Bakugou's P.O.V

Reluctantly, I stayed by Shoto's side as he waited for the Fucking Nerd. Why does the world hate me so much?

The second Deku approached us, I socked him one right on the cheek. The force turned his head in the direction my hand followed through, but it's not like it'll leave lasting damage, he'll definitely have a huge ass bruise (in my defense, he basically asked for it by being alive in the same area as me).

It was like some lever was flicked in the Nerds brain, making him slightly less dumb, "Seriously Kacchan?" He cried while he cradled his cheek like a baby, Shoto kicked me in the shins. Yeah, you heard that right. Shoto kicked me, in my shins.

If I didn't hurt so much I would be so proud. "The hell you do that for?" I asked even though honestly, I knew why, but I still wanted to hear it from his own mouth.

"You know darn well why I did that. Either you apologize, or I'm kicking you again, this time in the knees - have fun trying to walk then."

From personal experiences, let me say that he is not a man of empty threats. I was faced with two difficult choices, I could either apologize to the nerd and stay on Shoto's good side, or I could completely ignore his request and walk home on crutches. One definitely sounded better than the other, but it'd mean acting buddy-buddy with that broccoli rip-off.

But considering the alternative? "Ugh fine, I'm fucking sorry for punching you in your weak ass face, even though it's an easy target." Turning to Shoto, "Is that better, your Royal Highness?"

"Didn't expect any less, but it's really up to Midoriya." We both glared at the nerd. Ok fine! I glared, Shoto glanced.

The idiot waved his arms back and forth over and over and over. Could someone please weigh them down with cement and throw him into a ravine? I will pay any mob to do so. And to make matters worse, he started talking. Yeah, and you thought my life was already tough? "Oh, it's okay Todoroki. I accept his apology, it's the first I've actually ever heard one from him. Actually, what is he doing here, not that I don't appreciate your company Kacchan, is just that you said you weren't doing anything so I just assumed that y'know, you didn't have any plans. I see now that I misread your message, so I'll be going no-"

"-You didn't misread." If this was a fucking cartoon, Deku's Jaw would have dropped straight onto the floor.

Bug-eyed and nervous, he stumbled over his words like a preschooler, "But, huh, what? But you're. He's. I don't understand. How could I not have misread it? Clearly, you're busy, and if Kacchan here then he clearly didn't agree on his own terms." Well, he's right about that.

"I may have blackmailed him a bit, but it's fine. He promised that he'll be passive for at least an hour. You see, we were already in the area when you texted because someone thought it'd be better to drag me outside to rant, rather than wake up his family." Oh good God. How stupid is he, how stupid am I for think this was going to go well?

"Ah, but, but. That doesn't concern him Sho - Icy-Hot. Listen up nerd, basically, I'll be following this sorry excuse for a candy-cane around for reasons only the two of us should know, and I will leave you alone for the most part. You are not to look at me, stand near me, talk to me, or even breathe near me on the grounds that I basically promised fuckface over here that I wouldn't purposefully antagonize you for an hour at least." Pulling out my phone I set a time for exactly an hour from now, then held it up for the nerd to see, "So when this goes off, and I can still see you Todoroki is no longer liable for me, which mean I have the ability to pounce with explosions blasting and try my improved Howitzer Impact on you. Got it? Okay, let's go."

I marched along the road, stepping a few feet away before realizing that neither were following after me. Groaning, I turned around, "That means now. If you'd rather, I can beat up the nerd now and we can all go our separate ways. Would that be better?" Well, that got Shoto moving, and perhaps after seeing Shoto practically sprint over to my side Deku decided 'what the hell, I've got nothing going towards my life, why not get murdered early?' (though, that's probably wishful thinking).

True to my word, I did not punch, hit, bite, slap, tease, knee, push, or kick Deku in any way, shape, or form. I may have wanted to - multiple times - but I didn't.

Sometime during our trek through Hell Shoto stayed back with me while the nerd ran into some hero merch store and started asking me shit. Such as, "Why haven't you been calling me by my given name?"

I should have expected this.

Looking side to side, making sure it was clear of The Living All Might Paraphernalia, getting the all-clear I answered as quietly as I could, "I'm not doing it because I don't want the Nerd to know. Because if he knows then Gravity Girl and Ingenium 2.0 will know, and if they know then all the girls will know, and when all the girls know then the rest of the boys will know. I'm not taking that fucking risk. I have a reputation, you have a reputation, and I will not spoil either just because you want me to call you Shoto . While we're out around people we don't want to know I will call any of the numerous insulting 'pet names' I can think of, you can call me what ever the fuck you want as long as it isn't suspicious." I don't think he took it well, let's just say he returned to Deku's side soon after. But he did at least listen to me and never called me Katsuki once.

It took me for a loop, I'll admit, something about it just felt wrong.

In fact, for the entire hour, everything felt off, wrong. I'd grown comfortable with the fact that he was always right beside me, even if I didn't want him to be. With that fact that I could call him Shoto, and fall asleep on him without a care in the world. So not being able to do anything but walk in silence behind him was tough, but I stuck it out.

It was a few before I realized that the two were chatting up a storm while we walked. They were talking fast and I couldn't hear them over all the other people, but I heard Shoto saying something about 'being stuck' and the word 'villain'. It wasn't difficult to put two and two together.

Stomping closer, I pulled them apart and spun Shoto to meet my furious eyes, "The hell you think you're doing?"

He slapped my hands away from his shoulder, "Midoriya asked how I got you to act calm, and since that story can only be told with the knowledge of what went on over the weekend and such I thought it would be a good idea to tell him."

"Well, it's not a good idea. Don't you think I get any say in how much information this nerd gets to know? I was just as much a part of it as you."

"I know that, Bakugou. That's why I only summed into the most important details. I did not tell him anything I thought you wouldn't want him to know" As he continued, he lowered his volume so only I could hear, and began to push me slightly, "I did not tell him about your plethora of unusual pet-names for me , " another push, "I didn't tell him about how you're a bed hog," push, "or how you are a cuddler. I never once mentioned that you feel anything but rage." He shoved me away from him, causing me to stumble over my legs and almost fall over, "and I also didn't tell him about how you are the most inept boyfriend on this planet."

"If that's how you feel then you should just leave!" I stood my ground and rolled my arm back to punch him.

"If you don't stop being such a dumb douchebag to my friend then I just might." That's it. I aimed for his jaw and threw the punch.

Eyes closed on instinct I felt my fist hit something, but it wasn't the bony thickness of the bastard's mandible, it was more malleable, yet strong. I opened my eyes to see that Deku caught my punch with his open palm. He glared in a way that would make Shigaraki shit his pants, "Bakugou Katsuki." Oh shit, "Todoroki Shoto." The bastard stared at the nerd as he continued, "Either you two make-up and apologize to each other - and actually mean it - or I'll call Iida and have him lecture you two on the proper way to handle relationship problems, and maybe even on how you should care for a loved one. What will it be?"

This fucking nerd, I want to punch both their lights out, my ears were ringing with anger, my teeth grinding on my mouth. No way am I apologizing to that bastard.

"I'm. I'm sorry Katsuki."

What. The. Hell?

"I shouldn't've pushed or yelled at you. I already told you that I'm not good at this stuff, I was still pissed off from this morning and your action towards Midoriya titled me over the edge. I shouldn't have lashed out at you, especially since I knew you were dealing with your own problems. I forced you to come with us, even though I knew how'd you react. It's my fault, so I'm sorry."

Deku dropped my fist and I let it fall to my side. What the fuck. Ugh, fuck! "Shut the fuck up, idiot." Deku looked ready to throw down, but Todoroki held him back, "Shit, sorry. Fuck. Stupid bitch." Almost done yelling at myself for being about as bad as a partner as Endeavor is at being a loving dad, I groaned and wallowed. "I agreed to your rules, I followed them to my own displeasure. So if anyone's at fault it's me. I don't know how to apologize properly or in a way that sounds right. I shouldn't have fucking said anything, I should have kept my mouth shut and figured that you knew what the hell you were doing. So I'm sorry, if you need to you're allowed to punch me. Hell, I might even let Deku punch me-"

"-I'd rather not-"

"-anything that'll prove I'm being honest. I'm fucking pissed at myself for acting like shit again, especially towards you."

He released the now calm Deku and slowly, step by step, walked over to me. Face to face, he held his hand out, like he was saying that it was fine. But it shouldn't be that easy, what if next time I manage to hit him? What if I lash out again? He shouldn't be forced to deal with my childish antics.

I'm not going to force him to deal with me, so instead, I ignored his hand, opting for looking into his eyes, where all I read was 'tired'.

That wasn't good enough for him (if the grabbing of my wrist was telling enough). He hesitantly wrapped his arms around me as he brought me in close. "I'm sorry," was whispered into my ear.

If I weren't a tough, hard-core, strong person that would've broken me completely, but it left cracks and chipping instead. "Oh fuck off with your unneeded apology. I'm the one who's more sorry, Dumbass." I pulled away from Shoto, but tried not to make it feel like I was alienating him, or that I was sick of him.

"We really need to work on our communication skills," the way he said it sounded like he was joking, but I knew that it was true. I would rather throw away my chances at being a hero then lose him due to my own stupidity and arrogance.

"If you want, I can go home and let you come back home when you're done hangin with the nerd. Or... we can interrogate Deku about how the hell he figured it out?"

"I'll let you interrogate him just this once, but if it turns into a fight I'm dragging you home and waking your mother up. Deal?"

"Deal."