𝔱𝔢𝔫

word count: 913

I take a seat in between Racoon Eyes, Kirishima, Soysauce, and Pikachu, who are shouting song lyrics at each other.

"My lonely-ness, is killing me," Mina sings. "I must confess, I still believe."

"Still believe!" Kaminari choruses off-key.

"When I'm not with you I lose my mind!" Kirishima chimes in.

"Give me a siiiiiign!!" Sero shouts.

"Shut the fuck up or I'll hit you—"

"BABY ONE MORE TIME!" they scream in my ear, collapsing into giggles,.

"Ugh, you idiots!" I yell. I fell right into that one.

The sports festival breezes past, with my half-watching the matches, while the dumbasses who call themselves my friends continue to annoy me. Deku gets his ass beat by Icyhot, who surprisingly uses his flames.

Finally, it's the top four. Me, Icyhot, Four Eyes, and Emo Bird.

"Good luck, Bakugo!" Mina yells at me as I take a stand against Tokoyami.

I realise I have absolutely no fucking idea how this guys quirk works... I'll just go for the kill.

"START!"

As I prepare a blast, a murky black shadow darts out of my opponent's body and tries to wind itself around me. I use an explosion to vault over the creature and land behind Tokoyami. I aim a series of small explosions to keep the shadow-bird away. With each blast, the shadow shrinks smaller and smaller...

His quirk's weakness is light, I realise. I channel the biggest blast that I can muster. "STUN... GRENADE!"

The brightness is blinding, and through the smoke I launch myself ontop of Tokoyami, pinning him down and grabbing his beak. His shadow is nowhere to be found after all that light that I blasted.

I smirk. "Checkmate."

"I... I give up."

"Fumikage Tokoyami gives up! Katsuki Bakugo moves onto the final round against Shoto Todoroki!"

Time to kill that Icyhot bastard.

"Bakugo, please head to prep room #1," an assistant tells me.

I stomp off down the corridors until I reach the area with several prep rooms. I use my foot to kick open the door to the first one without checking the number, because the first one should be fucking prep room #1, right?

Wrong. Icyhot sits at the table, scrolling on his phone.

"What the hell?" I demand. I stick my head back out the door. "Shit, this is room 2."

Half n Half stays silent.

I stomp over to him. "Giving your opponent the cold shoulder, huh?!" I yell.

Silence.

"Fucking answer me!" I shout, throwing an explosion at him."You'd better use your flames, hear me?!"

"What's Midoriya to you?" he asks suddenly.

"Huh? The fuck does it matter?!" I yell.

"Calm down," he says flatly.

"Well, what's shitty Deku to you?" I demand.

He meets my eyes with a cool, even gaze. "He is my boyfriend."

I can practically feel all my blood drain away. I... I kissed Deku, and he has a boyfriend? Oh, god, I've fucked everything up. Shit, shit, shit.

I kick over the table in anger, because I have no idea how to react any other way.

He stares at the upturned bench. "Jealous?"

"Like hell!" I lie. "You can be a stupid fucking nerd couple together! Fight me with all you've got, cause I'll beat your half-n-half ass like I do everything."

I storm out of the room. Fuck. I've completely ruined everything now.

—

Midoriya POV

Kacchan begins his battle with Todoroki-kun, his face full of anger, every attack fueled by rage. I'm watching with rapt attention, trying to take notes for beating them in future challenges, as they're both my strongest opponents... but my mind keeps wandering.

I can hardly believe that Kacchan... kissed me. It's surreal, I'm almost convinced that I imagined it.

Todoroki-kun shoots a wall of ice to block Kacchan's increasingly violent attacks.

"Use your flames, goddamnit!" he shouts at his opponent, vaulting over the top of the ice wall and sending another blast at Todoroki, pushing him dangerously close to the edge of the arena.

Todoroki shoots a blaze of fire from his hands, causing a collective gasp to rise from the crowd.

"That's more fucking like it, you bastard!" Kacchan yells, dodging underneath the flames. They manage to graze the very tips of his explosive hair and turn them to a black crisp. He aims another close-range blast, knocking Todoroki off his feet. Todoroki darts out his right arm to make an ice wall to protect him from falling out of the ring, but it backfires as his shoes slip on the ice as it melts from the fire. He falls backward, landing on a tier of ice.

"Get up, you bastard!" Kacchan screams.

"I—" Todoroki croaks, before going limp.

"We're not fucking done! It doesn't end here! It's not..." he collapses to the ground. "Deku."

My name leaves his lips as a whisper before he blacks out, only picked up by the mandatory microphones that the students must wear.

My fellow students sitting nearby turn their heads to stare at me, and I feel a blush rise on my neck.

"He must really hate you, huh?" Mineta observes.

Tsuyu slaps him across the face with her tongue. "Don't be dense, kero."

"Oww. What do you mean?" Mineta whines.

Tsuyu rolls her eyes. "It's something more tha—"

"Katsuki Bakugo wins!" Midnight shouts. The crowd applauds loudly, but I can imagine that the applause would be louder for someone who appealed to the audience better... someone nicer.