Work Text:
Deku was sketching in his notebook again. Since middle school, the nerd had gained seven new notebooks. He had stopped labeling them ‘Hero Analysis for the Future’ and now only wrote ‘Notes #_’ on the front at some point.
Usually, Deku only ever had one notebook on him at a time, but for some reason, he had #13 and his latest one splayed out on the table in front of him. Deku hadn’t noticed Bakugou yet, despite Bakugou stalking closer to him.
Bakugou was a few feet behind Deku when he started humming. Bakugou paused. At first, he had only wanted to know what the nerd was drawing, but now he wanted to hear the song too. Luckily for Bakugou’s patience, Deku started singing.
When I was a little girl, my mama said to me
"What's your favorite flower, darling? I'll get you the seed"
I said "Dandelion, Dandelion, " that one's so pretty
She said, "Child, that one's not a flower, that one's just a weed"
Bakugou was behind Deku, close enough to see a corner of the drawing, but not close enough to see anything but the spiky lines on the page. Then Deku shifted and Bakugou could see the entire drawing.
The damn nerd had gotten much better at drawing through the years. What had started as stick figures had upgraded to rudimentary figure, and even those had improved into drawings so detailed, they seemed as though they might step off the page.
Deku had drawn Bakugou in such excruciating detail. Everything was perfect, from the hair to the minute scowl, to the explosions popping off his hands. Deku flipped open the notebook from middle school. It landed perfectly onto a well-worn barely singed page. Those two pages were covered in notes and a light breeze flipped the page backward to a drawing.
That Bakugou was a little burnt and a little young but still drawn beautifully. The Bakugou on the page was from middle school. The sneer and posture weren’t perfect, both a little smudged. The sneer was too harsh and Bakugou couldn’t ever remember looking that harsh, that cruel. The posture was a little too straight, not the comfortable slump he usually let his shoulders fall to.
The new Bakugou was almost smiling. He was looking away at something else as he laid on the graphite grass. He leaned back against a tree, only the faintest explosions popping from his palms. Bakugou remembered that exact moment. That had been less than a week ago.
Kirishima had joined him outside for lunch and they had been joined by the self-proclaimed ‘Bakusquad’ not long after. In his haste, Denki had tripped and fallen onto Kirishima and in the moment before Denki had jumped up and then flopped onto Bakugou, Bakugou had smiled, just barely.
To know that Deku had remembered that moment, those few seconds even though Bakugou couldn’t remember seeing Deku was a bit astounding. Even more so to know that he could draw it in such detail from memory.
Deku sighed and cracked his neck, pausing in terrified silence as he caught Bakugou’s silhouette. He jumped up out of his chair, stammering out some explanation or apology that Bakugou didn’t care to see.
Bakugou squinted at the kanji in the corner of the paper, completely ignoring Deku. That was- was that the kanji for dandelion?
Did Deku just call him a fucking weed in that song? No, he... had said that dandelions were his favorite flower and then said that his mother had said it was a weed. So he kinda did. But he also said that Bakugou was his favorite.