"You're blocking my light," Kaminari said as he stared at his plate through the filter on his phone. He was flipping through different filters, though he was fairly certain that he wouldn't be using any of them, a bored expression on his face. The dessert that was on his plate was cute. It was a cake drizzled with strawberry syrup and with graham cracker arranged like a flower bursting from the top of the treat.
"Are you fucking serious?" Bakugo asked as he leaned back in his chair. "Why do you always do this shit?"
"Do you know how disappointed my followers would be if I didn't?" he replied. Usually he would play up his reaction a little more, but he wasn't really feeling it today.
"What he means to say," Shinso added, "Is shut up and let him get paid."
Kaminari looked up from his phone to grin at Shinso. "See, he gets it." He looked back down and took five different pictures of his food, two with filters, and three from different angles, before pushing his plate across the table to Shinso.
"Really? You're not even gonna fucking eat it?" Bakugo groaned.
"Not hungry," Kaminari answered as he looked at the pictures.
"Why did you even come here if you weren't going to eat?" Bakugo growled. "I had better things to do."
"You didn't have to come," Shinso pointed out before shoving the spoon into his mouth. "No one made you."
Bakugo folded his arms and leaned back in his seat, opting to ignore them as he grumbled angrily under his breath.
Kaminari went back to his phone, posting the best pictures on a few social media sites with appropriate emojis and tags. He checked one site in particular, refreshing the page five different times and scouring the new post before he looked up and around again. His eyes scanned the faces around him slowly as he tried to look as unobtrusively as possible.
"Seriously, what the fuck are we doing here?" Bakugo asked.
"Well, I happen to be enjoying this dessert right now," Shinso answered, smirking when his response earned a growl from Bakugo. "Kaminari, on the other hand, is busy trying to stalk his new crush."
"Hey!" Kaminari objected, sitting forward. "It's not stalking!"
"You're waiting for a girl that you've never talked to that doesn't know you exist," Shinso said. He pointed his spoon at Kaminari as he added, "Stalking."
Kaminari sank into his seat. His cheeks turned red. "That's not..."
"What the fuck?" Bakugo asked as he turned toward Kaminari.
"No! Listen," Kaminari insisted, leaning toward Bakugo. "There's a girl in my class, I'm not stalking her! She mentioned that she had a food blog and when I checked her out, she said that she was planning to come here this weekend. I was hoping that I might run into her and maybe we could... talk?" He rubbed the back of his head and looked away from Bakugo's harsh stare.
"You're pathetic."
"We can't all be as confident as you," he murmured.
"Don't mind him," Shinso said. "He's just disappointed that this isn't a date."
Bakugo's eyes widened as he looked at Shinso. "What? Shut your fucking mouth, Shin! I'll kill you!" he yelled as Shinso snickered.
Kaminari stopped listening as the person he was hoping to see walked in through the doors. He stood up as he waved. "Hey, Uraraka!"
She turned towards him, smiling when her eyes actually landed on her. She came over to him quickly. "Hey! You're... Kaminari, right?"
"Yeah. What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I wanted to check this place out for my blog," she told him. "I've heard good things about them. What about you?"
Kaminari ducked his head and shuffled nervously. "Actually," he lowered his voice, "I was going to hang out with my friends but I think I'm being a third wheel."
"The fu-" Bakugo began, but Shinso interrupted him by shoving a piece of the graham cracker flower into his mouth.
Uraraka looked over his shoulder at them, blushing lightly as she averted her gaze. "Oh... Um, if you want, you could join me."
He perked up immediately. "Really? You don't mind?"
She shook her head. "Not at all. The more the merrier."
Kaminari smiled widely. He turned back to his table as he said, "Hey, I'm gonna go eat with my classmate, will you guys be good without me?"
"We'll be fine," Shinso said. He waved them both away with a lazy grin. "Have fun you two."
The two of them walked away as Bakugo glared at Shinso. "I fucking hate you."
The sound of camera shutters echoed each other as Kaminari and Uraraka both took pictures of their food. She looked up at Kaminari in surprise, meeting his eyes unexpectedly. "Oh, you do it too?" she asked.
"Yeah... I mean, why not, right?" He shrugged. "It gives people something to talk about."
"We should follow each other," she said cheerfully.
"Yeah, sure!"
They exchanged sites and handles, scrolling through media feeds as they dug into their food. He'd already seen her food blog, which was filled with pictures of food and reviews and anecdotal stories of her excursions to try certain things. Her personal account had more pictures of her and her friends, selfies, and a few text posts that he told himself he'd read later.
"Hey! I didn't know you were in a band," she said. She turned her phone toward him, displaying the picture she'd found of Kaminari, Shinso, and Bakugo with all of their instruments. "What's it called?"
"Brain Blast," he told her. "I play guitar, Bakugo is on drums," he explained as he pointed, "And Shinso plays bass, or keyboard, or sings. We're still trying things out."
"That's so cool. I'd love to hear you play sometime."
"Sure! I'll let you know the next time we practice," he told her. "Here, I have a separate account for our band. It's shared between Shinso and I."
She immediately followed the new account, scrolling through posts and pictures before pausing on one in particular. It was a picture of Bakugo, mostly from the waist down, and she could only tell because Kaminari's head was sleeping on the table in the background and Shinso was sticking his tongue out in the corner of the camera. Bakugo was ripped, way more than she'd expected at a glance, and she felt her face going red. The caption read, 'look what I have to deal with in the morning.'
Uraraka put her phone down and focused her attention on her food.
"You okay?" Kaminari asked her.
"I-I'm fine!" she squeaked, before shoving food into her mouth and almost immediately choking on it in her haste.
"Whoa!" Kaminari moved to her side to rub her back, handing her a glass of water. "Careful there!"
She accepted the water, sipping slowly lest she make herself choke again. "Man, that was so uncool," she murmured.
Kaminari smiled kindly at her. "I already thought you were cool," he told her.
"Are you kidding?" she asked. "You're the one with a band."
He laughed. It was a nice laugh and she felt warmer inside as she listened to it. "Nah, they're the cool ones," he admitted. "I'm just there to fill space."
"You fill it well," she said without thinking. She blushed. So did he. Uraraka suddenly noticed how close they were. He hadn't moved back to his seat after handing her her water and his arm was on the back of her chair. They met each others eyes, feeling the pull between them yet frozen with indecision.
"Everything alright here?" They both jumped at the sudden appearance of the waiter. Kaminari moved away from her, sliding awkwardly back into his seat.
He cleared his throat. "We-we're fine," he said.
"As you say." The waiter moved away.
They both let out a breath of relief before smiling at each other.
They had both exchanged numbers by the time Kaminari returned to his band mates' table. Shinso had ordered another dessert and Bakugo was glaring into a cup of coffee. Kaminari smiled brightly when he sat down with them.
"You look pleased with yourself," Shinso said around his spoon.
"She's so cool!" Kaminari gushed immediately. "She was so funny and cute and she wants to come to band practice and-"
"Glad that your deception worked out for you," Shinso said. "Now you can add stalking and lying to list of romantic moves."
"Who says I was lying?" Kaminari asked, looking at Bakugo. "Maybe I was just reading the atmosphere."
Bakugo's eyes raised, meeting Kaminari's immediately. "Well you read it wrong, idiot." He pushed his chair back and stood, tossing some money on the table. "I'll see you two later," he said as he walked off.
Shinso and Kaminari both stared after him.
"What's wrong with him?" Kaminari asked.
Shinso rested his face in hand. "Nothing. Ignore him." Despite saying that, Shinso kept his eyes on Bakugo's retreating form until it could no longer be seen.
Kaminari was pretty sure he hadn't stopped smiling all week. In between classes he'd been playing a game of social media tag with Uraraka, replying to messages on different sites and trying to keep up with five different conversations, not to mention the occasional texting they were doing. He was laying out on the couch, holding his phone on above his head as he typed his messages before Bakugo stole his phone out of his hands.
"Hey!" Kaminari objected immediately as he sat up.
"Stop fooling around and start studying," Bakugo commanded.
Shinso was sitting on the floor across from him, chewing on the end of his pencil with three different books open before him. He was watching the two of them with heavy, tired eyes, rather than looking at any of the books before him.
Kaminari pouted, putting his head in his hands as he asked Shinso, "What are you working on?"
Shinso's eyes glanced down to the books in front on him. "I'm not even sure anymore. One of these was math, maybe... I've been staring at these for so long I'm not sure I haven't turned into a text book myself."
Bakugo pushed Shinso over with his foot, meeting with surprisingly little resistance. "Go the fuck to sleep. You've been studying all night."
"You're not the boss of me," Shinso replied without moving from his uncomfortable looking slump.
"I don't have all day, blondie!" Bakugo yelled.
Kaminari jumped to his feet immediately, before asking, "What? What I do?"
Bakugo pointed to the table where there was an open text book and a note book. He sat across the open place, glaring at Kaminari until he slowly came over. He eased into his seat cautiously, eyes reluctantly going to the notebook. He was surprised to see that it was Bakugo's handwriting in the notebook and looked up at him questioningly.
"You take shit notes," Bakugo told him.
Kaminari smiled softly as he looked back down at his study aides. "Thanks, Bakugo."
Bakugo's only reply was a dismissive grunt as he kept his eyes glued to his own text book.
Ten minutes into studying, they could hear Shinso's soft snoring from where he's fallen asleep on the floor. Five minutes after that, Bakugo got up and draped a blanket over him, pretending that he's gotten up to get a bottle of water. Kaminari knew it was a pretense when it ended up on his side of the table a few minutes later.
'The idiot can't talk anymore. He has to study.'
Uraraka stared at the strange text message for a few minutes, trying to decide how she should reply. She and Kaminari hadn't been texting anything particularly private, but it was still a little startling to think that someone else could potentially read their private conversation. She chewed her lip as she thought before finally settling on asking, 'Who is this?'
'His roommate.'
'Which one?' she questioned before she could think better of it. It didn't really matter which one it was, since she didn't know much about either of them. Well, outside of what she'd gathered from looking at the post on their band blog. Somehow, in the rush of everything else they had talked about, it really hadn't come up.
'The fuck does it matter?'
The grumpy one, then. Uraraka scrambled to remember what she knew of him, but all she could think of was that picture she'd seen on their band blog, with him shirtless and center stage. Her face flushed bright red and she held her phone to her chest as if to keep it from seeing.
"Talking to your boyfriend again?" Her roommate, Mina, asked as she plopped down on the couch beside her.
"No! He's not my boyfriend!" she objected immediately. "We're just talking."
"And what are you talking about?" Mina asked, moving closer.
Uraraka held her phone closer to her chest as she leaned away from her friend. "Don't be so nosy, Mina."
"This is my only joy," she said dramatically.
She stuck her tongue out at her as she moved off the couch. "Go bother Jirou," she said as she rushed into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.
"Meanie!" Mina yelled after her.
Without thinking, she unlocked her phone and sent a message to Kaminari. 'My roommate is so nosy. She hasn't stopped bothering me since she saw me texting you.'
'Just tell her to fuck off,' was the reply that came not a minute later.
'I can't do that!' she answered quickly. 'That would be so mean.'
'Fine, give her the phone, I'll do it.'
'What?'
Not a minute after she sent that message, the phone rang. It was so unexpected that she almost dropped her phone and her heartbeat got twice as fast when she accidentally answered and then scrambled to hold the phone to her face. "Ye-yes!" she said stiffly.
"Put her on the phone," the voice said immediately. Uraraka felt like a bucket of water had been dropped on her. She had completely forgotten, due to Mina's interlude, that she was talking to Kaminari's roommate. That was embarrassing.
"I told you, I can't do that," she insisted. Her heartbeat was slowing down now that she knew she was talking to a stranger. "It would be rude to-"
"She's the one being rude. Are you gonna let her walk all over you?"
"Well, no, of course not," she sighed.
"Then what are you gonna do about it?" he demanded. "If you keep being polite, she'll think it's okay to do whatever she wants."
"Maybe you're right, but still..."
"Still, nothing!"
She heard a shuffling in the background, followed by Kaminari's voice asking, "Bakugo? What are you doing?"
The reply was slightly muffled and she had to assume that he covered the phone with his hand. "Shut up, I'm on the phone."
"Isn't that mi-"
"I said shut it!"
Uraraka couldn't help it, she found herself giggling helplessly at the absurdity of the exchange.
"What's so funny?" he demanded.
"Nothing, nothing," she told him. "Your name is Bakugo, right? It's nice to meet you."
Shinso leaned on the edges of his keyboard as Uraraka applauded loudly. Bakugo slammed down his drum sticks before reaching for a bottle of water and Kaminari grinned madly at her. "So you liked it?"
"You guys sounded great!" she cheered.
"Do you mean it or are you just placating us?" Shinso asked. "It's okay to hurt Kaminari's feelings."
"Hey!"
Uraraka laughed as she picked up two more bottles of water and handed them to Shinso and Kaminari. "No, I really mean it! I liked it. Your lyrics are really good, Shin."
Shinso paused where he's lifted the bottle to his lips. "Shin, huh?" he asked before continuing to drink.
She blushed but before she could say anything, Kaminari was already adding excitedly, "Right? I keep telling him he's really good."
"I still think you would make a better lead," Shinso told him. "You've got the looks for it."
"Maybe," he said uncertainly. "But you're better for the tone we're going for."
"We could go for a different tone."
Bakugo threw one of his drum sticks at Kaminari's head, making him flinch and cover the spot with his hands. "Shut up," he told them. "We'll run through each song twice and you can both have a turn."
"That's a good idea," Uraraka said. "Mind if I record you guys?"
"For personal use or for profit?" Shinso questioned wryly.
"Profit is personal," she told him solemnly.
He snickered. "Go ahead. Just send me the footage later so I can put it on our site."
"I'll need your number, first."
"Kaminari will give it to you."
It wasn't until later that she realized that she could have just sent the footage to Kaminari.
Twin flashes went off as Kaminari and Uraraka took pictures of their plates. Uraraka's plate was piled high with pasta, while Kaminari had a dessert. She almost couldn't tell what it was other than a pile of chocolate.
"You two are fucking annoying with that shit," Bakugo said grumpily before shoving his own food into his mouth.
Shinso had his head slumped over on the table, but perked up when Kaminari slid his dessert over to him. He sat up and spared a smile for him before shoving the mess of chocolate into his mouth and humming in pleasure.
Uraraka giggled. "Why do you two always do that?" she asked.
All three boys looked at her in confusion, but Kaminari was the one to answer. "Do what?" he asked. Shinso rested his head on his palm, the spoon still hanging out of his mouth, and Kaminari took the opportunity to take a picture of it.
"You always order dessert first, but then you give it to Shinso," she pointed out.
Kaminari shrugged as he put his phone down. "Desserts are the best things to take pictures of and Shinso likes them. When I tried to give them to Bakugo he got mad and accused me of trying to feed him scraps." He rolled his eyes.
Bakugo narrowed his eyes. "You got something to say about it?"
Kaminari put his hands up in surrender and shook his head, but he was smiling too widely for the gesture to look sincere. "Nope. Nothing at all."
Shinso hummed again as he took another bite of the chocolate mass. "She's right. You should eat something."
He nodded in agreement, picking up his fork and sticking it into Uraraka's plate. She squeaked in protest, waving him off, but he stole a noodle before she could stop him, smiling smugly as he shoved it into his mouth. She bent over her plate, using her arms as a barrier to protect her food. "Get your own food!" she told him sternly.
Kaminari laughed. "I was just joking! I'm not gonna steal your food. That's your work plate, right?"
Uraraka flushed a little as she sat up. "Y-yeah..."
"If I took too much, you wouldn't be able to review it properly and then what would your fans think?" He winked at her. He briefly glanced over the menu that he'd kept before handing it to her. "Here, you can pick something that we can share."
Uraraka turned red as she took the menu. "What? But, um, I..." she looked down at her food, at the menu, at his face, seemingly tongue tied as she tried to find a graceful way to decline.
"Don't worry about it," he told her. "This way you'll have more you can review, right? Plus, Bakugo always pays when we eat out on band practice days, so you can order the most expensive thing you want."
Bakugo grunted. "Who says I'm paying for your shitty date?" he grumbled.
Kaminari grinned at him, before turning the smile to Uraraka. He folded his arms on the table and laid his head down. "Try to pick something, okay?"
Her blush brightened, but she tried not to pay it any attention as she scanned the menu.
"Pick another dessert for me, too," Shinso said.
"You're gonna rot your teeth," Bakugo told him.
"Then I'll stick to the soft deserts once I do," Shinso replied immediately. "But until then, I'm going to indulge."
"At least eat some real fucking food."
"What's wrong, Bakugo? Would you like to feed me?" Shinso asked. He leaned across the table and opened his mouth.
Bakugo put a hand on his face and pushed him back in his chair. "Shut the hell up, idiot. Don't make me kill you in public."
Shinso snickered.
"You two are really cute together," Uraraka said. The silence that fell over the table just then was unexpected and she looked around at them in confusion. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing," Kaminari spoke up.
"Bathroom," Bakugo said as he stood abruptly and left.
Shinso put his head back on the table, both him and Kaminari watching as Bakugo stormed off. "We're not actually dating," Shinso told her softly.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Uraraka apologized frantically. "I thought... because that first time..."
Shinso waved away her concern. "It's really not a big deal."
"Yeah, Bakugo is like this all the time," Kaminari assured her. "He's... pretty much always set to angry. All emotions are filtered through grumpy first. You really don't have to worry. He'll get mad if you make a big deal out of it."
"If you're sure," she reluctantly relented.
The waiter had taken their order by the time Bakugo returned. Kaminari pushed a bright green drink toward him. "I got you a drink."
"The hell is this? Neon in a glass?" Bakugo asked as he eyed the glass warily.
"It's alcohol," Shinso told him. "I'm gonna take a picture of you when you drink it."
"No."
"Just try it, you'll like it!" Kaminari told him.
Bakugo looked skeptical as he picked up the glass, but paused before lifting it to his lips. He glared at Shinso. "I swear to God, if you take a picture of this and post it on that damn hellsite of yours..."
Shinso raised his hands in surrender, leaving his phone on the table. "Fine, I won't do a thing."
Bakugo took a tiny sip from the glass. A light flashed from the opposite side of him. He looked up in surprise to see Uraraka holding her phone up and giggling. "Oops," she said, completely unrepentant.
"I'll kill you, Round Face," he said with utmost seriousness.
"Hey! None of that!" Kaminari insisted. "Not while we're in a restaurant!"
Bakugo narrowed his eyes at her as she stuck out her tongue. "I won't forget, he promised."
The rest of their food arrived. Kaminari had a platter of shrimp and after popping one of them into his mouth, the rest ended up mostly shared between Uraraka and Bakugo. Shinso got a dessert that was mostly hidden beneath piles of fruit and dribbled with strawberry syrup. Kaminari smiled as he rested his head on his folded arms, watching them all.
Bakugo and Uraraka were arguing about his stealing shrimp. Her argument was that it was supposed to be for Kaminari, while Bakugo argued that since he was paying for it, he could take whatever he wanted.
Shinso poked him with the end of his spoon. "You look happy," he said softly. "What's on your mind?"
Kaminari shook his head. "Nothing, just enjoying this."
Shinso placed his spoon in his mouth as he watched the two arguing back and forth. "Yeah, I know what you mean." He pushed his dessert towards Kaminari and wiggled the plate. "At least take a piece of fruit. For me."
Kaminari obediently took a strawberry.
Kaminari held his phone above him, trying to get the perfect angle for his selfie when someone began banging on the door, startling him with the abruptness of the sound and making him lose his grip on the phone. "Hurry the fuck up!" Bakugo yelled.
Kaminari sighed as he unlocked and opened the door. "You ruined my selfie," he said despondently.
"Like you won't just take a million more," he said with an eye roll as he pushed past Kaminari and went to the sink.
Kaminari sat on the edge of the tub, watch Bakugo brush his teeth before the blonde found his eyes in the mirror and glared at him. Kaminari changed focus to his phone, trying to find a new pose, a new angle, for his picture. They all looked terrible and he couldn't decide whether he wanted to focus on his face or his torso, but he felt like all the pictures were crap anyway. His earlier picture had been nearly perfect and he mourned its loss.
At some point Bakugo had turned around to watch him, but Kaminari didn't notice until Bakugo was wiping his mouth off and asked, "Have you lost weight?"
"No," Kaminari answered without thinking.
Bakugo scrutinized him, eyes raking over his shirtless chest, staring at his stomach, examining his arms and legs. Kaminari covered his chest self consciously. "What are you doing? Cut it out," he told him.
Bakugo marched over to him and pulled his arms away, continuing his examination. "You have," he said accusingly.
"So, what about it?" Kaminari asked as he pulled away. The move nearly made him fall into the bathtub, but Bakugo placed his hands on Kaminri's shoulders and held him in place.
"So, you don't need to lose any weight," Bakugo told him. "When was the last time you ate something?"
"What are you, my mom?" he asked. He brushed off Bakugo's touch and stood, walking out of the bathroom. Bakugo caught his arm. "What now?"
"You feeling okay?" Bakugo asked. His voice was calm, worried. It was odd not to have Bakugo yelling or growling for once.
"I'm fine," Kaminari told him. He smiled, though it didn't have the full force of his usual smiles. "You worry too much."
Bakugo let him go, but Kaminari felt his gaze lingering on him as he retreated back down the hall.
Shinso was laying on the couch, looking over Kaminari's shoulder where he sat on the floor scrolling through social media sites. He was kind of bored, and kind of tired, and maybe halfway to falling asleep when Shinso spoke.
"Hey... Are you gonna ask that Uraraka girl out?" Shinso's voice was low, quiet. Kaminari wouldn't have heard it if he'd actually been asleep. He let his head lean back on the couch and tried to look at Shinso over his shoulder with little success.
"It's not like you to ask questions like that, Shin," he replied. "Why? What's up?"
Shinso was quiet for long enough that Kaminari actually sat up and readjusted his position so that he could look at him. There was conflict in his gaze, which turned to surprise when he found that Kaminari was watching him. He looked away, half burying his head in his arms. "You remember what you said...when you went on that first date with her?"
"What did I say?" Kaminari asked without thinking.
Shinso hid himself further in his arms. "You told her that you felt like a third wheel."
His eyes widened as the memory returned to him and he scratched the back of his head nervously. "Oh yeah, I guess I did say that."
"And later, when you came back and I accused you making things up, you said that maybe you were reading the atmosphere..."
Kaminari dropped his hand and looked at Shinso more closely. "Yeah..."
"So, can you?" Shinso asked.
"Huh?"
Shinso lifted his head to look at him. "Read the atmosphere. Can you?"
Kaminari was certainly reading something in this atmosphere, but he was hesitant to attempt parsing it out and naming it. He sat up straighter, eyes never leaving Shinso, though Shinso didn't look back at him. "What should I be reading?"
"Have you noticed how much crankier Bakugo's been?"
He felt himself relaxing at that. He'd been expecting, and was glad to have that expectation dashed, that Shinso was going to talk about something more...immediate. A smile returned to his lips as he leaned on the couch. "Bakugo is always cranky. There's no reason to be concerned about that."
Shinso actually raised his head to meet Kaminari's eyes at that. "Do you really think?"
He sighed, the smile slipping off his face. Kaminari found that he was the one looking away this time. "No, not really. Do you know about it?"
"Yeah. Don't you?"
"Would I ask if I did?" he questioned angrily.
"I think you would," Shinso told him.
Kaminari didn't respond.
Shinso sat up and moved to the floor so that they were at the same level. He stared intensely at the side of Kaminari's head, but Kaminari didn't acknowledge it other than to press his lips together stubbornly. Finally, Shinso said, "He's upset because you're paying all this attention to some girl. A girl that you never mentioned before, at that. You caught him off guard. You know he hates that."
"Why would he care? He hates listening to me talk about shit he doesn't think is important."
"A girl that you were thinking of trying to date counts as important and you know it."
"I didn't know she'd say yes!"
"You know that's not the point," Shinso said fiercely. "And even if it was, you didn't tell me either. You haven't told me anything about her. I see you texting her, and she shows up to watch us practice sometimes, crashes our lunches, and you haven't told me anything." Kaminari still wasn't looking at him and Shinso had apparently gotten sick of it. He made a frustrated sound as he grabbed Kaminari's shoulders and forced him to meet Shinso's eyes. "You know I would care about that. You know that I would listen to you."
"I'm sorry, alright!" he yelled as he pushed Shinso's hands off of him. "What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to say why."
"I don't know why."
"I think you do know why," Shinso said. "I think you know and that's why you avoid talking about it. You know why Bakugo's upset and you know why you avoid talking to me, but because I haven't said anything, you think you don't have to deal with it, but you do." Shinso lowered his voice as he corrected himself. "You should."
Kaminari pulled his legs up to his chest and pressed his forehead to his knees.
"Bakugo likes you," Shinso said quietly.
"You don't know that," he said immediately.
"Alright, fine," Shinso said. "I like you and you do know that. You've known that for months. I'm not saying that Bakugo and I don't share some of the blame for not saying anything, because we do, but not talking about the fact that you're ignoring this... whatever this is, whatever it could be or could have been, that doesn't make it better. Not talking about her doesn't make it better, it makes it worse."
Kaminari didn't lift his head. He stayed stubbornly curled into a ball until he heard Shinso get up and leave. He ignored the fact that his knees were becoming wet, forcing his lips closed and trying to stay as silent as possible.
It was an hour later that Shinso came back out of his room. It was really only to head to the bathroom and he'd planned on avoiding his roommates fort he rest of the day, but Bakugo passed him in the hall and caught his arm.
"Hey," he said in a low, dangerous voice. It was a rare thing to hear Bakugo so angry without also being loud. "You made him cry."
Shinso had to swallow his guilt at that statement. It hadn't been his intention, but everything he'd said was necessary. They couldn't just ignore everything and let it continue to fester. Kaminari's guilt was obvious and being handled in the worst way possible, and Bakugo spent a lot more time growling and storming out of rooms, and it was starting to get under Shinso's skin. "That wasn't my intention," he said quietly.
"What did you say to him?" Bakugo demanded.
Shinso turned just enough to meet Bakugo's eyes. "What you should have said months ago."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Shinso sighed. "Seriously?" he asked. "I don't want to do this twice. I talked to him about Uraraka."
"Oh."
"And us."
Bakugo didn't say anything to that. He let go of Shinso's arm and turned away. Shinso started to walk back toward his room when Bakugo added, "It doesn't involve you," Bakugo said.
Shinso stopped in his tracks. The expression on his face was some mix of incredulity and angry that he didn't know how to define. "Excuse me? What did you say?"
Bakugo didn't answer, didn't move.
Shinso didn't have the energy to deal with this. "You know what? Fuck this." Shinso continued to his room and slammed the door after him.
The next few days were tense. None of them talked to each other more than necessary. Shinso stayed in his room, Bakugo was quiet and perpetually frowning, and Kaminari just tried to stay away as much as possible. He also wasn't speaking to Uraraka, at least, not directly. He skipped the classes they had together, ignored her texts, but responded to her comments on various sites that they interacted on. It was a bad compromise, ignoring her while not ignoring her, but it was all that he could think of.
"This is fucking stupid!" Bakugo said during one of the rare moments that they were all in the same room.
Kaminari had been sitting at the table, staring at his phone as it vibrated on the table, alerting him to messages that he wouldn't answer.
Shinso was pretending to study and pretending to listen to music at the same time. Bakugo knew that he was pretending, having seen his eyes follow them around the room when either of them moved and the way he reacted to Bakugo's abrupt statement.
Bakugo had been in the kitchen, angrily shuffling around food that he wasn't cooking while he watched the two of them. In fact, of the three of them, only Kaminari hadn't been preoccupied watching the room, and that honestly pissed him off even more. "Just fucking call her already!" he yelled, staring straight at Kaminari, whose eyes were wide like a deer caught in headlights.
"Wha- I..." Kaminari swallowed thickly, clearly not knowing what to say.
Bakugo stormed over to the table, snatching Kaminari's phone off the table, and scrolling through his contacts. This kicked Kaminari into action as he tried to grab his phone back, but Bakugo was having none of that.
"Wait, no! I'm not ready!"
"Too fucking bad," Bakugo said. "I refuse to watch your dumb ass mope over something that isn't even a problem."
"But Shinso-"
"Who gives a fuck what Shinso said?" he yelled. He could see Shinso thinning his lips out the corner of his eye, but he didn't protest. "Who is this helping?" he asked. "You aren't talking to us! You aren't talking to her! What's the point of that?"
Kaminari flinched like he'd been slapped. Bakugo didn't care. Maybe he needed to be slapped. He'd been upset with Shinso for butting in, but he'd known, even then, that it was the right move. It irritated Bakugo that he was doing the same thing, sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. But fuck it! Uraraka was kind of his friend too, at this point, and if you couldn't give advice to your roommates, then who could you talk to?
"We see you every fucking day, so at least we know what's going on," he continued. "She doesn't know shit! How is that fair to her? You go out of your way to bring yourself to her attention and then you just fucking ignore her?"
Kaminari shrunk into himself, eyes glued to the floor. "I don't know what to say."
"Tell her what's going on," Shinso suggested.
"I don't know what's going on!" Kaminari shouted at them. "I don't know...what to say. I don't know what to think..."
"Alright," Shinso said, shutting the book in his lap and putting his headphones aside. "Then let's figure out what's going on." Both Bakugo and Kaminari turned their attention to him. "Instead of ignoring everything, let's actually talk about this."
Bakugo huffed and looked away.
Kaminari bit his lip in hesitation.
Shinso held out his hand, meeting Kaminari's eyes. "Come over here."
Kaminari hesitated a moment longer before walking across the room to take Shinso's hand. Shinso smiled at him as he wrapped his hand around Kaminari's. He choose not to sit on the couch beside Shinso, instead deciding to take a seat on the floor beside him.
"Isn't this better?" Shinso asked. "Instead of trying to wildly ignore every thing, we can just... deal with it, talk about it, and not jump down each other throats or push each other away."
Kaminari slumped against the back of the couch. "I'm... sorry," he whispered.
Shinso nodded, holding tight to his hand, but didn't say anything. He looked up to meet Bakugo's gaze, which was watching them steadily. He tilted his head in question, but Bakugo just shook his head, choosing not to join them by the couch. He folded his arms and leaned against the wall, letting the space between them fill with silence.
"Who wants to go first?" Shinso asked when no one else did.
"This is stupid," Bakugo said.
"What's stupid?" Shinso asked.
"This... this entire thing is stupid," he insisted. "This whole situation."
"Alright," Shinso said neutrally. "Let's make it less stupid. What do you suggest?"
Bakugo didn't answer. When he lowered his gaze to Kaminari, he was also silent, just shifting his gaze down to look at the floor and squeezing Shinso's hand.
"What do you want?" Shinso asked. "What do either of you want?"
They didn't answer. Shinso knew this conversation would be like pulling teeth. That was probably why they hadn't bothered to have it in the first place. Instead they just danced around each other with Kaminari giving him desserts and Bakugo paying for their lunches and Shinso taking dumb pictures of them. Would they have ever broke out of that holding pattern if Kaminari hadn't decided to make a move on Uraraka?
Shinso sighed. He moved off the couch to sit next to Kaminari. "Let's start small," he told them. "I would like it if we weren't avoiding each other all the time."
"Yeah," Kaminari finally spoke up. "I'd like that. I hate it when we fight."
"We fight all the time," Bakugo said.
"This is different!" he objected. "You know this is different." They lapsed into another short silence. Shinso thought he'd have to be the guiding force in the conversation again, but Kaminari surprised him by continuing his thought. "I like how it was before," he admitted. "I never had to think about this stuff. Leaning against Bakugo or holding Shin's hand or anything like that. It was just... something I could do without it needing to be a big deal."
"You made it a big deal," Bakugo said. "You're the one that decided to change things."
"I know," he admitted quietly.
"And you can't do that anymore. We can't do that," Bakugo continued. "Not thinking about it." He held his hand up, balling it into a tight fist. "I never thought about any of this, but I knew... I hate that you made me think about this and that you made me think of it because you were threatening to take it away. I was... fucking comfortable with you assholes!"
"Must have been a rude awakening for you," Shinso said.
Bakugo glared, but it didn't seem angry. Rather, the anger wasn't really directed at him.
"Sorry," Kaminari said again. "I didn't... I don't know."
Shinso rubbed his thumb over the back of Kaminari's hand, letting his head fall onto the back of the couch. "I kind of expected this," he admitted. "In the beginning. I liked how things were, so I never thought it was going to last. But I didn't think that Bakugo would get so attached. I didn't think he was attached to anything, lest of all this... not until that first day..."
Bakugo turned away from them, his face red.
"Bakugo?" Kaminari called out. He waited until he had Bakugo's gaze before holding out his hand.
Bakugo visibly wavered at the offer, but eventually moved across the room to take Kaminari's hand. He let himself drop face down on the couch. Shinso leaned his head next to Bakugo's.
"What do you want, Shin?" Kaminari questioned.
Shinso sighed, drawing his knees up to his chest. "Any version of this that I can get," he admitted softly.
Uraraka sighed as she placed her head on her desk, staring at her phone. She was constantly switching between sites, refreshing pages, checking forums and messages and comments to no avail.
"He still hasn't messaged you?" Jirou asked from her position on her bed. She had a notebook open on her lap, but Uraraka wasn't sure if she was studying or working on song lyrics. She should really try to introduce her to Shinso and the others, see if they got along with their music talk. If Kaminari ever spoke to her again, that was.
It was true that she had Shinso's number, and he had given her a bare bones update of 'I don't think he ate today, we didn't really talk, but he's alive.' that failed to make her less worried in the slightest.
"No," she answered. "And he didn't come to class either."
"Maybe he's sick?" Jirou suggested.
"Maybe."
She was glad that Mina wasn't here, because she would have have been offering ideas and theories that, while probably good natured, would only increase her worry. She was already plenty worried.
She jumped when her phone finally vibrated and it took her a whole minute to process that she'd gotten a message and to make her body move to answer it. Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw that it was from Kaminari, only to plummet again when she actually read it.
'Sorry that the idiot has been ignoring you. He's been going through something. Also, he's an idiot. Maybe I mentioned.'
Despite herself, the comment made her laugh. It was a weak laugh, but it eased the worry that was held in her chest, if only marginally.
'Why do you have his phone?' she asked. If she wasn't going to be able to talk to Kaminari himself, she could at least try to get answers.
'I took it because he was being an idiot.'
Of course. Uraraka rolled her eyes at that answer. She really should have expected as much from Bakugo. She'd only known him a little while, but he was pretty easy to figure out.
'You use that word a lot.'
'Do I need another word?'
'You could stand to branch out a little.'
'Fuck you!'
There really was an easiness to talking to Bakugo that she wouldn't have expected if it wasn't for that first time he'd texted her on Kaminari's phone. She didn't realize that she was smiling until Jirou spoke again.
"You look better. Did he text you after all?"
She blushed slightly, unsure how to explain herself for a moment before just stuttering out, "Um, yeah..."
She hesitated before typing out her message and hesitated again before sending it. There was nothing wrong with what she was doing and she reminded herself of this before she gathered enough courage to do it.
'You could just send me your number or get mine from his contacts and stopped stealing from him.'
She already had Shinso's number, so it wouldn't be weird. She should calm down. There was no reason for her heart to be beating so fast as she waited for her reply.
She got a message from an unknown number. 'Why would I want to talk to you?'
The amount of relief that flooded her was unreasonable. 'I could ask you that questions, seeing that this is the second time.'
'Fuck off, Round Face.'
"Round Face..." she repeated. She couldn't stop herself from giggling helplessly. She had to admit, Bakugo was pretty good at making her feel better.
Bakugo was at the stove when Kaminari stumbled into the kitchen and went to sit at the table. Shinso was slumped underneath it, making Kaminari assumed that he'd fallen asleep and fell out of his chair. He had a hard time keeping his eyes open and was halfway to falling asleep when Bakugo placed a plate on the table before him. "Here," he said. "I haven't seen you eat in days and I don't like it."
"You watch me eat?" Kaminari asked.
Bakugo just glared. "You'd better finish the whole thing, or I'll kill you." He walked around the table to poke Shinso awake.
"You really do worry too much," Kaminari told him.
"Someone has to." He pulled Shinso upright and then into the chair before giving him a plate as well. "Also, you have a test next week and Uraraka's coming over to help you study."
Kaminari sat up in his seat, dropping his fork. "What? I'm not ready for that!"
"Too bad. You can't avoid her forever and you skipped class anyway, so this is as good of an excuse as any."
"No..." Kaminari groaned, putting his head in his hands. "Wait," he said as he lifted his head to look at Bakugo. "How do you know?"
Bakugo handed Kaminari his phone. "I texted her. We worked it out."
"When did you..." Kaminari hit himself on the forehead. "I never got my phone back yesterday."
Bakugo grinned before digging into his food. "You have until three to get yourself together."
Kaminari groaned loudly.
Bakugo ended up tutoring them both. He wasn't in their class, but Bakugo was smart and Kaminari had asked him for help before. It started with Uraraka explaining things that he'd missed and sharing her notes, but then Kaminari started asking questions that she didn't know the answers to and they both started flipping through the text book trying to find the answers and it broke down from there.
Bakugo was apparently annoyed at having to watch them struggle on something that he considered easy, so he multitasked berating them and actually tutoring them, explaining the concepts to them both and finding the relevant passages in the books.
"Wow, Bakugo! You're really smart," she smiled.
"What? Did you expect different?" he asked.
When Shinso came home, he sat on the couch, using the book on his lap as an excuse to stay in the living room and throw snarky commentary at them. It got the biggest rise out of Bakugo, but occasionally Uraraka would join in or snark back, which only got more of a reaction from Bakugo.
Kaminari for the most part was just amused. Amused and happy and... warm. This was what he was missing when they were all at odds. This was what he'd wanted. More days like this where they just hung out and snarked and studied, more days when she watched them have band practice and they went out for lunch, more days where he and Uraraka took pictures for their blogs and Bakugo criticized and Shinso smiled at him when he passed over his dessert.
There was an idea forming in his mind, but it was too big, too bright, for him to focus on at the moment. He tucked it away for later and tried to focus more on his book.
Kaminari went to Shinso's room later that night. Shinso had already told them what he wanted, so he would be the easiest to talk to. The door was unlocked. It was pretty late, he'd spent a lot of time procrastinating, but Shinso often had insomnia, so Kaminari was pretty sure he'd be awake. Shinso was under the covers, but Kaminari could make out the light of his phone. He hesitated before closing the door softly behind him and slipping into the bed behind Shinso.
Shinso paused for a moment, but continued whatever he was doing on his phone. "Can't sleep?" he questioned softly.
Kaminari moved closer, pressing his forehead into Shinso back tentatively. Shinso's weight shifted slightly to press back against him and he felt himself relax at the easy acceptance. "I wanted to talk," Kaminari told him.
"And you felt better doing it in the dark?" Shinso questioned. Kaminari didn't answer and Shinso didn't press. "That's understandable. What did you want to talk about?"
"You said the other day,"Kaminari began slowly, "That you wanted this. Wanted..."
"All of us, together," Shinso finished. "Whatever that has to mean."
"What if you couldn't have that?" Kaminari asked. "What if you had to choose?"
Shinso sighed. "I wouldn't," he told him. "I said that I wanted whatever version of 'this' that I could have. If I had to choose, that would be something different. It would be easier to just stay friends if that was the case."
Kaminari moved closer, hesitantly wrapping an arm around Shinso's waist. Shinso leaned into the touch, phone forgotten, leaving them in complete darkness when the screen went off. "What about... Uraraka?"
"What about her?" Shinso questioned. "If you're asking if I'd be against her..." he shrugged and Kaminri felt the movement rather than saw it. "You and Bakugo get along with her really well and I don't mind her."
Kaminari let out a breath in relief.
"That's a conversation you'd have to have on your own, though."
"I know."
"What about you?" Shinso questioned. "If you had to choose between her and us, would you? Could you?"
"I don't think I have," Kaminari answered carefully. "No matter, you guys are still my friends and we're still roommates."
"That's not what I meant." Shinso rolled over in his arms. They still couldn't see each other, but Kaminari could feel Shinso's breath on his face. His heartbeat sped up a little. "Kaminari... are you asking?"
"I don't know," he answered breathlessly. There was electricity running under his skin. "What if Bakugo doesn't want us?"
Shinso brought his hands up to cup Kaminari's face and brought their foreheads together. "You know he does, you're just afraid to ask."
"I don't know if she'll want to," he said.
"You don't," Shinso agreed. "What will you do if she says no?"
"I don't want her to say no," he whispered.
"I know."
Kaminari closed his eyes, placing his hands on top of Shinso's and leaning into the touch. "Shin..."
"Are you asking?" Shinso questioned once more.
Kaminari nodded.
"Then ask me, Kam."
Kaminari took a deep breath and gripped Shinso's hands tighter. Knowing the answer didn't make him feel less nervous. "Hey, Shinso?"
"Yes?"
"Will you...go out with me?"
Shinso laughed as he answered. "Yeah... Yeah I will."
Bakugo was actually easy, compared to how much emotion had been spent already. They had band practice that day, so they ran through their routine like normal. They went their separate ways early for classes and met up for lunch before going to practice. Kaminari was vibrating with nervousness even as he took his usual pictures, so much so that he didn't realize Shinso had ordered for him until he was pushing an ice cream sundae his way and Shinso was pushing a plate in front of him in return.
"Huh? What's this?" Kaminari asked.
"Yours," Shinso told him. "You don't eat when you're nervous. We've all noticed and you're starting to loose weight."
Kaminari's gaze slid toward Bakugo at that. "Yeah, I told him," Bakugo said immediately. "Got a problem with that?"
Kaminari shook his head. He didn't really eat his food at first, just pushed it around with his fork. Bakugo was starting to growl under his breath, clearly irritated. Shinso took that moment to ask, "Hey, Bakugo, wanna date us?"
Bakugo spilled his water. He did not knock over the glass and only a small amount splashed on him. He still glared at Shinso when he replied. "You did that on purpose."
Shinso grinned in response.
"Fucker," Bakugo grumbled. "I guess I don't have a choice. You idiots wouldn't know what to do without me."
"Really?" Kaminari perked up. "You mean it?" He leaned across the table toward him.
"I said yes! Don't get so..." Bakugo folded his arms as he blushed, then unfolded them to push Kaminari back in his seat. "It's not that big a deal."
"It is!" Kaminari insisted. "You really want us?"
Bakugo glared at him for a long moment before he relented and answered. "Fucking yes, alright! I like you two nutcases. For reasons that are far beyond me."
Kaminari lit up. Shinso smiled at the sight. Bakugo tried to busy himself with his meal.
"So how are we gonna do this?" Bakugo asked them as they they were leaving the restaurant.
Kaminari had squeezed himself between the two of them and was talking pictures that Bakugo refused to smile for and Shinso snickered at. He was practically glowing, his smile was so bright. Bakugo didn't want to admit how happy he was to see Kaminari this happy again, but the looks Shinso kept sending him meant that he was probably not as covert about his feelings as he thought he was.
"What do you mean?" Kaminari asked as he began uploading the picture to various sites.
Shinso linked an arm through Kaminari's and guided him away from a few obstacles that he likely would have tripped over. Bakugo tugged on a lock of his hair. "Pay attention, idiot."
"Hmm?" Kaminari looked up, questioning eyes landing on Bakugo.
The fact that Bakugo thought it was cute had nothing to do with Bakugo's reddening face or the fact that he pushed his head back down into his phone. "Nothing! Forget it! Look at your damn phone!"
Shinso laughed even louder.
"Shut up!" Bakugo yelled.
"You're answering your own question," Shinso told him. "This is how it would work. Just like it has been."
Bakugo thought about that for a minute. Thought about band practice, and Shinso's snark, Kaminari's cheer, Bakugo's own tendency to...care... about them, loudly and fiercely and... He supposed he had answered his own question. Except for one thing.
"What about Uraraka?" he asked, voice quiet.
"That," Kaminari spoke up, "Is your decision." He didn't look up from his phone as he answered. "Shin and I talked about this. He doesn't care too much and I really like it, but I..." He clutched his phone tightly in his hands. "I don't want to do anything without talking to you guys again." He looked at Bakugo shyly, face red.
Bakugo placed his hand on Kaminari's head. "Learned your lesson, huh?"
"Trying to," he muttered.
Bakugo stopped them all from moving, leaning closer to Kaminari and catching Shinso's gaze. "If we add her, I want that to be it. No one else. And if she says no, that's it, just us."
Kaminari nodded.
"I agree, of course," Shinso said. "You two are the only assholes I need."
Kaminari smiled at him before looking back to Bakugo, who was still leaning close to him. Kaminari bit his lip for a moment before he asked, "Can I kiss you?"
Bakugo jerked at the questioned, stiffening in surprise. He could feel himself blushing again, could feel Shinso's gaze on him. He looked away as he answered. "Whatever. I'm not gonna stop you."
Kaminari took Bakugo's face in his hands as he moved closer. "Look at me," he whispered. Bakugo did, his blush deepening in response. "Thank you," Kaminari said as he leaned closer and pressed their lips together. He heard the click as Shinso took a picture, causing Kaminari to break the kiss with burst of laughter.
Bakugo growled. "Shin, if you post that anywhere!"
"I won't, I won't," Shinso replied through his own laughter. "This is for me. I want a picture of my favorite people together."
Bakugo put a hand over his face as he grumbled, "What did I get myself into?"
'Hey, I have a question.' Uraraka was surprised when she looked at her phone to find the message was from Bakugo and not Kaminari, who had been texting her like normal since their study session.
'What is it?' she replied.
'You like us, right?'
Uraraka gave her phone a look, but she was well aware that he couldn't see her. 'Huh? What kind of question is that? Of course I do.'
'Wanna date us?'
"What?" Uraraka shrieked loudly, falling out of her chair and dropping her phone in surprise. She was really glad that neither of her roommates were around to see her massive freak out and question her. As it was, Uraraka snatched up her phone and slammed the call button. He answered on the second ring. "What? What What?" she asked loudly.
"You don't have to yell," Bakugo replied. "We can hear you."
"What are you even asking me?" she continued to yell, too caught off guard to moderate her volume.
"Do. You Want. To. Date. Us?" he repeated slowly.
His words finally sank into her mind and she questioned, "Wait, us?"
"You heard me."
"Us?" she repeated. "By us, you mean..."
Bakugo growled impatiently. "Us!" he repeated. "Me, Shin, Kam. Do you want to date us? It's a yes or no question."
Uraraka's head was utterly spinning. She hadn't seen this coming at all. It was true that she got along with them better than she'd expected and she had all of their numbers at this point, but still! Kaminari was... cute, true, and they had a lot in common. Bakugo was grumpy, but secretly really caring and he often made her laugh. Shinso was easy to talk to and fun to snark with. But! She hadn't considered... this!
"Are... are you serious?" she asked faintly.
"Do I sound like I'm joking?" he asked. He didn't. He definitely didn't. But how would that even work? She must have taken to long to answer, since Bakugo added, "If you don't want to, just say so!"
"Give me a minute to think about this!" she yelled back. "You can't just drop a truck on me and expect me to be ready!"
"Why did we let him do this?" She heard Shinso question in the background.
"Give me the phone," Kaminari's muffled voice demanded. There was a shuffling, Bakugo's growling, before she heard Kaminari's voice loud and clear. "Sorry about him. I didn't think he would... I don't know what I was expecting."
"Kaminari," she said, "Was he serious?"
"Yeah. Um..." he paused a moment before he explained. "The guys and I talked some things out and... we like you. Bakugo and I like you. And we like each other. So, Shin and Bakugo and I decided to, um, date each other. And since we like you..." he trailed off.
Uraraka let that sink in. They were dating. The three of them. Dating. They wanted to date her. Three boys wanted to date her.
Well, two, of the three. And how does that work?
"It works however we want it to," Kaminari answered.
"I said that out loud!" she pressed a hand to her mouth, feeling herself blush in embarrassment.
Kaminari laughed. "You did, but that's good. We should talk about this, if we're gonna do it. So you can say whatever you want and ask us whatever you want."
Uraraka leaned again her desk. "Why... why me?" she asked.
Kaminari laughed again, happier this time. "Are you kidding? It's because we like you! You're cute and sweet and fun. Of course we like you."
"I think you're alright, too," Shinso said in the background, making her laugh. That was exactly the kind of response that she expected from him.
"Can I come over to talk about this?" she asked.
"Of course," he told her. She had been trying not to think of things like this, but she already knew how she felt. "Kaminari... Um... yes!" she told him.
"Really?" he asked happily.
"Yeah..."
"She said yes!" he said to the others.
"Not surprised," Shinso responded.
"Good," Bakugo grunted.
"You can come over whenever you feel like, but we can also work things out now if you want," Kaminari told her.
"Um... can I talk to Shinso?" she asked.
"Huh? Uh, sure." Kamimari passed the phone over and she waited anxiously.
"Congrats, you've gotten three new boyfriends," Shinso said immediately.
She blushed. She was so glad her dorm mates weren't around and she wasn't sure how she would possibly explain this to them. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"I figured."
"Are we actually... you and me, I mean?"
"Are we dating? Yes," he answered simply. "It's a package deal. One for all and all for one, as they say. I'm not... as interested in you as they are, but I like you well enough and I won't be... upset about this."
"So about..." she paused, holding her phone tighter and lowering her head, hiding her bright blush from the room at large despite being alone. "K-kissing... and stuff..."
"What about it?" he asked. "Do you want a kiss?"
She made a loud sound in the back of her throat that was between surprise and something dying in her throat. It was really embarrassing and Shinso laughed really hard. "Don't laugh at me!"
"Sorry, sorry," Shinso said. "You're just really cute."
She was increasingly glad that this was a phone call. She really didn't want to see the expression that he was making or have them staring at how embarrassed she was. "Don't tease me."
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but if you think I'm not going to tease you, you should probably back out of this now."
"Don't tell her that!" Kaminari objected in the background.
"It's not like she didn't know that," Shinso replied. "Anyway, all that's up to you. I'm not particularly interested in it right now, but it doesn't mean I never will be. If we want to, we will, and if we don't, we won't. Simple as that."
"It's not simple at all," she grumbled.
"It is if you want it to be," he told her. "You all worry too much. It really is as simple or as complicated as you make it."
"Good thing we have you to keep out heads on straight," Kaminari said.
"Yeah, good thing."
"Good thing you idiots have me around to keep everything else straight," Bakugo said.
"He's feeling neglected," Shinso said.
"Let me talk to him?" Uraraka asked.
Shinso passed the phone over.
"What?" Bakugo asked immediately.
"Bakugo, thank you. For being the one to ask," she told him.
"Whatever. Next time, say yes faster instead of making me wait!" Instead of making him worry, she knew he meant.
"I'm sorry," she told him. "Thanks for being so patient with me."
"Wow! Bakugo knows how to cook?" Uraraka asked cheerfully as she and Kaminari watched him in the kitchen. The two of them were sitting close together on the couch, scrolling through their phones.
"Yeah, he's really good at it!" Kaminari cheered. "I don't know what we'd do without him."
Shinso was sitting on the floor with three books open in front of him and his pencil hanging out the corner of his mouth. "You would keep losing weight and all your photos would start to suck. I would never wake up because you can't make a decent cup of coffee to save my life."
"Hey! My coffee isn't that bad," Kaminari pouted. "And my pictures would never suck."
"Don't worry, I'll get him back on track," Uraraka said. "I'll take him with me when I review things and make him eat some of everything that I try."
"No fair," he grumbled.
"That's what you get for getting into unhealthy eating habits," Bakugo told him. "And if you even try to waste any of my food, I'll shove it down your throat myself."
"Keep your kink out of the kitchen," Shinso said.
"Shut up!" Bakugo yelled.
Uraraka laughed, leaning into Kaminari's side. He smiled as he watched her, as he watched Bakugo and Shinso's back and forth. He was pretty sure he was the happiest that he'd ever been and he owed it all to them.