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In every class training exercise, there was one hard rule Aizawa could be expected to follow: Under no circumstances should the five buffoons making up the so-called “Bakusquad” be paired together.
Then again, every rule has an exception.
The day’s exercise was all about accomplishing a task while sidestepping distractions. The teachers had set up obstacles, signs, sirens—whatever they could think of to get in the students’ way. Aizawa had also taken class dynamics into consideration, making groups out of whoever he thought would be most effective at distracting each other.
Hence, the one and only occasion on which Ashido, Bakugou, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero were partnered up for a class assignment.
They were halfway through the exercise, running through the empty city landscape and trying to find the location of the objective when a blast launched them off their feet. Kirishima immediately reached out for Kaminari and Ashido, tucking them to his chest and activating his quirk. Sero managed to latch onto a building with his tape and control his momentum, and Bakugou used his blasts to stop his trajectory into a wall and land safely among the rubble.
The flying trio had a rougher landing despite two of them using Kirishima as a shield. He lost his grip as they bounced to a landing, and Kaminari and Ashido rolled out of his arms to stop a few feet away on either side of him.
“You guys okay?” Sero called as he fell gracefully to the concrete. Kaminari responded with a pained groan and Kirishima gave him a thumbs up as he pushed his way to sitting.
Bakugou landed next to them, rolling his eyes as he pulled the redhead off the ground. Kirishima thanked him, then turned to look for their fifth. “Mina, you alright?”
A puff of pink hair appeared from behind a tilted slab of concrete. “Just a little tender!” She brushed her butt off as she stood, turning to wave at them. “You guys good?”
She was met with four pairs of wide eyes and faces in various stages of blush. “Uh, hello?”
Whatever trance they were in was broken when she spoke, and they all snapped their heads away. Kirishima pointed without looking, voice hesitant. “Uh, Meens-“
Before she could figure out what he was on about, Bakugou was moving. He snatched Kirishima’s cape from his waist, nearly taking his pants with it, and marched over to her while looking steadfastly over her shoulder. He tore the pointed end of the cape, and as she looked down to watch his hands work, she realized what they were all so embarrassed about.
“Oh shit!” She wrapped her arms around herself, covering her chest, which was way more exposed than it should be. “Shit! Sorry! Yesterday's training did something to the stuff that holds my top up, I haven’t gotten to get it fixed and I thought it would hold up for a bit, but—“
“Cool it, Pinky,” Bakugou grumbled at her as he raised the fabric he held towards her neck, cheeks still slightly red. He carefully knotted the ends of the cape around her, then grabbed for the long ends and reached forward to tie them around her back in a makeshift top. She felt her own cheeks flush at his proximity, and she mumbled a shy thank you as he stepped away.
He grunted in response, giving her a hand and helping her over the rubble in a move more gentlemanly than his typical behavior. They walked back to the group, who finally dared to make eye contact with her again.
“Sorry, guys,” Ashido offered again, plucking at one of her curls as she tried to play it off. “Guess we’re even now, since I see—well, Kirishima’s always—but I’ve seen the rest of yours during training before. Tit for tat."
Sero, who was standing at her side when she raised her arm, blanched, interrupting Kirishima and Kaminari’s witty replies to her joke. “There’s a hole,” he said as he stepped forward and pointed helpfully at the gap in the fabric.
“Huh?” She peered down at her side, twisting her torso as Sero took another step with inopportune timing, causing his finger to connect with the patch of pink skin visible through the hole in the fabric.
In his defense, Kirishima’s ratty cape did not make the best halter top.
In Bakugou’s defense, it was all he had to work with, so fuck off, Tape Face.
As soon as his brain registered her soft, soft skin beneath his finger, Sero yanked his arm back with a spluttered apology. “Fuck, sorry! I didn’t mean to!”
Bakugou cackled and the taller boy whipped around to yell at him, but spun back when Ashido burst into giggles as well.
“Sero, it’s fine,” she reassured him, one hand covering the hole on her chest and the other waving him off. She then used her free hand to poke at one of his pecs, adding teasingly, “What’s a little tiddy touch between friends?"
Kirishima choked on his laughter, and Kaminari had to smack him on the back until he straightened up again. Sero rolled his eyes at them, but he couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he ripped a piece of tape off his elbow and offered it to Ashido. “Here.”
“Not gonna put it on me?” She joked as she accepted it and pinched the fabric together, slapping the tape over it in a way that caused all of the boys to turn away again. “What? Do I have another hole?”
No one would directly respond, and she crossed her arms under her chest with a huff. She shifted her hips, and Bakugou groaned, running a hand over his face and nearly dislodging his mask. “You gotta stop doin’ that, Pinky.”
“Doing what?” She dropped her arms and eyed each of the boys, who were looking more uncomfortable by the second.
Finally, Kirishima answered, his usual toothy grin tinged with nerves. “My cape, uh, doesn’t quite have the support your costume does.”
“Oh.” She looked at them, their flushed cheeks and awkwardly placed hands, and her own cheeks burned as her stomach twisted. “Oh.” Wait. “Bakugou, you too?”
“Hah?”
She tilted her head, looking him up and down. “Honestly, I’d kinda thought you were secretly gay or aro or something.”
He barked out a laugh. “Just because I got fuckin’ priorities doesn’t mean I’m not attracted to people.” He kicked one boot in the dust, mumbling, “I’m bi, anyways.”
“Bro, me too!” Kirishima offered excitedly, clapping him on the shoulder. “That’s super manly!”
Ashido grinned. “Well, now that I know I can talk hot girls and guys with you, you’re never gonna get me to shut up.”
“Hey, include me too!” Kaminari chimed, looping his arm over Bakugou’s shoulder only to be elbowed away. He didn’t look the least bit disheartened as he moved to latch onto Kirishima instead. “I’m pan, that counts, right?”
“Bro, of course!”
Ashido bounced on the balls of her feet, forgetting herself and causing everyone to avoid her eyes again. “Hell yeah!”
They collectively turned to Sero, eyeing him inquisitively. He shrugged under their scrutiny, rubbing the back of his neck with an awkward smile. “I mean girls, yeah, but I never really thought about guys like that.”
“You wanna?”
“What?” Sero asked, but he didn’t get an answer before Bakugou was grabbing him by the back of the neck and pulling him down to press their lips together. The rest of the group gasped in surprise, and Sero dropped his helmet on his foot as Bakugou kissed him for several more seconds before releasing him.
“So?”
“Uh,” came Sero’s intelligent response, and Kaminari snickered at him, earning a glare. Sero cleared his throat and tried again. “I mean, I didn’t not like it.”
“Well, there’s that whole scientific method thing, right?” Kaminari asked with a grin, slowly moving closer. “Gotta repeat the experiment a bunch of times to make sure you get the same results?”
Ashido snorted. “Since when do you care about the scientific method?”
“Since it gets me a kiss from tall, dark, and handsome over here.” Kaminari slipped an arm around Sero’s waist, lifting a hand to his cheek. “If that’s okay with you?”
Sero nodded, and the others watched with rapt attention as the pair leaned into each other, lips moving in a slow kiss. They stayed together a few seconds longer than he and Bakugou had before pulling apart, Sero’s hands falling away from Kaminari’s hips where he’d unknowingly placed them.
“My turn!” Kirishima cheered, making a beeline for Sero, who grinned at him. With zero hesitation, Kirishima grabbed him by the waist, sliding one hand behind his back to support him as he dipped him low and planted a kiss on him. Ashido whistled loudly as their lips moved, and Sero ended up laughing into Kirishima’s mouth at the absurdity of it all.
As Kirishima pulled him back upright, he joked, “Honestly, I don’t know what else I was expecting from a first kiss with you.”
“So, that means there’ll be a second then?” Kirishima asked with a wink, promptly shutting Sero’s mouth with a flush on his cheeks.
Ashido giggled, sidling over and running a hand up Sero’s arm to his shoulder, cupping the back of his neck. “You said girls too, right?” She asked hopefully, fiddling with the hair at his nape as she pressed up against him.
His gulp was audible as he bit his lip, nodding eagerly, and she grinned. Stretching on her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his as she slotted their lips together.
The groan he let out as her breasts were crushed between them was surely unintentional, but it sent fire through Ashido’s belly all the same, and she couldn’t help the little answering moan that slipped out of her. This did give her the perfect opportunity, though, to lick into his mouth and put on a show for the threesome watching them.
She might’ve been enjoying herself a little too much, she admitted, as the press of her hips to his alerted her to a hard length that had not been there before. Reluctant, but not wanting to make him uncomfortable, she pulled away with a sigh.
“Shit,” Kaminari whispered behind them, echoed by Kirishima’s quiet little, “Yeah.” She grinned as she spun around, laughing as their eyes flitted away immediately.
Bakugou opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was got cut off by the blare of an alarm and Aizawa’s perpetually exhausted voice announcing that they had ten minutes to complete the exercise.
“Shit!” Kaminari exclaimed again, with totally different meaning.
Bakugou abandoned whatever he’d been saying before in favor of shouting at them, “Get your asses moving! If we fail this assignment, I’ll kill all of you!”
Before they could dart off, Ashido raised her hand with a wild grin. “If we pass this assignment, I’ll fuck all of you!”
“Shit.” Kaminari really needed to expand his vocabulary.
“Seriously?” Kirishima asked, and Ashido could practically see the tail wagging between his legs, right below his— Oh, yup, they definitely needed to pass this assignment.
Bakugou crossed his arms, clearly irritated. “The fuck are you on about, Pinky?”
“It’s the classic carrot and stick approach! You know, incentive.” She turned to look at four blank stares, and rolled her eyes, pointing at Bakugou. “You, mister, are the stick, and I—” She paused to give them a little shimmy that made two of them bite their lip and at least one of them groan. “—am the carrot.”
“I always liked carrots,” she heard Kaminari murmur as he dashed off in the direction they’d been heading before getting sidetracked by her wardrobe malfunction. The other three boys followed suit quickly, and she couldn’t help but laugh at how eager they were now.
Not that she was any different. It was hard to keep focused watching them shoot grins at each other and furtive glances back at her.
Much, much harder, was keeping the grin off of her face and her hands to herself when they finished the exercise with twelve seconds to spare.