UPROAR
Summary: Just because you're a Pro doesn't mean you're immune to the shit life throws your way. But that's part of the fun, right? Right…? Ugh, All Might made it all look so easy. Aged-up. Rated T for now. Connected drabble series.
A/N: Woo early July update! It hasn't been too long since last time, so let's get right to it! I tried out a new format for the group chat this chapter. I was wondering if it might be easier to read this way rather than having it mixed in with the rest of the chapter where it may have looked a little sloppier (and run the risk of forgetting the underlines again ) Either way, I think it's tidier this way so I'm planning to keep this format from now on. Also, I had way too much fun with their screen names/handles so don't take them too seriously ;) And finally, this chapter's title comes from Two Door Cinema Club. Enjoy!
PS: Someone left a review for the last chapter that I must answer here because they left it as a guest! I prefer to DM my replies but that's just for the sake of taking up too much of an A/N bc I know no one likes a long A/N lol. So getting back to business, basically the short answer to your review is: great guess and I like where your head is at! :) A deeper explanation is that I personally haven't decided which ship I like better because I like them both pretty equally, so as of right now (in chapter 19 that I'm writing right now) nothing has changed. Yet ;)
Chapter 18: Dirty Air
A Few Weeks Later
U.A. Group Chat:
AlienkweenMina: Is Bakugo-kun okay? I haven't heard from him in a while.
Invisigrl16: I noticed he's been MIA lately, too. Anyone know where he's been lately?
EarphoneJirou: I also saw that all of Ground Zero's official accounts have gone silent lately. Ever since that fire a month or two ago, actually. I hope he's alright.
Invisigrl16: I just read some comments trying to guess where he is. Top guess is Hawaii with a bunch of his fangirls :P
AlienkweenMina: Oh please… He never answers in the chat anyway, and he doesn't post anything that isn't sponsored. Has anyone seen him irl lately?
Chargeboltboy: Who's missing now?
MelloCelloSero: Nobody's MISSING – don't make a mountain out of a molehill guys! He's just laying low rn.
AlienkweenMina: But this is BAKUGO we're talking about…it's not normal for him to be this quiet for so long.
Invisigrl16: Maybe he really is on vacation?
Chargeboltboy: He wouldn't know how to relax if you tranq'd him XD
MelloCelloSero: Guys…his social media statuses say he's just recovering from the fire. He looked injured in that photo with Uraraka-san, after all.
Chargeboltboy: I call BS! The guy STARTS fires, how is he gonna get taken out by one?
Yaomomo800: That reminds me…how is Uraraka-san? I haven't been able to visit her yet since getting back from I-Island! Things have been so busy :(
FroppyTM: I met her a few days ago for lunch – she's doing well. Just some smoke inhalation to clear out, but she went back to work a little while ago.
EarphoneJirou: Her social media presence has been increasing recently thanks to how she kept that building from going down. Good for her, she deserves more recognition for what she does.
GrapeJuice: By piggybacking on someone else's fame! XD
AlienkweenMina: Says the guy with NO social media presence to speak of…
Invisigrl16: Tough talk for a guy with no followers.
Yaomomo800: If I recall correctly, YOU are the only expert in PIGGYBACKING here, Mineta-kun!
WatchmanIida3: Alright, everyone. Let's keep it civil. Midoriya-kun has informed me that Uraraka-san is perfectly fine and that Bakugo-kun is taking time off to pursue a new venture.
Invisigrl16: NEW VENTURE?!
AlienkweenMina: What does THAT mean?!
Shouto: His modeling career perhaps?
WatchmanIida3: Apparently it's still early, so I'm afraid I can't say for sure. Not that I was given very much information to begin with, anyway…
RedRiotOfficial: Guys, relax! It's not that big a deal. Sorry for my late response, but I'm just grabbing dinner now. If you want to know what he's been up to so badly, just ask him yourself!
AlienkweenMina: Kirishima-kuuuuuuuunnnnn! I know you know everything!
RedRiotOfficial: Why thank you, Mina-chan ;)
AlienqweenMina: I meant about Bakugo-kun, dummy. Don't flatter yourself.
UraviTeachild: Thank you for the concern everyone! I'm sorry for not posting more frequently, but I've been taking it easy recently. Doctor's orders! Tsu-chan and Iida-kun already mentioned it, but I've fully recovered from the smoke inhalation and I have been given the O.K. to go back to work!
EarphoneJirou: Congratulations, Uraraka-san! I'm glad you're doing well!
Chargeboltboy: Yeah, we're all glad you're okay!
AlienkweenMina: You had me so worried!
MelloCelloSero: We all were!
Yaomomo800: The important thing is that you're back to full health and back to work ^^
Invisigrl16: Welcome back, Uravity!
UraviTeachild: Thank you all for the well wishes!
"Stupid Icy-Hot…" Bakugo skimmed his messages, crimson gaze racing a mile a minute to keep up with his classmates' near-constant barrage. Though he checked them regularly enough, it was mostly just to get rid of the notification bubble that glared at him every time he unlocked his phone, rather than to actually respond to them. There had to be something urgent and dire going on for him to actually answer. And since the chat was usually full of gossip or quick updates to keep each other in the loop, a response from Bakugo had become increasingly few and far between.
"Oi, you readin' this crap?" He plucked his sweating beer from the plain coaster on the table and downed a hearty swig.
Deku chuckled from his spot on the couch, thoroughly enjoying Todoroki's precision wit. His phone dimmed from inactivity when he placed it on the couch and his beer sat open but undrunk beside him. "Well, can you really blame them? It's been over a month now since you last said anything."
Bakugo was on the plush carpet of Deku's living room and he fell backwards from his seated position in order to stretch out. The pair had been brainstorming all evening and it was starting to get dark now. They'd sent Kirishima and Uraraka for dinner well over twenty minutes ago, and by now it seemed like they were more preoccupied with the group chat than retrieving the takeout.
"What the hell's takin' them so long?" He snapped. "I could have made dinner myself by now."
He shrugged. "You're the one that wanted spicy chicken when there's a perfectly good curry-rice place nearby."
"You sayin' it's my fault now?"
Deku met his crimson gaze and deliberated if his cranky mood was from hunger or frustration. Probably both, but either way he wasn't in the mood to argue with him. No matter how much he was baiting him. They'd been here for hours now, pretty much since Deku had first set foot back home after work today. It had become such a regular occurrence these past few weeks to see Bakugo impatiently waiting outside his apartment nowadays, that Ochako actually remembered to lock the door sometimes lest he burst in during a bad time.
"What?" Bakugo demanded at Deku's prolonged staring, seemingly looking for any excuse to take his irritation out on his favorite punching bag.
"How's your list coming?" Deku asked instead, rubbing the bridge of his nose and placing his own list down on the coffee table. He finally took a sip of his awaiting beer. "My eyes are getting tired."
"Heh." Bakugo sat up again. "I thought you were supposed to be good at studying. Age finally catchin' up to you?"
Deku didn't feel the need to remind him that he was actually three months younger than him, and reached for the remote instead.
"Oi!" Bakugo barked, glaring at the TV and then back at him. "We've got work to do!"
"C'mon, Kacchan…" Deku grumbled. "We're gonna have to break soon for dinner, anyway."
"Not with the way Pink Cheeks and Shitty Hair are takin' their sweet ass time." He snapped, though he thankfully said nothing more about the lists.
In fact, he got up off the floor and joined Deku on the couch, plopping down on the far-end with a flourish like he'd been on his feet all day. He hadn't been back to work since his suspension, so he'd had nothing but time with which to sit in his apartment and stew on it. And ever since he'd met with Uraraka the afternoon Deku came home from I-Island, he'd been obsessing over this idea in his head. He'd credited (and blamed) the girl for getting it into his head in the first place, and Deku defended her by stating she was simply trying to cheer him up. It was Bakugo himself who'd taken her words and twisted them around in order to formulate this half-cocked idea and run with it.
A Few Weeks Ago
Their food had come and went, eaten in a mostly comfortable silence now that what had needed to be said, had been properly said. The bakery had been slow enough in the middle of the day that they could sit and linger, rather than endure the usual Tokyo rush to feed as many customers as possible. Uraraka had ordered a second milk tea when the server had cleared their trays, so Bakugo took it as a hint that she wasn't in any hurry to leave just yet and ordered a water with as much ice as they could shove in the glass.
"Y'know, Bakugo-kun…" She began, gnawing on her straw absent-mindedly. Or maybe she was nervous. "I heard you're still suspended…and I just want you to know that if there's anything I can do to help, I'll do it."
He cocked a blond brow at her, not even needing three guesses to know who'd spilled the beans.
"I mean, I can go to your agency and explain that you were just –"
"It won't make a difference." He interrupted her before the notion could even sprout roots. "They've made up their mind." His sigh shifted his tight shoulders. "If I so much as look at a villain now, I'll be labeled a Vigilante."
The word gave Uraraka pause, biting down on her straw to frown her eyebrows in suspicion.
"Why?"
He shrugged. "Mirko was given the order to suspend me for my actions. It came straight from the top apparently."
"But that doesn't make you a Vigilante." Came her quick response.
"Either way, who would take a hero suspended from the #5's agency?"
Uraraka shook her head slowly and placed her cup onto the table, auburn orbs probing deeply into his to make sure he was paying proper attention to her words.
"Did they suspend your hero license?" She questioned. "Or did they just suspend you from the agency?"
He paused, rusty gears in his head suddenly roaring back to life with a knowing smirk. They both knew the answer to her question without him needing to confirm it. Sure, he'd screwed up. But not bad enough to warrant the trouble of actually scrubbing his hero license from the national register. That being said…
"You're still legally a Pro Hero, free to wander the streets of Tokyo in search of villains." She waved her hands in the air like a dramatic actor reciting Shakespeare.
He couldn't help but chuckle at her theatrics. She was just goofy enough for him to somehow find charming. "But that still doesn't help me in finding a new agency. I've basically been blacklisted."
She took up her gnarled straw again, pursing her lips around it in thought. He watched her take a big gulp as she ruminated, taking a sip of his own water to fill the silence between them.
"Well, I never thought you'd give up so easily…" She mumbled, straw teasing the corner of her mouth.
"Who's giving up?!" He demanded, nearly choking on an ice cube at her blunt statement.
"You sound like you are!" She snapped back. "The Bakugo-kun I went to school with would stubbornly turn his back on all these judgmental agencies and forge his own path." She continued, oblivious to the puffing bull seated directly across from her, ready to charge at her next insult. "He'd tell them 'Screw you old geezers – I'll show you a real hero agency!' and then blast through villains on his way to the top of the charts."
She seemed extremely satisfied in her mocking portrayal of the angry teenaged-Bakugo and stared at him with those big eyes of hers as though awaiting his official approval. But Bakugo couldn't be bothered with taking offense at the way she'd imitated his petulant jaw or curled her fingers sadistically in his trademark scare-tactic. He was too busy humoring that tiny nagging thought she'd unintentionally planted in the back of his mind. It was beginning to take hold and sap brainpower like a pesky weed stealing nutrients from the rest of the garden, until the bud finally bloomed and revealed itself a veritable flower.
"Bakugo-kun?" Uraraka waved her hand in front of his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you! I didn't think you'd take my teasing so seriously!"
He snatched her hand with the speed of a viper, startling her with the maniacal grin he wore.
"Thank you, Uraraka."
Her frantic gaze darted between his and the hand he'd ensnared. "For what?"
"You're right." He let her go. "If nobody wants to hire me, I'll just become my own boss."
And since that day, Deku had returned home to a new face waiting for him outside his door. Every day, Bakugo had printed out new listings from various real estate agencies and enlisted (ahem, coerced) help from his closest friends to seek out the perfect space. And after so many weeks of skimming various advertisements, flyers, and printouts, Deku felt like he was going to go cross-eyed. He'd never needed glasses before, but he figured his luck would have run out sooner or later, and thanks to Bakugo it seemed like it would be sooner.
The two flipped through TV channels in silence, desperately wishing something decent would appear onscreen and give them an excuse to start talking again. Though their relationship had grown into something they each would call a genuine friendship, they knew their rivalry would never truly die. And it tended to rear its head time and again, like an engine letting out steam. As much as they now supported each other whenever the opportunity arose, there would always be that tiny part of them, deep down in the darkest corner of their subconscious that still longed for superiority. Whether it stemmed from their rocky childhood together, the envy shared throughout their days at U.A., or just from a general desire for dominance, each had their own reason for the competition.
"So." Bakugo suddenly spoke, though his eyes remained on the baseball game in front of him. Behind the dancing rainbow mascot, the team's seagull logo made him think of the beach, and the beach reminded him of a certain artificial island in the Pacific that they just couldn't escape. "Bought your ticket yet?"
"F-for what?" Deku's fingers began to play with the buttons on the remote and he nearly drained his whole beer in a last-ditch effort to avoid this particular topic.
But the blond just gave him a sidelong glare, seeing through his feigned obfuscation and silently warning him to cut the crap.
In truth, Deku still had yet to tell Ochako about his affairs on I-Island, or of his intention to go back. He promised himself he'd find the right time to tell her about going back to help Melissa, but it had been over a month and a half since the Expo ended, and his search had quickly turned into more of a waiting game.
"Oh…that. Right." He chuckled nervously. "No, I haven't bought it yet."
"Heh." Bakugo nipped the final ounces of his beer and smirked as a player crept off first base to steal second. "Finally changed your mind?"
"No." Deku replied simply.
"Then what the hell are you waiting for?"
He shrugged, watching the poor player dive for second base only to be tagged out. "The right time, I guess."
"And when's that gonna be?" Bakugo bit. "When the protestors figure out whose company logo is scrubbed out in that video?"
"Knock it off, Kacchan." Deku shot him a peeved look that advised him to tread lightly now. "It's not that simple, and you know it."
Bakugo scoffed. "There's nothin' simpler about it. You buy the ticket and board the plane."
For someone who was adamant about what a bad idea returning to I-Island would be, Bakugo sure was eager for him to leave already. But he knew his former bully was more than well-versed in the art of reverse-psychology and Deku damned him for still being such a master manipulator. The more Bakugo pressed him, the more he dug his heels in about it.
He rolled his dark green eyes as response and returned his attention to the TV, flipping from the game to search through the guide for a movie to watch instead.
"Tch. Bet you didn't even tell Ochako yet."
He wasn't sure what it was about that particular remark that had sent him over the edge. Maybe it was that pesky male pride that took offense at how easily his girlfriend's name came rolling off another guy's tongue. Or perhaps his outrage stemmed from that cocky tone of voice he used while not even bothering to look him in the eye. Or hell, maybe it was just because he was sick and tired of Bakugo being right all the damn time.
Whatever the reason, Deku's animal instincts got the better of him and sent him careening onto the other side of the couch in a flash of bright green lightning. He'd snatched the collar of his shirt and managed to land a decent punch square in his jaw before the blond's reflexes kicked in and blasted him straight into the sliding glass door behind him. The glass cracked from the force but was too thick to break from such a low-intensity detonation. Or his "indoor" blasts, as he once to referred to them.
Bakugo stood, one fist smoking while the other hand massaged his sore chin. He glared at Deku on the floor in front of the balcony but was only able to take one step forward before the genkan door suddenly swung open and unleashed the frantic entrance of their long-awaited dinner.
"See, I told you!" Ochako exclaimed as she shoved her bags onto the dining room table. "You owe me 500 yen, Kirishima-kun!"
"Aw, dammit!" He cried, depositing the bags of fried chicken next to the drinks. "I really thought they'd be able to make it this time."
The opponents peered back at the pair from the living room with matching stares of cluelessness.
"You two are hopeless." Ochako rolled her eyes and folded her arms at the combatants. "I knew this was gonna happen again. I swear, you two will never change." She glared expectantly. "Well, are you done yet or should Kirishima-kun and I start eating without you?"
Bakugo opened his mouth to shout something at her, but Deku stood from where he was crumpled on the floor and interrupted him by heading to the table without another word. Grudgingly, he followed and took a seat next to Kirishima while Ochako shuffled around the kitchen to gather plates and cups for their guests. Though by this point, they had become something more than guests with their consecutive dinners here.
"And I mean it, you know." Uraraka had warned, staring at Kirishima after they had all settled in for their meal. "I want a shiny 500-yen coin in my hand before you leave – none of this buying me a drink at the vending machine again."
"That was one time!" The redhead earnestly defended himself against her heckling. "I only had ￥10,000 notes on me!"
"What a hotshot!" She teased, specifically ignoring the elephant in the room lest it reopen whatever old wounds had started the fight between Deku and Bakugo in the first place. But just because she didn't acknowledge that crack in the sliding glass door, didn't mean she wouldn't see to it that one of them fixed it later.
"You carry around big bills like that?" Deku questioned, sheepishly accepting the plate of food that Ochako had offered him, knowing fully well that he would be getting an earful later.
"I'd just got paid!" Kirishima grumbled. "And what difference does it make if it's in big bills or not?"
Bakugo rolled his eyes. "The point is you're askin' for trouble walkin' around with that kinda cash on you, dumbass."
"Who the hell would try to rob me?"
"That is a fair point." Ochako agreed, feeling better now that her plan was working. Or at least, now that the boys were wise enough to just play along even if they saw through her efforts. She'd been forced to play mediator a lot recently and she didn't like how easily it was coming to her as of late.
"I had a date that night, okay?" Kirishima finally admitted. "Happy now?"
Bakugo gave him a look. "Not that knuckle-girl again."
"Knuckle-girl?" Ochako whispered to Deku, for clarification. But he shrugged in response, just as baffled.
"No, not her." He answered, eyeing Uraraka self-consciously. "A different girl. …Yuri-chan won't call me back."
At that, the dining room table dissolved into laughter at his expense that even Kirishima himself couldn't help but join as well.
"I have to know why you call her knuckle-girl!" Ochako announced.
Bakugo shrugged. "Because she has to crack her knuckles to use her quirk."
"Snap-Back?!" Deku exclaimed with excitement, catching Bakugo's scowl and instantly deflating again. "I mean…you got rejected by Snap-Back?"
"She didn't reject me!" Kirishima argued. "She just…won't answer any of my calls or messages!"
"You must have done something bad." Ochako declared, mischief in her eye. Under the table, she reached for Deku's hand and gave it a hearty squeeze, relieved when he gave her a reassuring smile in return. She didn't care why the fight happened, or that their balcony door was now cracked. She only cared that it was over and done with and that they could all move on now.
"I guess I'll never know…" Kirishima lamented. "She was definitely something, though." He wore a wry smile that neither Ochako nor Deku wanted to pry any further into.
Bakugo seemed to harrumph in ironic agreement but said nothing more on the matter, so the four finished their meal in a comfortable silence.
A/N: Le sigh. I'm a sucker for a grumpy Deku because it's such a refreshing change from his usual chipper self! I figured things would stay tense between him and Bakugo since their big argument last chapter, considering nothing actually ended up getting resolved. So instead of another intense bout of bickering, I left it with a pleasant dinner amongst friends. Because who can stay angry with eternal ray of sunshine Kirishima-kun around? Complications will ensue soon, though…just you wait! And in the meantime, please do yourself a favor and look up the mascot for the Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team. You won't be disappointed ;)