Touch Therapy

Chapter 9

“Denki is avoiding me.”

Mina looked up from her sketch, her wide black eyes searching Kirishima’s face. They were sitting in class, books spread between them.

Usually Kirishima would be sitting with Bakugou in English, but today Yamada had decided to pair everyone up himself in order for them to write a poem. Mina had written down a whole of three words before giving up and beginning a drawing of Aizawa and Yamada, their features overly dramatized. For about fifteen minutes, Kirishima had been staring at his book, trying to come up with a poem, but his mind wasn’t cooperating; he had too many questions about his friend.

Mina didn’t respond straight away. Her eyes flickered across the room to where Kaminari was sitting, Uraraka at his side. Kaminari had a lazy grin on his face as he watched the girl writing out a poem, her hand flying across the page, his assistance clearly not needed.

“I noticed that too actually.” Mina finally said, looking back at Kirishima. Her expression was pouty, bottom lip jutted out and eyebrows furrowed.

Kirishima sighed, reaching a hand up to finger at the gelled spikes in his hair.

“I don’t know what I did wrong!” he whined, slumping forward into the palm of his hand.

Mina leant forward, patting his cheek comfortingly.

“He’s probably just jealous that you’ve been spending so much time with Bakugou!” she suggested, a thoughtful smile on her lips.

Kirishima groaned, dropping his head forward onto the table with a loud bang.

Mina giggled at that, switching so she was patting his upper back instead.

“You boys are such drama queens!” she snickered, and Kirishima could hear the grin in her voice, “Just talk to him!”

“I tried that already!” Kirishima exclaimed, sitting back up abruptly, “He just brushes me off!”

As he spoke, Kirishima turned to look over towards Kaminari. Kaminari was zoning out, eyes unfocused as he gazed out the window, expression neutral.

Kirishima felt a small smile appear on his lips before turning to face Mina again.

“You could talk to him!” he began, his smile growing as Mina’s eyes widened, “He’d talk to you! Come on, please?! You don’t want your boys to stop talking, do you?!”

Mina laughed, the good-natured sound bubbling out of her chest as she shook her head. She moved forward, yanking Kirishima into a one-armed hug, still giggling.

“Don’t use that against me you bully!” she chided, but from her tone alone Kirishima could tell he had already convinced her, “Like I said, he’s probably just sulking over Bakugou stealing his bro!”

Kirishima grinned at her, his lips pulling back over his teeth as he waited.

She stared at him for a moment longer before she sighed dramatically and slapped a hand against her own forehead.

“Fine! I’ll talk to him! Not guaranteeing anything though!”

Kirishima beamed at her.

~~~

Bakugou didn’t seem to have a huge issue with PDA.

This surprised Kirishima a lot, not that he was complaining. Bakugou only ever instigated affection when he thought no one was watching, but he never pushed Kirishima away or even complained when Kirishima hung off of him whenever he was within reaching distance.

Aizawa had told Kirishima off a couple times, telling him that school was not the place for such revolting behaviour, but the moment he looked away, Kirishima would immediately return to clinging to Bakugou.

Kirishima was doing just that when he spotted Mina dragging a reluctant Kaminari to the side of the room during their lunch break, her expression determined.

Kirishima had his head resting on Bakugou’s shoulder, a hand on his thigh, while Bakugou muttered quietly to himself whilst sketching more drafts for his hero costume.

Kirishima would never mention it to Bakugou; he valued his life and his new relationship with the other boy far too much; but his musing reminded him of how Midoriya sometimes would get lost in thought and do exactly that, just a bit louder.

Kirishima found himself smiling fondly, and tightened his fingers on Bakugou’s thigh, the smooth muscles twitching slightly under his hand. It wasn’t the time, Kirishima knew this, but he found himself wishing that he could slide his hand up a bit higher, just to see if Bakugou would stop him or allow him to venture into untouched territory.

The thought of Bakugou allowing him to touch him, maybe even encouraging it, sent a wave of heat shuddering through Kirishima’s body and he quickly moved his hand away, bringing it up to his own mouth to bite down on the tip of his thumb in an effort to distract himself.

His eyes moved back over to where Mina and Kaminari were. Mina’s mouth was hanging slightly open, hands on her own cheeks, as she watched Kaminari complaining about something with animated movements. She looked utterly baffled, and strangely sympathetic, as she listened to Kaminari.

Kaminari finished whatever it was he was saying and slumped into the wall, his shoulders dropping, and his hands shoved into his pockets. His head was hung, hair disguising his face.

Mina actually looked like she was tearing up, and she launched herself forward, her arms wrapping around the other boy and clinging to him.

After a few moments, Kaminari moved forward, wrapping his arms around her too and burying his face in the crook of her neck. His shoulders were visibly shaking, and her grip tightened around him, one hand patting his hair comfortingly.

A wave of guilt washed over Kirishima as he watched.

His bro seemed so upset, but Kirishima felt as though there was nothing he could do! Whatever it was, Kaminari clearly didn’t want to speak to him about it, so all he could do was sit and hope that Mina told him what it was, so he could find a way to fix it.

A sneaking suspicion told him that Mina wasn’t going to reveal what was said though, and Kirishima huffed quietly, moving his hand back onto Bakugou’s thigh and titling his face up to kiss Bakugou softly on the jaw.

Bakugou’s chin titled slightly, as if he was pushing into it, eyes dropping to peer down at Kirishima for a moment before he went back to his sketch.