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“What the fuck is that noise?” Bakugo groaned, levering himself up from his bedroll with a bleary glare. Eijirou sat up as well, tilting his head slightly as he listened.
“Music?” he guessed, and Bakugo flopped back down with a louder groan. “C’mon, Bakugo.” he poked his friend in the side, ignoring the low growl this earned him. “It sounds like a whole party out there.”
“No.” Bakugo grunted into his pillow, turning his head just enough to give Eijirou a one-eyed glared. “Sleep time now.”
Eijirou rolled his eyes, then rolled to his feet. “Well I’m checking it out.” he huffed, shuffling forwards to untie the tent doors. “These people are letting us stay here, even with-”
“Say something stupid about yourself and I will set your stupid shitty hair on fire.” Bakugo threatened, not joking in the slightest.
“Alright.” Eijirou shrugged, and slipped out of their tent. Bakugo would complain tomorrow about having to fall asleep cold, but Eijirou knew his buddy was all bark and no bite when it came to that. These strangers on the other hand, he didn’t know at all. They’d been here for all of a day and the only people who’d interacted with him or Bakugo were grown-ups making sure they weren’t going to burn the camp down or something.
“Hey, it’s the dragon guy!” a high voice called out as he approached, and Eijirou froze.
“Hey, dragon kid.” a dark-haired boy broke free of the crowd, tailed by a boy with a yellow-tipped tail swinging behind him and a girl with violently pink skin. “Your name’s Kirishima, right?”
“Kirishima Eijirou.” he confirmed with a nod, and the pink girl beamed.
“I saw you landing last night. You look so cool in full shift!” she bounced on her toes a little, inhumanly dark eyes shining in the firelight, and Eijirou realized she’d been the one to spot him approaching. “Mashi and I are super boring, by comparison.” she threw an arm around the tailed boy’s shoulders, presumably ‘Mashi’, and pulled him in with ease.
“Mina, mina!” Mashi flailed until Mina released him, and gave a full-body shake that sent droplets of liquid flying from his neck and shoulder. “Apologies.” he sighed, and gave Eijirou a small smile. “I’m Ojiro Mashirao, that’s Ashido Mina.”
“And I’m Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu.” the dark haired boy said with a sharp-toothed grin, jabbing a thumb at his chest. Wow, Eijirou almost felt bad for the guy.
“Nice to meet you all.” Eijirou bowed his head briefly. “So uh, what’s the party for?” he gestured at the throng of people, undoubtedly celebrating, and the three local kids exchanged looks before sniggering.
“We’re celebrating yesterday’s raid, duh.” Ashido bounced away from Ojiro’s side and looped her arm through his. “C’mon, they raided a bakery and brought back loads of sweets!”
“I like sweets.” Eijirou chuckled as Mina started dragging him around the edge of the dancing throng.
“What kid doesn’t?” Ojirou asked. and Tetsutetsu laughed.
“The Toko-bros.”
“What kid with human taste buds doesn’t.”
“Who’re the Toko-bros?” Eijirou asked as Mina darted ahead, slipping between adults to presumably raid the table they were standing around.
“The other shifters our age aiming to be Warriors.” Ojirou answered, and Eijirou jumped as an arm stretched over his shoulder, angled in front of his face.
“Those two over there.” Tetsutetsu said, and Eijirou followed his pointing finger to a pair of identical boys with fluffy black bird heads. “Mimicrows, the both of them.”
“Wonder what’s got Fuan in his human form tonight.” Ojiro mused as Ashido came running back with two plates absolutely full of pastries and other baked goods.
“I got plenty to share.” she declared, plopping down cross-legged on the ground, and Eijirou followed suite. Maybe this place wouldn’t be so bad after all.
---
Katsuki twisted and turned, trying to get comfortable enough to fall asleep even with the sounds of the tribe’s party bleeding through the thin walls of the tent alongside the cold. Stupid Kirishima, getting distracted checking out the music and not coming back. It was definitely past bedtime, but he wouldn’t be able to fucking sleep without his personal human-sized space heater to keep the tent at a livable temperature. Finally, Katsuki gave up and pulled his outer layer up from the foot of his bedroll to put on properly. If Kirishima thought he could stay up all night like some dumb teenager and still get up for their morning training, Katsuki would just have to explode some sense back into his stupid head.
Stomping and grumbling, it took very little time to reach the towering bonfire the music seemed to be coming from. The bodies around it were three deep at least, and all much taller than him. He looked around, and spotted a smaller fire a ways off which had far fewer people around it. Shorter, too. A kids’ fire? The festivals back home had usually had a table set aside for the kids to eat at so the grown-ups didn’t have to worry about anyone sneaking booze, maybe these weirdos had a fire for the kids to dance around. Which was definitely what they were doing, spinning and weaving and clapping their hands against each others’.
Something hot flashed through Katsuki as he heard Kirishima’s laughter ring out from the kids’ fire, his eyes finally picking out the horned shape of his friend as the music changed and Kirishima was dragged close by a kid with a bird head. He stumbled a few steps before finding his feet, and then that brilliant laughter burst out of him again and Katsuki burned.
“Oi, shitty hair!” he shouted as he stormed closer, and Kirishima broke away from the bird brain holding him to spin and fix that brilliant, deadly smile on Katsuki like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Bakugo!” Kisihima reached out and snagged him by the wrist, pulling him in with draconic strength that Katsuki had quickly learnt not to bother resisting. “Dance with us!”
“Hey, blondie’s here!” a girl chirped, and Katsuki wanted to blow her stupid face off but Kirishima had grabbed both his hands and threaded their fingers together, to better pull Katsuki along after him in the dance.
“What are you doing?” he snarled, and Kirishima rolled his eyes.
“Teaching you the dance.” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “C’mon, Bakugo, just one dance? It’s fun!”
“Fine, but just one.” Katsuki snapped, and Kirishima whooped as he yanked Katsuki closer, until the heat rolling off his body was just as intense as the warmth of the flames they circled.
“You won’t regret it, I promise.”
Uncounted hours and innumerable dances later, Katsuki couldn’t even say his friend had been wrong.