Pantie Panic

Under Pressure

As expected, Bakugou was at breakfast, sitting quietly at the table in the kitchen with his coffee and a plate of food; he seemed to be more alert when Deku entered the kitchen with Mineta and Kirishima. He pushed his chair back and immediately walked over to the trio, but Kirishima seemed to automatically put himself between Bakugou and Deku, Mineta hesitantly doing the same, though he seemed to be quite nervous about standing in front of the most violent member of their class.

"Oi, what the hell?" Bakugou huffed, looking between the two. "Are you still hung up on what happened before? Deku already forgave me, you can back off."

"It's not about that," Kirishima said quietly. "As Deku's friend, I am doing my best to keep him safe when he feels unsafe."

Bakugou peered past the redhead, looking pointedly at Deku with a raised brow.

"You got a reason to feel unsafe around me or something?" he asked."If you feel unsafe around me, tell me directly instead of hiding behind Kirishima like a coward."

Deku flinched slightly at being addressed so boldly, but of course, that was how Bakugou was; blunt and honest to a fault.

"It's not...it's not that I feel unsafe around you...." Deku mumbled, avoiding Bakugou's eyes. "Yesterday, I...I don't know what came over me, and I was afraid that you might be angry about what I did."

"The only thing I'm angry about is that you made a half-assed attempt at kissing me and didn't even have the guts to go through with it- if you're going to do it, then do it right, you dumbass." Bakugou said flatly.

Kirishima's head whipped around so fast, Deku was almost sure that the redhead would have injured himself, but apparently, he seemed to be okay- at least physically. Red eyes stared at the freckled boy with a mix of emotions; the biggest was surprise, but there was also an undertone of hurt and even the tiniest bit of anger deep down as well.

"You kissed Bakugou?!" Kirishima exclaimed.

Deku met Kirishima's eyes without hesitation, but upon seeing the look in those ruby coloured irises, he felt uneasy somehow, like those eyes were expressing some sort of betrayal- there was no way he had done anything to betray Kirishima, right? As far as he knew, things were perfectly fine between him and Kirishima, so where was this coming from?

"W-well, not exactly...it wasn't an actual kiss." Deku replied quietly after a brief pause.

"There was an attempt," Bakugou muttered. "A really shitty one."

"Deku, do you like Bakugou?" Kirishima asked quietly.

"I....." Deku said softly. "I don't know- I don't know why I tried to kiss him yesterday, my head wasn't all there.....I don't know how to feel about anything, my brain is a pile of mush and I just- I don't know..."

Mineta could only listen to the conversation in confusion, wondering just what was going on with all of this. How deep was this rabbit hole Deku seemed to have gotten himself into? How many people had Deku kissed? Why did Kirishima seem so concerned about this? Mineta wanted to know what all of this was about, but he didn't want to say anything that could accidentally hurt Deku, especially since Deku had been so kind to him and promised to help him.

Kirishima seemed on edge for some reason, and the feeling was palpable, just hanging in the air like a thick blanket of fog; Deku didn't understand why that was, and the longer that feeling lingered, the more he felt like something was wrong, and he couldn't stand that feeling, but before he could say anything, someone else broke the silence.

"Kirishima, go." Bakugou said quietly.

The rocky hero turned to meet Bakugou's gaze hesitantly, but relaxed a little when he saw a glimmer of understanding in those eyes; Bakugou understood what was going on with him and was giving him an out. Nodding, he quickly headed out of the kitchen, passing Kaminari, Ashido, and Sero, who had silently witnessed the scene unfold from a slight distance.