Work Text:
I.
Bakugou and Todoroki had been going to remedial classes for three weeks before Bakugou started actively yelling at the other. Midoriya would have congratulated Todoroki for holding off the screaming for so long, if it weren’t for the reason Bakugou began yelling again. Bakugou had been waiting in the general common area, practically glaring up at the stairs, when Todoroki began to gently plop down the stairs. Almost immediately, Bakugou was on him.
“The fuck did I tell you, Icyhot?”
Todoroki frowned as he stepped up to the blonde, “I already told you, Bakugou. I can regulate my own temperature. There’s no reason for me to bring a jacket.”
“If you can, then you don’t. Cause you’re always stealing my clothes when we get back.”
“I don’t do that because I’m cold.”
“And I don’t give a shit about your supposed reasons,” Bakugou pointed back toward the stairs. “Go get your own jacket like I fucking told you to.”
Shouto tilted his head.
“We ain’t leaving til you get a jacket, Half n’ Half,” Bakugou responded.
“We’re contractually obligated to go to the remedial classes, Bakugou. This isn’t something we can skip because of your petty stubbornness.” Todoroki shifted his bag as he intended to move past the other.
Bakugou put his arm out to stop him. The blonde’s glare increased while he pulled Todoroki back to the stairs, “Get a fucking jacket.”
Shouto sighed as Bakugou pushed him up the first couple of stairs. They stared at each other, both willing the other to move, before Yaoyorozu stepped up to the two, and indicated wanting access to the stairs that they were blocking.
“Go on, Icyhot. Help your friend up the stairs,” Bakugou stepped aside for her, “and while you’re at it, you can grab something from your room, huh?” He grinned as he intoned the question.
Shouto rolled his eyes, but complied and walked up the stairs, allowing Yaoyorozu to follow behind him. She nodded to Bakugou as she tiptoed up the first few stairs. She took notice of Todoroki’s calm stature. To her knowledge, Todoroki was not accustomed to attempted stare downs, so the boy’s seemingly calm demeanor, despite what appeared to be a rather confrontational interaction, was odd to her.
“Does Bakugou often demand things of you like that?” she asked.
Todoroki slowed as she spoke, slipping into step beside her. “Not often. I think he’s having some overprotective boyfriend instincts,” he shrugged. Yaoyorozu blanked at the word. Her foot caught on the next stair as she attempted to process the idea. She stumbled back up quickly, but Todoroki still looked at her curiously. “It’s a recent development,” he supplied, “I suspect he’s rather nervous about the whole idea. It’s caused him to become paranoid about being a good boyfriend.”
Yaoyorozu consciously moved forward on the steps, trying to not stumble once again at the use of the strange word. It was odd to think of Todoroki, someone commonly considered anti-social on a good day, dating in any context, let alone dating someone even more notoriously anti-social than himself. Bakugou being referred to as ‘boyfriend’ would have been troubling for anyone in the class to picture, but Yaoyorozu did feel slightly guilty that she blanched so obviously at her friend’s relationship.
“Is he?” she asked.
“Is he what?” the boy returned.
“A good boyfriend.”
Todoroki smiled, “Bakugou is the best at everything he does.”
II.
Some time in the class’s second year, Todoroki had started commonly sitting with the Bakusuad during lunch. He would still spend the majority of his time with Midoriya and other friends, but people were no longer surprised when Todoroki sat down next to Bakugou like they had the first time.
Well, that’s a lie. Bakugou was still surprised. Each time Kirishima noticed Todoroki walking over to them, he quickly scooted over in the seats before Bakugou could protest. Todoroki, playing into the continually friendly offer, would also hurry down into the chair so the blonde couldn’t put his bag there instead. Despite the yelling and insults, Bakugou never tried getting Todoroki out of the seat once he was already in it. It was generally theorized that Bakugou mostly did it for show. Being placed in the seat was normally cue for Bakugou to ignore Todoroki for the rest of lunch, unless he was ‘bothering’ Bakugou in some way. Which happened to be quite often.
“You got a problem, Candy Cane?” the blonde said. Todoroki had been staring for the past few minutes, and Bakugou apparently didn’t take a liking to it.
Todoroki smiled. “You always have a variety of nicknames for me.”
“It’s not my fault your stupid face makes my creative juices flow easier than normal.” Bakugou aggressively squirted a glob of hot sauce onto his curry. He grinned while mixing the fiery concoction of food together.
“I always feel like I should have a nickname for you,” Todoroki lamented.
Bakugou paused, “why the fuck would you do that?”
“It feels weird,” he admitted, “to not know what to call you when you always have the most interesting things to say about me.”
“That’s a stupid-ass thing to feel weird about.”
“How do you come up with them?” Todoroki’s eyes sparkled as he perked up to lean closer to Bakugou.
The blonde leaned away. “I don’t know. I normally just go with whatever the person looks like. Shitty Hair has shitty hair, Dunce Face looks like an idiot, you’re split in half…”
“Split in half?” Todoroki's head tilted.
“Yeah,” Bakugou grunted, “you have half white, half red hair, so you’re Half n’ Half.”
“I see,” Todoroki said. He looked down at the table with a serious face, pondering the answer. “If I’m Half and Half because of my hair, then can I call you Dandelion?” His gaze returned to the avid sparkle.
Bakugou turned to him in horror, “where the hell did you come up with that, asshole?”
“Your hair,” Todoroki was giddy, or at least as giddy as Todoroki could be. “It’s yellow and spikey like a dandelion.”
“You can’t fucking call me that!” his voice rose in pitch, and he covered his poof of hair with contempt.
Todoroki smiled. “It’s perfect.”
III.
Bakugou was never one for a lot of words, and Todoroki knew that. Almost everything Bakugou said was hidden under layers of jaded anger. Positive, negative, neutral, it didn’t matter. If Bakugou was talking about it then the words ‘stupid’, ‘terrible’, and ‘fuck’ were sure to be somewhere in his sentence. Knowing that, it was sometimes difficult to determine when Bakugou genuinely hated something, and when he just wanted to keep up the illusion.
While he had largely figured out when Bakugou was speaking positively of Todoroki, or some of his other friends, there was nothing more confusing to Todoroki than Bakugou’s relationship with Midoriya. He knew some of the details of their past. He knew about the childhood friendship, the fallout, and the subsequent bullying. Most of everything he understood came from Midoriya’s account, but every once and a while Bakugou would give breadcrumbs from his perspective. Todoroki had a sneaking suspicion that Bakugou felt a lot of emotions about his past, things both pertaining to Midoriya and not. Some of the things that came out of the blonde’s mouth scared him.
“Do you think I’m good?” Bakugou said.
“Hm?” Todoroki lifted his head from his math textbook. It was late at night, close to curfew, but Todoroki had wanted to spend time with Bakugou. He barged over to his room, textbook in hand, and demanded a study session despite knowing the unit well enough to tutor it.
“Do you think I’m a good person?” Bakugou clarified.
“Of course I do.” Todoroki said.
“How do you know?”
“Because anyone who cares about people despite desperately trying not to must be a good person,” he quipped.
“It’s the ‘desperately trying not to’ that I’m concerned about,’ the blonde grumbled.
Todoroki frowned. “You are a good person, Bakugou.”
“You don’t know what I was like,” he mumbled.
“I know who you are now. And who you are now, is a good person. The past doesn’t matter to me.”
Bakugou’s voice rose, “did you know I told Deku to kill himself? Back in middle school. I told him to jump off the roof of the building.”
“No,” Todoroki levels his stare with Bakugou, “I didn’t.”
“Course that’s the one thing the little shit didn’t tell you,” Bakugou scoffed. “Nerd still thinks he needs to protect me.”
“Or maybe he just wanted to keep it private between you two,” Todoroki supplied.
Bakugou side-eyed him. “Is that your subtle way of telling me you don’t want to hear it?”
“No,” Todoroki said. He pushed his textbook down to the floor, and crawled over to Bakugou, “I’m listening.”
Bakugou huffed, “you’re such a dumbass. I fucking hate you.”
Todoroki smiled at the veiled appreciation. Bakugou stared at him gruffly, and Todoroki smiled more in response. Eventually the blonde sighed, and turned his gaze to the floor.
“I was just so angry at him. I still am sometimes. The worst part is, I can’t even explain why. He was a weakling who had no bearing on what happened in my life, yet I was always so angry. Sure, at the time I thought he saw me as weak, but that was never the reason I was so mad at him. I knew that I was better than him. There was no contesting that fact, not when we were in middle school. I had no one reason to go after him the way I did.
“He was my friend for so goddamn long, and that meant he was supposed to be the best. My friends were always the best no matter what. He was the one exception to that rule, but he still saw me as someone who needed help. It made no sense to me, and I wasn’t even angry about it! Not at first, at least- it was something I cherished. He was my Deku that I took care of, and he still cared about me being around regardless. But one day, something just snapped in my head, and everything that I once loved about Deku became a threat to my very existence. I don’t even know what caused it. It just suddenly appeared like a forgotten memory that I was supposed to hate him, but I had never hated him before.
“I didn’t know how to handle this sudden rush of anger that was all directed so clearly at him. I hated it. I fucking hated hating him. He was the only person who had ever given a shit about me. Not about my quirk, or my potential, or whatever the fuck else people wanted. He was the only person who ever actually cared about me as an individual, something I care about on every level, yet he was the only person that I ever really, truly fucking hated. It made no goddamn sense, and it fucking hurt.”
“So you wanted him gone,” Todoroki said.
“I didn’t actually want it,” Bakugou whined, “It was just a stupid passing thought because he was applying for UA, and it pissed me off.”
“Have you told him any of this?” Todoroki asked.
“Course not. I would never tell him about my feelings and shit.”
“But it's really eating you up inside, huh?”
Bakugou paused. “I just don’t know what to think of it all.”
“Are you still angry at him?”
“Only when he’s being an idiot.”
“Which is all the time.”
“Yeah,” Bakugou chuckled.
Todoroki laughed at the sound. He took a moment to let the interaction sit before continuing, “Why did you tell me?”
“You’re easier to face than Deku,” Bakugou frowned again.
“Is that an admission to being scared?” Todoroki teased.
“Fuck you!” Bakugou shoved him away, “It has nothing to do with damn Deku, and everything to do with me.” He pulled Todoroki close again. “If I tried to talk to him about anything I was feeling back then, I’d blow up quicker than my palms do during the summer.”
Todoroki leaned against the other. “I’m always here if you want me to mediate.”
“Fuck you, Icyhot.”
Todoroki smiled. “That wasn’t a no.”
IV.
Bakugou had been making food for Todoroki since their first year. Specifically after they had both first interned for Endeavor. Bakugou and Todoroki had been training together, since they were both supposed to work on their precision with their quirks. They took a break, pulling out their individually made lunches, and Bakugou was disgusted with Todoroki’s supposedly unhealthy meal of potato chips, chocolate, and strawberry milk. Despite Todoroki’s protests, Bakugou ended up tearing his sandwich in half and practically forcing it down Todoroki’s throat.
Bakugou had started making meals for the both of them after that. He constantly complained about Todoroki’s laziness, to which Todiroki insisted he wasn’t. Bakugou simply had different standards of good food, but Bakugou kept making the meals. The pattern continued throughout the rest of the internship, and afterward into the rest of the first year. Todoroki had thought Bakugou might forget about it over the summer, but when they got back to the dorms in their second year, Bakugou continued to make Todoroki dinner every day. Todoroki kept trying to insist that he shouldn’t, but once the pattern kept on into their third year, Todoroki just accepted it as Bakugou trying to do some good for him.
Kirishima and many others had often asked Todoroki how he had tricked Bakugou into doing something so nice. Usually, Todoroki would just laugh. It was fairly obvious that Bakguou wanted to take care of him. Or at the very least wanted to show a certain way of caring, since they didn’t often say it in words. He didn’t explain it so sentimentally to others, but he did make it clear that Bakugou was his boyfriend. That was just a thing Bakugou did as a boyfriend.
Kaminari was glaring at Todoroki in jealousy as Bakugou shifted a plate of curry and chicken in front of himself, with a secondary plate for Todoroki.
“You don’t have to do this every day, you know.” Despite his words, Todoroki munched at the chicken protectively, glaring at Kaminari similarly.
“I’m fully aware that I have no obligations to you, but it fucking pisses me off that all you eat is junk food.” Bakugou said.
“You’re so nice to me,” Todoroki shifted his eyes back to his boyfriend to make sure the sentiment was clear.
“Nice?” Bakugou scoffed, “you think I do this because I’m nice? No, fuck off with that bullshit, Icyhot. I am not nice.” He lifted the chopsticks to his mouth with aggression.
“Okay, Dandelion.”
“Fuck you.”
“Maybe later.” Todoroki grinned.
Kaminari choked on his mouthful of cereal. Bakguou flipped him off.
Todoroki smiled. “Thank you for the food.”
V.
Todoroki wasn’t usually a physically needy person. It was fairly normal that both he and Bakugou would merely sit next to each other for hours without touching, and Todoroki was fairly confident that they were both okay with that. Sure, it was a little strange to be dating and not hold hands, or kiss, or any of the normal dating stuff that couples did, but Todoroki didn’t especially mind. With his familial trauma causing hesitance for emotional intimacy, and Bakugou’s still recovering mindset of intimacy being weakness, it was probably better that they kept it slow.
But occasionally Todoroki would have a terrible moment. Something would happen, normally pertaining to his father, Touya, hero work, or any number of things, and Todoroki would just feel awful. He would want to curl up with a cup of tea, and never think about anything ever again. In those times, he would knock on Bakugou’s door. Without evening asking, Bakugou would let him inside and hug him til curfew hit. They never talked about what happened or said anything at all, but Todoroki appreciated Bakugou’s companionship at those times most of all.
Todoroki was having a very terrible day when he found Bakugou in the common area. Kirishima, Kaminari, Ashido, and Sero were with him, and playing some sort of racing game. Todoroki didn’t pay much attention to what it really was. He just walked over to Bakugou on the couch, and curled by the other boy’s side. He lifted one of his legs over Bakugou’s lap, and wrapped an arm through the hoodie pocket. Bakugou continued to stare at his phone, and other than lifting his arm to let Todoroki shift closer, didn’t comment on any of it.
By contrast, Kirishima on the other side of the couch stared fully agape. The redhead nudged Kaminari to look towards the two, and he too gasped at the sight before them. The chain continued on until every member of the Bakusquad was looking on in shock or jealousy. Each member was aware of Todoroki’s aversion to touch, and each member was intimately aware of Bakugou’s rejection to all things closeness. Knowing both of those things caused a sputter of confusion in all of them.
Kirishima was the first to finally speak on it, “Dude, what are you doing?”
“Trying to ignore your nosy ass.” Bakugou didn’t look up from his phone.
“And what is Todoroki doing?” Mina had suddenly recovered to comment lasciviously.
“I don’t know, and I don’t give a fuck,” Bakuguou replied. Todoroki chuckled into the blonde’s side.
“How come he do that, and I can’t even hug you?” Kirishima blanched.
Bakguou flipped him off.
“He hates me more than he hates you,” Todoroki replied for him.
“Damn right,” the blonde agreed.
Todoroki smiled. “I hate you too.”
VI.
Kaminari had been searching for Todoroki for three hours. He had borrowed the boy’s textbook three weeks ago when they had an English test, and Kaminari had just never returned it. He kept seeing it in his room and remembering that he had to give it back, but it just never happened. He never remembered to take it with him whenever he left, and he never remembered to go get it when he saw Todoroki. Kaminari knew that if he wanted to return Todoroki’s textbook, he had to do it when the thing was actually in his hands. But that was really fucking difficult to do when he could never find Todoroki, so it was extremely relieving when Kaminari found, unfortunately not Todoroki, but Bakugou sitting on one of the couches in the common area.
“Hey man,” Kaminari called out. He leaned over the edge of the couch to reach the book over to the other blonde, “could you give this back to your boyfriend for me, I forgot to return it to him.”
“Who the fuck do you think is my boyfriend?” Bakugou’s face curled in disgust.
Kaminari slightly frowned. He considered that Bakugou might have been messing with him, “Todoroki?”
“You think I’m dating Half n’ Half?”
Kaminari pulled the textbook back towards himself, “I did until about two seconds ago.”
“You’re so fucking stupid.”
“Who’s stupid?” Todoroki came in through the hallway as if he knew they were talking about him.
“This idiot thinks you and I are dating,” Bakugou balked.
Todoroki blinked. “We’re not?”
Bakugou blinked back, “What the fuck, Icyhot?”
“Okay, so I’m not the stupid one here?” Kaminari interrupted.
“Didn't you ask me to be your boyfriend during the remedial courses?” Todoroki asked.
“The remedial courses?” Bakugou stood from the couch. He pushed Kaminari out of the way as he charged toward his not-boyfriend. “That was two fucking years ago.”
“I asked if we could be friends. You said ‘no, we can’t be friends, we’re never going to be friends, I never want us to be friends’.”
“How the fuck did you get boyfriend out of that?” Bakugou screeched.
“I didn’t at first,” Todoroki shook his head, “but then we kept hanging out, and I asked if we were friends and you said ‘of course we aren’t, dumbass’, so I thought I would reevaluate your statement. Dating was the next logical conclusion.”
“No, it’s not fucking logical, you fucking idiot!”
Todoroki blinked. He blinked again. “So we’re not boyfriends?”
Bakugou threw his hands in the air, and gave a weighty growl. He took a lap around the room, shaking his head and sparking off his hands. When he came back over to Todoroki, he stared at the not-boyfriend for a couple seconds, and took a few deep breaths. He glared. “You thought we were dating for two years, and you didn’t say a fucking word about it?”
“I thought you already knew.”
“No. You didn’t say anything. You didn’t say ‘hey babe’ or darling or whatever the fuck kind of dumbass pet name you’d give me. You never said you liked me. We’ve never gone on a date. How the fuck did you think we were dating?”
“I call you dandelion,” Todoroki huffed, “We’ve never said anything like that cause I always figured you’d get embarrassed. Your love language is acts of service anyway-“
“The fuck?”
“-and we’ve been on plenty of dates,” he continued, “Why else would you always take me out for soba, or watch movies with me late at night, or kick out all your friends so we could study together, or spar with me more often than everyone else, or-“
“Stop. Stop,” Bakugou closed his eyes, “Stop it. Stop fucking talking.” There was a long pause. Bakugou lifted his hands up to his eyes, and Todoroki could hear the boy breathing heavily. “Oh my god. I’m a fucking idiot,” he finally vocalized, “What the fuck. I’m dating Shouto Todoroki.”
“So we are dating?” Todoroki asked.
“I’ve been dating you this whole time and I didn’t even fucking know?” Bakugou screamed. “I’ve probably been the worst fucking boyfriend ever. What the fuck! Come on, Icyhot,” he grabbed Todoroki’s arm and started dragging him out of the room. “I’m making you some shitty soba and it’s going to be the best shitty soba you’ve ever fucking had.”
Todoroki smiled. “No complaints here.”