Chapter Text
Bakugou loved the mountains. The snow suffocated any excess noise. The isolation allowed him peace. The chilled air let him breathe easier. The mountains echoed his angry screams when he just couldn’t hold it in anymore. It was lonely, yet he never felt so at home. Well, most of the time.
So fucking what if he sometimes checked his emails or social media to see what his old followers were up to? It was just so he could see how much fucking better his life was than theirs—getting married and having kids and doing boring shit like that made him sick. In fact, he was so sick he threw the device across the fucking room, ears aching as the headphones flew with it, but he was surprised when he heard a much louder crash than what he was expecting.
“What the fuck?” He said to no one in particular. Not like he had anyone to talk to anyways. He was alone up here for the most part. There were occasional skiers, tourist, and some abandoned cabin down the road that looked old as dirt and just as fucking gross.
He stood up carefully, grabbing a baseball bat he kept by the door – not because he was afraid or anything, just because he liked beating the shit out of stuff like old cans or dead trees or what-the-fuck-ever. He didn’t have to explain himself to anyone.
Not that there was anyone.
He frowned before it quickly turned to a scowl and he crept towards the window. He heard another crash and a small yelp that sounded like a wounded animal. A groan escaped him – if another fucking cat tried to get into his woodpile he was going to scream and just light it all on fire. Last time he had never crushed the gray tabby that decided the wood he had collected for winter just looked like the coziest fucking bed to ever exist.
After yelling at the cat until it scurried away, he started to inspect the growing pile, kicking it a few times for good measure. He didn’t care about the stupid cat, but he didn’t really like the idea of accidentally fucking murdering it either.
He couldn’t really see anything. The dark purple and blue clouds allowed for no moonlight and most of the lights were off in his house anyways besides his small lamp in the living room. He glared out the window as if that alone would get the cat to fucking leave but when he continued to hear some kind of rustling and something speaking he decided he wasn’t going to just sit around while someone fucked with his shit.
Within seconds he was outside, the gentle crunch of snow the only sound he made as he circled to the corner of his house that the wood pile and noises had been coming from.
As he stood in the freezing cold, snow sloshing against his revealed ankles thanks to the short joggers he wore, he realized that maybe he should’ve thought this through better. Just because he wasn’t a fucking murderer didn’t mean that other people weren’t. His grip on the bat tightened and he wished he had grabbed a stupid flashlight, but he didn’t. Because he didn’t think this through. Like a fucking idiot.
The rustling only grew louder as he approached the tall, familiar pile and it wasn’t until he was just feet away that he heard the quiet string of curses that sounded like they fell between clenched teeth.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He demanded and suddenly the cause of the sound jumped up. Even at this close proximity he couldn’t really see the other but he saw something move.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know anyone lived here—well, that’s not totally true. I thought someone might live here but I wasn’t sure because I never saw anyone outside although you do yell a lot…” the guy’s voice quickly explained before a laugh—a fucking laugh, as if this shit was funny—left the man. “This isn’t how I wanted to meet you, but you didn’t answer when I knocked, and I ran out of logs and my house is freezing. I was going to ask but I—”
“Shut the fuck up for one second, damn!” Bakugou yelled, the bat shaking as his white knuckled grip somehow tightened. “Who the fuck do you think you are trying to steal from me? I should push you off the mountain.” He says and hears a nervous laugh leave the other.
He considers just how far the cliff is whenever the sound makes him twitch.
“I wouldn’t call it stealing. Like I said, I was going to ask but you didn’t answer so I thought maybe you left for the holidays. I was going to bring more wood back once I finally got settled but I didn’t want to like freeze to death or anything.” There’s something that sounds like amusement in the other’s voice and Bakugou wants to kill the man. Stranger. Thief. Fuck.
“You think this is funny?” He asks but his grip on the bat has loosened. Nobody stupid enough to rob someone is strong enough to take him on. He almost wishes the man would attack him, so he could beat the shit out of him or throw him over the cliff or something, so he never has to hear that laugh or smirk in his voice again.
“Well, kinda. I mean, I’ve been wanting to introduce myself, but I didn’t think this is how it would go. I should’ve expected something like this though from the guy who yells at mountains.” There it is again. That stupid way his voice practically shows that he’s smiling. Bakugou hates this guy. Thief. Whatever.
“What kind of dumbass comes to a strangers house in the mountains to introduce themselves and then tries to rob them? Are you fucking insane or are you just stupid?” He demands and hears a small sound from the other before he presses on. “Now I’m out here in the fucking cold because your dumbass didn’t plan ahead and was going to freeze to death.” Red eyes narrowed at the stranger who then fucking laughs again. Again. He’s insane. Maybe it would be a blessing to the world to let the stranger freeze? But if the guy like dies on his property he’s pretty sure he would get in trouble.
“I’m sorry, really. I didn’t think I’d run out of wood so quickly and I didn’t have time to plan ahead with…” now the stranger does something even more weird. He’s silent. The amusement has been stripped from his voice and something else had replaced it. “I’ll pay you back. Let me buy you dinner? Or more wood? Or, I don’t know, I think there is a coffee shop in town. Maybe I could get you—”
“Shut up,” The heat from his voice is dwindling as the cold starts to set in. Bakugou blames his next decision on the simple need to get warm and not have the police arrive and find some weird stranger frozen to death in his yard. “Grab some logs and come in, I’m not freezing my ass off while we try to figure out how you can make it up to me.”
“Thank you,” the other says it so gently it makes Bakugou step back as if he’d been burned.
“Whatever.”
-
He expected the stranger to be around his age simply by voice alone, but he did NOT expect the stranger to look like how he does. He was imagining someone more tattered and dirty—he expected he would have to yell at him not to sit on his furniture or drag mud inside or something but that wasn’t the case. He now wished it was.
Instead, the stranger was hot. Handsome. Pretty? He wanted to hit himself with the bat. Said stranger was also polite, slipping out of his shoes and jacket and hanging them by the door so nothing dripped or got mud anywhere. The firewood he tried to steal sat quietly and absolutely unbothered by any of the night’s events outside the door. Bakugou had been turning about to instruct the stranger to do what he had already done when he fell silent.
Bright red hair poked out wildly from under a black beanie. Crimson eyes so similar to his own looked at him innocently and curiously and he wanted to die. Without the coat, he was left in a red sweater that matched his shitty hair and black pants. He looked put together enough that Bakugou almost demanded why the man was being such a fucking idiot and risking his life in the snow to get firewood. Did he not realize he could freeze to death out there too? Idiot.
“Are you okay?” Concern laced the stranger’s voice and Bakugou realized he was staring.
He blamed it on the cold even though his face felt plenty warm.
“I’m just looking at the biggest fucking idiot in the world. Are you okay?”
The smile was much more infuriating than he could’ve ever imagined. The smile radiated joy, washing over all his features—his eyes crinkled on the sides and his nose scrunched slightly and Bakugo realized he made a mistake.
“—fine, anyways, I guess I should finally introduce myself huh?” Another laugh. Another smile. A huge mistake. Bakugou hadn’t even realized the other was talking. He narrowed his eyes as a hand stretched out as if to meet his. It felt like they were far past pleasantries. “I’m Kirishima Eijirou, it’s nice to finally meet you.” And Bakugou swears it almost sounds like the stranger—theif—shitty hair—whatever actually means it.
“I don’t care,” He says quickly to hide the fact that he does care very much. His heart slamming against his ribcage helpfully supplies that not only does he care, but he wants to know more. How does he get to know more about this dumbass? “Bakugou Katsuki.” He glares at the other’s hand until he retracts it although the smile never leaves shitty hair’s face.
“Bakugou?” A shiver threatens to rip through his body, but he doesn’t let it. It’s not cold anymore so there’s no reason he should be shivering. Another thing he can blame the dumbass for. “Sorry we had to meet this way. The first time I came over I had a gift, but you weren’t here.” Kirishima says as he awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. Bakugou wonders when he hadn’t been home?
Well, it’s not like he was home often. He tried to stay busy and enjoy his mountain haven, but he didn’t feel like he was gone that frequently.
“—then the next time I was going to see if you wanted to go to town, I figured since it’s a long drive I’d only be able to go every few weeks and wondered if maybe you needed something, but you weren’t here again.” He says this thoughtfully and Bakugou growls.
“When the fuck did this happen?” Because he truly didn’t remember being gone. He also didn’t remember having a neighbor close by besides the weird ugly cabin down the street.
Oh.
It’s also then he realizes he hadn’t been to town in a while either.
“The first was when I first moved in about two weeks ago, the town thing was earlier this week.” Kirshima says easily and Bakugou rolls his eyes.
“You’ve been here two weeks and didn’t restock your firewood?” He snorts and for some reason—instead of getting offended—the other decides to laugh as well. He decides he hates him. Shitty hair is his mortal enemy rivaled only by his stupid laugh.
“I told you, I didn’t really have time to plan and I was going to go to town but that didn’t really pan out,” he finally sees the amused look that matches the tone he had used earlier.
“Not my fault you’re stupid,” he says before heading towards his kitchen. When he didn’t hear footsteps behind him, he turned back to see the red head glancing at his phone with a frown before shoving it back in his pocket. “Hurry up.” Bakugou says for some reason he’s entirely sure has nothing to do with how his stomach turned at just how sad the other looked. He’s rewarded with the stranger—shitty hair—Kirishima jumping slightly before smiling and following him into the small kitchen.
-
Bakugou is the strongest fucking person in the world. Well, he’s at least sure he will be one day. He works out, pushes himself to be the best at everything he does—like collecting enough firewood to last all winter only to have it almost stolen by someone who thinks he can make friends with a stranger in the woods on a lonely mountain.
So yeah, Bakugou thinks he’s fucking great. He’s nice enough to not call the cops on the stranger—thief—Kirshima—whatever and he even offers the red head some of the hot chocolate he makes.
To the other’s defense, he might silently think that Kirshima is the best at not saying dumb shit even though Bakugou is sure he’s thinking it--if the amused smirk on the other’s lips is anything to go by.
He might also think he’s the best at being really fucking cute. Stupid but cute. The way he carefully places the small marshmellows in his drink, looking over at Bakugou as if he’s waiting for him to say something.
“You’re doing it wrong,” he wonders if that’s the wrong thing to say when the other seems to freeze his meticulous placement of the colorful mini marshmallows. Bakugou grabs a handful out of the bag and dumps it into his hot chocolate before stirring it, watching as the colors melt into the hot drink. He doesn’t expect the other to look so appalled.
“You’re an animal,” Kirishima says with no bite and Bakugou smirks.
“Damn right,” this earns him a smile and he drinks the burning liquid despite the pain. He’d rather focus on it than the red eyes that watched him.
It’s quiet for a few moments as Kirishima finishes arranging his marshmallows. Bakugou does really try to figure out why the fuck he cared so much about placement and color arrangement, but he doesn’t see anything special about the swirling colors until he realizes that Kirishima is copying his method.
He ignores the way his throat and face burn as he takes a large gulp out of his chocolate.
“So, do you have any family?” Kirishima ask after licking the chocolate off his lips and Bakugou is thankful for the distraction.
“Yep but not around here,” he answers only to receive an arched brow from the other. To which he continues even though he doesn’t know why—he doesn’t owe him a fucking explanation or anything. “I moved up here after college. I got tired of being around all the shitty people and shitty meaningless things and I’ve always like mountain climbing and being alone so whatever.”
He doesn’t like the quiet or the way Kirshima seems genuinely interested in what he’s said. He’s used to people listening to him speak. He’s not used to people actually contemplating his words. It makes his palms sweat.
“What about you? How did someone that didn’t even plan a way to stay warm decide to move to the middle of fucking nowhere?” Bakugou is surprised to find he actually really, really wants to know the answer. Not because he cares but because he wants to know who allowed this dumbass to be on his own so far away from any guidance or anyone that would be like “hey maybe you shouldn’t go to a strangers house and try to be friends or invite him to town or rob him” but Kirshima seems to still and Bakugou for once finds himself worrying he may have said the wrong thing.
He never says the wrong thing. He’s the best.
But not always.
And actually, he kinds sucks, doesn’t he?
He boxes those thoughts up and shoves them away, giving his undivided attention to the red head who is carefully holding his mug. “I just needed to do some stuff on my own. I always felt like I was in the background in my own life or like…I just felt like I wasn’t even important which is silly because I had great friends and a good family but...I don’t know. I figured maybe if I got away, I could figure some stuff out, ya know?” He says and Bakugou does know. Fuck, he knows so well and suddenly he’s aware that they just met an hour and a half ago and Kirishima just told him a weird truth that Bakugou actually understood and it makes his skin tingle but not in a bad way.
“People and things suck,” he says as if that explains it all and he’s rewarded with a toothy smile.
“I should probably get going. It’s getting late and you never know what kind of weirdos are up here,” the red head says with a smirk and not even Bakugou can hid his own smug look.
“Yeah, I’d say you might run into some other idiot looking for firewood, but I think you’re the only one in the universe that didn’t plan that shit out.” He says and he doesn’t know what he was expecting but it wasn’t the gentle smile and softly mumbled, really sincere sounding “lucky me” and the blonde freezes before Kirishima is standing and washing his cup like a respectful idiot and making his way towards the door with Bakugou following as well. Just to make sure he can lock the door so no other freaks try to get in.
“Maybe we can go to town soon? I need to repay you. You never even told me what you wanted!” Kirishima almost sounds worried as he pulls on his winter coat and boots.
Bakugou feels like it should be obvious what he wants. Even if he can’t admit it to himself.
“We can go to town tomorrow and you can get logs so you don’t have to rob anyone and maybe buy me some hot chocolate and we’ll be even.” The look on Kirishima’s face alerts Bakugou that maybe he’s onto the fact that this isn’t exactly a fair trade but the red head says nothing and offers a smile instead.
“Okay deal. You’ll answer the door this time right?” He teases as he opens said door, collecting the logs that brought them together. Bakugou should hate the stupid shits but instead he wants to thank him.
He does none of this, of course, and instead places a hand on the door and smirks at Kirishima who meets his gaze almost excitedly.
“If you’re lucky.”
“Goodnight Bakugou.”
He thinks his heart is trying to kill him when it skips a beat.
“Goodnight shitty hair.”
If Bakugou watches until he can no longer see Kirishima—which in this dark isn’t very far—it’s his own business.
And if he sleeps well that night, he says it’s a coincidence.