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If Kirishima was being honest with himself, he wasn't the guy to frequent a library. Perhaps, he actually should have become more acquainted with the place, with how much studying he had to do if he really wanted to pull off his ambitious plans to get accepted into country's most prestigious hero course. And he was pleasantly surprised to find how the place was so wonderfully fit for studying: utterly boring to look at anywhere except his textbook, with fairly comfortable furniture that didn't make his butt go numb after just half an hour of sitting (if he got lucky, he even got to seat on bean bags!), and even a vending machine with variety of canned soda, tea and coffee.
And it was so, so amazingly quiet. Kirishima definitely should have appeared here more when he had free time between classes and gym. He didn't have to waste time getting back home, and the library provided... a sufficient shelter from accidentally walking into some of his classmates. One classmate in particular, really loud, rude and always looking for a fight with him.
All in all, Kirishima thought, flipping the page of the textbook, libraries were rad.
"So that's where you're now? What are you, fucking hiding from me like a coward?"
Kirishima closed his eyes for a second, a pained frown appearing between his eyebrows. Did his thinking summoned Bakugou or was Bakugou just like a bloodhound on a trail, always ending up finding him?
Other attendees hushed at Bakugou and he shut up instantly. Kirishima found it somewhat amusing that for such a troublemaker, Bakugou upheld at least some of his reputation by abiding common rules like never being late for school, doing homework with obsessive pedantry or, take this example, being quiet in a library.
That still didn't save Kirishima from Bakugou's attention as he stalked to his spot, dragged a bean bag uncomfortably close to his and sat down. For a teenager, Bakugou took a lot of space, and even his silence seemed very loud. Kirishima found it hard to concentrate on the textbook before him already.
He got tense, too. Bakugou's attempts at aggravating him were manageable for a long time by now, but Kirishima actually wanted to study, and atop of the entirety of Bakugou being very distracting, he had to worry about a potential situation where Bakugou's fuse blew up and Kirishima ended up getting kicked out of the library just by association with his asshole classmate.
"Don't tell me you're actually fucking studying," Bakugou sneered at him.
"I am," Kirishima said evenly. He flipped the page back - he already lost the thread of the thought and couldn't make sense what he was reading anymore.
Bakugou snickered, surely noticing that, and for the hundredth time Kirishima felt sharp envy. Things like that seemed just so easy for Bakugou, and he was way too well-aware of his intelligence not to brag about it at every opportunity. Kirishima just wanted to get through a chapter and be confident that the knowledge would stick in his head until the next test. It was kinda unfair.
"You know, I've been thinking about your speeches a lot," Bakugou laid back on the bean bag, comfortable, his knee bumping into Kirishima's, "and I just think it's fucking stupid of you to expect I'm gonna back the fuck down."
Bakugou's voice was appropriately quiet, yet words and tone he used were like underwater bombs detonating, with loud boom of explosions reaching with a lag.
Kirishima side-eyed him, his mind completely off the topic he wanted to study for. Interesting. Bakugou never acknowledged before that his words had any effect on him, that they even stuck in that head buried way too deep in his ass. Kirishima wasn't saying anything groundbreaking either, just that he wanted Bakugou to quit with constant bullying and finally act like a hero, like a man. He wasn't deluding himself he could actually shame someone as dense as Bakugou into being, well, nicer.
It wasn't like that was his goal even. It was just Kirishima had enough. Had to take a stand - for his own sake, for his honor. A couple more broken noses weren't a too big price for that, honestly.
"See, I'm bound to want to take you down," Bakugou continued, seeing he got Kirishima's attention, "you with your hardening is just too fucking perfect not to beat you up. So you fucking know that I'm the number fucking one in this shithole."
Kirishima sighed and rubbed his temple, putting away his hair getting into his eyes in the same motion. He was so over this Bakugou rhetoric. He didn't know at first why Bakugou attacked him like frenzied, but once he learned that it was because of his quirk, a lot of things about Bakugou's odd, almost personal rivalry against a fresh transfer student got a lot clearer.
"I just wanna finish this chapter," he said, deliberately avoiding addressing the topic. He was being petty, knowing that ignoring Bakugou in such fashion was going to piss him off, but Kirishima learned by now that the closer Bakugou was to him, the less terrifying he became. And right now they were very, very close.
"You think I'm fucking joking?" Bakugou hissed at him and made a motion as if he was about to reach for the textbook, to make Kirishima pay attention to him, but Kirishima grabbed him by wrist and yanked him even closer.
Kirishima learned playing dirty from him. He used the moment of confusion to put his arm around Bakugou's neck while pulling him down, trapping him in a headlock. He hardened his arm, watching for parts where his skin was in contact with Bakugou's to avoid cutting him with sharp edges, but otherwise his quirk effectively immobilized his limb in a fixed position, making it impossible for Bakugou to break out.
"You little-"
"Keep quiet, or they'll throw you out of here," Kirishima hushed at him.
The only fitting word he could think of to describe his emotion rising in response to feeling Bakugou freezing in his grip was rapture. With hands already pressing to both Kirishima's sides with intention to use his explosions, Bakugou found himself torn between wanting to blow his anger onto Kirishima and wanting to keep his reputation of a model student at least nominally clean. Causing trouble in a library was at odds with his goals.
Pressing at Bakugou's buttons introduced Kirishima to some incredible feelings.
"I'll go through this chapter and then we can talk," he said, doing his best to avoid sounding smug, while Bakugou struggled violently against his hold.
Kirishima's response to those struggles was to tighten his hold, helping with his other hand to bend the arm locked on Bakugou's neck even more. He was sure he was mildly choking Bakugou at this point, and immediately loosened his arm as soon as he felt Bakugou's jerking and thrashing growing weaker. He had no plans on releasing him yet, though.
"You're gonna fucking regret it," Bakugou hissed at him, his breath hoarse and heavy.
"Okay."
Kirishima picked up the textbook again in one hand and tried to get back to reading.
"I will beat you into fucking bloody-"
"Uh-huh."
"I will-"
"Look, the longer you're distracting me, the longer I'll be holding you. So just this once, for your own sake, please, shut the hell up."
The response was a very angry, frustrated sigh. Kirishima tried really hard not to feel elated. Bakugou was strong, ridiculously so, but without him being allowed to unleash his monstrous quirk onto him, Kirishima found it actually pretty effortless to hold Bakugou down, even though he still twitched in the headlock, trying out for any opening to break free. He was sure Bakugou wasn't ever going to forget this humiliation, but what even worse could he do to him?
Besides, Kirishima was about as stubborn as Bakugou was strong. What even gave Bakugou the idea he could break him down so easily? Especially now, with Kirishima determined to follow his own dream to become a hero, and with Bakugou giving him every opportunity to train himself against such destructive force that Kirishima had no other option but to improve.
It would be a big stretch to say Kirishima was grateful for Bakugou's relentless bullying. A really, really big stretch. But he tried to look for the best in every situation, and Bakugou was sufficiently mean and strong to provide almost a real experience of dealing with villains.
Putting those thoughts aside, Kirishima actually managed to get engaged with the subject of the textbook, all outside distractions fading into background. His brain still registered Bakugou's dissatisfied grunts and sighs, as well attempts to break free, but growing weaker. When he finally quieted, Kirishima's free hand automatically reached to pat his head, approving of him chilling out. The realization of what he did and to whom caught up just a second late, and Kirishima put his hand away from Bakugou's hair instantly, casting an apprehensive glance down to check if steam was coming out of Bakugou's ears yet.
It did not, but the fury coming off Bakugou was palpable in the air, yet he didn't struggle in the headlock anymore. Kirishima decided it was best to pretend that unauthorized head pats never happened, and got back to the textbook, now acutely aware of the fact that Bakugou was actually in such close proximity to him, subdued by him, and very, very angry about it.
"I'm going to release you now," Kirishima said out loud when he finally struggled through last paragraphs and looked down at his classmate to check on him.
"I'll fucking murder you," Bakugou growled in response, but any threat was muted under library-appropriate level of his voice. The tip of his ear visible to Kirishima was bright red from the furious blush, and that also severely undermined all his attempts at intimidation.
Really, the closer Kirishima was to Bakugou, the less scary his explosive classmate was.
Kirishima carefully unhardened his arm, noticing his body reacting to prolonged usage of his quirk and finding out that it wasn't bad at all. Then he took it off Bakugou's neck, and in the instantly Bakugou sat upright, like a spring within him was finally released and allowed him to assume vertical position. The blush flooded his cheeks and went down his neck, his hair was even more of a mess than usual, which was somewhat amusing to Kirishima.
Was amusement even right word for that? Watching Bakugou glaring at him with wild fire in his eyes, Kirishima couldn't correctly describe what he was feeling. It couldn't possibly be endearment, that he knew for sure.
As if knowing that nothing he did would intimidate Kirishima at least for now, right after being held down so effortlessly, Bakugou didn't hurry with fulfilling his threats. He just sat there, drilling Kirishima with his eyes, quiet and fuming.
"Crap, I'm gonna be late for gym," Kirishima remembered that he had other places to be. "I'll see you later!" He got up, shoving his belongings into the backpack.
"Wait."
Kirishima stilled. Bakugou looked up at him with unreadable expression, something clearly happening behind that frown of his, but Kirishima couldn't know what.
"You sustained your quirk for pretty long," Bakugou finally said after a lengthy pause during which he seemed to take apart the very existence of Kirishima and reevaluate it.
"Huh?" Kirishima responded, confused. What did that have to do with anything? "Oh, you might be right. I didn't even notice."
Vicious, cruel grin stretched Bakugou's lips, but it was at odds with his bright blush still lighting his face and the recent memory of him struggling so uselessly against Kirishima's chokehold.
"You're getting stronger."
Against Kirishima's better judgment, the... compliment had its effect.
"Yeah, because you're such an awful jerk, I have to," he said, apprehensive. Being acknowledged by Bakugou for his quirk was, objectively speaking, the worst, and didn't bring him any pleasant surprises so far.
Yet hearing that did spill liquid fire within Kirishima's chest, no matter how hard he tried to ignore feeling it.
Bakugou got up and closed the distance between them to glare at him up close.
"Keep at it," he said, so awfully close, "or I'll fucking tear you apart."
Kirishima blinked, hearing the threats but not actually feeling threatened. He wasn't sure that was just him getting used to Bakugou so much that his curses and awful promises stopped having their effect on him. This time... it felt as if Bakugou didn't actually mean to threaten him.
Something terrible sparked within Kirishima's soul, and, looking straight into Bakugou's wicked eyes, he saw this terrible thing mirrored. He couldn't help but smile.
"I'd like to see you try."