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It was three weeks before Christmas and all through the dorms, not a creature was stirring, not even… ugh, who was he kidding, everyone was being so noisy.
Kirishima closed his laptop with a sigh and set it down beside him on the duvet with a muffled thump, before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and rising to his feet. He reached up to scratch the back of his head as he moved to stuff his feet unceremoniously into a new pair of bright red crocs, before padding across his room to open the door.
As he -maybe stupidly considering who his classmates were- stuck his head out to see what the din in the corridor was all about, a snowball hit him.
Right in the face.
“Wha- not cool man! It's already freezing!” Eijirou spluttered indignantly, shaking his head to dislodge the powdery remains of the unexpected and horribly chilly projectile from his hair as Kaminari’s laughter filled the hallway. He stood at the far end of the corridor, past Shouji’s room, grinning like an idiot.
Kiri rolled his eyes and ducked back into his room, only long enough to grab himself his favourite well worn but cozy Crimson Riot hoodie, before marching purposefully out to seek his revenge. He dropped the hoodie right outside his door, before snatching his shirt quickly over his head and discarding it too.
“Hey- hey dude, come on. Don't make me zap you.” Kaminari tried to reason instantly, holding his hands up before himself as he backed up a step, slippered foot knocking against an open cool box full of ready rolled snowballs, but there was still a smile on his face.
“You know you're not allowed to use your quirk in the dorms after you fried the place last month.” Eijirou reminded him with a grin, “but I can.” He lifted his arms to smash his fists together with a laugh, hardening from the waist up before his knuckles even touched.
Two more sets of laughter rang out, and Eijirou turned his head, looking just past Bakugou’s dorm room door to see Mina standing on Sero’s shoulders to reach the tall ceiling as he fed her tape from his elbow to hang up decorations.
Wait.
Not decorations exactly. Mistletoe.
He looked up. What the-?
There had to be at least a hundred sprigs of the stuff; some fresh, some clearly fake plastic, and some even made from green crepe paper with tiny white Pom-poms glued on. They dotted the whole corridor ceiling, green and white and festive… and most worrying - mainly clustered right around his and Bakugou's dorm room doors, and the area between them.
“Mina!” Eijirou dropped his voice to hiss quietly, “that's so freakin’ obvious!” He bemoaned, sweet chilly vengeance forgotten and hardening fading from his skin as he turned to shoot his meddling middle school friend an exasperated look.
“Eiji-babe, this would be a complete waste of a golden opportunity to get a smooch from-” she cut herself off when Eijirou shook his head frantically, eyes widening in panic, and instead silently pointed a purple painted nail at Bakugou's door, before continuing, “-and you know it. We're just helping you out.” A grin split her face as she applied one more piece of tape to the ceiling, before hopping from Sero’s shoulders to land with a light thud and a bend of her knees.
Mina raised her arms above her head as she stood, taking a dramatic bow as Kaminari yelled, “ten points!” from the other end of the hallway. A moment later another snowball hit Kirishima right between the shoulder blades, and he turned to face the decidedly even more unhelpful blond.
Kami shot him a shit eating grin and picked up another softly packed ball of wintery ammunition, tossing and catching it one handedly before drawing his arm back once again.
“Bro, I'm gonna kick your ass.” Kirishima warned, but he felt a grin spreading across his own face as he activated his quirk.
Kaminari let the snowball fly as Eijirou ran forward, before turning to grab two more and attempt to make his retreat, laughing once again.
Kirishima grabbed him by the back of his gaudy green Christmas jumper and yanked him back, before tossing him to the floor. He followed the blond down and laughed when the two snowballs were smushed right into his hardened face as Sero and Mina's own laugher rang out behind him.
Eijirou pinned Kami with one big hand and reached to grab a ready rolled ball of revenge, before stuffing it right beneath his classmate’s collar.
“No- no!- oh my god that's freezing!” Denki gasped a laugh as he struggled futilely.
“You were throwing them right at me man, turnabout is fair pla-”
“What the FUCK are you idiots doing?!”
Kirishima’s head snapped around to see Bakugou standing just outside of his own open dorm room door, palms up as an explosion crackled across each.
“Uh oh, the grinch is here.” Mina stage whispered loud enough for them all to hear and Kaminari gave a snort beneath him, as Kirishima sat back with a sheepish smile at his best friend.
“Sorry man, we were just-”
“I was trying to fucking sleep!” Bakugou snapped, glaring at the others pointedly before his gaze bore right into Eijirou's, a scowl creasing his brow, “why are you on top of dunce face? And where is your shirt?” He demanded, before seeming to catch himself. A light blush stained his cheeks and he quickly drew his shoulders up as he set his jaw, “I'm going to bed, keep it the fuck down or I'll kill you all.” He growled. And with that he stormed back into his room, slamming the door so hard it rattled the hinges.
The corridor was silent for a few heavy seconds before a low collective, “oooooh” rang out from the three pains in Kirishima’s ass.
“You guys are jerks I swear.” Eijirou grumbled as he stood, grabbing Denki by the front of his jumper to heft him to his feet effortlessly, “I was gonna ask him what he wanted for Christmas, and now he's all mad.” He bemoaned, throwing back his head to whine his exasperation.
“Awh honey, don't feel bad. We’ll help!” Mina exclaimed excitedly, before quickly lowering her voice with a glance at Bakugou’s bedroom door, “c’mon lets go downstairs, I'll make hot chocolate.” She offered in another stage whisper.
Kirishima shot her a skeptical look, “I dunno how ‘helpful’ you guys think you are, but you're really not - so forgive me if I'm not jumping at the offer.” He grumbled, but grabbed his shirt and hoodie and trailed behind Mina to take the elevator down to the common room, Sero and Denki following after.
Eijirou pulled his clothes over his head and eyed the cool box in the lightning hero’s hand, before sighing, “someone remind me to grab a mop on the way back up, I'll have to clean up before I go to bed.”
“Nah man, this is quirk snow, it'll just disappear in like an hour. One of the new first years’ quirks is ‘winter wonderland’ and they've been to all the dorms to leave a huge pile of snow outside to get some practice in. This stuff doesn't melt, it just vanishes after a while, it's awesome.” Denki explained with a grin as he shot the redhead a thumbs up.
Eijirou felt his eyebrows shoot up, impressed despite his grumbling a moment ago, “that's a pretty manly quirk.” He commented, as the elevator doors slid open and they all filed out.
Mina headed straight into the kitchen to make apology hot chocolate, and they all settled in one of the large sofas in the common room.
Almost an hour later Kirishima sighed, having received no good advice from his idiot friends as to what to get Bakugou as a gift. The advice had ranged from ‘dick in a box’ to a giant cactus, and one of them -cough Kamiari cough- had even tossed out the idea of getting blasty a prostate massager to ‘improve his shitty mood’.
“You guys suuuuck” Eijirou whined, throwing back his head for what seemed like the fiftieth time that night. He made to rise and excuse himself, but a voice sounded behind him.
“What about smell your mum?”
He tensed. “What about my moms? How about fuck you?” He offered, teeth bared as he turned to see Shinsou raising his eyebrows in slight surprise at his passive threat.
“It's a website, dipshit. Cool your jets.” Shinsou rounded the sofa and handed Denki a slice of fruit cake, “T said he's gonna be a little late, but he's definitely coming so don't worry.” He assured the blond as his voice softened, before he turned back to Eijirou, “it's a website that sells aggressive tshirts. The asshole will probably love it.” He commented offhandedly, before shooing Mina so that he could sit down next to Kaminari, throwing an arm around the blond as he did so.
“Aggressive tshirts?” Kirishima asked with a frown as he moved to sit on the edge of the sofa cushion.
Shinsou cast him an assessing look, before rolling his eyes, “I wasn't lying. Just google it or something. And get lost, you're taking up Tetsu’s space.” He grumbled, pulling Denki’s head to press against his chest. The blond immediately gave a happy hum and relaxed, throwing an arm around the mind control hero’s waist as he snuggled closer, dropping crumbs all over him as he nibbled at his cake a moment later.
“You're so rude, bro.” Kirishima commented as he rose from the sofa and stretched, “but alright. Aggressive tshirts might be the best advice I've gotten tonight.” He conceded, before flashing the indigo haired teen a sharp toothed grin, “tell T I said hey, I'm going to bed.”
A collective ‘goodnight’ rang from everyone in the common room as Eijirou turned to make his way back to his room, and he smiled, lifting a hand to throw a wave backwards as he made his exit.
He had an idea now, at least.
As it turned out, Shinsou’s advice was perfect.
Eijirou spent the next couple of hours browsing though some of the most offensive and stupid tshirts he might have ever seen. And some of them were just so Bakugou it almost hurt. He snorted a quiet laugh as he added a black shirt with the slogan ‘fuck off and DIE’ printed across its front in large white letters, before looking for another.
He found one that simply said ‘I Bite.’ And added a red one to basket for himself with a smile.
FUCK OFF. And when you get there, fuck off some more…
Yep, probably that one too, Eijirou huffed a laugh as he added the shirt, before removing one that wasn't as good and checking out his purchases. He shut down his laptop and got ready for bed, snuggling down beneath the covers to get as much sleep as he could before school the next day. He'd definitely stayed up a little later than he should have.
The next week and a half, Eijirou fretted about the third shirt he'd bought his best friend.
It was…
Shit it was probably too obvious.
It wasn't like Eijirou was planning to keep his feelings to himself forever, but wasn't it super cliché to confess around holidays? He'd bought the shirt because it was fitting and he'd thought it was funny, but it might very well out him to the blond.
He was still debating even as he wrapped the shirt carefully and wrote the tag.
Maybe he should have wrapped it in different paper so that he could chicken out if he wanted, Eijirou thought as he stared down at the three small identical gifts on his bed. He bit his lip nervously.
Too late now.
Actually, maybe not. He was sure he had a little wrapping paper left he could just-
A loud bang sounded as Bakugou kicked open his bedroom door and barged in with a large box. The blond set it down with a huff and shoved his hands into his pockets with a scowl. His cheeks were a little pink, and Eijirou found himself staring, heart hammering in his chest at just how pretty his best friend was.
“Open it.” Bakugou demanded, “got something else too, but I don't know if you'll like it. And if you make fun of me, expect to get punched.”
Kirishima couldn't help the surprised laugh that burst from him at the blond's words, “dude, chill. I'll love anything you give me.” He assured, flushing slightly a moment later at his own almost admission.
Eijirou quickly grabbed Bakugou’s presents and handed them over, before moving to tear the wrapping from what he discovered was a new set of metal dumbells with adjustable weight options, “shit this is awesome!” He exclaimed happily, before standing to snag Bakugou for a quick hug.
“I dunno why your other ones have teeth marks in them, but they look shitty.” Bakugou grumbled as he averted his eyes with a light blush. He moved to stand beside Kirishima’s desk, setting two of his gifts down before opening the third.
“Ha! Fuck yeah.” Bakugou laughed, shooting Eijirou a smirk that almost levelled him, before opening the second and laughing again, “where the hell did you find these?” He asked with a snort, “they're fucking amazing.” He picked up the third gift and tore into it.
Eijirou couldn't answer as he fought not to bolt, watching his best friend unroll the third shirt.
“Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Hate me because I'm better than you?” Bakugou turned to stare at Eijirou for a long moment, his gaze almost assessing as he chewed at his bottom lip.
“I- I thought it was cute - I mean funny - I mean-”
Bakugou dropped the shirt to the desk, before stepping forward. “You think I'm beautiful?” He stated, but there was an edge of nervousness that Eijirou had never quite heard colour his best friend's voice before, and it made his words a question. He swallowed and opened his mouth to try and formulate an answer but Bakugou spoke first. “If you laugh at me, I'll kill you.” He growled, before shoving a hand into his pocket and pulling out a sprig of mistletoe.
A sprig of…
Of…
“Holy shit, what-?” Eijirou blurted out, as they both blushed furiously.
Bakugou didn't answer him, he simply shoved the green and white confession into Kirishima’s hand, before stuffing his own into his pockets and dropping his head to stare aggressively at the floor.
Eijirou swallowed as he stared at the slightly crumpled mistletoe in his hand. He'd taken them all down the next morning almost two weeks ago, so Bakugou wouldn't feel uncomfortable, and so that poor Shouji wouldn't have to deal with getting caught either.
Had Bakugou saved one, or had he bought another?
He realised it didn't matter as his best friend growled, low and angry, and turned to leave, having obviously taken Eijirou’s silence as a rejection.
“Wait!” Eijirou panicked and tossed the little green sprig in his hand, grabbing his best friend by the arm to practically yank him backwards before he reached the door. Bakugou turned to shoot him a glare, baring his teeth defensively.
Knowing anything he'd say right then would likely make the embarrassed blond even worse, Eijirou did the only thing he could think of.
He kissed him.
It was too hard, too awkward and desperate, and definitely not a kiss that would make it into any record books of ‘best kisses ever’ - but as Bakugou tensed and then relaxed against him, Eijirou found that he didn't care.
An awkward first kiss was still a first kiss.
“You weren't holding the mistletoe.” Bakugou said as he pulled back, red faced and clearly half shocked as he drew the back of his had across his lips.
“I-” Eijirou swallowed and mentally kicked himself in the ass for encouragement, “I don't need mistletoe to want to kiss you.” He admitted, his own cheeks flaming, “I wanna kiss you everyday, like all the freakin’ time. And yeah, I do think you're beautiful.”
Holy crap he'd finally confessed! What the hell did he do now??
He panicked silently for a moment.
But luckily he didn't need to do anything, as Bakugou grabbed him by the front of the shirt and yanked him forward, “me too.” He said quietly, cheeks still pink as he brought their lips together for a much softer kiss than their first.