back atcha with the awful chapter titles! by now you're surely used to it, so after this i'll stop saying it xD

and sorry for a late-in-the-day update D:

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Kirishima

November was already in full swing when the following Thursday rolled around. Mornings were becoming exceptionally cooler and already talk of the winter holidays was popping up everywhere. Kirishima was quick to find out how grumpy the increasing cold made his roommate, but he couldn't help but find the grumpy complaints—as they walked to the main school building together, Bakugou's hand stuffed in his pockets with his shoulders hunched and his face twisted up in irritation—kind of adorable.

"Alright, 'm ready for summer to come back," he muttered. "Four days in a row of this shit and I'm done. Why the fuck can't humans hibernate like bears or someshit?"

"I dunno, dude. 'S not that bad, though. Maybe it'll actually snow this year," Kirishima said thoughtfully, gazing upward at the slightly overcast sky.

"Oh, fuck no. Not unless there's a snow day and they cancel school. But shitty boarding schools don't have snow days, do they?"

"Sadly, no," sighed the redhead. "Definitely somethin' I miss about not living on campus. Unless, ya know, there's a snowstorm big enough to knock out the power or something, but you know how it is here... that rarely happens."

"If you fuckin' jinxed it I'm gonna kill you," Bakugou was saying just as a breathless Kaminari jogged up from around the boys' dorm where Kirishima and Bakugou were just about to do the same toward the main school building.

"Guys!" he huffed. "Glad I found you. School's canceled today."

Immediately Bakugou perked up just slightly. "What?"

"A pipe burst in one of the girls' bathrooms," he explained. "I heard that half that hallway is flooded."

"From who?" Kirishima asked suspiciously.

"Sero."

"Got it. So 's probably bullshit," Bakugou muttered, his short-lived hope deflating as he hunched his shoulders again in clear annoyance.

"I mean the part about the hallway being flooded might be, but a pipe definitely burst, and school is definitely canceled for today. Probably for tomorrow, too."

"Wait, seriously?" Kirishima asked.

"Yup. There are signs posted all over and everything. They probably sent out a schoolwide email, too, and everybody's headed back to their dorms. Bet they'll probably make an announcement about it soon."

"The fuck? You sayin' I got out of bed early on this shitty, cold-ass morning for nothing?" Bakugou said.

"Guess so, man."

"Damn. Oh well, I guess," Kirishima said with a shrug. "You guys wanna hang out in the game room or something then?"

"I would, but me and Kyouka are gonna take advantage of the day off and hang out by ourselves," Kaminari said with a somewhat mischievous grin. "You could probably find Sero and Mina somewhere if you wanted, though."

"Fuck that," Bakugou was saying, already turned around and heading back toward the door they'd recently come out of. "I'm going the fuck back to bed."

"Dang, dude's grumpy in the mornings, huh?" Kaminari said, gazing over Kirishima's shoulder after him.

"Yep," Kirishima said with his usual smile—one that Kaminari mirrored with even more mischief in his eyes.

"You're getting it pretty bad for him, huh?" He sent a fist toward the redhead's shoulder. "You're always smiling when he's around."

"I dunno..." Kirishima scratched at the back of his neck, eyes dropping down to Kaminari's feet as he hoped the heat he felt creeping up his neck wasn't visible. "I really do like him, but I don't wanna jump into anything too fast."

"Gotcha. But you know he seems to have a thing for you too, right?"

Just like that, Kirishima's eyes snapped right back up to his friend's. "Wait, what? Whattaya mean? How d'you know?"

Kaminari laughed. "Dude! Are you blind? Have you seen the way he looks at you?"

"What?! No! The hell are you talking about?" Kirishima wanted to shake Kaminari's damn shoulders to get answers out of him faster. His heart had skipped and kicked into overdrive, and by then he was sure the tips of his ears were flaming (though he hoped Kaminari would just chalk it up to being because of the cold).

"Me and the others were talking about it the other day after the Halloween party, dude. It's not like he looks at you exactly the same way you look at him, but he definitely looks at you differently than he does any of us. And acts differently when he's talking to you as opposed to us."

"How... how do I look at him?" Kirishima felt himself growing desperate, a flurry of confusion, excitement, and slight fear whipping around within him, his stomach tight and his fingers curling into anxious fists.

"Maybe it's just 'cause we know you like him, but your eyes are like, bigger and brighter, y'know? And like I said, you smile a lot when he's around. He doesn't smile so much obviously, but I dunno, there's somethin' softer about him when he's talking to you. At least that's how Mina described it."

Kirishima blinked at him a few times, trying to wrap his head around all of this. Did Bakugou really look at him differently? Talk to him differently? Did he?

"Also we're pretty sure he only went to the Halloween party 'cause you asked him to. Midoriya said that he was super set on not going whenever him and his friends tried to get him to, but he didn't even hesitate when you were the one who asked if he was going."

"When did you talk to Midoriya about it?"

"We ran into him in the gym while you and Bakugou went to eat," explained Kaminari. "He was like 'How'd you get Bakugou to go?' Well, actually he called him by that weird nickname he has for him... but we just told him that you asked him if he was going and he said yeah, and then he told us that. And lemme tell you, Mina was seriously freaking out about it 'cause she was the one who pointed out the fact that he looks and acts differently around you in the first place."

Kirishima's head felt like it was about to pop right off of his shoulders. "Um... wow," was all he managed to mumble, causing Kaminari to laugh and clap a hand onto his shoulder.

"Man, I can't believe you're that oblivious to it! But hey, maybe don't read quite too much into it just yet, okay? Wait and see how he reacts to all those memes you've been sending him," Kaminari said with a wink. "I don't want you to get your hopes up right away only to be disappointed, ya know?"

"Right..." Kirishima mumbled. "Thanks, man."

"No prob! Anyway, have fun on your day off. Kyouka's waiting for me so I gotta go. Maybe we'll catch you later for dinner or something, okay?"

"Sure. See ya, Kami."

"Later, Kiri!" Kaminari called over his shoulder as he was already jogging away.

Kirishima made his way back to his room in somewhat of a haze, only having so long to try and wrap his head around everything his friend had just hit him with in such a short amount of time with no warning. And of course because the one they'd been talking about was in the room, he wouldn't have time right away to sit and ponder for a while—not without being questioned, anyway.

Bakugou looked like he'd done nothing more than change back into his flannel pajama pants and fling himself onto his bed without even burrito-ing himself in his blankets as he'd been doing for the past several chillier nights. He wasn't asleep, though, and had rolled over as soon as he heard the door open.

"The fuck took you so long?" he mumbled with half-lidded eyes.

"Just talkin' to Kaminari for a minute," Kirishima told him. "Hey so, um, are you really gonna go back to sleep?" he asked.

The blonde huffed out a long sigh, his eyes shutting. "Probably not," he grumbled. "Now that 'm all awake and shit."

"You... wanna maybe go get some breakfast or something, then?" Kirishima asked as he let his backpack slip to the floor beside his bed.

Bakugou sighed as he sat up. "Yeah. Might as well."

Kirishima was on high alert throughout the entire meal, finding himself looking for signs of everything Kaminari had told him. Really, though, he couldn't see how Bakugou looked or spoke to him 'differently'. He was his normal self. Sure he made eye contact a lot, but that was what you did when having a conversation. His eyes were their normal, piercing, alluring crimson—that breathtaking color that had easily become Kirishima's favorite in the past couple of months. While his tone of voice wasn't hard or on the verge of being a growl as it sometimes had the tendency to resemble, it wasn't particularly soft, either. It was just... his normal, smooth Bakugou voice that Kirishima had already decided was probably his favorite. Ever.

He was just... Bakugou. The same Bakugou that Kirishima knew every day. The one who's sleepy, grumpy, just-woke-up voice made every one of his mornings. The one who found the silliest reasons to be irritated only to get over it just minutes later. The one who complained about homework but did it anyway, and had so many cool stories to tell and things to talk about. The one who embraced the term 'lazy teenager,' holding himself in a slumped position more often than not, took naps in the middle of the afternoon, and was constantly on his phone in his spare time. The one who had to have perfectly smudged eyeliner, whose hair was in a different disheveled array every day, whose lips were soft and pink and just the right shape, who was tall and lean and perfectly muscular...

He was freaking Bakugou—the one Kirishima really freaking enjoyed spending time with, even if they weren't doing anything special. The one Kirishima really fucking liked.

But he found no difference in the way the blonde acted. He needed some sort of comparison—just remembering the way his roommate talked and acted around anybody else wasn't enough. He needed to see it happening in front of him, knowing now what all of his friends seemed to have picked up on that he hadn't.

But for that day, he was doomed to not knowing. It was as if as soon as they found out school was canceled for the day, everyone he knew had made other plans, which left him and Bakugou alone in their room together once again, and the redhead did his best to remain as normal as possible in spite of the questions swirling around his mind.

"So whatcha wanna do, man?" he asked, plopping himself onto his bed.

"I don't fucking know," sighed the blonde, doing the same. "The lounge and shit are probably packed full of people since school's canceled, so fuck that."

"True," Kirishima agreed. "And I dunno about you, but for once I actually don't even have any homework I gotta get done."

"I do, but again, fuck that."

"Aw c'mon, man, you're trying to graduate right? Might as well get it done while you have some extra time. I'll help you if ya want... as long as it's not chemistry or somethin'. I suck ass at chemistry."

"Fuck no. Why would I take chemistry? I'm not a nerd. 'S just some worksheet bullshit from my history class."

"History's not so bad. I'm pretty good at bullshitting answers if ya need, too," he offered.

"What's this, some kinda shitty, goody two-shoes peer pressure?" muttered the blonde. "Fuckin' fine, but since you're making me do this shit I'm not letting you get out of helping now." He reached for his backpack and yanked the zipper open.

Kirishima found an easy grin as he moved onto the floor between their beds, the space they usually used to study and do homework together. With that grumpy frown Kirishima had found almost endearing since the beginning, Bakugou too slumped to the floor before yanking his books out and tossed them onto the floor between them with little care.

It turned out that Bakugou hadn't even started the homework, though Kirishima would've been more shocked if he had. Not only that, but the damn thing was due that day.

"Looks like you lucked out with the day off, man," the redhead said as he was looking at the due date printed at the top of the paper just beneath the directions.

"Like it would've mattered," Bakugou muttered. "Never even planned on doing this shit in the first place."

Kirishima shook his head in disapproval.

"What?" Bakugou half snapped.

"You want that bike, don't you?" Kirishima asked. "And to get the hell out of here sooner than later?"

"Obviously," huffed the blonde, looking away as he clearly already knew what Kirishima was getting at. "Whatever. Let's just do the stupid homework already."

As was usual for study time, Kirishima put on soft music for background noise as they worked. Eventually he ended up moving across the small space to sit beside the blonde to better see the paper and textbook side by side, and even then they were still googling as many answers as they could among questions not readily available in the book.

"Damn, so you're willing to cheat too?" Bakugou had asked the first time the redhead whipped his phone out and pulled up Google.

"'S not cheating if it's just homework, right?" Kirishima had asked. "It's not like your teacher will know anyway, and you can learn a lot from Google. What else is technology for?"

"You mean other than all your damn memes?"

"Exactly," Kirishima said with a laugh.

Of course, the entire time—while Kirishima was relieved he managed to remain outwardly like himself—he was acutely aware of the blonde, only inches away from him the entire time they worked. He was aware of even the tiniest of movements Bakugou made; his ears caught on every word he uttered and hung off of the tones of his voice. There were even instances where he'd get small whiffs of his cologne, sending a jolt through him. His stomach never stopped fluttering.

Bakugou never moved away, either. Kirishima had sat relatively close on purpose as a test and had been prepared to make the excuse that he needed to see the worksheet Bakugou had kept in his lap the entire time on the chance the blonde would say something about his proximity (he didn't). Every so often their knees would accidentally knock together or their arms would brush when one reached for the textbook. Not once did Bakugou tug himself away. Even so, Kirishima couldn't tell if it was because what Kaminari told him was accurate or if his roommate simply didn't notice or care that they were as close as they were.

And man, his head felt like it was going to explode in trying to figure it out. Bakugou was so hard to read! He was quick to express his irritations and complain about little things, but when it came to anything else, Kirishima could never guess.

Apart from Bakugou's blatant not moving away, Kirishima really couldn't see anything abnormal about his behavior at all. And man, he wished he had something to compare it to...

"'Kay, I'm fuckin' done with this shit," Bakugou muttered a couple hours later, practically shoving his homework off of his lap. "It's good enough."

"Y'sure, man? We still didn't finish number seven."

"Don't give a fuck. I'm gonna go fucking insane if I stare at this shit any longer."

"That's fair. You'll probably get at least a decent grade on this, anyway," the redhead said as he stretched his arms out in front of him. Bakugou was busy stuffing his homework and textbook back into his backpack, yanking the zipper shut, and tossing the entire thing all the way over to the other side of the bed as Kirishima checked the time. "It's only 10. Wanna go see if the lounge is still crowded?"

"Whatever. Needa stretch my legs anyway," the blonde said.

Unsurprisingly the lounge was, in fact, still full of people. The TVs were occupied, as was the foosball table and all of the couches and bean bag chairs around the entire area. Bakugou huffed when they showed up.

"Don't people have anything better to do with their damn day off than sit around in here all damn day? Why the fuck is it so crowded now?"

"Dunno, man. Maybe we should grab something to drink and a board game or somethin' and go back to the room," Kirishima suggested. Truthfully, he didn't mind the people sitting around, talking and laughing and enjoying their day off. Had he not been with Bakugou he likely would've gone and sat with any number of the people he saw hanging around that he knew, even if he wasn't super close friends with any of them.

But he was with Bakugou, and he was definitely friends with Bakugou—and would become close friends with him at the very least if he had anything to do with it.

As the two were browsing through the already ruffled through refrigerators in the small kitchen just off from the lounge for something to drink, the sound of footsteps entering the room caught the redhead's attention and had him swiveling around to see Midoriya walking in, still wearing his pajamas as most of the other kids were. "Oh hey, Midoriya!" he said with an automatic smile.

"Hey, Kirishima. Hi, Kacchan," greeted the other as a stiff Bakugou stood up from pawing through the refrigerator he was at. "Where've you guys been all morning?"

"Studying," Kirishima answered coolly. "Bakugou was lucky enough to get an extra day for his history homework, so I was helping him out with it."

"You were studying, Kacchan?" Midoriya asked with a small, slightly disbelieving smile.

"Yeah, what of it?" grumbled the blonde. "I gotta pass and get out of this shitty school. Why're you so damn surprised?"

Midoriya shook his head, his freckles scrunching up a little more toward his eyes. "I'm not, really. I'm glad you're trying to be successful."

"Whatever," spat Bakugou under his breath and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "C'mon, Dumb Hair. Everybody already hogged all the drinks so let's go find a vending machine." With that, he slouched toward the door.

"Sorry, dude," Kirishima apologized once the blonde had left. "He's in a grumpy mood 'cause he woke up early for nothing."

"It's no big deal. Kacchan's always like that."

Kirishima felt his smile fade a little. "...right," he mumbled. "Anyway, I'mma go catch up with him. See you later, man!" He gave Midoriya a high five before half-jogging to catch up with his roommate, who was halfway to one of the back entrances to the lounge.

"Guess that's why nobody's outside," Kirishima said as soon as they rounded the corner toward the gym. All along the main sidewalk and in the parking lot were plumbing fans, hoses, and people in jumpsuits walking around between them and the main academic building.

"Shit," Bakugou mumbled. "Guess Pikachu wasn't kidding."

"Bet they'll cancel school tomorrow, too," guessed the redhead.

"Great. Another day of being stuck in the fucking room," sighed the blonde.

"Maybe we can snag a couple DVDs from the lounge and play 'em on my laptop."

Bakugou's response was nothing more than a usual grunt and the remainder of their trip to the gym and back was virtually quiet, save for when Bakugou asked what Kirishima wanted and was provided an answer, and then had tossed said drink to Kirishima before he could really even protest.

"Dude, you didn't have to buy it for me--"

"Deal with it," the blonde cut in as he was already walking away, twisting open the cap to his Mountain Dew.

Kirishima could only follow him once more, speechless as the whole thing Kaminari had brought up earlier that morning resurfaced in his mind, and his thoughts seemed to fly at a million miles an hour. He seemed to be on autopilot as they shuffled through the closet full of old board games in the lounge and selected Jenga, as well as when they walked back to their room and set it up.

Bakugou doesn't buy other people stuff.

Not that Kirishima had ever really seen him have the opportunity to. But did that... really mean anything? Maybe it was just because they were roommates. Maybe Bakugou did act that way around his other friends, and Kirishima just hadn't been around to see it.

Crap! I'm seriously overthinking this...

And he knew he was, but he couldn't help it.

'It's no big deal. Kacchan's always like that.' Midoriya's words rang in Kirishima's ears over and over for nearly the entire day, and he silently cursed Kaminari for so suddenly putting all this shit in his head. It was going to be a long weekend...