Chapter Text
It was three in the morning when Denki short circuited from a nightmare and blew out the central heating. Iida had run to notify Aizawa who had, with an expression that could curdle milk for waking him up at such an ungodly hour, told them to wrap up warm, go back to bed and the issue would be fixed tomorrow.
Eijirou returned groggily to his room and pulled on two pairs of fluffy socks, a onesie and a dressing gown before huddling under five blankets and a duvet. He woke up shivering like a leaf in the wind and his breath frosting in the frigid air. Changing into his uniform was an acute torture that attacked his balls until they cowered into the darkest parts of his crotch.
In homeroom, Aizawa informed them that someone would fix it in the evening and under no circumstances were they to encourage Todoroki to start a fire, no matter how cold they were. Denki apologised once again to the class who dismissed it with a sympathetic look in their eyes. It hadn’t been the sudden chill that had woken them up in the night, but the wretched scream that echoed through the halls of the dorms.
So the class went about their day for once dreading the end of school. Sero managed to convince Katsuki and Momo to whip up a steaming saucepan of noodles and several pots of tea to heat them all up from the inside. Tooru needed no convincing to haul her stash of blankets down to share in the living room. A few wistful and slightly jealous looks were cast Todoroki’s way as the boy looked perfectly comfortable in his uniform. But inevitably the final bell rang and Class 1-A trudged their way back to the dorms.
‘"I can’t wait to have a hot shower." Mina sighed as she walked side by side with Eijirou. He murmured his agreement that was echoed by Sero and Denki. Katsuki grunted in assent too, burying the red tip of his nose into his scarf.
"And then we can all wrap up warm in the common area and watch a movie with noodles and tea." Denki had a dreamy look on his face but that may have been the glassy sheen is his eyes. He still hadn’t quite recovered from the fever he’d contracted a few weeks ago and retained a general unwell look that leached the colour from his cheeks and bunged up his voice. Yes, Eijirou thought, some tea and noodles and a calm evening would probably do him some good.
They ambled back slowly, limbs stiff and sluggish from the cold, chattering quietly, occasionally pausing in the middle of their sentences when Denki blew his nose into the crumpled tissue from his pocket. Eijirou noticed Katsuki giving him a wide berth, a look of disgust scrunching up what little they could see of his face between the hat and the scarf. They were one of the last to make it back and walked in to Momo preparing the tea already. She smiled as they toed off their shoes and said, "Get changed and have a shower and the tea should be ready by then."
A chorus of thank yous replied and Eijirou was about to turn to Katsuki and innocently ask when he would start on the noodles when he was interrupted by a echoing ACHOO.
Fshizzzz.
The crackle of electricity buzzed g though the building, so powerful Eijirou felt the hairs on his arms stand up. The lights flickered, then went off, plunging the dorm into darkness. An unearthly shriek echoed down the staircase.
Then with a snap, the lights turned back on and Eijirou was left blinking around confused. A quiet wheyyy startled him and he turned to find Denki drooling and dumb, sat on the floor, the snotty tissue next to him.
The dots were quickly connecting in Eijirou’s mind, dread dawning on him as footsteps thundered across the landing above their heads and down the staircase.
A floating towel appeared at the bottom step, a trail of water droplets following in its wake. Tooru clutched her chest and even though Eijirou couldn’t see her face, he knew that she was as red as his hair with rage.
"What the FUCK happened to the hot water!?"
———
Denki had overloaded the heating system, causing the boilers to short circuit and the fuses to exploded, Aizawa informed them. In short, he had cut off the dorms access to hot running water. The boy had recovered from his episode to hear that and had looked so ashamed and embarrassed that no one, not even Katsuki, could feel even slightly annoyed at him. Iida had clapped him on the back and told him not to be so hard on himself and that Class A would do what they knew best: make the most of a bad situation. They had been at the front lines of a war about still managed to walk away having learnt valuable and important lessons that would look great on future CVs.
So with Aizawa’s promise that it would all be fixed by tomorrow so they could have their morning showers, Eijirou trudged up the stairs to his room and ransacked his closet for warm clothes.
Red tank top. Red tank top. Black tank top. Slightly different shade of red tank top. Crimson riot memorabilia. Jorts. Jorts. Jorts. Ah sweatpants. Jorts. Crocs. He stared at his floordrobe in dismay. Of course he’d left his warmest sweater at his parent’s house when he’d gone to visit them for the weekend. He’d dropped half his wardrobe into the washing machine but had forgotten to press the start button and they weren’t dry enough to go back in his duffle bag so his mum had promised she’d bring them to the school next weekend but it was only Wednesday and he was freezing and all he had was tank tops and freaking jorts.
Jirou was right, he needed to expand his wardrobe.
Then something under his bed caught his eye. A large, black garment with an English logo he didn’t recognise printed across the front. He pulled it out. A hoodie, and a really good quality one as well if the thick fabric was anything to go by. And it was Katsuki’s. He’d left it last night after he and Eijirou had lost track of time studying and he’d booked it back to his room to salvage his 10 hours of beauty sleep. It smelled faintly of caramel. It was there, warm and luxurious and not an hour away on the bus. No brainer really. He threw it on over the tank top that was a slightly different shade of red and it drowned him completely. That was surprising seeing as he was bigger and broader than Katsuki but he remembered the hoodie being like a blanket on the other boy. Maximum comfort.
Feeling rather pleased with himself for his find and ready to bask in the jealousy from the others at his super awesome and totally snug glorified blanket, he sauntered out of his room and walked straight into Katsuki.
The other boy let out a disgruntled grumble and shoved his hand into the pocket of his joggers where he had been holding it up to knock on the door, "Asshole, watch where you’re going. Nearly broke my damn nose."
Eijirou chuckled, "Sorry man didn’t see you behind the opaque and completely visually impenetrable wooden door."
Katsuki frowned, "I don’t appreciate the snark." Then his eyes narrowed as he tracked his gaze over Eijirou’s body. It felt like he was being seized up by a predator, "What are you wearing?" The words came out uncomfortably clipped.
Eijirou felt a flutter of nerves stir in his chest, "Uhh, it’s yours I’m pretty sure. You wore it last night but left it in my room."
"Why are you wearing it?"
The nerves swelled to a fidgeting anxiety, "Um- I left all my hoodies at home on the weekend to wash. This was all I had and I figured you wouldn’t mind—"
"I do mind."
"Exactly so I put it on— wait what?" It felt like the air had been knocked out of his lungs and then forced back down by a punch to his throat. And that had happened to him once in a particularly brutal hand to hand practice fight with Midoriya. The move had left Eijirou tasting his own oesophagus. The glare in Katsuki’s crimson eyes was making him relive that ordeal all over again.
"I mean, take it off." The blonde snarled. The nerves and anxiety plummeted from his chest to congeal in his gut in a lump of embarrassment, dusted with disappointment.
"Uh—okay," Eijirou’s voice was small, even in the silence of the hallway. Slowly, he peeled off the hoodie, wincing when his bare skin came into contact with the frigid air. Handing it back to Katsuki in a bundle, he tried to hide the flinch when the boy snatched it out of his hands. Before Eijirou could say anything else, Katsuki stormed off towards his room slammed the door behind him, leaving Eijirou shivering in his slightly off shade red tank top, black joggers and Crimson Riot fluffy socks, mentally kicking himself for his utter moronic stupidity.
Of fucking course Katsuki wouldn’t share his fucking clothes. Who the fuck was he kidding? The blonde wasn’t all benevolent and slightly perverted Sero who preened at the sight of a pretty girl wearing his sweater and quietly appreciated being able to help his classmates. He was prickly and guarded and could barely tolerate a short side hug on a good day. He was Katsuki fucking Bakugo and he didn’t just let any stupid snivelling extra wear his nice, warm, comfy clothes.
Except… Eijirou had thought that he had passed being lugged into the ‘extra’ category a long time ago. He’d thought that Katsuki could begrudgingly admit to him being his friend. A small, hopeful part of Eijirou had even considered himself as Katsuki’s best friend.
But who was he kidding? How dumb of him to assume that. How entitled of him to presume that he could push those boundaries Katsuki had so clearly drawn in the sand since day fucking one. And now, wearing that damned hoodie, he’d pranced right over that line like a prick. He was an idiot. A selfish, indulgent, ignorant moron—
"Hey!" Fingers clicked pointedly in front of his eyes, snapping Eijirou out of the self-deprecating spiral. He started, blinking rapidly to clear the fog from his brain and found Katsuki in front of him again, holding out something black in front of him, "Have this one instead."
Eijirou looked at him like Katsuki had just told him he was from Germany actually called Sven.
"You gonna take it?" Snapped Katsuki, shoving the object into Eijirou’s chest who grabbed it and felt the soft texture of the fabric. He held it up and it unfolded into another hoodie, massive just like the other but with a different logo on the front. He stared at it, the glanced at Kastkui who raised his brows expectantly, "Put it on then."
Like a robot, Eijirou shoved his body into the hoodie, barely registering the high quality cloth and how it swamped his body.
Katsuki noticed his dazed expression and snapped at him with a frustrated sigh, "You got an issue?"
That jolted Eijirou out of his stupeur and he found the words to speak, "No. No, no issue. None at all. Nope siree, all good here." He was rambling.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Bit Katsuki.
"Nothing, nothing," Eijirou tried to salvage his reaction, "Seriously I’m all fine, I just—" he paused to collect himself, "I just don’t get why I couldn’t wear the other one."
Katsuki let out a huff, "I hadn’t washed it."
Eijirou frowned "I don’t care about that." He defended, "I swear you’d only worn it once as well. It would have been fine."
Sighing, Katsuki looked away, "No it wouldn’t have been fine—"
"But it was! It was comfy and warm—"
"That’s exactly why it wasn’t fine!" Eijirou shut his mouth and let Katsuki explain, "I was warm in it last night in your room so I was sweating in it." He paused as if that was enlightening at all.
Eijirou shrugged, "So?"
"So, it was covered in my sweat. Nitroglycerin. It would be like sitting in clothes dipped in gasoline. And I’m not taking chances with Dunce-Face sparking off every time he sniffs."
Ah. That made sense. Eijirou was still an idiot but at least he wasn’t an overstepping asshole.
Katsuki sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets, slouching off down the hallway.
“Come on, those extras will be wanting dinner any time soon.”
And despite the freezing cold air and the fact that there was no hot water to have a shower with, Eijirou felt a warmth blossom through his chest and across his cheeks as he confirmed his suspicions. He wasn’t a one of ‘those extras’ anymore. And he didn’t think he’d been one for a very long time.