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On the last few days of their summer break, everyone returned to the dorms. Not wanting to waste the summer and trying to avoid doing homework, someone suggested they go to the beach. And that’s why the whole class was here now, after a long bus ride, under the scorching sun, starting games of beach volleyball, swimming, building sand castles, exploring caves, snorkelling, etcetera.
Kaminari was perfectly content under a parasol, watching everyone have fun. He didn’t want to be anywhere near the water, so he didn’t join the beach volleyball team playing near the water’s edge nor the enthusiastic sand castle builders that periodically went back to the ocean for more water. He watched in amusement as Bakugou surfed on ocean waves, moving as smoothly as he would be flying in the air with his quirk. Bakugou was ridiculously talented.
He slurped loudly on his half-melted smoothie that he got on his way here, watching Mineta watch all the girls with binoculars a few parasols down from him, nose bleeding rapidly. He snorted in amusement. What a sight.
His closest friends, Sero, Ashido, Jirou and Kirishima were doing a 2 on 2 volleyball battle which involved A LOT of cheating, what with Sero reaching out with his tape all the time to save the ball, much to everyone’s protests.
“You guys can use your quirks too!” he said smugly, as though acid, amplifying sounds and strengthening could help save the ball.
He looked to the other side, where Midoriya was building a sand castle with the help of Uraraka, Iida and Todoroki, and… wow, is that a sand version of All Might lying down? Who made that? The sand castle itself was looking pretty grand in scale, getting almost half as tall as Midoriya himself. Maybe he would join them later.
The most exciting sight, next to the volleyball, of course, was Bakugou. The explosive blond had a carefree and wicked grin on his face as he rode the waves, arms out in the air to stabilize himself. Shirtless, Kaminari could see that Bakugou was pretty built. He sipped his smoothie slowly, appreciating the sight when a particularly large wave came, sending Bakugou up into the air.
The grin on Bakugou’s face was ecstatic. Cute.
“Kaminari, do you wanna play?” Kirishima hollered over at him, and he looked back with a smile.
“Nah, I’m fine here!”
His friends whispered among themselves, shooting glances his way. They looked worried. He fed them some excuse about being sleep deprived and tired, but honestly, he was afraid of the water and didn’t want to accidentally shock someone just by stepping into it.
“Oi, move.”
Kaminari blinked at the snarky tone, looking up to see Bakugou next to him, arms crossed tightly across a muscular chest. Woah.
He scooted over so that Bakugou could sit under the parasol too, even though there were other parasols around. The grumpy teen settled down, grabbing a water bottle to gulp it down greedily as Kaminari watched his adam’s apple bob. Actually, Bakugou’s skin was looking a shade darker and redder.
“Hey, didn’t you put sunblock?” Kaminari poked Bakugou’s tanned shoulder, and the other boy hissed. Ooh, that’s gotta be a sunburn.
“I forgot to bring it, a little sun wouldn’t kill me,” Bakugou grumbled. It’s hilarious how Bakugou thought he could beat the sun.
“Should have asked, I have like a whole entire bottle,” Kaminari dug through his bag to bring the bottle out. “Here you go.”
“Fine,” it’s funny how Bakugou had to sound annoyed even though Kaminari was doing him a favour. He grabbed the bottle roughly and started smearing the white substances over his face, arms, chest and legs, Kaminari watching the movements, entranced. How did Bakugou make applying sunscreen look so manly?
“Put it on my back,” Bakugou sulked when he realized he couldn’t quite reach. He hated asking for help.
“Sure dude,” Kaminari chirped, moving to accept the bottle. He squirted a generous amount on his hands and rubbed the substance onto Bakugou’s smooth and broad back. Well, even with emergency treatment, it was likely that Bakugou’s skin would be red and peeling tomorrow. Ow.
“Aren’t you going to join the idiots?” Bakugou raised an eyebrow, looking at their group of friends pointedly.
“Nah, I’m tired,” he lied, going back to his previous spot on the towel once he was done with Bakugou’s back. Bakugou didn’t thank him. Typical.
“As if,” Bakugou glared at him, easily calling him out. Strange how well Bakugou knew him.
With a little smile, Kaminari explained, “Well, when I was really little, I entered a pool for swimming class without thinking about it, started sinking, breathed in water and panicked. Zapped the whole pool out and no one could come to save me for a really long time, so… I almost drowned. After that, I’ve never really liked large bodies of water. Took me awhile to accept baths and hot springs.”
He half-expected Bakugou to call him a coward, but the other blond only frowned pensively.
“Being unable to breathe sucks.”
Oh.
Right, the sludge monster incident. Wait, was that empathy right there? Bakugou was growing with every passing day.
“Yeah, I know. I love oxygen,” Kaminari sighed, finishing his drink so that he could lie down. To his surprise, Bakugou laid down next to him, their shoulders a few centimetres apart.
“Wake me when we’re leaving,” Bakugou said drowsily. Surfing must have taken up all his energy.
“Will do,” Kaminari grinned, even though he was at risk of falling asleep himself, with the heat making him sleepy and lethargic.
He must have dozed off, because when he woke up, the sun was in a different position, now shining down on Bakugou’s grimacing face. Kaminari reached over to tilt the parasol so that the shade covered both of them. There. That’s a lot better. Bakugou’s expression smoothed out, and Kaminari smiled.
“KA. MI. NA. RI!!!”
He felt himself being scooped up, and he looked up to see Sero grinning down at him mischievously while holding him up. He looked down at his feet to see Ashido carrying them. “Uh, guys?” he said nervously.
“TO THE WATER!!” they screamed.
Holy.
Shit.
“W-wait! Wait wait time out!”
“No, it’s time you played with us too!” he could hear the pout in Ashido’s voice, and then overwhelming panic filled him when the water got closer and closer. Ashido and Sero waddled deeper into the ocean.
“Guys, wait!!”
“3, 2, 1!!!”
They swung him up into the air, and the shock of the cold water as he entered it made him gasp and instinctively draw in a breath, only to choke on water. That made him cough and lose oxygen, and now his chest was tight and painful as he tried to force himself to stop attempting to breathe. The overwhelming fear of drowning and dying overwhelmed him, and he choked again, feeling more air bubbles escape him. He forced his eyes open and tried to calm down so that he could conserve his breath. He had to go up, but, which way… which way was up again? He could feel his quirk activating in a desperate bid to keep him alive. Shit, he had to keep it under control.
“Ow!” Sero cursed and Ashido squealed at the painful sensation of electric currents, and they backed away from the water immediately. People were started to evacuate the water as the electric currents spread.
“Is he angry?” Ashido looked towards Sero and back at the water in worry.
“Uh, actually, why isn’t he surfacing?”
“YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!!!”
Bakugou Katsuki snarled, running towards the water. Kaminari could hear voices far away and jumbled. He shouldn’t be too deep in the water if he could hear them... He struggled to touch the ground with his feet, but a particularly strong wave knocked him sideways.
“OI KAMINARI!”
Don’t come Bakugou, you’ll get shocked.
Bakugou leapt into the water, swimming with wide strokes of his arms. He cursed internally as the electric currents zapped his muscles with a painful twinge. Most of it had diffused, but it was still painful.
Kaminari felt a strong arm pull him upward, and once he broke the surface, he started coughing rapidly, struggling to breathe weakly in the midst of his coughing fits. His chest hurt. Feeling himself start to dip down again, he scrambled to grab onto Bakugou tightly, throwing his arms around the explosive boy’s neck and coughing against his chest. He could feel his eyes burning from keeping them open in the water.
“Hold on to me and relax,” Bakugou said quietly in his ear. It was a calming voice, and Kaminari latched onto it. Overwhelmed by adrenaline, fear and relief, Kaminari pressed his face against Bakugou’s wet shoulder, sobbing and coughing wetly. Bakugou was solid in this mass of flowing water, Bakugou was reassuring. “Shit, I’m going to kill those fucking idiots.”
“Your sunscreen just… washed off,” Kaminari sniffled, latching onto the random thoughts in his head while he was being rescued.
To his surprised, Bakugou barked a laugh of disbelief. “That’s the first thing you say? You can apply it on me again when you’re not half dead.”
It was slow, having to paddle back to safety with Kaminari’s added weight, but once the rest of the class knew what was going on, they aided the rescue effort when Bakugou was close enough, reaching over to pull the both of them up. Kaminari refused to let go of Bakugou, hanging onto him like a dead weight as his legs felt like jello. Luckily, Bakugou supported him with an arm around his waist. He felt hands patting his back so he could cough out the water.
“Shit man, you can’t swim??” Sero asked in concern.
“Didn’t you fucking know he had aquaphobia?” Bakugou snarled. “You think this shit is funny? You could have killed him!”
“I… I didn’t tell them,” Kaminari was shaking like a leaf, and he felt embarrassed looking so weak in front of the whole class. God, he’s so lame.
“You need anything? Water?” Uraraka asked him gently, as Yaoyorozu made towels for them. Kaminari nodded weakly, and she dashed off across the sand to get a bottle of water for him. He felt Bakugou drape a large fluffy towel over him, and then he was scooped up in a princess carry back to the parasols, his clique of friends hovering about to make sure he was alright.
Once he was seated, Uraraka appeared with the water, and his trembling, weak hands struggled with the cap.
“Give it to me,” Bakugou grabbed the bottle of water from him and opened it with ease, shoving it back. “Here.”
“Thanks,” he croaked, taking tentative sips. He had to stop to cough again.
“Oh, we’re so sorry, Kaminari! We didn’t know… you should have told us! We won’t laugh or force you to do things you’re not comfortable with,” Ashido sniffled, and Jirou placed an arm around her shoulders to comfort her.
“Yeah, sorry… I just didn’t want to look lame,” Kaminari smiled weakly. “It’s okay guys! I’m alive!”
He turned to Bakugou gratefully. “Thanks, Bakugou.”
“Whatever,” Bakugou crossed his arms and turned away.
“You should have seen it Kaminari! Bakugou just did this mad dash across the beach and leapt into the water like a dolphin! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone swim that fast!!” Ashido recounted the events dramatically, making hand motions.
Kaminari smiled at that. “Yeah?” He looked at Bakugou again, whose cheeks were red.
“Just fucking stay next to me, idiot.”
“That’s the plan,” Kaminari winked weakly, trying to be smooth even as he was half-dead. That probably didn’t look as attractive as he wanted it to.
“Dude, we’ll teach you how to swim as an apology?” Sero offered with a small crooked smile, holding his hand out for a fist bump.
Bakugou slapped Sero’s arm away.
“Fuck you, I’ll teach him! You guys almost killed him and didn’t even know.”
Oh my god, one on one lessons with Bakugou, in close contact as Bakugou paid full attention to him? Just kill Kaminari now. He was short-circuiting just imagining it.
“And I ain’t scared of your weakass electric currents, don’t you worry about drowning- why’s your face so red?” Bakugou squinted at him, concern etched on his scowling features.
“H-huh? The sun! It’s the sun!” Kaminari waved his hands wildly, then pressed his palms to his cheeks. God, his face was so hot. He glanced at his friends, who had shit-eating grins on their faces as they made suggestive faces and gave thumbs ups. God, he was so obvious.
“Stop fucking around and rest,” Bakugou grumbled, grabbing Kaminari and forcing him to lie down on his… lap. He could hear his friends squealing now, but what killed him was the blush Bakugou had as he looked away petulantly from all of them. From his face to his ears and down his neck.
Kaminari couldn’t wait for those swimming lessons- that’s if he’s still alive then.