BakuSero or alternatively, NitroTape
Basically, like, Hanahaki disease except instead of unrequited love it's just repressed emotions, right? Makes more sense and fills in some questions I have always had about how that works. Anyways.
So Katsuki Bakugou, Mr I do not feel shit and will make you die for assuming that I do, has some feeeelings. And at first when he finds a petal he tells himself its fine, he's handled worse, he'll get the fuck over it.
Obviously, that doesn't happen. It gets worse. He's coughing up petals in class and pocketing them, smearing the blood on his black pants. He claims it's his quirk's smoke getting to him; he claims that his yelling is fucking up his throat and no he will not stop yelling, fuck you for asking.
But eventually, likely via Mina, word gets out that he's coughing up a shit ton of petals. Thats when the rumours start.
The immediate assumptions are that he's infatuated with Kirishima or Izuku. Theres bets between the classes of which it is, some people throwing in the odd bet that it's even Todoroki. For weeks Bakugou has to endure constant chatter about how he HAS to like Kirishima, Izuku, or Todoroki. Obviously. Every single time the topic pops up he tells them to Shut The Fuck Up and Go Die.
In reality, Bakugou doesn't like anyone that people say he likes and really, it's pissing him off. He doesn't secretly have feelings for his closest friend, nor does he like the shitty nerd who's always made his life shit by existing; and who The Fuck thought he would like half and half?!
He makes the mistake though, to assume that it would eventually die down, or hell, stay as just annoying chatter. Soon enough people start trying to set him up with Kiri, Izu, and Todoroki. To get his Feelings out. No one even considers that he might like someone else.
This escalation from rumours to setting Bakugou up is driving him insane. He doesn't need all this Bullshit on top of his feelings, especially since he can barely grasp his feelings. The idea of liking someone repulses him. Yet Sero weasels into his thoughts anyways.
He tries to make it clear to everyone, his feelings aren't up for them to intervene in. So why then, does everyone feel the need to continue to stick their nose in his goddamn business. He's told them to stop, to fuck off, really in the only way that he's learned how to. He blows up. He finds himself blowing up more than ever; consequently causing flowers to be harsher; and now he really is ruining his throat by yelling.
He begins to resign, stops talking to people. Stops leaving his room much. Still, the chatter, the rumours, the set ups, the petals, they don't stop. So eventually, Bakugou rants to the only person who seems bearable. Or atleast.. who is not pushing him over the edge. Sero.
He rants about how goddamn pushy everyone is, how the idea of him liking any of these people is Absurd. Seriously, who came up with this shit? Ofcourse he conveniently leaves out who he does actually like, but thats unimportant. No, whats important is what kept Bakugou up the rest of that night.
When Bakugou was half yelling half hyperventilating In Sero's dorm room about how stupid it was that anyone would even want to be the sole focus of Bakugou's affection, because while he was the Absolute Best he most definitely wasn't soft or cute. He doesn't treat anyone in the class nicely, why would anyone assume then that he liked Kirishima, Izuku, or fucking Todoroki?
After all his ranting Sero did his best to respond, offer some comments, whether or not they were helpful Bakugou wouldn't know. In all honesty, Bakugou couldn't remember the rest of what Sero said at all. Not after the comment to top all comments.
"I can see why though, I mean, you are Objectively Hot."
Objectively Hot.
Sero considered Bakugou hot.
Sero's words ran through his head like a broken record. They wouldn't leave. He tried playing music but for some reason every song felt amplified by the idea of Sero. He didn't even have romance songs, but he swore every song felt romantic after his time with Sero.
So he tried to count sheep, it's a common way to fall asleep after all. The issue was that every time he tried to imagine sheep they all seemed to have Sero's face, telling him that he was hot. Obviously, sheep weren't helping.
He thought about going to someone's room, but every option seemed bleak. He could go to Kirishima, but with all the rumours going around he'd rather not feed into it. He considered Kaminari or Mina, but he cringed once he realized they would tell everyone. Technically. If he was careful and didn't talk about who it was, he could go back to Sero's room.. but that left too many chances for him to slip up and he wasn't ready for that. Not yet.
At that idea, he quickly felt a lump rising up his throat. He coughed up more petals. He wasn't ready for Sero to know, but the flowers didn't give him much room to argue. When would he be ready? He pushed that aside. He could think of it later. Because duh, when was Bakugou ever known for making good decisions about his feelings?
At the end of the day, he chose to take a shower and reorganize his room. The shower was mostly unproductive, his thoughts not giving him a break. He stood there for about two minutes, washing his face of blood and his body of sweat, before the fantasy of Sero with him and Sero's hands all over him cut that short. No more shower.
He opted to reorganize his room instead. There was nothing he could tie back to Sero this way. He started by cleaning the trash and reorganizing his desk. When that wasn't enough he moved his bed around and found some old boxes of shit. Couldn't hurt to look through it, maybe it'd have some good shit.
And oh. It had some good shit.
The first thing he pulled out was a stupid book of adventures that Mina had made, she left it in his room a couple months ago and he never gave it back. It was a little sappy, which was stupid, but he didn't want to give it back.
It had photos of all his friends, each page dedicated to certain hang outs. There were even souvenirs on some pages. Like a sticky note that said "Dunce face". It was from that time where Kaminari accidentally short-circuited himself and the dorms; effectively causing a UA power outage.
He flipped through the pages only to, coincidentally, land on a page dedicated to Sero. It was from the time that Sero proved himself to be a true nerd; making flower crowns with Mina and naming each of them without pause. He knew his shit, and to Bakugou, that makes him a goddamn nerd.
Obviously, he stared at that page longer than necessary. He spent equal time admiring Sero as he did the book pressed flower souvenirs, each with their names and meanings scribbled next to them in Sero's writing.
It's funny what little things we forget about that can cause the biggest changes.
After that night Bakugou promised to himself that he would tell Sero, no matter how cheesy he thought it was. He would buy all the flowers pressed in that book and make a bouquet. Ofcourse, as he was Bakugou, it wasn't just that easy.
Or, more accurately, Bakugou would convince himself every-time he passed a flower-shop that there was some reason that he couldn't do it that day. He couldn't do it when he was with his friends, obviously. And what if someone saw him buying them on his own? He couldn't have that either. He would wait for the perfect opportunity. Thats what he told himself.
The days went on and he still hadn't bought those damned flowers. He always made some excuse and rationalized not buying them, even when he left the house strictly to buy those flowers. Eventually though, the hanahaki got worse. As if to punish him for being weak, for being too cowardly to buy some goddamn flowers.
What was something he could kind of hide, cough into his hand and pocket the petals, became uncontrollable constant hacking. There was more and more petals as time went by. The worst part, the harder his symptoms became to manage the more everyone pushed for him to be with Kirishima or Izuku. By this point the bet of it being Todoroki had died down, but really, it was just replaced tenfold by Kirishima and Izuku.
There was one day though, that Bakugou couldn't even get out of bed for his first class, he was stuck on the floor, face in a damned trash can full of bloody petals. Ofcourse, this was directly after the date that Mina and Hagekure (of all people!) forced him to go on with Kirishima. It was awkward. It was stupid. But most of all, he couldn't stop thinking of it being him and Sero instead.
He then promptly missed the rest of his classes. Again. That was that. He had finally made his decision. He was going to buy those flowers and Sero was going to fucking like them. So he begrudgingly grabbed the book and walked to that damn flower store. He would show the whole stupid class who he liked. He would give the damn flowers to Sero and everyone would get off his fucking back.
So, missing second period, he forced himself off to a flower store; one not too far from campus. Really, Bakugou could have done this afterschool, or any day at all, but if he had waited any longer he probably wouldn't have done it.
He walks in, coughing up a storm of floral mess; as if he was the flower shop itself. He grumbles out what flowers he wants but. Ofcourse. The shopkeeper gawks at him. The petals spewing from his lips, his unintangible wheezes barely forming words, he was a right fucking mess. Surely a sight to behold. Bakugou glares at the shopkeeper, as if they were the sole reason for his predicament. They dont suddenly understand him though. So he opens the book, something that, at this point, felt quite personal to him; and he aggressively points to each flower individually. He pays with card.
He got his damn flowers. He was going to fucking do this. He had to. Maybe. His anxiety sure didn't make it easy. Hell, he didn't know if he could even admit it aloud to himself; how did he fucking expect to say it to Sero? Fuck he was a mess.
To make matters worse, when he was nearly back to campus his old hag called him. He debated ignoring her, as he hadn't told her about the stupid flower disease and his current state certainly wasn't pleasant.. The coughing and shit was not a good look on him. He knew she would scold him if she knew how weak he was for having the disease in the first place. Despite this, he pressed answer. Better to be yelled at than dead by her hands.
Mitsuki squealed through the phone and Bakugou was sure that he would go deaf before he even got to campus. He obviously, told her to shut the fuck up and asked what the Big Fucking Deal was. "Oh Im just so proud of you Katsuki!! My little boy is all grown up!" The fuck? He racked his brain for answers for her behaviour, but came up with nothing. She then squealed something that made Bakugou's blood run cold.
"Don't play dumb with me Katsuki, you bought a bouquet of flowers!! Who's the lucky girl? Hmmm?"
He payed with card. Mitsuki's card. She knew immediately what the fuck was up. Bakugou growled through the phone and told her, with hoarse voice and a lung full of flowers, that there was no girl. Not entirely false. He hung up.
With a sense of dread and nerves on fire, he made his way back towards the school. He bought the flowers. A beautiful bouquet blooming in his hand. There was no way to back out now.
Or atleast. He tried to convince himself of that. He could easily throw down the flowers. Return to school as if nothing ever happened. Endure the class talk. Forget the flowers. Get over Sero... Because he's done such a damn good job of that.
No. He was better than that. He was going to go through with this. He could survive a little bit of vulnerability. Hopefully.
Before he could doubt himself further or potentially spiral, the bell rang. The shrill was loud and it screamed into his ears. But worst of all, it commenced hell. Lunch crowd. It was lunchtime and he had a bouquet of beautiful flowers wrapped neatly in his palms and fuck.
He, Bakugou, had flowers in hand and his peers were about to be flooding the area.
And off he went. Heading in any direction he could find where students weren't. This was the worst idea. This was such a terrible mistake. He should have left the flowers far behind, he should have taken Mitsuki's call as a warning of whats to come. Surely he was an idiot. A moron. How could he, of all people, make such a devastating mistake.
Thankfully for Bakugou's sanity, he knew of a space with no prying eyes to view him. It was quite the trek to reach, but it was safe. So he stumbled through the directions of which he only vaguely recalled. Vaguely was good enough for him.
Between barely knowing the directions and adamantly avoiding every student or classmate who could possibly lay eyes on him, Bakugou almost got lost a multitude of times. Safe to say the journey took longer than necessary.
Despite this, he found his desired spot. A lone stretch of rooftop which one can reach from the inside if they know where to go.
In his lonesome, clinging to his poor bouquet of flowers and questioning each life decision that brought him to this very moment; he didn't notice a key fact. Something one might be foolish for not checking before sitting down.
The rooftop was not empty.
In fact. Bakugou's luck must've been 6 feet under, because Hanta Fucking Sero now stood in front of him. No malice on his part, but damn was he the last person Katsuki wanted to see. Not now. Not like this.
The two spent a long minute in silence, Bakugou frozen in a whirlwind of thoughts and Sero concerned for his dear friend.
Then. Then sero sits down with Bakugou. He takes Bakugou's palms in his; and he stays. He stays without knowing what is going on. He stays despite the attempts at dissuading or pushing him away. He stays long after the bell for class rings. He is there as long as Bakugou needs. And man is Katsuki thankful for it. Even if he could never admit it.
They don't speak about the flowers which were roughly shoved into Sero's lap, but they sit perfectly in a vase on his desk. They don't mention the soft words which were spoken between them or how Bakugou now eases whenever Sero is around. They don't acknowledge the gossip that continues on long after the petals stop appearing; or how the two spend most nights in the other's room.
Words were never spoken. But they know.
They know what they mean to eachother, and thats what matters most.
~
Moka
