| CHAPTER TWO |

🎵 reason to stay by sody
***

THE NEXT DAY WENT BY QUICK. other than a few occasional glares from bakugou during class, none of you brought up anything from the night before. so, as always, you were sitting on the couch in the common area, writing a new song while sipping on hot chocolate at 2:43 am.

the quiet of the soundless room was soon broken by heavy footsteps approaching closer. you looked back to be met with none other than bakugou's bulky figure again, but this time, you turned back around to the notebook in front of you, effectively ignoring him.

the muffled noises of the drawers opening and closing in the kitchen were quite distracting. but if you just wait it out-

your thoughts were disrupted by bakugou's heavy body dipping down on the couch next to you. you kept your head down, seemingly unbothered by the crinkly sound of his bag of chips and his muffled crunching as he took his time chewing each potato chip while staring you down.

you blocked the noise to the best of your ability and continued writing:

how could the fearless become so afraid?
the ones that are closest feel so far away
guess we're already broken
there's nothing left to break
so don't try and give me a reason to stay

the growing shadow on your notebook prompted you to pause and look up only to find bakugou hunching down to read the words.

"what's with the sappy shit?" he asked but still continued reading regardless.

"just this song i'm working on. if there was a music room i could show you that it's not that bad actually." you spun your pen in your hand before bringing its end between your lips, biting gently as you also read over the words again. not half bad for a draft.

"we do have a music room" he finally looked up. but his brows met in an instant, his usual angry expression plastered on his face as if he just remembered an unpleasant memory. "what the hell did you do to me last night? i was woken up this morning on the couch by fucking deku of all people. DEKU!"

right, even though his relationship was now a peaceful one with midoriya, you knew of the bad blood they had before. izuku was sweet and kind. so you were sure whatever had happened between the two, it was definitely bakugou's fault. "just be glad. could have been worse."

he physically cringed and gave you a what the fuck look but you decided to ignore it and continue. "i used my quirk on you, bakugou. what? i thought no one could beat you? i guess as you put it, an extra, bested you." you mustered the sweetest smile you could and batted your lashes at him innocently.

you could feel his blood boiling and maybe if it was two years ago he would have fought you for this. but the third year bakugou had gotten better at keeping the reins on his anger. so he only muttered a few profanities under his breath before speaking again "what the hell is your fucking quirk again?"

"sleep manipulation."

both of you looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before he started again "well fucking explain it. What are you waiting for? a gold star?"

"you actually have no idea, do you? i thought you were being an ass but you're just clueless i guess."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING CLUELESS? WHY THE FUCK WOULD I ASK IF I KNEW? I DON'T HAVE TIME TO LEARN EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYONE. I'M TOO BUSY WORKING TO BE THE NUMBER ONE HERO, DUMBASS."

"alright, calm down before aizawa wakes up, boom boom boy. i can basically manipulate people's energy, forcing them to fall asleep, be tired, or the opposite, energize them so they wouldn't need to sleep, which is why i don't need a lot of sleep myself. i just use my quirk to catch up with my hobbies at night."

"and what's that? writing songs?" he asked nodding to your notebook.

"that and many other things. i wish we had some sort of music room here in ua though. i miss playing." you said the last part in almost a whisper as you looked down to your notebook again in thought.

"we do have a music room, idiot. though if you play like you write, you probably suck anyways so you shouldn't need it."

you deadpanned at him, unimpressed. "aren't you awfully chatty tonight. and how would you know anything about writing songs?"

"tch. wouldn't you wanna know. this is such a waste of my time."

"well then leave. no one's forcing you to sit here and talk bakugou."

you weren't sure what you expected but you didn't expect him to actually get up and leave without a word. you wanted to know more about this music room he mentioned and how he knew about it.

but bakugou will be bakugou. you took another sip of your hot chocoloate before going back to your notebook to finish the song:

so are you gonna give me a reason to stay?
or are you gonna let me throw it all away?
if i'm already broken
there's nothing left to break
so don't try and give me a reason to stay

***

Where words fail, music speaks
-Hans Christian Andersen