Caramel and Cinnamon

Chapter 4

It only took him about 40 minutes to finish the pre recorded sign language lesson, before he slammed his laptop shut and stood up. Stretching, he then walked towards his dresser and grabbed some dark gray shorts. He quickly changed, threw his running shoes on, and glanced out the door.
'Clear.'
He shoved his headphones back into his ears, cranking the volume on his music up, before jogging down the stairs. It took a bit longer than he thought it would, dodging anyone he knew, but he eventually found himself on the schools dirt track. He took off, enjoying the wind crashing on his skin as he took off, hoping that he would be able to tire himself out. Lap after lap, music blaring in his ears, he smirked to himself as he ran, pushing all his thoughts aside and just let himself be.
-
Bakugo was actually sore. He reluctantly took the elevator up, not fully trusting he could trust his legs on the stairs. Opening the dorm door, he peered inside, but he was alone.
'Must still be with raccoon eyes and the extras.'
But he was grateful. He took this as an opportunity to take a shower. Grabbing a towel from the bathroom cabinet, he then turned on the shower and locked the bathroom door. It didn't take long before the bathroom mirror was fogged, the entire bathroom radiating steam. He stripped down and got in, closing the curtain behind him as the hot water streamed down his body. He closed his eyes, leaning his head onto the shower wall, letting the water help relax his achy muscles. He stood there a bit longer before finally making himself wash off completely.
Finishing his shower, he turned the water off, grabbed his fresh white towel and began drying his hair. Once he felt it was towel dried enough, he haphazardly wrapped it around his waist and headed back out to the bedroom. The blonde then walked back over to his dresser, grabbing a fresh pair of red basketball shorts and a solid white v neck tshirt, when he noticed Kirishima standing in the doorway.

"Back already?" Bakugo asked, his eyes stopping on Kirishima's lips. He almost didn't notice the slight blush creeping on Kirishima's face as he spoke, he was so focused on his friends mouth. Kirishima forced an awkward chuckle, stepping around his still very naked friend and making his way to the bed, making sure to focus his gaze on anything but Bakugo.
"I just thought I'd see if you changed your mind yet, that's all. Unless you're sick of seeing me, haha." Kirishima forced another sad attempt of a laugh, but it was empty. He almost didn't want Bakugo to answer that. Joking in his usual explosive attitude or not, the last thing Kirishima wanted to hear was that his best friend thought he was annoying.

Bakugo, now dressed, tossed the towel in the bathroom hamper before shrugging his shoulders. "I guess I'll hang out with you losers for a while, but if you were serious about math, Hair for Brains, I'll be studying that crap tomorrow."
Kirishima beamed, turning around to head back out the door. "Alright man, thanks!"
Both boys took the elevator up to the new temporary common room, and while Bakugo was realized to see there weren't that many people there, he was still kind of shocked. "Hey! Too late to join?" Kirishima asked, sitting on the couch next to Mina and Kaminari. "Nah, I guess some of the class got permission to visit home or go out, I guess we can get permission slips or something from Aizawa-Sensei. Totally looking into it on Monday! We should plan a beach day trip or something!" Mina squealed, looking over at Kirishima. "The only games we have are Monopoly and Uno, so take your pick." Kaminari said, holding up the deck of cards in one hand. "I guess Uno!" Kirishima said, already sitting on the floor, a smile plastered to his face.
-
"Since when the hell can you stack plus fours?!" Bakugo almost whines, gritting his teeth. "Pick up 8, man!" Kaminari cackled, tossing the top 8 cards from the top of the deck at him. "Bullshit. I've never heard of that lame ass rule before." Mina snorted, placing down a reverse card. "Well here, now you can get him back!"
Bakugo paled, scanning the cards in his hand. No blues.
'How the hell do I still have no blues?!'
He picked up another card and Kirishima grinned, placing his last card down on the pile. "Ha! I win!" He fist bumped the air, grinning proudly. Bakugo, Mina and Kaminari tossed their cards onto the discard pile, sighing.
"Next match, let's make it interesting." Mina said, almost menacingly. The boys all turned to look at her, and Kirishima gulped.
"We play even after someone gets Uno. We play until there's one person left, ultimate loser. Winner gets to pick a dare for the loser." She announced triumphantly, shuffling the cards all back together.
"Can we make them streak down the hall?" Kaminari asked, wiggling his eyebrows at Mina. She rolled her eyes, distributing out the cards. "Wanna go grab Jiro real quick then, Kaminari?" She shot back, causing the electric blond to chuckle nervously. "Hah, what? No just, play."
The game started, everyone seemed pretty focused on their cards, watching each new card that was added to the pile intently.
Blue 5
Green 5
Green 8
The game went on for a while before Mina placed down another card, excitedly shouting "Uno!"
"Tch." Bakugo muttered quietly, his eyes scanning over his cards again. Kaminari placed a red reverse card down. "Uno!" He grinned over at Mina. She smirked an almost evil grin at him, before placing down a wild. "I win!"
Kirishima and Kaminari paled, Bakugo's nose flared.
"The color's green." She said, leaning back casually, watching the other boys.
The game continued.
Kirishima placed a card. Then Bakugo placed a plus four down. "Four for you, Pikachu." Kaminari groaned, picking up four more cards.
"Uno!" Kirishima said, happily, placing down another card. "Uno." Bakugo muttered right after, also placing another card down. Kaminari groaned again, placing a green 3 down. Kirishima didn't have a playable card, picking up another card as he sighed. Bakugo smirked, "Done. There. Whatever."
Now it was Kaminari versus Kirishima.
Kaminari was able to play most of his hand, but Kirishima didn't seem to have any playable cards. "Uno." Kaminari chimed, placing another card down. Kirishima exhaled sharply, clearly annoyed. He didn't have a playable card. Picking up another card, Kaminari put his last card down. "There! I win! Well, sorta! I didn't lose!" Kirishima groaned, collecting all the cards, but then smiled. "Alright, alright. It's not manly to be a sore loser. I accept my fate." He said, dramatically holding his hand up to his forehead like he was going to faint. Mina snorted, taking the collected cards and putting them back in their box before tossing them in her backpack.
"You guys crack me up! Ok, ok, now the punishment!" She laughed, rubbing her hands together. Kirishima looked at her, almost pleading with her to not go over board.
'Come on, Mina. Don't make it super weird. Please.'
She's the only one he's told, after all. She could absolutely use that against him right now, claiming she was 'helping'.
She made eye contact with Kirishima, giving him a devilish grin. "You two have to hold hands all the way back to your dorm."
Kirishima squeezed his eyes shut, already feeling the heat creep up his ears.
'Mina, I'm gonna kill you.'
"I wasn't the last guy, why the hell'd you drag me into the punishment?" Bakugo snapped, getting up off the floor. "Rules are rules. That's what I pick. What's the matter, Blasty? Too scared?" Mina taunted, adjusting her bag over her shoulder and heading towards the elevator. Kaminari just chuckled, following behind her. Kirishima sighed, then forced a laugh. "I'll take a different punishm-" he froze. He glanced down at his hand, that was now holding Bakugo's. "I ain't no damn coward!" Bakugo huffed, dragging a very red faced Kirishima behind him. "Nuh uh, you two get the stairs." She winked, quickly pressing the button to close the elevator door in front of her.
"Oh hell no." Bakugo spat, getting ready to set off a small explosion. Kirishima reacted quickly, using his quirk. But nothing happened. He glanced over at the blonde, who never set off his quirk. Kirishima relaxed, reverting back to his usual unquirked self. "The stairs then?" Kirishima asked, his voice uneven. Bakugo rolled his eyes. "Guess so."
Kirishima tried to steady his heart beat, more than happy to hold Bakugo's hand. He felt bold for a moment, intertwining their fingers as they walked up the stairs. Bakugo didn't seem to notice, or if he did, didn't seem to care.
'So warm.' Kirishima thought, walking along side Bakugo, keeping his steps in sync with the blonde's. Despite Bakugo's legs being sore from his run, he kept up a good pace, trying his best not to be overly competitive with Kirishima.

They didn't run into anyone, but they did notice Kaminari eyeing them before quickly locking himself in his dorm down the hall from them.
As soon as they got to their dorm, Kirishima dropped his hand, and Bakugo shoved his hands back into his pockets, closing the door behind him with his foot. "Sorry about that." Kirishima said quietly. Bakugo shrugged. "I'm no coward."
Kirishima smiled at him, fixing his gaze on the almost blinding window. "Wanna help me hang my curtains so we aren't blinded in the mornings?" Kirishima asked, grabbing the solid black curtains from one of the last few boxes that remained in the corner of the room. Kirishima looked back over his shoulder at Bakugo. "Hmm?" Bakugo watched Kirishima's lips move, before nodding once. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
Kirishima bit the inside of his cheek, concerned. He paused for a moment, debating on asking him if there was something truly going on, but then swallowed his words. He didn't want to push his luck, especially with everything that had happened.
'Don't push your luck.' Kirishima thought to himself, shaking away the thought. He kept quiet as they worked together to install the curtain rod, and tried his best not to laugh too much at a very frustrated Bakugo when he couldn't get the curtains to fit on said curtain rod.
After everything was set up, Kirishima finished unloading the last couple of his boxes of personal items from his previous bedroom, Bakugo sprawled out on his side of the bed.
"What in the actual hell is that?" Bakugo asked, eying his roommate curiously. Kirishima laughed, holding out a small beige hedgehog plush. "This is Spike!" He beamed proudly, waving the plushie in front of Bakugo. "Won him in a carnival game like, I don't know, last year? I thought he was cute." Bakugo scoffed, closing his eyes. Oh yeah, that's so manly." He leaned back against the headboard, arms behind his neck. Kirishima pouted. "Spike is super manly! I'm manly enough to admit I have cute plushies! No shame!" Kirishima blushed, feeling slightly defensive. He held up the plush so it almost blocked his view of Bakugo, the hedgehog almost matching the blonde spiked, wild hair.
Bakugo opened an eye, watching Kirishima before scoffing once more. "Whatever. You're weird."
Kirishima stuck his tongue out at Bakugo before placing Spike on a corner of their desk.
-
The rest of the afternoon played out like normal, the boys finished some finishing touches on their new shared space, even plugging in Kirishima's Bluetooth speaker. The pair had eventually gone upstairs and had dinner with the rest of the students, and it wasn't long before they found themselves back in their bedroom.
The following day was almost no different, Kirishima making sure that he reminded Bakugo that he promised to study with him, doing laundry etc. Trying their best to focus on anything other than the fact that the next day was Monday, meaning back to classes they went. Bakugo squeezed his eyes shut as he rolled over, trying to get comfortable on his side of the bed.

'It's going to be even harder to hide my stupid classes during the week now.' He exhaled.
'I'll just find somewhere to study where I can't get caught, I guess.'

Meanwhile, Kirishima was tucked away over on the other side of the bed, his back to Bakugo, as he tried to think of anything other than the butterflies that seemed to be festering in his stomach. He was still wracking his brain trying to figure out what was going on with his best friend, but also, not wanting to over pry or over step and ruin what foundation of friendship they had starting building since arriving at UA. The very last Kirishima wanted to do, was lose Bakugo.