Peer Pressure
first and foremost: please stop asking when the next chapter will be up or asking me to update. i really appreciate that you guys are excited about this & it blows my flipping mind that this has almost 30K reads, like holy wOW, but it can get a bit tedious having to answer the same question a lot. so, to make it clear: i update on Tuesdays. or, depending on where you are in the world, Wednesdays. it's every week unless i say otherwise, in which case i will always let you guys know.
secondly, the title for this chapter s u c k s, so if anyone has suggestions for it (that doesn't give away what happens), lemme know, lmfao.
thirdly alfjdsflasd i'm super excited for this chapter and i hope you guys react the way i think you will :')
---
Kirishima
"So guys... last day of break. How do ya wanna spend it?" Kirishima was asking at breakfast the next morning with Kaminari and Sero; the girls hadn't shown up yet and Bakugou had been so sound asleep when Kirishima left that he hadn't the heart to wake him.
"Dunno, man. The game room and the lounge are gonna be packed 'cause everyone's getting back and don't have homework and stuff they gotta do," Kaminari pointed out.
"True," Kirishima murmured.
"And man, I'm still super tired from break and this whole... having to get my sleep schedule back on track," Sero mumbled out past a yawn.
"Let's just chill today," Kaminari said. "I brought some more Blu-rays from home if ya guys wanna go watch movies in my room or somethin'. My roommate doesn't come back 'til Wednesday."
"Sounds good to me," Sero said.
Kirishima hummed his agreement around a mouthful of waffle. Not long after that, a certain blonde with hair that was somehow extra unruly and on of the sleepiest, grumpiest (and most adorable) faces Kirishima'd ever seen shuffled up with a plate full of eggs and bacon. He slumped into the seat beside Kirishima, all but dropping the plate before cracking open his bottle of Mountain Dew.
"Hey, sleepyhead," Kirishima greeted with a grin.
"Shut up," Bakugou muttered before sucking down half the bottle of soda. "'S too early."
"It's almost ten in the morning, man," Kaminari said.
"Nah he's right," Sero agreed. "Too early."
"It was only a couple weeks, guys. How'd ya manage to screw up your sleeping schedules so badly?"
"The fuckin' schedule I have to be on here is what's fucked up," Bakugou said. "Why the fuck didn't you wake me up, anyway?"
"I figured I'd let you sleep in on the last day of break."
Bakugou let out a disgruntled huff and dug right into his breakfast.
The boys were almost finished eating and the mess hall was almost finished clearing out by the time the girls finally arrived, both settling for blueberry bagels with cream cheese to eat. The three of them agreed that hanging out in Kaminari's room for the day was a good option with the way the rest of the campus was a mess from everyone returning from break, so when they finished their breakfast and took a slight detour back to the girls' dorm, Sero's room, and Bakugou and Kirishima's room to make sure everyone had what they wanted, they crashed Kaminari's room.
The space was identical to Kirishima and Bakugou's room, only flipped with the door and bathroom being on the opposite side. Once they'd all piled the pillows and blankets and things they'd brought from their own rooms into the space between the two beds and got comfortable, Kaminari plopped an entire duffel bag of just movies in front of them.
"Dude," Sero said, already beginning to paw through it. "How come you brought so many?"
"'Cause there's a lot the school's missing in both of the lounges, and most of those are still just DVDs, anyway. Plus, you'd be surprised how many movies Kyouka hasn't seen."
"I'm not going to apologize for spending my childhood learning instruments instead of mindlessly soaking up cartoons all day," Jirou said.
"You don't have to, babe, but that's why I'm helping you catch up." Kaminari punctuated the sentence with a wink, and Kirishima couldn't help his slight smile despite the small pang of jealousy he held in his stomach—something he'd gotten used to over the past several months despite never having felt it before meeting Bakugou. He was happy for his friends—seriously happy—and before, that's all he'd felt for them. Nowadays it seemed his mind had gotten into this awful (yet somehow wonderful) habit of picturing himself the way they were, and wanting the, er, Jirou to his Kami, for lack of a better way of putting it, to be only one specific person.
"Looks like you're not the only one who didn't grow up on kids' movies, huh, Bakugou?" Mina pointed out.
The still-sleepy Bakugou looked up at her from his phone. "Yeah, whatever," he grumbled, clearly not in the mood.
In light of the dwindling, fading holiday spirit, Kaminari suggested The Nightmare Before Christmas first and immediately popped it into his laptop the second it was revealed that Jirou was the only one who hadn't seen it all the way through.
"Even I have seen that shit," Bakugou had muttered, barely looking up from his phone.
"At least she's seen The Iron Giant," Mina pointed out.
Bakugou ignored her.
Not halfway through the movie, Kirishima decided snacks were a thing they definitely needed (ignoring the fact that they'd just eaten breakfast). It took little convincing to get Bakugou to go along with him, especially after he offered to make coffee.
"Fuck, I'm tired," Bakugou grumbled as they were headed toward the lounge (that was clearly crowded and noisy, even from halfway down the hall).
"What time did you even get to sleep, man?"
"Dunno. Like three, maybe."
"And I thought my sleeping schedule got screwed up over breaks," Kirishima joked.
"Says the one who fell asleep before midnight on New Year's Eve."
"Hey, I had a perfectly valid excuse."
"...you're a moron," was all Bakugou could seem to think of to say. He was mid yawn when they snuck their way into the lounge kitchen and, much to their fortune, there was somehow still enough coffee left to make another pot. Bakugou tossed a bag of popcorn into one of the microwaves as Kirishima got the coffee started, and they scrounged up as many mini bags of chips as they could find—eight in total, that Bakugou somehow managed to fit into the pocket of his hoodie. "Great. Now I look fucking fat," he huffed while Kirishima didn't even bother to hold back his laughter at the protrusion.
"There's nothin' wrong with being fat, man," Kirishima told him.
"...be quiet."
⚜️
Somehow the six of them managed to power through four movies back to back, without Bakugou falling asleep. After his third cup of coffee (black coffee, at that; Kirishima spent a good ten minutes wondering how he could drink it without any sort of sweetener and not gag), he seemed to be back to his usual, awake, and slightly irritable self.
"Guuuys, let's take a break," Mina half sighed, half complained as she stretched her arms over the head during the credits of the fourth movie.
"Agreed. I can only take so many movies one after the other before they start to blur together," Sero said as he stood up. "Plus, I gotta piss." He tiptoed over the blankets and escaped into the bathroom.
"Maybe we should see if there are any board games available," Jirou suggested.
"Ugh. Can't we do something else for once?" Mina mumbled.
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
"I dunno," she sighed. "I wish it was warmer out. I wanna go swimming or something... or take a walk. I was cooped up inside cooking and baking with my dad all break."
"Uh... about that," Kaminari said, tugging the thick, navy blue curtain aside a bit and drawing everyone's attention to the gray light streaming in. On the other side of the window, delicate little snowflakes were steadily fluttering to the ground. Clearly it hadn't been snowing long, but long enough for the sidewalks to be wet.
"Gross," Bakugou said automatically.
"Aw man," Mina said, peering pitifully outside. "The world just loves to spite me."
"C'mon, Mina, what happened to your positive attitude?" Kirishima asked.
"It's the last day of break, am I not allowed to be in a bad mood?" she mumbled, flopping across her pillow and burying her head into her arms.
"Whoa, who turned on the snow?" Sero asked as he emerged from the bathroom.
"Satan," Bakugou answered.
"I thought Satan was all about fire and lava and stuff." Sero plopped back into his spot.
"How the fuck would you know? You met him?"
"Hm, touche."
"Oh shit, I think I have an idea on what we can do," Kaminari said suddenly. He twisted himself around and stretched over to pull his backpack from the other side of the bed.
"Are... you gonna elaborate on that?" Jirou asked as he wordlessly shuffled through it.
"Just a sec..." He yanked one zipper shut and another open. "Ah! Here it is." With a suspiciously sly grin, he pulled out a bright red box—a box of Pocky, to be specific.
"How is eating Pocky something to do?"
"Yeah, and I'm too full of popcorn as it is," Mina said.
"'S not for a snack. It's a game."
Five sets of incredulous eyes stared at him. "The fuck are you talking about?" Bakugou was the first to say.
"You guys have seriously never heard of the Pocky game?!"
"No?" Jirou said.
"Since when is Pocky a game?" Sero asked.
"Since, like, always. I think. I dunno when it was invented. So basically what you're supposed to do--"
"Oh my god!" Mina exclaimed, suddenly popping up like a jack-in-the-box. "I think I know it! It's where you basically kiss, right? After you eat the Pocky?"
"Huh?" Kirishima mumbled, somehow already feeling his throat constrict at the word kiss. He did not have a good feeling about this.
"Yeah, kinda," Kaminari said. "One person puts one end of the Pocky in their mouth and then the other player takes the other end, and they keep biting it until they meet in the middle. The first to pull away is the loser."
"...the fuck is this, some kind of middle schooler game?" Bakugou asked.
"Nah dude. Anyone can play it."
"No shit? That's not what I meant."
"Aw c'mon, dude. 'S pretty fun."
"Yeah, for people who are dating, like you and Jirou!" Mina's voice had jumped an octave. "None of the rest of us are, though."
"Actually I think it's more fun for people who aren't." It was impossible for Kirishima to miss the very pointed look his friend gave him when he said that, and his heart jumped straight into his throat. He knew right where Kaminari was going with this.
Oh shit.
"Me and Kyouka will do it anyway if you guys want," he said. "And then we can draw names or something to see who else does it."
"Nobody else agreed to this, though!"
Just when Kirishima thought Mina was coming to his rescue, Sero spoke up. "I dunno, I think it'd be kinda fun. I wanna see how ballsy you guys are."
"...no offense you guys, but I don't really... want to kiss anybody," Mina continued. "It's too personal."
"That's okay, Mina," Jirou spoke up—finally. She was Kirishima's last hope. "Denki's being an idiot, anyway."
"Hey! Does that mean you don't wanna do it?"
"I can kiss you whenever I want, you adorkable idiot. I don't need to use Pocky as an excuse."
"But it's fun," he complained, and again Kirishima didn't miss the way he nudged her knee with his hand. To anyone else it would've looked like a normal, everyday gesture, but Kirishima knew better. He knew Kami was trying to get Jirou to do it just so he could find a way to make him do it, too... but clearly not with Jirou.
It was hard to tell if she took the hint or not, though, when she took the Pocky from him and slid out one of the sticks. "Fine, but only because you're cute."
That earned her a big smile. Their little 'game' was over in seconds, and even Jirou's cheeks were a bit pinkened by having had an audience.
"Who's next?" Kami asked, holding up the box. His eyes landed directly on Kirishima, who hadn't found the will to say anything nearly the entire time. "Kiri?"
"Uh... I'm good, man," he managed to sputter.
"C'mon, bro, you're the only other one of us who's probably brave enough to do it," Sero jumped in.
"I dunno, I think Baku's pretty brave," Mina said. Clearly they'd all caught on. Kirishima wanted to crawl under the bed behind him and pretend he didn't exist.
"I don't need your shitty game to prove that, though," Bakugou muttered. He'd had his eyes on his phone for most of the time, but the screen was on the same page it'd been on when Kirishima had glanced over at it a few minutes ago.
"You guys should do it together, then," Kaminari said with that grin that was eating Kirishima alive. He held out the box, dangling it between his fingers.
Kirishima, ten out of ten, was going to get this jackass back for this no matter what the outcome! And he'd recruit Bakugou's help if he had to.
But right now he had to come up with a way out of this, and quick. He could just feel his deer-in-the-headlights look as he tried, tried so hard, to subtly shake his head at his friends. His heart—oh god, his heart felt like it was about to freaking explode!
But he couldn't tell if Kami and Sero were just ignoring his silent pleas to not make him do this, or if they really were just oblivious to his desperation. Either way, they didn't acknowledge him, and he just knew Kami was doing this because of the text conversation they had after bowling yesterday.
Kaminari had reminded him that he said he'd make a decision on what to do about his feelings for Bakugou after the break (like he'd forgotten—as if), and Kirishima—almost shamefully—admitted that he hadn't actually come to a conclusion yet.
>If you dont do something, i will ;)
>just gimme some more time, man
Kami hadn't responded after that, nor had either of them spoke of it since.
Was this him 'doing something'? Kirishima couldn't take it.
"C'mon guys, it's just a game! Don't be chicken," Kaminari said.
"I'm not a fucking chicken," Bakugou growled.
"Then do it!"
"Kami—" Kirishima began, nervously rubbing at the back of his neck at his hairline. He could hardly believe this was seriously happening; could hardly wrap his head around the fact that Kaminari was so adamant about his doing this silly, middle schooler game with Bakugou, and was freaking pressuring him into it!
"You know you'll do it if you're a man," Kaminari stated, reaching out further with the hand the box was in. That hit Kirishima right in the freaking ego, and he could physically feel himself shrinking back.
"Give me the damn box, you fucking prick," Bakugou growled, reaching out and snatching the little package from Kaminari's fingers.
"You guys don't really have to do this," Jirou reasoned.
"Yeah," Mina agreed.
"Hey, don't ruin the fun," Sero piped up.
"All of you just shut the fuck up. I'm not letting Pikachu call me a chicken and get away with it." He reached into the little bag and tugged out a stick, but because it was broken he took the liberty to chuck it right at Kaminari, who fumbled for it and then happily stuck it between his lips. When he grabbed a full one he tossed the box back onto the bed.
"Are... you sure about this, man?" Kirishima mumbled uneasily.
"Are you?" Bakugou shot back.
Everything within Kirishima screamed, yes!! But was he seriously ready for this? How far was Bakugou thinking they'd go? Kaminari already said the first to pull away was the loser; how proud was Bakugou that he'd go as far as it took to get Kirishima to pull away first? He'd already proven to be a pretty sore loser at most games... would this be just like that?
And shit... how proud was Kirishima?
Before he could even find some sort of resolve within himself, his mouth was suddenly saying, "Yeah, alright."
"Fine. Let's... get this over with," Bakugou muttered, and as soon as he placed the bare end of the pocky stick between his lips, it all suddenly became very real. Kirishima didn't know how the hell he would survive this.
He was so aware of everything! Of his friends surrounding him, their eyes fixated on him and the one they knew he'd had feelings for for months know. Of how his heart was thudding so noisily there was a whooshing of the blood rushing behind his ears. Of how his stomach was in a knot—an anxious, nervous, somehow slightly excited knot. And, most importantly, of Bakugou, just half a foot away from him with that stick of chocolate Pocky sticking out between his lips.
Kirishima was pretty sure this was going to cause his death, and all he could think of as he somehow managed to make himself latch onto the other end of the Pocky, was how he'd haunt Kaminari's ass for the rest of his life.
Crunch.
Bakugou was already moving. Was he even nervous? Did this not bother him at all? Was his pride really so important to him that he'd—
Crunch.
The flavor of chocolate filled Kirishima's mouth when his teeth broke into the stick. Bakugou wasn't pulling away. And somehow, neither was he.
Crunch.
What the hell was he supposed to do with the pieces of Pocky in his mouth if their lips touched?
Crunch.
Holy shit Bakugou was only a couple inches away now. His lips were right there, pierced and pink and soft.
Crunch.
Kirishima was sure he was about to go into cardiac arrest. There was only one little piece left, and then—
Crunch.
The last tiny piece of chocolate-covered Pocky slipped past Bakugou's lips as they molded right against Kirishima's. In that second he felt his heart stutter and literally skip a beat, and his mind went entirely blank.
He wanted to say he allowed himself to revel in the feeling of Bakugou's warm lips pressing into his, the piercings between them somehow only enhancing the experience rather than being in the way, and how he was able to just lose himself in the moment of his first freaking kiss with Bakugou! But he hadn't the time.
That instant where his heart had skipped a beat turned out to be the marker of time when he would later try to remember how long it lasted, because as soon as it stuttered into motion again Bakugou's head was jerking back and Kirishima's eyes were flying open before he'd even realized he'd closed them.
"Ha! Bakugou loses," Kaminari shouted.
"Ohh, I kinda wasn't expecting tha—"
Mina's words were cut off by Bakugou shooting to his feet and, without a single word, storming out of the room and slamming the door shut behind him and leaving silence in his wake. Where it'd been in his throat before, Kirishima's heart sunk way, way down into his stomach.
Bakugou
Holy fucking shit holy fucking shit holy fuckingshit holyfuckingshit!!!
The hallway was practically a blur to Bakugou as he strode down it, back toward room 416. Pieces of that shitty Pocky were still in his mouth, and a tingling sensation was still on his lips as he walked.
Did that shit really just fucking happen? Am I fucking dreaming? What the fuck is going on?
His mind was fucking racing and he had no damn way of knowing how to collect himself. When he made it to the end of the hall he practically burst through the door to his room and then kicked it shut behind him, having half the mind to twist the lock. Only Kirishima would be able to come in—not that he expected anyone else to walk right in on him.
Dumb Hair...
Kirishima.
Kiri-fucking-shima!
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
He liked that fucker. He liked him. Had some ridiculous, obnoxious, middle school fucking crush on his damn roommate. He liked that stupid, messy, barely even there "kiss" or whatever-the-fuck you wanted to call it. It'd been soft and warm and given him stupid, weird, awkward fucking butterflies and made his heart stutter like he needed a fucking pacemaker like some old asshole.
I have fucking feelings for that idiot! I'm fucking gay for him or someshit! What the fuck?!
It took every last little ounce of self-control Bakugou had not to start smacking things off tables and kicking whatever his feet could touch out of absolute frustration. His face was hot. His heart was pounding harder than ever. His stomach was in weird, fluttering knots and his knees were weak and jelly-like, but he kept pacing.
He had feelings for that beautiful bastard, and he wanted to fucking kiss him again. Jesus Christ, his lips had felt like a fucking dream—so impossibly smooth and warm, an absolutely perfect compliment to the flavor of chocolate; they felt like something he'd been waiting to experience his whole goddamn life.
And what the fuck did he do? He fucking yanked himself back like a moron, losing the stupid game fucking Pikachu pulled out of his ass. And yet for once he didn't give a fuck about the loss—he gave a fuck about the fact that he'd just practically kissed his damn roommate and then stormed out like a goddamn child!
At some point he must've swallowed the damn Pocky, because it was gone when he hissed, "How fucking stupid can you be, Katsuki?!" Swiping the stress ball from his night table, he hurled it at the wall and let the satisfying thud calm his nerves, if just a little.
While it felt like so many thoughts and unanswered questions were swarming around his mind like wasps, one giant question overshadowed them all—the answer to which he feared.
How the fuck was this going to affect his friendship with Kirishima?
Maybe if he'd stayed. Maybe if he'd just pulled himself back, sent Pikachu the best glare he could muster and said, "Happy?" this shit would be no big deal. But no, he had to storm off. Had to freak out the second he felt Kirishima's mouth meet his because of the unexpected warmth that'd spread throughout him. And in the midst of doing so, he probably hurt the little fucker's feelings. If it'd been the other way around and Kirishima was the one to storm off, he knew for a fact that he'd taken the hit straight to his ego.
Fuck, he was an idiot! He swiped the ball off the floor, backed up, and snapped his wrist forward so it hurled into the wall again. Just as it bounced to the floor, a knock sounded at the door and his heart jumped.
"Fuck off," he called, going for the ball again.
A familiar voice filtered through the door. "Bakugou?"
Shit. He did not expect Kirishima to follow him.
Retrieving the ball once more and taking a deep, grounding breath, he tugged the door open. "Forget your key?" he mumbled.
"Uh... no," Dumb Hair mumbled. "I just... wanted to be sure it was cool if I came in."
The little fucker looked... dejected. Embarrassed. Uneasy. His giant eyes were pools of liquid red, a slight crease set between his brow. His hair, hanging loosely and freely around his face and neck, was a bit disheveled and he held his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants, reserved.
"'S fine. It's your room, too..." Bakugou moved back toward his bed, stopping only when his calves met the mattress. Despite giving him the room, Kirishima didn't enter.
"...maybe I should've given you a little more time, but uh... I just wanted to come apologize," Kirishima began slowly. Bakugou swore he felt it in his core when the other's eyes locked with his.
"Why the fuck are you sorry?" Bakugou plopped onto his bed, tossing the ball back and forth between his hands. "I'm the one who ran away like a fucking pussy."
"Yeah, um..." Kirishima's hand came up to rub at the back of his neck. "I guess I don't really blame you, though. You were kinda pressured into it..."
"So were you. But 's not like you couldn't have said no."
"I know." Dumb Hair swallowed and finally he stepped into the room, letting the door swing shut and pressing it closed with this back. "But you could've said no, too."
Frustratedly, Bakugou ran a hand through his hair and scratched at his scalp. "Yeah," was all he managed to say.
Silence fell over, and Bakugou knew he was just breathing in the awkwardness. Fucking say something, you idiot, he chided himself.
Kirishima, as usual, beat him to it. "Well... okay, hey. Can I just be honest for a sec?"
Bakugou gave a sharp, jerky nod.
"It... it wasn't bad. I mean, all things considered..." He trailed off like he wasn't sure of himself, like he wasn't sure of exactly what he was saying. "At least, I didn't think so."
Bakugou found himself nodding in agreement. "I didn't either," he mumbled.
Kirishima nodded, too, and for too damn long. "Uhm... a-are we good, then? Like... still friends?"
"Yeah," Bakugou told him. "'S no big deal, I guess."
Instantly Dumb Hair relaxed and some semblance of that smile—god, that fucking smile—returned, though it was a bit tainted by the uneasiness they both clearly still felt. "Cool. So, I honestly don't really wanna go back there... so you wanna go see if the lounge has cleared up a bit and play some Smash Bros or whatever?"
Bakugou's response was to toss his stress ball over his shoulder onto his bed and stand up. "Whatever," he mumbled.
To their fortune, the lounge had cleared out a bit because of dinner time and one of the smaller TVs was open. Wordlessly they set up the game and dove into the game, and Bakugou channeled all his frustration into it.
He honest-to-fuck didn't know what the fuck to do with this shitty new revelation. Didn't know how the fuck he was supposed to handle the feelings that'd suddenly come forth full force on him—feelings he knew he'd been suppressing for months. Was he fucking gay? But he still liked to look at girls... sometimes. There were sexualities other than gay and straight, right? But shit—the only guy he'd ever fucking fallen for was the red-haired asshole next to him. But shit—was Kirishima the only one he'd ever fallen for? Sure, he liked to look at people in the past, but he'd never... felt like this. So warm inside, like his insides were vibrating simply in Dumb Hair's presence, like he could melt into a puddle on the floor from just a simple look from the idiot.
He didn't fucking know. What he did know, however, was that he was starting to make himself dizzy from thinking about it too damn much. There was so fucking much to consider and no answers to any of the questions.
All he could do was hope (in vain) that he'd somehow manage to suppress the feelings again before they fucked him over in the end.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top