Work Text:
Nobody could pinpoint when the argument got so heated. It was after joint training was finished for the day, and the two classes were milling about, chatting with one another about how the day had gone.
Monoma started it. He’d made some off-hand comment that most of Class 1-A had ignored, but Bakugou had taken personal offense to. That kicked off a rather spectacular fight, and things escalated before Aizawa had a chance to yell at the two of them to knock it off.
Honestly, the teacher was half tempted to just let the two of them fight. A vindictive part of him enjoyed watching Monoma’s face turn red as Bakugou proved both unwilling to back down and vicious in his own attacks. Still, he didn’t want it either of them getting physical so he’d been just about to open his mouth, and then-
Turned out violence wasn’t what he needed to worry about.
“Big words coming from the monster who caused All-Might’s downfall!”
Class 1-B collectively grimaced and cringed, as if the comment was just a bit off-color. Class 1-A went stock still. Even Bakugou was frozen in shock.
Aizawa was going to need to have a word with Vlad King when this was over. While he couldn’t do much about the media’s insistence on blaming a teenager for something he had no control over, at the very fucking least this awful bullshit shouldn’t be in their school, let alone in their damn heroics class. For fuck’s sake, Monoma had been there that night. He should know better. His entire damn class should know better.
Monoma took Bakugou’s silence as victory, and he doubled down with a smirk blooming across his face.
“You can talk big talk, but what did you do when it mattered?”
Bakugou was quiet for a long moment. Not just in his lack of words, but in his posture, in his demeanor. It was unsettling. Bakugou was never quiet. Not like this. Aizawa wanted to speak. He should speak, tell Monoma off, correct his awful, misinformed view. But something held his tongue.
It was Bakugou who spoke first, voice chillingly calm.
“You wanna know what I did, Copycat? I’ll fucking tell you what I did; I survived.”
Monoma took a step back, likely rethinking his words, but Bakugou didn’t allow him to retreat. That step back was matched with a step forward, red eyes blazing with an icy fury.
“I went up against six fully fledged villains, all C rank or higher, five of whom were fucking hand picked to capture me, and I survived. I fought all those motherfuckers on my own, and they didn’t manage to lay a single finger on me. Sure, I could hardly see straight because I was starving and dehydrated, not to mention sore from being chained to a fucking chair for two days, but I didn’t let that shit stop me. I didn’t have any help, I didn’t have anyone telling me what to do, and I knew if I fucked up, it was all over, but I fought anyways and I got my ass out of there.”
Hands clenched into fists, Bakugou took a step forward again, Monoma shrinking back.
“So yeah, I survived that shit. I escaped. All-Might fell, but that was not my fucking fault. I didn’t have my provisional license, I was a civilian. It wasn’t my job to protect him. My job was to get the fuck out of there so the pros could do their jobs, and that’s exactly what I did.”
The two were close now, but Aizawa didn’t move to intervene. Bakugou wasn’t about to throw a punch, and Monoma sure as hell wasn’t going to either. Besides, Monoma had no one to blame but himself for this. All eyes were on the two of them. Bakugou’s voice lowered further. Deep, solid, nearly a growl, but one that carried clearly to everyone else around them.
“I went up against the fucking League of Villains, and I came out alive, motherfucker. I’ve earned the right to talk shit. What have you done? What were you doing when the villains broke into the fucking training camp? How many kidnappings have you survived? Huh?”
Monoma wasn’t able to answer any of that, but they all knew that wasn’t why Bakugou asked those questions, so it hardly mattered.
“That’s what I fucking thought. Tell you what, why don’t you get kidnapped by the goddamn League of Villains and fight your way out? See how well that goes for you. If you’re not dead or a Nomu by the end of it, then you can talk shit all you want. But until then, do me a favor and shut the fuck up.”
Those last words were accompanied by a sneer, a visceral look of judgement and disgust that even Aizawa found impressive, before Bakugou glanced the now practically cowering and speechless Monoma up and down one last time, turned on his heel, and stalked away. The expression on his face was haughty, victorious, pissed and stubbornness all wrapped up into one as he passed by the rest of the group and vanished into the locker rooms.
Well.
That went about as well as Aizawa could’ve hoped for.
Clearing his throat, Aizawa caught the attention of the gathered students. Monoma was still in shock, shaking lightly as he tried to process what just happened. The rest of the students were varied in their emotions, from several members of 1-B looking downright horrified, to Midoriya’s shining eyes and viciously happy smirk. Hm. Aizawa wondered if this was the first time Monoma had gone after Bakugou about the kidnapping. It certainly must’ve been the first time he’d done it to his face. Though Aizawa supposed it was unimportant either way now. The other teenager had certainly learned his lesson.
“If all of you are done socializing, you should head back to the locker rooms and get yourselves cleaned up.”
Aizawa almost left it at that, he was almost a proper adult about things, letting them move on without comment.
But fuck it, Bakugou already dealt with way too much shit on this front, and Aizawa was more than happy to drive the damn point home. So he added on to his first statement after a beat, keeping his tone as even and serious as possible.
“I feel this should go without saying, but to be absolutely clear, none of you are to go get yourselves kidnapped by the League of Villains. I’d really rather not deal with a dead student this year.”
He turned away as he spoke, not needing to look to know they’d gotten the message. They could process the rest of this on their own time. Aizawa needed to have a chat with Vlad. And maybe All-Might. Bakugou had held his ground and refused to buy into that bullshit again, something Aizawa was proud of him for, but some reassurance from the former hero himself wouldn’t hurt.
If nothing else, Aizawa had a feeling Monoma would think twice before picking a fight with Bakugou in the future. Most of Class 1-B probably would too. From the looks on their faces, they were probably seeing Bakugou and the kidnapping in a whole new light.
Good. The kid had done the fucking impossible that day. Bakugou had been a 15 year old student with no license and less than a year of training, and he’d still held his own against more villains than most pro-heroes could’ve taken at once. It was about time he got the recognition he deserved for that.