroki sleep through the night; that would probably not be appreciated and it would also be the equivalent of self-punishment, pretty much.

Bakugou's patience had been tested for weeks now, and he really didn't need to push himself to the point of snapping. Spending an entire night in his bed with the other just screamed dangerous, in more ways than one. He didn't trust himself not to do something that would fuck up whatever sense of trust they had achieved by now, and he sure as hell wasn't going to force himself on a sleeping omega.

But, he told himself, he might as well allow himself to shamelessly stare at him for another few minutes. It wasn't like that could do any harm, except to his already crippled and beat-up sanity perhaps. He let out a quiet noise of frustration as his eyes traced the outlines of the oval-shaped face, then the details; and then whichever other parts of him that weren't buried beneath the blanket.

The hint of his neck that was exposed.

The arm resting on top of the blanket, and the sleeve of that ugly ass pullover that the asshole still somehow managed to pull off. Bakugou had the suspicion that Todoroki would even manage to make fucking rain boots look like high fashion pieces. He eyed the porcelain skin of his wrist that was exposed, red eyes following the lines of distinctly blue veins beneath his skin.

As it was too often the case, he couldn't decide whether he wanted to thank or kill Kirishima for this...

Definitely kill, he decided as Todoroki made a noise in his sleep, soft and quiet and too fucking close to what could be considered a moan. Or maybe it was just Bakugou's fucked up perception that made him think so. The omega shouldn't be asleep on his bed in the first place, but Bakugou didn't have it in himself to get angry at Todoroki for doing this to him, which would have probably been the wisest reaction to have.

He hadn't felt very wise for a long time now, but he knew that he needed to do the right thing nonetheless, however much that sucked.

"Wake the fuck up," he tried, but his voice was apparently quiet enough to be ignored.

"Half and Half, this isn't the time for a fucking nap," he snapped, but the reaction was just the same - nonexistent. So Bakugou grabbed the blanket, and pulled it away. Or rather, tried to.

Apparently the asshole was just conscious enough to notice that much, judging by the displeased grunt that left his lips and the way he held onto the blanket like it was his damn personal possession. Bakugou was torn between waking him up with an explosion and staring, probably open-mouthed, as the omega rubbed his head slowly into the blanket, white and red hair turning into more of a mess with each movement.

"Okay," Bakugou whispered to himself, "Okay, what the fuck."

There was no answer to his silent plea for mental clarity, and although a large part of him really liked all of this (probably a bit too much), an even larger part was starting to panic. Because fuck, how in the world was he supposed to get this image out of his head? How the fuck was he supposed to disturb this display of... of what exactly?

Comfort? Trust?

What the hell did it even mean when an omega fell asleep on an alpha's bed?

Maybe he could look it up on the internet.

But even if he knew what that meant in the first place, there would still be a high chance that the general answer wouldn't apply to Todoroki, which basically meant that he was fucked. Doomed to die confused, probably from high blood pressure or something.

"Fuck you, you need to wake up," he snapped once more, and it seemed as though that might have worked for a moment. Because the omega shifted a little - only to hug the blanket tighter to his body yet again.

Bakugou moved forward before he could overthink it, because apparently words weren't enough to tear the other out of his slumber. He took a deep breath, reminded himself of the fact that this was his bed. His room. His sanity at stake.

He had every right to throw Todoroki out of his fucking window or punch him in the face if he desired to. Right?

...Probably. And that meant that shaking him awake was in the cards too. That definitely wasn't weird.

So he grabbed the omega's shoulders, ignoring the fact that this still somehow felt really fucking weird, shook him with all the delicacy he could muster, and half-yelled, "I told you to wake the fuck up you ass."

Bakugou was not prepared for it when sleepy eyes blinked up at him, he was not sure what he was prepared for anymore. Because it certainly wasn't the confused sounding, "Bakugou?" that he got as a reply either. The alpha was torn between backing the fuck off and staying right here for just another moment to watch wakefulness and recognition flood Todoroki's face.

Somehow though, that recognition never came.

And it would be a lie to say that Bakugou didn't make some kind of shocked noise when the omega reached out without a warning whatsoever and pulled him forward with an iron grip. The movement was too unexpected for him to really fight it, and too forceful - the blonde ended up hitting his head against the wall, thrown off balance. He barely managed to dull the impact a little bit using his arm like goddamn airbag.

"What the fuck, Icyhot?! You've got a fucking death wish?" the alpha cursed before the pain even fully registered in his brain. The surprise had his body flooded with adrenaline, and Bakugou tried not to move for a moment, half-certain that he was going to strangle the other for this stunt.

"Oh," Todoroki replied, not at all apologetic sounding.

And somehow that did the trick; before he could stop himself, Bakugou had already moved. His hand found the collar of the other's pullover instantly, and the familiar sensation of sparks dancing beneath his fingertips was a telltale sign that he was probably overreacting.

Still, he couldn't keep his mouth shut, "I swear to God if you-"

He stopped there, frozen by the look on Todoroki's face. Thin lips were opened in a silent gasp, pupils wide like the moon and swallowing up most of the color in his eyes. He looked like he was both at once; far away and intensely present.

".. If I?" the omega breathed out, almost playfully. Bakugou had never heard him speak in this way before. His face was too fucking close to Bakugou's and the tone of his voice had the blonde going through a hundred different crises at once.

Before he managed to figure out what he was even trying to say, Todoroki leaned forward, pressing his forehead against Bakugou's chin.

That was the moment when Bakugou gave up on all attempts to piece back together what he was trying to say. All logical thinking ability was replaced by the sensation as Todoroki moved a little further down, his hair tickling the skin of Bakugou's jawline.

If having the omega asleep on his bed was fucking torture, then he didn't even know what the fuck he could possibly classify this as. The gesture was so unexpected, so innocent and probably thoughtless - and also fucking infuriating in the way that it felt like a wake up call to all sorts of animalistic instincts in the alpha.

Because whatever the fuck this was, it came dangerously close to scent marking.

Bakugou's fist tightened on the fabric he was still holding onto, and he forced himself to push the other backwards, unable to stand this for a fucking minute longer without snapping.

"What the actual fuck do you think you're doing?" the alpha asked, his voice breathless and his pulse loud in his veins.

Todoroki glared back at him, and Bakugou had no hint of an idea anymore what the hell was going on. But then the look on his face softened, and just a few seconds later, the younger of the two asked, "what... am I doing."

The silence that followed would have been comical if it wasn't so fucked up, with neither of them moving and both of them apparently just as fucking clueless as the other.

"I think," Todoroki eventually said, "I should maybe go and take some heat suppressants."

And Bakugou asked himself whether he had actually just heard that right.

"You are joking," he concluded, refusing to think about the possibility that this was the reality he was living in, "tell me you're fucking joking right now."

"I'm joking," Todoroki tried, but the attempt in itself sounded like a fucking joke.

"What in the goddamn world made you think that it would be a good idea to have a movie night when you're going into a - a fucking, this?!" Bakugou couldn't help but ask, gesturing towards Todoroki at the 'this' part. He didn't exactly sound furious, but there was a nice little hint of irritation in his voice.

The was an even nicer hint of irritation in Todoroki's voice, "Do you think I would have come here or forgotten to take that pill if I had known this would happen?"

"The hell do you mean, of course you'd fucking know," Bakugou snapped back at him, refusing to loosen his hold on the other.

"How would I? It should have been another week at least," Todoroki said, and Bakugou took a moment to process the information, becoming painfully aware of the fact that he had no damn clue how heats and omegas even worked. All he knew was that a large part of him absolutely refused to even consider letting the other out of his hold ever again.

Even like this, looking painfully annoyed with the entire situation, the omega still looked entirely too good beneath him.

"Shouldn't you be able to - I don't fucking know - tell, either way?"

"As appreciated as your wisdom about my body is, I hardly think you get to decide what I should and shouldn't know about my heat," Todoroki told him, voice flat. Bakugou couldn't help but notice the way the omega's eyes were stuck on his neck while he spoke, and the alpha in him liked that look a little too much.

He wondered how hard it was for Todoroki to speak and act normally right now, and told himself that he shouldn't be thinking about that.

Too fucking late.

"You've got my scent all over you," he said, trying to make it sound like an accusation because the words shouldn't have come out in the first place.

That finally brought out a reaction out of Todoroki. Bakugou told himself that he really needed to put some space between them, because fuck. A blush was spreading across the omega's cheeks, and his gaze changed at the words. Apparently mood swings and heat went hand in hand.

"Is that a problem?" Todoroki asked quietly, sounding almost curious and also like he had no clue what any of this meant.

"How the fuck should I know," the alpha muttered, because it was almost as much of a problem as it currently didn't feel like one.

"Sorry."

"What the hell are you apologising for now?"

"Not paying attention to the show," Todoroki said, as if it was obvious and relevant in any way whatsoever in their current position. Bakugou forced his gaze away from his lips, and their eyes locked once more.

"You should take your fucking suppressants instead of apologising for stupid shit," he said, eloquent as ever. It took a ridiculous amount of will power to loosen his grip on Todoroki, and the omega clearly wanted to kill Bakugou because he made a noise as Bakugou did just that. A disappointed noise that sounded almost like a whine that made the alpha reconsider his actions instantly.

"Ah," he then said, "you're right."

In this moment, Bakugou hated the fact that he was right with a fucking passion. He moved backwards a little to give Todoroki some space, and watched wordlessly as he pulled the blanket to the side, and threw the pillow back to its original place on the bed.

The urge to pin him down and keep him there was now more present than ever, and it was a miracle that he didn't attack the omega in the process of standing up. Bakugou didn't want to imagine how bad it would be if it weren't for the scent blockers. Todoroki didn't even smell like anything (well, anything other than him) and Bakugou still felt like some sort of fucking addict with the way he eyed him like an alcoholic eyed bottles in a liquor store.

He was on his feet just a second after the omega was and received a questioning look.

"I'm coming with you and making sure that you're taking that pill," Bakugou stated.

"I'm pretty sure I'm capable of - "

"This is not up for discussion."

"Why?" Todoroki asked, somehow still capable of annoying he hell out of Bakugou when he should obviously have other things on his mind.

"Because you're obviously not entirely clear in the head, idiot. Let me rephrase this, you're not leaving his room unless I'm coming with you."

"Are you serious?"

The horrible truth was that Bakugou had perhaps never been so fucking serious about anything in his damn life. If he let the other leave his room and he ended up running into anyone else (or fucking rubbing himself against anyone else), he'd make every wall of this building explode.

He wondered briefly when the hell his instincts had started playing such a big role in his life, and couldn't pinpoint an exact point in time. All he knew was that the knowledge that Todoroki was in the process of going into heat surely hadn't made the issue better in any way.

He answered with a glare instead of words, daring Todoroki to argue with him.

The sense of relief that washed over him when Todoroki instead said a soft, "okay," was both scary and exhilarating. Bakugou wondered if maybe he was the one with the death wish, out of the two of them, as he followed the omega out of the room.

Chapter Text

"Something wrong with that pill, Icyhot?"

"No, nothing is wrong with it."

"Then why the fuck are you staring at it instead of taking it?"

The question was reasonable.

But Shouto shook his head, hoping to convey the message that he did not feel capable of explaining any of his thoughts to Bakugou at the moment. It wasn't like he was not going to take the pill, he was just... stalling a little. For reasons he wasn't certain of. Maybe it was the fact that he was being watched, or maybe just that his instincts were yelling nonsense at him from somewhere deep inside, and loudly.

Realistically, it was probably both.

And more than that.

He closed his eyes for a long moment, and reopened them. The small white pill still waited innocently on his open palm, and though he knew that it did not really taste like anything, the omega felt like the mere weight of it on his tongue could possibly be enough to make him throw up. This entire reaction was utterly new to Todoroki - he never usually had any trouble with his medicine. Taking it was part of his routine, nothing he gave too much thought to; the concept of going into a heat was more terrifying to him than any pill could ever be. Sure, the medicine tended to dull his senses a little and make him more tired than usual, but those were small side effects and nothing more.

A price worth paying for the freedom of remaining level-headed and in control of his body.

But somehow this time was different. Because instead of relief, he felt a sense of dread at the sight of his suppressants, like he should avoid taking them at all costs.

"If you need some water, there's a bottle right here," Bakugou offered. His voice sounded strained, as if he had to hold himself back from shouting at him.

Todoroki shook his head again, strangely torn between gratitude and annoyance.

He liked the fact that Bakugou was there, but he simultaneously had his doubts about how helpful his presence truly was in this situation.

Both his scent and the space between the two of them were proving to be utterly distracting, and yet he really didn't want the alpha to leave. If anything, he wanted to sit closer to him - to maybe run his fingers along his arms or drown himself in those familiar and comforting pheromones for just another minute or two without worrying about anything else.

But Shouto couldn't allow himself to let that happen of course; it wasn't like him to be so careless, and an upcoming heat was no excuse.

It had been made more than clear to him for all his life that he was not supposed to give into his instincts, especially around alphas. He needed to focus on being his normal self... but Todoroki could already see the rest of the evening unfolding in his head, and he didn't like it.

As soon as he'd take the pill, Bakugou would leave his room and then he'd be sitting there by himself with nothing but unanswered questions and this lonely feeling in his chest. Something about it seemed oddly terrifying to him. And yet he was both unwilling and unable to tell Bakugou as much.

Shouto already felt more vulnerable than he was comfortable with, and he didn't know what to make of the fact that Bakugou was trying to take care of him. Again.

"I don't need water," Shouto managed to get out, still staring down the pill and trying to hold on to every rational thought in his head. There was no reason to hesitate; the wisest course of action was to take the pill as soon as possible and get it all over with. This was his only option, and he couldn't risk waiting for much longer either. Everything was continuously getting messier inside of him; the telltale warmth in his stomach mixed with the cold feeling all over his skin was not a good sign.

He knew all too well that he should have noticed his the difference in his own thoughts and feelings hours ago, even though his heat had come early; Todoroki was good at spotting the telltale signs of an oncoming heat and couldn't even remember the last time he'd been this late to react to them, or this... out of it.

On top of that, it would still take an hour or two for the medication to take effect. Although Todoroki wasn't fully gone, he wasn't that far from it either - the many strange thoughts running through his head were proof of that. The worst part was that all of them had one thing in common...

They all revolved around Katsuki Bakugou of all people in the world and that in itself was... concerning, to put it mildly.

Many of his thoughts revolved around the blonde alpha on a regular basis these days, but not these types of thoughts.

He couldn't even grasp them.

Shouto made the mistake of looking at his classmate, and his eyes lingered on different features of his face. The soft shadows that Bakugou's cheekbones cast on his pale skin seemed oddly fascinating in this light, especially since they contrasted nicely with his the sharper angles of his eyes and the straight shadow around his nose. Blonde eyebrows were pulled together ever so slightly in a way that spoke of annoyance; Shouto tried to avoid direct eye contact, afraid that his well-practiced poker face might have some major cracks in it by now.

The omega found it hard to tell just how obvious the thoughts running through his head were at this point.

But obvious or not, saying any of it out loud or actually acting on his impulses was another matter entirely. That couldn't happen. He could not just ask Bakugou to put his scent on his blanket and his pillow for comfort. Or to take him back to his room and let him sleep in his bed.

Most of all, Shouto knew that he should definitely not follow the urge to mindlessly rub himself against the alpha.

Even if he did, it was not like their scents would end up mixing together, he tried to argue with himself. So there would be no point in doing that - he smelled like the alpha already, without as much as a hint of his own scent present beneath that.

Not that he minded Bakugou's smell on him at all - quite the opposite, really. But the fact that he couldn't get his own scent on Bakugou in return stressed him out and actually served to make him feel like he was failing at all of this.

Whatever all of this was.

He was still clear enough in the head to know that these weren't things he should be contemplating, but just messed up enough to still think them anyway.

This entire situation was overwhelming enough though, and he didn't really need to make it messier by getting stuck in a spiral of self doubt.

The fact that Bakugou even bothered with him at all was still more than surprising, but it was pretty clear that he did not appreciate this entire heat thing. Of course not. Neither would the blonde appreciate a random breakdown, probably.

Bakugou seemed more concerned with him taking his medication than anything else, and something about that did not sit entirely right with the omega.

Bakugou was staring at him, his eyes calculating.

"Fine, no damn water then, just take that fucking suppressant," the blonde growled, as if to add fuel to the fire that was Shouto's hormone-induced insecurity, but his tone of voice managed to distract the ice hero from what he was saying.

Bakugou sat so close to him, and Todoroki wondered whether he could feel the vibrations of his voice if he reached out and held his hand up to Bakugou's throat when he spoke or not.

He wanted an answer to this question so badly.

"I'm not stupid, I know that I need to, I just..," Todoroki said after few seconds, looking at the alpha, getting lost in orange red eyes and trying to find some semblance of his usual self beneath all the different instinctual pulls within him. Looking at Bakugou did not really help with sorting out the mess inside of him though. If anything, he felt exposed on top of overwhelmed.

"Just what. Quit stalling and fucking do it, asshole!"

"..."

"I swear to God, what the hell is it with you?!"

"What?" Shouto asked, this time distracted by the alpha's clenched fists.

"You actually want to go into a fucking heat or what?! Is this some fucked up joke to you?"

"No?"

"Is that a damn question."

Todoroki tilted his head to the side, "..No?"

"Fuck off, since you're apparently too fucking stupid to take your damn heat suppressants," Bakugou began, and Todoroki stopped breathing when their hands touched. The sensation was brief and it took another second or two for his head to process the fact that the alpha had taken the pill out of his hand. He gave him a quizzical look, only to be met with hard red eyes that were very close all of a sudden.

"Open your mouth," Bakugou commanded.

"I- what?" Todoroki asked, probably sounding less panicked than he actually felt.

But the alpha managed to ignore his inner conflicts easily, and instead of using words like a normal person, a hand found its way into Todoroki's hair, pulling his head back slightly while Bakugou loomed over him. Where Todoroki had expected to find anger in his scent, there was something else in its place that he found very hard to describe.

He didn't have much time to think it over, for better or for worse. Not with that rough hand in his hair and goosebumps breaking out all over his body.

"Your mouth," the alpha repeated impatiently, his tone leaving no room for questions, "open it right now."

Shouto felt that very same urge again to push himself forward and press his body against Bakugou's, because he knew that this would help more than any suppressant right now. He also felt like obeying his command - a large part of wanted to obey his command. There was a war happening inside of him, and Todoroki wasn't sure which side he supported currently, because both options sounded insane.

Bakugou wasn't half as hesitant about invading his personal space as Shouto was and the omega didn't have it in him at this point to put up too much of a fight either way.

"Bakugou," he forced himself to say as calmly as possible, "don't you think that's a little bit invasi-"

Todoroki barely noticed the fact that the pill was forced into his mouth; all he noticed was that his lips were forced open while he was speaking.

There was nothing civil or moderately sane about the way Bakugou was force-feeding him his suppressant, and Shouto was entirely overtaken with the realisation that Bakugou's fingers were between his lips. In his mouth. One finger brushing against his tongue.

He blinked his eyes open, and Bakugou looked about as frozen in place as Shouto felt hot.

His body temperature was skyrocketing fast and the strange intimacy of this position was making it worse by the second.

Some important program in his mind apparently stopped functioning at this exact point, because the next thing Shouto knew was that he was licking along Bakugou's finger as though that was a totally normal gesture that just happened between friends.

There was a soft and yet whiny sound, and it took the omega a moment to notice that he'd produced that.

The look this earned him caused an entirely new wave of panic and realisation to wash over Todoroki, and it showed. He was not equipped to handle the darkened red eyes that suddenly looked at him like he was prey in front of a starved omnivore.

He needed to do something, and quick. Or else he didn't know what was going to happen.

"What the - Did you just fucking bite me!?"

The omega felt an almost painful sense of disappointment when Bakugou pulled his hand away and glared at him after an initial moment of surprise.

The other hand was still entangled in his hair.

Todoroki swallowed the pill that was starting to dissolve on his tongue, his entire being flooded with the knowledge that he'd just felt Bakugou's fingers in his mouth, against his tongue, between his teeth. And now it was over - he wondered if disappointment was an appropriate emotional reaction when he'd been the one to end the contact in the first place.

"I.. panicked?" Shouto tried to explain, because that was perhaps as close to the truth as he could get without saying too much. He felt unable to look Bakugou in the eyes, his face too warm and his heartbeat going a little too fast. He could only hope that his voice didn't betray just how out of breath he felt.

"Bullshit. You never panic," Bakugou said, making it sound like an indisputable fact. He didn't exactly look like he wanted to punch Todoroki anymore, but the younger of the two wondered if maybe a punch in the face would be exactly what he needed. Something to make him snap out of it.

"Bakugou," Shouto's voice came out more like a rushed whisper although he was still trying his best to sound calm and collected, "I'm sorry. You can leave if you want to, I'm sure I'll be feeling better soon."

That was apparently the wrong thing to suggest, judging by the low growl that nearly had the omega making a sound of his own in response. He caught himself before that could happen thankfully.

"If you want me to go then try and kick me out, Icyhot," the alpha challenged, straightening his posture and glaring down at him.

Todoroki didn't take the bait although a part of him really wanted to. Instead, he inquired softly, "you... don't want to leave?"

There was something entirely too hopeful in his tone, and Bakugou must have heard it as well.

"Like hell am I leaving before I'm sure that the goddamn suppressants work. You've obviously gone batshit crazy now."

"I'm.. not crazy," Todoroki denied, but he really wasn't so sure.

"You licked my finger and then you bit me like a fucking terrier."

Mismatched eyes widened at the statement, although the omega should have expected some sort of comment on his contradicting actions. Still, his face felt uncomfortably warm as he tried to argue, "You're the one who shoved your fingers into my mouth."

The full weight of that reality only seemed to register in Shouto's head when he actually said it out loud.

"Because you needed to take your shitty pill! And it bothered you so much that you just had to lick my finger or what?" the blonde concluded.

Todoroki nodded his head while simultaneously denying, "No. I mean yes. I mean, I didn't - I just didn't -"

He stopped himself there and made a frustrated noise instead, not entirely sure what he was even trying to say anymore. At this point, he was nothing short of a walking contradiction.

And then Bakugou laughed.

All the omega could do was stare at him with something right in the middle of confusion, awe and irritation.

"What's so funny?"

"You, obviously. You're a goddamn mess. Never thought I'd see the day that you don't have a stupid ass comeback prepared."

"I am not a mess."

"Shut up, you don't get to decide that," Bakugou snapped, but the ghost of a smile was still on his face. Somehow, that was everything - Todoroki almost found himself willing to lose the argument for the sake of seeing that expression on him.

Almost.

He should have let Bakugou have that win, but since Bakugou hated winning when he didn't feel like he'd earned it, Todoroki said, "If I'm a mess, I'm blaming you for it."

The strangest moment of silence followed that statement.

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Todoroki had absolutely no idea what that meant, and that was the issue. He had even less of an idea how to put whatever it could be into actual words that another person could comprehend.

"Nothing."

...

Bakugou couldn't tell whether it was an omega thing or a Todoroki thing, but fuck if his behavior wasn't confusing as hell.

Hot and cold was a damn understatement.

He briefly considered pushing the omega down and forcing an answer out of him, but he knew that it wouldn't really be about that answer. Even though he did want to know what he meant obviously, talking was currently not his main concern.

His main concern was not losing his mind.

The goddamn urge to climb on top of Todoroki or push him up against a wall or just hold onto him felt so damn overwhelming that he knew he should probably not be here at all.

But there was no way in hell he could bring himself to leave either. Even the suggestion had been enough to actually make him growl like an animal.

Essentially, he was trapped in here and keeping his shit together by will power alone. Inhumane amounts of will power; more than even he had thought he possessed. This was even worse than trying to hold back anger, because those damn alpha instincts came from somewhere deeper inside of him than rage possibly could, and among them was the urge to just make sure the idiot was alright.

He felt like he'd been bullied into some sort of pre-heat babysitter job with horrible pay.

Or maybe great pay.

If being able to stare at Todoroki counted as a reward which he was positive it did at this point. He'd sunk so low that he was almost okay with this situation even though he sure as fuck wasn't at the same time.

So, for both their sakes, he just sat there and told himself that the medication would start working at some point and then being around Todoroki wouldn't feel like a casual evening stroll through a minefield for the sake of a nice view or whatever.

Even without a scent (and thank God for blockers because that would have been the cherry on top of this mental and physical torture), Todoroki managed to be an infuriatingly pretty and fascinating mess and also entirely fucking unaware of what he was doing to the alpha. How he could be so fucking stupid, Bakugou wasn't sure.

The image of his pink lips around Bakugou's fingers and the feeling of that surprisingly warm tongue running along his skin was going to be burned into his memory forever and he hated himself for having allowed that to happen.

While it had been necessary because the other option would have been to watch the omega go into a full-blown heat, it had also been a damn martyr act.

The alpha doubted that Todoroki had appreciated it or even knew what that had taken out of him. If he had, he sure as fuck was more sadistic than Bakugou had given him credit for. Because that noise Todoroki had made - fuck. He couldn't allow himself to think about any of that, not until he was alone in his room and inevitably questioning all his life choices later.

"I'll kill you at some point," he said, more out of habit than anything.

Of course the omega had to be an ass and ignore the statement in favor of saying something utterly embarrassing and unfitting, "Thank you."

"For planning to end your life?"

"For helping me, and making me take my medicine. Going into heat... really wouldn't have been easy to explain to my father, and I would have been forced to take the week off."

"Of course you'd be worried about that," Bakugou commented drily, "it's whatever, not like I've done much. You could have taken that pill yourself."

"I really mean it," Half and Half said, sounding way too sincere.

"Just, stop talking."

"Okay," he agreed easily, which was not the response the alpha had expected.

"Don't be so fucking compliant, it's freaking me out," Bakugou commanded, although freaking him out was an understatement and the word compliant could easily be replaced with something like 'nerve-wrackingly soft'. He both hated and liked this version of Todoroki a bit too much, that's how messed up the alpha's head was at this point.

He wasn't the omega going into a heat here, but honestly his position wasn't any easier either. Someone should give Bakugou a damn medal.

"Sor-"

"Don't you fucking dare to apologise again," he growled, his tension finally breaking through the surface just a little bit, making him sound way angrier than he was.

Todoroki froze at his tone, and the shocked look on his face coupled with the stiff posture once again had Bakugou feeling like he was a colossal fuck up of an alpha, at least when he was around Todoroki.

The strong reaction was probably related to his heat; but nonetheless, it had the alpha feeling like shit that he hadn't thought about how a heat increased sensitivity to scents.

Thankfully, Todoroki seemed to snap out of it just a few seconds later, turning to stare down at his hands (Bakugou had no clue whether it was a sign of submission or just him evading eye contact and being his usual weird self) and saying in a dejected tone, "This... is really annoying."

The alpha could only assume that he meant his own body and the reactions it caused him to have; and if that was it, he could fucking relate. On a different level of course, but he knew what it felt like to struggle with embarrassingly weird instincts nonetheless.

"You're shivering," he noticed and felt the need to point it out, "shouldn't a heat make you feel, warm or something?"

Bakugou really wanted to punch himself in the face for asking that question. He probably sounded like the kind of asshole who read one book about a subject a then proclaimed themselves an expert.

And he was an expert at lots of things, but not at this.

"I'm not in heat yet. The hours before that are usually sort of an up and down, in many ways," the omega explained, looking up with his somewhat glassy eyes partially covered by uncharacteristically messed up hair, "I guess my quirk doesn't make that much better."

"You certainly look like shit," Bakugou said and it came out sounding so fucking wrong that he contemplated never opening his damn mouth again in this lifetime.

"..."

He could absolutely not handle the look that the omega now had on his face, and did, in fact, open his mouth again.

"You know that you don't look like shit, Icyhot," he corrected himself helplessly, having a war flashback to the compliment training in front of his mirror, "and even when you look like shit you still look better than other people on good days. I mean - fuck, definitely not ugly or anything. Just. You look like you're fucking cold and you should probably drink some water or eat something or wrap a blanket around yourself or - I don't know, whatever omegas do when they - I mean, that wasn't a fucking insult."

Bakugou was left with the question of whether or not there was a limit to the amount of times someone should use the word 'shit' in a compliment. Todoroki was looking at him like he'd grown another head or revealed the secrets of this pointless universe to him.

And then his mismatched eyes did the thing again, nearly making Bakugou yell in frustration as Todoroki stared at his lips for half an eternity. He didn't even seem to give a damn about how obvious it was, or maybe his head was just clouded like that.

Up and down sounded about right. Bakugou had no clue how out of it Todoroki was actually feeling because the omega jumped from licking his finger to calmly reciting facts about his heat.

"Since when do you care about not insulting people?" Todoroki asked, sounding more stunned than he looked. It had Bakugou wondering if the idiot had heard a damn word he'd said because that hadn't been an apology but a fucking compliment.. or something like that.

"Hah? Of course I do. I'm a nice person, fuck off."

"Sometimes," Todoroki confirmed.

Bakugou already had another insult waiting to be spat out, but didn't get around to it.

"You can sit on my bed, too," was absolutely the most unexpected addition to his one word answer that Half and Half could have come up with.

What the actual fuck did that mean?

Why the hell had he just been given permission to do that?

Todoroki had already moved over to his mattress and was looking at Bakugou like he wasn't just allowed to be there but like he fucking wanted him to walk up to him and sit down. The blonde shot up from where he was sitting.

"You're doing this on purpose," he accused.

"Doing what?"

"This!" he pointed at him.

".. Sitting here?"

"Fuck you, I should go."

"Oh," Todoroki said, and Bakugou made the mistake of looking at him because he obviously didn't learn from past mistakes. He was becoming some fucked up personalised sadness detector and didn't like it one bit. But there was no way he could pretend like he didn't see the disappointment on the omega's face, even though it probably wasn't that obvious. It was to him though.

He was prepared to ignore that for the greater good, up until the omega asked, "Can you stay here for a little bit longer?"

Todoroki looked visibly uncomfortable voicing that request, and Bakugou was too stunned to do much of anything.

Well, except for walking towards him and sitting down by his side, careful to avoid eye contact. Bakugou could not fucking handle eye contact at that moment, thank you very much. The alpha made sure not to move a muscle, focused on keeping an appropriate amount of distance between them, whatever appropriate meant for them them at this point.

It took a minute or two of awkward silence until he cracked and had to ask, "why?"

There the eye contact was, and it had his hands itching to just fucking touch him. Anywhere, just for a moment.

"Because your scent calms me down," Todoroki said, straight-faced (well, straight faced considering the situation) and mercilessly. It was another one of those statements that could mean anything or nothing coming from Half and Half.

Bakugou couldn't guess which of both it was.

But he could man the fuck up a little and potentially make a big mistake by turning towards him to ask, "does it now?"

The cocky smirk that accompanied his question was easily knocked off by what happened next.

Bakugou was almost entirely convinced that he was hallucinating, because he suddenly had arms around him and a head resting on his shoulder.

"What the.."

"Sorry," the omega said, but his grip only tightened and Bakugou was 100% convinced that Todoroki was not sorry for this at all. It felt like the omega wanted to suffocate him with his grip, emotionally rather than physically. Maybe both.

It was fucking working.

"Stop," the alpha began, his voice too fucking weak because shit, he was torn between yelling, making a run for it and smiling like some kind of idiot, "apologising for everything."

Bakugou cold fucking feel the freakishly cold breath on his shoulder as Todoroki mumbled against him, "but I am sorry. This is embarrassing."

Only Half and Half would say that out loud, Bakugou thought and felt the strangest sense of fondness in response to his weirdness.

"Not like it's your fault," he replied.

One of the exact reasons he'd found it hard to believe that Todoroki was an omega at first was that he always seemed so detached, after all. Omegas typically needed closeness more than any other secondary gender, and on top of that, Todoroki was 20 degrees below what could be healthy (come to think of it, Bakugou had no clue what a healthy body temperature looked like for him).

Somehow, this half-frozen airhead had chosen Bakugou out of all people that would gladly have Todoroki in their arms and warm him up.

Everyone else could fuck right off.

Snapping out of his momentary paralysis, the blonde was unable to keep himself from reaching out. He grabbed the other by his lower back (and liked that feeling a little too much) and pulled him closer because this angle was fucking awkward. Not that Bakugou was an expert at hugging people, and he doubted that Todoroki had any more of a clue how this worked.

Bakugou was horrible at soft things, but he was at least willing to try.

And it kind of worked.

Or it felt like it did.

He was freaking out and calmer than he'd felt all evening at the same time. And then Todoroki fucking sighed against him, ever so unaware of what shit like this did to the alpha. But with the omega in his arms, he honestly didn't feel like complaining.

Still, he said, "you owe me one for this."

"That's fair," Todoroki confirmed, the smile on his lips audible. Knowing that his closeness actually was helpful rather than disturbing or unwanted felt strange to the blonde. Strange and really fucking good, and also unreal.

If anyone had told him a few months ago that he'd ever be cuddling with Shouto Todoroki, he'd have murdered them.

He tightened his hold a little, their chests pressed together and heads buried in each other's shoulder.

"You're warm," the omega said, and made a noise that sounded like a purring cat.

Bakugou forced himself not to focus on that because shit - he wanted to get more of those noises out of him. Badly.

"My temperature is normal. You're just Shouto Todoroki, a human-shaped ice cube," he disagreed.

It was impossible not to notice the way the other stiffened in his arms all of a sudden, and it took the alpha a moment to realise that he'd said his name just now. He tended to use his own made-up names for people rather than their actual ones, both because he couldn't be bothered to remember everyone's and also because using names felt fucking... personal, somehow. But it couldn't possibly be that big of a deal, could it?

When there was no reply other than somewhat uneven breathing, Bakugou asked, "You okay?"

He could feel the body between his arms losing a little bit of its tension, as if Todoroki was forcing himself to calm down, half-sucessfully.

"Maybe you're right," the omega said, his voice strangely cold.

"Of course I am, idiot," Bakugou commented.

"No, I mean - maybe you should go."

That certainly was a punch in the gut. Bakugou had experiences his fair share of those, but this one hurt differently. He stayed very still for a moment.

"You mean that?" he was desperate enough to ask. The arms around him were still holding on tightly.

"I.. do."

"Then stop fucking hugging me," the alpha growled, a disgusting feeling of disappointment and hurt filling up his chest. He hated the fact that Todoroki was somehow capable of doing that do him.

Todoroki didn't stop hugging him, not for another ten seconds or so. Bakugou wanted to throw him into the corner of the room out of frustration but he didn't dare to move a single fucking muscle, hoping against all odds that the omega would just forget about what he'd said and stay right where he was.

He didn't.

Instead, Todoroki detached himself from Bakugou. It took so long that it felt like a damn slow-motion scene in a movie, but that didn't make processing it any easier. It hurt in a way that felt almost physical to put space between them, and Bakugou couldn't stand the slowness of it all. He needed to get out of this situation, and fast.

He stood up before he had a chance to lock eyes with Todoroki, and rushed out of the room before he could change his mind and try to argue with him about it. Thankfully, anger quickly replaced the initial hurt and that helped him move forward. Like hell was Bakugou going to make an idiot out of himself by getting on his knees and begging for another minute or two of whatever the hell that just was.

It all felt like a fucking fever dream or something now that this insanity was over, and the blonde cursed loudly into the empty hallway.

"Fuck you, fuck everything!"

Chapter Text

Todoroki knew that being an omega came with an entire list of physical issues that were entirely normal and in fact, signs that his body was healthy. The thing was that he managed to prevent quite a few of those natural responses with the help of his pills, his discipline, and by keeping himself out of situations that might create responses he couldn't handle or simply didn't want to deal with.

Or he had managed to prevent those, up until yesterday; Shouto still wasn't sure what to think about the events that had transpired within those few hours, first in Bakugou's room and then, in his own. Everything had happened so fast, had been over so abruptly.

All he knew was that it had begun with the fact that he'd found calmness in Bakugou's scent, and it ended with something that definitely hadn't been just calmness. Maybe he was some sort of freak for having this type of reaction to just a bit of proximity and the mention of his name...

But hearing Bakugou say his full name (and not entirely as an insult) had been an... experience for sure, especially with the alpha pressed up against him and his thoughts already severely compromised.

Todoroki had been able to confirm for himself that the vibrations of the blonde's voice were actually something that could be felt when touching him, not just heard. Now that he'd acquired that knowledge, a part of him wanted to do further research or maybe just have an excuse to somehow get a repeat of it all.

He'd liked the closeness - too much.

Sending Bakugou away had gone against just about every instinct in him, but it had been the only option, everything considered. This 'everything' involved the fact that the warmth in his lower belly had given way to something else, slowly and yet in the blink of an eye. Upon feeling it, his entire body had frozen in place.

The uncomfortable sensation of wetness between his legs had been nothing short of a shock. And yet, it hadn't been half as uncomfortable as it should have felt.

But nevertheless, it had reminded him of memories that were anything but nice.

It was an issue that he'd only dealt with once before, namely when his first heat had hit him years ago - Todoroki still refused to think about that week in detail, because it had been nothing short of a horrible experience. His father had been incredibly mad at him for presenting as an omega, although they'd been told that there was a high likelihood of it by the doctors even before he'd presented, according to several blood tests the man had forced him to have.

His father taken away anything Shouto could have used to nest and he'd kept him isolated for the entirety of the week, only dropping by to give him food and something to drink every once in a while.

On top of that, he'd heard the arguments between his mother (who had been back home as a sort of test run that had obviously failed) and his father, even through the walls; Enji hadn't wanted her to 'pamper' Shouto, and had made that clear loudly and worse, with his fists. A short while after those especially brutal fights, his mother had been sent to the hospital again.

The experience had been bad enough for Shouto to make sure that he paid very close attention to his body so he was able to tell whenever his heat was around the corner. Even now that he wasn't at home anymore, the fear of going into a heat hadn't really left him.

But in his room, with Bakugou, it had actually taken effort to remind himself of that.

After experiencing those reactions and thoughts yesterday, he had no idea how to feel about it - all Shouto knew was that his night had been lonely (which he could not complain about because he'd sent the alpha away), and even when the suppressants had kicked in, the strange feeling hadn't left. Something along the lines of shame or maybe embarrassment still pulled at him, telling him that he shouldn't have acted the way he had. That there was something wrong with him for reacting in such a way to a friend who'd gone out of his way to help.

"Do you want to go to the city with me and the others later?" Midoriya asked as he sat down by his side, pulling Shouto out of his thoughts. The omega offered the beta a tired smile.

"Ah, no. Sorry, I wanted to visit my mother at the hospital."

Bakugou hadn't showed up for breakfast yet and even if he would, Todoroki doubted that they would spend their Saturday morning together as they usually did, after all the chaos of the last evening and Bakugou's rather abrupt departure.

So, visiting his mother sounded like a good idea, and also like something that might calm him down a little.

"How is she doing?" Midoriya asked, looking around as if he was searching for something.

"Better, as far as I know. We'll probably be able to meet outside of the hospital soon," Todoroki told him, his voice revealing how much of a relief that knowledge was. Although setbacks did happen, she was definitely moving in the right direction, and it made the visits easier for the both of them. The feeling of walking on eggshells wasn't as present anymore as it was when he'd first started visiting her.

"That's great! I'm so happy to hear that," Midoriya said, one of those genuinely enthusiastic smiles on his face.

"Yes, it's.. good to see her smile again, and she's made friends with some of the other patients," Todoroki confirmed. He'd made the rather unusual choice of having soba for breakfast (using it as sort of a comfort food) and slurped some of his noodles, aware of the fact that Midoriya was giving him a strange look.

Setting the bowl down, the omega asked, "What is it?"

"Oh. Uh. Nothing!"

Shouto tilted his head to the side, pretty convinced from the high and panicked tone of voice that it was in fact something.

"I mean, Kacchan isn't here, which is odd? But you sort of, kind of... really smell like him? I mean, really."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I mean, it's probably just because you train together and everything? Just, it's stronger than usual. It was kind of hard not to notice," Midoriya added, talking fast.

"I fell asleep in his bed," Todoroki corrected the other, lifting up his bowl again.

While Midoriya choked on another bite of his apple.

"You WHAT?! You spent the night in Kacchan's bed? ... Do you mean, like - With him?!"

Todoroki didn't exactly know why this simple statement warranted such a shocked reaction. Midoriya was aware of the fact that he and Bakugou sometimes spent their free time together and he hadn't even implied that they'd... done anything.

Being on someone's bed didn't automatically translate to anything weird, right?

He shook his head, "Not the night, I just took an unplanned nap."

Green eyes were still wide, but Midoriya was nodding his head, a bit exaggeratedly, "Wow. Okay. I'm still kind of amazed by how well the two of you get along? With you napping on Kacchan's bed and all... Most of the people in our class wouldn't even dare to enter his room."

Shouto thought about that for a few seconds, and wasn't sure what to say. He concealed his lack of a response by eating the rest of his noodles and subtly changed the topic when he was done with his food, "So, what are you going to do in the city?"

Midoriya didn't seem to mind, and instead he started telling him about the different shops the others and him wanted to visit, some art exhibition where every piece was quirk-related, and something about how the girls had gotten a Polaroid camera and therefore demanded that the whole group went to a botanical garden where they'd have a nice background for photos. It sounded nice, but it sounded like more socialising than Todoroki currently felt capable of.

They sat there for another few minutes, talking about all sorts of things (Midoriya did most of the talking) until Uraraka and Iida entered the room. Todoroki excused himself shortly after that.

He was not prepared to crash into Bakugou upon exiting the room.

"Fucking asshole, watch where you're- oh."

The blonde shut up the moment their eyes locked, because of course he'd start cursing before even knowing who it was he'd run into. Shouto took a deep breath, calming himself down because there was no need to be embarrassed about anything that had happened. Definitely not.

Only, by taking that deep breath he was assaulted by Bakugou's scent all over again and it caught him a little off guard.

"Good morning," he said, voice steady.

Bakugou didn't reply, only stared at him for another moment before suddenly grabbing the omega by the arm and turning around. While Todoroki was used to his... moods, he was not entirely sure how to interpret this particular gesture, and the hold on his arm didn't exactly help him think with anymore clarity.

"Bakugou? What are you-"

"Shut up and come with me."

"Where?"

"You really have a damn problem with the concept of walking behind me and keeping your mouth shut, don't you?"

"Weren't you going to eat breakfast?"

"I'll eat you if you don't shut up," the blonde growled, and Todoroki surrendered to his fate, quickening his pace so he didn't feel quite as much like a dog getting dragged along by a leash.

He briefly considered creating a layer of ice on the floor, just to make Bakugou slip and annoy the alpha. Sometimes it was astonishing how entitled Bakugou felt to command others around.

But Todoroki was also curious about their destination and felt mildly guilty for what had happened yesterday, so he followed along instead.

"You know, I can walk by myself," he commented.

"Into people, yeah."

"You ran into me as well."

The hand on his arm didn't let go despite his arguments and Shouto honestly didn't mind it that much. It took just a few more seconds until they'd reached Bakugou's room and he gave the blonde a quizzical look before being shoved inside.

"I don't have time for video games today," Bakugou said, rather out of the blue, "Shitty Hair is forcing me to hang out with him and the other extras."

"Oh," Todoroki commented, leaving out the part where he hadn't exactly expected them to do that today anyways, "okay. But why did you drag me here then?"

He received a glare as a response, and then Bakugou went over to his closet, opening a drawer. Todoroki stared at him in confusion, watching as the blonde went through several items before making an annoyed sound and slamming the drawer closed again.

His behavior was bizarre already, but Todoroki's mouth actually fell open at what happened next. He caught himself after a second or two.

".. Why are you taking your clothes off?"

Shouto blinked stupidly at the sight of the alpha battling his way out of his dark orange hoodie. His own heartbeat was fast and distracting in his chest, and warmth was flooding his body as though he was subconsciously trying to create a fire. Todoroki's eyes were inexplicably glued to muscular arms, and then Bakugou turned around.

"Did I fucking ask you to stare?"

Todoroki shook his head and tried his best to stop staring; he knew what Bakugou's arms looked like. His chest without any clothes covering it - not so much. But it wasn't like he needed an extensive knowledge of the muscles in Bakugou's chest to become a hero of anything. He just...

"Catch!"

The omega did catch the item flying his way, but rather due to Bakugou's accurate aim than due to his own presence of mind. He looked at the orange fabric in his hands, the gears in his head turning incredibly slowly.

"Why did you throw that at me?" he asked as Bakugou put on a different hoodie, and a part of Todoroki was disappointed with the fact that his skin wasn't on display anymore. It made him feel less distracted though, so it probably was for the best.

"It's for you, idiot."

"For me? This is yours obviously."

Bakugou looked about ready to let something explode as he said, "Yeah genius. And you fucking told me that my scent calms you down, so this is now yours."

For about a minute, Todoroki didn't say anything. He was too busy processing the fact that Bakugou had apparently decided to give him this as a present.

For the simple reason that Todoroki had said that he liked his scent.

He wasn't exactly sure what he'd done to deserve this, or whether there was some sort of catch.

Maybe Bakugou felt pity towards him, or perhaps this was a joke that Shouto didn't get, so maybe he shouldn't even accept the gift. But his fingers were digging into the fabric with a death grip, and Todoroki doubted that he'd be able to return it even if he felt like that might be the right thing to do. He had to force himself not to bury his face in the piece of clothing like an addict with withdrawal symptoms.

It was all to reminiscent of the pillow incident, except this time he was mostly clear in the head.

"You could at least say thank you, asshole."

"Thank you," Todoroki repeated the words as though they belonged to a language he didn't understand, his eyes glued to the hoodie, "so, do you want me to return it at some point?"

He wasn't sure why he'd asked that, but the omega felt like he needed to know if this was temporarily his or an actual gift that now belonged to him, because it felt like an important distinction to be made.

Bakugou crossed his arms and didn't look at him when he replied, "it's an old ass hoodie, I don't need it. Just keep it."

"Okay," Todoroki confirmed, wondering if maybe Bakugou had planned to throw it away or something anyways. Even if that was the case, it didn't seem to matter much. Because a warm feeling was spreading in his chest at the fact that Bakugou had instead given it to him - had dragged him to his room like some sort of maniac, just to give him an unexpected gift.

Todoroki couldn't help himself; he was unsure whether it was impolite, but he felt unable to wait with this until he was in his own room. He took off his thin black jacket, leaving him in only a short sleeved shirt, and then he pulled the hoodie over his head. Shouto sighed at how nice it felt on his skin. How good it smelled, like warmth and smoke and almost sweet if it weren't for the musky undertones.

Todoroki was so preoccupied with the onslaught of sensations that he didn't even notice the intense look Bakugou was giving him until about 30 seconds later. And when he did, the omega smiled softly at him to cover up a sudden sense of awkwardness that coursed through his being.

The look really was intense. Heavy enough to struggle with words beneath it.

"It's really nice," he said, unable to come up with anything else.

The smoky sweetness of Bakugou's scent enveloped him just as well as the fabric did. Whatever sense of discomfort Shouto had carried with him as a leftover of his almost-heat, this one piece of clothing somehow managed to silence if.

The fact that Bakugou and him didn't seem to be on bad terms like he'd expected them to be surely helped with that as well.

Bakugou continued to stare for a bit longer until he seemed to snap out of whatever thought process he was having, and shoved his hands into his pockets, making a tsk noise that Todoroki was not entirely sure he understood the meaning of.

"Are you sure you want to give this to me?" he asked, just to be sure.

This time Bakugou used actual words to reply, "I wouldn't have if I was fucking unsure."

"Of course you wouldn't," Todoroki replied and couldn't help a grin from stretching across his lips.

"What's that supposed to mean, Halfie?"

"Nothing at all. I just like it."

"You've said that already."

"Well, because I do. Like it," he repeated, just for the sake of it. Bakugou's irritation was obviously growing, though it didn't look exactly like irritation somehow. But Todoroki couldn't think of anything else it could possibly be - and irritation was familiar on Bakugou. Safe.

He decided to test Bakugou's patience a little and asked, "Does it look okay on me?"

"Since when do you give a fuck about that."

"Since you gave this to me," Shouto replied, making it sound as obvious as it wasn't.

"That makes no fucking sense whatsoever."

"Does it not?"

"No," the alpha growled.

"Oh. Alright. I still like it."

"At least you seem to have survived your night without permanent damage if you're already back to being a pain in the ass again," Bakugou told him, and coupled with the gift he'd just received, it sounded an awful lot like...

"Were you worried about me?"

Todoroki hadn't meant for the question to leave his lips.

"Wha- absolutely not you arrogant fuck."

"Ah. Alright."

"But the pills worked and you - everything is okay, right?" Bakugou asked despite his claim just seconds ago.

It began to dawn on Todoroki in that moment that maybe he wasn't the only one out of the two of them who had struggled with the fact that he'd sent Bakugou away. A sense of guilt washed over him at the thought, yet again, and he truly wasn't sure what to even feel anymore.

So he tried to stay rational. As rational as he could be, wrapped up in the blonde's scent like this.

"Yes," he confirmed, "And I'll make sure to pay better attention next time so you don't have to deal with all of that again."

Bakugou gave him a funny look, the kind that was on his face when he was busy deciding whether or not to insult someone. Or rather, how exactly to insult someone. Todoroki wondered for a second if he'd said the wrong thing, but it wasn't like there was a guarantee for anything to be the right thing with Bakugou anyways.

He found himself wondering what exactly Bakugou's thoughts sounded like in his head when he had that look on his face.

Shouto tried to keep himself from staring but decided after a few seconds that he could get away with a little bit of staring, probably.

"Jesus, it's not that big of a deal, Icyhot. You were no more irritating than usual, just more of a clingy mess. Stop acting like you fucking turned into a werewolf or some shit. "

"But, I hugged you," Todoroki reminded the alpha, as if he was specifically trying to make the other see how big of a deal it really was.

'Or... maybe it really wasn't,' he thought after the words had already left his mouth. Logically, it was true that it hadn't been anything abnormal... just a heat. Something entirely biological that Todoroki had no control over and definitely hadn't planned.

But Bakugou didn't know the entirety of the reactions he'd dealt with either, maybe that would change his mind. He'd probably think of him as creepy.

"Just - shut up."

"And I also bit you."

"It's not like you need to fucking remind me," Bakugou growled at him, and glared at his hand thoughtfully.

"And licked your finger," Shouto further incriminated himself, somehow unable to stop.

"I swear to God, Half and Half, shut up. I fucking know what happened."

"Well, I expected you to be angry," Shouto admitted after a few seconds, very aware of the fact that the anger Bakugou was currently displaying was his usual, lighthearted anger; definitely not the seriously furious kind. There was a strong difference. Bakugou had seemed seriously annoyed when he'd left yesterday, but maybe it had just been Shouto's internal panic that had made it seem worse than it actually was.

He wasn't sure why, but he felt the need to know just how much their interactions had bothered the blonde.

"Stop making stupid assumptions," Bakugou said, crossing his arms and walking up to Shouto, only to stop a meter or so in front of him. Red eyes went up and down his body once, and it made the omega acutely aware of the lingering warmth under his skin threatening to eat him up. He'd never forgive himself if he accidentally set this hoodie on fire.

"So you aren't angry."

"I was but I got over it, fucking drop it."

"So... you were, then."

"It's too fucking early for this shit," the alpha assessed, sounding exhausted.

"Right, you haven't had breakfast yet. Have you slept enough?"

They shared a strange sort of look with one another, and Todoroki was very aware of how easy it would be to take another step forward and touch the alpha again, but he had absolutely no excuse to do so this time and even less of an idea why that desire was still present at all.

A knock on the door had the two of them turning around, and before Bakugou could invite whoever it was in, the door was already flying open. Kirishima and Mina were standing there, both with surprised looks on their faces.

"What the fuck are you two doing here?" Bakugou barked at them.

"Bro, we thought you'd overslept."

"The better question is, what are we interrupting here?" Mina asked, sounding very amused, though Todoroki wasn't sure by what.

"I never fucking oversleep, I'm not a lazy bastard like the two of you. And you are interrupting absolutely nothing, so wipe that expression off your face, fucking Alien," Bakugou hissed at them, his glare as sharp as a knife.

"Are you joining our trip to the city, Todoroki?" Kirishima asked, ignoring the blonde's anger and Mina's chuckle.

"No, sorry. I already have something planned."

"Aw, that's a shame," the redhead said, "I'm sure some people would have real-"

"Some people would have what, Shitty Hair?" the blonde asked in a deadly calm tone, sparks dancing around his fingers.

"Nothing," the redhead laughed, "the girls would have probably loved to have Todoroki around as a model, is what I meant."

Todoroki's confusion only grew with their interaction and he wasn't sure what to say to that.

"As a... - you know what, I don't even wanna fucking know. Half and Half, you're damn lucky that you won't have to deal with this shit all day long."

"You secretly love hanging out with us, admit it."

"I'll die before I admit shit like that! And you quit staring at him, you chewed up piece of gum," the alpha growled.

Todoroki's eyes widened just a little when it registered in his brain that Bakugou had meant him. He wasn't even sure why Bakugou was always so bothered by having someone's eyes on himself, but on Shouto? This made even less sense.

He hadn't even really noticed Mina's staring up until the blonde had pointed it out.

"Wow, real sunshine and rainbows mood this morning, huh Bakugou? I was just wondering why that hoodie looked so much like your favo-"

Kirishima slapped his hand over her face before the sentence was finished, gave Bakugou a not so discrete thumbs up, and Todoroki once again was very aware of just how odd he found social interactions. He looked a Bakugou, whose jaw was clenched just as his fists.

Shouto's eyes lingered on his fists for a second before Kirishima said, "What she meant is, the hoodie really suits you."

The pink alpha girl nodded her head in enthusiastic confirmation.

"Oh, thanks? ... But I should probably get going," Todoroki told them, throwing one last look over his shoulder at Bakugou, "Thanks again. And all of you, have a nice day."

Bakugou just looked at him, uncharacteristically silent.

Shouto made his way through the door, thoroughly confused with the meaningful smiles the other two alphas were giving him on his way out. It felt like his life was making less sense by the minute, but part of being a hero was finding a sense of direction in the middle of chaotic situations.

He told himself that it would probably just take a while for his hormones to be entirely in balance again, and that was all. This confusion wouldn't last forever.

... Hopefully.

..

A few hours later, Todoroki found himself walking through the familiar hallways of the hospital, still entirely too happy with his new piece of clothing and wondering if maybe he was making a bigger deal out of this than it really was. But it felt like a big deal, even though he wasn't usually the type to give too much thought to clothes and such. He had half a mind to put the hood over his head, just to entirely surround himself with the scent clinging to it, but the omega told himself that he was just going to do that later when he wasn't out in public.

For now, something else was on his mind.

Something that was probably a stupid idea, and worse yet - he once again had no idea where it had even come from. It still occupied his mind and refused to go away.

He found himself opening the camera app on his phone and holding it up in front of his face, trying to find an acceptable angle and also get enough of the hoodie framed in the picture as well.

He took a photo, decided that he was okay with the result, and sent it to Bakugou.

Only to realise that he had absolutely no clue whether he should text anything along with it, but Shouto was not entirely sure what he had to say. Or why he'd sent the photo in the first place.

'I have no clue why I sent this, sorry' wouldn't exactly make the entire thing seem more casual, would it? Just half a minute later, sending Bakugou a selfie already seemed like a much more idiotic idea than it had before.

Shouto told himself that if Bakugou found it weird, he could always just ignore the photo.

But he kind of hoped that he wouldn't. He wasn't sure what he hoped for, not at all.

Instead of having a small crisis about this in the hallway, the omega knocked softly on the door, and the usual, calm voice of his mother invited him in.

"Mom."

His mother put the book she had been reading on the bedside table before turning towards him. Grey eyes looked tired like they always did, but it was a bit less obvious than usually, which was probably a good sign.

"Shouto, it's nice to see you," she said, giving him a small smile and holding her arms open, "come here."

They had made a routine of the greeting hugs by now; it had taken a bit of getting used to after years of not seeing each other, but the omega really didn't mind the contact anymore. On the contrary, being physically close was better than just writing letters. Being around his mother was one of the few times when he could allow himself to just enjoy a bit of closeness and a sense of safety without worrying about keeping his guard up.

He walked towards his mother and wrapped his arms around the thin woman, willing himself to be present in the here and now. If there was anything his mother needed, it was for people to be truly there when they were around her; not lost in thought or distracted.

The hug lasted for a minute or two, his mother's familiar scent instantly making him feel at ease. When the two of them separated, Shouto found himself staring into his mother's confused grey eyes.

Until they lit up with a sort of recognition a moment later.

"You.. Oh, my. How time has passed. I didn't expect you to... so soon," she began, sounding torn between joy and melancholy, "it does make sense - you've grown up to be so polite and handsome."

Absolutely none of that made sense to Shouto.

"What are you talking about, mom?"

"Is there something you want to tell me?" she grinned and it had the omega wondering if he'd seen that type of an expression on his mother's face before. It was the kind of excited grin that was reminiscent of a school girl on the way to her first concert.

It was nice to see her look so young for a moment.

"Do you want to hear about anything specific? I can tell you about school.. or something else if you'd prefer that."

"Shouto, you don't have to be embarrassed, I'm just happy you get to experience this type of thing in the way a normal young person should. I never had that, and I always hoped that you would."

"What... type of thing?" he asked, obviously missing something there.

"You smell like an alpha, and your eyes have that sparkle, like something good has happened."

That definitely wasn't the type of response he'd expected, and despite his resolution to calmly explain why he smelled like an alpha, he felt his body temperature rising, and especially his face was just short of catching fire.

"Ah, it's not a big deal. A friend of mine gave me this hoodie, that's why."

It sounded unconvincing at best, although it was the truth.

"A friend of yours. The same friend you've been spending more time with lately?"

"Yes, my classmate," he specified. This was really not the type of conversation he was prepared to have with his mother at all; they usually talked about regular things like school, the news, how his mother was feeling, her doctors, the other patients... maybe his siblings and how they were doing.

Not this.

"An alpha classmate of yours who gave you a worn piece of clothing," she repeated, obviously amused.

Maybe Shouto should have considered wearing something else for the visit, but it was obviously too late now.

"It's a bit hard to explain..."

"I'm sure it is. Don't worry, sweetie, you don't have to tell me about it if you're uncomfortable, but at some point, I'd really like to meet the alpha who is courting my son. To see if he's a good person. You need someone who treats you well, that's the most important thing."

Just about every thought in Todoroki's brain came to a screeching halt at that one particular word.

Courting.

No one was courting anyone, obviously - but his mother had said that with such a surprising amount of certainty that it still gave him a small heart attack. He didn't know enough about courting to really see how she'd come to this conclusion, but he did know that Bakugou surely hadn't had that in mind when he'd given the hoodie to him.

In fact, the blonde would probably murder him if he ever mentioned anything of that sort.

"Mom, I don't - we really are just friends. Bakugou wouldn't - I mean, he gave me this because he knows that his scent calms me down. He knows that I'm an omega and I think he feels obligated to help me somehow."

She smiled again, and ruffled Shouto's hair as if he was still a small child.

"I doubt that it's out of a sense of obligation, my dear. But you have to figure that out for yourself of course. I'm just thankful that you have people around you who care about how you feel," she said, and put into these terms, it all really didn't seem so complicated.

He did have people around him whom he mattered to, and as many obvious truths, that piece of information was sometimes lost in the process of over-analysing the smallest of things. He smiled back at her, absentmindedly toying around with the strings of the hoodie.

"So am I," he agreed, "but what about you? How have you been doing? Any new interesting patients here?"

"I've been reading a lot, and looking into options for what I can do when I'm allowed to leave. It'll be a few more months, but I'll probably get myself a small apartment outside of town, somewhere quiet. As for new patients, there are some with really interesting quirks. A woman with a fortune telling quirk who kept looking into her own future so much that eventually all she saw was her future self, still obsessively checking for new predictions and never making an actual change - we get along really well, but I won't let her read my future. Then, there's a young man who can tell the ingredients of food when he looks at it, and seeing all the unhealthy things companies put into their products had him losing his faith in humanity, or that's what he said. We're making a habit of cooking together, he's ironically never learned how to. My other friend went home a week ago, but she's already sent me a letter and we want to make sure to stay in touch."

Whenever his mother told him stories like those, Shouto became very much aware of one thing. His father was the one whose name the world knew, but his mother was more of an idol for him than the man would ever be.

"You know mom, I used to think you would have made a great hero as well - but I think you already are one."

"Oh, that's.. You're too sweet Shouto," she laughed.

...

"That was so sweet bro, you know - manly sweet. You totally pulled off the boyfriend shirt thing."

"Fuck you."

"No, I mean it. You're way better at this than I expected," the redhead continued, and Bakugou's fingers itched with the urge to destroy something.

"Don't talk about this."

His life was a fucking parody, and although Bakugou knew it, he had absolutely no way of changing that fact or escaping this reality. Just yesterday evening, Bakugou had told himself that he needed to get over whatever the hell was happening inside of him, and then he'd gone and done the exact opposite of that. Namely, he'd spent the entirety of the night going crazy and forcing himself to stay inside of his room instead of running back to the omega and standing guard at his door like a goddamn weirdo.

It had been fucking hell.

Especially since he hadn't had a damn clue how Todoroki was doing. The asshole could have been sitting in his room crying or just generally feeling lonely or cold or whatever - and Bakugou would have had absolutely no way of doing anything about it because he'd been sent away like some fucking kicked puppy.

He should have been furious, but at some point the anger had given way to the foreign and utterly annoying feeling of all-consuming worry. It had been totally fucking irrational because obviously Todoroki had taken his suppressant and it was generally safe in the dorms, but the worries had been so fucking loud in the blonde's head that he'd been unable to rationalise his way out of them.

Loud and distracting and ridiculous.

So ridiculous that earlier this morning, when he'd run into Todoroki, his brain had instantly formulated a game plan that was supposed to help him regain some fucking sense of sanity. Or he'd thought so, initially.

The bitter truth was that his sanity had jumped from a metaphorical rooftop the moment he had seen Todoroki dressed in his clothes.

In hindsight, he should have probably expected the sight to make matters worse, but fuck if Bakugou was capable of rational thought when it came to Half and Half. He was long past that point.

His inner alpha had been satisfied the fact that the omega had accepted his gift, way more satisfied than what could be healthy, and now as he walked through the city with an entirely too big group of extras, the blonde was busy telling himself that he could and should not to gift every piece of clothing he owned to Todoroki.

It was bad enough that he'd given his favorite hoodie away and he really hadn't taken into consideration that his fucking classmates were like vultures when it came to damn gossip.

Shitty Hair was adamant about telling him how fucking great of a move that had been, while the fucking Alien had taken it upon herself to tease him about it every chance she got. And he was not fucking blind - he noticed the looks all the girls were giving him.

"But like, this is courting 101. And he accepted your gift, so shouldn't you be happy?"

Bakugou stopped walking and gave the redhead a disbelieving look.

"Are you fucking insane."

"Are you?"

"I am not fucking courting him."

"You so are, and wasn't that the point?"

"There is no point."

"Aw, don't get all depressed now. He looked like he liked it, and now that you've accomplished the goal of getting Todoroki into your clothes, the only thing that's left is getting him out of them," the alpha said and fucking winked.

Bakugou stayed very silent for a second and Shitty Hair knew that running was his best option, because Bakugou actually considered murdering his friend in that moment.

"I will fucking end you, stop running you coward!" he yelled, following the redhead who was taking refuge in the group of extras with small explosions erupting from his fingers.

"Bakugou, quirks are not permitted outside of school," Iida informed him in the same annoyingly factual tone he always used.

"Neither is murder," Frog Girl added.

"Someone is mad because a certain pretty boy didn't join the trip," Mina sang, only for Round Face to mutter a confused, "So I really wasn't just imagining that?"

"Shh, he's learning to feel human emotions, guys, we shouldn't provoke him."

"But it's fun to provoke him."

"And the hoodie thing sounded adorable."

"Oh believe me, it was!"

"Can all of you shut the fuck up and mind your own damn business?" the blonde growled, more than done with all of this idiocy. They could think whatever the fuck they wanted, and no, he did not fucking care, but that didn't mean that it didn't give him a desire to murder his classmates.

"I think they're just messing with you, Kacchan," Deku supplied quietly, an infuriating and reassuring look on his face.

"Do you think I don't fucking know that."

"Uh. Right," the beta said, and Bakugou crossed his arms, stomping behind the group at a safe distance where their voices couldn't bother him. Why the fuck everyone was so concerned with who he did or didn't give his clothes to, he really had no fucking clue.

It wasn't like he'd fucking proposed to Half and Half or anything.

... He slapped himself in the face for that thought because that absolutely was not fucking helpful.

Thankfully, they reached the rose garden area of the botanical garden a minute later, and the girls occupied themselves with taking the most useless of pictures in the history of useless pictures. Shitty Hair dared to sit down beside him, and apparently had the fucking decency to keep himself from making any more comments about Bakugou's personal life for once. Instead, he went on and on about Crimson Riot like the damn fanboy he was.

Bakugou alternated between glaring at him, glaring at the flowers, and glaring at his classmates that were all having a real good time. He should have fucking refused to come along.

And then Bakugou's phone vibrated in his pocket.

He hated how quickly he looked at the screen, and he seriously hated his damn heart for mocking him by making an unhealthy jump in his chest. Taking a deep breath, Bakugou told himself that whatever the fuck Icyhot had texted did not warrant this type of reaction.

Except, then he opened the message.

And stared dumbly at the screen with absolutely no clue how or what or why.

"You okay over there?"

"Yes, I'm great. Just give me a fucking second."

"..."

Todoroki had sent him a damn selfie with no explanation or context but obviously wearing the hoodie Bakugou had given him. He was looking straight into the camera and there was a small, stupid smile on his face. Bakugou couldn't handle it. None of it. Icyhot was doing this - whatever the fuck it was - on purpose, and the omega probably knew exactly what he was doing to him.

Probably better than Bakugou did.

He felt like he was losing a fight that wasn't even a damn fight in the first place. But no way in hell was he just going to let the other win.

'Can't go a few hours without bothering me or what?' he typed, right before his cellphone was torn out of his hands. Bakugou stared at his empty hands in surprise before yelling, "Shitty Hair, give the damn thing back!"

"Absolutely not! What the hell man! He sent you a cute selfie and you were about to tell him to stop bothering you? What the actual fuck are you doing."

"None of your business," he growled at his intrusive excuse for a friend.

"It's totally my business. Didn't I tell you about the power of compliments?"

".. Fuck you."

"I'm giving you your phone back if you delete this and think of something better."

"He's just fucking trying to annoy me, the hell am I supposed to say."

"Are you being serious? Like, I know emotional stuff isn't exactly your strength, but this isn't the type of thing someone sends to another person so annoy them. Especially Todoroki, he never texts anyone but his father."

"Then why else would he fucking send me this without bothering to say anything?!"

"Because, dude, he wants to talk to you. So talk to him, you know? Like a normal person would."

"I am a normal person, just better," Bakugou muttered, snatching the phone from the alpha.

"Then I'm sure you can think of something to say that doesn't make you sound like a grade A asshole."

Bakugou glared at the screen, feeling entirely out of his element even though texting should be much a much simpler thing than speaking to someone in person. He wasn't particularly good at either apparently.

He tried.

'Fine asshole. It does look okay on you, happy now?'

He deleted that.

'Why the hell are you so damn photogenic, I hate it'

He deleted that attempt too.

"Man, you look like you're having an emotional breakdown over this."

"Then stop looking at me, I just don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to say."

"... Okay, dude. So, how about you find a good adjective like handsome or pretty or beautiful or whichever you think is appropriate, and try to build a sentence around it. It's not that hard."

"I don't use those words."

"Then learn how to. Even a blind person could make Todoroki a compliment."

The alpha made a frustrated noise, because how the fuck was all of this so complicated. He'd survived battles with actual villains and Aizawa's deadly boring lessons and a class of elementary school kids straight from hell - a selfie from Icyhot should not be the kind of thing he cannot handle.

"Stop staring at the screen, it's stressig me the fuck out," he commanded and Shitty Hair was wise enough to comply and back off a little. Bakugou took a deep breath and tried to keep it simple.

'I like it too. My hoodie, on you.'

He pressed send.

That had to be okay. No insults, no overly cheesy compliments. No adjectives that weren't part of Bakugou's vocabulary except maybe in his thoughts when he looked at Todoroki sometimes.

Of course Kirishima looked at his message, because Bakugou obviously couldn't hope for even a hint of privacy.

"That's better. Not great but better than your first try."

"Well fucking thank you," Bakugou said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

"Always at your service, my friend. As if I could allow you to mess this up," he grinned.

"Whatever."

"Mina! Wanna take a photo of us with the roses in the background?"

"Shitty Hair I swear to God, I'll-"

"Say cheese!"

Bakugou made a point of looking entirely unamused while the other no doubt had the brightest grin on his face.

"Nice, captured the mood perfectly!" Mina cheered.

"How much longer until we go back?" the blonde asked, but the question was entirely ignored.

Two fucking hours later, Bakugou's frustration was through the roof. They'd made the 'collective' decision to go and get ice cream after an hour and a half of just sitting in the garden to admire the flowers and talk. Kirishima insisted that he couldn't just go home by himself and kept holding the favor Bakugou owed him for yesterday (not like he'd fucking asked for any of that) over his head.

He was so salty that he'd refused to get himself any ice cream.

And maybe it wasn't just the fucking senior-like behavior of his classmates who were content so sit around uselessly that had him losing his mind.

He also still hadn't received an answer.

Of course the fucker would send him a selfie and then just not reply. Not that Bakugou was waiting for a reply or anything, but he could have just not bothered to respond in the first place if he was going to be fucking ignored.

"I hope your ice cream tastes like shit."

"It's delicious actually, thank you very much," Kirishima told him and Bakugou gave him a silent stare in return. He felt like screaming random insults at equally as random people just for the sake of -

his phone vibrated again.

He made sure to look at it discreetly while Shitty Hair was busy eating so he wouldn't have a repeat of the earlier situation.

'thanks'

...

"Bastard," he growled at his phone and it earned him several concerned looks, but he didn't give a damn about that. He'd waited (obviously not waited) two damn hours for this one fucking word?

Just as he was about to throw his phone into the nearest trash can because fuck this, it vibrated again.

'we could do something later? since we didn't this morning'

Do something. Whatever the hell that was supposed to mean, Bakugou should fucking decline simply out of spite. He wasn't even entirely sure what he was mad about, and it was most likely the fact that he now had a photo of Todoroki on his phone. And the fact that he'd looked at that about ten times while obviously not waiting for a reply.

He was also mad at himself for being fucking eager to spend some damn time with him, even after an entire day of the most exhausting kind of socialising.

'Do what?' he asked, not wanting to agree instantly.

He received three messages in return.

'something illegal, rob a bank? destroy a building...'

'that was a joke.'

'I don't know, something'

God, was Todoroki an idiot.

'you're even less funny over text' the alpha replied although he was still somehow smiling, but just because Todoroki was so bad at this.

'yet you're happy I'm wearing your clothes'

'I'm taking it back.'

'the hoodie?'

'my statement'

'ok. so, is that a no then?'

'whatever. I think I should be back in an hour or so' Bakugou typed, aware of the look Shitty Hair was now giving him and keeping a safe distance from him so his phone couldn't be taken away again.

'ok see you then'

"Oooooh, it worked."

"It absolutely didn't."

"You don't look like an angry old man anymore though."

"I hope you choke on your ice cream cone."

"I'm flattered. Really. No need to thank me for my awesome advice, dude!"

Chapter Text

"Bakugou?" Shouto asked, eyes lidded and mind dizzy.

"What is it?" the other's voice came from behind him in a low tone that had the omega closing his eyes, exhaling softly.

"This is... probably inappropriate, isn't it?"

"Fuck appropriate."

"Ah, okay," Shouto agreed easily because apparently that was just the answer he'd been hoping for. He sighed at the feeling of strong arms pulling him just a little bit closer against the alpha. They were on his bed, with Bakugou's chest pressed into his back and the alpha's breath tickling his neck in a way he couldn't not notice. Everything felt warm and Shouto couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this comfortable in his own bed. Or anywhere, really.

He couldn't really be bothered to think too much, although his mind was attempting its best to tell him that this wasn't the type of thing he could just allow himself to enjoy. As if it felt too good to be happening, but for that very same reason Shouto didn't have it in himself to pull away or ask more questions.

He liked this, so much that he needed more of it.

One of the alpha's hands started toying with his hair, the usually reckless fingers combing through his locks carefully. It felt much better than such a small gesture should - Shouto was so aware of every atom in his body that even the smallest of touches almost felt electric, warm and buzzing.

The omega couldn't stop himself from blindly reaching out for the hand that was entangled in his locks, and slipping his fingers in between the other's.

He felt the dark chuckle the alpha gave in response to the action coursing all the way through his own body, and his breathing stopped for a moment at the feeling of that, combined with the roughness of Bakugou's fingers.

"You wanna hold hands now or what, Icyhot?" the alpha breathed against his neck, clearly amused with the innocent gesture.

Todoroki tried to ignore the way his entire body stiffened in response to the feeling of the words whispered against his skin. Bakugou's scent was all around Shouto - it had him breathing in greedily, as if it could be gone at any moment and he needed to experience as much of this as possible, for as long as possible.

He still tried not to be too obvious about it, as if showing how badly he wanted all of this was somehow a crime.

But Shouto felt so overwhelmed with everything that it was hard to tell whether or not his breathing sounded normal.

"We don't have to," he muttered, embarrassed, pulling his hand away.

Only for it to be caught a second later in a tight grip. Something inside of Shouto died in this very moment and came back to life. He was pretty sure that an unjustified gasp left his lips.

"I didn't say that I don't want to, idiot."

Bakugou pressed their intertwined hands against Todoroki's chest in a way that surely informed the alpha of just how fast the omega's heart was beating. At this point, the space between them seemed nonexistent. For the longest moment, Todoroki's eyes were glued to Bakugou's hand wrapped around his own, and his heart just had to jump a little higher at the knowledge that their hands fitted so nicely together, like the traitor that it was.

Everything about the alpha was warm, not burning hot like a destructive flame but just warm enough for Shouto to want to drown himself in it.

"This feels nice," he said, barely recognising his own voice with how light and dreamy it sounded.

"You wanna know what else feels nice," Bakugou challenged, not leaving the room for an answer before his lips were pressed against the nape of Shouto's neck.

And time stopped for a second.

The messiest sort of sigh left the omega's lips at the sensation, and all of his skin broke out into goosebumps within moments. Even if he'd wanted to, Shouto wouldn't have been able to do anything other than melting against the skin contact, mouth open and eyes pressed tightly shut.

It was so easy to lose himself in the moment; nothing seemed to matter except for the experimental brush of Bakugou's lips against his neck.

He squeezed the alpha's hand tightly, and when Bakugou mirrored the action, it functioned almost like an anchor to reality, keeping him from just floating away beneath the intensity of the touch.

And then the brushing of lips gave way to an actual kiss, hot against his skin and setting all his nerve endings on fire. Bakugou of course wasn't the type to hold back in any capacity, and this was no different.

His lips wandered, and the blonde pushed Shouto down to gain access to more skin, intent on driving the omega insane with the unfamiliar heat the touches were spreading inside of him. It was working beautifully, and control was slipping out of his grasp fast, just sand running through fingers.

"Bakugou," Shouto complained with a strained voice and felt the other smirking against his jawline.

"What is it? Doesn't feel nice?" the blonde asked, obviously faking ignorance, "Or is this too inappropriate for you."

His breathing sounding a little off, and the tone of his voice did something to Shouto that he couldn't accurately identify.

All of it was starting to blur into one breathtaking feeling that felt almost too big for his body and mind to handle. It had the omega pushing his entire body back against the other as though there was a way to somehow get even closer to each other.

The only thing still separating them was their clothing, and Shouto had half a mind to get that out of the way - tear it off, burn it, whatever.

Bakugou was right. All of this was getting increasingly more inappropriate; maddening and exhilarating and it felt so utterly right that the absurdity of the situation didn't seem to matter. Maybe that was how it was supposed to be, Shouto thought, just the two of them - wrapped up in each other, and lazy touches like glowing embers.

Shouto took a deep breath, trying to steady his voice, but failing miserably when a shiver worked its way through him and had a quiet moan replacing his words, "It's.. - ah!"

"It's what?"

"..."

Bakugou stopped moving entirely and Shouto knew all too well that the blonde was waiting for an answer, daring him to keep his mouth shut and ignore his question.

"Feels nice," he confirmed uselessly, wanting the alpha to continue too badly to care about anything else. The foreign feeling of unapologetic neediness made him add a quiet, "really nice."

"Thought so," the alpha grinned into his neck.

Any desire to argue with Bakugou just for the sake of arguing with him left the younger of the two the second he could feel teeth biting lightly into his skin, toying around with the area right beside his scent gland. The feeling was so horribly good that every little bite had him gasping, trashing around uselessly on the mattress (despite his efforts to hold still) and pressing himself back into the other. Just looking for more, more and more.

Anything Bakugou would give him, really.

Anything he wanted to give him.

The alpha seemed happy with his reactions for once, or maybe he really wasn't yet - because the pace and intensity of it all only increased and pushed the both of them to a point where their breaths sounded reminiscent of harsh fights or intense workouts. Loud, ragged and almost violent. Familiar.

The bites became harder, the kisses less controlled, the warmth warmer.

Nearly burning, and it somehow felt incredible.

The omega was pulled down on his back, and the two of them exchanged one look before something in Shouto snapped and he pulled the alpha forward by his hair, dying to push their lips together and taste him -

And then Shouto gasped again, this time to the feeling of his eyes actually opening up and the alpha's voice coming from a different angle in the room.

The lack of closeness was too obvious. No warmth against him, no strangely intoxicating bites or kisses on his skin.

Reality hit Shouto right in the face.

"- time you woke the fuck up. Who the fuck even sleeps this deeply, that's ridiculous."

Reality in the shape of a Bakugou who wasn't wrapped around him and insistent on making him lose his mind with kisses or bites or soft touches. Instead, the blonde was looming above him, arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face.

"Well good fucking morning, Princess," the alpha said, sounding less agitated than he looked and Todoroki opened his mouth only to close it again.

The entirety of his dream only began to sink in now, and the room felt too warm, his expression too unguarded. He didn't know what was happening anymore; his heart was still beating fast, and he was shocked with himself for how compliant he had been in his dream. How into it. How...

"Prin- uh. Bakugou? What are you - I mean. What time is it?" Shouto asked, feeling confused on a hundred different levels at once and it showed in his voice.

His fingers unwillingly came up to rub across the spot on his neck that he could remember so very clearly from the dream, and he only pulled his hand away when Bakugou gave him a very questioning look, red eyes following his fingers.

"It's 6 PM and you wanted to 'do something,' half an hour ago, so why the fuck were you sleeping?"

Shouto rubbed his eyes, still trying to come to terms with the situation and the fact that his subconscious had somehow decided to sabotage him in the most gruesome way possible.

He was fairly sure that his face must be red, going by the temperature alone. In fact, his entire body felt like he'd just used too much fire at once without using his other side to counteract it. A sense of anticipation lingered in his bones, and he tried his best to ignore it.

Having Bakugou in his room right after that dream, it really was no miracle that he felt off balance, was it?

"I was tired," he said.

"No shit."

"So I took a nap."

"Obviously. Were you having a nightmare or something?"

The question inevitably had the omega's eyes widening and the terrifying realisation flooded him that he had no clue whether he'd talked in his sleep or made a noise of any kind or shown any outward sign of the type of dream that it had been.

Shouto took a slow, deep breath; of course he hadn't taken off the pullover that smelled so much like the alpha. He could always blame it on that if the other figured anything out, couldn't he?

Somehow that didn't make him feel less overwhelmed though.

"Not exactly a nightmare," the omega said, not wanting to lie but also unwilling to go into more detail.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"That it was not exactly a nightma-"

"I heard you the first time," the blonde snapped, "Whatever. So you wanna keep sleeping or what was your plan?"

Shouto shook his head, his eyes stuck on Bakugou's hands, wondering if the discovery he'd made in his dream was true. Would their hands actually fit together that well, or had that been part of an alternate reality his subconscious had created?

It really shouldn't matter because there was no reason for them to ever try out how well they fitted together.

If he was more reckless, he would maybe have asked Bakugou to grab his hand, just for the sake of satisfying his curiosity. But Shouto wasn't that reckless, and so he settled for averting his gaze, telling himself that he was getting things mixed up.

People had weird dreams all the time. It wasn't anything to take too seriously.

"I didn't exactly have anything planned. But I'm kind of hungry. So we could.. go and eat something?" he suggested, feeling like being around people might be a better option, just for the moment. Just until his head wasn't stuck between reality and strange unrealistic fantasies anymore.

Bakugou looked at him for a moment with an empty expression on his face. "Might as well."

"Okay," the omega agreed, and pulled the blanket off himself before standing up. He barely even had time to react before the alpha had grabbed the discarded blanket and folded it up neatly.

Shouto could only stare at the entire thing in mild confusion, choosing not to comment on it. Bakugou's tendency to be meticulous about such small things was sort of fascinating, really.

Apparently the look on his face said as much.

"Folding a damn blanket it a five second job that makes a big difference," Bakugou explained, sounding entirely too serious about it, "that's not fucking funny, asshole."

But something about it was. Todoroki was incapable of suppressing his laughter, probably due to his lingering embarrassment, and it got worse when he tried to stop it. The glare he received in response didn't really make it any less amusing either, and he almost felt bad for it when the laughter just kept bubbling out of him.

But then Bakugou grabbed him by the collar of the hoodie and Shouto's nervous amusement was gone in the matter of seconds, replaced with something else that was all too reminiscent of the dream he'd had. His heart was doing it again. Beating violently.

"What the hell is so funny about this, huh?!"

Shouto didn't really have it in him to use words in that moment, and his eyes got stuck on Bakugou's lips, wondering what they would actually feel like if he were to touch them. Or if they were to press against him. Or... against his own.

The panic following that train of thought was so distracting that he only noticed a moment later that there was something off about the alpha's scent.

That something was present enough to pull him out of his disastrously inappropriate thoughts.

Shouto leaned a little closer, looked Bakugou in the eyes and...

A sudden feeling or rage took over his entire being that he couldn't even explain to himself.

All he knew was that within seconds, he'd pushed the other's hand off himself and he was trying hard to control both his breathing and his body temperature. Everything was wrong about this, his instincts were screaming at him, and he couldn't stand it.

"What the hell is up with you now," the alpha asked, sounding genuinely caught off guard.

"Nothing," Shouto growled, busying himself with putting on his shoes so he could just get out of this room because it felt like the walls of it were suffocating, the space too small to breathe.

"Doesn't sound like it."

"I mean it," the omega snapped right back at him, leaving the room without bothering to look behind himself and just moving forward as fast as he could.

He could hear footsteps following him however, but right now the effort really wasn't appreciated. He knew that he needed to calm down, that this was entirely irrational and he had no right to even be mad about it in the first place and he didn't even understand why such a small thing had him so furious at all because -

"Can you slow the fuck down Icyhot. Also, the kitchen is that way, you should fucking know that by now. You're walking in the wrong direction."

He... was walking in the wrong direction.

That knowledge only served to get on Shouto's nerves more and he turned around to rush in the other direction, but Bakugou didn't seem to think so, because the alpha grabbed him mid-turn, holding him by both of his shoulders.

"Bakugou, let go of me," he threatened, once more incredibly aware of the scent clinging to the blonde.

"Fucking make me."

Shouto tried, struggling against the iron grip like the hands were burning him. Or maybe he was the one who did the burning; his veins felt like the blood inside of them was boiling. He didn't feel like starting an actual fight, although he wasn't far from it either.

"Can you calm the fuck down and tell me what your issue is or do we have to stand here for a damn hour? Because we will."

"I have no issue."

"Yeah, you've got way more than just one, Half and Half."

"You're one to say that."

"Hah?! Wanna repeat that, asshole."

"No, you heard me the first time."

"Did you just - fuck off. Are you mad that I interrupted your beauty sleep or what."

"If you don't want to be frozen to the floor, then I suggest you let go of me right now."

A second of silence passed, both of them staring each other down and neither willing to back down.

"Are you trying to threaten me Icyhot?! I could make your damn shoulders explode if I wanted to," Bakugou said in a deadly calm tone, obviously not that amused anymore.

One thing they had in common.

"Sure you could. And I could set you on fire," Shouto said reflexively, but his voice cracked at the last word, the threat all too reminiscent of what he didn't want to be, ever. Who he didn't want to be. He closed his eyes, and wondered what was going on with him and why he was letting Bakugou provoke him (or was it the other way around?).

The anger in Bakugou's scent lessened significantly at his words however, and Shouto wasn't so sure what was happening anymore.

What did it matter if Bakugou smelled like another omega? It absolutely didn't, and there was no reason to get angry over it.

But Shouto's instincts didn't really seem to get that message.

"Look, I'm just trying to fucking understand what the hell got into you all of a sudden," the blonde said, sounding exhausted with the amount of patience he was trying to display.

Shouto gave him a hard look, probably angrier at himself than he was at the blonde by now. Maybe all of it was messing with his mind; the fact that his mother had talked about courting, the hoodie he was wearing... that dream.

Oh God, that dream.

He took a few deep breaths, each one reminding him very much of the issue at hand (this scent that he did not want to have on the alpha), but Shouto told himself that this was clearly an overreaction, no matter how much everything inside of him protested at the thought of it. After a minute or so of being stared at and growing increasingly more uncomfortable with the silence, he cracked and said, "I don't like that scent."

That had the alpha looking at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

"What the fuck are you even talking about?"

Todoroki sighed heavily, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the obviously feigned confusion. Because how in the world could Bakugou not know what he was talking about when it was that obvious.

... Well, maybe not overbearingly strong, but obvious enough for Shouto to notice anyways.

"The scent you have on you, I don't like it."

"You're the one who told me that you liked my damn scent."

This time he did roll his eyes.

"I'm not talking about yours."

"Then what are you - wait."

He waited.

"Are you fucking serious right now? You're freaking out because some girl fucking stood beside me for a photo and maybe like, brushed against my damn shoulder or something."

There was a whole world of disbelief in Bakugou's voice.

"I'm - what?"

"Some goddamn girl recognised me from the sports festival and asked for a damn photo because I'm obviously going to be the number one hero one day."

It clicked in Shouto's brain then, and the anger was replaced with shock.

He was mostly shocked with his own reactivity.

"Oh."

"What the hell," the blonde cursed, before a stupid grin took over his face that had Todoroki averting his eyes.

Because he knew what was coming, "why the fuck would that even bother you so much in the first place?"

There were reasons, reasons he could not say out loud.

"... I just didn't like it," the omega replied, keeping it very simple.

Truthfully, he couldn't tell why it had bothered him to such an extent. Maybe it was the idea of someone he didn't know getting so close to the alpha, and Bakugou letting them get that close. It had felt like a betrayal, although it obviously wouldn't have been. But Shouto was the one who got to sit on his bed, who got to spend his Saturday mornings with him and have pointless fights with him and if someone else suddenly appeared and played that role in the alpha's life better than he did, then what was he supposed to do?

Pretend like it didn't matter?

Maybe he was being overly dramatic.

But there was also the small and yet very present fact that he had no way of making Bakugou smell like him; any other omega could just go ahead and do that, while he could literally rub himself against the blonde (not that he randomly would, he'd probably get killed) and no one would ever even notice.

It was not so much that other people wouldn't smell his scent on him, but that Bakugou wouldn't.

Shouto felt so utterly invisible in that moment, even standing right in front of him.

He frowned at the thought, still not entirely sure why he even had this strange desire to be seen, heard, recognised (it didn't make much sense since he obviously was not being ignored or anything) - and his reaction seemed even less sensible now. Absolutely nothing about this was logical.

In a way, the knowledge that Bakugou couldn't smell him was the reason the alpha even knew about his secret. Something about it bothered Shouto, apparently had for a while now. On an instinctual level, most likely, because he failed to comprehend it using logic.

So maybe it hadn't been as much of an overreaction as it had been pent up frustration over that very fact.

"If it bothers you that much I can put on another pullover or something," Bakugou offered after a few seconds of looking at him with entirely too much intensity, not looking quite as smug anymore. The omega's eyes got stuck on his neck for a second or two when he looked away from his face. His mind was messed up enough to wonder what Bakugou would do if he reached out and traced his finger along his jawline. Not that it mattered because Shouto obviously wouldn't do that.

"You don't have to," he said, his voice almost normal, but not quite, "it shouldn't have bothered me anyway."

"I know I don't fucking have to, and I still suggested it."

By now, the fact that Bakugou's hands were still on his shoulders was something Shouto was also very much aware of, and although the touch was not very gentle and their prolonged proximity was definitely getting a bit awkward, he still didn't want it to stop. He'd stopped struggling a minute or two ago, and there was really no need to hold him in place any longer, but maybe Bakugou had forgotten about that.

Shouto would strangely be very okay with it if he had.

"You would change your clothes because I'm bothered by the scent," the omega repeated in belated realisation as he raised his gaze up to red eyes, and held his breath for a second at just how close they were standing.

"Is that so fucking surprising or what."

"...Yes."

"Shut up."

"Okay," he said and kept his mouth shut for about 20 seconds.

"Don't fucking - ugh."

"Huh?" he asked, fighting the strange desire to rest his head on Bakugou's shoulder and maybe stay there forever. Except, it would be nicer with the offending smell gone.

"So what is it. Answer the damn question."

"Ah, yes. I would really appreciate it," he said, voice slow and careful. He still felt like he was overstepping a boundary, but Bakugou had offered, and why would he not take him up on it?

All the answer he received was a meaningful scowl, before Bakugou pulled his hands off his shoulders. It had to happen eventually, and Todoroki made sure not to show any disappointment on his face.

"Then come on, you're the one who complained about being hungry."

...

Bakugou didn't dare to look at Todoroki as the two of them were once again on the way to his room. His brain had a shitload of things to process, among them the knowledge that the other had been so damn furious over the fact that he'd had someone else's scent on him. The alpha was terrified to assign meaning to that because chances were that wishful thinking would cloud his judgement.

But what the hell, seriously. He'd looked fucking good with that glare on his pretty face.

Had it not been enough of a fucking punishment to find Todoroki asleep and pretty as ever and breathing out small noises that could mean just about anything? Still dressed in Bakugou's hoodie no less. Apparently not.

The blonde wondered whether Todoroki was ever going to take the damn thing off again, and a part of him really wished that he wouldn't. Another part argued that maybe, maybe if he did, it would restore some of Bakugou's sanity.

Because there wasn't much of it left at this point, and having his brain actually work again would be really fucking appreciated. He'd been called a genius multiple times in his life, but Bakugou could swear that he could feel himself getting stupider by the minute. And it was all Todoroki's fault but at this point he was already stupid enough to be okay with that.

But fuck if that incident just now hadn't looked, sounded and felt like jealousy. Why the hell did he like that idea so much?

He looked the other over, taking note of his slightly messed up hair (that's what the omega got for storming out of his room like an idiot without combing his hair or anything) and his unusual lack of composure. Where Icyhot usually looked so infuriatingly stoic, there now was a certain something about him.

A hint of color on his cheeks, a bit of transparency in the look on his face. Bakugou couldn't not use this opportunity to mess with him.

"You didn't really answer my question, Half and Half," he said, rejoicing in the way the other tensed up ever so slightly.

"Which question?"

"The obvious one. Why you lost your shit over a stranger's scent on my jacket."

He seemed to think it over for a moment before giving Bakugou the kind of look that really had the blonde wondering what the fuck was happening behind those mismatched eyes. Bakugou could tell that there was something happening there for once, just not what that looked like.

"It.. wasn't that bad," the omega eventually said, and looked away.

"You looked like you were this fucking close to setting the building on fire," Bakugou told him, the tips of his fingers almost touching to illustrate how close. Todoroki looked at them for a long moment, and Bakugou saw hesitation washing over his face before it was replaced with stubborn denial.

"I wasn't."

"You were."

"I was not," the omega repeated, sounding like he was ready to play this game for another hour.

"You think I'm stupid or what?"

"..."

"Fuck you."

"..."

"What the hell is it with your mood swings today, I thought you'd taken your damn medicine or whatever," Bakugou managed to whisper loudly.

"I have," the other said, giving Bakugou the weirdest look that absolutely didn't make the alpha want to push him against a wall just to see the stupid expression it would get out of him.

"Do you think there is something wrong with me?"

"Lots of things," Bakugou replied out of reflex, before it registered in his brain that the question had sounded like Half and Half actually meant it. He had no clue whatsoever what was ghosting through his brain now. So he added, "what the hell do you even mean?"

"I'm sorry. You're right. It shouldn't have bothered me so much."

"Can you stop it with your should and shouldn't? If it bothered you, it fucking bothered you. So what. Just fucking own it. Not like you need to apologise for getting angry at something for once in your life," he replied. If Bakugou bothered to ask himself this question every time he'd gone off on someone, he'd be busy for a damn fucking while for sure.

"Maybe you're right," the omega agreed, clearly not entirely convinced by his words.

"I'm always right."

"... So you say."

"The hell is that supposed to mean now," he growled, telling himself not to reach out and grab the other because his inner alpha was obviously eager to use just about any excuse to do that.

The omega opened his mouth, closed it again, looked at Bakugou for a second and then, asked, "Is it a bad thing that I don't have a scent?"

And seriously, what the hell was it with Icyhot and his weirdass questions coming from out of nowhere today? Did Bakugou look like he had any clue about anything anymore? Bakugou wasn't even sure what the hell he was supposed to reply to that because he didn't exactly have an objective opinion on the matter. He stayed silent as the two of them entered his room, all too aware of the fact that depending on what he answered, he might fuck up big time.

So he took it upon himself to stand there and silently stare at Todoroki, who stared right back.

"Depends on who you ask," he said, keeping it vague.

"I'm asking you."

Bakugou should have really fucking seen that coming.

"If your scent is half as annoying as you, I'd probably end up murdering you. So maybe it's a good thing," was not the answer he'd wanted to give and Bakugou really wondered just how much he'd shaped his synapses by years of talking this way because how did shit like this always happen when he meant to say nice things instead?

Todoroki's expression was hollow, but it was a little too hollow, and somehow Bakugou could interpret the nuances of emptiness on his face by now. This particular one didn't exactly look unaffected despite the lack of visible disappointment. It made no fucking sense, but somehow it did.

"I didn't mean that," he corrected himself, "it really doesn't matter what I think or what anyone else thinks for that matter, Half and Half. If you think it's a bad thing, then it is. If you think it's a good thing, then that's what it fucking is."

Todoroki blinked at him, looking a little caught off guard. "But I'm not sure anymore. I've never given it much thought."

"So why the hell are you thinking about it now?" the blonde asked, fighting the urge to reach out and touch him. There was absolutely no reason for the omega to be so caught up in stupid, self-conscious thoughts. Although maybe sorting that issue out was a good idea, Bakugou couldn't help noticing how conflicted the other looked over it.

"I wondered if it would bother you if I had a scent."

Bakugou absolutely failed at decoding whatever the hell that was supposed to mean exactly. It would absolutely fucking bother him, more than anything in the fucking world, but probably not in the way the other thought.

He doubted this was much more than a hypothetical question though, so Bakugou dared to say, "why the hell would it. It's a just a normal thing, and you're the same person with or without your scent. I haven't kicked you out of my room yet, have I? No need to wreck your mind over shit like that."

"Oh.. Right," the omega agreed, the ghost of a smile coming to his lips. Bakugou stared at that a little bit too long because he apparently ended up saying the right thing for fucking once in his life.

He tried not to overthink it when he took off the pullover he was wearing, throwing the damn thing into the corner and searching for something else.

And somehow, just like earlier that day, he could feel that there were eyes on him; Todoroki really had no fucking clue how obvious his staring was. And Bakugou had no clue what the hell it meant; sure, he wanted to believe that the other just couldn't keep his eyes off him - but this was Todoroki. He might as well be staring into empty space that happened to be right in front of the alpha, without noticing what it looked like, thinking about cold soba or whatever.

Maybe he just wasn't aware of the fact that watching someone change clothes was a little fucking inappropriate.

What Todoroki was and wasn't aware of was the kind of mystery that Bakugou was simultaneously afraid of and also obsessed with figuring out, so he cast a look in his direction to affirm to himself that, yes, he was definitely being watched and not just imagining it. Not that the alpha minded in the slightest, because why the hell would he be ashamed of his body.

Yeah - no. Unlike conversations and compliments and all of that confusing shit, his body image was something that didn't stress him out thankfully.

He almost commented on the fact that the omega was watching him, but instead chose to keep his remark to himself as he to put on a grey shirt.

"Ready?" the alpha asked when he was done, and wherever the fuck Icyhot's focus currently was, it definitely wasn't on his question. In fact, he looked like his head was currently unoccupied entirely.

So Bakugou, delicate as ever, bumped his shoulder against him as he passed by, and laughed quietly at the surprised noise it got out of the idiot.

"Fucking pay attention when I'm talking to you."

"I'll try," the other commented drily, following him into the hallway.

"Try harder."

"Alright," the obviously distracted answer came. Bakugou glared over at him.

"What the fuck are you thinking about now?"

"I visited my mother today."

"So? What about it."

"She's.. She said that she was happy that I spend time with you."

Bakugou frowned at that statement, caught off guard with yet another random revelation. He did not really get that entire mother and son bonding thing, but how the fuck was he a topic of the conversations between Todoroki and his mother? Did he even really want to know?

Fuck it, he decided, and stated the obvious fact that sounded very weird, said out loud, "you told your mother about me."

"I tell her a lot of things."

"You'd be the type to."

Todoroki looked at him, walking in silence for a few seconds before he opened his mouth yet again.

"She would like to meet you."

Bakugou stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hold the fuck up, why does your mother want to meet me, Half and Half? What the hell did you even tell her?!"

"That I've made friends here."

Friends.

Bakugou frowned at the word, although, what else had he been expecting anyway? He just didn't see how in the world it would be a wise idea to put himself in the position of talking to Todoroki's mother of all people. That would be a fucking disaster, because what the hell was he supposed to say?

'I know your airhead of a son told you I was his friend so please don't fucking mind the fact that I keep looking at his neck and thinking about pushing him against the closest wall available, Mrs Todoroki?'

As fucking if.

"Well, then why don't you show off Deku instead. He's probably better at dealing with mothers."

"It doesn't have to be anytime soon," the omega replied instead of agreeing with Bakugou's obviously superior logic.

"Whatever," he growled.

When the fuck had Bakugou even become this bad at denying Icyhot anything? He wasn't so sure. It was definitely concerning at this point how fucking agreeable he was being. Maybe he should go and see a damn doctor.

"Thanks."

And there it was; the exact fucking reason for the softness growing inside him like a tumor. That stupid little smile - the quiet and happy tone of his voice that had the alpha in him intoxicated with the knowledge that he could make Todoroki happy. Even if it was in pointless, small ways that probably didn't matter much, all things considered.

He made the mistake of not looking like he was out to murder someone when the two of them entered the kitchen, and what a damn mistake that was.

Because, as if there was some messed up soft of magnetism at work, everyone's head turned towards the both of them the second they passed through the door. Followed by the fucking whispers.

"Oh my God Bakugou's smiling."

"They're both smiling."

"Did I miss something? Why are we whispering," fucking Pikachu interrupted the girls, holding a bag of chips.

"Yeah you did," Jirou said, stabbing him in the side viciously.

"No he fucking didn't," the blonde growled loudly, and ignored the eternally confused look on Icyhot's face, stepping into the kitchen like he owned the damn room.

"Sure."

"If all of you don't shut the hell up, I'll cut your tongues off," Bakugou threatened, and the ever-present shadow of Todoroki's presence appeared by his side while the blonde grabbed a kitchen knife and waved it around for the added effect.

"Rude."

"Guys, I think that's his way of asking for some privacy," Ponytail whispered.

"But, in the kitchen?" Earphones asked, sounding scandalised.

"I really am missing something."

"Come on, we'll explain it to you."

And then the girls dragged the beta away, and Bakugou was left with a thoroughly stunned Todoroki looking at the closed door.

"Is it just me or are people really going crazy over the oncoming exams?" he asked eventually, tone serious, and Bakugou wanted to laugh and cry at the omega's obliviousness. He settled on frowning and thanking the universe for just how dense Todoroki could be.

"Absolutely, they're all batshit crazy," he agreed, earning himself a thoughtful nod from the other.

No wanting to give him too much time to think it all over, Bakugou crossed his arms and put all the challenge in his voice that he could muster, grinning.

"I bet you suck at cooking, Icyhot."

Chapter Text

The days following the hoodie incident were hell. An absolute fucking headache, because Bakugou now had the pleasure of somehow trying to keep Todoroki in a state of blissful unawareness about all the different kinds of gossip being spread about them, which was not fucking easy whatsoever. Between exams, training and living in dormitories, everyone apparently still found the time to occupy themselves with shit that was none of their business.

It wouldn't piss him off half as much if any of it was actually true.

Their classmates' theories ranged from 'Bakugou is courting Todoroki and they're totally talking about mating bites and all' to 'it's probably a fuck buddies thing' to 'Bakugou is probably bullying Todoroki into it'.

Among others.

Needless to say, he was getting more fucking frustrated by the hour and approaching his breaking point fast - in various ways. Even with Bakugou growling at anyone who looked at either him or Todoroki for too long or in the wrong way, it still didn't fucking stop. Not even in class when those assholes should be too tired to give a damn. In fact, his defensiveness probably just made it worse and more entertaining to them, but what the hell was he supposed to do?

He'd never given much of a fuck about anyone's opinion, but this wasn't only his own privacy being fucking invaded, but Todoroki's on top of it. And the omega had a big secret to keep, which wasn't exactly easier when everyone was getting all up in their business.

... Well, his business - Todoroki's - Bakugou mentally corrected himself. Because they obviously weren't doing what everyone thought they were. What were they doing, honestly?

Hard to tell.

Bakugou seriously had no damn clue how to proceed anymore, and this wasn't a fight; he couldn't just forego the battle plan and rush headfirst into it all. Because his ability to make the right decisions spontaneously was suffering under the weight of all his instincts.

He was already trying his best to remain as level-headed as possible and that was one hell of a struggle.

The second the two of them entered the classroom, he could feel eyes on them again, could physically feel the stupidity of the expressions appearing on everyone's face. And then the damn whispering began. It was honestly worse than high-school movies made it seem, because this was his reality now.

He really hadn't thought about the impact it might have when he'd impulsively given the omega a piece of his clothing.

Bakugou tried to ignore all of them, told himself that they were bound to get tired of it at some point. Hopefully fucking soon. For his mental health's sake.

Todoroki was not wearing his pullover, dressed in the school uniform, and besides, obviously that thing had to be washed at some point. The lack of his scent on the omega made Bakugou feel even more on edge. It wasn't even that Todoroki looked bad in the uniform, because of fucking course he didn't. If anything, he looked soft and stupid and Bakugou really fucking wanted to grab him.

He told himself that snatching Todoroki and scent marking him was not a damn option, even though his instincts wanted to convince him otherwise.

He obviously had to fight them; doing anything of that sort, especially in front of almost the entire class, would practically be gasoline poured into the shitty fire that was everyone's assumptions. The stupid anxiety that came with knowing that the omega barely smelled like him today was getting exhausting though, and the day was only just starting.

Bakugou focused on the pointless discussion Todoroki and him had fallen into as a way of making sure that he wouldn't just lose control for a moment and do anything irrational and weird.

Words were safe right now, mostly.

"But soba is my comfort food."

"I'm just saying, there's more nutrient dense food out there than soba noodles. It's not just about what fucking tastes good, you could use some damn vitamins."

Todoroki gave him a deeply offended look without even bothering to have much of an expression on his face. His eyes said it all. The idiot had had soba for breakfast.

"Eating food that tastes good is a great way to boost morale and make the morning better," the omega argued, because he obviously didn't get what Bakugou had meant.

Not that the alpha had said it very clearly. He hadn't exactly dared to because he hadn't known how to go about that. An argument about soba really hadn't fucking been his goal with this however.

"Says the idiot who falls asleep at any given opportunity," Bakugou commented, without real bite to his words.

"I doubt my sleep schedule has much to do with my consumption of-"

"I just wanted to offer you a fucking bite of my stupid apple, I'm not trying to attack your precious comfort food," the blonde snapped.

That was yet another thing slowly but surely driving him insane.

Bakugou found himself strangely preoccupied with taking care of the omega in the weirdest of ways; his instincts were apparently misinterpreting the stress he felt on a daily basis (thanks to the sweet little fact that everyone was talking about him and Todoroki as a couple when they definitely weren't) and this was his way of overcompensating for it.

Making sure Todoroki drank enough water, didn't just eat shitty food - hell, sometimes in public he even found himself trying to fucking shield the omega from other people like he was Icyhot's bodyguard, life coach and private cook all at once. Or trying to be. It was getting fucking ridiculous and Bakugou knew it.

He just couldn't do much about it.

"Oh, you were?" Todoroki asked, sounding a little more interested now, head tilted to the side in curiosity and his bicoloured hair getting all mixed up.

Bakugou stared at his lips while Todoroki processed the information, and then smiled, like the softly curved line of a crescent moon. The alpha found himself once again wondering if Todoroki knew what he was doing to him.

Maybe he was actually trying to drive him insane by smiling more often.

... Not that Bakugou wanted him to stop, like, fucking ever. He was disgustingly pleased with every stupid smile, even if it was a damn obstacle that they always pulled his eyes in the direction of those nicely shaped lips.

"Sure, thanks," the younger of the two said and then he fucking licked his lips like no one's business (it would have absolutely not been obvious if he hadn't been obsessively staring at them but Bakugou actively refused to acknowledge that and tried to be offended instead).

Todoroki looked at the apple Bakugou was holding. Then up at the alpha's eyes through his differently colored lashes, and seriously, they were just as deadly as his lips. His pupils were just a little bit dilated.

Bakugou's brain malfunctioned in response to that look, severely. It took him a second to remember what he'd said in the first place.

When he did remember, the alpha proceeded to stuff the damn fruit right into Todoroki's mouth, definitely not fucking panicking or anything. But the knee-jerk reaction didn't make the situation any better; Todoroki just looked at him in mild surprise for a moment before apparently deciding that he was okay with this and sinking his teeth into the apple.

Bakugou's mouth went dry and he couldn't even be bothered to notice anything going on around them anymore at this point. How the fuck did his brain even manage to make something inappropriate out of eating a fucking apple? Why did Todoroki have so be so fucking perfect all the way down to his stupidly white and perfectly shaped teeth?

All the alpha knew was that those thin pink lips were now shiny from the apple juice and he really needed to stop focusing on the way they looked while the other was chewing.

"It's sweet," Todoroki uselessly informed him.

It took an embarrassingly long moment for Bakugou to find his voice. When he did, he barked out, "It's a damn apple, Icyhot, what'd you expect?"

"Well, it could have been sour."

"You think I'd feed you a sour fucking apple or what?"

Todoroki raised his brows in a way that probably meant something along the lines of, 'I've never asked myself that particular question, give me a minute.'

Bakugou didn't have a minute.

"Just take the damn thing," he said, more or less dismissively.

"You haven't even tried it."

"It's a damn apple, they all taste the same anyway."

"Obviously they don't, since you just said you would only feed me sweet ones," Todoroki said, and the smirk on his lips was entirely too smug.

"I'll fucking throw it against your head if you don't take it," was Bakugou's empty threat of choice.

"Fine, I'll take it," Todoroki accepted defeat (not that this was really a fight), but the alpha really hadn't thought this over because when a cold hand brushed against his, he made a sound that he quickly covered with the most fucked up fake cough in the history of mankind, looking away.

The hand remained where it was, and just as Bakugou was about to pull his own away in a moment of sheer panic, Todoroki said, "... if you take a bite too."

"Why the hell should I?"

"Because I can't just steal all of your vitamins," he replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "you're already coughing."

"It's not stealing if I fucking offered!"

Todoroki looked at their hands, still touching, around that cursed fruit.

"Is it because my mouth touched it? That you don't want to eat it anymore."

If there was ever going to be an award for misinterpreting the stupidest shit, Bakugou knew who was going to win that.

"Fine. I'll take a bite of the damn apple, just stop asking stupid questions," the alpha hissed. He was absolutely not answering that question, no way. Talking about Todoroki's mouth sounded like the worst idea.

"Great."

Bakugou didn't realise what was happening until it was too late. Apparently the omega considered it appropriate to mimic his own action, because he pulled the apple right out of his grasp and then lead it up to Bakugou's mouth, more carefully than the alpha had. And then he stared at him with this unwavering look, which almost had the blonde willing to go into another pretend coughing fit.

He didn't.

Instead, he whispered, "I should bite your damn fingers off," against it before biting down on the blood red apple. Violently, to make a point.

Their eyes met.

"Bakugou, Todoroki, stop feeding each other or whatever it is you are doing there and sit down on your chairs," Aizawa's voice suddenly appeared behind them, and Bakugou almost made good on his 'biting your fingers off' promise from surprise.

"Sorry," the omega said. He didn't sound very sorry.

While Bakugou had to force himself not to growl at their teacher like an animal.

He was slowly but steadily reaching that point where absolutely anyone who looked at the omega was considered a threat in his brain, and it was not fucking fun.

He scowled as the other walked to his desk, happily munching on the apple and his heart did a little something in his chest. Something that was almost painful, because they'd been so close seconds ago and now he was going to have to sit in his chair that was decidedly too far away from the other's which felt more dramatic than it really was.

He could distantly remember how, a few weeks (or months?) ago, such thoughts would have been a bad joke at best. As much as he didn't want Todoroki to figure anything out, he also wanted him to fucking know what kind of impact he had on the alpha. How he was a major fucking distraction and for the first time in his life, Bakugou was almost okay with being distracted.

If he ever found out, he'd probably be a cheeky fuck about it, but it didn't sound that bad. It couldn't get much worse than this anyway. Or could it?

"Bakugou," Aizawa repeated, his voice annoyed, and the blonde came back to his body, tearing his eyes away from a confused looking Todoroki in the back row and growling a few curses to himself as he went to sit down at his desk. Kirishima gave him an emphatic look, so at least someone recognised his fucking suffering for what it was.

The others, of course, couldn't be bothered to. He tried to tune out whatever they had to say but didn't have the guts to say to his face, and scowled at his desk. Bakugou really wasn't in the mood for theory and maybe if they were fighting and breaking things or at least moving in one way or another that would actually help instead of aggravating his inner restlessness.

But for the next few hours all he could do was sit there, nearly breaking his pencil as he occupied his hands with taking the best fucking notes possible. His mind was another matter though, and the alpha had to tell himself multiple times that there was no damn reason to obsess over the fact that Todoroki didn't have his scent on him.

It was totally fine.

They were literally sitting in the same room, with no threats or anything mildly dangerous close-by; at this point Bakugou wasn't even so sure what it was that he was worried about anymore. Not that much of it made sense aways. But fuck, did it irritate him that he couldn't rationalise his way out of his intrusive thoughts.

By the time they were finally done with the lesson, Bakugou shoved his meticulously written notes into his backpack and it took no less than 20 seconds for Todoroki to appear beside him, looking a little lost. His attention was on the blonde, but it simultaneously seemed to be somewhere out in space, and he seemed almost as if he was unsure whether or not to say something. He even opened his mouth for half a second, but pressed his lips tightly together just as fast.

"What is it."

"What is what?"

"What you wanted to say."

Todoroki gave him a blank stare and pushed a lock of hair behind his ear, only for it to fall back into place. Then he said, sounding a little off, "Nothing, really."

Bakugou gave him a disbelieving look as he stood up and the two of them walked outside of the room without anyone bothering them on their way out. That didn't stop the alpha from throwing one last glare at the entirety of the room.

"You smell angry," Todoroki told him, out of nowhere, voice thoughtful, "or maybe not exactly angry. It's a different scent."

"The hell is that supposed to mean, Icyhot?"

He felt the other invading his personal space, their arms brushing against each other and Todoroki's hair tickling his shoulder when he leaned over to -

"Are you fucking smelling me."

It wasn't a question because that was obviously what the omega was doing, in a damn hallway full of people.

"Stressed," Todoroki concluded and while that was fucking true, it also felt utterly awkward to be read like an open book in the middle of the fucking school. The alpha ignored the lingering contact of their arms, and once again had to fight the urge to just pull him closer.

"I'm not fucking stressed."

"I know some pressure points that help with-"

"Keep your pressure points to yourself," the blonde growled because like hell was he going to sit in the fucking cafeteria and let Todoroki try to calm him down by pressing his fingers into his skin. That would be a fucking recipe for more stress and nothing else.

"Why not?" the omega asked.

"Because this isn't the type of stress that you can cure with pseudo science, Half and Half."

"I thought you weren't stressed."

"I'm not," Bakugou said, shoving his hands into his pockets to just get some space between them and allow his brain to focus on anything other than the cool skin that was so close, he could just -

"You know, it isn't pseudo science. Acupressure does work."

"How the hell do you even know anything about that?"

Todoroki stayed quiet for a moment, his steps slowing down a little and so did Bakugou's.

"I had a book."

"A book."

"When I was younger I didn't really have anyone around to," he said and stopped there, "Help. When things were not so good. My father didn't like to see my mother coddling me, so I was quite lonely at times, but that helped.. a little."

Bakugou took a deep breath, in and out.

Just imagining Todoroki as a child, using fucking acupressure to calm himself down because his fucking excuse for a father didn't want anyone to be too soft with him was... he stopped walking. Stared, probably looking like something in his brain had stopped working but not really giving a damn. Because something had stopped working, and he really couldn't take it.

It should make him fucking furious, but that was secondary right now. Bakugou couldn't handle whatever emotion in evoked in him instead, he needed to do something.

So he took the omega's arm, not even sure where the hell he wanted to drag him but definitely away from anyone else.

"Are we not going to get food?" Todoroki asked, apparently not all that surprised anymore with Bakugou's tendency to drag him through the hallways.

"Five fucking minutes," Bakugou told him, his voice sounding strange even to his own ears. Strained.

"Oh. Alright?"

He didn't say anything, just kept walking, and dragged the omega into the next best room that was sure to be void of people.

"Bakugou, what are we doing.. in the janitor closet?" Todoroki asked once the door was closed behind them, his voice a little less monotone this time. The room was dark except for a hint of light falling in through the small ass window in the furthest corner, and it smelled like cleaning utensils, the air stale.

"Shut up for a moment," Bakugou told him, trying to concentrate on asking himself what the fuck he was doing.

So much for running into a fight without a damn battle plan.

"Okay."

But the silence was too much, with his hand still on the other's arm and Todoroki's unreadable expression on his face.

"You were fucking right, okay?"

"...About what?"

"I feel fucking stressed out."

"So did you change your mind about the pressure points?" Todoroki asked, looking around in the half-dark. Bakugou watched him intensely for a long moment, his thoughts too fast in his brain; this probably was a fucking horrible idea.

"No."

"No?"

"If you want to help me, then just - fuck. Say that you're not going to ask why."

"Why what?"

The alpha growled at him, beyond frustrated with his inability to say any of this shit out loud and with Todoroki's inability to read the mood of a moment.

"Just tell me to fucking stop if it bothers you."

"If what bothers me?"

There was a hint of uncertainty in Todoroki's voice now, almost impossible to catch but Bakugou caught it nonetheless, and the way his voice bordered on discomfort had him saying, "I'm not going to fucking hurt you! The hell do you think?"

Todoroki mumbled something that Bakugou didn't quite catch.

"Huh?"

"I said that I'm not going to be a human punching bag if that was your plan to alleviate the stress."

"You... what the actual fuck."

"So it isn't?"

"Maybe it should be, you fucking idiot," the blonde told him, frustrated on 20 different levels now and moving before he even realised that he was doing it. But his hands were on the omega's upper arms and he tried his fucking best to push him gently into the wall behind him.

It was half successful.

Not entirely gentle but for sure not painful. And it probably would have been if Bakugou hadn't tried.

Todoroki breathed out a little sound on impact, and one of the too many things lined up against the wall fell down but Bakugou couldn't care less with the sight of the omega in front of him, looking at him, wide-eyed.

He took another deep breath because it would be too fucking easy to overstep just about every line right now. As if there was some sort of miracle at work, Todoroki kept his mouth shut for once.

He just stared, unrelenting.

"Tell me to stop if it bothers you," Bakugou repeated, quieter this time.

He received the smallest of nods in response and raised one hand up to take a hold of white hair, reminding himself to be fucking gentle as he guided the other's head to the side. He liked the way his fingers looked there, in between soft white locks. Too much.

Todoroki looked like he'd stopped breathing, and Bakugou felt pretty much the same way, his head dizzy as he moved forward. Everything inside him went still as their eyes met again, mid-movement.

And then Todoroki closed his eyes slowly, pressed his head back against Bakugou's hand, the space between his neck and his collarbone exposed. Bakugou nearly couldn't handle the amount of trust in this small gesture. He exhaled a ragged breath before closing the gap between them and pressing his neck against Todoroki's shoulder, red hair tickling his face.

They shared an intake of breath, and Bakugou could feel the other tense up underneath him, a slight tremble working its way through the omega's frame.

"Is this okay?" he asked, his voice barely even a whisper and probably the quietest it had ever been in his life. He felt like any loud sound or fast movement might be too much, and fuck was he going to beat himself up for it if he messed this up now. Part of him was terrified by the thought that maybe he'd already messed up, just by attempting this in the first place.

There was no reply for about five seconds, five seconds in which Bakugou went insane, unmoving against the omega as if they were waiting for someone to show up and paint a damn portrait of them.

But then there was another breath, drawn out and loud in the silence of the small room. Followed by a sound that was like a knife aimed straight at the alpha's heart, a sound that was easily enough to end him right then and there.

A sigh that faded into a purring sound before Todoroki's arms came up to grab him and pull Bakugou very close, very fast.

So fucking close that he was almost afraid of crashing the other on impact. With strong hands digging into his back and years of muscle training the omega had gone through, Todoroki's grip on his was forceful, magnetic and intent on leaving not a hint of space between them. It took the breath right out of Bakugou.

"Very okay," Todoroki confirmed with an equally quiet whisper.

And the words were all it took for Bakugou to finally allow himself to move, as much as he could, caught up in between the other's arms.

Dragging his neck slowly along the side of Todoroki's felt like the first bit of peace he'd experienced in forever.

Somehow, despite his death grip, Todoroki managed to be so fucking soft beneath him, holding very still and offering not a hint of resistance as Bakugou went about his task of getting his scent on him. The movements he did make almost made it look like he was trying to return the favor, despite his lack of a scent. Their touch was intoxicating though, and Bakugou was helplessly falling deeper into the rabbit hole that was his obsession with the boy he currently had all around him, back against the wall.

It was something in between a comforting hug and an almost desperate attempt at finding closeness in each other. Instinctual perhaps, but just as much of a conscious effort to let his guard down for one damn moment, Bakugou couldn't help but think. Terrifying because it really wasn't.

He'd meant to allow it for a just a few seconds, just to calm his instincts and maybe have a chance to get through the day in a somewhat sane manner afterwards, but that didn't really feel like an option anymore with how much he fucking liked this. How much Todoroki didn't seem to mind.

How Todoroki tilted his head further to the side and fucking buried one of his hands in Bakugou's hair to push the alpha harder against him. He was panting so silently that it was almost inaudible, but just catching a hint of the noise had Bakugou nearly losing it.

He pulled just a little harder on white locks himself, too damn delighted by the soft, "ah," on the other's lips, and pushed their scent glands together, warm skin against warmer skin.

Burning hot skin, in fact. It slowly registered in his brain a few seconds into it that the burning part was a very potential outcome and that would be one fucking explosive mess.

"I swear to - fuck, if you set us on fire right now," he said, nearly whispering the words into the other's ear with how close they were and pulling back just a little bit to catch a glimpse of Todoroki's face.

It was a fucking mistake. Seeing the mess he'd made out of him with so little effort was too damn much to process. His hair was sticking to his forehead, and his eyes were heavily lidded, both of them alike in the sense that dark pupils took up most of their color. He simultaneously looked very affected and somehow, still calm.

"Don't," Todoroki commanded, almost instantly, and pulled him right back to where he'd been, "I mean I won't. Set us on fire."

Bakugou wasn't entirely sure whether or not he believed him, but he wasn't going to take his sweet time doubting these words when Todoroki was practically begging for more of whatever they were doing. This entire situation was spinning out of control fucking fast, but he'd probably be okay with destroying the janitor closet and a few fucking burn marks or whatever if it meant that he could pull some more of those sweet little gasps out of his omega.

... Not his.

Obviously.

But that was entirely too easy to ignore with the way Todoroki fucking welcomed every small movement, every uncoordinated and messy touch. With how well they worked together, like this. Whether it was their hair brushing together, the skin of their necks brushing into each other and spreading the alpha's scent all over him, or just Bakugou's hand tightening in his hair and holding him still because he was shaking just a little too much.

Todoroki was a fucking work of art. Always had been. But like this, he was too much of it all. He was too persistent, too compliant, too thick-headed in the way he refused to let Bakugou pull back and give them a short moment to fucking breathe.

Bakugou wanted him too badly, with all the desperation of a starving man being teased with only a the sight of a five star meal.

He wanted too fucking much out of him and his entire being burned with the desire to touch the omega in other ways, to taste the sweaty skin of his neck, the soft skin of his face, his lips.

His fucking lips...

He needed a fucking moment to catch himself or he was going to fucking break.

Of course Todoroki went right ahead and tried to pull him back, but this time Bakugou forced his fingers away from the back of his head and pushed the burning hot hand into the wall behind them. He received the perhaps most expressive look he'd ever seen on Todoroki's face in response to it.

A glare that wasn't really what the other intended it to be. Positively ridiculous with his burning cheeks and darkened eyes. Except, maybe ridiculous wasn't the right word.

"Don't," Todoroki repeated, his wannabe threatening voice a messed up symphony to Bakugou's ears. He sounded entirely too fucking eager and tried to fight his way out of the grip so they could go right back to rubbing themselves against each other like that was all they should be doing for the rest of their lives. Bakugou couldn't decide whether he found that hot or adorable. Probably both.

It took a lot out of him not to go ahead and just continue, all consequences be damned.

"Calm the fuck down for a moment," he said instead, clouded eyes very obviously on his lips when he spoke. He hadn't even noticed how messy his own breathing had become up until now.

"I am calm," Todoroki's usually calm voice replied. Definitely not calm right now.

The initially stale air of the room must have heated up to double the temperature from before. Todoroki looked fucking out of it and Bakugou selfishly enjoyed the sight a little bit too much. He could feel the other's chest heaving violently against his own.

"Just fucking breathe," the alpha instructed.

Todoroki did. Deep but rushed breaths.

For about two minutes, the two of them just stayed like this, and the hand still holding onto the back of Bakugou's pullover didn't allow for even an inch of distance between them, despite the almost unbearable warmth where they were touching. But then Todoroki's breathing evened out slowly, and eventually there was at least a vague sense of recognition in his eyes again.

As the rush of a burning fire and mindless eagerness left them for the most part, the omega's gaze turned into something along the lines of confusion. Dazed and soft. Bakugou could tell because their faces were still that fucking close.

He felt the need to say something, something to reassure the omega that this was fine.

He just wasn't so sure himself, so he tried his best to turn his scent into a source of comfort instead. Another silence passed between them, and he could practically watch the other calm down as he was breathing in his pheromones.

"We," he began eventually, licked his lips, "are probably late for lunch."

It took a moment for the omega to reply.

"Mmh, probably," he agreed dreamily, but made no move to detach himself from Bakugou either. They looked at each other for the hundredth time that day, and Bakugou wondered if just how affected the other was by their little... whatever this even was just now. Bakugou already felt like this entire thing was one hell of a lucid dream, and he wasn't the one who'd been drowned in pheromones here.

"Are you... okay?"

"Mmh," the omega replied, sounding approximately 100% drugged. He wondered for a moment if he'd broken Todoroki. Somehow, accidentally.

"You sure?"

The other nodded his head in confirmation and Bakugou felt utterly fucking helpless at the sight of his eyes closing and yet another purr playing in the back of his throat. He looked like he could just fucking fall asleep right here, like this, caught in between Bakugou and the wall. He sort of wanted him to, but that probably wasn't the best idea.

Because Todoroki definitely needed to get a grip on himself before their afternoon lessons, and if he didn't, that would be entirely on Bakugou. And not fucking easy to explain because betas didn't react to this type of thing so intensely.

Explaining any of this to anyone sounded fucking impossible, really.

"Don't fall asleep," he growled, but it didn't sound half as sharp as he'd meant for it to.

"M'awake, just a little.."

"A little what?"

"Comfortable."

Well, fuck. Bakugou should have fucking expected something along those lines but of course he hadn't. Seeing Todoroki like this was an entirely new level of things he never knew he couldn't handle. Wasn't he supposed to be the best at everything?

"We need to go and get lunch," he said, "we can't spend all our lunch break in the damn janitor closet."

There was no reaction this time, but Bakugou was relatively sure that the other wasn't asleep. Yet.

"Don't just fucking ignore me."

"Alright," the omega confirmed.

"Great," Bakugou added, trying to take a step backwards, only for the other to follow him like this was some damn game.

"You need to let go of my back," Bakugou told him, watched more confusion wash over the pretty face.

"...Oh. Right."

When Todoroki did and the two of them had a little bit of space between them, the lack of warmth was entirely too obvious. Bakugou couldn't tell for how many minutes they had been pressed against each other in the shadowy room. He knew that they both needed to regain a bit of their sanity right now, but that didn't make it any easier to keep his hands to himself.

"Did it help?"

"Did what help?" Bakugou asked, leaning forward to at least push the shirt back into its proper position and cover up some of that distracting skin. Or maybe just fishing for excuses to touch him one more time.

"With your stress and all."

Bakugou took a deep breath and although it was only half true, he said, "Yes."

...

Shouto felt entirely too lightheaded as he followed Bakugou out of the janitor closet. It was reminiscent of the feeling after an exhausting fight, when all the adrenaline was used up and there was only a vague sense of disoriented euphoria left. His thoughts moved slowly, like they were wading through shallow waters, but he still couldn't be bothered to try and catch up to them.

Everything was warmth.

Warmth and lightness and he liked it a little bit too much when Bakugou took a hold of his arm (again), muttering, "we're going to miss lunch if you don't fucking hurry," and pulled him along.

He couldn't tell whether he laughed a little bit at that or just imagined it.

Their walk through the hallways was a blur, and all Shouto could really focus on was the fact that the skin in his neck still tingled with the ghost of their touches. The alpha's scent had his head spinning, spiraling, floating. He barely even realised it when Bakugou sat him down on a bench in the furthest corner of the cafeteria and said something about getting them food.

He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but it didn't seem half bad with the alpha looking after him like this. Unusual and a little strange - but not the unwelcome kind of strange. Shouto rested his head on his folded arms, closing in eyes and breathing in the scent stuck to him.

He only stopped when a short while after that, a finger poked his head and the all too familiar voice of the blonde said, "you can take a damn nap later. Eat something."

A plate of food and a bottle of water were pushed in front of him, and Shouto blinked at both of it, a bit overwhelmed with the concept of time and space.

"Thank you."

Bakugou gave him the weirdest look and the omega smiled at him, fumbling around with his chopsticks before he managed to pick up a piece of steamed vegetable and brought it to his mouth.

They ate in comfortable silence, although perhaps Shouto wasn't the best person to judge that at the moment because everything felt unusually comfortable to him. Even the hard cafeteria chairs. By the time they were done with the meal and the bell was ringing, he didn't feel entirely as detached from the matrix anymore.

Still not entirely there, but clear enough in the head to realise that they needed to walk back to class. He used Bakugou as a lighthouse of sorts, a singular point of focus that allowed him to actually find his way through the school because he was too distracted to do that on his own.

This... really didn't feel the same as wearing Bakugou's clothes.

He tried to keep himself from touching the scent gland on his neck that he was still overly aware of. The skin in that area itched with an unfamiliar urge for more warmth, more touches, more of Bakugou against him.

He took a deep breath, told himself to calm down and find his self control in the middle of all that chaos. He couldn't exactly allow himself to be thinking of what had just happened until school was over and he'd actually have the time and space and mental clarity to come up with any useful thoughts. That thought was what he tried to keep present in his head. He needed to keep it together until then. As together as he managed.

As if reading his mind, Bakugou asked, "Are you going to be okay? You.. look fucking disoriented."

"I'm great," Shouto told him, getting a bit lost in the red of the alpha's eyes for just a moment or two, and he very nearly crashed into another student. Thankfully, Bakugou had pulled him out of his way smoothly and barked an insult at the guy.

"I should not have fucking done that. Fucking hell. You're a mess."

"Done what?" Todoroki asked, not denying the last part because he sort of felt like a mess. He just found it hard to really care a lot about that when Bakugou's scent had him feeling more than just a little bit sedated.

"That," Bakugou replied, pointing at him.

"Me?"

"You don't even - this is my damn fault."

"You're not making any sense," Shouto told him before feeling bad about saying it so freely when the blonde frowned at him, "but that's okay."

"I'm not making sense?!"

"It's okay," Shouto repeated.

"It's not fucking okay. We need to get your brain to function normally or everyone will know that something is up."

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"I'm fucking calling myself stupid," Bakugou nearly shouted. Todoroki didn't exactly understand his frustration.

"Oh but you're not. Just a bit irrational at times."

They shared another look.

"Todoroki. I'll explain this very fucking slowly for you. No one here knows that my scent would affect you like that, so we either need you to act normally or get you to your room, or this is going to be one fucking mess. Or do you feel like explaining this to Aizawa."

Shouto nodded his head, the information sinking in very slowly. Like water through layers upon layers of sand.

"You're right," he agreed eventually, "ah I know."

He walked over to the bathroom, with Bakugou right behind him, asking, "You know what now?"

"I just need to splash some water in my face or something."

"I doubt that's going to solve the fucking problem."

It didn't.. entirely. Face dripping with cold water, and staring into his own reflection, it was painfully obvious that Shouto was a mess. Not exactly in the same way a heat would make a mess out of him, because there was no total blackout or complete loss of all his brain functions. He just felt... elated. Happy, but so very distracted. Unable to sort through the events of the day and push every thought into the right corner. It felt like his head was a very messy bedroom and a large part of himself was asleep on the metaphorical bed, not really bothered by any of it.

He'd never been scent marked before...

And then it hit him, that this was what they'd been doing.

In the middle of it all, he hadn't really asked himself that question.

Shouto knew that some friends would do that - for comfort or to show belonging, mostly - but those were usually very close friends. Did it always feel like that? How close were they exactly?

He couldn't help but wonder.

Shouto looked at Bakugou, wiping his face with a paper towel.

"You... scent marked me."

"Did you only just notice that five seconds ago, Icyhot."

"..."

"Maybe you should go to your room and take a nap or something," Bakugou offered, but Shouto found himself shaking his head.

"I just missed class a little while ago and the exams aren't far away."

Bakugou glared at him for a long moment, arms crossed, before he said, "fine. Your fucking decision."

Shouto noticed the way Backugou stuck close to him on their way to class, but didn't comment on it and he honestly had no complaints either.

Chapter Text

Theory lessons were definitely not his favorite, but in this particular case, Shouto was more than glad to hear Aizawa go on and on about how they all needed to get better at using their brains rather than just their quirks. Which essentially meant: no fighting or rescue training today. Instead, they were talking about safety measures, the correct planning of a mission, and the best ways to figure out a villain's weaknesses as fast as possible when improvisation was needed.

Most of it was repetition, and that was a very good thing.

Because his brain was currently not functioning very well, and he seriously wasn't so sure that he would have been able to absorb any new information. Even just keeping his eyes open and himself relatively present felt like too big of a task to handle.

The omega was going back and forth between feeling warm and cold. Emotionally rather than physically, but it was sometimes hard for him to entirely separate both; one just seemed to bleed into the other for him.

His skin felt utterly warm when he thought about what had happened; how he'd been caged in that little space between the wall and Bakugou. If there was an opposite to claustrophobia, Shouto was pretty sure he had experienced that today. It had been nice... Shockingly nice. He recalled the sensation with almost too much clarity, and it had his heart rate picking up all over again, which was more than a little concerning.

They'd been so close.

It had felt different than anything he knew.

He stared at his fingers for a moment, remembered the way he'd entangled them with spiky blonde hair. Felt a little cold when he looked at the back of Bakugou's head from across the room, so incredibly aware of the distance between them now.

And then warmth flowed through him again just seconds later when he pulled the collar of his shirt up to his nose to take in as much of the alpha's scent as possible, trying to be discrete about it.

Although it should be enough, a foreign part of him just demanded more, more and more. The scent surrounded him, was caught up in his hair, his clothes, his mind; it was undeniably the strongest where Bakugou had rubbed their scent glands together so... nicely.

There we so many things going on inside of him that Shouto could only really categorise it as a nice feeling for now; the nuances were still in the process of making themselves known. But despite Shouto's confusion, one thing was for sure; his body was reacting to it all.

Strongly.

He had to hold himself back from purring at the sweet but smoky scent, and that was new. Not entirely new - he'd found himself doing that a few times when he was younger, but had quickly realised that his father didn't appreciate such omega-like behaviors one bit.

He wondered if Bakugou had minded that.

Somehow, he naively hoped that the blonde hadn't. He hadn't said anything about it, had he?

But..

Shouto took a shaky breath, feeling out of it as he replayed the events in his head yet again, trying to figure the answer out. He wasn't so sure though, because while some moments were crystal clear, others were blurry. Like trying to remember a movie when you spent half of it dozing off.

Shouto couldn't even decide whether he felt hot or cold when he ran his fingers absentmindedly across his scent gland, wishing it weren't his own. A little bit of both, perhaps.

Truthfully, the harder he tried to make sense of his own reactions, the less sense it all made. He'd allowed himself to be so thoughtless for a few minutes, so careless and instinct driven that it was almost terrifying, looking back. Not only had he bared his neck to the alpha, he'd also been much, much pushier than he knew himself to be. Needier.

His hands had moved on their own when he'd pulled Bakugou against him, without conscious thought or any idea what he was doing and why. It had just felt... right. Like something that had been overdue all along.

Like the exact type of thing Shouto wasn't supposed to enjoy.

If Bakugou hadn't stopped them, Shouto would still be holding him hostage right there in that janitor closet, unwilling to let go. The omega had no doubt about it. Because something inside of him had snapped, and the feelings had been so loud. Loud and insistent and... urgent. Impossible to just shove aside.

He'd given in, and he wasn't sure what to make of it.

There was something ironic about Bakugou of all people being the voice of reason in that situation, he couldn't help but think.

But then again, Bakugou was reliable. Hot-headed and reckless, but intelligent. More caring than he portrayed himself to be. There were reasons why his scent and his presence calmed Shouto down, and though following his instincts was scary and new to him, he hadn't really been scared in that moment.

Just surprised. With Bakugou, with himself, and with the fact that it had happened on this day of all days...

After Shouto had forced himself not to put on Bakugou's hoodie in the morning, just hours before.

He'd been feeling... weirdly aware of the lack of a scent on him all morning. In just a few days, the omega had become so used to the knowledge that he could wrap himself up in the dark orange fabric anytime he felt the urge to. Whenever he was nervous, or felt out of place... Sometimes without a real reason he could pinpoint.

There had been an actual sense of panic when he'd realised that he couldn't wear it every day.

But of course he'd tried to ignore that panic. Ignoring the irrational urges that came with his secondary gender was something he was good at; though something he used to be better at.

Sitting in the back of the classroom, distracted by the instincts raging inside of him, he really didn't feel quite so in control anymore.

Not at all.

Shouto hadn't even managed to convince himself that the hoodie needed to be washed. Rationally, that would have been the simplest course of action. He just hadn't been able to go through with it, knowing that the alpha's scent would be gone, replaced with meaningless odor of laundry detergent; so the piece of clothing was currently folded up underneath his pillow, in his bed.

But there was no way the alpha knew about that...

Which left him wondering if maybe it had been obvious that he'd accidentally brushed against Bakugou a little bit more than usual during breakfast and on their way to class, and maybe that was what had stressed the alpha out? The pull to be closer to him was just so there.

The moments of closeness had been too good.

He almost felt bad for enjoying it all so much when perhaps, to the alpha, it had been just that; A way to get rid of his stress. Whether or not Shouto had been the cause of that stress.

And then it hit the omega that he'd probably reversed the calming effect of their scent marking by reacting so strongly and essentially forcing the alpha to look after him...

He didn't like the thought of that, closed his eyes for a bit and focused only on the scent that seemed to work like an antidote to the anxiety that threatened to rise up in him. Breathing in and out, he told himself that it was fine. That no one had noticed. That Bakugou wasn't going to hate him for losing control like that and making such a mess out of everything.

Probably.

"Uh Todoroki are you alright?"

The familiar line brought him back to reality a while later.

The omega looked up to find Midoriya standing beside his desk, his gaze concerned and a shy sort of smile on his face. Shouto looked around the room, confused for a moment before he realised that the lesson was already over and everyone was in the process of packing up their things. It hadn't exactly felt like that much time had passed, really.

Predictably, he'd managed to focus on absolutely none of the topics they'd discussed in class.

He took a deep breath and ignored the urge to look for the alpha. Because Bakugou wasn't sitting at his desk anymore... Which was fine; it wasn't like he needed to spend every second of the day around Todoroki or anything. And maybe if he was mad about what had happened, then a bit of time to think would actually be a good thing.

"I'm fine," he said, because he was. Mostly. When he received a more concerned look in response, he added, "just little bit lost in thought."

"Are you.. I mean. Uh, Kacchan hasn't done anything stupid again, right?"

The omega blinked at him, a bit caught off guard by how Midoriya would automatically assume this had something to do with Bakugou. Not that he was wrong, but the beta sometimes seemed to read him a little too well.

"No, he hasn't," he denied, "It's really fine."

"Alright... just - you know that you can always tell me about things that bother you, right?" Midoriya asked and Shouto found himself feeling a little bit guilty about all the things going on in his life that he couldn't tell his friend about. He hoped that his inner struggles weren't too obvious.

Thankfully, Midoriya's focus shifted to the empty sheet of paper on his desk, and the omega quickly collected his things, not really wanting to elaborate on why he had taken absolutely no notes.

"I know," he confirmed, "but the same goes for you. You look a little tired actually."

"I.. uh. Yeah. It's sort of embarrassing but I was stressed about the exams so I spent the entire night sort of... watching old All Might videos until 4 in the morning to calm myself down."

"How is that embarrassing?" Shouto found himself asking, trying his best to stay focused on this conversation instead of letting his thoughts and eyes drift in other directions.

"I've seen all of them at least a hundred times before and spoke along with all his lines."

"Oh."

"And then I got sentimental and his smile made me cry."

There was a moment of silence and Midoriya looked uncomfortable, like he'd said more than he'd meant to.

".... Oh. I think I get it?"

"You do?" the smaller of the two asked with hopeful eyes.

Shouto didn't really get it (he did get the crying part, but not how that happened in response to All Might's smile), but he tried to sound understanding and supportive when he said, "Maybe you needed that. Things get overwhelming and everyone has their own ways to let it all out."

Like scent marking someone in a janitor closet for example, he finished in his head and looked around once more to confirm that yes, Bakugou had already left the room. He tried to keep a frown off his face but something inside of him yelled at him to go and find the alpha and do what he wasn't supposed to do; ask him questions.

He had so many things to clarify.

To apologise for.

The two of them proceeded to walk towards the door, and Midoriya started telling him about that one particular video that he'd talked about at least twenty times before, when his rambling was interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt but I just have to ask."

Both of them turned toward Mina, and there was something vaguely threatening about the grin on her face. Jirou and Yaoyorozu stood beside the alpha girl, all three of them looking at Shouto like he had something on his face.

"Mina," Yaoyorozu said, as if to stop her, her face a little red. Shouto had absolutely no clue what was going on now.

"So, the janitor closet, huh?"

"Janitor closet?" Midoriya asked, sounding more than a little confused.

"Oh," Shouto managed to say.

"Mina, you're invading their privacy."

"They aren't exactly subtle about it," Jirou argued.

"But.."

"Just, give us some details, Todoroki?"

"Details?" Shouto repeated the word. It tasted strange on his tongue, like he'd never used it before.

"Oh, come on. You know, the good stuff. Not like I can get a word about it out of Mr 'I'll kill all of you'."

Shouto felt like they were speaking another language entirely, but just the fact that someone had apparently seen the alpha dragging him into that dark, empty room had his face feeling a little warm.

"We just... talked, about something," he lied, but his voice came out a lot less smooth than usual.

"As if."

"Uh," Shouto said and all his muscles stiffened suddenly when there was a low growl right behind him. The anger in Bakugou's scent nearly forced a pitiful noise out of his mouth, and he pressed his teeth tightly together to keep himself from whimpering.

And then he was pulled backwards, watching in a daze as the alpha moved to stand between him and the girls.

"You really have a fucking death wish, Alien? Because if you say one more fucking word I swear I'll end you."

"Maybe don't sneak away to make out during lunch break if you don't want people to notice," Mina said, sounding more amused by the threat than anything while the other two just looked uncomfortable.

"Shut up!"

"What, it's not exactly a secret that you're totally in-"

Bakugou growled and Shouto hardly had any time to register it as angry sparks danced around his fingers. He had his hands on strong arms just as the alpha was about to move forward and was barely able to keep him from lunging at her.

"Kacchan, calm down!"

"Shut it, Deku. And Icyhot, you get your hands off me right now, she deserves a fucking punch in the face."

"She didn't do anything," Shouto said, tone clipped.

"Yeah I didn't."

"Shut up!"

Shouto's hands tightened on the alpha's arms when the angry pheromones were nearly enough to knock him out, but he wasn't entirely sure whether or not Bakugou got the message.

He wasn't entirely sure why the blonde was that angry over a few weird comments either.

"I told you not to be too invasive," Yaoyorozu sighed, pulling the pink girl to the side.

"He's just overreacting."

"Like shit am I overreacting!"

"Bakugou," the omega repeated, his voice pleading. He nearly lost his balance when the alpha stopped struggling in his hold a second later.

"Fine," Bakugou spat the word out, "Fuck all of you."

And for the third time that day, Shouto found himself with a hand wrapped tightly around his arm, being pulled out of the room by the alpha. He waved apologetically at Midoriya, who looked more than just a bit overwhelmed with the events of the last two minutes. Shouto couldn't really blame him, because the entire day felt like one long row of one overwhelming thing following the next.

Bakugou still smelled furious as he guided them through the hallway with fast steps, and the hold he had on Shouto's arm felt like it was preventing his blood from flowing through his veins normally. He barely managed to keep up with the alpha; it was as if he was incapable of summoning enough concentration to really block out the vibrating anger in his scent.

"That hurts," Shouto said quietly, not sure whether he meant the tight hold or the pheromones.

At the words, the alpha finally turned around to look at him, anger giving way to shock as he let go of Shouto's arm and stared at the red spot his fingers had left behind.

"Fuck," he nearly whispered, "fuck. I'm sorry, I- shit."

Shouto tilted his head at the array of curses, "It's fine."

"No, it fucking isn't. God I want to punch her in the face. And myself."

"She didn't really do anything."

"She was talking about shit that doesn't concern her and making you uncomfortable," the alpha hissed, still looking at Shouto's arm, brows furrowed.

"Ah, yeah, it.. wasn't exactly comfortable," he agreed.

"And I fucking made it worse."

"What?" Shouto asked, confused.

"I hurt you."

"This is nothing," he said, raising his arm to look at it, "just a small bruise."

"Don't fucking say that like it's nothing."

"You do realise that we both get multiple worse ones every time we train together?"

"It's fucking different."

"No it isn't," Shouto replied. The last thing he wanted was to make the alpha feel guilty about something so small. If anything, he just wanted a moment of peace for the both of them. And really, he felt like he was the one out of them who deserved to feel guilty.

Bakugou glared at him, but it didn't exactly look like the angry kind anymore.

"Let's just get you to your room," he said instead of continuing the argument, and when the two of them started walking, asked, "are you okay?"

The omega nodded softly, "Just a little overwhelmed, really. I didn't mean to, uh. Earlier. I don't know how that happened, I'm -"

"Don't you fucking dare to apologise, I put you in that situation and it was fucking selfish."

They walked in silence for a bit as Shouto tried to figure out what the alpha meant. He couldn't really understand though, so he eventually asked.

"How so?"

"How the fuck was it not."

The omega looked at Bakugou, and wondered if it was a rhetorical question or not. He asked himself whether the other was just accompanying him on the way to his room or whether Shouto could get him to stay with him for a bit. Even if they just sat there in silence, that would be completely fine; he just dreaded the idea of being alone with all of this stuff he needed to think about.

Which was yet another thing that worried him; maybe he shouldn't hope for that. He should be capable of dealing with his own issues after all, he'd done that for years.

Once more, Shouto stayed quiet, stealing glances at the alpha every now and then.

"But everything is fine now, isn't it?" he asked as they approached the door to his room.

"Right, everything is just fucking great."

"It doesn't sound so great. You sound annoyed."

"Because those idiots fucking saw us and if anyone noticed the way you were acting after that and they start asking more fucking questions and figure anything out then you're - fuck. And it's my damn fault."

Shouto looked at him for a few seconds, but Bakugou seemed unable to meet his eyes and he wasn't so sure he'd ever heard the alpha's voice sounding this worried over something.

"They just think we were making out in there," Shouto supplied.

Something about that statement had Bakugou meeting his eyes; his gaze was so intense that this time the omega was the one who had to look away.

"How the hell is that any better."

"Oh, well... because we... weren't?"

"I fucking know that we weren't."

"But they're distracted by that idea," Shouto explained, not sure whether his thought process made much sense or why he'd opened his mouth in the first place, but now he felt like he couldn't stop speaking, his heart beating loudly in his chest. "And if anyone thought I was acting weird after that they'll just..." he trailed off, remembering that one particular dream he'd had. He was a bit afraid of setting his clothes on fire accidentally when he made the mistake of looking at Bakugou's lips as he spoke.

"They'll just what, Icyhot."

"... assume that you're very good at - uh. Doing that."

They were both very silent for a few very long seconds.

"You're still fucking out of your mind, aren't you?"

"Huh."

"What I mean is, maybe you should really take a nap or something."

Shouto looked at him, trying to keep himself from frowning in something that resembled disappointment, "Do you - I mean. Ah. Never mind."

"Spit it out," the alpha challenged.

"No."

"Icyhot, just say whatever the fuck you need to say."

Shouto looked at him, opened his door, scared of asking for too much. But Bakugou looked as stubborn as always, and the omega sighed in defeat after a few seconds of staring each other down.

"Just, do you have a few minutes?"

"A few minutes."

"To just... I don't know. Sit and talk," he elaborated awkwardly.

"Fine."

That one word should probably not make him feel quite so elated, but Shouto still felt like he'd won the lottery as he walked into his room, all too aware of the steps behind him. He walked straight to his bed, and allowed himself to let his back sink into the mattress. Another sigh left his lips at the softness of the surface and he stared up at the ceiling before raising his head a little to look at the alpha.

Bakugou stood in the middle of the room, looking at Shouto like he was scared of him. It was so absurd that the omega couldn't stop a quiet laugh from falling from his lips, the nervous kind.

"The hell is so funny to you."

"I don't know," Shouto confessed, "why are you just standing there?"

"Where else would I be standing."

Shouto pointed at the space beside him.

Apparently it took the alpha moment to get it, and when he did, Bakugou looked like he was about to yell and storm out of the room. But instead, the alpha followed the silent command, sitting down on the bed with as much space between them as he could manage and folding his arms.

"You are mad at me," Shouto said, mostly to himself.

"I'm not fucking mad at you, get that shit out of your head."

"Still stressed, then?" the omega couldn't help but ask, turning to lay on his side.

Red eyes were on him, unreadable, and the blonde didn't say anything. Shouto wished he was sitting a little closer to him, and his fingers ghosted over his scent gland again before he even noticed he was doing it; the skin still felt utterly sensitive, and he closed his eyes.

He wondered if it felt like that for the alpha as well.

When he reopened his eyes, he found the alpha watching him intently and Shouto felt the urge to say something and fill the suddenly tense silence between them.

"Did I do it wrong?"

He watched the alpha swallow, focused on the movement of his throat.

"What are you talking about."

"The scent marking. I've just never..."

"Shut up."

He did, up until Bakugou said, "why the hell would you think that? You did great, a little too fucking great."

The words did something funny to Shouto's chest; he felt a stutter in his heartbeat.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh," Bakugou confirmed, sounding annoyed.

"You too."

"What."

"I liked that," Shouto admitted, sitting up and looking Bakugou in the eyes with every bit of sincerity and bravery he could muster, "more than I should."

And it really did hit him how much he'd liked it. Like a brick in the face.

And all of a sudden, he was terrified.

"Don't say shit like that."

"Why not?"

"Because you're an idiot and you don't even know what you're saying, Icyhot," the alpha told him, but the insult clashed with his next actions. Before the omega really knew what was happening, he was pulled forward, into a hard chest. He failed to notice anything other than the strength in Bakugou's arms, how he'd managed to pull him over there so effortlessly.

Shouto exhaled weakly, arms hanging uselessly at his sides as his brain made sense of the situation.

Bakugou was hugging him.

Of his own free will.

The realisation felt more than just a little unreal. He pushed himself into the alpha, loving his warmth and his scent and how both of it enveloped him so suddenly; how Bakugou's arms only tightened when he moved closer to him.

Shouto wanted to stay in this moment forever, because chances were this wasn't going to happen ever again, and he had no idea what he'd done to deserve it in the first place.

But he liked this, so much that he didn't even understand why his body started shaking in the alpha's arms as his breathing became uneven.

He only realised that he was crying when hot tears were already running down his cheeks, probably soaking Bakugou's shirt.

He couldn't stop them.

Shouto hadn't even noticed how torn he'd been, giving into something that he'd been told all his life he wasn't allowed to, and enjoying it. Allowing himself to depend on someone else for comfort. The last time he'd done that was with his mother, and she'd suffered for it. Both of them had; he vaguely remembered the feeling when she'd been taken to the hospital, and he'd been left with only his father and the knowledge that he was responsible for it all.

It made him all too aware of how he was conditioned to expect pain whenever he allowed himself to follow his instincts.

Of the fact that he'd been waiting for some sort of inevitable punishment for his actions - but instead he got this moment, and it was everything he hadn't expected.

And somehow, his body had chosen to ruin it all by letting the entire mess of emotions flow out of him in a tidal wave of heavy sobs. He felt the alpha stiffening up against him, but his hold didn't loosen.

"Hey. What's wrong?"

Bakugou sounded breathless, and Shouto still wasn't entirely used to the fact that his voice could be so quiet, bordering on soft.

No screaming.

He tried to take a breath.

Of all the answers Shouto could have given him, somehow the one that tumbled from his lips was a desperate, "I'm sorry," although he wasn't even sure what he was apologising for precisely; his strange behavior, the disgusting crying, the fact that he never wanted his hug to end?

Or maybe the fact that he'd dragged Bakugou into his entire mess.

And the closer they became, the more it felt like he was putting the weight of his own problems on the alpha's shoulders.

Because he was an omega.

Not born to be independent or strong - that's why he'd been taught to compensate for his shortcomings after all - and he was failing in just about every way he could think of. Because no matter how hard he tried to prove to himself that he was fine like this, he still couldn't change the feelings and instincts he was born with, or the very human but horrible need to seek out things that felt right.

But he'd been told that they weren't right - not for him.

It was a mess.

Another wave of tears flooded his eyes, and it was scary how he felt entirely unable to stop himself from breaking down in front of the alpha, walls crumbling. It was scary because Bakugou didn't tell him to stop, didn't push him away and leave. Didn't yell or blame him. He was warm, close and present.

And Shouto didn't feel like he deserved any of that.

...

Bakugou had no fucking clue what was going on.

All he knew was that he was more overwhelmed than he'd been in a long fucking while. And that meant something, because the morning had been the definition of the term 'overwhelming.' But now he found himself with a sobbing omega in his arms, and he seriously couldn't say how it had even come to this.

He really just hoped that it wasn't because he'd gone ahead and pulled Todoroki into his arms, unable to stop himself.

That their hug was the reason for the breakdown wouldn't make much sense however, not after the other had specifically told him how much he'd liked the scent marking...

And yet, he'd started crying just seconds after Bakugou had reached out. Maybe he'd fucked up worse than he'd thought. Because he had fucked up, multiple times and the day wasn't even over.

But whatever the exact reason was, Bakugou mostly needed to figure out what to do about it.

He had never been good with crying people; witnessing someone in tears either fueled his desire to get the hell out of the situation or tell that person to just get the fuck over it.

But this was different.

Because it was Todoroki, and for some fucked up reason, Bakugou had apparently just assumed that the omega didn't cry. Ever. Which made no damn sense and maybe he hadn't even really thought that - maybe it was precisely that he couldn't handle the thought, the sight, the feeling of him breaking down like this. And in front of him, no less.

But here they were, pressed against each other again, and Bakugou could feel the tears as they soaked the front of his shirt.

And like every fucking time when he didn't need to, Todoroki was apologising. It had the alpha wondering whether there was a damn thing in the world that the omega didn't feel guilty for.

He frowned as he looked down at the mess of a person in his arms.

Unsure what else he could possibly do, Bakugou worked with what he knew he could offer; he tried his best to lend a comforting quality to his scent, not that he really had to try. Because his instincts naturally had him softening the edges of his scent, and his hands were steady on the other's back despite his feelings of helplessness and inadequacy. He was trying his best to convey a sense of safety, as much of it as he could.

To offer whatever it was that the omega needed from him, and he had no fucking clue what that was.

But the tears just didn't seem to stop.

After what felt like half an eternity of just sitting there and freaking out because he fucking needed to do something, Bakugou grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him away just far enough for their eyes to meet. The white of Todoroki's eyes was stained with red hues, and he looked more human than Bakugou had ever seen him. Not at all perfect like usually; with his running nose and his mouth opened in hiccuped breaths, he looked younger, not like the composed hero with freakish powers who stayed calm even in front of villains.

"Hey," Bakugou said, not trusting himself with this but going ahead anyway. He felt like he was trying to look after something so delicate when he'd only ever been good at breaking things, at explosions and condescending words and physical threats.

But fuck, he was going to try his damned best to support him.

"'m sorry," the omega repeated, whispering the words like they were his own personal lifeline. His eyes were downcast, refusing to meet Bakugou's and as far as the blonde could tell, he was there only physically. Lost in whatever thoughts were running through his mind.

So maybe trying to pull him back into reality was a good start.

"Todoroki," he said, but the omega didn't react, didn't even look at him, and continued to breathe unevenly, wrecked by sobs.

The alpha moved one of his hands up towards his jaw, placing his palm on wet skin.

Bakugou looked at him for another moment, waited for a reaction.

There was none.

"Shouto," he nearly whispered his first name, and the younger boy didn't fight him when Bakugou used his hold on his jaw to make him raise his head and look up at him. When their eyes met, Bakugou didn't know what to do with the entirety of the emotions he saw in the mismatched eyes.

"Sorry," Todoroki repeated.

"Don't fucking - don't say that. It's okay. Just breathe for a moment," Bakugou told him. It wasn't like he had no experience with panic attacks (and this was honestly starting to look like one), but there was a big difference between telling himself to snap out of it and telling someone else to. Bakugou was strict with himself, and he usually broke out of those by yelling. Either at himself in his head, or out loud. Sometimes by punching something.

No way in hell was he going to yell at the omega though.

Todoroki nodded his head, eyes closed. The alpha used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe his nose, too focused on the task at hand to even feel disgusted by that. He tried to keep his voice calm, much calmer than he actually felt.

"Okay. Breathe in through your nose. Like this," he instructed, and took a deep breath.

Todoroki copied him, although his intake of breath was much less steady and a whole lot more pitiful.

"Great," the alpha said, waited for two more seconds, "and out."

The omega obviously struggled with the first few attempts, coughing in between breaths and failing to inhale deeply. But they did that for a few minutes, and after a while there was a noticeable change. Bakugou felt his own stress levels sinking by the time they just sat there, breathing together in the silence of the room.

"Better?" He eventually dared to ask.

"Yes," the omega confirmed, voice strained. He reopened his eyes and looked at Bakugou for a long moment, "I'm sorry, that was. Uncalled for."

"Uncalled for? Are you serious."

"I mean, I messed up, I didn't mean to-"

"Stop right there. You don't need to explain yourself right now. Just, fuck. Keep breathing. You're still shaking."

"Ah," Todoroki said, wiping at his eyes and it sounded like he was going to say more, but nothing else came out of his mouth. Bakugou couldn't help eyeing him like a hawk, too aware of every little sign of distress on him.

"Can I," the alpha began, but wasn't sure how to even ask, "do anything? Do you want anything to drink or eat, or like. I don't know. To be alone, or to lay down, or to just sit here."

Another look was the only response he received at first, mismatched eyes surrounded by shadows and metaphorical question marks in them.

"I don't want want to," Todoroki said, but his words trailed off just as his eyes focused on the floor again.

"Huh?"

"To be alone," he finished and something about the way he said that shattered Bakugou's heart into a million pieces. His hand tightened on the other's shoulder.

"Then I'm not going anywhere," he confirmed.

He received the weakest excuse for a smile.

"Thanks."

They just sat there for another few minutes, and Bakugou simultaneously wanted to pull the other closer to him and warm him up because he felt fucking freezing, but he also had no desire to freak him out by doing that.

Eventually, when it didn't even look like Todoroki had the energy to sit straight anymore, he decided to ask, "You want to lay down?"

"Mmh."

It sounded like something between agreement and disagreement, and the omega looked at his chest, as if lost in thought.

"No?"

"Can you.." he started, turned away again, and looked at the bed.

"Can I what," Bakugou asked, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice. Because he was pretty fucking sure he could, whatever it was that the other would ask for. He really just needed to know what the fuck he was supposed to do at this point. Because his instincts had a knife against his throat, and Todoroki could probably ask him for the most ridiculous and impossible things and Bakugou would fucking try to do that for him.

Really, he was fucking terrified by the sadness he'd seen in the omega's eyes.

"Lay down with me?"

Bakugou's breathing stopped for a moment and yet again, the omega refused to meet his eyes. He looked back and forth between the bed and Todoroki, who was lacking all the indifference he usually conveyed so easily.

"With you?" Bakugou asked him, feeling the need to clarify this because maybe he was fucking imagining things at this point. Maybe he was having some sort of mental breakdown too.

"Sorry, that was a stupid thing to ask for."

"Icyhot. Can you stop it with the self-deprecation for one damn moment."

"Huh?"

He took a deep breath, "It's just, it's fine. I asked you what you needed, so how the hell is it stupid for you to give me an answer. Just lay down."

"You're right," Todoroki agreed, but it didn't sound like he was entirely convinced. But it wasn't like Bakugou was going to force that realisation into his head now; he probably couldn't even if he tried.

He loosened his hold on the omega and watched, transfixed, as he let himself sink down, red and white hair meeting a soft pillow. Knowing that the omega wanted him by his side was both wonderful and torturous. The blonde didn't even have a clue what he was supposed to do; just lay down beside him? He didn't know how much space the other wanted between them, if it was really okay for the two of them to just share a bed like this when Bakugou was obviously fucking obsessed with him and Todoroki was most likely just looking for comfort.

But there was no way he could go back on his statement either, and what little ability Bakugou had to comfort someone, he was going to use.

He opted for a bit of space between them, and tried to breathe normally and keep his heart from hammering against his ribcage when he laid down. It was mildly successful. Because he was on Todoroki's bed. Which was totally normal and not a reason to freak out, especially not when he saw something familiar beneath the fluffy white pillow.

Except, that freaked him out a little.

Mostly in a positive way, except... it fucking confused him. Because why was his hoodie in Todoroki's bed? It was fucking concerning how much his inner alpha immediately jumped in joy at the thought of the omega, falling asleep to his scent at night.

But he couldn't afford to get lost in that thought for now.

Because the bed wasn't exactly large and their arms were touching, and Todoroki's skin was still so cold that it really fucking worried him.

He pulled the blanket out from underneath them, and wrapped the omega up in it. Todoroki watched him as he did that, finally looking a little more like himself.

"Since when are you so great at this?" he asked, sounding sleepy, his head poking out from beneath the blanket.

"Great at what?" Bakugou asked, not using his usual 'I'm great at everything' line. The question had sounded too sincere for that.

"..."

The alpha sighed at the lack of a response, and laid back down beside the other, confused for a moment when he felt the weight of the blanket on top of his own body and half-ready to yell at Icyhot that he needed all the warmth he could get to himself.

But when he turned to his side to catch a glimpse of Todoroki's face, his words got stuck in his throat.

The bed really was fucking small, and Bakugou had never expected to find himself in this situation, ever. With Todoroki right beside him, eyes closed and half of his head disappearing in his pillow. He looked soft, comfortable - like whatever thoughts had been plaguing him were finally quieter now.

How the hell someone who was this fucking beautiful wanted Bakugou in his bed, that was a damn mystery. Not that he was going to complain.

He'd reached out before he knew it, combing his fingers through soft hair and taking a sharp breath when it had the omega opening his eyes, staring at him.

"Thank you," he said, voice muffled by the pillow and shifting just a little bit closer into the touch. Bakugou's hand stilled for a moment before he continued on.

He had no way to tell how many minutes it took for Todoroki to fall asleep, but Bakugou was still playing around with his hair even after the omega's breathing had begun to even out. He wondered if this was his cue to get out of the room, but the thought didn't sit right with him, of course.

Especially when Todoroki shifted closer to him in his sleep.

In that moment he knew that he wasn't going to leave the room until he was explicitly told to. And although the alpha had never been the type to take naps during the day, he eventually felt his own eyes get heavier. His fingers stopped moving, but his hand remained where it was, and the last thought he had before drifting into sleep was that Todoroki didn't feel quite so cold anymore.

Chapter Text

Shouto woke up slowly, without the shrill noise of an alarm clock or the slightest idea what time it was. Everything felt cozy and he wasn't conscious enough yet to even decide what it was that had woken him up.

All he knew was that his bed smelled particularly nice.

He shifted a little, pushed his head into the pillow and rubbed his face into the soft fabric, heard himself let out a sleep-drunk kind of sigh.

It took him another few moments to register the weight of something on his shoulder. It wasn't an annoying kind of sensation; the pressure resembled the feeling of being wrapped up in an extra heavy blanket in the winter months, pushing him down into the mattress.

Except, this wasn't a blanket and it wasn't winter.

He wasn't alarmed by that realisation though. Everything just felt so nice that he could probably go back to sleep within a few minutes if he kept his eyes shut.

Shouto vaguely registered the fact that he'd started purring at some point (perhaps in his sleep?), so softly that it was almost inaudible. But he could feel the telltale vibration in his chest with each exhale, and he couldn't remember the last time he'd woken up feeling quite so good in his own skin. That was surprising, especially considering that he wasn't used to sharing his bed...

Shouto stopped his thought right there, finally awake enough to question the situation. He shifted carefully, and froze when his back was met with resistance, confirming that yes, there was a warm chest right behind him.

Shouto opened his eyes in surprise, and there went the possibility of just going back to sleep, blissfully unaware. He blinked at the darkness of the room that stretched out in front of him, and tried to keep himself from freaking out. The first thing he could see in the dim light was a hand resting on the mattress just below his head. A strong arm that he recognised all too well was slung over his shoulder, caging him.

Very obviously not a blanket.

He moved slowly, but his heart was doing just the opposite, beating and beating. Wildly. So hard that it might just fall out of his chest at any moment.

The scent really said it all; there was no need to question who was sharing the bed with him.

But that wasn't enough - he wanted to see it with his own eyes, to confirm to himself that this was happening. That his subconscious wasn't playing a trick on him and he wasn't still asleep, having another one of those realistic dreams that somehow always involved Bakugou.

He tried his hardest to keep his breathing even as his right shoulder brushed against Bakugou's chest and Shouto ignored the fact that, even through their clothes, he could feel a hint of his muscles. For a moment he imagined them, in the same situation but not wearing their daytime clothes... he tried not to read too much into that thought. Wasn't even sure where it had come from, honestly.

He'd just woken up, so he was allowed to have some weird thoughts. Probably.

Shouto couldn't say why he was taking the risk of waking the alpha up by moving around (in slow motion, because he was trying to prevent that scenario) just to catch a glimpse of his face, but he couldn't just lie there with his back turned towards him. Seeing him for a moment was going to be enough. Just to burn the image into his head and remember that this was an actual thing that happened at some point in his life.

Him, waking up in Bakugou's arms. Sharing one blanket. Sharing warmth. It was hard to grasp how natural that felt, or why exactly this moment felt so important to him.

The room was silent, except for the even breaths the alpha was taking. Shouto couldn't recall seeing Bakugou asleep, ever, and he had the feeling that the alpha wasn't the type to fall asleep around people.

He was too high-strung in social situations, unlike Shouto who could fall asleep pretty much anywhere, sometimes too easily.

He felt like this was a type of privilege that most people didn't have.

By the time the omega had managed to position himself on his back without waking the other up, Bakugou's hold on him tightened and he found his cold side pressed against a warm chest. The alpha's hand was on his other shoulder, fingers resting loosely on his clothes. His skin picked up on the contact, even through the fabric. Shouto counted to three in his head, told himself that he needed to calm down. That this was a sure sign that the alpha was asleep, because he would absolutely not act this was if he wasn't.

He waited a little longer though, just to be sure.

Shouto couldn't pinpoint what he felt when his eyes settled on the alpha's face as he craned his neck to look at him.

What little light fell into the room through the window cast soft shadows on the alpha's face. Shouto took note of the fact that, even asleep, there was a certain tension in his features. Maybe Bakugou just glared at people so much that this actually was a sort of default expression by now. Although, there was a difference; his lips weren't in such a tight line as usual and his eyebrows weren't pulled up in agitation or anger.

Maybe a moment wasn't going to cut it.

It wasn't very often that Shouto had a chance to look at Bakugou so closely. Mostly, he looked at him from across the room or for relatively brief moments during conversations. Never without anything going on in the background, or without some sort of banter happening between the two of them. He was never close enough to really focus on the curve of his blonde eye lashes or the soft shadows at the corners of his lips.

Shouto felt the strangest urge to run his fingers across Bakugou's lips. They looked nice; neither dry nor overly soft. Probably just right, although he refused to think about what they were just right for...

There was no need to touch them; the only two options were that, yes, maybe they would feel just right, or maybe they wouldn't. In either case, what would he do with that information, really? He'd never given that much thought to anyone's lips before he'd discovered his fascination with Bakugou's, and it was probably a weird thing to obsess over.

For a friend.

He kept staring at them though, half expecting Bakugou to wake up, notice it, and call him creepy.

After a while, the alpha shifted again, somehow still trying to pull Shouto closer as though he was a pillow that just wasn't properly positioned. It was only when the side of his head was pulled against the alpha's collarbone, his shoulder and arm squeezed tightly between the both of them, that Shouto suddenly asked himself the most obvious question.

Why were they in this position again?

He hadn't even thought about any of it, too stunned by the fact that they were, in fact, in this position.

But now it all came back to him almost a bit too quickly. Starting with the events of the morning and leading all the way up to his complete breakdown in the late afternoon. A sudden sense of shame overcame him when he realised the position he'd forced the other into by acting this way. How pathetic he must have seemed, crying and shaking and not even getting any explanation out in-between the sobs.

He didn't get it.

Why Bakugou of all people had allowed him to soak his shirt in tears, why he'd sacrificed his free time to look after him. And why, after all of that, Bakugou had agreed to lie down beside him, and stayed long enough to fall asleep right here, like this. Instead of waiting Shouto to fall asleep and then leaving.

Of the thousand questions Shouto had, there was one thing in particular that he was reluctant to think about.

One that wasn't even exactly a question.

There was a strange feeling in his stomach, the type that maybe wasn't entirely physical, but undeniably there. Shouto wondered why, despite everything, the loudest emotion in him wasn't shame or mortification. In their place, there was a strong sense of gratitude that was hard to put into words.

Something warm, fluttering. Too foreign for him to name it, or even dare to try. Too present to be ignored.

He didn't know what to do with the feeling, and focused instead on how thankful he felt.

Because he hadn't been called a nuisance, hadn't been forced to shut up. Bakugou had told him that he wasn't mad, and it only now registered in Shouto's brain that it hadn't been a lie.

His actions had proven as much; Bakugou was certainly not the patient type, but for a while now, he'd been incredibly patient with Shouto. Caring. The omega wasn't sure how to handle that fact, but all of the alpha's actions, despite how foreign they were, had apparently helped him.

He could tell, because he wasn't panicking when he followed his sudden desire to turn towards Bakugou and rest his forehead against the warm skin of the alpha's neck, closing his eyes at how utterly peaceful his scent was in that moment. They fitted together so nicely, he couldn't help but think.

At times, when alone in his bed, Shouto had caught himself wondering what it would feel like to share this sort of moment with someone. The need for closeness was one of those omega instincts that were hard to ignore at times. He'd never assumed that anything of this sort would actually happen or that he was allowed to even wish for it. That was why he'd pushed the idea out of his head countless times.

Especially with Bakugou - it was the last thing he'd seen happen anywhere but in a dream.

And yet, even if he tried, he couldn't really come up with anyone else that he'd like to be in the alpha's place. Just the idea of it had everything inside him protesting.

It still astonished Shouto how quickly he'd become used to softer moments with perhaps one of the roughest people he knew. And how addicted he was to those moments; they felt so precious to him despite the internal struggles that surfaced in their wake.

Maybe he'd cried most of his anxious thoughts out of his being earlier, because, in this exact moment, he refused to think that any of this was wrong.

If Bakugou didn't mind letting his guard down and sleeping next to him, then Shouto didn't mind the closeness they shared. He'd let his over-thinking ruin one of those moments, and that wasn't going to happen again, not right now.

Shouto's body seemed to agree wholeheartedly, because he couldn't really stop himself from purring like a cat in the sunlight, too comfortable and sleepy for heavy thoughts. He allowed himself to, because it wasn't like a noise that silent was going to wake Bakugou up.

For a few minutes, it was just that. Just Bakugou's scent, sweet rather than smokey - and Shouto, practically melting against him. He thought about how his entire bed was going to smell like Bakugou for days give come and liked the idea much more than -

"How the hell do you do that?"

The question rang through the silence and Shouto felt the words as they worked their way through Bakugou's throat.

The omega took a deliberately slow breath in.

"You're awake," he whispered against warm skin, surprised but refusing to move away just yet. A part of him hoped that maybe Bakugou just talked in his sleep; Shouto was not prepared for the moment to end yet, no matter how ridiculous that sounded even to himself.

"I've been for a few minutes," the alpha told him, and Shouto couldn't decipher his tone, he could only wonder how many minutes Bakugou meant and try not to let his surprise show. Shouto did his best to keep his body temperature from rising.

"Oh. Okay," he said, awkwardly, "... uh, do what?"

Bakugou made no move to push them apart, and Shouto was entirely fine with this weird type of conversation. He liked the sound of Bakugou's voice, a bit hoarse from sleep.

"The purring."

So much for keeping his temperature in check. The omega's face warmed up at the question, and he felt like he'd been caught stealing candy. He wasn't entirely sure how to explain it, had mostly forgotten that he was even doing that.

"Ah, it's... got to do with the space between the vocal chords, I think? It's a sound produced with intakes and exhales of breath-"

"I know what purring is, every damn cat does that. I just wondered how the hell you do it, I've never heard a person do that before," the alpha answered, voice lacking any real annoyance. And for some weird reason, the knowledge that Bakugou hadn't ever heard any other omega make that sound was where Shouto's attention went automatically.

He tried not to make another happy noise in response to it.

"It's an omega thing," he explained.

Bakugou stayed silent, as if thinking it over.

"It just happens when.. uh. I used to be better at suppressing it," he mumbled. Talking about it so openly felt weird, and he was thankful for the lack of eye contact.

Bakugou stayed silent for another long moment, and it had Shouto wondering if he should put some distance between them.

"You stopped," the alpha noted.

"Because it's weird."

"How the fuck is it weird if it's something that just happens."

Shouto could think of an entire list of things that 'just happen' but were also weird or embarrassing. He tried to keep himself from rubbing his forehead against the other's neck and took a deep breath. Bakugou smelled so nice - of course he'd woken up feeling more than fine.

"It happens when I'm comfortable," he confessed and felt the alpha's chest expand with a deep breath, "but I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable with it."

"What the hell makes you think that it made me uncomfortable?"

"It didn't?"

"No, so don't just assume shit."

Shouto was definitely guilty of assuming things. He'd imagined that it would be weird to wake up to this. It baffled him to know that Bakugou didn't mind. Of course that didn't mean that he liked it, but apparently not the opposite either.

"So, it sounds like you're feeling better then?"

It was an easy question to answer, honestly. Compared to a few hours ago, Shouto felt like an actual, normal person again. Or as normal as it got with Bakugou's hand still on his back and his head so close to his neck that he could just lick his skin if he opened one of the upper buttons of the white shirt. Or alternatively, he could pull the fabric down a little bit or move his head just a bit further up... Not that he was really planning to do it - but all of a sudden Shouto was very aware of the fact that he could. He found it hard to say whether that was a good or a bad thing.

"Yes, much better," he said, wondering what Bakugou's skin would taste like if he just - he tried not to focus on the thought. "I'm sorry for losing it like that."

There was a growl now; Shouto stiffened a little at the sound but managed to keep himself relatively unaffected otherwise.

"Stop it with the damn apologies. I didn't ask because I wanted you to apologise," the alpha declared.

Nodding softly, Shouto wondered, "Then why did you ask?"

"Because," he began, paused for a moment, "I just want to know. And I'm not sure what the fuck I did to freak you out like this, but if you tell me what it was then I'm not doing it again."

"Huh."

"What 'huh'."

"What do you mean?" Shouto asked, confused.

"Do you actually want me to say this out loud?" Bakugou's voice was thick with disbelief and the omega really wasn't so sure where this conversation was going.

"That's how conversations work, Bakugou. Saying things out loud," he supplied, factually, knowing all too well what the reaction was going to be.

"How the fuck are you already back to being a pain in the ass five minutes after waking up?"

"I've been awake for more than five minutes."

"Not the point."

"Then what is?"

They were silent for a while.

"Since you've apparently forgotten about it already, I fucking hugged you and you started crying and panicking. Just say so if you don't want me to do shit like that and I'm not going to. Because I don't fucking know what you want me to do."

"No," the word escaped Shouto faster than he could think, his voice less unbothered this time.

"What, no?!"

The omega barely noticed when he squeezed his hand up a little further, and started fumbling around with the collar of Bakugou's shirt. Having something to touch helped him feel a little less nervous about this, and thankfully the alpha didn't question it.

"You didn't do anything wrong," he said, somewhat distracted, "I was just.."

"You were what?" the alpha pressed, delicate as ever. Shouto undid the highest button on his shirt and then redid it. His pulse was racing, and he wasn't sure why exactly that was. But he supposed it could be for different reasons; their legs brushed against each other when the alpha moved slightly, and maybe it was that. Just the feeling of Bakugou's leg on his ankle. Or the topic. Or both.

"Confused, because I - ah. I shouldn't be doing that," even Shouto wasn't entirely sure what he meant, running his thumb along the smooth surface of the button.

"Could you be a bit more specific than this? You're the one who just said it, Icyhot. That conversations work by saying things out loud."

Shouto sighed.

"Well, I wasn't crying because you hugged me. I was crying because I know that shouldn't be acting like such an omega. I shouldn't enjoy things like hugs or scent marking. And I shouldn't be purring when I'm comfortable. It's just... it's weird," he said, voice getting quieter and fingers stilling.

He barely registered the warning growl the alpha gave him before he was pushed on his back in a quick movement. Shouto gasped when Bakugou loomed above him and said, "Todoroki."

The position was weirdly reminiscent of a fight, and the omega had half a mind to struggle his way out of his grasp, but Shouto glared up at the alpha instead, irritated with how breathless he felt. It was also reminiscent of other things.

"Yeah?" he whispered, closed his eyes and tried to ignore how close their faces were like this. How easy it would be to end this uncomfortable conversation right there by pulling the alpha down just a little further and -

"Look me in the eyes for a damn moment," Bakugou commanded, voice hard.

Shouto did, reluctantly, and his mouth fell open at the intensity visible in his red eyes; despite the lack of proper light, it was still obvious how strongly focused the alpha was on him. Only him.

Almost too focused.

"What is it?"

"Use your head for once because here's the million dollar question. You are an omega, agree?"

Shouto nodded.

"Great. Then remind me why the fuck anyone, most of all you, should give you shit for acting like it? You're not stupid, you know that this type of thinking is fucking unhealthy."

Shouto knew, rationally, that surpressing things wasn't healthy. But it was also second nature to him. He felt like two conflicting ideas were present in his head, both of which made sense and also didn't. He could tell that a lot of it wasn't healthy, but couldn't just flick a switch and just be okay with all of his instincts.

Even if it almost felt like wanted to; but paradoxically, something about changing his thoughts was terrifying. As if once he allowed himself a bit more freedom, the fragile piece of glass that was his self control would break and the water would begin pouring out from all the cracks.

"I can't just...," he began, but was unsure how to even finish that sentence, and uselessly added, "You know that nobody is supposed to know about this."

"We're not talking about anyone else, Icyhot. I'm not telling you that you need to go around and shove the fact that you're an omega in everyone's face. We're talking about why you tell yourself the story that your natural instincts are somehow weird."

"..."

Shouto looked away, the question weighing heavy on him because he wasn't sure how to answer it without digging up too many memories. He didn't feel like doing that, not right now.

Eventually, he said, "It's not that easy."

"Then we will fucking make it easy."

"How?" he asked, looking back up at the other. Bakugou had a frown on his face.

"By forcing the fact into your head that there's nothing wrong with you. And when you think otherwise, you stop for one damn moment and say something about the shitty doubts in your head instead of keeping quiet and beating yourself up over it. Can you do that?"

It didn't sound that easy to Shouto.

"... I can try. But this really isn't your problem to solve. You don't need to feel obligated to help."

He received a glare in response, and tried his hardest to glare back at the alpha, because what more could he do than promise to try? It wasn't like he could promise that it would work.

But his mother's words rang in his ear for some reason; how she'd told him that Bakugou probably didn't do all of this out a sense of obligation. He wondered...

"Shut up. You're fucking doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Pretending like you're some sort of fucking burden. And I've said this a million times, but I don't feel obligated to do shit," the alpha informed him, as if reading his mind. He leaned in just a little bit closer, the words filling the air between them.

Shouto found it hard to breathe with how close they were, with how serious Bakugou sounded about this. He nodded his head in understanding, not trusting himself with words because he was looking at Bakugou's lips again.

Feeling a little bit hypnotised.

In that moment, Shouto distinctly remembered one certain dream where Bakugou was pinning him down much like this, and that didn't help at all. The air felt so thick that it could probably be cut with a knife.

But probably just to him.

"Do you believe in prophetic dreams?" Shouto found himself asking, the words tumbling out in an attempt to overshadow the loud beating of his heart. Bakugou looked genuinely caught off guard for a moment and somehow, that was a relief.

"What the fuck?"

"Just, dreaming of something and then it happens? Or something similar to it?"

"I repeat, what the fuck are you talking about, Icyhot?"

"Ah, I just wondered if that's a thing," he evaded the question, still sort of hoping that maybe it was a thing.

"I'm sure there's some freak out there with a quirk like that."

"Oh. Uh. You're probably right," he confirmed. Shouto wasn't usually the type to be very careful with his words around Bakugou, but he knew all too well that saying just a bit too much about his dreams would make this very weird, very fast.

This wasn't a dream, he reminded himself - and it wasn't just suddenly going to turn into one. He couldn't even say for certain that he could handle it if it did.

But it was... something, he decided when he looked up and the reality hit him once more that the alpha still hadn't put much distance between them.

Definitely something.

Something he could get used to all too easily.

...

"Of course I am."

Bakugou was probably going to hell for how much he liked the sight of Todoroki, beneath him, his hair falling down on the mattress like some sort of bicoloured halo. He should have fucking known that this type of shit was going to happen if he allowed himself to stay in a bed with the omega, but he obviously liked to make his life harder than it needed to be.

Well, not just him. Todoroki did a great job at it too, looking unbothered as ever despite their serious discussion just a minute ago.

"Yeah sure.. Always, right?" the omega said, sounding unconvinced, definitely trying to get a rise out of him. He was back to his infuriating self again, already.

It would be too damn easy to shut his nonsensical words up before he had the chance to say further ones. If Bakugou just allowed gravity to do its fucking job and just fucking, pretended that the muscles in his arms gave in or some shit, their lips would be pressed to each other.

It would be unethical and a fucking idiot move, but maybe two seconds of accidental kissing would be enough to satisfy his curiosity or whatever was raging inside him and shut Bakugou's brain up for two damn minutes. He legitimately felt like he was going crazy; why the fuck did Icyhot have to keep his mouth slightly opened like this? And why the hell did his eyes refuse to focus on anything other than his lips?

And most of all, with all the damn shit that was obviously going on, why was his mind so fucking preoccupied with something as stupid as planning an accidental kiss?

He wasn't a damn animal.

They had stuff to discuss that Todoroki obviously didn't exactly feel like discussing (judging by his obvious and sudden change in topic), and probably more than they knew because how the hell was either of them even supposed to tell what the fuck was going on anymore?

In the span of just one day, they had scent marked, Todoroki had spent half an hour or so sobbing in his arms, and Bakugou had woken up to find the omega fucking cuddled up against him, purring and all. Comfortable, apparently.

He found it fucking hard to tell where their boundaries were by now, what he was and what he wasn't allowed to think about or act on. He wished that he could beat some sense into the omega and just get the message across that he should stop being so damn hard on himself.

But he was fucking trying to be sensitive about it.

And he sure as fuck wasn't going to attack the omega with a random kiss and probably traumatise Icyhot for the rest of his life, because he was obviously struggling with the concept of just accepting a hug.

It wasn't like he could tell himself the story that Todoroki was asking for anything from him (although it wouldn't be hard with how damn inviting he looked), because he obviously wasn't. Not consciously; it was wishful thinking...

Of course he fucking wasn't.

And yet he seemed pretty alright with the two of them, on one bed; him beneath Bakugou.

He was just looking like his usual self and making stupid comments and casually destroying Bakugou's sanity because that was just what he did. All the damn time.

And it was slowly but surely working.

Bakugou hated how fucking impatient he could be sometimes, but somehow the idiot beneath him was important enough for him to try and slow down.

He glared down at the omega again, but felt his features soften when that pretty face distracted him in the same damn way it always did; Todoroki was doing that annoying blank staring thing, and something about the look on his face was just fucking... sweet.

Bakugou hated it because he didn't hate it at all.

He could still feel the sensation of cold fingers opening and closing that damn button of shirt like was was going to fucking undress him right then and there. He tried to push that thought into the darkest corner of his mind where it could just stay until it died.

Because if there was one thing Bakugou shouldn't be thinking about with Todoroki pinned to the mattress beneath himself, it was taking off either of their clothes.

In a sense, he could understand the omega's frustration concerning his instincts. It fucking sucked how messy shit tended to get when they were involved.

He snapped back into reality when he remembered that they had a discussion going on that he obviously needed to win, "Fucking always," he established, "That's why you should listen to me for once instead of being a stubborn asshole about this."

"Should I?" Todoroki asked, voice flat, tilting his head slightly and exposing just a bit of the pale skin on his neck and that was all it took.

Bakugou was so distracted in that moment that he didn't even notice the smirk that appeared on Todoroki's lips before he'd already flipped them over, essentially sitting on Bakugou's stomach and having the fucking nerve to hold his arms down by the sides of his head.

"The hell, Half and Half!" Bakugou shouted instinctively, trying to be mad because that was a whole lot better than thinking about how hot the asshole looked with his smug little smile on his lips and his mismatched eyes gazing down at him.

Bakugou's fingers tickled with the feeling of sparks beneath his skin. Or maybe his desire to touch him had turned into a physical sensation by now. Hard to fucking tell.

"Don't call me stubborn. You are," Todoroki began, stopped for a moment, "at least as stubborn as me."

"I am not fucking stubborn."

Todoroki gave him an 'oh really' type of look that had the alpha attempting to free himself again, but Todoroki was ridiculously strong, and using gravity to his advantage. And Bakugou didn't actually want to hurt him or destroy his damn bed by letting anything explode; maybe a part of him was even relieved to see the omega being a smartass again because that was so much better than seeing him cry.

"I promise that I'll try," Todoroki said, and he sounded serious about it but Bakugou's mind was exceptionally slow right now.

"Huh?!"

"To talk about things more. With you."

So apparently his words hadn't entirely flown over Icyhot's head. That was something, at least.

"Don't just say 'try,' idiot," he growled. The weight of the other's body on his a little too welcome, and the alpha did his best to keep up the annoyed act. He tried to think of the many hours they'd spent training so far and compare it to that, but it didn't entirely help because even when they were training, his mind went in the strangest directions sometimes. Especially when Todoroki did his stupid ass warm up.

He knew that he was the one who'd started the 'pinning each other down to talk' thing, but he hadn't expected the omega to just go ahead and take it as an invitation to do the same. He should have really fucking expected it though.

"Then I will."

"I'll kick your ass if you don't," Bakugou promised.

"Oh?"

Mismatched eyes went from one pinned hand to the other and then back to Bakugou. Condescending and amused.

"I swear to God.. stop it with that smug look on your face."

Bakugou managed to free one of his hands from the other's grasp, but just before he could do much with the acquired freedom, Todoroki had his fingers wrapped around his wrist again. It was easy to see how much more comfortable he felt when he had a reason to act all high and mighty.

Bakugou still didn't get how someone could go from 'everything I am is wrong' to... this. Then again, Todoroki had a damn ego when it came to his fighting skills. Just not when it came to his secondary gender.

"What do you think. Has my reaction time improved?" Todoroki asked, definitely trying to sound cool and Bakugou was almost angered by the fact that it worked.

Their eyes were locked, and the couldn't stop himself from realising how absurd it all was; what the hell was this even? An amused breath left his mouth, and for a split second that seemed to distract the omega well enough.

Bakugou saw his chance and took it, throwing the both of them to the side and relishing in the surprised gasp it got out of the other. They were entirely too close but thankfully Bakugou was occupied with the struggle to come out on top, and after a few seconds of shoving at each other and shuffling around, he had a very pissed-off looking Todoroki beneath him once more. They'd even tumbled off the mattress in the process.

Only this time, Bakugou's pulse was quicker and it was a whole lot harder to not go ahead and do something stupid when so much adrenaline was flooding his veins.

He grinned victoriously, a little out of breath, "Don't know, what do you think?"

Todoroki's face was worth a thousand words, and he almost looked like he was pouting, "I think that you're heavy."

"Oh and you're made of porcelain all of a sudden or what?"

"I wouldn't survive long around you if I was."

"What's that supposed to mean now!?" Bakugou dared the other to answer, tightening his grip on him just a little.

His eyes shot towards the door when there was a knock, and before he could do as much as fucking move, the airhead beneath him was already shouting a casual, "Yes?"

As if they weren't in a fucking weird position or anything.

He glared down at the omega, but his throat was too dry to yell at him because Todoroki had his neck exposed, head bent at a weird angle to look at the opening door.

"Todoroki, do you have any idea where Baku- woah. Ooookay. There you are, bro!"

"Yeah, he's here," the omega confirmed, and Bakugou tried to ignore the way his throat moved when he was speaking.

"Looks like it. Sorry to interrupt your - uh, you know," he rose his eyebrows and Bakugou glared at him from across the room while he detached himself from Todoroki and proceeded to sit down on the floor beside him.

"What the hell do you want, Shitty Hair."

Kirishima looked at Todoroki, then back at Bakugou, so obvious about it that he didn't even need to say anything for his thoughts to be pretty clear. "I was just a little worried when I heard about what happened? And you didn't answer any of my texts and weren't in your room, so I went looking, making sure you're not destroying property, you know? But you two are obviously busy so I'll just," he grinned and gave a thumbs up.

"Wait for a damn moment," Bakugou commanded just as the other was about to slip through the door, "I gotta go and change out of this fucking uniform anyways. Icyhot, kitchen, in 15 minutes."

He only realised how commanding that had sounded when the words were already out of his mouth. Bakugou begrudgingly added a, "if you want to. You can't just forget to eat all the damn time."

Todoroki looked up at him in confusion, apparently not offended, "Alright?"

"Great."

Shitty Hair had already stepped outside, and Bakugou gave him a deadly look when he closed the door behind himself.

"Don't just fucking walk into hi- peoples' rooms like that," he hissed.

"I literally knocked and was invited in though?

"Whatever. So what the fuck did you want to talk about?"

"Well, everyone's talking about how you two were making out in the closet? And about how you almost attacked Mina earlier? You usually only threaten people and don't go through with it. Like, what exactly is going on, are you okay? Are you guys actually, y'know? Did the plan work?"

Bakugou growled at the onslaught of questions.

"We were not making out in the closet," he replied, tried to keep his voice steady and his anger in check. It wasn't like he was angry at Shitty Hair for asking, but the fact that everyone just went ahead and assumed shit about them was getting so damn exhausting.

"In his room then?"

"What the - no. Obviously fucking not."

"But you wanted to," the alpha concluded like some idiotic wannabe detective.

"Why the fuck do I even bother to talk to you," Bakugou asked, his fists clenched. He wasn't going to talk about how fucking infuriating it was that everyone assumed they were making out behind closed doors when Bakugou wouldn't even dare to press a damn kiss to Todoroki's cheek or shit. He wasn't insane. Not like he even wanted to do that or anything. Because he wasn't a fucking romantic poet or anything either.

"Calm down, bro. I'm just a bit confused. You were literally pinning Todoroki to the floor when I entered the room."

"So what, it's called fighting," he muttered.

"Fighting, huh... so that's what the kids call it nowadays."

"Shut up with your damn sarcasm."

"For real, man. Everyone already thinks that you're an item anyways, and you have like, a hundred opportunities every day because the two of you are together 70% of the time. What do you have to lose?"

"You don't fucking get it, Shitty Hair" Bakugou growled as he entered his room, the other squeezing in behind him.

"What's there not to get about it?"

Bakugou wanted to hit his head against the nearest wall, beyond frustrated with the direction his life had taken. Things were just so much fucking easier when he had one point of focus, and one point only.

"Absolutely everything. He wouldn't even want to do shit like that."

The redheaded alpha crossed his arms.

"You've seen the way he looks at you, right?"

"Yeah the same way he looks at everyone, with his stupid eyes and his stupid face."

"I'm supposed to be the one who's dense as a brick, not you," Kirishima said, slapping his arm for effect.

"The hell do you even mean?" Bakugou asked as he grabbed himself some comfortable clothes to wear. He went for black sweatpants and a red shirt, and checked the time on his phone. It was true, he had ten damn messages from Shitty hair. They'd been asleep for more than five fucking hours. Great. He'd gotten absolutely nothing done, and that should be a whole lot more frustrating than it was.

But he didn't really have it in him to be that annoyed over the lost daylight, because at least his omega was feeling - still not his. He growled at the clothes in his hand.

"You okay there?"

"I'm fucking great!!" he wrestled his way into his shirt.

"Alright? Well, what I meant is, he obviously isn't the most expressive guy out there, but he looks at you all the damn time."

"So what?" Bakugou asked, not sure whether he wanted to hear the answer because this already sounded like bullshit to him.

"Well, people look at things they like. Like videos of baby animals. And he looks at you."

"I am not a damn baby animal you ass," the blonde yelled, and threw his pants at the other alpha's head.

"What the fuck man, you're not usually this bad with analogies."

"I'm surprised you even know what that word means, Shitty Hair."

A heavy sigh fell from his friend's lips.

"Well, my point is, why the hell wouldn't he like you. He doesn't bother with many people and has no issue brushing others off, and yet when you bark something like, 'kitchen in 15 minutes' at him, he's more than fine with that."

Bakugou had finally managed to dress himself, and frowned at his mirror, his hair sticking up at odd angles. He didn't bother to do anything about it. "First of all, I don't fucking sound like that! And second, he just thinks we're super good buddies. Not minding someone is not the fucking same as wanting them all up in your space."

"Ask him out on a date."

Bakugou choked on air, "I absolutely fucking won't!"

"Dude, it's not like you to be so scared."

"Shitty Hair. I am not fucking scared."

"Scared and frustrated."

"I'll punch you in the face."

"Ask him out if you aren't. Don't just keep dragging him into dark rooms and actively not making out and then hating the fact that you didn't."

"God, stop being annoying. I'll fucking think about it, alright. Don't you have like, damn action movies or shit to talk about?!"

Thankfully, he did. He chewed his ears off about some less personal topics on their way to the kitchen. Bakugou wasn't so sure he would have been able to handle any more talking about taking Todoroki out on a date (which was ridiculous) or how goddamn terrified he was of that. Much more terrified than he could handle because he wasn't the damn type to be terrified of anything.

Except, if he ever asked Todoroki out and the omega said no, then Bakugou had absolutely no clue how he would handle that. His reaction would certainly not be pretty.

So he had every damn right to be terrified.

"... And that was like, the most badass attack in the history of badass attacks! He literally sent that villain flying through five walls. I'm talking massive brick walls! We gotta watch that one."

"As long as you keep your damn snacks off my bed."

Bakugou spotted Todoroki walking towards them from the other direction, and the omega had changed into different clothes as well, a white t-shirt and fucking plaid shorts that showed too much skin for Bakugou to not hate them with a passion. He made a point of not staring at his legs and if anyone else fucking dared to, then he was gonna-

"I'm sure you only want a very particular kind of snack on your bed, am I right or what?" Shitty Hair laughed.

Of course the asshole had to say it loud enough for Todoroki to hear it. Thankfully no light bulb seemed to materialise above his head.

Kirishima shoved Bakugou forward a little, "You two have fun!"

"Thanks," Todoroki said.

"Fuck you," Bakugou added, but the redhead was already on his way. They entered the kitchen, which was thankfully empty because it was nearly midnight.

"I didn't know you had favorite snack?" Todoroki asked conversationally.

Bakugou glared at the door behind them, cursing the alpha again. "No I don't," he growled.

"Well, I do. Mine's soba."

"That's not a fucking snack. It's a meal."

"It.. can be both."

"Why am I not surprised that you think so, Icyhot," Bakugou asked rhetorically, wondering how the hell he would even go about asking this moron out on a date. Or where to. Or why the hell he was actually, maybe, considering this now.

Well, not now now. But maybe once he'd given it some thought. If he found a place where it wouldn't be too weird or incriminating for two people to just... hang out. Together. In public. Casually.

Yeah.

There was no way that wouldn't be weird and awkward and a total shitshow. Why the hell did Shitty hair always have to put those in his head? Going somewhere with Todoroki just for the sake of spending time together would probably be a damn disaster.

"Is something wrong with my pants? You keep glaring at them."

"I'm not glaring. Just shut up, wash your hands, and help me make food," Bakugou said, looking around the fridge and taking out some vegetables.

"What are we making?"

"Salad."

"... Salad?"

"Can you maybe not act like eating salad for once is going to kill you? I've told you before that you need some damn vitamins and it's almost fucking midnight so don't even ask me to make your stupid 'comfort food'."

He'd expected complains, but instead the omega smiled at him, an unexpectedly fond kind of smile that had Bakugou stopping in the middle of his movements, a knife in one hand, a tomato in the other.

"I wasn't going to complain. Just thinking.." Todoroki trailed off, looking as out of place as he always did in the kitchen because his 'helping' mostly just consisted of watching Bakugou go about his business and maybe handing him things every once in a while. Not that they cooked together too often, but when they did it was always like this.

Bakugou felt this urge to wrap him up in his arms all over again, and he had no damn idea why.

"Thinking what?" he asked.

"I think my mother would like you."

Bakugou squeezed the tomato in his hand like it was an anti stress ball. His entire face felt fucking warm and he prayed that it wasn't visible because what types of embarrassing thoughts was Todoroki even thinking?

He was clearly delusional; there was no way his mother would like him. Why the hell would she, because Bakugou forced her son to eat some damn salad?

Hadn't they had this conversation before?

"I doubt it, Half and Half," he said and proceeded to mutilate the vegetables in front of him in an attempt to ignore the weight of eyes on his face. A minute or so into it, the sound of a photo being taken had the alpha looking towards the omega and holding up the knife threateningly.

"Did you just take a damn photo."

"Yes, wanna see it?"

"Delete it."

Icyhot held out the cellphone anyways, parading the photo around like it wasn't blurry and horrible-looking. It was moments like this when Bakugou really wondered what was going on in the omega's head. Bakugou fixed him with narrowed eyes.

"Why the hell did you even take that?"

"To show her that I have someone who cooks with me. She'll like that," Todoroki said as if it was self-explanatory. Which it fucking wasn't, because who the hell would tell their mother this kind of unnecessary stuff?

When Bakugou talked to his mother, it was usually for less than two minutes and half of it consisted of shouting names at each other.

He could only stare at the omega in momentary disbelief as he thought it through. Just, what the hell. What did Todoroki's mother even think when her airhead of an omega son told her about some alpha guy who went out of his way to fucking cook for him? And who even knew what else he'd tell her.

Maybe she thought nothing of it - maybe Shouto had actually inherited his oblivious self from somewhere, that somewhere being his mother since Endeavour obviously wasn't it. That man could honestly go fuck himself if he was responsible for only half of the tears Todoroki had cried earlier. Bakugou had the suspicion that he was.

He thought it all over for a moment before deciding, fuck it. It wasn't like he could stop Todoroki from telling his mother about him anyways.

"Fine. Show your mother the picture for all I care."

"You could also just come along when I visit her next time."

"Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"Because, as I have told you before, I'm not good with mothers," he muttered.

"I don't believe you."

"Doesn't fucking matter."

"Mmh... It's also your new contact photo."

Bakugou gave him an 'are you serious' type of look. Todoroki looked serious, or at the very least seriously committed to annoying him, because he chucked, like some sort of demon who held Bakugou's damn soul in his hands. The type of demon who looked like an damn angel.

Bakugou wanted to punch himself in the face for that sappy thought. He looked away, tried to focus on cutting things once more.

"I could probably cut your phone in two with this knife."

"You wouldn't because the knife would get dull and you hate dull knives."

"Because they are fucking useless!" Bakugou said with a groan, "And don't just stand around there, go and get us a damn salad bowl."

"Where are they?" Todoroki asked and Bakugou pointed up at the kitchen cabinet. He glanced over when Todoroki stood on tiptoe to reach for one, and barely had the time to react when all of a sudden, the omega looked like he was losing balance. With one hand slammed down on the counter, Todoroki took a weirdly unsteady step backwards, and Bakugou was beside him before he even noticed, holding him upright.

"What the actual fuck," he whisper-yelled, and his hold on Todoroki's back was maybe a little too tight, but in this moment he couldn't really give a damn.

They were both silent, and Bakugou just stared in confusion while the omega took a deep breath. Eventually, he straightened up a little and said, "Sorry. I felt dizzy for a moment."

"Yeah well I fucking saw that," Bakugou answered, voice strangely strained, "Go and fucking sit down. How much water did you drink today?!"

Mismatched eyes looked back at him, and before the other had a chance to argue, Bakugou was already guiding him over to a chair.

"It was just for a moment, I didn't faint or anything," Todoroki said once he was sitting down, and he looked little annoyed. Maybe with himself, or maybe with Bakugou who was in the process of handing him a glass of water.

"Just - fucking drink this. Right now."

"I'm not thirsty."

"Half and Half, you are drinking this!"

They stared each other down for a long moment before the omega took the glass and drank the water. Just watching him do that had Bakugou feeling a little less on edge. Up until Todoroki made a move to stand up. He pushed the idiot down, and earned himself another glare.

"You stay right here until I'm done making food," he commanded, making sure to his eyes were just as hard as Todoroki's.

"You're overreacting, Bakugou."

"No, you are fucking underreacting!"

"I'm not."

"You are! Just sit still for five fucking minutes or something."

"I think I can decide for myself whether I'm capable of-"

"Shut up. I'll.. visit your mother with you if you just fucking stay right there," Bakugou promised, his mouth working faster than his brain, and why the hell was he even so fucking worried about something so small? He considered taking his words back, but something stopped him from doing that.

"You will?" Todoroki asked, sounding intrigued. It once again had Bakugou wondering why this apparently meant so much to him and simultaneously made him all the more aware of how high the potential was to fuck this up.

"Yes I fucking will, just, I don't know, wait for me to make that damn salad since your blood sugar is obviously low or something."

"I'm still keeping the photo."

"Of course you fucking are," the alpha commented as he picked up the knife that he'd dropped, "don't blame me if your mother ends up fucking disappointed."

Todoroki shook his head, watching Bakugou again, "She won't."

Chapter Text

"Yes I am studying for the exams," Shouto muttered, rubbing at his eyes.

"You know how strongly bad marks could affect your future."

Mornings that started with a call from his father were never the good type, especially not when it wasn't even 7 am and Shouto could have spent at least another hour asleep. His eyes felt heavy and he couldn't hold back a yawn, sitting cross-legged on his bed. He had his blanket wrapped around his body, and the scent clinging to it helped him feel a little better, at least.

He tried to focus on that instead of his father's voice.

"I know," he confirmed. Because how would he not, having participated in this exact conversation too many times to even count.

The one good thing that came out of the fact that his father had earned himself the number one spot in the hero ranking was that he was even busier these days; it had been a while since he'd made a surprise visit or even bothered to call him. He usually left it at unnecessary text messages that Shouto didn't respond to.

And it was a good thing that their communication was reduced to that, everything considered.

He didn't even want to think about the potential reaction if the man noticed that he had an alpha's scent on him, on his bed. Not just any alpha's, but one of his strongest rivals in class. Except, at this point he wasn't exactly thinking of Bakugou as a rival anymore. He wasn't sure what label to attach to him, really.

Bakugou confused him, in many ways. And his father wouldn't like to hear that anyone managed to confuse or distract him.

"And you are not forgetting about your pills."

It wasn't a question, because Shouto knew that only one answer would be accepted either way. He almost let a sarcastic 'oh right, was I supposed to take any?' slip past his lips. The last thing he needed was a lecture this early in the morning however. So he took a moment to breathe and collect himself.

Waking up so early to the annoying sound of his cellphone ringing and the equally as annoying voice of his father had him feeling more cranky than usual. Shouto couldn't even remember what he'd been dreaming about, and he was pretty sure it had been a good dream.

"How could I," he asked, but it wasn't a question either.

"Shouto, your tone."

"What tone?" he inquired, voice flat, playing dumb.

"It is not something to joke about, you're very aware of how important it is to take them. Just recently there have been a number of crimes committed against omegas in the area, and you know how it is. People associate them with the victim role, not the hero role."

Shouto took another deep breath, in and out. Victim role. The words sounded disgusting to him, said so casually. His mind instantly supplied him with the memory of how out of it he'd felt after the scent marking days ago, and he was acutely aware of how much that would have affected him during a fight.

The worry wasn't entirely unjustified, as much as he hated to admit it to himself.

There were definitely villains out there who would use his secondary gender against him, if they were aware of it. But Shouto refused to believe that just anyone's pheromones would affect him as much. He could handle himself, he knew he could. It was just that he'd let his guard down with Bakugou, in multiple ways - and that was something different.

Something safe.

But if his father heard about it, he would undoubtedly tell him the opposite. Not that he was ever going to tell him.

"Villains attack alphas and betas too," he said.

"But even then, it is an alpha or a beta who comes to save them, not an omega."

"..."

"Did you hear me?"

"Yes. Was there anything else you needed?"

"I hope that you've been working on improving your quirk."

Shouto stared at the wall in front of him. Sometimes it felt as though his father had an entire list of topics to go through with the specific purpose of annoying him and nothing else. Working with their quirks was what students at UA did; there was no point to asking this question whatsoever. So Shouto simply answered with a, "yes."

They shared a minute or so of uncomfortable silence, and just when Shouto was about to inform his father that he was going to hang up, his deep voice broke the silence.

"Shouto, you know that I am proud of you."

Proud.

He wanted to throw his phone against the wall.

It was so early in the morning and that sentence was just what he hadn't needed to hear. He was done talking, and hoped that it would take a while until the next call came.

"... I'll go eat breakfast. Bye."

Shouto hung up before his father could say anything else, his stomach heavy with uncomfortable emotions. Those words, thrown at him so randomly, always felt like a band-aid glued to an open wound. Like a bad act with no audience to applaud. As if a family therapist had told the man that this was what his son needed to hear, that he just needed to say it often enough and that would fix anything. Change anything.

When really, it felt like the opposite; like he was trying to convince the both of them of something that neither believed in. It was absurd, really.

He looked at the phone in his hands, the screen black.

Shouto didn't feel like going back to sleep anymore; not even the scent he was wrapped up in managed to make him feel comfortable in his own skin. Or in his room. The words still rang in his ears, so insincere and empty. He hated how, despite everything, a part of him still felt the tiniest bit of guilt about how cold he tended to be with his father. He was inclined to accept apologies and understand why they did the things they did. As a hero should be.

But with his father, it was different. Too personal, and too much to unpack.

He knew that all of this wouldn't be happening if he'd been born different. With the perfect balance of two quirks and the perfect gender on top of it. Functioning like he was supposed to.

But he couldn't change how he had been born.

There was no reason to feel guilty, nothing he could do, he told himself as he changed out of his sleeping clothes into a loose shirt and sweat pants.

He wasn't normally the type to start off the day by going for a run, but Shouto felt the need to just... do something. To move for a bit, and turn his frustration into anything other than fuel for overthinking. He put on shoes, and was out of the door just seconds later, walking through the empty hallways and glad not to encounter anyone on his way.

As he walked down the stairs, Shouto briefly wondered whether Bakugou was awake yet.

But even if he was, Shouto wasn't going to show up at his door this early on a Saturday just to complain about his father. It was bad enough that his day had started off in such an unspectacular way, and there wasn't much to be said about that. It was always the same anyways; Shouto knew that the man's interest and pride in him was entirely dependent on how well he performed.

He didn't really want to talk about what it did to him when this fact was confirmed over and over again. For now, all he wanted to do was push the entirety of the conversation aside. He wasn't going to allow the man to occupy more of his thoughts if it could be avoided.

Outside, it was surprisingly cold. Clouds were covering the sky, and a breeze blew through the leaves and the dry-looking grass. The cold was welcome though, the air nicely fresh. He didn't have a specific route in mind, and ended up jogging along some of the quieter alleys of the city, keeping up a relatively even pace.

Everything looked a little grey.

A few people were outside already, on the way to their jobs or perhaps to the closest bakery. Shouto didn't pay much attention to any of them; he rounded one corner after the other, kept moving forward. His plan was working out, and his head was mostly quiet while he focused on nothing but breathing and running. The act of moving forward felt like meditation to him, almost.

By the time he'd made it back to the dormitories, he was out of breath, having jogged all the way up the hill without taking a break or slowing down. Physical activity was something he was fairly used to, but he was the type to start his mornings off slow, and train in the afternoon or the evening. He felt a strange mixture of wakefulness and exhaustion as the adrenaline of the run faded from his body.

Shouto was on his way up the stairs when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching from above him.

Somehow, he knew that it was Bakugou before the blonde even appeared around the corner. Maybe he'd subconsciously picked up on his scent, or maybe he just memorised the sound of the alpha's steps by now. Loud and careless, dragging his feet a little. His footsteps were definitely recognisable, and Shouto had the tendency to pay attention to the little things when it came to him.

He felt extra breathless when red eyes met his as his suspicion was confirmed.

The morning run had thrown him off his routine; usually, on Saturdays, they went to breakfast at the same time.

"Bakugou. Good morning."

Bakugou looked confused for a moment, as if Shouto was the last person he'd been expecting to run into.

"Since when are you up earlier than me?" he asked, arms crossed. Shouto remembered the feeling of them around his body a little too clearly.

"I went for a run," the omega replied, standing still on the stairs and directing his attention back to his face. Something about Bakugou's expression seemed slightly off - it wasn't quite the same shade of annoyance that Shouto usually saw on his face in the morning. There was something else - something he wanted to grasp the meaning of. He took a step closer, and the alpha frowned at him.

Shouto couldn't not notice that there was something different about Bakugou.

It looked like the alpha was going to say something, but no words came out, and his lips were instead pressed together tightly. Shouto stared at them for moment longer than he needed to, and then he blinked at him, confused.

"Are you alright?" he dared to ask. The glare that he received in response was somewhat of a relief.

"I'm fucking great."

But it was hard to believe him.

His voice sounded strained, and there was an unusual amount of tension in the alpha's body. When Shouto looked back up at his face, he almost lost his balance from the intensity of the gaze he was met with. He walked up another step, not breaking the eye contact.

Shouto wasn't sure why he felt such a strong need to get closer to him.

He was so focused on trying to read whatever was displayed in those deep red eyes that he didn't even notice it at first when Bakugou said, "Todoroki."

It sounded like a quiet warning.

Standing only two steps below him, the omega stopped.

"Huh?"

"The hell do you think you're doing?" Bakugou asked. And yet again, there was this edge to his voice that Shouto wasn't used to. And he was used to many different nuances of Bakugou's agitation. But everything about the alpha's posture screamed of defensiveness, and Shouto wasn't really used to that anymore. It was reminiscent of his behavior in the first year, when they'd barely talked yet.

As if he wanted nothing but distance between them.

He thought it over for a moment, because he wasn't sure how to answer. He wasn't sure what he was doing, all he knew was that something seemed off and he didn't like it one bit.

"I - You seem tense," he said instead of commenting on his own urge to close the distance between them. He wouldn't have moved much closer anyways, had no excuse to - he'd just wanted a chance to get a better look at Bakugou. To figure out what was wrong. Just.. that, nothing more.

"No shit."

"Why?"

Bakugou made a frustrated noise and looked away.

It didn't seem like he wanted to talk about whatever was bothering him, and Shouto knew from experience that Bakugou could hardly be forced into talking about things. It was sort of ironic, considering how he'd told Shouto to be more open, just a few days ago. Because talking made things easier, supposedly.

"If you don't want to talk about it, I'll just..," he began, but his body refused to get moving.

And then Bakugou did speak.

"Just - what the actual fuck, Icyhot. You could have at least given me some fucking warning."

"Warning?"

"Yeah, warning. Do you even have any idea how you wanna do this? It's fucking fine if you want to, but maybe think about it before you just - "

He stopped there, and glared at Shoto.

While he was entirely too confused to even follow anything anymore. Bakugou hadn't moved from his spot, and he looked like he was torn between annoyance, anger and concern. His scent said the same thing, but the omega was entirely unsure of why.

"Since when do I need to warn you when I go for a run? Or is it because I'm late for breakfast."

The alpha stared at Shouto, open-mouthed for a moment before snapping out of it, "that's not what I'm fucking talking about you idiot."

"Then what are you talking about? You're not making any sense, Bakugou."

"I am talking about," Bakugou began, each word clear, "the fact that you smell."

A beat of silence followed. Shouto wondered if he'd misheard, but Bakugou didn't correct himself.

"Well I just went for a run, and yes, even I can sweat. I was going to take a shower before breakfast," Shouto told him, feeling a little bit offended.

People tended to smell of sweat when they did sports, alphas or omegas (who didn't use blockers) more so than anyone else, considering the pheromones in theirs, so Bakugou really wasn't one to talk. And no one had ever gone out of their way specifically to tell Shouto that he apparently smelled so horrible that it put them in a bad mood. If anything, Bakugou should be more comfortable with sweat than anyone else in their their class since his quirk depended on -

"Are you fucking with me right now."

"No, I don't understand your issue right now, Bakugou."

"My fucking issue is not that you're sweaty or anything," he said, took an exhausted-sounding breath.

Shouto tilted his head to the side, waiting for further explanation.

"It's that you smell like you haven't taken your scent blockers."

It took a long moment for Shouto to understand what he was getting at, and an even longer moment for him to realise that oh... yes.

He'd forgotten about his pills in-between the call and his run. He'd just left, without taking them.

"Oh."

"Don't tell me you didn't even fucking notice, Icyhot," the alpha commented, voice full of disbelief.

He hadn't noticed.

Shouto found it hard to make eye contact, a million thoughts running through his head at once. He tried not to panic; it was early, and the hallways were practically empty. As far as he could remember, he hadn't run into anyone else. He hoped so at least.

"Is it.. very noticeable?" he asked, feeling strangely exposed, because he couldn't even tell that there was anything different about his scent.

"No, but I fucking noticed, didn't I?"

"I didn't plan to. Uh, not take them. My father called and I forgot to," Shouto confessed. He was surprised with his own negligence; taking his pills was one of those things that never slipped his mind. One of the things that were as essential as brushing his teeth or putting on clothes in the morning.

"What the hell did the asshole even want?" the blonde asked, voice full of venom.

"Ah, nothing in particular. The usual."

"Well, don't just stand there. You should go and take your pills if you forgot," Bakugou commanded, and Shouto was glad that he didn't ask further questions about the father and son conversation.

But something bugged him. He knew that Bakugou was right and he needed to get moving before anyone else might show up...

And yet, he was entirely overwhelmed with the awareness that Bakugou could smell him. For a moment, that was more important than any potential consequence. He could only look at the alpha, and try his best to make sense of his reaction.

Of his clenched fists, his furrowed brows.

It made him wonder; he wanted to know what he smelled like to Bakugou. Whether he really disliked his scent that much and wanted it to disappear as fast as possible. Because that was the conclusion his head was jumping to currently, and he wasn't even sure what type of reaction he'd expected.

He hadn't expected this to happen in the first place, of course.

That didn't mean that he'd never thought about it.

At some point, Bakugou had told him that he wouldn't mind if Shouto had a scent - but right now, he looked like he did mind. Very much so. Maybe Shouto's scent was somehow worse than anything the alpha could have predicted. Maybe he really didn't want to be around him, smelling like this. Maybe he really should just go and take his pills instead of thinking about it.

He took a deep breath, but couldn't detect even a hint of his own scent, which had him doubting how strong it really was. But alphas picked up on omega scents much more easily, and Bakugou had obviously noticed. In fact, most people probably weren't the best at noticing their own scents. And Shouto couldn't really remember what it had been like for him.

He'd been using suppressants for years now, after all. He wasn't sure about any of this.

"Yeah. Sorry, I'll go." His voice came out as a whisper, and he made sure to walk past the other with quick steps and a bit of distance between them. Bakugou made no move to stop him, just stood there, fists clenched.

Somehow, the morning had just gotten worse.

Shouto felt sick as he made his was to his room. He wasn't sure what to think about all of it; the suppressants he took were among the strongest available, and while it was advised to have a set time for taking them every day, just an hour of delay or so shouldn't make much of a difference.

There shouldn't be any scent on him.

Unless his body was getting used to the dose - maybe he needed to take stronger ones. If that was the case, he'd need a prescription however, and he really didn't feel like telling his father that he needed a doctor's appointment for this. He wasn't going to talk to him anytime soon.

Shouto quickened his steps, and rushed into his room. In there, the first thing he did was to open the drawer, grab one of his pills and shove it into his mouth. He picked up a bottle of water standing next to his bed, and washed the scent blocker down with it.

With that done, Shouto wondered what he was supposed to do. It would take a bit for the pill to take effect, but a shower sounded like a good option. The bathrooms were downstairs though, which meant that he'd be taking the risk of running into people. A risk he really shouldn't be taking.

He stared at the water bottle in his hands before taking another sip and sighed when he put it down. The irony that his father's call had distracted him from taking his pills was particularly bitter. Shouto didn't want to think about the chaos that might have ensued, had he run into anyone other than Bakugou just now.

He wouldn't have had a way to explain that type of a mess to his father. Not after his sarcastic comment earlier.

So really, he should be thankful for the fact that Bakugou had pointed it out to him. And he was - it was just that another part of him was utterly unhappy with the lack of a positive reaction from the alpha. It was ridiculous, really, how those types of instinctual thoughts swirled around in his mind when they were so uncalled for. But Shouto had maybe, somehow, wished for something.

Anything other than a 'you smell,' said like it was a horrible thing.

...

"Kacchan, what are you - ow!"

"Make some fucking space Deku!"

"There's enough space for more than one person to make breakfast."

"No there fucking isn't!" Bakugou screamed, earning himself a confused look from the beta. He punched an apple down on the cutting board, and sank the knife into it. The alpha couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this fucking stressed out. Just about every cell in his body was fucking vibrating with something that he didn't even have a word for.

And it was all Icyhot's fault for being a damn idiot who just fucking forgot to take his suppressants and ran around smelling like fucking -

Bakugou tried not to think about it.

Tried not to think about anything.

Failed, horribly.

Pressed the knife down.

He knew that he needed to stay away from the omega for a few fucking minutes before he'd snap and do something utterly idiotic. But all he wanted to do was go to him, right fucking now, and do idiotic things because his brain wasn't functioning anymore and he really needed to -

"Oh my God you cut your finger," Deku commented, wide-eyed. It took Bakugou a moment to process what he'd just heard, and yes - he'd fucking cut his finger.

Great. Just fucking great.

He lifted the hand with the cut on it, looked at the small wound for a moment before making a fist and slamming it down on the counter, hard. He was almost surprised that he didn't accidentally cause an explosion. Deku visibly tensed, and Bakugou didn't have a single fuck to give about it.

"O-okay. We can handle this. Wait a moment, I'm getting you a band-aid."

"I don't need a fucking band-aid."

But like the fucking loser Deku was, he'd produced one, seemingly out of nowhere, just seconds later. Bakugou wondered if he just carried shit like that around wih a 'I want to be the best hero and always be ready to help' sort of mindset, and wouldn't fucking put it past him.

But he didn't have the patience for his shit right now.

He had shit to... actively not think about, and standing still for one damn moment gave his head a chance to fucking think about Todoroki's scent and fuck. It hadn't even been strong. Barely there.

He couldn't get it out of his damn head.

"Okay, just hold your finger under the water for a moment."

"I'm not some damn child, keep your stupid ass band-aid off of me!"

"Kacchan, remember first aid lessons? Even a small cut can get infected."

"I don't give a fuck, keep your hands off me."

"Absolutely not, give me your hand."

"Deku," he growled when the other had the guts to grab his hand and hold it under the cold water. He had half a mind to punch him in the face and probably would have gone ahead if it weren't for the insane fucking strength that such a small person definitely shouldn't possess. Not that Bakugou couldn't get out of his grip somehow if he actually considered it worth the effort. Which he didn't, because he was entirely preoccupied with other thoughts.

"Alright," Deku muttered as he used a paper towel to dry Bakugou's hand, and proceeded to wrap the band-aid around his finger. Bakugou could only stare, and wonder if the idiot was now entirely suicidal.

"Look, that wasn't so hard, Kacchan."

Apparently he was.

"Get your fucking hands off me you ass," the alpha growled, shoving his classmate aside.

"What's wrong with you today?"

"Nothing is fucking wrong, can you mind your own damn business, I didn't ask for a damn All Might band-aid on my fucking finger, why are you always so fucking annoying Deku," Bakugou yelled, the words just tumbling out of him in a waterfall of frustration, their pace increasing with each one. Even though he knew, deeper down, that it wasn't meant as a provocation, he currently didn't have the patience to be rational or considerate.

He grabbed the knife again, held it under water for a moment, and went back to his task.

"It doesn't seem like nothing is wrong."

"Is it impossible to just make a fucking fruit salad around here without being interrogated?!" Bakugou complained, raising the knife for effect.

"Uh, no? I was just worried."

"Who gave you the right to be worried about me?" Bakugou hissed, practically dissecting the apple at this point.

"The right to - uh I don't think that's how it works, Kacchan."

"It is, so shut up."

Deku did shut up, for about half a minute.

"Todoroki is late for breakfast today."

Bakugou almost cut his finger again at the mention of his name.

"So what?" he hissed.

"Uh, nothing? Just an observation."

"Keep your fucking observations to yourself," Bakugou commanded, shoving the cut pieces of fruit into a small bowl and walking over to the fridge to add some blueberries and raspberries to the mix because he was not cutting any more stuff. He glared at the colorful mixture of healthy things, and shoved Deku to the side again so he could grab a spoon and get the fuck out of there.

"You're not eating here?"

"No," Bakugou growled, walking out of the room and knowing fully well that he was on a suicide mission, but that hadn't ever stopped him before. It was not like he'd made the breakfast for himself. He just hoped that Todoroki had the fucking presence of mind to stay in his own room and not fucking run around the building, smelling like.. that.

His smell was offensive, because he smelled fucking... sweet.

Even the thought of anyone else catching a hint of his scent had Bakugou feeling murderous currently and his protective instincts were whispering annoying versions of 'I told you so'. He quickened his steps, tried not to think about how fucking stupid he was. Going to Icyhot's room was the least intelligent option, but it wasn't like he could fucking stop himself.

His legs just kept moving.

Until he stood in front of his door, and knocked...

Before realising that it was an utterly idiotic move, because Todoroki had no idea who was visiting him, and if he had half a brain left in him, then he surely felt stressed out by the thought of someone at his door.

And Bakugou didn't want him to feel stressed out. The idea physically pained him.

"It's me," Bakugou announced, and the door was opened just seconds later.

Todoroki still had his running clothes on, and he looked a bit perplexed.

But the worst part was that the scent was still there, and they stood entirely too close to each other for Bakugou to pretend like he didn't notice. His hold on the bowl tightened, and he stretched his arms out, planning to hand it over and just fucking leave because this was fucking torture already and he could not deal with it. Shouldn't tempt fate. Should know better because he was a damn genius, supposedly.

He knew that the scent wasn't strong, but it was all he could fucking focus on.

It hit him right in the face, like the softest punch imaginable.

Todoroki smelled vaguely sweet, flowery. It reminded Bakugou of one particular kind of flower, but there was no way in hell Bakugou could remember the name of it. He had always hated flowers because they were useless and people put them in vases just to fucking watch them die, and now he suddenly found himself understanding why people would go out of their way to obsess over gardening and nature and the scent of spring.

He understood it a little too well, although it made no fucking sense and he'd just somehow assumed that Todoroki would smell like one of those 'fresh breeze' cleaning products or something.

But no. Of course Icyhot's scent had to be delicate and sweet.

And of fucking course, this lead Bakugou to discover that maybe he didn't hate delicate and sweet things as much as he'd thought he did. He would be lying to himself if he pretended like it wasn't fucking perfect. Because everything about Todoroki always had to be so damn perfect that it was borderline infuriating.

"What are you doing here?" Todoroki asked, interrupting his momentary identify crisis, asymmetrical eyes on the offered food as though there was something not to get about that.

"What does it look like?"

The omega stared for a moment longer, before meeting Bakugou's eyes and saying, "It looks like you've got an All Might band-aid on your finger."

For someone who smelled so damn nice, Todoroki sure as fuck was still irritating as hell. It was a shame that Bakugou didn't have it in himself to focus on that fact instead. He tried not to let his internal conflicts show on his face.

"Just take the fucking food."

Todoroki stayed silent, as if thinking it over. What there was to contemplate about such a simple task, Bakugou had no fucking clue. All he knew was that he should not fucking throw himself at him like an animal but it wasn't all that fucking easy.

"Have you even eaten?"

"I'm not hungry."

"So you haven't."

"No, but it doesn't fucking matter."

Bakugou received an unconvinced look.

"Eat with me," Todoroki suggested, making no move to take the bowl from Bakugou's hand. The alpha wondered if he was aware of the fucking position he was putting him in, inviting him into his room. He sure as fuck wasn't going to sit there with Todoroki and share a fucking fruit salad when the omega smelled like a much better meal. Bakugou wanted to know the different nuances of his scent - how it would change, depending on his mood. How strong it could get in his more emotional moments.

He wanted to catalogue it all, to be the person who could read him better than anyone else.

"I'm not fucking hungry, Icyhot. But you need to - just take this."

"I'm not taking it unless you eat it with me," Todoroki declared, and the look in his eyes showed Bakugou all he needed to know. He knew what he was doing.

"That's fucking manipulation you asshole."

"I didn't ask for you to make me food."

"So fucking what. Just because I'm being a nice fucking person doesn't mean you get to - "

He was pulled inside, felt the pressure of a hand on his arm and was still occupied with the ghost of the sensation when Todoroki closed the door behind him.

"You need to eat, too."

"Do I look like I'm fucking starving or what."

"No, you're in good shape."

That sentence, coupled with eyes traveling across his body once, shut Bakugou up for a good moment, and the expression on Todoroki's face was unreadable as ever. Of course, once again he was just saying things without thinking about the fucking implications and it was so infuriating that Bakugou really was just seconds away from finding some creative fucking methods to shut him up.

But then Todoroki turned around, walked towards his bed and left Bakugou with no other option than following him. That was what he told himself at least as he walked into the room, trying to focus on anything other than the hint of a scent clinging to the omega.

It was just a scent anyways.

No big deal.

Something entirely normal that shouldn't make Bakugou lose his fucking mind like this. He'd smelled the scent of omegas before, but their sweet-ass odors had only ever annoyed him and if only that was the case with Todoroki's as well, his life would be so much easier.

Todoroki sat down on his bed, looked up expectantly, and Bakugou's thoughts were reduced to something along the lines of a mantra that consisted only of, 'Oh God, fuck me.'

Bakugou tried (unsuccessfully) not to notice how good Todoroki looked, his hair a bit messy from the running and his eyebrows pulled up a little. He smelled good and he looked good and he probably tasted good and Bakugou really shouldn't be here right now.

He should be as far away as possible, with a locked door separating them so he didn't even have the option of approaching Todoroki.

Still, he walked over to him, feeling like a damn prisoner in his own body. Like it might just suddenly decide to entirely ignore his rational thoughts and do something, anything - and he wouldn't be able to stop himself. The feeling was fucking horrifying, stronger than ever before. Like some messed up sort of mind control quirk.

He wanted to hate Todoroki for doing this to him. But instead, all he could think about was how fucking nice his skin would feel against his, how fucking intoxicating it would be they picked up right where they had left off in the closet days ago and didn't fucking stop and -

"I took my pill, so the scent should be gone soon," Todoroki informed him, eyes on the colorful array of fruit, "I'm sorry for the unpleasant surprise. I... really didn't notice. You're always the one who has to deal with the consequences when I forget about my medication, and I'm sorry about that."

Bakugou wasn't sure whether he wanted to punch the omega or himself in the face. He looked away, studying the interior design of the room in order to keep himself from staring at him.

"Shut up."

"But it's true."

"How the hell am I the one dealing with the consequences. You're the one who would have had shit to explain, if you'd gone into the common room smelling like this. Not me. Just eat, and stop looking for reasons to apologise."

"But -"

"No fucking but. It's too early for this shit. Here."

Bakugou only realised what he was doing when he already had the spoon in front of Todoroki's lips, holding it there like a damn weapon and daring the omega to say another word of apology. It was a stupid fucking move though, because he couldn't handle the way those mismatched eyes widened in response. And Bakugou was pretty damn sure that a part of him died when Icyhot actually went ahead and opened his mouth like this wasn't the weirdest fucking situation ever. Apparently that was a thing now. Feeding each other like a couple of stupid birds.

It drove him fucking insane that Todoroki didn't put a stop to this.

That he just went along with Bakugou's momentary insanity.

He couldn't tear his eyes away when pink lips closed around the spoon, and as far as the alpha was concerned, the planet stopped moving for a few seconds. The only thing left moving was his fucking heart, and it moved with so much enthusiasm that he might as well be having a heart attack or something. As if he would fucking notice at this point.

Bakugou had never, in all his years of existence, considered the possibility of being jealous of a damn spoon. A shitty piece of metal. But here he was, holding his breath and entirely too preoccupied with the question of what those lips would feel like. Again.

This couldn't be healthy.

He was pretty sure that his hand was shaking as he pulled it back and Todoroki chewed on the food like no one's business. Bakugou was hypnotised by the movement of his jaw muscles, as if he'd never seen anyone eat anything before. It would be entirely too easy to catch Todoroki off guard, to push him down, put marks all over his body -

And yet, Bakugou was the one caught off guard (and he really should know better by now) when a cold hand pulled the spoon out from between his fingers casually. He gasped in surprise at the touch, and didn't even have the mental capacity to cover it up with a fake cough this time around. Todoroki looked up at him, a little amused.

"Forget it. You're not fucking feeding me, Icyhot," Bakugou tried to argue, but his voice came out weak. Weak, like his resolve. He was so infuriatingly weak and wrapped around Todoroki's finger.

It was as if he hadn't said anything, because his words went entirely ignored and Todoroki obviously had no fucking clue what he was doing to him because he came way too close. And when the alpha tried to put distance between them, it only caused to other to follow insistently until he was essentially sitting in between his legs.

Maybe if Bakugou was less terrified of his own thought process, he'd test the limits of this magnetism and lay down just to see if the omega would climb on top of him in response.

The smell of fruits mixed with the sweetness of Todoroki's fucking scent and his skin looked so damn smooth that Bakugou couldn't help but think about what he would taste like.

He could only hope that his thoughts weren't showing on his face because they were so damn close and if his mask cracked right now, then -

"You need to open your mouth, Bakugou."

"Don't tell me what to do."

But despite his words, Bakugou opened his mouth, glaring at the other. He didn't have the capacity to question how contradictory his actions and his words were, not with how close Todoroki was to him. He looked so damn focused on the task at hand that Bakugou would have laughed at him, if he wasn't so busy screaming internally as the spoon (that had been in the omega's mouth just a few seconds ago, which Bakugou could absolutely not ignore) was pushed into his mouth.

Bakugou nearly choked on a blueberry when a cold elbow brushed against his arm.

Icyhot was going to be the cause of his death, there was no way around that realisation. He tried to de-escalate the situation a little, leaning further backwards in an attempt to regain some focus on anything other than how badly he wanted to close the distance between them.

The intensity of his own urges terrified him.

Strangely enough, Todoroki watched him for a second before he did the same, pushing himself backwards.

"Is it that bad?"

Bakugou stared, trying hard to figure out what they were talking about.

Thankfully, Todoroki added, "... my scent. Because you looked really disgusted just now."

It was a talent of its own just how fucking horrible Todoroki was at interpreting anything when it came to this. As if all of it was a foreign language to him and he lacked the vocabulary to translate even the simplest of truths.

"You're so damn stupid," Bakugou voiced his thoughts, surprised with how soft the statement came out. He gave the other a good hard look, trying to figure out if he was entirely serious with his question.

Horrifyingly enough, Todoroki did look serious.

"No you idiot. You do not smell disgusting."

But the other just stayed still, looking away. His fringe covering his eyes.

Bakugou wasn't sure what to say, because telling Todoroki the extent of how not disgusting he smelled would probably sound fucking creepy. But he couldn't stay quiet either; he knew that the other had issues with all of this and entirely too many self doubts in his head. And Bakugou knew how insistent such thoughts could be.

So, if it would help him, Bakugou could risk sounding a little bit creepy. It was probably worth it.

"I mean it. Look at me for a damn moment."

Todoroki did. His bicoloured eyes gave nothing much away. But then a look of annoyance washed over his pretty face.

"You're just telling me what I want to hear. That doesn't suit you," Todoroki stated, his voice strangely calm, as if it was a fact. The tone clashed with the... something that was visible in his eyes though.

"Half and Half, don't ask for my damn opinion and tell me that I'm lying when I offer it to you," the alpha shot back.

"It's just hard to believe."

"Because you're making it more complicated than it is. Your scent is the damn opposite of disgusting. In fact, if you ran around smelling like this, alphas would probably throw themselves at you."

That had Todoroki looking up at him, head tilted to the side, as if he somehow didn't get what Bakugou meant.

"Throw themselves at me."

"Like fucking cats on catnip."

"Are you telling me that I... smell like catnip?"

"No, you idiot. I'm telling you that you smell ama- fine. Very fucking alright. Definitely not disgusting, so get that shit out of your head and eat."

"Are you sure?"

"Why the hell wouldn't I be."

"You really do not mind it?"

"I sound like a broken record saying this by now. But no, I don't fucking mind. You smell just fine."

Too fine to be sitting on a bed with him.

"Bakugou," Todoroki said, and waited for a moment,"How much do you not mind?"

"Not at all," Bakugou growled at him, wondering what the fuck this conversation even was.

The omega stayed silent for a bit. Again.

"... Then, can I -"

"Can you what," Bakugou repeated, a sense of dread spreading through his bones. Todoroki had that type of look on his face where any thought process could hide behind his pretty fucking features and no one would be the wiser. Especially Bakugou, because he was entirely too distracted with the way the omega ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes for a short moment before reopening them.

It hit him then that actually, he looked a little nervous, and Bakugou mirrored the sentiment as soon as he recognised it.

"I don't usually smell like.. anything," Todoroki stated the obvious.

Bakugou should have stayed out of his room. He shouldn't be partaking in a conversation about Todoroki's scent with him. Why was he still here?

"Yeah, so?" he asked, faking confidence that he didn't feel.

"And I.. You said that it isn't very strong."

Strong enough to drive Bakugou insane though, but apparently that wasn't as obvious as it felt.

"Yeah."

"So, maybe.."

Bakugou was just about done with the hesitation. His patience was already millimetres above nonexistent, and now Todoroki was just fucking testing his limits.

"Fucking hell. Spit it out, Half and Half. Or have you forgotten how to form sentences. You scared of me now or what?"

Of course the challenge in his tone did the job.

Bakugou watched, torn between fascination and panic, as Todoroki placed the food beside the bed, and came too fucking close without any warning, giving him a look that had Bakugou feeling so fucking helpless because his eyes were close enough to see the patterns in his irises and his lips were right there and since when was Todoroki even so comfortable invading his personal space?

"You told me to talk about.. those things. And if my scent isn't bad then I want to do this, too. Even if it's just once."

"...Do what?"

This time, Todoroki was the one glaring at Bakugou as if the message was obvious (which it wasn't because he was talking in damn riddles) and he was just pretending not to understand. The alpha barely had a second to take in a shaky breath.

"This."

The word hung heavy in the air, a useless accessory to his actions.

The universe obviously couldn't decide whether it hated or loved Bakugou, and the feeling was fucking mutual because Todoroki apparently was in the mood for a hug or whatever 'this' was, and Bakugou didn't dare to move one fucking muscle because... shit. None of this was planned, none of it healthy for his sanity. He'd only just gotten used to such moments without the issue of Todoroki's scent added into the equation.

He was going to break.

And the omega seemed to have no fucking qualms about practically shoving himself on Bakugou's lap in the sweetest way possible, with infuriatingly careful movements. All hesitation gone, replaced with quiet determination.

His fucking scent that was just as strong of a weapon as his quirk.

But worse, because explosions weren't a suitable defense against... any of that.

Bakugou held his breath as Todoroki placed his head on his shoulder like he wasn't viciously attacking him.

"Is this fine?"

Bakugou was fine with it but he also wasn't fucking fine with it. As far from fine as it got. He didn't know what he was. Overwhelmed. Freaking out. Shaking with the effort of staying still, probably. He couldn't even tell, all he could focus on was how close they were.

How loud and clear one word echoed in his mind.

'Mine.'

There was a certain pressure in his throat, in his chest.

He wasn't sure he would ever get used to this feeling. This strange sense of connection that he'd spent years and years without. And now it was just so there, so impossible to ignore.

"Yeah," he whispered, sounding like he'd been punched in the stomach.

Pressed so close together, he could fucking smell how comfortable Todoroki felt upon hearing that confirmed. Could practically taste the sweetness of it in the air. No words were needed to convey the message, and having the scent of a happy omega shoved into his face was an ego boost if there ever was one.

Not just any omega - fucking Shouto Todoroki. Every now and then, it hit Bakugou just how astonishing that really was. He was absolutely weak for this guy and every breath he took solidified that knowledge.

He forced himself to stay still when Todoroki moved after a long while of just this. When he did, it was all soft brushes of skin against skin, all shaky exhales, way too close to Bakugou's ear. He was so careful with the movements that the alpha almost thought he was imagining the entire scenario.

But he wasn't.

"What are you doing?" Bakugou asked, leaving out the 'to me' part.

"What do you think?"

Todoroki's tone carried that familiar calmness that almost bordered on sounding condescending. While that usually made Bakugou growl insults at him, it now had him frozen. He wanted the omega to be more confident with stuff like this, but this was just... a lot to deal with.

Todoroki was scent marking him. Or he wanted to cuddle. Or something. Maybe the omega was trying to murder him - to get revenge for the last scent marking incident.

Or maybe it was something in-between all of those options that the world had no word for because Todoroki was pretty much out of this world. He so easily possessed all the tenderness that Bakugou couldn't muster up if he tried and it was fucking unfair.

The room was quiet, and the movements weren't rushed.

The knowledge that Todoroki apparently wanted his scent on Bakugou - for whatever reason - was all that he could register. He tried to rationalise this, but it was fucking hard when he was pushing all of Bakugou's buttons at once and being cheeky about it.

Probably without noticing.

Bakugou never wanted him to do this with anyone else. Ever. Didn't want Todoroki to ever think that he was doing anything wrong when everything he did felt too fucking right to be put into words.

It felt different from the other time this had happened. Not quite as foreign anymore, but the slowly growing familiarity of the touches between them only served to make Bakugou all the more aware of how desperately he needed to feel this clueless and beautiful idiot against him. Again and again.

He wanted to let Todoroki set whatever pace he was comfortable with, but it was getting harder to stay still and just bear this when all Bakugou wanted was more. More, more and more.

Everything.

Todoroki obviously didn't even realise what it meant for an omega to initiate stuff like this. Body-language-wise, that was as close to an invitation as it got, even Bakugou knew that much.

If only Todoroki fucking knew that as well. But he very obviously knew nothing, otherwise he wouldn't be trying to put his scent on Bakugou while simultaneously wanting to hide the fact that he even had one from the world. He wouldn't be so close, one hand on Bakugou's leg and the other on his shoulder blades, pulling him closer.

Bakugou's own hands were clenched into fists, digging into the mattress beneath him forcibly with the effort of keeping himself rooted to the spot.

For someone who could be fucking insightful and intelligent (sometimes), Todoroki could also be so damn oblivious that it wasn't funny. Reckless even, when he wasn't wasn't overthinking and holding back.

Like right now.

It was concerning that Bakugou felt okay with either version of him, probably more than just okay, too. The issue was that his head was misinterpreting the situation they were in. It didn't help that they were on a damn bed (again). The touches were innocent, Todoroki's intentions probably pure as fucking snow on Christmas.

He closed his eyes, prayed for his self-control to keep him afloat, for Todoroki to keep his mouth shut because if he said one more thing that sounded even remotely hot, Bakugou was going to lose it.

As if on cue, Todoroki mumbled something against his shoulder that Bakugou didn't catch, but he was almost sure that lips brushed against his skin in the process and all of his muscles stiffened.

"What?" he inquired, voice cracking and betraying his state of mind.

...

"I said it's as if I accidentally froze you," Shouto mused, distracted by the feeling of muscles beneath his palms. Even through a layer of fabric, they felt so well defined and it was just... fascinating. Distracting. Nice.

His heart was beating wildly, and he wondered if Bakugou could feel it where their chests were touching. It was more than odd for Bakugou to be so passive, just sitting there, unmoving. Shouto wasn't entirely sure why he was sitting in the alpha's lap, how it had come to this really, and the best explanation he had was that he'd been thinking about it for a long while.

About how frustrating it was for the scent marking to be such a one-sided affair. Having Bakugou's scent all over him all the time and no chance to do the same to him was... something that frustrated him, on a deeper level. And as soon as he'd seen the alpha, standing in front of his door, it had been all that he could really think about. Doing this - making use of this opportunity. Maybe he was enjoying it a little too much, maybe it was a weird thing to request out of the blue, but it wasn't like he ever had the chance to...

"Don't you just sound fucking smug."

Shouto definitely felt a little smug.

He grinned against the alpha's shoulder, the warmth of Bakugou's skin heating up his own. Maybe the morning wasn't that bad after all.

He took a deep breath in.

No - not bad at all.

Something about this situation had Shouto feeling strangely powerful - although he knew that his scent could barely be described as such, the simple knowledge that it wasn't nothing - it felt foreign and confusing but good. So good. Natural. He found himself curious, wondering if Bakugou felt the same sense of rightness that he did. Wondering why he wasn't participating or really reacting.

A part of him really wanted Bakugou to - if only as proof that he was affected by this as well.

So he asked, tone more challenging than he'd meant for it to sound, "Well, you're not.. doing anything."

"And just what the hell should I be doing."

"Don't you want your scent on me as well?"

Even Shouto could recognise that he was being a bit forward.

For a moment, the both of them were silent, and Shouto wasn't sure why, but it felt like his heart had stopped. A strange mixture of anticipation and nervousness flowed through his veins, not unlike the feeling before a big fight. When all options were open; maybe Bakugou would just decide that, no, he had somewhere to be and no time for senseless acts such as scent marking or -

A frustrated growl, so low that Shouto felt it in his chest like the feeling of an approaching thunderstorm, was all the answer he received, and Shouto wasn't sure what prompted him to make a noise in response. All he knew was that he did. Maybe his breathing was malfunctioning or maybe he'd actually whined, breathlessly, in response to that low sound.

Or maybe it was Bakugou's hands. How they were suddenly at his sides, digging into the fabric of his clothes and holding him so tightly that he couldn't move in either direction even if his own body didn't ironically feel like it was frozen in place. But it was warm - so warm. Where their skin touched, in his stomach. Everywhere. Shouto wasn't sure what was happening.

He wasn't as out of it as he'd been in the closet, but he felt... intensely aware.

"You don't even know what the hell you are doing, saying shit like that."

Bakugou didn't sound angry. He sounded pained almost, as if Shouto really didn't know what he was talking about. It took a moment for the omega to find his voice.

"I meant," he tried to explain, stopped. Licked his lips because they felt dry, "I meant that you don't have to just sit there. You can -"

"Fucking - Icyhot. Just stop talking for one damn moment."

Shouto didn't, "Why?"

Another annoyed noise followed.

"Why?" Shouto repeated.

"Because. You smell too damn good, so just fucking stop saying shit like that because of course I want you to-" Bakugou growled the words, stopped there and the omega was almost glad that he had such a tight hold on him, because the words nearly had him losing his balance.

"I - What?" He asked, although he'd heard the words clearly. But Shouto struggled to figure out what they meant, if they meant anything at all. And it sounded like they did. The rhythm of his heartbeat was fast, not exactly much of a rhythm anymore as he waited for some sort of clarification.

Blonde hair tickled his forehead when he turned his head slightly. They were pressed too tightly together for him to see the alpha's face.

"Shut up, don't even-"

"So you actually like my scent," he concluded, saying it almost to himself. For an alpha to like an omega's scent perhaps wasn't the biggest surprise, but the admission still had Shouto entirely overwhelmed. Unsure what else to say in response, he added a quiet, "thanks."

"Did you seriously just say thanks."

"... It was a compliment, right?"

"That was not a compliment you - that was a fucking complaint."

"Sounded like a compliment to me," Shouto declared, maybe just a little too pleased with the revelation, and the fact that they were sitting so close that the alpha's annoyed tone came out muffled against the side of his head and sounding just the right type of ridiculous. He heard and felt Bakugou groan.

"It's irritating."

"Is it?"

Bakugou didn't reply.

"I should take a shower soon though. You know what we're doing today, right?"

Shouto had almost forgotten about it himself, so caught up in the events of the morning.

Bakugou didn't let go, stayed silent. The omega couldn't not notice the presence of his fingers, still clutching his clothes at his sides. He pressed his forehead against the side of Bakugou's head, and said, "we're going to the hospital."

"Hospital?" Bakugou muttered and he sounded genuinely confused.

"You promised to visit my mom with me, remember?"

"Today," Bakugou assessed. Shouto nodded against him.

"Are you fucking serious, why the hell would you put your scent all over me if we're fucking visiting your mom today?!" the alpha practically exploded, using his grip on Shouto to push him back a little so he could glare at him with an almost violent shade of irritation in his eyes.

Shouto was a bit surprised with himself, because for a long moment all he could really think about was how easily the alpha had manged to reposition him. As if he weighted nothing. His gaze went down to strong arms, and he licked his lips again, making a mental note to buy chapstick or something.

"It's fine, my mom knows my scent."

"Icyhot."

"Huh?"

"Do you ever even use that damn head of yours."

Shouto's eyes came up to meet red ones, and he smirked at how disheveled and annoyed Bakugou looked, when there really wasn't any reason to be. Probably. "Already done with the compliments, Bakugou?" he asked.

"Shut up."

"..."

"Just, what the hell is she supposed to fucking think. What the hell is anyone supposed to think when they catch your scent on either of us! I should have fucking -"

"You said that it wasn't very strong."

"Yeah well I am still fucking noticing it."

Somehow, that sentence didn't have the desired effect because Shouto really liked hearing that. Which was a bit concerning, coupled with the fact that he also really liked the sight of the alpha's lips and... the thought that having his scent on Bakugou would definitely send a message to others. About how close they'd been, how no other omega had their scent on him...

Which was why he really didn't like what he was about to suggest. But he forced the words out anyways, trying to be rational, "So we take a shower, change our clothes and it'll be fine. Besides, your scent is much stronger, it covers mine up."

They stared each other down, both refusing to look away.

"I swear to fuck, if this doesn't work and anyone notices."

"Then that's my problem to handle. That's what you said earlier - I'm the one who has the explaining to do, because I'm responsible for this."

"... Fucking fine. Whatever. Are you at least going to eat the damn breakfast I made you, because if you don't, I fucking refuse."

The food was another thing that Shouto had entirely forgotten about. Without thinking about it beforehand, he leaned to the side to grab the bowl, and was a little caught off guard by the way Bakugou's eyes seemed to follow his movement. He didn't really think to put distance between them once he had it in his hands, and just stayed right there - Bakugou was comfortable to sit on, he reasoned.

"If we share," he replied, and although Bakugou looked like he was going to, he didn't shove Shouto off himself or punch him in the face.

Chapter Text

Bakugou had never associated showers with mourning - had never had a reason to, really - but he hadn't ever washed Todoroki's scent off himself either.

That was one fucking horrible experience, because within the span of an hour or two, he'd discovered Todoroki's scent, obsessed over it, had it spread all over him - and now he was supposed to what. Just fucking pretend like getting rid of this flowery and addictive scent was no big deal?

It felt like one.

Because yeah, it was just a damn scent, but at the same time, it wasn't only that. Bakugou's brain was fucking him over and currently in the process of realising the meaning he'd assigned to it; how much trust had been hidden within that simple action, how strangely balanced it felt for the both of them to smell like each other. Washing the scent off himself felt almost like destroying the evidence of their progress, but that thought was obviously fucking stupid and entirely too sentimental.

Still, he could not fucking stop thinking about it, and all of his movements felt mechanical and wrong.

Frustrating.

But necessary.

Bakugou forced himself to use an extra bit of shampoo, just to be on the safe side, and massaged it into his hair with such a violent urgency that it almost hurt. His shampoo (that he'd always liked because why the fuck else would he be using it?) smelled awful in comparison to the clear and yet haze-inducing scent that he could still somehow smell.

Maybe it wasn't even there anymore, at least not physically, but even if that was the case - and at this point he honestly couldn't even tell - it was going to be stuck in his head for the next few lifetimes anyways. Witnessing the absolute torture that was Todoroki's scent had rattled him more than he'd expected it to and now he didn't even have the time to analyse all the different types of thoughts running through his head and messing with his concentration, because they had plans.

Well, Todoroki had a plan.

What Bakugou had could more accurately be described as a nervous breakdown.

He knew that he shouldn't be this stressed out over meeting Todoroki's mother, but hell, he wanted to make a good impression. Needed to. Because that woman obviously meant a lot to Todoroki and although Bakugou would rather die than admit it, that was reason enough to make her opinion matter to him as well.

But Bakugou was definitely not in the right state of mind to handle delicate social interactions at the moment.

Even less so than usually.

Because while his thoughts were running in frustrating circles until their metaphorical heels were bleeding, he was somehow still stuck with those moments of closeness in his head as well. Those moments that had thoroughly messed him up and heightened his awareness of Todoroki's attractiveness to fucking unhealthy levels.

As if he'd been fucking cursed.

Bakugou knew that he was occupying the shower stall next to his; having one weak ass wall between them that could easily be destroyed with an explosion was as ironic as having Shouto Todoroki sitting on his lap while sharing breakfast, as though that was perfectly normal and not a test in patience at all. Lately, ironic circumstances such as this seemed to increase exponentially, and Bakugou wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve it, but what he knew was that it fucking sucked.

Not the fact that the omega had sat on him; that was actually a damn nice feeling. But the fact that Bakugou had forced himself to be as still as a statue in a pitiful attempt to not grab Todoroki or let his hands travel all over his body or maybe push their bodies together in just the right way...

Impulse control was an issue to him, always had been. And Bakugou didn't know what the fuck Todoroki even wanted from him. Probably nothing much, just... something. Maybe.

The kind of something that Bakugou couldn't figure out because the Todoroki's thoughts or lack thereof were just a fucking mystery and with every new bit of insight he gained, Bakugou had more questions. More confusion. More internal chaos.

At the very least, Todoroki had somehow managed not to notice the most bothersome problem that his proximity, coupled with his scent and his fucking voice, had caused. How he'd missed that, Bakugou had absolutely no idea, but maybe some damn God in the Olympus had seen his suffering and taken pity on him by miraculously leaving Todoroki unaware of his hard-on.

To be fair, that problem had solved itself quite fast once he'd been made aware of their plans to go to the hospital, as cold terror had flooded his veins.

Bakugou had expected that meeting to maybe happen in a few months. Maybe never if he was extra lucky. Definitely not on this day, of all. When he was extra frustrated in multiple ways and really just wanted to -

He wasn't even fucking sure anymore.

It was a strange feeling, because Bakugou was used to having his goals clearly defined. Was used to stepping on other's feet in the process of taking the things he wanted, because the world was just competetive like that and it was idiotic to deny that. But right now, he wanted multiple things at once, and felt like half of them, he wasn't even allowed to want.

And just about all of them had to do with Todoroki.

Bakugou had the water at a medium temperature, because it was the furthest that he could get away from being reminded of warm and cold skin, red and white hair. A warm grey eye and an ice-cold blue one. Not that it was working - nothing could distract him from the knowledge that the omega was right fucking there, and just out of his reach. Without clothes on, and with droplets of water running down his shoulders, his chest, his legs. Hair sticking to his head and lashes heavy.

Bakugou took a deep breath it, swallowed some water accidentally. Coughed a little and sort of hoped to choke on it.

That image of Todoroki was the last thing he should allow into his mind, but it was still undeniably there. Too clear and too fucking nice to pretend like it wasn't.

He really wanted to punch a hole into the wall, because when had that happened again? When had this entire thing turned from a mild interest into full-blown instinctual, hormonal and emotional ridiculousness? Instead of trying to pinpoint the exact timeline of his obsession, he reminded himself of the current and more pressing issue.

That Bakugou was going to meet Todoroki's mother.

Because he'd been stupid enough to agree to this entire thing, and he'd practically signed his own death certificate by complying. Had sold his damn soul; had specifically asked the universe to turn his life into a comedy show. Even on the off chance that this went well, it was still going to be a fucking mess and Bakugou could feel it in his bones as if he'd randomly developed a messed up version of clairsentience.

Not that extrasensory abilities were needed to tell as much, because how in the world would it not turn out to be a mess, when he was supposed to act like a normal fucking person, although all Bakugou could think about currently was that woman's son, in the shower, a goddamn wet dream and oblivious nightmare personified. And worse than that, because he was real.

Bakugou wasn't usually the type who needed a plan in order to succeed at anything, but maybe this was the exception and he needed a damn plan for once. It wasn't fucking easy to think however, not when his mind was still busy conjuring up images that didn't fucking help.

Of Todoroki just standing there, looking spectacular underneath the stream of water, probably running his fingers through his hair or - except, the water wasn't on anymore, Bakugou noticed. He wondered what the hell was up with his sense of time now, because it couldn't have possibly been more than two or three minutes and -

"Ah, Bakugou?"

A fucking embarrassing noise left the alpha's mouth at the sight of red and white hair. Of Todoroki standing there, for the most part concealed by a shower curtain.

Bakugou could not think.

Couldn't even speak.

Felt the strangest sense of panic and had to keep himself from going into a fighting stance because the rush of adrenaline automatically translated into that after years of training and villain attacks and life-threatening shit.

Luckily, he didn't make that big of an idiot out of himself though.

He just stood there, frozen in place, with Todoroki's eyes on his face, looking infuriatingly unbothered. His gaze was unwavering, as if he was in the habit of interrupting people's showers like this. Once Bakugou had managed to close his mouth and reopen it approximately 5 seconds later, his tone came out as an aggravated growl, "Don't fucking sneak up on people in the shower you-"

He stopped there, stared like a mindless idiot as Todoroki wiped some water out of his face in a way that just had to be fucking deliberate because no one could possibly make such a small movement look so damn intense. The asshole was probably all too aware of how fucking distracting he was, and now Bakugou had stopped and stared for too long to continue yelling at him.

He was fucking good at yelling - the best, honestly. And slowly but surely Todoroki was taking even that ability away from him by making it fucking hard to breathe or exist or -

"Can I, uh," Todoroki began, and Bakugou watched his Adam's apple move as he swallowed before continuing, "borrow your shampoo?"

It had to be a fucking joke.

All Bakugou could think about was why the fuck he'd needed to look into this fucking shower stall in order to ask that. Why he paraded his damn collarbone and the nice little curve of his shoulder and his wet skin around as if this was some sort of fucking -

"Ah, please?" Todoroki continued, face blank, his tone quiet and probably not even meaning it. It sounded more like he'd randomly remembered that this was just what people said when they wanted something, but hell. Did that word sound nice on his lips. Bakugou needed to get his shit together and fast, because he was still staring.

At his forehead, his cheekbones and then, at the droplets caught in two different shades of lashes that had Todoroki's eyes looking slightly different and a little more heavily lidded. Red eyes followed a drop of water that ran, like a tear, down his cheek and he forced himself to just. Fucking. Stop.

Even Todoroki seemed aware of the eyes on him, looking a bit surprised now.

Bakugou nearly crashed the shampoo bottle with the strength of his hold, and stunned-looking, bicoloured eyes followed his movement, then widened even further as Bakugou shoved the bottle into hands that were unprepared for the sudden task.

"Thank - oh."

So much for any God ever taking pity on Katsuki Bakugou.

Of course.

Of course this was the one moment where Todoroki decided to be a clumsy idiot, standing there, half in and half out of the shower stall.

Of fucking course that thing dropped to the floor. Innocently. Coincidentally. The sound not to be heard over the water that was still running in the background.

Both of them seemed to take an astonishingly long moment (for hero standards) to process the fact, and Bakugou had the strangest feeling that gravity was somehow shifting around him as he helplessly watched this... this horribly clueless, though at times arrogant and infuriating guy bend down in front of him.

Shoving more of the curtain aside in the process; exposing too much and not entirely enough of himself.

Only to fucking look up, and make eye contact as though he wasn't practically on his damn knees, naked. In front of Bakugou, also naked.

There wasn't really any thought left in the blonde's brain, and although the moment probably just lasted half a second, it felt like 20 eternities stacked on top of each other. Intense and breathtaking and fucking wrong because why the hell was it so hard to look away?

Although the water was lukewarm, it felt fucking boiling, hitting his back.

Todoroki looked stupidly angelic from every damn angle but even more so like this, staring up at Bakugou. It was beyond anything a person could possibly handle, and Bakugou could handle a lot. Bakugou's fingers itched with the violent need to bury themselves in wet locks of hair. The need to push their lips together. To let his fingers run across his jawline and down his neck and see the reactions it might cause.

To push Todoroki down on the disgusting tiled floor because at this point it was whatever.

Although Bakugou was on a never-ending and horrible quest to avoid animalistic and inappropriate thoughts, it just wasn't fucking possible with the omega right there, right in front of him, and suddenly -

"Thanks."

Gone again.

Like nothing had fucking happened.

Bakugou heard the water start up, but he didn't really even hear it. Didn't really register anything except for the fact that he was about to meet Todoroki's mother when he'd just thought about how horribly... nice Todoroki looked on his knees. And of course his body agreed because why the hell wouldn't it. He let out a strained breath, told himself to be a good fucking person and turned the water to ice cold.

Suffered through it, just because he didn't need to add 'jacking off just before that visit' to the list of things that had him feeling guilty and creepy.

Todoroki just wanted to show his mother that he had found a friend - emotional support. Someone who showed him how to play video games. Someone he could talk to and trust. Someone who made food for him because Todoroki was just so damn useless in the kitchen. Not someone who looked at him like he wanted to fucking eat him and taint his innocence or whatever.

Bakugou felt an increasing desire to punch himself in the face and remind himself that this wasn't part of the plan. The damn pining, the stupid sappy thoughts and the absolutely consuming desire to make Todoroki his were fucking conspiring against him in the worst of ways. He spent another minute or two under the ice cold water, trying not to think about anything at all.

...

Every now and then, the realisation hit Shouto that Bakugou was very attractive. The... niceness of his face wasn't exactly emphasised by his oftentimes not-so-nice expressions and his everlasting 'I'll kill you' attitude, but when the alpha wasn't making an effort to put all the annoyance he could muster into his face, it was obvious to see that he was quite... pretty. And since Bakugou wasn't glaring at him all the time anymore, Shouto had more and more of those moments of insight lately.

He was sure that he wasn't alone with the thought either - anyone with eyes who just watched the blonde for a little while probably thought the same thing. It was hard not to. Shouto's favorite expressions on him were the ones he received when he managed to catch him off guard, in one way or another. The slightly widened red eyes and the lack of tension in his face made Bakugou look younger, less like an explosion waiting to happen.

When he got to see such expressions on the alpha, Shouto always felt a strange sense of... something. Maybe awe, maybe thankfulness.

This time though, it wasn't just that. Because even minutes after interrupting Bakugou's shower, his mind was still entirely occupied with the sight that was Bakugou. With his usually spiky hair pushed down by the water, looking at Shouto like he was a ghost that had materialised in front of him.

Something about that look had captivated him, and he couldn't explain it to himself.

It had taken a bit of concentration to keep his eyes on his face, because for some reason, Shouto had felt tempted to let them move lower, across his body... Which in itself was a bit concerning, because his intention hadn't been to spy on the alpha or anything. And yet, as he had stood there, he had to remind himself over and over again of his mission; to borrow some shampoo and definitely not watch Bakugou shower as though it was a private theatre performance.

It wasn't even like Shouto had never seen Bakugou without clothes on - he had. Multiple times. Sometimes after training in the locker room, sometimes walking around with a towel only after showers. That one time where he'd changed in his room... but this time, knowing that Bakugou didn't have clothes on had bothered him just a little bit more than before. Shouto had felt the strangest mix of embarrassment and fascination - had felt like moving forward, and also, like staying very still.

He'd been too aware of Bakugou's eyes on him. Red and breathtaking, and somehow, Shouto had felt shaky all the way down to his bones under his gaze.

He was still busy analysing his own reactions by the time he came out of the shower, with a towel wrapped around his waist and the scent of shampoo covering up most of the other scents on him. Shouto found himself noticing the lack of the alpha's scent on him, and he didn't even want to hear about how his own wasn't on Bakugou anymore.

He'd been entirely too satisfied with the concept of their scents mixed together, in such a lovely way. Because he'd (half subconsciously) been obsessing over the idea for so long that it was a bit cruel for it to happen, only to be washed down the drain minutes later.

And yet Shouto knew that it was for the best; if either of them ran around smelling like an omega, everyone would notice. It was inevitable in a class made up of betas and alphas only. Being rational about this wasn't all that easy though, and a big part of him just wanted everyone to notice.

Thankfully, he'd managed to ignore that desire. They both smelled like nothing much, and everything was fine.

Great.

Except maybe the fact that Shouto's mind stopped working when his eyes caught onto the sight of Bakugou, facing away from him and drying his hair with a towel with impatient movements.

The strange pull inside of him came right back, and was just so incredibly there. He licked his lips.

Shouto couldn't help but stare at the exposed back. Bakugou's muscles looked unfairly defined as they shifted with the movements. Although Shouto was in good shape as well, he felt the strangest sense of envy or maybe annoyance or just.. something that felt warm, in response to the unfair perfection of that. From his shoulder blades to his lower back, just above where the towel was wrapped around his waist; Shouto wondered what that skin would feel like beneath his fingers. Probably smooth and warm and - he stopped himself.

Because he'd most likely never find out, unless maybe during training, if he accidentally burned off the other's clothes and then his hands could -

"Something on my back, Icyhot?"

Shouto's eyes instantly went up, and he felt the temperature of his body rise upon realising that Bakugou was watching him through the mirror, red eyes narrowed in a way that could be amusement or irritation and Shouto just couldn't tell because he was preoccupied with keeping his breathing even.

He took a shallow breath.

"No, there's nothing," he said and Bakugou turned around, looking directly at him, as if trying to read his mind. Which Shouto really hoped wasn't working, because his thoughts were just a little bit... off, this morning. Maybe it had something to do with what had happened earlier; maybe scent marking Bakugou had messed with his instincts; had shut off one part of his brain while causing another to be extra active. And the active parts of his brain just happened to be very concerned with Bakugou's body for some reason.

It probably wasn't that weird, or was it?

"Come here for a moment."

Shouto didn't react, only sucked in another shaky breath because maybe it was weird. His legs felt unsteady and throat strangely dry. He wasn't sure why, but the words sounded good, not barked out like a command, and yet steady in their simplicity. Something about the tone struck a nerve and Shouto was once again incredibly aware of their lack of clothes.

"Half and Half."

"..."

"Don't fucking ignore me."

"I wasn't - " Shouto began, but his words got stuck in his throat when Bakugou was suddenly right in front of him, placing his hands on Shouto's bare shoulders. The touch was simple but somehow intimate enough to let Shouto's heart race. A second or two later, the omega asked, ".. what are you doing?"

Bakugou gave him an almost pained look.

"Just, hold still for one damn moment, I'm trying to see if the scent is gone," he told him. Shouto nodded, although he was a bit incapable of understanding words currently, feeling incredibly warm and a bit fidgety as Bakugou smelled him. Although the reasons were obvious and it probably made sense to check, Shouto's instinct was to tilt his head to the side just a little bit in a sort of invitation, because if Bakugou felt like maybe putting his scent all over him again, Shouto really wouldn't be opposed to that at all.

But nothing much happened, for the longest while. Bakugou was strangely silent, and the lack of action had the omega feeling more and more on edge.

Feeling a little lighthearted and wanting to ground himself, he asked, "so, is it?"

Their eyes locked, and Bakugou nodded, "Think so. Mostly anyways."

"That's... good."

Bakugou made a noise in response, and Shouto could swear that the hold on his shoulders tightened a little before it was suddenly gone. He nearly lost his balance when Bakugou put distance between them, entirely preoccupied with the loss of skin contact.

"I still don't think visiting your mother is a good fucking idea," Bakugou declared, out of nowhere.

"Why?"

Shouto received the kind of glare in response that told him that the answer was supposedly obvious. It really wasn't though, and Bakugou's hesitation to the idea of coming with him was a little- there was no exact word for it, but Shouto's instincts were insistent on figuring out just why he didn't want to come with him. It wasn't all that often that the alpha openly showed his self doubts, and Shouto watched the way he ran his fingers through his towel-dry hair.

"I doubt that even your oblivious ass hasn't realised how fucking bad I am at dealing with - don't know - sensitive people," he murmured, and Shouto had trouble actually catching all the words, distracted by the bitterness in Bakugou's voice.

"My mother isn't - I mean, she is sensitive, but she's doing much better than...," Shouto hated that his own hand instantly found its way to his face, to the familiar sensation of scarred skin, "she's completely capable of having normal conversations. Which doesn't mean that you should be thoughtless or extra rude, but she knows that I..."

His words trailed off, and he wasn't entirely sure what exactly she knew. That Bakugou was important to him? That Shouto was somehow excited to introduce them for reasons he could not entirely grasp although he maybe had a vague idea why?

"You think I'm going to fucking insult your mother or what?" Bakugou repeated and stepped a little closer with his chin lifted in his usual arrogant way, because apparently that was the only thing he'd taken out of that statement.

"Well, I hope you aren't going to do that. Your self control in social interactions varies greatly," Shouto informed him, more distracted with each word because the distance between them was just. So. Small.

Barely there.

Shouto realised in that moment that maybe something was wrong with him.

Because he found that arrogant scowl just as pretty on Bakugou.

"Do you even think about the shit you say, Half and Half."

"Huh?"

"You don't know a fucking thing about how much self control I possess."

"Uh-huh," Shouto said with a slow nod, half-convinced, "I've only known you for a few years. My point actually is that it'll be fine unless you purposely mess it up, so stop worrying."

"I am not fucking worried, why the hell would I be worried."

"You are, I can smell it."

He leaned just a little bit closer for emphasis, or maybe that was an excuse and some part of Shouto was getting more and more obsessed with the concept of being able to touch the blonde freely. Bakugou paused for a moment, before saying anything or even moving.

"Just, shut up and put some damn clothes on so we can get this over with."

Shouto looked the alpha in the eyes for a long moment and tried to keep his expression neutral. Maybe it wasn't entirely neutral, because he saw the crack in the other's facade. "Bakugou, you know that I'm not going to force you, right? If you really dislike the idea so much, I can go by myself. That's fine."

"I just told you to shut up, didn't I?"

"I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable," Shouto argued.

"Well then don't give me that look - just, I promised to, so keep your damn mouth shut and put on your clothes."

It didn't entirely make sense, but Shouto frowned at the repeated command to put on clothes. Mostly because he didn't feel like telling Bakugou to do the same thing - it wasn't like he was deliberately staring at his body or anything, but Shouto didn't really mind the fact that his chest wasn't covered with fabric or the fact that his arms were so nicely on display or how some stray drops of water ran down his neck from where blonde hair wasn't dry yet...

"Ah, you're right," Shouto whispered, forcibly pulled his gaze away from the alpha and walked towards the changing room, although his instincts were protesting for some reason. Thankfully Bakugou didn't follow right away, and it gave Shouto a few minutes to clear his head and push the visual impressions into the back of his mind. He put on a pair of dark grey jeans and a light blue t-shirt as he wondered why Bakugou, the same guy who would literally run into a battle without a second thought, was so worried about meeting his mother.

Something about it just didn't seem to add up, and Shouto almost felt guilty for his desire to introduce the two. Still, he was convinced that Bakugou's concerns were unjustified. Because although the alpha could be insensitive and rude, Shouto actually knew that there were other sides to him, sides that he'd seen very clearly and that he was sure anyone would appreciate. Especially the one family member that he was closest to; after the countless times he'd told her about Bakugou during his visits, actually bringing him just seemed like a rational course of action.

Or maybe it wasn't as much of a rational thing as it was an emotional one. All he really knew was that at this point, he trusted his mother enough to want to introduce an important person in his life to her. And he trusted Bakugou enough to let him meet the one person who'd been the personification of safety in his childhood. And that probably meant a lot.

...

"Bakugou we really don't need a present," Todoroki complained, but Bakugou only gave him a short glare before pulling him in through the glass door. It was some fucking irony that this was the first time he'd ever entered a damn flower shop, just fucking hours after figuring out Todoroki's scent. Despite the omega's claims that this was unnecessary, Bakugou felt like an idiot thinking about visiting Todoroki's mother with empty hands and nothing but a guilty conscience.

But really, wasn't that the damn norm? To bring flowers when you went to visit someone in any type of hospital? Bakugou didn't really know, but at least he thought so, and this had nothing at all to do with the fact that he was fucking nervous about the meeting.

"Just help me pick out some damn flowers."

"How?"

"What do you mean, how?"

"As in, do you want to pick them according to flower language, color, price?" the omega asked, looking around at the fucking ridiculous variety of colorful flowers in various shapes. None of them smelled half as good as his scent had but Bakugou wasn't thinking about that. At all.

"Who the hell gives a damn about flower language, just help me find something that you mother won't hate," he muttered, ever so slightly distracted by the wide, bicoloured eyes and the misplaced-looking hint of a smile on Todoroki's lips.

The things Bakugou went through for this idiot - it really wasn't funny anymore. He wasn't the type of guy to ever enter a damn flower shop in his life, but here he was. Helpless and not nearly as annoyed as he should be. In a fucking flower shop. Fucking hopeless.

"Excuse me, can I help you two?" a shop assistant asked the moment she appeared from some sort of back room. She was obviously an omega, with a scent sugary enough to cut through the variety of natural sweet scents in the room easily. Bakugou frowned at the relatively young girl, and just before he could reply, Todoroki had already taken it upon himself to say, "we need flowers," like the great conversionalist he wasn't.

"For a special occasion?" she tried, a friendly smile on her face.

"For my mom," Todoroki deadpanned.

Maybe it was the nervousness, but Bakugou almost felt like laughing at the interaction, because the omega was so fucking oblivious to her attempts at getting a bit of small talk out of him and he sounded downright unfriendly.

"Alright. You've got any color preferences?"

"White or blue. No red flowers preferably."

"White or blue... let's see, we have some nice ones here. How about those?" she asked, pointing at some white flowers and Bakugou's eyes got stuck on Todoroki's neck when he tilted his head to the side, apparently considering the options. His shirt left a lot of his collarbone visible, and Bakugou still had a very vivid image of Todoroki with nothing but a towel around his waist in his head. In all honesty, Bakugou wondered if the asshole somehow got prettier by the day. Or maybe by the fucking minute.

"Ah, I don't know. Bakugou?" Todoroki addressed him, one hand lightly pulling at the sleeve of his shirt to get his attention. Which he'd already had before, because when wasn't Bakugou's attention on him, seriously.

Bakugou hadn't expected the question though; he looked at Todoroki, distracted by the soft touch, and then followed his gaze to stare at the flowers. He quickly came up with an opinion on the spot, "They're fucking ugly. What about those?"

He could swear that he heard a chuckle from beside him.

"The white lisianthus flowers?"

"Sure."

"A nice choice," the girl smiled, her face a bit too friendly to not piss the alpha off ever so slightly, "any other one?"

Bakugou looked around for a brief moment, making a point of ignoring the red and white roses in the corner (and the horribly cheesy urge to buy one of them and maybe put it in Todoroki's hair or something equally ridiculous), and pointed at another flower that caught his attention, "some of those."

"The white lilies?"

Bakugou nodded because he had absolutely no fucking clue.

"That's a great combination, you seem to have an eye for this."

Bakugou very much doubted that, but then again, sometimes he surprised himself with figuring out new talents, even useless ones. He was slightly distracted by the hand on his arm, and sent a short look Todoroki's way, but the omega seemed to be lost in thoughts, frowning at the counter.

So he instead watched as the girl went about her task, pulling out several of the flowers, adding some leaves and shit and tying it all together in a thankfully decent manner. Bakugou found himself understanding why she worked there as he watched her pull a thin black thread out of your fingers. A useless quirk, but at least not entirely useless in a flower shop.

"Here you go," she said, handing the bouquet to Todoroki and informing them of the price. Bakugou found it a bit ridiculous how expensive a few stupid flowers were, but he wasn't about to complain now, just happy to be done with that. Except, this also meant that there wasn't much time left before they would arrive at the hospital and he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that.

On one hand, he really wanted to get this over with and be able to focus on other shit, but on the other, he really didn't feel all that fucking ready. As soon as they were outside of the shop, he felt the telltale weight of Todoroki's eyes on him, and turned towards him.

"What."

"Mmh?"

"That look on your face. If you've got something to say, then fucking say it, Icyhot."

"It's just, that girl seemed very sweet, right?"

Bakugou stopped moving.

"Well, then go ask for her number or whatever," the alpha practically hissed at the unexpected statement, instantly feeling murderous because he couldn't remember Todoroki saying that about anyone ever and now he just fucking -

"No, I mean. You. Ah. Never mind."

"I what? Spit it out."

"It doesn't matter."

"Half and half," he threatened.

"She kept looking at you."

"So fucking what."

Todoroki sighed, eyes on the sidewalk.

"Nothing. She was right though. You did choose nice flowers," Todoroki told him, his voice not giving much away. The change in topic was fucking obvious however, and Bakugou crossed his arms, frowning at the flowers the other carried.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, with Bakugou still wondering what the hell he'd been getting at, while simultaneously trying his best to keep his face relaxed and his scent from betraying his inner panic. It felt like nothing short of a walk to the guillotine. When they'd made it past the entrance of the gigantic grey and white building, Todoroki greeted the receptionist as if he was familiar with the old man.

Bakugou was acutely aware of how much he disliked any and all hospital settings as he glared at the shitty pieces of art clinging to white walls. Who the hell thought that this type of soulless art would help anyone heal was a damn idiot for sure.

He followed Todoroki down the hallway, and nearly ran into him when the omega suddenly stopped.

And held out the flowers expectantly, "You should give them to her, you're the one who insisted that we buy them."

"Like hell am I going to."

Todoroki blinked at him, confusion on his face and Bakugou forced himself not to focus on the way those eyelashes fluttered so nicely.

"You do it, Icyhot."

"... Why?"

"No reason, just - I don't know. Knock on the door or something."

"You're too nervous about this."

"I am not fucking nervous," Bakugou established, and, feeling the need to do something to support his words with actions, knocked on the door.

There was a silent "yes" from inside, and for maybe the first time in history, Bakugou felt like running away from a challenge. Fast, and without looking back. But it was already too late, because Icyhot apparently saw right through him and grabbed a hold of his hand, forcing him to come along. The worst part was that Bakugou couldn't yell at him for doing so, because that would just be a great first impression, wouldn't it?

Todoroki's hand was nice. Soft. Horribly overwhelming. Bakugou squeezed it a little tighter.

"Hey mom," he heard Todoroki say as his eyes scanned the small but well-lit room; there was a desk in the middle, a couch on one side and a bed on the other. A shelf filled with books and a closet. It was a simple room, but not as depressing as he'd expected it to be.

"Shouto, how nice that you - oh, hello?"

Bakugou had wondered before where Todoroki got his soft and delicate facial features from, because it sure as hell wasn't Endeavour - that man was the exact opposite of delicate. Looking at the small, white-haired woman sitting on the bed however, that mystery was instantly solved. From the white hair to the grey eyes to the slightly confused look on her face, it was fucking undeniable that the two were related.

Todoroki let go of his hand and more or less viciously stabbed the alpha in the side of his ribcage. It worked and Bakugou snapped out of his musings.

"Hi," he said belatedly and felt like one fucking idiot.

"Mom, that's Bakugou, the friend I told you about? He insisted the we bring flowers but he's too shy to hand them over."

Too shy.

Bakugou's head snapped in the omega's direction with such an abrupt movement that it was probably unhealthy, because did the asshole just - he saw the smug look on his pretty face, and Todoroki was so going to pay for those fucking words later.

He watched the two of them hug before Todoroki handed the flowers to his mother.

"Oh, thank you. That's too sweet, they're beautiful.. You didn't have to," she said and smiled softly at the flowers before turning to Todoroki and Bakugou. This woman was nothing if not the exact opposite of Todoroki's father. Everything about her seemed quiet and soft, like a walk through the quietness of newly fallen snow.

"He's just sweet like that," the cheeky fucker said drily, now definitely trying to infuriate Bakugou on purpose with his stupid sense of humor because apparently that was the thanks he received for his fucking efforts.

"Shouto can you get me the vase from over there?"

Bakugou helplessly watched Todoroki walk to the other end of the room, and felt extra awkward as he was left to stand there with curious grey eyes entirely on him. Apparently unwavering stares ran in the family as well.

"So Bakugou. It's nice to finally meet you, Shouto has been talking about you a lot."

It was probably supposed to be a normal conversation starter, but the information that Todoroki talked 'a lot' about him only served to unsettle him further. Because what the hell had he said so far? What the hell did this woman think she knew about Bakugou? How the hell was he supposed to reply?

What would a normal, non-infatuated, friend even say?

... What was Bakugou fucking doing here.

He sure as fuck wasn't going to be a loser and reply with a standard line like 'all good things I hope.'

"Yeah, well, he forced me to come here with him," he blurted out instead, and what the actual hell was wrong with his brain - that was fucking worse than a standard line. Bakugou wanted to punch himself in the face for the statement but instead fealty his entire body freeze up.

"He what?"

"Blackmailed me with his fu- with that look," Bakugou went on, the words just falling out of his mouth at this point as he recalled the expression on Todoroki's face earlier when he'd said that Bakugou didn't need to come with him. That was probably the closest to puppy eyes he'd ever seen on him, and the manipulation powers of that look were just through the fucking roof. Too much. Shouto Todoroki was too powerful.

But Bakugou hadn't planned to admit that.

Maybe he could still bolt out of the room and pretend this mess of a conversation had never happened. So far, it only sounded like he really didn't want to be here, which he didn't, but he hadn't planned to say as much to Todoroki's mother at all.

But then, unexpectedly, the woman started laughing.

"Oh, Shouto can be quite stubborn when he sets his mind to something, although this is partially my fault. I was curious to meet the alpha my son has so taken such a liking to."

They were not even one minute into the conversation, and Bakugou already felt like his brain was overheating. Now he really wanted to know what Todoroki had said about him, because since when had he 'taken such a liking' to him exactly? The choice of words sounded a bit too deliberate to not mean anything, and he wondered just what Todoroki's mother thought they were -

"I didn't blackmail you. I encouraged you because you were unreasonably worried about making a bad first impression," Todoroki interrupted his thoughts. He sounded as if he was talking about the weather and not Bakugou's very fucking justified self doubts. Somehow, the omega seemed horrifyingly at ease, both the tone of voice and the natural way in which he moved around in this room said as much. "Mom, where should I put the flowers?"

"The windowsill is fine. And why don't you two sit down? I've got water here, if either of you wants something to drink."

Although Bakugou's throat was as dry as a damn desert, he shook his head. Being polite didn't come naturally to him, and he needed to focus on staying quiet, talking without cursing (if he needed to, at all) and trying not to look murderous. Todoroki still went ahead and poured the both of them a glass of water before he sat down on the small couch next to Bakugou. The alpha tried to keep his staring to a minimum but that probably wasn't working out too well and he cursed Todoroki for wearing such a low cut shirt and being a damn distraction in general.

He blinked as the glass of water was pushed into his hands.

"You're always telling me to drink enough water," was the only explanation he received. For some reason, Todoroki had sat down right next to him instead of moving to the other corner of the couch, and Bakugou didn't know what to do with the fond look on the woman's face as she watched them, obviously amused.

It felt as though she knew something that she wasn't saying out loud. Bakugou took a sip of water and tried to ignore the feeling because he had no damn idea what to do with it.

"So you two watch out for each other it seems?"

The alpha opened his mouth, closed it again.

It took Bakugou a moment to understand the question because he wanted to say the right thing instead of just yelling his initial thoughts out loud. While he was still busy debating whether to confirm or deny it, Todoroki had already began talking, "Bakugou looks out for me mostly. He's always telling me to drink more water, he cooks for me all the time, even late at night if he's convinced that I haven't eaten enough. But he refuses to let me eat soba more than once a day and makes me eat vegetables and fruit instead."

Bakugou had to force himself not to stare at the suddenly so talkative Icyhot, but he had the dreadful feeling that this all sounded very incriminating. He wasn't some damn obsessive creep who had nothing else to worry about other than the omega's eating habits... or was he?

Fuck, maybe he was.

"Because you can't survive on fucking soba alone," he muttered quietly, trying to defend himself.

Todoroki's mom looked stunned for a moment before she said, "Oh but Shouto, he's right. You know that omegas your age are prone to mineral and vitamin deficiencies. And with all the training you do, even more so. You should listen to him and be thoughtful with yourself."

Bakugou was very fucking grateful for the support, but the look of stunned betrayal on Todoroki's face was just ridiculous. And although Bakugou knew this, he still felt stupidly affected by it. He found it hard to grasp how someone could have such a strong emotional attachment to fucking instant food, but that probably wasn't going to change, ever.

Usually Bakugou was the one out of the two of them who got chewed out by adults, and although it was nice to be deemed the 'responsible one' for once, Bakugou had the stupid fucking urge to make the idiot smile again, "It's not like you can't eat soba, you just have to add other things to your diet as well. As I've told you before."

"And I've told you before that it's my -"

"Comfort food. You've only said this a million times."

"I have not said it a million times, maybe five times," Todoroki stated, his eyes unreadable as he stared at Bakugou and leaned a bit closer into his space.

"Twenty times at least, Icyhot."

"Ten at most."

"Whatever, that's not the point anyway. The point is that you should listen to your mother if you don't want to listen to me."

"I do listen to you."

"Yeah? When exactly?"

"Whenever you talk to me," Todoroki replied as if that wasn't even a question. Bakugou looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Boys, no need to fight over this," Todoroki's mother interrupted them, and the both of them let out a surprised noise at the same time, because that definitely hadn't been a fight. Not even close. In fact, with those eyes on him and Todoroki so close, Bakugou had momentarily forgotten that someone was listening to them at all.

"We're not fighting. I know Bakugou only means well," Todoroki supplied, coupled with a short but meaningful look before facing towards his mother yet again. Bakugou could swear that he sat even closer now, because their legs were pressed together and it was just as distracting as the omega's words. Either Bakugou was imagining this, or Todoroki really did talk quite nicely about him to his mother. And not the fake kind of nice either. He didn't know whether to be concerned or happy about that.

"That's pretty obvious," she agreed, "I'm very thankful that someone looks out for you. So Bakugou, do tell him when he's not eating properly, alright? It's good to know that someone manages to talk sense into Shouto's head."

He had to fight to keep the arrogant smirk off his face because this was fucking great. He had official permission to try and talk sense into Todoroki's head and he'd probably die trying.

"Oh, I will tell him."

Bakugou liked the little glare he received much more than what was probably healthy, and felt another grin tug at his lips. Todoroki was obviously trying to change the topic when he asked, "so mom. How have you been doing?"

There was something lighthearted about his tone though; as if the omega was content to just sit here and talk. Which was odd, because Todoroki wasn't the talkative type unless maybe if it was to mess with Bakugou. There was a certain bit of warmth where their legs were touching, but somehow the omega didn't pull away to put distance between them.

"Quite well. It's been very peaceful. I've been reading a lot and helping out in the garden some more."

"Ah, I'm glad to hear that."

"And you know that I'm always happy when you visit. Fuyumi wanted to drop by later as well, so today is definitely a good day. But let's not talk about me when you've already brought your.. friend over. How are you two? I hope school isn't too stressful."

Bakugou didn't miss that bit of hesitation before the f-word, and he probably stared at Todoroki's mother like an actual idiot, trying to figure out what she meant by it exactly. The omega seemed to have no such concerns, apparently hadn't even noticed the half second of a pause at all.

"School is fine. A lot of theory stuff at the moment, with the exams approaching. Everyone has been going a little crazy about that, but otherwise it's just the usual," Todoroki told her.

And it was mostly true except for the fact that Todoroki had been on his fucking lap this morning which, if you asked Bakugou, didn't count as 'the usual' but he kept his mouth shut. Because that was one thing the woman definitely didn't need to know.

"That's good to hear... it's been very quiet lately, there wasn't much on the news about any villain attacks," she said, "you kids shouldn't always have to worry about stuff like that happening."

"It's just a matter of time until those idiots try again though," Bakugou commented, unable to stay silent, "but they can try, not like they are a real threat."

"Oh, I'm sure the two of you know how to defend yourselves. It seems like it."

"It would be easier if someone didn't always run headfirst into danger," Todoroki said in that infuriatingly casual tone of his, all too happy to try and make Bakugou look like an idiot once again.

They stared each other down for a long moment, and Bakugou felt like this exact 'be more thoughtful in battles' argument must have happened a million times by now. Only this time, he was actively trying not to use insults or scream. So a staredown it was.

"Ah well, on a lighter note, Shouto was really happy about that pullover you gave him."

The staring instantly became ten times more awkward, and Todoroki was the one who turned away first, muttering quietly, "because it's comfortable."

While Bakugou felt unable to move, looking at the side of his face. The urge to give him more clothes reappeared instantly, only overshadowed by the knowledge that Todoroki had actually gone ahead and told his mother about... that. And fucking hell if that wasn't something to analyse the shit out of later. He wasn't sure what to think of it.

It took Bakugou a few long seconds to realise that he still hadn't replied.

No curse words. He tried to breathe like a normal person.

"He - yeah. I mean, that's good," Bakugou said, his voice very civil although he really fucking felt like screaming. The direction this conversation was moving in didn't seem good at all.

"I can't say that I wasn't a bit surprised at first. Shouto never seemed to have much of an interest in any of this, but looking at you two..."

"Mom."

"Oh, don't be embarrassed," she laughed, "Courting is the most normal thing in the world and from what I can tell, the two of you really do care about each other."

Bakugou's heart stopped beating right then and there. He watched, shocked, as Todoroki buried his face in his hands and groaned. Bakugou felt like doing just the same thing. He couldn't say anything. Couldn't even do anything other than sitting there and internally freaking out.

"That's not - we're not doing that," Bakugou heard the omega say, his voice muffled by his hands. Of all the horrible scenarios he'd agonised over, this was something else entirely; because yeah they were not doing that. Except maybe Bakugou sort of, kind of, was doing exactly that. And Todoroki obviously didn't think so, which wasn't a surprise, but hearing it said out loud still felt pretty fucking shitty.

"You're not?"

"No," the both of them replied, at the same time, though Bakugou's voice came out barely as a whisper while Todoroki's sounded more or less like he'd actually died from embarrassment just now.

"Oh, my bad - it really just sounded and looked and smelled like it."

Bakugou made the mistake of looking at her, and the look on her face said just about everything that he couldn't even begin to understand. If he had to translate it into his words, it would probably be something along the lines of a well-meant 'what the actual hell are you doing then you coward?' And well, wouldn't Bakugou like to fucking know.

"Can we talk about something else?" Todoroki asked.

Bakugou had barely ever seen him embarrassed, but apparently even Half and Half wasn't above that emotion because there was an undeniable hint of color on his cheeks. If the situation wasn't so damn awkward and he didn't feel like the most useless alpha in the world currently, he'd surely be able to appreciate just how idiotic and pretty and adorable the omega looked like this.

Thankfully, Todoroki's mother had mercy on them after dropping that particular bomb. While she didn't entirely seem to buy that 'not courting' thing, she didn't mention it any further and the three of them spent another ten minutes or so having smalltalk. Which essentially meant that Todoroki and his mom were talking, while Bakugou silently contemplated his life choices that lead him to this point and added a comment every here and there.

He wasn't usually the type to want to talk about his struggles, but he felt the strangest desire to call Shitty Hair and maybe just fucking, cry over how unfair this world was or some shit. Which he obviously wasn't going to do, but the desire was there. Bakugou hated drowning in self pity though, so he focused on keeping it together. It just felt utterly fucking bad to have the reality shoved into his face that no, they weren't anything more than friends - no matter what it looked like.

All because he was too damn terrified of directly asking Todoroki to be anything more.

All because a big part of him would rather keep things as they were right now, rather than facing a possible rejection and probably ruining all their progress by making things awkward. Because they sure as fuck would be - there'd be no more sitting right next to each other, or Todoroki sitting on his lap, no more being being bullied into visiting his mother.

And damn, although half the things this boy did drove Bakugou mad, it would fucking hurt if they didn't happen anymore. Just because he was a greedy bastard who wanted more out of this than it was.

His thoughts were too distracting to really follow their conversation anymore but eventually, Todoroki's mother said something about lunch and how everyone was expected to partake in that because they had quite a few people with eating disorders there or something. Thankfully, Todoroki seemed to read Bakugou's mind because he suggested that they just head back to the school.

"I was really happy to meet you," his mother said, smiling the brightest smile that reminded Bakugou a whole lot of those rare smiles Todoroki showed off every now and then. The type that seemed to knock him off his feet every time, "I hope you'll join Shouto again some other time, if you want to of course."

"I'll thi- I mean, I will. It was nice meeting you as well," Bakugou replied, and forced a small smile to his lips.

The two Todorokis shared another hug, and it hit Bakugou in that moment that not many people had the privilege of hugging Shouto Todoroki. It was strange to think that he was one of them. It was just as strange to him to watch such affectionate behavior between mother and son. Yet again, it wasn't something that would ever happen between him and his mother; it wasn't the type of thing you'd just let anyone see.

"I'll visit again as soon as I can. Bye mom," Todoroki promised.

And with that, the two of them made their way into the hallway.

Bakugou had no fucking clue what to say - had no clue what to think because he couldn't even decide how he felt about any of this. Although they'd steered clear of heavy topics involving the past and such, Bakugou still felt like he'd gained new levels of insight - like he'd seen a side of Todoroki he hadn't seen before. Not the distant and cold attitude he had with his father around, but a much more carefree side; the kind where he spent minutes chatting about everyday things without even a hint of boredom in his voice.

The kind where he was embarrassed because of his mother's comments. Awkward but entirely picturesque family moments - somehow Bakugou liked the knowledge that Todoroki experienced those, even if it was in a mental hospital and probably years too late.

"I don't think I've ever heard you speak for this long without using cuss words," the omega broke the silence, sounding genuinely astonished. Probably on purpose, to get on Bakugou's nerves.

"You make it sound like I'm always fucking - ugh. Fine. I fucking tried, alright," Bakugou said, eyes facing forward and not on Todoroki because he wasn't so sure he could handle looking at him right now without -

"Bakugou, are you okay?"

So much for that.

Bakugou definitely didn't feel okay, but he wasn't going to explain his problem either because the problem was walking right next to him, looking sweet and probably confused and Bakugou knew that he would smell just as fucking sweet if it weren't for the damn scent blockers that he should be fucking thankful for but -

"Bakugou?"

"I'm great," he hissed, sounding more defensive than he wanted to. His head was a damn mess like that.

"I'm sorry if this was too much? Or if, you know, if what my mother said made you uncomfortable. I've told her before that we're - I mean - that she had the wrong idea. But my mother.. uh. She was forced into the relationship with my father so I guess the thought that I wouldn't- that I'd ... it just made her sort of happy, I think."

In all honesty, it wasn't the most surprising thing to hear, because at this point, nothing much about the Todoroki family could really shock Bakugou. Which didn't mean that he didn't feel angry at the thought of it. And angry with himself too, for being so damn selfish about this and making Todoroki apologise yet again.

"It's fine. Don't apologise," he bit out.

"Are you sure?"

"Do I look fucking unsure?"

In retrospect, it was a stupid ass question to ask, because of course Todoroki didn't care that it was a rhetorical one and now he was observing Bakugou again, closely. So closely in fact that Bakugou had to grab him at some point and pull him to the side, because the idiot was about to run straight into another patient.

"Half and Half, quit staring and watch where you're going."

"You do look unsure."

"Shut up."

"You need to talk about things, too."

"Icyhot, there's been more than enough fucking talking today."

Todoroki looked sceptical, as if he wasn't of the same opinion (yet again, not a surprise) but most importantly, his lips looked extra fucking infuriating because was the idiot actually pouting? Bakugou took a deep breath and felt all the weight of their conversation on him. Friends - the word sounded shitty as ever, but worse. He made a frustrated noise, clenched his fist, let his eyes roam over the other again. This shit was getting ridiculous.

Bakugou was not that kind of a fucking coward.

Once they were outside of the hospital and rounding the corner, he reached for Todoroki's arm. The touch was familiar - the omega's skin cold but not cold enough to distract the alpha from how fucking nice it felt to just touch him. He instantly felt a little less frustrated in his skin. Bicoloured eyes were already on Bakugou's red ones when he looked up, like quiet question marks.

"Let's go somewhere," it didn't come out as a suggestion. More like an angry threat.

"Huh?" Todoroki tilted his head.

"Somewhere. I don't fucking know. Some place to eat or drink a damn cup of coffee or whatever."

"Ah, so. You're hungry?"

Bakugou didn't scream in frustration, only nodded his head very slowly and kept his eyes on the other's without looking away. He watched Todoroki lick his lips, the movement so small that it was barely noticeable. It made Bakugou want to punch his fist into a damn wall. Made him want to punch their lips together, not that the desire had ever fucking left.

"Me too," the omega said distractedly and although they weren't talking about the same thing, Bakugou had to quickly turn away so the other didn't see the stupid relief on his face that flooded his body instantly. It was ridiculous enough that he was so damn terrified of rejection - but this hadn't been as hard as Bakugou had thought it would be.

"Then come on, Icyhot," he said and started walking, without a clue where they were going, but truthfully, Bakugou didn't give a fuck. All he could focus on was the familiar presence beside him. If the idiot didn't think that this was courting, Bakugou was going to make him fucking hope so - because he could.

And he needed to let both himself and Todoroki know that.

Chapter Text

Shouto looked over the menu, feeling utterly indecisive. Or maybe distracted - he couldn't entirely pinpoint it, but his head seemed to be occupied with something. Thoughts so abstract that they were barely much more than a foreign feeling pulling at the corners of his thought process. He looked at Bakugou, who was sitting on the other side of the table, leaning back in his chair and glaring at some invisible thing, which wasn't all too uncommon.

Something about him seemed a little off though, but Shouto had no real explanation for the feeling, and pointing it out didn't seem like the best idea.

So instead, he asked, "Have you decided yet?"

Although the words were soft-spoken, they seemed to tear the alpha right out of whatever inner debate he was having, and Shouto fixed him with a vacant stare. He still wasn't so sure how uncomfortable the visit had made Bakugou. In retrospect, he should have known that his mother was going to say something along the lines of what she had - he'd just somehow managed to forget all about that, guided mostly by the urge to introduce the two of them and oblivious to the potential for embarrassment.

Not that he was easily embarrassed, but that had been... a lot.

But everything considered, it could have probably gone worse - in fact, he felt the strangest sense of pride thinking about how hard Bakugou had tried to make a good impression. No one had gotten insulted, or hurt, or stormed out of the room, and that was something. What little tension he'd felt about introducing the two had, ironically enough, melted away when his mother had expressed her approval of Bakugou. Not just the friendship kind of approval, but the one way above that - and although she'd misread the nature of their relationship, there was one thing that Shouto was certain of.

His mom liked Bakugou, and the knowledge made him happy for one reason or another. He wasn't going to try and figure it all out right now, there'd be enough time to do that later. Right now, he was pleasantly surprised with the fact that Bakugou had known a restaurant in the area that 'didn't fucking suck like most of them'. He hadn't eaten out in a while, and there definitely was a large variety of good options on the menu. Deciding on one meal was the hard part.

"I always order the same thing, you're the one who's taking his sweet time looking over the menu," Bakugou accused him, crossed his arms only to uncross them two seconds later.

"And what is that?" Shouto inquired.

"Number 72, extra spicy."

Shouto looked over the numbers, and nodded his head thoughtfully as he read the description. Ordering spicy curry in extra spicy seemed like a very Bakugou thing to do.

"Then I'll - ah. Maybe try that too?"

"You don't even like spicy food."

"I don't mind it," Shouto stated, although there was some truth to that. But his usual go to food wasn't on the list and Shouto wasn't exactly sure what else he was supposed to order. He was a creature of habit when it came to food choices, really.

"The last time I made fucking soup you complained about how spicy it was," Bakugou said, making it sound like that was such an absurd complain to have, but really, normal people didn't put that much chili powder in a soup and Shouto stood by that opinion.

"It wasn't a complaint, it was a review."

"And since when are you a damn food critic. Just pick something that sounds good."

"There are too many options."

Red eyes fixed on the omega, blonde eyebrows slightly raised and after a moment Bakugou muttered, "Want me to choose something for you."

It took Shouto a moment to realise that it was a question. His initial reaction was to deny the offer, but he stopped for a moment and reconsidered. At this point, Bakugou was the one person who probably knew Shouto's taste almost as well as he himself did, so it wasn't that bad of an idea. He nodded his head, and the look he received somehow made it hard to keep up the eye contact.

Bakugou's looks were always intense, but there seemed to be an extra bit of energy to him.

Shouto wasn't sure why, but he felt his face heat up just a little bit although it didn't really make sense. Maybe the earlier conversation was messing with his head, or maybe he still had the image of Bakugou's back muscles a bit too clearly in his head. Shouto knew how hard it was to reach that kind of shape, so it probably wasn't too weird to be thinking about that. Muscles built over the course of years with hard work definitely deserved some appreciation.

Except, it didn't entirely feel like simple appreciation.

It felt like...

He tried not to question his thoughts further and instead said a soft, "Thank you."

"Whatever. So, Todoroki," Bakugou began, and Shouto straightened up a little at the use of his real name instead of a nickname. The kind of expression on the alpha's face almost made him feel a sense of dread. Because the look resembled Bakugou's 'I'm going into a fight with the knowledge that I'll win without a doubt' face. Determination was written all over it.

"Yes?" the omega asked, his voice extra hollow and unimpressed and his eyes decidedly not on the alpha.

"Why the hell did you actually want to introduce me to your mother."

"I - what?"

"You don't have to answer, but I'd really like to fucking know what the purpose of that was, because I've honestly got no clue."

Of all the things he'd expected Bakugou to say, this very obvious but equally complicated question somehow hadn't been among them - Shouto couldn't help but stare at his classmate for a long moment. He was much more used to Bakugou's avoidance of such topics than he was to him, explicitly asking for the thought process behind his actions. It usually felt like his actions frustrated Bakugou, rather than making him curious to know more.

But that had been changing, hadn't it?

Bakugou wasn't acting like Shouto owed him anything for coming along, when a part of him had expected that to be the case.

The omega had no clue how to answer the question however, only had a vague idea of why he'd felt such a strong desire to... do what exactly? Not go to the hospital alone? Include his mother in his social life and Bakugou in his family life? Show off his friend? He ran a hand through his hair, and tried to ignore the hint of nervousness working its way through his body. This was just Bakugou- there was no reason to be nervous about answering a simple question, Shouto reminded himself.

He didn't even know why he felt nervous in the first place.

"It felt like the right thing to do," he replied, honestly. Maybe the words carried a little too much weight, but Shouto only noticed it when they were out already.

The both of them stayed quiet for a few seconds, as if the answer needed a bit of space for its meaning to unfold. Bakugou interrupted the silence with a noise that sounded like something between amusement and irritation.

"What?" Shouto asked, maybe just a little bit on edge for some unfathomable reason. Perhaps leftover embarrassment from earlier. Courting. The word occupied his head all over again, and he wished it would just... get out of there.

They were definitely not doing that. Not even close to it.

"Calm the fuck down, Icyhoy. It's as good of a reason as any."

Somehow, that answer made Shouto feel even more uncertain though. It wasn't like Bakugou to let a topic go so easily, without putting up a fight. If he thought about it, all of this felt a little... strange. For the alpha to come and visit his mother, for the two of them to be sitting in a restaurant on a Saturday afternoon and somehow Bakugou wasn't even complaining about it...

Shouto wasn't entirely sure what to do with the feeling that it gave him.

"Are you really feeling okay?" he asked, cautiously, perhaps projecting.

It earned him a glare - and a growl that had the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. It took a brief moment for Shouto to notice that the angry noise wasn't directed at him at all. Instead, red eyes were now fixed on the waiter standing behind him.

"Have you two decided yet?" the man (obviously an alpha, that much could be established just by his scent) asked, and Shouto took note of the fact that his hand was resting on the back of his chair. Apparently, the man either hadn't noticed the display of hostility or he'd chosen to ignore it. Shouto himself wondered for a brief moment if he'd imagined that entire thing. Because the alpha was still glaring at the man, but definitely not making any noise to accompany the sour facial expression.

"Number 65 for him and 72 for me, extra spicy," Bakugou declared with the same type of voice he used when faced with villains, just lacking the insults. The tone was just as venomous though. Shouto looked back and forth between the waiter and the blonde, wondering if he'd missed something, somehow.

"Anything to drink?" the other alpha inquired.

"Water."

"I'll take some green tea," Shouto said, and his throat felt a little dry as he noticed the weight of the man's gaze on him. His eyes were a dark brown, so dark that the pupil was hard to tell apart from the rest of his irises, but he looked almost.. concerned.

"Alright," the alpha said and gave him a strange sort of smile before disappearing. Shouto couldn't tell what it was, but something about that conversation had caught him a little off guard. As if that wasn't strange enough, he could tell that an intense amount of angry pheromones was clouding the air, and he turned to look at Bakugou with questioning eyes, trying to ignore the way that his body wanted to react to the sudden change in the atmosphere.

Even a blind person could tell that Bakugou's mood had changed in an instant - Shouto's eyes lingered on his clenched fists on the table before he even dared to look him in the eye. When he did, he nearly choked on a breath. He had to make an effort to remind himself that he could handle angry alphas - but it felt a little harder to ignore than it usually did.

Maybe his body was just a bit too attuned to Bakugou's scent by now. He was hit with the urge to break the tension.

"Because I trust you," he blurted out belatedly, and could actually watch confusion dilute the already present anger on Bakugou's face.

"What."

Shouto tried his best to ignore the way his own mood seemed to somehow be affected by the alpha's strong emotions and explained, "It felt like the right thing to do because I trust you."

"That fucking," Bakugou started talking but apparently made an effort to stop himself and glare at the desk for a few moments instead. It was a different kind of glare though, one Shouto could swear he'd never seen before on his face, "how can you fucking say something like that with a straight face."

Shouto was more than happy to see him relax just a little, "like what?"

"I don't fucking know, sappy shit."

He blinked at the alpha. "But you know that I do. I told you my secret," Shouto reminded him and Bakugou actually groaned at his reply as if he didn't need to be reminded.

"And you told your mother that I know."

Shouto confirmed the statement with a nod, the gears in his head turning slowly as he began to realise something.

"Ah, Bakugou," he said, as an afterthought and the alpha looked at him in a way that said, 'what the hell is it this time.'

"You smell different," Shouto stated, finally aware of what had been so distracting. He couldn't really tell when it had changed exactly, but there was definitely a different nuance to the alpha's scent, recognisable even though the anger and frustration that were currently turning it extra rough and smoky. He wasn't sure how he'd missed that.

"I have no clue what the hell you're talking about," the alpha stated, but now that Shouto had figured out as much, he couldn't not notice that there was an undeniable difference.

"More like... more," he tried to explain, but there wasn't really a word for the shift in his scent. It was like a layer added on top of the usual, intertwined with the familiar notes and easy to miss because the scent wasn't really different in itself. Just fuller - more intense. In the same way the full strength of a quirk could sometimes catch you off guard when you thought you knew all there was to it.

Shouto had half a mind to lean across the table and try to figure out the exact implications of his realisation. He was so intrigued by the scent that it was hard to believe he'd taken so long to even take note of it - it confused him to no end.

"Again, fucking nonsense. Maybe it's the fucking shampoo or something."

"No it's definitely not -"

"Here are your drinks," the waiter cut in, placing a glass of water right in front of Bakugou and then leaning forward to put a large cup of tea down in front of Shouto. The omega could practically feel the change in the air all over again, as if the second the man came closer, Bakugo's scent was through the roof with something that had Shouto feeling like - there wasn't exactly a word for that either. All he knew was that he actually made a noise in response, silent and embarrassing and thankfully easily covered up by the "thanks" he very nearly stuttered out. And he really wasn't the type to stutter.

It wasn't even a question - Bakugou's scent was clearly different.

It affected him in a way it didn't usually, not with this much distance between them and the distracting scents of a public space surrounding them. Shouto found his eyes glued to the alpha, who was giving his best death glare to the retreating waiter. He sort of hoped to figure this mystery out by just... looking at his classmate. But of course it didn't work that way, and the omega instead found himself getting a little bit lost in the way that spiky blonde hair framed his angular face. Certain types of light just did that - brought out the best in people's features. Glare or not.

The warm orange light of the lanterns on the ceiling coupled with the daylight that fell in through the windows definitely did that for Bakugou and it was concerning how easily the alpha managed to become Shouto's singular point of focus when he usually prided himself in his ability to focus on various things at once. In fights. This wasn't a fight though and maybe it was fine to let his guard down just a little bit and study Bakugou's face like he should be studying for the exams right now.

Shouto closed his mouth almost violently when the other turned back to him, red eyes way too intense. There was definitely something off, because Shouto felt a strange sort of warmth traveling through his entire body in response, and it didn't feel like quirk-related issue. He wasn't sure what type of issue this was exactly, but he was glad to be sitting on a chair instead of standing.

His body was reacting to whatever was going on, and somehow, knowing that something was definitely going on didn't help with that. Shouto told himself to remember that he wasn't the type to fall prey to instinctual pulls - he wasn't the type to feel like his legs got shaky from an alpha's pheromones (except for that one time after the closet incident, but that had been different, hadn't it?).

"It's not the shampoo," he repeated, maybe to himself.

Shouto watched Bakugou bring the glass to his lips and drink a few large sips of water, strangely fascinated by the movement of his throat. He snapped out of it after a second or two, and told himself to stop acting so weird. So what if there was a difference in Bakugou's scent. It didn't necessarily mean that he had to react to that; it definitely didn't mean that he needed to stare at his scent glands, because that was not going to get him any answers either.

"What the hell are you getting at, Icyhot."

"I... don't know."

"Then it's not like it fucking matters, right?"

"... Right," Shouto agreed, only half-convinced. He wasn't going to say it out loud that he found the scent hard to ignore. That it had him feeling... weirdly attentive. He lifted the teacup to his lips, very much aware of the warm porcelain against his hands.

"This morning," the omega started speaking before he'd realised it, "you didn't. Uh." He focused very hard on the cup in his hands as he tried to piece together how to say this. Shouto wasn't sure where the thought had come from so suddenly, "I mean after we showered, you didn't.. I don't really smell like you. For once."

Bakugou stared at him with wide eyes when Shouto looked up, and he almost regretted saying it out loud. The observation wasn't exactly groundbreaking, but it was true nonetheless. It felt strange, not having the alpha's scent on him. Or well, hints of it definitely were - but maybe not enough.

Red eyes narrowed a little, and the expression on Bakugou's face could mean anything.

"Because we went to visit your mother, wasn't the point of showering that we don't smell like we spent half a fucking hour cuddling on your damn bed this morning."

Shouto tilted his head a little at the statement, and watched in fascination as Bakugou's face gained just a little bit of color.

"Just. Wouldn't have made fucking sense to get my scent all over you after that, not that I don't - what the hell is even your point?"

Placing the cup on the table again, Shouto let the question sink in. Lately, he felt like he opened his mouth a lot without first establishing why he felt the need to. He shrugged, let his gaze travel across the alpha's face again.

"But you've met my mother now," he established.

And maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe Shouto was the type to feel that strange instinctual pull every now and then (because honestly, there'd been more and more instances of that lately) but even he could tell that he was stuck on the topic and unable to really think about anything else. Although he couldn't make sense of it, he felt the strangest urge to just...

"So, you wanna go to the fucking bathroom and let me scent mark you or what," Bakugou said, and Shouto ignored the fact that his words were probably dripping with sarcasm and not an actual suggestion. The idea hadn't really occurred to him but now that he thought about it, it was hard to deny that it sounded like an exceptionally.. good plan. A perfect plan actually.

He looked the other in the eye and gave him the smallest nod.

"If you want to."

"Are you fucking serious Half and Half, that was sarcasm."

"So you don't want to."

"I didn't fucking say that."

"So.."

"Fucking hell, then come on," Bakugou hissed, the words a little rushed and definitely commanding and somehow Shouto didn't feel like putting up a fight.

Despite the claim that it was just sarcasm, Bakugou honestly didn't seem hesitant to go through with it at all, and it really hadn't taken any convincing. Shouto quietly followed the alpha through the restaurant, mostly unaware of a few pairs of eyes on them.

Most likely, it would take some more minutes for their food to arrive anyways, so this was probably fine. It wasn't until they'd reached the bathroom that the two of them said another word to each other, and Bakugou was the first one to break the silence.

"Honestly, fuck you."

Before Shouto had the opportunity to inquire what exactly he was being insulted for, Bakugou had already pushed him against the cold, tiled wall. There was not much gentleness or thoughtfulness in the action, and the impact had the omega's head spinning a little. Strangely enough, Shouto didn't mind it one bit.

He recovered from the surprise in record time, and reached out to pull the alpha closer to him with impatient hands. This seemed to catch Bakugou off guard in return. He stumbled forward, and Shouto was too slow to react, causing their foreheads to collide accidentally.

"Ow," Shouto muttered without much emotion to accompany it, but the process of recognising the pain was interrupted by the realisation of just how utterly perfect Bakugou smelled. How much he wanted to just be close to him for a minute or two or maybe a few hours. He closed his eyes, and stayed very still, just taking it all in, wondering if maybe they could ignore the food and stay right here, like this.

"You okay?" the alpha asked him, and Shouto hummed happily as a warm hand was placed on his forehead where they'd crashed against each other. The tenderness of the small action had him stunned.

"Yes," he confirmed, and dared to open his eyes. Bakugou was giving him the strangest sort of look, attention undivided.

"Are you?" Shouto asked in return.

"I'm fucking fine," he confirmed, while Shouto was getting lost in the width of his pupils, and the dark shade of red surrounding them. Something about Bakugou's gaze seemed almost hungry and at this point Shouto had pretty much forgotten where they were and why. Of course Bakugou looked hungry. He'd actually said so - their food would arrive soon.

It was just... he smelled kind of hungry too, and that was new.

But Shouto wasn't going to spend a lot of time analysing that. Instead, he rubbed their heads together clumsily, with Bakugou's palm still resting uselessly on his forehead, blonde hair mixing with red and white. Although the scent marking wasn't exactly a new thing anymore, it was still shocking to think that Bakugou agreed to this, over and over again. Shouto only wished, against all logic, that his own scent was still there - he found it hard to ignore just how good it had felt to do this as it was supposed to be. With both their scents, mixing together.

He wished for a repeat of that, badly.

This was anything but bad though; he wanted to drown himself in the alpha's scent. He took note of the fact that Bakugou's hand moved down to hold him by the wrist, and maybe the alpha wasn't noticing it, but his grip was very close to the sensitive skin of his scent glands, and Shouto stilled, angling his head to take another look at the alpha, his thoughts fuzzy and veins on fire.

"Bakugou?"

He received no answer other than a suffering sort of expression on Bakugou's face that had Shouto slightly worried. In a sense, this resembled what had happened earlier - Bakugou wasn't moving much, just breathing hard and holding Shouto in place as if to stop his movements. Holding back.

"Did you not want to.." the omega began asking, wondering if maybe he was misreading the situation somehow. Maybe it was a simple lack of interest in this entire... thing from Bakugou's side - but the alpha's scent didn't really suggest so. Instead, it put instinctive thoughts into his head. Shouto wondered if he could get away with burying his face in his neck, but reminded himself to stay coherent, mentally present. Act normal.

Because this was obviously completely normal - just something they did nowadays.

"You - Shut up. I'm trying not to.. Fuck."

The omega titled his head a little, trying to read the meaning of the words in the other's eyes.

"Don't just fucking do that-"

"Do what?"

Their faces were so close and Bakugou glared at the area of his jawline, looking more than slightly conflicted. The sheer amount of... something in his scent had the omega's breathing a little messed up. They definitely weren't close enough like this and Shouto had didn't even have to consciously think about his next actions. He closed his eyes, moved his head a little further to the side and the softest of whines left his lips.

It was embarrassing and he had to try his hardest to not let his quirk act up in response to the various layers of mortification that he felt in response to his own actions.

Shouto was still processing that he'd really just done that, but apparently the alpha didn't need half as long to understand it for what it had been; an invitation, an urgent encouragement for the alpha to do something.

Shouto hadn't anticipated what came next though.

A low growl was his only warning before the alpha was suddenly pressed flush against him. Without a hint of space left between them - chest to chest. The sense of deja vu upon being caged between Bakugou and a wall didn't make it any easier to handle - his body remembered this kind of feeling all too well - Shouto's body felt warm all over and he enjoyed this a little too much.

The alpha had his arms pressed tightly to the tiles, and the pressure of his grip had Shouto almost wanting to ask for more. For Bakugou to grab him harder, to stop being so uncharacteristically considerate when Shouto found it hard to even formulate thoughts anymore because their closeness just seemed to do that to him.

Worst or best of all, he felt Bakugou's breath on his neck, warm exhales on his skin.

And then Bakugou used his hold on Shouto's arms to lift them up, grabbed him by the wrist and pushed his arms back against the wall again, pinning him to it. His fingers were definitely touching his scent glands there, and the thumb of his right hand was applying enough pressure to turn Shouto's thoughts into nothing but foggy confusion because that touch sent electricity through his body.

It took him a moment to make sense of how fast their position had shifted.

"What are you-" the words died in his throat, replaced by a sharp and uneven inhale of breath. Because either Shouto was imagining things or... Bakugou's lips were actually brushing against his neck. Probably involuntarily, accidentally. No matter what it was, it had him clenching his fists, chest falling and raising rapidly while he paradoxically felt like he couldn't even move. Trapped. Eager.

Everything at once.

Bakugou's face was way too close to his scent glands - but not nearly not close enough.

It wasn't exactly news to Shouto that the general area of his body was very sensitive, but this felt different from the last time they'd done this. Less like simple movements against each other; more like some of the dreams he'd had. More like...

He almost wished that the other would actually apply real pressure, would actually put his lips there or on Shouto's own or just anywhere to stop this incessant feeling of need that was making him dizzy.

He couldn't even help thinking that - the thought was just so undeniably there. Pacing inside of him like a trapped animal.

The touch on his wrists, the immobility of being held down and the knowledge that Bakugou's lips were at the very least very close to his neck made an entire mess out of the omega. Although it probably wasn't the best idea, Shouto couldn't help it. He lifted his head a little higher instinctively, to allow the other more access. Whined yet again, his voice so much higher than it usually was and so much more desperate that he'd ever allow it to be if he wasn't completely out of it from the onslaught of sensations.

Shouto was all too aware of it when Bakugou's movement stopped. Suddenly, and without a warning. He pulled back, but his hands remained on Shouto's wrist, and the omega pushed his chest forward as much as he could, instinctively wanting to follow Bakugou's warmth, his scent. His everything.

"Fucking hell," the alpha whispered. It was astonishing just how breathless he sounded. Actually hearing him speak helped to tear Shouto out of the trance he'd been caught up in, and his mouth fell open soundlessly. Everything inside of him screamed at him to urge the alpha on and do anything other than stopping, but the tone of voice was enough for him to reconsider.

Eyes still closed tightly, Shouto said with a shaky voice and all the self control he could muster, "Bakugou."

It was a question, a request and a plea all at once.

...

There were two things Bakugou was acutely aware of.

First of all, he had no fucking clue what a damn date looked like or how the hell
he was supposed to see his plan of wooing Todoroki through. Because in theory that sounded like a super fucking bright idea, but in reality, he'd felt like throwing up from nerves just simply thinking of this as a date. Which it wasn't, because it wasn't to the omega and yet Todoroki just had to go ahead and confuse the hell out of Bakugou by (despite this not being a date and them not being anything) asking to fucking sneak away and scent mark like the two fucking teenagers they undeniably were.

Which lead to the second thing he was now very much aware of and fuck if that wasn't the more important realisation.

He was going into a fucking rut - more like, already up to the shoulders in it and barely clinging onto his sanity because he should not have agreed to fucking do this.

Bakugou could think of a variety of situations he'd experienced that day that could be to blame for his body's reaction - from smelling Todoroki's scent, to having that scent rubbed all over him, to seeing him in the damn shower, or maybe even just the fucking nervousness he'd experienced all day because young alphas' ruts were fucking ridiculous like that and not a regular and foreseeable like heats were. They could be triggered by the most idiotic shit - but the thing was that this didn't fucking matter.

What mattered was that he should have noticed it fucking hours ago before it had become this intense, and not in this fucking moment, in a goddamn bathroom where he had the omega pinned against a wall and looking fucking breathtaking.

Bakugou really, really shouldn't have agreed to this because this was a public fucking bathroom and someone could walk in on them at any fucking moment and if anyone did, he'd probably go off on them. He shouldn't have ignored Todoroki's entire 'you smell different' issue the way he had.

He was pretty fucking sure that he smelled different. Leave it to Shouto Todoroki to have no damn clue what the scent meant.

Not that he could entirely blame him for that - whenever anyone had that particular issue, they spent the day or two it usually took in their room. Because the last damn thing the teachers wanted was for extra aggressive and probably horny alphas to cause a fuss in their classroom. The last time Bakugou had gone through this shit had been more than half a year ago, and even then he'd hated it.

Because he hated missing class.

This was way more fucking serious than that though.

Bakugou did his hardest to just fucking breathe and ignore the fact that he'd literally just thought about sinking his fucking teeth into Todoroki's neck like an animal. It was a damn miracle that he'd managed to pull away and not do that when Todoroki's entire fucking body seemed way too inviting and the way he was breathing did something to Bakugou and -

"Are you getting sick?" the omega asked, recognition barely and slowly returning to his eyes and Bakugou wanted to fucking shut him up by punching their lips together.

"No," he managed to get out, voice low and breathless and betraying just how fucking hard it was to speak like a functioning human being.

"Oh, okay. Then why - "

"We need to get back to UA, right fucking now."

"Huh."

Bakugou's grip on the omega's wrists tightened at the innocently surprised expression on his face. He did not want to fucking let go, but he needed to because there was no way in hell Bakugou could stand this for even another minute without losing his fucking shit and just -

He couldn't fucking believe it when Todoroki's eyes shut tightly and his lips remained open, looking plump and inviting and the omega breathed out a silent, "mh" that faded into words a moment later, ".. my wrist."

Bakugou was entirely preoccupied with how much he wanted the omega, and it took him approximately ten seconds of staring at his twisted features until it clicked in his brain and he let the other's arms go as though they'd fucking burned him. For all Bakugou knew, they could have, because Todoroki felt fucking warm, hot, insanity-inducing. And he'd grabbed the fucking scent glands on his wrists like the idiot that he was because intelligent thought wasn't Bakugou's fucking thing right now.

God, he wanted to punch himself in the face.

The desire to do that only got worse when he saw confusion and disappointment wash over Todoroki's face and fuck if that wasn't gasoline poured into the trash fire that was Bakugou's instincts. It physically pained him to see his omega feeling anything less than perfectly content.

"I fucking mean this, right now," he declared with all the authority and desperation he could muster, turned around. Forced his eyes away from Todoroki. Forced his legs to move. Forced himself to do the right thing once again and it didn't get any less horrible with time. Bakugou could hardly recall ever experiencing this level of inner turmoil.

He all but stormed out of the fucking room, muttering a quiet curse as he dug through his wallet for some fucking money to put down on the table. The telltale sound of footsteps following him simultaneously eased his mind and drove him insane.

"So we aren't going to eat here?" Todoroki asked, because yeah - that was important right now.

Bakugou ignored him, picked a few random bills out of his wallet - probably way too fucking much but he didn't give a damn at this point, he just needed a fucking breath of fresh air and maybe to not think about Todoroki's delicious fucking scent and his equally delicious skin and the fucking sound he'd made just now.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't dare to turn around.

"Wait."

He stopped.

The goddamn mess inside of him was getting worse by the second.

"What."

"What's going on?" Todoroki asked, sounding much less composed than he usually did and Bakugou fucking hated himself for confusing him like that but he also really wasn't in the mood to explain this shit right now. Probably couldn't if he tried, not without sounding like a fucking creep anyway.

Bakugou didn't reply with words, simply grabbed the hand that rested on his shoulder and started dragging the other out of the restaurant with fast steps and every desire to be at UA in less than five fucking minutes even if that meant that they had to fucking run or whatever but -

"Excuse me."

Bakugou couldn't fucking believe it.

His reaction was instantaneous, nothing he could stop even if he fucking tried. He spun around, used the hold on Todoroki's hand to pull him close to himself and the omega stumbled against his shoulder, grabbing on to Bakugou for balance. While Bakugou fixed the fucking waiter with the deadliest stare imaginable because what the actual fuck did the asshole want. The only thing that kept Bakugou from physically attacking the alpha was the fact that he was at a relative distance but if the fucker dared to take even one more fucking step towards his -

"I don't think you two should leave together," the man said, matter-of-factly.

"What the fuck makes you think that - "

"It's common practice to not let an alpha who's going into a rut leave with a beta or an omega just like that. Especially when said alpha is physically dragging them out of here."

"A what?" came the confused-sounding reply from Todoroki, and even Bakugou couldn't believe his fucking ears.

"What the fuck gives you the right to just fucking say shit like that, I'll fucking-" he was in the process of moving towards the other alpha, his rage much less controllable than it usually was, because how the fuck dare some fucking stranger make it sound like he was a fucking threat to Todoroki. How the fuck dare he imply that he had any damn right to -

"It's fine, that's why we're leaving," Todoroki said, and Bakugou couldn't believe the strength of his hold, a not as cold as usual hand crushing his own as the omega forcibly pulled him backwards.

"Are you sure that it's going to be fine?" the man repeated, and he had the fucking audacity to send a concerned look the omega's way.

"Let me go, this bastard deserves a damn -"

"Bakugou," Todoroki said, tone clipped. It was easy to tell that beneath his infuriatingly calm tone, there was a certain seriousness, "Come on."

The alpha hated himself for his inability to just ignore the omega, but at the same time, he just really wanted to get him fucking out of here and away from that creep who'd been giving Todoroki looks all along. And maybe, just maybe, the hormones in his body were making him a bit fucking irrational but like hell was he going to admit that.

His fists still burned with the desire to cause property damage and collide with the bastard's face, but Bakugou thankfully managed to stop himself from going through with it. Or more accurately, Todoroki somehow managed to stop him from doing that. By tugging on his hand, and going out of his way to add a, "please."

So the blonde only sent another glare the waiter's way, putting all the 'fuck you' energy he could into that single expression, and turned on his spot. Todoroki managed to look simultaneously curious and worried, and it was more expression that should be happening on his face, but the two of them quickly moved out of there, so at the very least Bakugou couldn't spend an unnecessary amount of time staring at him.

Fucking shit, so much for trying to take Todoroki out on a date. That had went from awkward to actual hell real fast.

Somewhere between the desire to jump him, the anger from that situation just now, and the generally fucked up feeling of going insane, a sense of dread built up in the alpha as they left the building and were finally out on the sidewalk.

With Todoroki's hand still in his, grip tight as ever.

Bakugou stared at that for a moment before his eyes went up to meet bicoloured ones.

"You're going into a rut," Todoroki said, without any real emotion to accompany the statement. Like he was talking about the fucking weather or a cooking recipe. Bakugou really wanted to get angry at him but he fucking couldn't because all he could really do was watch the way his lips moved when he formed words.

"Don't fucking talk about it," he commanded, because really, there wasn't much to say. He didn't even want to hear it said out loud, would much rather fucking disappear into the ground or get run over by a fucking car or something.

Bakugou forced his eyes on the road ahead of them, tried to do the damn breathing exercises he'd learned in his stupid anger management course but of course that shit didn't really help. When the fuck did it ever?

"It's a normal thing," the omega said, quietly.

Bakugou let out another strained breath, and squeezed the other's hand tighter because although that was the only spot where their bodies were touching, it felt way too fucking good to just know that he had his omega right there. Beside him. Safe.

It was ridiculous, how different a rut was when he had the object of his attention right fucking beside him. Nothing as simple as grinding into a stupid pillow or taking a very extended cold shower; instead, his mind seemed to be stuck in a fucking loop of possessiveness, frustration and every stupid thought that he could possibly have.

Like how fucking easy it would be for the two of them to turn right and disappear into the next best alley and just...

"Nothing about this is fucking normal," he hissed, and red eyes widened when Shouto 'I don't mind angry alphas' Todoroki made the most heartbreaking, stressed-out sound in response. His hold on the other's hand instantly loosened and shit - this was really bad. Because Bakugou was getting so caught up in his own internal mess and it was fucking affecting Todoroki and he'd hate himself for it if it all went to shit now because of such a stupid fucking reason as a rut.

He took another breath, in and out.

"I'm sorry."

"You're - what?"

"I'm fucking sorry, alright. My head is a fucking mess right now and I just want to -"

"You want to what?" Todoroki asked instead of just letting it go.

"To -" Bakugou continued, fucking lost in that divine side profile. It was more than anyone could handle, pretty like a damn painting and in this state, Bakugou really wasn't equipped to fucking handle any of it. But then Todoroki turned to face him, and Bakugou's heart skipped a beat. Fuck. "- to get to the dorms," he forced himself to finish the sentence.

"It's not that far," Todoroki stated, and their arms brushed together, "can I - I mean. Is there anything I can do to help you? I don't know a lot about ruts but you seem very.. stressed?"

Bakugou's brain officially stopped working in response to that. He could only stare at the omega like a fucking idiot and hope that he wasn't going to run into anyone. Because had anyone else said that, it would have sounded fucking suggestive as hell. And yet Todoroki had a way of asking Bakugou if he could fucking 'help with his rut' while sounding sincere and oblivious and shit - even if it weren't for the damn instincts, Bakugou realised all over again in this moment how much he wanted Todoroki to be his.

How much he wanted to have the privilege to kiss those stupidly naive lips and just fucking hold his weirdly cold and warm hands without needing a reason to. He wanted to hug him and throw random gifts at him and - that was it. If Bakugou survived this fucking day, he was going to get the best fucking present he could find for Todoroki and it was going to be something good. Something that helped him convey at least some of the things that he couldn't with words.

"You can't," Bakugou started speaking, tried his best to keep his tone calm, "really do anything. Just."

Bakugou knew that he was even worse at receiving from others than he was at giving - and under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have pulled the omega towards him so they could walk with a little less distance between them and added, "let's walk a little fucking faster, alright Icyhot?"

Not that any circumstances in his life were ever fucking normal lately.

"Ah, I. Alright," the omega confirmed, matching his pace to Bakugou's. They walked like that for a little while and Bakugou could physically feel the effects of the rut worsening; he had the desire to growl at every single person that passed them, wanted to throw the omega over his damn shoulder and carry him to his room like a trophy. Not that he usually cared much for trophies, and Todoroki definitely wasn't a damn trophy wife or shit. But his thoughts were not making any sense at this point.

"Why... What caused this?" Todoroki asked just as they were making their way up the last road before they'd reach the dormitories, "Ruts aren't a cycle like heats, or did I misunderstand that?"

Bakugou was really the worst fucking person to give him a private lesson in biology right now.

"No they're not," Bakugou muttered, hoping to evade the first question.

But this was Todoroki and apparently he had chosen this specific moment to become curious about how ruts worked and just what caused them. "Then why are you - "

"Can we fucking stop talking about ruts. I'll fucking scream if I hear the damn word one more time," he yelled, some of the frustration that had been building up inside him breaking through the surface against his will. Because his body was an asshole like that, he was lucid enough just a moment later to notice that he'd fucking done it again. Yelled at the omega when this really wasn't Todoroki's fault.

It wasn't like either of them had wanted this shit to happen, and Bakugou actually felt the strong need to make the other feel comfortable, so his damn anger was just fucking misplaced here.

"I'm sorry, you told me you were - "

"I don't fucking know, alright. Shit like this doesn't always make sense, and maybe I could answer if I could fucking think clearly right now but I really fucking can't. So, please."

The omega stayed silent for a moment, and thank God they had finally reached the entrance door of the dormitory.

"I think I understand it a little bit - it's, like how heats turn your thoughts into a mess."

Somehow, Todoroki still wasn't letting go of his hand, and Bakugou didn't find it in himself to give a damn if anyone saw them like this. In fact, a part of him hoped that people were going to see as a precautionary 'back off' to all of them.

"A fucking mess, yeah," he agreed, as they walked through the hallway and up the stairs, with quick steps.

It wasn't until they were at Bakugou's door that his tunnel vision faded and he realised that he needed to let go of Todoroki's hand right fucking now unless he wanted to make a big mistake and pull him inside his room with him. But shit - he didn't want to let go.

Not when their hands fitted together so fucking perfectly.

Not when Todoroki gave him an unreadable look, as if to ask what was going to happen now.

But there were things a hero just couldn't allow himself to do - like pulling a clueless omega into his room, throwing him on his bed. Showing him exactly what kind of a mess his head was.

It was physically painful to let go, and just as fucking painful to watch bicoloured eyes get stuck on a now empty hand. Bakugou could tell that Todoroki opened his mouth, and was almost relieved when the omega shut it again instead of saying anything.

"I'll just. Lock myself in there for the next hours or something. If anyone asks, tell them that it's none of their fucking business," he said, curtly, and didn't allow himself to look at Todoroki for another moment. Because shit, this wasn't some fucking dramatic movie scene and they were literally going to be in each other's vicinity within the next few hours. Tomorrow, provably. But even as Bakugou reminded himself of this, it didn't fucking help.

"Are you.." Todoroki began speaking but didn't finish his sentence.

"Don't forget to eat something," the alpha rushed to say as he entered his room without turning around. He closed the door behind himself, and waited silently for the entire fucking minute it took until he heard the other's footsteps leave.

...

Shouto had no clue what to make of all of this. He felt like he'd just experienced the entirety of the human spectrum of emotion within half an hour (and honestly, in the hours before that, too), and although that should probably make him feel exhausted more than anything, he instead felt restless.

It was just so much to take in; he knew now that the shift in Bakugou's scent hadn't been imaginary but very real. Too real, honestly. Had the waiter at the restaurant not mentioned it, it would never have even crossed Shouto's mind that Bakugou could possibly be going into a rut. Shouto didn't know much about that at all, but some things did seem to make sense now. The way Bakugou had been overly aggressive towards the waiter. The way he'd grabbed Shouto's wrists without a second thought and shoved him against that wall in a manner that had felt almost desperate.

The way Shouto's body had been pulled towards him so strongly, almost as if he was the one going into a heat...

And the way he'd stopped so suddenly, apparently shocked with his own actions.

It all made sense, but somehow that didn't help.

Shouto still couldn't help feeling like it was all wrong. It felt as though the alpha shouldn't have stopped - Shouto wouldn't have forced him to. He'd been way too lost in the delicious scent, way too absorbed in the sparks that the touches has sent coursing through his body. It had felt more than right; it had felt natural and amazing and intense.

Speedwalking back to UA had been anything but easy with his entire body vibrating with leftover excitement and the knowledge that their hands were touching.

It had all ended too abruptly.

Even now, he recalled the feeling of Bakugou's hand in his, warm and almost crushing his in a tight hold. Despite his obvious inner conflicts, Bakugou had been trying to keep it together, and Shouto could tell. The alpha had held onto him tightly, and where that thought had Shouto feeling almost giddy, what had followed had done just the opposite.

Because now, he was lying in his bed, all by himself. Curled up in his blanket with his head stuffed into his pillow and a distinct lack of human warmth all too obvious despite the soft fabric and the usually calming nature of his traditional room.

It had been a stupid thought, but Shouto had expected to stay with Bakugou for a bit - in the same way Bakugou had done for him when he'd failed to take his medicine and almost gone into heat. The situation was obviously different though, and as far as he knew, most alphas didn't go out of their way to suppress their ruts because they were a much shorter and less painful affair than heats were. They just waited until they passed.

So yeah, it probably would not have been a good idea for him to stick around and try to comfort the alpha. He'd been told a few times by his father to avoid such situations at all costs - Shouto had never been entirely sure why, but he'd been told that his willpower wouldn't be enough to prevent him from reacting to that. And that was true - he'd been unable to keep himself in check, faced with the forceful scent.

But yet again, rationalising it just didn't seem to help the unease that he felt. Staying away from Bakugou when he was obviously not feeling well and when Shouto's own body was still incredibly affected by what had transpired in that bathroom felt like trying to keep two strong magnets apart. It took effort for him to not at least go and knock on the alpha's door to see if he was alright.

But it had barely been fifteen minutes and Bakugou was in his room. He was probably fine, just... doing whatever exactly it was that people did during a rut. He tried not to think too much about what exactly that was, because the mere question had Shouto's stomach feeling all sorts of weird. Not an entirely bad weird, but an unfamiliar one nonetheless. He really wasn't entirely sure - it wasn't the type of subject that people tended to talk about a lot.

He tried his best to think of anything other than the alpha, but his thoughts just seemed to keep drifting back to him.

And then there was a knock on the door that had Shouto perking up like a pet when their owner arrived. His eyes were glued to the door and his heart was beating just a little faster when he called out, "yes?"

"Todoroki? Can I come in?" Midoriya's voice called through the closed door, and Shouto felt bad for almost feeling a sense of... disappointment.

"It's open," he confirmed uselessly, because when did he ever lock his door? Shouto wasn't really the type to.

Sure enough, the beta stumbled into the room, his hair more of a mess than usual and a notebook pressed tightly to his chest. Midoriya looked confused for a moment before his eyes landed on Shouto, who was in the process of sitting up on his mattress.

"Oh I didn't mean to - uh. Did I interrupt your nap or something?" he asked, waving his free hand around in an apology.

"No I wasn't. I was just - ah. I don't know."

"You don't... okay, uhm Todoroki are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Shouto confirmed and asked, "what did you want?"

"I was going to ask if I could maybe copy your notes from hero studies? I lent mine to Kaminari and he sort of didn't find them when I asked to get them back and that's fine I mean. Obviously not great but I told him I'd just copy them from someone else so - "

"Of course," Shouto said, and pulled his backpack towards him from the corner. It took him a moment to find the right folder, and when he did he held out the entire thing, "I'll need it tomorrow to do some studying, but up until then you can keep it."

"Thank you," Midoriya smiled, the bright kind of smile that was just a little bit reminiscent of All Might and possibly practiced in front of a mirror for that exact effect.

"And you're sure that you're okay? You seem kind of..."

Shouto looked at him.

"I didn't know. A little... off."

"Oh."

Midoriya just stood there, waiting.

"Actually, I - you know a lot of things about secondary genders, right?" he asked, carefully. Because Shouto knew that among the many things Midoriya had notes on, secondary genders were a section of that as well. Anything that could affect a hero's job seemed to be hidden somewhere within his notes. But he didn't know just how deep Midoriya's knowledge on the subject actually went.

Realistically though, the beta was the best person to ask about this, if Shouto was going to ask anyone at all. He was probably the only one that Shouto was close enough to, except for Bakugou, who'd made it clear that he was in no state to talk about it at the moment.

"I do," Midoriya confirmed, looking slightly confused.

"Okay. What is a rut like?"

"A - oh. Wow. I mean, it's an alpha thing obviously. A state of increased reactivity to certain types of stimuli that sometimes results in aggressive or erratic behavior and - "

"Oh, no, I mean. I know the general definition I think. I was wondering what it's like for someone to experience a rut by themself."

"B-by themself."

"Yes."

"Uh, I mean. Pretty much what one would expect? I guess most alphas spend them alone unless they have a partner or someone who's willing to, you know. Help out. I think it's a bit of a.. frustrating thing but alone, they - they, well. Uh. You know."

"Know what?"

Midoriya looked visibly uncomfortable and Shouto wondered if he should have asked at all. But it was too late now, and he wanted to have at least a vague idea what this was like for Bakugou. Shouto honestly hoped that it didn't compare to the hell that a heat was.

As far as he could tell, it didn't sound entirely as bad, probably.

There was another wild hand movement that could mean pretty much anything.

"They just deal with it by themself," Midoriya squeaked out eventually.

"Deal with...," Shouto stopped. Looked at his friend.

"The.. frustration."

"Frustration," Shouto repeated.

Midoriya actually looked like he was dying on the inside, eyes wide open.

"The, uh. Sexual type?"

"... Oh."

He hadn't really thought that all the way through; of course. A rut was pretty much the alpha equivalent of a heat, and after years of suppressing those, Shouto had almost managed to forget about the many sexual aspects of it. These days, if anything, he mostly just had to deal with the emotional side of his heats, and even that was barely an issue when he took his medication properly. A shadow of the natural mess at most.

After his first heat that had been downright horrible, he'd pushed the thought of the sexual aspect into the furthest corner of his mind.

But it suddenly clicked in his head that Bakugou probably hadn't only felt anger and a loss of control thanks to the rut but also... Shouto wondered how he hadn't realised that. Of course, he'd never given the subject of ruts much of a thought, but... it seemed so obvious, now that he'd heard it said out loud. He closed his eyes, and hoped that his face wasn't literally on fire and reopened them. Midoriya was still standing there, looking at Shouto like he was slightly concerned for him, face completely red.

It took the omega a few seconds before he managed to rid his head of the idea of just what exactly Bakugou might be doing right now - because honestly, Shouto felt like he was invading his privacy just thinking about that and Bakugou would probably yell at him for it - and... he finally managed to form words again, "but it's... bearable, right? Compared to an omega's heat."

"I haven't experienced either so I'm not really qualified to, uh, judge that. But I think so? From what I've heard at least, a lot of omegas really suffer when they go through their heat alone, and a rut isn't so much that. Mostly anger and frustration and these types of emotions, that's why we can't use alphas to rescue another alpha if he's in a rut. They're.. likely to attack others, even if they're already hurt. But you know that, right?"

Shouto wasn't so sure if he remembered that particular bit of information, because he was still recovering from the realisation he'd had just now, but he nodded his head nonetheless.

"Uh.. Todoroki, why are you asking me about this again?"

"I was... wondering."

"Alright. That's - I'm sorry that I'm not really an expert on the subject."

"No, that.. helped."

Had it?

"Alright, I'm uh, glad if it did?"

"Thank you," Shouto said, although he now sort of hoped he hadn't figured out this much.. While it was all very natural and totally normal, it still left the strangest dryness in his mouth to think about how Bakugou was - he caught himself in the thought process, grabbed his blanket tightly between his fingers.

"Didn't you leave with Kacchan earlier?"

Shouto nodded, keeping his face neutral, "we visited my mother."

"You visited your," Midoriya began, voice just a little higher than usually, "how did that go?"

"Quite well," Shouto told him, because it had, hadn't it?

"That's... positively surprising!"

"Yeah," he replied curtly.

"Well okay then, I really need to copy this, so I'll just - "

"Alright," Shouto said and nodded, more or less lost in thought. He watched the beta go and turn around once he'd opened the door.

"And you're sure you're fine?"

"I'm sure, don't worry so much."

But Shouto wasn't entirely sure - he had way too much thinking to do, and felt like his capacity to actually think was compromised. Even knowing what he did now, he found it hard to ignore the desire to go and check up on the alpha. But he knew that he shouldn't - Bakugou had made it pretty clear that he wanted to be by himself, in his room. Alone. That Shouto couldn't help him with this, even if he wanted to.

Not that he could help with... any of that, really. Probably - he had no clue how to, and was way too mortified to try and figure any of that out.

And that was fine. Mostly. Or that was what the omega told himself as he buried his head in his pillow yet again and tried his very best to remember what it felt like to experience a semblance of inner peace and quiet, fully aware that it was probably going to elude him for the next few hours, no matter how hard he tried.

Because now that he knew, he couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting back to the subject of Bakugou's rut, no matter how inappropriate it probably was for a friend to think about the alpha's issue so excessively.

Chapter Text

Bakugou wasn't a damn saint but he was generally trying his fucking best to keep his thoughts about Todoroki family-friendly. As many of them as he could at least, and that took one hell of an effort on the best of days.

Ironically, it was mostly for selfish reasons rather than some misguided attempt at maintaining his purity or whatever. He knew all too well that he was in deep already, and that situation earlier had shown him just how fucking thin the line was, between thinking something, and actually trying to go through with it.

And the more he thought about the omega in less than decent ways, the harder it was to keep his hands off of him. At this point, it bordered on a miracle that he hadn't snapped entirely yet.

So Bakugou did his best to ignore all of those urges and desires, while simultaneously knowing that they were very much present, right beneath the surface. Locked away like an animal pacing in a rusted cage - one hard push, and the damn bars might just break.

And fuck if they weren't in the process of breaking.

Just thinking about kissing Todoroki was enough to worsen this fucking... impulse. The impulse to fucking hunt him down like some villain, drag him here, hold him so tightly that Bakugou could maybe calm the fuck down for a moment; to close the distance between them in the most simple and physical ways there were.

But of course none of this shit was simple and yet here Bakugou was, his body on fucking fire and his mind a minefield of thoughts he shouldn't be thinking but couldn't ignore either. In a fucking rut, which added a whole new layer of frustration to the general mess his alpha instincts were turning into. Not breaking anything, his door in particular, was a damn herculean task.

It was just like on training missions, when he was forced to fucking stand around and listen to instructions for half a damn hour when all Bakugou wanted to do was get out there and destroy something.

That was just how how brain worked by default. His desire to succeed at things was directly linked to the impulse to work his ass off to get said things, and fast. Everything about this fucking situation went against what he felt inside, and he felt dangerously close to saying "fuck it" at this point. Self control was something he possessed, but definitely not something he needed to test the limits of.

The universe did a great fucking job at that already. Had been for weeks, months.

He recalled the sounds Todoroki had made earlier all too clearly, and just allowing himself to dwell on that for one damn moment had his body reacting. Bakugou had no fucking desire to train himself to have even more intense reactions to the omega, thank you very fucking much. Pavlovian conditioning or whatever could go and fuck itself.

But.

Right now, that mantra of 'control yourself' did absolutely nothing for him.

As he sat down on his bed, that thought didn't even cross his mind for more than a few pitiful seconds and it was gone just as fast, washed away.

This was another matter entirely because his hormones were through the roof and he had no fucking energy left to push the thoughts aside for as much as another second. He felt so riled up that it was ridiculous to even try and fight himself on this.

He was torn between feeling angry and horny, and on top of that, so damn possessive, burning up with the desire to tear down the building to get back to his omega and keep him right fucking there. Beside him.

And shit, the thought that the other was probably a room above him with only one flight of stairs separating them did not fucking help. Not at all. He'd always known that he was a powerful alpha and all, but Bakugou had hardly ever felt like that was a bad thing, just stubborn enough to use his instincts and all to his advantage instead of letting them control him.

But just simply recalling the sight of Shouto Todoroki, offering himself up to Bakugou on instinct - like a sacrificial lamb, with his head raised and his neck on full display - had him stupidly fucking hard in his pants.

He closed his eyes, made a noise that sounded like he'd been punched in the gut and he certainly fucking felt like it. This was one fucking disaster, and thank god had it not happened a fucking hour earlier or some shit; that would have been ten levels above awkward, had he popped a boner in that fucking hospital room from their legs brushing together.

But hell, Todoroki had nice legs. Muscular and nice and just the perfect shape and - his head was fucking doing it again. Supplying him with all the images he did not fucking need to have in there at the moment.

Todoroki was going to be the death of him - he should have known it the moment he first saw his pretty fucking face and his impressive quirk. But now it wasn't just that anymore - this went way beyond respect for his strength or appreciation for his looks. Bakugou wanted him - the entirety of him. The cold, annoying and arrogant indifference, hot anger and the sweet, caring warmth. Hell, even his borderline idiotic bluntness and his complete disregard for social cues (not that Bakugou was much better with them but at least they didn't fly right over his damn head) were somehow fucking irresistible.

And that trusting side that he showed around the alpha these days. That had to be the worst - it did fucking... things to Bakugou.

Like making him realise over and over again how gone he was for this guy. Because at this point, Bakugou had to admit to himself that hardly any prospect was as terrifying as disappointing Todoroki, hurting him, ruining what they had. Losing his trust by being a selfish idiot.

It would have been entirely too fucking easy to do that; to mark him, blinded by a brutal sandstorm of instincts and hormones. To pierce that soft, pale skin with his teeth and watch the omega fall apart in response, whimpering as it became utterly fucking official that they belonged to each other and no one else.

And fuck - Bakugou wanted to turn that into a reality so badly that it was probably unhealthy at this point. He hadn't even realised how badly. He also knew that he couldn't, not now - maybe never. Definitely not anytime soon.

The entire business of trying to go slow and be patient and responsible was fucking backfiring and his rut was making sure to show him to which extent. Even if he wanted to, it physically felt like he couldn't ignore the insistent need for something. Anything.

Some fucking relief, because this was getting ridiculous.

He could allow himself one damn break, couldn't he? One fucking misstep that only he was going to know about and have to deal with, so it had to be fine.

It was easier to pretend like it was a decision at this point, like his hand wasn't already clutching at the fabric of his pants. He watched more than directed it over to his dick that was straining against the fabric and he hissed at the sensation, eyes falling shut. Bakugou's thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the feeling of a cold hand in his own, and he was probably going to hell but at this point he was fucking fine with it.

Because he really wanted to feel that hand on his dick.

Wanted Todoroki to look at him with his mismatched eyes as he figured out just how fucking hard Bakugou was for him, just how much of a tease he was without even being aware of it. How much Bakugou's sanity had been suffering lately with every one of those instances of closeness. He wanted him to fucking know it all so badly, and more than that.

He wanted the omega to feel the same way.

To look Bakugou dead in the eye and tell him that this was fine - that he liked this, wanted it, wanted more than just cuddling and friendly hugs and bickering. Something different, something that only the two of them could possibly share, because somehow Todoroki was the only place where that existed for Bakugou. That soft, mushy feeling that made him want to throw up but also didn't. That strange fucking desire to be close to someone, and wanting that more than to blow their brains out of their head with an explosion.

He'd never felt this way towards anyone; didn't know what to do with it, didn't want to fucking think about how badly this could possibly hurt in the end.

If Todoroki wanted anything from him, then Bakugou was going to be so fucking willing to try and give it to him. To cherish something -someone - was still so damn foreign to him, but at the same time Bakugou couldn't remember what it had been like before that.

Before he'd realised just how badly he wanted him.

Half-lidded eyes stuck on his own hand, his rut-clouded brain had him wondering what Todoroki's skin felt like in the places he hadn't touched, hadn't seen yet.

He wanted to know, so fucking bad.

Couldn't help imagining it; the warmth and coldness, the smoothness of his skin. The way his muscles shifted underneath it, and the rise and fall of his chest as he reacted to him. If given the chance, Bakugou knew he would test every inch of his skin with his hands and his mouth and watch the exact ways in which the other crumbled because of him, wanted him, needed him. He'd take his sweet fucking time and be so damn thorough because every last inch of Todoroki fucked Bakugou up in all the best ways and honestly, he didn't just want to fuck him. Something bigger than just that.

He wanted to take him apart.

Show him exactly how good he could be, and make him want more.

And Todoroki - he'd look so fucking stunning beneath him, with marks covering his neck, his torso, the inside of his legs. Face flushed and skin sweaty but always fucking urging the alpha on because he refused to give up control entirely and Bakugou would make sure that he would. That he begged for his fingers, his mouth, his dick. All of it.

Over and over again.

Desperately.

He'd die if he ever heard Todoroki beg, Bakugou was fucking sure of it. Just the idea was enough for him to accidentally bite his lip as he tried to fucking ground himself or something.

"Fucking hell," the alpha whispered into the lonely room between unsteady breaths, feeling damn pathetic but too out of it to give a damn.

The thoughts were so fucking overwhelming and loud and they painted entirely too realistic pictures in his head. And this was it. Self control could go and fuck itself. He struggled with the button of his pants like an idiot because his fingers were just that fucking shaky with the desire to go out there, grab the omega, pull him on his lap, kiss him stupid and maybe help to guide his body as they grinded against each other with their pants still on because the both of them were impatient like that and even Todoroki couldn't keep his cool and remain patient for once.

Or maybe he would - maybe they would take their clothes off, and Todoroki would do it in the same way he did in the locker room - without elegance or any idea of how damn hard it was not to watch him, because he was just so fucking oblivious to his own beauty.

Or maybe he'd let the alpha do the undressing for him, let him unwrap him like the sweetest damn Christmas present, and just watch Bakugou with that unnerving stare and it would be fucking hot.

It didn't fucking matter which scenario he imagined, they all lead down the same fucking road. The one where all he could think about was the omega, his omega, and all he could physically do was to push his pants and boxers down forcefully so he could fimally take a hold of himself, eyes shut tightly because fucking hell. His entire body felt like it was on fire just from the sensation of his fingers wrapping around his erection.

Sure, it had been a fucking while but honestly, what the hell. This was almost too much and this rut was fucking vicious. Bakugou felt like he was going insane - was maybe making himself insane with his stupid fantasies that his head refused to stop coming up with. A few random curses slipped past his lips, but he made fucking sure not to say the other's name. That absolutely wasn't happening; even caught up in the insanity of his rut, Bakugou's pride would not let him sit here and be pathetic enough to moan Todoroki's name as he fucked his own fist.

He was falling apart quickly though, and all too soon at the point where he wasn't entirely sure which sounds left his mouth, hair sticking to his forehead and his heart - that thing was racing like crazy in his chest.

He kept his hand still for a moment and wondered if anyone had ever been enough of an unlucky bastard to fucking.. get a heart attack and die from jerking themself off. Judging by the amount of warmth beneath his skin and the fucking hammering of his heart, Bakugou may very well be the first person to. He clenched his jaw tightly, moved his hand with uncharacteristic slowness, and made a noise in the back of his throat, his other hand sinking into the mattress angrily.

At this rate, he was maybe going to let either his bed or his dick explode and while neither option sounded particularly good, the alpha didn't have it in himself to give a damn as his head was invaded with more images of what could be happening, had he brought the omega back to his room. And oh fuck, the things that could be happening - from slow kisses to brutal grinding to clumsy fumbling. He'd be fine with anything as long as it meant that he could touch the omega, hear him, see his expressions -

Definitely more than fine. Fucking ecstatic.

He'd wreck him in all the best ways until none of that indifference was left, until Todoroki couldn't even think anymore because he'd be just as fucking lost in the alpha as Bakugou was lost in him.

They'd be great at it.

The fucking greatest.

If the expressions on the omega's face from just scent marking were any fucking indication, then shit - Todoroki would be anything but indifferent in bed, and it made the alpha want to know just how fucking messy he could get.

His movements became less coordinated and quicker the more he let his imagination roam free. Just this fucking once, he could allow himself to - didn't have another option, really. It was concerning how well he could picture it all. How easy it was, with his eyes closed, to imagine that this wasn't his own hand. To imagine that it was Todoroki's, squeezing him a bit too tightly and being just a little too fucking perfect at this because he was at everything.

The precum made it easier to move his hand, up and down, again and again. As the sound of skin against skin became increasingly louder, it also became increasingly less noticeable to him, because at this point, Bakugou was just gone. Breathing hard and basically fucking his own hand because his hips refused to stay still with the imaginary promise of the omega beneath him, wanting him, needing him -

He winced as he bit his lower lip again accidentally, the desire to mark the other so damn present that it wouldn't leave although he wasn't even there. His sanity really was nonexistent at this point, but fuck it - even with the taste of iron in his mouth and the supposedly grounding pain undeniable, it didn't stop his thoughts from running miles ahead and wondering just how wet the omega would get for him and how sweet he would smell, a needy mess all for him. How much he could take. What he would taste like.

And that was it.

Bakugou was done. So fucking done.

Choking on a broken exhale as he pumped himself a few more times, all messy and desperate. It felt like dissolving into the air around him or the mattress of maybe just nothingness when he came. He barely even registered it as he spilled all over his hand, his shirt, probably the bed, too, but what the fuck ever.

The orgasm literally knocked the air out of him, and if he made a noise (which he most certainly did because how the hell could he not, in response to that), he didn't notice that either. It felt like the tension of weeks had melted right out of him, and for the longest moment all the alpha could do was to breathe. In and out, his hand finally stilling as he allowed himself to collapse backwards onto the bed and groan at the ceiling.

He felt so damn exhausted but overly awake at the same time.

He'd had ruts before, but shit - this had felt almost like a messed up spiritual experience. Like some form of catharsis or self-discovery. Intense and good.

So fucking good.

Up until this point where his head finally cleared a little and he came back into his body, only to realise that, "Oh fucking hell."

He groaned again, punched his fist into the mattress and smelled the distinct smell of small sparks on fabric.

The guilt hit him like a punch in the face, because he'd really just done that. Kept his thoughts nice and clean for weeks with the most ridiculous effort, only to crack now and think all of it up at once. Fucking great. He was doomed. There was no way in hell he would ever get those images out of his head, because he'd just crossed that fucking line. How the hell was he supposed to even look Todoroki in the face now?

The worst part was that Bakugou knew - deep down in his apparently filthy fucking soul - that none of this shit even compared to what the reality would feel like.

Sure, he was good at planning, strategising and imagining things and whatever - but to actually have the omega there with him and experience any of that for real - he'd probably faint or some shit. Get a damn psychosis or whatever, because fuck - how the hell was it possible to want someone so damn badly?

He felt like a dirty fucking villain for thinking about the omega in that context, but it really wasn't in his fucking control anymore at this point. That excuse hat to be good enough, because he had no other. And it was not only that - a much more desperate part of him wanted nothing more than to just have Todoroki in his arms in this fucking moment. To pull him against his chest, and just have him there, even if they wouldn't do anything.

And yeah, as if. His fucking hormones were a different story entirely, and the fact that he was here, by himself, his imagination a mere mockery of the reality of the omega, quickly had him unsatisfied all over again.

He hadn't even cleaned himself up by the time that his body decided that yeah, (fuck ruts) it was time for another round and probably ten fucking rounds after that and Bakugou alternated between blaming Todoroki and himself for the severity of this. In the end, it didn't fucking matter though - neither option kept him from thinking about the very same things all over again as he grabbed himself once more, already hard and just... aching.

He couldn't wait for this fucking day and his rut to be over.

...

Shouto felt a bit disappointed as he entered the common room, because, as stupid as it sounded, he looked around for a long moment in the delusional hope that the alpha would be in there. Of course he knew that this wasn't the case because Bakugou was in his room, with the door locked, doing... things. Rut-related things. Just thinking about it felt so utterly weird that Shouto had half a mind to turn around and leave the room, because what was even wrong with him.

He'd dragged himself out of bed in an attempt to get distraction from those exact types of thoughts, and yet here he was - acutely aware of the fact that Bakugou wasn't here. Because he was...

"Wanna join?"

It took Shouto a moment to confirm that yes, he was the one being addressed. Yaoyorozu was looking at him with a distinct note of concern in her eyes, from over where she was sitting at a table with Jirou, Hagakure and Kaminari, playing a round of cards. He hadn't exactly realised that he'd been staring at the group, deeply lost in thought.

It took the omega another moment to snap out of it, and by the time he'd managed to, Shouto realised that he was nodding his head, so he made his way over to them. He wasn't usually the type for such games but it wasn't as if he had anything else planned.

"Don't," Yaoyorozu said and Shouto stopped in his movements, but it wasn't directed at him. Shouto wasn't used to such a sharp tone falling from her lips.

He looked around the table. Everyone's eyes were on her for a short moment.

"We're just going to finish this round," the dark haired girl said with a quieter voice and a smile as he sat down. Everyone seemed to be very invested in the game then, cursing and laughing while Shouto just sat there, watching them quietly and wondering if maybe he should have stayed in his room. So far, that whole distraction thing wasn't working out too well, and he was pretty sure that participating in this required some level of concentration.

On top of that, it was as if the others were stealing glances at him in between their turns. It was obvious enough for the omega to wonder whether there was something on his face. Or worse yet, if they could somehow tell what types of thoughts had him so occupied at the moment. Thankfully, none of his classmates possessed the ability to read minds so that was pretty much impossible, he hoped.

And it really wasn't his fault for being a little bit surprised still with the way the afternoon had turned out. It was as if Bakugou's scent was still messing with his head, although he wasn't even here. And Shouto's body was on edge; he turned around again, checked the room once more, just to be sure. His instincts were thoroughly confused, while his conscious self knew by now that he could not just stand up and check on the alpha...

But he could text Bakugou, maybe.

The idea hadn't occurred to him before, but now that it was there, Shouto was pretty much unable to resist the urge to just.. say something. Anything. He took his phone out, stared at the chat.

Thought it over for a moment, and started typing,

'Do you need anything?'

It occurred to him a second layer that the question was a little vague, and he added,

'If you need anything to eat or drink, I can put things in front of your door.'

Shouto figured that it was the least he could offer, especially after Bakugou had gone out of his way to take care of him many times now, and Shouto felt utterly useless in comparison. Like he should be there for him, somehow. Offering some type of support. Although it apparently wasn't the same thing, he couldn't help but be reminded of that experience with his first heat. How bad it had felt, to want closeness and comfort, locked up all alone in a room.

But according to Midoriya, there really was a big difference between ruts and heats. If ruts were really more of a physical struggle than a mental one, then Bakugou was probably fine, just... busy. He stopped himself. Breathed out quietly.

"Uh, Todoroki."

"Huh."

"Your cards," Yaoyorozu said, pointing at the little pile of cards in front of him. Shouto hadn't really noticed that they were done already, and he quickly grabbed cards.

"Thank you," he replied, for a lack of anything else he could think of. Resisting the urge to check his phone for a reply wasn't all that easy, and he closed his eyes for a moment, reminding himself that everything was fine. Although his inner omega absolutely wasn't into the idea of playing cards currently, he had no other option than to at least try and keep himself distracted.

What else was he going to do, really?

"It's your turn," Jirou said, giving him a strange look and Shouto quickly tried to make sense of how exactly that game worked again. It took him a few seconds to find a card that he could put on the pile in the middle, and he was almost relieved when his turn was over.

It went on like that for a while; keeping his thoughts off Bakugou was strangely hard, and it didn't seem to get any better either. Shouto checked his phone a few minutes into the game, but there was no reply yet, and he almost whined at the lack of... anything, still so aware of the feeling of their hands, their fingers intertwined. Thankfully, he managed to kill that noise before it was out of his mouth, and it sounded more like he had a scratchy throat than anything. No one seemed to notice, but Shouto still felt incredibly weird in his skin. Keeping himself in check was never usually an issue.

The last time he'd been this preoccupied with Bakugou had been just before his heat, and that definitely wasn't happening now, because he still had a few weeks to go. Not just days, but weeks.

So really, why was it so hard to think rationally?

Why did he keep wondering just what would have happened if Bakugou hadn't stopped earlier? Shouto honestly had no answer to that, but the weirdest part of it all was that he wondered if maybe he'd done something wrong - if Bakugou would have stopped either way, or if he'd stopped precisely because it was Shouto and he just didn't want anything to do with him during his rut.

It was a stupid thought, but Shouto wondered if things had gone differently, had he not acted the way he had. Making embarrassing noises and overreacting to the alpha's scent and everything.

It hurt to think that Bakugou had pushed him away, because something deep inside of him could translate that message way better than his mind could. Although it made sense that he couldn't be there with him right now, it still felt like a rejection, and that got to him in the strangest way. More than Shouto had realised in that moment, but it was becoming clearer now. The restless feeling didn't seem to leave him alone, and it felt like trying to solve a problem that couldn't be solved.

He checked his phone again, missed his turn again.

It took another three rounds until Hagakure won, and although it was maybe a rude thought to have, Shouto was more than happy that the game was finally over. He wasn't in the state of mind to really add anything important to the conversation anyway, and he quickly excused himself, stood up.

Only for the dark-haired alpha girl to ask him, "Can we talk for a moment?"

Shouto blinked at her, and fought the urge to say no. For some reason, the alphas' scents in the room bothered him a little, and although he liked Yaoyorozu, it was no different. But then again, it wasn't a discomfort he hadn't dealt with before. It was just... different, today. He couldn't really explain it to himself.

Whatever his body was doing had him thoroughly confused.

"Oh, of course," he agreed and the two of them walked over to one of the empty couches. Shouto felt strangely lightheaded for a moment, but the feeling disappeared as soon as he sat down. Yaoyorozu offered to make him a cup of tea, but Shouto declined, told himself not to check his phone again because that would just be rude at this point.

"I'm sorry to be so direct, but you don't look like you're feeling well."

"I'm -" Shouto stopped himself from outright lying and claiming that he was fine. Instead, he said, "it's been a weird day."

She gave him an understanding look, dark eyes full of empathy. Shouto wasn't sure what to do with it, wasn't sure that he was ready to talk about any of it. Couldn't talk about most of it anyways, because a lot of this was secondary gender related.

"I... get that. That's why I'm worried, you smell like. Uh. Strongly, of Ba- I mean, an alpha, who's going through a rut. And I was just - did anything bad happen?"

"Anything.. bad?" Shouto asked her, because he really wasn't so sure what to say to the other points. He knew that the alpha's scent was still on him, because he'd been unable to change into different clothes or worse yet, take another shower to wash it off. The thought alone hurt, even though he'd maybe feel a little more normal in his skin if he'd done that.

"It's.. sometimes it's very hard for alphas to control their impulses during a rut. I just want to make sure that nothing happened that you didn't want to happen, okay? That you didn't get hurt," she tried again with a quiet voice, clearly uncomfortable but worried enough to still say it.

It took a moment for it to click in Shouto's head, and his mouth fell open as he understood just what she was asking him. Without really thinking about it, he crossed his arms in front of his chest, couldn't keep his eyes from hardening.

"Nothing happened," he declared, sounding much angrier than he'd expected, but it was hard not to feel offended on Bakugou's behalf. Truly, Shouto had no idea just how hard it was to control such impulses, but Bakugou obviously had been able to, and suggesting anything less felt like an insult to the alpha.

Yaoyorozu seemed shocked for a moment, and Shouto couldn't deny that he felt bad for her, but that wasn't exactly enough to calm down. He had to focus in order to keep his body temperature in check and not let his anger be too obvious.

Back when Bakugou had been kidnapped, there had been talk about how he was the likeliest of their class to join the villains, and although the alpha had never talked to Shouto about it, he was certain that it had hurt him to hear such speculations. Just like when people assumed that Shouto must be like his father. For people to believe that you were capable of being something that you weren't... it was a strange sort of feeling. Painful.

And the suggestion that Bakugou might have hurt Shouto just because he was going through a rut... it automatically reminded him of that. Shouto felt the strongest need to make it clear that no - he hadn't. In no capacity. Wouldn't, ever.

It wasn't even a question in his mind.

"I didn't mean to make it sound like - I just. I know from experience how difficult it can be, and I was just.. worried. Not that you can't defend yourself if you need to, but.. I'd rather ask one too many times, than not to ask at all."

"He wouldn't hurt me," Shouto insisted.

"I know that he's not a bad person. It's just - the two of you have been really close, and it's... uh. You haven't looked this sad in a while, so I wanted to make sure."

Shouto sighed, rubbed his eyes with his hands in an attempt to just calm down a little bit. He knew that she meant well, knew that the situation between him and Bakugou was maybe a bit hard to grasp for others, because even he barely understood the kind of closeness that had developed between them. Honestly, it was concerning that it was so obvious how affected he was by what had happened. And barely anything had happened, really.

Shouto wouldn't say that he was sad, just a bit... out of it, because he'd expected to spend the day with the alpha, and it had been cut short.

He couldn't tell how much of it were his instincts, and how much was just him. Not that the instincts weren't a part of him, but Shouto wasn't usually the type to mind some extra alone time. And yet, here he sat - the grip on his phone tightening because he was that anxious to hear from the blonde. That definitely had to be his instincts at play - he couldn't explain it to himself in any other way.

Shouto needed to get a grip, because of course it seemed odd to his friends - no one knew how strongly his body was affected by the alpha's scent, his presence or lack thereof. No one knew that he was battling all sorts of instinctual pulls, just from being around Bakugou when he'd smelled like... that. Whatever the exact meaning of his own reaction was, he couldn't even tell.

His classmates could only try to make sense of what they saw; a beta in a very odd mood, with an alpha's scent all over him.

"Thanks for your concern, but I'm really fine," he said, voice even this time, "I'll just.. go and eat something and lay down."

The girl nodded quickly, ponytail bouncing up and down, "Okay. Just, know that you can talk to me anytime if you feel like it. And... sorry again, if I overstepped any boundaries."

"It's really fine," Shouto reassured her, telling himself that it was, no matter how bitter the mere suggestion had sounded to him.

He was relieved when he'd finally made his way out of the common room, and no - that definitely hadn't helped. At all. He checked his phone, but there still wasn't a message, which either meant that Bakugou hadn't seen his, or he didn't want to reply. Well, that - or he wasn't in the state of mind to reply. Whichever exactly was the case, it left the omega at a loss for what to do.

For about ten seconds, until Shouto gave in and decided that just placing a bottle of water and maybe something to eat in front of the alpha's door probably wouldn't hurt. He felt the strongest need to do something; to get rid of this incessant feeling of uselessness that had been there since the two had parted ways.

So Shouto walked over to the kitchen, looked at the contents of the fridge, and felt all the more clueless, because what was he even supposed to make? He didn't know many recipes, wasn't the most ambitious cook, really. Especially in comparison to Bakugou's skills in the kitchen, he was practically incapable of making anything but soba. It wasn't something that had ever really bothered him a lot, but right now, Shouto sort of found himself wishing that he'd maybe bothered to broaden his culinary horizons a little. Or that he'd at least learned something while watching the other cook.

He didn't have the patience to try and learn new skills at the moment though, so Shouto went for the easiest option and sliced up a few vegetables, placed some pieces in a box and stood there, lost in thought, as he chewed on what hadn't fit into the box although he wasn't all that hungry.

It really wasn't much, but if Bakugou insisted that Shouto needed vitamins and all, then the omega could do just the same thing and tell him to eat some healthy food, too. He grabbed a bottle with water, and held both things tightly to his chest as he walked out of the kitchen.

Shouto tried not to notice the way his steps and his pulse quickened as he made his way to the alpha's room. It was strange in multiple ways. This was Bakugou. His classmate. They saw each other all the time, and it was hardly something that required nervousness, but, Shouto supposed, the circumstances were different this time.

But it wasn't as if he was even going to enter his room.

Just put the things down, and leave.

His body didn't seem to consider it a simple task though, judging by the funny feeling in his stomach as he made his way through the hallway over to the door, only to stop dead in his tracks at a small distance from it. Shouto couldn't tell whether his heartbeat sped up of slowed down, but either way - it did something, and did it fast. Hard. He closed his eyes, told himself that it was fine.

Just a scent.

From inside a room, behind a locked door. Probably not all that strong out here (in comparison to what it must smell like inside at least), but somehow so utterly impossible to ignore. His legs still weren't moving, and Shouto reopened his eyes to stare down at them, as if asking his body a silent question, 'what are you doing?'

It was hard to say.

If Bakugou's scent had been borderline intoxicating earlier, then it was downright addictive now. Shouto tried to breathe in through his mouth, slow and deep. This went beyond anything he'd experienced so far; at such a distance, the alpha's scent should barely be noticeable. Instead, here he was - finally managing to take slow steps closer, but regretting it at the very same time, because this was... a lot.

A lot was happening inside of him - nervousness and urgency combined into the strangest feeling of being completely overwhelmed, petrified but desperate to move. Whether closer or away, he couldn't tell.

There was nothing to be heard from inside the room, and Shouto wondered if maybe he was imagining the strength of the scent. He couldn't recall if he'd ever walked by any of the other alpha's rooms during a rut, or if he'd noticed anything of the sort happening to him in response. He wasn't in the habit of walking around the dormitories much, except for the way to his room, to Bakugou's and downstairs, so he probably hadn't. Shouto was relatively certain that he'd remember that feeling.

He forced himself to move and placed the two items down on the ground, nearly dropped the bottle because his fingers were unusually shaky. Shouto looked at them for a second longer, checking if there was maybe a frostbite on them or something to cause this; but there was none.

Shouto sighed, made the mistake of inhaling deeply, bicoloured eyes locked on the doorknob. Before he really noticed what he was doing, he'd already reached out, turned it - well, tried to.

"I swear to fuck, I am fucking busy, goddamn idiots! Go the fuck away," a shout came just half a second later, which meant that yeah. Bakugou definitely wasn't asleep. He sounded very awake, and just as irritated.

Shouto took another deep breath, another mistake. His head felt like it was betraying him, not working in tune with his body anymore, because that scent was... everywhere, somehow. It was not nearly enough. Trying to enter Bakugou's room definitely hadn't been part of the plan, and neither had standing outside of it uselessly to just inhale his scent been.

After a few seconds, Shouto had gathered enough mental clarity to realise that he should probably say something instead of just standing there like a confused, overwhelmed statue.

"Sorry," the word slipped out of his lips, the first thing he could think of.

There was a pause. Shouto still wasn't moving, still hadn't explained what he was doing here, what he wasn't doing here, or that he couldn't tell anymore.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing at my fucking door right now," the alpha growled, so low and angry and rough that Shouto could swear he felt the words work their way through his body. He swallowed hard, made sure not to make an embarrassing noise by keeping his lips pressed tightly together.

"I wanted to -" he started, lost his voice.

There was a sound of footsteps, more like stomping.

"Get the fuck away from here, Icyhot."

This time it wasn't just anger. It sounded like more than that, a plea hidden beneath the obvious violence of the words. They hit a little harder than they probably should, and the omega found himself torn, now more than ever. Half of him wanted to stay right here, while the other half knew better than to ignore the command. It wasn't his intention to invade Bakugou's privacy or anything, but he suddenly felt guilt wash over him.

This time, he couldn't stop himself from making a pitiful noise, so silent that only he could possibly hear it, which somehow made it worse. Shouto felt like one entire mess. Apparently, his idea hadn't been so great.

"I brought you.. food," he tried to explain, as if fishing for a reason to stay right there just a little bit longer.

"You - fucking," the words were interrupted by a punch against the door that had Shouto a little startled, "what's so hard to understand about staying the hell away."

"But I brought you -"

"I'll fucking- Listen for once you fucking asshole, I'm- " there was a crack in Bakugou's voice, and Shouto felt the strangest sense of loss wash over himself at the broken sound. He took his hand slowly off the door handle, suddenly very aware of the conversation with Yaoyorozu a few minutes ago and of how, maybe, he really didn't know much about just how hard it was for an alpha to be around others during a rut.

Shouto wasn't afraid of Bakugou, but he was suddenly a bit afraid of himself.

Of how, after having explicitly been told to stay away, he was still here. Making things harder for the alpha instead of making them better.

"I'm sorry, I'll go," he announced, and used up pretty much all of the self control he'd taught himself in order to drag his body away from the door, away from Bakugou's scent, away from Bakugou. His feelings were definitely protesting, but he forced his rational thoughts to take the driving front seat. Once upon a time, that had been a whole lot easier.

He hadn't even waited around for a reply.

His legs felt heavy like his chest, but Shouto knew that he couldn't just keep standing there. Knew that the door was locked. Knew also that the door most certainly wasn't fire-proof, but he didn't allow himself to consider that option because he had no idea where that thought had even come from. Bakugou wanted him to leave, so Shouto would, even if it hurt in the strangest way.

He'd practically set himself up for this rejection though.

So he dragged himself back up the stairs to his room, and went straight for his bed again. The familiar scent still clinging to the blanket and the mattress helped a little. But other than that, Shouto felt like crying. Which, in all honesty, was probably an overreaction, but it felt like there was so much going on inside of him and he only understood it in an abstract sense, as if he couldn't pierce together the entirety of his emotions.

A feeling of exhaustion began to take a hold of him, but his mind wouldn't stop analysing the events of the day.

After staring at the ceiling for a long while and not really moving forwards in terms of understanding himself, he took out his phone and searched through the videos recommended for him. The documentary about tropical fish that he settled on thankfully ended up being just boring enough for him to drift off into a restless sleep halfway into it.

...

Contrary to popular belief, Bakugou didn't always wake up with the desire to curse the entire planet first thing in the morning. But this morning was one of those exact occurrences. He had no fucking clue how late it was, or why the hell his body felt so utterly fucking disgusting, and when the memories of the evening before did come back to him piece by piece, the urge to verbalise his frustration came right back full force.

"Fuck this shit," he muttered, rubbing at his eyes and forcing himself out of the bedsheets that were clinging to his skin in the most disgusting way possible. And of course they did - he didn't want to think about the entirety of it, but that rut had been one fucking hormonal nightmare that had only gotten worse with the hours. He stumbled towards the window, opened it wide. There was no way in hell that his room wasn't going to smell like this for days to come, but even just a bit of fresh air sounded like the most heavenly idea right now.

Well, the second best actually.

More than fresh air, he needed to take a damn shower in order to feel like a fucking person again. Because he currently felt like some sort of half-awake, disgusting zombie with a serious desire to attack anyone in his vicinity. As far as he could tell, the rut seemed to be over for the most part, but the leftover anger could probably be attributed to that still.

Bakugou didn't bother to look into the mirror, because he knew all too well that he looked like shit. Instead, he went straight for the closet, grabbed some sweatpants, socks, underwear and a shirt and headed out into the hallway, only to fall on his ass because some fucking idiot had apparently decided to play a damn prank on him and whoever it was was so going to pay -

Maybe it was the force with which his ass collided with the floor, but Bakugou suddenly remembered precisely which idiot had placed a box of food right in front of his door. Although the memory felt like some weird-ass half-dream, he quickly realised that yeah, no. That had actually happened, and he'd actually shouted at Todoroki to fuck off because knowing that he'd been right out there had caused Bakugou to panic like no one's business.

And although telling him to leave was definitely the best option he could have chosen, he still felt like one fucking asshole because Todoroki had gone out of his way to do this shit for him and Bakugou had rewarded him by literally shouting at him like some fucking maniac. He sat there for another moment, simply coming to terms with that realisation and feeling like the biggest fucking failure of an alpha.

But he made the decision that his self-hatred could wait until after the shower, and he sure as fuck wasn't going to go to the omega looking and smelling like this; practically wearing his fucking guilt and shame like a medal around his neck. No thanks.

He was pretty much convinced that Todoroki had no fucking clue just how braindead of a decision it had been to come here in the first place, and as Bakugou placed both the food and the water bottle in his room for now, he wondered how the hell he was supposed to explain any of this to him. Walking up to him and telling him 'sorry I almost broke down the fucking door to drag you into my bed' didn't sound like a good option, but what the fuck. The hell was he supposed to say instead?

Bakugou couldn't seem to find an answer to that question as he walked towards the showers, not while he stood under the water and not when he stepped out of the cabin, at least a little less disgusted with himself. All he knew was that he needed to do something, say something. Make this better somehow, because the feeling of having messed up loomed over him like some dark fucking rain cloud.

He made a point of cleaning up the physical mess before he got around to fixing the more complicated matters. Because he had bedsheets and clothes to wash, and yeah, maybe he was procrastinating this particular confrontation, but it wasn't like Bakugou was going to admit that, even to himself.

With all of that eventually done however, he really had no fucking excuse anymore to not go and talk to the omega. But shit, he needed some sort of plan at the very least, if he didn't want to make this worse accidentally. Sure, he was gaining experience in the apology department, but that definitely still wasn't a talent of his. Frowning at the box on his desk, Bakugou mentally went through his options, but his head was too damn slow to really come up with much of anything, except for the obvious, which was to verbally apologise for acting like an ass.

But honestly, it didn't feel like that was going to be enough.

Because just yesterday, before it all went to shit thanks to his body that had chosen the most inappropriate moment for a rut, he'd made up his mind to actually try to court Todoroki, which obviously meant that just apologising wasn't going to cut it. Sure, it was maybe a first step or whatever but that didn't mean that he shouldn't think of something better in order to -

There was a knock on the door, and maybe it was paranoia or some messed up ability to recognise Todoroki from the fucking way he knocked on a door, but Bakugou was not in the least bit surprised to hear the other's voice a moment later.

"Bakugou?"

He took a deep breath, felt entirely fucking unprepared but still forced out an embarrasingly breathless, "yeah."

And well, shit. Bakugou had known that this was going to happen, but he could swear that every fucking cell in his body reacted to the sight of the door opening, and the omega looking in, more uncertainty on his face than he'd usually show, ever. Bakugou couldn't do much but stare at him, and the most awkward kind of moment passed between them as neither moved, neither said anything.

It wasn't all that early anymore, but somehow Todoroki still had that soft morning energy about him that Bakugou hadn't ever known was an actual thing (it went beyond simple tiredness, because any idiot could be tired, but not everyone could be... this) and looking at him now, Bakugou couldn't help but wonder just how much the other had witnessed yesterday. Beyond the yelling, that was. Hopefully fucking nothing, or else he was just going to drop dead from embarrassment.

"Can I come in?" Todoroki asked, voice calmer than what his posture spoke of.

"You - don't fucking ask," Bakugou replied.

"I mean, are you still.."

"I am fucking fine, I'm not going to jum- just come in, I've got shit to say anyways," Bakugou told him, and already cursed himself for beginning the conversation in this manner. He cursed himself all over again as Todoroki did enter, dressed in comfortable, loose clothes and looking like maybe he had actually slept until just minutes ago, or not at all.

There were dark lines beneath his eyes, and it made him look strangely human for his standards.

Whatever the case, he forced his eyes to focus on anything other than the omega for the sake of his sanity.

"I've got.. things to say as well," Todoroki began, coming to a halt in the middle of the room, and Bakugou felt like he'd traveled back in time or some shit, because at this point Todoroki was familiar enough with his room to know that he could just sit down - or at least he thought so.

And because he was apparently in no way, shape or form capable of regulating what came out of his mouth, the alpha barked out a grumpy-sounding, "at least sit the fuck down if you wanna talk."

Bicoloured eyes followed an imaginary line towards the space on the bed next to him, and Todoroki seemed to think about it for a moment before he actually went ahead and did sit down, the mattress sinking just a little bit with his weight. Bakugou took a breath in and out. Todoroki had been on his bed multiple times now, and this was no different. He just needed to make sure to remind himself of that.

A surprised sound almost escaped him when the omega suddenly turned to him and said, "I came here to apologise. It was rude to invade your privacy when you obviously wanted to be alone and I - I don't know what I was thinking, I felt like I needed to - "

He stopped there, eyes moving from one thing to another, while Bakugou stared at the way Todoroki's hands were clutched into tight fists at his sides, obviously tense. Bakugou told himself to stay still and focus on the words he needed to say.

"Shut up, Icyhot."

"Huh?"

"You're doing the same fucking thing again, I'm supposed to apologise here. I essentially told you to fuck off for trying to help, and you don't even know what the hell you were fucking doing to me because that rut was-"

"I do. I looked it up on the internet earlier."

"You - what?" Bakugou asked, disbelief thick in his voice.

"Apparently it's perfectly normal to feel territorial about your own space during a rut, and you felt threatened when I came here," Todoroki said, as if he had any fucking clue what he was talking about.

"I didn't feel fucking threatened, not like I expected you to fucking attack me, what the hell."

"You don't need to.. Ah, it's really perfectly natural but I didn't know and... now I know that it's not a mean-spirited thing, so if you still don't want me to be in your room I can leave. It said that sometimes ruts can last up to 48 hours but I wanted to apologise so I took a chance," the other explained, his words increasing in their pace.

Bakugou knew by now that his life was a fucking joke, but for Todoroki to think that he'd sent him away because he'd felt possessive over his fucking room - it was an entirely new level of irony and he almost laughed. At times like these, Bakugou was acutely aware of the fact that while not stupid, Todoroki definitely lacked some common knowledge in areas where it was honestly fucking concerning.

"Half and Half," Bakugou said, "It's not like you to do this nervous rambling shit. That's a fucking Deku thing."

"I'm not nervous," the expected reply came.

"Whatever you say, just listen for one damn moment, alright?"

The omega nodded his head, his eyes finding Bakugou's.

"Don't know how the hell you missed this during your research, but if there's one thing an alpha in a rut doesn't consider an omega trying to enter their room, then it's a fucking threat."

"Oh. But.."

"No fucking but, you're damn lucky you take your scent blockers, because if you went around with that fucking naivety of yours and your actual scent, walking up to the rooms of alphas in a fucking rut, then you'd-" Bakugou stopped himself right there, not wanting to even think about it, much less say it out loud. Icyhot was such a damn mess, weren't there some things that omegas were just supposed to... know. For fucking safety's sake?

Why the hell did he not know anything.

"I'd what?" Todoroki of course had to ask, eyes full of wonder, as if he actually couldn't put two and two together. Bakugou frowned once again at how utterly tired he looked.

"You'd... The fucking point is that you shouldn't do it, Icyhot."

He could see it in the other's eyes that he'd caught that hesitation.

"Tell me," the omega said, voice suddenly back to its usual low tone and the mere curiosity in his eyes giving way to some weird sort of determination. Bakugou couldn't help but feel like he was dealing with a damn kid that had heard a curse word and now demanded an explanation for what exactly that meant. He let out an exhausted breath, because this was just his fucking luck; of course Todoroki wanted all the things spelled out that Bakugou had been fucking thinking about all evening while getting off to them.

But even Todoroki couldn't be entirely oblivious to the entire concept of sex or mating bites or the purpose of heats and ruts, and Bakugou wondered if maybe he was actually trying to torture him on purpose or something. Because he was.. very not ready for this conversation, or that look on his face that only seemed to get more intense the longer it was directed at him.

"They'd want to bite you," he said, simple and true and definitely not the entirety of it. Bakugou was convinced that any alpha, rut or not, would go batshit crazy if they smelled Todoroki's scent. Even without that, it was so fucking easy to tell how many people were mesmerised just by his looks, his voice and attitude. Bakugou fucking included.

"Bite me," Todoroki repeated thoughtfully, almost as if he'd misheard Bakugou and needed to make sure they were still talking about the same thing. The alpha closed his eyes for a few seconds, because he'd really just heard those damn words tumbling out of those damn lips and not under the circumstances he'd envisioned. At all. Worst of all, Todoroki actually still didn't seem to get it.

At a loss of words, Bakugou raised his hand, leaned in just a little bit closer, and let one of his fingers hover accusingly right above the scent gland in Todoroki's neck as he said, "right fucking there, genius."

After a long and tortuous moment of trying not to press his finger forward just a little further and touch the other, the gears in Todoroki's head apparently started moving.

"Oh," he said and Bakugou wondered once more if it was his favorite fucking word, "ah, right. Maybe."

"Not maybe," Bakugou said with a certain amount of pressure evident in his voice, wanting the other to get this point.

"I don't though."

"You don't what?"

"Go and bring other alphas food during their rut."

The answer was so entirely Todoroki and probably to be taken literally more than anything, but it was hard not to enjoy the words either way. It wasn't a promise but to Bakugou, it almost sounded like one and he really couldn't distinguish rational thoughts from wishful thinking at this point, apparently.

"You better not," he muttered, nonetheless, suddenly very aware of the fact that his finger was still pointing at Todoroki's scent gland, and the other followed his eyes, tilting his head a little and looking down, as if he hadn't ever seen Bakugou's hand before. Bakugou slowly pulled it away, and bicoloured eyes followed the movement before Todoroki had the fucking audacity to wet his lips.

"Do you think that it would hurt?"

"What would hurt," Bakugou asked although he dreaded the answer.

"To be bitten there," the omega clarified, and this wasn't good. Bakugou needed a lot of things, but not an excuse to stare at that area of Todoroki's neck when he'd just come freshly out of a rut that had made him keenly aware of his fascination with the thought of -

"I've never really thought about it it," Todoroki added, unprompted. Apparently thinking about mating bites now, on Bakugou's bed of all places in the world. The alpha did not feel the need to say it out loud that in contrast to him, he'd definitely thought about it. All evening, with his dick in his hand.

"How the hell would I know. Depends I guess," he said instead.

"On what?"

"On the circumstances, whether it's consensual or not, and on your pain tolerance or whatever."

"Right," Todoroki agreed, letting the word fade a little before he continued, "So that's why you told me to go away?"

"No you fucking - do we have to fucking talk about this."

"No?"

"Is that a question or what?"

Todoroki gave him another empty look, his posture oddly stiff and mind apparently somewhere else, "Huh?"

Bakugou just kept watching him, trying to mentally prepare for more uncomfortable questions, but none came.

"Sorry, I'm a little - I mean. Your room still smells very distracting and I didn't sleep well."

"Distracting," Bakugou repeated this time.

"Very," Todoroki confirmed and the clipped tone held Bakugou's interest, made him curious. He stayed silent for a moment, thinking things through.

"Not like I can do much about that, I already opened the window and all," he said eventually and when he noticed at the displeased expression on the omega's face, his tone instantly changed, "Should be back to normal in a few days."

Todoroki stayed quiet.

"I'm not fucking forcing you to be here if it bothers you that much."

Once more, Bakugou questioned what the hell he was even doing, because wasn't he in the fucking process of apologising precisely for sending Todoroki away? But then again, the frown on the omega's face didn't exactly look thrilled, and although it was just a facial expression, it wounded his pride a little. Because Todoroki was the one who always ran around talking about how fucking comfortable Bakugou's scent made him but apparently that excluded ruts or whatever. Great.

"No, it's not the bad type of distracting, just.." he stopped there, the frown deepening as he observed, "you already washed your bedsheets, too."

"Yeah because they were a filthy fucking mess," Bakugou commented, and the embarrassment of that admission only set in a few seconds later but he tried to ignore the warmth in his cheeks. He was way too distracted with the way Todoroki was now trying to kill him by chewing on his lower lip to think about much of anything anyways.

He eventually broke the silence though, unable to take it for even a moment longer, and he needed to know,"what the hell are you thinking about now?"

Todoroki didn't answer the question.

"Bakugou," he said his name instead, and Bakugou tried to ignore the insane gravity of his presence and the tone of his voice. As if nothing in the fucking world was more natural, the other let himself fall backwards, spreading out over his bed like the entirety of the space belonged to him, the misplaced politeness apparently forgotten. Bakugou wanted to hate him for it, but instead he found his eyes glued to the image of that perfectly shaped body taking up as much space as possible on his bed, "I really didn't sleep well last night."

"So? The hell am I supposed to do about it now, sing you a damn lullaby?" Bakugou asked, the sarcasm thick in his voice but the real irony here was that he'd probably fucking try if the other asked nicely. Thankfully, the omega wasn't aware of that, and didn't ask him to.

Instead, he stared at the alpha like a dead fish (much prettier though) for a few moments before saying his name once more.

Bakugou was torn between annoyance and endearment in response, and tried to hide the latter behind the hardest glare he could muster. Watching Todoroki get comfortable in his freshly changed sheets was another type of existential crisis entirely. It had him asking all the hardest questions at once, and disregarding the answers a second later; Bakugou couldn't tear his eyes off him, and he did try, definitely.

But even he had to admit that certain to
types of battles just couldn't be won.

"What," he asked, sounding almost as emotionally exhausted as he felt.

"Your bed is comfortable."

Bicoloured eyes were on him now, half-closed and looking up at Bakugou as if he had the answers to some of the most important questions in human history, when really, his mind was practically a fucking vacuous space. Approximately all of his confidence died right there, because was he imagining this, or was the other being extra fucking unfair? He nearly flinched when the omega stretched his arms and brushed against his leg with one hand.

Yeah, fantasising about him had not been a good fucking idea. He wondered why the hell he'd allowed Todoroki to even enter his room instead of throwing something at him the moment he'd walked through the door. And now the bastard was on his bed and his face from this angle was too much.

Bakugou's body acted before he'd thought any of it through. His subconscious had apparently decided that covering up the omega's face was the most logical course of option here if he wanted to focus on anything other than that sleepy look, those lips that kept saying his name like it was a fucking game that Todoroki knew he was winning.

Before he knew what he was doing, he'd already grabbed his pillow and chucked it squarely across Todoroki's face, muffling the soft "ah" that the other breathed out in surprise.

The sound was distracting as fuck and of course his plan didn't work out. Just seconds later, Bakugou was greeted with the image of an adorably confused looking idiot blinking at him from behind the pillow. Bakugou couldn't help but think that he belonged right there, looking especially fucking nice between the black sheets, in his bed and no one else's. Truly, he wanted the omega out of his bed just as much as he wanted him in there; while the rut was thankfully over, that didn't mean that his hormones and therefore, instincts, weren't still a fucking mess.

And that truth was showing itself.

He was staring at him like a hawk, itching to just touch him, anywhere at all.

It was hard to tell whether his mouth was opened or closed as he was struck by the realisation all over again that Todoroki was so damn beautiful, he could easily go into modeling if he ever changed his mind about being a hero. And like some fucking siren sitting on the coast, the other had the audacity to abuse Bakugou's moment of mindless fucking thirst and get his revenge.

The pillow came flying right back at the blonde, and although he probably fucking deserved it (and more than that), he still growled out a, "the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"You started it."

"Half and Half, this is not a sleepover and we're not having a fucking pillow fight."

"Oh. We're not?"

"No don't even fucking -"

It wasn't the fact that the pillow met his face again that had Bakugou stunned.

No, what actually made him shut up was the sound of Todoroki laughing. Low and sweet. At him, but whatever; that sound was a fucking gift to humanity that Bakugou was pretty sure this shitshow of a planet was wholly undeserving of. He sure as fuck was, but that didn't stop a grin from pulling at the corners of his lips as soon as the initial moment of shock had worn off.

"You're so fucking dead."

...

Missing people wasn't something that Shouto experienced all too often. Mostly because he wasn't close to that many people, and throughout the last years, the only person he definitely had missed was his mother - after years of not seeing each other, which made a lot of sense, everything considered.

But the warmth spreading through his chest as Bakugou tried to murder him using only a pillow as a weapon did not make quite as much sense; it did however make him realise that maybe it was possible to miss someone even if they were out of reach only for a short while. It was the exact kind of thought process that his father would ridicule him for if he heard a word of it, because it sounded like such an omega thing - probably was - but Shouto pushed that thought out of his head.

He didn't need to worry about that for now and the realisation didn't bother him as much as it probably should; maybe it was the lack of oxygen, but he couldn't stop himself from laughing at the absurdity of the thought that he was most certainly having something along the lines of a pillow fight with Katsuki Bakugou.

And that was somehow enough to push yesterday's self doubts into some faraway corner of his mind.

From his restlessness all evening to his horrible night's sleep, there was no denying that he'd missed Bakugou's presence. How much of that had to do with the pheromones, instincts and all, Shouto couldn't really say. What he could say was that he felt much better, just minutes after arriving here. As if his head was finally emptied of all those useless thoughts.

It took a bit of a struggle until he managed to fight his way out from beneath the softness threatening to suffocate him, and something like laughter and heavy intakes of breath bubbled up from his throat as he tried to glare up at the alpha. To Shouto's surprise, Bakugou's expression was unlike most times during any type of fight, much softer as red eyes sparkled with something that was maybe amusement or maybe something else that Shouto couldn't identify.

"I thought this wasn't a pillow fight," Shouto accused him, but his voice came out a little less unaffected than he'd meant for it to. Running on only a few pitiful hours of sleep and elated by the fact that he was finally close to the alpha again, it probably wasn't hard for Bakugou to tell that Shouto was trying to provoke him. Trying to drag out this senseless little fight, because this felt good. Normal.

Honestly, he'd been afraid all night that maybe he'd overstepped a line yesterday, that the pushing away thing was about to become a new norm for them. That Bakugou had finally decided that Shouto wasn't worth the effort, just a weak omega who could only ever take from him and never give anything back; someone who would have entered his room without permission, had the door not been locked.

Selfish, and too weak to control himself, just because of a scent. While Bakugou had been capable of self control, even during his rut. Had to shout at him to go away, because Shouto wouldn't have left, otherwise.

But apparently, a lot of that had been irrational fear, probably rooted somewhere in his childhood or something. Thankfully, Bakugou didn't give him much time to overthink this.

"Yeah well your sorry ass turned it into one and guess what," Bakugou said, "I won."

"You didn't," Shouto declared.

"Don't be a sore loser, Icyhot," Bakugou, arguably one of the sorest losers at UA, told him and Shouto stared at him for a little while, waiting for the right moment to try and prove him otherwise. Surprisingly, it wasn't all that hard to catch the alpha off guard. The omega ignored the pillow altogether and instead pushed himself upwards, grabbed Bakugou's shoulders, and switched their positions as he used the momentum to push his back flat onto the mattress.

Although it was by no means as exhausting as their sparring sessions usually were, Shouto's heart was beating like crazy as he kneeled beside the alpha, hovering above him at an odd angle in order to keep both of his arms pinned down. He smirked at the sight of the pissed off expression slowly returning to Bakugou's face, just a little bit distracted by his scent and the leftovers of rut pheromones in the room.

"I didn't lose," he reaffirmed, his fringe covering parts of his vision as it fell down like a curtain around his face. Shouto was almost thankful for it, because his head chose that moment to bombard him with the thoughts that had preoccupied him after the conversation with Midoriya.

That just hours ago, on this exact bed, Bakugou had made a 'fucking mess' of his bedsheets, admittedly. Instead of terror or even disgust, the omega felt weirdly okay with the idea. Fascinated almost, but entirely overwhelmed because this was not the moment to think about it, if there ever was one. Yet another omega thing, probably. He could feel the muscles in Bakugou's arms shift where he held him down, and blinked at the now clenched fists, not entirely sure what to do with himself anymore.

Somehow, the blonde hadn't yet shot a reply back at him.

And clueless as he was, Shouto lifted his head a little to search for some type of answer in the alpha's face, but the way Bakugou was looking at him only had him opening his mouth and closing it again. With his blonde hair on the dark sheets and wide pupils swallowing up most of the red of his eyes, he looked really good, not half as defensive as Shouto had expected him to, but unguarded. Shouto felt a weird need to run his fingers over his skin or maybe mess up his hair a little further, just to test the limits of the alpha's patience.

That sounded like the most likely explanation anyways.

He hadn't even realised how close they were, but if he wanted to, he thought, he could count blonde eyelashes.

Could analyse the bruise on Bakugou's lower lip, the hint of red giving his mouth a fuller shape than usually.

And then it hit Shouto that he was probably more affected by the rut pheromones than he'd realised, because he was most definitely moving closer to the other; maybe his arms were giving out, or maybe it was some sort of magnetism at work. Either way, he caught himself doing it, and stopped just before their foreheads were touching, breathing out a strained breath at the exact same moment Bakugou did.

His arms were shaking with the effort of holding himself up, when they really shouldn't be - Shouto didn't consider himself out of shape in any way whatsoever. Except mentally or emotionally, maybe. Because his thoughts were moving in unfamiliar patterns, from deep thoughts just seconds ago to whatever this was. He was still staring at Bakugou's lips, as if they were a riddle to solve.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Shouto asked, if only to say something.

It earned him a somewhat confused look.

"What are you even talking about."

"Your... lips," Shouto supplied.

He could swear that he saw a hint of color on the other's face as Bakugou muttered, "Yeah, what about it."

"Nothing," Shouto whispered, voice strangely breathless. He wasn't so sure why he'd chosen to say that at all. While he was still busy overthinking his words, Bakugou somehow managed to free one of his hands, and Shouto found himself being pushed off the alpha, only to land on his side, bouncing a little on the mattress.

"Your arms were shaking," was the only explanation that Bakugou gave him, his head turned away from Shouto, staring at the ceiling. Something about his tone sounded a little off, distracted.

"Thanks," Shouto said, eyes glued to the alpha's profile.

It was easy to tell that Bakugou was freshly showered, because his scent wasn't as present as usual, and Shouto found it as good of an excuse as any to tune his thoughts out and move just a little bit closer to him. It felt as though lately, his desire for closeness had multiplied tenfold, because when exactly had he started looking for excuses in this way? Maybe he'd been doing it for a little longer than he'd realised.

In terms of excuses, another particularly good one entered his head that he didn't exactly dare to question.

"Bakugou," Shouto said quietly, waited for the alpha to turn and face him as he let the thinnest layer of ice cover his index finger.

"What."

Shouto didn't say anything, and it took no longer than five seconds for Bakugou to turn and face him. He slowly brought up his hand, as if not to startle a wild animal, but that plan was only semi successful because as soon as his finger was on the alpha's lips, Bakugou looked as though he was going to literally bite it off from surprise at the sudden cold touch. And knowing Bakugou, it was probably in the realm of possibilities, but Shouto was just careless enough to leave his finger right where it was.

Something about Bakugou's lips had him transfixed. It was better or worse depending on the day and his state of mind, but feeling the softness just beneath his fingertip certainly didn't help to get rid of the fascination. If anything, Shouto was surprised by how lips that formed such rough words could feel so utterly nice and gentle.

"Icyhot, you're really fucking pushing your luck today," Bakugou managed to threaten (despite the nuisance that was Shouto's finger on his mouth), coupled with an actual growl in the back of his throat.

Maybe something was wrong with Shouto, because he really liked the feeling of Bakugou's lips moving against his finger. A lot. Still, he found himself saying, "I'm just cooling your wound."

"Not a damn wound."

Truly, calling it a wound was maybe pushing it a little, but Shouto wasn't done analysing the feeling of Bakugou's lips just yet, and it wasn't like it was easy to find an excuse for that particular desire. It didn't feel like the type of thing that he could bluntly ask for.

He wondered if those lips had actually touched his neck yesterday, or if he'd imagined it; another thing he didn't feel capable of asking.

"Shh," Shouto just said and Bakugou gave him the funniest look.

"Don't you fucking shush me."

For a short while, both of them were silent.

"You're freezing my damn lip."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

In all honesty, Bakugou was probably overreacting, but Shouto had to admit to himself that he hadn't been entirely focused on his quirk, and maybe his hand was a little colder than it needed to be if the fact that Bakugou's words created small clouds was anything to go by. He didn't pull his hand away though, so Bakugou did that for him. His hand felt particularly warm as it guided Shouto's away from his lips to rest in between their bodies uselessly.

The softest whine left his own lips at the loss of contact, because Shouto liked it when their hands were touching, had liked the feeling of lips beneath his fingertip. He kept his eyes off the alpha's. It was strange, feeling this clingy and relatively clear in the head at the same time.

He tried to stop another embarrassing, needy noise from escaping his lips.

"What is it?"

Shouto remained quiet, because he wasn't so sure how to answer the question. Despite himself, the weight of yesterday's rejection was suddenly present again, and it had the omega wondering if maybe he'd been pushing his luck indeed. He asked himself if he should have come here at all, if Bakugou actually did want him out of his room, just as he had during his rut.

None of it seemed to make sense and embarrassment settled low in his gut at the thought that maybe he was pushing himself on the alpha, touching him for the selfish reason that it felt good to do so and none other. When Bakugou wanted no part of it.

Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, but Shouto didn't feel half as emotionally stable as he usually did.

"You can tell me if you want me to go," he managed to say, the self doubt an audible force in his words although Shouto tried to make it sound as if it didn't matter, as if it was just a simple fact. A casual suggestion. He could tell from the slow intake of breath that the alpha took that it really didn't come across as such.

"Do you think I don't know that?"

Shouto was still pondering the question when the alpha added, "actually, you know what."

"Know wha-" Shouto's question was interrupted as Bakugou pulled him against himself, his hand on the small of his back. Shouto swallowed drily as he realised all over again just how strong Bakugou's arms were - strong enough to literally stand their ground against explosions going off. And then Shouto realised that his head was practically flush against the others collarbone area. From this up close, it didn't really matter that the alpha had just showered a short while ago; the omega actually sighed against his skin, all too happy with this position and the way his scent wrapped around his consciousness.

"Get those stupid thoughts out of your head," Bakugou mumbled, and Shouto loved how he could hear as well as feel his voice. The hold he had on Shouto was so tight that it felt like the alpha was using it to prove something. Which was probably the case, and unsurprisingly, it was working. The omega tried to nod his head, but only ended up rubbing his face against warm skin, because the hold still hadn't loosened one bit.

It was hard to tell whether Bakugou was consciously trying with the calming pheromones in his scent, or whether they were simply.. there. Maybe even imaginary, Shouto really had no clue.

All he knew was that this didn't feel like the type of touch that you shared with someone that you wanted to leave you alone, and that sensation served to calm that deep fear that had been plaguing him, as if the alpha knew exactly what kind of effect it would have on Shouto.

Really, he wouldn't put that past Bakugou.

"Are you -" Shouto began to ask, but stopped himself halfway into the question, too tired and comfortable to really inquire if Bakugou felt obligated to do this.

"For your information, I want you to stay right fucking here so don't even think about going anywhere," Bakugou told him, with such a possessive and honest quality to the words that it had Shouto speechless for a moment, confused all over again. But he was entirely too satisfied with the messagw to question what had brought on the sudden change in attitude. He uselessly tried to push himself a little tighter against the other, all reservations forgotten and a purring sound accompanying his breaths.

He didn't want the moment to end.

Shouto didn't really think to hold the purring back, especially not when Bakugou's hand started drawing soft circles on his lower back. Every instinct in his body was adamant to show the other exactly what he found hard to express with words; Bakugou was the only person that could possibly pull him out of a thought-spiral with just a few soft touches and a bit of closeness, and although it was a momentary peace of mind, it didn't feel like only that.

It felt like healing, like trusting the other with the mess that he was, no matter how ridiculous the reasons.

From his position, he couldn't see the alpha's face, couldn't tell if he was aware that he was doing it, but the touch seemed to work its way through his entire body, all the way up to his brain that was officially on standby now. It was borderline scary how much of an effect the alpha had on him, or would be scary, if Shouto was capable of feeling anything other than calmness as he got lost in the rise and fall of the alpha's chest.

"Okay," he murmured belatedly, his head swimming, Bakugou's words echoing in his head in the best way.

"If you're so tired, then just take a nap," Bakugou commanded, and Shouto felt the strangest desire to follow the order, for once. It wasn't that big of a surprise, because the calm feeling spreading through his every bone inevitably brought a light-headedness with it that bordered on a dreamlike state anyways.

"You too," he demanded, mostly to make sure that the other wasn't planning on going anywhere. To further emphasise that point, he wriggled one of his hands out from between them, and buried it in the fabric of Bakugou's shirt. The alpha stiffened a little in response, but relaxed just a second later, breathing in and out deeply.

"Fine."

That one word was enough for the last bit of tension to leave Shouto's head, and he purred into the alpha's chest quietly. It didn't take all that long until his drowsiness caught up to him, and although the omega told himself to stay awake and just enjoy this feeling a little longer, he drifted off into a comfortable sleep much faster than he even realised.

Chapter Text

Bakugou wasn't asleep. In fact, he was the exact opposite of asleep, so incredibly aware of his surroundings and his own inability to ever make anything easy for himself that it was almost funny. But his instincts wouldn't have allowed him to do anything other than pulling the omega in close in an effort to try and make him feel better, to make sure that he stopped it with those fucking insecure thoughts that obviously kept haunting his head.

Judging by the slow rise and fall of Todoroki's chest against his own, his plan was working out nicely. Bakugou wasn't entirely sure what had prompted the sudden change in mood or the insecurity, but he assumed that there were a few factors at play; the entirety of yesterday had been a lot, after all. From the conversation with Endeavour, to the forgotten scent blockers, to the visit at the hospital and all the shit that had followed. While the stereotype of omegas being unable to handle a lot of stress was probably just sexist bullshit, Bakugou was pretty sure that anyone would feel overwhelmed in his place.

Hell, even he felt overwhelmed, and he wasn't exactly known for his inability to deal with chaotic situations.

But...

Yeah, it had been a lot, and thankfully the mere knowledge that the omega was now asleep in his arms (and probably about to feel a whole lot better once he woke up) managed to calm his nerves. Not nearly enough to fall asleep though.

Because he was still incredibly aware of the fact that his hand was resting on Todoroki's lower back.

Maybe the alpha enjoyed that a little too much, but in all honesty, he couldn't fucking stop enjoying it, couldn't bring himself to pull his hand away.

There were so many things he couldn't do, and somehow most of them seemed to revolve around Todoroki. Perhaps the exact reason why the omega felt safe enough to fall asleep in his arms was that he was so utterly unaware of Bakugou's shortcomings. Somehow.

Like his greediness; how easily he found excuses for why he was justified in touching him.

Through the fabric of the thin pullover the omega was wearing, it felt almost like touching bare skin. And the skin beneath it was surprisingly warm. Anf oh so fucking nice to touch. Apparently this was one of the few spots on Todoroki's body where the muscles hadn't managed to combat the natural softness that was usually ascribed to omegas.

Bakugou told himself not to give it too much thought, just ran his finger across his lower back, then just barely along his spine, feeling a vague hint of bones. Creepy as it fucking sounded, he wanted to remember exactly what the body resting against his own felt like, and maybe he could blame that urge on some messed up instinct or whatever. Or just the fact that the guy he was sort of obsessed with was sleeping in his damn arms, making soft noises as he breathed, in and out.

The alpha sure as fuck hoped that he actually was asleep. Because he knew that this was incriminating. He was acting stupidly soft, his fingers light as feathers so as not to disturb Todoroki or wake him up with his touch.

There was a small indentation above his hips bone, and Bakugou couldn't not notice it. Couldn't get over the fact that yeah, apparently Todoroki had back dimples.

Fucking back dimples.

Which was just a useless little detail that shouldn't matter, wouldn't matter on anyone else, but somehow it felt like a fucking earthshattering revelation to him, and Bakugou could not bring himself to stop moving his fingers in those slow and deliberate circles across the area, trying to commit the feeling to his memory. He reasoned that this was probably fine. The other had fallen asleep to the touch after all, so as long as Bakugou didn't allow his hand to go further up or down, it was fine.

For sure.

Or he fucking hoped so, because his hand just wouldn't stop it with the fucking movement, just like he couldn't stop realising at random intervals how close they were, or that his scent was so thoroughly stuck on the omega that it was easy to delude himself into thinking that Todoroki was actually his.

And for the longest time it was just that. Lying there, in the warm light of morning, realising the same things over and over again, and being no less astonished each time he thought about what a fucking privilege this was. To have Shouto Todoroki asleep in his arms, practically no space in between them.

But that loop of mushy thoughts was interrupted when the omega suddenly decided that Bakugou was an adequate body pillow for his taste and he wrapped one of his legs around Bakugou's with such enthusiasm that the alpha nearly made a noise from surprise.

Bakugou held his breath as Todoroki then proceeded to fucking try and snuggle up even closer to him as if they weren't sharing enough body contact already. As fine as he was with it, he also fucking wasn't. The movement pulled Todoroki's pullover up a little further, and suddenly Bakugou's hand was on warm skin instead of fabric.

He closed his eyes, cursed quietly in his head. Kept his hand still, neither pulling it away nor allowing himself to give into the urge to run it across all the skin so readily available.

The shifting around was hard to handle though.

It was a testament to his never-ending frustration that the simple feeling of Todoroki's leg wrapped around him, trying to find a comfortable position and his skin beneath his fingers was enough for his body to decide that getting hard was appropriate. Which was ridiculous, but he couldn't really control his response, and there was nothing much that Bakugou could fucking do about it with the omega clutching onto him like a damn koala. The way they were positioned, at the very least his dick wasn't pressed up against him, because Bakugou wasn't sure he would have been able to take that.

Wasn't sure how he summoned the strength to take this even; perhaps he was just used to this type of suffering by now, slowly but surely growing numb to it. Except, he felt anything but fucking numb.

Todoroki's fingers clenched against his back, unclenched again. Bakugou wondered if he was dreaming, and what about.

He muttered an equally frustrated and affectionate, "Fuck you," into the white and red locks that tickled his nose with each intake of breath, and maybe the asshole wasn't as asleep as he appeared to be, because he made a noise. A noise that went straight down Bakugou's spine. It sounded like something between a groan and a sleep-drunken moan and Bakugou had no fucking clue what to do with it.

His hand involuntarily tightened on the omega's back, and a shattered but not entirely conscious-sounding intake of breath followed. Bakugou was pretty damn sure that he wasn't the one who had made that noise. The omega's body shifted again, somehow both pressing his back into the palm of Bakugou's hand while also pushing his leg up further, as if he was about to fucking try and roll on top of Bakugou or something, and this was it.

He needed to stop whatever Icyhot was doing, because this wasn't some cute fucking 'you can sleep in my arms' shit, no.

He did not need Todoroki to somehow end up on top of him when his dick was hard and his self control wavering.

So Bakugou did what he could; he pulled his hand away from the other's back, not without noticing the softest fucking whine ever playing at the back of the omega's throat. The sound made it a hundred times harder to actually go through with this, but Bakugou needed his hand to try and get the leg off himself that was now resting way too high up, Todoroki's knee resting just past his waist. It had Bakugou wondering just how flexible the omega was, and he cursed himself for even thinking about shit like that when the entire point was to keep himself under control here.

It didn't help how easily his hand fitted against Todoroki's leg.

Bakugou allowed himself two or three seconds of just keeping it there before he tried and failed to pry the other off of himself. Failed because, fucking hell, it was as if the omega was actively trying to make this as hard for him as possible. Apparently his instinct to drive Bakugou up the wall was so deeply ingrained in him that it didn't matter whether he was asleep or awake. He knew exactly which buttons to push, and currently this took the shape of huffing out a heated breath while pressing himself impossibly closer to the alpha.

And then he whined again, the sound so fucking sweet that Bakugou died inside.

He didn't know how much worse it could possibly get, or for how long he was busy trying to separate the two of them.

Weren't sleeping people supposedly easy to move around instead of being so goddamn stubborn, and heavy like stone? He couldn't help but wonder.

Apparently not.

He really wanted to fucking know what kind of dream Todoroki was experiencing, because this looked a whole lot like it wasn't the entirely innocent type, and his panting little breaths weren't good for Bakugou's heart at all.

Not only were his instincts telling him that he should be the one to push the omega down and keep him pinned to the spot (because of course random instinctive and idiotic thoughts like that were just what he needed right now), but on top of that, Todoroki had pushed back against Bakugou's grip, which meant that his hand was now on a definitely muscular but somehow still fucking soft thigh. And something inside of him was snapping, slowly but surely, like a string being pulled further and further apart, only waiting for the breaking point.

"Bakugou."

That breaking point.

It was unfair.

Todoroki had the fucking guts to press himself against him as he breathed the sweetest sleepy complaint against Bakugou's collarbone, and Bakugou knew that tone all too well. Sleepy and accusatory. Whenever the omega managed to fall asleep in random places and someone was kind enough to try and wake him up, it would be this exact type of voice, only barely aware of the real world. But just annoyed enough to sound ridiculously cute, reminiscent of a grumpy kitten almost.

Bakugou wondered when the hell the word 'cute' had been added to his vocabulary. He didn't know when, but he fucking knew who to blame for it anyways.

There was a multitude of things he could blame the omega for, because Todoroki just fucking breathing out his name like that should be considered a war crime.

"Stop shifting around," Todoroki added in barely coherent words, turning his head into the mattress ever so slightly.

Bakugou didn't even know what to say at first, because he wasn't the one in the process of practically climbing on top of the other here. Shifting around so fucking carelessly. Doing all sorts of things. He took a slow and steady breath, not wanting to yell his frustration at this stupid, half-asleep creature.

He realised a moment later that he should have.

Should have done something, thrown the other off himself or off the bed entirely. Because as was always the case, Todoroki did the exact thing that he was not fucking supposed to. Rolled his shoulders a little, stiffened up and stretched his body like a cat, which wouldn't have been a problem if he didn't run his hand across Bakugou's chest in the process. Only for it to drop a little lower and move along the line of the alpha's stomach, lingered there for a moment and went further down until it was suddenly right on top of the obvious tent in his pants.

Right on fucking top.

And fucking stopped there because where else.

Yeah.

No.

For a long moment, Bakugou didn't breathe. Couldn't breathe. Could only stare down in absolute terror, before his nerves even managed to send the information to his brain that Shouto Todoroki's hand was touching his fucking dick and the omega didn't even seem to be aware of that because he was only selectively awake or whatever the hell was going on. And then, all of the synapses were firing at once, making him more than unable to ignore the touch.

Bakugou felt his facial expression morph into something that could only look like horror, felt the muscles in his stomach tighten, felt his cock twitch at the friction.

He made a noise, something that sounded just as broken as his sanity, maybe. A groan. Hopeless and exhausted. And it was a mistake.

Because he saw bicoloured eyes blink open, confused and dazed and the hand on his dick moved just a little but Bakugou didn't dare to make another sound because this couldn't be fucking happening. No way.

No fucking way.

Recognition washed through Todoroki's eyes slowly, and then all at once he looked awake.

More than fucking awake.

Alarmed.

Bakugou watched as the omega's mouth fell open, but no sound came out, and his eyes were almost comically wide, just like his mouth, forming a little o. Bakugou had no fucking clue what his own expression looked like at this point, just tried to block out the fact that the omega still hadn't moved his hand an inch.

His own hand was still on the other's thigh, and Bakugou could feel the skin beneath his palm heat up by the second along with his own growing panic.

He watched, helplessly, as Todoroki's eyes went down, and up again, losing none of the shock written all over them and Bakugou's thoughts were reduced to variations of 'holy fuck' and 'oh my god.'

So much for calming Todoroki down by letting him nap in his fucking arms.

..

Shouto was about ninety-nine percent sure that he was still dreaming, but the one percent chance that he wasn't was what had him petrified.

It was a weird dream - not that he'd never had weird dreams about Bakugou, but this one was particularly... concerning, because it didn't really feel like one. It felt like something that existed in between sleep and wakefulness - maybe a lucid dream.

Maybe just a bit too lucid.

Because it felt like his body was on fire, in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with his quirk. His single point of focus was the hardness his hand was resting against, and everything else was background noise. The warmth, the beating of his heart, and the alpha's shocked expression that had him practically pinned to the spot. The attention was too much, the situation too real.

They were so utterly close and Shouto's instincts were practically rioting inside of him, his brain far from functioning. It didn't even feel like he could move. All the while, his body vibrated with a strange mixture of sensations, too many to make sense of all at once.

And maybe ninety-nine percent had been a little optimistic, but he couldn't find it in himself to accept that this was actually happening. That Bakugou was hard, just beneath his hand, that their skin was separated by only the thin fabric of sweatpants. None of it made sense, so why was his body practically melting from the inside out?

His breathing was getting more messed up the more he thought about it. And Shouto couldn't stop thinking about it, if the mess in his head even deserved to be called thoughts.

It was the fact that, despite feeling paralysed and overheated, his body didn't mind at all that shocked him most. A weird eagerness had his bones aflame, skin tingling. As though Shouto was used to this, knew what to do. Which he didn't - didn't know what to do with the feelings, what to do with himself.

He really didn't know what was going on anymore.

His heart was racing, beating against his ribcage violently, and forming words seriously wasn't in the realm of possibilities. Because his thought capacity was entirely flooded with the words 'alpha,' 'hard' and 'huge,' and he wasn't about to say either of those out loud. No way.

Shouto couldn't even tell if he accidentally had, because the lines were blurred like that.

Shouto could practically feel the way his body betrayed his mind, as if it happened one step after another, in slow motion. While he was still frozen in place, he slowly became aware of the unmistakeable but foreign sensation of warm wetness between his legs. It conspired against him to make all of this even more terrifying. Whether caused by the dream he'd been having or their current position, it was hard to say. But his legs felt sticky when he shifted them the tiniest bit.

He tried to swallow, but his throat felt dry.

It was too much.

Bakugou was still looking at him, and Shouto could tell that his breathing was more than a little off, could tell that the alpha hadn't expected to be touched, groped - molested, his brain just had to add the word - in his sleep. Beneath the helpless feeling, a sense of disgust spread through Shouto, and he couldn't believe himself and his own physical reactions.

As if this warranted a feeling of excitement - quite the opposite, honestly.

He tried to say something - anything at all - but all that his throat produced was a pitiful noise of distress, and in that moment Shouto hated himself. Hated himself more than ever before, feeling like a prisoner in his own body. He tried to take a deep breath, tried to find his self control somewhere beneath the rubble two was the suffocating weight of his instincts, but the rescue mission was obviously a failure.

Bakugou's scent spoke of shock too, but beneath it was an incredibly intoxicating note that had Shouto closing his eyes. He pressed his legs together and his pants were starting to stick to skin in a way that made him feel even dirtier. Even less like himself. Like something less than a person; much less a hero.

Needy and helpless and terrified.

Although this was Bakugou, or maybe precisely because it was.

Not just anyone.

When he finally managed to pull his hand away, it dropped uselessly on the little bit of space in between them. But then another whine played in the back of his throat and the omega was suddenly scared in a way that even the strongest villains could only dream of making him feel. Feelings washed over him at a much faster pace than he could handle, and he had no clue how long he'd just laid there, open mouthed and petrified.

Groping Bakugou.

"I," Shouto managed to say. His voice cracked as he stared down at his hand, "I didn't - you're -"

Shouto didn't know what he was trying to say, so it really wasn't a surprise that nothing useful came out. But it felt as though every passing second without an explanation for his actions was yet another reason for the alpha to hate him, for his disgust towards Shouto to grow.

"Bakugou. I really didn't mean to," he tried again, couldn't keep up the eye contact because panic was overtaking his senses at the sound of his own voice.

Shouto could tell that he was starting to hyperventilate; his heart was beating too fast and there wasn't nearly enough oxygen in the room to keep him afloat.

He had no excuse for his own behavior, had no idea what had even gotten into him, why he couldn't have just pulled his hand away the second he'd noticed. The fact that he'd overstepped all boundaries like this at all, though unconsciously, filled his heart with the darkest shade of guilt. How long had Bakugou been awake, he couldn't help but wonder. And why hadn't he pushed him away, hit him, screamed at him, maybe let his hand explode?

He was barely even aware of the fact that Bakugou was talking to him, his own ragged breath so loud in his ears.

"Icyhot, calm down," he heard the alpha say, but the words didn't register and Shouto buried his face in his hands, willing the wetness between his legs and the adrenaline in his veins to go away. But his body didn't follow his commands. None of it stopped. Not the fluttering feeling in his stomach, not the weird impulse to do.. something.

Of all times, his head just had to remind him of his first heat in this very moment.

Ever since then, those types of urges were among the things that disturbed Shouto most about his secondary gender. With his pills and all, it was almost as if none of it was there though. As if he didn't need to think about that because it practically didn't exist for him. Or maybe it had, on a level just below conscious thought, pushed aside by suppressants and willpower.

Perhaps that was why he'd woken up like this, wet and physically exited and most importantly, molesting his friend.

Shouto couldn't believe it, couldn't breathe.

"Stop freaking out, it's fine," Bakugou said, and the omega could tell that the alpha had grabbed his shoulder, was shaking him softly. He felt incredibly selfish for his inability to just do as Bakugou said and calm down. Shouto wasn't even the one who'd been groped in his sleep. Wasn't the one who should feel upset. He didn't deserve the kind words or the support, not after messing up all over again, and in such a way.

If all of it wasn't so messed up, it would have almost been funny to him how nowadays Bakugou was the one telling him to calm down. And he was right, Shouto definitely needed to.

Badly.

But his entire frame was shaking with sobs suddenly - or maybe he simply hadn't noticed the silent tears in-between his violent attempts at breathing.

All Shouto knew was that he was suddenly pressed down on the mattress, and Bakugou was looming above him with a serious expression on his face. Shouto couldn't bring himself to look at him for longer than a second, the warmth of his tears a stubborn reminder of how low he'd sunk.

Something was wrong with him, so utterly wrong, and he couldn't do a thing about it other than bawling his eyes out.

This wasn't him. He did not feel like himself.

It was as though all of his self control had vanished throughout the last few months, and as he looked up at the alpha who kept telling him how to breathe, Shouto became aware of one thing. A scary realisation. He'd become so used to Bakugou's support that without it, his body refused to even obey his own commands anymore.

His breathing evened out as he followed the alpha's example, but the pain in his chest remained as a thought invaded his brain that he had been spoon-fed from the very beginning, had tried to ignore because it was his father that had told him.

That, as an omega, he was better off keeping his distance from others. Keeping to himself and not giving into the weaknesses that his secondary gender brought with it. Because omegas were hardwired for attachments and closeness and submission and everything that a hero couldn't afford when it came down to it. Shouto had done the exact opposite, had let himself become too close to someone and it had led him to this point.

Where his body misinterpreted the friendly gestures of the alpha for something they weren't.

Where he'd made his friend uncomfortable.

And where he was always causing trouble for Bakugou, but even when Shouto was the one who messed up, he was also the one who had to be comforted because he was incapable of handling his own emotions.

It was a shameful thing to realise.

And as he saw relief wash over Bakugou's face when his breaths became less shallow, he realised that it was unfair. Because someone as driven and talented as the alpha on top of him shouldn't be distracted and dragged down with him just because Shouto was born with the wrong secondary gender.

Of course he knew that he was an omega, but the reality of what that meant seemed to hit home in this very moment.

"That's right, just fucking - just breathe, okay?" Bakugou instructed, looking a bit overwhelmed and sounding concerned, and Shouto's eyes filled with tears all over again because he didn't deserve a bit of the effort. No matter what the other said, Shouto couldn't keep putting the weight of his own problems on Bakugou's shoulders, couldn't allow himself to be comforted when he knew, deep down, that he was the one causing the problems.

When he probably shouldn't have told Bakugou his secret in the first place - all things considered, it had been such a selfish thing to do. Selfish and manipulative, because what choice had he left the alpha with?

Before he'd known, Bakugou would have never let him sleep on his bed, wear his clothes, cry into his bedsheets. His secondary gender wasn't a valid excuse for any of this though.

Pity, his head suggested once again - maybe that was it. The thing that had Bakugou attempting to help him wherever he could.

"I'm sorry," Shouto whispered, closed his eyes.

"Don't you fucking dare do this now you -"

"Bakugou, we can't," Shouto interrupted him, stopped. Wiped at his eyes, and waited for his voice to come to him again. When it did, it was pitiful, "We can't be friends anymore."

A beat of silence followed the statement, and when Shouto opened his eyes, he stared right into confused-looking red ones. He tried his best to summon his usual poker face, but it didn't feel like it was working.

Nothing seemed to be working.

"What did you just say," Bakugou asked, his voice barely audible, a cold whisper.

"I - We can't, I mean. We just... can't," Shouto explained, or tried to.

He was not entirely sure if he meant it, but said it anyway because it felt like the only thing that he could say. The only responsible choice to make. His instinct was to take it all back the instant the words had come out, but it was those exact instincts that had gotten him and Bakugou into this situation, so he fought to ignore them, keep them quiet.

Push it all back into the same corner where he'd been able to keep it for years, quiet and withering.

"It's a bad fucking moment for your lame ass jokes you asshole," the alpha said, his words a little louder this time. The irritation in his voice bled into his scent, and the breath that Shouto had only just caught escaped him in return.

"I'm not joking, Bakugou, I just - ah, it's.."

"My fucking god, so you touched my dick in your sleep, big fucking deal. You're forgiven, just stop it with this fucking nonsense," the alpha snapped then. His scent was thick enough to choke on, but much rather than that, it was the expression on his face that had the omega overwhelmed. A sort of panic was written all over it, and his eyes looked glassy, vulnerable. Full of unspoken things that probably couldn't be put into words anyways.

Shouto's eyes went all the way down to his lips, pushed tightly together, and they stayed there because he couldn't take the amount of emotion in Bakugou's eyes. Not now, not when he'd only just realised how much of a nuisance he really was.

"That's not it," he said, trying to keep his tone soft, his voice from cracking, "not all of it."

Yet somehow, the soft-spoken words seemed to hit harder than he'd intended, because just a moment later, Bakugou's face was right above his, his body weight pushing Shouto into the mattress. He smelled angry, much angrier than Shouto was used to, as he asked in a deadly calm tone, "Then tell me Shouto, what the fuck is it."

Not just angry; Bakugou smelled like so many emotions at once that his head couldn't separate one from another.

Maybe it was the mention of his name, the choke hold that the scent had on him, or the horrible mess in his own head and body, but Shouto's mind went blank in that moment. Empty like space, like a black hole that swallowed up everything around it without any hope for repair.

Bakugou's face was close. So close.

Shouto couldn't tell if he pushed up his body, or the other way around. Maybe something possessed him, pulled at invisible strings, made him move.

All Shouto knew was that a second later, he'd closed the distance between them. His arms were shaking in an effort to keep his weight supported against the backdrop of angry pheromones, and the muscles in his stomach were burning with the same ache, but he barely registered any of that.

Because his lips were on Bakugou's, hard and warm and Shouto had no clue what he was doing, because this hadn't been his plan. He choked on another sob, couldn't tear himself away. Didn't know what he was even trying to accomplish, or why.

Somehow, having realised that the two of them were too close had made him want to get away as much as it made him want to get closer, and Shouto couldn't tell anymore what was happening inside of him.

Bakugou's lips were unmoving, frozen in shock, but they felt familiar in a way that went right down to Shouto's heart where he couldn't decide whether it was pain or the very opposite of it that caused it to malfunction. The feeling worked its way through the entirety of his being, loud but featherlight. Shouto told himself to stop, to just stop and pretend like this never even happened because it terrified him what the simple brushing of lips caused inside of him; too much at once, and too fast.

It was too surreal.

What was he doing?

He needed to get away, to get closer, for Bakugou to do something. To punch him, yell at him, push him off the bed.

Because Shouto couldn't do anything. At all.

And as though the other heard his internal struggle, he did... something.

Something. The very last something that Shouto expected.

He choked on a breath when his arms gave in.

Except they really didn't. It took a long moment for Shouto to realise that the distance between them was still just the same - none, and in that moment his breath was stolen from him.

He hadn't fallen back down, he'd been pushed down, chased, caught. Bakugou's mouth was following his own and time stopped existing. Everything fell apart around him except for the realisation that it wasn't just an awkward pressing of lips against lips anymore. No, Bakugou's lips were moving and every cell of Shouto's body forgot its purpose at the utterly incredible softness of the action.

His lips were careful. They dragged across his own once, with no pressure behind the action, and the gentleness clashed hard with the scent of anger and bitter frustration that still surrounded them, clashed with Bakugou's loud and unforgiving personality.

None of it seemed to fit together and while Shouto's body went rigid at the contact, his thoughts lost all sharp edges and rational backbone.

With his eyes pressed tightly shut, the gesture felt colorful, wrapping him up in a feeling that resembled being underwater, out of this world and uncaring of whatever happened above the surface.

There was nothing but the alpha on top of him, his scent, his warmth, his presence. The way Bakugou's lips practically melted against his own.

Shouto's body relaxed when the pressure increased and the ghost of a touch turned into something solid, real and undeniable. All that his brain yelled at Shouto was that Bakugou was kissing him. Kissing him, with his lips. The very same lips that Shouto had been a bit too focused on lately. Pushing into his own, moving; although there was no way of getting that information worked through, his body apparently needed no understanding of what was happening.

He was caged beneath the alpha, was trapped and hopelessly taken with the way that his lips felt.

So Shouto kissed him back.

Tried his best to do so anyways, but he hadn't ever kissed anyone before, had no clue how it worked at all and maybe Bakugou didn't either. Because it felt anything but professional. He tried to angle his head a little, or maybe the muscles in his neck were just out of control and it wasn't even a conscious thing. It was impossible to tell and there was no need to differentiate anyways, because it had the desired effect of allowing more closeness.

More of Bakugou's lips on his.

And God, did Shouto need more of them. With everything else unclear and confusing, that was the one thing he did know.

There wasn't much finesse to the way that their mouths moved, and Shouto's position and body didn't exactly allow for a lot of movement anyways. Whatever hormones were currently coursing through his veins had him very nearly sedated, melting down into the mattress like ice on a summer day. The panic was gone, and his breathing was getting messed up for a different reasons altogether.

It really wasn't a surprise that Bakugou was good at this; what wasn't he good at? The surprise was that it didn't feel like the alpha was turning it into a challenge or a fight. And Shouto felt no need to provoke him into one either. Of all places in the world, the omega had never considered the possibility that Bakugou's lips would be the one that could offer him this type of cathartic calmness wrapped up in a sense of ecstasy.

He didn't even notice he was doing it, but he suddenly found his hands both buried in blonde hair, clinging onto the alpha like his life depended on the fact that this couldn't end yet and Bakugou swallowed up the whine playing in Shouto's throat, turning the kiss into something almost open-mouthed. It was fire, bright and warm and somehow not at all what he'd come to associate flames with.

Not destructive, not painful.

But conquering and enveloping, and Shouto was burning up from the inside with the discovery of this feeling and the need to express the sentiment in his own response. However clumsy their lips were, it felt like discovering a new language together, one that just sounded - felt - so utterly right. One that the both of them spoke and understood, no matter how new and unexpected.

...

There weren't many moment in Bakugou's life that he'd consider showstopping, not really.

Most of the big moments were overshadowed by one issue or another; discovering his quirk only for it to be praised more than any of his personality traits, getting into UA only to be informed that Deku had managed to as well, or winning the sports festival because his opponent hadn't given him his all. It all felt so utterly mediocre that it almost hurt, tiny scratches on his ego. Salt in wounds.

Never quite enough, always leaving behind a bitter taste and space for more.

But when Todoroki brushed his lips against Bakugou's out of the blue, he actually gave Bakugou something that he didn't even dare to question. Gave him more than he could fucking handle, more than showstopping and overwhelming and all damn adjectives in the world squeezed into one broken and loud heartbeat in his fucking chest.

Because nothing else could compare to that and nothing could taint it, not any insecurity that either of them carried around with them and nothing that was in the past or future, words or actions. It was all just grains of sand running through fingers.

But not this; not the feeling of shaky lips literally pressing into his own, confusing tears smeared all over his cheek and a shared intake of breath between them.

There was nothing but the knowledge that Todoroki had been the one to initiate this, and after an initial moment of shock, the reality of it all sank in. That this was the exact moment Bakugou had been waiting for (he had no damn clue for how long at this point) and he couldn't believe it.

And then, there were no more thoughts at all.

Just them.

Bakugou pushed the other back into the mattress slowly, with all the caution he could muster, because the moment was too precious to break it, too meaningful to rush. As much as a part of him wanted to, the largest part wanted to take it for what it was, value it and leave all options open for the omega to decide if he truly wanted this as well.

But Bakugou couldn't bring himself to let go of his lips for as much as one second, because he'd been starving for so damn long and now Todoroki was right beneath him, his lips everything that Bakugou had made them out to be and more, so much more. Bakugou wanted to be mad at him for the shit he'd said just now, for the abrupt sense of terror Todoroki had put into his veins by claiming that they couldn't be friends anymore, but he couldn't muster up a hint of anger or frustration like this.

As if all of it had suddenly been washed away, and all that was left was the fact that he had his omega right beneath him, and then hands in his hair and moans breathed into his mouth and Bakugou couldn't fucking believe it. Any of it.

How in the world he'd managed to survive all this fucking time without the feeling of the pliant body beneath his own, the slightly concerning heat permeating off him and the greedy hands that pulled him further down into the madness that was their first kiss.

First kiss.

Fuck, Bakugou couldn't believe that either. Never wanted it to end, but simultaneously wanted a million to follow his one, in a million different places under a million different circumstances.

Bakugou had no clue how far he was allowed to take this, but he didn't really have much capacity of thought either, so he couldn't exactly stop himself from slowly trying to coax the omega's lips open, thankful that his hands were needed to support himself. Because if they weren't, it would be one entire hell of a struggle to keep himself in check and not let them roam all over Todoroki's body.

It took a moment for the omega to get it, for him to open his mouth just a little bit wider and let Bakugou's tongue lick along his bottom lip as a sort of trial run.

A full body shiver went through Todoroki at the simple action and Bakugou could tell because he could feel it in every place where their bodies were touching. It did something to him, knowing that he could elicit that kind of reaction out of him with something as simple as that, and Bakugou was enough of a greedy bastard to do the same thing again, and to rejoice in the startled breath and desperate tightening of hands in his hair that it earned him.

And that settled it.

Bakugou was beyond fucking gone for this guy, which wasn't anything new but all of this was so fucking new and intoxicating that he barely even noticed that the heavy breathing from underneath him was probably also due to a lack of oxygen.

Bakugou himself was lacking oxygen as well.

Not like he gave a fuck about himself at this point - it was literally all about Todoroki. Beneath him. Kissing him back with a feverish sort of warmth. The alpha realised right then and there that it was fucking impossible to detach himself from him for as much as one second, so he did the next best thing that allowed the omega to catch his breath.

Dragged his lips along his cheek, down to his jawline, drowning the heated skin in kisses because he literally couldn't fucking stop and it got worse with every bit of skin that he discovered and each whimper and moan that he produced from Todoroki's lips that were left opened, dragging in air and choking on it.

The fucking noises he made.

It was unreal to think that Bakugou could get them out of him, and by the time he had his lips on Todoroki's neck, it was nothing short of insanity. His own breaths were burning hot against the smooth skin, and Bakugou was all too aware of how close he was to his scent gland.

Maybe it wasn't the wisest choice to make, but honestly, fuck wise.

As long as he kept his teeth in check, it was fine. Or that was what he told himself as he ran his tongue along the omega's scent gland and felt Todoroki convulse beneath him, the vice grip of his hair painful but no less appreciated.

The omega was pushing his head into the mattress, pushing his throat closer against Bakugou's mouth and the alpha pressed another open-mouthed kiss against the very same spot, all too eager to encourage the reactions.

"Baku- ah," Todoroki managed to get out, and his voice sounded beyond wrecked and entirely perfect in its brokenness. Bakugou could only imagine what his face looked like, eyes closed impossibly tight and cheeks almost as red as his hair.

He liked the image a bit too much, wanted to pull away just to look at him but at the same time never wanted to pull away because Todoroki tasted perfect. Neither salty nor sweet - like something else entirely. Clean but natural.

Bakugou knew that he was playing with fucking fire here, could imagine sinking his teeth into him a bit too vividly because his instincts were fucking yelling at him to do so. But he wasn't about to let his fucking instincts dictate his behavior, wasn't done enjoying the sound of his name tumbling from shaky lips.

And in order to prove as much to himself, Bakugou allowed himself to drag his teeth across the skin in a feather-light touch, which was probably a fucking stupid idea but it was hard to think so when the omega sucked in a breath so sharply that it sounded almost painful. For the longest moment, the both of them remained entirely still, and then Todoroki decided to fucking murder Bakugou.

With a breathless exhale that produced a desperate little, "please."

So desperate in fact that it sounded like he was asking for something that Bakugou knew he wasn't asking for, and it had him stopping right then and there, because shit.

In that moment Bakugou realised just how fucking dangerous it was to move forward like this, without as much as a conversation in between 'we can't be friends anymore' and now, the wrecked moans and pleas. Especially because he was very fucking inclined to do whatever Todoroki asked of him, and the omega's tone sounded like everything but not the voice of someone who was currently in a state to make conscious decisions.

Bakugou wasn't much better off, but he knew that when it came down to it, at least one of them had to think things through rationally, and judging by the clumsy and reckless way Todoroki was pulling at his hair and offering up his neck, it sure as fuck wasn't going to be him.

...

Shouto's head was spinning, and he had no idea what he was asking for. He couldn't even tell what was happening, because everything was. With his hands still buried tightly in blonde hair and the back of his head pushed into the mattress, he could barely even recall his own name because somehow Bakugou's lips had ended up playing around with his scent gland, and Shouto had never before experienced this type of feeling.

It felt so good. So good that he literally couldn't take it, and yet what fell from his lips wasn't a 'stop' or 'don't', but a horribly messy-sounding and foreign plea for more.

His entire body was screaming along with the word, and Shouto's heart was drumming along to the insane rhythm of it all in his chest, faster and faster. He was hyperaware of the alpha's lips and his scent, and it both mixed together in a blur of sensations that put all of his thoughts on mute.

He could tell that he was pushing himself into the alpha, pulling him closer, wanting Bakugou all over him. Both his scent and his lips - his warmth and the hint of teeth he could feel against the ridiculoudly sensitive skin of his neck. He could feel the alpha tense up against him at the request, but it did nothing to stop the eagerness burning in his body.

"Bakugou," he added in a rushed whisper through messy breaths.

For a long and agonising moment, the alpha's lips remained where they were, unmoving against him.

"Why'd you do that," Bakugou asked then, and it took all Shouto had to focus on the words instead of the feeling of lips moving against his skin. And even then, it wasn't exactly enough, so instead of trying to reply, his impatience left him only with the option of whining, shifting slightly. Offering up his neck in an even more obvious way because words weren't a possibility currently.

Only for Bakugou to literally growl at him.

"Icyhot, I need a fucking answer."

The certain bit of gravity in his words was hard to ignore, and although Shouto was very much capable of ignoring alphas' commands usually, this was a bit of a different matter. The urgency in Bakugou's voice had him unable to focus on anything else.

So Shouto tried; tried to gather what little sanity he was left with, what little rational thoughts he could still summon.

But the thing was that he didn't know.

So he said as much, or attempted to, "I don't - it just happened."

"Just happened," the alpha repeated, a certain edge to his tone.

Shouto exhaled softly, feeling utterly wordless and torn between shame and this certain sense of carelessness that had wrapped itself around him like a warm and fuzzy cloud. It didn't sound as though it was the answer that Bakugou had wanted to hear, and a sense of dread settled in his stomach at the idea of having messed up.

And yet, what was he supposed to say?

Kissing Bakugou had been the exact opposite of his plan, a sort of worst case scenario that had somehow turned into this maelstrom of feelings that didn't make it feel like such a worst case thing at all. At leat he struggled to consider it as such with the way his body reacted, with how perfectly the alpha did what he was doing. And to top it all off, with his instincts yelling for more.

But wasn't that precisely what had him so worried in the first place?

The fact that his body apparently wanted all sorts of things; things that it really shouldn't be allowed to have. It felt nearly impossible to draw a line between what he wanted and what he didn't, as affected as he was by the thick pheromones in the air and the insistent tickling just beneath his skin.

And with every second that wasn't spent falling deeper into the sensations, it became a little bit clearer that Shouto truly had no concept of what he was supposed to think about any of this.

The alpha pulled back then, and all Shouto could do was try not to whimper at the loss of contact. Bakugou gave him a hard look that made breathing much harder, and not only because of its intensity.

But because the alpha looked breathtaking, his eyes violent with emotions and his lips - his lips. Shouto tried his hardest to focus on his eyes this time around, because now that he knew what Bakugou's lips felt like, it was impossible to make an unbiased decision while looking at them.

And he needed to. Make a decision, that was.

"My God - just. Fuck. Say something. You actually wanna continue or not? Because I can't fucking tell what you're thinking and I don't fucking - if this is just because my room still smells like - or because you're going into heat or something, then -"

The fact that Bakugou was asking him, actually offering to continue where they'd left off was more than the omega could really deal with. Every cell of his body was screaming at him, demanding to just say yes, just pull him down against himself and feel more of this, but Shouto had absolutely no clue what it even meant that this had happened in the first place.

Or why. Whether it was the pheromones, his questionable dream that he could barely remember, or maybe warning signs of a heat.

But that was supposed to take a few more weeks; he wasn't supposed to be anywhere close to a heat yet.

Then again, his legs still felt wet and sticky and that wasn't really something that happened to him outside of a heat cycle and he was warm and his skin sensitive, so maybe Bakugou was right, maybe -

Shouto licked his lips, and they felt different against his tongue.

"I -" he began again, stumbled over his own words, "I mean - we probably shouldn't - Ah. Yes. Right. Maybe I should.. go and take my heat suppressants, or -"

It sounded wrong.

Shouto had never experienced this type of pain from simply saying something out loud before, and it somehow got worse. Because as he watched awareness sink into Bakugou's face, he wanted to take his words back instantly. Just as earlier, he was trying hard to do the right thing, trying not to let the irrational side of himself control his actions, but it wasn't just that.

The point of being a hero was to try and avoid causing others pain, to try and keep a clear head no matter the circumstances and make the best of any given situation. But the look on the alpha's face made it more than clear that Shouto was failing exactly at that. Horribly.

Bakugou looked like he was about to fall apart above him, Shouto realised. He couldn't take that.

And then suddenly, his features hardened and he didn't look vulnerable, not anymore. It was hard to say which was worse.

"Know what, fine. Then just fucking go," the alpha told him, and now Shouto truly didn't understand a thing anymore. Because hadn't Bakugou kissed him back, and then asked him what was going on? And now, he was supposed to just... go. Take his medication? Of course he'd suggested that, but..

"Bakugou," he said, voice strangely empty when Shouto felt anything but. The alpha glared at him, and it took quite a bit of effort to keep up the eye contact, "I didn't mean to -"

"You didn't mean to fucking kiss me," Bakugou finished for him, and it shut Shouto up, because that wasn't what he'd been about to say. But the sudden bitterness in the other's tone was more than he knew what to do with.

Before he could say anything, Bakugou continued, "and you also don't wanna be fucking friends anymore, that what you're trying to tell me?"

It wasn't. Not what Shouto wanted to tell him. In fact, he'd never been so unsure what he'd wanted in his entire life. He still couldn't believe that any of this had actually happened at all. Mostly, he wanted Bakugou to stop looking at him as though he hated the fact that Shouto had kissed him.

"I want us to be," the omega confessed.

"Well then what's your fucking problem?"

"The problem," Shouto began, gathered a breath, "is that I'm not supposed to - I'm. I - need to go and take suppressants. I'm sorry."

Using what little strength he still had in his body that was mostly a mess of boneless parts, Shouto did what he had to. Pushed the alpha off of him, trying his best to ignore the feeling of his hands on Bakugou's body. And it was a hard thing to do, because he was currently more aware than ever before of the sensation that touching him caused. Something so overwhelming and foreign, something that made him want to never let go.

It took him a moment to realise that he hadn't.

That somehow, in the process of trying to push the alpha off himself, Shouto's hands had sunk into the fabric of his clothes and his heart had sunk into his stomach because despite the look of rage on Bakugou's face, he couldn't tear his eyes off him. Didn't want to get away, to do the right thing and be sensible about this. No.

He wanted something else entirely, and could only blame it on a loss of self control and sanity when he proceeded to spin them around, and somehow ended up sitting on top of the alpha's stomach, straddling him.

The position did absolutely nothing to help him ignore what felt like an entire puddle of slick in his underwear, and Shouto really, really needed to go and take his pills. Because for some ungodly reason, the position reminded him of what had led up to this point in the first place, and he couldn't help but wonder whether the alpha was still hard.

Yet another thought that was too much to analyse at the moment.

"It felt nice," Shouto said as the alpha glared up at him with a murderous expression now pulling at his features, "what you did."

It earned him a look of utter disbelief.

"Yeah well couldn't have fucking guessed from the noises you were making."

"Ah, right."

The noises - Shouto still couldn't believe those had come out of his own mouth. His entire face felt like it was burning up as he became aware of just how obvious it must have been, and he forced himself to look away as though the cacti on Bakugou's windowsill were what held his interest.

"So," he said, let the word float uselessly in the air, because there really was no telling where to go from here. The fluttering of his heart was still so foreign in its intensity and yet there was an undeniable sense of anxiety eating away at him. Whatever had just happened, something between them had shifted significantly, and although Shouto found it hard to interpret what any of this meant, he knew that he couldn't just ignore it either.

He looked down at Bakugou again, because somehow the sight of him made it all just a little better against all odds. Laying there, the alpha looked like he was waiting for Shouto to do something, and it was an odd thing to see. The omega couldn't tell where the urge had come from, but he found himself leaning forward ever so slightly, brushing blonde hair out of his face while red eyes followed the movement of his hand. He combed his fingers through the spiky locks for a little while before his hand settled on the side of his face, right where his scar stretched across Shouto's own.

As though the featherlight touch was some sort of wake up call, the alpha's eyes suddenly came back to Shouto's, hard and heavy.

"What the hell are you doing," he whispered, voice rough.

Shouto shook his head.

"I don't know?"

"You wanted to go and take your suppressants," Bakugou reminded him and Shouto found himself shaking his head yet again, not quite ready to just stand up and walk away. Not when Bakugou's skin felt so nice against his fingers and his scent had what could only be described as a magnetic pull.

"Bakugou," he said again, surprised by how much weight the name seemed to carry. The omega tried his hardest to ignore the weird combination of sensations that still haunted his body as he focused on nothing but rose colored lips, "I want to.."

"You want what, Todoroki?" the alpha asked, a challenge clear and loud in his words, and something inside of Shouto went up in flames at the questions. Not unlike fire rushing out of his body, the momentum of it all seemed nearly unstoppable - half a second after Bakugou had said it, Shouto was already on him, all rational thoughts banished into some faraway corner of his mind.

There was something addictive about catching Bakugou off guard; after all the hours of training that still hadn't left his reaction time at the same level as his, Shouto found the strangest sense of victory in the way that the blonde gasped as their lips met again.

And while Bakugou was quick at learning, Shouto wasn't slow either.

His body knew instinctively what to do, and by simply not fighting that type of natural guidance for a moment, he managed to get exactly what he wanted. Using the moment of surprise to his advantage, Shouto's lips pushed the alpha's open, and there wasn't a thought on his mind as he allowed himself to melt into him, warmth traveling through his veins as he licked along Bakugou's lower lip, his teeth, worked his tongue into his mouth slowly. When their tongues actually touched, nervousness and excitement blurred into one feeling so intense that stole his breath away.

Bakugou tasted sweet, and Shouto nearly had to pull away just to laugh at the idea of telling him as much; the more time he spent with him, the more sweet qualities of the alpha he figured out. Looks, gestures and behaviors he exhibited. Sometimes it was hard to find another word to try and describe his way of doing things, of expressing himself. And though ironic in a sense, those sweet little details were becoming a bigger part of the way Shouto viewed Bakugou.

Maybe that somehow played into the fact that he was now recklessly pushing himself down on his stomach as his tongue went about its newfound task of following the alpha's.

For the longest time, Bakugou seemed entirely out of service, letting Shouto do whatever he pleased and merely following his lead. The omega could literally pinpoint the moment when he suddenly regained control of his own body, and it would have been hard not to.

Because Bakugou pushed forward, bit into his lower lip, hard and painful and somehow that felt like a good thing, judging by the low moan that passed through his own lips and spilled into the alpha's mouth.

Shouto didn't have the capacity to really think about it, because the action was enough to have him moving yet again, intent on replying with something of equal intensity, which turned out to be something open-mouthed, messy and uncoordinated that somehow still felt so amazing that the omega didn't really mind.

And apparently, Bakugou didn't either. In fact, Shouto felt his hands slowly settle on the sides of his thighs, and if anything, that spurred him on all the more.

He kissed Bakugou as though he wanted the alpha to suffocate beneath him, but the effect went two ways. Because despite the control that the position offered, this didn't really feel at all as if Shouto was in control here. He was mostly going along with what his body told him to do, with what had Bakugou tightening his grip on his legs.

It was new and strange, but somehow much easier than talking currently.

And the omega intended to take full advantage of that and lose himself entirely in the whirlwind of warmth and endorphins that flowed through him with every bit of a fight that Bakugou put up. Each movement of lips and each little bite gave a more intoxicating quality to the alpha's scent, and when the two of them eventually had to separate to make way for heavy breaths, Shouto couldn't even waste a single second before he bent further down, gasped and rubbed his head against the alpha from various angles, getting his scent all over him.

Whatever thoughts he'd been having of ending their friendship were non-existent at this point.

He didn't even have it in himself to find it terrifying that he felt like he needed this to survive; the panting sounds in his ear and the alpha's scent spread throughout his hair that was as messed up as it got by now. He sighed in breathless relief once he was sure that there wasn't a doubt left about whose scent he had all over him.

All the while, Bakugou's hands had tightened impossibly on his legs, nearly pulling his pants down with Shouto's movements.

It was only when Shouto pushed his face back up, their lips almost touching with only the thinnest layer of hot breaths in between them, that Shouto wondered where exactly this was leading. Because his stomach felt utterly strange and there was a definite pressure in his pants and now more than before, he could feel the wetness seeping into the fabric of his underwear.

But it wasn't only uncomfortable; something about it felt almost right, however odd that sounded.

His own confused eyes found Bakugou's red ones, nearly overtaken by the size of his pupils. Shouto swallowed, keeping his body still and their eyes locked. Words - he reminded himself. They probably needed to talk about this, or say something at the very least.

And for some reason, the first thing that came out of his mouth was, "I need fresh underwear."

Which was true - but apparently not at all what the alpha had expected to hear. Not that Shouto could blame him; although this was his body and he should probably be used to his physical reactions in some capacity, it was still weird to him to think that this was an issue. Alphas obviously didn't have that type of problem.

"You didn't just fucking say that."

"What?"

"Fucking hell - you. Don't just - "

"I think it's a natural thing, just.. uncomfortable," Shouto tried to explain, suddenly feeling a little strange about his own admission. Bakugou blinked at him, looking as if Shouto had somehow broken him.

...

Bakugou had no way of explaining to himself how in the world he'd become so helplessly attracted to this oblivious idiot sitting on top of him. Everything considered, it should not be a damn surprise that Shouto Todoroki would finish a makeout session with the words 'I need fresh underwear,' but the fucking implications of that were everything but lost on the alpha.

He had absolutely no way of deciphering what the hell the omega was even thinking, talking so fucking casually about the fact that his underwear was - yeah. Bakugou could already feel his dick pressing into his stomach, he did not need any more fuel for his imagination because it was already hard enough not to try and take this any further.

And he knew he shouldn't.

He still couldn't fucking believe any of it, probably needed a few years to process the last minutes, but what he knew was that he was going to hate himself if he pushed things too far right now and managed to scare Todoroki off by being greedy and horny and idiotic.

But he was not helping by talking so shamelessly about his goddamn underwear issue, that much was for sure.

"Uncomfortable," he only rasped. At this point, Bakugou couldn't tell what the fuck was going on anymore, really. He'd been in rescue missions that had required less tactical thinking, had been buried under rubble that had allowed for more insight than he currently had on this situation. He couldn't even tell whether or not Todoroki was actually going into heat, because other than the mindless grinding and eager kisses, he seemed lucid enough.

Or maybe that was his own head trying to tell him that this was fine.

That he wasn't taking advantage of the omega in one way or another, because that was the last thing Bakugou wanted. And yet, it wasn't just hard but literally impossible to say no when Shouto Todoroki sat on top of him and kissed him yet again, this time short and sweet and probably just to throw him off his train of thought.

Which worked - just a few seconds of their lips pressed together and Todoroki nipping at his lip, and Bakugou's mind was empty as the desert.

God, was it hard not to let his hands roam all over those thighs in response.

Their noses bumped together when the alpha followed his lips up, and whatever kind of fever dream this was, Bakugou was so much more than ready to get lost in it and fucking stay here forever. It was a fucking miracle and nothing less how easily Todoroki gave in and stopped his retreat, instead pushing back into the kiss and whining when Bakugou once again caught his lower lip in between his teeth.

Each time he did, the alpha was awarded with some type of noise, and nothing beat the knowledge that he could pull those out of Todoroki - the stoic, usually so unaffected pretty boy sitting in the back of the class room.

Well, yeah. It had been a long fucking while since Bakugou had thought of him as such, and no way in hell was he ever going to be under the assumption again that the omega was cold or unaffected.

That idea had went out of the window at their first scent marking, and was now so utterly dead and gone because the proof was right above him. Pushing himself down against Bakugou as though every tiny bit of space between them was a crime.

And fuck if his enthusiasm wasn't the hottest thing ever.

It also put thoughts into his head that were of a bit more concerning kind. Of course. Like how Todoroki was his and no one else's, and how much Bakugou wanted to make as much known by literally burying his teeth in him, rather than just having him covered in his scent.

Or maybe suck a mark into his skin at the very least - just, fucking something.

Something to prove that this wasn't just a fever dream that the both of them could wake up from at any given moment and then disregard.

Especially after the breakdown earlier, that fear was still fresh in his body.

And maybe it was selfish. Maybe Todoroki actually was going into a heat and not thinking clearly and a bit influenced by hormones and instincts, but Bakugou was not a damn saint. Had tried to be, but obviously couldn't pull that shit off forever, and that was the best excuse he had as he regrettably let go of the other's legs and pushed himself up into a sitting position instead, letting the omega slide ever so slightly lower on his body while still keeping their lips locked in a kiss that lacked all rhythm.

Bakugou pulled away almost violently, and the thin thread of spit that connected their mouths in the wake of their kiss would have been disgusting, had it been anyone else he was doing this with.

Mismatched eyes were cloudy with lust as they zeroed in on him, and Bakugou felt the strangest urge to throw around curse words at how otherworldly that fucking sight was.

Thankfully, he managed to instead say, "listen to my right now," the words clear and strong.

Todoroki nodded his head.

"You want me to stop, you fucking say so, alright?"

There wasn't much of a reaction, other than wetting his lips, so Bakugou glared at him, repeated, "alright?"

"Alright," the omega echoed, and it was all the confirmation that the alpha needed before he rested a hand against his throat, let it move across soft skin ans dragged the collar of Todoroki's pullover down.

He finally caught a glimpse of his expression at that, bicoloured eyes lacking all the questions they should probably hold. Bakugou allowed himself to appreciate that for just a second, grinned at him and settled his lips at a nice spot just above his collarbone. Pressed a kiss against the hot skin that had Todoroki stiffening up against him. He relaxed for the fraction of a second and Bakugou was just cruel and impatient enough to open his mouth, suck lightly on his skin before closing his teeth around it and groaning as his omega very nearly screamed something that was probably a wrecked version of his name in response.

But it wasn't only that.

It was the way Todoroki threw his head back, the way his heart hammered so hard in his chest that Bakugou could actually feel it - the way he clung to him, arms suddenly so tight around Bakugou that the pressure was just below the point where he'd actually worry about getting his ribs crushed.

All of that conspired to spur him on and suck harder at the already sensitive skin, to bite just a little deeper into it to the sound of mindless moans bubbling our of pink lips right above his head. It all messed with his mind in the most intense way, shut off anything that wasn't the body practically vibrating against his own with something that could be purring or maybe just desperate attempts at getting oxygen into his lungs.

Bakugou only stopped after yet another bite that actually left him with the slightest taste of iron in his mouth. At this point, all coherency was gone from the mess of noises tumbling out of Todoroki's mouth, some low moans and some high pitched, desperate whines. The fact that he'd bitten hard enough to draw blood probably shouldn't be all that surprising considering his instinct to literally leave a lasting mark on his omega's scent glands, but it was still enough of a wakeup call for him to stop assaulting the abused skin.

He couldn't really help it though, licked at the same spot a few more times, felt hands clenching and unclenching against his back and the slightest swaying in Todoroki's entire body that had one of his hands shooting up, holding the omega in place as he slowly let up, feeling all kinds of fucking happy with this.

"Fuck, look at that," the alpha muttered in quiet astonishment when he finally managed to take a look at the mark he'd produced, an angry red against pale skin. Definite proof that yeah - he'd made that. Fuck. And the omega had let him, still looked dazed and faraway, his features soft and happy and it fucking warmed up the alpha's heart.

And then those clouded eyes tried to follow Bakugou's all the way down to where the mark rested, only for the omega to notice that even with his head angled, he couldn't properly see it.

Bakugou held his breath as he watched Todoroki trace it with one of his hands instead, fingers ghosting over the flesh and lips open all the while. He couldn't even feel bad about doing this, not when this looked to utterly fucking beautiful and right that words couldn't begin to express it.

Although he wanted to leave marks all over his body, Bakugou knew that this was more than enough. He'd made such a fucking mess out of the omega with only this that he couldn't begin to imagine what more bites in other places might do to him - and to himself, too.

"I can't see it," Todoroki replied belatedly, and his voice sounded ridiculous, raw and just at the edge of cracking mid-sentence. Bakugou liked the sound of that a bit too much. Liked all of this a bit too fucking much, really.

"Looks nice," he supplied.

Todoroki shifted against him, trying and failing to get a view of the mark yet again. He looked just a little ridiculous trying. "Does it?"

"Want me to take a picture and show you or what."

It wasn't an actual question, and Bakugou should have probably seen it coming that Todoroki would still take it as one, considering it for a moment before nodding his head in response. While under any other circumstance, Bakugou would have felt as though he was fucking with him on purpose, he couldn't really be bothered to give a damn at this point. And just maybe, he really wanted a photo of this on his phone, for whatever reason. Probably multiple ones.

Either way, he stretched to the side to fetch his phone, which wasn't all that easy with Todoroki still holding onto him as though he never planned to go anywhere ever again. He could feel his lips stretch into a stupid grin at as he opened the camera, gave the omega a look. The sight of him was stupidly adorable, and Bakugou tried his fucking best to stay focused on his task of taking a photo of, that. Yeah.

What the fuck was happening again?

He snapped a photo, just close enough to show the angry red skin clearly, and just far enough away to have the omega's jawline and a bit of his lips on it as well and yeah. Bakugou was so keeping this photo and probably going to fucking stare at it for hours later or something.

"Bakugou?"

"Huh."

"Show me," Todoroki demanded, though he sounded lighthearted, asking for this. As if they were both somehow fucking high on what had just happened or something, and realistically, they probably were. Because Bakugou had just left a fucking hickey on him and somehow Todoroki was so eager to see it that Bakugou had taken a damn picture and what the fuck. What the fuck. Thank fucking God for the lack of an interruption by any of their classmates, because Bakugou had absolutely no clue what he'd do if anyone witnessed how utterly ridiculous they were being.

And how he couldn't give less of a fuck because the sense of happiness that currently replaced his earlier frustration was almost a bit too much of a contrast.

And maybe he was a bit fucking gone because Bakugou wasn't usually the slow type, but Todoroki literally had to reach out and wrap his own hand around the alpha's in order to turn the phone his way and finally get a look at the photo.

Bakugou watched his face as he looked it over, watched the way the omega pressed his lips tightly together as he stared at it and averted his eyes a moment later. He was fucking blushing and the knowledge hit Bakugou in the stomach like a fist.

He could not fucking handle this.

"It's nice," he supplied and Bakugou couldn't help himself. Whatever tension he'd carried inside at the thought of having gone too far was suddenly replaced with a weird sense of fondness and relief.

He actually laughed at the combination of the statement and the embarrassed look.

"Fucking nice, of all adjectives, Icyhot?"

It earned him a weak glare that faded into a stunned expression, "Very nice."

"Yeah?"

Todoroki nodded his head again, stared down at where both of their hands were still holding the phone, and looked back up, a bit of uncertainty on his face. It had the alpha acutely aware of the fact that yeah, what the hell were they even fucking doing? Really. He felt the need to say something.

"We need to -"

Apparently the omega had the same idea because he talked right over him.

"I should go and - "

They both stopped, and Bakugou gave him a look that told him to continue.

"Underwear," Todoroki deadpanned.

Bakugou nodded his head slowly, a bit of his bravery leaving him as he was once again reminded of that little fact. Of his rut. Of the fact that what the fuck, how had all of that gone from fantasies to actual real life things in so little fucking time? After waiting for what felt like for-fucking-ever.

The omega was waiting for him to finish his sentence though, and because he didn't know what else to say, he just muttered, "study. For the exams next week."

"Oh."

They looked at each other again, and Todoroki added a weird sounding, "right."

As if either of them could get any school related thoughts into their fucking heads right now, Bakugou couldn't help but think. He didn't say that out loud though, eyes transfixed on the red mark still.

Chapter Text

In just two years, Shouto had experienced a variety of things at UA that he couldn't even have dreamed of before he'd come here. After spending his entire childhood without any contact to people outside of his household (and even there, barely anyone, really), he'd literally had no idea what to expect at a school as huge and renowned as this, surrounded by others his own age. Adjusting to that had been nothing short of a struggle; he'd found it hard to open up, suddenly surrounded by a huge number of alphas and betas, all of them running on adrenaline and strength and the determination to become the best hero out there.

Much like him.

Sometimes he wondered how he'd done it - how he'd slipped into this new and different kind of life. A life that consisted of more than loneliness and a million types of painful training lessons.

But once it had been decided that dormitories were the best option to ensure the safety of the students, that had been the final straw. He had his own room, his own life.

Shouto was no longer bound to come home to either an empty house or one full of screaming and arguing. Instead, he had his friends here, could easily ignore his father's messages or calls for a while when he didn't feel like talking to him. And with the absence of his father's controlling behavior keeping him in check, he knew, he'd changed.

In this very moment, heading towards his room, he felt incredibly aware of just how much had changed for him.

Because he'd really just experienced his first kiss.

With Bakugou, of all people.

Then again, as shocking as that was in a sense, who else could it have been? There weren't exactly a lot of people whose lips Shouto found himself analysing like a riddle. Or people whose scent he willingly carried around with him on a daily basis. There wasn't anyone else who knew about his secondary gender either. They were close - unquestionably. No one else had ever seen Shouto in his truly vulnerable moments, because he'd never allowed anyone to. Even when he'd told Midoriya about his past, he'd kept the memories at a certain distance, staying factual. Really, no one managed to pull emotions out of him quite like Bakugou did.

And yet, he still couldn't get it through to himself that any of this was real. It felt a little too good and scary to be; his throat was still dry from spitting out obscene moans.

The omega softly closed the door behind himself and walked into his room, covered his face with his palms and took a deep breath, in and out. He felt the weirdest urge to scream into his palms or maybe pinch himself in the arm as a sort of reality check. His hands smelled like Bakugou; they'd been buried in his hair and his clothes and touching his skin - of course they smelled like him. The entirety of Shouto smelled like Bakugou. And yet, it somehow still hadn't clicked in his brain that this was his reality now. As real as it got.

A reality where he'd mentally malfunctioned for a moment and kissed Bakugou out of nowhere, but hadn't been pushed away, punched in the face or screamed at. The room hadn't exploded in a show of fury and shock. Quite the opposite; he'd learned by now that the alpha was far from incapable of being gentle, but the way he'd touched Shouto this time had been a new kind of revelation.

Shouto could still recall very vividly the many variations of "fuck off" that Bakugou used to send his way, and their kiss had felt like the exact opposite of that.

Mutual, like Shouto wasn't the only one whose self control had taken a backseat for a little while.

Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have ended up with a large red and purple mark just below his collarbone. There was no way Bakugou had planned on doing that. In terms of impulsive decision making, the two of them clearly were more alike than one might expect at first glance.

And somehow, Shouto had been the one to initiate the entire thing. Which probably wasn't the proper thing for an omega to do, but there wasn't a lot that Shouto knew about being a proper omega anyways. And Bakugou wasn't really the type to keep his mouth shut, had it actually bothered him too much.

Or so Shouto hoped.

But he'd kissed back. Eagerly. That definitely had to count for something. The amount of emotion that he'd seen on the alpha's face and the roughness of his voice haunted Shouto's mind in the most thrilling way.

"He.. actually kissed me back," Shouto whispered to himself, running a hand through his hair, once again realising that yeah, this had happened. The words sounded foreign on his tongue, but he liked the sound of them. It was the shaky quality of his voice that had him a little stunned.

It... definitely was a lot to process.

All of this was such an utterly normal thing for people their age to experience that it felt like something he didn't deserve, strangely. Shouto hadn't ever spent much time thinking about what his first kiss was going to be like, or with whom he'd share that moment. When others talked about dating or kissing or anything of that nature, he usually just zoned out, uninterested in the entire thing.

In retrospect though, he had to admit that he had started to become just a little more curious. Had sometimes found his thoughts drifting into that direction, for brief moments, every now and then. Shouto wondered how often exactly, but the lines were blurred on the subject. Being a few different shades of confused around Bakugou had simply become the norm for him, and he'd filed any questionable thoughts away as something he couldn't control, didn't really need to think too much about.

As something made up mostly of weird omega urges, adolescent hormones and the knowledge that nothing was ever going to happen anyways.

But it had happened.

Hadn't been a dream either.

Shouto still had no clue what any of it really meant, how much that moment would end up changing things between them (because it felt like it had to, in some way) but what Shouto knew was that he couldn't get the kiss out of his head.

At all.

The texture of Bakugou's lips on his own, the warmth of his breath. The insistent grip of the alpha's fingers on his skin, and his scent. His stomach felt weird at the mere memory of it, and his body temperature definitely corresponded with his recalling of the earlier events.

The omega doubted that he was going to forget about those details anytime soon. If ever. His mind was still left behind, stuck in the past half hour in Bakugou's bed.

Dragging himself out of there had been equally as hard as it had been necessary. For various reasons, both. It bordered on a miracle that the two of them had had the presence of mind to realise as much at all.

As far as messy thoughts went, Shouto felt like he was currently the embodiment of them. Because they kept jumping back and forth, from melancholy to worry to a strange mix of embarrassment and careless euphoria. As if his mind and body couldn't settle on just one thing to feel at a time.

And through it all, one thing remained very much present; the weird feeling of neediness, of having stopped too soon. He'd only ever felt that kind of insatiable once, and that had been years ago, during the first and only heat he hadn't suppressed. It was hard to tell whether that type of urge was reserved for heats only, or, like most omega urges, simple more pronounced during that time.

Yet another thing he couldn't seem to find and answer to.

Either way, Shouto tried not to think about the fact that he'd openly told Bakugou about his underwear issue. He truly couldn't explain to himself why he'd considered that an appropriate thing to say out loud - not that Shouto was easily embarrassed or overly concerned with appropriateness. But this was different; Bakugou literally knew that their kiss had turned Shouto's underwear into a soaked mess.

And while Shouto trusted him and didn't expect the blonde to make fun of him for this, it all still left him feeling so utterly vulnerable and clueless. Clueless, because he couldn't even tell whether he was actually going into a heat or not. His head certainly felt hazy, his skin did feel a little warm and there was no mistaking the fact that, yes, his underwear was very much wet.

The thought of this not being heat-related was more stressful than anything. He wasn't so sure he could handle it if this happened every time they kissed - if they'd ever do that again.

So he told himself that it had to be an oncoming heat.

There was also the small but important detail that it almost physically hurt not to be in the alpha's arms right now. The omega inside of him wanted to just forget about the pills altogether and run back to the alpha's room, to throw himself on top of him and refuse to let go. Of course, Shouto wasn't about to let himself do that though. He liked to think that, despite all of his weird behavior, he still possessed a semblance of control over his actions and the way that he acted around the alpha. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

His fingers itched with the desire to build a nest and Shouto couldn't remember the last time that this particular desire had been so pronounced.

Shouto came to a halt in front of his mirror, barely dared to look at himself, as if facing his reflection would change anything at all.

What had happened, had happened.

And Shouto had liked it, that much he was certain of, no matter how strange he felt in his skin thinking about what it was doing to his instincts. When he finally dared to look himself in the eyes, it was almost surprising to see that he looked the same. White and red locks a bit messed up and clothes a little crumbled, but there was nothing else to give away the fact that so much had changed for him, in a manner of minutes. One grey and one blue eyes blinked back at him, and he ran his fingers through his hair, pushed his fringe out of his eyes.

Just the same. Same scar, same everything.

But nothing was the same.

Maybe he was being dramatic, but he could easily blame that on hormones.

His subconscious was working too hard, trying to figure out what all of this meant, when it really wasn't that big of a deal at all, maybe. Maybe people just did that - kissed each other; some TV shows certainly made it seem like that type of thing happened all the time. Especially between alphas and omegas. Firsts really weren't that big of a deal either, we're they? There was a good chance that Bakugou had kissed someone before.

Maybe Bakugou kissed other people all the time, even. Shouto had gone ahead and just assumed that he hadn't, because it had felt that way, though it was hard to put into words what exactly he'd based that assumption on.

... Shouto certainly hoped that he didn't run around kissing people in his spare time.

He didn't know what exactly he hoped for, but it certainly wasn't that the alpha did this type of thing with anyone who felt up to it. The thought in itself had his chest feeling utterly tight, even though there was not a single thing to back up the theory that it might be the case. Shouto didn't want to believe it either - the thought hurt, a lot. Settled on the forefront of his mind and had him wondering if maybe Bakugou was sitting in his room right now, contemplating why he hadn't pushed Shouto away, looked for someone better. Someone who didn't need to have an internal therapy session with himself after something as simple as a kiss. Someone who knew how those things worked.

He involuntarily made another one of those useless, weirdly distressed noises, frowned at his reflection.

And decided that this irrational anxiety was ridiculous - something had to be seriously off with his hormones, and more than likely taking a suppressant or two would help him feel better.

So Shouto opened the drawer he kept them in, let two pills drop on the palm of his hand, eyes flickering back to the mirror. Bent forward like this, the collar of his pullover hung just low enough to reveal the mark beneath his collarbone, and his breath got stuck in his throat as his eyes refused to fixate on anything other than that. Round, with hints of teeth marks and some darker and some lighter spots, the bite mark's shape resembled a waxing gibbous moon.

He hadn't been able to fully take it in earlier, way too high on endorphins to really register the photo that Bakugou had taken.

His free hand traced the outlines of it, slowly, and Shouto's heart did the weirdest thing, hammering away at his ribcage as though it was about to jump out of his chest. Shouto had to keep himself from making some type of noise again, unsure why he was getting so worked up over this.

But the sight did something to him - in the same way a beautiful sunset or sunrise could catch a person off guard. That feeling, just... tenfold. Because Bakugou had made this. On him. It wasn't the first time he'd carried a bruise produced by the alpha around either, but this was definitely not the same thing as having blue and purple spots on his legs and arms after a long sparring session.

Even those, he'd never minded.

But this bruise was more important than that, carried a different meaning altogether that Shouto couldn't entirely put his finger on, had no singular word for. All he knew was that he liked it, a little bit too much, probably. The feeling resembled the one he'd had after Bakugou had given him that hoodie, and although it would not be a wise decision to show the bite mark off in public like he could do with a piece of clothing, Shouto knew that the mark was right there. Just beneath the fabric, probably not going to fade anytime soon either.

He didn't like the thought that it was going to fade at all. Although that probably wasn't something to worry about for now, given the fact that it was going to take a while, Shouto still found himself wondering what that would be like, to have an actual mark on him that was there to stay, that was -

He grabbed the water bottle standing beside his mattress, and flushed two pills down with a large sip of it. And then one more, just to be sure.

Although the effects certainly were anything but immediate, a sense of relief washed over him along with the pills that went down his throat. Because however excited and happy he felt in this blur of new experiences and sensations, there still was an undeniable sense of anxiety beneath it all. A question mark; the haunting knowledge that he was giving into the very things that could mean trouble for him, in many senses. It was dangerous, because it didn't feel all that dangerous anymore, being that way around Bakugou.

By now, the omega was so tired of analysing all the ways in which his upbringing had managed to distort his view of secondary genders, of strength and weakness - of himself and his instincts.

Of course he recognised that experienced shaped people, knew that many of his thoughts weren't exactly healthy, but it was hard to define what was and what wasn't right to do, to think, to feel, after all those years of being spoon-fed the idea that his very existence was flawed. That he was essentially a perfect product with only one, but one major malfunction; something he'd never actually view as a malfunction in anyone else.

But for Shouto's instincts to get so far ahead of him that he was randomly thinking about bonding marks, about wanting one more specifically - that certainly managed to unsettle him. Because his body was entirely too ready to run ahead in all aspects and leave him behind, confused and unable to deal with his own thoughts.

It was hard not to fall into the trap of self hatred as he finally forced himself to go and grab a pair of fresh pants and underwear, feeling sort of ridiculous because really, how cliché was that? For an omega to kiss someone one time and feel the need to hand themself over to them on a silver platter right after that. He couldn't even imagine how horrified Bakugou would be of him if he said one word about that bite mark issue out loud - for all Shouto knew, maybe this had been a one time thought, and nothing more.

He had to hold back another whine, gaze drifting across all the soft-looking things in his room, told himself that now wasn't the time to start with the entire nesting business. The last thing he needed on top of all this was for someone to come to his room and see a badly constructed nest in there. That was as good as stopping to take his scent blockers altogether.

He didn't need a nest. There wasn't one logical reason why he would, just misguided instincts.

This certainly wasn't what the aftermath of his first kiss would have looked like, had he been born a beta or an alpha.

And if it weren't for his instincts, he would have jumped underneath the shower right then and there, but the thought of washing just a bit of Bakugou's scent off himself was dreadful enough to not even make a debate out of that question.

His stress levels and the amounts of comfort Shouto needed these days were certainly concerning, and it just so happened that Bakugou's scent was exactly the comfort he needed, a sedative for his every more-or-less-breakdown.

And no matter how messy and out of it he felt with each passing minute alone in his room (and how much a shower might help with that), Shouto needed Bakugou's scent on him for just a few more hours, just until the pills kicked in and allowed him to think rationally again. That much, he could allow himself.

His instincts insisted that he shouldn't have left his side in the first place, that just his scent wasn't enough and Shouto wished he had the alpha sitting beside him right now, telling him that his body and instincts weren't as disgusting as it currently felt to himself. Telling himself only got him so far - Bakugou had a way of sounding more convincing about it than Shouto could even dream of.

But Shouto wasn't about to give into the self pity yet again, couldn't stand the thought of being unable to snap out of his excessive worrying. It was enough that his first kiss had began with tears, and it certainly wasn't going to be followed up by more of that. He stepped away from the mirror, pulled off his pants first, and glared at the emptiness of his room, in a battle with himself that took a few moments to win.

After a little bit of that, he had enough of it.

Took off his underwear as well, tried not to look at the mess he'd made out of his boxers, but somehow ended up catching a glimpse of it still, eyebrows furrowed and lips in a tight line. He wondered if Bakugou would have kissed him, had the alpha known just how weirdly responsive his body was to such things.

But yeah - Bakugou did know. Thanks to Shouto's inability to keep his mouth shut.

The omega took a deep breath in, breathed out a silent and empty-sounding, "what's wrong with me."

He wanted to punch himself in the face for it a moment later, thinking about how nothing was wrong with him - at least in terms of natural reactions. The self hatred was a trained thought process, was a direct result of the way he'd been taught to view himself. The way he'd been taught to be ashamed and disgusted; nothing ensured that someone kept something a secret as well as a sense of shame did.

After all, that was the entire reason behind... all of it.

The fact that his father was so ashamed of Shouto's secondary gender that he'd made sure he felt just the same way about it, had learned to despise it early on so that he had just the right amount of desperation in himself to keep up the act. Keep it up for all his life, if things went his father's way. It wasn't a new realisation of course, but those types of thoughts tended to come in waves, to fluctuate between being at the forefront and the back of his mind. And right now, Shouto understood the reason for all his issues a bit too well, felt the type of anger that could seamlessly fade into fire if he wasn't careful.

And though he understood, the feeling of disgust with himself didn't seem to leave him, which was all sorts of frustrating to realise - probably the price to pay for his attempts at gaining self-awareness.

Thankfully, he managed not to set his room aflame and instead settled on throwing his clothes into the laundry bin with a little too much force, causing the entire thing to fall over and make a mess of the corner.

Shouto gave the entire thing a blank look, sighed.

He wondered if the strange feeling in his lower belly was normal as he put his fresh clothes on; his body was literally so sensitive to the touch that the simple brushing of fabric against his lower regions felt weirdly intense. He decided to ignore that entirely, told himself that he had school-related stuff to focus on. Just as Bakugou had said; they needed to stay on top of their studies.

As he recalled the alpha's words, his inner omega perked up, and Shouto dug through his memory with a sense of determination to filter out whether or not Bakugou had meant that he wanted them to study for their exams together.

It had kind of sounded like that.

... Hadn't it?

Before Shouto had the chance to really think it over, he'd already grabbed a few stray notebooks that lay scattered across his desk, on his way out of the room, when his phone suddenly went off in his pocket. He fished it out, blinked at the screen once or twice.

"Fuyumi?"

...

Bakugou practically kicked the door open, rushing into the room like a fucking tornado tearing through a peaceful landscape, steps heavy. His entire being was flooded with some weird combination of adrenaline, serotonin and whatever else it was that a body produced in response to life-altering moments.

Either way, his energy was through the fucking roof, all instincts on high alert, and fuck no, he was not going to be a total fucking idiot and go check up on his omega, because Bakugou knew from experience that Todoroki's heat suppressants took a little while to kick in. In his current state, he wasn't all that fucking sure he wouldn't find a way to take advantage of that. He was pretty damn sure that the moment he next saw the omega, he was going to be all over him before one rational thought would be able to form in his brain.

But, he couldn't allow himself to be an ass about this.

So, he was going to go out of his way to not be an ass, for once. And the first step in that plan was Kirishima's room.

"Dude, what the hell."

"Move your ass, Shitty Hair," he commanded, and Bakugou could fucking hear it in his own voice. A stupid, verbal kind of smile that was miles away from the tone he usually used. It really wasn't a big surprise that Kirishima took note of it as well, and he sent a mildly concerned look Bakugou's way.

"Move my ass, where," the redhead inquired, sitting on the floor surrounded by books, but very obviously preoccupied with some idiotic show running on the TV.

"We've got shit to do."

"Like, studying? Cause yeah, I'm doing that."

"Fuck off, more important shit than that," Bakugou declared.

"Since when is there anything more important to you than making an effort to - ohh wait. What's with the manic grin and the - important, like. Love?"

Bakugou wondered what the hell he'd expected.

"Don't fucking. Ugh. Whatever, not like you're actually studying anyways, but if you're only going to be an embarrassing idiot then I'm doing this on my fucking own."

It was easy to tell that the other alpha was trying to pierce together what exactly was going on, his gaze shifting back and forth, as if he was attempting to analyse Bakugou's fucking aura or shit. The blonde didn't even manage to actually be annoyed with him, because for once in his life, Bakugou felt incapable of that type of emotion. Restless and eager to fucking get going? Yeah. But not annoyed or angry.

How could he? His omega had kissed him. Not once, but fucking - he hadn't counted - but, multiple times. And God, Bakugou was beyond proud, relieved, and happy. So fucking happy that he was going to punch a hole through the wall if his fucking friend wasted one more damn minute instead of helping him with his plan. He had shit to do, important shit.

"Doing what now?" Kirishima asked, obviously more than a little amused with Bakugou's declaration.

"Stop asking questions, I'll tell you on the way."

"Alrighty, whatever you say."

"Fucking thank you, now hurry the fuck up, I haven't got all day to stand around and wait for you slow ass."

... It still didn't sound half as frustrated and annoyed as it was supposed to. Bakugou wanted to growl at his own softness, but he instead ended up mentally out of order for a moment or two, recalling the goddamn sight of Todoroki below him, on top of him, against him.

To prove the point that they needed to get moving, the alpha headed back towards the door, a shuffling sound behind him the only confirmation that Shitty Hair was following him. And though Bakugou disliked admitting it, he sure as fuck needed his company to accomplish this particular mission.

The mission being a rather vague one; he needed to make up for yesterday's chaos that had disrupted their date (if it had counted as one) and the entire mess that had followed back at the dorms. How exactly to go about this though, Bakugou had no damn clue, that was why his friend's help was so damn crucial here.

And just maybe, his damn urge to provide for Todoroki was taking over yet again. Because Bakugou wasn't a material person, and neither was the omega, but the alpha felt the strangest urge to find some type of present for him. Something that went way beyond a ratty old hoodie or soba noodles. Something nice.

Because the two of them were getting the goddamn order of things mixed up; he still felt like he hadn't done shit to actually and officially court him, and somehow today had still happened.

Like fuck was he going to stop trying now; his plan was the exact opposite, to try just a little fucking harder and make the omega want to do all of this all over again. It was hard to say just how spooked the developments of the last few hours actually had Todoroki, and everything inside of Bakugou was burning up with the desire to do something to calm him down, something to keep the negative thoughts at bay, keep him from freaking out.

Maybe, just maybe, Bakugou was projecting a little bit right there, but how the hell was he supposed to not be freaked out by the fact that he'd fucking kissed Todoroki?

Of course, Bakugou knew for a fact that his body was more than eager to literally take anything he got from Todoroki. To give him anything he wanted. And yet, Bakugou had no desire to be the brand of asshole to get lost in the excitement of it and forget about his omega's complicated relationship with all things concerning his secondary gender. He was going to do this properly; being an alpha meant a little more than wanting to fuck someone, that much was for sure.

Which Bakugou shouldn't be fucking thinking about anyways because his imagination worked a little too well with the sounds Todoroki had made fresh in his memory, but yeah. Although he wasn't going to say that shit out loud, he needed Kirishima's help with this, a second opinion to make sure that he didn't fuck up, his pride and 'I don't need help' attitude be damned.

He watched Kirishima shuffle into his shoes, "So just for the record, where exactly are we going, dude?"

"I don't fucking know, I just need to buy some shit."

"Some shit."

"My God, a present or something," Bakugou clarified, wondering why the hell he was still embarrassed in front of this guy. The very same guy who'd literally tried to teach him compliments, all for the sake of courting one certain omega. Not like he could hide anything from him either way.

And yet, he had the slight urge to punch the other alpha in the face when an understanding grin stretched across his lips, eyebrows raised.

"What."

"Nothing at all."

"Fucking spit it out, and hurry the hell up."

"Something happened," the alpha stated.

Bakugou eloquently replied with a sincerely confused, "huh."

"Something good, I can tell this isn't supposed to be an apology gift. You're fucking glowing, bro - so come on, tell me."

It was a million shades of unsettling just how transparent Bakugou was these days, and he instinctively fastened his pace a little, as if that was going to make him appear less suspicious. He wondered if it would be physically possible for him to talk about the kiss without sounding like an excited twelve-year-old school girl on the way to her first concert or shit. Then again, he felt like a damn schoolgirl with how fucking badly he wanted to brag about what had happened. If it weren't for rational thoughts, he'd probably be running through the damn hallways yelling about it and telling everyone that they were below him, because, he was the one Todoroki had kissed. He was the one allowed to put a mark on the omega, the one with the privilege of getting to see him all sweet and excited.

Not fucking Deku or Ponytail or whoever else probably wanted to.

Just him.

... What the hell had he done to deserve this again? Honestly, Bakugou wasn't so sure, but it made him all the more certain that he wanted to do something special for his omega.

"At least tell me what kind of present we'll be looking for, red roses, chocolate, a diamond ring?"

"I'm not trying to fucking propose to him."

"You're not?"

"Shut up," Bakugou barked out, feeling a little caught although that truly wasn't it. He just wanted (needed, really) to do something; the point of this wasn't at all to overdo it.

"You've gotta have some kind of idea," Kirishima half-asked.

And when he really thought about it, Bakugou realised that he had an idea. An idea that had ghosted through his brain various times when he'd been to Todoroki's room. He couldn't put a finger on it, but at various points when he'd been in there, it had felt like something was missing. A personal touch - sure, Todoroki liked to keep his space mostly empty and simple, but knowing about his secondary gender, it felt like an odd thing, somehow.

Maybe he just wasn't the type to, but Bakugou could remember reading something about how omegas tended to have hoarding tendencies. How they liked to collect pretty things, soft things, or things that smelled good. Things in general.

And Todoroki - he essentially had none of that in there. Nothing but furniture and his futon, and fuck if Bakugou wasn't capable of finding him some things that he'd actually like. Nothing that overtly screamed omega either - Bakugou wasn't about to buy him an army of stuffed animals or shit, he could only imagine the look he'd receive in response to that.

"Things for his room," he clarified, without really realising that he'd said it out loud.

Kirishima quirked an eyebrow before apparently deciding that, whatever, and nodding his head thoughtfully.

.

They had the sheer fucking luck of running into the rest of the self-proclaimed Bakusquad on the way out, and that was how Bakugou currently found himself in a lamp department of a ridiculously oversized shop with an entirety of four idiots by his side (who were all too fucking happy to have an excuse to postpone their studying). Of course, Kirishima just had to go ahead and tell them that Bakugou was looking for a present.

No one had even asked whom for - they'd just started bombarding him with shitty ideas about what Todoroki would like, 99% of which were absolutely garbage.

"Buy me this," Shitty Hair whined like a damn kid, holding up a red LED sword.

"Hell yeah," Kaminari agreed way too fucking enthusiastically, bouncing up and down as he pointed at the thing and it had Bakugou wondering all over again why he hung around those idiots.

"We're not here to buy shit for you," he grumbled, looking around, "you're supposed to help me find something."

"Buy it for him."

"I'm not buying him a fucking children's toy."

"Why not?"

"You guys don't know shit about romance or good taste," Mina declared, shaking her head, "go for this one, no one could resist that."

She honest to God pointed at a gigantic fucking disco ball.

They were so fucking lucky that the alpha was in a good mood, because honestly, it sometimes felt like he could count the brain cells of the entire group on one hand. His own excluded, of course.

"Why the fuck would I?"

"People like sparkly things."

"True," Sero determined.

"He's not a fucking crow, alright."

"Yo! Look at this."

Bakugou's head snapped in Kirishima's direction, following his finger that pointed at the warm glow of some crystal-shaped Christmas lights. He wasn't sure whether he found that ridiculously cliché or strangely fitting.

"Hell yeah, he definitely needs that!"

"That's like - made for him, bro."

"If you're not buying it for him, I will," Mina declared with a knowing smirk on her face.

.. And that was how that decision was made. Just the mere idea of someone else buying something for the omega was fuel enough for Bakugou to grab the small box.

"Yay!" the alpha girl cheered, "first present acquired."

"Fir-" Bakugou began, but the idiots had already started dragging him in the direction of the candles, and just second later, he had the first scented candle stuffed into his face.

"How about this one?"

"Smells like ass."

"Try that one."

"Even worse," he replied.

"This! And this one."

"Wow, I'm buying like, five of these."

The next time he turned around, Mina had produced a shopping cart out of seemingly nowhere, and Bakugou had absolutely no clue when this had turned into what felt like a fucking family shopping trip, but it sure as fuck felt like one. Sero and Kaminari both proceeded to get their asses stuck in the shopping card, and Bakugou had half a mind to film that spectacle and use it as blackmail material.

"This one smells almost as smoky as you, bet he'll love that! We're buying this," Kirishima decided, and apparently at this point Bakugou's opinion on the matter wasn't even required anymore, because the thing was instantly placed in the (now idiot-free) shopping cart, along with everyone's favourite ones.

"What's next?"

"Oh, I know!"

Their enthusiasm was just a little fucking worrisome.

"The way to a guy's heart is a soft and fuzzy blanket, dude."

"The hell do you even know about winning a guy's heart?" Bakugou inquired, staring blankly at the blonde beta.

"Well my friend, if you buy me this one, I promise I'll be all over you."

"That sounds like an actual fucking nightmare."

"Rude!"

"Just fucking honest."

"Feel this one. This is the softest thing ever, guys!"

So much for only omegas enjoying soft things - Bakugou watched in mild disgust as Sero actually rubbed his face against the unpackaged example of the blanket, thinking about how many disgusting hands had touched that thing before. Goddamn germs. And yet, that weird alpha part of him wondered how much Todoroki would like the softness of the fabric, if betas and alphas were already fawning over it.

"Which color," he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

"Oh my God, I can't get over this."

"Over what, fucking alien."

"Just - " she gestured around vaguely, pointing at him more than once and making a weird noise, and everyone except for Bakugou seemed to get the message.

"The power of love, dude," Kaminari said, before wisely deciding to make a run for it as Bakugou tried to smack him in the face.

"Stop it guys, we're still on a mission."

"The white one."

"No, man - yellow all the way."

"Blue."

"Red?"

"Is this what fucking hell looks like?" Bakugou wondered out loud.

He ended up buying the grey one, feeling like he was the responsible adult watching over a group of elementary school kids and trying to keep a fight from breaking out by choosing a neutral option.

.

Bakugou ended up spending almost a hundred and fifty dollars, and with two gigantic shopping bags. And most importantly, much less agitated than he probably should be, knowing that he'd just spend half the money on his bank account on stuff that Todoroki hadn't even asked for.

His friends were stuffing their faces with disgusting fast food while he just sat there, wondering how weird this was going to be on a scale from 1 to 10.

... Fuck.

Probably just as weird as the fact that he kept checking his damn phone for messages and maybe staring at the photo he took earlier. Only whenever he was far enough away from the others to make sure that no one was going to snatch his phone, though. He couldn't get over that picture. No way.

On the one hand, he couldn't fucking wait to shower the omega in gifts, but on the other hand, he was absolutely positive that he had no idea how to go about this.

Especially with the amount of shit they'd collectively convinced him was 'essential.'

Truly, Bakugou should have rushed to the damn counter after getting the Christmas lights, shouldn't have given into the damn temptation of getting anything that Todoroki might like, might being the key word here. The fucking plan had been not to scare him off, and now he just had to go ahead and buy a shit ton of stuff, which was probably the fucking equivalent of overstepping a million boundaries at once.

He was going to look so fucking whipped, which he definitely was, but Todoroki didn't need to fucking know th-

"French fry?"

He eyed that disgusting piece of potato, drowned in sugary ketchup.

"Ugh, no. Unlike you I'm not looking to get diabetes at fucking thirty."

"They're good though."

"What'cha so worried about?"

"I'm not fucking worried."

"You smell worried," Sero established.

"Yeah, talk to us," Mina suggested, "you like the presents, right?"

"We got like, ten fucking things."

"So?"

"So it's fucking weird, am I supposed to just fucking, shove these bags in his face or what."

"So you are worried."

"Fuck off."

"Tell him that he can repay you with favors," Kaminari suggested, raising his brows.

"Dude," Kirishima chided.

"Yeah, don't tell him that."

"He'll love the presents, don't worry. Believe a woman's intuition."

"Yeah man, it's like, courting 101. If he likes you, he'll like anything you give him. Especially the cool shit we found."

Bakugou felt something between the urge to scream, and the urge to thank them all for even trying to support him through this crisis. Unable to decide, he settled on a, "If he doesn't and this messes things up, I'm blaming all of you."

"Oooooh!"

Bakugou blinked at the girl.

"You just admitted that you're courting him!" Mina declared, so loudly that a few heads turned their way, slapping her hands on her thighs for added effect.

"Wasn't that obvious?" Sero asked.

"He hasn't ever said it out loud before."

"Congratulations, dude."

"Our emotionally constipated baby is growing up."

"It happens so fast."

Both Kaminari and Mina made a show of wishing imaginary tears off their cheeks.

"You fucking - I hope all of you choke on you goddamn fries!" Bakugou yelled, crossing his arms and glaring at empty space. If Todoroki wasn't going to give him a damn stroke, those idiots surely would, one day.

...

Fresh air had a way of calming Shouto down. Maybe that was an universal experience, or maybe the same didn't apply to everyone, but he felt as though his head was clearing up a little with every step that he took, even though he was just walking around the park area surrounding their dormitories, with no clear goal in mind.

Had he stayed in his room a little longer, he would have probably gone insane.

It wasn't that he disliked talking to his sister, just the opposite, but there was one matter they very clearly disagreed on. And what else could that matter be, if not their father. In a sense, it was admirable how Fuyumi had forgiven the man so readily, swallowing down all of her frustrations, hurt and anger, all for the sake of giving him a second chance. Shouto had never dared to ask her exactly how and why she'd managed to do it, but it was obvious to anyone with two eyes in their head that, out of Enji's children, she was the least conflicted about what she wanted their family to look like.

His brother was just the opposite, dead set on keeping his distance from the man and expressing his dislike of him, rather than anything else.

And Shouto, being the youngest, could understand the both of them. The burning hatred, the lasting pain, and the desire to work through the past, to free himself from the torment he'd been through by forgiving his father. Confusing was too tame of a word for it all; heroes were supposed to be understanding, always aiming to resolve conflicts rather than keeping them alive. They weren't supposed to let their ego get in the way, but in all honesty, it felt like an impossible task.

Shouto wasn't sure he could do it. Ever. Even if he wanted to, even if it was the 'right' thing to do.

Not with the way the man kept proving over and over again that he wasn't truly going to change, only ever polishing the scratches on the surface of his image. As much as he wanted to believe that he would learn, holding onto that hope felt a whole lot like setting himself up for future disappointment and hurt.

It had gotten harder with the years to see his father as a hero at all - by title, sure. But as a person, not so much.

And once again, he felt like an idiot.

Because his sister had told him about her plans for a family dinner next weekend, had told him that she stood no chance of convincing Natsuo unless Shouto agreed first, and though he knew that she was just trying her hardest to give them all some hopefully happy memories together, he'd felt the weight of his own indecisiveness pressing down on him all over again.

In the end, he'd agreed.

For his sister's sake, but still.

With everything currently going on in his life, the last thing he needed was a family dinner that was more than likely going to end up being one entire mess. Shouto had other things to think about than the messy state of his family; and as if the universe was trying to prove that point to him, that very thing came walking through the front gates of the dorms, surrounded by his group of friends.

It was hard to say what exactly happened inside of Shouto at the sight of Bakugou. It felt a little bit as though something was trying to climb its way out of his chest, getting stuck in his lungs, and leaving him just a little bit dizzy. Weirdly enough, it wasn't a bad feeling at all, but it still had the omega rooted to the spot.

He checked whether he'd accidentally frozen himself to the ground, but there was no ice to be found.

Shouto both watched and heard them approaching, but couldn't make out much of what they were saying, the entirety of his focus on the blonde alpha who had a half-scowl on his face, staring at the ground in front of him before sending a glare Mina's way. Somehow, seeing the alpha interact with his friends brought a fond little smile to Shouto's face.

He barely had the time to process it before the entire group was suddenly waving at him though, and he watched Kaminari push the alpha forward. Red eyes glared at the blonde beta before turning to look at Shouto, and stopping.

In fact, the both of them stopped moving for one long moment, just staring at each other.

Bakugou was the first to break out of the frozen state, and the strangest feeling of panic overtook Shouto as he approached with fast steps and his mind decided to remind him very actively of how nice Bakugou's lips felt. He held his breath, simply stared at Bakugou when he was finally close enough to greet him with an oddly breathless, "the fuck are you doing out here."

Shouto studied the way his lips moved to form words, but he eventually managed to snap his eyes away from them. He tilted his head a little bit to the side as he noticed two very large shopping bags in the alpha's hands. And then, once again, he had to drag his eyes away from the alpha's hands.

Bakugou made a noise that could mean just about anything, but it served as a reminder that conversations were based on verbal communication rather than ominous stares.

"I was just getting some fresh air," Shouto told him, swallowed.

"You're not even wearing a jacket," the alpha commented and Shouto's body chose that exact moment to remember that yes, it was getting colder outside. A shiver worked its way through him. Had he not been so lost in thought, he would have remembered that, yes, he was capable of regulating his temperature.

"Neither are you," Shouto replied factually, very aware of the fact that the blonde had rolled up the sleeves of his pullover. His eyes followed the lines of Bakugou's muscles, all the way down to his hands. Again. "You.. went shopping?"

Somehow, knowing what had happened earlier, Shouto felt weirdly aware of every single word that left his lips. It was obvious that Bakugou had bought things, so there really wasn't any point to asking the question, other than filling up the silence.

Because the less they talked, the easier it was to get sidetracked.

The variety of instinctual pulls had dulled somewhat, but there was no denying the fact that everything inside of Shouto wanted him to move closer to the alpha. He distantly remembered when his go-to method of dealing with anxiety and annoyance had been to self isolate. His coping methods were clearly in the process of changing, because yet again, seeing Bakugou made him very much aware of the fact that he didn't really want to be alone with his thoughts right now.

There were more calming things in the world than fresh air - and all of them that he could think of had something to do with the alpha in front of him.

Shouto nearly took a step back when Bakugou suddenly turned his head around and shouted across his shoulder, "don't you have fucking exams to study for," at the group that still stood a few metres away from them, all of them suddenly very quiet.

Shouto watched as Kirishima nodded his head eagerly and guided them all towards the dormitories.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your, ah. Shopping trip?" Shouto tried.

"You didn't interrupt shit, Halfie. In fact, I've got some," the alpha began, only to stop talking abruptly.

"Some?" Shouto parrotted.

"Let's get going, I'll tell you once we're there."

"Once we're where?" the omega asked, a little too aware of Bakugou's touch when he once again grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him away.

"Your room."

"My.. room?" Shouto asked after a moment.

"Not like that, you -"

"Like what?" he inquired, now sincerely confused and hardly capable of focusing on anything other than the warm hand on his arm. Red eyes fixed on him, and Shouto blinked at the alpha.

"Never mind."

It took them about a minute until they reached Shouto's room, and with each step, the omega grew a little more restless, knowing that they were about to be in his room. A closed space - with no one around. He had pretty much no idea what Bakugou wanted to do, say, or why they were heading to his room exactly, but Shouto knew that they were most likely going to do or say something once they reached it, and that knowledge was enough to have him just a little nervous.

At least his pills had kicked in by now, so he did feel a little more capable of controlling himself, as far as he could tell. And there really wasn't much of a reason to be nervous around Bakugou, as long as his mind was somewhat intact - it was odd to think that he'd ever be nervous around the alpha, really.

Shouto wasn't a nervous type of person. Had absolutely no reason to start being one today, of all days. But the conversation with his sister weighted heavily on his chest, and this strange sense of dread didn't seem to leave him. It didn't help that he had absolutely no idea where exactly Bakugou and him stood currently, or what he was about to tell him.

He took a deep breath, in and out.

The moment they had the door closed behind them, Shouto gave the alpha a hard and unflinching stare. He crossed his arms, only to uncross them a moment later, determined to keep things normal. Casual. Everything was okay. They had kissed - it wasn't that big of a deal.

Bakugou's face was unreadable as well, not a hint of his usual expressiveness to be found. It was the oddest feeling that overtook Shouto as he waited for the alpha to just say something. Shouto wondered if that was what it felt like for Bakugou whenever he was the one to keep his face blank and his reactions to a bare minimum. He'd never known that there could, in fact, be a sense of provocativeness in that.

"Bakugou," he pushed, oddly tense, tried to take another calming breath but it wasn't all that easy with those deep red eyes on him and the lack of a scowl or grimace on Bakugou's face.

Thankfully, it only took a second or two after that for the blonde to snap out of it, and subsequently, for Shouto to focus on anything other than how dark and large his pupils were and how nice of a contrast that was to the red.

"Are you okay?" the alpha asked.

Shouto nodded his head slowly, when he really couldn't tell. While his pills managed to quiet his instincts, the effect of it inevitably stretched on into the territory of his emotions, as well, turned them into murky waters where the distinction between over reactions and justified ones was hard to make. Still, it felt a little bit like lying through his teeth, and he wasn't sure why he felt the need to.

There was concern in Bakugou's eyes.

And perhaps his urge to lie had something to do with his breakdown earlier; as he eyed the alpha, he wondered what exactly he'd been thinking, talking about how they couldn't be friends. Thinking about that now, it felt like such an unfair thing to have even put out there. Maybe the ability to hurt people was something that ran in the family after all.

He remembered the expression on Bakugou's face too clearly.

"Are you?" Shouto asked cautiously.

"No. Yeah. Just, sit down or something."

... It sounded bad.

Shouto wasn't sure what to make of that request, and he raised a single brow at the alpha to make as much known. The glare Bakugou sent his way in response wasn't all that convincing, and Shouto could practically feel the worry seep into his bones.

"Ah, if this is about earlier, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I apologise," the omega automatically began to explain before he could think twice about it, feeling as if he had a million things to apologise for. From telling the alpha that they couldn't be friends anymore to randomly pushing their lips together and ruining whatever chance they had of being comfortable around each other in the future.

"Shut up."

It was perhaps one of the softest 'shut up's that Shouto had ever heard. Bicoloured eyes blinked at the alpha, the questions in them loud but unspoken.

Only for his eyes to widen when Bakugou chose to literally grab him by the shoulders and guide him backwards, until the back of his feet met the edge of the mattress. He pointed down at it, but Shouto was rooted to the spot yet again, wondering if it was just his mind's doing, or if the alpha's touch actually felt different. More intense. For a split second, he expected Bakugou to kiss him, but he instead got to watch quietly as Bakugou went back over to the bags he'd set aside, and carried them towards him.

Shouto studied him, uncertain but curious.

Bakugou was the first one to sit down, and Shouto followed his lead, crossing his legs and sending an expectant look his way. Whatever was going on had him sincerely confused.

"I got some stuff for you," Bakugou told him after another short pause, not looking Shouto in the eye.

".. Stuff?"

"Yeah, stuff."

Shouto nodded his head thoughtfully, "why?"

"What do you mean, why?" the alpha snapped, but it sounded confused rather than annoyed. Which made two of them - Shouto honestly had no clue what type of stuff Bakugou was talking about. At all. Before the omega had a chance to answer, Bakugou went on, "just, here. If you hate it, throw it away or whatever."

He shoved both bags into Shouto's lap as though they held the answers to all of his questions. When in reality, it was the exact opposite. Upon looking at the items in the first bag, Shouto found his confusion skyrocketing. He reached inside, pulled out the very first thing that caught his attention.

"You got me a pillow?"

Bakugou groaned next to him while Shouto studied the design. He recognised the delicate lines on the black and white pillow from some famous painting, but couldn't for the life of him remember the name of the artist. Either way, it looked nice, felt good - not cheap or scratchy - Shouto liked it, however confusing of a surprise this was, and the speed of his heartbeat sped up a little in his chest.

There were more things in the bag though. A lot more.

He'd expected bad news of some sort, not two entire bags full of presents.

".. And a candle," he added, somehow unable to imagine Bakugou Katsuki equipped with the patience to go candle shopping. He held the dark blue candle up to his nose, noting, "a scented candle."

"As I said, if you hate it, just throw it in the trash," Bakugou muttered and when Shouto turned back towards him, the alpha's face looked a little red. He suppressed the urge to check his temperature in favor of continuing his analysing of the 'stuff' Bakugou had randomly brought him.

"No, I don't hate it."

Truthfully, he wasn't sure what to say as he looked at the various items, trying to take it all in. Getting a present wasn't something Shouto was used to. Much less getting several at once; his head was a little slow to interpret the meaning of the various things as he looked at them. A nice-looking mug with a kitten printed on the smooth surface, a little transparent crystal with hints of an orange stone in the middle of it, yet another candle, a little red notebook with a fitting pen.

The pile of things surrounding him grew larger, and just as Shouto tried to come to terms with the fact that Bakugou had randomly decided to spend tons of money on him, the alpha pushed the second bag closer towards him.

He looked at the omega, eyebrows raised, and Shouto's head was suddenly filled with the realisation of how easy it would be to close the distance between them.

But he obviously had something else to focus on; another large paper bag that rustled as he grabbed the item at the very top.

Which happened to be the absolutely softest blanket in the world, and Shouto tried not to let it show just how weirdly fascinated he was by that. Of course, Bakugou probably had no idea about the entire struggle with his nesting instincts, and Shouto couldn't tell whether owning this blanket was a good or bad thing. It sort of felt like fuel poured into that particular fire, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't really bring himself to believe that it was a bad thing.

Not when Bakugou had given this to him.

It was mildly embarrassing to realise that he'd started purring happily at some point, running his fingers across the fabric and eyeing the variety of things surrounding him now. The only thing missing on them was the alpha's scent, and Shouto had to stop himself from physically dragging the blanket across Bakugou's skin like some sort of creep. Instead, he rested his arms on top of it, fingertips toying around with the fuzzy fabric.

"It's very... soft," he tried to explain the happy purring, but it was hard to tell whether it was really just the soft fabric that had his instincts kicking in all over again. The knowledge that Bakugou had gone out and gotten all of this stuff specifically for him filled him with a special brand of confusion and warmth; Shouto offered the alpha a little smile, worries momentarily forgotten.

He felt the urge to say something, but lacked the words to convey what he wanted to express, so Shouto settled for a simple, "I like it, very much."

He watched the alpha swallow, his Adam's apple moving as red eyes seemed to travel across the entirety of Shouto's face, all the way down to his neck.

"You do?"

"Yeah," the omega confirmed, more than happy to see the ghost of a smile tugging at Bakugou's lips in response. For a long moment, he got lost in the sight of them, wondering if he was allowed to kiss the alpha again or not.

"Well, there's more, Icyhot," the alpha said eventually.

"Oh, right."

".. Are those ice crystals?" Shouto couldn't help but inquire as he finally managed to get his fingers off the blanket and lifted the next package out of the bag.

"So what."

Maybe it was misplaced and mean, but Shouto actually burst out laughing as he eyed the Christmas lights that were seriously shaped like little ice crystals. He wasn't sure what it was, but there was something oddly amusing about it.

"Bakugou, are you sure you're okay?" he finally got out after a solid minute of laughing at his present like an asshole, and the alpha next to him definitely looked like he was taking this the wrong way when it really was a happy laugh rather than a condescending one.

The blonde actually went ahead and fetched the package out of Shouto's hand, glaring at him. "I told you to just throw it away if it's shit, can you stop fucking laughing at me."

"I'm not laughing at you," Shouto established.

"Sure, Christmas lights are just that fucking funny right."

"In a sense," Shouto confirmed, "it had me wondering if I was required to gift you items for your room that fit your quirk."

"You - what."

"Which made me wonder if there was such a thing as explosion- themed Christmas lights."

"That's - it's not fucking funny at all, you weirdo," Bakugou declared, and Shouto nodded his head, trying not to find it funny because it apparently wasn't. Really, he wasn't sure why he was laughing exactly. Receiving gifts probably shouldn't make a person as giddy as this, or should it? Maybe, or maybe it made him a bad person that he kind of liked this a lot.

And truthfully, the nervousness wasn't entirely gone either.

Most likely, that played into it as well.

His past self wouldn't believe him if he talked about how Bakugou was one day going to be sitting on his bed, handing him a variety of nice things, and how, in that situation, Shouto couldn't help wondering; what was the worst thing that could happen if he decided to just go for it and kiss the alpha again?

Was Bakugou going to punch him this time? Take the presents back? Insult him? Or maybe make a disgusted face?

... He hadn't, earlier.

But Shouto told himself that there was no need to push his luck - however much he suddenly wanted to. To express that light feeling slowly pushing away the tension, and continue where they'd left off earlier. But by now the pills had definitely kicked in.

Meaning, he couldn't blame it on instincts or the heat of the moment - and somehow, making a rational decision out of it instantly made the entire thing much, much harder. Scarier. He had no idea how to go about asking, just focused his gaze on the alpha's mouth in quiet frustration.

"You've.. got to help me choose a place for all of this," he decided, after battling with himself for a long few seconds. If Bakugou helped him with that, he was going to be in his room for a little longer, Shouto reasoned, which gave him a chance to try and think things through.

Besides, Shouto knew that he was a bit lacking in the 'decorating a room' department, because he'd never had much personal stuff at home, and his dorm room wasn't all that different. Except now, he suddenly had a variety of things and practically no idea where to place all of them.

The thought of home didn't do much good though - it served to remind him of the fact that, oh yeah, family dinner. He tried to push that thought away when all of a sudden it hit him that, "Oh, and. Thank you, Bakugou."

He hadn't even thanked the alpha yet.

It was as good of an excuse as any to wrap his arms around the blonde and bury his face in the fabric of his pullover, just enjoying his body warmth and his scent for a moment that Shouto had every desire to drag out. Although he couldn't see Bakugou's face like this, the slight shift in his scent gave both his surprise and a sense of relief away.

Perhaps the very same kind of relief that the omega felt when Bakugou finally decided to return the hug and wrap his arms tightly around his waist, pulling Shouto a little closer in the process.

...

Bakugou had never considered himself an awkward person, up until Shouto Todoroki happened to him. In a sense, the omega was forcing him to experience the very things that he'd always hated in others. Things like, not knowing which words to use, where to put his hands, over-thinking the meaning of words, sweaty palms - a strange kind of nervousness that came with actually wanting the person in front of him to react well that what he did.

The very same nervous attitude he'd always despised in people like Deku, who bent over backwards to make everyone like them.

Now, he kind of understood the thought process behind that - though only partially, because the one person who had him feeling this way was the omega in his arms. He literally felt like he'd forgotten how to fucking use words upon seeing him in front of the dorms, and the panic had spiked once they'd made it to Todoroki's room. The alpha hadn't even realised how terrified he'd truly been at the prospect of Todoroki reacting badly to his presents, up until they had closed the door behind themselves and there was no longer a way out of the situation.

He'd considered bolting out, pretending like he never even had the shitty fucking urge to drown the omega in useless little presents in the first place. Maybe letting the bags in his hands explode.

But he hadn't. Thankfully.

It was honestly so goddamn embarrassing how utterly unprepared he was for Todoroki to suddenly thank him and throw his arms around him. Although closeness wasn't uncommon between them at this point, the alpha couldn't entirely handle the fact that Todoroki - ice princess of UA and all - was somehow comfortable enough around him to show this type of affection towards him.

His body caught up with the situation a bit faster than his mind did, and before he knew it, Bakugou had already pulled the omega closer to himself, holding him in place.

Todoroki had obviously been a bit perplexed with the amount of random gifts, and the astonishment had obviously kept Bakugou at the edge of his seat, but as far as he could tell, the omega didn't hate them. Which meant that Bakugou's self doubts finally shut up and he didn't feel like quite as much of a nervous wreck anymore.

He hadn't really considered beforehand that the leftovers of their earlier activities would paint the air in between them with this certain type of tension.

But there were quite obviously some unspoken things between them, and Bakugou had no idea how to address shit. Which made it all the more relieving that hugs didn't require much talking. His hands settled on Todoroki's back, and he couldn't keep himself from running his fingers lightly across the fabric of his clothes as he rested his face against silky strands of hair.

The alpha inhaled deeply, caught no hint of the omega's natural scent, only the usual freshness he'd come to associate with him, likely a byproduct of his shampoo, and his own scent wrapped around it. Todoroki didn't seem to mind that Bakugou kept him pulled close to himself, only readjusted his head a little, his breath warm against Bakugou's skin.

Something as simple as a hug perhaps shouldn't make someone with aspirations as big as Bakugou's feel this happy, but whenever Todoroki was this close to him, it was considerably harder to think of all the ways in which Bakugou was dissatisfied with his progress or anything of that sort. He still wasn't entirely used to the feeling of stillness, but something about that body resting comfortably against his made it impossible to be bothered by anything outside of this small space.

Fuck, he wanted to kiss him again.

"So, your pills worked?" he managed to ask, just testing out the waters of how lucid the omega was exactly. He still couldn't say for sure how much of their making out had been heat-related, fueled by hormones.

"No, I'm totally in heat, that's why I'm capable of wandering around the dormitories and taking to you normally," Todoroki deadpanned, voice dry.

Embarrassingly enough, it took Bakugou a moment to realise that it was Todoroki's bad attempt at sarcasm, maybe because it appeared out of nowhere. However decidedly not funny the statement was, it was proof that the omega felt comfortable enough to act more like himself, which automatically put Bakugou at ease, as well. The entire 'walking on eggshells' business did not come naturally to him after all.

"That so, asshole. Guess sass is also a symptom of that, hah?"

"Mmh," the omega mumbled into his chest and Bakugou tried really fucking hard not to melt internally at the sound of it, "I'm a bit annoyed."

The alpha's hand stilled on his back, and he wondered if he'd heard the other correctly, because Todoroki didn't sound annoyed. He thought it over for a moment, inquired, "so you did hate the presents."

"What? No, I'm annoyed because of my father," Todoroki told him, and pulled away ever so slightly, and Bakugou's hands burned with the urge to pull him right back. But at the very least, the small amount of distance allowed them to make eye contact. Which wasn't all that good, because annoyed or not, Todoroki looked so damn stunning that Bakugou had to beat back the urge to grab his face and pull it up to his.

There were more important thought to have currently, however. And the anger that flowed through his veins at the statement served as a sweet fucking reminder.

"The hell did the asshole do this time."

Bicoloured eyes closed for a moment, and Bakugou tried not to get lost in the fascinating sight of the differently colored eyelashes fluttering as they reopened. His breathing sure as fuck stopped for a moment, however.

"He didn't do anything, it's just.. my sister made plans for a family dinner, and I agreed although I'd rather jump off a building than sit through that. Especially - ah. I don't know."

"Why the hell did you agree, then?" He asked, before he could stop himself. As an afterthought, the alpha added, "not like you're obligated to spend time with him if you don't want to."

"I know," the omega declared, face unreadable.

"Then why'd you -"

"Bakugou," the suddenness and the strength of Todoroki's voice seemed to startle them both for a moment, "can we talk about something else, please?"

Bakugou bit back the comment that it was Todoroki who'd started talking about his family issues in the first place, and a part of him wished that he'd say more, so maybe Bakugou would be able to help, in one way or another. He couldn't exactly force him to talk about it though, so the alpha opted for a, "sure, talk then."

But Todoroki only blinked at him, before turning to the pile of presents with the weirdest expression on his face. Something between frustration and shyness, almost. As per usual, it would be a fucking lot easier to say if Bakugou had a scent to go on, along with the minimalistic facial expressions the other offered.

For a long while, Todoroki stayed silent.

"I don't know if it's weird."

"What the hell are you talking about now?"

"I think," he began, stopped, "I'd like the blanket even better if it smelled like you."

The blunt honesty sure as fuck managed to catch him off guard. Bakugou had deliberately decided not to put his scent all over the items he'd bought (not that he'd have had the chance to, considering Todoroki was literally the first person he encountered upon returning). He hadn't wanted to appear like a possessive asshole, and he wasn't so sure he could handle the fact that Todoroki went ahead and fucking, asked for it.

Sweetly.

His voice only came back after a few moments of internal crisis that mostly consisted of telling himself that no - pushing the omega down and having his way with him was not the right course of action. It was just - Bakugou himself didn't know much about courting, and Todoroki probably even less, but the request felt pretty fucking significant either way. Because a blanket wasn't exactly like a hoodie; not something to take on or off. Rather than that, it was the type of thing Todoroki would keep in his bed, which meant that he wanted Bakugou's scent in his bed, which meant that - fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Whichever direction that thought process was currently taking, Bakugou wasn't so sure it was healthy. The alpha inside of him felt a whole lot too excited at the prospect of it all, and he had to keep himself from literally taking it as something it wasn't.

It was a request to scent a blanket - not an invitation for anything else.

Bakugou needed to get his shit together, but of course Todoroki had to go ahead and make that task just a little more impossible. He bent backwards, already reaching for the blanket before Bakugou had even agreed (which of course he would), and exposing his neck in the process as if he'd planned the entire thing out, which Bakugou knew he hadn't. Probably hadn't even thought about the fact that for a brief moment, Bakugou could see half of the mark he'd left on him earlier, and the sight sent him spiraling into a vortex of possibilities.

Things they could be doing.

Things he really fucking wanted to do with him.

And yet, paradoxically, the alpha knew that he was fine with anything. Whether that was scenting the blanket, talking about Todoroki's asshole of a father, or tasting every inch of the omega's skin. Hell, he'd be fine just sitting here in awkward silence with neither of them knowing what to say, preferably with the other in his arms. He really was that deep in, hopelessly drowning. No fucking land in sight whatsoever.

Bakugou had every desire to tell Todoroki that a blanket should be washed before he used it anyways, but something about the clumsy way in which it was shoved at him kept the alpha from saying as much out loud. He couldn't do much, except for staring at the pink lips that were pulled into a thin line; the omega looked weirdly concentrated.

Concentrated on what exactly, Bakugou couldn't say.

But then, Todoroki, weird as he was, proceeded to awkwardly wrap the blanket around him like a damn cape, and he snorted at Todoroki's weird way of doing this. "Seriously, Half and Half?"

A toneless,"what?", coupled with the cocking of a pretty head was all the answer he received. A sense of understanding seemed to flicker in bicoloured eyes suddenly, except - it wasn't really that. Instead, Todoroki spun around, turned back towards him with the pillow in his hands. "Oh, and this one too."

"Anything else?" Bakugou asked, mostly joking, but the comment actually had Todoroki looking around, as if this was a once in a lifetime chance and he wanted to make sure that any item that possibly could, smelled like the alpha.

Which was great for Bakugou's ego, but a little concerning as well.

It hit Bakugou in that moment that the prospect of a family dinner probably brought on a little more emotion than just annoyance. Looking at the omega from afar, no one would be able to tell just how much his family situation truly stressed him out, but Bakugou had a pretty good idea by now. And Icyhot sure as fuck needed to stop bottling that shit up, only for the dam to break at random intervals when he literally couldn't take any more stress. He'd seen that happen a few too many times now, and knew what that felt like.

Both of them really weren't the type to ask for help unless it was absolutely required, so Bakugou got that, he really did.

It didn't mean that he couldn't do his damn best to get a little fucking better at reading the clues though. Like right now, where he was pretty fucking sure that the entire thing bothered Todoroki much more than he wanted to let on.

Clearly.

He watched him bend over to grab his other pillow, wondered if the omega even noticed what he was doing. Maybe Bakugou was mistaken, but it looked suspiciously like he was gathering stuff to build a nest with. There was a distinct lack of things around to actually do that though, and Bakugou found himself glad that he'd brought the blanket and pillow.

He only wished he'd bought like, twenty more, when the omega let out a frustrated huff as he looked around in his room.

That insistent urge to give him whatever he wanted hit Bakugou squarely in the face all over again; this couldn't possibly be entirely normal. He'd literally just spent tons of money on stuff for him, but it didn't feel like it was enough.

The mushy thoughts were clearly taking over, but the alpha couldn't find it in himself to give a fuck.

With the blanket still hanging over his shoulders and a pillow on his lap, he reached over and pulled the omega backwards, receiving a little surprised "oh" in response as he placed him right in front of himself, Todoroki's back against his chest. There was an unmistakable tension in the muscular body, and Bakugou was overly determined to change that.

"Icyhot," he began, "stop over-thinking it."

"Over- what?" Todoroki asked, and Bakugou didn't miss the way he shifted ever so slightly closer into his hold as he denied, equally as stubbornly as unconvincingly, "I'm not over-thinking it."

"Sure as fuck seems like you are."

Even without seeing his face, Bakugou knew exactly the type of expression that was to be found on the omega's features right now. There was no way he didn't have that stubbornly empty look on his face that was pretty much the Todoroki equivalent of a pout. For a little while the two of them stayed silent, and the only sound was the inner debate Bakugou was having.

Up until he decided, fuck it, and let his hands slide along the sides of Todoroki's body, all the way up to his shoulders, where he stopped briefly, wondering if he was being too fucking forward. Then again, they'd literally made out, so the alpha told himself that massaging his shoulders was probably in the cards. Not that Bakugou had any clue how to massage people - but he'd set his mind to the task of helping his omega relax, and how fucking hard could it be to touch someone in a way that made them feel better?

... Not like people spent years studying how to do that properly or shit. Bakugou was seriously going to hate himself if he accidentally hurt Todoroki, so he opted for light touches, the type the was just one step up of from stroking his back. It was an improvised method, but one that came rather naturally to him, and a sense of fulfillment overtook the alpha when the omega in his grasp breathed out a little sigh in response to his touch, his body responding oh so fucking nicely.

It was kind of an issue, the way they didn't talk about those types of touches they shared, wasn't it?

But fuck if Bakugou knew what the hell he was supposed to say, something along the lines of 'I can't stand the thought of you stressed out, let me touch you until your worries melt away?' This wasn't a fucking movie, and he sure as fuck wasn't eloquent enough to put his protective urges into words that didn't sound downright terrifying. Never one for overtly physical affections, Bakugou was now seriously reconsidering why he hadn't tried this type of thing earlier.

Everything considered, it was a small miracle that the omega relaxed at all, beneath his touch. He blamed it on the fact that Todoroki had no damn clue how much Bakugou enjoyed touching him.

And with every bit of tension that left Todoroki's body, Bakugou felt a little less stressed out, as well. He liked the way Todoroki's shoulders felt beneath his hands, liked the fact that every touch made him a little more familiar with the omega's body, with the type of touch he liked, and which he didn't. He allowed himself to pay very close attention to every intake of breath, every tightening and relaxing of muscles, and every time the omega actively leant into his touch.

Taking small details into consideration was something Bakugou was good at, always had been. Although this wasn't exactly fight-related, he could still make use of his ability to quickly translate information into according actions.

"You're surprisingly good at this," Todoroki confirmed after the longest while of saying nothing at all. Bakugou stopped moving, tried very hard not to feel provoked by the statement.

Still, he found himself barking out a, "don't sound so fucking surprised," his ego ever so slightly wounded.

"I'm not," Todoroki denied, "not really."

Bakugou's grasp on his shoulders tightened a little as he asked, "the hell is that supposed to mean now."

But the omega only pushed himself backwards into Bakugou's chest, and Bakugou distantly found himself thinking that he probably shouldn't let him get used to this treatment. Only for the thought to die a second or two later, at the sound of yet another sigh that faded into something that sounded suspiciously like suppressed purring.

He was all too fucking eager to actually make him purr beneath his touch.

"Bakugou?"

The alpha nodded his head, realised only a moment later that the other couldn't exactly see that. And yet, Todoroki continued speaking.

"There's always more than two options, right?"

The question was just vague enough to make the alpha stop in his movements yet again. He thought it over for a moment, tried to figure out what exactly the context of the question was, but the thing was that, with Todoroki in his hold, Bakugou's capacity to think clearly was a little fucking limited.

"What d'you mean?" he mumbled as he leaned forward, soft hair ticking his nose.

"I mean, there's got to be something between forgiving someone and hating them."

... Was there?

Of all things in the world, philosophical questions weren't what the alpha had anticipated as he'd entered Todoroki's room. But the question definitely served to make it a little more obvious what types of thoughts he was lost in. Although Bakugou, in his own past, had frequently been a black and white thinker, he was somehow incapable of defending that type of thought process, when it definitely didn't apply in this case.

He truly doubted that Todoroki was even capable of hating anyone either way. The fact that he asked himself those types of questions proved as much; he wanted to to the right thing, even if it hurt. Bakugou didn't entirely get that, but somehow he still found himself understanding the issue.

"Not like I can answer that for you, Icyhot," he said, rubbed his thumbs along the omega's shoulder blades, "but what I can say for sure is that there's no pressure to decide. You don't owe the asshole anything. Say you decide to forgive him, and it ends up feeling wrong, then you say fuck it, block his number and keep it at that. Or if you decide that you don't want to see his stupid face ever again and one day think that maybe you want to, then you do that. Fuck final decisions, you can always go by what feels right to you in the moment. Don't need to prove shit to anyone, especially your dad."

There was a certain stillness in Todoroki's body as the works sunk in, and Bakugou hoped that he didn't sound too fucking stupid and egotistical with his type of thinking, but then again; Todoroki needed to give himself the chance to be stupid and egotistical every once in a while. His damn father could easily deal with a bit of hatred, and Bakugou would rather see that on the number one hero's shoulders, rather than Todoroki's.

"I definitely think he's a piece of shit for what he did to you," he added.

So much for selfish and egotistical. The alpha nearly laughed at the irony of it; he was anything but capable of seeing things objectively when it came to the omega, so maybe his advice wasn't worth shit. But either way, it was all he could offer, and it was Todoroki's fault for coming to him with questions that someone like Bakugou wasn't qualified to answer.

But somehow, instead of saying as much, Todoroki twisted around in his hold, until he managed to look at Bakugou, and the alpha wasn't entirely sure what he was trying to find in his eyes, all he knew was that the look had him nearly hypnotised. No one should be allowed to have such a pretty face, Bakugou found himself thinking.

"He is," the omega confirmed, gaze turning softer, "I just, I don't ever want to become like him."

Of course. Bakugou took a breath in, one of his hands sliding down the omega's side, involuntarily tightening.

"I just told you that I hate him," he began, bicoloured eyes attentive, their gazes locked, "so fucking tell me, if you actually think you're like him, does it look to you like I hate you?"

Todoroki considered it for a moment, before shaking his head, "no?"

"Exactly my damn point."

There was nothing shocking about the statement, not at all, and yet the omega's mouth still fell open, and stayed that way for a few seconds, no words coming out. Bakugou wasn't sure what was happening behind those eyes, but eventually Todoroki offered him a glimpse into his thought process.

"I don't hate you either," the omega offered, gaze wandering down to Bakugou's lips in a way that was anything but subtle.

This shit was getting ridiculous.

There wasn't a conscious thought involved in what happened next.

One moment, he had a blue and a grey eye fixed on him, and the next thing Bakugou knew was that they fluttered closed as he managed to get his hand all tangled up in white and red locks, turning his own head to the side to make the entire thing a little easier.

And then he was kissing Todoroki. Again.

So gently that the touch barely felt real; all he knew was that he'd somehow managed to miss those lips quite fucking badly when it was only hours ago that he'd tasted them. There wasn't a fucking thing in the world that could compare to that feeling; Bakugou pitied anyone who wouldn't ever get to experience it, and rejoiced in it at the same time, because he'd make damn sure that no one ever would.

Todoroki's lips were warm. Perfectly soft and lacking all the shyness that Bakugou had mistakingly expected to find in them. The omega wasn't even stunned for a moment, just kissed him back as though he'd been waiting to do that for the longest while.

Which honestly didn't fucking help the alpha feel any less enraptured with him. If anything, the unexpected eagerness made it better; there wasn't a single thing Bakugou could focus on, other than the slowly-growing urgency with which their mouths touched. His hold on the silky strands tightened when the pressure of their kiss increased. He couldn't fucking help it, pulled the omega closer, so hard that their teeth clashed together uncomfortably.

Todoroki didn't seem faced in the slightest, however.

Instead, he was halfway turned around now, kneeling on the futon and letting one of his own hands - the colder one - get tangled up in Bakugou's locks, pulling with much of the same desperation that Bakugou's hold promised. The alpha couldn't stop a small groan from slipping out of his lips at the action.

Knowing how complicated things were for the omega, Bakugou had grown to appreciate each and every forward action just a little more - besides, there was something undeniably hot about the way in which the omega chased him, adamant to not leave the slightest bit of space between them or give them a break.

It was just enough enthusiasm to give the entire kiss a sense of familiarity, because Bakugou knew what Todoroki was doing. The very same thing he did best. Pushing him, challenging him, and yet somehow packaging the entire thing so nicely that it felt like a privilege rather than an actual threat.

Bakugou knew how to reply to Todoroki's antics, knew how to spit out curses and insults, knew how to serve a proper punch in a fight, and he knew - before he even went through with it - that he was capable of showing Todoroki exactly what his behavior was doing to him.

How the hell they'd gone from discussing family issues to this was one fucking mystery, but not the type that Bakugou could spend many thoughts on as he, ever so slowly, began to push the omega backwards.

And no matter how impatient he felt, the alpha made sure to do so in the slowest way he could, enjoying it a little bit too much when the omega's warmer hand shot out to claw at his back, in an attempt to keep himself upright as Bakugou held him just inches above he mattress, the omega's body still twisted in a way that would be comical if Bakugou wasn't so dead set on making him moan currently.

He pulled away, mostly to catch a glimpse of that pretty face, and nearly laughed at how eagerly Todoroki followed him up, definitely using all the strength in his abdominal muscles to chase Bakugou's mouth.

And still, he was a little too fucking slow.

As bicoloured eyes reopened, there was a sense of annoyance in that that made Bakugou feel strangely overjoyed. He could fucking see it in Todoroki's eyes how pissed he was about the fact that their kiss was interrupted, and that knowledge did something to Bakugou.

Something weirdly intoxicating.

He sent a half-smirk the omega's way, looking down at the perfection that was a flushed face, lips opened and pupils dilated into dark clouds. It wasn't like Bakugou didn't want to kiss him without a break in between, but he'd be fucking stupid to miss out on that sight. Because seriously, the flush on high cheek bones that was the result of nothing but kissing trumped high quality porn by a thousand times.

Bakugou really, seriously fucking doubted that the omega had any clue how beautiful his face looked. The alpha couldn't get enough of the hungry stare that was directed at his lips, but what really killed the last of his sanity was the way in which Todoroki's eyes slowly went from Bakugou's lips up to his eyes as he bit his damn lip like he was born to seduce the sanity out of his brain specifically.

That right there should be fucking illegal.

It nearly gave Bakugou a heart attack, that much was for sure.

And also killed all the patience he possessed, which left Bakugou with no other option than pushing the omega further down; he internally cursed at the mere show of flexibility that he was offered. Todoroki wasn't even trying to show off, was simply allowing the alpha to fold his body as he pleased, and before he connected their mouths again, Bakugou just had to go ahead and scent-mark him all over again, reveling in the breathless sounds that he was awarded with as he pushed the side of his head into Todoroki's hair, and slowly slid down all the way to his jawbone.

Bakugou really couldn't help it. Whether it was the habit of wanting to fuck with Half and Half, or just curiosity, he ended up dragging his teeth across the omega's earlobe, and froze at the reaction it got out of him. A labored breath, and the almost brutal movement of pulling his head backwards and exposing his neck - Bakugou could practically hear his bones protest at how violently and suddenly the moment happened.

"Sensitive?" he whispered, knowing all too well that he sounded a bit too fucking smug, but the alpha really couldn't help it.

Each and every positive reaction fed his ego, and there was a weird sense of pride attached to the realisation that Bakugou would probably have the chance to figure out more sensitive spots on Todoroki's body. It could probably be attributed to that particularly distracting train of thought that Bakugou didn't even notice the fact that Todoroki shifted against him.

Up until the omega's mouth was on the alpha's neck, biting into the flesh so harshly that just about every muscle in Bakugou's body tensed up in response. Of course, his reaction prompted the other to do the same thing all over again, and it made the alpha painfully aware of how fucking nice it was that Todoroki had no clue about anything omega-related. As far as he knew, most omegas wouldn't dare to bite an alpha, even months into an actual relationship, but of course, this particular omega was the exception to that rule.

Outdated rule, but still one that people tended to oblige to.

When the fuck wasn't Todoroki the exception.

Really.

Maybe it was weird that Bakugou liked it, but then again, he had no clue who'd come up with those stupid fucking standards in the first place. There was another positive side to the fact that Todoroki had no clue what the hell he was doing; at the very least, he seemed either uninterested in or incapable of leaving behind any lasting type of mark on Bakugou's neck. Which was for the best, because the alpha could only imagine what the hell everyone was going to be thinking and talking about for the next few days.

He'd really allowed his friends to go searching for a present with him, huh.

Yet another, softer, bite in the nape of his neck had ever hair on his body standing up, and Bakugou actually fucking gasped in surprise because it was fucking unfair how good Todoroki was at this when he had practically no experience to go on. His grip on the omega tightened, and Todoroki had the fucking audacity to whisper a, "sensitive?" into his ear, copying him.

Something about that was just the right mixture of hot and infuriating to snap Bakugou out of his momentary paralysis, and he made quick work or pinning the omega down to the mattress, hands on his arms and applying a little more pressure than he needed to.

"I'll fucking show you sensitive," he threatened (although really, it was a promise rather than a threat), and half a second later, their lips collided all over again, with much less delicacy than before. It managed to shut Todoroki up quite beautifully, and Bakugou had every intention of kissing him until he fucking couldn't anymore, giving him more than he could handle because that was exactly what the bastard was asking of him.

He went about his task of kissing the omega stupid, just forceful enough to swallow up every little gasp and sigh that was offered to him. Through it all, Bakugou had to make an effort to remind himself of the fact that they still hadn't technically talked about shit, so he couldn't exactly push the limits beyond the realms of making out, but he wanted to, so badly that it almost hurt.

Wanted to shove his knee in between the other's legs. Wanted to allow his hands to roam beneath his shirt and test out every bit of skin he could find. Fuck; he wanted to bury his fucking head between Todoroki's legs and pull screams rather than soft vocalisations out of him.

There was hardly a thing Bakugou didn't want to do with the beautiful body that was so pliant beneath his own, but he knew all too well that this was still a new development between them, and rushing could easily ruin whatever level of trust they were in the process of achieving.

And really, he hadn't bought the omega gifts to get into his pants - that was literally the last thing he'd been thinking about when doing that.

Then again, it wasn't like he didn't want to. Get into Todoroki's pants, that was. So fucking badly that it was nearly killing him, but Bakugou possessed enough fucking decency to pull back when their kiss turned into something very heated and oxygen-deprived. When their breaths started to intermingle hotly and their shifting against each other bordered on clueless dry-humping.

Whatever willpower he summoned in that moment, Bakugou couldn't say. But what he could say was that he had every intention of making anything that happened between them so fucking special for the omega; as in, planning ahead, going slow and actually talking about it beforehand. Adding another regret to the list of Todoroki's worries was the last fucking thing he wanted.

The trouble was that Todoroki had a way of making it look like he wasn't going to regret shit.

While he clearly lacked the words to say what he thought about the entire thing, the omega's body was so fucking sweet on the sense that it offered up every bit of enthusiasm on a silver platter. Not in a way that anyone could describe as cheap, but in a way that left very little doubt in Bakugou's mind that he could push it further, if he thought it was the right thing to to.

From breathless little moans to the way Todoroki's legs had repositioned themselves, started to wrap around his body, to the way his hands actually fucking trembled as they held on to the alpha for dear life.

None of that was a fucking stop sign.

And all of it was entirely too beautiful for rational thoughts to mean anything; Bakugou still couldn't believe that he'd somehow earned himself the privilege of kissing Todoroki, and that was more than he could really have ever hoped for. And like the greedy bastard he was, he now found himself wanting even more.

How the helll was he supposed to not want more anyways?

A growl slipped out of his lips, mostly directed at his own thoughts. Red eyes watched, helplessly, as that was all it took for the omega to throw his head back, reveal his neck all over again, lips parted in shallow breaths. Bakugou could feel the other's chest rising and falling beneath him, could practically hear the orchestra consisting of two violent heartbeats, could feel his self control slipping.

"This okay?" he rasped, wanting some sort of verbal agreement.

But all he received at first was a moment of silence, then cocked eyebrow, a blank stare.

Then, an almost agitated, emphasised, "yes."

And before he knew it, strong arms pulled him down into the warmth that was Todoroki's neck, and that was that. At least the answer had been very fucking clear, and it calmed down the part of him that somehow kept insisting that he needed to take everything super fucking slow. Bakugou knew that the omega wasn't made of glass, knew that if there was one thing Todoroki didn't need, it was an alpha arrogant enough to question the decisions he made for himself.

It was just, oh so fucking terrifying.

How quickly Bakugou found himself getting used to this; when really, Todoroki had always given off the impression that he could care less about such utterly human things as making out or messing around with anyone. If he randomly decided that this wasn't for him, then what the hell was Bakugou supposed to fucking do. It already felt like he needed to taste his skin more than he needed fucking oxygen in his lungs. The amount of power that Todoroki had over him was absolutely fucking concerning.

He stilled with his lips barely even touching the soft skin, told himself to stop it with the fucking doubts already.

He wasn't going to fuck this up.

Like fuck would he allow his stupid, deeply-buried insecurities to ruin this for the two of them. If there was one thing he prided himself in, it was the ability to aim for high goals, and the highest goal he currently had in life was to wreck the omega beneath him, make him feel so fucking good - make sure that he needed the alpha just as badly as Bakugou needed him.

It was a sweet little whimper that spurred him into action.

Todoroki was pushing himself up into his touch, apparently unable to wait for Bakugou to get his shit together. The eagerness of the sound had the alpha taking in another breath before his patience snapped altogether, just as Todoroki began to speak in a rushed tone, "Bakugou, can you please do some-"

He didn't get to finish that sentence.

Because Bakugou didn't let him.

Maybe he used a little too much force, but the alpha really couldn't help it. Without a warning, he caught the soft skin that was very fucking close to Todoroki's scent gland in-between his teeth, and bit down on it, sensibility be damned. He was awarded with a loud, broken moan that was like fire injected straight right into his veins.

The body beneath him had tensed up brutally, and Bakugou almost felt bad due to the amount of force he had used. The desire to leave marks on the omega was a physical force though, and he allowed his tongue to run across skin, in something like a silent apology, before he opened his jaw, pressed a messy kiss right atop the omega's scent gland.

The telltale tightening of hands on his back and the feeling of the other's body pushing into his didn't help the slowly growing hunger for more of him.

Bakugou found his hand gaining a will of its own, running down the omega's clothed chest because he just fucking needed to feel more of him. He let his teeth graze the omega's scent gland ever so slightly. However small the action, it definitely didn't go unnoticed. Todoroki choked on a breath, made a strange sound that Bakugou couldn't interpret, but didn't shy away from the touch.

Bakugou forced himself to take a breath, forced air into his lungs.

"Bakugou," the omega whispered into his hair barely a second later, voice husky, "do that again."

"Do what, Icyhot?" he just had to ask, his own voice barely above a whisper. Bakugou knew - he just really fucking wanted to hear it said out loud.

It earned him yet another little noise of impatience.

"Bite me," Todoroki clarified and fucking hell, Bakugou was fucking suicidal apparently, because hearing that actually killed him. It was so easy to read more into it, to convince himself that the omega actually wanted to be marked, and God was Bakugou willing to go ahead and -

"Please?"

He couldn't stop himself from being rougher this time, actually biting into the already swollen skin and refusing to let go even as the other trashed in his hold, tensing up and moaning out loud in something between pain and pleasure. The sound only served to make Bakugou want to push him a little further, and he wasn't sure how that had happened, but he found his hand beneath the other's shirt, fingers touching warm skin that felt entirely too fucking nice to be real.

He started sucking on the abused skin, allowed his fingers to run across a smooth stomach, and Todoroki was a damn firework of reactions beneath him.

From the almost pained-sounding whines that tore from his throat to the goosebumps suddenly covering his body. The knowledge that the alpha was capable of putting him into this state with so little effort was everything. Bakugou couldn't fucking believe that Todoroki was actually real.

But he felt real, real and present and entirely fucking human, right beneath him.

Intoxicating. He kept going, up until the skin beneath his mouth was wet and felt irritated, but even then, the omega moaned little variations of "yes" into the room.

But then, he was suddenly quiet; Bakugou felt the shift, although he couldn't put it into words what exactly it was. The omega's stomach hardened beneath his fingers.

The hands that had been pushing him closer pulled Bakugou away, weakly and a sound that was all pain and no pleasure fell from Todoroki's lips.

That snapped Bakugou out of his quest real fast; he'd pushed himself up in just a second, staring down at the other in panic. Whatever he'd done to fuck up, he definitely had managed to, somehow. Todoroki's eyes were closed tightly, but the wetness around them was unmistakable.

"What's wrong?" Bakugou asked, voice small. Not at all ready to hear that he'd fucking hurt his omega, but here he was.

It fucking hurt, knowing that he'd messed up, he'd bitten too hard like some fucking asshole or -

"Cramp, I think," the omega managed to reply, but Bakugou could hear the pain in his voice all too clearly. He didn't know how to react at first, didn't know shit about cramps because he'd never had any bad enough for him to remember.

And yet, the alpha found himself nodding his head, instinctively set on making it better. Helping. Although he had no fucking clue how to, or what had brought this on so suddenly.

"Where does it hurt?" he asked, and waited for the omega to reply. When he didn't for almost a minute and instead just curled in on himself a little, Bakugou's worry fucking skyrocketed. "Shouto," he pushed.

Bicoloured eyes opened ever so slightly, and Bakugou wondered how fucking bad it had to feel, for someone who was used to physical fights and all to be rendered incapable of speaking.

"Stomach," he eventually managed, voice eerily quiet.

"Stomach," Bakugou repeated, "Okay. Okay, fuck. Let's just get you to Recovery Girl, alright?"

Shouto shook his head.

Bakugou had no clue why.

"Icyhot, you're obviously hurting, she needs to take a look at - "

"At my stomach, do an ultrasound test and figure - ah. Figure out that I've lied about my secondary gender all along? No."

Bakugou could not believe that Todoroki had the fucking energy to be this stupid and stubborn when he barely had the energy to form words. What the hell.

"There is auch a thing as confidentiality," he replied, but Todoroki kept shaking his head, his eyebrows pulled tightly together.

"I've had cramps before, it'll go away," he pushed out, "sorry."

"Quit apologising, it doesn't make it fucking better that you've had this before! No way in hell does this look healthy!"

"Stop screaming."

Bakugou had half a mind to scream louder instead, in an attempt to scream some fucking sense into Icyhot's head, but he couldn't really bring himself to, knowing that the omega was fucking struggling here.

"Fine. Anything I can do?" he inquired awkwardly, because this really looked like a doctor matter rather than a 'it'll go away by itself' one. Especially with the suddenness of the cramps; how the hell did the omega not see that as fucking concerning.

"Wait here, with me," Todoroki all but demanded, and he looked so fucking pitiful that Bakugou knew he wasn't going to leave any fucking time soon. No one could drag his ass away from his omega's side, especially when he was in pain. The alpha inside of him was losing its fucking shit, wanting to drag him to a damn hospital or somewhere, just to make sure that it was nothing serious, that he was going to be okay and -

"And please," Todoroki went on, "try to calm down. You smell very worried."

"That's because I am fucking worried, one moment we're making out and the next you just fucking, look like you're dying from cramps. How the hell am supposed to not be worried about that shit," Bakugou went off, but thankfully, quieter this time. He let his hand rub the other's head softly, feeling so utterly fucking useless in this situation. It wasn't like he could offer much help.

Other than his presence, if that even counted.

For a long ten minutes or so, it was just that; watching Todoroki suffer and hearing him groan every now and then, while trying to stay calm and not drag his ass into the next best ER at every pained sound.

"I didn't mean to interrupt our - that. Bad timing," Todoroki eventually said, pointed at his body, and Bakugou couldn't help himself, he stared in disbelief at the omega. His hands stilled on red and white hair.

"We can do that any fucking time you idiot. More importantly, you feel any better yet?"

"Can we?" Todoroki inquired, as if he hadn't even heard the second part. Bakugou felt as though he was watching a medieval rich woman succumb to stress or something. Like Todoroki was fucking precious and delicate when he knew for a fact that, while the first may be true, the second most certainly wasn't.

"Yeah."

"Good," Todoroki declared, shifted around a little. And for the second time that day, the omega fell asleep on Bakugou, leaving the alpha behind with a variety of questions. The internet searches he took on his phone while continuing to rub circles against his forehead didn't help much. Didn't help at all, fucking honestly, because the last things he needed to hear right now were words like cancer (thanks for the freaking paranoia), failed pregnancy (which he was fairly sure shouldn't be the case here), or endometritis (which also sounded fucking scary).

Bakugou hated the internet. In this moment in particular, because it made not slipping into worst case scenarios all the more impossible.

And yet he couldn't stop researching it. Hell.

A certain explanation for lower body cramps in omegas caught his attention though it wasn't at the top of the list. Bakugou actually went ahead and read the explanation a few times over, trying to process what he was reading as the list just fucking kept getting longer.

'Overuse of medication containing hormones, the most common being Heat Suppressants and Scent Blockers, can lead to various symptoms, such as;
- stomach or muscle pains and cramps
- vomiting and nausea
- dizzy spells
- infections of reproductive organs
- infections of the scent glands
- infertility
- fatigue
- a variety of mental health conditions

Further research has yet to be conducted on the matter, though it has been reported in multiple cases, mostly by young omegas that continually suppress their scents and/or heats that symptoms increase with the duration of the usage. Doctors worldwide agree that no more than three heat cycles should be suppressed in a row, while the opinions on scent blocker usage are divided as studies are still being conducted. In case of complications, omegas are always advised to contact their doctor for further information.'

Chapter Text

Shouto's heart was beating wildly in his chest, like a hungry caged animal pacing around at the scent of food. Every inch of him was cold with anticipation, warm with needy impatience. And the only thing that seemed to calm those conflicting sensations down were the rough hands stroking along the sides of his clothed torso. He could feel the warmth of Bakugou's hands even through the fabric, and though Shouto could regulate his body temperature unlike anyone else, no amount of working on fine tuning his quirk would allow him to replicate the sensation of the alpha's body warmth.

It had him wondering if he could ever offer up the same sense of comfort to Bakugou; Shouto's one side was always just a little too hot, the other a little too cold.

That question was thrown out of the window the exact moment that Bakugou's fingers slipped under his shirt, came to rest at his lower stomach and stopped moving. Shouto wasn't the impatient type, not really, but he understood the little noise of protest that left him all too well. Patience wasn't currently at the forefront of his mind, and God, did he want more.

"Bakugou," he whispered, lifting his head up to catch a glimpse of the alpha.

Red eyes looked back up at him, and Shouto wished they'd turned the light on. Wished that he could make out the look on his face a little better, because he currently didn't have much to go on, other than the bare hint of moonlight from the window that reflected in the red like sea foam washed up on a surreal shore. Shouto's hand had reached out before he'd realised it, traveling along the line of Bakugou's neck with barely existent pressure.

Again, it struck him just how nicely warm Bakugou was. Neither burning up nor lifeless and cold.

Perfect, he thought, and his hand stopped moving, rested where it was.

Bakugou's own hands crumbled up the fabric of his shirt between rough fingers, and a breath got stuck in Shouto's throat, nerves and comfort fighting a battle inside of him.

"This needs to come off," the alpha demanded a second later, pulling at his clothes. His tone was a little off, scratchy but not with aggression as usual. If Shouto had to guess, he'd say that it was something along the lines of impatience as well. The very same kind that he was infected with. Whatever it was didn't take away from the fact that the words sounded like a command, a command Shouto wasn't obligated to follow, but he found himself wanting to.

Because he liked the thought of putting that little bit of neediness into Bakugou's voice; it was reassuring to know that he wasn't the only one whose self control wasn't entirely as immaculate as it had to be on a daily basis.

"Does it now," he replied, tried his hardest to keep up a certain sense of coolness in his voice, but most of his well-practiced calmness seemed to wash away with the realisation that Bakugou was actually about to do this. Take his shirt off, touch him, feel him. Shouto didn't know what to expect, but he knew that it felt meaningful. Something inside of him was almost a little too pleased with the idea of being unwrapped like a present and he allowed his head to sink back down into the pillow, huffing out a breath.

"You want me to take it off?" the alpha asked just as Shouto had come to terms with the fact that he could smell the alpha's eagerness in his scent. It was easy to tell that Bakugou wanted him to say it out loud though; to state clearly that yes, Shouto wanted him to go ahead, undress him. Do something. Anything.

He took a breath, in and out.

Another wave of anticipation nearly threatened to choke him, and there wasn't much he could do, really. Whereas his pride would have kept him from expressing as much in any other situation, pride was currently among his last concerns. He needed the alpha to continue, needed something other than the weight of unmoving hands on his stomach.

Because Shouto was hyperaware of the hands tangled up in his clothing, and every second that ticked by without movement had him feeling just a little less composed.

"Yes," he bit out, pressing his head further back, "just please do something."

As if specifically to torture Shouto, the alpha considered his words for a long moment, then ran his thumb along the line of his hip bone, and it had Shouto's entire body trying to lift itself off the mattress. Bakugou's weight was the only thing pinning him down, and it only allowed for his upper body to try and chase his touch, while his legs and hips remained as they were, captured.

"Bakugou," he whispered harshly, increasingly frustrated with the sweet time the other was taking.

"Eager much?" Bakugou asked, and Shouto could hear the mean grin in his voice, wanted to be annoyed by it, but only managed to find himself agreeing. He felt eager, more than eager - he wanted Bakugou's lips on his, wanted his hands roaming over his body like Bakugou couldn't help himself. Wanted to have the permission to touch him as well.

Anything.

"Yes," he found himself agreeing out loud. The weight the word carried was almost ridiculous.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Bakugou seemed to be happy with his answer, and Shouto's heart did another jump in his chest when the alpha's hands were suddenly at his sides again, grabbing him and pulling him up into a sitting position. There was something about how easily Bakugou managed to lift his weight that very nearly had him whimpering.

Their lips met then, before Shouto had the chance to really make sense of the change in position, and this time he did whimper into the kiss, hands shooting out to take a hold of strong shoulders. He pressed his chest forward until it rested right against Bakugou's, and tried to keep up with the quick pace at which the alpha's lips were playing around with his.

Bakugou's scent, he couldn't help but think, was like a drug that washed away his ability to multitask.

Because as soon as the alpha's hands had resumed their task of grabbing his shirt and slowly pulling it up, Shouto fell behind in terms of kissing, only managed to pant desperately into Bakugou's mouth as goosebumps covered his back, his chest, his arms.

Despite the lack of kissing from his side, he still found himself making a displeased little noise as Bakugou pulled away.

"Arms up," the blonde said, but barely gave the omega a second to process the words before his arms were forced up as the shirt was pulled over his head in a rushed movement.

Although the room wasn't all that cold, the sudden lack of clothes still had him squirming a little, pushing himself tighter against Bakugou, chasing his touch and burying his head in his neck, breathing in the spicy scent that promised that there was more to come. Shouto wanted to ask the alpha to take off his own shirt, but his voice seemed to fail him.

Another pitiful sound left his mouth as Bakugou made quick work of pushing him back down into the mattress, hard. So hard that Shouto's breathing stopped for a moment. When he reopened his eyes after a second or two, Bakugou was hovering above him, though the darkness didn't allow Shouto to make out the details of his face. A chaste kiss was pressed to his lips, and before the omega had any chance to reciprocate, Bakugou's mouth was out of reach, on his throat.

The sensation of warmth, of wetness and pressure conspired against Shouto in the best way possible; he choked on an exhale as the open-mouthed kiss against his skin turned into a soft bite. Then, a harder bite.

The instinct to offer up his neck kicked in all too naturally, and he found himself pressing the side of his head into the pillow, eyes tightly shut.

"Following those instincts, huh?" Bakugou asked, and if Shouto's mind wasn't entirely preoccupied with processing his touch, the question might have struck him as odd. But as things stood, Shouto instead found himself nodding eagerly, and moaning as he felt sharp teeth grace his skin.

A calloused hand ran along his shoulder, only to stop right below where Bakugou was kissing him, and it was enough to make Shouto's body tense up against the alpha.

"You wouldn't even mind if I marked you," Bakugou said, "I bet you'd love that."

As if to prove as much to Shouto, he placed a bruising kiss on him, sucking at his skin and catching it in-between his teeth. Shouto impossibly tried to expose more of his neck in response, whispering a broken version of the alpha's name as his hands dug into the blanket beneath him, trying to hold onto something.

He'd love that, he thought, so much.

One of the alpha's hands went down then, slowly and carefully, and it was such an intense contrast from the way his mouth seemed adamant on getting Shouto's neck all messed up.

"Oh God, oh - fuck," Shouto cursed, when two fingers suddenly, without a warning, pinched his nipple and sent an entire shock wave of feelings through the entirety of his body.

"Picking up words from me now, huh?" Bakugou whispered into his neck, and the did same thing again, only for Shouto to trash in his hold as though something was trying to possess his body. "'S fine. You're hot when you curse like that."

At this point, it was impossible to tell whether it was the physical sensations or the words that had more of an effect on Shouto. He involuntarily tried to buck his hips up, but Bakugou was still holding him down. As if to punish him for even trying, the alpha let go of his nipple and instead settled for circling the skin around it with one single finger.

The feeling very nearly drove Shouto insane, and he wondered if Bakugou could feel his heartbeat in his chest, violent and desperate.

"Please," he managed to get out, trying to shift his body in a way that allowed for more touch. But his plea went ignored for a few seconds, up until Bakugou's finger drew a line on his chest, making its way down ever so slowly until his palm came to rest on his abs.

"You know, omegas are supposed to be soft," the blonde said, "not ripped like that."

And then his hand was gone, and before Shouto could even attempt to reply to that, Bakugou was attacking his neck again, more violently this time.

All Shouto could do was moan against the feeling, his head too empty to think twice about the alpha's words.

"Bakugou," he hissed pathetically at a particularly harsh bite, unsure what exactly he wanted to express, even. Then a warm hand came up to touch his other nipple, the rough palm dragging slowly across sensitive skin, and something inside of Shouto felt like it went up in flames. Once again, he found himself trying to lift up his body, to feel more friction than Bakugou was offering him.

The alpha then stopped, both the kissing and the rubbing of his palm against his chest.

And Shouto panted like he'd just ran a marathon, loud and uneven.

"Don't- hah," he tried.

"You got anything to say?"

"Ah, I -"

"You, what, Shouto," the alpha's tone was harsher now, and Shouto couldn't stop the desperate sound that his body produced in return. There was anger in Bakugou's scent, and it felt wrong.

A sense of nervousness came back to him, in the form of instinctive thoughts. As if his mind wanted to punish him for speaking up against his alpha, accidentally stopping him when he really only wanted more.

"I need," he began, and stopped himself, trying to figure it out. But clear thoughts weren't easy to come by, and with every second of nothing happening, the impatience inside of him only grew. He settled on one word, "more."

Nothing happened for a long moment, but then he heard a low laugh from above him.

"As if you can handle more," Bakugou told him, "but whatever. Try and beg nicely."

There was something cold about the words. Something that hit a nerve, and Shouto swallowed, wondering what Bakugou meant. His body was definitely asking for more, though it was hard to say what specifically, and the urge to prove himself to his alpha washed over him yet again.

"Please," he tried, and the word came out a little helpless.

"Please what."

"I want - Please touch me. More," he clarified, turning his head ever so slightly in Bakugou's direction. Still, it was too dark to read his facial expression, and a feeling of dread settled deep in Shouto's stomach.

"What if I don't want to touch you, ever thought of that?" the alpha asked, and it felt like a hard punch in the guts. Like being lost in space all of a sudden, with no clue about up or down.

"But just now you.. you did," Shouto told him. His words came out a little rushed, confused, conflicted. He wanted to think that he'd misheard, or imagined the words, but they still seemed to linger in his head.

... What if Bakugou didn't want to?

"Because Shouto," the alpha said, and then his lips were on Shouto's scent gland and the euphoria of the feeling seemed to combat his anxiety in an instant, "it's hard not to pity you."

As if the words hadn't even been spoken so carelessly, Bakugou pressed the most loving kiss to his neck, lifted one hand up to run it through his hair.

"Pity me?" Shouto repeated, once he'd caught his breath, voice small.

A displaced moan slipped out of his lips when Bakugou bit into his skin, with just enough care to not actually mark him. Still, Shouto's body shook beneath the bite as though the alpha had. The hand tangled up in his hair tightened a little, loosened, and then Bakugou's fingers slipped through his locks, disappeared on the mattress beside him.

Shouto had to force himself not to try and follow the softness of the touch, especially with the conflicting words currently tearing him up inside.

"Who the hell wouldn't? You're so fucking needy and clueless. Bad at being an omega, and even worse at pretending you aren't one. It's fucking painful to watch."

There was a certain softness to the words that made them all the harder to swallow. A naive part of Shouto hoped that the alpha was messing with him, that he didn't mean what he'd just said. But a larger part of him had no doubt about it - it must be pretty painful to witness the way he acted.

Especially with Bakugou.

And yet, even knowing this, he couldn't stop himself from reacting in the very way that proved the alpha's every word true. Warm tears were running down his cheeks before he could stop them, and Shouto wished he still had his shirt on. Wished the room was a little warmer, wished that there was no moonlight falling into the room at all.

When had the atmosphere in the room shifted so much?

If only Shouto's body got the clue, but instead he found himself growing increasingly desperate, trying to push himself into whatever warmth the other had to offer.

"Hey, it's fine," Bakugou whispered into his neck then.

But it wasn't; it was anything but fine. Shouto choked on yet another sob, and the tears didn't seem to stop, even when the alpha decided to press a kiss to his cheek.

"Born only to become the number one hero, but just look at you now. Can't even decide whether you're sad or horny, Shouto?"

"I'm -" his voice failed him all over again when Bakugou grinded their hips together. The friction left his mouth hanging open, and against his better judgement, he pushed into the touch.

"No wonder your father is embarrassed, if only you could see yourself. Fucking pathetic."

But Shouto didn't see a thing.

Just felt own skin, bursting into fire as pain enveloped his heart when Bakugou's hand came to rest above it on his ribcage. A sudden burn tore its way through his veins, in the same way that fire always did, unstoppable and destructive. With his eyes closed, he could only hear the pained hiss, smell the familiar scent of burning flesh, and then he woke up.

Sweaty all over but cold nonetheless.

It took him a long moment to register the insistent ringing of his alarm, because for a while, Shouto only managed to look around in his room, trying to make his way out of that nightmare and back into reality. A reality that came back to him slowly, too slowly.

Pathetic.

Maybe he was.

His breathing was uneven, chest tight.

And then it hit him all at once; Shouto recalled the pain in his stomach that had nearly rendered him paralysed, recalled the worried tone of the alpha's voice as he'd realised that something was wrong. And somehow, the entire thing almost felt worse than the nightmare, because of course his body had to do this kind of thing to him.

Just another thing he could add to the list of good things his biology had managed to mess up for him, Shouto noted bitterly.

Bakugou was nowhere in sight, but his scent was still attached to the pillow and the blankets, and Shouto stared blankly at the empty side of his bed for a long moment before he managed to make himself snap out of it.

The various items Bakugou had gifted him were scattered throughout his room, and Shouto felt like he didn't deserve a single thing Bakugou had given him.

Because the dream still loomed heavily above him, and Shouto hated how his head had come up with that, had made it feel so real. To the point where he couldn't seem to shake the feeling that there was truth in it, even as he told himself over and over again that it was nothing but a nightmare. Imaginary. Subconscious issues or something.

It felt unfair though, for his dream to turn Bakugou into that kind of person, when he knew that the alpha would never say those types of things, would never treat him in that manner.

And though he hadn't consciously created the scenario, a sense of guilt still settled heavy in his gut as he forced himself to get up and made his way over to his closet. Shouto grabbed himself a set of fresh school clothes, refused to look at his reflection in the mirror. The drawer that he kept his pills in was still open, and Shouto supposed that he hadn't had the presence of mind yesterday to close it. He quickly took out one of his scent blockers, and washed it down with a sip of water before slamming the drawer shut and heading towards the showers.

All the while, he refused to let himself think about how it would have certainly been easier to wake up with Bakugou next to him.

Then again, with the weight of his nightmare on his shoulders, Shouto wasn't sure if that would have truly been the better option. Just a dream, he told himself. It had been nothing more than that. Shouto wasn't a stranger to nightmares either, but they usually were pretty clear-cut. Replays of his past, not as carefully woven into real aspects of his life.

He ran his hands across his arms. Once, twice. Suppressed a shiver, and told himself not to dwell on it, because he couldn't exactly allow his issues to hold him captive this week of all.

And yet, Shouto had never felt so entirely unprepared to write an exam, and the omega only hoped that maybe a long shower was going to help.

But somehow, he doubted that it would.

...

Bakugou hadn't slept.

Not one fucking minute, and judging by the amounts of nervous and angry energy running through his body, he wasn't going to get sleep anytime soon either, not that he really had the option to at this point. In fact, he'd only brought himself to leave Todoroki's room an hour ago, at 5 AM, and he'd headed straight into the gym. The hours before that had been one entire shitshow of internet research, anger directed at various people (himself fucking included) and the type of worry that was sure to shorten someone's life span considerably.

He couldn't believe that he'd never bothered to fucking think that far ahead.

Of fucking course it couldn't be healthy to alter your entire fucking biology by popping pills every day, but he'd just assumed that Todoroki knew what he was doing. Or that, at the very least, Endeavour's interest in raising the next number one hero would be enough of a driving force for the man to actually give a goddamn fuck about the health of his son.

But yeah.

Apparently fucking not.

On the contrary. Just researching the names of the drugs Todoroki was taking had made it more than fucking obvious that absolutely none of that shit was healthy in any capacity. In fact, the heat suppressants were the strongest currently available on the market, and the scent blockers weren't even made for omegas to use at all. Scent blockers in general weren't supposed to fucking erase the entirety of someone's scent, just tone it down to a point where the pheromones didn't bother people as they went through everyday life.

But that shit Todoroki was using?

Fucking hell, it was literally stuff made for alphas who worked in the medical field and couldn't afford to subconsciously stress someone out during surgeries. And even there, they had strict guidelines for how often they used that shit. Bakugou could only imagine the kinds of strings Endeavour had pulled to get his hands on that shit.

He found himself thinking back to that day in the city, where Todoroki had blurted out the entire 'I gotta get scent blockers' thing unprompted, and Bakugou really wanted to slap his past self in the face. If he hadn't been so full of disbelief and mildly shocked, maybe he would have had the presence of mind to actually open his damn mouth and ask about the medicine.

But no, he'd fucking told the omega to go to the pharmacy by himself.

Which in itself was a dick move.

He had no damn clue how many days it had been since that. How many scent blockers the omega had swallowed, how many heat cycles he'd suppressed since that day. And before - Bakugou was pretty fucking sure that an omega's first heat happened at, what. Twelve. Thirteen?

Hell. Even on the off-chance that Todoroki was a real fucking late bloomer, there was no way he hadn't skipped ten times the amount of heats that was safe to.

His head still refused to entirely acknowledge the reality of his discovery.

Because Bakugou didn't want to believe any of it. Didn't want to think about the fact that Todoroki was literally fucking poisoning himself in an attempt to uphold this stupid fucking lie like he was supposed to.

"Fuck," he yelled into the empty gym, and the word seemed to echo off the walls as Bakugou aimed another combo of jabs at the punching back in front of him. Even this didn't do much to make him feel better, but at the very least it kept his body occupied and gave him a chance to think about what the fuck he was going to do, instead of just yelling in Todoroki's stupid pretty face that he needed to stop taking his fucking pills.

Because, yeah, Bakugou wasn't exactly in any position to tell the omega how to live his life, but he sure as fuck wasn't going to stand there and watch him ruin his health either.

Not like Todoroki's goddamn father.

As if that man deserved the title.

"Die!" he shouted as he aimed another punch at the punching back, wishing it was Endeavour's stupid fucking face and very much meaning what he said. Bakugou couldn't recall the last time he'd felt this much anger; in fact, he was so fucking angry that it bordered on a sense of numbness.

The lack of sleep certainly didn't help.

He probably looked like a fucking lunatic, throwing insults and punches at that bag at 6 or so in the morning, but it wasn't like he'd ever given a fuck about what he looked like anyway. He sure as fuck wasn't going to start now.

"Goddamn son of a - "

The thing was, intense anger and his quirk had a sort of complicated relationship.

The next time his fist collided with the punching bag, he was a bit too slow to notice the feeling of sparks on his palm, and the loud explosion rang trough the hall as grains rained down from the now ruined thing.

As if that wasn't bad enough in itself, Bakugou just had the fucking luck of seeing Aizawa's tired face appear at the door not five seconds later, as if he'd been standing there and fucking waiting for the worst moment possible to make his entrance. Bakugou wouldn't put it past that man, honestly.

With the lack of something to punch, he could only glare at his teacher as he stood there, barely even realising that yeah, shit. When the hell had he started to cry?

"Bakugou," Aizawa said, having apparently noticed as much. The man walked closer to him slowly, as if Bakugou was some sort of animal that he didn't want to startle. The alpha's glare hardened.

"What."

Aizawa looked pointedly at the remnants of the punching bag dangling back and forth, crossed his arms.

"The fact that it's 6 AM, the way you look and this," he pointed at the thing, "don't exactly make it seem like you're having the best morning. Care to tell me what this is about?"

"No, just add that fucking thing to the list of property damage I caused or whatever. Bet the old hag will love to hear about it," he growled, without really meaning to. Aizawa had a way of remaining factual and calm with him even in times like these, and Bakugou didn't want to let his anger out on one of the arguably best teachers of their school, but he couldn't fucking help it.

It wasn't like he could talk about this shit, even if he fucking wanted to.

Needed to, maybe.

He cracked his knuckles, glared at the wall, trying to avoid eye contact. Because not only did this man's eyes erase quirks, no. Their homeroom teacher also had a way of staring right into your fucking soul with those bloodshed dark irises.

"Let's not regress in terms of communication skills, alright? Something's wrong. If you don't want to talk to me, you know that we have resources available to -"

"I'm not talking to the fucking therapist either. Everything is fucking great."

"Fucking great," Aizawa's voice was dry.

".."

"You do realise that we have a curfew for a reason?" Aizawa asked then, apparently aware of the fact that this was getting him nowhere. The shift in his tone alone told Bakugou everything he needed to know, and he cursed internally because he knew what was coming. "And all of you are aware of the fact that for safety purposes, we monitor the hallways."

"So what?"

"So, I can overlook it once or twice if someone decides to spend a little longer at a friend's room than they are supposed to, but random sleepovers aren't permitted."

"What the fuck ever, not like I slept for fucking minute anyway."

"Bakugou."

"..."

"As much as I do not care what does or doesn't happen behind closed doors," Aizawa began and Bakugou cringed at the implications, wiping at his eyes angrily, "I believe that your parents certainly do care, and it's the responsibility of UA to make sure that this trust isn't abused. I can do without awkward calls, and I assumed that both you and Todoroki would appreciate it if I came to you, instead of letting your parents know that you broke school rules."

"Nothing fucking happened, it's not like we - ugh."

"As I said, no matter what did or didn't happen, I'd appreciate it if you actually followed the rules. I'm willing to close not one but both eyes in regards to this, and I have. That's why I'm telling you now. And I truly do mean it when I say that I'm always approachable if you need someone to talk to."

"I," Bakugou began, but caught himself. Told himself that, no matter which way he looked at it, speaking about this to anyone would be a breach of Todoroki's trust. And yet, as things stood, he still had absolutely no fucking clue what the hell he was supposed to do, to say.

The next words spilled out of his mouth without permission, but it wasn't a surprise, because everything inside him was screaming about how he needed to help his omega, "don't talk to him. He's got enough shit to deal with right now, just. I'll tell him. It won't happen again."

Aizawa gave Bakugou a look that he could only describe as surprise, mixed with disbelief.

"What?" he barked, still more than a little annoyed with this entire situation.

"... Nothing. As I said, if it happens again, I'll have to tell your parents."

"Whatever, it won't."

Looking at the grains on the floor, Aizawa quirked an eyebrow. "You should clean that up. And eat breakfast, you do know that today's English exam is four hours long."

Bakugou knew, but considering everything that was going on, he couldn't find it in himself to give much of a fuck. So the blonde just quietly nodded, and told himself that the day couldn't get any fucking worse as he made his way over to the janitor closet in the corner of the gym, cursing out loud when he grabbed the broom too harshly and send an entire array of cleaning utensils tumbling to the ground.

.

His day did, in fact, get worse.

Or maybe it was a vicious cycle. Every person the alpha encountered made him want to pull his hair out, and every thought in his head fueled an oncoming headache that he couldn't prevent at this point.

Bakugou walked into the classroom feeling like some sort of fucking zombie, and the moment he entered, his eyes instantly settled on the back of the room, where Todoroki was staring out of the window with a forlorn look in his eyes.

And at the sight of him, something inside of the alpha freaked the fuck out, because he still wasn't capable of accepting the fact that his omega was in danger and there was shit he could do about it. He almost felt like walking over to him and just wrapping him up in his arms and carrying him away, as if that would do anything other than gathering everyone's attention and making things more complicated.

Yeah. No. Bakugou knew that there currently wasn't anything he could really do. Even if he fucking wanted to, they had an exam to write, and as if that wasn't bad enough, they had a lot of shit to discuss that Todoroki definitely wasn't going to like.

He forced himself to drag his eyes off of him, just a little thrown off by the fact that the omega was apparently so deep in his head that he hadn't even noticed his presence. Which, Bakugou supposed, was fair, but it still fucking bothered him.

Everything about this day fucking bothered him.

Not only had he left Todoroki alone in his room, afraid to wake him up with the amount of deadly anger and stress in his scent, but on top of that, they hadn't followed their usual routine. Hadn't said as much as 'good morning' to each other, Bakugou had no fucking clue if Todoroki had eaten anything at all, and to top it all off, he hadn't noticed him just now.

He wasn't sure whether he wanted to scream, cry, or let the entire building collide.

Mostly, he wanted to believe that there was some kind of simple solution to the entire thing, just out of his reach and waiting to be figured out, but Bakugou had the strong feeling that this wasn't going to be the case here.

He'd barely sat down at his desk when Present Mic strolled into the room with all the infuriating enthusiasm that only a man like that could express this early in the morning.

"Everyone! I hope you're ready for some grammar and creative writing!" the teacher yelled, too loudly.

Bakugou was pretty sure that absolutely no one in the class, except for maybe Ponytail or Deku, was ready for that shit, but he felt extra fucking unprepared. And despite his competitive nature when it came to test scores, he found himself hoping with a desperate sort of optimism that maybe Todoroki was at least doing a little fucking better than he was.

..

Shouto's eyes went back and forth between the few sentences of the text analysis he'd managed to write and the back of Bakugou's head, as though there was anything else to see there than spiky blonde hair. It felt like his brain refused to cooperate with his wishes, and whenever he managed to come up with the beginning of a sentence, he somehow lacked the ability to finish the thought and wrap it up in words.

All the while, the clock in the corner of the room kept ticking away mercilessly, second after second.

Shouto was somewhat of a routine person, for sure. He usually ate breakfast at a certain time, went to bed relatively early, had a few hours of his weekends reserved for visiting his mother. He wasn't strict about it though, not to the point where it would bother him to switch up his routine a little now or then - as a hero, flexibility was sort of a required trait, really.

He hadn't entirely noticed how essential Bakugou had become to his daily routine though.

Shouto was so used to walking into him at some point in the morning, sooner rather than later, and having stupid little arguments on their way to class. Usually after eating breakfast together. Today though, he'd sat in the cafeteria surrounded by Midoriya, Iida and Uraraka, quietly poking at his food as though it had personally offended him. To make matters worse, just about everyone had noticed.

Both the fact that he wasn't in the best mood, and the fact that Bakugou hadn't appeared to throw himself into the bench next to him or, alternatively, pull Shouto away to sit somewhere else.

Which was fine.

It wasn't like the others were bad company, it was just... a case of bad timing, Shouto supposed. Even after showering, eating and dragging himself into the classroom, he still hadn't managed to get the nightmare out of his head entirely. And the fact that today of all days, Bakugou hadn't said good morning?

That was fuel for all sorts of doubts.

He couldn't recall exactly what they'd spoken about before he'd managed to fall asleep, but the omega recalled the way Bakugou had stiffened above him when the cramps had hit him so suddenly, like a knife stabbed into his stomach. One of the few positive things about this morning was that the pain was gone, thankfully, but that didn't really do much in terms of positive thinking.

Ten minutes left, he thought to himself, before throwing another look Bakugou's way.

Although they weren't given a required number of words for the writing part, Shouto was pretty sure that half a page full of filler sentences wouldn't account for much. English wasn't his strength, not really, but he knew that if he tried to, he could definitely do better than that.

And he was trying, in a way. It just wasn't working out when his brain went back to other things every few seconds, like a pendulum in motion that didn't seem to have any interest in finding a healthy middle ground. Maybe it was a self sabotage thing, because the thought of the family dinner ahead of him somehow added itself into the blur of thoughts, and Shouto found himself biting at the pen in his hands a bit too harshly.

So harshly in fact that a piece of plastic broke off, and flew to the floor where it made an unproportionally loud sound in the silence of the room.

He winced at the sound, but no one else seemed to even notice, and no - Bakugou's head hadn't turned around either. Not that Shouto had wanted him to notice, but maybe he'd.. expected Bakugou to react. Somehow. He frowned at the demolished pen, and forced his attention back to the sheet of paper.

Eight minutes.

Shouto was pretty sure that Present Mic gave him somewhat of a strange look as he passed by his desk, but the omega pretended not to notice, a bit unhappy with his own lack of creativity and reading skills. The article they were supposed to analyse didn't seem to make anymore sense as he went through it once again, and just skipped all of the words he didn't know because there wasn't exactly any time to use a dictionary now, was there?

He could practically hear it as everyone poured all of their energy into scribbling their closing sentences on the paper, and this was new to Shouto.

He'd never made the biggest effort in terms of academics, only really learned when he felt that he truly needed to, which wasn't all that often. Even when he hadn't, Shouto definitely hadn't ever found himself with his head quite so full during an exam and his pages just the opposite. Shouto didn't like it one bit, hated how he couldn't summon his usual discipline and make use of his quick thinking to at least put something meaningful into his text.

And time was ticking away.

Summoning the most generalising words he could possibly think of that could perhaps - if Present Mic was feeling extremely generous - count as a conclusion, Shouto barely managed to add two more sentences to his text before the blonde teacher enthusiastically clapped his hands together and exclaimed happily, "Alright, finish your last word please everyone, check to see if your name is on your exam and then hand it over to the person in front of you."

As usual, the whispering began the moment he'd said as much, although everyone knew that it was useless anyway.

"Hey, no talking until everything is collected!"

Shouto gave his own exam to Tokoyami, who then handed both forward and so on, but truthfully, the omega could care less about whether or not his disastrous text actually made it into his teacher's hands.

Because this time, when his eyes drifted towards Bakugou, the alpha was looking back at him.

And it was strange, how surprised Shouto was to find that familiar, piercing gaze directed at him. Whether or not his surprise showed on his face was hard to say, and all he really knew was that a second later, Bakugou had grabbed the exams and turned to face the front of the class.

And whatever anxieties Shouto had been feeling that were related to himself washed away in that very moment.

Bakugou looked, for lack of a better word, like shit. Shouto failed to recall the last time he'd seen the alpha with such dark circles beneath his eyes, and he frowned at the back of his head.

It didn't take long after that for their teacher to collect all the exams, and Shouto found himself hesitating once he'd collected his things, which consisted of only the broken pen and a water bottle, waiting to see if the alpha would come to him.

Bakugou didn't.

Instead, he threw his backpack across his shoulder, and took quick steps out of the room. Which settled it once and for all - something was up. Before he had the time to overanalyse what exactly it was, Shouto already found himself on his feet and pushing his way through his classmates that crowded the exit as they complained about how hard the grammar part of the exam had been. If some of them looked at Shouto funny as he hurried out of the room, he couldn't be bothered to notice.

All he could really focus on was Bakugou, and why he looked like he hadn't gotten a minute of sleep tonight.

The alpha was already halfway through the hallway when Shouto caught up to him and placed a hand on Bakugou's shoulder to slow him down. The loud and threatening growl that the action earned him was surprising enough for his hand to slide right off, or maybe it was the scent.

Bakugou smelled angry, but not the type of angry that Shouto was used to. In fact, he couldn't even say for sure if it was anger or something else; whatever the right word was, it made him realise very clearly that he hadn't had his guard up.

A stupid little whine left his mouth as his pulse involuntarily sped up. Shouto tried his hardest to ignore the urge to look down, surrender.

"Don't fucking sneak up on me," Bakugou yelled before he even bothered to turn around.

When he did though, Shouto wasn't so sure what to make of his expression. It took a certain effort not to avert his eyes, and he wondered if the alpha could tell as much. Bakugou's mouth remained opened ever so slightly, and hard eyes widened, as if he'd expected anyone but Shouto to come running after him.

"Ah, shit," Bakugou said then, the anger replaced with frustration, "I didn't mean to -"

One of his hands came to rest on Shouto's arm, and along with the touch came the memory of his nightmare. 'Pathetic,' the word seemed to stand out among the others. Shouto tried to find his composure, to think of anything other than that word right now. By now, he was sort of an expert at pushing away certain memories in moments when he couldn't allow himself to be distracted by them.

"I didn't mean to startle you."

"You didn't fucking - no. It's my damn fault, I didn't sleep well and that exam just now fucking sucked and - look, I'm sorry."

It was easy to tell that there was probably more to it. Bakugou wasn't the type to stumble over his own words like that, and Shouto didn't like the look that the alpha was giving him. As if Shouto was a ghost, and his very presence made Bakugou feel all kinds of stressed out.

He stayed quiet for a long moment, blinked down at the hand on his arm and for a brief second, Shouto was anxious that Bakugou was going to pull it away.

"It's fine.. We didn't eat breakfast together," he said, stating it as a simple fact. Shouto couldn't tell whether or not it would be wise of him to ask directly why Bakugou hadn't slept well.

His own nightmare had been a nice little reminder that it wasn't always easy to talk about such things. Still, he hoped that maybe Bakugou would say something about it. The tension that rolled off him in waves felt bad, really bad. And something inside of him told Shouto that he should be the one to make it better somehow, or try his hardest to, at least.

Bakugou wasn't a simple person to offer help to; Shouto knew firsthand how easy it was to get the wrong message across with him. Especially when the alpha already looked and smelled like whatever was up was more serious than just a night of bad sleep.

Shouto had seen the alpha running on a lack of sleep before, and it certainly did show when that happened, but there was a distinct lack of light in red eyes that he'd never seen in them, only ever in his own reflection, on the worst types of days. Shouto didn't like that type of empty bitterness on Bakugou's, not one bit.

"Cause I skipped breakfast," Bakugou admitted, looking to the side and frowning at nothing in particular.

"You always tell me how important breakfast is," Shouto established, tried to keep all semblance of accusation out of his voice, "let's just go and eat something now?"

Their classmates were exiting the room by now, mostly in small groups, and Shouto noticed that Bakugou didn't seem to like the added company one bit, although no one went out of their way to talk to them.

He waited for his answer with a forced type of patience.

"Whatever, alright," the alpha finally agreed, and it had somewhat of a calming effect on Shouto, knowing that Bakugou was at least going to get some food into his system. Most of the time, it really was the blonde looking out for him, and Shouto was all too happy to return the favor for once, no matter how small of a thing it was. On top of that, it was relieving to hear that Bakugou was willing to come with him - something about his attitude had made the possibility of rejection seem very real.

Maybe eating together was a chance to get to the bottom of what was wrong or alternatively, cheer Bakugou up a little even if he didn't want to talk about it.

But neither of them moved, and Shouto supposed that maybe, if Bakugou wasn't feeling well, he could be the one to grab the alpha and pull him along for once. Red eyes shot towards his as he reached for Bakugou's wrist, and Shouto swallowed his nervousness down. He allowed his hand to slide a little further down, to the point where it rested loosely on the back of Bakugou's.

Once it was established that the alpha wasn't going to push or slap his hand away, he felt a little braver, and squeezed it ever so slightly, nodding his head in the direction of the cafeteria.

It wasn't exactly hand-holding, Shouto supposed. Not in the traditional sense at least. When they entered the cafeteria, he couldn't say for sure what it was that had everyone's eyes instantly glued to them as silence washed over the room. There was a good chance that people were simply shocked to see a suddenly quiet and agreeable Bakugou following Shouto without as much as a complaint of his lips.

Or maybe it did look like hand-holding.

Thankfully, no one said anything out loud. Because Shouto had every reason to suspect that Bakugou's quietness could turn into the exact opposite at any moment, if the growl minutes ago had been any indication of Bakugou's state of mind. It wasn't a matter of simple exhaustion after all, most likely. There was no denying the fact that Bakugou was acting very strange, allowing Shouto to push him into the bench while looking at him with this strange type of expression that the omega couldn't place.

For now, he was just going to go about his slowly. Carefully. Shouto wasn't the best conversationalist, but he supposed that he had more experience with bad feelings than some others. Or maybe it was that omega thing - apparently, caring for someone who was in pain came naturally to his secondary gender in particular. Shouto couldn't say how true it was, and really, in a school made for people who wanted to become heroes, he was rather among those that didn't go out of their way much to get involved in others' business. Not like Midoriya, for example.

But this was different.

He was determined to at the very least offer some company so Bakugou wouldn't be alone with whatever thoughts he was having.

"I'll go and get us some food," he offered, and finally there was a sign of recognition from the other.

In the form of a tired-sounding, "I can get my own food, Halfie."

Shouto tilted his head to the side before he nodded. They left their bags at the desk and both went over to get themselves food, and Shouto found himself walking just a little closer to Bakugou than he usually would. He had half a mind to grab his hand again, but there really wasn't am excuse to, this time and they both had plates to carry. Udon noodles and vegetables, Shouto regrettably noted. He was distracted from his staring contest with the noodles when the two of them had sat back down, and Bakugou asked, with a strange sort of what Shouto could only describe as fake-disinterest, "You're feeling better today?"

"The cramps are gone," Shouto confirmed quietly and the alpha nodded his head, looking like he was thinking hard about something. Shouto watched Bakugou open his mouth and close it again. He shoved some of the noodles into his mouth.

"Aizawa talked to me today," Bakugou finally said, frowned. Glared as someone walked past their table. Shouto waited for him to continue, wondering if that was the issue the other seemed to preoccupied with, "he thinks that we fucked or something."

Some noodles actually slipped back out of Shouto's mouth as Bakugou said that, and he considered it a personal success that he didn't choke on one of them.

"What?"

Bakugou looked physically pained as he watched him and Shouto wondered how little sleep he'd actually gotten, because for all his curse words and bluntness, he'd never actually heard Bakugou say that type of thing out loud.

Especially.. about them.

Shouto was pretty sure that the blush on his cheeks couldn't entirely be blamed on the warmth of the food. It was easier to be the one who said thoughtless things like that, rather than being on the receiving end of such bluntness. Definitely. He didn't know what to do with his hands.

They both stared at each other for a long and awkward moment.

"I don't know whatever the fuck he thinks. He told me that 'random sleepovers aren't permitted' or some shit. And that he'll call our parents and tell them if we break curfew again."

Shouto nodded very slowly as he processed that bit of information, but in all honesty his brain was still stuck on the declaration from a minute ago. It didn't exactly help that their afternoon classes were taught by none other than the very teacher who apparently assumed that him and Bakugou were -

"Calm the fuck down, he hasn't called them yet. Still sucks, but at least you don't have to explain to your father that I slept in your room."

Oh. Yeah.

Shouto hadn't even been thinking about that.

Honestly, he wasn't so sure what he was thinking about, but it had everything to do with the fact that Bakugou had just casually said out loud that someone assumed they slept with each other, like it wasn't an entirely unreasonable thing to think and therefore not a completely impossible scenario, which Shouto - somewhere in the back of his mind - maybe knew but didn't even dare to finish that thought.

"That's great," he managed to get out, and made a face when he realised that it most certainly wasn't the appropriate answer, "Ah. Not great, but.. That's better than having to tell him."

Even Bakugou, in his state of sleep deprivation, seemed to pick up on the fact that Shouto was a little bit out of service mentally, judging by the borderline concerned look the alpha sent his way. He made an annoyed noise that Shouto didn't think was directed at him specifically.

"Way to point out the obvious," came the somewhat automatic response, before the alpha frowned, and gave Shouto another one of those looks that he wished he had a way of translating, "Just, look, there's shit we - I mean, you - " Bakugou began, but in a very un-Bakugou-like way just gave up on trying and shoved a mouthful of food into his mouth. He chewed on it a little too violently, while Shouto tried his best to gather his thoughts and remain focused on the bigger picture.

Whatever Bakugou had wanted to convey, he'd apparently thought better of it. Which was.. fine.

Maybe.

He had another question to ask anyway.

And talking about whatever it was that Aizawa thought wasn't good for his heart anyway.

"That's not why you haven't slept though," he stated, looked up and Bakugou only allowed their eyes to meet for a moment before he busied himself by drinking some water. He didn't reply, and after a minute or so of waiting, Shouto realised that the alpha wasn't going to.

These days, Shouto was a bit spoiled when it came to conversations with Bakugou; it just felt as though they'd made a lot of progress (considering that neither of them was the best at the entire socialising thing) and it felt... odd, to have the blonde sitting next to him and pretending like he didn't even hear what Shouto had said. Not even an insult, just... nothing.

It was hard not to try and search for possible mistakes that he had made. This wasn't about him after all, not everything in Bakugou's life was and Shouto knew as much, but his traitorous instincts were all too happy to jump on that train of thought and let him wonder what he'd done to annoy the alpha.

And of course, he started to explain himself before he could think twice about it.

"Bakugou," he said, "I know that yesterday - that might have seemed weird, but the pain was just there all of a sudden, and it's not like I planned for that to happen or anything. Especially not in that moment," he explained, finding it to be the likeliest reason for why Bakugou might not want to talk properly to him. Shouto had wanted to apologise for that either way.

"I didn't fucking say that."

"Alright," Shouto confirmed, "I just wanted to make it clear that I had no intention of interrupting - "

"It's damn clear," was all the answer he received, but the amount of bitterness shoved into so few words caught Shouto off guard, "Just eat your fucking food."

Shouto's hunger was suddenly gone.

"Bakugou," he said, quietly, "If you don't want me to talk to you right now, it's fine. I'm not actually trying to annoy you."

"You're the least annoying person of all, fucking idiot," the alpha hissed back at him, and apparently realised what he'd said only a moment later. Shouto watched the realisation travel across his features, watched a rough hand tighten on the chopsticks.

While it wasn't the greatest of compliments one could receive, Shouto felt the strangest sort of happiness well up inside him at the words. Because it was practically impossible for something or someone not to annoy he alpha, and for him to actually say as much out loud was... yeah. Shouto was pretty sure that for a moment, his expression revealed exactly how good it was to hear this bit of information.

Because for a brief moment, Bakugou looked back at him with a silent sort of wonder, as if he'd forgotten that he wasn't in a good mood. It wasn't something as obvious as a smile, but Shouto still found himself picking up on it.

He didn't even know how to reply to that.

"Don't read too much into it, you're still annoying," Bakugou added, but something about the way he said that only had the omega smiling a little harder.

"I can live with that."

"Eat your food before it gets cold," Bakugou told him, and Shouto resisted the urge to call him out on his mother hen behavior. They ate in silence after that, and although Shouto still couldn't say for sure what was up, it felt as though a bit of the tension was gone.

...

Bakugou was suffering through a conflict of interests. Various interests that collided with each other like goddamn meteors in his head and only fueled his headache. It had been fucking unrealistic to think that he could just avoid Todoroki until he'd figured out how to proceed about addressing the issue.

In fact, the moment the omega had looked him in the eyes in class, Bakugou had been overcome by the dreadful feeling that he was going to be subjected to some fucking questions that he had no idea how to answer. The English exam hadn't made his mood better in any way whatsoever, and the alpha hated the feeling of not having given it his all, with a damn passion.

But, how the hell was he supposed to give a stupid exam that meant jackshit in the bigger scheme of things the time of day, when he had real, actual issues at hand that mattered.

The moment he'd set his eyes on Todoroki, he'd once again been overcome with this stupid urge to go over there, take a hold of him and maybe jump out of the window and run off into the fucking sunset or something. At the same time, the weight of the entire issue had struck him all over again. He wanted, needed, to be a good alpha and to the right thing.

But currently, Bakugou had no fucking clue what that was even supposed to look like.

He couldn't tell Todoroki about the potential side effects of his pills, not out of the blue. Not while they were in school, or before their afternoon courses. Not with people around that already eyed them like fucking hawks half of the time. But Bakugou wasn't one for waiting around when he knew that something needed to happen. Having something to say and not saying it already drove him crazy when it came to meaningless little things, but this?

Fucking hell, his head was stuck in a loop of potential ways to word it, potential outcomes, and the fact that he didn't want to tell his omega about how bad things might actually be, how little of a fuck his father actually gave.

Assuming that Todoroki didn't know about the side effects, that was.

But honestly, Bakugou really fucking doubted that he did. Todoroki didn't have the same attitude as him outwardly, but Bakugou could tell that inside, he wanted to be a hero just as badly. Not even number one necessarily, but the very best hero that he could be - the more Bakugou thought about it, the more astonishing it really became that Todoroki didn't hate his ass, considering how ranking-obsessed and self-centered he'd been for a long time. Still was, sometimes.

The point was that Todoroki wouldn't do that shit to himself. He wouldn't give away his potential to be his best version in exchange for something image-related. There was a 99% chance that the omega had no idea what he was doing to his body.

And knowing a bit about the hell that Endeavour had already dragged his son through, Bakugou felt like an ass for adding the fucking cherry on top - even if he had to - and confirming all over again that, yeah. The man couldn't value his family less if he tried.

It was still such a mystery to Bakugou, he realised as he watched Todoroki slurp on his noodles, how the omega had turned out to be the person he was, when all he'd grown up with was harshness and pretense and chaos.

Bakugou really wished that he could get his shit together and not think about the entire situation for one fucking minute though, because there was no denying the fact that Todoroki had picked up on his mood pretty much instantly. And had, in his clumsy way, attempted to ask Bakugou about it.

And in all honesty, it was almost funny how this situation made Bakugou very consciously aware of his usual stress-related coping mechanisms. He'd fucking growled at him first thing in the morning, and it took the alpha every bit of concentration and energy to not act like a colossal asshole as a defense strategy when Todoroki had tried to get him to talk about what was up.

The entire point, after all, was that Bakugou didn't want to be a fucking ass to him.

It was just easier planned than done, especially with this stupid fucking headache and the knowledge of the conversation that needed to happen very fucking present in the back of his mind. To top it all off, an entire night without sleep meant that his conversation skills were currently at an all time low, as evidenced by the fact that he'd fucking told Todoroki straight in his face that Aizawa thought they were fucking.

The alpha covered his face with his hands, kicked hard against the floor and groaned with all the desperation he could all too easily muster.

"Bakugou?"

"What?"

"Let's go outside for a moment," Todoroki told him, "Cold air helps to clear the head."

"My head is fucking - alright."

He made quick work of grabbing both their empty plates, and carrying them back to the counter. As Bakugou returned, Todoroki was already standing, waiting for him with Bakugou's bag in his hand, holding it out.

They were silent again as they walked outside, and Bakugou watched from the corner of his eye as Todoroki kept glancing at his hand. By the time they'd made it to the entrance door, Bakugou finally caved in and took a hold of his hand, squeezing the cold fingers in between his own. It earned him a surprised look, and one of those stupid little smiles that made a mess out of his thoughts without failure.

Maybe Todoroki had a point, Bakugou thought as the cold air surrounded them, and the chatter from inside was gone. They needed to go to the gym anyways (though they still had twenty minutes or so), so the two of them headed in that direction, walking past the trees that were just about to begin changing colors. It wasn't raining, but the sky looked like it wouldn't be long before it started.

Todoroki's fingers squeezed his own a little tighter, and his heart did a fucking jump in his chest, not all that proportional considering how tiny of an action it was.

"I've had a really bad dream tonight," Todoroki said suddenly, like it was just a thought he allowed himself to put out into the open.

Bakugou couldn't really help the way his body stiffened in response, instincts kicking in although there was no threat in sight, no way he could defend the omega from having a nightmare. He forced himself to relax a little, and tried not to think about the fact that he'd been so preoccupied with the medical issue that he hadn't really given much thought to anything other than that.

He hadn't even noticed that the omega hadn't slept well either, and it was hard not to give himself more shit for that.

"What kind of dream?" he asked.

"It's.. probably stupid. You were in my bed and we were," he stopped, and Bakugou couldn't help the worried look he sent the other's way. Face twisted with a weird sort of concentration, Todoroki looked like it took quite a bit of effort to keep his expression empty, "kissing. And it was nice, I mean - it felt, nice. Good. But -"

There was something about it; to realise that kissing was now a topic the two of them sort of, kind of, talked about in a way, was still impossible to get into Bakugou's head. And the fact that Todoroki actually dreamed about kissing him made it all the more real, ironically. He coughed a little awkwardly, but still gave the omega a look that told him to continue, cause so far none of that sounded too bad.

Todoroki hesitated though.

"I really don't know why my mind came up with this of all things," he said then, "but in that dream, you suddenly... stopped. And started talking about how you didn't want to actually do any of that and that's it's only out of pity because you know how bad I am at all of this and, ah. I don't know, I didn't like that dream."

Bakugou was pretty sure that the omega could smell the amount for disbelief he felt upon hearing that, because what the hell.

He stopped walking, pulled a little at the other's hand and nearly making him fall.

"You don't actually believe any of that shit, right?" He asked, trying to keep the sharp edges off his tone.

"I mean, it's true that I don't really know how to be, well, an.. omega, and I guess pity would be a sensible reaction to seeing someone struggle like that."

"Alright, you've known me for what. Two years? Do I strike you as the type who'd do something out of fucking pity of all things?"

"No," Shouto said honestly, " which is why I wasn't sure whether to bring it up or not, those things just.. It doesn't necessarily make sense why I'd think that, but when it comes to... this, my head is just a mess. It's so hard to say which thoughts are reasonable to have and which aren't."

"So you have been thinking that," Bakugou established, but he mostly said it to himself, wondering how in the world he'd given the other that impression. Then again, he knew firsthand that sometimes you could have something shoved in your face over and over again, and it still wasn't clear enough somehow. He gave the omega a long stare before making up his mind.

That currently, this right here was his first fucking priority; the rest of his worries could go fuck themselves until the moment was right, but he could absolutely not stand the fucking thought of his omega feeling like he was unwanted, pitied, anything less than fucking amazing.

He took a breath, in and out. Slow. Calm. (Not really.)

"Come on," he commanded, and Todoroki seemed too stunned to move for a moment, although it didn't really show on his face.

"Come where?"

Bakugou didn't even answer, just dragged the omega along until they were at the side of the school building. He looked around, and eventually found a nice little corner between two pillars. Bakugou made quick work of maneuvering the omega so that he was pressed against the wall, not before making sure that the bag he had thrown over his shoulder came to rest at his feet.

Against the grey wall, in the cold light of a less than sunny day, Todoroki seemed to glow like he wasn't even out of this world.

Bakugou allowed himself to just watch him for a moment, bicoloured eyes slowly traveling across his own face; Todoroki's expression as unbothered as it got, which was something, considering that the alpha literally had him cornered, pressed tightly to the wall. Bakugou found himself wanting to pull some emotion out of him,

"Listen up," he said, and without really thinking about it, his hand came to rest on the scarred side of the omega's face, his thumb running across the red skin without any pressure, "That entire self doubt bullshit, I get it, alright? But there is no fucking protocol for how you're supposed to act, and I sure as fuck don't pity you for being you, so whatever the hell that dream was, that shit has absolutely nothing to do with how I actually see you, got it?"

Maybe the words came out a little too rushed and a little too fucking serious, but at the very least his sleep-deprived mind had chosen that moment to be somewhat functioning, thank God.

"... You're right."

"Don't just fucking say that, you really need to get that shit into your head, and I'll tell you a thousand fucking times if I have to that there's nothing fucking wrong with you."

Bakugou found himself leaning in a little closer as he said that, although the volume of his words only seemed to increase. Thankfully, Todoroki didn't seem to mind the yelling in his face so much, only nodded again.

"I feel like I should tell you the same thing," he eventually concluded, voice so honest that Bakugou stopped for a moment, didn't really know what to do with himself, "I really do trust you, and I know that those thoughts have everything to do with me. It's just, my parents I guess. Whenever I thought I could trust someone, they'd eventually find something wrong with me and - "

He touched his own face then, expression a bit lost as fingers traced along the scar and ended up touching Bakugou's own.

There was only so much the alpha could handle, and Bakugou didn't even notice that it had started raining, couldn't focus on a damn thing other than the omega in front of him.

"... I just don't want you to find that."

Bakugou swallowed, and pushed himself a bit tighter against Todoroki, up until there was barely a hint of space left between their faces. He took it all in; the depth in Todoroki's eyes, the small dots and delicate lines resembling ink dissolved in water, the slight pause in his breathing, the warmth radiating off of one side of his body and the cold on the other that resembled their surroundings.

"Like hell is that going to happen you idiot."

"That's hard to promise."

"No, it fucking isn't," Bakugou insisted.

They stayed like that for a moment, and the alpha had no idea what to do with the look he was given; something about the softness in those mismatched eyes hit differently this time. The look seemed to mess something inside him up, make everything all messed up as though Todoroki had taken the fucking snow globe that was his heart, and shaken it wildly with his nothing more than a few words, a look. A shared breath.

Bakugou didn't have it in himself to give much of a damn about the fact that they were out in the open where anyone could see; in all honesty, it wasn't like the way they were currently standing here was all that far off from kissing anyways. And fuck, did he want to kiss him.

He barely even noticed the small, "oh," from the surprised omega when as he leaned in, but Todoroki was quick to recover from that, and just a moment later, Bakugou felt fingers tightening on his own hand. The warmth where his palm rested on scarred skin was almost concerning, but he quickly lost the ability to focus on that as he felt the utter softness that was Todoroki's lips.

The kiss wasn't even close to a rushed thing, and it wasn't supposed to be - Bakugou could only hope for the option to communicate even a fraction of what he was trying to convey.

What exactly that was, he couldn't even tell. Something that was just a little beyond words, or maybe Bakugou wasn't enough of a fucking poet to grasp it with words. Either way, the moment when Todoroki reacted by pushing back into the kiss, his mind was wiped clear of all thoughts, and there was nothing but that. Nothing but the closeness and warmth as the rain slowly picked up around them.

It was the oddest thing, how Bakugou felt his own troubles melt away as he felt his omega relax into the kiss and effortlessly chasing his lips as he pulled away to breathe. Bakugou already felt much more breathless than a few seconds of such a soft kiss should be able to make him feel. Todoroki seemed to have no such problem, and gone for him as he was, the alpha allowed him to steal the last breath right out of his lungs when a hand tangled up in Bakugou's hair and pulled him back into it.

It was unbelievable to think that Todoroki didn't know. Didn't know how much of a grasp he had on Bakugou, how he made him feel embarrassingly weak with every type of emotion that he'd never felt before. Except, maybe weak was the wrong word, because whatever Todoroki was doing to him was ten times better than winning against the strongest opponent or being the first at what the fuck ever.

It was a good thing that he refused to let the kiss end, because Bakugou felt like he might just end up saying the most embarrassing shit ever if words were currently possible.

He settled for kissing him back with a little more fire instead, ran his thumb lightly across uneven skin and an eyelid that was pressed shut tightly. He noted with a sense of pride that this came easier to them now that it had the first few times; the movements weren't as clumsy anymore, and it felt like something about this kiss was undeniably less wild. Less fueled by hormones and more so by a shared sentiment of reassurance.

He fucking loved how it was slowly turning into a familiar thing.

How the taste of Shouto Todoroki's lips wasn't just some far off fantasy anymore, but a real thing that he could experience freely - that was still fucking unbelievable.

The kiss seemed to last forever, and maybe it was the missing oxygen in his lungs, but Bakugou was not ready for the sight of blown pupils and affection that greeted him as the omega opened his eyes. He had to close his own for a minute, just to come to terms with that face.

"Thank you."

It took Bakugou a moment to catch his breath and snap out of his... whatever exactly it was called when looking at a face sent you spiraling into outer space. He tried his hardest to make is voice sound normal, "don't fucking thank me for that."

"Not for that," the omega said, and moved his head to rest on Bakugou's shoulder, breathing hotly against his scent gland. Bakugou bit his lower lip, told himself to just fucking breathe.

But then a muffled, "Bakugou," was spoken against his skin, and he felt those lips brush ever so slightly against it in a way that rendered him incapable of words for just a moment. Todoroki didn't say anything for a little while, before he asked, "Can I mark you?"

And fuck.

Bakugou actually made a noise that he'd never even known he could make, because what the fuck. His brain refused to keep up with the words, and his mouth hung open as he wondered if he'd just -

"Sorry, I don't mean biting, just - the same way you did on me," Todoroki added in what seemed like a belated sort of understanding, and Bakugou finally managed to exhale the air that had seemed to be stuck in his lungs. Remembering the mark he'd left on his omega was a bit of a two-edged sword, because it placed him somewhere between incredibly satisfied and incredibly horny, emotionally speaking. But that was still a million times easier to handle than the thought of Todoroki wanting to fucking mark him.

He really needed to find his goddamn voice; Bakugou blamed it on the lack of sleep how out of it he was.

"God, you - fucking hell," he only managed to curse, before he managed an embarrassingly breathy, "yeah."

The thing was, Bakugou had understood this more as a hypothetical question just now.

He certainly hadn't expected for the omega to act the moment the word had come out, and fucking hell, Bakugou had no clue where that softness from a minute ago had suddenly gone. Probably frozen solid or burned to ashes or something, because Todoroki didn't waste a moment before he fucking attacked Bakugou's neck in what probably wasn't a very omega-like fashion, but Bakugou had meant it when he'd said that such things didn't mean shit to him, and fuck.

How the hell was did Todoroki even know how to do this?

Because he did. He fucking did and Bakugou could only gasp as the other sucked on his skin so hard that there was sure to be a dark purple spot right there, next to his scent gland. All too fucking visible, because the omega hadn't even bothered to open his shirt or at least try to go for a secretive place, but it was hard to care about that type of shit and already too late anyways.

Because, either by some universe-given natural talent or through some form of osmosis, he seemed to know exactly how to go about his task of making Bakugou fucking moan like they weren't even outside where anyone could fucking hear it.

Both of them stiffened in response to the sound, and then there was a softer kiss pressed to his neck, before the omega moved away to look at what he'd done.

Bakugou tried his hardest to glare at him, but he knew that he was going to fail the moment he saw the somewhat evil and happy little grin that spread across Todoroki's face. He could visibly make out the moment that he realised the very same thing that Bakugou had, and pink lips fell open.

"Oh."

"Oh," Bakugou echoed.

"I think this turned out a little more.. visible than I anticipated."

"You fucking think? You attacked my neck like a goddamn vampire."

"I'm-"

"Spare it, not like I give a damn if people see," Bakugou said, before he realised just how that sounded. Not that it wasn't true, but then again, it wasn't like they'd really talked about what exactly all of this was, much less about what they told others about it.

"... You don't?"

"No," Bakugou replied, voice firm, "those idiots can think whatever. Doesn't matter."

"Right," Todoroki said, eyes still glued the very same spot.

From where they were standing, Bakugou could see a group of their classmates heading towards the gym, each of them with an umbrella above their head, and it suddenly hit him that both he and Todoroki were drenched by now. The fact that it had taken him so long to notice as much had him doubting his sanity every so slightly, but really, how the hell was he even supposed to notice anything at this point.

In fact, he'd managed to forget about all the shit that that had been on his mind, up until this very moment. Upon remembering, the alpha had to make an effort to not let the sudden tension show in his scent. Thankfully, the omega seemed a bit preoccupied with trying to pierce together the entirety of what had just happened, and Bakugou only nodded into the direction of their classmates, reluctant to let go but knowing that they needed to move their asses all the same.

Looking Aizawa in the eyes was going to be a fucking joy, wasn't it?

"Come on, gotta get to class."

Chapter Text

"Come on, gotta get to class," Bakugou said and every fibre in Shouto's being wanted to disagree with the statement.  He reached out without really planning to, placed one hand on Bakugou's arm to stop him from just walking ahead, though there was no real pressure in it. There was a hint of surprise visible in red eyes, but it quickly melted away.

Shouto didn't say anything, didn't trust himself to, so busy taking it all in; the rain, the hint of warmth he could feel through the wet jacket, the mark he'd left on Bakugou's neck, and the aftermath of what he'd said. 

That he wasn't going to find anything wrong with Shouto, wasn't going to turn around one day and see him the way Shouto oftentimes saw himself. As unworthy, too complicated, fundamentally flawed in a way that he could hardy put into words for anyone else to understand the depth of the feeling.

To think that Bakugou wasn't going to start seeing those parts of him - Shouto wanted to believe it so badly that it almost hurt, and he found himself staring into the alpha's eyes with a strong focus, as if he was subconsciously waiting for a sign that Bakugou would belatedly change his mind about what he'd said, but none came. Bakugou only looked at him in the same way he oftentimes did lately, with that hint of a frown that was a little softer around the edges when his eyes were on Shouto...

No hesitation or doubt was visible there, only something else - Shouto couldn't tell exactly what that was, but it didn't feel scary to him.

So he offered the alpha what he hoped was a grateful little smile in return, and found himself just daring enough to take a half step forward, reducing the distance between them but at least resisting the urge to rub their necks together.

Shouto was dragging the moment out and he knew it, but for a minute or two, his feet refused to move, chest still rising and falling a bit unevenly beneath his clothes as he attempted to gather his focus.

Because yes, what Bakugou had said was true.

They needed to get to class.

He couldn't allow his thoughts to turn into cotton again, couldn't remain rooted to the spot just because he didn't want this moment to end, no matter how tempting it was to just give in to the feelings bubbling up from his chest, light and sweet as they were.

Bakugou didn't push him to hurry because he'd apparently realised that Shouto needed a moment to process things; he could only imagine what he probably looked like, unable to take his eyes off the alpha and keep the strange happiness in his chest hidden. Bakugou remained close to him, looking back at Shouto with the kind of expression that told Shouto that maybe he wasn't the only one who needed to anchor himself back into reality after this..

After getting a taste of Bakugou's skin. 

Shouto didn't know all that much about the way pheromones worked, except that as an omega, scents naturally affected him strongly. 

But now he found himself wondering what kind of effect running his tongue along the alpha's neck and pretty much tasting his pheromones on his tongue was going to have. It made him think of alcohol slowly seeping into one's bloodstream, simply waiting to knock a person off their feet. He wondered if he was going to be, knocked off his feet. Because although Shouto had every intention of acting like his normal self, a part of him wanted nothing more than to just.. allow himself to say stupid things. Do stupid things.

Like asking the alpha to skip class and go to either of their rooms instead where they could -

Could what?

Shouto didn't even know anymore.

All he knew was that Bakugou's skin had tasted just as nice as he smelled, and Shouto could still taste it on his tongue, wanted nothing more than to push his lips back against his skin, his lips. Anywhere. That desire was almost strong enough to have him trembling, and all he could do was count along with his breaths to fight the impatience that was slowly but surely taking a hold of his body.

Neither of them said anything until Shouto eventually managed to think somewhat sensible thoughts and nodded. By the time, it could hardly be considered a response to the blonde's last statement anymore, probably. Still, the action was mirrored by Bakugou and then the two of them started walking to the gym, side by side, wordlessly.

Shouto was not sure what to think anymore. He couldn't even tell whether there were too many thoughts in his head or none left at all as he stole glances at the alpha, his hair and clothes soaked in rainwater. Bakugou reminded him of a cat that had been forced into a bathtub, with the way his hair was flattened to his head, void of the usual spikes. He wasn't about to say it out loud, but something about it was astonishingly.. cute. Saying as much out loud would probably earn him some colorful insults, he couldn't help but think.

Along with the rain came a harsh early autumn breeze and Shouto used his quirk to counteract the coldness a little, walked on Bakugou's right, with their shoulders lightly touching. From the look the alpha threw his way as they hurried into the building, Shouto assumed that he was definitely aware of his efforts to keep the both of them from catching a cold, but Bakugou didn't say anything about it.

Didn't even go out of his way to half-heartedly complain, which was odd. Somehow, the quietness between them felt natural though, comfortable.

The alpha just gave him a look, red eyes on Shouto's for just a split second before he shook his head and then faced forward again, pushed their shoulders a little tighter together, making Shouto's heart skip a little beat. Walking close to each other wasn't a new thing, but it felt different somehow - the way they touched in public seemed to mean something else as the touches they shared only with each other changed in nature behind the scenes. He had no way of explaining it to himself how those things worked.

The thing was, Shouto didn't exactly dare to look at Bakugou for more than a few seconds right now, because he knew without a doubt that if he allowed his eyes to roam, they would automatically find their way back to the bruises beneath his sharp jawline, as though guided by some higher power.

Those bruises that Shouto had left on him that were already starting to change in color and that Bakugou apparently didn't mind showing off, which still felt both utterly unrealistic and also, so damn real. Real, because they were... there. Undeniable - not just a tiny red spot that could be brushed off as having been bitten by a mosquito and scratched his neck or something. Shouto was pretty sure that the outline of some of his teeth was visible in the shape of tinier, darker marks on top of a lighter shade of red. The coloration ended just next to the alpha's scent gland and it made Shouto feel all kinds of weird, knowing how close his teeth had actually been to it because he could have just as easily -

"Done staring at your artwork yet, Icyhot?" Bakugou asked eventually, head tilted to the side ever so slightly and looking at the omega from the corner of his eye, but his voice still sounded tired from what Shouto could only assume was the lack of sleep over something that the alpha hadn't opened up to him about yet. In all fairness, Shouto was certainly partly to blame for the fact that they'd been distracted from their initial conversation.

He made a mental note to maybe inquire further about it once they were done with classes. If he found the right moment to.

"Oh," Shouto whispered. He hadn't even realised that his gaze had gravitated back to the bite mark, because he'd been actively trying not to stare, and all he could really do was be honest and shake his head because, no. Apparently he wasn't done admiring it quite yet.

And it made sense.

Shouto could only guess that he probably needed a few years to get over the last few minutes and everything that had happened in them, but he knew all too well that he didn't have years. In fact, by now they were probably late enough that they needed to hurry to get dressed. Still, he was neither in a rush nor entirely back in this world. Both the words the alpha had said to him and the kiss they had shared had been nothing short of breathtaking, and funnily enough, the effects of it really only seemed to hit him now. Slowly. Like alcohol coursing through his veins, but not exactly in the hazy-minded, hormonal way, necessarily, although that surely did play a part in it.

But more than that, it was the knowledge of how freely he had managed to open up to Bakugou about his worries and the dream, and how the alpha hadn't been mad at him, had somehow managed to stop Shouto from running in guilty circles about it in his head. He'd made an effort to understand. And now Shouto could finally breathe again, but at the same time his chest felt funny and he couldn't help but think that he would much rather stay outside in the pouring rain with the alpha than participate in their afternoon lessons.

Just... hide away with him, anywhere really, and feel Bakugou's fingers run over his skin and his lips on his own. It sounded much better than training and having to focus.

But of course, that wasn't a possibility. Training was important. Shouto knew. How could he not, when it had been beaten into his brain for years just how important that was.

Besides, some strange part of him was almost... thrilled at the prospect of showing off the marks he'd left on Bakugou. Which Shouto supposed made sense, given the fact that the urge to mark his neck had overcome him so suddenly and with the force of a tsunami, as though he needed a visible reminder of their connection to survive.

Shouto had never considered himself particularly possessive, but he couldn't deny that there was something about this that had his chest feeling so full. As if something inside of him had finally cracked and now he really just wanted to shout at the world about how the alpha had chosen him to be the one he kissed during lunch break, had allowed him and no one else to mark his neck - only Shouto. Maybe he was reading too much into it, but the thought brought on an entire flood of endorphins, as if his body wanted to reward him for going along with his impulses, for thinking happier thoughts.

The same boy who refused to even accept to be called someone's friend had allowed him to do that.

It was getting more surreal, the more Shouto thought about it.

The intensity of feelings that it all brought on was almost terrifying, and it felt as if his inner omega was clawing at his skin, trying to get to the surface, but somehow it wasn't painful.

Because for once, having heard what Bakugou had told him, it felt like maybe Shouto had the right to let himself enjoy that particular feeling, just a little bit. Just because seeing those bruises on the alpha and knowing that he carried a matching one beneath his own school uniform felt so utterly right and calming in a way that Shouto hadn't ever experienced before, but exciting all the same.

Thrilling, in fact, like embers beneath his skin that just kept glowing, and his head kept whispering at him that somehow, for reasons Shouto could not comprehend, Bakugou didn't seem all that bothered by his possessive behavior. The way he'd looked at him just now, it seemed almost as if the alpha knew exactly what was happening inside of him - from rational thoughts to satisfied instincts and warm emotions. Shouto wasn't all that bothered by the feeling of transparency.

It was odd, feeling so okay with being seen, and not just the parts of himself that he wanted to portrait.

He didn't really have anything to compare it all to, and perhaps the closest he'd experienced was when he'd forgotten about his scent blockers and actually had the chance to scent-mark Bakugou. The felt like so long ago, although realistically, Shouto knew that it had only been days. With his scent on the alpha, for the first time, he hadn't felt so invisible, and now - those bruises were the embodiment of visible, really.

He purred in the back of his throat, so quietly that it was barely existent at all.

Maybe giving into those types of instincts had sort of a landslide effect, because now he found himself wanting to do it all over again as well. Rub his scent against Bakugou like it belonged on him, and let both their scents mix together in a way that would be even more obvious than teeth marks alone could be.

Really. To just... mix their scents together one more time. That would be so nice.

He sighed.

It really wasn't a possibility right now. He'd already taken his medicine, smelled like nothing all over again, and they had school to focus on. Duties and responsibilities that Shouto couldn't possibly handle it if his thoughts became any messier than this.

His instincts didn't care about duties or responsibilities though and they were getting louder by the minute - he wasn't sure what to make of it. He felt greedy for wanting even more than what he already had, when what he already had looked so, so good on Bakugou's neck.

"Unless you want the marks to match, you better stop it right now with that look," Bakugou threatened him, but it didn't sound like too much of a threat, really. Maybe not at all. Shouto didn't say anything in response to that, other than another stupid little, "oh," mostly out of fear that if he tried his luck with words, they would come in the shape of a very enthusiastic yes that would inevitably end with them being late for class and on top of it, marks that he could not very well explain to his family members on Friday. 

Although.

He did own some turtlenecks, so maybe if Bakugou wanted to mess him up a little...

But by the time that particular thought had him feeling warm, fuzzy and stupid inside, they had (thankfully?) already reached the locker room, and Shouto realised in that moment that he had overestimated how prepared he was to deal with company right now.

Somehow, he felt out in the open, exposed. Although he wasn't even the one with his neck all marked up.

While Bakugou might not mind showing off the bruises, Shouto wasn't all too sure how to deal with the knowledge that their classmates could most likely add two and two together and figure out exactly what they'd been doing during lunch break.

What he'd been doing, attacking Bakugou's neck like it belonged to him.

Shamelessly.

When it really didn't. He didn't. If anyone asked what was going on between them, what exactly was he even supposed to say at this point? Shouto had no idea how much of this was normal, what wasn't, what it all meant.

Unsurprisingly, he felt conflicted about it all. He wanted people to know, but at the same time, Shouto had never been particularly open about this type of thing ever in his life, still found it hard to accept how easy it was to be torn into the ocean by the insistent waves that his instincts were. It wasn't as if he'd ever done anything of this sort with anyone, so he couldn't tell what it was supposed to feel like either; Maybe it was normal to feel a little weird about soft spoken admissions of weakness and shared kisses behind the school building, while simultaneously feeling a sense of.. accomplishment? Pride? Emotional warmth.

An obvious and undeniable sense of belonging.

God, he'd never known how nice that could feel.

Much to Shouto's relief, the locker room wasn't all that crowded and most of their classmates didn't spare them a second glance, already gone or currently heading out into the gym due to their late arrival.

The omega tried his best to act casual as he put his bag down on the wooden bench and turned to Bakugou again, like a compass pointing North.

Bakugou didn't look all that bothered at the prospect of company, prying eyes or afternoon classes. The blonde had his usual frown on his face as he hurriedly took off his jacket and gave the wet fabric a disgusted look, all rain-soaked hair and dark shadows that still lingered under red eyes. Shouto tried to tone it down with the staring, he really did, but Bakugou had a way of making undressing look very... nice and Shouto was pretty sure that his mouth was hanging open (and probably had been for a little while) as he focused on the way Bakugou's muscles cast shadows across his arms with his movements. He knew exactly the type of strength that these arm held, but Shouto found himself wanting to be proven of how easily they could-

"The fuck are you staring at," Bakugou barked suddenly and the omega involuntarily straightened up, eyes wide and pulse fast. Face heating up.

"Ah, I'm just-" he began, stopped when a familiar voice piped up beside him.

"Nothing at all Kacchan. Just, totally, absolutely.. nothing. At all. I mean - hi. I mean. What would I even be staring at," Midoriya rushed to say, his voice high pitched, and Shouto hadn't even realised that he was standing so close, or that the alpha hadn't been talking to him, caught up in his tunnel vision as he was. He turned around to find his friend red-faced, waving his hands around to emphasise his point.

Shouto could smell a hint of angry defensiveness coming from Bakugou, and strangely, it seemed to send shivers down his spine instead of simply stressing him out. Maybe because he knew that it wasn't directed at him? He pretended like he hadn't said anything, reached for his locker, opened it.

But as he stood there with his hand on the cold metal, Shouto suddenly found himself thinking about the blanket and pillow Bakugou had given to him. His fingers tightened on the locker door, and did his best to ignore the strange, all-consuming need to drag the alpha to his room with him. He took a breath, in and out, ascribed the sudden urge to to the general mess he'd been lately.

They had classes to worry about, he reminded himself. Again.

And he had clothes to change into.

"Thought so. Then keep your eyes to your fucking self, won't you Deku?" the discussion between the two went on, with Shouto standing in the middle of it, somehow still thinking about how utterly soft that blanket had felt between his fingers. How he hadn't yet found places for all the gifts he'd received.

"Yeah, I - my eyes are right here, Kacchan."

He needed to stop thinking about that blanket, that pillow, his weird nesting urges that had kicked in yesterday and refused to leave him alone ever since. What there even was to think about that, it was hard to tell. It wasn't exactly like nesting was rocket science. At least Shouto didn't think so. But suddenly, Shouto found himself having a little crisis over how Bakugou had chosen the perfect fabric for him and he wondered if the alpha had bought it for him wanting to see it used for that purpose -

"Could've fucking fooled me. Mind your own business for once."

"Yeah, haha. Of course. You know me Kacchan, I always do."

The only response was a grunt from Bakugou, and when Shouto snapped back into reality, he was a little bit concerned with the shade of red Midoriya's face had taken on, so for once, instead of it being the other way around, he took a step closer towards him and asked, "Are you feeling okay, Midoriya?"

The beta's mouth open and closed, before his eyes went in Bakugou's direction once more, only to snap right back towards Shouto. The omega could practically hear him think as an awkward kind of smile stretched across the freckled face.

"I'm feeling good, uh, great," Midoriya finally said, "I guess you, too? It does look like the two of you were out in the rain for a bit? Uh, not that - I mean. I'm sure you're having a good day as well. Totally ready for training and all. Plus ultra, right?"

He laughed.

Shouto nodded his head slowly, and heard the alpha behind him mutter something he couldn't really make out, but he could guess that it had everything to do with the way Midoriya acted more than a little off, a mumbling mess even for his standards. Shouto wasn't one to pry, and if the beta didn't feel like talking about whatever his issue was, then that was fine.

He tried for a reassuring kind of smile.

"Actually, I didn't sleep so well and the English exam wasn't all that good, so training does sound like a good thing right now, to let off some steam.." Shouto supplied, his voice calm.

The weight of Bakugou's eyes on the back of his head didn't go unnoticed, and it had a strange effect on his body, as though his quirk was acting up against his will.

Just as Midoriya was about to reply, Bakugou spoke up from behind him and Shouto almost felt bad for the way the deep voice stole his attention away from the beta instantly. He really needed to go out of his way to spend some quality time with his friend, Shouto couldn't help but think. Maybe then Midoriya would be more willing to open up about whatever had him so nervous. Maybe then Shouto could help and support him.

"Icyhot, how about you change into your training clothes and do your little smalltalk chit-chat thing later? Or do you wanna be late."

Midoriya replied without a second of pause, green eyes on Shouto's, "Ah, I. Yeah, I'll leave the two of you to it - I mean. To let off stea- I mean, change. Oh my God. Yeah. Iida already went ahead, so I'll just - "

And just like that, as if using his quirk to enhance his speed, the beta was gone and it was only the two of them left in the room. Shouto looked around once to confirm as much before he began to open his jacket and asked Bakugou, "Midoriya seemed a little off, didn't he?"

Shouto didn't expect the dark little chuckle from behind him, not at all.

How could he, when the sound of it seemed to be entirely out of this world.

He turned around with slightly widened eyes, and found his mind completely wiped blank with the amount of Bakugou's skin that was on display. The blonde had a hand in his still wet hair, bent forward a little in laughter, and his training clothes thrown across his other arm. Shouto wasn't sure when Bakugou had learned to look so effortlessly... model-like. Like an actor in a movie, except he didn't need to worry about the right angle because there was no such thing as a wrong one, especially when he was laughing. Red eyes came to meet heterochromatic ones then, and the alpha said, "The hell did you expect, giving me these?"

He pointed at his neck.

That was when it clicked in Shouto's head.

So Midoriya had been staring at, had been awkward because of -

"Oh," he said intelligently, wondered if he'd be capable of saying anything else for the next few hours, and shifted his eyes towards the floor because the amusement in Bakugou's was a little too much to handle. Shouto knew all too well that Midoriya was a perceptive person, but he'd assumed that the staring thing had just been their typical 'don't even look at me' argument that happened between Midoriya and Bakugou nearly every day. But... he supposed that it did make sense that this wasn't about that.

"Nearly gave the nerd a fucking heart attack," Bakugou grinned, sounding a bit too happy about it.

"Do you think seeing this actually endangered his health?" Shouto inquired, a sense of guilt weighing him down.

"No you idiot. Deku's just awkward as hell is what I mean, and this isn't exactly subtle," Bakugou told him, stepping out of his pants and looking over at the smudged little mirror in the corner of the room, checking out his reflection. Shouto forced himself to look away from him, to focus on the floor all over again, because Bakugou had a nice back and nicely shaped legs and he was dressed in black boxers that Shouto couldn't stomach. The sight of him was enough to have Shouto more than a little bit off balance. He'd stopped taking off his own clothes after he'd gotten rid of the wet jacket, and was practically frozen to the spot, useless.

"Sorry about that."

Apparently his fascination with Bakugou's lips had somehow escalated and now applied to the entirety of his body. He wasn't sure what to do about it anymore. He was fairly certain that it had been a gradual process, too (if his progressively heated dreams were any indication), but the severity of it hit him in that very moment, alone with the alpha in the locker room. With too much space between their bodies and a weird type of impatience flowing through his veins.

"No, you're not."

He really wasn't.

Shouto felt physically incapable of doing anything other than staring pointedly at the floor beneath his feet. Grey tiles. Moderately clean. Uninteresting, and not nearly distracting enough to keep his mind from running miles ahead.

Where to exactly, Shouto found it hard to tell.

All he knew was that Bakugou looked too good. Flawless skin with the occasional scar from training that only managed to make him look like art that spoke of ambition and growth - nothing at all like his own scar that only stretched across half of his face like a tea stain on fine paper and told the tale of painful memories only.

"Did you just freeze or something?" the blonde asked as he put his pants on and he sort of hit the nail on the head, but Shouto refused to admit as much.

Frozen as he was, the entirety of the room ironically felt too hot.

He wasn't even sure what it was that flicked a switch somewhere inside him; maybe the fact that someone - Shouto's closest friend in fact - had already seen the bruises on the alpha. And though he hardly ever allowed his thoughts to drift off in that direction, precisely because he liked and trusted Midoriya, he'd always been very aware of the amount of attention that Bakugou gave him so naturally. Which made sense, considering the entire childhood friends turned one-sided rivals thing, and it honestly wasn't even as prevalent anymore as it had been in the first year when Shouto hadn't been very close to anyone yet and could only watch from the sidelines.

But still.

Still, some part inside of Shouto liked the idea that Midoriya knew about it now - knew that Shouto had a special place too, in Bakugou's life, no matter how petty it sounded. The fact was painted across the alpha's neck, where his skin was turning purplish slowly.

He wondered if those thoughts meant that he was a bad friend, or just a guy with too many insecurities that didn't even stop at the people that mattered to him. It wasn't like Shouto was trying to think such thoughts either. In fact, Shouto felt quite torn about his newly discovered possessive tendencies. What reason did he even have to be so insecure?

(If he went looking, he was sure he'd be able to find various reasons in his lonely upbringing and his ongoing struggles with his secondary gender, but he didn't feel like digging that deep right now.)

Because what affected him even more deeply than the triumphant feeling of someone having seen the marks, was the fact that Bakugou was barely wearing any clothes. Standing right next to him. Looking like everything that he shouldn't be allowed to all at once.

And worst of all, he was still aiming that dirty grin Shouto's way.

It had his body temperature running so high that Shouto was pretty sure his hair had dried by now, or was at least close to it. He didn't bother to check. His blood pressure felt like it was through the roof, while the alpha was entirely capable of being a functional person apparently.

Shouto's brain chose that moment of all to remind him of the moan that had fallen from Bakugou's lips earlier and he made the mistake of watching Bakugou take off his shirt as he failed to reply with words, mouth hanging uselessly open. Bakugou's stomach was too much as it was slowly revealed when he pulled the shirt up, and his chest was no better. The omega he recalled the way the alpha's skin had tasted so vividly that Shouto's brain seemed to stop working, the blood in his veins running so very hot, from his face down his neck and into his upper body where -

"Oh what - holy shit," Bakugou suddenly barked at him, and then he was right in front of Shouto.

The omega's head shot up at the movement - and then he noticed it. The telltale scent of fabric that was just on the edge of burning; his cold hand shot up to his smoking shoulder and Shouto spread a layer of ice across it, forced himself to breathe in deeply, as the beginnings of his fire were killed in the cold. He breathed out in a hiss, after a second or two. Too fast to be considered a meditative breathing exercise, but the main idea was just to prevent himself from blacking out.

The ice melted within seconds, leaving a wet stain behind that he couldn't be bothered to even notice, because Bakugou was standing so close, right in Shouto's reach, with his upper body bare.

The need to kiss Bakugou and touch his skin simply hit him like that, like a train with no brakes, but Shouto squeezed his eyes shut as he forced himself to stand still, not move a finger. A little noise fell from his lips, and Bakugou made the mistake of resting one hand on his shoulder, asking in an understandably concerned tone, "You okay there?"

Shouto shook his head a few times before he opened his eyes and found the same shade of care in red ones that never failed to leave him a little out of his mind, because this was Bakugou. Looking at him like that. He wondered if that was a normal thing - feeling so safe with someone that it accidentally went into the area of thirsting for a taste of their skin, which then lead to almost setting yourself on fire. Probably not. Shouto didn't feel very normal in his skin.

"C'mon, it's not that embarrassing. Fuck subtle."

"Fuck subtle.. yeah," he repeated.

But Shouto had half a mind to tell Bakugou that embarrassment wasn't currently his main issue here. No - he, he didn't mind the visibility of the marks so much.

The issue was that, even though he'd changed clothes next to the alpha so many times by now, this time felt entirely different. He blamed the bubbly feeling of trust that held him captive for the way the sight of the alpha chose to affect him this time around. For once, Shouto didn't feel like he had anything casual or unbothered to say back to him, had no way of provoking Bakugou or messing with him. Words weren't even at the forefront of his mind.

Maybe he'd been too quick with his judgement of not being the hazy-minded, hormone-fueled type of mess.

Because he felt the part now, like he'd been walking in the desert for years and Bakugou was his own personal oasis of choice. Salvation in human shape. Shouto struggled to breathe normally, out of oxygen from nothing more than a glimpse at Bakugou's body. He found it incredibly unfair how toned and perfect everything about the alpha looked, how he smelled so invitingly good, and the things that it did to Shouto. All of those feelings raging inside him that he could neither name nor control were to blame for what he did next.

Bakugou had a way of coaxing this type of fearlessness out of Shouto at the most random moments, like now.

So without really thinking about it, his hand slipped off his own shoulder, wrapped itself around the alpha's neck and then he pulled the blonde towards himself, pressing their lips together all over again and sighing against the impact, because this was so much easier than talking. He could taste the surprise on Bakugou's lips for a moment, but decided to push past that and leaned in closer, kissed him harder, allowed things to get a little messier.

Shouto's hands slid down then, one along his neck and down the muscles of his back, across broad shoulder blades. The other hand went in a clumsy movement down the hard, greek-sculpture-like chest that Shouto couldn't even begin to handle. The omega inside of him seemed to go insane with the feeling, with the reminder of Bakugou's very fit physical state that was beyond anything anyone could ask for.

He could feel the alpha's heartbeat, the outlines of his ribcage, the years of training that had turned his body into.. this. Shouto pushed himself tighter into the hot body, wanting nothing more than to be sedated by his scent, wrapped up in Bakugou's presence.

He felt the strangest tightness in his stomach when the alpha snapped out of his surprise and bit into his lip, only for Shouto to moan softly and allow him free access to his mouth, lips falling open with no conscious effort. Before he knew it, the sound of his own body being pushed hard into one of the lockers met his ears, and Shouto all but melted at the eagerness the alpha displayed, fingers digging into his skin as he manhandled him like Bakugou knew exactly how much he liked it.

It felt as though Bakugou wanted to take him apart, and he was on the best way to accomplish the task.

So far, none or their kisses had felt quite as reckless, and it didn't really come as a surprise that Shouto found it absolutely addictive how the alpha took what he wanted out of his mouth, which turned out to be everything and more than Shouto - gone as he already was after only seconds - had to offer.

So he tried harder, pushed back, greedy to feel more of the softness that was Bakugou's mouth - he put everything into it, and very nearly fought his way into Bakugou's mouth with his tongue, only for the back of his head to hit the locker again and an animalistic growl to put his every cell on edge. It left him so shaken that he couldn't even focus on the skin underneath his hands properly anymore, barely even noticed when his arms lost their strength, fell down to his sides as he moaned into the kiss.

Bakugou's tongue was impossibly hot against his own, and neither of them seemed to be present enough to keep the kiss from getting wet and borderline disgusting. Or maybe neither of them wanted to. Shouto certainly didn't mind, couldn't mind. All his focus was on the way the alpha tasted and smelled.

Bakugou reached a hand out at some point, holding Shouto's head in place and fingers guided his jaw into opening up further for Bakugou to take advantage of, which he did. Giving up control was easy, and it happened without resistance from any part of himself. Shouto was so on board with it all, it felt like he was floating in clouds as he complied, humming a pleased little noise at the assault.

Their kiss didn't last too long, but it was competitive and heated enough for the both of them to be entirely out of breath by the time they pulled apart. They looked at each other, almost into each other, for a long moment that was so tense, Shouto swore he could see sparks go off in the air between them. Or maybe it was the alpha's smell translated by his brain into something visual. Shouto blinked at Bakugou once he felt halfway capable of words and he tried his best to keep it together, offer him a smile, "You're right, it's not."

"What?"

"Not embarrassing that people can see," he said, dragging his finger across the marks on Bakugou's neck and feeling his own body become all kinds of affected by the sharpness the alpha's scent took on. Widened pupils remained fixed on Shouto for a moment before Bakugou made a noise - the kind of noise that Shouto wasn't sure he understood on a conscious level - and he found himself wanting to chase the alpha's warmth as he pushed Shouto backwards and backed off with a conflicted expression on his face. The distinct need for more heavy and obvious in his scent.

Shouto wasn't imagining that, he was pretty sure of it. Bakugou felt that pull as well - Shouto needed him to. He really didn't want his alpha to pull away now.

"Fucking hell, you're - let's continue this once class is over, okay?" Bakugou suggested after a long moment of just watching him, oddly careful with his words. But the way his voice had dropped impossibly low in the wake of their kiss easily stole the omega's attention away from the meaning of the words.

Shouto remained a little slumped against the locker, his head empty as he watched Bakugou hastily put a shirt and the training jacket on, as if every exposed bit of skin between them was a risk they shouldn't take. Trouble was, Shouto hated that he was covering up his skin, and sure as hell didn't feel like waiting. He couldn't believe that his alpha would make him wait, would leave him standing here, panting and ready for anything and -

He took a deep breath, didn't even dare to question when that had become a thing in his head. He wasn't Bakugou's. Not his omega, not his anything. Bakugou wasn't his alpha.

... Or was he? On some level?

He didn't dare to ask, because he had a feeling that a 'no' would crush him, if he heard it said out loud. Just the thought of it was too painful to think about.

So, instead of trying to figure that out, Shouto focused tingling right beneath his skin, on how swollen his lips felt, and how much he wanted to get lost in the entirety of what Bakugou had to offer for a few more moments.

A few more lifetimes.

He stayed quiet.

"Need help changing your clothes now or what?" the blonde eventually commented, and Shouto was almost certain that there was sarcasm in it that he didn't feel like picking up on. A little lopsided grin stretched across Bakugou's lips as he caught sight of the way that Shouto was still very much observing his every movement with the kind of restraint that took effort. Even though he noticed the alpha noticing, Shouto couldn't really help it. He'd never been the best at lying or pretending. Or well, not with Bakugou. Certainly not now, not when the alpha held the power to scatter him and put him back together within seconds, with just a look.

He liked both; being scattered, and being put back together. 

Liked the fact that Bakugou's eyes drifted towards his neck and remained there; the weight of them felt almost physical, like fingers or lips brushing softly over his skin. His scent glands already felt swollen and warm, even the one on his colder side. A little shiver ran through Shouto and he made up his mind faster than he even realised.

He struggled to make his voice sound normal, and the words that came out certainly weren't, "Depends. Do you.. want to help me?"

The look the question earned him actually had Shouto short-circuiting, because even now, having experienced it multiple times, there was just something about the feeling of having Bakugou Katsuki's undivided attention on him. Especially when the alpha looked like he was about to slam him right back into the locker; Shouto wondered if the thought of that should make his heart beat as fast with anticipation.

He also wondered if he could make Bakugou forget about their responsibilities for a little while, if only to make sure that he wasn't the only one here who needed touch more than he needed oxygen.

...

There was a variety of things Bakugou could blame it on.

The lack of sleep. The stress of keeping a secret that wasn't going to be one for long, of knowing that they needed to do something about the omega's situation, and badly. Hell, he could even go so far and blame it on all the damn exams this week or whatever, but it didn't change the fact that he was no longer capable of making wise decisions for the life of him.

Not when Todoroki asked questions like that, and looked like him like he was fucking fine with the idea of being taken against some shitty locker in a room that reeked of sweat, exhaustion and frustrated students. Not that Bakugou would - and God, did he fucking want to - but he wasn't in the state of mind to beat around the bush and deny how much he liked what the omega had suggested either. 

Like he could fucking deny him anything at this point.

So, chest tight and all instincts running on high, he didn't even pretend to put on a fight and breathed out an embarrassingly desperate, "fucking - fine."

He tried to make it sound accusatory and annoyed, he really fucking did. But Bakugou had the strong suspicion that it was all too easy to tell that he couldn't think of another damn thing in the world that he wanted to do right now then help his omega change.

The alpha watched bicoloured eyes get swallowed up by dark pupils as the words sank in, swollen pink lips remaining open and inviting as neither of the two said anything for another moment. It was ridiculous, wasn't even a damn question. Of fucking course he wanted to help Todoroki undress. Who the hell wouldn't.

That thought alone was enough to make him both unreasonably jealous (of all the people that hypothetically would love to be in his shoes) and at least equally as thrilled. Bakugou had the permission and he needed to get his hands back on the omega right fucking now or he was going to snap. Todoroki was not making this shit any easier for him. Not at all. Bakugou wanted to consider himself the voice of reason, the sensible one out of the two, but there was only so much the alpha could take.

Especially when the omega looked at him through thick eyelashes and licked his lips before he asked with a surprisingly soft, mildly astonished tone, "yes?"

All wires in Bakugou's head snapped at once at the look he was given, but paradoxically he found himself moving incredibly slowly, as if afraid to startle the omega and make him change his mind. Because in all honesty, he was at the Todoroki's mercy. Hopelessly and brutally gone for him. There wasn't a thing that Bakugou would rather do than get those clothes off Todoroki - Shouto, he reminded himself.

Because whatever they were doing currently surely put them at first name basis once and for all.

And Bakugou's brain was wrecked with possibilities of what they could do. What kinds of sounds, reactions and expressions he could coax out of his omega like this. There was only so much self control he had to spare, and that shit was used up, gone for good, far away and out of reach. With the fucking looks Shouto had been giving him for the last ten minutes, it wasn't even a damn surprise anymore that Bakugou was beyond help.

He couldn't stop the low, possessive growl that fell from his lips; it was the type of sound that confirmed all too easily how much of a yes his answer had been. All reassurance, but tinged with something darker, more instinctual. Something about seeing the omega waiting for him to make his move, pressed up against the locker like this, had a violent combination of instincts kicking in. Because really all Bakugou could see was his omega, offering himself up, trusting him, fucking asking for Bakugou's touch like it was the only thing he needed in the world.

It was almost too much.

Bakugou wondered if he would ever get used to it, and what exactly he'd done right in his life to deserve this type of expression aimed his way.

Sure, he'd been trying not to let things escalate, has all sorts of shit to worry about and there was definitely the risk of someone entering the room, but the alpha inside of Bakugou fucking dared anyone to even try and get close to them - that would be one fucking mess. 

And Bakugou had another fucking mess to focus on, a mess so beautiful and surreal that looking at Shouto felt like committing some kind of fucking crime. His red and white hair was still a little wet, flatter than usual, and his face looked flushed in the most perfect way, emphasising his cheekbones and the color of his lips all too fucking nicely. Shouto was something out of a wet dream and he wasn't even doing anything.

Just watching with that owlish, mismatched gaze.

Bakugou leaned into Shouto's space very slowly. He allowed himself to run his neck across the side of his head once, made sure that his scent was spread nicely in the red locks before his mouth came to a halt above Shouto's ear. Beneath his touch, the omega was quiet but trembling softly, clearly very aware of every movement. He took a deep breath, and as expected, there was not a hint of the omega's real scent, only the freshness of the shampoo he used and a hint of vanilla that Bakugou could only assume came from the detergent he'd washed his uniform with. Other than that, it was just rainwater and a hint of musk; but nevertheless, even without the pheromones and the flowery note, his omega smelled delicious. Perfectly addictive.

And God, he needed to know as much. Maybe it was the conversation about Shouto's dream, or maybe the general worry about his health and wellbeing, but the need to reassure his omega of all the ways in which he was amazing was driving Bakugou insane. It was honestly as if Bakugou had flicked a switch, had once and for all replaced the insults with compliments, and now he found himself unable to fucking stop it with them. It was worrisome, the kind of 180 he'd never seen happening to himself.

But here he was.

Because it was the only thing he could do, the alpha whispered against sensitive skin, lips ghosting along a small ear, "You smell so good, Shouto."

And shit.

Thank fuck for Bakugou's fast reflexes, because the words seemed to hit a nerve. A gasp lingered in the air and then Shouto's entire body relaxed at the praise, growing soft and pliant like sugar dissolving in warm water as he took the words in. Bakugou couldn't believe that he was capable of affecting him in such a way with a few stupid words.

With his head titled to the side a little, the omega offered up more of his neck in the exact way that drove the alpha all kinds of crazy. Bakugou had grabbed Shouto by the waist before he could sink down the locker, and as his hands now tightened on him, it earned Bakugou another little sound, sweet and devastating.

The body in his hands was just the right degree of soft, and he found himself staring at abused lips again. Wondered what they'd look like, wrapped around -

Holy shit, Bakugou wondered if he was going to survive this day.

"You know I don't," Shouto said plainly, but he sounded like he wanted to believe Bakugou. Or maybe he was imagining things at this point, but how the hell was he even supposed to tell anymore. All he knew was that he had the most ridiculous urge to make a further mess of the pretty boy in front of him, and Shouto deserved to know as much.

"Shut up, you do," he clarified, kissed a spot behind his ear and tried to mentally blend out how very nice the body between his hands felt, how much he wanted to lift his omega up just a little higher and have him wrap his legs around him and - fuck. Literally. Bakugou wasn't sure if he really had anything to blame the pace of his thoughts on, other than the goddamn menace that Shouto was, exhaling a stuttered breath. He dragged his lips down a little and pressed a kiss to his sharp jawline.

"But I - ah."

"Wanna fight me about it?" Bakugou asked, pulling away, and aiming a heavy stare at the dreamy looking omega.

Shouto shook his head a little too eagerly.

"Great. Then.."

Red eyes went down then, and Bakugou could feel Shouto's, following him. He left one of his hands where it was, and took the liberty of letting the other hand travel up slowly, reveling in the soft exhale that the light touch caused. Mismatched eyes were full of something he couldn't name by the time he'd reached the upper button of the grey uniform and looked back up at the omega's face. 

Of course Shouto had to kill the last bit of sanity inside of the alpha, by pressing himself forward into the touch, fluttering his lashes ever so innocently at him, like an actual angel.

The action was so small and the effect it had on Bakugou was almost worrisome. Within a second, he was back on Shouto like a moth going up in flames. He pressed his lips to his omega's again, rough and hard because all the making out they'd done hadn't really done anything to make him feel less wound up. There was something way too addictive about being able to do this; being able to randomly kiss his omega and knowing that he wasn't the only one who wanted it.

Because hell, he could taste the eagerness on trembling lips, burning as viciously as the fire Shouto was usually so hesitant to use.

It was in the way that Shouto almost instantly opened his mouth for him, in the way he allowed Bakugou to reposition his head without a hint of protest, and in the way he mewled quietly when the alpha licked along his lower lip. The omega had practically melted in his hands by the time he'd managed to even open the upper button of his uniform, and reached for the next one.

Bakugou had been thinking about this for way too fucking long and although he was taking his time, it still felt like it all went way too fucking fast. But patience had never been his strength and there were entirely too many layers of fabric between them, so there wasn't much he could do, other than slipping the second button open. His voice sounded rough to his own ears when he spoke after separating their lips.

"Arms."

"Huh?"

An little growl that honestly wasn't even one escaped him, and Bakugou made a point of grabbing Shouto's arms that were pressed tightly to the locker behind his back, and guiding them forward so he actually had a chance to slip the uniform off him without accidentally tearing it apart. All the while, Shouto only stared in a mildly detached manner, licked his lips again, and let Bakugou do as he pleased, limbs heavy but agreeable and unprotesting.

Which was great, but also fucking terrifying because Bakugou liked the power of getting to do as he pleased a little too much, told himself not to test how far he could push that.

The urge to show his approval, to tell his omega how great he was, was so overwhelmingly there that Bakugou couldn't help testing the waters in that regard though. Half-prepared to be laughed at or called an ass, he took his chances and said, "fucking look at you, letting me undress you in public. Got any idea how good you look all messed up?"

Shouto's mouth opened in response and remained that way for a few seconds before he closed it and stared at the floor; Bakugou could not for the life of him decide whether he found that reaction cute or hot or stupid.

"Don't just say that," came a quiet request through flushed lips.

He threw the discarded uniform on the bench next to them, and wondered if the omega was going to start burning again, because his face certainly did look the part. And as far as warmth went, his own blood wasn't all that far from boiling at the sight of him, looking like an embarrassed little present waiting to be opened. Fucking hell, did Bakugou want to.

He also wanted to mess with this sweet version of Shouto a little bit, so like the asshole he was, Bakugou added, "Why, you secretly into hearing how pretty you are or what?" and grinned at him in a way that was sure to infuriate the other at least a little bit.

There was a moment of silence.

And then an icy, "Bakugou," that wasn't nearly enough to fool him.

"We'll be late if you don't get on with it," Shouto finally added, and when he looked up, there was a challenge in his eyes, casting shadows over the embarrassment. That certain sparkle told Bakugou all he needed to know and made him wonder how the hell someone could be like that. Apparently embarrassment in Shouto had various stages, and the one that came behind red cheeks and little gasps was a fake display of cool indifference.

Of fucking course Shouto actually had the guts to first ask his alpha to change his clothes for him, turn all shades of red at his words and then half-ass it by faking a calm exterior and saying that they needed to hurry. If that wasn't proof of the ambivalent relationship the omega had with his secondary gender, then Bakugou didn't know what the fuck was.

All he knew was that it didn't matter whether Shouto acted demanding, conceited or submissive or whatever the hell he felt like. Each and every damn side of him that Bakugou discovered or rediscovered only seemed to pull him in deeper, to a point of no return.

But God, that didn't mean that he didn't want to wipe that fake coolness off his features. It was almost cute, how Shouto's mask was crumbling already, how he was holding onto his icy and arrogant facade, when Bakugou could see right through it. The idiot was bluffing, face growing redder the longer the alpha fixed him with a look.

He wasn't the only one affected though, Bakugou regrettably noted. His mind wasn't working as fast as his mouth, which meant that he naturally ended up saying something idiotic and teasing, "You should be fucking thanking me for playing your personal butler in the first place, Icyhot."

The cloudiness of mismatched eyes was the only thing that betrayed how affected the other really was when he asked, voice infuriatingly flat again, "Oh. Should I? I didn't realise."

And then Shouto decided to murder the alpha once and for all, because his own hands started opening up the red tie, pale fingers doing quick and precise work and Bakugou forced himself to not attack him like an animal all over again. But even watching was a kind of torture that felt utterly amazing.

".. Because I don't think you hate your new job all that much."

Bakugou knew, deep down, that he was the type to take the bait all too easily, in various contexts.

The thing was, he hadn't been prepared for Shouto to turn it all around like that and actually mess with his mind by stumbling on some silver mine of confidence in the middle of getting himself undressed. As if he'd done this a thousand times and knew exactly how to deliver the final punch.

"You fucking think?" he growled as Shouto finally pulled the tie off, holding it out to Bakugou.

And like the obsessed idiot he was, Bakugou didn't even think about it before he accepted the piece of fabric and threw it on top of the messy uniform. Like the worst personal butler ever but fuck that shit.

"I'd hope so," Shouto told him with his stupidly honest voice before Bakugou shut him up nicely with another kiss, the sound of Shouto's body being pushed back into the lockers ringing through the room. The little moan it earned him was extra fucking satisfying, because Bakugou wasn't going to stand here like a fucking statue while Shouto made a hobby of messing with his mind in the hottest of ways. 

If Icyhot wanted to know how much Bakugou liked his new job, then he was going to show him and not with fucking words.

This time, Bakugou kissed him without even the barest hint of restraint, bit Shouto's lips hard before he pushed his tongue into that hot mouth, swallowing up whatever noises of surprise and need the action caused without a second of pause. The kiss was wet and rushed and all fire, none of the fake composure left in either of them, and God did Bakugou want more of that. Much in the same way his mouth did, he didn't stop his hands from doing what they itched to, movements eager and impatient as he once again started with the highest button of the white shirt and went down as fast as possible, pushing harder into the kiss when the tips of his fingers touched the smooth skin underneath the fabric.

Shouto's body was out of this world and Bakugou knew as much. Everyone except Shouto himself knew how attractive he was. Nevertheless, he found himself fucking astonished with how very true it actually was, because Shouto's every reaction, his every shiver and quickened heartbeat went right to Bakugou's dick, with absolutely none of its severity getting lost in translation.

Self control was slipping right through his fingers and the alpha couldn't do a damn thing about it when he was too busy kissing the breath out of his omega.

His.

The kiss just seemed to scream that, and he didn't even have the presence of mind to give a fuck if Shouto noticed it as well. Bakugou found himself hoping that he did, hoping that he understood exactly what he was trying to say and agreed with him.

Once he'd opened the shirt entirely, Bakugou really couldn't help it anymore. He was only half aware of the fact that his fingers found themselves going a little lower, finding a hold it the sides of Shouto's hips and lifting him up, only to push him back into the metallic surface all over again, this time with his feet above the ground, wanting more closeness.

And maybe his thoughts had been loud enough for Shouto to hear or whatever, because the omega did the exact thing Bakugou had hoped for and also feared he would. As though by instinct, strong legs wrapped themselves around his body, which effectively left not even a hint of space between them and there was no doubt about it.

Shouto could feel exactly how rock hard he was in his pants.

Really, not that it was a damn surprise, because who the hell wouldn't he be.

The surprise was that the omega was just as hard, and that the moment Bakugou pushed into him to pin him against the surface, Shouto threw his head back without a warning, eyes tightly closed and swollen lips open in a nearly soundless moan that was approximately as addictive as heroine. Especially coupled with his face. There was no escaping the fact that it was the absolutely hottest thing anyone on this planet would ever see, and somehow Bakugou was the lucky bastard who did and -

fuck.

What exactly was he even doing?

They hadn't talked about this.

Not that they'd talked about anything much concerning the physical stuff they did together, but this was one fucking step up from making out and it was all too fucking easy to conveniently forget all about that when he had his omega pushing himself into his crotch with an expression that looked so perfectly gone. His lips were still wet and shiny from the kissing.

Bakugou couldn't take his eyes off that sight or move himself away from him.

Couldn't be the voice of reason here, didn't want to be, wouldn't be able to be if he tried.

But he fucking needed to and he knew it. So Bakugou did try.

In the shape of growling out a, "God fucking damn it, we need to-" and attempting to take a step backwards.

But he hadn't anticipated that the legs around his hips would tighten their hold in response, or that his omega was going to be extra fucking unfair and make one of those little sounds that instantly had the alpha inside of him so fucking stressed out. Because Shouto sounded like he needed him to stay right where he was. He sounded so fucking needy like this, and coupled with the hint of a movement against Bakugou, it was a lethal combination.

And hell, those legs.

They had all kinds of thoughts running fucking wild in Bakugou's head.

And then heterochromatic eyes opened, knocked all thoughts right out of him all over again with their unfocused intensity. The exact reason why no one should be allowed to have eyes like that - it should be fucking illegal and Bakugou was suffering the consequences of a flawed justice system.

Shouto's eyes were nothing if not deep frozen lakes, million years old water filtered through even older stones, with clouds reflecting on the surface, hiding their depth. And Bakugou was beneath that very surface, without a sense of up and down and simultaneously feeling like he was going to go up in flames because that was what the coldest of temperatures did to people.

He fucking loved it there, was more than alright with drowning.

"Bakugou," Shouto said like he knew anything, "don't just go away."

It took a moment to register that Shouto had spoken at all, much less what it was that he'd just said.

"You don't know what you're fucking saying," Bakugou forced out, feeling his pulse all the way up to his neck and this couldn't be healthy. He'd never been so aware of every cell in his body and he was very fucking self aware by default.

"I'm saying don't stop."

"You don't have a fucking clue what I want to - holy fuck," he hissed, squeezing his eyes shut as the omega caught him off guard by fucking rolling his hips in a clumsy movement that felt all kinds of amazing because any amount of pressure was just so very fucking welcome that it wasn't funny anymore. Neither was the relieved breath that involuntarily escaped Bakugou's lips, only to be mirrored by Shouto.

When he forced his eyes back open, he caught the omega gazing at the bruises on his neck again as if he was staring into a dream, before his eyes came up to meet Bakugou's with the same amount of wonder and longing still inside them.

".. You sure about this?" Bakugou dared to ask, feeling like he was about to throw himself off a particularly deadly high cliff.

"Yes. Just - please, I need you to- nnh," words faded into a moan as Bakugou finally snapped and went for it. He dug his hands into the clothed ass so he had a better hold on Shouto and held him in place as he pushed his own hips forward into the fit but pliant spread legs. Bakugou was entirely fucking overwhelmed with both the friction on his dick and the downright sinful moan that Shouto blessed him with as his arms tightened around Bakugou's upper body, fingers digging into his back hard.

That was when he remembered about the already opened shirt and thanked himself for that because it left him with the absolutely convenient option of sucking yet another mark into soft skin as he repeated the forward motion and felt the body around him tensing up before the omega tried once again to respond in turn.

Messy was too mild a word for whatever the hell they were doing.

They were both wearing pants, had no rhythm to speak of and the sounds Shouto made as the alpha created a little pathway of marks close to the already existing one near his collarbone didn't make it any better.

Not that it could be any better. 

Because Bakugou loved every fucking second of this. Every bit of uncoordinated and mindless dryhumping and the way Shouto was presenting his neck to him again, as if he fucking wanted Bakugou to make the mistake of marking him up there as well. As things stood, Bakugou wasn't far from it. It was ridiculous how hard he was, and just how fucking sensitive, and from the looks of it, the other really wasn't doing any better either.

But that wasn't enough.

He wanted to hear more of that usually so composed voice as it crumbled into moans and broken calls for him.

"Ah fuck," Shouto very nearly shouted as the alpha bit into his skin, his sharp teeth probably breaking it, but still, the sound was all encouragement. All 'more' and 'yes' and exactly the type of thing that spurred Bakugou on. He certainly hadn't fucking expected their first.. whatever exactly, to happen this way - had expected it to happen in either of their beds where he'd help Shouto create his own safe little space where he felt comfortable - but he was going to make so fucking sure that it was the best fucking thing it could be, given what he had to work with.

He felt blunt fingernails dig into his skin.

"Bakugou," Shouto said his name like a plea, pulling him closer.

"You know you can use my first name," the alpha told him, because fuck, did he want to hear that.

And Shouto didn't disappoint, not wasting a second before he said in the very same tone, "Katsuki."

Bakugou was so caught of guard by how right that sounded that he barely even registered that one of Shouto's hands was slowly moving down his chest, until it was pressed between their stomachs and heading for the tent in his pants and -

"Shouto," he whispered, stopping his movements, only for the omega to roll his hips again because he could apparently not make up his damn mind about what he wanted to do.

"Please, can I -" the words fell from the omega's lips, barely audible. And Bakugou was left with the question of, please could he, what. Because yeah, Shouto fucking could. Anything. Oh God.

"Yes," he hissed, but pushed their bodies together again, and knocked whatever plans Shouto had right out of his brain for a moment as he moaned louder than before at the feeling of their dicks rubbing together just fucking right. Bakugou looked at him in the way people probably looked at angels in visions, blinded and humbled and shocked to the core.

He wasn't so sure he could stop this when everything about Shouto felt so -

"Hey guys, Aizawa told me to check o-whattheohmyGODI'msosorry."

Both their heads snapped towards the door at the sound of what could only be described an acute mental breakdown noise that followed the incoherent string of words.

And Bakugou knew all too well who made this noise because there was only one fucking person in the world that reached the level of panic to even produce that kind of sound and he fucking deserved every bit of panic he felt because this was it. He actually had to fucking kill Deku. The amount of adrenaline that instantly shot through his veins would almost make that a little too fucking easy.

All he could think of was that there was someone way too close to his omega and although this wasn't even a heat type of situation, he could only guess that it was the same area in his brain responding here. His brain really only registered a threat, way too close to his omega, when the sight of him was for no one else to fucking see, especially not fucking Deku.

Deku just stood there, apparently frozen in shock.

Fucking hell. He better be.

"Get the fuck away unless you want me to kick your goddamn freckled face in," Bakugou snapped with every bit of hatred he could muster, but he obviously was not fucking thinking clearly.

Because his scent was no less sharp than his words were, and Shouto was still very much pressed up against him with absolutely not enough distance or presence of mind to fight off the effect that the spike in anger had on him. The first thing that Bakugou felt was how badly his body started shaking, and then there was that heartbreaking sound of absolute distress. When Bakugou turned towards the omega, he had his head pressed impossibly low against his shoulder, neck on full display and his eyes squeezed so tightly shut that it looked fucking painful. 

He was submitting out of fear, and Bakugou hated that he was capable of doing that do him.

Which meant that a war instantly broke out inside of Bakugou, because his instincts apparently couldn't make up their damn mind about getting Deku out of here or somehow trying to comfort his omega, which seemed utterly fucking impossible when Bakugou himself was the very source of his stress.

He was freaking the hell out because Deku had just seen not one but two fucking things that he was not fucking supposed to and it was his own damn fault for being so careless and letting this shit happen and -

He took a breath and forced himself to stop.

Just. Stop. Entirely. 

"What - Todoroki, are you okay?" Deku asked, apparently not fucking getting it and looking like he wanted to play the fucking hero again and actually fucking approach them, like the suicidal idiot he obviously was.

Speaking normally had never taken as much effort as it did in that very moment, but Bakugou didn't dare to make another sound that would stress his omega out, so he had to fucking try.

"Leave this room right now, and don't say a fucking word. To anyone. Get it? We'll be a little late."

He felt Shouto's hold on him tightening, and sent a glare the beta's way. Thank fucking God Deku's brain wasn't entirely out of order, because he nodded, green locks bouncing up and down. 

"Okay. I - okay. And you're sure you'll be alri-"

"Did I fucking stutter."

"No. You - okay," Deku whispered, and then he was gone and the door was closed. 

And the two of them were left alone, Shouto still shaking like a leaf and his breathing audibly uneven. Bakugou's own wasn't much better, but he tried. Didn't even know what to say, to do, or where to begin. 

"Shouto," he just whispered to the omega who was clinging to him like his life depended on it, trying for the softest tone of voice.

But there wasn't a reaction other than another one of those distressed little sounds and Bakugou wondered how badly he'd fucked up just now. He didn't need to smell the other's scent to tell that he was fucking stressed out beyond belief. His first instinct was to blame it on Deku, but he knew that wasn't really it. Anyone could have fucking entered, and Bakugou at the very least had a secret he could hold over Deku's head to prevent him from telling anyone about this.

If anything, Bakugou was to blame for this shit, because if he was a good alpha, he'd have made sure that none of this would have fucking happened. He would have been enough of a quick thinker to realise that his territorial anger was uncalled for and only going to hurt his omega instead of making the situation any better.

The thing was, placing the blame somewhere wasn't currently what felt important.

What was important was Shouto, and the way he didn't seem to snap out of it but also refused to move his head so Bakugou could look him in the eyes to help with that. By the looks of it, he wasn't going to act normal anytime soon.

... So much for making this a good fucking experience. 

Bakugou still didn't have a fucking clue what to say, not when they'd just dry humped each other like animals, only for the entire ordeal to be ended way too fucking abruptly in the worst damn way possible. He couldn't even handle the fact that Shouto had gone along with this, participated so willingly in it all when, as far as Bakugou was concerned, the omega always seemed so innocent to anything of that nature. Then again, he did tend to surprise him over and over again. Bakugou was never going to get the sounds Shouto had made out of his head, but he even shouldn't think about that because he needed his damn brain to function.

Bakugou tried to turn his voice into something soft and safe-sounding, "Hey, it's okay. You're okay, just breathe. It was only Deku and everything is fine."

But nothing happened and Bakugou couldn't tell how many minutes exactly it had been now, but the omega was still shaking in his hold, still unresponsive, and Bakugou had never seen him so utterly freaked out by angry pheromones before. It was a fucking scary thing to see, and all the worse because he knew that he was the one who had caused this, pushed him into this state. All over fucking Deku.

When Shouto needed anything but anger.

"I can take you back to your room if you want me to," the alpha offered helplessly, trying his hardest to make his scent comforting and calm and the opposite of everything it had been. His body was producing those stress-relieving hormones instinctively, and Bakugou soon found the two of them entirely wrapped up in a cloud of his scent.

It helped - a little, maybe.

At least Shouto finally moved his head, no longer pressing it so desperately down. But even as pretty eyes blinked open, there was a lack of recognition in them that had Bakugou hating himself so fucking much because this was his fucking fault for allowing himself to be so weak for Shouto Todoroki that he'd tried to, what. Fuck him in the damn locker room?

"Come on, say something. Wanna go and lay down?" he asked again, and it took a few moments before the other shook his head, sucked in a breath. Exhaled.

"No, I - we.. have to go to class, Bakugou," he finally decided, as if that shit was important right now. And yeah, of course it was, but not more important than making sure that he was doing alright and it really didn't fucking look or sound like it.

Once again, a 'have to' that Shouto valued more than his own well-being, Bakugou noted bitterly, and tried not to let his thoughts spiral downward.

"Can you even fucking stand right now? You're still shaking," he asked, and it came out a little sharper than he intended. Predictably. Because seeing Shouto all messed up like this, the blonde automatically thought of the pills again. Of the side effects. Of the fact that Shouto had no damn clue what he was doing to himself by never allowing himself a fucking break when he obviously needed it.

Sure, Bakugou was one to talk in that regard, but at the very least he wasn't slowly poisoning himself from the inside, unlike the omega.

"Probably?"

Bakugou didn't reply.

And then a moment later, Shouto's legs loosened, no longer squeezing around the alpha and Bakugou hated letting him go, hated how the interruption had changed the entire mood and pulled the both of them right back into reality with a clash so fucking hard that it was painful.

A reality where Shouto had enough on his plate already and where Bakugou was supposed to take care of him and make things better instead of adding more stress to the list of struggles that he already had going on. He really just wanted to yell into Shouto's face that he was being an idiot, but Bakugou knew all too well that it was mostly because he felt like an idiot himself for being so damn terrified of bringing up the pills. The side effects. The 'skip no more than three cycles' advice.

The stress of it all amounted to anger all over again, but this time the alpha made sure not to show it. He wasn't sure what he was even angry at precisely. But rage was an easier thing to feel than all the other shit that was right beneath the surface that was threatening to actually make him have some sort of breakdown right here and now.

The ugly crying and banging fists against walls kind of breakdown. The last fucking thing Shouto needed to see right now, so Bakugou was going to collapse before he allowed himself to show any of that. He swallowed it all down, and it left his chest feeling tight.

...

Shouto could not stand.

The moment his feet met the ground, he became very aware of the fact that his body was still in some kind of shock; the sudden drop from bliss to pure and utter panic had been too much for his muscles, for his head. He should have seen that coming, but hadn't even been able to think of anything at all with both their bodies grinding together, and the alpha's scent had certainly hit him down to the core. Pleasantly at first.

And then, not so much. The shift had knocked him entirely off balance and left him unable to do... anything.

And now he couldn't even stand?

Shouto wasn't sure he could accept that.

Bakugou thankfully held him up before his legs gave out on him, but Shouto still felt a sense of panic at the feeling and even though he was slowly starting to feel a little more lucid, there was still that weird urge to verbalise his distress, make himself as small as possible and sink into the floor, hide in a corner. He remembered it all too well from his younger years, back when he hadn't yet learned how to deal with alpha pheromones at all.

Shouto knew that he had no one but himself to blame for getting back to that place.

Had he not been hit with this sudden desire to push all boundaries and irresponsibility ask for more, none of this would have even happened at all. Bakugou had smelled too good, had looked entirely too enticing, and the moment Shouto had felt just how hard to alpha was for him, that simple fact had overshadowed all semblance of shame, of structured and critical thinking. His hips had started moving on their own, his hands and legs so impatient as they'd tried to pull him closer.

Closer, closer, closer. As if that was all that mattered in the world.

His body had known exactly what to do, what it wanted. And Shouto had chosen to go along with it, giving up control. Only to end up like this.

He whimpered quietly, unsure what to do with himself. Despite his paralysed state, Shouto still found his pulse going hard, caught up in the idea of continuing where they'd left off when that absolutely wasn't an option. Because he couldn't even stand, and because Midoriya had seen them - had seen the way Shouto had reacted to Bakugou's angry pheromones.

In a way that was just a bit too obviously not beta-like. Or hero-like, really. Shouto had been too receptive, with his guard all the way down and the entirety of his focus on no one but the alpha in front of him.

Of course the pheromones had knocked him off his feet. Bakugou's scent was always so strong, and Shouto knew the level of anger that it could reach - he could only guess that a lack of sleep didn't make it any easier for the alpha to control the severity of his physcial reactions.

It was the exact type of thing that had always scared Shouto; the thought of being a paralysed good for nothing omega in an emergency-type of situation. And while this hadn't been an emergency exactly, it could have just as easily been. If this type of thing ever happened with an actual villain, then Shouto would not only put himself but also Bakugou into a less than favorable position by freezing up, sticking his neck out and losing all ability to fight or even think for himself. Doing the precise thing he'd been trained for years not to do.

It was a horrifying feeling, really. A moment of weakness, but multiplied.

And it almost immediately led him back to thoughts of his father; the alpha's reasoning for why Shouto needed to keep his secondary gender to himself and himself at a reasonable distance from others were situations like this one. He hated that it made him feel like the man was right, like Shouto was a burden, like he was failing in the exact ways he was naturally predestined to.

He didn't want to think about it.

Just wanted to go back to what they'd been doing, and lose himself in the feeling of being surrounded, caged. Because Bakugou, for some odd reason, still wasn't looking at him like he thought Shouto was weak or useless. He wanted the feeling of dragging their bodies together, and the satisfaction of having Bakugou all over him, like it was all that mattered in the world. Another sound slipped past Shouto's lips.

"I'm fucking sorry okay," Bakugou said with a hint of pain in his voice and Shouto blinked up at him, "it was only Deku, that nerd isn't even a damn threat and I still - I shouldn't have freaked out like that when I knew that you'd -"

"It's not like you can turn off your pheromones at will," Shouto stated as factually as he could manage before Bakugou was done talking, "I'd know. If it was possible to entirely control these things, I wouldn't have to take as many scent blockers. This isn't your fault at all and I know you didn't mean to do it. I just.. need a minute, Ba- Katsuki."

He liked the sound of it too much, couldn't believe that he officially had the permission to use the name without the risk of getting punched in the face. Shouto knew that it was a bigger deal to the alpha than it was to himself, because he was always happier to be referred to by anything but his family name for a variety of reasons.

But calling the blonde Katsuki, Shouto would need a while to get used to that. Really.

"..."

Bakugou remained quiet, and Shouto could tell that the thoughts were racing in the alpha's head while he simultaneously tried to keep his scent calm. It warmed his heart a little to know that he was making such an effort to help him, but at the same time, it left a bitter taste in his mouth that he felt like Shouto needed the help.

When he did. He knew that he did, and didn't like how dependant it had him feeling all over again.

"You fucking scared me just now," the blonde eventually confessed as his hands tightened on Shouto's sides. Hearing those words from Bakugou was certainly something. The alpha was always so insistent that nothing at all terrified him, and though Shouto could long since see behind that facade, it still hit him how much more open Bakugou was with him now.

How those words really said, 'I trust you enough to admit to weakness. To tell you that I was scared. To say that I care.'

Shouto wasn't sure he deserved that, really. Not when he was the type of person who, despite what had just happened, needed to make a conscious effort to not think wrong thoughts. He shouldn't be thinking about taking the easy way out, asking Bakugou to distract him and shut his thoughts up with more kisses, more touches.. And god, he definitely shouldn't be thinking about how big the alpha's dick had felt, pushing against him. His father had often told him that Shouto was supposed to be more than just another 'slutty and brainless omega', but now he wondered if maybe he wasn't. Maybe that was all he'd turn out to be.

Because he didn't have a heat or anything to blame his thoughts on.

Only the fact that it felt so utterly right for the two of them to move together in this way, and the fact that he liked the little gasps and groans that Bakugou made in response to his own movements way too much. All of it had felt so natural, and it was astonishing that Bakugou even chose to do that with him at all when he could have anyone, really. 

Shouto really didn't understand it.

But he liked it. Liked the attention, the closeness, and the fact that Bakugou's body reacted to his own so beautifully. Like matching puzzle pieces.

Maybe it was a good thing that he didn't have that much control over his muscles. He wondered if he'd only try to climb on him again if he had; it really didn't sound like too bad of an option. But he wasn't stupid enough to go for it and instead, Shouto tried to keep his thoughts straight and urges under control. It was the least he could do.

Bakugou looked so worried about him and here Shouto was, debating the possibility of a continuation.

"I'm sorry too, I was caught off guard," the omega muttered, "... and ah, preoccupied."

"Preoccupied," Bakugou echoed and Shouto bit his lip, incredibly aware of the hands at his sides.

"I didn't want to be interrupted," he offered, tried not to stare at the alpha's lips hungrily, and wondered once more why he couldn't just keep his mouth shut about this. Why he had to go out of his way to be honest about his thoughts when they sounded so... foreign, to his own ears. A bit too true. When Shouto had become so desperate for less than innocent touches was hard to say. Even now, with his body struggling to get back to normal, Shouto already felt like he was getting ahead of himself again, heart still beating so fast at the thought of what they'd been doing.

Could still be doing maybe if he said the right words now or simply went for it and gave into the need burning in his -

No.

He told himself to stop right there, because this was getting out of hand, it really was. Shouto wasn't usually the manipulative type, wouldn't consider himself to be at least, and he wasn't nearly confident enough about this type of thing to even try and coax the alpha into doing more. Or stupid enough to take the risk of someone else catching them.

Or wouldn't be. Under normal circumstances.

Shouto's eyes were definitely focused on his lips when Bakugou spoke, and there were words at the tip of his tongue just waiting to break free.

"If you think that I wanted Deku to interrupt us, then fucking think again."

Shouto wasn't thinking that. He wasn't about to say out loud exactly what he was thinking.

"Is that why you smelled so angry? Because it was Midoriya?" he asked instead, considering the topic a safer territory than anything else he could say.

"No," the alpha said, turned to look away, "could've been anyone, he's extra fucking annoying but at least not the type to gossip."

The omega nodded his head slowly, wondering if this was the nicest thing he'd ever heard Bakugou say about Midoriya. Perhaps. He still couldn't entirely understand the severity of Bakugou's reaction, but Shouto supposed that it really just came down to the surprise of being caught in that compromising position. Of course, he couldn't necessarily put himself into the alpha's position.

Shouto wondered what they had looked like, and a shameless part of himself wished that he could have seen it, the way Bakugou had held him up so easily, had pushed their bodies together.

Shouto looked down at himself to find his shirt still wide open, revealing most of his chest and his stomach, and the trail of bite marks that Bakugou had left on him went down far enough for him to see with his head angled a little. Shouto watched his own heartbeat quicken in response to seeing the marks, and he swallowed drily, still trying to get it together. 

"Right," he said, mind was somewhere else, "I should.. put on clothes."

This time, Bakugou only nodded and didn't offer to help him change. Thankfully. Because Shouto might have just gone ahead and told him that yeah, why not. And perhaps slam him back into the locker even harder while he was at it so they could pick back up right where they'd been interrupted.

Or not.

Shouro certainly felt stupid, and more than a little bit distracted by the red eyes that kept glancing at his body as he finally managed to stand by himself and hurriedly changed into his training clothes. It was harder than it should be, completing such a simple task.

"You sure you can handle this?" Bakugou asked him once Shouto stepped out of his pants, and this time the alpha was deliberately not looking his way, which was equally as considerate as it was frustrating. Because a part of Shouto wanted him to look, wanted the alpha to be just as affected by his body as he'd been when he'd watched Bakugou change clothes. Wanted Bakugou to be unable to show as much consideration and turn away.

... Yeah. Shouto really wasn't so sure he could handle this. He barely felt like himself at all. More like an imposter in his own body with one goal and one goal only that had everything to do with wanting to get his hands on Bakugou's body. His fingers itched with the desire to feel that heavy bulge against them, after he'd been robbed of his opportunity minutes ago.

But he had to try and focus on other things; both of them had to try, really. It was all too easy to forget about school and responsibilities when getting lost in each other sounded like a much better option than training ever could.

"I can handle it," he confirmed and Bakugou made a noise that didn't exactly sound super convinced, but he didn't question it further either.

Which was how they ended up rushing into the gym two minutes later, with Bakugou sticking very close to Shouto, as though he wanted to be ready to catch the omega if his legs gave out again. All the while, Shouto simply tried his best to keep his thoughts from drifting into the wrong types of directions. It was honestly concerning how much effort that took, and had he not taken his heat suppressants just yesterday, he'd assume that that was what was happening to him.

He'd never felt this worked up, this desperate to be taken apart - or at the very least he couldn't remember a time where he had felt this way before. Shouto wondered if he should be ashamed of himself, but he couldn't tell.

Everyone was already divided into pairs of two when they entered the hall. They were apparently practicing close combat techniques or something, and other than Midoriya, no one really seemed to be too aware of their arrival. Shouto sent an apologetic look his friend's way, taking note of the fact that the beta's face was cherry red when he looked at him.

Shouto supposed that they would talk about what he'd seen in some capacity, sooner or later. He tried not to worry about what that conversation was going to look like; between exams, the knowledge of an impending family dinner and what he could only assume was some type of sexual awakening he was going through (he'd heard the term in a movie once and it sounded just about right), there wasn't much space to fit even more worries into his head.

Bakugou pulled at his arm then, and Shouto followed him towards a less than motivated looking Aizawa.

"You're ten minutes late," their teacher said, giving them the distinctly 'disappointed' type of look that Shouto really didn't ever want to be subjected to. He noticed the alpha next to him taking a little step forward, between him and their teacher. The omega decided not to question the fuzzy feeling it caused in his stomach.

It didn't really make sense either way.

"Any excuses?"

Bakugou didn't say anything so Shouto took it upon himself to reply, which maybe wasn't the best idea, but he couldn't stand feeling so useless, "I got really.. wet, in the rain. And when I tried to dry myself using my quirk, I accidentally set the uniform on fire. Bakugou was kind enough to help me."

He nearly winced at his own words.

Aizawa raised a brow in a less than impressed manner, arms crossed.

".. Help you, how exactly?"

"Ah," Shouto said, mind going offline as he looked at Bakugou for help. Apparently the lie wasn't quite as smooth and logical as planned. Not that he'd planned it, which was probably the reason why.

"Whatever, at least the building isn't on fire," Aizawa decided after about a minute of very awkward silence, "Everyone else is already paired up. Today's task is immobilising your opponent, 10 seconds counts as a win and we're counting points. Use the techniques we went through last week. First half hour without quirk usage and then with quirks. No unnecessary violence. Any questions?"

Both of them shook their heads no.

"Then get to it."

Shouto noticed the way that Aizawa's eyes lingered on Bakugou for a moment, and what the alpha had told him earlier came back to him; their teacher hadn't been that far off with his assumptions, after all. Shouto could only appreciate Aizawa for being someone who kept his word - he really could do without the school calling his father and telling him about the things that he and Bakugou were up to.

He wasn't sure he'd survive that type of conversation.

There'd be three possible ways that could go down. Either painfully awkwardly, downright catastrophically or most likely, both intertwined in the worst ways imaginable. He could really only hope that it was never going to happen at all. His father would probably disown him for getting distracted over the very things that he wasn't supposed think about at all, he thought with a frown on his face.

"Ready?" Bakugou asked and Shouto startled at the sound of his voice.

".. Ah, what were we supposed to do again?"

He received a look in response, the kind of look that told Shouto exactly what Bakugou was thinking. Or well, not exactly. But he was rather certain that it had something to do with how he should have just gone to his room and rested instead of going to class with his head still so messy and his body in a less than preferable state. He gave the alpha a blank stare and waited for him to explain the task again.

.. As it turned out, there could have hardly been a worse exercise for Aizawa to choose, today of all days.

Because Shouto took approximately nothing away from the entirety of the lesson other than the fact (that he'd already realised several times before) that he sort of had a thing for being held in place by Bakugou. If anything, the new thing he learned was that he appreciated it just as much to have Bakugou in his hold with his hands behind his back in a way where he couldn't fight his way out of his hold. At least not without his quirk. But that wasn't a big surprise either - anything that involved touching the alpha, Shouto seemed to have a thing for.

Bakugou didn't go super gentle on him and Shouto didn't want him to. But he also wasn't being as brutal as Shouto was used to; he could tell that the alpha was trying to find the right balance, considering the circumstances.

It was a relatively tame kind of training today, but as they went at it round after round (it stood seven to eight for Bakugou currently) the adrenaline and exhaustion of having to actually use his strength at the very least dulled the volume of Shouto's useless thoughts a little.

And that was really all that Shouto could ask for, wasn't it?

Practicing with Bakugou came naturally to him by now, and somehow that held true even though they'd literally been messing around just minutes ago. It was only when he had the alpha in a particularly tight hold with Bakugou's face pushed into the floor and a groan falling from his lips that Shouto felt a flash of heat traveling up his insides. Again.

Shouto's thoughts only went in the direction of wanting to literally lick the sweat off the alpha's skin (Shouto didn't even question why) for a brief second, really. Just a second. But apparently that was enough for Bakugou to sense his hesitation or something, because just seconds later, their positions were switched and Shouto was the one with his face shoved into the floor, wrists pinned behind his back. But it came with a lack of a painful impact to match the speed of the movement, which probably shouldn't have him feeling all kinds of tingly with misguided anticipation. Shouto could only assume that his body was severely confused with the onslaught of things it had experienced today. It wasn't even that late yet, but so much had happened...

So much.

He fought his hardest to keep a moan from slipping through his lips as Bakugou's fingers (probably by accident) brushed against the scent glands on his wrists in a way that felt entirely too intense.

Shouto hadn't given up on winning yet, tried to flip them around again, tried his best to fight his way out of Bakugou's hold, but his best was below his own average thanks to everything that had happened. Really, he needed some normalcy in-between the spontaneous and quickly-escalating make out sessions and bursts of incessant longing. Badly. And maybe his next move wasn't the smartest one to accomplish that, but it was all his brain could grasp at in order to keep himself from moaning out loud.

"Is that all you can do," he spoke with faked arrogance, lips brushing against the cold floor, just wanting to get a rise out of the alpha. His voice came out so raspy that Shouto was almost certain Bakugou could tell exactly what the undertones meant. What Shouto was doing, attempting to put them on an even playing field. He sort of hoped so, maybe didn't - didn't even know what his plan was.

But if the way that rough fingers tensed on his wrists was anything to go by, then yeah - Bakugou did get it, whatever 'it' was. Or maybe he was simply taking the bait and allowing Shouto's words to rile him up.

Shouto couldn't help the way his hips instinctively moved to push up against where the alpha was sitting on his upper legs, and in that moment he realised once and for all that whatever tension had been broken with Midoriya's arrival hadn't truly disappeared - Shouto had only shoved it aside. And the way Bakugou held him down right now brought it all back and more than that. 

"Why the hell are you running your mouth when you can't even fucking move, hah?"

As if to prove his point, the alpha squeezed his hands a little tighter around his wrists.

The omega gasped as he realised with a sudden clarity that it had happened again - was happening again; his underwear was definitely sticking to his skin as he instinctively shifted harder, tried to arch his back and wriggle out of the hold. Shouto hadn't even noticed at all how wet he'd become throughout the course of their.. activities. Until now. Now he wondered how it was even possible that he hadn't realised.

Shouto honestly didn't get it; wasn't that supposed to be a heat-thing? His body couldn't possibly be preparing for one again, when he'd only taken his suppressants yesterday and was supposed to be free of such bothersome reactions for the next few weeks.

He slammed his forehead into the floor, winced.

"The hell, Halfie?"

Shouto groaned; whatever was happening to him needed to stop. He couldn't believe that this was his reality now. A reality where he seriously wondered just how wet he was, because he really couldn't tell. He didn't have enough experience with his own physical reactions to tell if it was visible through his pants.

When rather than that, he should really be worried about their training, about winning this round, about the oncoming exams - anything other than the physical evidence of his instinctively needy nature.

Just the thought of Bakugou potentially knowing that his touch affected Shouto in all the wrong ways was mortifying enough for the very same thing as earlier to happen all over again. Shouto wasn't an animal, and even as an omega, he shouldn't just get turned on by just any type of body contact, should he? He wondered.

This time he had his arms pinned behind his back though, couldn't really do anything about the fact that his body temperature was rising to a worrisome degree, and fast. He couldn't use his ice to cool himself down with the blood flow to his hands restricted and his self control generally waning, out of reach.

He couldn't even speak, had to focus so hard on not setting himself aflame that it wasn't funny anymore. 

"Hey," Bakugou demanded his attention, and Shouto let out a heated breath, "we're not supposed to use our quirks yet, asshole."

"I know," Shouto hissed back at him, though it came out desperate and messy for his standards. This wasn't the normalcy he'd been going for with his attempt at a snarky remark. The pressure on his wrists was almost as painful as it was breathtaking.

"Then quit trying to fucking cheat," Bakugou leaned down a little towards him as he spoke and another shiver wrecked his body at the tone of his voice. There was something buried beneath the obvious irritation, something that maybe only Shouto would be able to pick up on, maybe imaginary - something that he wanted to hear.

More than that, something he needed to be there, however unspoken and between the lines.

They definitely couldn't risk talking openly with all of their classmates around, and it left the omega wondering how much of the annoyance was pretense. He really couldn't tell, didn't want the alpha to be mad at him.

"I'm not," Shouto forced out, "and ten seconds are over, Bakugou. Another point for you."

But maybe he did get it.

Because a second later, the alpha bent further down to whisper very close to his ear, "Don't give a fuck about that point. Why the hell are you burning up like that."

"Don't ask."

"If you want to go to your room and lie down or something then just fucking tell me."

Oh God, Shouto thought, to his room. He wanted to go there, but not alone. He was actively misunderstanding things now, for sure.

And he knew as much. But upon hearing the words, he became uncomfortably aware of how much he wanted to drag the alpha to his room, away from everyone, lock the doors and indulge in all of the nesting urges and mindless reactions that, just weeks ago, he'd never thought would affect him as much. The need was real, and borderline violent inside him.

Shouto was certain that if he took Bakugou back to his room, they would find something else to do there once his nest was finished. There were too many ideas in his head and -

This was it. He was officially losing his mind. Because in his head, this sounded more like he was actually making plans rather than thinking about hypothetical possibilities. When rationally, he knew that he was only starting to get used to kissing Bakugou, barely knew enough about this type of thing to make rash decisions. But what they'd done in the locker room - it had felt so good, so good and right and more meaningful than it probably should have; it was hard to tell himself that there was anything wrong with it. Maybe there wasn't. 

How was he supposed to know?

He didn't even know what any of it meant anymore. 

Shouto almost didn't notice that he let out another distressed sound, and simply covered it up by speaking.

"Bakugou. I'm fine, stop worrying about me," was somehow the answer Shouto chose to come up with, and he could tell that he sounded off. The words were perhaps a little harsher than he meant for them to sound, but there was only so much weakness Shouto could allow himself to show in one day. No matter how much he wanted to work on his issues with his secondary gender, he couldn't bring himself to let it become an excuse to slack off entirely, not go after his dream of becoming a strong and reliable hero...

The best one he could be.

Shouto couldn't simply run away and hide in his room. Wherever his self control had disappeared to, he needed to find and at least partially restore it. Bakugou wasn't supposed to worry about him all the time.

And Shouto certainly wasn't about to creep him out by talking about the variety of weird thoughts and urges that were plaguing him.

"No you're fucking not."

"..Huh?" the omega whispered after a moment, so surprised with the sudden change in Bakugou's voice that it left him entirely confused for a long moment.

"You don't even have a fucking clue what - God. Can you please just fucking listen for once and not be an idiot about this."

"How am I being an idiot by trying my hardest?" Shouto inquired and felt panicked all of a sudden, but this time it wasn't because of the alpha's scent or his yelling. It was because Bakugou had finally released his arms, and was in the process of getting away from Shouto and he couldn't just -

"Because this is your fucking health and you treat it like you couldn't fucking care less," the perhaps quietest but oddly one of the most intense yells he'd ever heard from Bakugou hit him like a fist in the stomach, and Shouto rolled on his back, looked up at the alpha.

He tried to read his eyes, find a clue in them, but it was harder than he'd expected. Because all kinds of emotions were raging in his gaze, from sadness to defensiveness to softness to anger. Shouto couldn't begin to understand what he meant, where all of that had suddenly come from. Of course it took a few minutes for Shouto to catch himself after choking on alpha pheromones, but he felt like he was doing mostly okay in that regard, not as out of it as he could be.

He kept his voice quiet, and their eyes locked as he said as much, "What about my health? I'd say I'm doing fine, you're only two points ahead of me."

"That's not what I'm fucking talking about, how the fuck do you - ugh," he made a pained face, "I'm not trying to - but shit, how can you be so fucking careless with yourself, you - fuck."

Shouto could only blink at him as the volume of Bakugou's voice increased with each word. He had absolutely no idea what it was that had prompted this outburst, what he'd done, or what exactly the alpha was even talking about. But Shouto did know that he didn't like the barely concealed pain in his expression one bit.

"Bakugou.." he tried to keep his own voice calm, but it was surprisingly hard to do. The alpha blinked at him, looking uncharacteristically confused for a moment, and then he sighed dramatically.

"Whatever. Your fucking choice."

The rest of their class was spent in silence, and Shouto found it impossible to tell what that meant, but he kept his mouth shut for fear of biting off more than he could chew if he tried to talk about it anymore, surrounded by people and less than mentally there. He pointedly ignored the fact that his body didn't get the clue and did its own thing, but once they started training with their quirks, there wasn't quite as much skin contact involved.

And strangely enough, although that made it much easier to concentrate, the omega was still distracted. Though this time, it was the conflict in Bakugou's eyes rather than fingers on his skin that had his attention.

Whatever was wrong with the alpha, Shouto would make sure to find out as soon as he could, he promised to himself.

Chapter Text

"Who the hell are - no, scratch that. Where the fuck is Recovery Grandma?" Bakugou more or less yelled in the direction of the startled-looking, blue and orange haired girl that greeted him upon barging into the infirmary.

Truthfully, he was not at all thrilled to be here and his patience was wearing so fucking thin today that he'd need to be careful not to yell at Recovery Girl or be too rude. Because damn, that old woman sure as fuck was something. She'd seen the alpha after quite a few lost fights, with broken bones and all, and each time, she'd made it pretty fucking clear that she'd very gladly leave someone to choke on their pain if they told her to 'hurry the fuck up, not like I need your chapped ass old woman lips on me anyway.' Yeah. Bakugou had made that mistake once, and he was not about to make it again.

Respect your elders and all.

He just really needed to talk to someone, and Recovery Girl was the best bet for various reasons. First of all, because she obviously knew all about medicine, health and health problems. And presumably, secondary genders, too. Secondly, because Bakugou was pretty damn sure that by leaving out Shouto's name and reminding her of doctor confidentiality if he needed to, he could avoid the immediate 'who are you talking about' questions that someone like Aizawa would undoubtedly have if he heard anything about an overly medicated omega posing as a beta. But Bakugou definitely did need the opinion of someone who knew what they were talking about. He wasn't about to go into the discussion with the omega with only online research to back his worries up.

And really, he absolutely needed to talk to Shouto about all this.

So badly that those instincts to do something about the entire situation had been stronger than his desire to make good on his promise and follow Shouto back to his room after their training. And God, was that desire there. And strong. Telling the omega that he had some business to attend to right after class had been hard. Especially with the lack of privacy in the (this time crowded) locker room. Shouto had simply nodded, hadn't said anything, but Bakugou could tell just by looking at him that he wasn't all that pleased with that turn of events.

Bakugou could fucking relate; especially now that he knew what the pills might be doing to Shouto's body, leaving his side when it was avoidable sounded like the worst damn thing ever. He just felt this all-consuming urge to be in his proximity. Be there for him if anything happened, if he was hit by cramps again or got dizzy or whatever else might happen. Shouto was, without a doubt, one of the strongest people he knew and he could handle just about anything fighting- or school-wise by himself, but his one undeniable problem was that tendency to not give much of a fuck about his own feelings, and apparently his health.

Bakugou still had no clue whether the omega knew what he was doing to his own body. Whether he was doing it willingly - that thought filled him with as much worry as anger. He clenched his fists.

"I asked you a damn question, Clownfish."

The girl smiled, not at all bothered, "you're kind of rude. My name is Kaiko, so Clownfish isn't too far off I'd say.. why does that - Oh right, there's that children's movie! Thanks for reminding me. Really need to rewatch it."

For a moment, Bakugou could only stare and try his best not to destroy anything, because she was wasting his damn time talking about fucking children's movies, for fuck's sake, "Didn't ask for your damn name, I wanna know-"

"But I'm asking, what's yours? Unless you don't wanna tell me..."

"Like fuck am I going to tell you."

"Alright then, Marshmallow."

"What did you just call me you fucking-"

"Marshmallow. Had a rabbit once, kinda looked like you in fluffy. Real soft fur, same hair color. Real cute."

Bakugou was used to his usual group of extras pushing their luck, but an entire fucking stranger that just went ahead and compared him to a fucking rabbit? A rabbit. Fucking insane - and on this fucking day of all. Before he even knew it, he'd already stepped forward, and Bakugou growled his pent up frustration into her face, towering just slightly above the stupid Clownfish bitch and daring her to say another word when -

Fucking twice in one day.

What a shitty personal record.

Bakugou pretty much jumped backwards as the combination of a distressed scent, an unhappy noise and a bowed head hit him in the stomach like a truck. How he'd managed to miss the scent was beyond him, and it probably had everything to do with the anxiety that had him laser focused on only his goal of obtaining the information he needed.

And as if that shit wasn't enough, the door just had to open in that fucking moment.

"Bakugou Katsuki! What in the world do you think you are doing?" Recovery Girl asked, voice loud and cold and wow. Great. Yet another fuck up to add to today's list; he shouldn't be surprised at this point. Honestly.

"Nothing," he shot back, "she fucking started it, I didn't do shit, I'm only here to -"

"You will apologise this instant," Recovery Girl said with a tone so strict it was reminiscent of his mo- the old hag. She crouched down beside the girl, throwing an obviously annoyed look over her shoulder at him before assuring the omega that everything was fine, that she was safe. That Bakugou wasn't a threat, just an idiot. She actually said that. At this point, the alpha couldn't entirely disagree although he felt the need to. But it was true, he should be long past the point of getting provoked by something as petty as a damn stranger throwing a stupid nickname at his head, and definitely shouldn't attempt to physically threaten anyone other than villains.

Not random fucking omegas just because they annoyed him.

But he hadn't fucking realised, okay?

Shit.

"Sorry," he managed to get out.

"Is that all you have to say for yourself? Using your alpha pheromones to scare an omega - who is under my care no less - is despisable behavior, I should have you expelled for a week."

"Look, I didn't even realise she was an omega, and she wouldn't fucking tell me where you were."

"You expect me to believe that? I may be old, but I'm not slow in the head."

"But it's the fucking truth, I didn't come here to attack anyone, why the hell would I?"

"Actually it's true. I provoked him," the girl finally said, apparently back to normal or at least close to it, "I'm sure that it was an accident just now."

There was a moment of silence before Recovery Girl made a noise that spoke of something like acceptance. For now. Maybe. Fuck if Bakugou knew, he just really wasn't willing to be expelled for a damn week when he'd really just overreacted because life was already kicking his ass in terms of stressful things piling up.

"Maybe he can show me around the school a little. And then it's all forgiven and forgotten. How about it, Bakugou Katsuki?"

"Sure, fuck. Whatever. Now can I just speak to you for a damn moment?" he turned to the grey haired beta.

"So speak," Recovery Girl said, very clearly not over that entire situation just now.

"Alone."

"If this is health-related, my intern might very well profit from hearing it, too."

"Do I look fu- do I look injured? No. I have some private questions to ask you and it's important."

A sigh was the only answer he received, and then Kaiko slid off the chair, assuring Recovery Girl that she was fine and simply going to grab them a cup of coffee in the meantime. Bakugou made another annoyed noise because this was all taking too damn long and to top it all off, he now had the task of showing this annoying omega around added to the list.

When they were finally by themselves, he didn't have the patience to beat around the bush and the words practically poured from his lips, less business-sounding than he wanted them to, "I need to know what it does to an omega when they suppress their heat for years and take high doses of scent blockers without breaks in-between, the kind that is so strong where there is no scent at all left. How dangerous is that."

Sunken eyes blinked at him, sceptical but apparently interested in this weird doctor way.

"Why exactly do you need to know this?"

He huffed, crossing his arms and looking away, "It's it obvious?"

Apparently not.

"Because someone I know might be fucking up their body."

Her eyes softened a little at that, but her voice remained sharp, "How many years?"

"No fucking clue? Could be anything between six or..maybe two or three, I guess."

The way her brows furrowed at the response had something inside of the alpha wincing. It didn't look good, not at all. And this lady had seen her fair share of rough injuries, which made it even worse to see concern spread across her features. Genuine concern.

"Whoever it is needs to see a doctor, and fast. I've never heard of such a case of prolonged suppressant and scent blocker abuse, and you are aware that we hardly have any omega students here so it's not an issue I usually deal with. There are not even many omegas in our general studies classes, but.."

"But what?" he snapped, voice cracking a little.

"I still assume that you are talking about someone around your age."

Bakugou nodded and wondered what she was thinking about.

"Alright.. Do you want a detailed answer or a short one?"

"Detailed," Bakugou breathed out before adding an off-sounding, "please."

"Alright. So one thing after another, this is not something I can answer without some background information," she began, sitting down on the office chair and folding her arms, "These days, there are debates even about alphas using scent blockers in their transformative years, but it's generally assumed that low doses don't do much damage, if any. Blockers were first created for alphas whose scents affect their environment too strongly, which is why we know more about the effects on them than omegas. I'm not even talking about physical issues for now, they're a whole different matter, but the emotional and psychological ones can't be underestimated as the mind and the body are not separate and affect one another strongly. So, keeping this in mind. Alphas who take scent blockers tend to do so because they have a very strong scent, which means that they're still capable of marking their environment and experiencing others' reactions to their pheromones even when they're on the medication... both of which are crucial in the development of self confidence and learning how to control oneself. An alpha on an appropriate dose of scent blockers can establish their place in a social group just fine, and for alphas, as I'm sure you can tell, their scent can still have a strong effect on other alphas, betas, and especially omegas."

The look she gave Bakugou at this was an obvious reminder of that entire situation minutes ago. Bakugou looked away.

"There is an emphasis on the development of boundaries. In other words, alpha pheromones offer a sense of protection, they allow someone to dominate others and enforce distance or submission, if needed. They also reflect one's strength and physical state. One of the main factors at play with alpha pheromones is territorial behavior, which comes in many different shapes and forms. But the main idea is always the same, that one's scent can be used as a way of drawing a line. As in, my space, my belongings, my position and such."

"I'm not asking you about alphas," Bakugou interjected, trying his best to keep his voice calm. It felt weird as fuck to hear about those processes behind behaviors that he recognised from himself.

"Patience. As I said, I'm looking at psychological factors first, and since you're an alpha, it's crucial that you understand your own behavior before attempting to put yourself into another perspective. Do you see how what I just told you is not the same with omegas and their scents?"

When Bakugou didn't reply, still thinking about it, she continued. The alpha made sure to pay full attention, "It's actually different in many ways. The general goal that an omega's pheromones have is to soothe, create peace, to attract, to convey their emotions and create closeness. Of course alphas use their scent for all those things as well, but what we're talking about here are simply the main functions. For omegas, it is the need for belonging rather than scaring away or dominating. To an omega, belonging and closeness are safe and essential. Solitude, aggression and loneliness are generally not. It's why young omegas will often gravitate to one another as they grow into their secondary gender, because of the sense of safety and belonging that they can offer each other, while young alphas oftentimes act like lone wolves and become obsessed with testing out their independence and their ability to get others to back off. An omega, unless in heat or pregnant, will only in rare cases scent his or her environment with the intention of declaring that the territory is off limits for others, but instead to produce a sense of comfort and familiarity for themselves and make it feel more like home, both of which are critical to an omega's wellbeing. In other words, an omega's scent functions as a method of self-soothing in times of distress, much like purring, which can be both a sign of happiness or stress, or nest building. The key is that most of the functions that an omega's scent has are inwardly focused, in contrast to alphas. Only situations that are perceived as truly dangerous for themselves or people they care about will usually make it so that an omega uses their scent as a repellent, and even then, it's much less effective as a warning than an alpha's scent is. In the same way that alphas are quick to use their aggressive pheromones and only inclined to use the calming functions of their scent with those they truly care about, partially because an alpha's calming scent may still be perceived as threatening by people they aren't close to. Omegas, however, are known to be capable of comforting total strangers when it is their goal to do so. Especially children and other omegas will be much more receptive to their scent."

"But omegas do scent mark people, too. To tell others to back off," Bakugou said, a little overwhelmed with the entirety of the information and very aware of the bite marks on his neck that didn't exactly speak of a lack of possessiveness or territorial instincts on Shouto's side. He wondered how much of her explanation was just generalised bullshit. Then again, it did make sense that Shouto might have adapted some of the less omega-like traits from his upbringing, after all that was what his father had been trying to accomplish all along.

"Huh? I mean, yes. Obviously. Though scent-marking in the traditional sense hardly happens outside of romantic partnerships. Of course, as with all things, it depends on the person. But generally, alphas are much more likely to actively scent-mark the people they are close to, to make it clear that they are, to use a somewhat outdated term, part of their pack and not to be messed with. For omegas, they have an urge to scent mark their pups and the one courting them, or their mate, only very rarely friends. When an omega does intentionally scent-marks someone in that way, it can indeed be an act of possessiveness, depending on the person and circumstances, or more typically, a way of strengthening emotional bonds. Also, it is a mehod of assuring themselves of their mate's interest in them. As I have said, for an omega, the ability to attract someone of their choosing and keep them around is closely tied to a feeling of self worth a lot of the time - so especially an insecure omega might be very insistent on frequent scent marking and focused on the approval the other party shows, the reactions they have to their scent. It is however more of an internal reassurance than it is a functional way of telling others to back off. As you may know, alphas tend to keep a distance from an omega or beta that smells like another alpha, while omegas are typically not intimidated by each other's scents. As such, when an omega scent marks an alpha or beta, it is not with the goal of 'telling others to back off' so much as it is a way of showing someone their trust, vulnerability and interest. Although... that whole topic has a lot to do with evolutionary science and mating, and I was originally talking about general behavior, not mating behavior. That's a different thing altogether."

"Evolutionary - hold up. How the fuck did we never talk about any of this shit in health class?"

"Because, Bakugou, it is hard enough for most people your age to get the general notions of using protection, recognising consent and being respectful to one another into their heads. Even without developmental psychology and such added into the mix, and believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg. New theories and studies are being conducted all the time and people spend years studying those behaviors and their causations in depth."

"Alright, so what the fuck am I supposed to take away from this exactly?"

"Well, think about it for a moment. If an omega grows up with absolutely no scent, then this takes away not only their ability to use it as a means of calming themself by marking their space, but also the entire communication aspect of it. Compared to alphas and betas, omegas tend to need much more emotional and physical closeness and reassurance by default, and one of the main ways in which someone would communicate the need for either is through their scent. In other words, the important experience of having your emotions naturally mirrored by your environment is seriously impacted. An omega who's feeling lonely or sad in a crowd will naturally be comforted by others who instinctively pick up on it, but without a scent to convey as much, and if people don't even know of their secondary gender? Being emotionally mature enough to understand those needs and communicate them effectively at a young age is much harder than speaking through one's body. I'd imagine that this makes for a very inconsistent meeting of social needs, most likely. Not to mention that emotions like fear will go undetected as well, which makes trusting other people harder because the omega cannot depend on others to read their mood and give them what they need. Besides, the natural urge to create peace in the immediate environment cannot be met as easily either as the pacifying aspect of the pheromones isn't present, which might leave them feeling like a failure in that aspect. And, as we have already touched upon, attracting someone they might be interested in is much harder without a scent to show as much, and I'm sure you're well aware of the fact that even heroes in the making are not immune to having dresses or catching feelings."

Bakugou didn't even question that last part.

He frowned, trying to work through all of this. He wasn't sure how much of that exactly related to Shouto, because his situation was kind of... worse, more complicated than Recovery Girl or anyone even understood. His entire upbringing was basically a breeding ground for emotional and mental issues, even without instincts and subconscious secondary gender shit added into the equation. As far as Bakugou knew, Shouto had already spent his years before presenting in a near constant state of loneliness, (and worse yet, in an emotional minefield, under the impression that he was not much more than a project to his father) and then fucking Endeavour just had to go ahead and take away his newly developed chance at showing others what he needed through his scent, which he had definitely never learned to do with words? God knew Shouto was a downright disaster at communication, he rivaled Bakugou in that aspect.

Holy fuck.

Bakugou closed his eyes, took a breath. Holy fuck, every single time he thought about Enji Todoroki, he also found himself thinking of murder.

His disgust for the man was beyond words, really. Bakugou could not for the life of him understand how someone could make a eugenics experiment out of their own child, and even less how they could keep that shit going for years without ever stopping to think of the damage it was causing. And not just any damn child, but fucking Shouto Todoroki who made someone like Bakugou wanna comfort him when he looked sad. And as a child?

He wondered how fucking weird it would be to ask Shouto to show him child photos of himself - probably very weird and offensive, too. Bakugou was not about to ask, had no idea where the fuck that thought had even come from.

Sometimes he was struck by how little he knew of Shouto's past, really, beyond the little bits and pieces he'd caught throughout the years. Almost exclusively painful ones. He wondered if those were all Shouto recalled, but there had to be some happy ones with his mother or... something, right?

Great. Just thinking about it had his legs itching to run back to him and wrap the omega up in his arms. Bakugou wondered who out of the two of them was the sappier one.

Bakugou also wondered if maybe the lack of his own scent was the reason why Shouto had told him so openly about how Bakugou's comforted him. Precisely because he had (maybe apart from his mother) experienced none of the comfort that was apparently fucking essential to his wellbeing. And with him definitely not being the touchy feely type, Bakugou may very well be his only real source of physical closeness in... what? Years? Fuck.

Thinking about it, his chest felt strangely hollow.

"Furthermore, you said that it wasn't only the scent blockers but also the constant suppressing of heats?"

"Yeah.." Bakugou got the word out, but something about those thoughts must have poisoned his body. Because his eyes suddenly felt weird, vision a little blurry. He'd always thought he knew what a lack of emotional support in someone's childhood looked like, because both his parents had always been eager to praise his quirk, praise his strength, praise his accomplishments, but not so eager to ask further questions when he'd acted out because he wasn't actually doing well. And fuck, sometimes he'd wanted them to ask. Sometimes he'd wanted them look his way twice and not for his mother to yell at him and his father to try and make excuses for both of their explosive nature, loudness and cursing.

But all of that was practically child's play in comparison to Shouto's situation; he'd played an active role in it, always fighting tooth and nail to remain closed off, and then disappointed because no one made an effort to understand what he actually felt like. Shouto, however, had done nothing to warrant his father's behavior. If anything, Bakugou could only assume that today's rebellious tendencies were the result of trying too hard for too long and eventually figuring out that it was an endless race where the goal just kept drifting further away, into impossibility.

While Bakugou had been yelled at for his behavior, Shouto had been yelled at for his very fucking existence, for the way he'd been born.

And for some fucking reason, standing in Recovery Girl's office right now, lacking sleep and in the middle of an important conversation, it hit him exactly how much that must have hurt. Hearing all of those things loud and clear, Bakugou realised that, no matter how hard he tried, he could never take that weight off of him even if he wanted to. Could only try his best to give Shouto whatever it was he needed now, but the years before that - they remained unchanged, painful and real memories.

Impactful and unmoving.

This wasn't even pity. Something else - but whatever the fuck he felt in that moment, Bakugou had no idea what to do about it. Apparently years of disregarding others' emotions for the most part weren't just wiped away either; he had no damn experience with handling delicate things (more now than months ago but still), and absolutely everything about this was.

So fucking delicate.

"Suppressing heats is.. a very serious thing as well. Everything I just told you is essentially all about developing a healthy relationship with one's secondary gender, and knowing how to take care of oneself in a social context. Those are things every person, regardless of their secondary gender, is dependent on. Both for me as a beta and for you as an alpha, it is very hard to understand the importance of heats to an omega though. You must understand that, in contrast to a rut for an alpha, a heat leaves an omega entirely defenseless and vulnerable. To differing degrees for different people, but the idea is the same. Knowing that you are going to spend almost a week in a state like that is terrifying, which is why it so important for the first experiences with heats to be as positive and reassuring as they can be. Someone who grows up experiencing heats from the age of, let's say 12 regularly, usually has many years to get to know their own body, under one roof with their family close-by and in a safe environment. This allows an omega to grow into their cycle slowly and decrease the risk of developing heat-related anxiety, depression or even psychosis. A heat tends to amplify an omega's feelings, which can be a great thing for people who are happy and might even have their mate with them, but... it's not so great for young omegas a lot of time time and for someone who struggles emotionally, or someone who doesn't know what is happening to their body, it's the opposite of easy. Even just skipping one or two cycles tends to.. complicate this entire situation, drastically. But if someone actually spends years suppressing their heats? I'm sorry, I cannot really say - I mean, getting off medication might sound like a simple solution here, but I assure you that it's not that easy either. There's no telling what kinds of complications could happen and likewise, I find it hard to tell how this would affect someone's general development, to throw themself into cold water like that. I truly mean it when I say that your friend needs to see a doctor about this. As fast as possible, and if they refuse, then you must know that this is serious enough of a matter to have them taken in against their will. From the few things you've mentioned, this person sounds like a serious risk to themself and I strongly advise against taking any steps without professional help. Not to mention that if they're below the age of 18, and their parents know of this, it's a matter of physical and emotional child abuse."

At this point, Bakugou could only nod. Even his anger was starting to break beneath the true gravity of this situation, and hearing it said out loud by someone who knew what she was talking about was somehow worse than reading about it on the internet could ever be. That tiny part of him that had clung to the hope that maybe he was overreacting, being paranoid, seemed to die with each word she offered.

He wiped at his eyes when she looked away for a moment, not wanting anyone to see how much this was fucking with his head. So what if he was a fucking hypocrite for allowing the omega to cry freely but not himself?

He kicked at the floor.

"Then," he said, a little shocked at the emptiness of his own voice but unwilling to break down and leave with only half the crucial information, "what about the physical risks?"

She made a face and Bakugou found himself making a noise not unlike a whimper. He cleared his throat, told his stupid chest to stop hurting, told his head to stop firing dull thoughts at a pace too fast to process.

"That's hard to say. You really do look worried for your friend. And there's a very small number of things I can say for sure without taking a good look at them and running the correlating tests."

"Quit being so vague. What is it that you can say?"

Recovery Girl sighed, as if she was about to tell him to 'be patient' again, but then decided against it. "It really does depend. What I can say is that prolonged use of heat suppressants affects the organs, especially the reproductive organs. And beyond that, the entire hormonal balance - heats are an important part of the monthly cycle an omega's body goes through, and it is hard to say what the longterm consequences of this could be. I know that you want a clear answer to this, but I cannot give you one. Which is why I meant that part about taking them to a doctor, and if at all possible, a psychologists as well."

Bakugou stared blankly at her for a long moment before whispering a quiet, "shit."

Which was then followed up by a much louder, "what is this fucking shit!" just as there was a quiet knock on the door.

"One moment," Recovery Girl yelled, before she turned to Bakugou again, "It's all a lot to take in. But the best thing you can do is to stay optimistic despite it all. I'm sure this won't be an easy conversation to have exactly, which is why I advise that before you speak to the omega in question, you take some time to yourself and figure out how to transport the message. To make it clear that you're addressing this out of concern and explain exactly to them why you might be angry or frustrated, maybe even make a list. Keep in mind that change is the thing people are most afraid of - and getting off the medication will change this person's life drastically."

"Do you think I don't fucking know that?"

"I think you do. But even well intentioned worry can be potentially harmful when there is no immediate solution to the problem. This situation is clearly affecting you as well, and if you feel like it is too much to handle, there are teachers and councilors and, well. Me. Any of us would be willing to help, although I do know that I cannot force anything out of you. It doesn't matter whether this concerns a student of UA or not. In any case, you have people to talk to."

"I - yeah. I mean, thanks. It's- I just don't wanna mess this up or make it worse," he admitted.

"As I've said, if talking does not help, then the situation is definitely serious enough to warrant interference from a doctor."

The reminder was obviously meant to calm him down, but it didn't really do any of that. Because fucking hell, as if he was going to let some doctor or whoever take Shouto away against his will to treat him, if he refused - not that he probably would ... Probably. All things considered, Bakugou had no fucking clue how he was going to react. But he had every reason to assume that it would be a little more than the usual, 'oh' coupled with a confused look.

"I mean it when I say that you can come back with questions any time."

He nodded again.

"You can come in," Recovery Girl called out then, placing a hand on Bakugou's shoulder reassuringly. He didn't shrug it off. The girl from earlier reappeared, an awkward smile on her face and three cups of coffee in her hands.

"I can wait outside if you aren't done talking? Coffee's getting cold though."

"Thanks dear, I don't think that'll be necessary. Or was there anything else you wanted to know?"

Bakugou shook his head, still overwhelmed with everything he'd heard so far.

"Alright then. Don't worry too much, okay? I'm pleasantly surprised that you came here to talk about this instead of acting on your own accord."

"I'm not that much of an idiot," he grumbled and Recovery Girl only sent a knowing look his way while grabbing the cup of coffee. Bakugou forced out a thanks when he was handed one, too, although he definitely hadn't asked.

"So, we were done for today anyways, right Recovery Girl? And I'm excited to see more of the famous UA, since we haven't gotten around to a tour yet. You coming, blondie?"

...

Shouto ran his fingertips lightly over the fuzzy material of the blanket, closed his eyes. Bakugou's smell lingered in the fabric, warm and smokey. Even after taking a shower and changing his clothes, Shouto could still smell the alpha on himself as well; sadly, it wasn't half as strong as he wanted it to be, which was why he currently found himself feeling a strong desire to rub his head against the blanket he held in his hands.

This was definitely among the least concerning desires he currently felt, so it didn't take Shouto much time before he succumbed to it, wrapped the blanket protectively around himself, a quiet purr playing in the back of his throat. Sitting on his bed like this, Shouto almost managed to push away the many worried thoughts that ghosted through his head.

Not only did his mind keep drifting back to what they'd done the locker room and the question of what this meant, but also to the interruption. By himself now, Shouto found it hard to say what Midoriya must be thinking about what he'd seen. A part of Shouto wanted to take immediate action, go to his friend and talk to him about it, but another part wanted nothing more than to hide away in his room and pretend like none of that had happened. Like Midoriya hadn't seen a thing, wasn't going to ask questions.

Yet another part simply couldn't get over how good it had felt to be pressed up against Bakugou, and Shouto honestly wondered if he'd been able to stop at all, had it not been for the sudden onslaught of pheromones that had very nearly knocked him out. It was a strange thought to have; he'd been so lost in the feeling that he might have very well kept rolling his hips and chasing those feelings, no matter if there were eyes on them. After all, that whirlwind of need had coursed through him throughout the following hours of training as well, foreign and insistent.

Even now, after a shower and no longer as affected by the alpha's scent and presence, the memory alone was vivid enough to send a shiver through his body and heat into his stomach.

Bakugou had disappeared right after their lesson, without any real explanation as to what he was doing, and maybe it was for the better. Because Shouto's body was still reacting in ways that he couldn't make sense of. Still oversensitive and waiting for... something. Not even the anxiety of knowing that they'd been caught managed to dull this unfamiliar feeling of restlessness that simply wouldn't leave him alone.

Not even burying himself in the blanket was enough.

Not even close.

Shouto felt like he needed the alpha right here. He needed him in the type of way that had his face heating up, his stomach tight and his heart beating faster. Without the heat of the moment turning off his rational thoughts, it suddenly felt a whole lot more embarrassing to think about how badly he wanted a continuation. Relief. Bakugou's lips on him.

Anything.

Everything that he'd managed to ignore so perfectly up until now was crashing down around him in waves, threatening to send him floating into the ocean.

Shouto checked his phone once, but there were no new messages, so he put it back down. He ran a hand through his hair before rubbing the blanket against his face again, inhaling. He shifted his position a little, unable to stay still and once again analysing how many things in his room would make for good additions to a nest. Decidedly too few - he wondered if Bakugou would allow him to take some of his clothes for this purpose, before shooting the thought down.

... Only for it to come back a second later, coupled with this strange feeling of hope and longing and, everything intensified.

And then, without his own permission, Shouto was thinking about building his nest in the alpha's room instead. Dumping anything appropriate he could find on the alpha's bed, and arranging it all in a way that would allow for the right balance between comfortable and suffocating. Because really, he wanted to suffocate himself in items that smelled like Bakugou - any disgusting and sweaty training shirt that he could find and -

His eyes widened as he realised that his hand had traveled down his stomach, cupping himself through his pants with no pressure whatsoever.

And still, Shouto whined.

So quietly, but the sound seemed too loud in the empty room.

This was... new. He had very rarely in his life felt the desire to touch himself at all, for a variety of reasons. Not only did it remind him of his first heat and this unbearable feeling of 'not enough' that had accompanied the entirety of the week in a way that had hurt, but it also felt... wrong. Somehow. Like something that he shouldn't think about, shouldn't consider, shouldn't debate doing because it was easier to keep himself in check if he banned the idea from his head altogether.

The thought of giving into those urges seemed utterly.. undignified. Like backing down, giving in to his own nature, admitting to what he was, had never wanted to be, had always wanted to push away.

And usually, it was manageable.

Because Shouto knew that touching himself at all was only going to cause a ripple effect in his body. And this painful thirst for more would only get worse until he found himself shoving his fingers inside himself, feeling disgusting about it - and even then, there was no relief at the end of it. Only the painful realisation that he was bound to live with this animalistic part of himself focused on nothing other than reproduction and just more, more, more. All greed and neediness. Going through one heat in his life had been enough to show him all the worst parts of it, and Shouto wasn't about to repeat that experience ever if he could avoid it.

It was just... what they'd done. In the locker room. That hadn't felt half as disgusting as the thought of touching himself had for years now. And maybe his body wanted him to feel that way, naturally inclined to push him into an alpha's arms, but...

It was Bakugou, not just an alpha.

What did that mean?

Truthfully, Shouto hadn't thought that far ahead.

Kissing Bakugou had felt like a natural development. Like a milestone in their relationship that wasn't just a product of hormones pushing them together. It felt... precious. Meaningful. And nice, so nice. Like coming home after an endless journey and falling into bed with a sigh of relief.

It felt like something easy in a complicated and messy world, something that was right, no matter how hard one tried to rationalise it into being wrong. Even the less innocent kinds of kisses didn't feel repulsive or wrong.

And some of that loud 'yes' that his feelings yelled was bleeding over into more than kissing. With Bakugou pushing him against that locker, Shouto hadn't had any desire to analyse his own reactions until they disgusted and terrified him. On the contrary, there was something about seeing the ways in which Bakugou had reacted when he'd rolled his hips, exposed his scent glands, made those mindless noises... something about it had left Shouto feeling powerful, confident, wanted.

And he wanted so badly to be wanted by the alpha.

More than he'd even realised.

So maybe it wasn't a bad thing if they took things further than kissing. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing if they fitted together so nicely and Shouto already trusted him so deeply that he was sure he could push through his discomfort with the idea of simply allowing himself to sink into his instinctual pulls.

To allow - it seemed so hard, paradoxically. Almost impossible to accomplish.

Especially when that discomfort was still there; he wondered if it shouldn't be. If it made him a liar to simply close his eyes and push those thoughts away and go with the flow of things.

And then again, with Bakugou's erection rubbing against his own, even through their pants, with his hot breath on his skin, it had seemed like the easiest thing in the world, it hadn't felt like pretending. It made Shouto wonder if he was really just a slave to chemicals in his blood, if it was the same for Bakugou - for every single person in the world. Just that internal drive to go after what felt good, letting it overshadow the bad, and for some, the self sabotage of going against the good things.

But it was tiring, too, going against it all the time. Like swimming against an unforgiving current. Shouto was so, so tired of it, and maybe if he allowed himself to close his eyes for once moment and drift along then it wouldn't be such a bad thing at all...

He silently gasped, both at the thought and the quickness with which his body had decided that it was completely on board. Shouto wasn't even entirely sure about it all yet when his hand was already on the noticeable bulge in his pants, unmoving and a little cold but somehow that didn't seem to matter. Just this hint of an inexperienced touch had him biting on his lower lip in order to keep quiet, squirming. He didn't dare to open his eyes for fear of losing his nerve and stopping right away if he actually had to face what he was doing.

Not that seeing it should make that big of a difference; whether he saw it or not, Shouto knew what he was doing, giving into those needs that he'd filed as forbidden and wrong.

His next movement was a little clumsy.

A curious brushing of his open palm, up and down, almost as if it wasn't him doing this at all but a stranger afraid of overstepping boundaries. Curiously, he really did feel like a stranger in his own body as his mouth fell open. Shouto wasn't about to allow himself to make any sounds, so he opted for biting into the blanket instead, and the odd feeling of wet fabric between his lips brought him down to earth a little.

Earth, where his body was running a little hotter than usual and his hand was resting still once again, although he wanted to move it.

Wanted to -

"Mmh," he moaned with his mouth stuffed full, pushing his hips into his waiting hand and already feeling a hint of wetness between his hips again. Shouto thought of the way Bakugou had opened the buttons of his shirt earlier, of the way his hands wrapped so easily around his arms, of that strangely satisfying sensation when the alpha's fingers had pushed into the scent gland on his wrist as he'd held him down.

Without really thinking about it, Shouto pulled his hand away from between his legs, and let his fingers ghost over that very same spot on his wrist, drawing a circle on the heated skin of his left arm. The touch didn't leave him as breathless as the alpha's had, so Shouto pressed his fingers down a little harder, curious to figure out if he was truly incapable of recreating the sensation by himself. Before he could experiment too much however, his attention went down to the plain weird sensation of wet underwear that Shouto just couldn't get used to; a sense of doubt settled over him and the omega pulled his hand back.

He rested both of them on his sides then, opened his eyes. It was early into the evening hours by now, and the heavy rain clouds made for an earlier than usual darkness.

Shouto exhaled a shaky sigh, wondering what exactly he was doing here. What he was hoping to accomplish or prove to himself. There probably wasn't a higher purpose to his wandering fingers at all, or at least none that he could pinpoint. Or maybe that was a lie - maybe he knew that this shouldn't be as big of a struggle. Allowing himself to nest shouldn't be, and touching himself shouldn't either. Both was natural.

He was making this harder for himself than it needed to be, wasn't he?

Shouto just really wanted to work through whatever this was, to have enough of a clear mind to prepare for tomorrow's exam and not spend his time sitting around and hugging a blanket for comfort. He had never been the type to let his emotional struggles get in the way of productivity, but lately that had seemed to become more of an issue. He wasn't even the kind of student who needed to do much to stay on top of his grades; just paying attention with a clear focus was all he needed to do.

Which he couldn't.

Not right now, when his head just went back and forth between the number of things that stressed him out, the things that he was discovering about himself, and the things he was discovering about Bakugou.

Like, how someone with a scowl that could make children cry was somehow capable of soft touches and the right kinds of rough ones. Or how Bakugou's obsession with being number one at absolutely everything wasn't quite as obvious anymore, or maybe it was still just as present and Shouto couldn't see it. Thinking about Bakugou now, and he did think of him so often that it was concerning, Shouto thought of so much more than a borderline obsessive rival who'd destroy anything in his way.

Or well, he still would, but somehow they weren't standing in each other's way anymore. Or were they?

He wondered what the alpha would think if he were capable of looking into Shouto's head in moments like this one. Moments where Shouto had almost touched himself, almost allowed himself to do those strangely omega-like things that apparently did flow through his genes, even after years of suppressing them and wishing them away.

Only to back out in the end, vaguely astonished with himself for even really considering any of it. Bakugou was doing things to him, and Shouto couldn't even blame the alpha. He couldn't begin to understand why Bakugou had taken on the task that he was at all, and it left the omega wondering what his best option was, what Bakugou wanted from him. Apparently, more.

So maybe Shouto should just let that happen, he thought. Maybe he should let the alpha set the pace of what they were doing. But then again, he had no idea where that would lead them.

He just knew that he was obviously thinking too much.

He forced himself to unwrap the blanket from his body and stood up, getting his shoes out and turning his headphones on. The one thing that always helped him was fresh air, and to move around a bit, at least when sleep wasn't an option. So he turned on some quiet music and put on a jacket, heading out into the hallway.

But Shouto didn't make it far.

He'd barely made it down two sets of stairs before familiar green eyes met his, wide with surprise that was probably mirrored in Shouto's own. Midoriya wasn't by himself though and Uraraka smiled brightly at him. The omega debated just walking past them, but it felt like the wrong thing to do, so he took the headphones out.

"Midoriya," he said as a greeting, "and Uraraka. Good evening."

"Uh, good evening, Todoroki," the beta replied, face already heating up. Shouto let out a little sigh, and Uraraka studied both of their faces for a moment.

"Should I.. go ahead or something? If you two need to have a y'know, boy talk, because.. I mean," she gestured vaguely, and Midoriya flushed a bit brighter. Shouto wondered for a moment if he'd told her anything, but then he remembered the bite mark and how, while no one had explicitly said anything about it earlier, hardly anything ever went unnoticed in the dorms.

"Ah, that's. Haha. I mean, Todoroki? You seemed to be heading somewhere and I don't want to get in the way of your - "

"I'm not in a rush. If you could give us two minutes, Uraraka, that would be very appreciated," Shouto decided, unwilling to let this weirdness between them stretch on, although he didn't really have a battle plan for this conversation. He watched Midoriya swallow and nod, and then the brunette was gone and Midoriya was giving him a weirdly terrified look.

"Todoroki, I am so, so sorry about earlier. I should have knocked or something but I didn't think that you and Kacchan would, uh. Be doing that, I didn't mean to interrupt or anything. And Kacchan hasn't approached me yet but if I go missing in the next few days then please tell All Might that I-"

"Midoriya. Ka- Bakugou isn't going to do anything to you, I'll make sure of it. If anything, it's mine and his fault that this happened at all. Locker rooms are for changing and we should have been in class."

"I - right. I mean, Aizawa doesn't like it when people are late. Which is why he sent me, as - as I said. Earlier. Sorry, I'm still a little. Overwhelmed?"

"Overwhelmed might be the right word," Shouto agreed.

"Right. Right. So, you and Kacchan, are you..?"

"Are we what?" the omega inquired, blinking.

"I mean, together? Or something? Not that it's really my business but you looked sort of.. together, right?"

Shouto had never given the word 'together' as much consideration, but the more he thought about it, the more he realised that they probably weren't.. together. In the romantic sense. Shouto had no clue what they were, still. And at this point, he was a little bit afraid to ask. He could take the brave route and simply start calling Bakugou his... boyfriend (?) but that - that was somehow different than it had been when Shouto had insisted that they were friends and the alpha had insisted that they weren't. Because back then, he'd been sure that they did get along and that it was simply Bakugou being.. Bakugou. But now, he wasn't so sure what exactly it was that the alpha wanted from him and just assuming things didn't feel so wise when it came to this.

Besides, he was casually terrified of saying that and the alpha telling him that, no. They weren't.

"I don't think we are," he replied, factually. The omega inside of him wanted to protest but he shut it away and told Midoriya the truth.

"Oh," Midoriya sucked in a breath, and his hands didn't seem to stay still for a moment, "but he's, I mean, he's courting you, right?"

"I don't think he - I mean. Is he?"

"Everyone thinks so, or, well. I mean, not that I usually believe rumors but he's been giving you food and dragging you around and I just thought -"

"He makes me food because he says that I'm, 'too stupid to make my own.' I thought it was maybe a way of showing off his ability and caring.. for a friend's health?" Shouto wasn't sure he believed his own words, wasn't sure what he believed when it came to this. He remembered how his mother had assumed that Bakugou was courting him, too. But maybe that was just the prejudice that came with an omega and alpha friendship? Although, maybe Midoriya had been too traumatised earlier to piece things together and figure out that he was an omega? And friends didn't usually make out either, Shouto was mostly certain of that.

So maybe their questions weren't entirely unjustified, maybe the two of them did behave in a way that made it seem like the logical conclusion and maybe Shouto's heart clenched tightly at the thought that maybe Bakugou Katsuki was potentially courting him.

Him. Shouto Todoroki, an omega who knew more about battle techniques than he did about his own secondary gender, romance or courting.

Oh God.

Suddenly, Shouto was convinced that Midoriya wasn't the only one with a face as red as a cherry.

"Yeah but Kacchan is a little, uh. With words. You know. Kacchan doesn't know how to-"

"I don't know how to what, fucking Deku."

Shouto watched Midoriya tense up in a way that looked almost painful before he even saw the alpha approaching from downstairs. Shouto's face still felt hot, and seeing him didn't help one bit. He wondered if others would consider it pathetic how much he managed to miss the alpha when they were barely separated for two hours. His father certainly would, not that Shouto wanted to think about the man right now.

"Hi," he said, all too aware of the fact that his voice sounded... different. When he talked to Katsuki. Right. He wondered how the alpha would react if he used his first name in front of anyone, but didn't dare to test it out yet. Getting it into his head that they were probably on first name basis now was enough of a task for his brain.

He was honestly overthinking this. Again. All of it.

Strangely, the alpha didn't pay Midoriya much attention besides a glare.

"Halfie, when the two of you are done talking, wanna come to my room?" he asked and Shouto heard Midoriya choke on air before he stuttered out a, "It's fine. You two go ahead, I - Uraraka is waiting for me anyway. Uh, to study. Not to, oh my God okay. See you tomorrow!"

Shouto had noticed lately that people tended to disappear as soon as Katsuki approached him, and though he understood it in Midoriya's case right now, he wondered what the general reason behind that was.

"You in there?" the alpha asked, pressing one finger to Shouto's forehead. He blinked at it, taking a breath.

"Yeah, I am."

"Great. You wanna come or did you have something else planned?" Bakugou asked, looking at Shouto's jacket and the headphones dangling from his shoulder, still playing a quiet tune. While Shouto did have something planned, it was an easy decision to make. Katsuki was better than fresh air, which should probably concern him because air was... well, necessary to survive. Instead of pondering it, he said, "No. Let's go then."

Shouto lead the way, and the alpha's presence right behind him was something he could physically feel. Simply seeing Katsuki had him utterly aware of all the things they could do, in a closed room. A lot of things, really. He wondered if Bakugou wanted to, maybe.

"What were you even doing?" Shouto asked, hoping that maybe words could distract him from those thoughts. The mark on Katsuki's neck was partially covered by the collar of the school uniform.

"I'll tell you all about it, okay?" Katsuki replied, and Shouto couldn't help noticing that the words sounded a little.. strange. Or maybe not the words themselves as much as the tone in which he'd said them.

He watched Katsuki's fingers as he unlocked the door, very closely. Shouto couldn't help the way it sent a spark through his body; he really did have nice fingers. So nice that Shouto suddenly really wanted to feel them on his skin.

He... really wasn't as balanced as he used to be, was he?

Because the moment the door was open and Katsuki had walked through it, Shouto moved, had him pinned to the wall next to it, pushing his own body into the alpha's warmth and going straight for his neck where-

He moved back a little, and his eyes searched red ones.

Apparently, Katsuki understood even without words, "before you get any ideas, if I smell like an omega it's because Recovery Girl forced me to show her annoying-ass intern around alright?"

Shouto pondered it for about a second before he nodded, although the thought of Katsuki running around with some omega he didn't know wasn't the nicest. The scent wasn't strong either, but noticeable, maybe precisely because omega scents were so rare at their school and easy to tell apart from an alpha's or a beta's. But beyond that, he was a little disappointed with the fact that Katsuki didn't seem all that surprised with his attack, just standing there and watching him with a strange sort of concentration. Despite all the overthinking he'd done in the last two hours, Shouto suddenly knew one thing with clarity; he wanted the alpha to look at him the same way he had earlier. Wanted for his scent to turn into this perfect shade of hunger again and for his hands to roam all over Shouto's body and blur everything else out.

He also wanted his own hands on Katsuki.

"Alright," the omega confirmed quietly and allowed that little spark of jealousy he felt despite the explanation to slip into his next words and give them a certain edge, "kiss me."

There was something heavy about their eye contact, and Shouto could see the moment of hesitation in red eyes that suddenly sent his thoughts downward, flooding him with all those useless self doubts all over again. Before he could even make sense of the entirety of it and ask himself whether maybe the alpha had seen, talked to and smelled another omega and now spontaneously deviced that he never wanted to kiss Shouto ever again because just about everyone was less complicated than him, he put the brakes on. Mentally.

He didn't wait for a reply or for the alpha to snap out of whatever thought was stopping him, and moved forward with every intention of trying his hardest to kiss any doubt the other may have about this out of his head. Maybe it was unfair and maybe they were slowly reaching a point where actual communication was a good idea; it was unfortunately all too easy to forget all about that when their lips met.

This time, Katsuki gasped and Shouto didn't stop for a moment, pressing forward and moving his lips against soft, warm ones.

Just seconds later, the alpha made a noise in the back of his throat and there was suddenly a hand in Shouto's hair, pulling hard. He couldn't even tell whether forward or backward - he could however tell that the rough touch had him all kinds of thrilled, mouth opening wider and his movements became sloppier with it. Maybe he was more jealous than he'd realised, because every movement came with a new intensity, more urgency and less coordination.

...

Bakugou didn't know what the hell had hit him. Or, rather than that, he knew all too fucking well. The goddamn tone Shouto had used just seconds ago should be illegal, and what followed was even worse. As if the omega wanted to make up for all the control he'd handed over earlier, he was now attacking his mouth much in the same way he fought when he actually meant it.

As if he knew exactly how breathtaking every fucking thing about him was and had every intention of holding a metaphorical gun to Bakugou's head and ruining his resolve, just like that.

One warm and one colder hand were entangled in his shirt, pressing him back into the wall and the fucking things Shouto did with his lips were borderline supernatural because how the fuck could someone even make you feel like they were consuming you whole without as much as a tongue added into the mix? However that worked, Shouto managed to pull it off, managed to rob Bakugou of his every higher brain function with just his lips alone.

By the time Bakugou managed to even participate, the omega was already five steps ahead of him, opening his mouth wider and deepening the kiss with so much enthusiasm that Bakugou wondered if he actually wanted to make him lose consciousness; absolutely none of it was half-assed, and if the pace of overwhelmed Bakugou then that meant something.

Because holy hell, was he overwhelmed.

Especially because this wasn't what he'd-

He groaned as Shouto's mouth suddenly left his and went down to his neck again, wet with both their saliva and hot, as if the warmth was a byproduct of his quirk. The omega seemed dead set on continuing where they'd left off, pushing his hips forward and leaving as little space as possible between them.

It was all too fucking easy to take what Shouto was willing to give and run with it, but Bakugou had another priority. And despite what Recovery Girl had told him, he wasn't about to sit down and write a fucking list. And no matter how fucking good this felt, he had words stuck in his mouth that he needed to get out.

Right now or fucking never.

"Shouto," he said, but it came out as something between a groan and an actual word. He couldn't exactly blame Shouto for taking it as encouragement rather than a stop sign and planting more of those heated kisses against his skin.

So he forced himself out of his stunned paralysation and used the hand entangled in red and white locks to pull the omega back, and hard.

Maybe a little harder than was strictly necessary, and maybe he was going to drop dead any moment because the most delicious moan fell from Shouto's lips at the action and that wrecked Bakugou just as much as his touches did. Shouto's lips, though - they were open and flushed and so fucking inviting that the alpha couldn't help capturing them in another kiss, despite his better judgement. Maybe it was some weird need to prove that he wasn't rendered useless beneath his touch, or just the result of all the frustration that had been building up over the last few days, but he needed to make Shouto fall apart.

Just for one fucking minute.

And for one minute (or perhaps a little longer, not that he was counting the damn seconds), the alpha did absolutely everything in his power to accomplish as much. His grip on soft hair remained firm, while he allowed his lips to be just the opposite, greedy and intense and a medium for all the unspoken shit that had been weighing him down since yesterday.

And fuck, did it work.

When Bakugou pulled away, Shouto's pupils were round like two full moons, his skin visibly flushed even in the relative darkness of the evening hours, and his breaths resembled those of an athlete after a sprint. He looked fucking perfect, speechless and gasping for air like that.

But apparently Shouto had finally thrown the idea of self preservation out of the window; instead of allowing himself a moment to fucking breathe, the omega was pushing forward yet again and Bakugou barely managed to shove his hand before his lips before they'd meet again and inevitably busy themselves with round after round of this.

For a moment, Shouto didn't even seem to realise what had happened, mouth falling open against Bakugou's palm. But then his eyes opened, locked on Bakugou's, and instead of taking a hint, the omega dragged his tongue along his open palm, gaze unwavering.

A shiver went through Bakugou, and he had to close his own eyes to even attempt and deal with the feeling and the sight of it.

Shouto hadn't just fucking-

He shook his head uselessly and prayed to all the gods above and below the horizon that he could force words out of his mouth.

"Shouto. Fucking hell, can you just - we -"

Of fucking course he opened his eyes to have that same owlish look still aimed at his face, the mismatching colors making it feel even more focused on him, as if that was possible. He sure as fuck had Shouto's attention now, so much of it that he didn't know what to do with it, how to fucking do this.

And then the omega whispered against his hand and Bakugou wondered if he'd secretly watched some high quality porn or something, because there was no way in hell someone could make something such as whispering against someone's hand make this fucking.. erotic? Terrifying? Lewd?

Honestly, all of the above.

"Can I what?"

Maybe it wasn't Shouto. Maybe Bakugou's brain was the fucking culprit here, because that traitorous organ supplied him with a goddamn variety of answers, none of which had anything to do with what he wanted to say.

"Just," he breathed out, trying to glare but Bakugou could feel it failing, "Just fucking stop for a moment, alright?"

He sure as fuck hadn't expected Shouto to growl in response, but that was exactly what the omega did, and it sounded unhappy, pissed. As if Bakugou didn't have a right to tell him to for one damn moment. Apparently, Shouto realised it too, a second or two later, because the growl faded into silence and then, an actual word. A question, "why?"

And Bakugou felt the terror of it all hit him all over again, which he was pretty sure reflected in his scent oh so fucking nicely. Whatever frustration Shouto had harbored suddenly made place for something that resembled worry. The type of look that Bakugou usually couldn't stand when it was thrown at him.

"Because we need to fucking talk okay."

"Ah, okay?" the omega half-agreed, still not moving an inch, still pressed against Bakugou and breathing hot air against his hand. "What about?"

"Not fucking - not like this. Come on," Bakugou told him, and used the hold on Shouto's hair to drag him along, not that the omega resisted much. His fingers combed through the hair finally as the two of them had reached his bed, and Bakugou felt this weird need to make this conversation as comfortable as possible for Shouto, as much as the topics allowed.

"Sit down," he muttered, and recalled what Recovery Girl had told him. That Shouto had no way of soothing himself with his scent or counteracting all the stress that he was probably about to feel, so Bakugou tried to make up for it by forcing his own scent into something calming, as well as he could. Of course, being nervous himself, it wasn't as easy.

And it wasn't enough.

Once Shouto had taken his shoes off anr was sitting, Bakugou pointed at his pillow and Shouto tilted his head. The alpha grabbed it, pushed it against the wall, and made sure to be gentle as he pushed Shouto into what looked like a comfortable sitting position. All the while, Shouto eyed his with a mixture of fascination and wonder. And since Bakugou had already made this pretty fucking weird, he didn't stop himself from going the extra mile and essentially throwing his blanket atop the omega, which seemed to be the final straw in terms of making Shouto question what was going on.

Now it wasn't just confusion, but anxiety and a hint of embarrassment, too. Nevertheless, the omega didn't push the blanket away or even shift at all. He just watched Bakugou as he spoke.

"What do you want to talk about?"

It sounded collected, calm, but by now Bakugou knew the omega's voice well enough to sense a hint of concealed hesitation in it. He sighed, sitting down cross-legged without much space between them.

"You. I mean, your damn - your medicine. Fuck, just yesterday you fucking curled up in pain from -" he took a deep breath, told himself to keep it together, "you need to stop taking that shit."

"Huh?"

"No, not fucking huh. Did you ever go out of your way to read about what any of those bullshit pills do to your body?" he asked, voice too loud and tone too rough. Of fucking course. He should have listened to the damn advice.

"Honestly, I don't know what you are taking about. You mean the heat suppressants?" Shouto asked, blinking. As if he didn't get at all why they were talking about this or why he should know about the side effects or the pills he kept swallowing like they were fucking candy.

"Those and the scent blockers. Just, listen to me okay. After seeing how bad you were hurting from those cramps - "

"It's been worse before, actually," Shouto cut in and apparently failed to realise that he was only strengthening the point that Bakugou was making.

"Yeah, great, that's even worse to hear. Anyway, after seeing that happen to you, I researched the causes of such cramps."

Shouto's brows raised slightly in response, but Bakugou wasn't sure what exactly that meant, so he went on, "And I read about various causes. Among those was the overuse of scent blockers and heat suppressants. Cramps are one and not the only symptom. And before you give me shit about how the internet is fuel for paranoia, I didn't just read about it, alright. I went to Recovery Girl today and I asked her what risks are associated with using too much of that shit, and... and. Fuck, why the hell are you looking at me like that?"

"Bakugou. You're telling me went to Recovery Girl and asked her about my medicine? You did not tell her or anyone else about -"

"Fuck no, the hell do you take me for? I didn't say your name or fucking anything, but I needed to fucking know okay?"

"...Why? What's it to you?"

"Are you kidding me. The hell do you mean, what's it to me."

"Quite literally, what is it to you. Every kind of medicine has side effects, and I can live with having cramps now and then. It's not particularly pleasant but it won't kill me."

Bakugou forced himself to take deep breaths, but he had a goddamn problem with the way Shouto said this shit so fucking casually, as if there was no fucking reason for concern at all. Sure, he didn't want the omega to panic but this.. this felt like the exact opposite of panic. Shouto was looking at him like he still didn't understand the point of even addressing this.

"Fucking, shut up for one damn moment. I just fucking told you that it's not just damn 'cramps every now and then,' there's an entire fucking list of shit that can happen when you poison your body like that."

"Like, what?"

"Like, fucking organ problems, infertility and all kinds of shit, dumbass!"

For a moment after that outburst, the both of them were almost eerily quiet. Bakugou watched something flash in Shouto's eyes, something that looked like sadness or fear, but then it was washed away, wiped clean. Infuriatingly pushed aside. He felt his anger spike in response and just kept on trying to breathe, in and out.

"... It's not like I want children anyway."

That fucking did it.

Although it went against every fucking thing Bakugou had told himself he would do and be, he'd grabbed the omega by his shoulders in a second, pulling him forward and this time managing to glare at his unimpressed face with all the frustration that had been eating him up, still was. Now more than ever.

"Are you fucking serious. I just told you that you're fucking poisoning yourself over some bullshit secret that doesn't even fucking matter, and all you gotta say for yourself is that you don't want fucking kids? So fucking what. So it's fine that you're risking your health for this because you don't give a damn about yourself?! You're fucking kidding me."

"All I'm saying is that a lot of medicine has potential side effects. Potential. As in, there's always a risk, but it's the same when you cross the street or work as a hero. There's no guarantee for health either way."

"You think I don't fucking know that? I've been fucking kidnapped before, asshole. And what did you and the other extras do, say 'oh well that's just the risk that comes with being a UA student'? Fucking spoiler altert, you moved your asses and did something about it."

By now, Shouto wasn't looking him in the eyes anymore. Bakugou wasn't sure what he was looking at, perhaps something behind his shoulder.

"I don't see what that has to do with anything. It's not like my cramps or my risk of infertility hindered me from going."

"Well use your fucking brain."

"Would it bother you to stop yelling in my face," Shouto commented.

"I'll fucking yell loud enough that you get the message. If you don't wanna listen to me, then go to any fucking doctor and they'll tell you the same. It's not safe to skip more than two heats, and those fucking scent blockers you're using? They're not even made for omegas."

"I'm not stupid, I do know that my situation isn't the standard."

"Not the fucking standard?"

"So, what do you want me to do exactly? Drop out of UA, suffer through a heat every month, while my father sits there by my side and tells me how much of a disappointment I am? While every single person in my life realises that I've been keeping secrets from them and starts treating me differently? All because you talked to Recovery Girl once and she's not enthusiastic about medication?"

"You're the one who came to me and asked about how there are more than two damn options, fucking remember? I'm just telling you that you can't keep doing this shit to yourself. Want your father's approval so bad, is that it?" Bakugou yelled right back, and he knew that it was a low blow. He also didn't exactly have it in him to give a damn anymore about the 'how'. He just needed Shouto to get a fucking clue and realise that they were talking about his health here.

And maybe the asshole didn't care, but Bakugou- he... hadn't said it out loud how much he cared, had he?

"If that's what you think," Shouto said, and it was void of all emotion. No anger, no heat. A type of resignation that was everything Bakugou couldn't stand. How the fuck was it so easy for the omega to just turn off his emotions like this and take 20 metaphorical steps backwards from the conversation?

And then Shouto was moving to push his hands off his shoulders, looking at the door, and Bakugou's anger was once again overshadowed by panic because this wasn't how this was supposed to fucking go. At all.

"I didn't fucking mean that okay. I'm just trying to-"

"Trying to what? Tell me how to live my life? To tell me that I should be looking for your approval instead of my father's, is that it?" the omega asked, and suddenly his voice wasn't as controlled anymore. There was an edge to it, a kind of hurt that had Bakugou stopping in his tracks, chest tightening up and something inside of him hurt, like the words had punched him.

The realisation that Shouto thought that this was what was happening here, it fucking hurt.

And so did being compared to Shouto's father, even if it was only implied.

"God fucking damn it," Bakugou cursed, mostly to himself.

His hands only tightened their grip when Shouto again tried to pry them off, and Bakugou was not cut out for this type of conversation, wasn't one to let words hit so hard, usually. But fucking Shouto Todoroki had a hold on him that was fucking concerning, and Bakugou wasn't about to let him go now.

"That's not it you idiot!" he yelled, but it came out quieter as that uncomfortable feeling of weight on his eyes came back, and his breath wasn't all that even either.

Shouto looked at him for a long moment and Bakugou almost cracked beneath the stare, barely managed to keep his face straight and his emotions stuck inside.

The omega sighed quietly and stopped struggling in his hold, arms falling to his sides. "..Then what is it?"

It was a good fucking question.

Bakugou didn't even know where to start and somehow, the first thing that came out was, "How the fuck are you so dense?"

And predictably, it wasn't the right thing to say.

Shouto glared at him, beginning to unwrap the blanket from his body, and Bakugou's mouth opened without his permission, "You think I've spent the last night awake researching this for fun? You think I'd sit here and even try to talk to your stubborn ass about any of this if it was all about 'telling you what to do' or wanting your life to go to shit? Fucking think again, I'm telling you this because you didn't- you don't- Fuck. You didn't deserve any of the shit you went through with your goddamn excuse for a father, none of it. And you don't deserve the shit you're going through now, not the stress of keeping it all a secret, not the guilt and not damn side effects of a medication you shouldn't be forced to take in the first place. You're not some fucking machine and there are people who give a fuck about you and your health and the way you feel, and not just about how useful you can be to them. Your existence is more than a damn inconvenience and if you keep this shit up - if you keep hurting yourself all because this asshole told you that you can't reach your goals without following the path he paved out for you, then - God. I - Of course I don't want you to drop out of UA, what the hell. I wanna know that you're the strongest you can be and this doesn't- you can't just ignore those fucking risks. You can't keep doing the same shit over and over again just because you've become used to it. Look, I never thought I'd ever spend the night before an exam awake worrying about someone but here I fucking am and it's goddamn terrifying to think that you don't even see how much-"

He stopped there, had probably said too much already.

By the end of it, the alpha was gasping for air and Shouto's mouth had fallen slightly open, eyes on the mattress and his hands motionless on the blanket. Bakugou didn't dare to even move.

"How much?" he asked and for a moment, Bakugou had no clue what he meant, or why Shouto sounded so breathless when he wasn't the one who'd just spit out half a novel of emotions in the shape of words. The confusion seemed to show on his face, because Shouto explained, "you didn't finish your sentence."

Right. Fuck.

"You really want me to?" Bakugou asked, feeling so fucking weird and sappy and still entirely too close to crying for his liking, and as a rule of thumb, he avoided this type of conversation at all costs.

But he couldn't fucking afford to back down, no matter how far out of his comfort zone he was. Whatever he had to lay out in the open to show that he meant what he was saying, he was willing to.

Shouto nodded his head and the alpha closed his eyes.

"It's terrifying to.. to think that you don't have a clue how much you fucking mean to me, alright? Maybe it fucking selfish or whatever, but I don't wanna see you faint or curl up in pain or refuse to see a doctor about your cramps because you're terrified of being found out. It's fucking terrifying to think that you'd assume this is about controlling you or whatever when it's fucking not. Fucking happy now?"

His eyes were still closed, body tense and Bakugou's hold on the omega's shoulders loosened as the words full out, because this was it. As much as he was currently capable of expressing, and probably not half of the things that he should say. Not half as compassionate or eloquent or emotionally intelligent as he should be, just fucking-

"I think happy is the wrong word," the omega began and Bakugou could only think that, fuck. He'd fucked this entire thing up and had just so happened to open himself up in the process and holy shit could Shouto fucking tear him down right now if he wanted to, because-

A head suddenly fell down on his shoulder, hair brushing past his cheek.

"I'm scared too, you know," Shouto said then, voice soft and featherlight.

And Bakugou didn't know what to think. How to react - the words sounded so real, so true and raw that they carried the weight of a confession in church. Shouto Todoroki wasn't the type to say that he was scared. This was the same person who could freeze an entire stadium and probably kick the asses of some of the world's top heroes if he really tried. And in terms of really admitting fear, he was probably just as bad as Bakugou.

It was almost poetic, or perhaps just fucking ironic, for two of the strongest people at UA to be sitting on a bed, leaning against each other and admitting that they were scared shitless by something they couldn't just beat the shit out of using fists or quirks.

"It's scary how much sense you're making. And it's scary to hear.. that I mean something to you, that the things I do to myself affect you like this. That's really scary," Shouto went on, whispering the words into the alpha's shoulder and laughing a humourless laugh.

"It's scary how much I liked hearing that just now, too."

"You-" Bakugou began, but his mind was wiped blank with that last admission, and his instincts were pulling him in all sorts of directions, having his omega right here, talking about how scared he was by all of those things. All of those things that he couldn't downtalk, couldn't take back.

But there was one thing Bakugou could do, for Shouto just as much as for himself. He opened his eyes, and settled his hands on a muscular back, needing to have some type of hold on him, some kind of anchor. He could feel the way the other's body pressed into his hands and it had him pulling the omega ever so slightly closer.

He wasn't ready for Shouto to pull back suddenly and give him a look so soft, it was a complete change from just seconds ago.

"Katsuki," he said, "What I said wasn't fair. Truthfully, I have no idea what to think, or what to do, but... you're right. I can't and I don't want to spend my entire life pretending like I'm something I'm not, but.. it just feels impossible to turn back and change now. I wouldn't know where to begin or how to - how to - I can't explain how weird it feels to be pulled in different directions like this. I need to think about this, and to," he stopped, closed his eyes. "I need to talk to my father about it, too. And to my mother. And.. I just don't know how to - I can't even allow myself to build a nest because it feels so weird to even want to, and if I stopped taking the suppressants right now, then I would - I don't want you to worry about this, I don't want you to feel like it's something that -"

"Shut up for one damn moment, okay," Bakugou stopped him as the words became increasingly faster and stained with anxiety. One grey and one blue eye fixed on him then, and Bakugou thanked his fucking instincts for giving him a spontaneous burst of calmness in the middle of all this chaos. "You're going too fucking fast right now. It's not like we need to solve all this shit right now in this moment. One thing after another, okay? And whatever the case, whether you like it or not, I give a fuck about you and I'll be there. 'Course you don't know how to go about this, and neither do I. But we're not fucking stupid and we'll figure it out, and there are people to go to when you're not sure, people you can talk to. And if you don't wanna go alone, then I'll go with you and I won't fucking complain about it either. Alright?"

It didn't escape Bakugou how Shouto's pupils dilated while he was speaking, or how his lip trembled a little.

"I don't deserve you," he whispered.

"Shut up, you obviously don't have a clue what you deserve," the alpha shot back, and he tried his best to ignore how fucking strong he was probably coming on right now. Not like it was avoidable at this point. His fucking body, mind and soul had been perfectly aligned in thinking of Shouto as his omega for weeks now, and saying anything else would be a fucking lie.

No matter the shit that was going to happen, he'd be right by Shouto's side and pulling his head out of the sand however often he needed to.

The hint of a smile pulled at the omega's lips at his words, and somehow that was enough to have so much of that heavy weight that had settled on Bakugou's heart falling away. Shouto wrapped his arms around his neck and moved to sit a little closer, pulling Bakugou's head forward, too.

"I'm not sure if you know either. But, I - please know that you matter to me as well. Very much. There's.. I'm glad you're the person I told about, ah, all of this. Really."

A part of Bakugou absolutely refused to accept those words, but it was easily overshadowed by the way the alpha inside of him clawed onto the fact that Shouto was glad that it was him and not fucking Deku or anyone else. Him. Fuck. Maybe he hadn't fucked up that badly after all. And maybe it was okay to feel relief for one fucking moment, despite all the shit still ahead of them. Maybe it was okay to lose himself in those pretty fucking eyes and nod his head because he had no fucking words to even reply with.

He couldn't deny the fact that his face was probably red as fuck, but then again, so was Shouto's. And maybe that was just a natural consequence of sappy 'I appreciate you so much' conversations that were the result of life-altering ones, but Bakugou couldn't bring himself to hate it.

Not with the prospect in his mind that maybe, he could pull this shit off after all. He could be the kind of alpha, and more than that, the kind of person that Shouto needed. And that was the kind of thought that resonated just a bit louder than all the others did.

They could fucking do this, of course they could. Why the hell should they doubt it.

And he was going to start by doing his part right fucking now.

"So what kinds of stuff do you need? To build a nest."

Chapter Text

Shouto's heart stuttered in his chest and the way his instincts pulled at him very nearly had him wincing, because while he knew what it was like to feel influenced by those pulls, it was foreign for him to feel so utterly.. thrilled by any of it. Thrilled and confused and overwhelmed. Like an addict who's offered a line after months of sobriety - only, this wasn't an old habit calling for him. It was something entirely new, something strange and unfamiliar and somehow, it felt like something a part of him had been waiting for, desperately. His arms fell down from where they'd been resting on Katsuki, gravity pulling at him hard.

The omega's voice came out strange, and his brain was incapable of coming up with a reply other than a somewhat stuttered, "you mean, ah, what?"

"For a nest," Bakugou repeated and there was none of the usual impatience and frustration in his voice. It wasn't good for Shouto's heart to hear that word coming from his mouth though, falling out so effortlessly like it was only natural for him to do this with Shouto. To talk about nesting. For his alpha to want to provide for him, his mind added, and Shouto shook his head, the thought a little too instinctual and laced in optimism to be trespassing his mind so freely.

He was way ahead of himself there, but how couldn't he be?

A part of him had been wishing so badly for the alpha to ask this question, but Shouto hadn't even considered the possibility that maybe -

"So you don't wanna?" Bakugou asked then, and Shouto opened his eyes to find the alpha's fixed on his face, clever and observant and ready to analyse the smallest change in his expression.

He shook his head again before he found his voice, tone careful, "no. I mean - not no, no. Just, I don't know? Why? ... Now? As in, today?"

"The hell do you mean why. You were present during our conversation right now, weren't you? And yeah, of course now. Remember what Aizawa said about sleepovers."

"No sleepovers," Shouto recalled, but it took him a moment to realise what that meant. He could already tell that the uncertainty of his situation was definitely going to catch up to him at some point, with a vengeance more than likely, and Bakugou wasn't going to be curled up next to him to help him calm down if things got bad. He was going to be all alone for it and that meant that -

"You want me to have a nest so tonight isn't going to be as bad," he said. It was meant to come out as a question but it didn't sound like it, and Shouto knew. That this was what this was all about. Bakugou could tell exactly how big of a decision it was that they'd been talking about, and he apparently didn't like the idea that Shouto was going to have the weight of that upon his shoulders. Apparently he wanted to help him deal with things in this way, because there weren't many other options.

It made Shouto feel two things at once; warmth, and familiar guilt.

"Don't worry about that, I can actually handle sleeping by myself if that's what -"

"I'm not asking if you can handle it, idiot. I don't fucking doubt that you're capable of sleeping in your own room by yourself. I'm asking if you want to try, and what I can do to help with it."

Finally, that bit of impatience was back. Along with the forward-thinking attitude.

And the glare.

Something about it almost calmed Shouto down, paradoxically. It was just so.. Bakugou, to be offended by a small difference in wording.

Except, this really wasn't about the wording at all, was it? As he thought it over, it suddenly seemed so clear that there was a big difference between wanting, and needing to do something. Shouto obviously didn't need to build a nest, Bakugou wasn't about to push him either by the looks of it, but he wanted Shouto to know that he would help if he wanted him to.

He took a deep breath, trying to figure it out.

So. Did he want to?

Judging by that weird desire that had been tugging beneath his skin ever since Bakugou suggested building a nest, a huge part of him wanted to say yes. Then of course, there was the shame that instantly followed the realisation, and then, the realisation that the shame was programmed into him and the exact thing that had been standing in his way, over and over again. For weeks, months, years.

But this time, pushing through it felt like a real possibility; although his face felt a little hot and his pulse was racing, he couldn't ignore the fact that Bakugou Katsuki was offering this. To him. To help him build a nest. Somehow, the mess that was Shouto's life had led him to this point in time, and he wasn't sure how he deserved this.

How it had gone from Bakugou not even believing that he was an omega at all to Bakugou, who suggested to actually help him navigate whatever was coming in the future. It was impossible not to be overwhelmed by whatever that thought set off in his chest, emotions tumbling through his veins, messing with his head.

"You can't just ask me that. It's embarrassing," Shouto evaded the question, voice flat, wondering if it was a normal thing for an alpha to suggest. Wondering why he was reacting like that - embarrassment wasn't really an issue that happened to him too often, although in the last weeks the frequency of those confusing moments with hot cheeks and a rapid heartbeat had definitely multiplied.

A part of him expected a comment on his obvious avoidance of eye contact. He was probably turning this into a bigger deal than it was. Nests were a normal thing, nothing to feel shame or embarrassment over. In theory. But in reality, Shouto had grown up under the impression that it somehow was something to be ashamed of. Ashamed of wanting, specifically.

But it wasn't just the shame. There was something else there, too. With all those things that Bakugou did for him, the comments from their classmates, the kisses and his instincts that were stronger than ever (which Shouto needed to remind himself, wasn't a bad thing either), it felt like maybe, all of this really was the type of thing that could potentially... work. Them. As in, him and Bakugou Katsuki as his -

He certainly didn't expect Bakugou to shift to the side so he was in Shouto's focus and give him an unimpressed look.

"Fucking excuse me? I just talked about feelings, all for your ungrateful ass, so you can handle a little bit of embarrassment, can't you?"

"That's," right, that had happened.  Bakugou had just been open with him in a way that would have seemed impossible just months ago. Shouto still couldn't believe it sometimes, that they were actually getting better at talking to each other, "You're right."

"Big surprise."

Shouto turned to look at the door, crossed his arms, only to uncross them a moment later, chewing on his lip.

"You can't laugh at me if it doesn't work, or.. if the nest doesn't look good in the end," he established, refusing to make eye contact again, this time looking in the other direction. He wondered where his pokerface was now, in moments like this one, where he absolutely needed it.

Shouto could hear Bakugou make some kind of sound, "How the - I'm not some fucking art critic, your nest doesn't need to look good. The whole point is that you're comfortable. So that's a yes?"

"I can try," Shouto confirmed, wondering just what he was agreeing to here and why his heart was racing all over again, his eyes drifting towards the closet in the corner without any conscious effort. He knew that Bakugou noticed.

"So you need anything then?"

"I don't know," Shouto told him, although the omega inside of him admittedly had a very good idea of all the things that he would love to steal from the alpha and arrange inside his room.

"We can google that shit if you don't know. There's gotta be something useful on the damn inter- "

"Your clothes," Shouto said before Bakugou could finish his sentence, a bit stunned with himself afterwards. He added, "not.. all of them obviously. But maybe one item or two? If that's alright."

"Sure is, take whatever the hell you want," Bakugou said and it didn't sound weirded out or annoyed and Shouto wasn't even sure why either would be the case, why he'd expected that, but Bakugou's tone gave him the confidence to look at the alpha.

"Yeah?" he asked and Bakugou looked like it wasn't even a question, raising his brows.

"Do you...," Shouto began before he realised just what he was about to say, and his mouth fell shut again.

"Do I what?"

And once more, the eye contact was just a little bit too much. Shouto looked down at his hands, gathering his bravery and wondering why he couldn't simply be satisfied with what was promised to him. "Do you have anything that isn't freshly washed? Or could you - I mean, it feels like it should smell like you."

Because while Shouto didn't doubt that Bakugou owned clothes made of nice fabric, it really wasn't so much that. If Bakugou couldn't be in his bed, couldn't spend the night at his nest, then the next logical step was making it smell like him. Entirely. Right? Maybe this wasn't so much about logic as it was about the prospect of burying his face into something that smelled like the alpha.

Bakugou stayed quiet at first and this time around, Shouto was almost certain that he had to be at least a little weirded out because, although he hadn't specifically asked for workout clothes or anything, it still sounded like sort of a weird thing to ask for. Used clothes. He felt like some sort of deviant for asking. Shouto swallowed and corrected himself, "But washed clothes are fine too."

"Yeah well I just washed my clothes, but I'm sure I can get my scent on some, rub them against my neck or whatever, shouldn't be too hard."

"Right. Ah, thanks?"

"You know, you can go and pick whatever you want. I don't have a clue what kind of fabric you want for this or what exactly you're looking for," Bakugou told him and Shouto found himself standing up and heading over to the closet with a bit too much eagerness. He probably shouldn't be so thrilled to have permission to go through Bakugou's closet, but he couldn't exactly help it. Although he had no conscious awareness of what it was, he did know that the omega inside him apparently had a very clear idea of what exactly was needed for a nest. It felt strange, letting his instincts guide him like this, but Shouto knew that it was the best option he had. 

This wasn't something he could solve with logic. A nest. Another one of those things that ran so deep, was embedded in his DNA essentially, like those tropical birds collecting colorful things to impress another bird with or a cat carrying it's kittens by the neck. Instinct. Not a bad thing at all.

Comparing it like that helped a little.

Bakugou didn't say anything as he went about his business but Shouto could feel the alpha's eyes on him, watching. 

"Stop watching me," Shouto eventually commented, already feeling odd enough in his skin. In this situation. His words weren't accusatory though, more of a quiet request.

"Whatever. Fine."

Unsurprisingly, Bakugou didn't own too many clothes, but not too few either and all of them were folded nicely. If Shouto had to guess, he'd assume that the alpha had calculated exactly the right amount to have everything covered but not accumulate uselessly much. It took only a few seconds of searching until the very first item caught his attention. One of Bakugou's black tank tops that felt particularly soft beneath his fingers, extra thin fabric and probably made for the warmer months.

His initial plan was to be polite and choose one or maybe two things, but once he had the top slung over his arm and looked around some more, an old-looking grey t-shirt with an orange band logo caught his attention, and Shouto couldn't pinpoint what it was, but the shirt joined the top. It had to.

Just about five minutes later, he'd found too many items to store them on his arm like this, feeling a prickling sensation beneath his skin where the blood wasn't flowing freely anymore from the weight.

Shouto turned around slowly to find the alpha scrolling on his phone, red eyes slowly turning towards him as he caught sight of the movement. For a short moment, Bakugou looked a little surprised, but his expression quickly shifted back into what it had been before. Neutral for his standards, if not a bit on the calm side.

"Found something you liked then?"

Shouto nodded his head, debating with himself. But strangely enough, now that he'd started selecting clothes and maybe imagining where exactly they could potentially go in his nest, the need to collect things hadn't quieted down. If anything, he found it hard to even step away from the closet to dump the clothes on Bakugou's bed. Maybe he didn't own so few after all, because there were admittedly quite a few clothes spread out next to Bakugou now, and five times as many of them left in his closet that Shouto felt like he needed to go through as well. 

"Can you get your scent on them?"

"Sure. On it, might take a few minutes though."

Shouto nodded, feeling a bit warm.

"I'll just," he said, feeling like some sort of criminal, "look if there's maybe one or two more."

He didn't miss the little smirk Bakugou gave him, and it had the omega spinning back around, feeling utterly out in the open about his urge to take just about everything he could get his hands on. Bakugou didn't seem to mind, or that was what Shouto told himself as he opened yet another drawer. It was a bit strange to think that Bakugou's suggestion was apparently all it took for Shouto to suddenly go into a full-on nest planning mode, and he resisted the urge to purr happily as he pulled out a large sweater with thick fabric.

Shouto knew that he didn't have a scent, knew that it was a useless and weird gesture, but he found himself holding it up and rubbing his head along the softness, closing his eyes. Imagining both their scents, mixed together in his nest.

Perfect.

He kept that sweater pressed against himself as he fished out yet another t-shirt, and a beanie. And finally, after ridding Bakugou of half his wardrobe, his felt like this was maybe enough for the purpose of building a nest. Shouto wondered if they'd have to walk two times to get all of it over to his room.

This time, Bakugou gave him an inquisitive look. "A damn beanie too?"

"Should I not have-"

"Shouto. I meant it when I told you to get whatever you want. 'M just surprised you found that much, that's all."

"Surprised," Shouto repeated, because yeah. So was he. And mildly shocked with himself on top of it.

"Come here," the alpha said and Shouto went without thinking, sitting a bit stiffly on the bed next to him. "That okay?"

One of the first shirts he'd chosen was essentially shoved into his face and Shouto made a surprised little sound before realising what Bakugou was asking him.

His body realised before his mind did, and Shouto found himself rubbing his head against fabric again. Bakugou's scent was unmistakably on it now and it made the shirt seem ten times better than before, especially because Shouto could swear that there was something in his scent that hadn't been there before. A shade of emotion that smelled like it was created specifically for the purpose of being the ideal mixture of anything he could ask for. Warm and comforting, but for some reason Shouto could tell that there was a warning in it too - a warning to back off addressed to anyone other than him.

He looked at Bakugou, eyes alight with a silent question. But Shouto didn't know how to ask, what he even wanted to ask exactly, he only knew that he was a bit too happy with the idea of having an entire pile of clothes that smelled this way to surround himself with.

"It's perfect," he admitted, sounding like a slightly drugged-up version of himself and not feeling much better either. And because he couldn't stop himself, he added in a somewhat dreamy voice, "my entire nest is going to smell like you."

It only hit Shouto a moment later just how happy the thought of that truly made him.

For once, the word 'nest' didn't seem to be stained with any kind of past memory or shame-induced sickness; only this bubbly feeling of happiness, like the first hints of summer in spring. It sounded too good to be true but Shouto held the proof right here in his hands. For a moment, he almost felt like he was about to cry, but the omega managed to hold that in and give Bakugou a little smile instead.

He smelled the shirt again, took a deep breath.

"Fucking hell," the alpha whispered and Shouto tilted his head, still clutching onto the shirt, his fingers refusing to let go.

"Did I pick too many?" Because that was the only thing he could come up with that would have the alpha cursing; maybe he was making this a bigger deal than it should be. Had he only gone for one or two items then -

"No idiot. Just, the way you said that just now."

"Said what?"

"Never mind," Bakugou told him, rubbing another piece of clothing against his neck, his hair, "I'm glad that you're willing to try this, is all."

.

About ten minutes later, the two of them were finally done with all the clothes (not that Shouto had done much, other than cuddling with those that already had Bakugou's scent on them and watching the alpha dutifully make sure that every single thing did smell just like him) and against Shouto's earlier judgment, one trip to his room was actually enough to get everything carried over. There was something almost comical about the sight of Bakugou balancing so many clothes that they nearly blocked his vision, but Shouto didn't feel like laughing at that.

They were lucky not to run into anyone, because Shouto didn't exactly have an explanation prepared for why they were moving half a closet's worth of clothes through the hallways.

He felt... somewhat nervous, a little elated, and mostly, focused on the task at hand. As if something inside his head had shifted the moment he'd decided that he was actually going to build a nest, give into the instincts. The entire world was a bit out of focus now, slightly blurred beneath his goal of getting the nest done.

Shouto had never experienced that before, but then again, the closest he'd ever gotten to nest-building was wrapping himself up in an extra blanket or maybe sleeping with Bakugou's hoodie beneath his pillow. 

Never... this.

It really was out of sheer luck rather than planning that they didn't encounter anyone on the way either, with how many people were out and about in the earlier evening hours. Shouto was thankful for Bakugou's relative silence during the entirety of this, having apparently picked up on the fact that Shouto wasn't very capable of focusing on conversations right now.

It was weird, how his mind was turning this entire thing into something so meaningful and important, when Shouto knew that rationally, it was just a pile of clothes and nothing more. But... more. So much more than that, really.

Hard to explain, even to himself.

He'd left the door to his room open and when the two of them entered, Shouto frowned at his futon, laying in the middle of the room; he usually didn't bother to put it away for the daytime, because he didn't move around a lot in his room anyway and besides, Shouto appreciated his occasional daytime nap without having to get his mattress out first. He'd never had a problem with sleeping in this exact spot all this time and yet...

He found himself considering relocating his bed.

So Shouto asked, "Do you think putting it in the corner would be better?"

"Putting what in the corner?"

"My futon. Just, ah. I'm not sure why - or maybe not? I just thought.."

"Which corner?"

Shouto instinctively pointed in one direction, to the one corner where there was enough space to fit the mattress.

"Then it's going there. Gotta help me move it though or else all this shit is going to fall," Bakugou told him but Shouto rushed over before he could even attempt to move it, not wanting all the clothes to land on the floor.

"It's not heavy."

He pulled his mattress into the corner, eyed it for a moment and a feeling of relief coursed through him.

"Better," Shouto established, and allowed himself to drop the clothes he was carrying on top of it, only for Bakugou to do the same. The two of them stared at the mountain full of clothes for a short while, before Shouto could no longer wait to get some type of order into this mess. Without much of a clue as to what exactly he was doing, he sat down next to the pile of clothes.

It looked like a total mess and Shouto felt the impossibly strong urge to do something about it; the thing was that he didn't know what exactly that was supposed to look like. How to even begin. Suddenly, he found himself hesitating.

"Ba- Katsuki. I don't know how to turn this into a nest," he admitted after about two minutes of concentrated staring. 

Instead of squeezing his way onto the bed beside him, the alpha sat down on the floor in front of Shouto, looking at him and resting one hand on Shouto's knee. The little point of contact was somewhat grounding to the omega, but Shouto found it hard to look at him, ended up keeping his expression absolutely neutral because admitting to his own cluelessness felt... strange.

Like Bakugou was going to be disappointed with him, which made absolutely no sense because there obviously was no pressure in this. All the pressure there was, Shouto was currently creating in his own head, his instincts fanning the flames. He couldn't help feeling disappointed with himself either, because apparently even when he had everything he could want for a nest right here, he still lacked the ability to do anything with -

Shouto had absolutely no idea what came over him, but his though process was interrupted by the sound of his own growling, low and dangerous, and Bakugou's eyes snapped toward his and then back down to where he had been frowning at one of the clothing items, holding it in his hand.

...

Bakugou couldn't have felt prepared for this. No one could be.

He hadn't exactly gone into the conversation thinking he'd suggest that the omega could build himself a nest using his clothes today, and he wasn't entirely sure what had possessed him to put the suggestion out there with so much confidence. Watching the ever-so composed (he knew better now but that didn't change the fact that the vibe remained even after all the emotions he'd seen on him) and sometimes borderline stoic boy stealing all his favorite clothes out of his closet would have ticked him off, was it anyone else. Because while Bakugou didn't care too much about material things, he certainly had a thing for clear lines when it came to privacy. The thought of it reminded him unwillingly of Recovery Girl's words, and maybe that was it. Maybe being an alpha meant that he wasn't too sold on the idea of letting people into his room, letting people burrow his things, search through his drawers.

Yeah. As fucking if.

Shouto could have taken everything and he would not have fucking minded one bit and that had to mean something. A whole fucking lot, really. The omega had all types of special rights with him, was allowed to do shit that would leave others jumping out of the way of an explosion.

The thing was, the alpha hadn't been prepared for the various mushy thoughts filling up his brain as he'd watched Shouto go about his business, looking ever so slightly out of his mind, collecting clothes like the cutest little lunatic in the world.

But beyond that, what the alpha hadn't expected was to have Shouto hissing and growling at him for touching his own fucking clothes that lay in an utter disarray on Shouto's bed now. He let go of the sweater in his hand faster than he could process, very nearly throwing it back at the omega, not unlike a piece of meat being thrown at a tiger in a zoo. Of course, he wasn't fucking afraid of Icyhot, just -

What the fuck, was all that Bakugou could really think, because how in the hell was it a problem for him to touch the clothes that Shouto had specifically requested should smell like him anyways?

The omega's expression went back to normal the moment Bakugou let go of the sweater though - blank with a hint of an apologetic sparkle in his eyes.

"You want me to go away or something?" he asked when the other didn't say anything. Bakugou could see that his omega was struggling here and he certainly had no intention of making the whole thing more stressful for Shouto by not having any fucking idea what kinds of things to do or not to do.

It seemed to take another moment for understanding to sink through into Shouto's gaze, his mismatched eyes looking over the mess that was his bed once more before settling on the alpha.

"No," he said quietly, "Sorry. I know you didn't want to steal that away just now, I just.. I didn't mean to - "

Perhaps it was selfish to feel a little bit hurt by the implication, when Bakugou honestly knew better than that. He knew all about the fact that Shouto's sorry excuse for a father had made it impossible for him to get into this whole nesting thing when he was still young, so of fucking course it would cause him to panic if anyone touched his stuff. Bakugou couldn't exactly remember what they'd been told in sex ed, but he was pretty fucking sure that it had been mentioned how important a nest could be to an omega. Recovery Girl had mentioned that shit too, about how nesting relieved stress, so it only made sense that any type of threat to that would be the worst.

But Bakugou wasn't a fucking threat, and it put a little scratch on his pride that something in Shouto's subconscious would even think so.

He frowned, "it's fine. Just thought I could help but whatever. You're the one who said you don't know how to do this."

"I don't," Shouto confirmed, running a hand through his hair now, eyes narrowed a little bit in obvious frustration. Bakugou didn't say anything, just observed the omega as he exhaled heavily. 

"Anything I can do then?"

".. The Christmas lights."

"Huh?"

"I couldn't decide where to put them, but maybe - ah. Around here, somewhere? Or is that weird?" Shouto asked, pointing at a spot above his work in progress.

"Of course it isn't fucking weird. Just, you're not going to attack me if I step on your bed, are you?" Bakugou inquired and the omega flushed a little, looking away.

"I really didn't mean to growl at you for -"

"Calm the hell down, it's a genuine question."

"Oh. Yes, I mean. You can," Shouto told him as if it was obvious, finally grabbing the pillow Bakugou bought him yesterday and shoving it into the corner, before sitting back a little and looking at it, taking the pillow back into his hands. Bakugou watched, fascinated, as he rolled up one of the shirts and placed it in the same spot, then added the pillow on top. Draped another shirt across it in a way that looked utterly random but felt very deliberate.

Shouto apparently noticed his silence, turning back around and giving Bakugou a questioning stare, still a little flustered.

The alpha remembered that he was given a task, didn't even attempt to comment on Shouto's hesitant attempts at doing.. something; he was mildly terrified of saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing. Honestly, it felt like a damn privilege that Shouto wanted him here for this anyway and he had no fucking intention of accidentally discouraging him. Bakugou couldn't even tell what emotions this brought on inside him exactly. Something between pride and warmth, with just a hint of excitement but he couldn't blame his fucking instincts for that.

After all, he was currently watching Shouto Todoroki turn his bed into a nest using almost exclusively things that smelled like him.

For a split second as Bakugou grabbed the Christmas lights and put the batteries inside that were part of the package, his mind drifted in the direction of what it would be like for Shouto to be taken apart in his first nest ever, spoiled and touched just about anywhere that the alpha could reach and-

Yeah.

Fucking hell.

This wasn't about that and he really needed to get his damn mind out of the gutter, holy fuck. That was reasonably hard though, with their earlier... moments, still etched into his short term memory and the general associations that accompanied the idea of his omega, building a nest, allowing him to be in the same fucking room as he did it no less. 

Bakugou still needed to work on that 'his omega' part though, obviously.

But it all felt like one hell of a step in the right direction. That much was undeniable. Somehow, he was the one allowed to witness Shouto's admittedly clumsy attempt at building a nest, and that... was indescribable, really.

The alpha stopped just before stepping on the mattress, looking at the bookshelf. Bakugou wasn't one for delicate things, so he tried even harder to be delicate about this, not stomp on the nest in the making like some damn elephant. Still, Shouto's eyes snapped in his direction the moment he touched the mattress, as if he'd suddenly developed a sixth sense. His gaze remained hard for only a second though, before mismatched eyes softened and the omega's attention went back to the clothes he was currently lining up against the wall, with an accumulation of stuff in the furthest corner, where the pillows were.

Bakugou released a breath as he made to attach the Christmas lights to the shelf, and with the lack of tape or anything at hand, he simply set a book down on each end, leaving the plastic ice crystals to dangle along the wall.

He flipped a switch, turned it on, and the crystals lit up with various colors. A soft blue light, orange and warm purple.  Fucking cliché but whatever.

When the alpha turned back around, the lights reflected in Shouto's eyes, and then the omega smiled at him. One of those stupidly reserved but no less honest-looking smiles that no one else could possibly pull off. On anyone else, the hint of a curved lip probably wouldn't look like a smile, but for all its subtle nature, the emotion was visible all the way up to his eyes.

Bakugou needed to get a damn hold of himself. He couldn't just freeze in place like some loser whenever the omega smiled at him like that but that was easier said than done. He couldn't get over how fucking pretty this asshole was, and if you asked Bakugou, it was getting worse every day.

"What are you smiling like that for huh?" he somehow ended up opening his mouth, and the familiar words just tumbled right out, but Bakugou could tell. Even when he talked in the way he used to now, it still sounded so... fucking different. Softer. Borderline awestruck.

He should be used to Shouto's s smiles by now.

"Nothing. It looks very pretty," Shouto said and thank God did the alpha not slip up and say some disgustingly sweet shit like, 'not as pretty as you' or whatever. He was close though. So fucking close.

"Yeah?" he just asked instead, voice a little light, feeling out of his element and simultaneously so in it. He wondered if every alpha was equally as horrified as fascinated by this type of thing. Probably not, because not every alpha had fucking Shouto looking at him like that. Thank God.

"I like it a lot," Shouto confirmed and it was a good thing that Shouto was no good at lying - the alpha was a little too pleased to hear that he had done something right at least, because the omega sounded so obviously pleased that it nearly had Bakugou mirroring his expression. There was just something about knowing that he had chosen the right presents after all.

"What's next?"

"Ah, I don't - I'm not sure about nesting protocol," Shouto told him, staring at what he'd gotten done so far. "Do you think.. Does this look okay so far?"

It looked more than fucking okay. Bakugou was acutely aware of how fucking hard it was to handle the sight of his omega, clearly trying his best to create something resembling a nest. Obviously, Bakugou had no fucking clue about the criteria of what made a nest, a good nest. But still, he didn't even hesitate before he confirmed that yeah, "you're doing fucking great if you ask me."

He could practically watch as Shouto's brain went offline for a few seconds, and then he offered the alpha one of the most bashful looks Bakugou had ever seen on his face, and fuck if that didn't pique his interest. Apparently he liked hearing this a lot and thank God had Bakugou improved in the compliment department by now; those niceties didn't quite sound like insults anymore.

Of course, since this was Shouto Todoroki, it didn't take him more than a few seconds to go back to his default expression and answer with only a hint of embarrassment still evident, "and you aren't just saying that?"

It apparently didn't take him too long to realise how fucking ridiculous it was, asking Bakugou of all people that question.

"Look, I know I'm a fucking alpha and my opinion probably doesn't mean shit because I don't know anything about nests either, but to me it looks like you don't hate it so far, and it looks pretty damn comfortable, so yeah. I'm not just fucking saying it."

"Katsuki," Shouto said, almost sighed the name, and something in Bakugou's chest seemed so damn close to exploding. He definitely wasn't used to this yet. Fuck. Actual fucking goosebumps broke out on the alpha's skin at how fucking right it felt, for Shouto to use his first name more freely, for him to have this type of look on his face while building his first nest ever. No longer frustration, but something sweeter, a little more weightless. "Of course your opinion is very valuable to me. Otherwise I wouldn't ask."

This time, Bakugou couldn't hold back his smile. The sheer dumbassery of saying something like that out loud was simply too much. It didn't help that Shouto coupled his words with a sincere and incredibly fucking soft look either.

It took the alpha an entire ten seconds to realise that maybe he wasn't smiling because it was ridiculous. Maybe it just made him fucking happy to hear this, to be here, to have somehow survived the conversation that he'd been dreading more than anything else. While it was obviously true that he didn't know the first thing about nests, it was all too fucking obvious that this right here was a big moment for Shouto. A special moment.

And somehow, he was the person allowed to see this.

That was more incredible than any fucking quirk or hero or anything could ever be. Whatever the fuck the omega was doing to him, Bakugou suddenly found himself out of words, unsure how to even reply to that. He crossed his arms, tried to focus his eyes on anything other than the embodiment of prettiness sitting below him, tried not to be so fucking obvious about being wrapped around Shouto's finger like no tomorrow.

Tried not to let his thoughts drift in wrong directions, not when Shouto was being genuine and sweet like that. But holy hell was it hard not to go through ten different crises at least, seeing the omega in his nest blinking at him I think owlish eyes. Red eyes lingered on soft lips for a moment before the alpha managed to snap himself out of it and back into the conversation.

"You're so goddamn - fuck. Thank you? Or whatever."

"..."

"What?"

"Nothing," Shouto said but the alpha could see that dirty little smirk pulling at his lips, because of course he loved seeing Bakugou rendered speechless.

"Don't you have a damn nest to build."

Bakugou watched the omega run his fingers through red and white locks, pushing his fringe back and nodding thoughtfully before placing yet another item at the side of the bed. For a few minutes, all the could really do was watch as the nest slowly took shape, looking more deliberate and less and less like a bunch of clothes thrown in random places.

Of fucking course, that moment of peace had to be disrupted by the feeling of his phone vibrating in his pockets. For a moment, Bakugou didn't even register it, and then he found himself cursing before he even looked at the screen. There weren't many people who'd dare to fucking call him, and he could go without talking to any of them right now. He could feel mismatched eyes analysing his face as he frowned at the phone.

"The hell do you want, old hag?" the alpha practically growled into it, with an extra bit of bite to his words because they were fucking busy here. And something in his brain was clearly getting things mixed up, because it wasn't like anyone had entered the room or whatever. Just a phone call and no damn reason to feel this weird sense of protectiveness rising up inside of him.

"What kind of fucking greeting is that."

"The one you deserve for calling me when I'm fucking busy."

His mother made a sound on the other end of the line, or maybe it was just a mumbled curse. Whatever it was, Bakugou mirrored it with one that he would never admit sounded almost the same. Shouto apparently got off on intruding on his privacy too, because there was no way not to notice exactly how he'd turned in his direction, looking up at Bakugou with one raised brow and something that could be amusement or just confusion on his face. As usual, his expression wasn't all that easy to figure out.

Bakugou tried his hardest to send a glare the omega's way, but somehow that seemed to get lost in translation. Or maybe Shouto had just perfected the art of ignoring his glares that much by now.

"Quit being an asshole just for the sake of it and listen for once. I know that you're off next week, and your father and I are going to visit his parents. So, you need to look after the cat for two evenings. Friday and Saturday. Unless you wanna come with us."

"Hell no. Can't you fucking pay someone to feed that beast?"

"I could, but we're already paying a lot of money for your ungrateful ass to attend UA, and I doubt you'll overwork yourself feeding her two times."

"Not the point, you-"

"Katsuki," a serious voice suddenly said from below and the alpha blinked at an absolutely affronted-looking Shouto, eyebrows scrunched together as though he'd bitten into a fucking lemon. He didn't know what to make of it at first, up until Shouto mouthed, "Say yes."

And from the certain bit of light visible in his eyes, the alpha could tell. It hit him like fucking lightning. Bakugou would bet his All Might merch on the fact that Shouto just saw a potential opportunity to pet a cat. And because he was one stupidly soft soul and too naive to know what kind of food-addicted and moody ball of fluff his mother had adopted, he was probably shocked by the fact that the blonde would even think twice about it. Feeding a normal cat was one thing, but normal cats didn't manage to make a mess of the entire kitchen with their damn food like some sort of fucking pig.

"Oh, you're not alone right now," his mother commented but Bakugou had no clue what that was to her so he didn't say anything, "whoever said that is right. Stop being difficult."

"I'm never fucking difficult."

"Yeah you only ruin property every two weeks, threaten people with murder and had to be restrained at the sports festival. Got yourself kidnapped. Need I go on?"

"Can you just shut the fuck up about that, not like I asked for -"

"Yeah fine. I know. Okay? Point remains, it would be nice to know that you're actually going to feed her and not forget about it."

"I don't ever forget shit, old hag. You're the one who's never sure whether or not she turned the oven off."

"That doesn't have anything to do with this you -"

"Yeah it does!"

...

Shouto knew all about weird parent-child relationships, but listening to Bakugou and his mother spitting insults at each other for five more minutes or so through the phone was certainly... odd. Then again, to anyone listening, the conversations he had on the phone with his father would certainly not sound like anything resembling normal either. But really, he found it hard to say exactly how much of that open hostility was actual hostility, and how much of it could be attributed to a very unique style of communication apparently employed in the Bakugou household.

What Shouto could say for sure was that he didn't like the way Bakugou's mother had mentioned the kidnapping just now - and maybe Shouto imagined it, but he thought that he'd seen the briefest flash of pain stretching across the alpha's face for a split second in response.

Compared to Bakugou, who'd somehow become privy to half his family backstory and most of his personal struggles they resulted in, Shouto felt like he knew very little about Bakugou's home life. The alpha was certainly tight-lipped about it, so tight-lipped in fact that Shouto hadn't even known that Bakugou's parents owned a cat. And had he known, he would have bugged the other at some point to at the very least least see a picture. 

He was still watching Bakugou's lips move in his usual, animated way they did whenever he was talking like this. Then Bakugou spat a final, "and don't just fucking call me without a warning. I've got a life, too. Bye," into the phone before hanging up, chest heaving ever so slightly from all the yelling.

"Your mother's voice is quite loud," Shouto commented, one of his hands moving on its own accord and shifting one of the sweaters ever so slightly, to one side and then the other. The speaker hadn't been on, but Shouto had still heard every word.

"Fucking annoying is what her voice is."

It was an easy decision not to comment on whose voice it resembled, and therefore, most likely going to save Shouto from quite a bit of shouting. He occupied himself by putting the last few clothing items into more or less random spots, before eventually commenting, "so, your parents have a cat."

"Fucking knew it," the alpha muttered and Shouto blinked at him.

"Knew what?"

"Fine."

"Huh?"

"What, you weren't going to ask if you could come tag along when I feed the cat?" the alpha asked and Shouto's mouth fell ever so slightly open.

"Can I?"

"Yeah, idiot."

Maybe it was unproportional how much such a small thing felt like such a big thing to look forward to right now, but Shouto couldn't help the happiness that washed over him at the way the alpha called him an idiot. And maybe it was also a weird thing to get all smiley over, but really - despite the knowledge that the family dinner would be twice as bad with the subjects he was going to have to bring up that had constantly been in the back of his mind the last half hour - it somehow didn't sound like the end of the world. Sitting here in his very first nest, surrounded by clothes that smelled like no other than Bakugou Katsuki, he felt a sense of optimism that he hadn't in a while. Misplaced optimism perhaps, but optimism no less.

And not only that.

His eyes roamed over the clothes once more, and Shouto took a deep breath in before he looked at Bakugou where he was standing next to his bed.

"Come here?" Shouto asked before he could think twice about it, wetting his lips as red eyes narrowed slightly in what resembled suspicion, but was perhaps really dread. Shouto knew for a fact that he wasn't going to growl at the alpha for intruding on his space this time. On the contrary; his hand grabbed Bakugou's wrist and he pulled the alpha down to stumble into the mattress, right next to him. Where Shouto wanted him - not out of reach anymore.

"The fuck, Icyhot!"

"Back to that, really?" Shouto mumbled, not feeling at all that apologetic. There was something about the displeased little frown pulling at his alpha's lips as he went about sitting up straight.

"The fuck, Shouto! Better?"

He didn't say anything to that.

"It's finished.. I think."

It took a second or two until recognition flooded Bakugou's eyes. As he looked around and apparently analysed the somewhat clumsy attempt at a first nest, Shouto held his breath. It was nothing like real anxiety that he felt in response, his chest felt too fluttery and warm for that type of emotion right now, but he undeniably found his eyes glued to every microexpression that passed over the angular face he couldn't get enough of.

From a little twitch of thin pink lips to the small folds appearing around sharp eyes, to the way Bakugou's attention eventually settled back on his face.

And then, Shouto waited.

Maybe it was a hint of anxiety he felt after all.

He wasn't entirely sure what he was waiting for even. Paradoxically, he wasn't half ready when the reaction finally came. One eyebrow raised and head tilted ever so slightly to the side, Katsuki smiled at him with something that looked like pride hidden within the details of his face. 

Bakugou and pride went hand in hand either way, but this time hit different. Because it wasn't even close to the usual borderline manic 'I beat someone into the ground' or even the adrenaline-fueled pride of having accomplished a mission, no. Something much quieter and much more subtle in nature, and Shouto very nearly felt like he was about to combust beneath the attention. Although the alpha hadn't even said anything yet.

But then he did.

"You fucking did it. So, how'd you feel about it?"

Shouto could truly blame it on nothing other than the musky but sweet scent now lingering in the air of his room and the fact that Katsuki's face had him absolutely out of order mentally, and the fact that he had the permission to call him Katsuki in the first place and the fact that he knew what his lips felt like and -

"I love," the words were out too fast, and Shouto audibly swallowed as a feeling with the weight of the meteor hit him, "it. I love it. It's.. great. Comfortable and - ah, great."

It was easy to tell that Bakugou caught his little hangup, and that made sense, Shouto supposed. He wasn't usually one for words like 'love' or 'hate,' except maybe in his most emotional moments. He liked soba, disliked his father for the most part, liked the idea of being a hero, disliked English lessons.

And apparently, he really, really liked Bakugou Katsuki.

Which was not a new thing to realise, not really. But the fact that he'd almost used another verb than 'like' altogether just now and had definitely not been looking at the nest in that moment, that was... new.  However that worked exactly, the room seemed to double in temperature within the span of five seconds of those internal realisations, and the omega really wasn't one to be disturbed by quick shifts in temperature.

But this was a much different kind of burning, almost as if his ears were ringing with the sudden and overwhelming realisation just how much he liked the alpha sitting here. In his nest. With him.

A finger flicked his head and Shouto winced softly. "Back on earth?"

"Ah, sorry. What were you saying?"

A brief look of disbelief was sent Shouto's way before the alpha repeated, "I said that you did a great fucking job. I know this shit isn't something you've done before, so it's - I'm glad to hear that you're happy with it, alright."

Of course, the blonde just had to turn away as he said this, and Shouto felt a certain spark of joy work its way through his body in response as he caught a hint of color on his cheeks. As if Katsuki was the one miles wide out in the open here - then again, Shouto could only appreciate the alpha's efforts to support him, the lack of insults and the genuine relief that Bakugou apparently felt, all because Shouto had admitted that he was very comfortable here.

His scent was softer now, no longer holding the stressed out edge that it had been tainted with earlier. The omega loved that he managed to have this kind of effect on him. Apparently it went both ways, even without his scent to affect the alpha.

"So, you like it, too?" he found himself asking because somehow, that was one of the main questions ghosting through his mind right now.

Spiky blonde hair bounced a little with a shake of the alpha's head. And that was enough to send a wave of happy hormones coursing through the omega. He wasn't sure why exactly this mattered so much to him, but there was just something about knowing that the alpha approved of his nest, had no complaints to voice. All in all, this entire thing didn't feel half as weird as Shouto had expected it to.

"Katsuki," he began, straightening himself a little and resting his hands on his legs. Shouto knew, logically, that having the alpha sitting on his bed was no different than having him sit in his nest, but right here in this moment... it felt different. More intimate. His eyes ended up stuck on Katsuki's lips once more, traveling up slowly. With how tired the other still looked, Shouto wondered if it was appropriate to find the shadows beneath his eyes sort of.. appealing, in a weird way. Not just that either; all of him looked a little too appealing to just ignore it.

Perhaps it wasn't so much the tiredness that he liked to see on Katsuki  (because he obviously wanted him to feel good, not tired or worn out) but rather the fact that Katsuki's face remained perfectly nice, no matter what. Painted in anything. Even when twisted with anger or shadowed with exhaustion, Shouto could just analyse it endlessly and not get bored of it. That would, however, probably be the inappropriate thing to do right now, staring for hours on end.

So instead of just watching the alpha, he made the mistake of opening his mouth.

"We haven't - did you still want to...," Shouto managed to get out, but he wasn't even sure what to call what they'd been doing, to be honest. But kissing would be a good idea for sure. And maybe if they ended up grinding their bodies together again that wouldn't get so bad either. Maybe not bad at all. Maybe this entire situation was making him feel just a little bit eager to do anything. 

At all.

He could really just hope that Katsuki managed to take a hint. But for a long moment, Katsuki only stared at him. Shouto's voice came out breathless when he added, "kiss and - ah."

"After all we talked about, and that's what's on your mind huh?" the alpha asked, with a teasing quality to his voice that had Shouto averting his eyes because maybe it was weird after all. Maybe after talking about the wide variety of issues he had to deal with and building his first nest, he should be thinking about other things than getting his lips on Katsuki's again and going right back to where they'd been disturbed earlier.

It was just hard not to think about that, when it felt like the memory was so clear and fresh, like lava bubbling beneath a volcano.

"We don't have to," he clarified in a flat tone, trying to sound neither disappointed nor bothered. Factual. "I was only pointing out that we haven't really continued where we left off."

"You seriously think I forgot about that or what."

"So, you didn't?"

"So, fucking look at me," the alpha commanded, his voice going a little lower and making the sharp words sound a little smoother around the edges. Shouto had the sneaking suspicion that the liked the commanding tone a little too much, "Say that you want me to continue and I fucking will."

"Wasn't that implied when I just reminded you?"

The alpha gave him a particularly done look, cracking the knuckles of his hand in what Shouto could only assume was a message of some sort. But then something flashed through red eyes that looked like concern, and it had Shouto wondering if maybe it was a nervous thing - except, he wasn't sure what Katsuki could possibly be nervous about.

"Yeah, idiot. The point is that I don't know what the hell you actually want me to do - like, fuck. You just told me that you're comfortable now and I don't wanna assume shit and take this too far and ruin this for you, get that into your little head?"

Shouto blinked, a smirk tugging at his lips, "My head isn't particularly small, I don't think so?"

"Are you fucking kidding me, you-"

"Yes, calm down," he confirmed, crawling forward and closing the tiny gap of space between them until he was essentially on Katsuki's lap, in the perfect position to look him right in the eyes. Shouto's gaze got a little distracted studying his other features though. He had to keep himself from letting out a silent whine when the blonde swallowed, Adam's apple bopping, as if the sight of the purplish spots on his neck wasn't enough to have Shouto's attention all sorts of captured.

"Are you asking me what I'm okay with you doing? Or what I want to do to you?" he asked, one hand reaching out so the omega could draw his fingertips across the skin where shoulder met neck. This type of conversation definitely wasn't in Shouto's repertoire, but maybe it was that kind of day. Maybe, with change already so thick in the air, they could finally manage to talk about this.

In all honesty, it sounded like a healthy idea, too.

Trouble was, Shouto himself wasn't entirely confident about what he was and what he wasn't okay with. Katsuki had a way of touching him that made almost everything feel okay, and whenever he did, Shouto's instincts went just wild enough to blur out the fact that they hadn't really discussed boundaries or anything. It was easy to just go with the flow and push back when Katsuki pushed, kiss back when he was kissed. It was an odd thing, somehow, because Shouto couldn't even touch himself properly, and wasn't that something that came easier to people, compared to having someone else touch them? Shouldn't it be?

"You heard me, didn't you?" the alpha asked, but there was a strain to his voice and when Shouto moved his eyes up, gazing through his lashes, it hit him all over again how much he liked the way Katsuki looked at him now. Soft, but with an edge of despair almost. And focused - so clearly focused on nothing but him.

Shouto ran his hand further up, through spiky blonde locks, pulling the other forward without resistance until their foreheads rested together.

"You won't make me uncomfortable and I do have a mouth you know. I can say something if it's too much. Besides, I could say the same thing for you.. I don't want to pressure you into anything, really."

"Pressure me," Katsuki repeated, making it sound unbelievable, "you know nothing, couldn't pressure me if you wanted to. There's not a fucking thing I don't want to do with you. That's why I need you to actually speak up if you're uncomfortable and not just say so, alright?"

Judging by the shiver that the words sent across Shouto's entire body, it was more than alright with him. He exhaled a somewhat ragged breath, and greedily inhaled more of the alpha's scent, sliding ever so slightly closer towards him. As usual, the closeness had some type of effect on him; a pleasant humming in his veins, a little lack of gravity in his bones. The very same magnetic pull that didn't seem to grow lesser in its intensity. If anything, it was the opposite.

"I tried to touch myself earlier," the words somehow escaped him, and Shouto closed his eyes, "because of what we did."

He reopened them when Katsuki made a choked sound in response before recovering, "You fucking what now?"

"I struggle with that, so it's easier if you're the one touching me," Shouto admitted, because now he'd already said it and there probably wasn't a point in taking it back either.

"That so?"

The omega hummed, rubbing their foreheads together in a misshaped little circle.

"Shouto," Katsuki said and suddenly two hands were in his hair, pulling his head back just far enough for his eyes to regain the ability to focus on Katsuki's face. He made use of it for a second or two, trying not to crack underneath the intensity of his eyes, "you can't just say shit like that unless you want me to -"

"Touch me," it came out as all of it at once; a question, a suggestion, a command and a plea. As endearing as the alpha's consideration for his comfort was, it wasn't what Shouto needed. Not right now - not here, in his nest, sitting atop his alpha's lap.

And thankfully, Katsuki seemed to finally get it into his head exactly what it was that he needed.

Because one of his hands was at Shouto's hips in an instant, pulling him so their upper bodies were pressed together, while the other hand pulled at his hair just hard enough to leave the omega gasping, head falling backwards. His gasp was swallowed right up by hot lips, and Katsuki didn't waste a moment, pushing his tongue inside his mouth like it was the only logical thing to do. Like it would hurt if they couldn't taste each other right in this very moment.

And suddenly, everything was fast-paced.

No longer words and gentle brushing of skin on skin, but hunger. Hunger so heavy, it felt as though the alpha pushed his own emotions right into Shouto's mouth with his kiss, from where that fire spread rapidly through his body. And then somehow it was all there again - the heavy need from earlier pulling at him as though they hadn't been interrupted at all. Whatever it was that gave Shouto the confidence to, he couldn't tell, and maybe it wasn't as much of a conscious decision as it was something deep-seated and animalistic. 

He gave into the feeling, kissed back with twice as much hunger, pushed his body into Katsuki's as though he wanted it to bruise, for his entire form to be etched into the alpha's.

And then, without really thinking about it, Shouto pushed him, their mouths separating as Katsuki went down with a surprised groan, only to be spread all over his very own clothes while Shouto still sat on top of him. Another glare was sent his way as Shouto allowed himself to take in the sight. His chest felt like it was about to burst with a number of unfamiliar emotions and it wasn't really a difficult decision to make; a second later, the omega found himself bending down to connect their lips again, relishing in yet another sound that the alpha breathed into their kiss. His hand had slid down to where it was now resting on Shouto's upper thigh. The alpha squeezed the flesh as though he wanted payback for being caught off guard like that and knowing Katsuki, he probably did.

Shouto sighed into the kiss, more than okay with the bruising grip, and the fingers tightened further in response.

Which was perfect.

Shouto was adamant not to let anything deter him from his task of showing the alpha just how okay he was with all of this. Just how badly he wanted to take whatever they had another step further and maybe then some. And besides, after all the heavy topics, it felt incredible not to be thinking at all anymore. Ever since they'd started doing this - whether it was little touches, scent marking, kissing - Shouto had found himself becoming increasingly addicted to the quietness that such a loud person could somehow offer him.

It really was just this: Katsuki right beneath him, apparently struggling to keep up with the pace that Shouto was setting for once, which was more enjoyable than it should probably be. Whether it was his exhaustion, a misplaced sense of hesitation or just the surprise of the moment, Shouto didn't mind so much. After all, it wasn't every day that Bakugou Katsuki laid beneath anyone like this without threatening them with murder.

But God, did Shouto want this to be an everyday thing, with not just anyone in this position but him. Badly. And maybe if he played his cards right, it could be. Every time they ended up tangled up in another like this, it seemed like an unspoken promise lingered in the air that there would be a next time.

Like the changing of seasons, inevitable.

With that thought in mind, Shouto sighed some sort of broken moan into their kiss, a little bit too lost in the sensation of wetness and warmth against his lips and the spiciness of the alpha's scent. Mimicking the hairpulling Katsuki had just done to him, Shouto held the other by the fringe, head angled backwards a little and exposing the marks he loved to see as his lips left Katsuki's and went down his jaw, his throat, all the way to his collarbone. Just feather-light excuses to suck in some much needed air while keeping his lips on the other. With his lips finally at Katsuki's collarbone and his body bent almost uncomfortably, Shouto shifted his position, moving his hips.

Which made him aware of something. Very aware. Katsuki was hard inside his pants, there was no mistaking it. Of course, Shouto wasn't much better off, but that didn't help the satisfaction that spread through his body at the idea of being able to do this to the alpha - the idea that earlier hadn't just been an exception.

The idea that Katsuki really did want this, want him - at times it was a hard thing to conceptualise, even without any evidence against it. That the one person who always had to be number one, always wanted the best, wanted him of all people. It had this strange warmth spreading through him all over again. Part of him wanted nothing more than to suck and bite more marks into the alpha's skin, while another part eagerly pushed him to -

Honestly, Shouto couldn't tell what exactly, but he was acutely aware of the intensity of want. Need. And everything in-between. As if something inside him woke up, wanted to push him forward, over that same cliff where he'd soon find himself losing control yet again.

Which was.. oddly okay. Their teeth clicked together when the omega went right back up to capture the alpha's mouth in another needy kiss, settling his own free hand atop Katsuki's on his leg, following his instinct to keep any space from developing between them.

Katsuki's hand tightened, squeezing his muscles, and Shouto rolled his hips into the body beneath him out of reflex, a broken whine spilling into the alpha's mouth at the friction that he'd been waiting for all along. It seemed to tear the breath right out of him, because not a second later, Shouto had to pull back to breathe, barely able to keep his body hovering above the alpha's. It was only then, with his blurry gazed fixed on swollen lips that looked a little too inviting, that he noticed how hard he was trembling, which definitely didn't have much to do with the effort of keeping himself up but much rather with the overwhelming realisation of how perfect all of this felt.

How safe. But not barely enough.

He ignored his shaky muscles to hear yet another ragged breath escape the alpha as Shouto moved his hips forward again, applying more pressure, because he just couldn't help it. His eyes found Katsuki's and Shouto almost couldn't handle the eye contact. Something unspoken seemed to linger in the air between them and the heavy darkness of dilated pupils seemed to change the entirety of Katsuki's face somehow, making him look like something from a fantasy rather than an actual, real person.

"You're so pretty," Shouto found himself voicing his thoughts.

He knew that he should have probably expected the snarl he received in response, but that really did nothing much except to make Shouto smile a little.

"Oh hell no, Halfie. You don't get to sit on top of me like this and somehow tell me that I'm the pretty one. Those damn eyes of yours do work, right?"

Shouto nodded his head, sounding a bit unlike himself when he tried to confirm in an even tone, "perfectly, yes."

He distantly wondered if it should be more awkward, exchanging little compliments while basically sitting on top of a very obvious bulge in the other's pants and feeling the way his underwear dampened by the second because of that alone. Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to mind it too much. Because it was true; Shouto would not have spent years sending little glances the blonde's way, had he not been fascinated by Katsuki's face, his appearance, the way he carried himself. It seemed to painfully obvious now, and yet, it always came back to the same old truth that he found it incredibly hard to pinpoint just how he had looked at the alpha at which point in time.

It must have shifted at some point, or hadn't it?

Like this, it felt like he might as well have been entirely obsessed with those curved blonde lashes and deep fiery eyes from the very start. From back when all the alpha ever showed the world were his wildest glares and annoyed scowling. He could still recall the first time he'd actively taken note of Katsuki, watching their training on the screen with all the others and realising just how well thought out and planned every single one of his movements was, every step part of a bigger plan, not even lessened in tactic by his all-consuming anger.

He could feel the faint smile on his lips widening and Katsuki confirmed as much.

"You sure you're okay? You keep fucking spacing out and now you're grinning at me like a damn creep."

"I'm great," Shouto confirmed, "Just happy."

And apparently, it was the perfect thing to say. Because Shouto could actually see the moment that those metaphorical walls around Katsuki crumbled; something in his eyes changed and Shouto loved how flustered he looked. He could only suspect that it wasn't much different for him either. He probably had that heated feeling of need written all over his face - it was definitely strange how those scary moments and those happy ones could coexist so comfortably, only an hour or so apart.

"That so?" Katsuki apparently caught himself after a few seconds of eye contact and a warmth spread through the omega's stomach at the way his voice had shifted. "Cause I'm sure we can make you feel a little happier still."

"Happier?" Shouto barely had the time to wonder out loud before he was lifted, pushed, pressed down into the soft layers of clothes beneath him. So much for staying on top - not that it really mattered. What mattered was that Shouto needed them to touch again, and badly.

It all happened so quickly that Shouto could barely breathe before the ability of speech was stolen right from his mouth as Katsuki's lips crashed down on his own. The quick shift in position was more than he could really handle and Shouto couldn't do much but try and hold onto Katsuki's back in an attempt to ground himself a little bit.

Somehow, it really didn't do much.

He'd been feeling a bit out of it - in the best way - ever since Katsuki had allowed him to collect clothes for the nest, and now that feeling of being afloat in some type of current was only becoming stronger as the two of them worked their mouths together in an entire mess of a kiss. Apparently, he'd been wrong, too, about Katsuki actually being too tired to keep up. He could barely make use of his lips with how much tongue was suddenly involved in the kiss, jaw slack and focused on breathing through his nose and participating in it all as much as possible with the position and the lack of oxygen.

There was something about it though; it felt right to be so overwhelmed, so swept off his feet with nowhere to run. Shouto groaned another drunken little sound into Katsuki's mouth and tightened his hold on the alpha's back, unsuccessfully attempting to grind his body up into the other's. His muscles refused to cooperate, molten like metal above a fire, reshaped into something else - it came so easily to his body to give in like this. What little focus remained, he could only use to cling even harder to the body towering above him, eyes tightly shut as their kiss blurred his thoughts by the second.

...

Bakugou couldn't even tell whether or not the omega noticed just how hard his body was trembling beneath him. And really, it wasn't his point of focus right now. There was no chance of shifting his attention to a single point of focus either, not when he had an entirely overwhelming fucking dream of a person beneath him, pushing into his touch and groaning at the slightest bit of pressure.

He kissed Shouto like he wanted him to suffocate.

Like he wanted him knocked out, oxygen-deprived, rendered messy and stupid. Like he wanted to take him right then and there. It was fucking hard to keep himself from tearing the clothes right off the omega's body. Not that Shouto had gone out of his way and given him a clear fucking answer about how far to take this, but it was about time that he needed to fucking know, because he could feel himself slipping.

Unable to help himself, he pushed his knee that rested between Shouto's legs further up and very nearly lost his damn mind over the reaction that it earned him, separating their mouths to admire the sight of flushed lips, open in what was probably a silent curse. Red and white hair surrounded Shouto's face like an aura, falling smoothly down at the sides and pooling on the various hints of color from all the different clothes splayed out on the bed. Bicoloured eyes were tightly shut, only to flutter open after a second or two, unfocused but heavy.

"Katsuki," the omega whispered his name, as if he didn't even know what it was that he actually wanted to say.

"This okay?"

The alpha was awarded with the most ridiculous attempt at a glare the world had ever seen, and fucking hell did he like it when Shouto's face was flushed with color like this, impatience like a veil across his features.

"Yes," the word came out eager, pressed and barely above a whisper. Bakugou had half a mind to tease the other boy about it, but more than that, he wanted to see Shouto's face morphed into another expression like the one he'd done just now.

Applying a little more pressure, Bakugou almost suffered a heart attack when the other's hips pushed against him, their eyes still locked. Shouto looked like a fucking loaded weapon held to his head, and the intense need to have him all messed up and whimpering was very nearly making Bakugou lose his mind. He wanted to show him exactly how good this could feel.

He barely dared to ask.

"You want me to touch you?" his voice sounded so damn broken already, nothing like the usual volume and commanding tone. Shouto's signature blank state made a momentary appearance then.

"Are you afraid of touching me somehow? You keep asking."

"Am I - what the hell, I'm trying to keep myself from -"

"Well, don't," Shouto said and it was another one of those moments. Those damn moments where Bakugou knew, no matter what the omega was saying, he actually didn't have a damn clue what the hell he was inviting him to do here. Maybe it was true that he was fucking terrified, because although (thankfully) Shouto's scent couldn't mess up his mind, the very sight of him already did a great enough job of spurring him on a little too damn well. And if this idiot didn't set up any boundaries, then Bakugou was going to push this too far, want too much.

Leave both of them regretting that they didn't fucking talk properly about this.

He couldn't just take Shouto's goddamn virginity or lose his own in this way - maybe he was fucking ridiculous or whatever, but no way in hell were they ready to go all the way. No matter how much he wanted to - and as always, there was that small but fucking important fact that he had no way of knowing whether or not Shouto was in the right state of mind to decide anything.

Not after perhaps the heaviest conversation they'd ever had.

Not after building his first nest.

Not when the alpha felt like he'd been run over by a damn bus, lacking sleep and a game plan and even the chance to stay with his omega tonight afterwards.

But fucking hell, was it a struggle to keep that thought alive in his head and not pretend like it hadn't ever come up. Bakugou fucking hated this - he hated how damn good he was at overthinking all of it and how fucking intense his instincts were when it came to Shouto. As if he could even forgive himself if he made the entire experience bad for him, fucked up somehow.

So yeah, maybe it was true. Maybe he was fucking afraid of touching him, because he liked all of this too fucking much.

So what.

He could stay in control of his own actions and he was going to fucking prove it to the both of them, undeniably.

"Don't tell me what to fucking do," he growled, pushing his leg harder into the clothed erection, hoping that it didn't border on painful by now and bending forward to push their necks together. It apparently took a second for Shouto to get it, because despite the moan playing at his lips, he actually bent his head forward, as if expecting another kiss. The alpha made sure to push him down hard enough to get his message across, and the sweetest sound fell from pink lips as their scent glands rubbed together. Not even a moan, and not quite a whimper. A sigh, but louder - lower.

Holy hell, he couldn't get enough of those fucking noises. Ever.

He made a bit of a show of the scent marking, making sure to reach just about every point of Shouto's neck, and from the sound of it, that was working out great. Shaky breaths became quicker, more desperate. He could feel those strong hands digging into his back through his clothes, pulling him even closer, as if there was any fucking space left between them. That was about the only way Shouto used his strength though, as if all of his other muscles had turned to jelly, made useless by a little friction and the onslaught of pheromones.

Not a damn miracle either, if his scent got the message across just how much the alpha wanted to tear him apart.

And maybe he was overdoing it a little. His neck felt like the skin was going to chafe after a little while.

"I'm - ah. Pretty sure I smell like you by now," Shouto confirmed his suspicion, and then his hands were entangled in Bakugou's hair. Suddenly, that strength was back in play as he was pulled up and straight into yet another one of those increasingly messy kisses. The feeling of Shouto's mouth on his own, opening up so willingly for him, made it hard to notice anything else. Only, a few seconds later there was a hand very obviously cupping his dick and that - fuck. There was no way not to notice that, no way in hell. He noticed it too well, mouth falling open and hips stuttering into the warm palm.

Even through the clothes, the way Shouto's fingers experimentally felt around his dick was absolute insanity. No matter if he tried, he couldn't keep himself from pushing into it, and there was no mistaking the open-mouthed gasp that interrupted their kiss before Shouto made an almost choked sound as the older of the two kissed along the side of his mouth.

"Katsuki," he finally said, or rather, panted.

"Hah?"

"You're.. too big," came the muffled reply that had Bakugou's breath knocked out of him. He pushed himself up a little to stare down into glassy, mismatched eyes, "it's mildly terrifying."

The mixture of awe, intetrest, genuine unease and Shouto-like indifference made for the most confusing feeling ever.

"The hell do you mean, too big."

"Your - ah. That's. I thought that it was big, but now. It's too big," Shouto said, once again at it with the openness and no idea how to read the mood.

"You're tellin' me that you were thinking about the size of my dick, princess?" was somehow the thing that Katsuki picked up on first, for whatever fucking reason. Maybe it was an ego thing, but the thought of (apparently not so) innocent and aloof Todoroki Shouto wondering about the size of his dick? Fuck.

"Sometimes."

The stupid little frown pulling at Shouto's face was the nail in the coffin. Bakugou couldn't believe that this guy was even real.

"What, don't think you could take it huh?"

"Bak- Katsuki."

"What?"

The fingers on his dick made a motion, as if to wrap around him, and Bakugou squeezed his eyes shut, breathing out a heavy sound.

"That thing would tear me apart," Shouto told him, but something about the words and the tone didn't seem to match. He sounded almost dreamy, talking about it, and Bakugou once again wondered how fucking gone the omega actually was right now. Sure, this was obviously where things were leading with the two of them hard and in a nest and just - he could not fucking believe that Shouto made it sound like a borderline great option, being unable to handle him.

"That what you really think?" the alpha couldn't help but ask.

He received an innocent little nod in reply and Shouto was either stroking his ego on purpose (unlikely) or was maybe finally realising that they weren't going to go that far tonight. Thank God. Because if he'd kept playing with him much longer like this, then Bakugou might have accidentally forgotten all about his plans. For now though, he really just loved that expression on Shouto's face and the way his fingers didn't seem to stop following the shape if his dick, every touch accompanied by a forward movement of his own hips.

Of course he couldn't keep his damn mouth shut though.

"Backing down so easily, Halfie?"

He pushed forward yet again and Shouto's head rocked a little with the movement, mouth still open.

"Bakugou," it came out as a warning, predictably.

"'S fine, maybe you're right," the alpha teased, if only to keep Shouto talking in that ridiculously hot voice.

"No," Shouto said. More reflex than anything, judging by the clouded look in his eyes.

"No, Halfie?"

"Not ah - backing down."

"That's good, wanna know why?"

Bakugou finally allowed one of his own hands to move down then, keeping it above Shouto's shirt and drawing lines against his stomach. He used his other arm to keep himself hovering above him. With how the omega was laying there, he could feel the bones of his ribcage poke out slightly, and his hip bones further down. Bakugou wanted to push his damn clothes aside and get his mouth down there, kiss along the length of his legs.

"I - what?" The omega sounded positively overwhelmed, and his eyes killed Katsuki all over again, blinking once. Twice.

"I'm thinking you could take it. So well, in fact," he said, maybe challenged, but the words seemed to fall on horny ears, because Shouto didn't say anything for the longest while, simply squirmed against him and actually started purring again. Bakugou couldn't help but push him a little more, "sounds good?"

"Nnh, sounds - ah," the words faded into another low moan as Bakugou finally allowed himself to push his hand beneath the other's shirt, running his fingers across his hip bones and trying to burn the feeling of them into his fingertips. Everything about Shouto's body was just so fucking perfect that it hurt, being able to touch him so freely. Like tainting a damn angel with all the best intentions. He could feel the way the body beneath him leaned into it, softened muscles trying their all to chase the touch.

"Yes," the omega finally cracked, "sounds - please."

Katsuki chuckled at that, couldn't stop himself, because holy fuck was he making this harder for the both of them by dragging those damn words out of Shouto. Then again, this was like something straight from his fucking dreams. Shouto had the nicest way of saying please when he was a bit out of it.

Just as Shouto started blabbering, whispering yet another broken "please" and something that the alpha couldn't make out because it was overshadowed by a mewl and maybe it wasn't actually coherent, he shut him up with another short kiss.

"You fucking will, Halfie," he said, "but not today. How about I kiss more of your skin?"

"Pants."

He sounded almost mad. At the damn pants.

Bakugou sure as fuck hadn't expected the way Shouto's fingers instantly tightened on his dick though, pushing up and down as if the omega had suddenly made up his mind to jerk him off through his pants. Even without the direct skin contact, it sent his mind reeling and the their foreheads hit each other as his arms momentarily lost their strength at the sudden change in pace.

"Holy fu-"

"Katsuki," Shouto repeated, as if that explained anything at all. "I could - I can take it," he argued and that was all the proof that Shouto was definitely in the process of losing his mind, his inhibitions, his insecurity. If only in the heat of the moment.

It sounded like a fact, but more than that, it sounded desperate. And it instantly had him burning with the urge to reassure Shouto, "didn't doubt that for a fucking second okay? But we've got fucking time to do this, and we have no condoms and shit, so."

"Condoms," Shouto repeated, as if he'd somehow never heard the word before in all his life.

"Yeah, condoms."

"But -"

"What the hell happened to 'it'll tear me apart,' come on Shouto."

Bakugou made the crucial mistake of eye contact right then and there.

"What if I want you to," Shouto whispered as if it wasn't a big deal. As if he had any fucking clue what the hell he was saying and doing to Bakugou with his thoughtless words right now. Or maybe he knew and was killing him on purpose, but Bakugou fucking doubted it. Judging by the drugged-up look that had his features looking even softer, Shouto's brain had taken the back seat once and for all. Which was just fucking great because Bakugou's self control was fucking wavering over here. How the hell couldn't it be.

Sometimes he forgot all about how little of a fuck the omega was able to give, sometimes.

Maybe if Shouto's scent wasn't buried beneath those damn suppressants, he'd be just as messed up in the head right now and would not be forced to think for them both, because they could just be stupid fucking idiots together. And as much as he loved the idea of being fucking him right here and now, they couldn't be total idiots about this - whatever they had was still fresh and fragile, although it felt like the most natural thing in his whole damn life.

Not a fight for once, which ironically meant that he had to fight his instincts, hold himself back to a reasonable degree.

Which fucking sucked, but then again, if Katsuki allowed himself to do what he actually wanted, Shouto's neck would be marked with the largest fucking bite mark and he'd be undeniably and irrevocably his. And that would have probably happened weeks ago and been an entire disastrous mess.

"Then you're a bigger idiot than I thought you were, asshole. Come on Shouto, just lay back. Okay?"

By some fucking miracle, the commanding tone actually seemed to work and shift something in Shouto's mind. Although there was something along the lines of a pout pulling at his pretty face, the omega actually threw his head back into the pillows and clothes. From this angle, Katsuki could only see hints of his eyes, but that was enough to tell that Shouto's pupils were wide as full moons against the blue and grey of his iris. Watching him, waiting for him to make a move.

And finally, he allowed himself to.

The hand still pushed halfway beneath the omega's shirt fisted the fabric, pushing it up until it was only covering half of his chest anymore, and sure, Katsuki had just told him to lay down, but he couldn't help the frustrated little growl that fell from his lips at how goddamn frustrating it was. Getting the clothes off Shouto's body couldn't happen fast enough. Maybe he should, true to his plan, be super fucking patient with all of this, but seeing the soft flesh of a toned stomach and the rounded shadows of his ribcage, there was no helping it.

His goddamn mouth watered at the sight like a fucking animal's.

"Should I.. ?" Shouto asked, hands detaching from Katsuki's body and grabbing a hold of both sides of the shirt to pull it over his head. He pushed his torso up a little to get it off, threw it aside without a care to join the other clothes. Although Katsuki felt the instinctual urge to argue because he could do this, and although it could hardly be called elegant, it was fucking Shouto Todoroki stripping so the alpha could get his hands on him and that... that was maddening. Intense, and almost too much. His dick hurt where there was no longer any pressure from Shouto's fingers on it like some messed up version of phantom pain.

"My fucking God."

Yeah. He hadn't meant to say that out loud but it had come out either way. Katsuki wasn't freaking out. He didn't fucking freak out over anything - except, how the hell was he not supposed to be torn apart by want and the strange panic of 'this is fucking happening, right here, right now' that the remnants of his rational thinking were to blame for?

"Huh."

"Nothing," he very nearly hissed, didn't even know why the hell he had to get all awkward now of all times like some fucking loser. Or maybe he did know. Shouto's chest was just a little too damn perfect and seeing him sprawled out like this, all the smooth skin from his shoulders down to his hips almost glowing with how pretty it was, settled it once and for all. If hero work didn't work out, then Shouto could effortlessly get into underwear modeling. It almost felt like getting to look at him was supposed to cost something - money or fucking sanity in Katsuki's case.

"Was that not your plan?"

"Was what now my plan?"

"To take this off," the omega clarified, voice monotonous and eyes unblinking. Genuinely confused by the looks of it.

Katsuki simultaneously wanted to slap sense into him and fuck him stupid.

"Shut up," he said, "You look fucking good okay. And you probably know all about it, so just give me a fucking second to..."

"Stare?"

Somewhere in the back of his mind the alpha realised that Shouto was just egging him on, pushing his buttons in all the right ways (which was practically second nature to him), but that realisation didn't do much. Next thing he knew, he was kissing down the outline of Shouto's ribcage, impatiently and without much method, but the touch did its job all the same, and the breathless gasp he heard falling from Shouto's lips the second his lips were on him was the best thing in the entire damn world. So he didn't even bother to try and make this pretty and civilised, simply allowed himself taste Shouto's skin and feel it against his lips.

And once he began, Shouto's noises only made him sink further into the rabbit hole of madness. Everything else seemed to disappear against the backdrop of his omega, pushing into the kisses and mouthing breathless words in between messy breaths.

Of fucking course the alpha inside him was a little too enthusiastic about all of this, and though he allowed himself some time to let his mouth get acquainted with Shouto's muscles, the differences in temperature and the shape of his body, he couldn't really help being a greedy bastard either.

"Katsuki!" the omega practically shouted as his mouth slowly wandered towards one of Shouto's nipples, his cheeks brushing against the erect and warm flesh and sending a full body shiver through the omega that Katsuki could fucking feel. Along with it came a sudden increase in temperature.

"Make sure not to set us on fire, alright?" he asked but lacked the patience to wait for an affirmation and just went for it.

Within a second, Shouto's hands had somehow found their way underneath his shirt, and Katsuki could feel fingernails digging into his skin but he had no fucking capacity to focus on his own body when the one beneath him seemed to fall apart like a shooting star lighting up the sky or whatever. The intensity with which Shouto threw his head back had his chest pressing up, and Katsuki closed his lips around his nipple, running his tongue across it slowly.

Shouto trashed beneath him, but it wasn't as wild as he'd expected it to be. As if his body was simultaneously trying to hold perfectly still and explode on the spot.

"Fuck," the omega groaned, voice so fucking low but sweat like honey dissolved in hot milk. If his mouth wasn't occupied, Katsuki would have agreed. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck - he could not handle the erotic quality of Shouto's voice right now or how fucking eagerly he was burying his nails into his back in an attempt to get him closer, still.

He obviously had no fucking clue what Shouto liked, but he was now very fucking certain that the omega's chest was a minefield of sensitive nerves, and there was something he sure as fuck could work with.

He flattened his tongue against the hot flesh, sucked on it a little, and Shouto's voice broke in the middle of yet another curse, hot and heavy silence lingering for a moment before he seemed to descend back to earth with a hollow and overwhelmed, "oh my God."

"Good?" the alpha whispered against his chest, just to be sure.

"So good," Shouto repeated as though he couldn't come up with a word of his own to describe it and Katsuki was more than fine with that. "So, so - ah"

For another minute or two, he played around with that same nipple before kissing his way over to the other, doing the same thing all over again and shifting his weight to allow his thumb to run across the already abused one. All the while, the omega's body seemed to come alive beneath him, vocalising senseless noises and pressing into his upper leg in search of friction.

Shouto's reactions blurred into one another, from surprised little gasps at harsher sucks to delighted little noises of relief when Katsuki moved his tongue just right, affecting his entire body with it. When he felt confident that he'd gotten the hang of this to a degree, the alpha went ahead and let his teeth get mixed into it - not full on biting because he wasn't sure if that would be too much, but grazing skin, mimicking bites to come.

He'd expected all kinds of fucking things, but not for Shouto to rut up against his leg hard, every single muscle tensing up beneath Katsuki as a moan, much lower and much more mindless than any before fell from his lips. Along with that, the sting in his back intensified tenfold and it took the alpha a second or two to realise that he'd actually bitten down on the nipple, because yeah - that was fucking ice spreading across his back while it almost felt like he'd just received a burn mark from the other hand and -

"Ka- ah," Shouto whispered, but it sounded like a prayer, like a religious experience, followed up by violent outlets of breath. His body trembled like he'd fallen into a frozen lake, before the tension suddenly seemed to drain altogether.

As if instinctually, Katsuki's mouth fell open as he slowly realised that -

"Holy fucking shit Shou, did you just-"

There was no answer and the alpha pulled back, barely even daring to look at the goddamn piece of art that was Shouto Todoroki's face, blissed out with his eyes closed and his mouth slightly open as his chest heaved in exhausted breaths. Shouto's hands on his back had lost their grip and his impatient hips were no longer moving against his leg in stuttered motions.

Shouto had just fucking come from having his nipples played with and humping his leg and Katsuki's head had never been so blisfully empty in his entire life as it was in that moment, seeing the lack of any negative emotion on his face.

He climbed further on top of the omega, wanting to get a closer look at his face.

"Hey. Open your eyes please," Katsuki commanded but he didn't even recognise his voice. Everything in the entire world seemed to have shifted with the knowledge that he'd just made his omega feel that way, and with so little effort, too. He didn't even dare to imagine what kind of spectacle Shouto would be bouncing on his dick or his fingers or - fuck.

Mismatched eyes blinked open so slowly and the sight of them punched the air right out of him until there was none of it left. Only Shouto, looking at him like he was the most precious thing he'd found after searching the entire world.

"Fuck, that was so fucking hot - how the. I -" Katsuki stumbled over his words, his brain barely even functioning at all anymore. All there really was, was this intense need to reassure Shouto, to tell him exactly how fucking great he was, how fucking amazing it was that he trusted Katsuki enough to share this with him. That he was confident enough to do this at all after all the fucking shit he'd been put through.

"Really?"

His voice. His fucking voice was going to kill Katsuki one day, make his damn heart explode or something.

"Really," he confirmed, "You did so fucking well. With the nest and with this."

It was most definitely an instinct that was leading the alpha as he bent down to rub his scent across the side of Shouto's face yet again because Katsuki had no recollection of consciously deciding to, but at the very least that put him right next to Shouto's ear, where he could whisper little encouragements as the all too familiar sound of a lazy and silent purring filled the room.

"You don't even know how fucking beautiful you look right now."

"But you're beautiful," Shouto countered, and now he honest to God sounded drunk with the afterglow of his orgasm and it was too much. Fucking adorable and at least equally as intoxicating. The alpha couldn't seem to stop it with his sweet little nothings either, and he wondered where the hell all of it was coming from, when just weeks ago, he'd been trying and failing to practice compliments in front of a damn mirror.

"The fucking sounds you made mess me up so bad, I swear to fuck," he admitted, and this time Shouto didn't even reply with words, simply pushed his head into Katsuki's, still purring like a kitten.

"And you're all mine, hope you fucking know that," he said after minutes of just resting close to each other.

There was no reply this time either, but maybe it was a good thing that Shouto had fallen asleep on him. Even if his own dick was still hard and hurting (not unlike his back) and this had all been over much faster than anticipated. As far as Katsuki was concerned, it had been too damn perfect for words, and a little smile tugged at his lips as he pulled away to watch Shouto's face for another few minutes, serene and picturesque as he laid there in his nest.

Truly, the alpha could only hope that even though he'd been asleep just now, Shouto knew exactly how true the statement was. Or more than that, he hoped so fucking badly that Shouto wanted it to be, too.

Chapter Text

"Kacchan."

"Hey, Kacchan."

"Kacchan, your -"

"My fucking what," Bakugou hissed, not even turning his head to look at the nerd.

"Your cereal - why are you.. You're pouring milk all over the table. Is -are you okay?"

Bakugou groaned. "What in the actual goddamn fuck are you even talking about, I swear you're fucking - I - shit. Ugh. Disgusting," he complained as he finally managed to get his eyes off the closed door (where he was pretty damn sure he'd heard footsteps) and to the fucking mess he had managed to create. The milk was up to the edge of his bowl, running down at the sides and forming a puddle on the table below it. On the surface, a few pitiful pieces of cereal were swimming around. Some had flown down like useless ships off a waterfall, stranded on the table.

Then his gaze shifted to the too tightly squeezed milk box in his hand. For a moment, he just stared at it.

What a fucking mess.

Of fucking course, Deku, ever the helpful hero, practically slammed a paper towel on the table for him with his freakishly strong arms before Bakugou could stain his clothes on that shitty milk. Still, despite the chaos, his head shot back up as the door opened, only to reveal fucking Four Eyes.

Bakugou wanted to grab that fucking bowl of cereal and throw it against the class president's head. He didn't realise that he was growling until Deku tapped at his side, "Kacchan," he said, tone worried now, "just go to his room. I bet Todoroki simply overslept."

"No fucking clue what you're on about."

"Kacchan. No offense but you're sitting here acting like a... dog, waiting for its owner. Don't stress yourself out so much."

Red eyes shifted to the other, silently asking if he'd actually just fucking said that and debating whether it was worth starting a fight over. When the fuck had Deku decided to try and become savage like that? No fucking way was he even acknowliding that it was fucking true. He took another breath.

"Fucking. Shut it okay," the alpha forced out, wiped the table with the opposite of his usual perfectionist mindset, grabbed his bowl and stomped over to the sink before pouring his breakfast into it with a scowl on his face, suddenly nauseous.

"Bakugou, don't go pouring food into the sink. It's going to clog the drains and besides, food is a valuable thing and it's improper for a hero to waste it like this, so -"

Bakugou took another deep breath. In and out. Slow.

He absolutely wasn't acting like a damn dog, but.

Fuck.

Where the fuck was Shouto? Just taking his sweet fucking time, without as much as a damn text or anything? And, why the fuck was he even so on edge over a few minutes of waiting for him? What the hell had he even expected.

In the lack of the omega's presence he tended to be on edge, but today was a new fucking level of frustrating. He felt like he was losing his damn mind over a few minutes of waiting. This was more than simple impatience.

"I am not about to pick every single dumb fuck of a cereal out of the - fuck off! I've got shit to do so don't stand in my way," he declared, sending a death glare through the room for good measure as he pushed his way past his classmates, not really giving much of a fuck. Not that he could if he tried - his mind was fucking rioting in his head, with one thought on fucking repeat.

A thought that was simple, but hard to put into words.

Yeah. The reason for his goddamn unease:

He'd left his omega all by himself, in the fucking nest they'd built together, after all of.. that. And maybe Bakugou should have made a nest for himself too to calm his own nerves, because fuck, all this was messing with him. The stress of the entire situation had lessened a little with the conversation, but in no damn way were the problems actually dealt with or gone. They only had a vague plan, and that had to be enough. 

Which it was not. It was not his fucking style to make a plan and then wait around, but what the fuck could he do? There was no villain to beat up here, no simple solution to just get this all worked out.

The impatience didn't mix so well with the warm and fluttery feeling in his chest at the thought of what they'd done yesterday; this shit felt a whole lot like living in two realities at once. One where everything was perfect as long as he had the omega in his arms and one where absolutely nothing was fucking fine and they had more shit to deal with than someone their age ever should. On top of everything else - UA was not a joke even without the added stress of serious fucking issues like that. For years, he'd made a point of keeping structure and control in his life and fuck if both weren't eluding him now.

Bakugou wasn't sure if it was just his alpha instincts reacting to the invisible threat or the entire hero thing added into it, but he for one was damn sure that any reasonable person would tell him he was getting too invested in the uncertainty of it all. Maybe it was to be expected that all of this would leave him feeling out of control, chaotic - he couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten an entire meal and his breakfast had just traveled down the drain. But still, all of that seemed so utterly insignificant in comparison to the shit that Shouto had to deal with.

And Shouto?

Holy hell. His mind absolutely hadn't processed the things they'd done yesterday yet, that much was for fucking sure.

He'd wanted to rush to the Shouto's room first thing after waking up but had decided against it, wanting to give him the privacy to first process what had happened too, what they'd done. And, the privacy to shower and change his clothes. Because Bakugou hadn't been enough of a creep to take his clothes off in his sleep and clean him, just to avoid the uncomfortable sensation of sticky pants in the morning. The mere thought of it was ridiculous. Everything inside him pushed him in the direction of being respectful, forthcoming, thoughtful with his omega. All of which weren't things Bakugou was usually too preoccupied with, with anyone. The intensity of it was terrfiying, because this wasn't like schoolwork or grades. There was no way to do everything right, stay in control. Get a perfect score.

Maybe he really just wasn't meant for overthinking delicate issues like this.

Yesterday, with Shouto out cold, he'd sat there for a good hour before he'd managed to tell himself to fuck off and go to his own damn room before curfew. Undressing Shouto in his sleep without permission would have been a whole lot over the fucking line and so would watching him sleep for hours have been, although part of Bakugou had fucking wanted to stay there and keep watch. Just to make sure that all of this was.. fine. Okay. Real.

That this wasn't some goddamn fever dream.

Because, with Shouto allowing him to be in his nest, watch him fall apart, fucking feel him cum, the alpha inside of him was now more convinced than ever. Shouto was his, belonged to him. Bakugou didn't want him to go anywhere, couldn't stand the thought of losing him by messing up.

And once he started thinking about that, the reality of what those feelings did to him hit,each and every time.

As if he just couldn't stop trying to push his luck, cross the line and just shove whatever he could offer at the omega, hope it wasn't too much, not too little. Hope that he wasn't going to lose this damn soft warmth Shouto was making him feel.

That fucking warmth in his chest that felt like it fueled the very essence of every cheesy romance novel and love song. A feeling so weirdly tender and deep and still so foreign in its intensity that it messed with the alpha, and badly. At times, he wanted to take that feeling and just fucking throw it away so it could stop messing with his every waking minute, but fuck that.

Whatever Shouto had done to him, it was at least as addictive as it was a pain in the ass. And the feeling was growing, too, like untreated fucking cavities. He could only hope that he wasn't alone in this, that Shouto went through the very same shit, because that exact thought made it bearable.

Honestly, it was damn terrifying, the hold Shouto had over him - whether he was even there or not. And Bakugou still couldn't fucking believe that their fooling around had ended up the way it had. The entire thing felt surreal at best: him and Shouto. Ice prince extraordinare, fucking melting for him and looking nerve-wrackingly beautiful doing it.

His mouth all over the omega's chest, and Shouto's moans. Those fucking moans.

It only got worse with each time he remembered the details of what had happened, of what he'd been fantasizing about for fucking weeks. Maybe longer - maybe way before he would have even admitted it to himself jokingly. His brain refused to shut up about the goddamn obscenities that had left Shouto's lips, the things he had done... the fucking sounds he'd made and the way he'd looked while doing all of that. So goddamn gone over almost nothing. Inviting and like the perfect excuse to lose all damn self control, begging for it so nicely. Bakugou absolutely refused to get stuck on the idea of how far he could have pushed things, but Bakugou knew that he could have, pushed things.

Further and further and... fuck.

Too far, so fucking easily.

When he had no damn clue how this worked, really. Were they even fucking ready for this? How the fuck can anyone ever tell? He sure as fuck found it hard to decide when he just found himself wanting and wanting and wanting him.

And, the alpha knew that he could have probably had Shouto right then and there, could have told him to flip over, fucking held him down and made him spread his legs nice and wide and - yeah. He was way fucking ahead of himself. The image was too much; Bakugou was pretty damn sure that he'd fucking faint or something if it came to that, but he was at least equally as determined to get there. In the exact way he never approached anything:

Slowly. Healthily.

Somehow.

It wasn't all his responsibility, but his brain sure as fuck wanted to make it seem like it.

Maybe he was making a bigger deal out of this than it was; Shouto hadn't been in heat or anything, so there must have at least been some clarity to his thought processes. Or maybe not - he hadn't looked the part with his mouth hanging open and little whines falling from it. Or maybe Shouto was just that fucking reckless with Bakugou, fucking pushing him like that while probably still oblivious to the goddamn power he held over him.

Because if one thing was for sure, it was that Shouto had felt too good against him, too familiar, too new and too fucking fitting. Like puzzle pieces. As though all that 'meant to be' bullshit in books actually wasn't that far off, maybe. Bakugou would have slapped anyone else in the face, had they ever tried to convince him of such cheesy things and here Shouto fucking Todoroki went, making him want to believe in all that crap.

His instincts sure were convinced that Shouto was meant to be right fucking here. Beside him. His. Though, he was very much not physically here right now - probably still in his room. But it was more than fucking irrational to get mad at him for not having showed up yet when giving him a bit of time was exactly what Bakugou's plan had been.

And still...

He was just too hyperaware of every second in which Shouto didn't stumble tiredly into the room, and frankly, the only reason why Katsuki himself was running on any sleep at all was that he physically hadn't been able to stay awake after the sleepless night before, as much as his instincts had protested. It was ridiculous, pathetic and borderline sad how desperate he found himself, running on misguided urges to provide and protect that he couldn't really act on. Instincts that really didn't have much of a place in the world as it was today, clearly a relict from older times when secondary genders had meant different things. When threats had been actual physical ones, when those rushes of adrenaline would have actually been helpful to fight off other alphas or whatever the fuck his brain even wanted to protect Shouto from so badly. Not that there weren't enough fucked up people around, but Icyhot wasn't weak, not even close. And really, their secondary genders weren't what made them, them. Shouto needed someone to support him on his way, not fucking.. protect him from the world or whatever. He'd lived through an entire hell of a childhood and come out strong; Shouto had been forced to grow up early in many ways. He was capable of handling himself.

But tell that to his fucking brain - the alpha inside him didn't give a damn about the logic behind it, only fucking told him to give his all for his omega and then some more. It all just made for a frustrating cocktail of hormones in his blood that he really couldn't do anything with.

Just wait, try not to fuck anything up by rushing into this like he rushed into missions. But he was getting desperate for something to happen, something that made Shouto's life better instead of worse and there had to be more that he could do to lift some weight off his shoulders.

He just wanted to do it right.

Bakugou knew that feeling well - desperation had always followed him like some disguised stalker through an alley, but this wasn't about ideals or proving something to himself. No, this shit was all about proving something to his omega, giving him what he deserved, wanting to -

It was hard to decide what the fuck he even wanted, but he was pretty fucking sure that it started with seeing Shouto right fucking now and rubbing his scent all over him again - that would fucking help, short term but still. Having him closer. So much fucking closer, squeezing him in his arms and pressing him close to himself. It was the oddest thing how agitated he felt over the lack of his stupidly pretty face in this room and there was no point in trying to fight what his inner compass was telling him.

Fighting that shit was a sure road into insanity.

Fuck it if he was being too pushy by going to Shouto's room - couldn't be fucking helped. The fucker had to be aware of what he'd signed up for when he'd allowed not just any alpha but fucking Bakugou Katsuki to mark him up, taste his skin, become obsessed with him.

Fuck it if everyone here knew exactly where he was headed, not like that shit mattered.

Bakugou found himself walking the way to Shouto's room with steps that grew increasingly faster, his heart hammering away in his chest like no one's business. It was only when he'd made it up the stairs and found himself in front of the door that Bakugou realised how fucked his situation truly was. Not only was he goddamn nervous about not having the omega close-by, but just as terrified at the idea of facing him.

Him.

Icyhot.

Bakugou wasn't ever fucking terrified. Especially not of him.

But, how the fuck was he even supposed to act? How the hell would Shouto even feel about any of this, now that the heat of the moment had worn off and they'd officially - he'd officially - Shouto had officially grinded against him and it had looked so, so fucking hot.

Yeah. They had actually -

Well. They hadn't exactly fucked, probably. Depending on the definition. But Shouto certainly had made himself vulnerable in an entirely new way and Bakugou had certainly not been too tired last night to get off to the very vivid memory of 'maybe I want you to tear me apart' and all those fucking obsceneties, before falling into a dreamless sleep.

So yeah, he felt strangely riled up at the simple idea of facing Shouto. As if it was one of those make or break moments that happened every once in a while in life. But the alpha wanted to believe that everything was good between them. Including the nest, the making out, the talking. That there was no reason for the omega to have suddenly changed his mind, feel bad about what they'd done and regret his choice.

All things considered, Shouto was probably fine and Bakugou was freaking out over nothing because he'd managed to think himself into panic mode, yet fucking again.

Probably.

Except, with Shouto's upbringing and his fucking father, who knew what he was fine with and what he wasn't. Bakugou wouldn't blame him if all of this omega shit was still too new, too much, too tainted with shame and fear. Things could go downhill so fucking fast when it came to those things, so how the hell-

He moved before he could think himself even further down that rabbit hole, pulling the door open and realising a moment too late that he hadn't even knocked. There was no shocked reaction though, no wide-eyed Shouto growling at him to protect his nest from intruders or whatever, and it hit Bakugou in that moment how fucking easily this could have gone wrong. Because anyone could have fucking entered instead of him, and anyone could have been greeted with the sight that he was greeted with. Bakugou was an idiot to have just assumed the other would wake up from his alarm at the usual time; of course Shouto was the kind of idiot who'd oversleep while Bakugou was losing his mind waiting for him.

He wanted to be mad, but all the alpha could do was stare.

Shouto didn't look real. Not even close.

He looked like an actual doll, wrapped up in blankets and half-buried in the clothes that laid scattered across the nest. Elegant and pretty, even all messy like this. He'd obviously twisted around in his sleep and messed some of the nest up too, now hugging parts of it to his chest. Bakugou was pretty sure that the blanket he'd wrapped him up in was upside down. Shouto's mouth was slightly opened and he looked fucking beautiful. Infuriatingly so.

The strangest sense of déjà vu overtook him somehow, and Bakugou's legs moved on their own accord, an impossible weight falling off his chest at the sight of the omega contently snoring away, silent and peaceful like that. It was like medicine, like morphine injected into his bloodstream, finally shutting his anxious thoughts off to a degree where he felt like he could function again.

He crouched down next to the omega's nest, just observing the little breaths he exhaled and coming to terms with the fact that his worry had been pointless. Shouto's sleeping face was the fucking definition of not having a care in the world, and the mere thought of tearing him out of his slumber was painful.

But the alpha knew all too well that it needed to be done. The last fucking thing they needed was someone showing up in here because Shouto wasn't in class when they had yet another exam to write today. Neither Aizawa nor one of their classmates had any fucking right to even catch a glimpse of him like this - call Bakugou fucking self-centered but he wanted this all to himself. Didn't want to share a hint of him with anyone.

The alpha inside him liked it too much, the way pale hands held onto one of his sweaters with an iron grip, the way Shouto's face was buried in the fabric. Just the way Shouto looked in his nest was enough to cause this strange warmth to spread through him all over again. He couldn't help feeling a sense of accomplishment at it - knowing that Shouto felt safe enough in the nest they'd built to sleep that deeply. It did things to him that were hard to put into words but loud. Bakugou tried to glare, crossed his arms, then poked his side with two fingers before he could lose his mind over all of.. this.

"Hey," he tried. Calm. Collected.

The only response wasn't really one at all. A little noise that could mean anything - anything but 'yes I want to wake up and get ready.'

"Half and Half."

Nothing.

"Shouto."

"Fucker, wake up," Bakugou hissed, but it came out weak and quiet and it really wasn't a surprise that it did nothing to actually help wake Shouto up. It felt as though his damn voice was failing him, refusing to carry its usual weight. As though guided by some intrinsic instinct not to disturb the peaceful scene in front of him.

But he fucking needed to, and sometimes it felt like the school environment really wasn't considerate of all this shit in the least. Sure, omegas were a rarity at UA, much less the hero courses, and if anyone at all knew about Shouto's secret then neither Katsuki nor any other alpha would be able to just waltz into his room like this to even try and wake him up. But whatever. It was still fucking unfair that some stupid exam was officially more important than his omega's sleep.

Not really his omega - but it was getting harder and harder to not think like that.

He didn't dwell on the thought though, because for now, all that really mattered was that Shouto woke up so they could write their stupid ass exam. All the other shit had to wait until there was enough time to discuss it, because if there was one thing those conversations needed, it was time, Bakugou could tell.

And Bakugou had tried just now, to wake him up quietly and peacefully. He reasoned that there wasn't much else he could do as he got closer to the nest that he knew Shouto was extremely protective of. He kneeled down, eyes like a hawk's on Shouto's face that looked even softer in the grip of sleep.

"Wake up," he repeated and it went ignored all over again. Bakugou had always had this issue with feeling ignored anyways, so it was probably a perfectly reasonable move to get closer, lower himself and place his hands on both sides of Shouto's curled up body, caging him. For the smallest of moments, the omega seemed to stir in his sleep, but then he exhaled a little breath and turned his head, white locks falling all over his face.

There was something about Shouto with his hair all messed up by sleep. Or maybe that was a fucking lie. There was something about Shouto, fucking period.

Bakugou really couldn't tell whether it was a conscious decision on his part or more of an instinctual move, but the skin of his neck that had been exposed with Shouto's movement looked too damn inviting not to close the gap between them and lean into his space. As Bakugou's lips touched his skin, a noticeable shiver worked its way through the body beneath him and Bakugou grinned against the soft hair in the nape of his neck. It wasn't even a kiss.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty," he baited.

"Mmh," Shouto made a sound in response, or at least Bakugou thought that the did, but it wasn't followed up by any further sign of wakefulness. If it wasn't so fucking endearing, then the depth of the omega's sleep would fucking piss Bakugou off and make him jealous too. His own sleep was much lighter, especially lately - and that had everything to do with the way his body was always on high alert with the urge to protect this sleepy fucking creature beneath him. And obviously someone needed to look out for Shouto, because what if he ever went off blockers, into a heat, forgot to lock his door. Icyhot was a hot mess like that and holy fuck did the thought not sit well with Bakugou.

Maybe it showed in his scent too, because he couldn't ignore the change in Shouto's breathing. More audible, suddenly. And faster too.

Bakugou waited for a moment, for any kind of reaction, but nothing more came.

And fuck if he could keep himself in check, being so close to what his mind had already, like the asshole it was, decided was rightfully his.

In that moment, he lacked the capacity to even question if he was being too pushy, or the capacity to figure out what exactly had his instincts taking a hold of the steering wheel.

He kissed his way along the side of Shouto's neck, then dragged his head slowly over his scent gland. Up until they were pushed together, with barely any weight to the touch. It was hard to say whether or not consciousness was working its way into Shouto, but he definitely shifted his head a little to give the alpha better access.

The little action went right through Bakugou's chest, a content feeling settling in his ribcage at the thought that Shouto was relaxed by his presence, even barely half awake.

It would be a lie to say that Bakugou himself didn't need the closeness, needy and pathetic as that sounded. Just feeling the other against him was killing off the stress in him like a sedative and it was all too easy to become addicted to the effect Shouto had on him.

But then Shouto, of course, just went ahead and made that sound that always killed and then resurrected something inside the alpha; it reminded him of a sleepy cat when the weakest purring appeared in response to his touches. So content that it almost hurt, reminding Bakugou all over again of how fucking much he needed Shouto to be happy like this more often. Not worried or heavy with force-fed guilt but happy, safe.

God damn it, now he didn't want to leave this fucking nest either.

"Shou," he tried though, whispering close to his ear, "I mean it, you gotta wake up, fucker."

"Five minutes," the omega mumbled, voice heavy with sleepiness and obviously without any plans to actually get up in five minutes. Of fucking course.

Bakugou bit into his ear then, a little warning that apparently wasn't much of a warning because Shouto fucking sighed and the sound blurred into the purring too nicely.

"Oh fucking, come on," the alpha urged, but he was wise enough not to expect much - Shouto and his damn sleep were practically the love story of the century. Then again, he knew that it wasn't only laziness; knowing about the side effects of his medication made it harder to be mad at the omega for wanting his sleep. His body fucking needed it, and if Bakugou could leave him to it in good consciousness, then he fucking would. No questions asked.

But they really didn't need the extra attention of arriving late or not arriving at all. Aizawa was like a fucking vulture when it came to figuring out abnormalities in his students' behavior after all and he'd already made it clear that he would contact their parents if he needed to.

"Ten minutes."

"I'm not a damn alarm with a snooze button."

There was something like a chuckle then, quiet and to be felt rather than heard.

"Are you sure? You're loud and too concerned with punctuality." The dryness of the words and the sleepy tone made the remark seem much less annoying than it usually would, but if being deliberately annoying first thing after waking up made it easier for the omega to find the motivation, then Bakugou was going to take the bait.

"I could just let your lazy ass oversleep and let Aizawa wake you up if you'd prefer, asshole."

Bicoloured eyes cracked open at the threat; Bakugou could feel the movement of lashes against the side of his face. He pulled back to see Shouto give him a look before the omega turned around, pulling one of Bakugou's pullovers towards his head to use it like a pillow, "'Kay, night."

So much for taking the bait.

"Fuck off," the alpha hissed and grabbed Shouto where he'd turned his back towards him, pushed him flat down onto the mattress with a force that was perhaps more fight-like than needed. Then again, Shouto wasn't some delicate flower, although Bakugou's instincts sometimes made it so that he almost wanted to treat him as one. From below him, Shouto fixed him with a blank look, the very same look that always did this thing to Bakugou.

"Mh," the omega muttered, closing his eyes again.

"Don't fucking ignore me," he growled, still more playful than serious, but there was an undeniable spike of something in his chest. The sight of Shouto so utterly unaffected beneath him after yesterday's events had him squeezing his fingers a little tighter around a strong shoulder. He allowed his scent to permeate the air between them, knowing fully well that he wasn't nearly annoyed enough to actually stress the omega out.

They'd played this game a thousand times after all, and the alpha knew that Shouto enjoyed pushing his luck - pushing him.

"Oh?" there was a clear challenge in that soft little word, or maybe Bakugou was really just seeing things, and still kind of horny too. Probably. Then again, why did Shouto have to be so damn hot first thing in the morning?

"I said not to ignore me, bastard," he repeated, coupled with an intense look.

"Wouldn't dream of it, big bad alpha," Shouto said, not even bothering to colour his voice with sarcasm this time, which somehow made it sound even more sarcastic. The tiniest grin pulled at his lips and Bakugou wanted to fucking kiss it away. Fuck it out of him. Preferably both.

But instead, he grinned right back at him.

"Big, hah Halfie? You sounded pretty fucking into 'big' yesterday."

He'd almost expected it.

And Bakugou knew in that moment that he was right in his assumption; Shouto's eyes widened for the fraction of a second, almost comically, as if searching for something inside his own, and what followed was something between cute, hilarious and concerning. The pace at which the omega's face turned into a nice shade of cherry red as realisation hit him was fucking priceless. It stood out against the white of his hair so fucking strongly, making him look like he'd suffered a serious sunburn. He was obviously remembering the events leading up to this morning, Bakugou could see it in those fascinatingly unmatched eyes. The alpha couldn't help pushing it a little bit further, if only because an expression like that was such a rare thing on the other's face.

"What was that you were saying?" he fake-wondered and Shouto deadass averted his eyes like a kid guilty of stealing from the candy jar, his mouth ever so slightly opened. Then he pulled it into a straight line, closed it. The alpha leaned forward again, tried for a husky voice imitation but he didn't sound much like Shouto had yesterday. No one could fucking copy that anyway, "Right. Almost fucking forgot. Just a few hours ago you were moaning about how much you want me inside you."

There was no mistaking the shiver that went through the omega's body, but it was hard to say whether it was from embarrassment or something else.

"That's," Shouto said, stopped. Took a deep sort of breath, "I didn't."

"Hah? Fucking denying it now or what."

"Ba- Katsuki. I may have.. said that. But I was.."

"Horny?"

"..."

"Don't act all fucking shy about it now. Fuck. Hottest thing I ever witnessed. I mean, holy shit, when you came just from me biting your-"

A hand was suddenly on his mouth, concerningly hot against his lips, the movement rushed. "Don't just talk about it like that," Shouto demanded, still red-faced, obviously making an effort to sound unaffected, which was just cute at this point because the effort was way too fucking obvious. He was clearly caught off balance, failing spectacularly at keeping up his usual empty face. Bakugou shut his mouth against his fingers, wondering if he'd pushed too far. But then again, the omega was practically the king of shamelessly saying thoughts out loud in unfitting situations. So why the fuck shouldn't he say what he was thinking?

He'd been trying for years, to finally get reactions out of him after all. Had never dared to hope that they'd be so fucking adorable.

But then again, this was... different. More complicated, not the type of thing Bakugou would allow himself to randomly fuck up for the sake of an ego boost or the sight of Shouto all flushed. Although he liked the thought of finally having something to tease the omega with, he didn't want to feed into some insecurity either, but fucking hell was it hard sometimes, to figure out where to draw those lines. The entire walking on eggshells business was no good either though, and they couldn't keep doing that forever if they were doing... this.

Whatever exactly 'this' was.

But still.

"Sorry," he said after a moment of consideration, pressing his lips to soft fingers. The apology came out easier than it had for years and the alpha couldn't get over the fact that he could casually kiss Shouto's fingers now. Just like that, "can't help that you're driving me fucking insane. Are you fucking, okay though? I mean, with what happened and just, all of this."

"Okay?" Shouto asked, seemed to think for a moment as one finger drew a little circle across the alpha's cheek. Bakugou watched his brows furrow ever so slightly. "More than okay. This - the nest really did help, and what we did was.. felt nice. Ah, but. You didn't really get anything out of that."

Bakugou looked at him.

"Fucking excuse me?"

"I mean, you didn't get to..." he started, bit his lip like he'd spoken too soon.

"Icyhot. Tone it down with the fucking coy act or I'm jumping you all over again," the alpha threatened.

Sometimes he couldn't fucking believe it. Having Shouto embarrassed enough not to finish his sentences anymore was a special kind of victory, especially in contrast to his grumpy 'don't even try to wake me up' act. And yet Bakugou found himself uncertain if he wanted that kind of victory. He could only hope that they'd manage to slowly but surely make him more comfortable with this stuff, because it was going to be fucking hard to talk about boundaries, likes and dislikes if Shouto felt incapable of even saying the word 'cum' out loud.

Not like anyone would believe Bakugou if he told them that the ice princess of their class was such a hot mess.

Not like he was going to tell anyone, ever. The flushed omega was all his to witness, and his only.

"I'm not acting coy," Shouto denied, his eyes fixed on Bakugou's now, "I just really didn't expect myself to have such an easy time going along with these things and..."

He looked away again, something like a pout on his lips.

"And?"

"Katsuki," Shouto said, and all of the sudden, the weight of his mismatched gaze washed over the blonde. The look was so intense, it felt as though Shouto was searching for something deep inside of him, something the alpha really couldn't name. Didn't even know if it was in there to be found at all. He could only watch as Shouto brought one hand up to push his fringe out of his own face, looking like a model all over again. At just past 7 in the morning no less. Bakugou distantly recalled his initial annoyance with how pretty Shouto was; he remembered wondering if he practiced those purposeful looks and little movements, if he did it consciously. But Shouto really fucking didn't - there was something effortlessly natural to it all.

Being beautiful was a skill that he had mastered, hilariously unaware of how good he was at it.

The alpha couldn't even tell if it truly was something objective that Shouto possessed, something that made him seem so special in so many ways. Or if maybe, it was just in the way he looked at the omega. The way he noticed those things, always had. Had never been capable of looking at him and just thinking, whatever. Shouto was so infuriatingly not whatever that sometimes, he didn't know what to do. Couldn't decide on a name for whatever feelings he brought out of him.

Realistically, it probably wasn't an either/ or thing. Bakugou was pretty sure that anyone with fucking eyes and a working brain could tell how special the omega was, but he wasn't so sure that it did the things to others that it did to him. This was way fucking beyond a little crush or an appreciation of looks: Bakugou wanted him so badly that it physically hurt. A special kind of suffering that came with the insanity of having him right fucking there, where it would be so damn easy to just go for that perfectly nice neck and make Shouto his, officially.

To promise that he was going to be anything he could for him, with the same single-minded determination that he'd always reserved for his dream of becoming the very best hero.

He swallowed, told his instincts to calm the fuck down. He was here to wake Shouto up, not to fall into a daydream about marking him up. But it was almost too easy to imagine the sound Shouto would make if he were to mark him, the way his fingernails would bury themselves in his back, overwhelmed. The way he'd tense before relaxing. Sometimes he wondered if it was fucked up, unhealthy: the way he wanted to own him. In his nature for sure, but still, so incredibly fucking selfish.

Bakugou licked his lips.

"Yesterday," Shouto continued slowly and the alpha nearly jumped, torn out of his little fantasy, "it really didn't... I would have - I mean, you could have done anything to me and I would have been fine with it. I wasn't scared. Because it was you. What I'm saying is, it didn't feel wrong. It felt... really nice."

The admission coupled with the look he gave Bakugou did absolutely fucking nothing to stop the pressure in his jaw muscles, the fluttering in his chest. Bakugou couldn't get over the urge to squeeze him so damn tightly in his arms and just fucking sink his teeth into -

"Stop it with that sappy shit," Bakugou said, but he really wasn't so sure he meant it. In fact, he was still staring at the exposed skin of Shouto's neck as though it held the secret to the universe. It was unfair how badly he wanted Shouto to be his, just stupid instinctual and possessive shit but holy fuck was it getting harder to push the reality of that away from himself.

"Sorry," the omega said but Bakugou was pretty sure that he didn't mean it either.

"I fucking mean it Icyhot. When you say reckless shit like that, it's like you don't even -"

Mismatched eyes blinked at the alpha, the embodiment of stupidity-fueled innocence all over again. The way Shouto jumped from one thing to the other so easily nearly had Bakugou losing what was left of his sanity - those damn eyes just managed to swipe him off his feet over and over and over again. Bakugou had the sneaking suspicion that they were never going to stop doing that either. A perpetual deja-vu of the very same realization.

"Like I don't what?" Shouto really just had to fucking ask because of course he had to.

So, Bakugou was definitely feeling a little damn horny with all the leftover images of yesterday in his head and the idea of how easy it would be to create the very same scenario all over again. And maybe actually just go a little bit further this time around. Before he could even manage to find words, his lips were on warm skin and Bakugou was pretty damn sure that, if he really focused, he could probably feel the omega's pulse beneath his lips.

As things stood, he mostly felt Shouto go quiet and hold still, his breathing barely noticeable at all. The quietness only made it clearer to the alpha how deep in he was: nothing in this fucking world compared to the taste of Shouto's skin against his tongue, the way Shouto willingly let him do as he pleased.

"Like you don't fucking know how much I want to do other things to you. With you. Fuck off, " he said when he pulled away, before he could get lost in what he was doing.

There was no way of missing the subtle shiver that went through the body beneath him, or the intake of breath. Bakugou was aware that this was nothing much but self-torture, but he really couldn't help it. As if to prove to himself that he couldn't go any fucking further, he dragged his teeth across the warm skin and enjoyed the reaction that it earned him a little bit too much. Shouto's entire body seemed to press into the touch, simultaneously soft and demanding.

Eager. So fucking eager for more.

And God, he was, too.

Considering that he hadn't ever been taught these things, Shouto's instincts had the nicest way of speaking for him sometimes. The more he offered himself up, the further he pushed Bakugou to his breaking point.

"Then do," the alpha could feel the words as they left Shouto's mouth. Again, so fucked up in their recklessness. So easy to take at face value.

He wondered if Shouto really knew, what they were talking about.

"I'm not doing shit," he affirmed, to the both of them. Although Bakugou knew by now that Shouto's scent wasn't really noticeable, he still found himself dragging his face along the side of his neck, and up to his hair. Maybe it was the goddamn warmth in his chest or maybe the increasing pace of his heartbeat, or the feeling of his mouth basically watering, but -

what?

Katsuki took a deep breath.

"Holy fuck Shou," he whispered, pulling back a little and fixing the omega with a stare that probably bordered on obsessive, "you haven't taken your scent blockers yet. You - I can fucking smell you."

He could.

It wasn't a question at all. The moment the alpha noticed, he couldn't stop noticing, wondered how he hadn't realized that it was even harder than usual to keep himself away from Shouto.

Though weak, barely there, the scent of Shouto's skin was enough to let something inside him snap. Bakugou wasn't a damn animal, he really wasn't, kept reminding himself of it, but tell that to his fucking mind that instantly commanded him to sniff the other again as though he'd just inhaled a hint of cocaine by accident and was now an instant addict. Both the temperature of the room and his heartbeat seemed to increase in response to the light, flowery scent that held promises the alpha couldn't even put into words. 

"Ah, yeah. My pills don't really work as well anymore. I've noticed it before, I should probably take two to counteract the -"

"No," Bakugou commanded against his better judgement, everything inside him simply raging at the idea of Shouto having to poison himself again to kill of his scent like it was a crime to smell so fucking perfect. Like painting over a masterpiece. "Fuck you, you. Don't," he couldn't seem to figure out if it was a command or a plea, "You smell so good."

He barely even noticed what he was doing until Shouto exhaled a broken little breath, asking exactly the same thing. "Katsuki, what are you.."

And holy fuck, what was he doing?

His fingers had somehow found their way to Shouto's neck, thumb rubbing circles across his scent gland with quite a bit of pressure. Underneath his touch, the skin felt hot, already reddening where he was massaging it. And he wasn't fucking stopping either, just staring at his damn finger like it didn't even belong to him.

Shouto squirmed against the touch, apparently torn between wanting to back off and push himself into it.

Bakugou wanted to run his tongue across that patch of skin.

"You're aware that I can't just. Not take them, I mean. I - we have to..." Shouto said, slowly, his deep voice barely above the volume of a breath.

Bakugou was definitely losing his fucking shit because in response, he found himself growling. Not the full on aggressive sort of growling, more like a thunder in the distance, before the storm. So yeah. He definitely hadn't sorted through the entire business of overprotectiveness yet, but this wasn't simply the desire to keep the fucked up drugs out of his omega's system.

There was something much more fucking selfish about it. He couldn't help wanting to smell more of Shouto, couldn't help wanting to mix their damn scents together until they became indistinguishable, a symbol of belonging to one another so fucking deeply that no one else could ever stand a fucking chance. So no one could even fucking look at Shouto without knowing, and knowing exactly whose he was.

He wanted to know what Shouto smelled like - happy, tired, or all worked up and out of it. Wanted to read his scent like he was fucking born to and get over that wall of nothingness that had replaced it for years.

And Shouto?

The omega was looking up at him with lidded eyes once Bakugou actually managed to tear himself just far enough away to look at him. Bakugou wanted him to have that chance, to experience exactly what his scent was doing to him, how everything inside the alpha insisted that Shouto was nothing less than perfect for him.

".. Get to class," Shouto finished but Bakugou's focus was more so on the way his lips looked when they moved than it was on the actual words being spoken. Knowing fully well how soft they felt, his thoughts suddenly drifted off into more dangerous territory of the fucking things Shouto could use them for, the fucking things Bakugou wanted him to use them for. How damn good Shouto would look with his eyes looking up at the alpha as he -

He growled again, at himself this time.

Forced his fingers to stop massaging the omega's scent gland in those little hypnotised circles. From the way Shouto's eyes were fixated on his own look to the way he fucking wet his lips a second later, the alpha almost found himself wondering if Shouto could read his damn mind and tell how just a hint of his fucking scent was turning Bakugou into a brainless goddamn -

"I'm sorry," Shouto said those cursed fucking words again.

"The hell are you apologising for now."

"I'm a bit. Ah, after yesterday it's just hard not to think about... That. I'm sure it shows in my scent. I don't mean to affect you like that."

Bakugou blamed it on the fact that his brain wasn't working properly, but he definitely had some fucking trouble keeping up with the omega right now. He could really just stare at Shouto, who was holding his gaze this time.

"What in the hell are you even saying Halfie?"

...

Shouto wasn't sure what he was saying, he really wasn't. 

Except, maybe he was. Because having Katsuki all over him like this first thing in the morning after yesterday, he really just couldn't deny that everything inside of him was screaming for the alpha to come closer, push a little harder into him, to move their bodies together and to just...

Touch him.

God, Shouto wanted to be touched. Like it was the cure to every sickness in the world, the rosy-eyed solution to all his problems. Worse yet, he could feel the way his body longed for that, like the lack was becoming an entity of its own. He could only imagine that it had to affect Katsuki strongly, with how close the alpha was to him, with his scent blockers one again just short of worn off.

"Ah, I," he began, cursing himself for how his words seemed to keep failing him now of all times. Now, when he'd finally had a taste of just what they could do together and what Shouto hadn't even realised he'd wanted so desperately to do. What he'd been missing out on for years, terrified of. Disgusted at himself for how sensitive and needy his body was when on the opposite end of that, he'd never realized how nice those things could feel.

He closed his eyes, counted to five. Despite all the progress he'd made in terms of feeling more comfortable with this part of himself, opening up his mouth and actually saying out loud what it was that he wanted still felt like such unfamiliar territory. All he knew was that his fingers ached to feel skin beneath them, his lips ached for the alpha's and his insides ached in a way that was probably all kinds of lewd and animalistic, but -

"I really want to.. ," he began again, closed his mouth as he studied the alpha's face. The tone of his skin looked a little bit warmer in the morning light falling in through the cracks of the curtains. Katsuki's pupils were wide, darkness swallowing up ruby red like smoke in a fire. Shouto couldn't deny that he had something to do with the way those eyes had darkened; he'd felt it almost as though the sensations were happening inside his own body when Bakugou's breathing had changed in response to his scent. When his fingers had increased their pressure on his neck, pressing into his scent gland in a way that made Shouto feel all sorts of weird and eager for what he knew the other could give him.

And he wanted that.

Found himself wanting to be wrapped up in the other, wanting to give himself away so Katsuki could take whatever he felt like from him. What he knew his body was promising to the alpha, on a level so subtle that it couldn't be rationally pinpointed. He wanted to make good on those promises, wanted to -

Shouto found himself a bit astonished with the thought taking shape in his head: he wanted to be a good omega for him. Wanted to prove to the both of them that he could be whatever Katsuki needed, wanted. Worthy of the treatment he received from him.

That he wasn't beyond repair, not unable to learn.

Most of all, he wanted to give something back. For all of what the alpha had given him so far - not so much as an exchange of favours, but out of a deep desire to just show how impossibly unreal it was that Bakugou Katsuki came to wake him up in the morning, to touch him, to look at him like this.

"I really want to -" he repeated, quieter, stopped there again.

And then the sound of his second alarm went off, the one Shouto usually had on in case of over-sleeping. Like today. And he'd always thought that he hated the sound of it, but this time it hit differently. For a moment, he flinched, eyes wide as he searched for his phone to turn the damn thing off.

"We're... really late," he said instead, somehow thrown off. There really wasn't much of a point in telling the alpha that Shouto wanted to try more of what they had started yesterday, when there were only 15 minutes left until classes began. Katsuki blinked at him, having apparently watched Shouto the whole time.

Another deep breath, and their eyes locked.

And then warm lips met his, and Shouto involuntarily let out a little sound at the softness of the kiss. It was such a stark contrast to the look in the alpha's eyes, but not unwelcome at all. Their lips moved together, all softness like melted honey, without much pressure. It felt as though the small gesture wiped the nerves right out of him, and by the time Bakugou pulled away, Shouto was pretty sure that he was smiling.

An overwhelmed smile.

It really didn't make much sense why exactly he was smiling, with class and the exam he didn't feel prepared for right around the corner, but he allowed himself that little moment of just basking in how warm his chest felt in the wake of their kiss, in his nest, in Katsuki's arms. Like the type of moment that he was going to remember years from now and cherish all the more through the lense of nostalgia.

Although he cherished it so much, even now.

"Your damn fault we're so late, not mine," Bakugou said without any bite to it, slowly standing up and offering a hand to Shouto. He found himself taking it without thinking and, once on his legs, grimaced at the uncomfortable feeling inside his boxers.

"I know," Shouto admitted, pulling at his boxers while making a face that had the alpha cracking a smile.

"Fucking shame too, wanna stay right fucking here with you," Bakugou admitted and Shouto blinked at him, almost astonished with the admission, though he really did understand the sentiment behind it. Leaving his nest sounded like the worst option, but he'd meant what he'd said. He really needed to take his pills and get showered, and now they had just a little over ten minutes left.

"Me too," Shouto admitted, torn, "but.."

"Yeah. I fucking know. Know what, I'm getting you some breakfast and you get ready. Don't be fucking late," Bakugou told him, as though he'd read his mind, and Shouto almost walked after him when the blonde marched out of the room without looking back, but told himself to get it together. He left so quickly that Shouto briefly wondered how strongly the scent was affecting him, before shaking the thought off. It wasn't that strong, couldn't be. This was simply Bakugou being punctual, having a strict plan for his morning that Shouto obviously lacked. He smiled a little at the way he walked, all quick but heavy steps.

Once Bakugou was out of the room, Shouto washed his pills - two of both, just to be sure - down with a sip of stale water, trying his hardest to just, do, instead of thinking. After yesterday's conversation, he really wasn't entirely sure about much of anything anymore, and it was weird. How something that had been part of his routine for years suddenly felt so forced, so foreign. So wrong.

It was a good thing that Bakugou wasn't here for this either, because Shouto felt like he might have listened too, had the alpha told him again not to take his pills.

But this really wasn't that simple, was it? He couldn't just not take them and throw himself into the metaphorical fire that was everyday life at UA. A life where he had responsibilities. Doing it all one step at a time really was the best option for now. And judging from the stickiness between his legs, a shower was the best possible next step. Since most of their classmates were probably already in the class room or on their way to it, Shouto was lucky enough to not run into anyone, and though his shower was the quick type, feeling cleaned up already made him feel like a little less of a mess.

When he finally made his way to class, it was to find the alpha standing in front of the room and shoving an apple and a sandwich into his hand. Shouto just smiled and said a little thank you, resisted the desire to kiss him. It was a little overwhelming to realize that he'd almost done that on instinct, with all their classmated behind a half-closed door.

.

There was that certain mix of exhaustion, tiredness and hopelessness in the classroom that was uniquely reserved for after-exam lessons. Shouto hadn't messed up too badly, as far as he could say, and he could really only blame it on the fact that a lot of academic understanding came naturally to him. He really couldn't boast about his learning efforts these days, preoccupied with the entire mess that his life had turned into.

He was absent-mindedly staring at the back of Katsuki's head and trying not to focus too much on the slowly and steadily growing need for proximity between them. Just a few hours of class were apparently enough to have him feeling just a little bit... alone, in his skin. His body. Not that it made much sense, but with the gravity of his situation trying to catch up to him around every mental corner, Shouto couldn't help thinking that it would be nice to give up his own seat in the back of the classroom and just, sit in the alpha's lap instead.

He smiled to himself at how stupid that thought was; Bakugou wasn't some sort of anti anxiety medication and besides, he'd probably tell him to 'sit his ass down at a table like a normal person' if he asked. Or then again, maybe he wouldn't..

He wondered if he was prone to codependency, if this was a normal omega thing or a result of his upbringing: it was hard to separate both but easy to tell that each one didn't exactly work in the other's favor, probably.

Shouto just couldn't deny that he felt much better whenever he had the alpha close-by, and especially earlier that morning, in his nest with Katsuki, he'd been hit by a multitude of feelings that he really couldn't grasp. The types of feelings one could daydream about for hours on end without coming to a conclusion. Of course, reality had come in the way again, but still...

He couldn't tell whether it was his quirk or just a flush on his face, or both, but remembering that the alpha had noticed his scent, despite how weak it must have been, was really enough to mess with him. Especially because Shouto was almost sure that if they'd had more time, things may have developed a whole lot differently, too.

He still felt sort of stuck in that space of everything that could have happened. At times, he really wondered if he'd opened a floodgate when he'd allowed himself to get close to the alpha: now that touch and closeness were a reality for him, Shouto found himself longing for both way too often.

"So, everyone. Since it has been brought to our attention that we haven't really discussed this topic much considering your age and the fact that you live in dorms, the school has decided that today, Present Mic and I get to do a sex ed class," Aizawa said, and it took Shouto an embarrassingly long moment for the words to sink in. When they did though, it instantly hit him what Katsuki had said about Aizawa and how he'd apparently assumed that...

Oh.

But then again, it wasn't necessarily all because of them, or was it? It couldn't be that rare for people their age to sneak into each other's room and give off the wrong impression. Right impression? Shouto wasn't one to pay particularly much attention to gossip and such, but he was fairly certain that Katsuki and him weren't the only ones that met up in the evenings.

He swallowed, looked around.

Thankfully, no one was really focused on him. Some of his classmates looked absolutely thrilled at the spontaneous change of pace, while others' expressions ranged from mildly uncomfortable to beet red in the face. Shouto tried to keep his own expression neutral, but when Katsuki turned around to give him a look he couldn't entirely translate, Shouto most certainly failed at that. He quickly averted his eyes and turned to face Aizawa, who looked the usual shade of tired. Very tired. Especially in comparison to the blonde teacher who came waltzing into the room with a little yell of, "Exciting huh!"

"Absolutely thrilling," Aizawa agreed drily. "So first of all, everyone take a piece of paper and if there's any question you want answered, write it down and fold the paper in half. Since this is obviously anonymous, I'd ask you to not hold back with the questions. As you all know, this is a completely natural part of life and there's nothing to be ashamed of."

Shouto had never really had 'the talk' with his father thankfully (though it could be argued that years upon years of not learning anything about his sexuality other than shame was worse), but from the horror stories others had told him about this particular conversation, the 'it's completely natural' part was basically protocol.

"Yes! Ask away kiddos, he knows all about this stuff," Present Mic cheered and earned himself an elbow into the ribcage and a glare.

"Well. What are you waiting for. Anything essential that the questions don't cover, we're going to discuss afterwards. I know that these days, most things can be found on the internet either way, but we all know that it's easy to get wrong information, too."

The omega took one sheet of paper that was passed through the row and handed Momo another, pretending not to notice how red the alpha was in the face. Of all things he'd expected the day to bring, this certainly hadn't been among them. In front of him, the white sheet of paper looked more threatening than a piece of paper had the right to look: he really wasn't so sure what question he was supposed to pick, when there obviously weren't any other omegas in the class and the entire topic was just so far out of his usual territory anyways.

Then again, not anymore, was it?

But there was definitely a limit to the things that he would dare to ask if it meant getting an answer from Aizawa in front of the entire class. After thinking it over for a moment, Shouto settled for a relatively tame question that had occupied his mind for a while.

It took a few more minutes before everyone seemed to have come up with a question, and by the time the questions were all collected, there was a general chatter going on inside the classroom, especially in the front rows.

It wasn't much of a surprise that Present Mic went ahead and turned the entire thing into something resembling a lottery pull, holding the box full of folded sheets out to the dark-haired teacher with a broad smile on his face. As far as Shouto could tell, Aizawa made an extra effort to look unamused as he pulled one out and read out loud, "Is it weird for an alpha to be submissive?"

"Oooh good one."

Another glare passed between the teachers.

"What?"

"... So, I recognise that each secondary gender comes with its own prejudices and societal expectations, but it is safe to say that those are really just that. There is nothing weird at all about being a submissive alpha, a submissive or dominant beta or a dominant omega. Just like your taste in music or food has no correlation with your secondary gender, neither does your preferred role in a relationship, in bed or elsewhere. If any of you enter into a relationship at any point, it is probably a good idea to address such concerns with your partner, which comes back to the idea of healthy communication in a relationship. I hope this answers the question sufficiently, or does anyone have anything to add?"

When no one said anything, he pulled out another question. Shouto just watched as Aizawa pressed his lips tightly together.

"Very funny."

"What does it say?" Present Mic asked, leaning over, then reading out loud. "Does it really still count as harassment when I try to get a photo of what's underneath an alpha girl's skirt? Really?"

So much for the questions being asked anonymously.

"Yes. Trying to get a photo of what's underneath anyone's skirt or pants really counts as harassment and no, that doesn't change when the girl is an alpha. And yes, if I hear of anything along those lines happening, you'll deal with serious consequences. Now, next one."

For a little while it went on like that, with the two teachers taking turns answering questions about various things: from the entire 'do I have to shave' business to 'which scent blocker is the best one' to 'am I allowed to use pheromones to affect villains in an emergency situation'. There were some interesting questions among them, and yet Shouto didn't really have it in himself to listen too closely to the partially very uncomfortable answers, his mind drifting off yet again into the territory of more interesting things, as though he'd forgotten to set an anchor in the here and now.

There was just... so much to think about.

He'd already made up his mind about wanting to do something for Katsuki, something nice, but the question of what exactly that was supposed to look like had him baffled. Of course he could always try and offer something... physical to him, but Shouto wasn't really sure how he would go about initiating that - whatever happened between them usually happened so naturally. Maybe if he waited for another one of those moments where he was just so into it that he became more confident, more shameless, Shouto could offer something. Anything.

If he could.

He wanted to, wanted to show the other that he actually trusted him, wanted more, could handle more.

But Shouto hadn't been lying when he'd told Katsuki that it was a surprise things had gone so well yesterday, without panic or disgust at his own actions and reactions tainting the experience. And what an experience that had been - like clouds, then free fall, then gravity. Shouto's stomach felt weird just thinking about it, so he tried his best to remain in the here and now, breathe.

He could always go for other ways of showing his thankfulness and affection, too. Things that were less pressuring, more in his comfort zone (though that zone was growing, for sure). But the problem was that Shouto really didn't have many things to offer, or did he?

He could try to cook something for the alpha, but Shouto honestly doubted that it would do much to impress him. Katsuki was good at kitchen stuff, good at cooking and baking and all of it, and Shouto was better at eating food than making it. So, with that option practically out of the window, what else could he do?

What did omegas do to show an alpha that they... that they what? Liked them? Shouto was fairly certain that Katsuki could tell already - after all he felt comfortable with entering Shouto's room in his sleep and waking him up with little whispers. If Shouto didn't like him, he would have kicked his ass out of the nest. Which was built using Katsuki's things because Katsuki was familiar, his personal safe haven. Shouto wasn't sure any gesture could mean nearly as much to the alpha as the nest thing had. Even Shouto, despite not knowing much, knew that it was a meaningful thing. A confession of sorts.

He still couldn't believe that Katsuki had let him burrow his stuff, had gone out of his way to get stuff for his nest even.

It felt odd, knowing that the alpha was bending over backwards, in attempts to tend to his every need, while Shouto struggled with something as simple as figuring out a way to convey his emotions. He couldn't help but wonder if other omegas would even struggle with all of this half as much. Maybe all the others knew something he didn't - he really was at a double disadvantage here, wasn't he? He'd never even had friends until a while ago, had never learned those unspoken rules that everyone else seemed to understand and follow so effortlessly.

But he couldn't always just be taking from Katsuki. That much was for sure.

".. While it's true that omegas have a much higher chance of getting pregnant during heat, it absolutely isn't impossible to conceive outside of a heat. In fact, I'd say that this exact misconception has caused many unplanned pregnancies. But we're going to be talking about protection in a few minutes anyways."

Shouto wasn't sure if he made a face at the words or not, but there was something absolutely weird about the realization that he very much needed to think about those things, the way things were progressing between him and Katsuki. For years, it had been so easy to entirely ignore the truth of the matter, that he actually could get pregnant. It had been one of the furthest things on his mind and it still felt weirdly surreal, the knowledge that his body worked that way.

He'd been raised not to think of himself like that, after all.

So, the mere potential of that outcome terrified him. Having seen the way his mother had always tried her best to care for and protect him, having heard her cry about how terribly wrong it all had gone over the years, Shouto could only understand a fraction of the pain that she must have felt. The very same pain that had pushed her over the edge - he still carried the proof of it around on his face. Of how a victim of a situation could victimize someone else without any intention to. Shouto had watched her suffer through not only her inability to protect her children, but also the pain of being bonded to an alpha who had put so many things above her wellbeing and their relationship.

Though it had was now the consensus that omegas could leave their partners, could get abortions even, there was no need to be an expert on the topic: both were frowned upon, still. And being a single omega with a child or an old bonding mark was the furthest thing from easy.

In a sense, what his father had told him was true. Using scent blockers and suppressants, the chance of someone taking advantage of him was much lower. Not that Shouto couldn't defend himself if it came down to it - at least when he was lucid enough to.

And then it hit him. In one of the worst moments it could have.

The gravity of the changes happening in his life, of the changes just around the corner.

Just the thought that he was probably going to stop taking the suppressants at some point made the entire matter a whole lot more real. Shouto remembered the way he'd acted that one evening in Katsuki's room, barely even halfway into the first stages of his heat, remembered the way his priorities and thoughts had shifted as a result. Suffering through a full-blown heat would leave him a hundred times as defenseless and there was no guarantee for anything.

He'd only ever felt weak when he was really young, and eventually the training efforts had payed off, had made it so that his strength had become the one thing he could rely on. With a quirk that allowed him to easily freeze an entire arena, he wasn't in the business of being vulnerable like that.

But.

What if a heat pulled the ground from beneath his feet in a mission. Where anyone could be around - where anyone could command him around, get him pregnant or bonded. Turn him into nothing but a mirrored image of the fate his mother had suffered, where someone could hurt him, hurt him so bad that he might end up with a child to suffer through the consequences. The thought of holding that sort of responsibility over another life was absolutely horrible, let alone all the people he might just let down if they relied on him to help them. But the thought of potentially being responsible for messing up one entire life, of a child?

If he could have one at all - if that child would even be healthy with the way he'd treated his body for years. He could already hear his father yelling at him for being useless, weak, a slave to his instincts. Dragging him to an abortion clinic with Shouto's neck all messed up from a stranger's bite mark. When he should have known better, shouldn't have even considered breaking free from this life -

When Katsuki wasn't going to look his way twice anymore, once he'd realize that Shouto was a lost cause, not fit to be a hero, much less anything else to the alpha. Not an equal, just someone with a crack that was only ever growing, like glass that was slowly becoming impossible to touch without getting your fingers bloody.

Shouto sometimes wished to have his old self back.

The self that everyone praised for being so unaffected in the face of threats, so calm and collected no matter what.

The self that something like this wouldn't have ever happened to.

He noticed it too late, the way his breathing had changed, body suddenly tense and chest too tight, like a cage. That wasn't the most terrifying part of it though; it was impossible not to notice the concerned look everyone was giving him. Despite the lack of air that reached his lungs, his body had betrayed him into making a pitiful and pathetic sound. The kind of sound that screamed too loudly of distress and panic and in that moment, Shouto couldn't possibly think about the consequences any of this might have: he'd just singlehandedly thought himself into such a panic that the omega side of him was calling out to Katsuki and that was - Shouto couldn't wrap his head around it, suddenly feeling like the most useless person in the universe.

All he could do was to try and breathe, try to keep his body still despite the sudden desire to have Katsuki beside him, push him away, get away, get back to their nest. Anything. In the mess of contradictions, this stood out to him like a lighthouse on a stormy shore: he wanted to go back to their nest, stay in there forever, make all of those changes and threats hanging over his head just, stop. As odd as the thought was, it was the only consistent thing his brain could come up with under the pressure of being looked at. By everyone.

"Todoroki?" Aizawa said and Shouto tried his best to look composed, as if he hadn't just whined out loud for everyone to hear, "Everything alright?"

He nodded his head, looking down and trying to work his way out of the panic. For a long moment, it seemed as though Aizawa wanted to ask again, but he thankfully let it be, apparently sensing that this wasn't something to be discussed in a class full of people. That was one issue solved, but it didn't mean much against the backdrop of so many other sets of eyes still on him, full of concern and confusion and - Katsuki.

Shouto didn't dare to look in his direction, but he didn't need to. He could feel the way red eyes were fixed on him from all the way across the room, could tell how unwavering that look was, how, in a twisted sense, it was exactly what he'd wanted.

Except, he hadn't wanted this at all, was staring down at his desk with absolute stubbornness, blocking everything else out and trying to keep it together.

Then he heard footsteps approaching him as Aizawa was midway into saying something, then suddenly stopped talking.

"Bakugou, is there -" the teacher began and Shouto impossibly froze a little harder in his spot when he heard a low growl, threatening and dangerous and entirely out of place for a classroom setting. The kind of growl one would expect in a fight, on a battlefield, definitely not in the middle of a badly structured sex ed lesson.

"We've got shit to discuss so if you'd fucking excuse us for a moment we'll be in the hallway," the alpha spat out before Aizawa could even finish and Shouto found himself just short of crying suddenly, overwhelmed with whatever was going on with the blonde's scent.

He wasn't sure what was happening. Katsuki smelled deadly, razor-sharp and threatening and though Shouto knew it wasn't directed at him, the reaction was -

This wasn't supposed to -

"Come on," Katsuki said, grabbing him by the arm again in a way that had become familiar a while ago. Shouto stared at his hand, at the way his fingers wrapped so easily around his arm, tried to connect the feeling of warmth on his skin with what he was seeing.

"I'm sorry," the omega whispered, unsure whom he was addressing even. There was no use of that usual 'teacher voice' from Aizawa following the exclamation though, and before Shouto knew it, he was stumbling along with Katsuki. He couldn't say for sure how his legs managed to keep him upright and moving, could only tell that Katsuki was pulling him along in a way that shielded him from most eyes and though it probably made the entire thing even more odd to all the others watching, he still found himself thankful in that moment. Despite the threat still lingering in the alpha's scent, Katsuki's proximity was enough. It was all Shouto could focus on while he set one foot in front of the other.

When they'd finally made it outside and the alpha had pulled the door close, Shouto's breaths were still coming out oddly uneven and his heart was beating fast. Katsuki threw a look across Shouto's shoulders, glaring at the door as if he expected someone to jump out and attack them at any moment.

Shouto opened his mouth with every intention to explain what had just happened and apologize for putting them in this situation, but his lips simply remained opened, useless. Katsuki pulled him forward then, into a loose grip against his chest. Shouto could feel the tension in his body, in his own - the air around them seemed heavy with distress and Katsuki's fingers seemed to dig harder into his back with every passing second, keeping him right there.

"What just - what's wrong?" Katsuki asked then and Shouto could feel his breath against the side of his face, a heavy exhale.

Then, finally, his voice found its way back to him, but Shouto's eyes widened ever so slightly at what he found himself whispering.

"Alpha," the word seemed to carry a million meanings, hide a hundred feelings. It felt like a plea, sounded almost unlike his own voice at all, and Katsuki's attention was suddenly all on him again, red eyes sharply picking apart at Shouto's expression.

He could only watch as Katsuki took a breath, his posture relaxing ever so slightly like he was making an effort to calm down for the both of them.

And Shouto's brain was apparently making an effort too, to let Katsuki know exactly how odd he was feeling in his skin. Because before he could stop himself, the words had left his mouth, "I'm sorry alpha."

"Hey, what the - don't fucking start apologizing again. Just, what the hell was that?"

Shouto stayed quiet, not all that sure what that had been. Just catastrophic thoughts that seemed to weigh a ton more in the face of uncertainty. He dropped his head forward, rubbed himself against Katsuki's shoulder, making a little sound that even he couldn't really interpret.

"Shou," Katsuki said, "you were okay earlier, weren't you? So, why.."

"Ah, was that... Was that very obvious just now? Everyone was suddenly looking at me and I just.. Panicked. I'm s- I. It just suddenly hit me that I might.."

All through his mess of a response, Katsuki drew little circles on his back with his fingers, slow and steady.

"Calm the fuck down, 's nothing that can't be explained away with, don't know. Stress or a bad night's sleep or whatever, we'll find a fucking explanation. But fuck what they think anyways, why did you make that fu- that sound in the first place? Freaked me the fuck out."

Shouto allowed his brain a moment to let the words sink in, then nodded against his better judgment, hands buried in the fabric of Katsuki's uniform. Saying out loud exactly what he'd been thinking felt a whole lot like putting his weakness on a silver platter for the alpha to inspect, but what else could he do? There was no way around it if Katsuki had made up his mind about wanting to understand.

"When they were talking about.. Ah, heats. And pregnancy, I just, I panicked. Katsuki, if I stop taking my pills and I - All it would take is one bad situation for me, for my life to - what if someone bites me? Or gets a hold of me when my heat comes and then I'll.. I won't just be a burden but a - you wouldn't want to.. "

Saying it out loud, the fear instantly began setting in again, like slowly beginning to sink deeper into water, less and less oxygen reaching his lungs. Katsuki made a rumbling sound then, and next thing Shouto knew he was pulled closer to the blonde, the grip he had on him tightening. Katsuki's scent shifted again and Shouto recognized this: the calming pheromones that his body sucked up so greedily were permeating the air. Shouto sighed, pushing himself deeper into the embrace that felt like home more than anything else could - not even his nest would compare to Katsuki's arms. He knew.

This was where he was safe.

It helped, somewhat. But the thought remained at the back of his head that this wasn't guaranteed. That it could be taken from him too, like anything else.

"You wouldn't want to hold me like this anymore if someone else suddenly chose that they want to.. own me," he finished, finally.

He felt Katsuki take in a breath, and for a long moment the alpha stayed quiet, not loosening his grip on Shouto at all.

"Fuck you," he finally whispered, "don't even think shit like that. I fucking told you, didn't I? That this isn't your issue, you don't get to tell me what I want or don't want. Doesn't matter how many times you talk yourself into thinking that you're alone in this, you're fucking not. No one gets to fucking hurt you and if anyone as much as thinks about touching you when you're - fuck. I'd fucking murder them. Shove my fist so far up their ass that they choke on their blood and take you back.We're going to figure out a way to keep you safe even without the pills and if you go into heat and don't you fucking doubt that we'll manage for a second asshole."

Against his better judgement, Shouto smiled at those words, or maybe the calming pheromones were simply leaving him a little dazed. He wanted so badly to believe Katsuki when he talked like that, all certainty and fire.

But fire wasn't Shouto's strength and certainty was hard to come by now.

"I'm not doubting your ability to protect me, just.. my own. I don't know if I'm ready to take the risk to.. ," he said finally, an obvious sadness weighing his words down with how heavy that doubt truly was, ".. To fuck up and lose you. It can't be your constant task to take care of me but I can't guarantee for anything and even if I'm giving my best it might end up not being enough. I don't want to put in you in a situation where you have to chose between focusing on what's important and saving me, ever."

"Shouto. I don't fucking know how hard you want to overthink this shit and you better stop talking like this because I'm not letting you move backwards asshole. I said what I fucking said and you're not getting rid of me. Besides, it's not a fucking choice. Not an either or. So don't fucking patronize me, not like I haven't managed to get my ass kidnapped before. It's part of being a hero, trusting that others have your fucking back."

Shouto stayed quiet again, simply focusing on the feeling of Katsuki so close to him, trying not to think about the scene they'd caused, just drinking in his words like he'd needed to hear them.

But then, a thought came to his head that refused to leave. Again. Shouto stiffened a little and he could tell that Katsuki noticed, from the way his fingers stilled on his back.

He couldn't stop himself from talking about it, mouth already opening before he'd recognized the true weight of what he found himself wanting to ask.

"Katsuki, if I -" he stalled for a moment, nuzzling into him, "if I actually go through with this. If I talk to my father about it this week and talk to a doctor soon and - can you promise me something?"

The omega tried not to think of how selfish it was, what he was going to ask of the alpha.

"Fucking, anything. Just ask."

"Anything?" Shouto repeated, heart jumping in his chest.

"Any fucking thing," Katsuki repeated with a bit of impatience in his tone. Or maybe it was something else, Shouto found it hard to tell at this point. Katsuki sounded serious, doubtless. 

Shouto swallowed against the dryness of his throat and nodded again, collecting his bravery before he finally dared to ask in a quiet but no less heavy tone, "then if I go through with this and stop keeping it a secret, will you bite me?" 

Chapter Text

"If I go through with this and stop keeping it a secret, will you bite me?" 

Shouto's voice was quiet. Quiet, like some far-off sound in the morning hours when ice covers everything in a thin layer, with the promise of a sunset just around the corner. Hopeful.

Bakugou could only look at him, but could barely stand the sight of him, staring right back with all those fucking emotions right beneath the surface of mismatched eyes.

The very same eyes that he'd told himself, at one point, he detested. For being so void of emotion, so utterly fucking unaffected by anything and everything.

Well, now he had the exact opposite fucking problem. So much for being careful what you wish for or whatever. He had all of it fucking laid out in front of him, like a damn five star meal and now he was fucking terrified to take a bite, fucking literally.

Shouto affected him like a fire affected a dry forest - and sometimes, Shouto was reckless like the damn arsonist buried beneath his skin.

Shouto wanted him to bite him.

Fucking impossible.

Right?

Fuck.

The entirety of Katsuki's body felt weightless just thinking about that, his head void of gravity's influence, like the ground had been pulled from beneath his feet on all levels. He wasn't sure if his hold on the omega loosened, tightened, stayed the same - for all he knew, he might as well be fucking hurting him, pushing bruises into his skin without noticing. Bakugou made sure to check, forcibly relaxing his shoulders, his arms, then his fingers, where they rested on Shouto.

That horrifying and animalistic part of him was fucking vibrating beneath his skin, drowning out most of his actual self, like free will was nothing but goddamn static in an ocean full of sound. All that remained was the slow realization of just what Shouto was asking of him - the knowledge that while Shouto was an idiot in his very own unique way, he was the furthest fucking thing from naive when it came to the bad things that people could do. The bad things that could happen, even with tons of heroes around promising to fight for justice and protect those who needed it.

Shouto had seen it firsthand, how fucked up people could get. He'd felt what it was like, to have no one coming to your aid when you needed someone to, and though he was fucking strong now, Bakugou knew exactly what it felt like, not knowing if you could stand your own ground. Being forced to rely on someone else's best intentions and abilities when that shit simply wasn't enough. Needing the type of reassurance that someone else couldn't just fucking give you.

When everything seemed so fucking out of control, scary and fucked up. 

And Shouto had taken all those fucking reasons to be afraid, and opened up about it to him. About not trusting himself to handle heats, about the terror of knowing what could happen to omegas out there, not knowing if he could protect himself, if he could be a damn hero at all, once his normal life would fall into pieces. And it really fucking would. There was no denying the many ways in which all of this could go wrong, could backfire.

Bakugou took a deep breath that was accompanied by a sort of wheezing sound, as though his throat was too fucking tight now, to do its fucking job and let air pass through. He looked at Shouto's throat, what little of it was exposed with the school uniform on, all milky and soft. Inviting.

Everything about Shouto was too damn inviting right now.

"You want me to fucking - repeat that."

"What?"

"Fuck, repeat that, Shouto."

A part of Bakugou wished that he wouldn't - that the omega would tell him to fuck off, tell him that he'd misheard, tell him that this was not an actual option, a request, a demand. But like Shouto had the tendency to, he did the exact thing that Bakugou couldn't handle right now: for once, this happened to be following his request instead of defying it.

"Please, alpha," Shouto said, the word so familiar already, but still miles away from being anything that the alpha could handle him saying. Shouto rubbed his head against his arm, looking a little lost for a moment before he repeated, "bite me."

Worst of all, Katsuki fucking knew that Shouto, while innocent and oblivious, was still damn strategic when he needed to be, always toeing that fucking line between unaware and cunning. Leaving him wondering.

"Shou-"

"Don't. Katsuki. I want - I need you to bite me, okay. If you don't want to, then I'm not forcing you, but I - I don't think I can do this by myself and I -"

Katsuki couldn't fucking take this.

"What the - how the hell are you not forcing me right fucking now?"

"Huh? I-"

"You're fucking - you know that I fucking need you to be safe and healthy and fucking - but you can't go around telling me that I'm the fucking variable here you ass! When I bite you I'm doing it because the time is right and because we're both fucking ready, not as the result of some damn blackmail scheme," the words left his mouth just as fast as they entered his head, and Bakugou couldn't help it. He knew that they were rough around the edges, weren't fucking soft and careful and sweet, but at least they were fucking true.

Were they?

Bakugou could tell that he was freaking out, couldn't help it.

But he definitely wasn't going to mark him for all the wrong fucking reasons, and Shouto sure as fuck didn't need to be marked for Katsuki to prove to him, that he'd give his fucking everything to protect his omega. The very fucking idea of it seemed absurd, stupid, brainless. Inexcusable, even though Bakugou fucking understood.

That was the worst part - Bakugou couldn't be entirely mad at him.

Fuck, how badly he wanted to be. Being mad at people was so much easier for him than this whole empathy business, still.

"Some blackmail scheme," Shouto repeated, with half a question mark at the end of it, tone rising slightly despite the dryness of the words, "You think that it's a blackmail scheme. When you're to one who just told me, I could ask for anything. But apparently that's not the right kind of anything to ask for, I take it."

Bakugou attempted another few seconds of calm breathing, closed his eyes. The seconds ticked by painfully slowly, each inhale strained and each exhale heavy. He knew that tone Shouto was using, that tone between hurt and bitterness, anger. And fuck if he didn't have the right to be angry. Bakugou felt just the same. That lava boiling deep inside his stomach was nearly impossible to keep from rising, because all this shit was driving him fucking insane.

Just knowing that Shouto was right to be terrified of things that could happen to him, as an unmated omega in the hero business, was so fucking wrong. It wasn't supposed to be like that. They had enough on their plate being heroes in training at this age, so why in the fucking world did the universe just have to add another layer of fucking bullshit on top of the danger and stress that was already present at all times.

No one was guarenteed safety.

And yet here he fucking was, wanting to promise it to Shouto, like some arrogant fucking clown. Like some character in those damn reality shows were omegas got pregnant at fifteen and some alpha had promised that their love would last forever and bitten them - only to fuck off once things got real.

He couldn't allow himself to fuck things up for them like that. They were too young, not even finished with school yet. Shouto was only getting used to his instincts bit by bit and Katsuki couldn't -

He couldn't make this decision. Not under pressure, not when his thoughts were all muddled by his emotions and his instincts.

He hated it with a fucking passion - the way things got all tangled up and uncertain when it came to this. Bakugou was the type to be clear about his morals, sometimes to the point of black and white thinking, even, but when it came to this?

He had no idea what the least shitty approach was. His instincts were all too fucking clear about it: ask the alpha inside him and that fucking idiot would fucking jump at the chance of getting to bite Shouto. But his morals were another fucking story. Because even if he wasn't a damn romantic, there had to be a better way of approaching this than acting out of fucking fear.

Right?

He wasn't going to be reckless and let Shouto regret his decision later, in whatever capacity.

"You doubt that I'll be able to protect you if I don't bite you. That it?" his mouth worked faster than his brain again, because his fucking brain was yelling at him not to let this escalate if he could help it. But not letting things escalate was so fucking hard sometimes, borderline impossible.

"Just tell me that you don't want to. As I said, I'm not going to force myself on -"

"Can you fucking stop it with the broken record shit? You fucking know that it's not like that."

"So what is it like?"

"It's fucking - ugh. You're giving me a damn headache."

"You're not going to bite me."

"Not like this."

Bakugou could practically feel it in his own chest as Shouto's entire demeanor changed at that. He knew that he'd fucked up royally when Shouto's eyes narrowed at him, only for all emotion to be washed right out of them when he wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. Just like that, Shouto gave him that blank fucking stare that was so damn well practiced.

"Alright. Then don't," Shouto said and turned away, not even really sparing the alpha a glance as he started walking.

The whiplash of it all had Bakugou stunned to the spot for a moment, and by the time he realised that Shouto had just decided to fucking march off, the classroom door was opening next to him. Then closing again. Next thing he knew, his legs were about to start moving just as Aizawa stopped him, actually grabbing him by the shoulder none too gently and turning him so that they faced each other. Bakugou growled in response, fired up with the urge to follow Shouto, try and somehow make any of this better - take back what he'd said, explain shit, whatever the fuck he needed to -

"Bakugou," Aizawa's voice was right between harsh and scolding and soft with concern. "What was that."

"What was fucking what?" he forced the words out, sounding the part of a pissed off teenager.

"Todoroki. What just happened with him? And since when do you think it is acceptable to just rush out of the room in the middle of class? You're both at the top of the class but that doesn't mean you get to-"

"It's pretty damn obvious that it was an emergency. Not like we went out of here for fun or whatever, Shou - Todoroki is not feeling well and I need to go and fucking look for him because who knows what the dumbass might -"

"Bakugou. It's admirable that you want to help, but I stand by what I said. This is no way of handling an emergency and I expect more from -"

Their eyes met at that, and Aizawa's face shifted into a different expression. He sighed. "Care to tell me what type of emergency we're talking about here?"

"Why the fuck are you asking me that? It's not my place to talk about his-"

"Bakugou. I'm asking you because I'm not blind. Whatever has been going on between you two is personal so long as it doesn't affect your school performance and behavior in class. I'm not just asking because I'm trying to pry, I'm asking because it's actually starting to worry me as well."

Bakugou wanted to scream.

Of fucking course Aizawa had to take that route and talk about how he was worried for them, and of course he was right to be worried, because all of it was way too fucking much to handle and yet, Bakugou couldn't break Shouto's trust and tell him.

"As a teacher and hero, I am trained in recognizing signs of distress in various secondary genders," Aizawa went on and it took a second or two for Bakugou's brain to catch up and for the realization to settle that this was not the direction this was supposed to take at fucking all. "And correct me if I'm wrong, but Todoroki's behavior just now was practically textbook behavior of an omega in distress. It didn't exactly help that you practically jumped out of your seat to try and rush after him and growled at me just now. So. You've got anything to say to that? Because I've had my doubts about it for a while."

Bakugou had fucking nothing left to say.

Not a fucking thing.

He wanted to punch a wall or punch himself or just fucking -

"What the fuck are you trying to imply?" he bit out, although he already fucking knew what was coming.

...

Shouto felt like crying. He felt like breaking down, screaming, setting things on fire - anything.

Anything but that impossible stillness that was slowly eating him up from the inside, leaving his ears ringing as he walked through the hallway without a clear destination. Emptiness - like a black hole was growing in his chest, sucking everything up. Part of him wanted to head right back to his room, another part wanted to wait for Katsuki to follow him, and yet another part felt sick at the idea of needing comfort again.

Lately, it felt as though being comforted was really the only thing that he was good at anymore. Good for.

And it was only getting worse.

He clenched his fist.

His stomach felt weird, his skin tingly. He ran his fingers across his arm, ended up pressing his arms close to his chest.

How in the world did he think that it was a good idea to ask Katsuki for that? To push Katsuki to the point of making a promise when all it really did was make the alpha feel like he didn't have a choice? About one of the most consequence-heavy decisions in life, no less. Being mated wasn't a joke, of course not. Shouto was sure that if he wasn't feeling quite as messy, he'd actually understand it far better, the alpha's thought process and the implications of what he was asking, at such a young age and such an uncertain time. But so far, his emotions felt like a wall in the way of understanding, making it impossible to grasp at the bigger picture.

All Shouto knew was this: his entire life was supposed to be turned upside down, and the one anchor he'd thought of for himself wasn't going to be anchoring him to security, because Katsuki wasn't going to bite him. Was going to be there for him and help, but not -

Not as a mate.

Not as his alpha.

Which was fine. It had to be fine. And yet still, Shouto had laid all of himself bare for him. He was pretty certain that there wasn't much more he could do in terms of conveying his terror and uncertainty.

It was unfair and Shouto knew, but the feeling was all too reminiscent of his childhood. Of how he used to break down, unable to handle the training thrown at him, how he'd break out in tears and could hardly breathe through his sobs, only for none of that to mean anything. Because his father never reacted, never listened.

If anything, his cries for help had only ever earned him more pain. And the one person who listened - his mother - used to promise, too. That she'd be there for him.

Only to be taken away.

Shouto knew that he couldn't live life like this. He couldn't continue to find parallels to his past in bits and pieces of every interaction, every fight or misunderstanding. And though he knew this, it didn't make it any easier for him to snap out of the doubts coursing through his head. It felt wrong, to even doubt any of it, because he had no desire to doubt Katsuki. Not at all - all the alpha had shown him so far was care, understanding and patience, even.

All things that had never come easily to Katsuki. He was trying. Clearly.

He wasn't rejecting Shouto.

He couldn't even say for sure if it was disappointment that he felt - the pain of it all was too abstract, clouding his sight. He didn't just want Katsuki to bite him to stave off the terror of something happening to him. Of course, that factored into it - how could it not - but the way Katsuki had made it sound, it seemed like the only reason Shouto considered it was to bind Katsuki to him as an eternal bodyguard.

Which couldn't be further from the truth.

Shouto wanted -

It was hard to say, really. He wanted those feelings that no one else could give him but Katsuki. But that sounded too simple, too selfish. It was still true though, that he was toeing the line between want and need, regarding the alpha. Maybe that was what had him feeling so utterly volatile lately. Shouto had always considered himself independent, self-sufficient. Confident in his abilities. How was he supposed to know, when he was asking for too much, when he was only just learning how to depend on someone else?

He wanted to be close to Katsuki though. He wanted to continue to see him grow, change and evolve, uncover more parts of himself with each challenge and struggle. He wanted to be helpful in that process, too, if he could.

But Shouto knew, that he wasn't making it any easier for the both of them by letting his fear and his instincts take a hold of the steering wheel.

Mostly, he wanted Katsuki to know that this wasn't about using him as a personal safety blanket, which made it all the more terrifying to recognize that maybe he was treating him like one, was forcing him to -

Shouto recognized the familiar voices of his classmates come closer, only for him to blink at his surroundings.

Oh.

So much for not knowing where he was heading. He wasn't sure how long he'd been lost in thoughts, sitting in the far corner of the hallway, eyes out of focus, practically looking though the blueish grey floor.

Shouto stood up with every intention to head to his room now and preferably stay holed up in there for the next few hours, when -

"Todoroki," Midoriya's voice rang through the hallway, softened, as though attempting not to startle him. Truthfully, it didn't work. Simply hearing his name was enough to let his heart skip a beat as the memory of class just now came rushing back, along with the scene that took place after it. Shouto did his best to keep himself from repeating the same mistake and letting out a distressed noise, but apparently he wasn't quite as calm and collected as he wanted to be.

It was a struggle, to force an expression of indifference on his face as Midoriya came jogging towards him.

"Are you okay? You seemed pretty out of it in class and I wasn't - oh. Here. Your backpack, I brought it because you left your stuff at your desk."

Shouto nodded at him, keeping his eyes on his backpack as though it was utterly interesting. "Thank you. I am fine actually, just a little - ah."

He wasn't sure what to say, tired? Out of it? Beside himself? All of those sounded like they would warrant further explanation and it didn't help that Midoriya was blinking at him with his large green eyes, with this particular shade of concern filling them up.

At least he didn't feel like he was going to burst into tears again, but breathing did come a little harder as he noticed their entire friend group at a little distance, very obviously trying not to disturb their conversation by coming too close.

Shouto wouldn't say that he was easily embarrassed, or at least not often, but a certain shade of embarrassment seemed to make a home in his chest as he thought about how odd his behavior must seem from the outside.

Concerning, maybe, but embarrassing, too.

He could only imagine what would happen if his father ever heard of such an instance as him rushing out of class during a minor panic attack. Though Shouto couldn't say how minor it was - even if he tried, he couldn't exactly recall how bad all the others in his life had been in comparison. Or how -

"Todo - Shouto?"

"Yes?"

"Aizawa told me to send you to him if I ran into you. But you look a little bit out of it. So maybe you should go Recovery Girl instead and let her check on you?" Midoriya suggested. Shouto shook his head. It made sense that Aizawa wanted to talk to him. He'd just ran out of class after all.

There had to be some sort of consequence.

"I'm okay," Shouto said, "I'll go see him. Thanks for bringing my backpack."

For a moment, it seemed as though Midoriya was going to say something more, but then he pressed his lips together instead, nodding.

Shouto watched in mild astonishment as he placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing a little.

"Don't worry. It won't be that bad, you know Aizawa likes to act scary but he's really just a little worried, I think."

"Yeah," Shouto agreed, throwing his backpack over his shoulder and waving at the others as he passed them by, heading to the teacher's office. On the way there, his eyes kept drifting around, looking to catch a glimpse of Bakugou so he could apologize quickly before talking to the teacher, but there was no sign of the blonde to be seen anywhere, so he ended up in front of the office door and knocking on it all too quickly.

"Yes?"

"It's me," Shouto announced, "Midoriya said that you wanted to speak to me."

The door in front of him opened, only for Aizawa to give him a particularly piercing stare through tired, reddish eyes. Shouto nearly took a step backwards, but the intensity of the look thankfully faded a second later. Shouto took a breath in. "I apologize for my behavior in class. It was uncalled for and I shouldn't have -"

"Todoroki. We're not talking like this. Come in here and have a seat. Bakugou is here too, but I'll tell him to leave if you'd rather speak to me alone."

"Speak to you a-uh," Shouto repeated, his eyes meeting Katsuki's as Aizawa took a step to the side to let him enter the room. "Hey," he added, feeling a little lost. The alpha nodded at him and Shouto walked up to the free chair right beside him, then sat down. Something about the atmosphere in the room, the look on Katsuki's face, seemed off. But Shouto found it hard to explain to himself what exactly and why it felt that way. He'd gone through this before, being called here and given a talking to after he did reckless things with his classmates.

It wasn't something new, not really.

So why was this sense of dread growing in his chest?

He watched as Aizawa sat down at his desk, resting his arms on it and his head on his hands, looking back at him. They stayed silent for a long moment and Shouto felt like shifting a little closer to the alpha next to him, but he kept himself still.

"How have you been feeling?" Aizawa began.

Shouto looked at him, then back at Katsuki, eyes searching for something. A clue. He felt off, weirdly agitated, not all here. His throat felt tight with nervous anticipation as he spoke, "I've been feeling okay."

"Have you?"

Shouto nodded. He wanted to get out of here, didn't want to talk. He wanted to bury himself in his nest. In fact, he wanted Katsuki in his nest with him, wanted Katsuki's hands on him, wanted them to be doing all sorts of things that were nicer than talking and thinking.

"As your teacher, it is my duty to ensure that you perform well in class first and foremost, as you know. But beyond that, it is my duty to look out for you. All of you. So please do not consider it an attack when I'm asking you this: have you been honest about your medical history to me? "

"Medical history?" Shouto repeated, keeping up the eye contact.

Aizawa nodded.

"I am not sick," he replied, truthfully. He wasn't. So whatever their teacher apparently assumed was wrong with him, it really wasn't -

"Specifically, as it relates to your secondary gender."

"My-" Shouto began, but stopped there. The words refused to pass through his lips, heavy and sour as he slowly turned towards Katsuki, realization sinking in all too slowly although it felt like his brain was working too fast, firing out impulses that made no sense. It couldn't be. Katsuki wouldn't -

"I don't know what you're talking about," Shouto lied, but the words lacked the conviction that he'd hoped they would carry. The lie sounded useless, meaningless. Like a sad attempt at fixing something that was beyond repair.