The indelicacies of nitroglycerin (Todobaku/ Bakutodo)

Chapter 5.

True to his word, Kirishima brought his group over for lunch the next day.

Todoroki had honestly forgotten about it, sitting down with Uraraka and waiting for Iida and Midoriya to get their food and come, when Kirishima called out to them.

"Yo, Todoroki, Uraraka! Mind if we sit with you guys today?" Kirishima walked up to them with a bright grin and Uraraka glanced at Todoroki in surprise. Todoroki said nothing, leaving it up to Kirishima to not make this weird. Sero, Kaminari, Ashido and (a clearly reluctantly dragged over) Bakugou didn't seem bothered by this not so usual occurrence, but then again Class 3-A's Bakusquad was always spontaneous and (most of them) easygoing, after all.

"Oh, yeah, of course we don't mind. Mina, what's up?" Uraraka looked to Ashido for an explanation curiously as she shifted over to make room, and Todoroki did the same, trying not to look like he noticed when Kirishima casually pushed Bakugou down to sit beside him. It was pretty unnecessary, this whole thing, and he did his best not to let dry amusement slip onto his face. But at the same time it felt sort of nice, having someone help him. Even if he didn't need it.

"Ah I dunno, Kirishima just suggested we sit with some other people today. I think it's great, the more the merrier as they say!" Ashido replied sunnily and the group sat themselves down comfortably. Their class had always been pretty close with each other even if there were distinct groups, so it wasn't awkward as they chattered away. Todoroki took a glance at Bakugou viciously (and fruitlessly) stabbing his rice with chopsticks and snorted, eating his own food in silence and letting Bakugou vent whatever stress was bothering him now onto his rice. It was nice just having him sit there, really. Then Midoriya and Iida arrived and Bakugou's head snapped up like he'd scented prey.

"Hold up, no one said I had to eat with fucking Deku." Bakugou growled immediately and Midoriya flinched, stiff smile twitching on his face in that visibly on edge way.

"Oh hey, you guys! H-Hey Kacchan..." Midoriya greeted awkwardly, sending Todoroki a lightning fast glance. Todoroki offered his sympathies with a slightly warmer than usual blank stare, and Midoriya bit his lip. Midoriya and Bakugou weren't on actual bad terms anymore, they'd more or less come to an understanding a while ago when they'd had a rumoured, long overdue confrontation. He knew Midoriya didn't mind being around Bakugou, but Bakugou still treated him the same, like his responses were on autopilot out of familiarity. So on the surface, everything was the same as in their first year, minus the genuine fear from Midoriya's side. But this situation was somewhat Todoroki's fault, so he spoke up quietly, glad the rest of the group were still chatting and not paying him any attention.

"Don't cause a scene, Bakugou. We're just having lunch, he's not doing anything to you. Try be nice for once, who knows, you might like it." Todoroki drawled the last bit, calmly eating his food as he knew his apparent indifference would get more of a rise out of him. Bakugou shot up from his seat and sparked a rapidfire series of warning blasts in his palms.

"Oh? Since when were you my mother, Halfie?" Bakugou growled through gritted teeth, lips stretched back in that usual threatening smirk-snarl. He opened his mouth to issue some sort of challenge as always, probably, and Todoroki just picked up a large piece of steamed potato with his chopsticks and roughly jammed it into his mouth to shut him up.

"What the fuck-"

Todoroki ignored Bakugou's indignant screech as he choked on potato to gesture to Midoriya.

"Sit down while he's distracted." Todoroki spoke as if he was talking about a rabid wild animal, purposefully loud enough for Bakugou to hear. Midoriya stifled a giggle behind his hand and sat down with Iida, who (bless his good, kind soul) asked Bakugou if he was alright with genuine concern. Bakugou just hissed and spat incoherently at him.

"You find it funny, shitty nerd?" Bakugou snarled, banging his fist, sparking with the beginnings of explosions, down on the table, and Todoroki thought both the table and Midoriya didn't deserve the destruction that was sure to come. He tugged at Bakugou's sleeve to pull his hand off the table and stared back calmly at the blazing eyes that snapped over to him.

"Can you be a little nicer to Midoriya?" Todoroki asked very, very quietly so not to draw attention from others, wanting to keep it discreet and lowkey seeing as it was still somewhat a sensitive subject. Bakugou however, was the living antithesis of discreet and lowkey.

"Hah?! Your head broken, Iceberg? Why in the ever loving fuck would I be nicer to Deku?" Bakugou spat unnecessarily viciously, and Midoriya was frantically waving his hands at Todoroki as if to tell him to drop it, but this had been weighing on Todoroki's mind for a while now. He wasn't scared of confronting Bakugou about his shittier qualities. He very nearly wasn't able to hold back his instinctive response of "because you're better than this and you should really graduate from your complete garbage person status by now", but he didn't want to have this conversation, which would surely escalate, in front of everyone.

Instead, he went with a calm "Because he's my friend? I don't like you being mean to him." Which was also true.

"That doesn't mean jackshit to me." Bakugou sneered coldly, ripping his arm away from Todoroki's grip on his sleeve. Todoroki paused.

Well, he wasn't presumptuous enough to think Bakugou cared about his opinions just because they were a little closer now, but hearing him say it straight out like that... it still stung a little. He blinked, fingers twitching.

The silence was getting a little bit longer than was natural and he was trying to figure out what to say to pass this off, but Bakugou gave a frustrated growl, the conflicted scowl on his face looking... almost looking as if he regretted saying it.

"Fine, fine, I got it, I'll just ignore his fucking existence, alright? Don't look at me like that." Bakugou grumbled and slumped back in his seat, lip curled in ever present irritation. But he subtly nudged Todoroki's arm with the back of his hand, and Todoroki recognised the awkward, jerky movement as a clumsy apology. Todoroki almost cooed and melted at his feet at the endearing gesture. How many people on this planet could say they'd received an apology from Bakugou Katsuki? And this was the second time as well... And, both times had been because he'd noticed his words made Todoroki a little upset.

He couldn't resist a small, soft smile.

"Scratch that, don't look at me in general. This fucking pattern is getting familiar, Halfie." Bakugou growled with clear warning ringing in his tone, but Todoroki couldn't help but smile a little wider at the slight spot of colour in his cheeks.

Midoriya, Iida and Uraraka focused on their food with overly intense concentration, and the Bakusquad minus Bakugou exchanged glances with eyes that gleamed like they'd accidentally stumbled upon some unexpected treasure, but no one said a word.