Yay for being exceptionally terrible at titles!! :3 Also this chapter accidentally became kind of long, whoops?

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Bakugou

Bakugou was beginning to think Kirishima was a goddamn meme addict, and that he himself was an inadvertent victim by association. The fucker had loads of them to send—at least, that's what it felt like. He only sent about one a day, and since he had 'accidentally' (Bakugou still wasn't sure if he believed it to be an actual accident) sent one through the direct messaging system of Instagram (something Bakugou hadn't even known existed until the damn notification popped up), that's how they all came through.

They were miscellaneous—some about school, others about random shit Dumb Hair probably thought were relatable, and others shit that were just straight up jokes (some that, whenever he was in public, Bakugou had to refrain from laughing outwardly at). On the occasions they were in their room together—a lot more often since their misunderstanding—either studying or just hanging out, the stupid memes ended up launching them into conversations Bakugou knew he'd never have with someone otherwise. He told Kirishima shit he hadn't even thought about in years, found out that he and the damn loser had a lot more in common than he ever thought they could, and suddenly Dumb Hair really was his friend.

And when Kirishima started inviting him places—the game room, the lounge, dinner—he started tagging along. His friends weren't awful, and it wasn't like Bakugou had anything better to do anyway.

⚜️

"Did you guys hear they're planning a Halloween party for the school at the end of the month?" the pink-cheeked chick whose name Bakugou didn't care to remember spoke up at lunch one afternoon.

"Is it like a dance?" asked frog-looking one beside her. "Or a haunted house?"

"I dunno yet. They haven't really released many details about it."

"I heard about it," Deku said. "Iida has been running around like crazy making sure everyone who's on the planning committee keeps the theme appropriate."

Pink Cheeks perked up. "A planning committee? Can anybody join?" she asked.

"I think so. I'll be sure to ask Iida tomorrow in bio," Deku said.

"Ohh! I love planning parties..."

Bakugou sighed, slumping his head into his own hand as, like usual, he zoned the idiots out. He was grateful when his phone vibrated and gave him an excuse to look away, and he definitely wasn't surprised when the notification was from Dumb Hair. Most of them were nowadays if he was being honest, save from the occasional text from his mom or yet another damn follower on Instagram (seriously—he didn't know where the fuck they came from or why, seeing as he rarely actually posted).

Bakugou stared down at the screen in confusion the second he opened the message.

The fuck...?

Bakugou sat up, eyes narrow as he read it over a couple times. What the fuck did that even mean? Was it some kind of shitty pick-up line? Was Dumb Hair serious, or did he send the wrong fucking thing?

Questions flew through Bakugou's head a mile a minute. His thumbs hovered over the keyboard, trying to decide how he should reply—if he should even reply at all. He still hadn't made the decision when those three little dots popped up, indicating the other person was typing.

-This is cheesy as shit x'D

Bakugou did a mental eyeroll as he typed a message back.

-Yeah. Sure as fuck suits you tho

The little 'seen' indication popped up as soon as he sent the message, and those stupid little dots weren't far behind.

-That bad?

-Nah. Just a you thing

-Uh, thanks? Lol

Bakugou was unaware of the small grin playing at the corner of his lips when his attention was averted from his phone by Deku saying his name.

"...you, Kacchan?"

"What?" he said, looking up.

"I said I don't suppose you'd wanna help, would you?"

"Wanna help with what?"

"The Halloween party!" Pink Cheeks said, excitedly pressing the tips of her fingers together. "We're gonna see if Iida will let us onto the planning committee since we have a lot of ideas."

"Nope. You losers can leave me outta that one," Bakugou muttered, absently pressing the lock button on his phone and slipping the device back into his pocket as he stood up. He ignored the girl's frown as he picked up his empty tray. "Later," he muttered to the four of them before sauntering away to leave his tray in the stack and stroll right out of the mess hall without a backwards glance.

⚜️

Kirishima's stupid yet oddly amusing memes kept coming—but of course they did. They ranged from the normal ones, such as:

(which was painfully true, Bakugou couldn't help but think) to really weird, cheesy ones that Bakugou didn't get that were more along the lines of:

Either way, he snorted at them and brushed them off as he normally did. It wasn't like Kirishima hadn't sent weird as fuck memes before; Bakugou figured he just liked mixing it up a bit. Seemed like the type to, anyway. Bakugou wasn't about to say anything about it, regardless; he had to admit Kirishima's meme habit gave him something to look forward to in the mundane, repetitive bullshit that was school.

⚜️

The closer to the end of October it got, the more chatter about that damn Halloween party there was. Teachers kept bringing it up in class, banners were being hung around the entire campus, and flyers were being handed out on the daily (all of which Bakugou promptly crumpled up and tossed in the nearest recycling bin without bothering to read it). The stupid school-wide announcements every morning talked about it, too, and Bakugou was glad that shitty ex-roommate of his had a mundane voice that was easy to tone out while he droned on about whatever bullshit being addressed.

The party/dance/whatever-the-fuck it was was less than a week away when, inevitably, Dumb Hair and his friends brought it up. They were hanging out in the guys' lounge while Yellow Head, Plain Face, and Yellow Head's rock n' roll looking girlfriend duked it out on Super Smash Brothers and some pink-haired chick Bakugou had only met minutes ago was sitting and watching with a pout because she'd already lost while Bakugou and Dumb Hair himself were merely watching and waiting for their turn since, for some stupid reason, the redhead had managed to talk the blonde into playing one-on-one with him when the other losers were done. It was then when Kirishima spoke up about it.

"Yo, are you guys gonna go to that Halloween party?"

Pinky perked up. "Heck yeah!" she said. "I've had my costume planned out since last Halloween, so no way am I letting that go to waste!"

"Yeah? Whatcha gonna be?" Dumb Hair asked her.

"A dancing cat!" she said happily.

"A whatnow?" Yellow Head said from beside her without taking his eyes from the screen or faltering in the semi-frantic way he was smashing his thumbs into the controller. "Dammit, babe!" he hissed right after, and his girlfriend snickered as his death was announced from the television speakers; he practically threw the controller down onto the table in front of him.

"A dancing cat," Pinky enunciated in his direction.

"Yeah, I got that. But like, what does that even mean?"

"It means I'm gonna dress up in my dance uniform—from last year, of course, because no way am I losing even one sequin on my new one—but also dress up as a cat," she explained proudly. "Therefore, a dancing cat."

"Huh. I guess..." said Yellow Head, not looking very convinced.

"Why, what are you gonna dress up as?" she shot back, straightening up and planting her fists on her hips.

"Probably not gonna," he told her.

"Don't be lame, Denki!" Yellow Head's girlfriend said as she continued to play.

"What? Then what do you think I should go as?" he mumbled to her.

"Too busy to think about it," she told him. A loud blast sounded from the television and Plain Face cursed under his breath the second he paused in button-smashing while he waited for his character to respawn.

Bakugou spoke without thinking. "Get a Pikachu costume," he said.

All free eyes landed right on him, almost as though they'd forgotten he was there. Kirishima, however, had an amused grin on his stupid face. "Where'd ya get that idea?"

Bakugou jerked his chin in Yellow Head's direction. "The hair. The black streak reminds me of Pikachu." He shrugged a shoulder and looked down at his phone.

"Dude, do it!" Plain Face said.

"Don't get distracted, Sero!" the rocker chick shot at him.

"Where am I supposed to find a freaking Pikachu costume?" Yellow Head said.

"There's a costume store a couple miles east," Kirishima told him. "And it's huge. I bet they've got something you can use."

Yellow Head blinked at him, scratching his head in hesitation. "Should I really do that?"

"Hell yeah, you should!" said Sero again. "Bakugou's right, your hair totally does look like Pikachu."

"It does!" said Pinky excitedly. "I think we should all dress up, anyway, 'cause it's senior year and this will be the last time we'll have the chance to."

Of course, that sparked a blabbering conversation among the four of them about what they planned on going as for the shitty party. Kirishima, Pikachu, and Pinky started brainstorming ideas for the other two while they continued their battle in the video game, and when Plain Face finally won (by a freaking hair, which was pretty impressive), they joined in on the conversation. Bakugou himself kept to his phone, but although he wouldn't admit it, he was listening to their idiotic (yet damn amusing) banter about it. After it was decided that Sero would be going as a freaking mummy (and Pinky had promised she'd help him with it) and the rocker chick would go as, surprise-surprise, some kind of freaking rockstar from the 80s, it was down to Kirishima.

"I dunno, guys. I can't really think of anything I'd be down to do," he said thoughtfully. "Honestly I don't know if I'd wanna do anything super generic, ya know? Like a zombie or a vampire."

"Sero's going as a mummy," Pikachu pointed out.

"Yeah, but that suits him. I don't think I could pull off being a vampire."

"You could totally be a zombie, though!" Pinky said. "And it'd be super easy. Just get some clothes to rip up and put on some makeup to make you look dead. Oh, and probably leave your hair down."

Dumb Hair scratched his forehead thoughtfully. "I guess that sounds pretty cool, but I can't do makeup to save my life."

"Hmm... I'd offer to help, but I already promised Jirou and Sero I'd help with theirs," Pinky said. "I don't know if I'll have time to do theirs and mine, since Halloween's on Friday and the party is after school."

And, of course, that was when Pikachu leaned around Pinky and Kirishima to look at him. "What about Bakugou?" he said.

The blonde looked up. "What about me?" he mumbled, skeptical but knowing right where this was going at the same time.

"Could you do it?" he asked at the same time Dumb Hair turned and trained his stupid, big eyes right on the blonde himself.

"What, you think just 'cause I wear eyeliner I can do any type of makeup?" he muttered.

"So you can't?" When Dumb Hair spoke, he actually looked genuinely disappointed; his whole stupid face fell and everything. And, weirdly enough, something about that damn puppy dog stare tugged at Bakugou's stupid heartstrings. It wasn't that he couldn't do other makeup—actually, he could, but not for the reason one might think.

"Never said that, 's just lame that you guys are assuming shit," he said.

"Wait, so you can?" Pinky asked.

"...sorta," Bakugou mumbled.

"Would you?" Dumb Hair asked, some of the enthusiasm having returned to his face. Bakugou swore his eyes were literally starting to light up again, like they were their own kind of freaking bright red suns planted right into his stupid face.

"...yeah, fine, whatever," he said, purposefully directing his gaze back to his phone so he wouldn't have to look at those lustrous red eyes anymore.

And that was how Bakugou was 'conned' into doing Dumb Hair's makeup for the Halloween party. Somewhere inside of him—deep inside—he knew he wouldn't have agreed to do it if it had been anyone else, but he wasn't about to admit that Kirishima was special to him or anything. Really, he didn't even consider the others his friends (...yet, a voice inside him said, because that stupid little voice seemed to know that because they were Kirishima's friends, he'd inevitably end up friends with them, too).

After he'd agreed, Kirishima had beamed at him and said, "So what're you gonna dress up as, man? You're going, right?"

Before he could even really think about it, he was saying, "Sure, I guess," despite not having been planning to go to the party. It was like something about that shitty smile compelled him to go, and he didn't fucking get it. Quickly, he'd said, "I'm not gonna dress up, though."

"Whaaat? Why not?" Kirishima said.

"You gotta, man!" Pikachu jumped in.

"Yeah, the rest of us are!" added Pinky.

"So? 'S not like I'm part of your group of losers, anyway," the blonde grumbled, not even looking away from his phone, though he hadn't even touched the screen in several minutes.

"We're not losers!" Sero defended at the same time Pikachu said, "If you're not part of our group how come you're sitting with us?"

Bakugou could just feel the damn smugness in that idiot's demeanor as he asked the question; his own eyes lifted in a glare to see him, and sure enough he was grinning like a fucking moron. For once, Bakugou had no idea how to respond to him, either. No way was he gonna say something cheesy or admit to them that they didn't entirely suck or whatever. Plus, Kirishima was his friend at the very least...

"You gotta do something, man," Kirishima said, saving him from having to answer the question and brushing it off altogether. "Even if you just paint your face or something. You'd probably be the only one not dressing up."

"You could be the Pumpkin King!" Pinky said suddenly.

"Fuck no," he shot back.

"Guys, how 'bout we talk about it on our way to get something to eat?" Jirou said. "They're starting to serve dinner right about now."

"Sounds good," Dumb Hair said as he stood up and stretched his arms over his head. "We'll do our Smash Bros match later, 'kay?" he said to Bakugou.

"Whatever," the blonde responded casually.

He and Dumb Hair were the last two to trail out of the building after the others who were still chattering away about their costume ideas as they shuffled across campus toward the mess hall, and the entire time Kirishima was throwing out suggestions about what he could do as a Halloween costume, Bakugou was wondering how the hell he'd gotten himself into this mess.

⚜️

"Fucking stay still."

"Sorry! It just tickles."

"But if you twitch one more time you're gonna have eyeliner all over your damn face, and that won't be my problem."

Kirishima's shoulders shook with a slight laugh as his eyes fell shut again. He was seriously getting on Bakugou's nerves with his squirming and twitching, making it damn near impossible to put the stupid makeup on his face. He'd already had to wipe slip ups of eyeliner away three times now because of it.

I'm not goddamn patient enough for this...

Fortunately he was almost done, which meant he could finally get away from those stupid eyes that kept flicking up at him. And he was trying really fucking hard not to notice the dimple in Dumb Hair's left cheek every time he smiled or the tiny, incredibly subtle little gold flecks in his irises—things he hadn't noticed before because he'd never been so close. His own stupid heart kept hammering against his ribs and whatthefuck whatthefuck whatthefuck was Bakugou's constant, internal dialogue the entire time he wasn't bitching at the redhead to stay still.

"Can I ask you something?" Kirishima asked after Bakugou had capped the eyeliner pencil and was going for the weird little sponge thing that came with the cheap makeup they'd picked up at the party store the previous day.

"No, 'cause talking moves your stupid face."

Kirishima finally remained still long enough after that for Bakugou to finish up. He snapped the makeup kit shut and took a step back. "Done."

Blinking quickly, Kirishima turned to face the mirror and the second he saw himself, his eyes widened. "Dude! This is awesome!" he enthused, lifting a hand.

"Don't fucking touch it, you damn Hair for Brains!" Bakugou growled, yanking his hand down just before his fingers made contact. Their eyes met in the mirror as Bakugou tugged his hand away and crossed his arms. "Don't smudge my hard work 'cause I'm not doing that shit again."

"Sorry," Kirishima said, though his smile never disappeared. "Seriously though, man. You did a really good job. Thanks."

"Yeah, whatever," the blonde said as he turned and went back into the room.

"Hey, can I ask you that thing now?" Kirishima called after him.

"What?"

"How'd you know how to do stuff like this, anyway?"

"'Cause I used to volunteer at amusement parks and shit doing it on little kids. Who, I might add, are a lot more patient and still than you, even for fucking five year olds."

Bakugou saw Dumb Hair's jaw drop as he plopped onto his own bed. "You volunteered?"

"Did it for the tips. If you do a good job, parents give you a shitload of cash for it."

"Dude! That's super cool, 'cause it means we're both pretty artistic."

"Yeah, so why the hell couldn't you do this shit yourself?"

Kirishima reached up to remove his headband, allowing his hair to flop back into his face. "Well, once I tried to do some stuff on my little cousins for a costume party for one of their birthdays, but makeup just doesn't blend the same way paint does. They liked it, but I guess I'm sort of a perfectionist when it comes to my art so I didn't really like it, and even when I tried to do it on myself several years ago for Halloween I kinda hated it."

"So? That's why you fuckin' practice."

A sheepish grin spread across Kirishima's face. "Yeah, guess you're right, man. So hey, are you really not gonna dress up at all?"

"Nope. Even if I was, fuck am I s'posed to dress up in now?"

"Touché... but you could still paint your face."

"Don't feel like it."

"Aw, way to be lame," Kirishima joked.

"You think I give a shit what you call me?" Bakugou muttered.

"Nah," said the other as he went for the clothes he'd ripped up and dirtied for his costume. "Imma get changed and then we'll go, yeah?" he said on his way back to the bathroom. Before he went in, he stopped in his tracks and turned his head. "You are still going, right?"

"Did I not fucking say I would?" grumbled the blonde.

"Cool," Dumb Hair said. "Be right back." With that, he disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Bakugou alone to sigh out his mild irritation at himself for ever agreeing to this shit.

How the hell did Kirishima actually ever talk him into going in the first place?

Fuck. He didn't.

Stupid Deku and his dumb friends had been bugging him about going all goddamn week, and he'd been adamantly refusing to since the second they brought it up. He didn't give a shit about school dances or parties or whatever the fuck this thing was supposed to be, and they knew that. He knew it. And he really had every intention of not going.

But one fucking look from Kiri-fucking-shima had him agreeing in seconds.

What the fuck?

Hmph. At least he'd get a kick out of the shitty looks on Deku and his friends' faces when he showed up.

⚜️

The 'party' turned out to be some odd mixture of a dance and a carnival. There were game and activity booths set up all around campus and tons of Halloween-themed food in the mess hall. The gym, typically, was where the dance took place and school building itself had been transformed into a 'haunted house.' People in all variations of ridiculous costumes were mulling about with their food and lining up at the booths. The whole thing was fucking ridiculous, and if it wasn't for Kirishima practically dragging him along and smiling like a damn idiot past his zombie makeup, Bakugou would've booked it right back to his room.

"Duuude, your makeup's awesome!" Kirishima's yellow-headed friend  gushed as soon as the two met up with him just outside the mess hall. He was easy to find, what with his bright fucking yellow Pikachu onesie they somehow managed to find at the same thrift store Kirishima picked up the clothes he was using for his costume.

"Thanks, man!" Kirishima said as the two of them did their typical lame fist bump. "Bakugou's more of an artist than I thought!"

"The fuck 's that supposed to mean, Dumb Hair?" Bakugou snapped.

"Nothin'! It was a compliment!" the redhead quickly backtracked, though his smile never faded. "So ya think I really look like a zombie, huh?" he asked his friend.

"Hell yeah, dude." Yellow Head's eyes fell on Bakugou. "You're really good at that."

"Hmph, yeah, thanks I guess..." mumbled the blonde, absently scratching the back of his head.

"So where are the others?" Kirishima asked.

"On their way. Kyouka said Mina was having some trouble with her costume."

If possible, Dumb Hair's already big grin widened. "'Kyouka', huh? She's finally cool with you using her first name?" he said in a teasing manner, sending an elbow in Pikachu's direction, who had a slight, embarrassed grin of his own.

"Yep. We talked about it last night."

"Congrats, man! I told ya she'd come around sooner or later."

"Yeah, yeah," the other mumbled, brushing him off.

It was only a few minutes later when the rest of Kirishima's herd showed up, all in costume. Pinky (Mina, Bakugou supposed her name was) hadn't been kidding about the whole 'dancing cat' thing; her clothes practically looked like a freaking disco ball threw up on her while she wore ears, a tail, and gloves that resembled cat paws. Her face was bedazzled and painted like a cat's too. Jirou looked basically the same as usual, with maybe a little more makeup and a guitar case strung across her back. The only way Bakugou knew who the third idiot wandering up wrapped in toilet paper-looking bandages was was because he'd been there for the conversation.

It only took the idiots seconds after showing up to give him shit for not being in any sort of costume. They were impressed by what he'd done to Kirishima's face, though, which seemed to get them off his back about his lack of a costume well enough.

So, much to his (slight) reluctance, Bakugou spent the rest of the afternoon and a good portion of the evening walking around with the losers, being one of the only ones on the entire damn campus (teachers included) not wearing some stupid costume. Inevitably, halfway through the others being adamant about trying every stupid carnival booth, they ran into Deku and his own herd, and Bakugou promptly ignored the surprised looks on their faces when they realized he was there. They didn't stick around for long before heading off to the gym.

Admittedly the longer the night went on, the more Bakugou found himself actually kind of enjoying all this shit. It helped that most of Dumb Hair's friends were terrible at the majority of the games and that people kept being so amused by Yellow Head's ridiculous onesie (that he was continually given credit for), as well as Kirishima's zombie makeup (that he was also given credit for).

"Maybe you should be a special effects makeup artist, man," Dumb Hair told him while they were finally walking away from the carnival booths and headed to see what was inside the main school building.

"You gotta go to college for that shit," Bakugou told him. "Fuck that."

Kirishima shrugged a shoulder. "Alright. But if you change your mind, I'm totally down to be your guinea pig."

The 'haunted house' really turned out to be a haunted school, and most of the 'boobie traps' and jump scare mechanics were pretty damn lame. The whole place was practically filled with fog, anyway, rendering it difficult to see much of anything. A collective sigh of relief went around the group when they finally burst out of the exit.

"Well, that coulda been better," Sero said.

"Yeah, but I heard the teachers were in charge of it, so it could've been worse, too," said Jirou.

"It wasn't so bad!" Mina said. "I think we should head to the gym next, though, 'cause it's all that's left and it would be silly to be dressed as a dancing cat and not go to the dance."

While the others agreed, Bakugou felt himself scowl and fall back. Leave it to Dumb Hair to notice, though, and fall back behind with him, saying, "You guys go ahead, 'kay? I think me and Bakugou are gonna hit the mess hall. I'm starving."

"Y'sure?" Pikachu called back.

"Yup! We'll catch up somewhere later. I'll text you!" he called after them while he practically steered the blonde in the opposite direction toward the mess hall.

"Why the fuck are you ditching your friends for me?" Bakugou muttered.

"I'm not, man. You're my friend, too. Plus I really am hungry, and I'm not that big on dances, either."

While Bakugou's thanks was quipped, he really was relieved to not have to go into that shitty, surely sweaty gym or make a petty excuse he'd feel bad about later, even if just a little. They were both grateful to find that the mess hall kitchen wasn't just serving abhorrent Halloween-themed food when they arrived, too, though the options were limited. Over plates of pizza, Kirishima—typically—chattered away about some of the booths and whatnot, and, as usual, Bakugou found himself flowing right along in the conversation with him.

"Yo, I bet the game room's pretty deserted right about now. Wanna go?" Dumb Hair asked as they were on their way back out.

"'Kay."

Sure enough, the room housing a couple of foosball tables, air hockey, and a couple of pool tables among other things was completely void of life when they arrived. Bakugou was happy to finally be away from all the damn people.

"D'you like to play any of this stuff?" Kirishima asked as he raked his fingers through his hair and tied it back messily, baring his makeup-caked face, the shape of which Bakugou hadn't really noticed before doing said makeup, with the soft curve of his cheeks and the strong set of his jaw...

Bakugou quickly swallowed the thought. "Used to play pool with my uncle," he said, pocketing his hands.

"Yeah? I've never played."

"Guess I could teach you if ya want..."

Those big bright eyes freakin' shined. "Hell yeah!" Kirishima said. "C'mon. They keep the stuff over in this closet," he said, crossing the room.

The two spent the next hour or so at the pool table; Kirishima was a surprisingly fast learner, but that didn't mean he wasn't awful at first. His aim was off most of the time and on several occasions he'd pocket the wrong balls or end up sinking the cue ball. After four games, he was left with zero wins.

Somewhere in the midst of their playing he paused to text Pikachu and the rest of the group showed up not long after and they took turns playing. Turned out, to no surprise at all, that all of them were awful at pool, including the rocker chick who was said to be a beast at air hockey. Bakugou beat all of them at least once, leaving them begging for him to join them in the game room with them at least weekly so they could practice. And somehow, somehow those fuckers talked him into agreeing (with the persuasion being mostly on Kirishima's part—go figure).

Once the five of them were exhausted from losing so much, Pinky insisted they all take pictures together. While Bakugou sat on the leather couch in the corner scrolling mindlessly through his phone, the others scurried around in a ridiculous photoshoot.

"Bakugou!" Kirishima called in the midst of it. "C'mon, man! You should be part of this, too."

"Are you fucking blind, Dumb Hair? 'M not in a goddamn costume."

"That doesn't matter!" Mina said. "You're still part of the group."

"Says who?" he grumbled.

"All of us, dummy!"

He was still hesitating when Kirishima trained those stupid puppy eyes on him again, and all the sudden he lost the will to say no. So, with reluctance and a scowl that didn't fade for the entire rest of their ridiculous photoshoot, he stood up and joined them, wondering all the while how in the world he could fall victim so easily to a pair of big, dumb red eyes.

- - -

so I totally would've had Kiri wear like a dragon onesie (bc fantasy AU) but I really wanted Bakugou to do his makeup and zombie was the best thing I could think of lolol