Chapter Text
“I… give up.”
The bird-headed teen’s voice came out soft and defeated. His head felt heavy and it wasn’t just due to his swift defeat at the explosive boy currently straddling him, sweaty palm clamped down firmly across his beak. He had really given it his all; him and Dark Shadow both, but Bakugou and their explosive quirk were simply too much for them. They were a poor matchup, but it wasn’t the defeat at Bakugou’s hands that made him dizzy, his muscles weak and his voice croak, however.
It was their scent.
That sweet, sultry smell of Bakugou’s nitroglycerin sweat. That oily secretion that powered his explosive quirk and smelled like burnt sugar.
Bakugou smelled like delicious toffee, and Tokoyami knew he was thoroughly and royally fucked the first time he caught a whiff of it. That first time in the locker room where the delectable sight of a sweaty shirt being thrown off to reveal rippling muscles and that first whiff of that strange sweet smell had caused a gay panic of massive proportions. Dark Shadow couldn't stop laughing and had teased the poor teen all throughout that first week.
And now, towards the end of the sports festival match, that smell had become an overwhelming force. With the other’s sweaty palm clasped firmly across his beak, covering his nostrils, there was simply no escaping it. Tokoyami felt his heart pound in his chest. His head felt heavy. He almost couldn’t breathe. It was as if he had had wandered straight into an opium den.
If he was anything like the boy currently on top of him he’d opt to keep fighting to the bitter end, even with his quirk effectively nullified. Bakugou would never have given up so readily. But Tokoyami wasn’t Bakugou, and the last thing he wanted at that moment was for the other to notice just how hot and bothered their proximity made him feel.
“I… give up.” he repeated softly.
“Tch!” Came the other’s response. “So soon? But we’re only getting started.” Bakugou’s voice was low and sultry. His lips were curled into an excited smile. The bird-headed teen’s face feathers began puffing up as he realised the other boy had just snuck their free hand up towards their neck, fingers wrapping around the red ribbons of their neck choker. He let out a soft chirp as Bakugou began pulling it off of him.
Tokoyami awoke with a gasp and squinted his eyes against the dark purple hue of his nightlight. A quick glance at his phone showed that it was 05:14 in the morning. Too late to go back to sleep, he realized, and groaned as he slumped back down and let his ruffled head-feathers hit his pillow.
Inside of him, something stirred, and the familiar, purple hued form of his ‘twin’ appeared above him, glancing down with a concerned look on their shadowy features.
A look which turned into mirthful bemusement as the bird-headed teen shot him a look that said: ‘Not. A. Damn. Word.’
“Oooh! THAT dream again huh?” the shadow entity purred.
Having grown up with what was basically a perpetually present younger sibling had had its advantages during those early formative years, when the other kids would shun him due to his ‘evil’ quirk, or his strange, unhuman features. Right at that moment, though, Tokoyami wished that they had been actual twins with separate bodies. He also wished that Dark Shadow wasn’t so damn chipper and active in the early morning, but unfortunately, he could have neither of those things.
Muttering under his breath, the teen rolled himself out of his bed and headed into the shower.
“Why don’t you just tell him how you feel?” Dark Shadow asked.
Tokoyami shot him a glare across the rim of his coffee cup. A similar look he had given the shadow entity earlier. Unfortunately for Tokoyami, Dark Shadow was either oblivious to glares or was feeling energetic enough in these early waking hours to simply ignore them.
“Just do it already. What’s the worst that could happen?” he continued. “Seriously. Go meet him after class and tell them you have the hots for them.”
Tokoyami wrapped his beak around the straw in his cup, and swallowed down a gulp of his Elixir of Awakening. Then he let out a deep sigh. “We’ve been over this. Not. Happening. And I do not have ‘the hots’ for him!”
“You sure? You seemed pretty hot and bothered this morning.” Dark Shadow intoned playfully.
“It’s not…”
“And it’s not like you haven’t had those kinds of dreams before…”
“Dark Shadow…”
“You’ve been unable to stop staring at him from the moment you met them…”
“So what? He’s a good looking guy, I’m sure lots of people stare at him.”
“Oho!?” the shadow smirked triumphantly. “Good looking, is he? Good looking enough to haunt your dreams and make you wake up with a raging…”
Tokoyami slammed his coffee cup down onto the common area’s kitchen table as his facial feathers puffed up in heated embarrassment. “Dark Shadow!” he hissed, a lot more loudly than he probably should at 05:43 in the morning. He looked around to make sure nobody was around to hear that. Thankfully, they were alone.
“You know it’s true. Why can’t you just admit it?”
“Fine!” he hissed, knuckles tightening around his cup. “I yield. I confess. Cupid engraved the name Bakugou onto their arrow and it hath struck me straight in the heart. I am hopelessly, disastrously and tragically in love with him. I, Fumikage Tokoyami, have a crush on Katsuki Bakugou. There. You happy now?”
Dark Shadow gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“It’s not me you should be confessing to, Fumi.” Dark Shadow intoned mirthfully. “I’ve known from the moment you laid eyes on them.”
Ten minutes into the lecture and Bakugou had already given up trying to pay attention. Even on his best days, having to listen to the screeching parrot known as Present Mic was a sure recipe for tinnitus. Which was to say, insufferable on the best of days, and on the worst of days, unbearable.
Today Present Mic was particularly unbearable. He was prancing around the front of the classroom like a peacock strutting their feathers and went on and on about “Marketable style baby, yeah!?”
What a fucking joke. Bakugou thought. Class 1-A consisted of nothing but fucking chuunis colourful individuals who would have a lot more trouble NOT being recognisable or standing out. With maybe a couple of exceptions, one of whom Bakugou was giving a sideways glance to across his shoulder.
That goth with the bird head, Tokoyami, had been on his mind since early that morning when he had, accidentally of course, walked in on that gem of a conversation the other boy had been having with his quirk.
“I, Fumikage Tokoyami, have a crush on Katsuki Bakugou. There. You happy now?”
At first he had wondered if he had simply misheard, it was super early in the morning after all. And though he was by no means lazy, Bakugou wasn’t exactly a morning person. The only reason he had been standing in the doorway of the common area was because Kirishima had taken to awakening at the most awful hours to start the day with some ‘manly exercises’. Which involved a lot of grunting and other unpleasant noises which, in spite of his perfectly reasonable request to “Tone it the fuck down!” had resulted in him being up and about much earlier than he would have liked.
He had strolled into the common area for a bite to eat before classes started, but had ended going straight back up to his room after overhearing all of that.
Tokoyami had a crush on him.
Bird boy being gay was hardly surprising, of course. They weren’t exactly flaunting rainbow coloured accessories, but with their odd mannerisms, overly dramatic way of speaking and dress choice, there was no way they were completely straight. Then again, the same went for most of their class in one way or another.
Tokoyami being gay for - him - specifically, though? That was another matter entirely. Then again, he supposed that too was not too surprising. He was Katsuki Bakugou after all. The soon to be #1 hero. Of course fellow teenagers would develop idol crushes on him, and in this day and era that meant both girls - and - boys.
Still, it had been a bit surprising, if only because the idea of anyone thinking there was even a snowball’s chance in hell of him being interested in something as utterly ridiculous as a teenage crush was laughable. He was Katsuki Bakugou, he didn’t have time for cutesy shit like that. Not while there was still that #1 spot to claim.
If it had been anyone else he probably would have marched straight into the room and laughed in their face. Because really, even if he had ever entertained the idea of hooking up with anyone in this class, which he hadn’t ever, he could not see himself getting close with any of these losers. They’d soon be eating his dust anyway.
So why hadn’t he done that this morning? Because unlike a lot of his fellow students, Tokoyami fell into that rare and precious category of people Bakugou considered inoffensive. Which in his book, was as glowing an endorsement as anyone here would ever get. Tokoyami was quiet, left him alone, seemed strangely unfazed by his frequently vocalized ambitions and, perhaps most important of all, made absolutely no effort to contest his claims of being best in their class as well as the best damn hero there would ever be.
Not to mention, and again, this was a very rare thing for Bakugou to think about anyone indeed, bird boy wasn’t half bad himself. Sure, that emo thing he had going on was just plain awful, but he had placed third in the sports festival. Their fight had been quick, but only because they were an awful matchup. Bakugou had to admit that Tokoyami had fought bravely and had graciously accepted their defeat when it was over. He had also seen the power of their shadow quirk back at the summer camp where it had utterly wrecked a powerful villain even he and Todoroki, the winner and second best of the sports festival competition respectively, had been struggling with. Seeing Dark Shadow like that, in their unrestrained, rampant and destructive form, had admittedly excited him.
If only that quirk of his wasn’t so useless in the light. I wouldn’t mind going head to head against that kind of power sometime.
Then again, perhaps it was for the best that they hadn’t, considering the shitstorm that happened afterwards where he had ended up being kidnapped by the league.
Point being, unlike most of his other classmates, he could muster up a tiny hint of respect for the silent goth.
An excited screech from Present Mic derailed his train of thought, then brought it back on track with a firm case in point!
Why can’t that damn cockatoo be more like that raven boy?
He tried to envision a quiet, sullen and brooding Present Mic and shook his head. Never in a million years.
Present Mic had been yowling about something involving fashionista magazines and style trainers. Bakugou sighed and glanced at the clock. Still ten more minutes before lunch.
His eyes drew back towards the bird-headed teen behind him, who was sitting stoically and quietly as ever. Either they were really good at tuning out whatever frequency Mic’s voice was on, or they were genuinely paying attention. Looking at their almost serene face now, it was kind of hard to imagine how flustered they had looked earlier that morning. Bakugou found himself smirking slightly at the memory.
Still, flustered or not, bird boy was one of the least offensive people in his class, which is why he hadn’t simply butted into their conversation, and viciously killed any and all notion of him ever reciprocating such a ridiculous crush. Tokoyami deserved a little bit more dignity than that, he decided. Besides, cowardly was one way Bakugou wouldn’t describe them, considering their valiant efforts back at the Sports Festival. He’d come clean about his crush at some point, and Bakugou would have a polite, yet firm no ready for him.
Lunchtime had finally arrived, throwing Bakugou from one annoyingly noisy affair into another as the self-named ‘BakuSquad’ had taken to loudly focus their one shared brain cell on some new mobile phone game. One they insisted he should try too, but thankfully he had become quite adept at tuning them out when needed. Not that he was able to hear much anyway after that onslaught from Present Cockatoo. His ears still rang from their excited screeching.
As Kirishima discovered a new feature, which he had to show to Kaminari, of course, Bakugou was given a few minutes of solitude to eat his lunch in peace. Though once again, he found his attention drawn to the bird-headed boy seated on the far other side of the table. He was quietly conversing with his best friend Shouji while eating their lunch. Or, rather, trying to eat their lunch.
Watching Tokoyami try to tackle today’s noodle-based special turned out to be a surprisingly amusing delight to watch. It was a comedically sloppy and delightfully awkward affair that involved a lot of tilting their head far to the side as they attempted to lower the noodles, wrapped carefully around a pair of chopsticks, into their beak without spilling them over the side.
Their octo-limbed conversation partner clearly found the situation just as humorous as Bakugou did, since frequent annoyed glances were given to them by the bird boy in question. Often in response to something Shouji had said, and usually followed by a sympathetic pat on the shoulder from the taller of the two.
Man, what a sloppy eater. He can’t help it, of course, but damn if that isn’t hilarious to watch. Weird-ass beak face.
He took a bite from his own lunch as he let his mind wander.
I wonder how kissing them would even work. It’s probably possible. If they’re able to say stupid shit like ‘banquets of darkness’ they can probably curl their… mouth… beak… thing somehow. Looks kinda sharp though… Probably would have to be careful to avoid the edges, and he’d have to tilt his head like he’s doing now or else…
A firm slap to his shoulder slapped him back to reality prior to having Kirishima’s smartphone shoved into his face. “Oh my god, they have All Might themed character customisation! Check out this manly attire!”
The figure on screen, or rather, the way they were dressed was anything but manly, but Bakugou decided not to tell the redhead what he thought of the attire in question. One might think this was because even he wouldn’t have the heart to outright mock his arguably best friend, but anyone who knew them would know Bakugou usually had no qualms whatsoever doing just that.
Not this time though, because Bakugou was in too much of a daze wondering where the flying fuck that earlier train of thought had come from!
Tsukuyomi: …
Lies!
Deception!
Tentacole: Truth!
Tsukuyomi: Error et frustramen!
Tentacole: Tokoyami… I wouldn’t lie about this.
He was totally staring at you.
All throughout class…
Tsukuyomi: No.
Tentacole: And during lunch too.
He kept looking at you looking pensive.
Like
Out of character pensive. For him.
Tsukuyomi: I reject this observation.
Tentacole: Okay… why?
Tsukuyomi: Because
this is Bakugou we’re talking about.
I reject any and all notions that he’d have even an iota of interest in me.
Tentacole: … again… why?
Tsukuyomi: Because they’re Bakugou and I’m a nobody.
Meum nomen Nemo est.
Tentacole: So are we going to actually talk about this, or is this one of your ‘Woe is me!’ moods?
Because nobody likes a brooder.
Tsukuyomi: Harsh!
Tentacole: Hate to say it, but this Prince of Darkness thing? I get it’s your style, but try to look at the sunny side of things too?
Tsukuyomi: What is this dagger I see before me!?
Besides, the sun’s way too bright.
And its name is Bakugou.
And like Icarus, I’d burn if I were to get too close to it.
To him.
I’d rather my love be unrequited than risk being burned.
Tentacole: So that’s what this is? You’re afraid he’ll reject you?
Tsukuyomi: Reject me for the disaster I am.
Better to suffer in silence.
Tentacole: Or… and stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
Nothing ventured nothing gained?
Do you really prefer to keep suffering in uncertainty?
Because even if he does reject you, at least you’ll have gotten this off your chest?
Besides, from the way he was staring at you earlier I’d say there’s a pretty fair chance he’ll say yes.
Tsukuyomi: … He really was staring at me?
Tentacole: As I keep telling you…
Tsukuyomi: But why? What interest could he possibly have in me? Me, that tiny bump in the road on his way to winning the sports festival? Me, that weakling who let his quirk go out of control bad enough that he had to step in.
Oh Fates… he saw me trying to eat noodles during lunch then…
That’s it. I’m embracing the hermit life! Tell my family I love them.
Tentacole: Toko… again… I dig your darkness thing…
But…
As your classmate…
And your friend…
Please…
Just tell him how you feel!
Get this shit off your chest.
Think of how happy you’ll be if he says yes!
Tsukuyomi: That kind of happy coincidence only happens in shoujo manga.
…
But I’ll take it into consideration.
Tentacole: No.
You’ll tell him.
And if he ends up rejecting you, I’ll be here to comfort you.
I’ll make you an apple pie. :)
Tsukuyomi: …
Are you trying to bribe me into baring my soul and making an utter fool out of myself with… an apple pie?
What kind of bribe is that!?
Tentacole: Okay, okay!
Fair enough!
How about two apple pies? :>
Tsukuyomi: :-|
Tentacole: Okay, okay! Jokes aside…
Point is, you’ve got a lot to gain and little to lose.
And while I admit that it’ll suck if he ends up rejecting you…
A: you’ll at least have told him.
B: you have friends here to help you through it.
C: A and B won’t matter because he’ll probably say yes.
Tsukuyomi: So certain you are…
Tentacole: Yes.
Because he’d be a fool not to.
Because you’re brave. Heroic. Smart. Loyal.
And you have this cool dark poet thing going on.
Tsukuyomi: alskjfzlkfj
Wait!
Did you just admit to liking my dark aesthetic!?
Tentacole: If I say yes, will you ask him out?
:)
Tsukuyomi: *ennui intensifies!*
Tentacole: Please?
For your own peace of mind, if not for mine?
Tsukuyomi: Why are you and DS so invested in this?
Tentacole: Because we want you to be happy? That’s kind of what friends do? :>
Tsukuyomi: …
Fine…
I’ll bare my soul to the sun and pray to the Fates that I won’t get burned.
Tentacole: Atta boy! :D
When will you tell him?
Tsukuyomi: … Sometime?
Tentacole: >.<
Toko...
Tokoyami let out a heavy sigh and put his phone away.