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"Phew!" Kirishima wiped off the sweat from his brow before his hands planted on his hips in victory. "We did it! Made it to the top!"
"Hip hip hooray," Bakugou muttered dryly, smirking at Kirishima's unimpressed pout when he came up beside him. "Not bad for your first climb."
"I mean, it's not my first, but definitely the closest I've come to doing a hike by myself." Kirishima shrugged.
"You mentioned," Bakugou said without jeering. Almost serenely.
"Wow..." Kirishima looked in awe as Bakugou shouldered off his backpack. "You're in an awesome mood." He beamed. "You really do love mountain climbing!"
Bakugou gave a twitch of a smile, rolled his eyes to dampen the effect.
"Yeah, whatever." He set down his bag, rolling his shoulders before he hunkered down to unzip it. "Help me set up camp for the night."
"By this tree here?" Kirishima asked, his sure slaps of the thick, corded trunk of a tree dampened to thin pats. "Can't say I know my trees well, but this one's real solid."
"Yeah, I usually camp there," Bakugou said.
He watched Kirishima crane his neck up at it like a child in wonder, stroking down the tree, then his gaze snapping down, like he just noticed the gnarled bark beneath his fingertips. His lips popped open a hair, and Bakugou couldn't help a snicker in his mouth.
"Like it?"
Kirishima's head spun to spot Bakugou.
"Yeah, man," he said, nodding. He went back to looking up and down the tree. "Dunno, just—a tree this strong and mighty on a peak like here? I just find that real manly."
The earnestness of his response drew Bakugou's smile just a little wider.
"Alright, enough o' that." Bakugou crouched on one knee, unloading his tent pack from the top of his bag. "Help me set up."
"On it!"
Kirishima hopped off the great, protruding roots of the tree, giving a hand to Bakugou who knew his way around tents, but took his time with his new two-person one.
Kirishima took rest and sat by the rounded-off edge of the peak, arms draped over his knees as he looked out at the view. His gaze floated towards the sun tickling the horizon, throwing light over the city, a toy structure from so far away, dappled across the trees of the mountains. Most green with round, puffy leaves, interspersed with a thinner spray of buds on otherwise naked, flowering trees.
"Wow," Kirishima whistled. "So you come up here every month by yourself?"
"Yeah... Path up here's nice, not too beaten." Bakugou scratched the underside of his chin, examining the tent they set up on the hard-packed earth by the tree. "It's a good hike."
"It is! I'm real glad you invited me!" Kirishima put up both fists, punching them together. "This is such good bro-to-bro bonding!"
"Call it that and I invite you never again."
"Alright, alright," Kirishima yielded in a little laugh. Humming to himself as he stood up, brushed off the back of his shorts and joined Bakugou back at their little campsite. "It totally is, though."
"Swear to god—"
The peak echoed with sparking pops and laughter.
In the middle of the night, Bakugou heard scratching.
He woke up bleary-eyed, turning over his side to see Kirishima gone. Past the space where Kirishima was a shuddering circle of light on the tent-face, a low hoot of an owl and constant scritch-scratch serenading the moving light and shadow.
He popped his head out of the tent to see Kirishima crouching by the tree, using his pocket flashlight as a working light, illuminating his profile in the navy blue night for Bakugou to glare at.
"What the fuck are you doing," he deadpanned.
Kirishima looked over, the innocent surprise on his face transforming into delight. He spluttered once, lips screwed up in a held-back laugh at Bakugou's explosive hair matted on the side he slept, his nose wrinkled in a dozy brand of his trademark pissed-off face.
"Sorry, I couldn't really sleep." He brought up his hardened hand, a muddy brown powdering his sharpened fingers. "I thought of doing something real quick before trying again."
Bakugou squinted when Kirishima used his flashlight as a spotlight, directing his attention to the bark. Then, when his sleepy brain caught up, he kept staring.
K.E. & B.K. were here!!
"I, uh." Bakugou looked back to Kirishima rubbing at his hair. It curtained around his neck, with his hair gel out. "Wanted to carve in some fire emojis afterwards. Y'know, to capture that fiery spirit that drove the hike up here, but," he yawned while Bakugou's eyes fluttered from rolling up so hard, "I think I managed to get a little drowsy killing time like that, fortunately."
"Wonderful," Bakugou grunted. "Now get the hell back in here and sleep."
He laughed as Bakugou's head popped back into the tent. His flashlight clicked off, dipping the peak back into an inky night.
"Man," Kirishima pouted. "I'm gonna miss this tree."
Bakugou snorted. "Sorry to rip you away after your time together."
"I know, it's only been a night." Kirishima sighed, shrugging. "But it's real nice, y'know?"
Bakugou peered at him with a quiet frown. Glanced at the towering tree of the peak, then back. Contemplating.
"Who said you won't come back?"
Kirishima turned fast, smiled slow, like Bakugou had offered him something precious, incalculably amazing with the question.
"You'd invite me again?"
Bakugou blinked. Kirishima's sheer passion often gave him second-hand embarrassment—this time it had him flustered at a dizzying pace.
"Why the hell wouldn't I?" he crossed his arms, imperious, speaking like Kirishima was the one missing something. "Not like you're a god-awful climber or make me wanna tear my hair out. So, yeah, I'll let you come again."
"Awesome!"
Kirishima punched the air, his voice billowing out into the forest. He blinked when he saw birds rustle branches from opting flight to fight. Bakugou only raised one, unimpressed brow, while Kirishima's smile waxed sheepish.
"Oops..."
Bakugou clicked his tongue, knocked him on the head. Rolled his eyes and turned around when Kirishima complained, smiling till he fell into step beside him on the way back down, overseen by that towering tree on the peak.
"Keep up, Ei," Katsuki looked once over his shoulder, his teasing grin coming easy. "Or did you finally turn into a rock after all that quirk training?"
"Aw, babe, you should be a comedian," Eijirou grinned sugar-sweet at him.
"I know," Katsuki said, laughing when his smile collapsed into a pout. "I'm fucking hilarious."
"Welp," Eijirou shrugged, "if that's what happens when I take my time, so be it."
He came up next to Katsuki on the peak, watching him put down his backpack on the beaten, hard-packed earth. Eijirou came up from behind him, wrapping one arm around his waist. His other stroking down his shoulder blade, while his chin perched on his other, squeezing Katsuki's back closer to press against his chest.
"Though you usually like it when I do," he murmured, smiling languidly. Planting a kiss at the crook of his neck.
"Ugh." Katsuki scrunched his nose, a smile dawning on his own lips as he pushed Eijirou's cheek from his shoulder. "Stop being gross and help me set up."
"So cold," Eijirou moaned, quietly theatrical. "I'd lick your hand to retaliate, but my tongue hasn't developed resistance to nitroglycerin yet."
Katsuki scoffed. "Yet."
"You'll see, baby, you'll see."
"Look, Katsuki!"
"What'd you add this time?"
Katsuki looked up from his backpack to Eijirou's giddy pointing at the tree next to which they set up camp countless times before. At the brown bark that donned the pink tint of the sky, and paler etchings on its gnarled skin, every one dated by a year carved like a footnote beneath.
"I added grenades for your gauntlets and my shoulder gear thingies—"
"Pauldrons."
"Pauldron, cauldron; potato potato—next to our initials!" he pointed out while Katsuki snorted. He rocked back on his heels as his hand morphed out of hardening. "I gave myself a lotta room to work with with the heart." He nodded in approval.
"God, our first date." The heels of Bakugou's palms were rubbing over his eyelids when he started laughing. "Thought you were gonna chop down the fucking thing carving that hugeass thing in."
"I remember, you were yelling that at me," He sidled up to Katsuki. "But you were all red and really loving it. I could tell." Eijirou nosed his cheek, grinning. "It was totally cute."
"Fuckin' take that back," Katsuki muttered like a cub trying to growl, reddening.
"Oh, my bad." Eijirou wound an arm around his waist. "It was so hot. Mega manly." He planted a kiss on his cheek, grinning. "Wanted to drop my pants right there and then."
"Holy shit, stop," Katsuki snorted. Almost choked up between his cackling as Eijirou grinned wider, peppered more kisses across his face. Letting Katsuki brace his hands on his shoulders as he fended most off and returned one back, soft on the mouth.
"You know how some places never lose their magic? I think this is one of them," Eijirou decided, looking out at the view. "What do you think, Katsuki?"
Katsuki looked up—away from their equipment, their miniature camp rooted on the packed earth of the peak—to Eijirou.
"It's..."
He glanced at Eijirou, who watched for his answer with kind eyes, a dimpling smile. The sunlit landscape crowned his silhouette, set his hair aflame, brought out the twinkle in his eyes.
Sure-footed as he was on this trek—never slipping or tripping once on his way up—Katsuki's breath caught in his throat. Swallowing, he let down his chin.
"Beautiful."
"Isn't it?"
With a blinding, brightening smile, Eijirou went back to admiring the view.
Behind him, Katsuki did too.
He tread next to Eijirou, bent down to nudge his shoulder. Hunkered down as Eijirou shuffled over, letting Katsuki sit close next to him, their thighs brushing. The open air of the mountain washed over them, crisp and bracing, as the day cooled into night. The city windows in the distance glinted pinpricks of orange. The buildings, treetops, on the slope of the mountain and the one on their peak, all donned the pink tint of dusk painting the sky, brushstrokes of clouds cotton-candy yellow fading and forming over its expanse.
"You know what I think...about why I like that tree so much?"
A golden silence fell to rest. Katsuki glanced at Eijirou, who was already looking at him, smiling softly.
"All strong and mighty up here, all by itself... when I started noticing it, I wanted to admire it, keep it company..." Eijirou grinned, a dimple, a crinkle hugging the corners of his lips. "That sound familiar to you?"
Katsuki stared at him. His gaze flickered over Eijirou's features, drinking in how the light cast over his features, more defined, sharper, handsomer over the years.
"Keep it company," he echoed. "You think it was lonely?"
"Nah." Eijirou shrugged a shoulder barely, easily. "Besides, when I'm around," his fingers laced between Katsuki's on the ground, "it definitely wouldn't be."
Katsuki's chest seemed to expand beyond breath from the depth and size of his beating heart, swelling like the rise of an orchestra, the curl of the tide. It bottomed out in a cymbal crash, a spill onto the shore, coming back home when he leaned into Eijirou in an easy kiss. Their skin pink-warm from the bright glow of sunset, the soft brush of full lips, a touch chapped lips, sliding in a gentle, familiar rhythm.
The skies had slipped to lilac when his eyes dared to open to see Eijirou, his hair a deep maroon in the dimming light, the scar on his eyelid tickled by Katsuki's own lashes, and his heart swooped in his chest.
"Eijirou." Katsuki whispered when they parted a breath away, reverently tender. "God, Eijirou, it's you." Sighed as he kissed Eijirou on the corner of his lip, on his Cupid's bow, uncontrollable. "It's always been you."
Eijirou chuckled, soft on a sigh. "Katsuki—"
"Eijirou, marry me." He could hear, feel Eijirou's breath catch as he held him. He held him tighter. "It's you. It's only ever been you, for me, I—" He gulped, fingers trembling. He looked into Eijirou's stunned eyes, thumbing his cheek, just by his fallen-open lips. "I wanna make you mine. Now and forever."
A second stretched like taffy, the string growing, growing, and finally falling when Eijirou nodded like he was shivering.
"Katsuki..." Eijirou whispered. Inaudibly hushed, for a moment, before nodding faster, and faster. "Yes...!" His smile grew wider, brighter, and his eyes crescented to a glimmer shine while Katsuki grinned impossibly wide with him. "Yes, yes, holy shit, YES—!!"
Katsuki had already braced himself when Eijirou tackled him, only smiling wider when he caught him bursting out into bubbling, euphoric laughter, making all the birds take off in a rustling symphony of branches and leaves, all around them.
The electrifying adrenaline never left. His pounding heart never stopped. Katsuki spent one moment and a little more taking in Eijirou's unbridled joy, because of him, because of them, and pulled Eijirou in for a deep, consuming kiss.
That night, Katsuki heard birds chirping and wood scratching.
"Déjà fuckin' vu," he croaked, popping his head out of the tent to squint at Eijirou, already sending an apologetic smile his way. "But kick my ass for lying if I said I expected anything different."
"Sorry I woke you, babe. But you know I had to," he said. "Still working on it, but almost done."
His flashlight stayed on his newest carving, GETTING HITCHF. Katsuki snorted.
"Almost, I said," Eijirou huffed. His smile spoiled the effect as Katsuki kept snickering, and he shook his head with a laboured sigh. "Man, what an immature fiancé I have."
"Oh yeah?" Katsuki said, cocking a brow, a smirk as he recovered. "S'that what you thought 'fore we went to sleep?"
"Nah, I had way better things to do then. Or more like," he winked at Katsuki, brows pumping with a cheesy grin, "A way better half to do, then."
Katsuki blew a raspberry laugh, rolling his eyes as Eijirou laughed. He looked back to the flashlight that shook with Eijirou's grip, a glint in the low light catching his eye. His engagement ring Katsuki gave him not hours ago.
"...I'll watch you finish it." Katsuki settled on his forearm, cupping his cheek. Noticing the cool metal of his own ring, matching, against his skin, and Eijirou noticing, which made him give a smile tempered by sleep. "Better do it extra fuckin' good, Ei."
"Oh, don't worry." Eijirou rolled up his sleeves, putting his fists up then together. "It'll be the best one yet, Katsuki!"
Katsuki hummed as Eijirou spun around, flexing his fingers before they hardened and got to work. Sunrise broke over the horizon, spilling yellow-gold over the bumps and valleys of mountains, high-rises and alleys of the faraway city, treetops on the rising slope. Where sharp chips in wood and the start of birdsong sounded at the top of the mountain, crowned by that sunlit tree on the peak.