Bakugo had complicated relationships. He loosely tolerated the people that called him friend, disrespected half his classmates, outright hated most of his schoolmates, and argued with anyone that opened their mouth in his direction. It was probably because he had this sort of messed up dynamic that he ended up dating two people while actively in love with two others.
Well, he wasn't technically dating two people. He was dating one person, that was dating someone else, that he just happened to kind of have a relationship with... It was complicated. His relationship with Deku had been complicated for longer than he cared to remember. Despite his best efforts and deepest regrets, Deku was his best friend. They were partners, but it wasn't... romantic exactly... even if there were places where the lines blurred. If asked, Bakugo would absolutely deny that he was dating Deku. Though he had no intention of admitting that he was dating Uraraka either, so maybe that didn't mean as much as he wanted it to.
The difference between his relationship with Deku and his relationship with Uraraka was this: He and Deku talked, but he and Uraraka kissed, and he would never kiss Deku.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell anyone about us," Uraraka told him. "Deku and I aren't planning to go public either."
Bakugo didn't entirely mind people knowing that he was dating Uraraka, he just didn't want to talk about it. Ever.
They didn't exactly move in together. It was Deku's place, even if Bakugo sometimes helped pay for it and Round Face sometimes slept over. They weren't living together. Bakugo didn't have time for that. He dove head first into hero work and only came up for air when absolutely necessary.
He and Deku were partners. Bakugo didn't have to make time for him because they spent time together in battle. They fought together, trained together. Deku didn't need his free time when he could so easily assimilate himself into his work.
He didn't really make time for Uraraka either. She made time for herself in his space. If they were both staying at Deku's place, she would climb into his bed; if he were sitting somewhere she would put herself in his lap; she would help herself to food from his plate if he didn't look like he were in a bad mood. She never seemed to mind the fact that she had to make time for herself in his life. Uraraka wasn't afraid to take what she wanted for herself, that was one of the reasons he liked her, but he also assumed that it was because she had Deku to fall back on.
What he did make time for, once a month, was going to practice with his shitty band. It wasn't because Kaminari begged him to and wouldn't shut up until he agreed, it wasn't because he actually had fun doing it, and it especially wasn't because it was the easiest way to keep in touch with Jirou and Shinso. He made sure to point that out when Deku expressed his surprise that Bakugo made time for it, and Uraraka made sure to press the point that they didn't believe him.
Beating them both in a sparing match failed to change either of their minds or stop their laughter as he attempted to explode the thought out of their head, so he was forced to just let it go.
There was something depressing and equally comforting about the fact that Shinso and Jirou's apartment seemed not to change between his monthly visits. It was threadbare; two couches and a table, an empty fridge, and the small collection of things that Ponytail made and left with her quirk. There was a part of him, a small and selfish part, that was happy nothing seemed to change between them, that Bakugo wasn't missing anything. But it was equally bad when every time Bakugo saw them they looked more and more tired.
"You all look like shit," he told them visit.
"Thanks, Blasty, you always know just what to say," Shinso drawled. Bakugo had gotten used to Shinso looking kind shit every time they saw each other. He always looked tired, always had bags under his eyes, was always too pale and too thin and a whole host of things that Bakugo had subtly tried to address over the course of their friendship. He had spent nights training with Shinso on the basis of 'If you aren't going to sleep, you might as well be productive' and while it didn't make him less tired, it did make him stronger, and Bakugo had been willing to take what he could get. He'd started to look marginally less tired when he started dating Jirou, but only marginally.
"Stuff it, Brain dead," Bakugo snapped as he strode toward the kitchen. He wasn't surprised to find their fridge empty, given the state of the rest of their house, but it did piss him off to see how poorly they were taking care of themselves. "The fuck? Why the hell is this so empty?"
"Probably because we're hardly ever here," Jirou told him, which did not do anything to make him feel better.
He stomped back into the living room. Shinso and Jirou were basically in each other's lap and halfway asleep, while Kaminari and Momo already were. He could go alone to right the wrongs of their kitchen, but Bakugo actually wanted company, even if he didn't want to admit it.
"Get up, Sparks, you're coming with me," he said loudly enough to startle Kaminari out of his sleep.
"What?" Kaminari blinked around in confusion.
Bakugo's impatience boiled over as he made small explosions in his palms. "Just get the hell over here!"
He stole their keys from the table before sternly ordering, "You idiots get some fucking sleep, I'll let myself in." Earlobes tried to protest, but he didn't stay long enough to listen it. "Shut up and go to sleep!"
While they were out, Bakugo pushed Kaminari into talking about his hero team, Royal Flush, answering the questions he had about why Jirou and Shinso were so tired without him having to ask. Once they returned, he allowed Kaminari to fall back asleep on the couch while he cooked. There wasn't much he could do to help them be less tired or less busy, but he could at least do this.
"What's this?" Jirou asked as she wandered into the kitchen. He tried to ignore the soft smile on her face, the tousled look of her hair and how much he favored the look, the warm that he felt being on the reviving end of that look.
He kept his eyes off of her as he answered. "You idiots were going to starve yourself, so I cooked."
"What's that? Did I hear concern?"
Bakugo had always been a fan of her sarcasm and how they could trade insults back and forth infinitely if no one stopped them. It was similar to why he and Uraraka got along, except it was visible with them and verbal with him and Jirou.
"Fuck off, Earlobes. I already know you can't cook worth shit and that bag eyed boyfriend of yours probably isn't far behind. This is charity work."
"Yaomomo could have cooked, so try again." Bakugo could hear the smirk in Shinso's voice, could picture the exact curve of his lips, and refused to turn around to see it. He focused harder on the food, even though it was practically done and there wasn't really anything he needed to do.
"This is her day off, asshole!"
"Aww, you care," Shinso mocked.
"Say that again!" he yelled. "I'll fucking-" his words abruptly stopped as Shinso's quirk took him over. That was always a possibility when arguing with Shinso, one he didn't actually mind all that much since Shinso had never abused it. He was actually a little grateful for it, though like hell would he admit it, that Shinso had used his quirk before he and Jirou hugged him. It mean that he didn't have to respond and could enjoy the moment without finding a reason to pretend not to.
He didn't bother pretending to get revenge on them. But he did leave them with a kernel of advice. "Buy a fucking bed already."
Bakugo was pretty sure that Deku always knew exactly what was he was feeling, even though it often pissed him off. It wasn't just that they talked. Even when they didn't talk, Deku always seemed to just know. He chalked it up to them being childhood friends and tried to accept the fact that he was as transparent as glass where Deku was concerned.
It was different when Uraraka did it. She wasn't supposed to be able to read him in any situation that didn't involve Deku, so it was really annoying when Deku mentioned having been invited to see Royal Flush in concert and she say, "I bet you really want to go, don't you, Bakugo?"
He glared at her. It didn't intimidate her in the slightest, they probably wouldn't be dating if it did, but it was a habit that he couldn't easily curb. "Why the hell would you assume that?"
"You practice with them all the time," she said. Which was absolutely not true. Once a month was not all the time. "I bet you wish you could join them right?"
"Why would I want to waste my time with that shit?" he questioned.
"I don't know, why do you?" she asked with a wide grin.
Deku laughed, placed a restraining hand on Bakugo's arm. "Don't tease him so much, Och."
She laughed, too, boldly placing herself in Bakugo's lap as if he wouldn't drop her on the floor with little to no provocation. "Aww, but where am I supposed to get my fun?"
Deku's hand on his arm went a long way in keeping him from exploding her off of his lap, and he hated it. "Whatever. He was just gonna drag you along anyway, so this has nothing to do with me."
"Doesn't it?" she teased him. He looked away from him as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "When is it, Deku?"
"In two weeks," he told her.
"Oh, well, I'm busy in two weeks, guess you'll have to go in my place," she said brightly. She was a liar. He knew she was a liar. He couldn't prove it, but there was no doubt in his mind that she was lying through her teeth right now.
Deku looked at him without any of the teasing, or the pushing, that Uraraka would have. "What do you say, Kacchan? Do you wanna come with me? It's okay if you don't."
Fuck. In the end, this was why they worked. Deku never pushed him and Uraraka always did. He rarely caved to her, but he also rarely had to since she was ready and willing to get what she wanted by force when necessary. When Deku gave him that unassuming look though, he nearly always gave in.
"Fine," he snapped. "I'll go with you."
It was a few minutes later, after Ochako had left to go on patrol, that Deku asked, "Are you really okay with this? You don't have to go just because she pushed you into it."
Deku had folded his arms on the table and laid his head on them, tilted slightly so that he could meet Bakugo's gaze. Bakugo wasn't used to looking down at him anymore, it was odd to be doing so now, even in such a mundane way. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"It can be hard, right? Being so far from someone you want to be closer to?"
Bakugo didn't like the under current of the conversation and he couldn't hold Deku's gaze. It felt like a jab at him, at their relationship, but he wasn't sure that it was. It was absolutely another sign that Deku could read him much easier than he wanted him to, however, and Bakugo hated the fact that he blushed. "How long have you known?"
"That you liked them?" Deku asked. "That time in second year when I caught you one day doing late night training with Shinso and the next day you tricked him into giving her chocolates you'd made for Valentine's Day."
"Shit, that long..."
"I wasn't going to say anything, I thought you'd get mad."
He would have gotten mad. He would have been upset at both the accusation and it's truthfulness. Now he just felt kind of resigned. "So why bring it up?"
Deku was quiet long enough that Bakugo looked at him again, finding him chewing his lip as he contemplated what to say. Usually Bakugo would have yelled at him for not just spitting it out, but he was finding himself oddly hesitant. Maybe Deku knew that like he knew everything else. "Are you gonna do something about it?" he asked. "Because I don't think Ocha's figured it out yet and that would probably change things. Or, well, she would think it does."
But Deku knew that it didn't. He knew that Bakugo had started this already head over heels with someone else. Maybe that was why they'd never... Bakugo stopped that thought in it's tracks. It was useless to contemplate things he'd already made up his mind about. Things like being in love with Shinso and Jirou, his relationship with Deku, dating Uraraka. None of that was gonna change if he had anything to say about it.
"I just want you to be happy, Kacchan, so whatever you decide to do, I'l go along with it."
That blind support had been one of the things that had set Bakugo off in their childhood, thinking that it had to be false in someway. Now it was just... comforting. One less thing for him to worry about it.
The concert turned into a tour, turned into hero work, turned into him joining their team. Bakugo didn't put up as much of a fuss as he wanted to and during it all stupid Deku felt it necessary to mention that he had a girlfriend when reading the trash articles about him and Ponytail. That meant that he spent the next couple days being bugged at every possible moment with text from his friends asking who he was dating, as if it was any of their business.
He spent more time ranting in the following days and not just to Deku, like usual. Spending more time with Shinso and Jirou gave him more opportunities to be verbally annoyed at how shit they were at taking care of themselves.
He'd just finished one of his rants, this one about the general annoyance of all his band mates and not any of them in particular, at least he didn't think he'd called any of them out in particular, when Uraraka turned to him with a huff. She placed her hands on her hips as she spoke. "Bakugo? Are you ever going to tell them?"
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"You know what I'm talking about. Jirou and Shinso! Are you ever going to tell them?"
Bakugo glared at her as he said, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You do know what I'm talking about," she insisted, climbing into his lap so that she could glare at him up close. "Just because you and Deku have ESP with each other, doesn't mean that I can't tell what going on with you."
Bakugo groaned and rolled his eyes. "We don't have-"
"That's not the point!" she yelled. "I thought when you agree to join Royal Flush that meant that you were going to try to get closer to them, maybe see how they feel about you, but you're doing the exact same thing as before. I'm tired of watching it."
"Who the fuck said it was any of your business?" he asked loudly.
"I say it's my business," she answered, slapping both her hands against his cheeks and holding his face in her hands. "Because we're dating and we're living together and that means I get to be in your business."
"The fuck it does!"
"If you don't tell them, I will," she said.
Bakugo tensed, for one moment believing her and not being sure how he felt about that. Then he relaxed again, thinking through the possibilities and saying, "You wouldn't do that. And even if you would, Deku wouldn't let you."
She made an annoyed sound and let her head fall onto his shoulder. "Fine. You're right. I won't do that, but I hate this. I hate seeing you come home all wound up and tense. You're pinning! You never mope about anything but Deku."
"I do not mope about, Deku!"
"You do if I say you do!"
They had a stare off until Deku decided to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder.
"Hey!"
"Maybe we should give Kacchan some time to think," Deku said.
"No, I want to yell at him some more! I have more to say."
"You can say it to me," Deku told her as he carried her out of the room.
Bakugo swore, sent a message to Kirishima to trade patrols, and then spent the rest of the night taking out his emotions on bad guys.
They kept fighting.
There was a cycle to things. Uraraka would glare at him for a while, he'd snap back until they argued, and eventually they would either be interrupted by Deku, resolve things with sex, or resolve things by sparring. It actually wasn't that different from how things were before. They always knew that they weren't going to last, and neither of them thought that that was a problem. Except before where there was a question as to how things should end, now there was an answer.
"What if I kick you out?" Uraraka asked after one of their sparring sessions. It had been mostly a draw, since she was panting on the ground and unable to move, and he was floating in the air equally out of breath.
"You can't kick me out, this isn't your place," he answered immediately.
"They don't know that," she said. "And the others crash their anyway, right? So why don't you stay with them, see where things go, and if it doesn't work out you can come back here."
He watched her as she struggled to pick herself up off the ground, then she held a hand up to him.
"No," he answered as he took her hand. His heart was beating faster at the idea.
"I've never known you to be so afraid of anything, Baukgo," she said softly. She didn't release he quirk, letting him stay there, weightless and feeling like she was pulling the rug out from under him. Only she really wasn't, because this was where they were heading for months. This was where they were heading since he'd joined Jirou's team. Since the concert even, when Deku had looked at him and asked what he was going to do.
"I've never known you to give up on what you wanted," he replied.
"I'm not," she answered. "You know me better than that." Uraraka reached out to take both his hands, holding him in place. "I wanted you to be happy. I wanted to be the one that made you happy. I did that and I'm still doing that. I don't want to watch you be in love with them if it's only going to hurt you."
"It's not your decision," he said softly.
"Well this is." She pulled him close enough to kiss, releasing her quirk halfway through so that he could land on his feet. She kept him close, standing on her tip toes to press their foreheads together. "I'm breaking up with you," she told him.
He let out a breath. "Alright."
"And I'm kicking you out."
"Okay."
"So now you have no choice but to call them and ask to stay. Right?" She smiled at him. Bakugo pulled their hands free to push her back to the floor. It was a rather soft shove, but she was tired enough that she chose to let herself fall.
"Right." He turned toward the door to yell out, "Deku? Help me pack?"
"Already on it, Kacchan!" he answered as he poked his head around the corner. "Here's your phone." He tossed it across the room and Bakugo caught it easily.
"I just want you both to know that I hate you both," he told them as he sent a message. "I bet you won't even let me take a shower."
"Nope, shower at their place," Uraraka said from where she was sitting on the ground in front of him, smiling wickedly. "Seduce them with your best assets."
"That is not my best asset," he said with a glared.
"Are you sure about that, Kacchan?" Deku asked him.
"Fuck both of you!"
"Too late now," Uraraka said. "We're already broken up."
The transition from Deku and Uraraka to Shinso and Jirou was easier than he'd thought it would be. He did all the grocery shopping, all the cooking, and yelled at them for being bad at taking care of themselves. That was the easy part. The familiar part.
What was new was staring around a half empty apartment when he was all alone. What was new was seeing them together and feeling like a third, scrambling to give them privacy because he felt bad watching instead of because they deserved it. What was new was not having anyone crowd into his space whether he wanted them to or having too knowing eyes watching him from across the room. What was new was feeling like he was on borrowed time, just waiting for them to tire of his presence and kick him out.
He had expected that he'd be alone when Shinso caught him drinking. Jirou had already gone to bed and he hadn't thought Shinso would home that night. He had almost expected that Shinso would force him to talk about what was wrong. It wouldn't be the first time he'd used his quirk that way and Bakugo knew it wouldn't be the last, but Shinso surprised him by actually leaving him to his own devices. And then surprised him again by actually Bakugo to move in with them.
"That's great, Kacchan!" Deku enthused over the phone when Bakugo told him. "I knew everything would work out."
"We haven't worked out shit," Bakugo replied.
"You will," Deku told him. "We believe in you."
"No one asked you," he said quietly.
"Well too bad for you, you get our opinion anyway!" Uraraka yelled in the background. "That's what you get for being friends with us."
"Like that was my fault," he grumbled.
"Just, don't forget us, okay? If things get messy, you can still talk to us," Deku told him.
"Yeah, whatever," Bakugo answered. "As if I didn't already know that." He was glad that they couldn't see him smile or else he'd never hear the end of it.
It began easier to watch them the longer he was with them. He relished fighting by Jirou's side, watching her displays of strength, getting to protect her and being surprised in the moments where she protected him. He enjoyed late night talks with Shinso when he couldn't sleep or arrived home late and watching him stumble around the kitchen like a zombie until Bakugo placed a cup of coffee in his hands.
It was easier to command them to to take care of themselves this way, too. He could life the burden off of Jirou directly while they were in the field, keep them fed and bully them into sleep. It put him at ease to watch them slowly starting to look less strained and even if it wasn't what he wanted, he was glad that he could be near them.
They fell into an easy pattern.
When Jirou mentioned that he wanted to talk, he wasn't that worried. He hadn't done anything wrong, so they weren't likely to kick him out. He had done everything he could to respect their privacy, so he wasn't in the way. Still, he found himself anxious to know what was bothering them and rushed Sparky and Ponytail out of the room as soon as he could to try and hurry it along.
"I don't know what to do about this," Shinso said, leaning back in his chair and looking contemplative.
"About what?" Bakugo watched them both closely, trying to read where this conversation might be going.
"This," Shinso gestured between them all. "Whatever this is. Whatever this could be."
Bakugo felt himself stiffen and tried to hide it with his usual reaction. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Jirou glared at him, but the annoyance in her eyes was more of a draw than a deterrent. He wanted to tease her when she looked at him that way, though he realized that now wasn't really the time. "It isn't like you to play dumb."
He glared at the insinuation, even though it was true. "There's nothing to be done," he told them. Which was true, because if he had lasted this long with his unrequited feelings, he could probably go a bit longer. At the very least, his feelings didn't really have to concern them.
"Yeah, that's an option," Shinso said. "Certainly not the most interesting option. And I'm guessing that's not what you want."
"I haven't said shit about wanting something," he said fiercely.
"You haven't, but I've been thinking about it and it makes sense, doesn't it?" He was looking at Jirou now, ignoring Bakugo as he laid out his case. "He came to us. Midoriya didn't want to get in the way and Ochako didn't want to watch him doing nothing. As soon as they cut him loose, he came to us. That seems as close to a declaration as this asshole gets."
He was right. He was entirely right. Bakugo wasn't going to deny it. He wasn't ashamed of how he felt, even if part of him was nervous as hell about them knowing it, anticipating their negative reactions. He looked away from them. He knew them too well at this point, would be able to read their intent in their eyes, and didn't want to.
"Were you hoping we'd offer you comfort sex or something?" Shinso questioned.
Bakugo felt stupid for falling for such an easy rise, but he was under the influence of Shinso's quirk quickly.
"Come here, Blasty." They held his hands. If he'd had control over his body, he might have shivered with the pleasure it gave him. He wanted to squeeze back, to enjoy the warmth, was afraid that he would fall to deeply into the feeling if he allowed himself to. Then Shinso did the last thing Bakugo had expected him to and asked him directly, "What do you want?"
He supposed the secret was out now. "I want you two asshole."
"In what way?" Jirou asked, her eyes widened with surprise.
Bakugo couldn't image that if they were asking him this, she didn't have some idea of the answer she would recieve. Then again, maybe it was just hard to believe out loud, even if she'd already known it was true.
"Anyway," he told them. "Every way." Because if they weer going to give Bakugo an inch, he was going to be upfront about the fact that he would try and take a mile. That's just how he was. He took what he wanted, or at least, he tried to.
"Okay. Yes," Jirou said and the words stopped his heart. He almost couldn't believe what he was hearing, that it could be that easy. That she would say yes and he could just... have them.
"You already live here," Shinso told him with a smile. A soft smile, different from the smirks he usually gave Bakugo. More like the way he looked at Jirou, full of fondness and warmth. "It's not that different."
"It is," he choked out. There was desperation and hope clogging up his throat. If he was going to have this, really have it, it had to be different. There was so much that he wanted, so he much that he needed, if this was going to be real. They had to understand that. "It's completely different."
"it is, isn't it?" Jirou said softly. She staring at their hands, rubbing the back of his with her thumb. She was looking at him the same Shinso had and already he felt too lost to know what to do with them. "But that's what you want, right?"
"You haven't said what you want," Bakugo said softly, afraid that after all this build up, there might still be a rejection in there somewhere. That at the last minute they would decide to pull the rug from under him.
"We want this," Shinso told him. "We wouldn't offer if we didn't."
Fuck, that was all Bakugo ever needed to hear. There was a rush of relief and joy that filled him, and he stared at their hands in disbelief as he let the emotions crash over him and poorly hid them. "Don't think I'll be any nicer to you assholes."
It was a bluff, an obvious at that. Bakugo had been nicer to Deku and Uraraka when he was them. He'd been nicer to Shinso and Jirou since moving in with them, and it would only get worse. There would only be more moments where he'd be soft, unguarded, left to the mercy of these two assholes that he's had a crush on for years. Somehow, thought, he didn't think that he was going to mind all that much.