𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔶

word count: 1627

At seven pm, after dinner, I'm hunched at my bedroom's desk, working on my math homework, when the old hag hollers, "Katsuki, there are three boys at the door for you!"

Three? I thump down the stairs quickly to see Kirishima and Dunce-face waiting in the doorway. Dunce-face grins lopsidedly and waves at me, then pulls his purple-haired boyfriend into view. I think the two of them are fucking joined at the hip now.

"You have friends over, Katsuki?" the old hag looks impressed.

"Shut up, of course I do," I snap. "And we're going out in a minute." I grab Kaminari's arm and drag him up the stairs, Kirishima and Shinso following behind. "Let's go, dumbasses," I mutter.

"Hope you don't mind that I brang Toshi," Dunce-face grins when we get up to my room.

Well, I fucking do mind because now I have to fill him in on what happened, but whatever.

"Bakugo, why is all your shit broken?" Shinso asks in a voice that tells me he couldn't actually care less.

"He has anger issues," Kaminari giggles.

I ignore the dig and say, "So, have you told Eyebags the situation?"

"Oh, yeah, he's all caught up."

"Fine. I heard Raccoon-eyes talking about what happened with Mineta—"

"Yeah, we know," Kirishima cuts in. "So, what's your plan to get Midoriya back?"

"I was getting to that, Broom head," I snap. "We're gonna get the video footage off the security cameras to prove what Icyhot set up."

"Dude, if they catch you, you'll get expelled," says Kirishima.

"To me, it's fucking worth it. If you wanna back down, go ahead."

"Nah, I'm totally in," Pikachu says.

Shinso nods his head in agreement.

We look to Kirishima.

He bites his lip. "Your determination is manly. I'll help you."

"Great," I say. Then, "Thanks."

"I don't even know you that well, Bakugo," Shinso says, "but I get the feeling you don't thank your friends very much."

I huff. "Yeah, whatever."

"Author-chan is giving him character development," Dunce-face whispers.

"What the fuck does that mean?" I demand.

"Face it, Bakugo, you're the main character," Kaminari says. "Midoriya is your love interest, Kirishima is the forgettable best friend, Todoroki is the antagonist, and I'm the comic relief. And everyone else is, as you always say—"

"Extras," I finish. That actually makes sense. "Huh."

Shinso snorts. "More like 'homosexual supporting cast'."

"There's no homosexual supporting cast when we're all fucking gay here," I say.

"Hey, should we talk later and focus on getting Midoriya back now?" Kirishima cuts in.

"Yeah. We're breaking in to the school to get the video footage," I state. "So..." I wander over to my closet, "Get dressed." I toss them tight-fitting black pants and shirts.

"Got a black face mask to finish the look?" Kirishima jokes.

I throw a knitted black cap at his chest and he catches it deftly. "Gotta cover up your shitty hair."

We get dressed. It's now almost eight pm.

I lead them out the front door of my house and then tell the old hag we're going to get McDonalds. She gives me a knowing smile. "Nice to see you going out with friends."

"Whatever, bitch."

Instead of taking the train, we walk to the school. It's completely dark outside the building.

"Ooh, I feel like I'm on a heist or something," Dunce-face whispers as we stand out the front of the school gate.

"Oi, oi, oi, focus," I reprimand.

Kirishima jiggles the bars of the gate and frowns. "The gate's locked. Of course."

"No shit," I roll my eyes. "Up and over, then."

"What—"

I'm already latched onto the gates and climbing up. When I get to the top, I swing over and land and both feet with agility.

The three of them stare at me from the other side of the gate.

"What're you fucking staring at? Hurry up!"

"Alrighty, then," Kirishima mutters and starts climbing.

Kaminari bites his thumbnail. "I dunno if I can do it."

"I'll give you a boost," Shinso grabs him by the waist and lifts him up to the top of the gate. Kaminari awkwardly jump-slides over the other side, landing on his ass. Shinso follows him in suit, but with a much more graceful descent.

"Okay, go go go," I shove Kirishima forward.

We tiptoe around the side of the school building and stop in front of the window to Principal Nezu's office.

I'm about to lift up the window, when Shinso warns me, "There's going to be security cameras in there"

"That's where you come in, Dunce-face," I say. "Use your quirk to fry the camera in the office."

"Oh, boy," he sighs. "We're gonna be in so much trouble." Still, when I slide the window up, he aims a bolt of electric shock into the room. It lights up the completely dark office momentarily. We hear a crackle and pop as the camera goes out.

"Yes!" Kirishima cheers at our success. I shush him.

We climb through the window. Then I turn to see Kaminari standing outside still.

He gives me a goofy thumbs up and crosses his eyes. "Yaaaayyyyy!" he slurs.

"Seriously? How much did he use his quirk?" I mutter. "Fucking dumbass."

"Leave him," Shinso says. "He'll recover in a minute."

I hate being told what to do, but I nod. I sneak over to the computer on Nezu's desk and turn flick it on at the power point. The noise it makes as it starts up seems deafeningly loud, and my whole body is alive with the adrenaline of sneaking around like this as I sit at the desk chair.

"Shit." I bang my fist on the desk. "It's password protected."

Shinso leans over my shoulder and wordlessly picks up the keyboard. Turning it over, he reveals a sticky note with what is presumably the password scribbled on it.

"Huh," I say, surprised.

"Being Aizawa's favourite student has its perks. Mainly, hanging out in the teachers' offices a lot," he explains.

Suddenly, Dunce-face vaults through the window and rolls onto the floor. He groans and clutches his foot. "That was supposed to be a cool stealth entrance!"

He's back from super-idiot mode to regular idiot. "Stealthy? The whole of fucking Japan heard you," I say, my tone snarky. I return my attention to the computer and key in the password. It opens.

Kirishima, Shinso, and Kaminari all lean over my shoulder simultaneously. Too close.

"Back up," I hiss. "Dunce-face, go keep outside the door"

He obeys, waltzing out the office door and whistling softly.

"Do you even know what you're looking for?" Shinso asks me.

"The damn old footage should be kept on here somewhere..." I mutter.

"Let me do it," he says.

I get up off the chair. "Be my guest," I growl.

His fingers fly over the keyboard and in an instant, he's pulled up a window with chronologically organised files. He's smart, I'll give him that. Not that I'd say it to his face.

"Do you remember the date?" he asks.

"Mid October... the 20th."

He nods and scrolls through the files rapidly.

"Wait, stop!" Kirishima points at the screen at a file labelled malegymlockerroom201020.mov.

"Great," Shinso double-clicks on the video and it shows our class getting ready for quirk training that day and chatting with each other. Fast-forwarding, Shinso cuts it to reveal on-screen me walking to my locker and getting changed out of my gym uniform. Soon, a pixellated Icyhot walks into the room.

"That's it," I say quickly. I don't want to relive it.

Thankfully, Shinso pauses the video. "Did you bring a flash drive?"

"Yeah." I pull one out of my pocket and hand it to him.

He plugs it in to the computer and starts downloading it.

"Um, guys?" Dunce-face calls. "Someone's coming. Oh, it's the janitor."

"Shit, shit!" I clench my fists. "Hurry up with that video!"

"I can't make it go any faster," Shinso tells me calmly.

I glance at the screen. 97% downloaded... 98%... 99%... it stops.

"Fuck!" I hiss. "Go, go, fucking go," I shove Kirishima and Kaminari over to the window.

Shinso stands up and ejects the flash drive. "It's done."

"Then hurry, idiot!" I push him in the direction of the others. The janitor appears in the doorway of the office. "Hey, stop, bandits!" he shouts as Shinso climbs out the window and I go last, slamming it shut behind me.

"RUN!" Kaminari screams, sprinting across the school grounds and bolting into a hedge.

The janitor opens up the window and screams after us to stop.

We race after Kaminari, jumping into the bush. It's dark inside, and leaves poke me annoyingly.

Kirishima bats a branch off his face. "That was close," he whispers.

"We're gonna be in so much shit tomorrow," Shinso says, his breath shaky.

"They might not know it was us?" Kaminari says hopefully. "After all, we were wearing these caps and everything..."

"Unlikely," I mutter. "An electrified security camera is pretty damn obvious. Also, our fingerprints are all over that keyboard.

Even in the dark, I can see Kirishima's eyes widen. "They'd take our fingerprints?!"

"We technically were breaking and entering," Kaminari whispers.

"There was no fucking 'breaking'," I snap.

"Oh, man, I don't wanna get expelled," Kaminari groans.

I can't reassure them and tell them it will be fine, because honestly, it might not be. I could have fucked up my entire future career as a hero for this tiny flash drive tucked in my pocket.

But, as we emerge from the bush and climb back over the fence safely, I know it will all be worth it, for Deku.