Acknowledging Issues

Katsuki had just finished scrubbing the counters when Kirishima appeared in the doorway. They hadn't talked that morning, as Katsuki had quietly gotten ready and slipped out the door before the other boy woke up.

But right now, Shitty Hair had a worried look on his face as he said, "Hey, Bakugou. How was your day?"

"It was crappy. But that's the point. Teacher doesn't want us messing up again." Bakugou looked over his shoulder at Kirishima, who was staring at him, his usual smile missing. "What's your problem?"

Still without the smile, Shitty Hair stated, "Look, man, I don't know what happened last night between you and Midoriya but if you ever want to talk about it-… Or, just blow off some steam, without talking about it… I'm totally here-!"

"What the fuck brought this on?!" Bakugou snapped.

"Well..." Kirishima said, "there was everything that happened last night, for starters. And this morning, Mr. Aizawa changed seating arrangements for the first time this year… I'm sitting behind you, now."

"And Deku's in your spot?" Katsuki asked, trying to remember who was around Kirishima's seat. He finally clenched his teeth and sucked a breath before stating, "Probably for the best. For both of us."

"Did you have some falling out…?"

"No, the opposite. That fight was the best thing to happen between us in over a decade. We're getting along the best we've had since we were four."

"But Midoriya—"

"—Won't talk shit about anyone. And in all honesty, did you ever hear him actually say that we were close or did he just not correct you when you thought it?" Bakugou retorted. Even in the middle of a fight, Deku would most likely throw advice or compliments, rather than actual insults. It was another thing that always infuriated the explosive blond. "He's good at that. Letting people fill in the gaps while he slips away without telling them shit."

"Midoriya's not like that."

"You keep telling yourself that." Katsuki said. "But the fact is, you're standing here totally lost when I tell you even the most obvious shit about our lives." Katsuki made a fist and pointed his thumb toward his chest. "Shit that I never even tried to hide and all he has to do is smile and say 'it's fine' to make you forget. Did you remember that Quirk Assessment, where I blasted Deku in the face during the fifty-meter dash and Mr. Aizawa had to restrain me from doing worse after the ball throw? How about day two, in the Hero/Villain Simulation All Might set up? Did any of that look even remotely 'friendly' to you?"

There was a moment of silence. Katsuki could see the other boy connecting the dots in his head. The walls of what could've only been denial or distraction coming down. How much of their real relationship did he see, now? He felt a touch of fear at the thought. Would his shitty attitude cost him the friend who'd held out his hand for him to grab as they flew over Kamino Ward?

And yet, Katsuki kept going. "It was easy to forget after we teamed up and depended on each other at the U.S.J, wasn't it, Shitty Hair?" He stated, "But you knew what I was like I was beforehand. Your comments after we killed all the cannon fodder that mist fucker threw us to was proof of that."

For a moment, Kirishima looked like he was going to say something stupid but thankfully seemed to think better of it. "He was the one who came up with the plan, you know. At Kamino."

Katsuki stopped scrubbing and threw the rag into the sink, feeling a smile that was anything but friendly creep across his face as he said, "Of course it was. I knew the moment that I saw it. Only that crazy fucker could have come up with a plan like that." By the time he finished the declaration, while his teeth were still bared, it certainly wasn't in a grin.

"He said it had to be me who reached for you, not him. He was so sure."

Katsuki stared down at the floor. "I told him not to come. I didn't want it to be him. I told him that."

"It's not manly that you'd risk your life based on who came to help you. Especially as he was the first during-…" Shitty Hair trailed off, but Katsuki had a feeling he knew what he was going to say.

"You knew."

"I… Might've given up on being a hero altogether if I'd never heard about it. They didn't have footage of who ran out to help you but after getting to know him, I knew it had to be Midoriya… Hearing about it helped inspire me to keep going when I wanted to give up on being a hero." He bit his lip.

Katsuki found himself if the other had to harden the skin of his lip to keep his teeth from piercing it and felt his mood sink just a little further as he realized that it was because of Deku's rambling that he even knew to ask crap like that.

Then Kirishima shook him from the thought by asking, "Is it really that bad between you two?"

For a moment, Katsuki considered not answering at all. Then, he changed his mind and admitted, "It was worse..." He clenched his fist, remembering what he'd said and done earlier the afternoon of that attack with disgust. He recalled the first truly readable expression Deku had given him in ages, after telling Katsiki had told the other to kill himself, the absolute fury he kept hidden under the submissive façade he had on the surface. And how the next time his emotions were on display, it was the equally readable loving concern he displayed trying to rescue Katsuki from the Sludge Fucker. "The way I've been with him here, it's not half as bad as I used to be. He would've had every right to walk away, after the shit I did to him… But, he's fucking Deku. He can't leave well enough alone."

Katsuki saw Kirishima realize something and looked like he wanted to weasel more information out of him to confirm whatever it was. Instead, he just said, "As I said, if you ever need to talk…"

Katsuki nodded an acknowledgement, feeling a surge of relief that he didn't let show on his face, glad the other wasn't going to push him away for his past. He'd definitely take up the offer to spar, when his house arrest ended.

"And if you ever tell Deku I called him a crazy fucker for his insane plans, I'll kill you."

Kirishima gave a full, toothy smile at that. "Got it. No telling Midoriya you complimented him. Although maybe you could consider telling him, sometime."

Rather than respond aloud, Katsuki just shrugged

As if summoned by the words, the kitchen door opened and there stood Deku.

"Hey, Kacchan. Oh, Kirishima, you're here, too. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Nah, it's good," Kirishima stated. "We just finished talking."

"What do you want, Deku?" Katsuki asked.

"Oh, I was hoping to talk," Deku said in a way that almost sounded like a question as he glanced at Kirishima.

Usually, Shitty Hair would've taken the hint and cleared out. Instead, he walked over to the fridge and called over his shoulder, "Don't mind me. I'm just grabbing a snack."

Liar.

Katsuki didn't call him out on it, though. "What is it, Deku?"

"Iida passed on a message that Aizawa-sensei wants me to meet him at Nezu's office at four. I need to-… Grab a few things, first." Deku bit his lip, clearly wanting to tell Katsuki more but not with Kirishima here. "I was wondering if you could take the trash out for me, tonight. I promise to get it tomorrow and Wednesday." Deku's face turned beet red as he added "I wouldn't ask, normally, but-..."

Rather than let Deku start tripping over his own tongue, Bakugou said, "Just go prep for your trip to the school. I'll take the garbage out today but you're doing it both tomorrow and Wednesday."

Izuku nodded in acknowledgement. "Thanks, Kacchan."

"Yeah, whatever. I just want to be able to say everything's done by the time Aizawa gets here."

With that, Deku slipped back through the door, quiet as he could be.

The moment he was gone Bakugou asked, "Are you going to be lurking around whenever we talk now, Shitty Hair?"

"Do you think you can talk to him without treating him like trash on your own?"

Katsuki sighed in frustration, but didn't answer. He knew he didn't have to. He just kept wiping the counter, even though it was already spotlessly clean.

"I'm going to tell a few of the others, too. I'm not the best at de-escalating things but you clearly want to stop."

'A few of the others', meant the whole class would know by the end of the day. Still, he could hear from the other's tone that he wasn't going to be dissuaded. A lot of people would be pissed off when they found out.

Oh well. He could handle it. He couldn't care less what anyone else thought.

Katsuki drew a breath through his clenched teeth as he felt a hand on his shoulder and Shitty Hair asked, "You gonna be okay?"

Katsuki slowly released said breath before replying. His level tone making him seem calmer than he truly was. "You said if I need to talk, I could come to you, right? If I need you, I'll take you up on that offer."

The weight disappeared from his shoulder, as Kirishima said, "I'll go tell the others to gather the trash for you. S, it'll be ready whenever you're done in here."

"Thanks," he bit out, pretending he didn't hear the other pause in what was probably surprise at the word.

By the time Eijiro stepped out of the kitchen, Midoriya was already long gone, probably off to get ready for that meeting he had with Mr. Aizawa and Principal Nezu. He didn't envy the green haired boy. The principal had never addressed any of them directly, before. At least, as far as he knew.

Eijiro was relieved to see that most of his classmates were gathered in the living room. "Hey guys, Bakugou wants to take the trash out soon. So if you could get yours, that'd be great."

After getting a few affirmatives and his classmates started making their way toward the stairs or elevator, he was about to head up to get his. Then, Momo came up to him and said, "Hey, Kirishima."

"What's up?"

"After the last few weeks, especially last night and this morning, I talked to Iida and convinced him that we need to have a meeting to discuss Midoriya and Bakugou. It's mainly going to be their closest friends, and I wanted to invite you."

"Where is it?"

"We're having it in a few minutes. Once you're done, come up to the second floor and go to the last room on the unused side."

"Aren't those doors locked? Do we really want to press our luck with Mr. Aizawa?"

"I talked with him before hand while everyone was practicing at the TDL this afternoon. I pointed out that after everything 1-A has been through, there's things we might need to talk about that we might need to keep private. He said that if we abuse this power, we'll lose it. He also warned that he'll make a class exercise out of making sure it stays private."

"What?" Kirishima asked, confused.

"Apparently, surveillance technology is usually an optional joint course taught to older hero and support course students. But, he's making arrangements with Power Loader to take time to cover the basics next week and he'll use our new 'private conference room' as one of the places to keep the skills fresh."

"So, now we have a room for secret conversations but he's going to bug it at random?"

Momo shrugged. "I suppose so."

Just the thought made Kirishima's head hurt. So, he decided not to think about it too much right now. "Fine, I'll meet you up there."

To be honest, I was determined to have Bakugou taking out the trash over a year ago.

Aizawa has reasons for adding a 'surveillance portion' to his student's course that I was going to talk about here but I decided it would be a nice reveal for some future point where I'm looking from his perspective.

So, the last scene here and next couple chapters kind of just sprung up and surprised me but they fit to the overarching story I'm writing very well, so I decided to go with it. It involved stuff I planned to get to sooner or later anyway.