To Stand by Your Side (DekuBaku)

Chapter 17: A Shakey Start

We kissed.

It was dark by the time Katsuki neared U.A.'s gates- cold, crisp, chilly air heavy even at the end of April. No clouds in the sky, not even so much as the subtle chirp of cicadas greet him.

We kissed.

Katsuki's hands lay heavy in his pockets, one curled close around his phone while the other fumbled with his school ID. It wasn't that there was anything wrong, not even that he was anxious. Everything right now was just a product of highway energy speeding down the streets and leaving only trembling legs and a racing heart in its wake.

We kissed.

It was a short walk to the dormitory once he got back on school grounds. Quiet, so quiet, illuminated only by a half-moon and the low glow of streetlamps lining the sidewalks. He'd never minded this time of night so much– really, it was something he eagerly anticipated. No one to disturb him, no one to comment or talk to him or tell him what to do.

Katsuki grabbed the doorknob, twisted it open, and stepped inside.

We—

"You're back late."

Dammit.

"You're up late, asshole." Katsuki grumbled, only for Todoroki to keep his eyes fixed on him. "Aren't you supposed to be getting your beauty sleep?"

"Bakugou, that was only funny the first time." Todoroki deadpanned, but with a second glance up and down Katsuki, raised an eyebrow. "What's up with you? Looks like you just won the lottery or something."

"Huh? No, dumbass." He scowled, realizing that he probably needed to escape this conversation as quickly as possible. "I'm going to sleep."

"So Valiant, then?"

Katsuki clenched his teeth and tried to keep from turning a stark red again. "'Course it was Valiant. I told you we were going training tonight, didn't I?"

"When you're training, you're usually back closer to seven rather than ten."

Why, you little-

"Oh my god, did I hear the 'V' word!?"

And from out of fucking nowhere, Camie appeared with a slightly confused but resigned Yaoyorozu in her wake. "Oh- oh my god, Baku." She started, some sort of god-awful realization rising up over her face. "Have you been out with him the whole time?"

"Where else would I have been?"

Camie took a step closer, eyes furrowed with some sort of determination and curiosity just before reaching up to grab Katsuki's face, tilting it up and down and side to side in what had to have been her form of investigation.

But, still.

"Camie, what the fuck-"

"Something's up with you." She inferred, and let go. "Hm... yeah. My room?"

Oh my god, I am not getting dragged into this.

Three minutes later, he had, in fact, been dragged into it.

Katsuki still wasn't quite sure how he wound up sat on Camie's desk chair, surrounded by his friends who graced him with nothing but inquisitive stares and curiosity. He felt something akin to a test subject- at this point, it wouldn't surprise him if Camie pulled out a clipboard and a pen and set to an interrogation on the spot.

Turns out, it was much more straightforward than that.

"So, you went to the beach to train."

"We always go to the beach to train."