Chapter Text
The air outside was gloomy and rain-soaked as all the students got off the bus and moved toward where Aizawa was standing, black umbrella in hand as the wind blew harsh against his long, black hair.
And of course it just had to been raining the one day Katsuki didn’t bring his umbrella so he was unfortunately huddled up with damn Deku of all people since no one else had a big enough umbrella, could this day get any fucking worse?!
Apparently it could.
They ended up being early so they had to wait for what felt like eternity in the grating weather until Aizawa finally shuffled them all into the lab. He had been yapping on about how this was their last assignment before getting into university. Forty percent of their final grade he had told them as if that did anything only adding to the collective groans coming from the class. Katsuki was barely listening, his headphones plugged into his ipod on full volume as he strolled behind the rest of the group.
The class was guided deeper into the lab, rows of benches and equipment coming into view under the lab's harsh lights. As they walked further Katsuki could see the metallic shimmer of small boxes through his peripheral vision.
Every so often Aizawa’s muted talking cut through his headphones followed up by a glare making sure his students were paying attention, which Katsuki was obviously..
He caught maybe every third word before he was interrupted by a small tap on his shoulder making him look up to see a red haired boy. Kirishima? He was motioning for Katsuki to take out his headphones.
Did Katsuki want to? No.
Yet he yanked one headphone out, the other still jammed in his ear. He craned his head to glare at the boy with a grimace. “Uh, hey man you probably gotta listen to this” Kirishima sends him a small smile before pointing to where Mr Aizawa is standing.
Katsuki snorts, his hands deep in his pockets “I can hear just fine Shitty hair” Still he turns his head toward the teacher deepening his focus.
“Lucky for you this isn’t group work” The man said, eyeing some of his students on the side “Unluckily though we do have to share the lab with the Shiketsu students in the same grade. They should be here soon so I expect as representatives of UA you show them respect.” His gaze lands on Katsuki
Katsuki just scoffs and moves his gaze toward the door watching as the Shiketsu students pile up into the definitely not big enough lab. Just great, They’re starting to get all squished up.
His whole class is pushed back as the rest of the students shuffle in trying to find extra chairs and tables to sit down on, Katsuki himself is forced to sit down at the back next to Sero and Mina, grumbling the whole time.
The sudden clearing of a person's throat gets everyone's attention. Katsuki decides this is probably the time to take his other headphone out.
“Good, now that we’re all here I'll explain what your assignment is.” It’s a man, blonde, probably a few years younger than Aizawa. “This task requires independent work, fail to meet that and you will get a zero. You will be researching the different types of genetically engineered spiders in this facility and conducting your own type of experiment on the spider you yourself get.” Katsuki loses interest fast, deciding on listening in to Mina and Sero’s conversation instead, totally not eavesdropping.
“Did you see that Shiketsu hottie? He was easily a 100/10!” Mina says pointing over to where a boy in one of those dumb hats sits. “Yeah, even I can appreciate his looks from over here!” Sero tells her, both grinning wickedly “Oh my god! Are you guys talking about Todoroki?!” A high pitched voice suddenly cuts in “Is that his name?” Sero asks “Hell yeah that hottie totes a looker that's for sure but his personality? Big yikes!” The voice says revealing a blonde girl in a Shiketsu uniform.
“NO, seriously?” Mina gapes “Yeah it sucks, always gotta be the hot ones.” She complains rolling her eyes, and suddenly Katsuki becomes a lot more interesting to Sero and Mina.
“You’re so right, blasty over here could totally be a looker if he wasn’t always angry!” Katsuki swears a vein on his forehead pops out “Oh! I see it, you're so right. Turn that frown upside down!” The blonde girl says laughing with them.
“Shut the hell up pinky! And you aren’t we supposed to be listening?!” He tries not to yell at the top of his lungs but he swears he can hear Aizawa sigh from the other side of the room.
“Boooo! Who turned you into Iida?” Mina says covering her smirk, Katsuki growls at her “Anywaysss! Im Mina, that's Sero and blasty over here” She slides her arms over Katsuki’s shoulders “Is Bakugou! Our resident angry boy” Katsuki just grumbles to himself crossing his arms and shrugging her off.
“No way! I'm Camie and the hottie you mentioned that’s Shouto Todoroki.” She jerks her thumb over her shoulder “He's in a few of my bummer classes, but anyways-” Katsuki tunes her out after that, his gaze lingering on where her thumb was pointed.
Whatever
“Today your task is to examine the 15 different spiders we currently have in these boxes and take notes. Have I made myself clear? Or are there questions?” He asks the students
One hand immediately shoots up “EXCUSE ME MR TAKAMI!” A loud booming voice comes from the front of the room “BUT THERE ARE ONLY 14 SPIDERS IN THE BOX!” The voice yells, making “Mr Takami” do a double take on the boxes.
The man doesn’t seem all that bothered turning back to them with a grin “No worries, the researchers must be working on that one.” He pauses, reaching behind him to grab a stack of paper before handing one to each student. After he’s made his way around the lab he speaks up again “Time go have a look!” He beckons the groaning students forward.
But one boy stands up first and Katsuki can only assume that’s where the voice from before came from as he yells once more “THANK YOU MR TAKAMI SIR!” He says bowing incessantly only stopping when a shorter boy next to him stands up and grabs at his sleeve. Todoroki, and he doesn’t have his hat on which reveals a whole lot more red and white then Katsuki would’ve imagined.
“Inasa stop, you’re embarrassing yourself” He says flatly as if to draw the attention away from them rubbing at the nape of his neck.
Inasa just laughs it off throwing his arms around the shorter boy's shoulders like he hadn’t just been scolded “C’mon Todoroki, I was just being polite!” The boy does not look very pleased with this; he steps out of his grasp as if he’s needed to do it a thousand times before. He looks toward the front of the lab “You don’t need to yell, you’re already loud enough” he says his voice is much quieter compared to Inasa’s but still sharp.
Inasa only grins, taking it as a compliment before ruffling the shorter boy's hair aggressively, mixing red and white locks together and walking off, joining another group of Shiketsu students.
Katsuki’s eyes drift back to the other boy at the sound of a loud sigh as “Todoroki” tries to fix the messy state of his hair but is only making it worse. Katsuki can’t help but let out a small snort accidentally drawing the unwanted attention of the two-toned boy.
He quickly avoids his gaze, pretending to be busy with his worksheet as he hears Todoroki start to walk away. He seems to be slowly trailing behind Inasa as if he weren’t sure if he should join him or not. Not like Katsuki cares.
After a while of silently observing Todoroki he shifts his eyes to one of the desks. It’s empty, perfect. He makes his way over to the empty desk and plops all of his shit down.
He grabs out the worksheet from amongst his books and pencils and starts reading
Instructions
Equipment needed listed below:
- Set of gloves
- Binocular Microscope lens
- Polycarbonate safety goggles
- Adhesive test plates
- USB micro camera
Your first task is to observe the spiders movements, behaviour and
silk threading. Explain the different types of methods each spider
uses for its threading and how their behaviours differentiate.
This will not be marked.
Well great, what's even the point if it’s not marked? Katsuki thinks to himself as he abandons his desk, venturing to find his own equipment.
There’s a huge ass line coming from near the left corner of the lab and Katsuki can only assume that’s where all the equipment is. Goddamn it! The lines got at least 20 students in front of him. This is going to take ages, he tells himself going to join the queue anyway.
Six long minutes later and he’s mentally crossing off his checklist in his head as he walks back to his desk. Gloves, Microscope, Goggles, Plates, Shitty camera anddd a not so empty desk anymore.
He looks up to see a vibrant two toned idiot sitting in the seat across from where Katsuki was sitting before, he even had the nerve to move Katsuki’s shit over! Why the hell is he here?
Katsuki can’t stop the scowl that appears on his face at the sight he’s seeing “Oi! This is my desk, what the hell do you think you’re doing here?!” It’s not a question, never is with Katsuki.
The offending person looks up and right now, really being able to look at him, Katsuki's eyes can’t help but wander. The further his eyes track the more they reveal. The hair of course, accompanied by pale ivory skin, not to mention turquoise and slate eyes, there’s a soft pink hue around the blue one and Katsuki can’t help but wonder how it got there.
“It’s not your desk” The boy looks him up and down “I don't see your name on it.” The asshole says not a flicker of emotion on his face.
Katsuki prides himself on being able to read people pretty well but this guy? Stone cold and hard to break from the looks of it, must be that shitty personality that blonde girl was talking about. “Yeah well it’s mine.” This is starting to piss him off. “Go piss off to one of your shiketsu buddies” Katsuki tells him, as he tries to get a reaction out of him.
It doesn’t work.
“No” “No?!” “No.” Just who the hell does this guy think he is.
The words stay hung between them as they stare each other down. Katsuki can already feel the immature rage crawling up from back in his middle school days. The rage he tried so hard to repress because he wanted to improve himself, but this guy was really testing his patience. He doesn’t miss the way his knuckles start to clench up and clearly neither does Todoroki as he continues to stare at Katsuki.
“If you’re done trying to threaten me, we should start the assignment.” The half toned loser has the audacity to look bored as he breaks the angry silence between them. “The desk isn’t either of ours so let’s just share it” The guy continues his hand coming up to rest on his chin as he gracefully slumps against it.
“Now wait just a-” “Bakugou” Both their heads snap up to see Aizawa looming over them. “There’s no problem over here, since you’re treating your fellow school’s students with respect, am I correct?” His eyes pierce straight through Katsuki’s and he can’t help but feel annoyed. Sucking in a sigh he responds grimly “No..” “No, what?” “No sir..” He’s seriously pissed off right now but he doesn’t miss the slight quirk of the other boy's lips. Bastard.
“Very well” Aizawa says turning his attention to the two tables next to them as he speaks up “You guys over here” His head turns back to where him and Todoroki are sitting having a staring contest attempting to signal for them to listen too “are researching spiders numbers 4-7 for now but don’t touch them, am i clear?” “Clear sir!” All the students repeat except for the two still having a staring contest. “Good” Aizawa says, already moving onto the next group, probably trying to ignore whatever the hell Katsuki and Todoroki have going on.
After a while Katsuki’s eyes start to burn, he can’t help but wonder how Todoroki’s still going. It's like he’s completely zoned-out, he looks like a dead fish. Katsuki can’t help but let his inner self laugh trying to distract himself from the need to blink but shit he can’t keep his eyes open any longer..
He blinks
“I win.” The dead fish is suddenly very much back alive and aware. Blinking slowly to ensure his victory. Now he somehow looks like a cat, a very smug one at that.
“Like hell you did! I was just going easy on you.” Katsuki crosses his arms over his chest. He may sound like a child but he doesn’t care, no way this guy won Katsuki was just tired okay?
“Sure..” He looks at Katsuki, the smugness growing for a second before it disappears completely and he starts yapping again “Anyways what did you do to get on that guy’s bad side?” He pauses for a second. “Bakugou..?” Katsuki doesn’t miss the sparkle in the guy’s eyes as he says Katsuki’s name.
Why the hell did he think he could address Katsuki like they were old friends?! “That’s none of your business icy-” Katsuki suddenly gets an idea, if this Icy-hot bastard can call him Bakugou then Katsuki can call him “Todoroki..” He grins to himself.
As soon as the name rolls off his tongue he feels like the temperature around them has dropped twenty degrees by the intense glare Todoroki shoots him, what the hell?
“Where did you hear that?” He practically spits and if Katsuki couldn’t get a reaction before he sure as hell could now. “What? It’s your name isn’t it?” Katsuki smirks trying to goud more emotion out of the other boy.
“I said, where the hell did you hear that?!” Todoroki practically seethes at him leaning over the desk, nearly grabbing at Katsuki’s tie and if he didn’t know any better it would look as though he was trying to threaten him.
Why the hell is he so sensitive about his name? And why the hell is he so close?! His grip slowly inches closer every second Katsuki doesn’t answer “Tch, chill out, I heard some loud bald guy yelling it before, no need to get all sensitive about it, it’s just your name.” He pushes the guy off expecting him to fight back but the guy just backs off and returns to his seat.
“Oh” He takes a breath, if it weren’t for his deadpan face Katsuki would almost assume he were embarrassed. “I see. My apologies then.” And now he’s back to being a stoneface loser. Just great. Whatever Katsuki, not your problem.
They start their work in silence and Katsuki can’t help but sneak small glances to the weirdo across from him. His brows all scrunched up like he’s concentrating and he’s tapping the edge of his pencil against his cheek. He looks away quickly when Todoroki moves up to grab something before returning to their awkward silence. They continue working like that until they are called up to inspect the spiders.
“Hey Bakugou, it's your guyses turn to check the spiders out! Don’t get bitten!” Denki yells from the side a cheeky grin on his face as he waves to their table.
They both get up in unison and start to head over to the table. Katsuki in front and Todoroki following slowly behind, he looks distracted, Katsuki notes as he turns his head back to where the spiders are.
Each spider is in its own tiny metal compartment with a glass pane on the front of each for the students to see. Katsuki moves his head to the furthest left one, not bothering to care what Todoroki’s up to.
Number Four. Katsuki leans down to get a closer look, it’s striped with yellow and black, long charcoal pointy legs that have little accents of amber on each one. He brings his notepad out to detail the appearance of spider number four. Writing about how it threads diagonally instead of downwards.
Next is Spider Five. From the corner of his eye he can make out a head of half toned hair making its way down the opposite end of the spiders starting supposedly at Number Seven. He focuses on Number Five instead.
This one’s got a purple exoskeleton with a small red symbol on its abdomen. Katsuki can barely make out the symbol but it appears to be marked with the same as the labs. It’s threading seems to be rather normal he puts down before moving to Number Six.
Todoroki seems to still be busy with Number Seven so Katsuki gets a clear view of Number-
There’s no Number Six
He looks around making sure he doesn’t miss it but it’s not there. Could this be the one the researchers are working on? Or is it missing?
“Oi Pikachu! Did you guys see Number Six?” Katsuki asks the blonde with a lightning bolt from the other table, causing the other boy to peak his head up from where he was working to look at Katsuki
“Yeah he’s there why?” Denki answers, sending a slightly confused look Katsuki’s way, followed by the other students at his table to look up to see what the fuss is about.
“Well he’s not anymore.” Katsuki continues feeling slightly awkward with all the eyes on him “Show me where you saw him” He says calling for the other Blonde
Denki obliges, getting up and making his way over to where Katsuki and Todoroki- Hang on, when did he get here? Whatever, Katsuki thinks as Denki hops towards them.
“He was right there when i saw him” The blonde points to where a huge bite mark has been taken out of the leaves, and yet there’s no spider. “Huh that’s weird he was here a second ago..” Denki pouts slightly
“Fucking great, just gimme your notes then” Katsuki demands, shimmying toward the shorter boy his hand outstretched trying to reach for his notebook.
“Wait, we were supposed to be taking notes..?” Denki asks and Katsuki stops in his tracks genuinely hoping for his sake he’s joking, Todoroki just lets out a groan beside him, clearly annoyed by the situation as well.
Katsuki turns back to the candycane weirdo looming beside him “Hey Halfie did you get to see Number Six before he pissed off?” He asks, practically ignoring Denki’s existence.
The weirdo takes a second before responding “No, he was gone when I came up so I decided to look at Number Seven instead.” Of course he’s not much help.
What they both fail to realise is behind them Denki is opening up the latch to the spider's cage and looking inside to see if it’s there.
Katsuki just lets out a frustrated growl “Good for nothing half and half bastard” He mutters under his breath, his head moves back toward the other blonde before looking down to see the cage is wide open.
For a second he just stares dumbfounded before snapping his jaw back into place “WHAT THE HELL SPARKY! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US BITTEN!” He yells, grabbing at Denki’s collar and making him jump slightly
The boy doesn’t seem that bothered as he hangs in Katsuki hand “No, i was just checking the little guy wasn’t still in there chill out blasty” Denki defends trying to slither his way out of Katsuki’s iron clad grip.
Katsuki growls at him, making Denki gulp ever so slightly “Oi Icyhot!” He yells to Todoroki who is not at all paying attention “Idiot!” He snaps his fingers in front of the space cadet and watches Todoroki’s eyes come back into focus.
“Close the cage before the bastard comes out” He tells him pointing to the open cage in front of them
“Oh sure” He says ever so calmly before walking over and snapping the hatch shut before turning his head back to face the two currently scuffling.
“See no problem Kacchan! You’re going to get wrinkles with all the frowning you do, I swear!” Denki, trying to hold back his laugh, lightly taps Katsuki on the shoulder from where he’s being held. “Shut it you wannabe Pikachu!” From behind he can hear someone laugh quietly
It’s Todoroki of course it is. The idiot has the nerve to turn away acting like a child caught red handed. Moron
His attention is brought back in front of him when Denki speaks up again in his whiney ass voice “Can you let me go now man?” Katsuki realises he’s still gripping onto Denki’s shirt
“Tch” He pushes Denki off him shoving his hands in his pockets and inwardly sighs “Let’s go Halfie just gimme your notes about number seven” Katsuki says walking back without even looking behind him.
Further back he can hear Todoroki make some sort of stunned noise before following him, he can almost hear the small smile creeping onto the weirdos face about them sharing notes because yes if Katsuki’s going to steal his notes he doesn’t want to owe him anything so he will also let the half-toned idiot have his own.
“S-” “No, I don’t need your help bastard it’s just convenient” Katsuki says cutting of whatever Todoroki was about to say
They continue their walk back to the table in silence, halfway there he hears an “Ow” escape Todoroki's mouth.
Katsuki whips his head around only to see him staring at his hand. “What the hell was that?” Katsuki asks but he gets no response, he just keeps staring at his own pale skin.
He doesn’t even look up, his eyes are fixated on his palm as if wondering what the hell just happened. Katsuki keeps staring at him, scowl forming on his face. “Hey bastard im talking to you” He grabs Todoroki by the shoulder but not aggressively.
Todoroki slowly looks up at the newfound contact “Sorry, what did you say?” He asks, looking awfully confused. “I said, what was that before? Why’d you stop?” Katsuki demands an answer as he moves closer, crowding Todoroki’s personal space bubble.
But he doesn’t even seem phased by how close Katsuki is. “Oh, it was nothing, no need to worry Bakugou.” This is outrageous “I WASN’T WORRIED MORON!” Katsuki maybe screams before marching off, speeding walking to their table. His neck, red with embarrassment. Stupid split coloured idiots!
By the time Todoroki makes it back to their “Shared” desk it’s time to pack up and leave for the day.
They pack in silence. Katsuki can’t wait to get out of here and away from all these imbeciles but is stopped by one of them.
“Bakugou.” Said imbecile calls out from behind him
“What?” Katsuki responds already itching to get out of here
“I appreciate that you worked with me today, I know I'm probably not the best partner so thank you.” Todoroki says making Katsuki turn around fully
“It’s whatever” Katsuki tells him, his eyes subconsciously move down to Todoroki was staring at his hand before. Huh
“Goodbye Bakugou” He says, making Katsuki look back up. He’s already walking away but sends Katsuki a small wave as he walks through the door with that dumb hat back on.
Katsuki just turns away and starts walking toward the other exit rejoining his class, his thoughts are suddenly filled with peppermint and turquoise. He wasn’t that bad..
***
Over the course of the next two months Katsuki never does see the half toned boy again, he’s too busy with uni applications and organising the move into his new apartment away from his parent’s house.
After a while of the peppermint boy lingering in his mind he decides to push it out of his head completely. I mean who is Katsuki Bakugou to think about some dumb candy cane bastard?
His weeks turn far busier as he’s accepted into the university he wanted and he packs his apartment up to move into his new dorm.
Kirishima comes over to keep him company whilst he packs since they got into the same course. They talk about stuff and order food, ending up in front of the TV.
“Hey man did you see that new superhero guy??” Kirishima asks him, making conversation
“What the hell E? Superheroes aren’t real dumbass” Katsuki says leaning further back into the couch
“No way bro this guy is definitely a superhero! Hey wait, turn to channel seven right now and I'll prove it!” Kirishima says trying to grab the remote of Katsuki
Katsuki reluctantly obliges by pressing the buttons on the remote and changing to channel seven. Kirishima wasn’t lying. There’s some sort of guy dressed in a dark blue and red compression shirt with slightly baggy pants the same colour. He’s got a mask covering his face with stupidly cute bug eyes on the front. He’s got the whole getup, even a belt which looks to be holding first aid supplies. Just who the hell is this guy?
“What the hell?” Katsuki says looking dumbfounded “I told you man! He’s so manly, saving all these civilians and beating up bad guys!” Kirishima says shedding a tear whilst holding his fist to the air like a proud mother.
“How does he even do it?” Katsuki wonders out loud, looking for answers out of Kirishima
“I think he’s got some sort of webs that come out of his wrists, and he’s like hella strong, not to mention the reaction time. He’s crazy” Kirishima continues “Yeah like look at this!” Kirishima points to the tv
“This is your host President Mic and I'm here today with my co-host Nemuri to report another sighting of our favourite superhero spiderman! Look here folks, today he’s stopping a robbery from happening! This is so awesome isn’t it Nemuri?” He hands the microphone to his co-host “Yes Mic, Spiderman is quite the sight, fighting bad guys and helping the innocent civilians you can’t help but wonder what lucky girl he must have waiting at home!” The female co-host says and Katsuki can’t help but cringe
“Anyways let’s zoom in on this new footage!” The host says playing the full video
The angle is awful and grainy but Katsuki can still make out the figure of this so-called “Spiderman” beating the ever living shit out of the robbers. He uses his webs to sling around and stick each one of them to the wall before waving to the camera and swinging away.
“Wow, isn't that just amazing!” The host says his words starting to filter away into a blur. Kirishima’s talking too but he can’t hear it. The only thing he can focus on is the stop motion picture of spiderman.
Why is he so familiar?