Chapter Text
Walking into work was becoming less and less of something that was impossible, Midoriya enjoyed each day just as much as Bakugou did, but something about that Friday took a heavy toll on Bakugou when he remembered that not only did he invite Ashido over but also anyone else she included. Which was really poor judgement on his end, however, Midoriya — knowing this — managed to spot how tense Bakugou was. An old Bakugou would’ve told her to fuck off and simply cancelled, but something about the circumstances made it near impossible for Bakugou.
“Hey, is he okay?” Ashido asked as Midoriya eyed Bakugou who was sitting on the floor, slumped in front of a shelf where he very slowly was making price changes and sliding in new pieces of paper inside the plastic folds.
“I’m not sure,” Midoriya answered.
“Well, you know him best,” Ashido said. “Should we cancel for tonight?”
“I’m surprised Kacchan hasn’t,” Midoriya admitted. “Maybe he’s nervous.”
Ashido smiled at this. “That’s cute!” Her outburst made Bakugou raise his head up before narrowing his gaze into a glare that would have scared anyone besides the people standing before him.
“Why aren’t you two working!?” Bakugou snarled and Ashido laughed and waved the two off before Midoriya walked over to where Bakugou was sitting. “Did you not hear me, Deku!?”
“No I did, it’s impossible to not hear you.” Midoriya laughed despite how it made Bakugou practically growl at him. “But you know, you seem a little off.”
“Yeah, well fuck you.”
“Ah you’re so impossible,” Midoriya sighed. “So, still on for tonight?”
“Whatever.”
“If not, I’m gonna go hang out with Shinsou, or something.”
“No you’re not!” Bakugou hissed. “You’re hanging out with me! How am I supposed to manage those idiots on my own?!”
Midoriya laughed again, and he stood away from Bakugou. “I was just asking, Kacchan, but like you said, I have to go back to work. Do you want to get lunch with me later on?”
“No.” Bakugou said with finality. Despite how far both of them had gotten, lunch was the one thing that Midoriya had never gotten Bakugou to agree with. Actually, Bakugou barely ate in front of Midoriya. It seemed like the only times he did was times that he had to, like if he didn’t he would pass out from a lack of nutrients. It was odd, Midoriya couldn’t figure out why Bakugou was so hesitant about it.
Midoriya sighed, “Alright,” and headed back off to work. Just like Bakugou had instructed.
After work, Bakugou headed to his apartment and Midoriya was the first to join him and made himself comfortable on the blonde’s bed like he always did. “So what are you guys gonna do?” Midoriya asked and Bakugou froze up. “I mean, it’s not like you have any group activities here. We can’t even watch a movie together. You also only have four dining chairs, so that means you all can’t sit at the table either. When is everyone getting here?”
“Eight,” Bakugou answered, glancing around the room trying to process Midoriya’s words. He was right, there was not a single drop of an activity in Bakugou’s apartment. “Maybe I should get alcohol.”
“It’s a good place to start,” Midoriya answered. “Kacchan will you get me hard lemonade?”
“What? Are you a little bitch or something?”
Midoriya wrinkled his nose. “I don’t like beer, and shots make me drunk really fast.”
“Tch, we’ll see.” Bakugou scoffed, knowing full well he was going to get Midoriya whatever he wanted. “Well come on, I’m not carrying all this bullshit by myself.”
“Okay,” Midoriya sighed. He had changed into Bakugou’s clothes and loved how the sweatpants hung around his waist as well as how the t-shirts fit so loose. On top of all that, he loved how it had a Kacchan smell. “What are you going to do about the seats?”
“I don’t fucking know. I don’t think I can just go buy kitchen chairs.”
“Mm, should’ve gotten a futon,” Midoriya laughed and Bakugou shot him a glare. “What?”
“I did have a futon. They’re fucking uncomfortable.”
“Ah, do you think you’ll be okay if they sit on your bed though?” Midoriya asked as they two headed out the door towards the car.
The answer honestly was no, but Bakugou didn’t have a whole lot of other ideas. “Yeah, it’s fucking whatever.”
“Mm, okay,” Midoriya answered. “So what about activity wise? You’re just gonna drink?”
“What else am I supposed to do?” Bakugou scoffed.
Midoriya sighed. “Well, let’s drop by my house and I’ll grab some stuff.”
“Fuck, fine,” Bakugou rolled his eyes.
The two got into the car and drove towards the store, spending way too much on liquor before dropping by Midoriya’s house. Midoriya was only gone a minute before coming back out with a bag full of different games and such. On top of all of that, he had another idea. “We should get cushions and you can just move the table and we can sit on the floor.”
“Will we have time?”
“Sure!” Midoriya laughed. “But that way we can all sit as a group and still be comfortable.”
They then took the drive to a retail store that wasn’t the one they worked at and Midoriya scanned a bunch of cushions before turning to Bakugou who was watching off to the side. “Well? Which ones do you like?”
“I don’t fucking care.”
“Kacchan, I’m not picking them, you are,” Midoriya sighed before walking up to Bakugou who was standing trying to avoid the pity expression.
Bakugou didn’t like feeling this way, feeling nervous, and it didn’t feel normal to him. It felt so damn foreign that it made him want to vomit the feeling away. “Stop worrying,” Midoriya instructed and caught Bakugou’s attention.
“Who said I was fucking worried?!”
“No one has to, you can tell,” Midoriya replied. “So which ones?”
“Just get the fucking black ones,” Bakugou sighed and Midoriya threw them in the cart, but definitely meant to hit Bakugou with the one he did. Midoriya’s laugh gave him away before Bakugou’s surprised before angry expression was all too much.
Kirishima and Kaminari were the first to show up. Bakugou was practically staring daggers, waiting for them to say anything about he space they were entering. “Oh hey! Midoriya beat us here, Kiri,” Kaminari laughed as he nudged the red-head.
“Hey dude, how’s it going?” Kirishima asked and the duo completely ignoring Bakugou who pushed the door shut.
“It’s going good!” Midoriya smiled, a slight tilt to his head as he gave the look. Bakugou watched the three of them chat and noticed how Kaminari’s eyes moved up to the wall of pictures before laughing.
“Look at baby Bakugou,” Kaminari hummed as he walked over to the wall and Kirishima followed. “These are your parents, right?”
“Yeah,” Bakugou answered, it didn’t show, but he was nervous about them looking at it. Very few people knew that Bakugou didn’t have any parents, and so it was odd thinking about what it would be for people to figure it out. After all, he didn’t figure that he was sharing his life with these people. He didn’t consider them to be friends.
“Oh shit..” Kaminari’s eyes widened up; he wasn’t stupid (at least, not as much as everyone thought he was) and he could tell very easily a story that Bakugou didn’t want to say. Kaminari’s head twisted to Bakugou and Kirishima looked between the two who obviously could tell what was happening.
“What is it?” Kirishima asked.
Kaminari blinked a few times. “Nothing,” he answered. “It’s nothing,”
“Wha —”
A knock at the door stopped Kirishima from asking questions and Ashido and Sero were the next to make their way through the door. The apartment already was starting to feel crowded with six of them. Bakugou was glad he’d pushed he table against the far wall to make space for everyone; especially because they weren’t the only ones who were there.
As Ashido was fawning over Bakugou’s apartment, Todoroki managed to arrive with Uraraka and thankfully that was it considering the cap of the room was probably eight people. Midoriya was more of a host then Bakugou was, in fact, Bakugou had no idea how to entertain and was glad that Midoriya was making an effort to help.
They sat on the floor in a circle, eating snacks that Bakugou had and drinking out of assorted cans and bottles. Midoriya laid out a game for them to play, and they were easily going along with it, chatting idly.
“Oh that’s a good card,” Kaminari spoke quietly to Midoriya who turned and glared to him. “What? Try to stop bleeding and I wouldn’t see your cards.”
“Oh that is a good card!” Uraraka laughed as she peaked over Midoriya’s other shoulder.
“Guys!” Midoriya huffed. “Stop it!”
By the end of the hour, most everyone was red in the face from the alcohol and many of them were beginning to grow tipsy. Fortunately, a few sober ones remained — Todoroki, Sero and Kirishima.
Midoriya had taken a drink with the lowest alcohol content, but that didn’t stop him from becoming a drunk and giggly mess as he leaned onto Kaminari — who was still pretty sober for the most part — for balance. It was reminiscent of their time in the club but it felt different now that everyone could actually hear one another and not the endless thumping atmosphere. However, Bakugou wasn’t exactly fond of how Midoriya practically fell over himself onto the only other blonde in the room.
“Okay so Ashido wins that round,” Kirishima said as he slid a black card in her direction.
“Woo!” She threw her fists into the air as she smiled wide. “Midoriya, aren’t you in last place?”
“Huh?” Midoriya leaned up and blinked at her. “Last place? Last place in what?”
“In the game you idiot,” Kaminari slurred as he fell over onto Midoriya. “You only have one black card, you suck at this game,”
“Kami no,” Midoriya whined. “I don’t wanna lose!”
“Then do better!” Kaminari hiccuped before laughing as his head fell onto Midoriya’s lap. Neither of them noticed how a tipsy Bakugou was practically fuming across the circle. They should be thankful that he was just tipsy, because drunk, he’d have no control.
“You’ve has too much to drink, Kami,” Kirishima laughed as he tried to pull his friend up.
“Kiri don’t take it away from me,” Kaminari whined. “You always try to take the fun juice away and I don’t like that, you know.”
“I know you don’t like it, but you’ve had a lot,” Kirishima noted. He saw Bakugou’s glare from where he was sitting and pulled on Kaminari a little harder so he fell over onto Kirishima. “Come on, next round, let’s see if we can get you another win, Kami.”
“Kiri help me I can’t read,” Kaminari poured out his bottom lip as he held the cards up so that they both could see them. The cards blurred in his vision and although he was really content with his current position on Kirishima, Midoriya wasn’t. Midoriya was now swaying back and forth by himself and Uraraka was too engrossed with laughing with Ashido to notice how he could barely sit up on his own.
Bakugou noticed though, he stood up and stepped over the game to where Midoriya was sitting before plopping down behind him and pulling Midoriya into his lap.
“Hey that throws the game off,” Kaminari complained as he pointed a finger to Bakugou who glared at him.
“You’re too drunk to play, shut the hell up,” Bakugou snarled.
“Don’t be mean, Bakugou!” Kaminari huffed as he dropped the cards absentmindedly before leaning on his hands over to Bakugou’s face. “Don’t be a.. a dumb-dumb doofus.” Kaminari’s eyes were barely open and he would’ve fallen over if Kirishima hadn’t grabbed hold of his waist and pulled him back down to his seat.
“Kaminari is funny,” Midoriya giggled as he looked up at Bakugou. “What do you think, Kacchan?”
“He’s an idiot.”
“Bakugou doesn’t mean that, he says everyone is an idiot.” Uraraka giggled as though she was finally tuned into the conversation.
“You think I’m an idiot too?” Midoriya frowned as he turned around in Bakugou’s lap to see his face. “You.. You think I’m..” Midoriya’s eyes welled up with tears and looked like they might spill over at any point.
“No I don’t,” Bakugou sighed. “Shut the fuck up, round face, I only say it about people who deserve it.”
“Kacchan,” Midoriya sighed as his head fell onto his shoulder. It was almost like he had already forgotten what made him upset in the first place. “Tired.”
“There is a bed behind me,” Bakugou answered.
“No come sleep with me, I like cuddling you.” Midoriya said as he nuzzled his head into the crook of Bakugou’s neck.
“Cuddling?” Ashido asked as she looked towards be two. “So are you guys like.. are you an official couple!?”
“Kacchan told me no when I asked him last,” Midoriya frowned.
“That’s not exactly how it went,” Bakugou sighed. “Shut the fuck up before you say more things you shouldn’t.”
“Why would you tell Midoriya no?!” Uraraka scoffed. “He’s such a nice boy and you’re such a jerk. You’d be lucky to date him.”
“He’s not a jerk, Uraraka,” Midoriya argued, sitting up to face the brunette. “He’s just afraid.”
“Shut the hell up, you nerd.” Bakugou snarled a warning Midoriya’s way.
“Afraid? Afraid of what? What could the Bakugou Katsuki possibly be afraid of!” Uraraka snorted and before Midoriya could answer, it was Todoroki who slammed a hand over his mouth, meeting Bakugou with a wide eyed expression at how fast half-and-half has leaned over the game to cover Midoriya’s mouth of knowledge all three of them knew.
The motion had managed to catch the attention of even the drunkest — Kaminari — and everyone had stilled dramatically. “Why don’t,” Todoroki began as he pulled his hand away. “We start leaving.”
“Kiri I can’t drive,” Kaminari slurred as he fell over the redhead's shoulder.
“That’s why I drove us, Kami,”
“Cool,”
“Come on, Uraraka,” Todoroki sighed as he stood up. “Thanks for having us hang out, Bakugou.”
“Sure,”
“Yeah we should do it again!” Ashido cheered. “We really do love spending time with you Bakugou.”
“Sure.” Bakugou said with a harsher tone.
“Yay! He agreed!” Ashido shouted before stumbling up and only managing to stand because she grabbed onto Uraraka who grabbed onto Sero. “Bye Bakugou! Bye Midoriya!”
“Bye friends!” Midoriya giggled and while at the door, Todoroki paused, giving one last knowing look to Bakugou before leaving.
“Bakugou do you want help cleaning up?” Kirishima asked as he stood with Kaminari leaning on him from behind, his arms thrown around the taller’s shoulders.
“Are you fucking kidding? You have a walking mess, I’m good.” Bakugou scoffed and Kirishima laughed as he looked at Kaminari who was humming happily. Too drunk to realize he was being talked about.
“Bye dudes,” Kirishima said. “Come on Kaminari, I can't walk with you leaning on me like th — ah!” Kirishima nearly panicked when Kaminari managed to leap up onto him, forcing Kirishima to carry Kaminari out of the apartment. Bakugou looked at the mess but first had to do something with the mess on top of him.
“Deku c’mon, get up and in the bed,” Bakugou said but Midoriya didn’t answer. “Deku?” The name was answered by a quiet snore that accompanied A Midoriya who had clearly passed out. Bakugou laughed before managing to lift both of them to the bed. Bakugou let Midoriya fall onto it as he lifted himself up and over.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” Bakugou sighed as he stood up and walked through the room. Picking up empty bottles and placing them neatly on the counter. He glanced out the window and noticed how night still took over the sky in thick sheets of darkness.
Bakugou hated the summer, hated the heat, hated how it made everyone so social . Suddenly everyone wanted to hang out all the time. There were barbecues and beach days and none of them sounded very appealing to Bakugou. Not a single one of them. To be fair, it had been at least a year since he went to one of those events that weren’t work related, but he had to be honest that he didn’t really like the prospects of them even in that capacity.
His eyes turned down to the parking lot and finally saw that Kirishima was driving off with Kaminari. It must have been quite the journey to even get him to put on a seat belt; if Kaminari was anything, it was an unruly drunk.
“Kirishima,” Kaminari giggled from the passenger seat. “Kiri,”
“What?” Kirishima replied, barely turning his head to face Kaminari.
“We were at Bakugou’s apartment.”
“I know, how crazy is that?”
“I think something bad happened.”
Kaminari’s sudden conviction gave Kirishima pause. “Bad? With Midoriya or something?”
“No, no,” Kaminari was shaking his head before getting dizzy and letting it fall back onto the seat. “No, I think that something bad happened to Bakugou,”
“Like what? And what makes you say that?”
“Did you see the pictures that were on the wall?”
“Yeah, I looked at them with you,”
“Oh right,” Kaminari giggled. “I think his mom had cancer or something. I don’t know about now though.”
“Bakugou said his parents live far away, maybe that’s why.”
“Maybe she’s dead.” Kaminari replied and it made Kirishima choke on his own spit as he tried to control his grip on the wheel. “What?”
“Kami, you can’t just say someone’s parents are dead.”
“I think she is, and I didn’t say it to someone I said it to you.”
“Well.. you shouldn’t go spreading that especially since we don’t know if it’s true.”
“We should ask!”
“Kaminari no, I’m sure that Bakugou has his reasons for not telling us.” Kirishima sighed. “And that’s saying if she is actually dead, which she might not be. Maybe there just isn’t any decent treatment around here.”
“You always do that to him, you wait for him to come to you thinking that if he wants a friend he will but you know he won’t come to you.” Kaminari sighed. “It makes you a bad friend, Kiri.”
“I only do it to him because I can’t fight him anymore Kaminari. Stop talking about it, it’s not a big deal.”
“You worshipped the ground he walked on.” Kaminari chuckled. “You had it so bad.”
“And I don’t anymore,” Kirishima huffed, clearly getting irritated but that didn’t mean Kaminari could notice it. “Stop talking about it, and you won’t even remember this tomorrow, so you better not remember those stupid pictures either.”
“You know I will,” Kaminari hummed. “At least he has Midoriya to keep him company.”
“Yeah, I guess,”
“You don’t sound happy about it, are you jealous?”
“Not at all,” Kirishima shook his head. “I already told you I don’t have feelings like that for Bakugou anymore. We’re friends and that’s all, I don’t like him like that,”
“Then what’s the matter?”
“Midoriya only is working here for the summer,” Kirishima reminded Kaminari. “Meaning that he’ll leave soon.”
“Uh oh,”
“Yeah,” Kirishima sighed. “Uh oh is right,”
When Bakugou finally managed to clean up the mess made by the four drunkards (which excluded himself of course, he was only tipsy; not drunk) he climbed into the bed beside an already passed out Midoriya.
The room felt warm, and maybe it was the gentle shine of the moon that made it feel so relaxing or the fact that Midoriya was laying on his side so that Bakugou could see his face with a small trail of drool coming from his lips. Bakugou rolled over himself, letting his knuckles slide across his freckled cheeks.
It felt like peace, it felt like serenity. Unfortunately though, without the chaos that would follow that serenity, would we even want it to begin with? Clinging onto the moments where the world slowed and the catastrophic and blistering pains ceased; did it matter that yang existed if there was no yin to accompany it?
It’s all a balancing act.