Chapter Text
It was needless to say that Midoriya and Bakugou had one of the most complex relationships possibly in the entire school of UA. The other students of class 1-A took note of this and pointedly did not stick their noses into that, not wanting to get blown up or worse. Though sometimes Kaminari would pester Bakugou about it, and those times was when Bakugou would grow quiet and ignore him for a week.
The select few who knew about their past, Kirishima, Todoroki, and Uraraka, also minded their business. They got to experience different perspectives though, Todoroki silently absorbed as Bakugou pushed Midoriya away. Uraraka watched as Midoriya still harbored some of his skittish traits around the blonde.
And Kirishima experienced Bakugou’s regret.
It took a long while in their relationship for Bakugou to build up his trust and take down his walls to actually let Kirishima know about it. And even then his responses were short and not very informational. Dating Bakugou, Kirishima had learned to read between the lines.
Bakugou wasn’t ready to say sorry now, maybe he never would, his pride got in the way too much to allow that. But Midoriya and Kirishima understood in his silent actions, with the way he tried not to raise his arms around Midoriya anymore or how he avoided talking to him.
Though Midoriya didn’t want to just avoid Bakugou for the rest of his life, he wanted to mend their friendship and make it a real one this time.
So he would start in baby steps.
“Hey, mom!” Midoriya called, setting his backpack down. He had returned to his Mothers apartment for the weekend.
“Welcome!” Inko called from the kitchen “how was your week?”
“It was good!” Izuku replied, a smile splitting his freckled face “Kacchan is coming over for dinner tonight!’
“Wha-” The sound of a pan crashing to the floor could be heard.
Bakugou eyed the new message on his phone apprehensive, scoffing at Deku’s contact. He had blocked him but recently unblocked him, yet every week the other had not failed to invite him over for dinner.
And every week he had declined.
Eijiro’s words echoed in his head “making amends is probably too much for you right now, but you can slowly start to befriend him, take baby steps.”
So here Katsuki was, gritting his teeth and typing out a reply instead of ignoring Deku like normal.
Bakugou: ‘Be there tonight at six o’clock sharp, don’t let auntie Inko even touch the stove ill do the cooking.’
Bakugou smirked, imagining the nerd's face as the typing box appeared then disappeared multiple times.
Nerd: ‘Of course!!”
Bakugou left him on read and set down his phone to ponder over his life choices.
From next to him, Kirishima snorted “You look like you just had a conversation with your mom.”
“It was worse than that,” Bakugou said flatly, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Kirishima’s eyebrows rose to his hairline “You were talking to Midoriya?”
Bakugou didn’t respond, but his boyfriend pressed more “what was that about?”
“He asked me to have dinner at his place like he always does.”
“...and?”
“And I said yes” Katsuki spat, choosing not to see the smug smirk on Kirishima’s face as he leaned over their study table in Bakugou’s room.
“You’re taking my advice?”
Bakugou swiftly threw a pillow right at the smug bastard's face, gritting his teeth “don’t get all weird about it, just shut the hell up.”
Despite Bakuogu’s harsh words, Kirishima smiled sweetly “I’m proud of you.”
Bakugou flushed, throwing another pillow at him.
“Katsuki! Come in!” Inko shouted excitedly, pulling Bakugou into a hug even though she was a whole head and a half shorter than him. Despite that, he hadn’t seen the woman in a long time, and instead of tensing up in her hold, he looped his arms around her.
“Hey Auntie Inko, it’s been a while.”
She pulled away, jutting a finger to his chest, a frown tugging at her lips. “You need to visit more, I worry for you every day!”
Bakugou grumbled, looking to the tiled floor, momentarily feeling a stab of guilt. He had missed Inko more than he realized.
Then Inko dropped her hands to her side, a smile returning to her face “enough of the guilt trip, dinners getting started-“
Bakugou’s head whipped to Midoriya, who stood in the corner and watched their interaction silently. “I told you to tell her I would cook dammit!”
Instead of cowering Midoriya shrugged “she really wanted to cook.”
Bakugou liked it when Midoriya didn’t cower, it allowed him not to look down on him and get sick satisfaction like he once did.
Before Bakugou could open his mouth to curse him out, Inko grabbed his elbow in a surprisingly strong grip. “Come on, you can help me, and Izuku,” she shot a look at her kid “please don’t step into the kitchen anymore, you’re banned after last time. Make the table please.”
Midoriya flushed and immediately turned to do what he was asked.
Bakugou huffed out a laugh, he wondered what that was about.
“I’ll tell you how Izuku blew up the microwave while we prepare the meal,” the woman said as if reading Bakugou's mind.
Bakugou snorted, running the faucet to wash his hands. “You better.”
He didn’t know at the time, but visiting the Midoriyas for dinner would become a weekly ritual.
After that their odd… friendship? Shifted again as it had been doing over the school years, but this time it was for the better.
While Bakugou was still aggressive, that would never change, he stopped specifically targeting Deku. And even if he hated him, Bakugou wouldn’t sell out the secret of one for all either.
While Bakugou had calmed down ever so slightly towards the others rambling, Midoriya had reached out more.
Of course, they weren’t the only ones to realize the shift in their dynamic. The three observers took note of it, and even the UA staff- namely Aizawa- jumped for joy when their arguments no longer destroyed whole training facilities.
This called for a 'Bakugou and Midoriya get along squad' meeting. Aizawa was the president, and Iida was the Vice President. They met every Friday to determine ways to get the two to stop depleting their budget through their property-destroying arguments.
“This is a huge leap for mankind,” Iida announced, Aizawa lay still in his sleeping bag but was listening intently. “While the two of them still argue, the peace remains undisturbed.”
Momo raised her hand “how could this have happened? Don’t misunderstand me, I am glad the two are sorting out their ill feelings, but at the beginning of last year, they nearly killed each other. Multiple times.”
“I agree,” Tsuyu chimed in, the other residents of the club nodding. “There has to be another factor at play here.”
“The other factor is Midoriya’s mom,” Kirishima blurted, but quickly put a hand over his mouth at the shocked looks his classmates gave him. “Hehe...let me rephrase that.”
Iida nodded slowly, “please do.”
“Well I don't want to say too much about it because it's Katsuki’s business, but Midoriya’s mom is super nice to him and invited him to dinner every weekend… I think they did this when they were kids but just haven't in a long time.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” Uraraka chirped, a big smile on her face. “Family meals always bring people together! Even if it’s the two most dysfunctional people we know!”
“Yes, the power of family prevails!” Iida pumped his fist, then spared a glance over to Todoroki. “Sorry, Todoroki.”
The other student shrugged.
“We should not look a gift horse in the mouth,” Aizawa finally said “we will let them continue to leave us alone and mind our own business. And if they end up holding hands and skipping into the sunset then the more satisfying for us.”
Kirishima snorted, falling into a fit of giggles at the absurd image of his boyfriend even touching Midoriya’s hand. Oh, his face would be priceless.
The meeting continued with relative ease, Kaminari and Kirishima laughing in the back until finally, Iida cleared his throat. “I believe that this meeting is over, you are dismissed, thank you for attending.”
The occupants of the room stood up, it was about a third of class 1-A, the students that desperately wanted the two to stop arguing.
Well, and Mineta.
“Why are you here anyway?” Kaminari asked, slugging his bag over his shoulder.
Mineta shrugged “I dunno, I needed the club credit.”
“I-” Kaminari gaped “Wait, this is an official club?”
“So, how is Midoriya doing?” Kirishima asked on their walk back to the dorms. It was a bright Monday, months into the Bakugou and Midoriya cease-fire.
“Hah?” Bakugou huffed “how would I know?”
Eijiro kicked a rock on their path back to Bakugou, who kicked it right back. “Well he wasn’t at school today, I figured you would know why.”
Katsuki pulled his phone from his pocket, he didn’t normally check it throughout the day as most other students did. Kirishima always nagged at him for his bad habit of never answering text messages. His carmine eyes scanned over the screen, “It looks like he fuckn’ found a stray cat on the streets on his way to UA or somethin’”
“Oh!” Kirishima perked up, nearly tripping over the rock Katsuki had kicked to him, “So he stayed home to care for it? How nice!”
Bakugou rolled his eyes “It’s stupid, that's what it is. Wasting school time on some stupid animal.”
“It’s sweet, Kat. Maybe you can learn from him,” Kirishima winked, and Bakugou bristled at the teasing.
Bakugou ended up walking to Midoriya’s house after that, a bag from the supermarket in hand. He didn’t even knock on the apartment door, they always left it unlocked. Bakugou had always got onto them for leaving it unlocked, but they always waved him off, saying that no one would try anything.
Inko claimed that he and Midoriya were like her personal guard dogs, and Bakugou would in fact willingly play that role if he had to.
It felt strange to just walk into the Midoriya’s residence as if it were a completely normal thing, there was something strangely nostalgic about it. Bakugou wasn’t one to soak up feelings such as that, but for once he would allow himself.
After a moment he slipped off his shoes and proceeded further into the apartment, though now that he was focusing the atmosphere of the apartment seemed wrong. The hairs on his arms stood on end, “Auntie Inko? Nerd? Are ya here?”
No response.
Bakugou dropped his bag as he entered the living space. It was in shambles, couch cushions shredded and curtains ripped from their loops. His heart dropped, a fiery feeling festered in his gut as his body lunged forward to the back hallway.
He wildly opened the doors, eyes scanning over the rooms. The computer room where Deku had watched that damn All Might documentary with him over and over again, the bathroom where they had drawn on the mirror with Inko’s lipstick. (If Bakugou squinted then the stains were still there.)
He finally came upon Deku’s room, not hesitating before flinging open the door. His heart rate spiked, he had just gotten to know Deku after those years of torturing him, blindsided by his own ego. He was just starting to return to the dynamic he, Deku, and Auntie Inko use to have, nothing could happen to them-
Deku’s room was a mess, sheets torn off of the bed and scratch marks in the wallpaper. “Izuk-” Bakugou stopped in his tracks, eyes landing on the bed. His shoulders lost their tension when he spotted Deku on it, sleeping with that damn cat he found earlier on his chest.
Bakugou took a moment to reassess, moving back to the living room while angrily grumbling. That damn cat must have rampaged the whole apartment while Deku was sleeping. Bakugou put the bag from the supermarket onto the counter, the cat supplies spilled out of it.
He snatched the note from the refrigerator, written in aunt Inko’s delicate handwriting ‘Working another shift, dinners in the microwave.’
Bakugou crushed, crumpling up the note and throwing it in the trash can. If Inko was working a long shift then she would definitely not appreciate coming back to a messy apartment.
“Alright,” Bakugo drew a long breath in before yelling, “DEKU, GET THE HELL UP WE HAVE CLEANING TO DO!”
Midoriya promptly screamed from the other room.
“You know,” Bakugou started while chopping up the onion, eyes not tearing up.”I thought the shitty nerd was kidnapped or something.”
Kirishima almost dropped the dish he was cleaning “What now? When was this?” He reached over Bakugou for the rag to wash off the dish.
“Yesterday, I went over to Deku’s to… I got stuff for his shitty cat.” Bakugou admitted, smacking Kirishima when he smirked dopily. “And his house was all fucked up, turns out he was just passed out and the cat ransacked the place.”
“Ah,” Kirishima nodded, “the stray cat must have been spooked. Were you scared?”
Bakugou scoffed, “of course not.” He wasn’t scared… just on edge. Eijiro eyed him as he set the cup down, it was just them in the UA kitchen, the others had left them to watch a movie. Kirishima wasn’t afraid to question him.
“I know when you’re lying, Kat.”
Bakugou scowled “I don't know what you’re talking about. My heart rate only increased a bit, that's it.” Kirishima watched as Katsuki’s eyes scanned over the room before he spoke again “It just made me question shit.”
“What kind of shit?”
Bakugou had a white knuckle grip on the knife but loosened it to hold onto the edge of the counter so he didn’t punch anything. Kirishima waited patiently, continuing to wash the dishes and keeping his eyes off of his boyfriend. Sometimes in these situations, they would sit in silence and Katsuki would lose his nerve and silently say ‘nevermind.’
But apparently this time he wanted to spit out whatever was on his mind.
“I thought they were gone,” he murmured, volume steadily increasing as he went on. “Just as I was fucking trying, redeeming myself and getting old things back to normal, I thought it had all been- been fucked up!” He hissed between his teeth, veins in his hands popping. Kirishima realized how hard it must have been for him to admit this.
Bakugou pushed forwards “I guess it just realized that- that I may be running out of time to fucking tell him. What if one day we just fucking get caught in another villain attack and he thinks I’m still that same fucking bully from middle school-”
“Whoa whoa whoa, Kat,” Kirishima interjected, keeping a firm grasp on his shoulders. “You’re spiraling right now, deep breaths.”
Eijiro frowned, it made sense that Bakugou’s thoughts were getting on his nerves, but he hadn’t been this way in a while. His paranoia was returning to him, no doubt thinking about the league of villains and his kidnapping. And his new strain of having to struggle with himself over his guilt, well, it was bound to happen.
“Listen to me,” Kirishima said firmly, “Midoriya doesn't blame you, I'm sure he knows how you feel. And the villains,” Eijiro continued “I know we've been attacked before, but we’re still here and we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Bakugou didn’t say anything else, nodding slightly before turning his back to the redhead and returning to cutting the onions.
“...Thanks Ei.”
“Anytime.”
It was the asscrack of dawn when Bakugou was awoken to shuffling noises in his room. He immediately sprung into wakefulness, eyes adjusting to the dim lighting as he frantically scanned the room.
“Kacchan, it’s okay it’s only me,” his lamplight flickered on and Deku stared down at him eerily. Bakugou jumped, ignoring when the nerd laughed at him.
“Aw, fuck you,” Katsuki groaned, “why in the hell did you break into my dorm at…” He glanced at his alarm clock “One in the morning?”
Midoriya looked down, lips twitching “You see…”
Bakugou groaned even more, “what the fuck did you do this time?”
Deku laughed nervously and Bakugou simply glared at him from his bed “this better be good, why were you sneaking around here?” He wasn't angry, more annoyed. Deku could have at least snuck around fucking quieter so that his sleep wasn’t interrupted.
“....I was looking for your med kit?”
“My wha-” Bakugou shook the sleep from his head “First of all, why do you even need mine? And second, where the fuck did yours go?” Everyone in the UA dorms had medical kits in their dorms.
“I ran out of supplies in mine,” Deku said simply looking at him with large eyes. Bakugou wanted to roll his eyes, of course he had already run out of supplies, he got hurt every other week.
Bakugou grunted, slinging the blankets off of his legs to get up from his bed “sit,” he ordered, Deku immediately plopped down onto his desk-side chair.
Bakugou stretched before bending down and yanking open his bottom drawer, pulling out the medical kit. He set it on the desk and held a hand out to Deku, raising an eyebrow.
Midoriya stared at it in shock “Oh, you don’t have to-”
Bakugou narrowed his eyes, “Hand. Now.”
Midoriya clamped his mouth shut, lips drawn in a thin line as he slowly raised his hand to let Bakugou see it. His scarlet eyes analyzed the knuckle injuries, shaking his head in disapproval as he took Midoriya’s wrist to clean it. “How in the fuck did this happen shitty nerd?”
“I was training-”
“No, you weren’t. I’ve known you for too fucking long to know when you’re lying.”
Midoriya nodded a smile on his face despite being chided “You’re right Kacchan. I was training, but that's not how I got injured. I went to the convenience store for some water and there was another teen there with some kind of weapon on him. H-he was threatening a girl and my body acted on its own…”
Well, the rest was self-explanatory. Bakugou observed the injury “when you punched him in the face, you didn't use your quirk?”
Deku shook his head, wincing slightly when Bakugou started to wrap the bandages around his mangled knuckles. “I didn’t want to hurt him too much.”
“Dammit, you could have gotten hurt though!” Katsuki growled, “you can’t just keep saving everyone, think before you do things!”
When Katsuki looked up from the others hand he realized that he had probably said too much, because Deku’s eyes were practically watering. “You do care!”
Bakugou could practically see the rainbows and flowers emitting from the nerd, so he was quick to shut it down. “You just can’t keep being a self-sacrificing bastard, you'll end up dead in a ditch or something.”
Midoriya snorted “That’s pretty hypocritical Kacchan.”
Bakugou squeezed down on Daku’s injuries, making him jolt back “fine, I take it back! Jeez!” He cradled his hand.
Katsuki smirked… Though he did suppose that the nerd had a point. By calling him out he was calling the both of them out. Whatever, it was fine with him as long as he dragged Deku down with him.
“Your hand will be fine, now scram and let me get the hell back to sleep. And don’t come crawling back to me with another injury.”
Midoriya smiled appreciatively “I won’t, thanks Kacchan!”
Bakugou rolled his eyes, he supposed the damn nerd was becoming a little more tolerable.
To say that Izuku was ecstatic was an understatement. The relationship he had been struggling to build with Kacchan was finally taking root, and months later after Kacchan finally started facing his flaws, Midoriya could finally claim that they had… sort of a brother relationship.
A shaky one where they argued every chance they could, but significantly better compared to what it once was. His mom was overjoyed to see his face more too, and it was nice to see her happy.
Of course, they still had their moments where they got into arguments and didn’t talk for a week, but after that, they would push forward. Midoriya knew that Bakugou still harbored many regrets, but his pride was too much in the way to say anything about it.
A lot of things went unsaid, but Midoriya was okay with that.
He just didn’t expect the explosive blonde to actually… address his issues. And he most definitely did not expect their situations to be reversed.
This time Midoriya was the one to be woken up at one AM to shuffling in his room. He immediately sat up ramrod straight, shaky hands reaching for his lamp switch,”H-hello?” he called out “ghost?”
Then the light flooded the room, revealing none other than Bakugou.
Midoriya blinked “Oh. It’s you.”
“Go back to sleep,” Bakugou said, his voice sounded hoarse, “this is all a dream, you never saw me.”
Midoriya was tempted to take the offer, to hide back under the comfort of his blankets, but the strange look in Bakugou’s eyes stopped him. “Something happened.”
Bakugou snorted, “Yea, no shit.”
“Alright,” Izuku shrugged, wrapping the blanket back around him, “I’ll go back to slee-”
“Wait,” Katsuki stopped him, “where is your medical kit?”
“...Top drawer… What happened to yours?”
Bakugou shrugged again “dunno, thought that you stole it or some shit.”
While Izuku had borrowed some of the bandages, he didn’t take the whole kit. Meaning that Bakugou was here for more than just medical attention, though Midoriya knew his roundabout ways of handling things, so he didn’t press.
Izuku watched silently as Bakugou sat down on his chair, glaring at his blistered palms as he slathered ointment on them. He had obviously been sparking off explosions for a while now, and at that exhausted look of exhaustion in his eyes, Midoriya felt the urge to just go to sleep by looking at them.
“How long can you pop off explosions?” Izuku asked, disrupting their silence.
‘How long were you at it for?’
“A couple of hours.”
‘More than a couple of hours.’
There were always hidden meanings behind every word they uttered to each other.
Midoriya would ask what happened, but he already had a good idea by Katsuki’s stiff posture and the eyebags under his red-rimmed eyes. He probably had another bad night and went to blow off some steam.
Izuku wanted to chuckle at the irony, so he did. Bakugou’s head whipped over to him “why the fuck are you laughing?”
“I-i’m sorry Kacchan,” Izuku reigned in his laughing fit, “It’s just, we're both messes, coming to each other's dorms all bloody.”
Katsuki scowled “don’t lug me in with you. At least I don't get hurt attacking random people.”
“Kacchan he was bothering someone, and you aren’t much better, hurting yourself purposefully.”
‘Hurting yourself because you can’t find a good coping mechanism.’
Though Bakugou seemed to understand the hidden message, tensing up. If he was a dog then his ears would be flat and his teeth would be barred threateningly. “At least I don't willingly throw myself out there for others.”
And oh, Izuku could practically smell the oncoming argument looming over them. He sighed, putting his hands up, “we’re both bad, I know. Let’s save this argument for some time else, preferably when the sun's out.”
Bakugou seemed to agree because he ripped the roll of bandage with his teeth, placing it back into the medical kit. They seemed more prone to scuffles now, maybe because Midoriya had grown a backbone and they both stood for what they believed in. But they were healthy arguments, something that they both seemed to recognize.
They both had things to work through, but they knew that it would never get as bad as things were in middle school. In fact, that felt worlds away from where they were right now.
Bakugou silently got up to his feet, shuffling to the door, though he stopped slightly with a slight tilt of his head before exiting.
And Midoriya beamed once he got the silent message.
‘Sorry.’
Though the words may never be vocalized, Midoriya knew that they existed between them.