39

Chapter 39

3 years later...

Katsuki Bakugou and Eijirou Kirishima were having their weekly training exercise as usual when Katsuki suddenly shouted loudly in pain. Eijirou paused his movements as he turned to look at his friend.

"Are you okay, Kacchan? Are your muscles aching?" the blond nodded in response and rubbed his shoulder with his other hand. "Do you need some rest? I'm pretty sure I can carry us both back to the dorms."

"No! No, no, no, no, no," Katsuki answered impatiently. "We have to keep going. I won't get any training done if my shoulders hurt that much!"

Eijirou looked at his friend doubtfully. It wasn't like him to say something like that. "Are you really alright? I think you should take a break."

"No!"

"Then I think I should start running ahead..." Kirishima offered with a nervous chuckle.

"What?! No!! You're not allowed to leave, Eijirou! It's my training session and I'm not going to let you get away! That means you have to run beside me!"

"Kacchan...!"

"I'll stop running when you can't run anymore! Come on, Kirishima! You'l never beat me anyway!"

With that, Kirishima shook his head and picked up his pace. As soon as he finished his stretch exercises, Kirishima jogged back alongside his partner, smiling nervously. The two began running side by side with their legs pumping powerfully through the sand, trying their best to match the pace of one another. After a few minutes of doing this, they noticed that Katsuki was slowing down a little bit, obviously getting tired. Kirishima didn't know what was causing him to slow down, however, and he began to wonder why he was stopping. Soon after, the blond stopped and bent over to sit on the ground, holding his stomach in pain. Kirishima came closer to him and knelt down next to him as he continued to struggle to catch his breath.

"Why are you stopping? Aren't you supposed to be training?" Kirishima inquired. "Maybe you should take a break and go back to our dorm so you don't overexert yourself."

"Shut up! Just because you're a guy doesn't mean you can order me around, Kirishima!" Katsuki snorted. "And I'm not taking a break. I'll continue to run until my legs get tired, whether you like it or not. So quit complaining, you damn redhead." With that