Work Text:
This is the story of the acquisition of "the" blue rock, as told by Kirishima to Izuku on March 15, 20XX.
Izuku finds Kirishima alone that evening, doing bench presses in the U.A. gym. He waits until the redhead finishes his set. When Kirishima picks up his water bottle to take a drink, Izuku sidles up all cool and casual.
“Oh hey Kiri!”
Kirishima jolts a little and some water dribbles from the side of his mouth. He grabs the collar of his workout tank to dry it off. “Hey Dekubro! Wassup? Need a spot?”
Uhhh… no. Izuku is on an intelligence-gathering mission, thank you very much.
“Nah, I’m good. Cardio day today. But hey, do you have a minute? Can I ask you a random question?”
“Sure! Whaddaya wanna know?”
“Were you with Kacchan when he found this really bright blue rock? I think it was a couple of years ago. Kinda looks like a chunk of ice, like it was from an iceberg or something? About this big?”
Izuku makes a semi-circular shape with his hands that’s about 3 inches wide around.
Kirishima is looking at his hands intensely, brow deeply furrowed like he is thinking really hard. “Blue rock blue rock…”
His frown deepens and Izuku’s heart falls because maybe Kirishima doesn’t remember at all and the lore he is seeking is lost forever. But then, the wielder of Unbreakable breaks into a wide grin of recognition.
“Oh that rock! Oh man, that was from ages ago. Ya wanna know where that funky rock came from?”
Izuku nods maybe a few too many times in his excitement. Kirishima gestures toward the bench next to his so Izuku takes a seat.
Kirishima swings his leg over the bench so he’s facing Izuku fully and rests his elbows on his knees. Izuku leans in slightly. He's all ears.
“Uhhh man that must’ve been what, the break between first and second year? Bakubro and I went hiking in one of those places, I don’t really remember where now. Anyway! Kats was doing his thing taking us off trail, cuz apparently the trail was too easy, blah blah blah. Eventually we find this cave right, off the side of the mountain and he’s all, ‘let’s fuckin’ go.’ Now, not gonna lie I wasn’t like, chomping at the bit to go in. Well, you know how he is, he was all ‘you scared, Shitty Hair?’”
Kirishima shakes his head to vehemently contest the past accusation. “And no obviously I wasn't, it's just, you know! I wasn’t sure if it was okay to go in there, I mean it was off the trail and like what if a little bear family was there and they were napping and we bothered them, that would be so unmanly and—”
“Kirishima.” Izuku gives him a look.
Kirishima blinks, then laughs. “Oops... sorry! So uh, yeah the cave, so we go on in right and it’s cool actually, it smells kinda musty but whatever and Kats is moving his flashlight everywhere but like, the cave isn’t even that deep so we get to the end real fast.”
“So obviously Bakubro is pretty pissed that it's actually kinda lame so he’s all kicking at this pile of rocks and bitching about what a waste of time it was but honestly I was just real happy we didn’t bother that bear family—“
Izuku is confused. “Kiri wait… was there was a bear family in the cave?” Izuku would have heard about a bear encounter.
Kirishima shakes his head. “No, no bears! But you know, if there was, they would have been real mad that we were in there messing around their home!”
Izuku can’t help but be delighted. The Sturdy Hero is such a softy, even in imaginary scenarios.
Kirishima takes that as encouragement and continues. “Well anyway so he’s kicking this random pile of rocks but like I’m ready to go so I’m walking back to the entrance but then I hear him stop kicking and shit so I turn around and he’s on the ground checking out the pile.”
“So I’m all ‘you find something bro?’ and I walk back and he’s holding this crazy bright blue rock. And he goes, ‘check this stupid rock Shitty Hair, what a dumb color it kinda looks like Candy Cane’s stupid eye.’”
Kirishima looks off, like he’s trying to picture the moment in his mind.
“I mean he’s not wrong it was that super Todobro shade of blue and that’s kinda amazing right, like what are the chances we find something like that way out there? And that Kats finds it?”
He stops to take a drink from his water bottle again and Izuku tracks how his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows.
“So yeah, that’s where he found it. But bro that’s like a deep pull. What made you think of it even? I really dunno what he did with it after. I thought maybe he was starting a rock collection but I haven’t seen it in his room or anything.”
Kirishima shrugs and sets his water bottle down, completely unbothered by the fact that he had been holding on to the missing half of a Kacchan-Shouto pre-relationship story for nearly two years! Instead, he gets up and adds another 10kg to the bar.
Meanwhile, Izuku is reeling.
See the thing is, he is asking about that rock because last night, he was helping Shouto pack up his books and papers ahead of graduation and moving out of the dorms. Shouto was at his desk, organizing a little box full of trinkets, when Izuku came up to help.
The ice blue chunk stood out amid the bric-a-brac Izuku knows are precious mementos from Shouto’s life.
Izuku remembered immediately where he had seen the rock before because it was associated with one of his “is something going on between Shouto and Kacchan” core memories.
It was Sunday night, a few weeks into the start of their second year. Izuku and Shouto were playing a board game with Uraraka and Iida. Out of nowhere, Kacchan walked by the couch Izuku was sharing with Shouto and dropped something bright blue inside the back of the Hot and Cold hero’s shirt.
“Lose something in the mountains, Candy Cane?” Kacchan mutters (so low Izuku is sure if he was an inch further he wouldn’t have heard) then walks away toward the elevators without looking back.
Unfazed as always, Shouto reaches behind him to untuck his shirt and pull the rock out. He inspects it for a moment, nods, then looking over Izuku’s head calls out in a somewhat businesslike tone, “thank you, Bakugou.”
Then he turns back to the board, rearranges his little piles of money, and looks back at them expectantly. “Tenya? I believe it was your turn?”
Izuku, Uraraka, and Iida are all looking at each other like “what just happened?” but with Shouto’s blasé attitude toward the whole thing, they just follow his lead and resume the game.
Izuku thought about that moment a lot in the following months, at least until the two actually officially started going out. He didn’t spare the blue rock a thought though… at least until last night.
And now it all makes sense.
Izuku stands up and positions himself behind the bench. Kirishima has just lain back down to start his set and flashes Izuku his signature sharktooth grin when he sees him ready to spot.
“You’re a good bro, Midoriya.”
Izuku smiles back. “Least I could do since you told me where that rock came from. Because actually Kiri, I did in fact see that same blue rock. Just last night.”
“Oh?” The redhead looks genuinely intrigued.
So in between reps, Izuku tells him what he knows of the blue rock and how to came to be in Shouto’s possession, completing the story that for Kirishima, ended with Bakugou pocketing the rock in that now lost cave for reasons unknown.
Well, now they know. They both do.
Kirishima’s eyes are straight manga sparkle by the time Izuku finishes his story, which is quite the unusual visual because the rest of him is flushed and swollen from benching 130kg... more than double the Sturdy Hero’s weight.
Kirishima is so strong!
“Oh my god Deku are you serious that is so cute I think I’m going to die!”
“I know! I—“ Izuku almost reveals his secret (and growing) treasure trove of stories but catches himself. Kirishima will likely be the other best man—er, bro—so he needs to keep this close to his chest. His story collection work is hard work and he’s not just gonna share it willy nilly. Not even Izuku is that generous.
“Thanks for telling me the story of where it came from,” he says instead.
“Anytime bro!” Kirishima gives him a high five and gets up from the bench. “Honestly though, thank YOU too. Kats would never tell me this sorta shit so it's nice to hear my bro is as soft as he pretends not to be.”
Kirishima winks at him conspiratorially and Izuku smirks knowingly back.
“You sticking around? That was my last workout so I’ma hit the hot tub. You're welcome to join?”
Oh, a hot soak sounds nice, and Kirishima is even better company. But Izuku has work to do. He has review what he's heard to jot down a proper report of what he just learned when he gets back to his room. So he tells Kirishima to go ahead while Izuku makes his way to the elliptical machines. He really wasn’t going to work out today but exercise was the whole conceit of this little spy mission so now he has to at least break a sweat to make it look real.
As he watches Kirishima lumber away, Izuku shakes his head at his near-slip of telling Kacchan’s best bro about his secret project.
But hey: credit where credit is due. Izuku will be sure to acknowledge Kirishima during the close of his better best man speech at Kacchan and Shouto’s wedding.