White Lies, Red Velvet

Fourteen

Kirishima woke up to his phone vibrating like crazy with notifications.
He opened his eyes, watching the device dance around the nightstand from the force of the vibrations.
He didn't feel Bakugou's heat beside him, which meant the blond had gotten up at some point without Kirishima noticing. That was going to make escaping harder. He could always make some lame excuse about needing to get to work and promising to return when he was done.
And then not return.
Ever.
But first, he picked up his phone to shut it up. Who the hell was texting him like this.
The messages turned out to be from all his friends, each of them telling him to look at the news.
He clicked on a link from Mina, one to a video from a trusted news source.
The news lady sat behind the desk like she owned it, looking straight at the camera with a serious face.
"As we all know," she started in that typical news lady voice, "heroes Chargebolt and Headphone Jack were married yesterday in a small ceremony."
So they just wanted him to see how the wedding made the news?
So they were just boasting?
Assholes.
"But,"
Wait...but???
"But there seems to be more love in the air leftover for the heroes. This morning, a photo from the wedding leaked, shocking the entire nation."
A photo appeared in the corner, one of Jiro and Kaminari enjoying cake together. It was a sweet photo. Kirishima was about to decide that the person who took the photo was a good photographer, until the photo zoomed in and Kirishima saw who was in the background.
"Oh fuck."
"Ground Zero, a hero who has been making the news since he was captured by a slime villain as a middle schooler, and rocking tabloids a few years ago with his outrageous behaviour, seems to have some affections for another hero, a lesser known sidekick of Fatgum, Red Riot."
Somebody had captured the tiny kiss on the cheek Bakugou had given him. Now his worst nightmare had come true. Everybody knew they were together.
Except they weren't together.
He decided to flip through the other news sources. Maybe there were doubts.
However...
"Considering Ground Zero's past and personality, there's really no doubt that this is a real kiss. He's not the affectionate type so this must mean something."
"He hasn't been seen around for the last week, not even as part of Best Jeanist's squad during that big bust a few days ago. Do you think he's been skipping work to be with his new boy toy?"
"Sources say that the two were in the same class in high school. Who knows how long this has been going on?"
"Nobody's really seen much of Red Riot's work since his debut six years ago. Maybe this is a publicity thing?"
"I, personally, think this is a PR stunt on Ground Zero's part. Maybe on both of their parts."
This whole thing was a disaster.
Kirishima wanted to curl up and die.