Notes: Hey, just had this chapter on my AO3 account, and decided to post it on here :)

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback :) I really appreciated it :).

Enjoy!

Present Mic's English Class wasn't boring by any reach of imagination. To the veteran hero's credit, he did all he could to make it as interesting as possible. Through connecting relevant pop culture references to points of learning. Using his sound abilities make his voice more noticeable for parts worth remembering on tests. Hell, he even once sung Major General's Song by Gilbert in Sullivan to its fullest in a high pitched voice. That got quite the laugh out of some of the students.

But right now, to Bakugou, it was like dragging nails on a chalkboard. But as if the scratching noise was being amplified on a megaphone. And there was screaming coinciding with it. And she was on fire.

Suffice to say, she wasn't enjoying himself. She found that even in her normal mood of the class for it to be tedious. What was the point of learning English? They're here to be heroes, not freakin' college professors. This just took up time when they could be learning something valuable.

"Kacchan, you're muttering under your breath." To only aggravate this time further for Bakugou, this little update came from Deku of all people. They've been going to school together for nearly ten months now, and their relationship has marginally improved if anything. Sure, she didn't make a point to create a living hell for Deku, but they still weren't friends. At least, Bakugou thought they weren't and wished Deku would think the same.

"Wow, thank you, Sherlock-Fucking-Holmes. Where would I be without your annoying-ass voice." This came out as a low mutter, ironically enough, but just loud enough for Midoriya to hear and register. As if to show that the comment landed, Midoriya flinched backwards and sat back into his seat, not wishing to talk anymore.

The layout of the class was normal enough by their standards. Midoriya sat with Uraracka and Iida, the two of them now staring at the back of Bakugou with frustration. Bakugou merely replied with a lazy glare at them in return.

Seto and Kaminari were in the back, seemingly talking about something and hoping Present Mic didn't hear. If Bakugou knew anything, it was probably about memes or some shit.

Todoroki sat in the front, intently listening to everything said as if each word was a blessing of wisdom. Ojiro, Tokoyami and Shouji were to the side by the windows passing notes with each other. They had been put together on a group project for Economics class and talked Present Mic into allowing them to work on it in this class.

Speaking of projects, Mineata and Hagakure were working on a nature, or land project or something like that. Bakugou couldn't remember. What she did remember was that it got them out of this class, which scored some envy points from the No.1 student in the class, who'd rather be doing anything than grammar work.

In the similar vein of absentees, Aoyama, Saitou and Kouda all came down with some sort of flu. Through intense investigation (By which they mean, Deku muttered and wrote in his journal for about ten minutes straight to figure it out.) They realized it came from their recent hike through the mountains, but God knows what it was.

Yayourzo was scribbling down everything she heard, pretty similar to how Todoroki was acting, taking it seriously and all. What really caught Bakugou's attention was the Jirou seemed to be abandoning even trying to look like she was listening, instead just staring intently at the back of Yayourzo's head. Amazing how everyone in this class but those two could see the feelings Jirou had for Momo from a mile away. Bakugou would make a snide comment, but she found that her recent circumstances made it harder for to poke fun at other vulnerabilities, mainly out of fear they might discover Bakugou's own.

Thinking about that caused her to grip her pencil slightly harder. It had been a week since she finally realized that she….well, was a she. Coming to terms with wasn't easy, and Bakugou was a long ways from fully accepting it. Even just talking in chat rooms about it made her feel nervous and like she was about to fall apart. There was also her unfortunate habit of getting kicked out of said chat-rooms due to violent outbursts and excessive cursing. There were a lot of mixed emotions coming forward with the realisation. Hell, she used to bully kids in Middle-school for going through the same thing. Bakugou was bitterly aware of the irony of the whole situation. A tinge of guilt also came back when she thought of those times, but it was generally outweighed by the intense dysphoria and frustration of the whole thing.

Keeping it a secret was her top priority. She felt as if any of the others found out, they would never let her hear the end of it. She had given everyone in this class a lot of trouble, and she was sure they would be looking for some payback. There was also another fear. Pity. They would feel bad for her and want to help get through it. She didn't need these idiots help, she'd be fine on her own. But thanks to Kirishima, she wasn't quite on her own.

And there was the sole person who knew. And he happened to be sitting right next to her, a big grin on his face as he laughed at Present Mic's puns and quips. Bakugou still regrets going into his room that night, but also felt oddly comforted to know there was someone who knew and wasn't treating her any differently. They had the same old relationship. Kirishima would be friendly and energetic and Bakugou would tell him to go fuck himself, but not actually refusing to hang out with him.

While Kirishima was on her right at the wall, the remaining two of the class, Tsyuu and Ashido were both laxed on the chairs to the left of her, listening to Present Mic but at the same time trying to have a conversation with one another about plans for the Summer. Something about a trip to the beach or some shit like that. Bakugou resisted the urge to roll her eyes at them.

"AND THAT, MY DEAR CLASS, IS WHAT A GERUND IS DEFINED AS! NOW, ONTO PARTICEPLES, OH YEAH!" With a quick spin, Present Mic erased the previous lesson across the board and replaced it with the current one.

Letting out a groan nearly as loud as Mic's voice, Bakugou let her head fall to the table, a sharp thud sound going from it.

"Just ten more minutes. Just ten more fucking minutes and I'm out of here." This calming mantra was repeated through Bakugou's mind as she continued to lay her head on her desk.

"Psst!"

Bakugou ignored whatever that sound was, continuing to internally repeat the thought.

"Psst! Bakugou!" She could now tell two things.

1: This person was talking to her.

And 2: It was Kirashima.

Letting out a trademark growl, Bakugou picked up her head to face her best friend. ("Did I just fucking call the Red Riot fanboy my best friend? Shit, I must be going crazy.")

"What do you want, Spikes?" Bakugou was unaware of the hypocrisy of calling someone else that. Or she just didn't care. Most likely the second one.

To her surprise, Kirishima was not facing her. In fact, he seemed to be doing everything besides looking at her. To listening forward to the teacher, or waving cheerfully at the others in the class.

What did catch Bakugou's attention was a crumbled ball of paper on her desk which she for damn sure knew wasn't there before. Throwing another grumpy look towards her best friend ("Goddammit, did it again."), which once more got no reaction from Kirishima, she let out a huff and uncrumbled the piece of paper.

"Meet me in my room after class. I got a surprise for you, girlie ."

The blush that appeared on Bakugou's face was a new feeling she wasn't used to. A lot of new things she was dealing with lately. While Kirishima hadn't changed how he treated Bakugou after finding out, there were slight differences to his behaviour. While he usually ranted and raved about manliness towards everyone, including the girls, she got kind of quiet about that sort of thing whenever Bakugou was in the room. Gone were the greetings of "Bakugou, my man!" Now replaced with "Bakugou, my friend!" Bakugou wasn't sure if she was grateful or annoyed by Kirishima's support. Probably a mix of the two.

But calling Bakugou a girl was definitely something that Kirishima hadn't done yet. Bakugou was still not used to the concept of it all. Sure, she pictured it, imagined when she was awake in her bed of a world where everyone would see her as the girl she was without batting an eye. In her dreams, it was all she wanted. But in real life, it did feel damn good and damn right, but also terrifying. Fear that someone would find out and make fun of her.

Looking at Urakraka, the reasons for her fear was brought to the surface. Girly-Girl over there never had these worries. Never had this fear that if she told the world that she was a girl, that it wouldn't just laugh and mock her. She could go through her whole life, being known and seen as a girl without ever having a bad thought in her head. To Bakugou, she didn't have that luxury. Everything about her. Her body. Her personality. Her history. It would all be used against her to prove that she could never be a girl. And that ate Bakugou up inside.

Before she could continue dwelling on this, the sudden sound of the bell ringing knocked her out of her thoughts. Looking forward, she could see Mic putting his books away and saying something about homework. Still a bit zoned out, Bakugou didn't get any of it. Didn't really matter, she'd get it off Kirashima later.

Shit, Kirishima.

Darting her eyes across the room for sign of her best friend ("MOTHERFUCKER, WHY DO I KEEP DOING THAT?!") she caught sight of his signature red hair at the end of the room, smiling and chatting to Kaminari. Almost jumping to her feet with a spring, she quickly makes her way over to the duo. With a swift hand, she grabs the back of Kirishima's collar, ignoring the yell from him as she does so.

"Numnuts is comin' with me." This is said as almost an afterthought to Kaminari as she practically drags Kirishima out of the room.

Once they reach the hall, which Bakugou is thankful for being empty around this time of day (The first years finish at a different time than the other years and courses, pretty much ensuring empty hallways a lot of the time.) she pulls out the crumbled piece of paper and shoves it into Kirishima's chest.

"Care to explain this, you fucking rooster?" Kirishima had been attempting to keep her voice neutral at this time. She was rather failing at it as the rage began to seep in.

Blinking a few times in confusion, Kirishima looked down at the piece of paper and back to Bakugou. At that moment, a friendly smile appeared on his face.

"Oh, I got something you might really like. Can't wait to show you it." The toothy grin only got larger after this.

"That's not what I meant." Bakugou forcefully took the piece of paper back and pointed to the part where it referred to her as a girl. "What in the hell were you thinking of doing?! What if one of those fuckers saw this, huh?! Thought you were gonna actually try and keep this a secret, instead of just fucking half-assing it like you do everything else." While the temper of Bakugou was seeping through, she kept her voice to a low whisper. She definitely didn't want anyone else hearing about this.

While an expression of guilt appeared on Kirishima's face at the realisation of what she did, it turned to hurt, puppy-dog like look after Bakugou's insult. Bakugou cursed as she saw this. When Kirishima made that face, it made her feel…..not good. The same feeling she gets when she messes up in training or doesn't do well on a test. Like she did something wrong.

"I'm sorry, I- I didn't think it through. I just thought you might like it." Turning his to the side, Kirishima looked both pained and ashamed.

That "not-good" feeling Bakugou had only got worse as she saw the emotion on Kirishima's face. She came out ready to tear Kirishima apart over this, and now she just wished she could take it back.

"What I like doesn't fucking matter. You Just have to be smart about this. Both of us do." On the last word of that sentence, Bakugou put a particular emphasize on. It may not have been her first choice to tell anyone, but she'd admit she wouldn't want anyone besides Kirishima with her going through this.

The calming of Bakugou also caused a similar relaxing of Kirishima's worried expression. Coughing to the side to try and forget the awkwardness of what just happened, he looked up towards Bakugou.

"S-so. Do you still wanna see what got for you?"

"May as well. Ain't got jack-shit else to do." A small shrug of the shoulders accompanied Bakugou's agreement. What he didn't say was that he was also kind of curious about what Kirishima had in store. The reference to her as a girl in the message most likely meant it had something to do with her being trans, which only strengthened Bakugou's interest in it. She never had any opportunity to explore her identity outside of chatrooms and late night dysphoria-ridden talks.

The smile beginning to return to Kirishima's face, he quickly slapped an arm around Bakugou's shoulders, letting out a small laugh as he did so. While she grumbled in return, she didn't draw away from the arm. Didn't stop her from continuing to grumble though.

As the duo made their way towards the door, Kirishima looked towards the ground with a similar nervous expression as before.

"Did-did you like it?" Bakugou didn't need clarification to know he was talking about the last word in the letter.

"Coulda used something a bit more fuckin' creative than 'girlie'." Kirishima didn't need clarification to know that this meant she did appreciate it, in her own Bakugou way.

The dorms weren't in a particularly different manner than it was most days. The rec room was the same, a few text books from yesterday's homework still spread on the table from last night's study session. Not that Bakugou joined them. She did perfectly fine by herself, thank you very fucking much. Although, her grades had been slipping ever so slightly over the last few weeks. Barely anything more than a few percent off on tests, but damned if it didn't seem like a mile of difference to Bakugou. Apparently, crippling with gender identity issues has a bad effect on your grades. Who would've fuckin' knew.

The duo walked up towards the hallway, heading through the boys row.

Boys row. Just the words of it made Bakugou uncomfortable. It wasn't a fucking Boy's row if she was in it.

The two stopped right in front of Kirishima's door, the Red Riot door sign on it signalizing the ownership for all to see.

"Jesus, could he be more of a fucking nerd for the guy?" Hands tucked in pockets, Bakugou kicked the carpet absentmindedly as she waited for Kirishima to open the door. After a few seconds of waiting for the sound of the knob turning, she realized this was taking a lot longer than it should.

*Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!*

Bakugou had seen many strange things in her life. Quirks that were nearly eldritch and weird as fuck. A former Bully-victim of hers who somehow inherited the abilities of her idol. Failing the Provisional Hero Exam. (To Bakugou, she could never wrap her head around how others passed and she didn't.)

But Kirishima, right now in front of her, tapping with both his balled up fists on the surface of the door ranked up with the weirdest.

"What in the jack-jumping fuck are you doing?"

"Drum-roll. Building up the excitement." A goofy grin was stretched on Kirishima's face as he said this.

"You're going to be building up a few broken bones if you don't open the goddam door." A part of Bakugou would never admit that she kind of admired this goofy side of Kirishima. How much bravery it took to act this way without fearing how others thought of him.

The grin lessening, but not disappearing, Kirishima rooted in his pocket for his key. Quickly finding it, he unlocked the door and stood to the side, sweeping his arms outward for Bakugou to come in.

Bakugou mumbled something and made his way past Kirishima into the room. She almost needed to cover her eyes when she came in. The bright redness of it all nearly made it hard for her to look at it. How Kirishima dealt with it, she'd never know.

Speaking of Kirishima, as soon as Bakugou entered, he had speedily made her way past her and made a beeline for the space under her bed. As he began rummaging through the contents under it, she started to reveal the mysterious surprise.

"So, you remember that dress you showed me?"

Eyes wide. Bleeding hand. Quick breathing. The night started to come back to Bakugou. Kirishima seeing her like that. Fragile. Weak. It made her feel like she couldn't do a damn thing but watch her world crumble. She didn't want to remember that night, even with the help it gave her.

"Yeah. Yeah I remember. What about it?"

Continuing to sort through the space between the ground and her bed, Kirishima stopped for a moment. Remembering how hard of a night that was for Bakugou only began to hit her just now. Bakugou could swear she heard him curse to himself before he started sorting again.

"W-well." Kirishima continued, slightly more nervous with the tone of his voice. "I couldn't get this thought outta my head that I saw it somewhere before. Like, felt really familiar, ya' get me. It was driving me insane." An 'Ah!' sound came next from Kirishima as he backed out of the space. Bakugou noticed that he now had a small box in his hands, about a metre long.

"And then it hit me! My sis, Ursa, remember from the Sport's Festival?" Kirishima looked up at Bakugou, awaiting an answer.

"Believe it or not, but your family life isn't a big deal to me." Folding her arms, Bakugou started to lean backwards off the wall, pivoting on the heels of her feet. It may have been rude, but Bakugou honestly couldn't remember Ursa. She probably remembered Bakugou though. The state she was in at the award ceremony, kinda hard to forget.

Wincing slightly at the words of Bakugou, his smile faltering a tad, he quickly brought it back, hoping Bakugou didn't notice.

But Bakugou did. And the "Not-Good" feeling came back.

"Well, I finally remembered where I saw it before. Ursa used to own the same dress. Some coincidence, am I right?" Kirishima gave Bakugou another eager look, apparently hoping that he would receive a better response this time.

A snarky comment came bubbling up, but quickly died down in Bakugou when she felt the "Not-Good" feeling again. Instead she just 'tch'd' and looked off to the side.

"I dunno."

"Anyway, I was talking to her about it." This earned Kirishima a sharp and worried glare from Bakugou, which quickly got a reassuring hand wave back. "Oh, don't worry, I just said that Uraraka was looking for a dress. Ursa's met her, so she believed me." Getting up to his feet, he strode over to Bakugou and held out the box in an excited form.

"Well, open it up. I think you're really gonna like it." Bakugou didn't need to hear this to know that. Kirishima's ear-to-ear grin told anyone who could see what he was thinking.

Looking from Kirishima and then back down the box, Bakugou hesitantly took it into her hands, slowly opening the lid.

Inside were a pair of black heels. The sole part of it was covered in a soft fabric, while the heel itself seemed to be made out of some high-pricey material. God be dammed if Bakugou knew what it was. Who the fuck is she, Yayorzu?

Didn't make them seem any less beautiful though.

"I remembered she was wearing these shoes with them, so I asked her where she got them. Made a trip down to Ol' Jameson's Retailers on the weekend and picked up a pair. What do you think?The innocent and excited grin only seemed to become moreso, if that was possible.

A loss for words. Rarely was Bakugou that. The only feminine thing she owned was the dress, and that she bought for herself. These shoes. To have them come from a friend. It made her feel something. Like the opposite of the "Not-Good" feeling. Bakugou supposed that would be a good feeling. She seemed to have a lot of those with Kirishima.

"You….you paid for these?" Before Kirishima could answer, Bakugou had already placed them to the side and was fishing out her wallet. "How much?"

Holding up his hands in deference, Kirishima quickly shook his head side to side.

"Relax, Bakugou. It's a gift. Just remembered my sister had 'em and thought you might like 'em."

Once again, no words. Bakugou had only Come Out to Kirishima a week ago, and he was already getting her gifts. It wasn't as if Bakugou had never had positive reinforcement. She's had a lot of that. But the fear of being rejected , being outcast for telling anyone she was a girl was like a chokehold on her whenever she tried to say it. To have someone not just be OK with it, but to actively support her? She couldn't think of how to reply.

Reluctantly placing her wallet back, Bakugou placed the shoes back in the box and held the package under her arm.

"Well, thanks I guess." Bakugou wanted to do more than say that. She wanted to tell Kirishima how much she appreciated this, how much safer and braver it made her feel. But she was Bakugou. She didn't do all that emotional shit.

Leaning off the wall, she made her way to the door, waving a hand in farewell as she said goodbye. From Bakugou, this was practically a heartfelt farewell.

"Wait." Eyes wide. Bleeding hand. Quick breathing. It returns. Bakugou trying to leave the room, but Kirishima stopping her, driven to figure out what was wrong. Her fists nearly clenching on instinct, Bakugou turns back around to her best friend ("Huh, didn't bother me as much that time. Still feels fuckin' weird though.")

"Yeah, what do you want?" Bakugou was hoping to God that she was keeping any nervousness from the memories out her voice. Like before, she doesn't do emotional shit.

Rubbing the back of his head nervously, Kirishima seems to be trying to gather the courage to say something.

"I was just kinda wondering if you wanted to hang out here for a bit? I got some new games if you wanna try."

"Sure, ain't got nothin' else to do." Bakugou was nearly surprised as anyone at how quickly that came out. She wasn't someone to be eager to hang out with others. But Kirishima wasn't 'others'. He was the one person in the school who she could talk to without feeling like she was being pitied or challenged against. There was a reason she choose Kirishima's room that night.

Blinking a moment in surprise, Kirishima's excited smile returned in full force as he ran to the to the TV, plugging in console and controllers while rambling about all the games they could play. Halo. Gears of War. For Honor. They all came out in a blur nearly.

Knowing that Kirishima wasn't looking, Bakugou let out a rare smile. One he reserved for her mother when she said "I love you." One she reserved for when she was celebrating a hard won victory. One she reserved for when she was happy.

And she was nothing if not happy when she's with Kirishima.

So, what did you think?

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