7 Chapter Five: ~Awkward~

Hope you enjoy!

Kirishimas POV

Bakugo stalked off down the sidewalk, throwing a 'tch' over his shoulder at the stares that followed. Kirishimas had never seen Bakugo be outright giving, anytime someone asked for anything, he'd ignore them, ignite them, or tell them off for bothering him. Kaminari seemed to be thinking the same thing, he was gawking at Bakugos back, mouth slacked open and eyes wide. It was when Bakugo was about fifteen feet ahead that anyone shook from their stupor, and the first was Sozoryuku, who never seemed all that surprised anyway.

"Fuck, my phones at five percentttt..." they hissed, quickly shoving it into their pocket and looking up, no doubt wondering why everyone stopped. They elbowed Mina, who didn't even turn to look at them. Clicking their tongue, they sidestepped around another shell-shocked teenager, Sero, and slowly continued walking, though bewildered as hell.

Kirishimas felt his jaw lift off the floor with an audible clack!, blinking a couple times to make sure his eyes were working right. Eyes trained on the retreating blond figure, he felt a warm smile break across his face. His chest felt on fire, and he wondered if maybe he should take of his hoodie. Then a gust of wind assaulted his face, and the fire died down to embers.

Kirishima trudged to Kaminari, knocking his shoulder to wake him up too. The blond made a startled sound, then looked up at Kirishima, eyebrows scrunched up almost comically.

"Is he sick?!" Kaminari whisper-screamed. The only answer Kirishima could supply was a shrug. He didn't know what the fuck was going on. Only that it was strange. It left a wonderful feeling in his bones, but damn, was it weird. Kirishima nodded his head, suggesting they start walking. Kaminari removing Kirishimas hoodie to put on Bakugos, then layering it back on again, since it was marginally larger. The red head almost commented on it, only to find out the words just wouldn't come out. His throat was dry, and he didn't quite know why. Shoji and Tokoyami had barely stuttered in their pace, Jiro was glaring suspiciously at the quickly disappearing blond, and Mina and Sero had recovered shortly after Kaminari did, and were talking animatedly at Sozoryoku, who they were running to catch up with.

~***~

Other than that, the walk back was uneventful, until Sero announced that, unless they ran, they would miss curfew. Everyone, of course, took it as a challenge, and from there, the race began.

Mina slid down the concrete via acid, Sero swung from trees and lampposts, Bakugo was, of course, blasting his way through the air (doesn't matter what was going on with him. The boy, apparently, could never back down from a competition.), Kirishima and Shoji were at a dead sprint, Tokoyami was using Dark Shadow to fly with Jiro clutched in his arms (after being handed roughly one-thousand yen (like, ten bucks USD)), and Sozoryoku took eight to twelve pieces of gravel and turned them into wheels attached to their clunky shoes to create roller skates and were soon tied for second with Sero. Kaminari, on the other hand, was lightly jogging. He had a charger cable sticking out of his mouth and leading down to his (Kirishimas) hoodie pocket, no doubt charging his damn phone.

The race concluded with Bakugo in first with Tokoyami/Jiro, Sozoryoku in second, Sero in third, Mina in fourth, tied with Kirishima with Shoji only about an inch in front of him (Though Shoji argued it wasn't enough to deem him a place above Kirishima, the red head insisted that Kirishima was truly in fifth, though Shoji would hear none of it), and Kaminari in dead last. Sero ended up misjudging a swing and flung his shoulder into a lamppost, Minas acidic slip-n-slide apparently only worked when it was a straight-way or downhill, Kirishima and Shoji were running, and both stopped to check on Sero, and Kaminari didn't care. No one truly expected to beat Bakugo or Tokoyami/Jiro, the three were literally flying.

They ended up having to wait five minutes for Kaminari, but otherwise they made pretty damn good time. Everyone was mostly exhausted, except for, yet again, Kaminari, who didn't even look like he broke a sweat. Mina and Sero questioned Sozoryoku about the roller skating, and they explained they've done it since they were seven, and were surprised themselves that they didn't bust their ass once. Kirishima thought it to be impressive, and commented as such, but was admittedly too tired to say much of anything else.

He was sweaty, his chest heaving and his legs aching already. His hair was already wilting, the efforts to put it up this afternoon were not exactly his best.

Cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders, he started heading to the elevators, saying goodnight to the people he didn't share it with as he went. He stayed next to the elevator long enough to wait for Mina, Shoji, Sozoryoku, and Bakugo. Kirishima watched Shoji sneak Tokoyami a kiss goodnight and felt himself grin. Sozoryoku gave Denki and Sero a hug goodnight, since they insisted on hanging out downstairs in the lounge some more. The casual affection was a little unexpected, though the more Kirishima thought about it, Sozoryoku was almost always touching someone in some way or another, whether an elbow resting on their shoulder or in a high five or fist bump. Sozo was the last to enter the elevator, and immediately took to leaning on Mina, looking about as worn out as Kirishima felt.

"Tired?" Mina joked, though she herself was two seconds away from yawning.

Sozoryoku nodded, "Hell yeah. I average about five hours of sleep a night, plus all the stuff we did today. Yeah I'm fuckin' beat." They huffed, leaning even more of their weight onto Mina as if to emphasize their point.

The latter of the two looked up curiously, "Why don't you sleep well?"

"Insomnia, dreams, the whole sch-bang." Kirishima blinked awkwardly at that.

"What the mother-fuck is sch-bang?" It was the first time Bakugo spoke since the sidewalk race, where he'd be shouting profanities at the top of his lungs for the hell of it. His face was scrunched up and his lip curled up. Squinting, he punctuated his words with a "huuuh?!"

Sozoryoku seems to deflate, being drained from the last of their energy. "Fuck. 'The whole sch-bang' is an English saying, typically used in mostly America, I think. It means 'The whole package' or 'The whole ordeal,' basically." They rubbed at their temples, planting an elbow on Minas shoulder. "I need to freshen up on English-to-Japanese slang because I do not want to have give people English lessons every time I speak. Sorry 'bout that."

"You're okay, doing better than Tsunotori did when she got here." Shoji amended, reaching a hand behind Kirishima to pat them on the shoulder.

Sozoryoku glared at the elevator door, the machine had always been terribly slow. "Shit, ain't that a 1B student? With the horns?"

The door opened, finally. "Yes. She is a native English speaker and sometimes still has trouble. She is subject to a lot of pranks from her classmates and other students." Shoji answered. He ducked out of the elevator first, making way for the others. "If you ever need to feel better about your language skills, go try talking to her. That, and Kaminari knows quite a bit of English." He added, bidding his goodnights, he disappeared inside his room.

"That little shit, Kaminari knows English! I stuttered through five words in Japanese talking to him today and he didn't say shit! I'm gonna kick his ass!" Sozoryoku laughed, clapping Kirishima and Bakugo on the shoulder right-quick as a 'goodnight.' They too headed into their room, verbally expressing their farewell to Mina while halfway through the door.

Mina stared at the door a bit longer after Sozoryoku was no longer visible behind it. Turning to Kirishima, she socked him in the arm, typical, and waved at Bakugo before fumbling through her own door.

Soon, the two were the only ones left in the hallway. And Kirishima felt the awkwardness crackle like anticipation for lightning during a storm.

And they stayed there. In silence. Not looking at each other.

Until Bakugo turned on his heel and made a beeline for his door...

Short as shit (1,400) but it's hard to focus in a car ride when you are exhaustedTM.