"You know what I am so done with?" Kaminari groaned, shifting his schoolbag to his other shoulder as they walked, his eyes glued to the floor as his feet danced over the tiles, childishly trying not to tread on any cracks. Mina, obviously, was doing the same, succeeding a significant amount more than her friend. Sero and Kirishima were watching with bemusement whilst Bakugo trudged beside the red-head, a scowl adorning his features as he deliberately looked at no one.

"What?" Sero asked, nudging Kaminari. The blond shrieked overdramtically and his balance shifted, tip of his sneaker touching the line between slates. He quickly hopped to the side, shooting his snickering classmate a glare.

After a moment, he went back to his ridiculous activity. "School," he answered grumpily. "I'm done with school."

Kirishima laughed. "Bro, you signed up to go here. You should've known what you were getting into."

Kaminari threw his arms into the air, astonishingly keeping the balls of his feet between the cracks. Mina, with her heightened agility, was having no problems and was keeping a few meters in front of the rest of the group. "Yeah, but I came here to be a hero! Not to learn about math, and history..."

"It's still school, Kami," Kirishima said. "Just be glad we still get to do all the hero stuff! For me, that makes it all worth it."

Kaminari stopped for a moment, holding his gaze on Kirishima, then rolled his eyes. "You're so pure, Kirishima."

Frowning, Kirishima blinked. "What does that mean?"

Simply shrugging, Kaminari abandoned his game and sped up to catch up with Sero and Mina. Kirishima noticed Bakugo had stopped too, and Kirishima grinned. "You waiting for me?"

Bakugo scowled, his face clouding over as Kirishima fell into step beside him. Bakugo muttered something, and Kirishima tilted his head, wondering if he heard what he thought he did. "What d'you say?" he asked, trying to supress the smile.

"I said are you any good at video games, Shitty Hair?" Bakugo growled, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Video games, with Bakugo? "I don't know, bro. Why don't you challenge me and find out?" Kirishima teased, watching the glint in the blond's eye intensify. Kirishima knew the number one way to get Bakugo to do something was to challenge him, even if Bakugo did initiate it first.

"Oh, you're fucking on, Shitty-"

"Video games?" Kaminari called, his selective hearing picking up on his favorite words.

Kirishima laughed. "Yeah, bro. I'm gonna thrash Bakugo. Wanna join?"

Kaminari ignored Bakugo's warning snarl, gesturing for them to join him. Or was he just gesturing to Kirishima? "Yeah! Hey, I just got a load of new games, why don't you come down to mine and Sero's room?" He lowers his voice, eyes furtively darting up and down the hallway. "He's got Smash Bros."

Kirishima split a grin at the same time as Mina squealed. "Oh, no. I suck at Smash Bros!" she cried, but her eyes were sparkling.

Sero's face lit up. "Well, I've been practising!" he grinned, quickening his pace. "Maybe now I'll be able to beat Kirishima!" Everyone hurried to keep up with him, and Kirishima couldn't help but glance at Bakugo. Surprisingly, he didn't look annoyed. In fact, he hadn't said an angry remark to anyone throughout this whole conversation, which was a surprise, albeit a pleasant one.

"Meet in our room at six!" Kaminari saluted to Mina, Bakugo and Kirishima. "That way we can get our homework done and stuff."

After a moment, Mina leapt ahead and spun so she was walking backwards, facing them. "What kind of games should we play?"

"What do you mean?" Kirishima asked, Bakugo predictably staying silent.

"Party games!" she exclaimed. "You don't want to take advantage of playing party games and finding out more about each other?"

There was a low, rumbling sound, and it took both Mina and Kirishima a few seconds to realise it was coming from Bakugo. Kirishima rested a hand on his shoulder. "You alright bro?"

"You're all idiots," Bakugo snapped, like he had been holding it in this entire time and need to get it out of his system. "You're all fucking idiots. It's a fucking Wednesday and what are you planning to do? Get no fucking sleep on a school day so you'll be fucking exhausted for class tomorrow?" He stuffed his hands into his pockets and stormed ahead. "Fucking idiots," he repeated angrily.

Mina sent Kirishima a look, on that clearly displayed her confusion at Bakugo's seemingly random outburst. Kirishima only laughed, draping an arm over his fuming friend's shoulder. "C'mon bro!" he chuckled, some vague voice noting in the back of his mind that Bakugo hadn't shrugged him off as he usually would. "Loosen up. Besides, it's not gonna do loads of harm to be a little tired for school." When Bakugo didn't react, Kirishima tried again. "If you really want, you can be our babysitter! Y'know, make sure we don't stay up too late and that things don't get out of hand-"

"Fuck no. If you bastards are staying up I sure as fuck am too," Bakugo snapped immediately, cutting off Kirishima.

Grinning, Kirishima withdrew his arm and bumped shoulders with the blond. "Awesome! Imma get changed first, but then I'll head over to Sero's dorm, yeah?" A series of nods met his question, accompanied by mischievous smiles.

"If we get fucking caught, I'm blaming you, Dunce Face," Bakugo muttered, sending a pointed glare to Kaminari.

"What? Dude, what did I do?" Kaminari protested. "We haven't done anything yet!"

There was a moment of silence before Bakugo replied. "Yeah, but if we get caught it's probably going to be your fucking fault." The smirk on his lips told Kirishima that it was a joke, that Bakugo was joking, and Kirishima snorted.

"Dude, did you just make a joke?" Sero asked, incredulous. "Seriously, did you?"

"So fucking what if I did?"

"Well, you never make jokes-"

"You wanna fucking fight?"

"No-!"

Kirishima put a hardened arm against Bakugo's chest, stopping him from lunging at Sero. "Bro, what the hell? Calm down," he said through his chuckles, watching as Sero stopped flinching and stood up straight. Bakugo's brows were furrowed in anger, and Kirishima was slightly amazed at how quickly he got riled up. "He wasn't trying to get you mad."

"Yeah dude! I was just pointing out-"

"Shut it."

---

Kirishima knocked a few times, knuckles rapping on the door of Sero's dorm room. He could sense Bakugo behind him, his angry energy like a stormy cloud around him. Kirishima vaguely wondered what was on his mind that was making him mad, when the handle twisted and the door swung open to reveal Kaminari. "Kiri! And Bakugo, come in."

There was a scoff as Sero muttered, "It's not like it's my room or anything." Kirishima smiled and walked inside. Kaminari shut it once both boys were in, plopping down on the bed next to Mina, who was sprawled out with her legs propped up against the wall, surveying them upside down. There was a game of Smash Bro's on Sero's surprisingly large television.

"Who's winning?" Kirishima asked, sitting on one of the beanbags in the corner, gesturing for Bakugo to sit beside him. The blond flashed him a glare but slumped down, crossing his arms and giving out a particularly hostile aura.

"Sero," Kaminari answered, voice tinged with annoyance.

Sero clicked his tongue. "I beat him three times."

Laughing, Kirishima indicated for the remote, but before Kaminari could hand it to him Mina snatched it and held it to her chest. "We can't play video games all the time!" she complained. "Why not some other types of games?"

"Like what?" Kaminari and Kirishima asked in unison.

"Truth or dare!" the answer was instantaneous, Mina swivelling impossibly to sit up straight and face the boys. "21 version. You know how to play?"

"Of course!" Kirishima replied, eyes darting to Bakugo who, he was surprised to notice, had nodded.

"Okay, okay, I'll start," Mina said, beginning her counting. As the numbers got higher, Kaminari looked more and more worried and, inevitably, it landed on him. Mina smirked.

"I know. I see you writing to your soulmate a lot, Kaminari," she said, a wicked grin on her face. "Do you know who she is?"

Kaminari blushed, which was all the answer they really needed. "Ha...going deep with the first question?" Mina narrowed her eyes. "Okay, fine. Yes, I know her. She doesn't know it's me, but..."

"WHO?" Mina shrieked, pouncing on him. "WHO IS IT?" Her hands were squeezing the panicked blond's face, eyes manic as she breathed heavily. Kaminari pushed her off.

"Jeez, Mina!" he scolded, cheeks flushed a deep red. "It's none of your business!"

"Come on Kami, tell me-"

"1. 2. 3," Kaminari said forcefully, beginning the next round of the game, and Mina shut up, albeit with a resentful look on her face. Kirishima continued, and it ended up landing on him. When he answered dare, Kaminari flashed him an evil smirk as he told him to lick between Sero's toes.

The game got progressively more stupid, except for Sero, who kept giving out nice dares, such as telling Mina to hold a headstand for as long as possible. They counted 2 minutes, before her black eyes fluttered shut, too much blood rushing to her head causing her to lose consciousness. Kirishima was on his feet in a second, reaching out to catch her but she fell heavily, with much more force than the red-head had anticipated, and upon managing to shove the girl onto the bed he found himself falling backwards, twisting his body to the side and hardening his arms against the impending impact.

Except it didn't come.

Kirishima found himself staring into the fiery red irises of his best friend, neither blinking as Bakugo's hands steadied on his shoulders, holding him upright. He could hear his friend's laughter, even Mina's halfhearted giggles as she came to, but he couldn't react. Kirishima felt...captivated. The slanted gaze, lacking in anger but so, so full of intensity was overwhelming, and he felt lightheaded.

The chuckles from his friends died down, and Kirishima could feel their eyes on him, but he couldn't move. He was frozen. Only when Kaminari said, "Dude?" did Bakugo snap out of it, shoving Kirishima to the side, who landed heavily onto the beanbag again. His mind felt fuzzy; what had just happened?

"...start. Kirishima, you start!" Sero's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and after a moment he laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

"R-Right," he mumbled, and began the round. For the remainder of the game, which must have gone on for another hour or two, Kirishima could barely focus. His eyes wandered, he felt short of breath, legs shaky and brain foggy. Maybe he was ill?

No. No, that wasn't it. Everywhere he looked, he could still see those eyes, like they had imprinted themselves on his pupils, engraving themselves into his sight. Bakugo's eyes, crimson and vehement and fierce. To anyone else, intimidating, maybe. But not to Kirishima. They looked like they were studying him, taking in every single detail and storing it away.

Eventually the rest of his friends calmed down, their voices getting quieter and dares getting less physical. Soon, Mina was snoring on the floor, and Kaminari slumped over his futon, eyes half-lidded with tiredness. Kirishima could sense the drowsiness overcoming him and, soon, his eyes were drifting shut. He hadn't even moved from the beanbag. His eyes fluttered shut and the comforting darkness enfolded him.

For a while. At one point, although he wasn't sure whether or not he was dreaming, he thought he heard someone moving around. Loud footsteps that were meant to be quiet. Kirishima wanted to open eyes, see who it was, but he couldn't find the motivation. So when something heavy and warm was draped over his legs and chest, he just let out a contented sigh and succumbed to it once more.

---

So I don't tend to make Author's Notes, but I just wanted to apologise. I know I haven't updated, but life has been hectic - I broke my phone, so updates will be even slower than usual because I can't write on the go.

Also, I feel like the pacing of this chapter is really odd. I was in a weird mood and mindset when I was writing, but I feel really bad so I just want to post it. Maybe I'll rewrite it, someday.