Cheer The Jock Up! // KiriBaku

[ B e f o r e T h e D a n c e ]

[K i r i s h i m a ]

We were getting ready, despite the dance still being three hours away.
Kami texted me around noon asking if I could go to his dorm for a bit, and that he needed to talk with 'specifically me'.

He looks shocked when I get there... and asks for me to lock the door behind me when I get in.

"Dude...-- O-Okay, first, do you have time to talk? Or is Bakugo still saying you gotta rest--?"
"Nah, I got time. What's up?"

He tells me to sit down beside me on the bed, the proximity now lets me see how he's fidgeting with his fingers.

"Uhm... this is gonna be a little sudden, and... maybe too on-the-nose... but you're literally the only one I can find myself trusting with all of this... I know you're the only one who will understand it more..." he begins quietly. 

Yeah. 'Quietly'.
Something's up... he's never this quiet when he's talking. He looks a bit hesitant and upset too...
How? With the dance this near-- he was even more excited than I am about it...

"I... I know we all agreed to kinda leave that fight we got into in the past... but... if I don't bring it up now, what I'm trying to say probably won't make too much sense." He claims. "When... you accidentally came out to me, I got really upset... remember...?"

Oh.
Maybe I know where this is going.

My smile kind of fades. "Yeah... and I still am really sorry about... 'hiding it' for so long... but still, Kam, I was dropping so many hints about it...--"
"I- I know... I was just too dumb to pick up on them." He sighs. His hands are shaking a bit, he hasn't looked up into my eyes once this entire time. "I... was going through something at that time. And I still am. I've... been considering coming to talk to you or Sero about it ever since then... but it just makes more sense if I came to you,-"
"Makes me happy you trust me enough to come to talk to me." I shine him an encouraging smile.

He doesn't smile back. Or, at least I didn't see. His head is lowered.

"I... started noticing... that I'm questioning... something..."

He sounds so hesitant. He struggled way too much to get those words out...

"Yeah?" I ask softly. "It's alright, man... if you're going through what I'm thinking, then--"
"I- I may or may not be pansexual." He blurts. "B-...but I don't know... and... I- I wanna ask you... how... did you know.. you're gay..."

I'm sorry, I just can't--
I pull him into a hug.
He hugs me back but he does so uncertainly.

"I know it can be scary... and it's so damn annoying, to be wasting so much thought in one thing..." I claim. "But you're doing something I wish I'd done... spoken up about it... so I'm proud of you, bro."

We part, and there it is.
That brand smile he has.

He exhales a weak chuckle.

"S-...So I'm scared for no reason..." he whispers.
"Yes and no." I chuckle. "It's scary... just don't be scared to come talk to me! I'll always welcome you in, man."

He smiled at me again.

"I knew... when I started realized I didn't feel the way other guys felt in my class. They would always be talking about the girls... what they wore, how their hairs looked like,-- at one point they started talking about how this one kid hooked up with a girl, and he ended up getting the others to do the same-- and I remember him... so clearly... turning to me and asking when I would give it a shot too." I claim. "And I straight up told him, 'that's disgusting'."