Chapter Text
For as long as Hitoshi could remember, he’d had problems getting to sleep at night and then staying asleep. It never seemed to work for him like it worked for other people, was never just something he could switch on and then it would stay on, so eventually it just became an annoyance. He’d started to develop the ability to just nap infrequently with maybe, if he was lucky, a slightly longer stretch at night and then be more or less fine.
But finding someone else who also had problems sleeping and actively wanted to hang out with him during said sleepless nights was a new sort of joy.
Especially when Kaminari knocked on his door at four in the morning and asked if he wanted to go get candy and snacks at the nearest convenience store.
Their friendship(?) had been back on the rise since they had their little apology session in the library, and Hitoshi had begun to realize just how attached he’d gotten to Kaminari in the first place. He’s sweet in a way that doesn’t feel fake or over the top, the kind that just feels genuine because it’s not entirely who he is and not the only part of his personality he shows.
This, Hitoshi thinks, is probably why he likes him so much.
And yes, he’s admitting it. He’s done trying to hide it from himself.
Anyhow, when Kaminari shows up at his door at four in the morning with a skateboard under his arm and a particularly mischievous grin on his face, Hitoshi had already started getting his shoes on before he’d even finished asking him to go. Hitoshi grabs a hoodie and a hair elastic, then grabs the keys for his bike lock and leads the way down to the nearest exit.
Kaminari follows along after him, hopping down the stairs, clearly brimming with more than enough energy for two people (or maybe more). He’s grinning to himself, Hitoshi can picture it perfectly, and Hitoshi had also noticed two sections of Kaminari’s hair is braided and pinned at the back of his head. It’s unfairly cute, and Hitoshi vows to admire it a little more when neither of them are on the stairs and thus at risk of falling down said stairs and breaking their ankles. Hitoshi had done that once and he does not recommend it. Not fun.
By the time they get outside and to the student bike parking area next to the building, Hitoshi’s pulled his slightly too long hair back into a short braid that’s just a bit too loose but leaves his neck exposed and makes it so that his long bangs don’t cling to his face. The elastic is really loose (he has a bit of an emotional attachment to this one in particular), so he has to wind it around the last bit of hair after the braid like six times. It’s a little awkward, what with the small chunk of hair elastic, but it’s out of the way and that’s all that matters.
As he unlocks his bike lock and tugs his bike out, he hears Kaminari dropping his skateboard to the ground. And, when Hitoshi turns around, he sees Kaminari standing with one foot on one end of the skateboard and the rest propped up.
He’d never been one to think skateboards were cool, but the way Kaminari grins at him and then kicks off and goes zipping away, Hitoshi almost thinks that it’s graceful. Because it is! To a degree.
He follows quickly, not bothering with a helmet, and then the two of them are rolling quietly through the ghost town of a university campus. The wind feels great in Hitoshi’s hair and he props himself up with no hands on the handlebar and tilts his head back just a little bit. He’d long since mastered biking with no hands, and it makes the whole experience all the more relaxing.
It’s cold outside, the way that spring nights are, but it smells perfect. Everything’s fresh and flowery and Hitoshi has no doubt in his mind that there will be due on the grass tomorrow morning.
It takes them maybe five minutes to get where they’re going, but it’s enough to make Hitoshi feel reborn in a weird, stunted sort of poetic way. By the time they stop and Kaminari hops off his board and picks it up and tucks it under his arm, Hitoshi feels almost like he’d finally slept well despite not having slept at all. He even feels he has a faint, almost-smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.
He quickly tucks his bike into the bike stand and locks it (he doesn’t trust anyone that’s around a convenience store at four in the morning, thank you very much), then jogs to follow Kaminari into the convenience store.
The fluorescent lights are a harsh contrast to the darkness of the outdoors, but Hitoshi manages not to hate it too much because it makes Kaminari’s hair look softer than it already does. The little braids in his hair that are both pinned back also look slightly more magical, with the bobby pins glinting whenever he takes a step or his head shifts. Internally, Hitoshi wonders who’d done his hair and pointedly ignores how his heart does a little flip at the idea of Kaminari doing it himself and then maybe doing Hitoshi’s hair.
Oh gods fucking help me.
Kaminari moves through the aisles with practiced ease, and he plucks a chocolate bar off the shelves before nabbing a bag of salty something-or-others from a top shelf, then tugs open the refrigerators and grabs what could only be an energy drink. It’s a pink can, so Hitoshi can only imagine the drink has more sugar than your average factory-made cupcake. But he doesn’t say a word about any of that, because he grabs the can that houses a coffee-energy drink hybrid. A horrible mistake, but he has a caffeine addiction to feed.
Kaminari wrinkles his nose, grinning faintly when he sees Hitoshi’s can. “Dude, you drink those?”
“And you drink those?” Hitoshi gestures to Kaminari’s drink.
Kaminari rolls his eyes playfully at him and tosses another little bag of chocolate filled panda cookies at him. Hitoshi catches it as best he can, praying he doesn’t break them too badly, then grabs a small package of mini mochis.
Blame Uraraka.
They make it to the register quickly enough, and the worker gives them a tired smile before quickly scanning everything. Their hands move faster than Hitoshi can really see, which is legitimately impressive. Unfortunately, though, it distracts Hitoshi long enough for Kaminari to body check him out of the way, whip out a debit card, and pay before Hitoshi can even really process it happening. He doesn’t even have time to open his mouth to protest before Kaminari’s tapping the card against the little machine thingo.
And, not a second later, the thingo beeps and the worker passes Kaminari their bags of snacks. They even give Kaminari a friendly, almost familiar smile that Kaminari quickly returns, along with a cheerful ‘thanks!’
By the time they’re outside, Hitoshi’s already scolded Kaminari for not letting him pay half.
“You can just pay next time.” Kaminari shrugs, still grinning at him. “Think of it as a trade-off, y’know?”
Hitoshi groans. “Fine. But you’d better let me pay next time.”
“Mhm, whatever you say.” Kaminari’s eyes sparkle.
They take up residence under the nearest streetlight and Kaminari distributes their snacks with almost as much efficiency as the convenience store worker.
Hitoshi, meanwhile, is busy being entranced by how Kaminari looks in the orange-y warm light of the streetlight.
His face looks warmer, softer, and his freckles stand out even more. His eyes are more molten gold than pale gold now, and his lips look like they’re blush or something. The light catches his eyelashes when he looks down at their snacks again, but then when he looks up at Hitoshi again, Hitoshi silently catches his breath. He looks like some sort of sun elf prince.
“Uh.” Kaminari tilts his head at him, still smiling faintly. “You good?”
“Yeah.” Hitoshi averts his eye and opens his can with an all too satisfying tschhhhh noise.
Kaminari mutters a ‘nice,’ next to him and opens his own can.
The street around them falls entirely silent as they sit there, and Hitoshi feels his heart start to pound in his chest. It’s almost as bad as when he’d fallen on Kaminari, or almost kissed him in that coffee shop, or… literally anything else. Just being next to Kaminari makes his heart go batshit these days, which, to Hitoshi’s overly self-aware brain, means that his crush is just getting worse.
It’s nice, though, just sitting here with Kaminari. It makes Hitoshi feel almost like everything’s alright with the world. Maybe the planets have aligned or the stars are, for once, on his side. Who knows.
There’s a little shuffle next to him, and Hitoshi almost turns to look at Kaminari, but then Kaminari’s setting his head on Hitoshi’s shoulder and Hitoshi feels his heart rocket up into his throat oh god oh fuck. He freezes solid, doing his absolute best to not give Kaminari any indication that he doesn’t want this. Because he does want this, Jesus fuck does he wants this.
“Y’know…” Kaminari’s voice is soft, barely more than a whisper, but it feels loud in the blanketing silence around them. “I like you, dude.”
Hitoshi twitches. “You do?”
“Mhm.” Kaminari turns his head, smiling against his shoulder. “I do. Like, a lot. And I’m really glad you don’t hate me.”
“Why would I hate you?”
“Well I’m kind of annoying.” Kaminari sighs, and Hitoshi can feel his smile falling. “I have too much energy, talk too much, all that.”
“Kaminari.” Hitoshi says quietly, “I… that’s part of why I like hanging out with you?”
“Wh…?”
“You’re energetic,” Hitoshi explains, trying his absolute best to keep his voice steady. “And you talk. I don’t… I don’t feel pressured to hold up my end of the conversation. You make it easy to just… be, in a way. I don’t have to feel bad about not talking much when I’m with you, and that… that uh. It means a lot.”
The street blurs in front of Hitoshi. When had he started tearing up?
“Oh,” Kaminari’s voice is even quieter now. “You don’t have to feel pressured to make yourself talk if you don’t want to.”
“And you don’t have to feel pressured to stop talking around me.” Hitoshi says softly. “Besides, I like hearing you talk.”
“Aw.” Kaminari snorts, once again smiling against his shoulder. “I’m flattered.”
Hitoshi hums softly, taking another sip of his drink.
And, for a long few minutes, the two of them just fall silent. It’s peaceful, the best kind of peaceful, and Hitoshi wishes he could pause the passage of time and keep himself here for the rest of eternity.
But then Kaminari lifts his head from his shoulder, sits up a little more, and plants a kiss on Hitoshi’s cheek.
Hitoshi whips his head around to stare at him, eyes wide. Kaminari is already sitting normally again, biting at the straw he’d stuck in his drink can. But Hitoshi knows him well enough by now to recognize the rampant anxiety burning in his eyes when they make eye contact. He thinks he fucked up, Hitoshi knows it, and Hitoshi almost panics as he tries to figure out a way to make him realize that he definitely hadn’t fucked up.
And the only thing he can think of is to reach out, cup Kaminari’s cheek, and pull him into a proper kiss.
It’s short, chaste, barely more than a peck, but Hitoshi feels entirely too breathless when it’s over. Kaminari’s eyes are still closed when he pulls away, his eyelashes kissing his cheeks in a way that makes Hitoshi want to scream. He looks beautiful, beautiful isn’t even the right word to describe it.
“Um.” Hitoshi rasps. “I. Uh.”
Kaminari opens his eyes and beams at him, soft and honey-sweet. “Yeah?”
“Uh." Hitoshi swallows and tries to get words to actually work god fucking damnit.
Kaminari raises an eyebrow at him. “Can I kiss you?”
Hitoshi feels his cheeks heat up. He nods.
Kaminari’s kiss is like- well, it makes Hitoshi’s toes curl in his shoes and sends heat burning down his back and pooling in his lungs. It feels like the first bite of a freshly baked angel food cake, like the smell of chocolate chip cookies, like the way sunflowers look in broad daylight. It’s more- it’s more than Hitoshi could have ever imagined, and he never wants it to stop.
That is, until he realizes he’d forgotten to keep breathing and has to break the kiss to satiate his lungs.
He pants softly, breathless as if he’d just been sitting at the bottom of a pool for just a bit too long, and he can feel Kaminari’s eyes sweeping over his face in gentle, slow arcs. His gaze is soft, familiar by now, and Hitoshi never wants him to stop looking.
Then Kaminari smiles and sunlight bursts, sticky-sweet, in Hitoshi’s chest.
“That was nice,” Kaminari whispers, “I’d definitely wanna do that again.”
“Um-” Hitoshi swallows, sounding noticeably more out of breath than Kaminari. “Yeah. M-me too.”
Kaminari laughs and maybe, just maybe, the planets are aligned.
“Date me?” Kaminari breathes, one hand coming up so he can brush the pads of his fingers over Hitoshi’s cheek.
Hitoshi nods. It’s all he can manage.
Kaminari kisses him again.
And Hitoshi’s not religious, but the way Kaminari is smiling against his lips might convince him that maybe a God does exist, because only someone all-knowing and all-powerful could create a moment so perfect.