Archive of Our Own

Bakugou walked off the elevator and made his way to his room. He was exhausted. He felt like he’d aged ten years in the past week. They had gone to summer camp, he had gotten kidnapped, All Might had retired—because of him, a small voice in his head added—and they had moved out of their family homes and into the dorms. They were still a week away from the beginning of the term and Bakugou just wanted to sleep. He’d been getting a maximum of three to four hours of sleep a night and Bakugou just wanted to sleep and not dream and…and actually feel rested in the morning. 

He’d talked to Kirishima several times since Kamino. Kirishima had even come over once during Bakugou’s lockdown and stayed the night. Bakugou had gotten the best sleep the entire week when Kirishima was there in the same house, in the same room, only a meter away from where Bakugou slept. He was relieved to find that, when they moved into the dorms, Kirishima’s room was right next to his. Bakugou wondered if there was any thought put into the room placements and if Aizawa-sensei knew how crucial Kirishima was to his sanity after Kamino…that they were close friends and they would benefit from having rooms on the same floor right next to each other. 

He glanced at the door that led to Kirishima’s room briefly before turning to his own room. At that moment, Kirishima’s door opened and he froze in the doorway staring at Bakugou. 

“What?” Bakugou asked brusquely. 

“I-I…” Kirishima stammered quietly, his face a little paler than usual. Bakugou frowned at Kirishima’s odd behavior and sighed.

“What’s up?” Bakugou asked, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. They’d both had it rough the past few weeks. Bakugou realized he came to rely on Kirishima. When Bakugou wasn’t busy avoiding everyone by locking himself away in his room, he often sought out Kirishima’s company, planting himself at the boy’s side. His presence seemed to quell the anxiety that settled in whenever he spent too much time alone.

Kirishima had also come to rely on Bakugou since the kidnapping. Since they had moved in, Kirishima had helped him unpack his things and had spent time in Bakugou’s dorm room. They hadn’t talked a lot about what had happened, just mostly hung out and played video games.

Shaking his head slightly, Kirishima looked away from Bakugou. 

“Uh, I’m sure you’re tired, nevermind—” Kirishima turned around and closed the door again. 

Bakugou groaned and opened the door to his room, dropping off his things before going back out into the hallway and closing his door behind him. 

“C’mon, Kirishima.” Bakugou knocked on the door next to his. “Open up.”  

He waited a few moments, agitation rising. He seemed like he had something to say, didn’t he?

“Kirishima.” Bakugou pounded on the door again. Finally, the door opened. 

Kirishima looked as exhausted as Bakugou felt. His boisterous energy didn’t radiate from every pore like it usually did. His red hair wasn’t spiked up like it usually was and it made him look… small. Bakugou felt a weight settle in his chest. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to get some sleep?” Kirishima asked softly, avoiding Bakugou’s gaze.

“Of course, I do.” Bakugou forced his way into the room. He knew that if Kirishima didn’t want him in there he could easily keep him out. Instead, Kirishima folded against the wall and let Bakugou in. “But you know I can’t get a good night’s sleep since it happened.” 

“Yeah,” Kirishima nodded as Bakugou went and pushed some rumpled laundry off the bed and sat down. They’d only been in the dorms for a week and Kirishima had already managed to turn his room into a mess. 

Bakugou shook his head slightly, finding the mess slightly endearing. He sighed again, wondering how Kirishima had been sleeping. A few days ago Kirishima had admitted to him that he also suffered from dreams about Kamino as well and Bakugou had been surprised to hear it. He wasn’t the one kidnapped by the villains, Bakugou thought to himself. Why should he be upset? 

Bakugou supposed it had been traumatizing for all his classmates to be attacked at the training camp and have a classmate taken right in front of them. In Kirishima’s case, he had already been back at the camp, and couldn’t do anything. Not that Bakugou expected that he would have…but of course, it was normal to feel that way in a class full of aspiring heroes. However, none of the others who were stuck in supplemental classes seemed as upset by it as Kirishima did… 

“Bakugou…” Kirishima started as he fidgeted with his fingers. 

“Katsuki,” Bakugou corrected him. “Just use Katsuki. You saved my freakin’ life, you can call me by my given name.” 

“Oh,” Kirishima swallowed loudly, his mouth hanging open a bit. Bakugou rolled his eyes. “Katsuki…” Kirishima muttered under his breath as if trying to get used to it. “Then you better start calling me Eijirou!” 

Bakugou smirked. 

“Yeah,” Bakugou nodded in agreement. “Fine, Ei-jir-ou.” Bakugou separated out the syllables. Kirishima snorted and Bakugou gave him a small smile, glad to see Kirishima somewhat back to normal. He came over and sat by Bakugou, before leaning back and stretching out on the bed. Bakugou turned towards him, folding a leg underneath him. “Did you wanna talk or what?” Bakugou prompted him.

“I dunno,” Kirishima sighed, staring up at the ceiling. “I just…didn’t…I didn’t want to be alone. I’m still not used to being here in the dorms and I feel safe, but it’s just…” 

“Yeah,” Bakugou mumbled. “Not the same. Too much change in such a short amount of time. The dorms, All Might’s retirement…” Bakugou hissed, clenching a fist. 

“Hey, you okay dude?” Kirishima asked softly, sitting up again. The quiet, careful tone irritated Bakugou even more and he was tired of telling everyone he was fine.

“No,” Bakugou admitted. “No, I’m not. I’m just…pissed right now. At everything. The villains, All Might, my rescue…” Bakugou muttered. 

“A-Are you… are you mad we rescued you?” Kirishima asked hesitantly.

“Mad?” Bakugou growled. He shook his head as he searched for the right words to tell Kirishima. “I’m fucking furious…furious that I made everyone risk everything to get me back. Talk about a useless hero who gets himself captured and can’t save himself…makes everyone else put their lives on the line to rescue him.”

“Dude, don’t be like that. It wasn’t your fault…and of course, we came to rescue you,” Kirishima assured him. “You’d do the same for any of us…well, I mean, at least I think so.” 

“Yeah, for you I would,” Bakugou mumbled. “…and everyone else, I guess. Probably shitty Deku too.” 

“Yeah, I figured,” Kirishima smiled with a quiet chuckle, letting his gaze wander down to his feet. 

“Don’t tell him I said that,” Bakugou hissed. Kirishima chuckled.

“Yeah, I won’t,” he promised.

“Whose idea was it?” Bakugou asked softly and Kirishima looked up again, turning towards Bakugou.

“Er, I mean we were all pretty hung up on what we could d—” Kirishima began nervously.

“Who said you should take your stupid asses all the way to Kamino to get me? Was it fuckin’ Deku?”

“N-No, it was me,” Kirishima muttered, closing his eyes and bowing his head as if to apologize. “I’m sorry, man…I'm the one who asked Yaoyorozu to make another transmitter to track those Nomu, hoping it would lead to you. I’m the one who asked Midoriya and Todoroki to come with me. I couldn't stand that I was in those stupid supplemental classes when you were taken and I couldn’t do anything to help back then. Iida and Yaoyorozu came just to ensure that we weren’t going to get in trouble again.” Kirishima finally chanced another glance at Bakugou. He didn’t look nearly as pissed off as Kirishima had expected. 

“You idiot,” Bakugou huffed after a beat of silence.

“I know,” Kirishima conceded. “I had no idea what we were doing, though. Midoriya is the one who came up with the plan to get you out of there.” 

Bakugou shook his head and clenched his teeth. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything, but Kirishima felt like Bakugou should know. When Bakugou didn't say anything in response, Kirishima continued. 

“He said…he was adamant that I had to be the one to call out to you…if it had been any of the others…” 

“I’m not that stupid, I…I would have taken it no matter who it was,” Bakugou muttered. “But I supposed it would have made me a lot more pissed than I am right now.”

“It had to be me,” Kirishima continued. “He said it had to be me.” 

“Yeah,” Bakugou finally agreed. “Yeah, I’m glad it was you…”

He reached out to Kirishima mimicking the rescue they’d carried out as a thank you gesture. Kirishima gave him a relieved smile and reached out, clasping Bakugou's hand firmly in his own. 

“I’m glad you were there, even though you could have been killed, you fucking idiot,” Bakugou continued and squeezed Kirishima’s hand as he said it. "You're so reckless, goddamn it."

“I know,” Kirishima grinned as he squeezed Bakugou’s hand. 

“Well, you shouldn’t look so fucking happy about it,” Bakugou rumbled angrily, but he pulled Kirishima in closer and pressed a kiss to his lips. Kirishima jumped at the abrupt and startling action but deflated as he leaned into the contact. Before he could reciprocate Bakugou hastily pulled away as if he suddenly realized what he was doing. 

“Whoa,” Kirishima breathed. 

Bakugou stared at Kirishima, looking mortified. He immediately pulled his hand away as he got up to leave. 

“Baku—Katsuki!” Kirishima called. “Katsuki, wait!” 

Before Kirishima could pull himself off the bed Bakugou had already left the room and retreated to his own, slamming the door behind him. He scrambled up off the bed, his mind racing. 

“Bakugou, please open up,” Kirishima begged from outside the room. He switched back to surnames, wondering if it had all been too far, too fast for him. “C’mon, I’m not mad, dude, can we just talk?” 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shouji get off the elevator and make his way to his room, watching Kirishima curiously. Kirishima smiled nervously before quickly retreating to his own room. He pulled out his phone and found the text conversation with Bakugou and started to type a message. 

Ok, I know u don’t wanna talk, but i’m not mad I promise, it wasn’t a bad thing, ok? That absolutely was not a bad thing.

Kirishima’s thumb hovered over the send button before finally committing. He threw his phone on the bed and went to finish getting ready for bed. When he returned, he still wasn’t feeling like he could fall asleep even though he was exhausted. He turned out the lights and plugged in his phone to charge, and continued to scroll through dumb social media posts idly with the hope that his brain would shut off at some point. 

Sometime close to midnight, Kirishima was just beginning to doze off when the phone vibrated in his hand. He startled awake seeing a new notification from Bakugou. 

I’m sorry for storming out on you

Kirishima sat up, blinking his heavy eyelids a bit to try and regain the bit of consciousness that had slipped into sleep. His fingers sluggishly typed out a response, not wanting to upset Bakugou any more.

it’s ok dude!! i get it, no worries!

Kirishima sighed but kept his eyes glued to the screen, waiting to see if Bakugou would reply. The read notification popped up and the indication that Bakugou was typing a response appeared. 

we can talk about it tomorrow

He sighed in relief but felt a little anxious, not even sure where that conversation would start. He bit his lip before replying. 

yeah, of course, sounds good! 

Kirishima smiled faintly at the words before lying down again, before deciding to type out one more text message. 

goodnight! sleep well~

He scrolled through his emojis and added a few sleepy emojis combined with some Crimson Riot emojis before sending it to Bakugou. The read notification popped up. Kirishima was about to put the phone down when he saw the three dots pop up again. 

yea you too idiot

Kirishima smiled to himself and closed his eyes, falling asleep with the phone in his hand. 

x

Kirishima startled awake again when there was a shout and then a loud thud against the wall across the room. After a brief moment of silence, there was a muffled scream that sounded like it could have been a sob. Without thinking Kirishima jumped up and ran out into the hall. Standing in front of Bakugou’s room, he raised his hand to knock at Bakugou’s door for the second time that evening. Kirishima wanted to check to make sure he was okay. He realized how ridiculous it was and glanced down at the phone still in his hand that he had ripped from the charger. 2:32 AM. Kirishima sighed and listened to see if he could hear anything else before deciding to knock. There was some faint rustling and instead, Kirishima opened his phone again.

U ok? 

There was a second pause but then the ‘read’ notification popped up. Kirishima waited and waited to see if Bakugou would reply but after a few moments went by, there was nothing, Kirishima tried texting again. 

I’m outside if you need to talk

I know you might not want to, but if you at least want company…

Kirishima waited and the ‘read’ notification popped up again. He waited again for a response, but nothing. He was about to return to his room when the door before him opened and a disheveled Bakugou appeared. 

“H-hey,” Kirishima greeted softly. “You okay?” 

Bakugou didn’t reply, and simply opened the door wider and nodded for Kirishima to follow him inside. Hesitantly, Kirishima stepped into the dark room and Bakugou returned to his bed. Kirishima shut the door behind him and waited for an indication of where he should sit. Bakugou scooted to one side of the bed and gestured to the empty space beside him. Kirishima blinked. 

“You wanna sit, or not?” Bakugou muttered before sniffling. 

“Y-Yeah, okay,” Kirishima came over and sat next to Bakugou in the small bed. “Nightmare?”

“I’m so fucking tired of this bullshit, ” Bakugou hissed.

“I know,” Kirishima sighed. “If I could, I would punch the crap out of your stupid nightmares.” 

“Hm,” Bakugou hummed, but Kirishima could tell he was slightly amused. 

Kirishima could see Bakugou’s hands resting in his lap and he reached out hesitantly to Bakugou and Bakugou extended his hand and clasped it. 

“‘M so fuckin’ tired…” Bakugou muttered again. “I just wish I could get some goddamn peaceful sleep.” 

“Yeah, it fucking sucks. Do you think the villains planned that it would fuck us up this bad after the fact? That it was part of their stupid plan? To traumatize us all?”

“The damn villains were hoping I’d be grateful to them for bringing me to the dark side,” Bakugou muttered. “I don’t think some stupid nightmares were part of their diabolical plans.” 

“Probably not.” Kirishima agreed. 

“Thanks for…” Bakugou mumbled, not finishing his sentence. “I’m sorry for…y’know, earlier. I panicked. I didn’t mean to, but you were just…so fuckin’ stupid and I…really like that about you.” 

“You… you like that I’m stupid?” Kirishima echoed. 

“Not like that,” Bakugou shook his head. “Like… getting our stupid classmates and hauling ass to save me. I’ve…I’ve never really had friends that would do that for me.” 

“Other than Midoriya…he was really upset when you were taken.” Kirishima realized. He knew that they had been close childhood friends. Kirishima had heard from Todoroki how hard Midoriya tried to save Bakugou during the camp and how wrecked he had been that he hadn’t been able to save Bakugou. 

“Deku is different. When he thinks he’s helping he’s just…fuckin’ irritating, y’know? Like he's better…like he's…like he’s looking down on me, even though he’s not fuckin’…” Bakugou seemed like he was at a loss for words, before finally picking up his train of thought. “Not like you. You’re…something else entirely.” 

“Hm,” Kirishima hummed to himself. 

Bakugou slid to lay down in the bed, slowly letting go of Kirishima's hand. 

“If you wanna try to get more sleep, I can go back to my room now…” 

“No,” Bakugou said quickly. Kirishima looked down at him, looking mildly confused. “C-Can you stay here? Just for tonight,” Bakugou asked quietly. 

“Yeah, if you want me to,” Kirishima agreed quickly, sliding down to lie next to Bakugou.

They’d shared a bed before when Bakugou had offered for Kirishima to accompany him to the expo hosted on I-Island earlier that summer. Bakugou had been invited for winning the sports festival. As part of the prize package, Bakugou had gotten a huge swanky hotel room and permission to bring someone else with him. 

However, the hotel room had just one large bed they had to share. Kirishima thought this was funny and a little strange. They let a high school student bring a friend and yet only gave them one room and one bed? Did they assume the friend would get their own room? Or did they think the winner would bring a family member? These were questions that ran through Kirishima’s head a million times when he saw the room meant for him and Bakugou. Kirishima had offered to lay out some of the bedding on the floor and camp out so he didn’t infringe on Bakugou’s prize as the winner of the sports festival. Bakugou had only looked at him as if he was stupid. 

This bed is huge, he had said. Don’t be a coward about it. Just share the damn bed with me. 

Now they were sharing a much smaller dorm room bed.

“Yeah, of course, I want you to,” Bakugou spoke softly into his thoughts.

“Okay, yeah,” Kirishima nodded. 

“Thanks,” Bakugou sighed and he closed his eyes.  Kirishima inhaled and exhaled, his breathing aligning with Bakugou’s. Eventually, Kirishima drifted off to sleep, feeling comforted by the warmth of Bakugou laying next to him.

x

Kirishima blinked awake as he heard the alarm he had set on his phone go off. He jumped a little realizing he wasn’t in his own bed. 

“Oh,” Kirishima sighed as he saw Bakugou beside him and he remembered what had happened last night. 

“Are you going to turn off that damn alarm or what?” Bakugou grumbled as he turned over and pulled the bedding closer to his body. 

“Y-Yeah,” Kirishima muttered as he found his phone, where it had fallen on the floor. He unlocked it and turned off the alarm, collapsing back on the bed closing his eyes for a moment more. “How’d you sleep?” Kirishima asked softly before turning towards Bakugou. 

“Fine,” Bakugou grumbled as he turned his face into the pillow, not seeming like he wanted to wake up just yet. 

Kirishima smiled, feeling a little relieved, hearing the sleep still coat Bakugou’s voice.  He sighed before sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Kirishima felt a hand on his own as he went to get up. 

“Kiri—Eijirou,” Bakugou grumbled. 

Kirishima felt his heart stutter upon hearing Bakugou use his given name. 

“Yeah?” Kirishima asked hesitantly as he turned back to Bakugou. Bakugou had twisted back around, his face still partially buried in the pillow, but his hand had a firm grip on Kirishima’s wrist. 

“Thanks.” Bakugou’s voice was muffled by the pillow.

“Yeah, any time, dude,” Kirishima smiled and before he could help himself he leaned down and pressed a kiss to Bakugou’s temple. Bakugou’s head snapped up and he blinked at Kirishima.  “I’m…gonna go get ready for class. Don’t fall asleep again.” Kirishima told him as if nothing had happened. 

Kirishima opened the door to Bakugou’s room and peeked out hoping Shouji wouldn’t be coming out of his room at the same time. When he was sure the coast was clear he opened the door all the way and hurried back to his own room. He gathered his things and headed down to the communal bath to finish getting ready. As he entered he saw Kaminari was still standing in front of the sink brushing his teeth.

“Morning!” Kaminari greeted him brightly around the toothbrush in his mouth. 

“Hey,” Kirishima returned as he set his things down next to the sink and ran some water to wash his face. 

“You ready for more ultimate move training today?” Kaminari asked after spitting out the toothpaste in his mouth. 

“Hell yeah! You know it.” Kirishima grinned after drying his face. His anxieties about Bakugou and the whole Kamino incident drifted from his brain as he and Kaminari discussed the previous day’s training and further potential techniques as they continued getting ready. Ojiro drifted into the washroom as well and they all excitedly talked about their training. 

Bakugou finally wandered in looking disheveled and exhausted. Kirishima gave him a small smile and Bakugou returned it subtly, careful not to let the other boys see it. Kaminari finished up and waved to the rest of them as he left the bathroom. Kirishima wasn’t too far behind after brushing his teeth.

When he returned to his room, Kirishima hurried to put his gym uniform on to head towards Gym Gamma where they were set to continue working on ultimate moves. He was just finishing styling his hair when he heard a soft knock on his door and his heart leapt. Kirishima went to the door and opened it, smiling broadly at Bakugou who still looked disheveled and sleepy, but was wearing his uniform and ready to head out.

“Thought we could walk to the gym together or some dumb shit,” Bakugou muttered. 

“Yeah, let’s go!” Kirishima closed his door as he stepped out into the hallway with Bakugou. They stepped into the elevator and it was quiet between them. Bakugou had promised they would talk about what happened last night, but he couldn’t bring himself to broach the topic…not this early in the morning. 

They stepped off the elevator and into the common room, where a few of their classmates milled around eating breakfast before heading to the gym for training. They stopped by the kitchen and grabbed a quick bite before heading out to the gym together.

Bakugou wanted to reach out and grab a hold of Kirishima’s hand as they left the dorms. He couldn’t stop thinking about how it had felt in his own hand the night before. Bakugou knew out here their classmates could see them as they made their way to the gym. He wasn’t sure he wanted them to know what was happening between them just yet. Hell, he didn’t even know what was happening between them at this point. 

x

Over the next few days, Bakugou tended to head to bed early enough that he didn’t have to socialize with any of their classmates. Finally, feeling enough concern for his friend, Kirishima followed him upstairs one evening. He retrieved his Nintendo Switch and went to Bakugou’s door and knocked, intending to keep him company even if they just sat in silence. 

“Can I…?” Kirishima asked as Bakugou opened the door. Bakugou shrugged and let Kirishima in without having to hear the rest of the question. Kirishima felt a little pleased with himself. He’d been anxious all evening about coming to Bakugou’s room and in the end, it had really been that easy. 

Bakugou returned to his bed and flopped onto it. Kirishima came and dropped onto the foot of the bed, shifting to sit with his back against the wall. He turned on the game he was playing last and lost himself in it for a little while, as Bakugou looked through his phone. 

Eventually, Bakugou put the phone down and crawled to the end of the bed where Kirishima sat, sitting next to him. He jammed his hands in the pocket of his hoodie and looked over Kirishima’s shoulder.

“What are you playing?”

“Let’s Go Pikachu,” Kirishima said, tilting the screen a little so Bakugou could see it a bit better. “You wanna see my team?” he asked, beaming.

The blond shrugged, leaning a little more of his weight against the redhead. “Sure,” he agreed.

If possible, Kirishima’s smile grew even wider as he opened up the menu to display his current team. He selected his Pikachu first, showing off its stats and outfit that he’d chosen.

“What the fuck is it wearing?” Bakugou asked with a raised brow, earning a laugh from Kirishima.

“Hey, don’t judge, I think she looks badass,” Kirishima defended with a slight pout.

Bakugou then squinted at the nickname of the Pikachu. “You…you named it Denki?”

“Yup! I mean, everyone calls Kaminari ‘Pikachu’ anyway, so…”

“I don’t,” Bakugou said.

“Almost everyone,” Kirishima amended with a chuckle, clicking to his next Pokemon in the lineup. 

“Should have fucking guessed,” Bakugou said, eyeing the Sandslash nicknamed Havoc.

“Am I really that predictable?” Kirishima asked.

Bakugou didn’t deign that with a response, just snorted and said, “Who’s next?”

Kirishima clicked next to his Onix, predictably named ROCK but using the Roman alphabet and not katakana. “It’s a shame this game doesn’t have the future generations available because I really wanna evolve him into Steelix…”

Bakugou hummed in what Kirishima assumed to be an agreement before they went onto the next Pokemon, a Mankey.

“I’m only a few levels away from Primeape,” Kirishima informed Bakugou.

“Why is it named after me?” Bakugou asked with a scowl.

Kirishima laughed a little nervously. “You really want me to answer that, dude?”

Bakugou’s voice caught in his throat. On the one hand, it was damn insulting that his name was used as a nickname for an angry monkey Pokemon. But on the other hand, the fact that Kirishima thought of him enough to nickname a Pokemon after him…

“I suppose it’s okay,” Bakugou relented with a pout.

Kirishima then showed him a Growlithe, appropriately named Dog in English.

“Can’t wait to get my hands on a Fire Stone so I can have an Arcanine,” the redhead said.

And then his last Pokemon, which had him smiling a bit bashfully, was a Metapod that was severely under-leveled compared to the rest of his party.

“I decided last-minute that I wanted a Butterfree,” Kirishima explained. “Haven’t thought about a nickname yet, though.”

Bakugou remained quiet for a moment, before saying, “Eijirou.”

“Hm?”

“No, I mean, name it Eijirou. It knows Harden, right?” Bakugou said.

Kirishima brightened. “O-oh yeah! Ha, like me!” He laughed, scratching his cheek. “Doesn’t it seem a bit egotistical naming a Pokemon after yourself?”

Bakugou shrugged. “Whatever, I think it fits.” He pulled his hands out of his hoodie pocket and picked at his nails absently. 

Bakugou leaned his head against Kirishima’s shoulder as he continued to watch Kirishima play. Feeling Bakugou’s hair tickling the skin under his jaw, Kirishima felt his heartbeat start to race. He tried to ignore the feeling as he continued playing. However, he was distracted now and was doing terribly, accidentally using all of his five remaining potions on Havoc when it only needed two and letting wild Pokemon knock out half of his team before running away. It wasn’t long until Kirishima could hear Bakugou’s soft snores. 

“Dude,” Kirishima chuckled to himself. “It’s only like 7:30.” But he knew how exhausted Bakugou had been recently and didn’t want to disturb him. Feeling less pressure now, Kirishima continued to play for a little longer, glad Bakugou was finally getting some sleep. 

After finally beating Lt. Surge and his team of electric fiends, Kirishima began to wonder what he should do about Bakugou. What if he slept like this the entire night? Kirishima needed to go to bed at some point. 

Just as he was thinking about trying to carefully remove himself from under Bakugou, Bakugou began to mutter in his sleep. Kirishima looked over to see if he was waking up or not, but that didn’t seem to be the case. He thought it was a little endearing to see the furrowed eyebrows even in Bakugou’s sleep. When Bakugou’s Quirk began to activate and pop dangerously from his palms Kirishima jumped, startled out of his reverie. 

“Bakugou?” Kirishima called softly. Bakugou didn’t respond and he began to twitch a bit. When Bakugou let out a grunt that sounded distressed, Kirishima shifted and tried to wake Bakugou up.

“Katsuki,” Kirishima hissed quietly. “Hey, dude, you’re okay.” 

Bakugou continued to twitch in his sleep, his expression going from angry to fearful as he whimpered. 

“Oh, man, no, c’mon.” Kirishima reached around and pulled Bakugou in closer.

“Mmnph, no,” Bakugou grumbled as he struggled a bit against Kirishima. 

“Hey, hey,” Kirishima grabbed ahold of Bakugou’s hand ready to activate his Quirk if need be as he felt the dangerous sweat on Bakugou’s hand. “You’re okay.” 

Bakugou startled awake and he instinctively pulled away from Kirishima. Kirishima stared at Bakugou, unsure what to say before Bakugou gave a sigh and pulled him in close, hugging him and gasping, trying to catch his breath.

“Hey, you okay?” Kirishima returned the hug, hesitantly.

Bakugou continued to catch his breath, still clutching Kirishima close to him. 

“Hey,” Kirishima tried calming Bakugou once more. “I’m sorry,” Kirishima apologized quietly.

“Why…why the fuck are you apologizing?” Bakugou asked as he pulled away, finally beginning to act like himself, though his hands lingered on Kirishima’s arms.

“I was hoping… y’know if I was here you wouldn’t have nightmares,” Kirishima sighed. “I’m sorry.” 

“S’not your fault, you fuckin’ idiot,” Bakugou grumbled as he pulled Kirishima in for another hug, falling limp in Kirishima’s arms.

“Do… do you want me to stay? Like I did the other night?” Kirishima asked softly. “I know I’m really not able to do much, but maybe…” 

“Please,” Bakugou muttered. “Please stay.” 

“Okay, okay,” Kirishima agreed as he hesitantly pulled away from Bakugou. “I’m gonna go put my stuff in my room and get ready for bed and I’ll be right back. Okay?” 

“Yeah, sure,” Bakugou nodded as he ran a hand through his hair.

As Kirishima got up to leave the room, Bakugou leaned back against the wall and blinked slowly, trying to dispel the awful feeling the nightmare had left in his chest. He tried to think about the fact that Kirishima was coming back to stay the night with him and how much of a relief it was to have him so close during the night.

Last time when he had asked him to stay, it was two in the morning, and Bakugou had been completely out of it when he asked.  

Now they were both relatively awake and coherent, and Kirishima had still agreed to come and stay with him. His stomach lurched at the thought…it had been doing that a lot when he thought about Kirishima after Kamino and his rescue. What was this leading to? Bakugou thought to himself, terror beginning to rise in his chest. 

He had accidentally kissed Kirishima the other night after they talked about his rescue… Well, not accidentally, Bakugou thought. But he certainly hadn’t done it on purpose. It just  happened. And that scared Bakugou so much that he had run. He had told Kirishima they would talk about it but neither of them seemed as if they wanted to broach it. Or did Kirishima not want to bring it up because he could tell how scared he was…  

It frustrated him to know that nothing about being a hero scared him. He was ready for it. But this…thing with Kirishima was scaring him shitless. It was stupid. It was all so stupid.

He picked up his phone to distract himself, opening apps and closing them, not really consciously aware of what he was looking at. 

There was a soft knock at the door and Kirishima returned. 

“Hey.” Kirishima smiled hesitantly. 

“Hey,” Bakugou returned cooly, pretending he was more interested in what was on his phone. 

“You feeling any better?” Kirishima asked as he turned off the lights on his way into the room. The only light left was the small lamp on Bakugou’s bedside. 

“Whatever.” Bakugou locked his phone and set it down before he moved over, closer to the wall, giving Kirishima room to lie down. Kirishima took the hint and came over and sat down on the bed before getting under the covers and settling in beside Bakugou. 

“Dude, that can't be your default answer for everything.”

“Shut up.”

“That one too. Doesn’t count as an answer.”

Bakugo mumbled incoherently, apparently out of retorts.

Now that it was dark and quiet and Bakugou could close his eyes and not look at Kirishima, his courage began to seep back into him. 

“I’m…I know I said we would talk after the other night,” Bakugou started, keeping his eyes shut. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Kirishima muttered. “We don’t have to…” 

“No, we do. I’m not a coward,” Bakugou argued. “I’m not afraid of this,” Bakugou said almost to assure himself. 

Kirishima snorted and Bakugou opened his eyes to see Kirishima’s eyes locked on him. It made his face warm when he realized how close they actually were. 

“What?” Bakugou snapped quietly. 

“Nothing. Just—you being defensive about…I don’t know. Do you believe that I think you’re a coward for not wanting to…talk about this? About what we’re…what all this means—” 

“Yeah,” Bakugou admitted honestly, cutting Kirishima off.

“Nah, if you’re a coward, I’m a coward, too. It scares the shit out of me,” Kirishima replied with a chuckle.

“You? Really?” Bakugou asked. 

He was usually so assured, at least when it came to personal relationships. Kirishima sometimes didn’t have the best self-confidence when it came to his own Quirk, but Bakugou knew when it came to his relationship with everyone in class he was loud, boisterous, and self-assured. 

“Yeah, me, really,” Kirishima laughed again. “So, we don’t have to, not right now.” 

“Okay,” Bakugou agreed. “Yeah, not right now.” 

Kirishima unfurled his hand and gently extended it to the space between them in a vague gesture. Like the other night, Bakugou reached out and took the hand, feeling the knot in his chest begin to loosen. Kirishima grinned before closing his eyes to try and fall asleep. 

Bakugou was no longer tired. His mind was exhausted, but physically he had slept for an hour or so, and even though it was short and riddled with nightmares, he wasn’t as exhausted as he had been. So his eyes remained open as he watched Kirishima’s face and was able to take in every detail…every scar, even in the faint light of the dark room. 

“Dude, c’mon, I can feel you watching me,” Kirishima squeezed his eyes shut even tighter and laughed. 

“Yeah? So what?” Bakugou smiled gently. Kirishima opened his eyes again and his smile faltered seeing Bakugou’s own smile as if he’d been struck. 

“Oh, man.” I am so gay, Kirishima thought to himself.

“What?” Bakugou asked, his brows beginning to furrow again and his smile disappearing. 

“No, no, bring it back.” Kirishima chuckled as he curled into Bakugou, pulling him in from their joined hands. His forehead rested near Bakugou’s shoulder. 

“What are you talking about, shitty hair?” Bakugou asked in confusion, his vision filled with a mess of red hair.

“Your smile.” 

“I wasn’t smiling, dumbass.” Bakugou refuted. 

“Yes, you were,” Kirishima argued. “It was really cute.” 

“I’m not cute, shut up!” Bakugou snapped. 

“Okay then, it was really manly,” Kirishima offered. 

“Oh, my god,” Bakugou groaned. “Just go to sleep.” 

“Mm, yeah,” Kirishima sighed, holding back a yawn. 

Bakugou reached over Kirishima and groped for his phone again before eventually finding it. 

“Are you not gonna sleep?” Kirishima asked as he looked up to see what Bakugou had grabbed. 

“In a bit. I’ve already slept some.” Bakugou answered honestly as he blinked blearily at the light from his phone. 

“Hey, no, c’mon, you need to sleep,” Kirishima gently reached over and put a hand on Bakugou’s wrist to get him to lower the phone. 

“I told you, I’m not tired,” Bakugou argued. “Leave me alone.” 

“Yes, you are, you’re exhausted,” Kirishima replied. “At least try to sleep?”

Bakugou groaned. 

“Lean over, the second drawer in my bedside table,” Bakugou told him. Kirishima frowned before doing what he was told and opening the second drawer. “There’s a tablet on top,” Bakugou told him. 

Kirishima grabbed the tablet that was sitting in the drawer and leaned over to hand it to Bakugou. 

“Will you approve if I put something on to watch while I try to sleep?” 

“Yeah, okay,” Kirishima agreed. “What are you gonna watch?” Kirishima watched Bakugou unlock the tablet and scroll through the apps. Bakugou propped himself up to look at the tablet better. 

“I dunno…” Bakugou muttered. He scrolled through the few streaming apps he had installed and couldn’t decide on anything, even as Kirishima pointed out movies he liked or suggestions to try. Bakugou finally decided on an old anime he’d seen several times. As he watched the intro he was reminded of all the violence that was in most of the episodes and he rethought his selection, not wanting to trigger any nightmares. Kirishima must have recognized this as Bakugou ended up backing out of the episode.

“All your favorite stuff is too…noisy to fall asleep to, huh?” Kirishima noticed. 

“Yeah, something like that,” Bakugou groaned. Kirishima took the tablet from Bakugou and exited out of the app he was in and opened up YouTube and pulled up the search tab. 

“What are you pulling up?” Bakugou asked. 

“Something a little more lighthearted,” Kirishima replied as he scrolled through the search results. He finally decided on a video and Bakugou noticed it was a video game stream from a popular vlogger. 

“I can’t believe you watch this shit,” Bakugou muttered, but he smiled a bit at the happy, bright graphics on the screen and muffled laughter already coming from the video. 

“Now will you try and sleep?” Kirishima asked as he handed the tablet back to Bakugou. 

“Yeah,” Bakugou agreed as he took it back. He suddenly realized it was going to be difficult to get comfortable while watching the video on the tablet. “Mm, can’t. I can’t if I’m holding the tablet. I don’t have room to set it up over here,” Bakugou gestured to how he was pinned between the wall and Kirishima. 

“Here,” Kirishima took the tablet again and set it up at his side, propped on the case it was in. Kirishima shifted to lay down, facing the tablet. “Will you still be able to see it?” 

“Over your shitty hair?” Bakugou muttered as he laid beside Kirishima to see how his line of sight was. He fluffed the pillow he was using and could see a part of the screen. He decided that was enough since he could hear the video as well. He didn’t really want to watch anyway. 

Maybe he was more tired than he thought. 

Bakugou closed his eyes, hoping sleep would find him. In the meantime, he listened to the quiet voices on the tablet and snorted at the joke the vlogger had said. He opened his eyes and turned towards the tablet to see the video. He pulled himself closer to Kirishima to look over his shoulder at the screen. At least this wasn’t the worst way to pass time until he could fall asleep. He began to think about how close he was to Kirishima and how he didn’t know what to do with his hands as they got dangerously close to spooning. 

God, this was all so stupid, Bakugou thought to himself.

Kirishima must have sensed his hesitation and reached back grabbing hold of Bakugou’s hand, pulling it around his waist, slowly intertwining their fingers. Bakugou’s stomach did about a hundred backflips, feeling Kirishima’s fingers twined in his own. He tensed at first but finally relaxed at the touch. He began to melt against Kirishima and pulled the other boy closer, burying his face against the back of Kirishima’s neck. 

This was nice, Bakugou admitted to himself. If actually talking to Kirishima about all of this meant that they could do this on a more permanent basis, it’d be worth it. 

There was a soft chuckle from Kirishima and Bakugou wasn’t sure if it was a reaction to the video or not. 

Well, there’d be time for talking later. He didn’t want to lose this for now. 

“Dude, your hair is tickling me,” Kirishima said as he squeezed Bakugou’s hand. 

“Yeah? That’s your problem,” Bakugou grinned to himself, pushing his cold feet against Kirishima’s. 

“Dude,” Kirishima laughed again pulling his feet away from Bakugou’s and then kicking him gently. Bakugou grinned to himself as he let the voices on the tablet wash over him and eventually he drifted off into a mercifully dreamless sleep. 

x

“Oi, Bakugou, we’re gonna play a game, do you wanna join?” Kirishima called over to Bakugou who was hunched over a sketchbook, making plans for potential costume upgrades. 

“No,” Bakugou replied flatly, not even looking up from his work. 

“You can be on my team,” Kirishima offered, hopefully. Bakugou looked up quirking an eyebrow.

“No,” Bakugou replied again. Kirishima came closer under the guise of looking over Bakugou’s shoulder to see what he was working on. Instead, he leaned down and spoke into Bakugou’s ear. 

“C'mon, Katsuki,” Kirishima practically whined. “I’ll let you sleep in my room tonight if you decide to come and play with us.”

“What the fuck? You can’t bribe me to come and play a shitty game with you like that,” Bakugou barked, then he added in a quieter voice, “I’ll come and sleep in your room whether I play a shitty game or not.” 

“Will you?” Kirishima asked. 

“Yeah, I will,” Bakugou smirked and he put down his pencil and closed the sketchbook. 

“Yeah! I told you guys Bakugou would play if Kirishima asked,” Kaminari interrupted them from the common area, shooting the two a thumbs up. 

“I’m not playing, dunce-face!” Bakugou shouted back. “I’ll come and sit over there, I guess.” Bakugou turned back to Kirishima. “I’m not playing though,” Bakugou added quickly. 

“Works for me,” Kirishima grinned. 

“Shut up,” Bakugou smirked, which only broadened Kirishima’s grin. Bakugou rolled his eyes as Kirishima led the way back to the living area. 

Uraraka and Midoriya were already kneeling by the coffee table, setting up the board game the others had agreed to. Iida was eagerly poring over the instruction booklet to remind everyone of the rules.

“Wait, is Kacchan playing?” Midoriya looked up. 

“No,” Bakugou retorted bluntly, sitting on the couch, stretching out across the length of it. Kirishima sat down on the floor in front of the sofa where Bakugou had planted himself. 

“O-Okay,” Midoriya replied, frowning in confusion. “Here Kirishima-kun. Pick a game piece!” 

“All right!” Kirishima agreed, picking from the miniature figures. “C’mon, Ashido, which piece are you?” Kirishima asked, holding out the rest of the game pieces to his friend. 

“Ooh, which one are you going to pick, Kyouka?” Ashido took the pieces from Kirishima and held them out to the girl next to her, where Jirou was sorting through the cards for the game. She considered her choices and picked her piece and then Ashido picked her own.

As they got the game set up, Bakugou settled in, pulling out his phone and glancing through the headlines from the day. There were about ten new articles recapping All Might’s career in light of his recent retirement and Bakugou wanted to throw the phone across the room as he listened to his classmates laugh and argue about which set of rules they were using for the board game before they started. He switched out of the internet browser and found one of his favorite games on his phone. He opened up the app to keep his mind preoccupied and off of All Might’s retirement or his classmates, or the fact that his supplemental provisional license classes started soon… 

As he began to play, absently tapping away at the screen, his eyes began to grow heavy and eventually he dropped his phone on his chest and decided to rest his eyes for a few moments… 

x

“Hey is Bakugou okay?” Kaminari was the first one to notice something was wrong. Kirishima turned around from his spot on the floor looking back at his friend. 

“Bakugou?” Kirishima asked aloud. He realized what Kaminari must have meant. Bakugou was shaking and muttering quietly. 

He had fallen asleep on the couch and must be having one of his usual nightmares. 

“Oi, Bakugou,” Kirishima gently shook him to try to wake him up. Bakugou just curled into himself, his shaking intensified. C’mon, not in front of everyone, Kirishima thought to himself. Katsuki’s gonna be pissed if he realizes everyone is going to see how badly these nightmares have been messing with him.

“Is he sick?” Uraraka perked up. The board game they were playing was ignored as she got up to come around the back of the couch. 

“I don’t think so,” Kirishima sighed, reaching out to touch Bakugou’s forehead. “I mean, I suppose he feels warm but he runs a little warm anyway, right? Because of his Quirk?” He looked up at Uraraka who only shrugged, and he turned to Midoriya who was watching from the other side of the table. He gave a small shrug as well. 

“You’d know better than anyone,” Ashido supplied nonchalantly. Kirishima blushed and tried to ignore the heat that was currently rising up the back of his neck. 

“Should we go get Recovery Girl just in case?” Uraraka asked. 

Bakugou whimpered in his sleep.

“Bakugou,” Kirishima tried again. “Dude, c’mon.” 

“I’ll go get Recovery Girl.” Iida stood up and went to the door before slipping on his shoes. 

“I’ll go get a cool rag,” Uraraka volunteered. 

“Ah, it’s really kind of you all, but Bakugou wouldn’t care for everyone fussing over him. I’m sure it’s just exhaustion from the past couple weeks, y’know?” Kirishima tried to calm everyone, but Iida had already left and Uraraka was already halfway to the kitchen. He looked desperately at Kaminari who shrugged as well. 

“Mn, Kirishhm…” Bakugou muttered and Kirishima’s attention snapped back to Bakugou. 

“Haha, gay,” Kaminari snorted. “He's probably having a wet dream about you, dude.”

“You're so crude,” Jirou grumbled under her breath. “Dude's had a rough week. Leave 'im alone.”

Kirishima ignored them.

“C’mon, Bakugou,” Kirishima put a hand on Bakugou’s shoulder. "I'm here."

Uraraka returned with a damp rag but looked unsure how to place it on Bakugou, almost as if she were worried he’d wake up and snap at her. She handed the rag to Kirishima.

Since when am I designated as Bakugou’s caretaker? Kirishima thought to himself. Do they know…?

Kirishima took it and dabbed it against Bakugou’s face, before folding it and placing it on Bakugou’s forehead.

“Y-you guys should probably go back to the game. Go ahead and take my game piece off the board, I forfeit,” Kirishima told them as he stood up and wedged himself on the couch next to Bakugou, maneuvering Bakugou’s feet to rest on his lap. Bakugou still didn’t wake, even with the jostling of the sofa as Kirishima sat down. “I’ll take care of Explosion Boy.” 

“Nah, are you kidding? We can’t concentrate on the game like this.” Kaminari shook his head. “Something’s clearly wrong with him. How bad would we feel if Bakugou died while we were playing a board game?”

“D-Died?” Kirishima echoed quietly, he subconsciously grabbed a hold of Bakugou’s legs protectively. "I don't think he's quite that bad off."

“Shut up, Kaminari,” Ashido smacked Kaminari’s shoulder. “He’s not gonna die,” she assured Kirishima. “He’s Bakugou-fuckin-Katsuki. If he died like this, it would be a disservice to his entire personality.” 

“Y-Yeah,” Kirishima chuckled, his thumb idly rubbing along Bakugou’s ankles in his lap. 

“Are you kidding? It’d be super funny because of how ironic it is,” Kaminari laughed. “Bakugou Katsuki doesn’t die in a villain attack, he dies in his sleep because he had a mild fever.”

“Kaminari-kun,” Midoriya chastised quietly, after seeing how upset Kirishima seemed. 

“Right, yeah, whatever,” Kaminari sighed. “Sorry, dude.” Kaminari apologized to Kirishima.  

“It’s fine,” Kirishima replied weakly. “I know he's fine, just a little exhausted.” 

The door to the dorms opened again and Iida returned with both Recovery Girl and Aizawa trailing behind him. Kirishima looked to Bakugou who still didn’t wake with all the commotion. 

“What is going on?” Aizawa asked. 

“I’m sorry to have worried you all—” Kirishima addressed the staff as they came over to the sofa where everyone was gathered.

“What’s wrong?” Aizawa asked. “Why did Iida leave the dorms to come and fetch Recovery Girl?”

“He fell asleep on the couch and Kaminari-kun noticed something was wrong. He wouldn’t wake up when Kirishima-kun tried to wake him up.” Uraraka explained. 

Recovery Girl came around the side of the sofa to check on her patient. 

“Was he displaying any other symptoms before falling asleep?” Recovery Girl asked as she examined Bakugou. 

“Mm, not that I recall. He was acting normal…at least normal for him.” Kirishima shook his head. “But he has been having nightmares recently…” Kirishima continued. “I’m sure it’s just that. He can be pretty hard to wake from those. Of course, it’s never been like this before…” 

There was a strange silence that filled the room after Kirishima spoke and he froze, before chancing a look at Aizawa-sensei. Their teacher just wore an exhausted expression that seemed to say, ‘don’t make me ask how you know that.’ 

“I see…” Recovery Girl nodded as if nothing strange had transpired.  “Unfortunately, psychological stress can cause a toll on the body, which I’m sure this boy has seen plenty of in the past few weeks.” 

“We’ve offered counseling to him, but he’s refused,” Aizawa provided. “I’m thinking this counseling shouldn’t be voluntary.” 

“Aizawa-kun, you know as well as I that counseling sessions aren’t nearly as productive if the student doesn’t want to be there,” Recovery Girl told the homeroom teacher. Aizawa looked as if he were about to argue but then decided against it. “When he’s ready, he’ll accept.”

“Is there anything we can do for him right now?” Uraraka asked quietly. 

Recovery Girl dug around in her robe and pulled out a few tablets in a marked bottle. 

“Something to help him sleep,” Recovery Girl explained. “If he wakes and needs something…”  she trailed off. “But there’s not much we can do at the moment, unfortunately. I can’t heal psychological wounds. I think the best course of action would be to get him to his room in more familiar surroundings. It would be best if someone keeps an eye on him tonight.” 

All eyes turned towards Kirishima. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Kirishima nodded, as he took the small bottle Recovery Girl provided. He stood up and pocketed the bottle. “I can take him upstairs. His room is near mine anyway,” Kirishima explained in a resigned tone. “And I can…y’know, check on him and stuff,” Kirishima continued not wanting to let anyone in on their sleeping arrangements. 

He stooped down and scooped Bakugou into his arms. 

“Are you sure?”Iida asked, no doubt feeling responsible as the class representative.

“Do you need help?” Uraraka asked, stretching her fingers preparing to make Bakugou weightless. 

“No, I’m good. It's a good workout, yeah? Anyway, I don’t mind watchin’ over him tonight. He’s my…friend, it’s fine.” Kirishima hesitated on the word friend. Well…that word didn’t quite seem to fit anymore. Kirishima smiled. “Goodnight everyone.”

“Goodnight,” a chorus of quiet voices called after him.

 He headed towards the elevator with Bakugou who continued to fidget and shudder in his arms. 

“Jeez, you better be okay,” Kirishima muttered. “And I hope I didn’t just nearly out us to everyone including Aizawa-sensei and Recovery Girl.” 

The elevator dinged as the number four informed them that they were on their floor. Kirishima went to Bakugou’s door before realizing that the door was locked and Kirishima would have to go through Bakugou’s pockets for the keys. He decided to take them to his room. Recovery Girl had just said to take him somewhere he could rest that were familiar surroundings. Kirishima figured his room could count as familiar. After all, only a few hours ago they had joked about Bakugou staying in his room that night. 

However, the two nights he had spent with Bakugou had been in Bakugou’s room, so he hoped he wouldn’t cause any undue stress by bringing Bakugou into his room instead. 

Familiar…The word bounced around Kirishima’s head. He was familiar at least…Kirishima thought to himself as he struggled to get his own door open and bring Bakugou inside. He set him down on the unmade bed and brought the blankets up around Bakugou. He set the sleep aid down on his side table before changing into his own sleep clothes.

Kirishima wasn’t very tired yet but slipped into the bed beside Bakugou and pulled out his Nintendo Switch to distract himself until he was tired enough to sleep. Before he could even boot up a game, he felt Bakugou pull himself closer to Kirishima’s body, twitching a bit, and Kirishima put the handheld gaming console down. 

“Please, Katsuki,” Kirishima muttered, as he pressed his forehead to Bakugou’s shoulder. He hesitantly reached out and brought Bakugou closer, desperate to get him to stop shaking so badly. If he held him tight enough, maybe Bakugou’s subconscious would register the comfort and he would stop trembling.  Kirishima’s thumb absently rubbed Bakugou’s collar bone. “C’mon, man, I’m here,” Kirishima whispered. 

The shaking seemed to subside a little bit and Bakugou muttered something unintelligible. 

“There you go,” Kirishima sighed soothingly. “You’re okay, you’re okay.” He sat up and leaned over and softly pressed his lips to Bakugou’s damp forehead, lingering a little longer than necessary.

Bakugou tensed violently before slowly opening his eyes and blinked up at Kirishima. 

“Oh, thank god,” Kirishima sighed. 

“Wh…are we in your room?” Bakugou asked as he caught his breath. 

“Yeah, you fell asleep downstairs and were having a nightmare…so I, uh, brought you up here,” Kirishima explained, not including the bit about the entire class noticing and trying to help or the fact that Aizawa-sensei and Recovery Girl had been there. 

“Fuck,” Bakugou hissed, pressing his palms to his eyes and dragging them down his face.

“You kind of freaked me out dude,” Kirishima told him as he sat up a little more, looking down at Bakugou. "You weren't waking up."

“‘M sorry,” Bakugou muttered. 

“It’s okay,” Kirishima told him. “I just…I don’t like that they’re getting worse.” 

“Yeah, well…What can I fuckin’ do about it?” Bakugou growled. 

Kirishima sighed, wishing he could do something for him. He remembered Aizawa-sensei mentioning counseling sessions. Kirishima wasn’t a counselor but maybe the idea of just talking about it would help. 

“D-Do you want to talk about them? Your dreams?” Kirishima asked. He expected to be shut down and told to fuck off but Bakugou’s mouth twisted as he seemed to hold back tears. “Hey, it’s okay, you don’t have to. Fuck, I’m sorry, man.” 

Bakugou brought an arm up to cover his eyes and wipe away the tears. 

“I’m so goddamn weak,” Bakugou choked out. 

“No, you’re not. Fuck that,” Kirishima hissed. “You’re still the strongest person I know. ” 

“No, I’m not,” Bakugou argued quietly. 

Without thinking, Kirishima shifted his weight and threw a leg over Bakugou’s waist. The arm came down off of Bakugou’s face as he stared in shock up at Kirishima through watery eyes. 

“Yes, you are,” Kirishima told him. “Shut the fuck up. Some stupid dreams aren’t gonna change my mind.” 

Bakugou blinked at him.

“Y-Y’know, y-you’re kinda hot when you swear,” Bakugou sputtered, something like a smile tugging at the corners of his lips and Kirishima’s face went through a slew of expressions before breaking into giggles. 

“Hey, shut up, man,” Kirishima laughed. “You don’t get to say shit like that out of the blue.” 

“And you shouldn’t jump on top of me with no warning,” Bakugou muttered, but made no move to push Kirishima off of him. “Yet here we are.” 

“Seriously, dude,” Kirishima shifted back to the serious conversation they were having. “If you want to talk about your dreams, you won’t find any judgment here. I want to help you. I really, really like you and, fuck, I know I said we don’t have to talk about this yet, but I want to even if it scares the shit out of me…I-I kinda want to date you, okay? I want to spend time with you, like all the time. You’re the coolest, manliest person I know, and way stronger than you know…well, I’m pretty sure you do know—anyway, you don’t have to say anything back to me right now if you don’t want to, I know this is a lot after what you went through and all of this —”  

“Eijirou,” Bakugou interrupted him, but fell silent, blinking up at him. 

“Uhm,” Kirishima licked his lips nervously. “Y-Yeah?”

“Shut up and kiss me already,” Bakugou spat out. Kirishima hesitated for a moment before ducking down and pressing his lips to Bakugou’s. It was fast and rough and nothing like a kiss should actually be…it was more of a competition than a sweet gesture. 

Kirishima pulled away.

“You’re a crappy kisser,” Bakugou muttered as his tongue darted between his lips.

“Guess we’re just gonna have to practice some more, huh?”

“Shut up,” Bakugou rolled his eyes at Kirishima’s flirting. “I…I really like you too,” Bakugou told him. “You’re the only thing keeping me grounded or some shit right now. I’d probably go insane if you weren’t…being…well, you about the whole thing. So, uh, thank you.” 

“Y-Yeah, of course,” Kirishima nodded.

“And, uh…I guess I wanna date you too,” Bakugou looked away feeling too awkward to make eye contact.

“Yeah?” Kirishima perked up, beaming down at Bakugou. “Yeah, okay,” Kirishima nodded, biting his lip. “That means we’re boyfriends now?” 

“It sure as shit doesn’t make us girlfriends.” 

Kirishima snorted in delight and Bakugou smiled up at him. 

“Ah!” Kirishima gasped. “There it is again!” 

“What?!” Bakugou asked in alarm and Kirishima continued to laugh leaning down to bury his face in the crook of Bakugou's neck.

“Your smile. It looks really nice, I want to see it more.” 

“Cause it’s manly right?” Bakugou asked, mildly amused.

“Yeah,” Kirishima laughed as he slid off of Bakugou and back down onto the bed, leaving his leg splayed across Bakugou's hips. “Yeah, it’s manly.” Kirishima sighed, as he curled around Bakugou. “Do you want to put something on to fall asleep again?” Kirishima asked. “I don’t have a tablet though…” Kirishima frowned realizing the tablet they’d watched on the other night was back in Bakugou’s room.

“No, don’t worry about it,” Bakugou shook his head. “I…I just want the quiet for now.” 

“You sure?” Kirishima asked. 

Bakugou hummed and squeezed Kirishima’s hand. The silence settled in the room and Bakugou closed his eyes and held onto Kirishima’s hand, hoping sleep would come. But the dream from earlier continued to creep into his thoughts. 

In the dream, Kirishima had been captured during their attempt to rescue Bakugou. The villains had succeeded in stopping his hurtling tangle of classmates and they were thrown off course each of them careening in different directions. Iida had flown somewhere Bakugou couldn’t see.

Deku had fallen towards the other side of the battlefield and All Might went after him.

Kirishima landed right in front of Bakugou and Shigaraki. All for One wasn’t there, but his presence saturated the dream…It felt as if he were a shadowy figure just out of the corner of his eye, but whenever Bakugou turned to find him, he wasn’t there. With All Might on the other side of the battlefield tending to stupid Deku, Shigaraki made his way towards Kirishima as Kirishima tried to pull himself to his senses after careening to the ground. 

Bakugou felt as if his limbs were made of lead as the other villains jumped on Kirishima, restraining him as he struggled.

Join us… their combined voices called. Become what you were meant to be.

“Fuck you!” Bakugou spat. “I’ll never be like you!”

“So be it,” Shigaraki stepped forward, his hand outstretched towards Kirishima. 

“Leave him alone! He has nothing to do with this!” Bakugou screamed. 

The hand came down on Kirishima’s shoulder. The skin had been hardened, but the toughened skin was no match for Shigaraki’s Quirk. Pieces began to crack and fall off and Kirishima howled in pain. It made Bakugou want to vomit. 

He had opened his mouth to scream—to yell whatever he could to get them to stop—but nothing came out.   

The longer he remained silent, the more damage was being done to Kirishima. The cracked, dissolving skin continued down his arm and across his chest. Kirishima had tried to fight back, continuing to harden and crack before Bakugou’s eyes. Eventually, Shigaraki let go of the shoulder and relief had briefly flooded through Bakugou as Kirishima’s screams dissolved into pained sobs.

“This is useless,” Shigaraki said, “we don’t need to waste our time with this child anymore.” 

Shigaraki reached for Kirishima again, but instead of grabbing his shoulder he went for the back of Kirishima’s head, seemingly moving in slow motion. Bakugou couldn’t react as Kirishima went still and began to disintegrate in front of him. 

He was spurred into motion a little too late, falling to his knees and screaming for Kirishima as he watched him disappear into a disturbing pool of viscera.

He was dead. He was gone.

It had felt so real, Bakugou thought to himself, opening his eyes and turning to see Kirishima resting peacefully beside him.

The villains in the dream had disappeared as soon as they’d come and Deku was left standing before him, looking disappointed and upset with Bakugou. 

Bakugou was bewildered as he tried to remember where Deku had landed, wondering how it was possible he was already standing before him again.

“It’s your fault,” Deku told him. “If only you’d been stronger…maybe Kirishima would have lived. Maybe All Might wouldn’t have had to retire. If you hadn’t gotten captured…”  

There was a shadowy figure behind him that slowly became clearer. It was big and bulky but as it got closer to him it became thin and gaunt. All Might… Bakugou reached out, but the hero shook his head and turned away. Midoriya followed him, leaving Bakugou behind. 

His chest tightened and Bakugou sat up, breathing heavily, his heart pounding. There was no way he could sleep like this… even with Kirishima beside him. Even after their conversation. He should be happy and content, they were dating now, but it seemed to be sending him into an even greater panic. 

“Dude,” Kirishima mumbled as he looked up to where Bakugou was sitting. “Are you sure you’re okay?” 

Fuck, Bakugou cursed to himself. Maybe… maybe talking was the only way to get these thoughts out of his head. Maybe if he talked them through he would calm down and Kirishima could be a grounding presence like he always was.

“I… the dreams… they’re sometimes about you.” 

“Oh,” Kirishima sighed, realizing Bakugou had decided to talk about his dreams after all. Kirishima sat up again, pulling his legs underneath him. 

“Sometimes it’s the villains capturing you, y’know…it's…the rescue not working…” Bakugou continued. He wasn’t being very descriptive because he couldn’t bring himself to describe the downright gruesome scenes he had seen. If he was vague, they were less real. “Tonight it was you in Kamino and the villains and they…they had you…uh, and fuckin’ Deku was...a-and All Might and they…” 

He took a shuddering breath, trying to calm himself.

“Hey,” Kirishima said softly, reaching out and gently touching Bakugou’s shoulder. “It's okay. I…I have dreams sometimes about Kamino too. I… I had one last night where you were killed by the villain All Might fought. Right in front of us. I-I could smell the blood. I woke up with your screams in my head.” 

Bakugou froze, his heart constricting. Kirishima had similar dreams?

“What? Really? Why the fuck didn’t you come and wake me up?” Bakugou demanded as he turned around and Kirishima dropped his hand in surprise.

“W-what?”

“I didn’t know you…you had…” 

“Dude, I told you I had nightmares about Kamino before this, you know.” 

“Y-Yeah, I just didn’t think…” Bakugou trailed off. “They were…like that… that they were like the ones that I… ” 

“If it makes you feel any better, my nightmares haven’t been as bad when I’m able to sleep next to you,” Kirishima smiled softly. 

“Yeah?” Bakugou muttered. “I’m…I’m glad.” 

“I’m really sorry I can’t do the same for you,” Kirishima sighed. “I’m…I’m sorry.” 

“You’re not a failure for… this… God,” Bakugou muttered. “It’s just my fucked up brain. Don’t…”

Kirishima reached up again and gently rubbed circles on Bakugou’s back as Bakugou wiped away a few fresh tears.  

“Just let me know if there’s something I can do. Anything,” Kirishima offered.

“Yeah.” Bakugou clenched his fist. He had so much pent up anger and it was as if his mind and his heart were in absolute chaos. He wanted to punch something. Maybe…maybe he could ask Kirishima to spar with him tomorrow. Though…he didn’t want to let out all of his aggression on Kirishima, no matter how eager he was to help out. 

He’d nearly forgotten. 

The licensing exam was tomorrow. 

As if he didn’t have enough on his mind to begin with. Well…at least that could be a distraction of sorts. But somewhere deep in his mind, he knew that wouldn’t be enough. He wouldn’t be allowed to unleash his pent-up anger any way he wished. He was going to be watched and judged for his actions.

No, his aggression would have to come out another way… 

His mind continued to linger on his nightmares. The other recurring role in them other than Kirishima was Deku. Where Kirishima was usually someone in danger, Deku was…he wasn’t exactly antagonistic. However, he was always there…taunting him. Something about Kamino still haunted Bakugou…Deku’s reaction towards All Might’s final declaration. You’re next…Deku seemed to take it differently than the rest of the world. 

“I'm…I’m gonna talk to him.”

“Wait, who?”

“Deku,” Bakugou hissed through gritted teeth.

Kirishima wouldn't approve of what Bakugou was actually thinking. He wanted to fight Deku. It was the only way he was going to work through all the emotions swirling through his head. But if they sparred for real in one of the practice rooms, they would be stopped. 

They’d have to fight without the supervision of any of the staff. 

“O-Okay. Just let me know if you need something,” Kirishima told him, bringing his hand up and gently grasping the back of Bakugou’s neck as a reassuring gesture.

“Yeah,” Bakugou nodded, closing his eyes, focusing on Kirishima’s rough hand against the skin on the back of his neck. 

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Kirishima let the hand slide off of Bakugou’s back as he leaned over and grabbed something off of the nightstand and handing it to Bakugou. 

“What the fuck is this?” Bakugou took the bottle from Kirishima’s proffered hand. “Wait, did you go to Recovery Girl about this?” 

“Ah, something like that,” Kirishima nervously laughed, not wanting to tell Bakugou how involved everyone was. “There wasn’t much she could do, but she was able to give me something to help you sleep. We’ve gotta be well rested for tomorrow’s licensing exam, yeah?” 

Bakugou looked at him skeptically before tipping a pill from the bottle into his hand and swallowing the pill dry, before handing the bottle back to Kirishima. 

“Let’s…let’s put something on.” Bakugou decided, finally opting for the distraction. 

“Do you want me to run to your room and get your tablet?” Kirishima asked. 

“No, don’t,” Bakugou pulled himself closer as if to try and convince him to stay in bed. “Just…pull something up on your phone, I don’t need to watch. Just something to listen to.” 

Kirishima reached over and grabbed his phone that was charging. He pulled up Youtube again as Bakugou settled back in beside him. Kirishima scrolled through his recommended videos and picked one, turning up the volume and setting it down beside him. As he turned back to Bakugou he realized that Bakugou was already asleep again. Kirishima sighed and curled protectively around Bakugou and felt the knot in his chest loosen and he listened to Bakugou’s slow and steady breathing. 

“No more nightmares,” he pleaded to whatever force was listening. “No more nightmares, at least for tonight.”

x

The licensing exam had been shit. Everything about it infuriated Bakugou. He hadn’t passed and he was gonna be stuck doing stupid supplemental classes. 

When they got back from the exam, his anger and frustration were overwhelming and it had all come out during his fight with Deku.

Bakugou could still feel some of Deku’s hits stinging his skin as he made his way up to the fourth floor after being scolded by Aizawa. He was mentally and physically exhausted by everything that had happened that day. The licensing exam, his fight with Deku, learning that his hypothesis about Deku’s Quirk was true…that it had come from All Might… 

He knew he should have headed straight to his room and gone to bed, but instead, his feet carried him to Kirishima’s dorm room. Bakugou sighed before knocking weakly on the door. He wasn’t even sure whether Kirishima would hear him or not. Maybe it was best to leave him be and talk to him the next day. Bakugou was about to turn and head for his own room when he heard Kirishima’s voice. 

“Mn, coming,” Kirishima called from behind the door. 

Tears burned behind Bakugou’s eyes as he heard the door open. 

“Nightmares? Sh— Katsuki, ” Kirishima breathed as he stood in shock, taking in the sight of the battered and bruised Bakugou standing before him, sporting a few bandages. Kirishima sighed, pulling Bakugou into his dorm room and closing the door behind them.

“You said you were going to talk to him,” Kirishima paced anxiously as Bakugou slouched against the wall, sensing Kirishima’s anger and disappointment flaring off of him. “That —” he finally paused and pointed at Bakugou, “—does not look like talking.” 

Bakugou grunted in acknowledgment.    

“What happened?” Kirishima’s expression finally broke into pure concern and terror. 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Bakugou grumbled. He’d felt marginally better after his fight with Deku, he felt less weight on his shoulders, but he didn’t have the words to try and explain even a fraction of what had happened that night. Kirishima finally surged forward and wrapped his arms around Bakugou. 

“You scare the shit out of me,” Kirishima muttered into Bakugou’s shoulder. 

“I’m sorry,” Bakugou muttered as he brought his arms up to return the embrace.

They stood in the dark dorm room in silence for a little while. 

“I’m…I’m going to try and be better. I’m going to improve so I can catch up to you…” Bakugou muttered. 

“There’s no…‘catching up,’ Kats…” Kirishima sighed as he held Bakugou. “You’re already there, I know it. You just have to prove it to the world now.”  

“I failed today, Ei,” Bakugou muttered, miserably. “I failed and I’m going to fall behind everyone.”

“You’ll be fine. I know it,” Kirishima replied softly.

Bakugou murmured something unintelligible and Kirishima pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head as he pulled away. 

“Have you already gone to see Recovery Girl?” Kirishima asked as he tilted Bakugou’s face upward so he could get a better look at the injuries Bakugou had sustained. Bakugou pulled his face away from Kirishima’s hands. 

“Can’t,” Bakugou muttered. “Part of the punishment. Has to heal on its own.” 

Kirishima gave a soft sigh. 

“Right. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to take care of your wounds. The bandages you have on now are fine, but there are still some scrapes that need dressing if you want them to heal quickly.” Kirishima turned to his desk and dug around until he found a small first aid kit. “Sit down,” Kirishima commanded as he unzipped the pouch. 

Bakugou didn’t argue and did as he was told as Kirishima came over to sit beside him. Once Kirishima had found the supplies he needed he was about to set to work when he realized Bakugou still had a distant look in his eyes and refused to look up. He set the kit aside for a moment. 

“Katsuki,” Kirishima sighed, reaching over and clasping one of Bakugou’s hands in his own. Bakugou blinked slowly and finally looked up. “You’re going to be an amazing hero.” 

Bakugou’s lip quivered as he gave another deep sigh. How could Kirishima still think that after everything? After the villains tried to recruit him, after all the nightmares, after his fight with his childhood friend where they beat the shit out of each other…how could he still think so highly of him?

“You really are,” Kirishima continued when Bakugou didn’t respond as his thoughts began to spiral. He looked up and saw Kirishima’s earnest smile and felt the death grip on his heart begin to loosen. Bakugou sighed. 

“You’ll be right there with me then, Shitty Hair,” Bakugou finally muttered in response, a faint smile pulling at his lips.

“Hey, do you think…y’know now that we’re, y’know, dating, you can stop calling me that?” 

Bakugou went rigid again, the small smirk that had formed on his lips, dropped. 

“D-Does it bother you?” Bakugou asked almost inaudibly. 

“Well, not so much that it bothers me, but I was just thinking…y’know couples usually have terms of endearment for each other that aren’t…insults,” Kirishima laughed and grinned at Bakugou.

“Seriously?” Bakugou grumbled. 

“You seem to like nicknames, so it’s pretty much the same thing!” Kirishima told him with a broad grin. 

“No, it’s not and I’m absolutely not calling you ‘babe,’ or anything like that,” Bakugou immediately protested.  

“Aw, but babe…” Kirishima pouted teasingly. 

“Do not— ”

“But babe…” 

“I’m breaking up with you.” 

“Hey, hey! C’mon! Do you still want first aid or not?”

“You’re the one who insisted—”

“Yeah, you’re hurt, Katsuki.” 

Bakugou looked away again going silent and Kirishima sighed.

“And…I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be alone tonight, after everything,” Kirishima continued in a softer voice. Finally conceding, Bakugou nodded before turning to sit on the bed at a better vantage point for Kirishima. “Thank you,” Kirishima smiled as he grabbed the supplies again to start tending to Bakugou’s cuts and scrapes.

“For what?” Bakugou asked as he watched Kirishima open up an alcohol swab packet. 

“For letting me take care of you while you figure shit out.” 

“You’re a fuckin’ moron,” Bakugou grumbled. Kirishima looked like he was about to protest and Bakugou cut him off. “I should be the one thanking you…for putting up with me while I figure shit out.”  

Kirishima paused and looked at him, looking lost for a moment. 

“Look…you gonna start or what?” Bakugou asked. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Kirishima said, regaining his composure. “Of course. Of course, I’ll put up with you while you figure shit out.” He pushed Bakugou’s fringe out of the way as he began to dab the alcohol on a cut just about Bakugou’s left eyebrow. “Only if you agree to put up with me when I have shit to figure out.” 

“Yeah, okay. Deal,” Bakugou said as he winced at the stinging caused by the alcohol. 

“Sorry.” Kirishima winced in sympathy. 

“Just hurry it up, I’m fuckin’ exhausted. I want to go to bed,” Bakugou growled. 

“Impatient…” Kirishima tutted as he applied some antibacterial gel onto the scrape. They remained silent as Kirishima finished putting a bandage on the scrape and continued cleaning the grime and dried blood on his face. When he was done, Bakugou was about falling asleep upright, his eyes closed as Kirishima worked.

“Done?” Bakugou asked, his eyes fluttering open again when Kirishima had stopped touching his face. 

“Done.” 

Without another word, Bakugou collapsed onto Kirishima’s bed, burrowing into the blankets. 

Kirishima cleaned up the wrappers from the first aid supplies and left them and the kit on his desk to worry about later. He returned to his bed and scooted in next to where Bakugou had curled up. When he finally got settled Bakugou turned to face him, pulling himself close to Kirishima. Bakugou rested his head on Kirishima’s chest and Kirishima’s arm came around to hold him close. It was a little awkward at first but they both shifted until they were comfortable. 

“Hey,” Bakugou mumbled once they were settled. “I’m not gonna be in class tomorrow.” 

“What?! Did you get expelled?” Kirishima sat upright, jostling Bakugou off of him. Bakugou also sat up, rubbing at one of the bandages on his face with an irritated look on his face. “Hey, stop picking at it, and answer me…Did you get expelled?” 

“I didn’t get expelled,” Bakugou said, dropping his hand and leaving the bandage alone. “I’m on house arrest for four days.” 

“Okay, jeez, don’t scare me like that,” Kirishima sighed, lying back down. 

“I just wanted to tell you before I forgot,” Bakugou explained, looking back down at Kirishima. 

“Okay,” Kirishima nodded, as he reached up and absently rubbed at a spot of grime on Bakugou’s temple that he had missed. Bakugou leaned into the touch briefly.  “Not a great way to start the term, but okay. You’ll be fine, I mean you’ll catch up in no time.” 

“You better believe it,” Bakugou agreed before lying down again, resituating himself, resting on Kirishima’s chest. “I’m kicking everyone’s ass this term.” 

“Whatever you say,” Kirishima said through a yawn. 

Bakugou closed his eyes and didn’t have to wait long before peaceful sleep finally found him. 

x

It wasn’t long after Bakugou and Midoriya’s house arrest that the rest of class 1-A found out about Bakugou and Kirishima’s new relationship. One morning during breakfast Kirishima brought two plates to the table placing one in front of him and one at the place next to him. 

“You super hungry this morning, or what?” Kaminari chuckled looking at the two trays of food. 

“Oh, this one isn’t for me,” Kirishima assured him and before Kaminari could ask who it was for, Kirishima looked up and waved them over. Kaminari looked over his shoulder to see a ruffled Bakugou still dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie. 

Bakugou came and slid into the seat beside Kirishima. 

He began to slowly pick his way through the breakfast Kirishima had compiled for him as the rest of the class nattered around them. Not having much of an appetite in the mornings Bakugou soon abandoned his breakfast, continuing to look through the news feed on his phone. 

“C’mon dude, why aren’t you eating?” Kirishima nudged him. 

“Not hungry,”  Bakugou replied. 

Kirishima shrugged as he continued to eat his own food and chatting with his classmates. Kaminari and Jirou were arguing about something from class the other day, and Ashido and Sero were laughing about something on Hagakure’s phone.

“Oh, dude this natto is super spicy this morning,” Kirishima remarked, turning towards Bakugou. “Kats, you’d probably like it, but I don’t think I got you any. Try some!” 

Kirishima held up his chopsticks holding a bite of rice and spicy natto. Bakugou looked over at Kirishima out of the side of his eyes before sighing and trying to discreetly lean over and take a bite from Kirishima’s extended chopsticks. As he chewed, he raised his eyebrows and shrugged a bit in approval before returning to his phone. 

“See?” Kirishima grinned. Kaminari had spotted them sharing food and laughed to himself. 

“Haha, gay! ” Kaminari exclaimed, proud of his own joke.

“Dude, whatever.” Kirishima looked flustered, realizing what he’d just done. 

“Yeah, thanks for noticing.” Bakugou didn’t bother looking up from his phone. Kirishima laughed nervously. 

“W-Wait, for real?” Kaminari stammered. A few of the other kids around the table looked up from their breakfast to hear what was going on. “You’re a thing now?”

“Uh…” Kirishima stammered, not sure what to say. He and Bakugou hadn’t really discussed how they wanted to tell the class or if they were going to tell them at all. Well…he supposed they’d all find out eventually, Kirishima thought. 

“If by thing, you mean dating then yeah. What about it?” Bakugou glared at the boy across the table. “Do you have an issue with it?”

“N-No, that’s great! Really happy for you guys! Really!” Kaminari began backpedaling from his poorly thought-out joke.

“Are you guys saying that to mess with him, because if you are, that’s hilarious,” Jirou smirked. 

“What? No, we really are,” Bakugou argued, narrowing his eyes at her. 

“Okay,” Jirou raised her eyebrows. “Nice, or whatever.”

“Hey, wait, are you and Kacchan finally dating?” Midoriya addressed Kirishima as he sat down at the table to eat, catching onto the conversation that was happening.

“Hah? ‘Finally?’ What does that mean you fuckin’ nerd?!” Bakugou barked from where he sat. 

“Uh, just that you’ve both had crushes on each other for a long time now, right?” Midoriya nervously rolled his chopsticks between his hands. 

“Both? I mean…we all knew Kirishima had a huge gay crush on Bakugou. Just surprised Bakugou had a crush in return.” Sero shrugged, speaking about them as if they weren’t sitting right there.

“Wait, what do you mean everyone knew Kirishima had a huge gay crush on me?” Bakugou asked, looking between all of his classmates at breakfast before finally turning back to his boyfriend. Kirishima began stuttering and blushing at the proclamation. “And, what? I’m the only one who didn’t know?”

“Well, with Kacchan it’s harder to tell, but if you know what to look for you could tell Kacchan had a crush on Kirishima-kun,” Midoriya told Sero. “I think…probably since…the sports festival?” Midoriya continued, ignoring Bakugou.

“H-Hey, wait, really?” Kirishima turned to look at Bakugou. “You’ve had a crush on me for that long?”

“No, he’s just making that up!” Bakugou exclaimed. 

“But Kacchan, you and Kirishima-kun made an excellent team at the festival and then there was that one time when I saw you…” 

“Okay, enough! You damn nerd!” Bakugou scowled, his face was glowing red as a tomato at this point.

“Oh, my god, what did Midoriya see?” Ashido gasped.  

“Nothing!”

“Well, I just saw it once not too long after the sports festival, but I’m pretty sure whenever Kirishima-kun makes a joke, Kacchan smiles. It’s the only time he really does. Like a genuine smile, not his crazy ones. He tries not to let anyone see but—” Midoriya explained. 

“Shut up,” Bakugou hissed and Kirishima began to giggle nervously. 

“For real?” Kirishima’s face lit up as he looked down the table at Midoriya, who smiled and nodded.

“Oh,” Hagakure sighed, obviously disappointed it wasn’t something juicier.

“Wait, what does it even matter who had a crush when?” Jirou remarked absently. “The point is you both did at some point which is why—” she gestured with her chopsticks at the two. 

“It’s way cuter if Katsuki had a crush on me for that long. That means we both had crushes on each other at the same time!” Kirishima exclaimed with a grin to his boyfriend. 

“Katsuki,” Ashido whispered loudly to Hagakure who giggled. “Wait, does that mean Bakugou calls you ‘Eijirou’ now?”

“Shut up, it’s none of your business what I call him!” Bakugou snapped before Kirishima could reply. “C’mon, shitty hair!” 

“Kats, you’ve still got some breakfast left,” Kirishima called, grabbing some food off of Bakugou’s plate and making no move to leave the table. 

“Kats,” Hagakure giggled in an even higher-pitched voice. 

Kirishima ignored them as he continued to polish off the breakfast still left on Bakugou’s plate, his mind still whirling, worried about Bakugou’s mental and physical health after the past few weeks. 

“Wait, wait. When did you two start dating anyway? Did it just happen or have you been dating a while now?” Ashido asked, watching Kirishima closely. “Was it because you rescued him in Kamino? How romantic!”

“Yeah, real romantic, he nearly got his ass expelled for it,” Bakugou spat. “Eijirou! Let’s go!” 

“Yeah, comin’ babe!” Kirishima called as he quickly gathered his and Bakugou’s plates and began to head towards the kitchen. 

“Babe!” Ashido and Hagakure howled with laughter at the same time.

“Ei! Goddamn it!” Bakugou shouted and Kirishima let out a laugh.

“See you all in class!” Kirishima called.