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During his three years at UA, Katsuki Bakugou had learned how to tune out all the annoying extras that chose to hang around him. He also knew it was risky to read a romance novel on his phone out in the open like this, but he figured everybody else was busy complaining about the work he had already finished and continued thumbing through his phone.
Just another normal Tuesday night.
“Ugh. Aizawa-sensei said we have to go through the entire Heroes Anthology by tonight,” Jirou grumbled as she walked into the common room, Sero jogging in after her.
“What?” Mina sat up from where she was painting Kirishima’s nails. “No way.”
“And he also said we might have a pop quiz on the first one hundred pros in the book tomorrow,” Sero added.
“So unmanly!” Kirishima declared, punching his fist into the air and earning a glare from Mina.
“That’s like if someone tested me on how many freckles Midoriya has. It’s impossible to know!” Denki said through a groan. The nails on his hands and feet were already painted a light blue.
Katsuki briefly looked up at that and mumbled out a response.
“348.”
The room went silent for a moment as all five heads turned towards him.
“What?” Sero asked.
Katsuki rolled his eyes and slightly lifted up his head. His eyes were still glued to his phone, however, reading over the final lines of the chapter.
Fuck.
Another damn cliffhanger.
“I said 348. Didn’t you extras hear me the first time?” Katsuki grumbled.
Ten pairs of eyes seemed to blink in shock at the same time.
“Bakubro… how do you know that?” Kirishima asked through a shark-toothed grin.
“Yeah, Bakugou,” Mina mirrored his smile, her eyes sparkling mischievously. She made her way over to Katsuki, hovering over his body with her hands over her hips.
“Please tell us.”
Katsuki furrowed his brow and finally looked up, his eyes narrowing slightly when he noticed her expression. He subtly shoved his phone back into his pocket and shrugged.
“I just… do, okay?”
Then, he turned around and noticed everyone had the same shit-eating grin plastered on their face.
“What?” Katsuki demanded. He was standing upright now, shifting his gaze to each person in the room. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”
Kaminari stifled a laugh with his mouth and Sero elbowed him in the ribs. Then, he cleared his throat and spoke, although it seemed like he was on the verge of losing it too.
“Approximately how much time have you spent staring at Midoriya’s face exactly, Bakugou?” Sero asked, raising both his brows.
Katsuki felt the tips of his ears go pink as he crossed his arms over his chest defensively. “Why are you acting like it’s fucking weird?! We’ve known each other since we were damn brats.”
Of course, it wasn’t fucking weird.
Right?
It’s not like he purposefully turned his head whenever Deku walked into the room or stopped to listen to the way he laughed, wondering what fucking thing Icy Hot could have said across the room that was so damn funny.
It’s not like his heart skipped a beat whenever their eyes finally met and Deku gave him that annoying ass smile of his.
He totally didn’t spend all of his time staring at his face whenever he fell asleep during their study times or in the locker room when Deku was focused on tying his annoying ass red shoes or when they bumped into each other in the early mornings, the green haired boy's face glistening with sweat from his run and beaming like the freaking sun because he was excited to call out his name and yell out Kacchan—
Shit.
Mina giggled into her palm and sat where Katsuki had been sitting. “We just think it’s cute that’s all, babe,” she winked.
“Cute?!” Katsuki asked, feeling the pink spread up and down his neck. He was suddenly very glad most of his shirts were mock necks.
As if things couldn’t get any more annoying than they already were, the damn nerd in question had to walk by. Kaminari saw him first and his eyes went wide, but it was Mina who ultimately called him over.
“Midoriyaaaaa,” her voice sing-songed as she bounded up from the couch and rushed over to the nerd's side. “Will you come over here for a second?”
Deku blinked. He had a toothbrush in one hand and a coffee mug in the other that read ‘All Might is #1’. Katsuki couldn’t help but roll his eyes and look away. He definitely didn’t do that just to avoid the messy, but cute way Deku's hair was arranged around his head. It definitely didn’t look good on him. Not in the slightest.
“Uh, yeah. Sure. What’s up, guys?” He gave everyone an awkward smile until his eyes locked on Katsuki and widened slightly. “H-hi Kacchan,” the nerd waved shyly, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.
“Tch,” Katsuki grumbled, still not turning around to face him. He didn’t trust himself to do so, the blush creeping up his face with every passing second.
“Stand over there, please,” Mina said.
There was some shuffling and when Katsuki opened his eyes again, Deku was standing a couple of feet in front of him.
“Um, like this?” he asked, eyes shifting all over the place.
Mina smirked and nodded. Katsuki was sure that if she wasn’t holding onto Deku’s shoulders, she would have been pulling out her phone and recording this shit.
“Now turn and look at Bakugou,” she maneuvered his body slightly so that Deku was fully facing Katsuki now.
Deku continued frantically looking around the room, eyes never fully landing on Katsuki even though they were so close now.
“Wait, guys what’s going on?” he asked, but his voice was drowned out by Kaminari who appeared next to Katsuki and put his arm around his shoulder, leaning against him slightly.
“Okay, Kacchan~,” he said smugly and Katsuki let out a low growl. “Here's your chance to prove it.”
Deku blinked and finally turned to look at Katsuki.
“Prove what?” he asked, cocking his head to the side and giving Katsuki the cutest-fucking expression he had ever seen.
The blonde clenched and unclenched his jaw before shoving Kaminari off.
“Tsk. Fine,” he flexed his jaw again and cracked his neck. “I fucking will.”
Deku furrowed his brows even more. “Wait, I’m confused—” but his voice was cut short as Katsuki approached and grabbed his chubby cheeks with his right hand.
He didn’t miss the way Deku sucked in a breath and went still. “Kacchan?!” he asked through a whisper. “What are you doing?”
The room went quiet again but Katsuki could see his friends shaking with laughter in the background. He rolled his eyes though and chose to focus on Deku instead. Only because he had a point to prove, of course.
“Just stay still and look at me, you damn nerd,” Katsuki muttered, relaxing his hold on Deku’s face.
“Okay,” the nerd breathed out, a deep blush appearing on his cheeks.
They stayed that way for a while and Katsuki, admittingly, got lost in Deku’s eyes. Every time he reached 100, he had to start counting all over again because the emerald shine was too distracting. Katsuki had never noticed it before, but Deku also had curly eyelashes. They contrasted nicely with the fluffiness of his brows and gave his face a different kind of softness Katsuki found himself appreciating.
If Kaminari hadn’t walked up and put his hand on his shoulder again, Katsuki could have sworn he would have started leaning in. Deku must have felt it too, his half-lidded eyes widening suddenly when the annoying blonde appeared.
“How’s it going over there, buddy? You almost done counting ‘em?”
Katsuki set his jaw. “Yeah, yeah. Shut it Duracell—” he stopped, however, when he noticed Sero passing Kaminari some yen. “And stop betting money! I fucking saw that Tape Arms.”
Upon hearing Deku’s quiet snicker though, Katsuki immediately turned to face him again.
“K-kacchan… are you,” the nerd shook his head, a goofy smile plastered on his face, “are you counting my freckles?”
Katsuki’s eyebrow twitched. He shoved his hands into his pockets and took a small step back. “Yeah. Guess I am. You got a problem with that, nerd?”
Deku immediately went red and quickly shook his head. “N-no. Not at all. I just… it’s cute. That’s all.”
“Oh, yeah?” Katsuki asked, quietly.
“Yeah,” Deku answered, his voice going quiet too as they continued staring into each other’s eyes.
“Wow. I literally said it was cute like ten minutes ago and he yelled at me,” Mina grumbled, somewhere on his left.
“Huh. We should’ve made him count Midoriya’s freckles ages ago.”
That was probably Jirou.
“It seems like the only thing that can keep him quiet.”
“Shut it, Headphones,” Katsuki said, giving them the finger as he continued scanning Deku’s face and the nerd continued watching his.
“And there he is,” Jirou sighed and Mina giggled.
Katsuki was almost done counting when he heard Kaminari and Sero mumbling about money again.
“Okay 200 more yen if they kiss,” the blonde whispered, sliding the money across the table. Sero didn’t even have a chance to answer as Katsuki broke eye contact with Deku and whirled around.
“That’s it,” he narrowed his gaze at the two, sparks appearing at his palms.
Kaminari and Sero turned to look at each other and gulped. “Shit,” they said at the same time, before taking off down the hallway, Katsuki hot on their heels.
Mina wasted no time in approaching Deku after that and peered closely into his face. The nerd flushed red again and tried to step away.
“Um, Ashido…”
“Okay but how many freckles do you actually have, Midoriya?” she asked while tapping her chin.
Deku seemed to relax slightly. “Hmm? Oh. 348, give or take a few. I had to count them for a project in middle school once."
This time the two girls turned to look at each other and grinned.
“Why?" he asked with a smile. "Was Kacchan right?”