i feel like the beginning of this chapter is awkwardly paced, so sorry ;-; 

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Kirishima

Kirishima spent the remainder of his break working away at his board and helping his mom around the house. After the winter holidays, it always took a few days to get the house back in proper order. She took him shopping, too, to replenish some of his school supplies and paints he would need for his board.

He spent the last couple of days eating away hours working on his board, polishing it up and getting it ready to be painted. All the while he sent Bakugou progress photos and was too busy with that to even think about making an actual post. (Still, he couldn't bring himself to regret it later.)

In the end he'd spent so much time perfecting the structure he'd run out of time to actually begin painting and before he knew it, he was on his way back to school.

"It's your last semester of high school," his mom said on the way. "Are you excited?"

"Yeah," was all he mumbled, absentmindedly gazing out the window.

"Just 'yeah'?" She reached over and squeezed his shoulder, coaxing his attention back in her direction. "You're so close to being done! You should be proud."

"I am," he assured her with a smile. And he was, but truthfully graduation and all that was one of the furthest things from his mind. He felt silly for it, but he was probably a little too excited to get back and see his roommate again.

"I am, too," she said. "It seems like just yesterday when you were running around with diapers on your head."

"Aw c'mon, Ma. You're not gonna start that speech, are you? Now?"

"No, no, you're right," she said, laughing. "I apologize. I'll save it for May."

As usual, his mother walked him all the way back to his dorm room, insisting upon carrying one of his bags. Easily he could've carried them himself, and all the while his stomach was fluttering in anticipation that Bakugou might already be there when they made it to the room. He had no way of knowing, though, because his roommate hadn't messaged him since the previous night, likely too busy to pay attention to his phone.

Lo and behold, though, the door was still locked and the room void of any life when they made it, which wasn't too surprising considering how empty the campus still was. When she started helping him unpack, Kirishima knew his mother was trying to drag out her time with him—and he let her. As much as he might've hated it, he was always the type to get choked up when his mom left, knowing it'd be a few months before seeing her again. So he dragged out his last hug with her, too, and let her pet his hair the way she always did when he was little.

"You're gonna be okay taking the bus home for spring break when your aunt and I go on our cruise, right?" she asked.

"Yup. Already told you I would," he said.

"Don't forget to call me often."

"Have I ever forgotten?" he teased.

"I'm just making sure."

"I know. Have fun on your trip."

"Absolutely," she promised. "Make this semester count, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said with a laugh. "I'll see you in May."

"May," she murmured, gently removing herself from the hug with evident reluctance. "It seems so far away."

"Nah. Just a little over three months. It'll probably fly by," he assured her.

"I hope so," she said with that half-joking smile he knew so well, reaching up to ruffle his hair. "Have fun. I love you and I'll see you then."

"Love you too, Ma." When she didn't make a move to head for the door he asked, "D'you want me to walk you back to the car?"

"Oh, no," she said, waving her hand. "I'm just being a little too sentimental, you know me."

"'Kay. Call me when you get home."

"I will. Bye, hon." With that, she finally turned around, but just as she was about to head out, a spiky-haired figure appeared in the doorway.

Bakugou

The first thing Bakugou saw when he stepped back into his dorm room was a short-statured, dark-haired lady he somehow vaguely recognized. Right behind her was Kirishima himself, staring right at him with those big, dumb, bright eyes of his.

"Oh hey, Bakugou!" Dumb Hair greeted him instantly with that huge smile of his.

"Hey..." he mumbled back.

"Ah... Ma, this is Bakugou. Bakugou, this is my Mom, Shiori," he said quickly, gesturing to the woman.

"Of course!" the lady was the first to speak up. She promptly greeted him with a smile that was eerily similar to Dumb Hair's and held out her hand for him to shake. "Eijirou has told me about you."

Of course he has, was all Bakugou could think as he, with a lump in his throat, tentatively shook hands with her, denying every second that his face was growing warm. "'S nice to meet you," he mumbled uneasily.

Weirdly enough, she chuckled as her arm fell back to his side and gently nudged her son. "Did he pick up that habit from you?"

"Ma..." Kirishima complained. His eyes were pointed down at the floor, a hand scratching at the back of his neck as he sometimes did.

Again she laughed. "I'm only kidding," she said. She headed for the door; Bakugou swore he felt some kind of weird shiver skitter up his spine when she went around behind him. "Anyway, I better head on out. It was good to meet you, Bakugou. Good luck on your last semester!" she called as she spared an absent wave over her shoulder. And then she was gone, but the damn thick feeling in Bakugou's throat didn't immediately ease up.

"The fuck was she talking about?" he couldn't help asking.

"Uhm... the whole lazy speech thing. She gets on me about it all the time," Kirishima explained. "Sorry, dude."

"...whatever," Bakugou muttered, finally moving over to his bed to dump all the shit he'd had to carry all the way across campus (because his damn mother mistakenly went to the wrong parking lot, and then spewed some bullshit about 'exercise is good for you' and refused to go to the right parking lot).

"So how was your break, man?" Dumb Hair asked as they both got to work unpacking, and only then was Bakugou beginning to relax from the unexpected meeting.

"Fine, I guess. 'S not like you don't really know," Bakugou told him.

Kirishima's laugh filled the air between them, and it got to the point where it was next to freaking impossible for Bakugou to deny the stupid, weird... fluttery feeling that shitty sound gave him. Fuck, I missed that sound, was the first, automatic thought he immediately buried.

"True. But how were your holidays? You never talked about it." Kirishima planted himself on the floor in front of his dresser with the bulging backpack that held his clothes.

"The usual. Went and did family shit... dinner and stuff. I only have two little nieces, so they got all the presents 'n shit."

"What, are you bitter about that?" Kirishima sounded way too amused.

"No," Bakugou grumbled, clicking his tongue.

"Suuure," Dumb Hair teased with a snicker. "But shit—you have nieces?" He said suddenly, his arms falling into his lap; the motion of his bright red hair swiveling in his direction caused Bakugou to look up. "You're an uncle?" he practically gasped, his eyes lighting up like the fucking Christmas tree Bakugou was more than sick of looking at. (But of course because it was Shitty Hair, he didn't mind. Ugh.)

"Kinda. My dad had a daughter before he met my mom, and she has kids. But they live like six hours away, so I barely see 'em."

"That's freakin' adorable, man," Kirishima said. "How come you never told me?"

Bakugou shrugged, internally swearing he was gonna go blind because of the bright fucker across the room and turning his attention back to his haphazardly folded clothes. "Never came up. It's not like you ever told me you have little cousins."

"Hm, touché. So how old are they?"

"Five."

"Both of 'em?"

"Yeah. They're twins." And annoying as shit. Every other thing out of their mouths was a question. Over the course of the entire two weeks he had to spend with them, he'd lost count of how many damn times they bugged him about his piercings, or any of the other shit he wore, like why he wore so much black, if he 'cried black tears' because of his eyeliner, or why he spiked his hair. As a result he was snapped at by his mom several times because of slipping up and 'accidentally' swearing at them.

"Sounds like a handful," Kirishima said.

"You have no fucking clue," Bakugou grumbled.

"Hey, when I have four little cousins, the oldest of which is eight, I think I have a pretty good idea."

"...yeah, I guess."

The remainder of their time unpacking and putting their things back in their places was spent in quiet—and it was a weirdly comfortable quiet at that. Usually Dumb Hair would play music or one of them would find something to talk about to fill that space of silence, but this time it somehow wasn't needed. It was damn rare for Bakugou to not feel some form of discomfort in the quiet between himself and another person. Fortunately, he was getting good at stopping himself from over thinking shit like that before he started (even though he definitely had lost sleep over some shit like that in the past, as much as he hated to admit it to himself).

Bakugou was still putting his stuff in the bathroom when Kirishima finally spoke up again, calling from the other room.

"So hey, what's your class schedule this semester?" he asked.

"Dunno. Haven't checked the email yet," Bakugou told him, slapping the light switch into the off position and then plopping onto his bed. With little care, the other came and sat next to him, phone in hand.

"You should. My seventh period bio class got swapped for environmental science, so yours probably got moved around a little too."

Bakugou felt himself sigh and tugged out his phone to log into his email—something he hadn't checked in months. Sure enough that shit was filled, but fortunately the email titled 'Spring Schedules!' was near the top and it only took a minute to download the attachment. He peered at the screen, noting that the only class before lunch that had changed was his P.E. class was no longer team sports and was instead some bullshit called 'recreational sports,' whatever the fuck that meant. Apparently, though, Dumb Hair saw something before him because suddenly he was exclaiming, "Dude!"

Instantly, Bakugou jerked away? "What, asshole?! Don't yell in my ear," he hissed.

"Sorry," Kirishima mumbled, leaning back a bit. "But look—you're in the same environmental class as I am," he said, pointing down to the seventh period row where it did, indeed, say 'ENV Sci' where his anatomy and physiology class (that he'd just scraped by with a D last semester only because the teacher never assigned homework) used to be, below it a room number and a teacher's name Bakugou had never heard of.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, here. Look." Kirishima held up his phone right beside Bakugou's and pointed at the same spot on the schedule where it said the exact same thing—same room number and everything.

"Well shit," Bakugou mumbled. "You're right."

And then Dumb Hair was practically beaming, holding up his hand for a high five that Bakugou promptly slapped his own hand into without really thinking. "Sweet. I didn't think I'd have classes with any of my friends this year," Kirishima said.

"Aren't you friends with Deku?" Bakugou mumbled, directing his gaze back to his phone to take a screenshot of the email.

"Well yeah, but I guess I meant the main group."

Bakugou merely grunted. He definitely wasn't thrilled about having a shitty environmental science class, especially because it was already a subject he knew next to nothing about. He figured that at least the class wouldn't be complete shit if Dumb Hair was there. Though he couldn't imagine it being any worse than the stupid anatomy class they made him take last semester anyway.

"Hey, wanna go meet Kami and Sero in the lounge? Looks like they got back a couple hours ago," Kirishima said.

"'Kay."

The two other losers were on their usual couch chattering away about what they did over the break when Bakugou and Kirishima sauntered into the otherwise empty lounge. Kaminari was in the middle of his story about convincing his parents to let him and Jirou spend spring break together when they joined, Kirishima tucking himself into one of the chairs and Bakugou flopping carelessly into a bean bag chair.

"It took a lot of buttering up and even then I thought they weren't gonna agree," he said.

"But they did?" Sero asked.

"Yup."

"...but?" Kirishima prompted. Even Bakugou could feel there was something left unsaid, and he didn't look nearly as happy as he should've.

"...it's nothin' bad," Kaminari mumbled. "Just embarrassing."

"See, now you have to spit it out," Bakugou jumped in.

Bakugou never thought legit, red in the face blushing was a real thing but damn was he wrong—Kaminari was beet fucking red. "...after they said yes, my dad took me aside the next day and..." He paused to clear his throat. "He uh... gave me the weirdest Christmas present... ever."

"What?" Sero asked, leaning forward. That stupid sparkle glinted in his eyes at the slight suggestion of gossip.

"Dude, that sounds fucking gross," Bakugou found himself blurting.

"Shit, no! It's nothing like that!" Kaminari backtracked immediately. "Gross! Why would you even think that?"

Bakugou held up his hands. "You made it sound that way, idiot. 'S not my fault."

"Okaaay, so now that we've established Bakugou's mind is in the gutter..." Sero mumbled. "What'd he give you?"

Kaminari sucked in a breath, which he huffed out in a rush. "He gave me a freakin' box of condoms," he grumbled without looking at anyone.

An amused albeit slightly incredulous snort escaped Bakugou's nose before he could stop it, though that was nothing compared to Sero's sudden fit of ridiculous chortles. Kaminari shrunk back into the arm of the couch behind him, running a hand sheepishly through his hair.

"Hey, I think that was nice of him!" Dumb Hair cut into Sero's stupid laughter. "At least he wants you to be safe and isn't pretending like he doesn't know what might happen like a lot of parents do."

"I know," Kaminari muttered. "'S not like I ain't grateful for the thought or anything, but it's so weird to get stuff like that from your dad."

Kirishima shrugged. "Nah. 'S only weird if you make it weird."

"Then it's still weird."

"Sorry, man," Sero said when he finally calmed down from laughing like a fucking donkey. "I dunno why but that's not what I was expecting you to say."

"It's fine, man. Just don't tell anyone, 'kay? Especially anyone who might tell Kyouka. I don't want her to think I'm gonna pressure her into anything and then back out of spending break with me."

"No worries, man. I know when to keep stuff to myself," Sero assured.

"Hardly," Bakugou muttered under his breath. Only Kirishima seemed to hear him, though, and he grinned ruefully in agreement.

"Anyway," mumbled Kaminari, clearly ready to move the subject away from himself, "How was break for you guys?" He pointed the question at Bakugou and Kirishima themselves.

"Pretty good," Kirishima said. "Tiring, 'cause of my little cousins. But I got a lot done on my board."

"Sweet! Pictures?" Sero piped up.

Dumb Hair pulled up the progress pictures of his board that Bakugou had already seen and let the other losers look through them, spewing compliments and praise his way the whole time. It launched them into more conversations about their dumb winter breaks, to which Bakugou only supplied a quipped answer of "Fine. Boring," when asked about his.

Eventually, the girls showed up and entered the endless chattering themselves. Right then and there, Pikachu broke the news to his girlfriend about his parents' approval, earning the grosses, wettest kisses from her that sent a mildly disgusted shiver down Bakugou's spine.

"Gross, guys," Dumb Hair mumbled. "What's with the sudden PDA?"

"Hey, you'd do the same if you were with someone and you hadn't seen 'em in almost a month," Pikachu said with a weirdly mischievous (and idiotic) grin.

"Yeah, if only you'd grow a pair and ask you-know-who out on a—"

Sero's teasing was cut off by Pinky, who reached out and pressed her hand right to his mouth, leaving the word date muffled.

"C'mon, Sero, you're seventeen. Shouldn't you know how to shut your mouth by now?" she mumbled. "It's not nice to tease people."

"Ah... s'okay," Kirishima mumbled. When Bakugou's eyes landed back on his face, he looked nothing short of abso-fucking-lutely embarrassed.

Sero tugged Mina's hand from his mouth. "He knows I'm right," he said, smug.

"Anyway," Pikachu cut in, dragging out the word for the second time, "I thought we should all go do somethin' fun off campus before school starts back up, and my mom gave me a bunch of free bowling passes if you guys wanted to go."

"Heck yeah! I love bowling," Pinky shouted.

"I'm down," Jirou said.

"Sure," Kirishima and Sero agreed, leaving all heads to turn to Bakugou.

"...yeah, whatever," he mumbled. "I'll kick all of your asses, though."

"You're on, man," Dumb Hair said with a challenging grin. "Bowling is something I actually excel at."

"Hmph. We'll see. Don't cry when you get your ass handed to you, though. I don't carry tissues with me for all the snot."

"Hey, when have I ever been a sore loser? It's not manly."

"Yeah, we'll see," Bakugou repeated.

The rest of the group exchanged a look. "Should we start placing bets?" Jirou asked.

"We'll see how they play tomorrow," Sero said. "And then place bets."

"Alright. We should go after lunch tomorrow, yeah? That way we'll have all afternoon to play and be back in time for dinner."

Hums of agreement went around the group before Kirishima suggested another round or Super Smash Bros. While Pinky went to make popcorn, the rest settled in to play or watch.

And the sound of Sero saying 'you-know-who' was stuck in Bakugou's head for the rest of the damn night.

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i'm super excited for the next couple chapters. i hope you guys are, too~

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