Chapter Text
Katsuki and Shinsou
Upon hearing about Shinsou Hitoshi’s transfer to the hero class, 1-A was shocked, but also eager. After having some interesting practicals with the boy a few weeks previously, everyone could tell that the brainwashing teen had promise. Because of this and everyone’s general excitability, it was deemed necessary to have a cake and board game party in honor of Shinsou’s first night in the dorms.
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The lanky teen had just finished unpacking his last box when he was bombarded by a series of rapid knocks on his door. Furrowing his brow in annoyance, he wipes the perspiration from his forehead and makes his way over to the door with trepidation. Though not expecting to be met with animosity from his peers as he’s been acquainted with most of them previously, he couldn’t help the nervousness fluttering like static on his skin as he took slow tentative steps toward his daunting door. Taking a small breath and releasing it in a huff, the boy opened his door trying to look passive but only barely managing to pull off a bored or annoyed expression as he was greeted by a perky pink haired girl previously identified as “Ashido”.
“Oh! Hey Shinsou! How’s the unpacking coming along?”
Big black eyes with fluttering lashes greeted him. Her exuberant presence was overwhelming.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have opened the door, friendliness be damned.
“Uhm, good. Just finishing up actually, I-“
Interrupting with what seemed like an even bigger grin than before, the horned chick only seemed to draw herself nearer.
“Great! That’s awesome! And listen, if your neighbor Blasty gives you any problems, just let me know! He can be a bit-”
The boy couldn’t help but tune her out a bit at that point.
Blasty?
Oh fuck.
Oh no.
Did she mean?
“Bakugou?”
The girl’s words only paused briefly as she registered his response.
“Yeah, I mean, don’t let him bother you, he’s just a big ole’ sourpuss. Especially since the whole kidnapping thing. Doesn’t really socialize much anymore and he’s in an even worse mood if that’s even possible. And between you and me, Kirishima says he thinks he hears Bakugou yelling and using his quirk in the middle of the night, so you may not get much sleep.”
The purple haired teen tried to process all of the information being thrown at him a mile a minute. If the girl spoke any quicker her jaw would surely snap. He sighs. It really would be his luck that he’d get stuck with the hero class’s number one drama queen as a next door roommate. Getting chained up and bound at his own award ceremony for the sports festival? Pathetic. Kidnapped by villains? Pathetic. Being a total pussy about his own actions and avoiding all his classmates apparently? Even more pathetic. Do not interact.
“Right. Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I’m going to watch tv and relax a bit.”
Though he had no plan to do any such thing, Shinsou’s number one goal at the moment was to disengage from this current conversation.
“Wait, wait! The whole class is throwing you a little get together celebration in the living area in about half an hour. Please say you’ll come! We have cake and everything! We just want to welcome our cool new classmate!”
Her enthusiasm was sickeningly saccharin.
Although helplessly bothered by the whole thing, even he knew that there was no way to get out of this without looking like a huge asshole. And while in the normal day to day he didn’t care much of what others thought, he knew this event would be impertinent when is came to his new long-standing rep and impression he would leave on his dorm-mates.
Fuck.
“I’ll be there. But no promises on staying long.”
He shrugged it off like it wasn’t a big deal even though he was dreading it whole heartedly.
“Oh, yes! Yes! I told them you would! We will see you there! I’m going to head back down to help get things ready!”
Before he could reply, the girl had him in a vice like hug. Though quicker than a snakes bite, she was off before he could so much as flinch and was speeding down the hall with a quick gate and a feminine sway to her hips.
He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and slouched against the door frame for a second before sluggishly reaching for his door to finally form a barricade between himself and the hallway. Already reaching his social limits for the day, the pale teen sauntered over to his bed and threw himself on top of his cat themed comforter.
Half an hour.
More than enough time for some productive internet browsing.
After a few minutes of time wasting, he couldn’t help but hear the tell tale sound of a door opening down the hall and footstep headed toward his direction.
Damn, not another one.
There was a knock.
Bracing himself for yet another onslaught of unwanted pleasantries, the purple haired boy sat up slightly, running his hand through his hair. Waiting a moment, he realized that the knocks weren’t for his room, they were for the room next door. Relaxing back on his pillows, he decided to wait out the inevitable noise.
“Bakugou, please come out. Mina already texted me and we don’t want to be late for the party.”
Psh. Party.
Though muffled through the walls, Shinsou was able to hear every word perfectly. To have a voice quirk, good heading just went hand in hand.
There was a long pause before the next set of knocks.
“Bakugou, please. You haven’t come out of your room all weekend and it’s already Sunday. Can’t you just-”
“Fuck off shitty hair!”
Ouch.
Though he couldn’t identify the deep gentle voice coming from the hallway, he could definitely recognize the screeching intensity of the voice belonging to the one and only Bakugou Katsuki. And boy did the kid have some pipes. Though, admittedly, the ferocious boy sounded a bit rough around the edges. Not out all weekend? Perhaps he was sick? Ashido has mentioned him being less social. Maybe he was just being a prickly bastard for the hell of it.
“Bakugou, no... this isn’t healthy bro-”
A few pops and cracks were set off.
Definitely the fiery blondes quirk.
“I said leave me the hell alone!”
His voice broke on the last word.
Shinsou shouldn’t help but find the emotion interesting.
If he wasn’t so certain of Bakugou’s typical bipolar behavior, he might have actually been concerned with the obvious accidental giveaway of more than just anger.
Damn, these thin walls were going to be annoying.
“I... fine. I’ll bring you some cake. I know you haven’t been eating. Just... just try to show up, okay? Or at least take a shower while they are free?”
A beat of silence.
“Okay.”
The amount of defeat and absolute sadness in the boy’s voice hit the purple haired teen like a bullet train.
Woah. What was that? He had definitely never heard the ferocious almost-villain sound so resigned and... defeated? It almost felt familiar.
And why was this other boy so concerned about the asshole’s comings and goings? What business was it of his that his felonious neighbor keep up with his daily hygiene routines? None of this made sense.
“Okay. I’ll text you later.”
There was a few more moments of silence before he heard a sigh and footsteps plod down the hall.
What the fuck was that?
And who the hell is “shitty hair?”
He would have to keep a lookout at the party for whoever had the worst hair. Surely he would be able to find the culprit. If not, he had a good enough ear to pick the voice out of a crowd if he really focused.
A mystery.
Huh.
Maybe this party would be fun after all.
Checking his phone, the boy gave a stretch that went all the way down to his curled toes before leisurely moving to get up, fix his hair in the mirror, and head down a little early.
“I mean, what the hell? It’s my party.”
Smirking to himself, he stepped out into the hallway and locked his door with only slight hesitance, beginning his walk down the corridor.
Glancing over to the door of his explosive next door neighbor, Shinsou couldn’t help but let his eyes linger.
Bakugou Katsuki needs to shower.
He chuckles to himself and keeps walking.
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Bakugou Katsuki has not been in the best shape since his kidnapping. Mood swings and unpredictability were typical for him. Though recently he had been even more extreme. A couple weeks after his return, it seemed like he was doing better. His fight with Deku helped psyche him up just enough to feel pumped and excited for school and hero work for awhile before the nightmares and previous guilt and fear managed to sink it’s claws so deep into his skull, he could feel the talons scraping at the most vulnerable part of his innermost self.
As the nightmares kept him up, he became more tired and irritable during the day. He was less focused and more moody for certain. Soon the exhaustion became too much, and he began to feel too exhausted to do much more than attend classes in a blur and collapse onto his bed in the evening. He stopped eating so much, forgetting or feeling too nauseated to stomach anything. He was losing weight. His muscle diminishing and losing tone even though it had only been about a couple months since the event. Purple rings formed under his eyes and he became more pale than usual. His clothes became more and more casual or uncaring to basically slobby as hadn’t done laundry in at least a couple weeks and most of his clothes were beginning to fit him looser than he would like to admit.
More recently he had become so engrossed in his own anxiety and self-loathing, he wouldn’t even shower. His hair became a greasy mess and his self-consciousness and anger only seemed to increase with his lack of personal hygiene. Though he never had a bad problem with B.O., always smelling like a sugary caramel due to his glycerine sweat, the intensely overpowering sweet smell that came off of him in waves was definitely noticeable if his classmate’s flaring nostrils and head turns were anything to go by. He was grotesquely sugary. Nauseatingly syrupy. Grossly honeyed. And all around just sad smelling.
Kirishima tried to help. But Bakugou would often ignore him in favor of keeping to himself and avoiding further shame by revealing just how far he has fallen.
He was pathetic.
And he knew it.
To make matters worse he was receiving a new neighbor.
That purple haired mind-melting fucker from the gen-ed class.
He had always found at least a moderate amount of comfort knowing there was an empty room next door.
But the annoyingly tall grape-soda-looking cunt just HAD to move in a few feet away.
He was surrounded on both sides.
Boxed in.
Trapped.
His hands began to tremble.
“Fuck.”
It was just a whisper, but it sounded so loud and abrasive fo his own ears that he snapped his mouth shut with a sharp click of his teeth.
Hearing his new neighbor exit his room and walk away toward the presumed celebration, Bakugou registered that he was finally alone in his hallway.
He relaxed slightly.
At least take a shower...
Fuck.
He knew shitty hair was right. The red head was only trying to help, but his nagging only made him feel that much more nasty inside. He had noticed his dirtiness and that was humiliating.
Hauling himself up and dragging his cold bare feet across the hardwood floor, the red eyed teen staggered around, grabbing what resembled a clean enough set of sweats, underwear, and socks with a hole in the big toe.
“Whatever.”
He sounded like shit.
And looked like shit.
And acted like shit.
He was shit.
“Fuck.”
Clutching his belongings close to his chest, the boy opened his door, eyeing the knob like it was his worst enemy.
Stepping out into the fresh air of the hallway, he felt like his stomach was filled with stones. He had been wallowing in his own emotions for three days. This only made his self-confinement more apparent.
Keep walking.
Talking steps far gentler than he had ever been used to, Bakugou sauntered through the fluorescent lit hall. His head was filled with cotton and his feet full of lead. Hearing laughter at a distance, he stiffened, continuing to sneak on his journey to cleanliness.
Finally making his way around any possible company without interruption, he made it into the bathrooms and stepped hurriedly into a stall, trying to make this whole process quick in order to avoid confrontation of any kind.
As the blisteringly hot water hit him and the steam came up and cleared his sinuses, he couldn’t help but feel a little better. Looking down at his feet and watching the water swirl down the drain, he became slightly soothed knowing that one problem was fixed today.
God he was pitiful.
Circling his arms tightly around himself, the tired teen slumps forward so his head hits the shower wall with a light thump. His fingers dig into his sides as he feels the warm burn of tears make their way down his face.
He hates this.
A single sob is forced out of him as he shudders alone in his shower of hell.
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