The Two Types of Wingmen [Bakawks] - Part 1

Yooooo i've finally done it, it's time for some Bakugou x Hawks! If the ship isn't your cup of tea, cool, no hard feelings. But if you wanna branch out and give this galaxy-brain ship a try, welcome to the winning team. Enjoy!!

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Katsuki had a habit of speaking without thinking. Everyone knew it, himself included, but for some reason he could just never seem to stop. Most of the time it didn’t bother him that much – his friends were pretty quick to forgive him for his harsher comments, or laugh them off – but once in a while he said something he regretted immediately. Those ones stuck with him for a long time, playing on loop in his brain when he tried to sleep, making him cringe every time he was reminded of his brief bouts of stupidity.

And his current self-hatred was based on one event in particular. Or, more specifically, one person in particular.

When he'd agreed to intern with Endeavor – trying to be nonchalant of course, but honestly, number one hero? Hell yeah! – he’d never really thought about what it would mean for meeting and interacting with other heroes. He’d never stopped to consider that he might see people in action who he otherwise might never have gotten to meet.

He’d been so stupid. Such a cringy, embarrassing, ridiculous child. His first words should have been “nice to meet you” or “you were cool back there” but instead his stupid traitor mouth had come out with “I was faster.”  

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

At least Hawks hadn’t seemed to mind, he supposed. He certainly wasn’t offended by it, at least – just amused and a little condescending. Understandably. Katsuki had instantly cemented himself child status, after all.

And of course, Deku had refused to let him forget about it. He was the king of celebrity crushes – Katsuki was pretty sure he’d kissed his All Might posters goodnight until he was at least twelve years old – so he’d been, of course, the perceptive asshole who picked up on it in an instant, when Katsuki started buying the Hawks merch that came out, or staring at him a little too long on the news.

But honestly, who could blame him? Hawks was young, handsome, talented, and always so collected and composed. He never lost a fight, always seemed to win so effortlessly – and without All Might’s creepy smile, to boot. Everything about him was amazing, and – oh god, he was starting to sound like Deku. Next thing he knew he’d be spouting Hawkschan sugoi at every turn.  

So yeah, Deku knew, and maybe some of his middle school friends had suspected, but he’d managed to keep it on the down-low once he'd hit high school. Deku had hit him with a “you got to meet Hawks! That’s so cool!” after that nightmare day, but when Katsuki had blushed and yelled broken sentences at him, he’d taken the point and shut his mouth – well, apart from the stupid, knowing smile when Katsuki complained about having his glory taken away, but Katsuki could ignore that.

And other than his stupid brain yelling at him about it, he managed to keep it all buried, right up until their last year of school. He’d been so damn careful, had even gotten away with the limited edition signed Hawks poster that Deku had gotten him for his eighteenth birthday (with a little help from Tokoyami, he later learned. Thank God the birdbrain didn’t ask questions). It had all been so perfectly contained, so cleverly subtle, until the moment Hawks walked into their damn classroom and Katsuki’s brain ceased to function.

“I’m sure he needs no introduction, but class, meet Hawks,” Aizawa began. “He has graciously volunteered to be a guest teacher today, so I can have a break from you all. Be on your best behaviour.”

While his classmates tittered at the words, long-since grown accustomed to Aizawa’s odd sense of humour, Katsuki was busy trembling. Honestly, what kind of hero had to hide his shaking hands under his desk while his classmates were prying into the man’s life and career? It was a perfect opportunity to learn more about the guy, without having to feel like a stalker for it, and there he was, wasting the opportunity on remembering how to breathe.

“Are you okay, Bakugou?” Sero asked, as the class began to head for the changing rooms to get ready for Hawks’s training. “Are you sick?”

“I’m fine,” Katsuki hissed, gritting his teeth and snatching his backpack from the ground “Piss off, Elbows.”

He stood up quickly, slinging his bag over his shoulder, but the world blurred around him in a weird way, as if the classroom was shifting, tilting – and with a squawk of “Kacchan!” from behind him, the world went black.

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When Katsuki woke up, Recovery Girl was sitting at his bedside, humming to herself as she offered him a bottle of blue liquid.

“You passed out, dear,” she explained. “You don’t seem to have a fever, perhaps your blood pressure is a little low today? Have you been drinking plenty of water? Did you eat breakfast this morning?”

“I take perfect care of myself,” Katsuki insisted. “I just overheated or something, it’s fine.”

“Well, regardless, I’d like you to sit out of training for the day, and drink this to get your electrolytes back up. Have you been feeling dizzy lately? Having trouble focussing? Blurry vision?”

“No, I’m fine!”

“Okay dear,” Recovery Girl humored him, clearly not believing a word of it. “If you start to feel off again, try adding a little more salt to your diet. And make sure you don’t get dehydrated! I’ll let you go back to your class, but no physical exertion today, you need to sit out of class and watch instead.”

“Hah? I can’t sit out of a heroics class!”

“You can and you will, young man. I’d hate to have to send you home to your parents to recover and miss multiple days of classes.”

Katsuki fumed, clenching his jaw as he snatched the bottle from her finally, and Recovery Girl just smiled knowingly.

“There’s a good boy, you go watch and take some notes, learn something about your classmates!”

Resigned, he climbed out of the bed, grabbing his bag and heading out into the hall. Judging by the phone in his pocket, he’d only been in there for around ten minutes, so his classmates would be outside, beginning their training.  

Hawks would understand, right? If he assured the guy he was fine, that it was just… God, what excuse could he even make? But if he said he was totally fine, Hawks would let him join in, right? He was a hero, he understood what it took, understood that days off were a luxury he couldn’t afford.

“Kacchan!” Deku squeaked, when he stepped through the gate to their training area for the day. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m fuckin’ fine,” Katsuki repeated – he felt like he’d never said those words so much in his life. “She thinks I’m dehydrated or some shit.”

Katsuki froze when the familiar shadow came across them, looking up to see a pair of wings blocking his sunlight.

“Bakugou, long time no see,” Hawks said with a faint smile. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” he grunted, ignoring the way he knew his cheeks burned. “I just-”

He paused, thinking back to that same stupid memory, the one that had tormented him for over a year – he had to choose his words carefully, lest he screw shit up a second time.

“I just have to sit out for today,” he finished, weirdly proud of how calm his voice sounded. “She thinks my blood pressure dropped, maybe from dehydration.”

“That’s a shame,” Hawks lamented, clapping him on the shoulder. “But you’ve gotta take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else, right? Have a seat in the shade, you have a water bottle on you?”

“She gave me this shit,” he offered, lifting his bottle slightly. “It looks like it’s gonna be nasty, but whatever.”

“Cool, you just hang out, then. Sometimes you can learn as much from watching as you can from doing. Alright Midoriya, get back in there, your friend is fine.”

“Told you so,” Katsuki huffed. “Don’t slack off, nerd.”

“Got it, Kacchan!” Deku grinned, waving as he jogged back to the group. “Have fun!”

Katsuki realised too late what the result of Deku leaving was – all of a sudden he was alone with Hawks, and that was so much worse.

“Hey, uh, before you go back to that shit,” he spoke up quickly, cringing a little before he even got to the point. “The first time we met. Only time, really, I guess. I was… An idiot. An asshole. So uh, I’m sorry, I guess.”

“Were you?” Hawks asked, eyebrows dropping slightly as he considered it. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember.”

“Oh.”

“I remember that villain I saved you two from, but I don’t remember a meeting before that? What happened?”

Katsuki’s jaw dropped, lost for words, and it wasn’t until Hawks cracked a smile that he finally caught on.

“Damn you,” he huffed, a smile tugging at his lips regardless. “You didn’t save us, you jerk! We had it handled!”

“Did you now?”

“I should have known you’d be like this,” Katsuki folded his arms, ignoring the way his face burned even hotter. “Here I was, feeling like an ass for being rude to you, and all this time it’s just been a big joke to you.”

“Did you really feel bad about it?”

Katsuki shrugged, looking away, and for a moment neither of them spoke.

“It wasn’t a great first impression,” he said finally. “I was being a stupid kid.”

“You were what, sixteen? Of course you were a stupid kid. We all were, at sixteen.”

“I guess.”

“It’s cool, I wasn’t offended or anything. You were amusing, I like the bluntness. It would have been nice to see how much you’ve grown and improved since then, but it can’t be helped.”

“You’ll see me next year, when I take your ranking from you.”

“Aiming for number two, huh? Very ambitious.”

Katsuki narrowed his eyes, and Hawks’s smile stretched a little wider, a chuckle sneaking out of him when their eyes met.  

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, you know. The numbers don’t mean much. Don’t let it stop you from being a good hero.”

“Hawks! Is this good?!”

His smile turning slightly apologetic, Hawks nodded Katsuki toward a patch of trees, taking a step toward the waiting students.

“Get some rest, I’d better go teach. We’re good, okay? I look forward to working with you, in the future.”

“Y-Yeah.”

He felt weirdly numb as he found a spot to sit, popping open his bottle of Blue and taking a sip of the sickly-sweet liquid. He’d never expected to hold a conversation with the guy, especially considering only minutes ago he’d literally fainted because of him, and the whole thing had him strangely conflicted. Hawks had always been attractive, sure, and talented, but he was also nice. Katsuki didn’t have much of that quality for himself. He seemed so genuine, so open, and something about that made Katsuki’s stomach swirl.  

He'd thought he’d gotten his crush under control, over the years, but it seemed like it had just been lying dormant, in the end. It was back, stronger than ever, and stupid Katsuki’s stupid puberty brain was not willing to let it go.

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[Click for Ch2]