Happy Birthday Kacchan! - Part 1

Bakugou scowled when the hand wrapped around his arm, ready to blast the offender in the face, but the hushed voice made him pause.

“Kacchan, it's important,” Midoriya whispered. “Just hear me out, okay?”

“Haah?”

“I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen! I swear I tried my best, but they were just so excited, and they wouldn't listen to reason, and-”

“Who did what, shitty nerd? Out with it.”

“Your friends. They're setting up for a surprise party.”

“Fucking hell.”

“I knoooow!” Midoriya whined. “I told them you would hate it, I told them you don't like surprises, or parties, or birthdays, but they're just so stubborn!”

“I guess my plans just changed, I'm going home after all.”

“No! Kacchan! They put so much effort into it! They'd be so disappointed!”

Bakugou scowled, and Midoriya waited patiently for him to weigh up the options.

“They'll do it another day,” he growled. “If I don't show up.”

“Probably.”

“Ugh! I hate this shit!”

Midoriya finally let go of his arm, watching strong hands clench into shaking fists. He looked up to see gritted teeth and furrowed brows, thoughts running a mile a minute in his head.

“Now?” he asked finally.

“Yeah, they were rushing back to set up before you got there.”

“To set up what?”

“Balloons, streamers, that kind of thing.”

“Ughhhh.”

“I know,” Midoriya patted his shoulder awkwardly, smiling. “There's lots of food and drink though, maybe it won't be so bad?”

“We both know it'll be awful.”

“Let's hang out a bit, then. Before you face it. I'll text them some excuse and we'll go a bit later.”

He took Bakugou by the arm again, leading him out to the little park area between the school and the dorms. They chose a big tree to sit under, and Midoriya dug through his backpack, pulling out two bottles of Bakugou's favourite sports drink from the vending machines. He rolled his eyes, but accepted it anyway, and for a while they sat in silence in the grass, sipping at their drinks.

“You told them I hate birthdays, right?” Bakugou grumbled finally.

“I tried. They're convinced it's just because... Well maybe I explained poorly,” he rubbed at the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. “They said you didn't have good enough friends or something, and it would be different with people who care about you.”

“Fuck that shit.”

“Yeah, I know. They just want to see you happy, I guess, and for any of them, a surprise party would make them super happy.”

“I'm not them.”

“I know that! You know what they're like when they get an idea in their heads, though. They really were thinking of you, in their own odd way.”

“I guess we should get going,” he sighed, defeated, as he tucked his empty bottle into his backpack. “Get this shit over with.”

“Do you want to change?” Midoriya offered, pulling a bag of clothes from his own schoolbag. “I thought it would be annoying if you were stuck in your uniform all night, especially if anything gets spilled on you. I grabbed them from the laundry room.”

“Stalker,” Bakugou snorted, accepting them anyway and ducking behind the tree. “Keep your damn eyes closed, nerd.”

“I'm not looking, Kacchan,” he promised, smiling softly. “We use the same changing room, though, it's not like I'd be surprised or anything.”

“Doesn't matter, this is weirder.”

“I know. I'm not looking.”

Soon he was folding his uniform into his bag, throwing it over his shoulder with a sigh.

“Alright, let's get this shit over with.”

“Try to have fun, okay? If you go in assuming it'll be awful, it'll probably be awful.”

Bakugou grunted, but didn't outright object, and Midoriya smiled. He'd known Bakugou long enough to recognise a win.

When they reached the entry to the dorms, even Midoriya was overwhelmed by the effort they'd gone to in such a hurry. The doors were framed by spiralling pillars of red and orange balloons, a massive “Happy Birthday” sign strung between them, and Midoriya had to grab Bakugou's arm to keep him from walking out then and there.

“Come on, Kacchan, I'm sure it'll be fun.”

“Like hell it will.”

As soon as he pushed open the door the singing began, and once again Midoriya found himself acting as a wall, preventing him from walking out.

“They care, Kacchan!” he whispered. “Come on!”

With a frustrated grunt, his arms folded, and a faint blush rising in his cheeks, Bakugou turned to face the festivities, watching Ashido and Kaminari cart out a cake lit with orange candles as everyone sang. 

“Make a wish!” they insisted, when the song was finally over. “Happy birthday!”

Reluctantly he leaned over to blow out the candles, glaring at his friends when everyone cheered and clapped, but when Kirishima and Sero laid out two more platters he found himself softening a little. Along with the traditional little cake covered in strawberries, they had made or obtained trays of cupcakes, half iced with orange and the other half with black. The icing on the cake, so to speak, was that each platter was laid out to match his hero costume – an X of orange cakes surrounded by black.

“Alright, that's kind of cool,” he admitted, when he saw the eager faces waiting for his reaction. “What kind are they?”

“I'm glad you asked!” Ashido beamed. “On this side, the black ones are chocolate, and the orange ones are orange! On the other side, the black ones are banana, and the orange ones are lemon! We weren't sure what your favourite was, so we tried to cover all the bases!”

“You guys are insane. It's just a birthday.”

“No!” Kirishima insisted, throwing an arm around his shoulders. “It's our chance to celebrate our best friend!”

“To appreciate you!” Kaminari added, nudging in on his other side. “And have fun as a class with you!”

“Ugh. I hate you all.”

“We love you too, Bakubro!”

“Now let's eat cake!”

He cut a slice from the cake in the middle and stepped back to let everyone else crowd in, the chatter starting up as the party began in full swing. As well as the cakes, he came to find there was a collection of snacks scattered around the common area, each plate labelled with little paper signs. Bacon wrapped chilli peppers were his first find, and he happily stuffed a few in his mouth, only to find spicy meatballs and jalapeno poppers waiting for him on other tables. His friends may not know his favourite cake, but they certainly knew his favourite foods.

There were more balloon pillars scattered around the room, the walls strung with black streamers in between, and as he wove around them he began to realise just how much effort had to have gone into it all. As much as he wanted to hate it, his friends really had done their best to make it his.

“Okay, time for the last surprise!” Kirishima called, when Bakugou returned to the middle of the fray. “Come out to the courtyard!”

The guests funneled through the doors, and with little conspiring grins on their lips they upturned a collection of cardboard boxes to scatter balloons around his feet.

“Each one of these has a piece of paper in it,” Kaminari explained. “We all wrote down our favourite things about our birthday boy and stuck them inside! You're gonna have to pop them all to get them and read them!”

“That's cheesy as fuck.”

“They're all written on fireproof paper, so go nuts!”

The class pressed back toward the buildings, giving him some space, and hesitantly he picked up an orange balloon, shaking it to hear the little piece of paper rolled up inside. With a small burst from his hand, it exploded into microscopic pieces, the paper falling into his hand intact. 

Midoriya set a container down beside him, smiling his encouragement, and he dropped the piece of paper in to reach for a new balloon.

“Which part of 'go nuts' did we not make clear?” Kaminari laughed, elbowing him. “Dude, go nuts.”

With a little smirk Bakugou shot a burst of explosion at the pile of balloons, watching them fly, and despite himself a laugh escaped him as he watched the shockwave send balloons in every direction, a dozen pops signalling their demise.

Sure enough, the pieces of paper fell to the ground perfectly intact, bright orange like the balloons, easily seen on the ground. People collected the ones around the edges, tossing them into the box, and Bakugou set off another burst, then another, cackling as rubber burst around them.

“Okay, that was cool,” he admitted, when the last balloon met its end. “Um, thanks.”

Together his classmates collected the last of the papers, and Bakugou was genuinely surprised by the sheer volume of them as his friends closed it up.

“You can read later,” Kirishima grinned. “For now, let's party!”

“Ugh.”

“We have alcohol.”

“Fuck it, let's party.”