Chapter Text
The sun shining down on UA’s sprawling grounds was fucking obnoxious. Bakugou squinted as he trudged behind the rest of his classmates, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He was sandwiched between Kirishima and Kaminari, against his will, he might add – every time he tried to walk ahead of them or fall behind, they stubbornly matched his pace. They were like a couple of leeches.
“Aren’t you excited, man?” Kirishima nudged him with his elbow and gave him a grin that was even more blinding than the damn sun. Imagine that – someone being brighter than the fucking sun. That was Kirishima.
“Yeah, yeah.” Bakugou grumbled in response, turning away from the redhead’s grin before it burned him. “Fuckin’ thrilled.”
“I’m hyped myself, personally.” Kaminari chimed in, though nobody asked him. He lowered his voice and said covertly, “I’m most excited about seeing the girls in bikinis…you think Momo’s will be able to hold her boobs in?”
“You’re a fuckin’ idiot.” Bakugou shook his head. Kirishima’s smile turned into a grimace.
“Dude!” He scolded Kaminari. “Don’t talk about our friends like that!” Always such a good person, that Kirishima. He was so sweet it was tooth-rotting.
“What? You haven’t been imagining what’s under those uniforms…I wonder if Asui has a nice body; I mean she’s a frog which could be kinda weird, but that tongue…Oh, and Uraraka…” He had stars in his eyes.
“No, I haven’t.” Bakugou snarled. He wanted to slap him. “You’ve got serious issues, moron.” He attempted again to walk ahead of the dumbass patrol, but Kirishima had slung his arm around his shoulders.
“Yeah, but he’s our moron, right?” He laughed. Kirishima was constantly keeping Bakugou from killing Kaminari – he would have already, if he didn’t know how much the electric idiot meant to Kirishima. Over his time at UA, he found himself in a position where he respected Kirishima and didn’t hate having him around. Since he got along with Kirishima, he put up with Kaminari too. It was good practice for controlling his quirk, because every time the blonde opened his mouth, Bakugou’s palms started crackling with anger.
The trio reached the bus that was waiting for them outside of UA’s illustrious gates. Aizawa and Present Mic were at the doors – Aizawa looking just a little more alive than a zombie and Mic looking like he might break into an air guitar at any minute. The herd of students came to a stop in front of them, awaiting further instructions.
It was the end of the semester and summer vacation had arrived. The air was thick with heat and the students had broken out their casual wear – shorts and t-shirts and sundresses and flip-flops. Every hand was clutching a suitcase – or in Ashido’s case, multiple suitcases – and looking elated for what was to come.
What was to come was a school-sponsored holiday trip, courtesy of the UA staff. Principal Nezu and the other teachers had decided that class 2A had been through enough shit in the past almost two years and that they deserved to relax. Cue the brilliant idea to put twenty hero students in a beach house for two whole weeks.
Honestly, Bakugou had better things to do. The trip was optional, but encouraged, and he was more encouraged to just go home and hang out in his room all summer, but Kirishima had thrown an actual fit when he voiced that he wasn’t planning to go.
“Bro! It’s summer vacation! We’re going to the beach! You have to go!” He whined. He was in Bakugou’s room again. How he managed to constantly worm his way in there, Bakugou didn’t know. He was always knocking on his door begging for homework help or just wanting to “hang out”, and when Bakugou stopped answering the door, he started letting himself in. It was dumb, but Bakugou couldn’t get rid of him. Over time, he was in Bakugou’s room every night and somewhere during all of it, he decided that he considered Kirishima a good friend. Not that he would ever admit that to him or anyone.
“I don’t have to do anything, Shitty Hair.” Bakugou snapped at him. Kirishima was sitting on his bed and Bakugou sat in his desk chair, trying to focus on his homework like an actual hero-in-training and not a degenerate.
“Okay, you don’t have to go, but it’s the beach, man!”
“I don’t like the beach.” Bakugou grumbled, refusing to make eye contact because he just knew Kirishima was making puppy dog eyes at him and damn if they didn’t always work.
“Everyone likes the beach, you liar.” He could hear the redhead roll his eyes at him and his eye twitched in annoyance. “Come on, man. Please. For me.”
“Hah?” Bakugou was glad he was facing away from Kirishima, because heat rose to his cheeks. He didn’t know why. “Fuckin’ fine, I’ll go on the shitty beach trip, but I won’t like it.”
Kirishima’s smile wattage could’ve powered all of UA for a week. “We’ll see about that, my man.”
So now, here he was, regretting his decision more and more with each passing minute and each dumb sentence that came out of Kaminari’s mouth. Aizawa seemed equally as unimpressed with this situation.
“Good morning.” He said blandly. “Please hurry up and get on the bus. The sooner we get there, the sooner we get back.”
“HE’S JUST JOKING, STUDENTS!” Mic’s voice boomed, so loudly it probably broke through the sound barrier – thankfully, all of the students were partially deaf to it by now. “We’re just as excited as you are about this trip!”
“Are you two our only chaperones?” Ashido asked. She had that mischievous glint in her eye, like she always did. The pink alien was always up to some shit and more often than not, Bakugou was dragged into it. She could be even worse than Kaminari at times.
“Stop thinking whatever it is that you’re thinking, Ashido.” Aizawa warned, his eyes lazily assessing her. “You won’t get away with it.”
“That’s what he thinks.” Ashido whispered to Hagakure.
“As aspiring young heroes in your second year, we are assuming that you know how to act.” Aizawa drawled. “Don’t forget, this trip is a privilege.”
Bakugou rolled his eyes. He wasn’t feeling very privileged right then.
“Alrighty then! Let’s get this trip rockin’ and rollin’, good students!” Mic cried. “Please make your way onto the bus in an orderly fashion!”
Bakugou fell into line behind Uraraka who grinned at him cheerfully as she always did. “Good morning, Katsuki!” She sang, punching him lightly in the arm. He grunted in response, but it was good-natured. Uraraka was another one on his very sparse list of classmates he could tolerate. As a whole, he didn’t scream at the class as much anymore, but they still all irritated the hell out of him – Uraraka didn’t, most of the time. She was a firecracker and loved to give him shit. She wasn’t afraid to dish it out. If he was the type of person who had multiple friends, he would consider her one of his best. They started training together after he beat her in their first Sports Festival, and then never looked back.
“Morning, Round Face.” He muttered.
“Aw, come on. Don’t be like that.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Grumpy, grumpy. You should be looking forward to this trip.” She lowered her voice to a confidential level. “I heard we’re sharing rooms – you know what that could mean for you.” She smirked.
Bakugou felt his ears go red. “Shut the fuck up. Don’t talk about that dumb shit in public. Besides, I already told you you’re wrong.”
Uraraka giggled and continued climbing up the stairs behind Asui. “I’m just sayin’. It could be a fun time.”
Bakugou grumbled something incoherent and glared at the brunette’s smug grin. She just shrugged and turned away from him. She never had any idea what she was talking about. He plopped down in the seat in front of where she sat with the frog girl and stretched his legs out, so no one would sit next to him.
Too bad somebody he knew had no concept of personal space and jumped right on top of his legs. “Hey, dude, scoot over.” Kirishima nudged him.
“No one told you to fuckin’ sit here, Shitty Hair.” Bakugou snapped at him, but he moved his legs anyways so that the boy could settle in. It’s not that he wanted to sit by Kirishima, but he wasn’t the worst person to get stuck next to on a two-hour bus ride.
The beach they were going to was at some remote location that none of the teachers would disclose due to paranoia over that damn league of idiots. They had been quiet lately, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still trying. They didn’t know when to give up. However, the staff at UA was fully confident that this was a safe trip and had assured the students so. Not that they cared anyways – a little action was always fun. Apparently, the beach house they had rented for the two weeks was big enough to hold the entire class in rooms of two including Mic and Eraser. Bakugou smirked at the idea of them sharing a room, knowing how much Eraser would hate it.
“You listening, man?” Kirishima poked Bakugou’s leg to get his attention and Bakugou almost smacked his hand away automatically. Kirishima was always doing shit like that – touching him like it was just a casual thing – poking and prodding and throwing arms around him and mussing up his hair. It was infuriating. It used to bother him a lot more when he first met Kirishima – unsure of what all the advances meant, but the more he watched him, the more he realized that that’s just who Kirishima was – a really goddamn touchy person. Now, he didn’t mind it, and generally let it happen. Ashido said that Kirishima was some kind of wizard for figuring out a way to be near Bakugou without him exploding. Bakugou had threatened to show her a real explosion for that one.
“No, I’m not listening.” He said shortly. The last few stragglers made it onto the bus and sat down, and then they were moving. Bakugou stared out the window and watched the campus fade away – wishing he was on his way home and not on this stupid trip.
“You’re daydreaming.” Kirishima smiled big. “That’s cool, man. Have your little fantasies.”
Bakugou glared out the window harder, clenching his teeth to focus on not blushing at the thought of his fantasies.
“Shut up.” He told Kirishima, forcing the unwelcome thoughts from his head. He shouldn’t have come on this damn trip.
“Aye, aye, captain.” He gave a mock salute, then produced a pair of headphones from his pocket. “Wanna listen?” He held out the right earbud to Bakugou, who reluctantly took it. The two boys settled into a comfortable silence for the rest of the trip with soft rock music playing in their ears.
-x-
“Welcome to your beautiful vacation home.” Aizawa couldn’t sound less enthusiastic if he tried, but his sentiment wasn’t incorrect. The house was pretty damn impressive. It was situated right on the beach, surrounded by long stretches of shell-infused sand and facing the endless expanse of blue-green ocean, which was lapping lazily against the shore. A pleasant breeze blew Bakugou’s hair. He was lying when he said he hated the beach – the truth was, it was one of his favorite places to be, but he had a reputation to uphold.
“Wow, this is amazing!” Cheered Uraraka, tugging on Deku’s sleeve with vigor. “Let’s go inside!” Bakugou rolled his eyes internally. Seeing Uraraka still pining over Deku was a sickening sight, but she had refused to listen to reason when he told her time and time again what a useless waste of time her crush was.
“This is incredible. Thank you so much, Aizawa Sensei, Mic Sensei.” Yaoyorozu bowed low.
“Wasn’t our idea.” Aizawa muttered. “You are free to pick your own rooms –”
“Alright!” Mineta was practically trembling with excitement. “Hey, ladies, who wants to room with me?”
“In your dreams, Grape Rape.” Ashido hissed at him.
“Get real.” Jirou raised a jack threateningly.
“Kero.” Asui narrowed her eyes and whipped him with her tongue.
“You didn’t let me finish.” Aizawa’s eyes glowed red briefly before he shut them and pinched the bridge of his nose. Bakugou could see the vein twitching in his forehead. “Girls with girls and boys with boys only. If we find out you’ve been sneaking into each other’s rooms….” He trailed off, leaving the threat to the imagination.
At that, the class began to buzz. Everyone was shouting to each other, finding roommates.
“Hey, Kirishima, be my roommate?” Kaminari came out of nowhere and hooked his arm around Kirishima’s shoulder. Bakugou felt a pang of something in his chest – disappointment? He had assumed the clingy redhead would want to room with him, but why should he care? He didn’t give a shit who he stayed with, as long as they shut up and left him alone – but the tightness in his chest didn’t fade.
“Ah, I was gonna actually ask Bakugou.” Kirishima rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and gave Bakugou a sideways glance. “Sorry, man.”
Kaminari grinned. “No worries, dude. I get it. Hey, Sero!” He was gone again, and Bakugou felt the weight lift.
“So, you wanna room with me?” Kirishima smiled hopefully.
“Whatever.” Bakugou said, but he knew what he was feeling now was relief.
Kirishima’s expression looked like he had just been given a gift. “Cool, man! It’ll be so fun!”
What Bakugou couldn’t figure out is why Kirishima seemed to like him so much. He liked everyone, of course – he was everyone’s favorite person, but he hung around Bakugou the most. Ever since their first day of UA, when Kirishima had approached Bakugou and teasingly challenged him about just being one behind him on the entrance exam.
“Hey, you’re Katsuki Bakugou!” The redhead had approached him in his seat. Bakugou barely registered him, keeping his face stoic and staring at the board. “I’m Eijirou Kirishima! I finished right behind you in the entrance exam! Maybe that makes us rivals?” He had winked, and then laughed, conveying to Bakugou that he was clearly joking. Bakugou hadn’t taken it well.
“Hah? Who do you think you’re talking to, Shitty Hair? I’ll fuckin’ destroy you!” He had clenched his fists and scowled menacingly at the annoyingly eager boy in front of him, hoping the display of anger would make him go away and never talk to Bakugou again.
“Shitty Hair? That’s harsh, dude. I think my hair is nice.” He patted a spike gingerly. It didn’t budge.
“It’s not.” Bakugou snapped back.
“Well, it’s kinda similar to yours.” Kirishima had insisted. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re just jealous?” He flashed a smirk, his sharp teeth gleaming. “Kidding, dude!” He threw his hands up.
“You got a mental deficiency?” Bakugou raised an eyebrow, appraising the boy. He was similar in height to himself, with carefully gelled, obviously dyed fire-red hair. His teeth were razor sharp and seemed to be permanently fashioned into a goofy smile. Objectively, he was an attractive guy – if you were into the annoying, sunshiny type.
“Don’t think so.” The boy put on a mock thoughtful face but couldn’t keep his mouth from curling up. “I think the doctors would’ve broken the news to my parents by now if I did.”
“There’s still time.” Bakugou deadpanned.
Kirishima laughed then – really laughed. The sound was like a windchime on a breezy day. The other boy’s cheeks were slightly flushed. “I like you, man. I think we’re gonna be friends.”
“In your fuckin’ dreams, Shitty Hair.”
Now, Kirishima was grabbing Bakugou’s wrist eagerly and pulling him into the house where they would be spending the next fourteen days together. Great.
The inside of the house was like a scene from the jungle. His classmates were sprinting in every direction, screaming to each other, pushing each other out of the way, and sliding into rooms to claim them before anyone else could.
“Tsu! This one has a view of the ocean! It’s ours!” Uraraka snarled as she flew past Ojiro and Shoji to secure the room. Asui hopped in after her.
“Toru, this one has its own bathroom! Fuck off, Kaminari, I got here first!” Ashido screeched.
“Come on, Mina, you know how long it takes to style my hair in the morning.” Kaminari wailed.
Bakugou rolled his eyes to the ceiling. It was just a room, who cares?
Kirishima did, apparently. “Bakugou, this one is great!” He had dragged him upstairs to a room on the top floor and was now standing proudly in the doorway. The room was the only one at the end of a short hallway and had a stunning view of the beach. It was plainly decorated with cheesy pictures and had low lighting. Two queen beds sat next to each other, spaced out by only one small night-stand in between. A small bathroom was tucked into the corner, and a door led out to a deck which Bakugou discovered had a large, bubbling hot tub right outside.
“It’s alright.” Bakugou commented. He threw his bag and then collapsed onto the bed and closing his eyes. Maybe he could just stay in his room the entire time – it wasn’t a bad place to hang out.
“We should hurry and unpack so we can go to the beach!” Kirishima was already throwing clothes out of his suitcase into a pile on the floor. Bakugou spied a pair of Crimson Riot pajama pants and crinkled his nose.
“Why don’t you put your clothes away in the drawers like a normal person?” Bakugou gestured vaguely to the dresser. It was big enough for two people, easily.
“Oh, I figured you’d want to use that. I know you’re orderly and all.” He blushed and smiled sheepishly.
“Tch. Idiot. We can both use it. Don’t throw your shit all over the floor like some kind of animal.” Bakugou slowly rose from bed and opened his own suitcase. His clothes were folded meticulously – it was important to him to be neat and to be prepared. Kirishima was a tornado in comparison.
“Kaminari and Sero are downstairs.” Kirishima was chattering away while he haphazardly folded his clothes and shoved them into a drawer. “I think everyone wants to go straight to the beach. We have time before dinner. Did you know Mic and Aizawa are gonna cook tonight? Think they’ll be able to make anything good?” He babbled like this all the time, and Bakugou could barely keep up. He didn’t mind. It was like pleasant background noise, and he didn’t expect Bakugou to respond much.
“I could probably cook way better than them.” He replied passively.
“Probably, bro. You do have the best cooking skills in the class.” Kirishima praised. His compliment was genuine and Bakugou held back a smile.
“I fuckin’ know.” He said instead.
Kirishima just smiled in response. “I think we’re all having a class movie night tonight too. You gotta come.”
“Pass.” Bakugou said. Movie nights were not his thing. Prolonged socialization with big groups of people was not his thing in general.
“Dude! What if we watch a good movie? You’ll miss out. Sero said something about having this thing that can stream movies that are still in theaters.” He whispered as if it was some earth-shattering secret.
“So?”
“You kill me.” Kirishima whined. He had finished piling his clothes into one drawer and stood now, holding a pair of swim trunks. “Beach?” He asked again, still hopeful even though Bakugou had ignored his last three requests.
“Nope.” Bakugou had finished unpacking and was now opening up his laptop, pointedly avoiding Kirishima’s assuredly dejected gaze.
“Suit yourself, dude.” He sighed then disappeared into the bathroom. Bakugou should’ve felt relief, but instead he just felt bothered. He didn’t know why, but it pissed him off. He navigated to his favorite website – Heroics Hype with Harvey – and scrolled mindlessly through stories of the most recent villain attacks.
“You sure you don’t wanna come?” Kirishima had come out of the bathroom and his voice was bordering on pleading. Bakugou didn’t know why he cared so damn much if he went to the beach.
“I told you –” His eyes snapped up from his screen to meet Kirishima’s, and he froze. Kirishima was standing in front of him, arms crossed over his bare chest, wearing only a pair of red and black swim trunks. Bakugou had seen Kirishima shirtless countless times – in fact, Kirishima was probably shirtless more than he was clothed, but this time felt different. His shorts hung low on his hips, revealing sharp v-lines. His chest was gleaming with what Bakugou recognized as tanning oil and he was giving Bakugou a pouty look.
His heart hammered in his chest.
“What?” Kirishima asked, raising an eyebrow.
“N-nothing. I’ll fuckin’ go. To the beach.” He stammered out before he could stop himself. “Just give me a minute.” He fumbled around for his own swim trunks, trying to keep his eyes off of Kirishima so the invasive thoughts would go away. Bakugou was being ridiculous. He didn’t like Kirishima. He didn’t like any of his classmates like that. He didn’t have time. Besides, Kirishima was a man – it’s not like Bakugou was gay or anything.
He was just tired, that was all. Just tired.
He made the mistake of glancing up at Kirishima then. His entire face was lit up in a heartbreakingly genuine smile.
Bakugou had a really bad feeling about this trip.
-x-
Bakugou took extra time in the bathroom calming himself down before he changed into his swim trunks and a tank top. He stared at himself in the mirror and splashed cold water onto his face. If he was going to survive this trip, he had to stop himself from looking at Kirishima like that. Sure, he had fantasies about his classmates that involved things other than destroying them in battle. And sure, he had one or two about Kirishima in that way, but it was always a fluke, and out of his head before the thoughts could settle. Everyone thought about their friends sooner or later – it was totally normal and didn’t mean anything, just hormones and all of that shit.
“Almost ready in there?” Kirishima called and Bakugou growled.
“Yeah, fuckin’ chill out. We have two weeks at this shitty beach.”
He heard Kirishima’s soft laughter from wherever he was in the bedroom. He took a deep breath and walked out of the room. “Let’s fuckin’ go.”
“Nice swimsuit, man.” Kirishima’s eyes looked Bakugou up and down and he felt like he was going to choke. “We kinda match, yeah?”
Bakugou’s swim trunks were black, with red stripes. The opposite of Kirishima.
“Tch. No. Let’s go already.” The room was too stifling for Bakugou to be in any longer. Kirishima happily obliged, completely oblivious to the identity crisis he was putting Bakugou through.
The two left their room and headed down to the beach, bringing with them only towels. They met up with Kaminari and Sero – Bakugou never thought he’d be grateful for the idiots’ company, but he didn’t want to be alone with Kirishima when he was dealing with weird, unwelcome thoughts.
“Everyone is coming to the beach!” Kaminari declared. His swim trunks actually had tiny pikachus on them. He really couldn’t be any stupider. He lowered his voice and leaned in towards the boys. “Guess who our room is right next to? Asui and Uraraka.”
“How about you guys? Did you try to get a room by Ashido, Kirishima?” Sero elbowed the redhead suggestively.
“Huh? No, man, I told you it wasn’t like that…” Kirishima managed weakly, but Sero wasn’t listening to him. Bakugou raised an eyebrow in interest. Did Kirishima like Ashido? It wouldn’t surprise him. She was all over him, but then again, she was all over all four of them.
“Oh, sure, sure.” Sero winked. “I’m sure it’ll be like that when you see her on the beach.”
Kirishima protested, turning a bright pink and Bakugou saw the ghost of a sad, sympathetic smile on Kaminari’s face.
It turns out, due to Bakugou’s reluctance, that they were the last ones on the beach. Towels were strewn out across the sand and class 2A was scattered. Todoroki threw a football with Iida and Deku while Asui and Hagakure lounged nearby, giggling amongst themselves and sneaking looks at the boys. Ojiro had Uraraka up on his shoulders in the water while Shoji carried Mina. The girls appeared to be trying to push one another off. Even Tokoyami was out on the beach, although he had packed his own umbrella and was hiding under it, his head buried in a book.
“Ayeee, let’s go swimming!” Kaminari sprinted down to the edge of the ocean and waved them over. He and Sero stuck their feet in, then yelped at the cold and refused to commit to going all the way in, like a couple of bitches.
“Ah,” Kirishima paused, frowning.
“What, Shitty Hair?” Bakugou challenged. “Don’t like the water?”
“I like it!” Kirishima cried. “I just. I…uh, I can’t swim.” He grinned sheepishly. Bakugou gaped at him in disbelief.
“You…can’t swim? How fuckin’ old are you?” He asked incredulously.
“It’s just not practical for me! I can’t use my quirk in the water – I’d sink!” He was blushing, the color spreading across his cheeks and clashing with his hair.
Bakugou snorted a laugh. “Fuck, Shitty Hair. You really never learned to swim because you’re a damn rock.”
“Oi, don’t make fun of me.” He muttered. “I’ll just stay on the beach. You go ahead.”
Bakugou blinked at him, then growled in irritation. He was going to regret what he was about to do, there was no fucking doubt about it. “I’ll teach you how to swim, idiot.”
Kirishima’s eyes lit up. “Really?! You’d do that?”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t want you to fuckin’ embarrass yourself. But privately. Those morons will just be distracting. So later.”
“Okay! Cool, bro, thanks.”
“Whatever. Just don’t want to be associated with someone who doesn’t possess basic fuckin’ life skills.” He rolled his eyes.
Kirishima smiled softly. “You can go ahead in the water without me. I’m cool just hanging out here. Maybe I’ll go play football with Todoroki and Midor –”
Bakugou didn’t let him finish. “Tch. I don’t wanna hang out with those morons. I wanna play fucking football too. Let’s go.” He didn’t wait for an answer before he started stalking off towards where the shitty nerd and his shittier friends were. He knew Kirishima would follow him. He always did.