Summary:Everyone's watching. Everyone's whispering. And now a new face is asking Izuku too many questions. Bakugou is reaching his limit—because hiding their relationship was supposed to protect it, but now? It's starting to tear at the seams.
U.A. – One Week Later
The whispers hadn't stopped since the warehouse mission.
Izuku heard them in the locker rooms. In the gym. In the halls between classes.
Kacchan's been different lately.
Midoriya's always looking over at him.
You think they're dating?
He tried to ignore it.
He really did.
But the pressure was building—and then he showed up.
Kai Yamada, top-ranked transfer from a private hero college in the States. Quirk: Gravity Pulse. Smiled too much. Asked too many questions.
And immediately took a seat beside Izuku in the main lecture hall.
"You're Izuku Midoriya, right?" he said brightly. "Heard a lot about you in America. Didn't realize the rumors were real."
Izuku blinked. "What rumors?"
"You're even hotter in person."
Izuku froze.
Kai leaned a little closer. "So, uh… any chance you're seeing someone?"
Before Izuku could answer, a voice behind him answered for him:
"He is."
Kai turned.
Bakugou stood at the end of the row, arms crossed, expression unreadable—but burning.
"Oh," Kai said, a little amused. "Didn't realize you were his boyfriend."
Bakugou's eyes narrowed. "Didn't say I was. Just said he's taken."
Kai raised an eyebrow but backed off with a casual shrug. "Noted."
Izuku's heart was pounding. He didn't say anything until they were out of class.
"Did you have to do that?" he asked, catching up to Bakugou in the courtyard.
Bakugou didn't stop walking. "He was flirting with you."
"I can handle flirting."
"Don't want you to."
Izuku grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop under one of the stone archways, where the trees blocked most of the view from the windows.
"I thought we agreed to keep things quiet," he said. "Until we were ready."
Bakugou turned toward him, jaw tight. "I was ready. You're the one who wanted to hide."
Izuku hesitated.
He remembered what it felt like in that hospital room. How scared he'd been that if people knew… it might ruin everything. The internships. The way the pros looked at them. Their place at the top.
But now?
Now he was starting to care a lot less about what anyone else thought.
He looked up at Bakugou. "What if I'm ready now?"
Bakugou searched his eyes, and the fire in his chest softened into something raw and real.
"Then stop looking at me like you're scared to touch me," he said. "Stop pretending like I'm just your rival."
Izuku stepped in close, one hand resting on Bakugou's chest. "You've never been just anything to me."
Bakugou's breath hitched.
"Say it, then," he whispered. "Say what I am to you."
Izuku's voice didn't shake when he said:
"You're mine."
A long pause.
Bakugou's lips curled into something that was almost a smile.
"Good."
Then he kissed him.
Quick.
Hard.
Like it had been building all day.
When they pulled apart, Izuku whispered against his lips, "We're going to have to tell people soon."
Bakugou smirked. "Let 'em talk. Long as they know not to touch you."
Izuku chuckled. "You're jealous."
"Damn right I am."