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U.A's gym was indeed the largest building on campus; every student there knew that fact. But, as Bakugou strolled through the sliding glass doors, he never knew it was so big to where it held two rock-climbing walls that spanned nearly the entire length of the building. Bakugou stood in front of the glass doors, his mouth gaped open in shock, while his redheaded friend appeared behind him. "You okay, man? You just stopped in the middle of the doorway..."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Bakugou quickly huffed before resuming his walk to the rock-climbing walls. Excitement bubbled up and inflated inside of his chest, causing each breath to push out in hurried erratic patterns. It's been years--literal years--since he touched a rock-climbing wall or even been inside a facility that had one. However, he clenched his rising excitement and turned around to shoot a glare at Kirishima, who was walking right behind him with one hand shoved in his dark gym shorts and the other swinging idly on his right side. The two caught each other's attention and Kirishima smiled, somehow oblivious to Bakugou's stare. "They weren't lying when they said they had a rock-climbing area in the gym. Didn't expect it to be so big, y'know?"
Though he was muttering to himself, Bakugou couldn't help but snort. "I could have told you that, dumbass," he countered mildly harshly before reaching the rock-climbing wall. Slowly, he raised up his hand and brushed up against a blue "rock" with his fingers, where tiny memories danced inside of his mind. His lips tilted upwards in a small smile, and he removed his hand to touch another jutting blue rock that was a few inches above the other. It's been too long...
"Ah, so you do like rock-climbing!"
Kirishima's surprised voice startled Bakugou out of his daydream, and with squinted eyes he turned to face the beaming redhead. "The fuck are you talking about?" he retorted hotly. Kirishima removed his other hand from his pocket and raised behind his head, a light smile playing on his lips. "Weeeeell, you never really opened up what you like to do on your birthday--"
"That was literally a week ago. Wait, is this your attempt at a birthday gift?" The heat from his eyes flushed throughout his face and had Kirishima chuckling nervously. "I thought I said no birthday gifts, dammit! They're stupid, and they're pointless."
"Hey man, don't be like that. I couldn't just let you go a whole week without celebrating your birthday,"
Bakugou clenched his hands tightly before releasing the tension, along with a huff of air. He wanted to wrangle Kirishima's neck with just enough force to break it, but the other's playful smile sapped that energy away. He grumbled underneath his breath and shoved past the redhead to where the rock-climbing instructor was at. "Just a curious thought, why do you hate your birthday?" Kirishima questioned while slipping on his harness. Bakugou ignored the question, much to the other's dissent. He tightened the straps along his waistline so that the harness would fit snuggly and turned over to see the redhead's progress.
Completely inexperienced with the qualities of rock-climbing, the dumbass couldn't even tighten the straps of his harness correctly. It was a miracle he was able to fit his legs in their correct holds. "Stop, just stop--you're doing this completely wrong..." Bakugou walked over to Kirishima who was blushing a big smile on his lips and grabbed hold of his harness with firm and experienced hands. "Just slip, fasten, and don' let go," he muttered to himself, and followed the same protocol with the harness.
He felt Kirishima's eyes on him and bit his tongue, then looked up at him with a steely glare, "Well, are you ready now, Hair-for-Brains?" Kirishima nodded and grinned whilst picking at the snugly tight harness. "Just slip, fasten, and don' let go, huh? So you've done this before, is that right?" Bakugou rolled his eyes, "It's just a saying I was taught back when I first learned how to rock-climb, okay?"
Kirishima laughed while continuously grinning, annoying Bakugou by just a fraction. True, he was taught how to fasten his harness without the help of a instructor, but man, that was how many years ago...? Even thinking back to it now, Bakugou was surprised he was able to remember such a stupid-memory technique.
Turning away from Kirishima, Bakugou looked up to the very top of the wall. "We just climb up to the top and ring the bell, is that it?"
"You noob, you don't even know the very basics of rock-climbing? Yes, that's all you do."
"Like, a race?" Bakugou could hear the excitement growing inside of Kirishima's voice and couldn't help but get pumped himself. "Yeah, you can say that. Or some type of manly exercise."
He heard a snort escape the redhead and grabbed a line to hook up to his harness. He gave it a few short tugs out of habit, testing the strength of the rope and the durability. Should've known U.A's gym would have a quality rock-climbing wall and equipment. Bakugou smirked faintly from the shadows of his lips. "Hey, you know what we should do?" Kirishima asked as he hooked his harness with the another line. Bakugou shrugged while still facing the wall. "We should race."
The thought and the mere bluntness of the suggestion made Bakugou snort loudly to where it echoed across the walls of the gym. "Race? You and me, race to the top of this wall to ring a bell? You're so stupid sometimes, Hair-for-Brains..."
"C'mon, you know you want to! And its natural for men to compete against each other--it's how men like us get stronger and stronger!"
"No." More memories--sweet, but at the same time hollow--memories flooded Bakugou's mind, and he pushed them aside. "Let's just get this stupid thing over with so we can go back home and eat and play video games or something," Bakugou placed his hands on the jutting pieces of rock and prepared to launch himself up, but Kirishima stopped him with a playful, yet wicked laugh. "Well, I guess I'll just have to tell everyone at school about the time you were saved by Midoriya, then."
Kirishima took off at a fast pace, and it was right he did so. Bakugou's hands were becoming slippery and clammy, but not out of nervousness. His teeth clenched against one another in an attempt to stop himself from blowing up, but it wasn't enough to stop his mouth from detonating; "You shitty Hair-for-Brains, I'll fucking kill you!" In a swift and fluid movement Bakugou was scaling up the rock-wall, quickly eating away at the gap between him and the laughing redhead above. As he climbed up, the hollow-sweet memories returned to the center of his mind, drawing his attention from the present and back to the past:
"Hurry up now, son! I'm almost up to the top!"
"No, no! I'm gonna beat you, Dad!" A nine year old Bakugou had shouted playfully while scaling up the side of a mountain in the eastern United States--back when he had a true family. However, that moment of elation ended when his father went from smiling to falling, as the rock he held on to loosened up and finally gave way. Bakugou had watched his father plummet to his death: the only family he had left, right after his mother died.
RING-RING-RING!
A sharp ring pierced his ears and shot through the hollow memory, bringing Bakugou back to the present. His hand was up against the bell, poised to ring it again, and Kirishima was panting hard beside him with his hand just short of a few inches from reaching it. "Damn, you beat me to it," he said jokingly after regaining most of his breath. Bakugou was still lost in a daze as he lowered his hand, and tightened his grip on the rocks he held on to. Dad, he reminisced, blinking in slight shock. Kirishima's huff brought him back to reality once again. "Happy belated birthday, by the way. You can kill me later when we go back home," Kirishima winked before slowly descending down the wall.
Bakugou rolled his eyes while trailing down as well. Once they reached the bottom and unhooked the lines from their harnesses and took them off, they walked outside the door of the gym and stepped into the mildly warm April heat. Kirishima had laced his fingers within Bakugou's some time during their walk back to his place, but Bakugou was too lost in his own empty mind to really care. If he was being completely honest with himself, he didn't want to revisit the rock-climbing facility, because it always came with a cost. And he was pretty sure he never told anyone--especially not Kirishima--about his experience with them, or that he still loved looking at the sight of one.
Which brought to question...
"Hey, Kirishima, who told you I liked rock-climbing?"
Why did it even matter? Bakugou still wanted to know, so he looked to Kirishima for an answer and was surprised to see a faint blush across the other's cheeks. "I remember during the first week of school, you mentioned something about how you used to go to rock-climbing gyms and compete in tournaments of the like. And I asked Midoriya, and he said it was true..." The redhead laughed, the sound sweet and intoxicating in Bakugou's ears. "I really wanted to take you rock-climbing for your birthday, but you just seemed to ignore everyone during that day. Which reminds me, why do you hate your birthday so much?"
Bakugou sighed while shoving both hands--including the one that held Kirishima's--in his pockets, "Because my dad died on my birthday." He sighed again and felt Kirishima's hand squeeze his lightly. "Oh, sorry... If I'd known that, I'd--"
"Continue being the Hair-for-Brains that you already were. Look, forget about it now." Bakugou then glared heatedly into Kirishima's eyes, the transition making other startle with shock. "And don't you ever say that again, you hear me? Next time you threaten me with something like that, I'll kick your ass."
Kirishima burst into complete laughter with Bakugou faintly sighing beside him. A light smile traced his lips, however, and he leaned against the redhead's side. The other took his hand from out of his pocket and wrapped his entire arm around his waist, and the two sauntered down the sidewalk together with a calming air above them. Until Kirishima broke it again with his wild suggestions:
"We should do that again sometime."
"No way, fuck-face."