Chapter Text
Kirishima was frozen where he stood.
He hadn't been stuck in his body like this since middle school.
His hand was reaching out to Bakugou who stood rigid next to him.
The blonde's fists were clenched and shaking and his bangs covered his eyes. The dampness of the locker room made it a little hard to breathe and the voices from 2 rows up echoed over the dividers,
"Eugh gross. Can we not talk about this? I could've gone my entire life without that picture in my head." True to nature, Denki didn't start the conversation, but it didn't sound like he was leaving either.
"Why Bakugou, though? Like...I'm pretty sure Kirishima could snag anyone he wanted. Why would he-" Ojirou's voice was casual, like this was totally their business.
Kirishima wanted to puke. Thought he might.
"Maybe he's good in the sac?" Mineta. "Not that his personality makes up for it."
They kept talking but the voices were getting further away. The door shut and the locker room was silent.
"You told them?" Bakugou's voice absolutely did not crack.
"I didn't...I dont know how..."
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Kirishima pushed Ojirou against and the wall of the common room, and he could vaguely hear Kaminari yell, " Hey, what the hell, man!?"
"How'd you know?" It must have taken him a minute to think because he just stared openly at the red-head.
"Know what?" He had a guilty gulp to his voice. No one here had ever been on the receiving end of this kind of fury from him before.
Kirishima was fuming. Hardening rolled over his skin like waves in a storm, "Who told you!?"
Denki must have picked up on what had him so upset because he piped up, "It was me! It was me. Put him down."
He hadn't even realised he picked him up. "You? How did you even-?" Everyone had been out except for a few people. Denki hadn't even been in at the time. Still, the betrayal burned his lungs.
"Well, Mina..." Kaminari trailed off, holding both hands up at Kirishima's tears. "Hey man, we all knew you rolled that way. Don't worry-"
"He won't even look at me! He thinks-" Kirishima growled and turned to the stairs. He was done with this conversation.
‘He thinks I bragged. He thinks I used him like a trophy for bragging rights. He thinks he’s not good enough to be with me and your words have only pressed blades under his nails. He thinks he’s been betrayed, and he has been.’
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Kirishima spent most of the night camped outside of Bakugou's door and quietly reassuring that he was, in fact, not the person that apparently told the entire class. He would never. Things were going to be okay, though.
How could something so personal have even gotten out?
He hadn't told Mina and he knows Bakugou didn't tell anyone. Obviously, she had been the one to spread it- too excited about them finally getting together, but she hadn’t been there either. So how had she even found out?
They hadn't even told anyone they were seeing each other and had managed to keep it on the DL for a while by hanging out off of school grounds.
This was supposed to be special and now it felt like he'd lost him.
The door finally opened around midnight and Bakugou huffed at him before turning back inside- an invitation, "I know you didn't do it."
That's all he said before laying back on his bed. Kirishima ran his hand through the soft blonde spikes "I-"
"It's fine."
It wasn't fine.
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If anyone noticed Bakugou getting more distant through the week (other than Kirishima), they didn't say anything. Izuku tried to approach him in 'congratulations' once but he was ignored.
He was far too silent.
Kirishima would notice Bakugou looking at his hand as they walked, like he wanted to hold it. They had subtly done it before but it seemed to be out of the question, now.
When he opted to sit someplace new at lunch it wasn't a surprise. Kirishima didn't feel like sitting with their 'friend's either. Even Sero was too awkward to comment on the invasion of their privacy. As far as Bakugou was concerned, that meant he agreed with what others were saying.
"It doesn't bother me. It's fine."
"It's not. They shouldn't have said those things..."
"Well now they know and when people know they fucking judge and that's life."
Bakugou pushed his tray away and sat his chin on his crossed arms, "It's not like they were all that wrong... you could have anyone."
Neither of them noticed Jirou's pale face watching from 2 tables over.
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Mina bounced up to her hottest source with all the energy of a shooting star, "Hey boo! What's shakin' bacon?"
She giggled at her own joke. Girl had been spending too much time with Kaminari.
"Hey, Mina." Jirou sighed. She didn't have the energy for this.
"Everything's been so quiet! I bet you've got the inside scoop on the newest drama, huh?"
Jirou felt her face flush. She couldn't name why she wanted so badly to make Mina like her. Mina wasn't even like that. All Jirou had to do was say ‘no’,
"Well, I did hear Present Mic reaming out Aizawa for using 5 in one shampoo body wash." She shrugged.
Why had she said that?
This was becoming a problem.
Jirou's inability to say no to Mina was slowly turning her hair gray.
Every time she watched Bakugou shrug off some form of contact from Kirishima, she felt queasy. She'd known that was private information and yet it had slid from her lips so easily. Probably about as easy as some of the comments she heard from some of her peers.
There had definitely been at least 1 too many comments about who was top or bottom.
Hagakure was well versed in the scandal, having seen some PDA from the two while quirk training and it seemed like Mina had opened the floodgates.
She couldn't imagine having her own romantic life scandalized like that, let alone someone as guarded as Bakugou.
This was her fault.
Even now, as guilty as she felt, when Mina rolled over the edge of the common room couch to lounge against her while scrolling her phone, she finally felt like a 'cool kid'. No, she didn't need the reassurance-she's a very smart, kickass, talented, rock star, and hero...but it still felt nice.
Maybe that's why when Mina started rambling about the noises she hears from her balcony at night she says, "oh yeah, Kouda basically uses animals like a diary. Spills his whole day."
Shit. She hadn't seen him in the kitchen with Satou.
The boy's face had gone red and he looked at the floor, awkwardly scratching his neck. Satou's brows bunched, "Yo, not cool."
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It was bound to happen.
Honestly, she's not sure why it took so long.
Kirishima found out it was her. "Why would you do that?"
He wasn't even yelling. She kind of wished that he was. "You KNOW how hard it is for him to open up to people." He just looked tired, and hurt.
"It wasn’t like that."
"Why were you even using your quirk? Listening to us? That's sick, dude. So NOT manly."
Jirou desperately tried to explain, "It wasn't on purpose! I thought maybe someone was trying to break in because I thought everyone else had left!"
" But you still told everyone...or not everyone, but Mina! And you know how Mina is!"
"I know but-"
"But I thought we were friends!?"
"We are-"
"This is why we didn’t tell people we were dating. Because people are unnecessarily MEAN. It's no one's business-"
"I know, I just-"
"Just what? Just felt like knocking us down a few pegs? Just thought that it might be fun to break something that took every fiber of ourselves to get to this point?!"
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Jirou slept like shit.
Kirishima's words twisted in her gut like curdled milk. She kept seeing Kouda's face after she revealed his secret.
By the time her alarm went off in the morning she'd gotten very little sleep, but she was on schedule at least. She dressed, did her makeup and walked casually to class.
The only other people up this early tended to be Iida, Momo, and Bakugou.
Only 1 was in the class when she arrived and he barely spared her a glance, keeping to his notes.
He wouldn't be forgiving her anytime soon, she was sure.
The pre-class silence stretched until the others from 3-A started coming in and light chatter filled the room.
She couldn’t NOT notice the glare she received from the local sunshine boy as he entered and went straight to Bakugou’s desk, speaking quietly. She made an effort not to listen.
With only a few minutes to class, Kaminari, Sero, and Mina flew through the door. Some kind of race, apparently.
Immediately, Mina was chatting up Hagakure and they both strode to Jirou and mentally she begged them to stop. Turn around. Go somewhere else. Anywhere else.
"Hey,girl, what's the tea?"
Something in her broke. The harp that was her mental stability just snapped- all strings in all directions."NO MORE TEA!"
Todoroki and Momo both looked terrified for a solid 10 seconds (for very different reasons she was sure) before going back to politely ignoring the conversation.
"Um...ok?" Mina looked surprised.
Hagakure put a gloved hand on her hip, "What's your problem?"
" My problem? My problem is no one needs to know about the things I hear when I'm not trying to, okay!? I shouldn't even know!? Why the hell should I have to share with you that Todoroki has nightmares, or Bakugou and Kirishima are doing things, or Shinsou watches funny cat videos all night!?!?!?"
"Hey!" Shinsou picked his head up for a solid 3 seconds before shrugging and putting it back on the desk.
Mina crossed her arms, "okay?"
"So stop asking for the tea."
Mina narrowed her eyes, "Fair enough request. Do me a solid in return?"
That was way easier than she thought it would be. Perhaps that had been too early a thought, "Make your own decisions and don't blame me for being on the receiving end. Grow a backbone." she jumped a little as she turned away.
Jirou couldn't even make herself mad. Mina was nice but she wasn't a pushover. She hadn’t forced her to say anything...barely even asked.
Jirou tugged at her jacks lightly in frustration.
This is why she kept to herself.