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One of the most unexpectedly great things about being a hero was the kids, Eijirou decided. It was one thing to have fans, but it was another thing entirely to have a small child look up at you with unabashed awe. The kids made Eijirou really feel like a hero, beyond the charts and his statistics and almost everything else.
He brought it up with Bakugou sometimes - that it felt good to have that sort of admiration sent his way. That maybe he was inspiring people. His long-time best friend and current roommate scoffed at him every single time and told him that anyone would be stupid not to admire him. Which, well, that brought up a whole range of other feelings that Eijirou was trying to keep under wraps.
Anyway, Eijirou was currently grinning down at the latest kid who had approached him and his partner after a battle with a villain. It had been a relatively quick fight, all considered. Some dude had been yelling something about watching the world burn and had activated a quirk that made fire plume up around his feet. Eijirou and Bakugou had dodged around or blocked the flames the villain had kicked at them, until Eijirou tackled the guy to the ground and fixed him up with a little quirk-suppressant tape. There were a few scorch marks here and there, but nothing had been damaged in the scuffle. An all around success.
Eijirou and Bakugou had given their statements to the police and gone to grab some refreshments from a local corner-shop before they went back to their agency for the proper write-up. That was where the kid had bounded up to them.
“Hey there! What’s your name?” Eijirou said, crouching to look the little boy in the eye. His mother stood back with a soft expression on her face.
“I’m Michi! Uh, Ueda Michi! You’re Red Riot!” the boy said, grinning just as wide as Eijirou with an impressive set of gnashers. “You beat that villain! You’re so cool!”
“Thanks!” Eijirou said. He jerked his chin over his shoulder. “I couldn’t’ve done it without Ground Zero, though.”
Bakugou nodded at the kid.
“Yeah! Ground Zero makes things explode, so awesome, like, pchewww!” Ueda said, moving his hands in explodey motions. “But you can get all spiky and like, we have the same teeth!”
“We sure do,” Eijirou said.
Ueda chattered at him a little more, and then his mother pulled him away and thanked Eijirou and Bakugou for humouring him.
“It’s no problem, honestly,” Eijirou said, beaming some more as she tittered and moved off. Eijirou sighed with contentment, his heart all full of fuzzy warm feelings of satisfaction. He looked back around at Bakugou, who was looking at him with a half-smile on his face. It was an expression so fond that it almost made Eijirou blush. “What?”
“You’re good with kids,” Bakugou said, shrugging a little. “I swear, you have time for every li’l brat that heads your way.”
Eijirou straightened up out of his crouch and elbowed Bakugou on the side. “Aww, you know you’re my favourite brat.”
“Shuddup,” Bakugou said, without any heat.
Eijirou laughed, starting towards the chilled drinks. What did he want? Maybe an orange juice or- Bakugou grabbed his arm, and Eijirou turned to tilt his head at the other hero. “Hm?”
“Let’s get a takeaway tonight, yeah?” Bakugou said. “In honour of your takedown today.”
Eijirou snorted and Bakugou let go of his arm. “Our takedown, but sure. I’m just gonna grab a drink then. You thirsty?”
“A bit,” Bakugou said eyes twinkling with some joke that only he’d really understood that he’d made. Eijirou noted that down to analyse for later. “But I’ll wait ‘til we get home and just have something then.”
“Great,” Eijirou said, and went to buy the orange juice.
Their agency was only just around the corner, and their shared apartment took up the top floor of it, so it wasn’t long before they’d got back. They debriefed all their staff, started a little of the paperwork, and finally Eijirou allowed himself to flop face-down onto their sofa after a shower and a change of clothes. He could hear Bakugou making the order for their food on the phone - one they’d both memorised - and sighed into the cushions.
“Oi,” Bakugou said, a few minutes later and the phone set down. “Budge over.”
Eijirou rolled onto his back, groaned to make his displeasure known, and shuffled up to let his best friend onto the sofa. Bakugou sat and reached over Eijirou for the TV remote. This stole the breath from Eijirou’s lungs for a moment as Bakugou’s face hovered inches from him - faced to the side but still. If Eijirou moved forwards, he could have kissed Bakugou’s cheek or the edge of his jaw.
He didn’t, but he could have.
Bakugou was gone again, just as sudden as he’d been there, and he began flipping through the channels on the TV for something to watch.
“Hey, when’s the food due?” Eijirou asked, pulling out his phone to browse his social media. News of the arrest ought to have circulated by now.
Bakugou glanced at the time. “Mm, about half an hour.”
“Nice,” Eijirou said, eyes still glued to his phone. Yeah, there it was. ‘Red Riot and Ground Zero Quell a Fiery Foe!’ Eijirou clicked on the article - good, it was written by one of the reporters Eijirou had befriended. It helped to have some of the media on your side, after all. She had made sure to emphasise the ease of capture and lack of collateral damage. He’d probably get a phone call from her in a day or two about doing an exclusive interview, but that was only fair trade.
Eijirou clicked out of the article and went to look at the comments that had been left on the link to it. Praise from fans, a couple of slightly uncomfortable raves that were somewhat inappropriate, a few negative things that he refused to dwell on, and then there were the kids again.
A couple of kids had drawn pictures of the fight, and their parents had posted about them. One had Bakugou in the air, big plumes of orange from his hands, and Eijirou all in red and sitting on a frowning villain. The other was a picture of just him and Bakugou in their hero costumes, smiling. Eijirou’s pointy teeth and Bakugou’s pointed frown were both prominent. They were holding hands in the drawing. God that was so cute.
“Whatcha smiling at?” Bakugou asked, turning away from the TV.
Eijirou twisted his phone around to show him the drawings. “Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”
Bakugou studied the pictures for a moment, and then his eyes moved back to Eijirou’s. “Nah. Fourth place, maybe.”
“Yeah?” Eijirou grinned. “You got a ranking system? What’s your top three?”
Bakugou grinned back at him and held up three fingers. “Third place? Puppies. The li’l shits are adorable.”
Eijirou snickered. “Man, okay, I agree with you there.”
“Second place is kittens,” Bakugou said. “And they only win out over the puppies ‘cause I kinda prefer cats.”
“Interesting,” Eijirou’s head filled with the idea that they might get a cat one day. It would sprawl itself over every surface, shed fur over all of their clothes, curl up between them when they- Eijirou pushed the fantasy away. Now was not the time to indulge in that sort of thing. “What about first? What does Bakugou Katsuki find the cutest thing in the world?”
“You.”
Eijirou blinked. Bakugou watched him with bright, hard eyes. Was he looking for a reaction? What sort of reaction?
“Huh,” Eijirou said, too stunned to even tilt the sound into a question.
Bakugou’s lip curled into a tiny smirk. “You’re the cutest fucking person on this planet, Eijirou.”
Oh, well, so this was what Bakugou was like when he was flirting. Eijirou had always wondered.
“Really?” Eijirou asked, kind of embarrassed by the hopeful note in his own voice, and kind of thrilled as Bakugou leaned towards him.
“Mmhm, nothin’ else even comes close to you,” Bakugou said, and, oh. His fingers skimmed the back of Eijirou’s hand.
Eijirou found it in himself to raise an eyebrow, despite the shivers rolling down his spine. “Oh? You never looked in a mirror, Katsuki?”
Bakugou grabbed the collar of Eijirou’s shirt and tugged him into a kiss. Fucking finally. Eijirou hummed and scrabbled for purchase on Bakugou’s chest, his arms, his shoulders, before settling around his waist. Bakugou pulled Eijirou backwards and they toppled over, teeth clashing.
Eijirou laughed at Bakugou’s spit-out curse and kissed his frustration away. Bakugou’s hands tangled in Eijirou’s hair, and a tongue probed past his lips. Holy shit, hoooly shiiiit! Eijirou let his hands roam again, bunching up fabric here, tracing over skin there. Their breathing grew just a little faster and more ragged with each kiss, and holy shit they were making out on their sofa, in their apartment, together.
All of Eijirou’s little half-forgotten half-dreams came surging into his skull. The cat, the kisses, a proposal, moving to a proper house, sharing a bed, a wedding, kids of their own, growing old together. Eijirou felt tears welling up in his eyes, and Bakugou jolted underneath him when the first one dropped down onto his cheek.
“Hey,” Bakugou said, brushing his thumbs over Eijirou’s cheeks. “You okay?”
“Hm-mm,” Eijirou said, nodding. He dropped his head to Bakugou’s chest. “Happy.”
“Fuckin’ sap,” Bakugou muttered, rubbing circles with his fingers over the back of Eijirou’s neck.
Eijirou nodded into Bakugou’s shirt, earning a snort of amusement. Eijirou looked up, then, so he could see Bakugou’s face. “Your sap, uh, if you want me.”
“Yeah,” Bakugou breathed, playing with a lock of Eijirou’s hair that had come down from its spike whilst they’d been grabbing at each other. “Course I do. Shoulda done this fuckin’ years ago.”
Years? For Bakugou too? Eijirou opened his mouth to say more, to spill out all of his heart for the man who owned it, but a knock on the door announced the arrival of their meal. Eijirou sat up, patting gingerly at the mussed-up mess that his hair had become.
“Want me to get the door?” Bakugou asked, watching Eijirou’s small panic with an infuriating, delicious-looking smirk. Eijirou wanted to kiss him again, but they had someone waiting outside so it was probably best to postpone that.
“Please,” Eijirou said, climbing off of his… boyfriend? Was that enough of a word to describe what they were?
Bakugou went to the door - it wasn’t the food person themselves, but one of their employees in the Agency letting him know that the delivery was downstairs. It was one of their safety measures - no strangers could get access to their apartment.
“I’ll be right back,” Bakugou said, and left to retrieve their meal.
Eijirou starfished himself over the sofa to pant and beam up at the ceiling. Oh man. Had that just happened? Had that whole thing been real? Eijirou touched his lips. Yeah, it had. Bakugou had called him cute and kissed him and said it should have happened years ago.
Did that mean he’d been interested for a while and had been good at hiding it? Had he known already how Eijirou had felt? There were so many questions swirling around in his head, blending with all of his emotions in a big ol’ brain soup. The door opened again after what seemed like an age, and there was Bakugou, holding a couple of bags full of food. Eijirou bounced out of his seat and threw his arms around him.
“Oi,” Bakugou said, but he didn’t sound too annoyed. “You’re gonna make me drop these.”
Eijirou relented until Bakugou had deposited their bags onto the table, and then he was diving into a kiss. “You were gone for so long.”
Bakugou snorted and caught Eijirou’s face between his hands. “You always gonna be this needy?”
Eijirou tried to nip at Bakugou’s fingers. “Absolutely.”
“Good,” Bakugou said, planting a kiss on Eijirou’s nose. “C’mon, let’s eat. We can talk and whatever the fuck afterwards.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Eijirou said, reaching up to grab one of Bakugou’s hands from the side of his face.
He wanted to say so much more. To tell Bakugou that he loved him with all of the words he’d been storing up inside since they’d met. To ask whose bed they were going to curl up in tonight because Eijirou knew he wouldn’t want to leave Bakugou’s side. To ask Bakugou out on a date for the first time. If it was okay to have this be the exclusive news for Eijirou’s reporter friend so that the whole world would know?
For now though, Bakugou’s smile and his hand clasped in Eijirou’s own? That was more than enough.