opposites attract (but we're more than just that)

Chapter 5

The next week was one of the best in Shinsou's life.

He had improved drastically in training exercises, he finally had his own group of friends, consisting of Jiro, Tokoyami, Shoji and Sato, and the training sessions with Bakugo finally felt more fun than forced. Shinsou also enjoyed hurling insults and sarcastic quips at him all throughout the day, and watching him seethe in anger. At the beginning of the week, Shinsou had been quite tentative with his jabs, as he didn't want Bakugo to actually get mad at him and to ruin their friendship. I mean.. I think we're friends? You can't really tell when it comes to Bakugo. But after an early morning 'chat' during a spar, with a lot of almost broken bones, Bakugo had told him to 'Stop being being a fucking pansy,' and to, 'fucking go all out, I won't take anything less than your best.'

Despite Bakugo being very good with straightforward insults, Shinsou was the master of sarcasm, saying everything in a bored drawl that could irritate even the nicest, most patient of people. This caused a huge betting pool in their class - about the explosive rivalry between the new kid and Bakugo - which everyone thought was a secret from the both of them. Some people thought that Bakugo would be the one to finally scare Shinsou into submission, while others believed that Lord Explosion Murder would finally be put in his place. It was all very amusing. It felt weird tricking the whole class like that, but they needed the edge in the next test; even if Bakugo was a powerhouse, Shinsou lacked combat experience and a flashy fighting quirk. He wouldn't be able to help Bakugo in any two-on-two battles, so he would have to help from the side lines. If the class thought they hated each other, they wouldn't expect for Shinsou to be covering Bakugo from the shadows.

The hero strategy lectures they frequented had been quite informative, and they'd discussed a plan of action for many different outcomes of the test one evening while Bakugo sat in Shinsou's dorm room, after commenting on his bad decorating skills. Hanging out with Bakugo was oddly fun, their banter was on the next level, he'd never felt this free around someone before - it was so easy to just be himself. Neither of them held back in their insults, it helped that both of them hand extremely thick skin for things they knew meant nothing, even if Bakugo did get stroppy sometimes, he calmed down after a good morning fight. Bakugo would've definitely blown him up if he took the jabs seriously.

Shinsou had also discovered that hanging out with the class wasn't all bad, if it got too much for him to handle, they'd let him retreat up to his room for a while without any complaints. He had made a friend out of both Midoriya and Todoroki, as they had found they played quite well off of each during a rescue mission in class, and he occasionally sat at their table during lunch. Class-rep, who was also at their table, was pretty uptight, but Asui and Uraraka, the two girls they sat with, were pretty laid back, so they sort of cancelled each other out.

Over the week, Shinsou had collected about twenty new phone numbers, including the number of Kendo from class 1-B, who told him to contact her if Monoma ever bothered him. All in all, being in the hero course wasn't as hard on Shinsou mentally or socially as he had previously thought it would be.

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It was currently Friday night, and Shinsou was relaxing in his room. He had just had a shower, and his hair was damp and resting just above his shoulders. He had put on some grey jogging bottoms and a black hoodie, and a towel was hanging around his neck. His room was bathed in a soft yellow glow from the sunset streaming in through his window, with objects casting long shadows over the floor. He was curled up on the bed, which currently had a grey and black cat paw print pattern on it. His aunt had bought it for him on his last birthday, and he actually liked it a lot, though he would never tell anyone that.