The student dorm we were in is just freaking huge. Cleaning the damn place takes all damn day.
We got a checklist from Mr. Aizawa of what we were supposed to take care of every day while we were on house arrest.
Deku looked shocked. "R-r-really? We're supposed to do all this in one day?"
"If you can't even clean up after people how do you expect to be the best, Deku?" I snapped at him. Tried not to yell as loudly as I wanted to - my instinct is always to tell him off. Because dammit Deku, you can do better than complain.
Looked like phrasing it that way got through to him. Right. It's a challenge, Deku. Got that?
"Of course." He clenched a fist and grinned. "I'll do my half then, and do it better." Grin.
"I'll do it better than you, you damn nerd!"
"I don't care how you do it," Sensei snapped, looming over us. "Just do it."
So we decided to split it up, going over the chore chart we'd been given. Daily trash.
"Alternate days."
"OK, um - what day do you want?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Ok - I'll do it first and third, and -"
"Fine. Next!"
"So we split up the common area cleaning - how?"
"Line down the middle. You take right, I have left."
"Halls?"
"Four floors on top. You take two and three, that's your floor anyway. I'll take four and five."
"You're going really fast."
"What do you expect me to do, waste time?"
"No..." Wobbly smile again. "You're faster than me. Guess that's something I have to work on."
"Work on it on your own time. The common area needs vacuuming, the windows, furniture, dusting and sanitizing, for a start. Line horizontal, then the kitchen and dining area. That'll take plenty of time."
"You sure know a lot about it."
"And you sure know nothing. Your old lady do all the cleaning at your place?"
"You know she does. You've been to my house."
"Yeah, when we were five. She still picks up after you now you're a grown ass fifteen?"
"Yours doesn't?"
"The old hag stopped pickin up after me when I was six. I pull my own weight."
"Well, from here on out - so will I."
"You better. Get the cleaner."
It was like that. Everything was a challenge. Deku, I could tell, had never really cleaned anything in his life. He was looking at the different cleaners like he had no idea what the difference was between them. I ended up having to talk him through starting the vacuum. Seriously. It was like he'd never even heard of one.
Not that we talked all that much. There was too much shit to do - windows, dusting, cleaning the kitchen. I couldn't believe what slobs our classmates were - like no one had any idea what a damn napkin was or how to pick up anything they dropped on the floor in the kitchen space. And the sink was like a horror show - just from this morning. I took only half of it, and of course my half looked clearer than Deku's, because he had no clue how to clean. I ended up talking him through half of it.
"You don't just sweep across the surface, you have to go in circles."
"Oh. That helps?"
"You're damn right it does! Geez, you really haven't done this before."
"Nope. It's kind of amazing how good you are at it...I mean, you're ahead of me in studies, and you train all the time, and you still have time for cleaning like this?"
"I don't waste my time on pointless things. Frees it up."
Oddly, I wasn't sure how...but in just one night, we'd gone from arguing to just...talking. When before this talking to Deku was like trying to have a conversation with a wall, suddenly it was just like talking to anyone else. Not that it was easy, but...suddenly it was possible. All of a sudden we were just talking.
I was doing windows, he was dusting...My mind would wander over the past, over last night.
To me you were this amazing person, much closer to me than All Might. You really think that about me. You don't hate me, or look down on me?
And now that I was listening to him and thinking over it all again, lots of things Deku had said to me that I'd always hated hearing before suddenly meant something completely different.
'Your quirk is amazing, Kacchan!' 'That's why I want to beat you, because you're amazing!' 'You're the one who never gives up...' You really meant all those things, then?
Our relationship is so confusing...All Might said 'You've always feared his heart and spirit, young Bakugou.' 'You can become the greatest heroes, winning and saving people at the same time.'
Our classmates came back, and Tape Arms ran a finger along one of the windows on Deku's side while he was collecting the trash.
"Care to explain this dust, Bakugo?" he taunted me.
"THAT WAS S'POSED TO BE DEKU'S JOB, SO SHUT THE HELL UP! HEY YOU! CAN'T YOU EVEN CLEAN RIGHT?" I snapped. Damn it, I didn't tell you what to do on that part and you immediately can't do it?
"Sorry!" Deku called back as he collected the trash. "If you guys could all put your garbage outside your doors, I'll collect it."
Over on the sofa, Sugar man leaned forward and said to Kirishima, "Hey. Mic's class today…"
"Yeah, I know. You too?"
"I had no clue about some of those sentence patterns, but he was using them like it was no big deal."
"Yeah! Took me by surprise too!"
"S'what happens when you forget to prepare fro class…."
"Trip up just once, and following along after that suddenly gets real tough."
"Y'know those works studies?" said Ears. "I never got scouted, but I'd still like to try."
"Same here," said Tail.
"I wonder if we'd be able to get placed under the same heroes we did our internships with?"
Deku was following all this with an increasingly panicked look on his face. "It's only been a day, and I'm already falling behind!" Four eyes imitated him. "It's written all over your face, Mr. Lockdown!"
"Mr. Lockdown? That's just mean." he complained. "But what's this work-study thing anyway, Iida?"
"Yes, well, I'm still angry! And Sense forbade us from telling you two anything from our classes! I'm sorry, but this is just an experience you will have to endure! Are you listening, Bakugou?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know - so shut up, you freaking four eyes!"
Way to rub it in.
Day two, my day for garbage...Deku did better this day, and there was less to do then day one. Guess we were better than the actual cleaning service.
We?
Yeah...we.
If you can focus on making one another stronger.
'I pull my own weight.' 'Guess I will too.' But that's not what All Might told us to do.
'I can learn from everyone else and keep getting stronger myself.'
I'd split the cleaning day with Deku. It was six times more people and space to clean up after than my own home, but even so...splitting it up with someone else...
like with the exam, with Kirishima and Kaminari...and the forest with Todoroki...
All Might standing alone in Kamino, with all those lame heroes who couldn't measure up leaving him to try and fight that psycho alone...if any one of them was as good as him, and they'd worked like a unit, like we did, like Deku can, that villain wouldn't have stood a damn chance.
All Might had told us about what tended to happen to One For All Wielders. His Mentor, he himself, all of them went alone against that bastard and lost, wore themselves out and usually died.
Is that what's going to happen to you too?
No. You know better than that now. I hope you do. I've seen it, though. You didn't go against them alone at Kamino, you went with Kirishima and Icy Hot and Four Eyes and Ponytail. You know better than to go it alone. And you won't have to. Not this time. You're taking me with you. And you just KNOW Icy Hot'll want a piece of that. And Uraraka sure as hell wouldn't back down from that fight. Four Eyes would go along just to babysit you. Kirishima and Kaminari would stick by, end of time. And yeah. I'll take that bastard on right next to you. This time it'll be different.
Another reason to get that damn license.
We split the stuff and this day it was easier and didn't take all day. We both fell asleep on the couch in the living room, not saying much, but just kind of enjoying the silence. I woke up earlier and decided we needed lunch. Got up and made something for energy. Left some for Deku and headed back to the chores.
Not alone this time...
Day three.
This morning Icy Hot came up to me.
"Have you thought about -"
"I'll figure it out."
"You'll miss the first one."
"That's my own business. Don't think I'm gonna fall behind for long."
"I'll take notes. You can see them."
I was about to tell him off for being condescending, before I remembered what I'd been thinking about - how Deku needed to stop thinking he could pull his own weight and let the rest of us back him up.
Dammit Icy Hot.
"Sure. Do it if you want."
He nodded and went off.
That got me thinking about something else All Might had said. About what Deku had that I didn't.
"Winning and saving at the same time."
Animal boy's damn rabbit got loose and we had to chase it down...
You failed the rescue exercises...
That's what you messed up. Saving people.
'Save your own damn selves.' Helping people has always felt to me like...like looking down on someone. Like you just can't believe that they're strong enough to help themselves, like you're looking down on them. Which is why I've always hated people helping me. Why I've always hated helping people - it feels disrespectful.
But it's the key to being a hero, or at least half of it. All Might said it. So it doesn't mean that?
Deku wasn't looking down on you when you fell in the creek. Or when that sludge creep got you...or when All Might knocked you out, or when the damn league of villains got you...or any time at all.
And if he wasn't then...what does that make you? For reacting like you did and telling him off for just...trying to help you, because he cares?
what does that make me?
I had that thought, thank god, while he was sweeping the third floor and I was on the fifth. You get a lot of time to think while you're cleaning alone.
What does that make you?
'hope you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a jump off the roof of the building' 'You didn't save me, you're just a damn nerd.' 'You're beneath me, don't forget what you are.' Punching him in the face during the final exams...getting him under house arrest now...
what does all that make you?
Oh god...god damn it...
I couldn't even look him in the face that day. IcyHot gave me his notes from the first class and I could barely mutter a 'whatever.' Impossible to get away from those thoughts here, so I just went back upstairs and lay down.
No more getting away from it. No way to get away from it all...
Didn't sleep well that night.
Day 4. Deku's out of it. I watched him leave. And today I'm here all alone.
No way to get away from it all any more.
So I've done horribly by you. No getting away from it. In this situation I'm the...bad guy. No wonder those bastards thought...
But I'm not. I won't be, not any more...
Maybe I need to avoid you for a while. I need to unlearn it all. I don't know what we're going to be to each other from here on out. Not sure how to be around you. I guess we need a break from each other for a bit to figure this out. I don't want to fall back into the same old shit.
Not gonna be the same.
I don't know what it's gonna be, but something different.
I grew up around you, you grew up around me. Like that weird tree that grows around another tree. Maybe they'll both be stronger trees if they finish growing up in separate places.
You'll be in the field now. They're talking about work studies, like we don't know what that means. You'll go your way. I'll be in remedial class.
I guess for now it's you go your way, I go mine.
Those kinda thoughts went through my head as he left for the day...
It's probably best for now if we take a break.
