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Heroes still had bad days. He didn’t have to feel bad about having one of them, because everyone got them . . . right?
Eijirou didn’t really know if what he was doing right now could be considered heroic or manly, but there he was, hiding in his room, the only sounds breaking the still silence being his pitiful sniffling. He hadn’t cried, but he had wanted to, and the unshed tears still ached in his chest. He was just being so stupid about this; his problem today didn’t deserve his tears.
So what if some girl liked Bakugou?
It wasn’t like Bakugou would like her back . . . right?
Eijirou knew he shouldn’t care about whether or not his best bro liked some girl; he knew that, if anything, he should be happy for Bakugou! His best bro! Getting some love! Everybody needed love, and if anyone needed or deserved to have more love, it was Bakugou. That was why Eijirou loved him so much! That’s why Bakugou, even though he could get a little grumpy and be a little uncouth, was Eijirou’s best bro!
It had nothing to do with the way Bakugou’s stare seemed to dig underneath his skin, as if he could reach out and touch Eijirou from the otherside of the room with just those carmine eyes. It had nothing to do with the fact that, when Bakugou smiled, Eijirou was hit with such a wave of overwhelming happiness that he couldn't breathe for a few seconds. It had nothing to do with the fact that Eijirou’s eyes couldn’t help but linger on the well-defined muscles of Bakugou’s back when they changed in the locker room.
Because it wasn’t like he was in love with his best bro, that would be just silly, wouldn’t it?
. . . right?
Yeah, silly . . .
Fuck.
God, how did this happen? So, okay, Eijirou respected and admired Bakugou, that was true, and sure, Eijirou really liked Bakugou’s tenacity, and his humor, and his face but they were just best bros! Just buddies! Buddies that made special exceptions for each other all the time, buddies that got jealous when girls flirted with the other one in the dining room, buddies that wondered how their buddy’s lips would feel pressed against their own . . .
Oh god, Eijirou was in love with Bakugou.
Or, at least, crushing super hard. How had he not noticed? He had noticed immediately when he had a crush on Ashido in middle school! Except, this felt nothing like that. Sure, he had felt pumped and inspired when he was always around Ashido in middle school, but nothing like he was when Bakugou so much as looked at him, and his heart didn’t race the same. Maybe he didn’t have a crush on Bakugou, then? Or maybe he hadn’t had a crush on Ashido afterall. Well, that would make sense if he had a crush on Bakugou . . . and he had always kind of liked looking at men more if he was being honest . . .
When his door slammed open and pulled Eijirou out of his pondering, he may of let out a very undignified squeak, but Bakugou looked too angry to care and if Eijirou was never going to admit it did it matter?
“B-Bakugou!” He yelped, smiling shakily. He really couldn’t deal with his big gay revelation and Bakugou at the same time because, now that Eijirou had faced the obvious, his brain had gone entirely into ‘Appreciating Bakugou Katsuki’s good looks’ mode, and damn, now that he was really paying attention there was a lot of fodder for that mode.
“What the everlasting fuck, Kirishima?” Bakugou said, and his voice sounded pissed off, but he was frowning instead of scowling, his brow furrowed like he was confused rather than angry. Eijirou offered him an uneasy smile, and Bakugou seemed to calm down just a tiny bit at its appearance. Bakugou breathed, hot and angry like a bull, but then he visibly reeled himself back in.
“Why have you been avoiding me all day?” Bakugou said, his voice betraying a certain vulnerability to it once it was stripped of its anger. Eijirou blinked, and then the feelings of guilt eased in. He was moping over his crush on Bakugou and he hadn’t even considered how his evasive behavior might be affecting his friend. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from the blond.
“I’ve just been having a bad day, yaknow? Sorry,” Eijirou said. Bakugou made a disgruntled noise and before he could look up, the other boy was sitting beside him on the bed. His gaze lingered on the way Bakugou wiped his palms against the legs of his sweatpants and then clenched them tight into fists; his eyes trailed up his tightly flexed arms to settle somewhere vaguely around his shoulder.
“It isn’t - you don’t have to -” Eijirou finally looked at Bakugou’s face, at the way he was clenching his teeth and pushing the words out as if they were painful.
“Hey,” He said, laying a comforting hand on Bakugou’s shoulder. The other boy’s eyes darted towards him, frustration clear in their red depths. His stare glanced over Eijirou’s face, making it feel warm under his scrutiny. “You don’t have to force anything, okay? I’m sorry,”
“Fuck Kirishima!” Bakugou blurted out, shaking his head in disbelief. “Stop fucking apologizing just -”
He made another disgruntled noise, and then he was surging forward, tackling Eijirou back into the bed, his arms wrapped around his waist. Eijirou blinked, mind swept up in processing Bakugou’s weight and warmth pressed against him and the tight grip that the other boy had around him. He waited for something, anything to happen but Bakugou just stayed there, their legs tangled together from when Eijirou had fallen over; the only sound in the room being their breathing.
“Uh,” Eijirou muttered, hesitantly laying a hand between Bakugou’s shoulder blades. The muscles underneath his hand twitched in reaction to his touch and Eijirou’s heart fluttered. He didn’t really want to end this but -
“Bakugou, what are you doing?” There was a muffled curse and then a second later Bakugou was pushing himself up and over Eijirou, effectively straddling him and the redhead thought that he might, honestly, die. Bakugou was frowning, frustrated again, and a blush was crawling up his neck.
“Fuck, you’re - you’re a touchy person, right? Always fucking hugging people,” Bakugou muttered, and when he didn’t continue Eijirou hesitantly nodded. Bakugou copied the gesture and then looked away again, and the fact that he was embarrassed was honestly just, like, the sweetest thing Eijirou had ever seen.
“Aren’t they supposed to make you feel better?” Bakugou mumbled, and Eijirou blinked, not understanding for a second what Bakugou was saying. The last thing he said had been about hugs, but what did they have to do with anything? Hugs did make Eijirou feel better, but he wasn’t sure what that had to do with the way Bakugou had tackled him into the mattress. Unless, of course -
“Oh,” he said, because Bakugou had been trying to hug him. In an aggressive, awkward way that was so wholly Bakugou, but not only that, Bakugou was trying to make him feel better. He couldn’t help the stupid grin that crossed his lips.
“Fuck, I - fuck -” Bakugou wasn’t looking at him though, and the blush on his face had gotten redder, more noticable. He started trying to get off the bed, to climb off Eijirou.
“No, wait!” He said, maybe a little louder than he needed to, quickly leaning forward to cling to Bakugou’s frame. The other boy tensed, his entire body feeling like coiled wire under Eijirou’s arms, but then he hesitantly wrapped his arm around his back, making Eijirou smile into the crook of Bakugou’s neck.
“Thank you, Bakugou,” He said, humming a little. He felt some of the tension ease out of the blond’s shoulders. “I feel better already.”
After a second, Bakugou laid them back against the bed, wrapping his other arm around Eijirou. They were effectively cuddling more than they were hugging, but neither one of the boys acted like they particularly cared at the moment. One of Bakugou’s hands wrapped around Eijirou’s neck, making the redhead shiver when he ran his fingers over the baby hairs he found there.
“Good,” He said definitively, and Eijirou’s heart soared. He didn’t understand why, in retrospect, he let himself get so jealous since there was no way Bakugou would be doing this with anyone else.