"Wow, I can hardly even remember the last time we walked home from school together like this. It's like the good old days!"
"Don't get used to it, nerd. This is a one-time thing... And what good old days are you imagining?"
Deku gave him a small smile and a shrug, though Bakugou had no clue whether it was supposed to be apathetic to his comment or sad. Knowing him and his constantly overemotional state, it could very well be the latter.
The two of them had left the dorms early that morning, both somehow running into each other by complete random chance as they were walking out the door. Considering his luck, Bakugou honestly should have known that the nerd was planning to visit Auntie Inko over the weekend, so he'd ultimately decided it wasn't worth the trouble to try and avoid him. It wasn't that long of a trip from U.A. to their neighborhood, anyway. It was only a minor inconvenience.
About a year ago, it would have been the end of the world.
Turning the next corner and approaching his street, Bakugou could barely make out hints of people starting their day, silhouettes flashing across drawn curtains and dogs barking behind high fences and closed doors. The occasional jogger or dog walker would pass by idly, lost in their own worlds and enjoying the peace and lack of collateral damage in their general vicinity while they could.
"Well, here we are." Deku announced as if Bakugou had spontaneously become amnesic and couldn't recognize his own house. "You never did tell me why you were going home over the weekend."
"None of your business, Deku." he spat on reflex, earning a tired, knowing sigh from the nerd. Bakugou had half a mind to whirl around and sock him in the jaw for it.
The other half twitched in a weird way that had him on the verge of curling into himself. He snarled harshly as the feeling ripped through his spine, a cold shiver running through his body.
Deku startled lightly, looking away and rubbing the back of his neck. "Ah, sorry. I don't think I did anything, but-."
"You didn't, dumbass." Bakugou grunted, rubbing his face. "Stop apologizing for everything."
Deku blinked at him, his brain taking a moment to catch up with the words thrown at him. He sprung to life a moment later, arms flailing in the air and a nervous smile on his stupid freckled face. "Ah- Oh, right, right! Sorr-."
"Deku."
His posture stiffened, mouth shut, and he practically goosestepped all the way to the walkway to Bakugou's house. Bakugou watched Deku silently as he looked over the Bakugou household, nostalgia shining in his eyes as if this house gave him the most wonderful memories he could ever possibly have. It always left Bakugou astounded, how the dork could ever remember anything from their shared history in fondness.
It was when he got his quirk that everything fell apart between them.
They were six. At the oldest.
And somehow, with their collectively abysmal luck, they'd been stuck together for their entire lives, as if they could never, ever even hope to be free of each other. It was the cards that they were dealt, that no matter what, no matter how much they might hate each other, no matter what happened between them, or around them, they would never escape each other's orbits.
They were Kacchan and Deku. Deku and Kacchan.
Maybe the nerd had just been able to accept that far earlier than he did.
He froze.
Since when did he accept that at all?
"Well, I guess I'm off then." Deku suddenly said with a bright smile. "I'll see you back at school, Kacchan!"
"Deku, wait."
Deku spun around wordlessly, a little too fast and with wide eyes filled to the brim with curiosity and anticipation.
And Bakugou had to pause, because he wasn't even sure why he stopped him in the first place.
The words had just left his mouth, as if his brain was working faster than he could actually register. His brows furrowed as he stared at his feet, searching for whatever that something was that felt as if it was simultaneously at the tip of his tongue and trying to burn a hole out the back of his head and never come to light. He stared at his aching hands, smelling strong of burnt sugar and soot, and with a twitch, it suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks and left him feeling crushed to dust under the weight.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
It was foreign and uncomfortable, and made his skin feel slimy and gross. There was something in the back of his throat that was cutting off his voice and time seemed to barely be moving at all.
His expression morphed into one of confusion, lost in this mess of emotions that he couldn't even name, and suddenly, the words had left him altogether.
Out of curiosity, he glanced up at the greenette, his eyes impossibly wide and frame lightly shaking, as if he understood what was going on in Bakugou's head much better than Bakugou himself did.
Well, with his creepy stalker tendencies, he wouldn't put it past him.
"I-..." Though Bakugou's voice felt strong, the words were nowhere to be found. It sent hot anger coursing through his veins, that realization that there was something, anything that he just couldn't do, and he latched onto that familiar feeling of bubbling rage as if it were a life preserver.
Bakugou snarled, more so at himself than anything. "Dammit, you know what? Forget it. I don't even know what the fuck I was trying to say."
Glancing back at Deku, Bakugou paused in genuine confusion when he saw tears building in his disbelieving eyes. His lips wobbled, a smile stretching across his face as his eyes suddenly seemed to glow in the morning sun.
"It's okay, Kacchan." his voice shook, expression painfully fond. "You can tell me later."
With that, he spun on his heel and jogged away, waving back to him with an obnoxiously bright grin before he disappeared around the corner. Bakugou snorted when he heard the loud clang of a body running into a pole, but chose to leave the moron be. He'd had enough of his overwhelming sentimentality anyway.
That, and he didn't even have any idea what the hell just happened, so he was ready to just forget this encounter ever even occurred and move on with his life.