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It wasn’t a surprise to anyone when Kirishima and Bakugou joined together the moment after graduation to create an agency.
The only surprising thing to class 1A was the fact that they somehow weren’t together yet, even though they are both obliviously in love with each other. Ashido even thought the duo was going to move in together but was greatly disappointed once she found out they still haven’t confessed.
Even after three years of being friends and liking each other for two and a half years, Kirishima and Bakugou not once have they ever brought up their feelings towards one another. Now, after graduating and becoming Pro Heroes, Bakugou and Kirishima were content on pushing their feelings down for the rest of their life.
Midoriya was upset when he found out from the both of them that they refuse to speak about their feelings in fear that the current, built up relationship that has developed years between them would crumble to the floor in an instant and be destroyed.
The pain the class felt every time in heroes training there was a team exercise, and no one had to look to know Kirishima already had his arm around Bakugou’s neck.
When they walk into the common room and have to act like it’s normal when Bakugou has his head in Kirishima’s lap.
It’s not that different now that they’re Pro Heroes, it’s just that they’re in a professional setting now.
Kirishima still randomly buys funny little gifts that remind him of Bakugou and sets it on his desk for him to find in the office the next day. Bakugou still makes him a cup of sweet coffee every morning and sets it on Kirishima’s desk every morning. Kirishima still throws paper airplanes at Bakugou's desk while they do paperwork to entertain the both of them. And, Bakugou’s favorite, Kirishima still sings in a low hum on patrol when nothing is happening around them.
Everything stayed the same between them when it could be so much more.
Kirishima and Bakugou arrive at their agency together, with Bakugou unlocking the door then holding it open for the latter. The redhead held his arms out in front of him and stretched.
“Please tell me we don’t have to do paperwork today.” Kirishima groaned, walking over to flick the light switch on. Bakugou shrugged off his jacket and headed straight for the coffee machine.
“Just a bit, then we can patrol.” Bakugou began preparing the coffees, pressing a couple of buttons on the machine before heading to his desk to grab a couple of papers. At his desk, he logged into his computer before turning his gaze to Kirishima, whose desk was on the left of his. Kirishima had already passed out, still not used to needing to wake up early again.
Bakugou let a soft smile slip onto his lips before he heard the machine ding. He poured Kirishima’s coffee and then set it gently on his desk.
Throughout the day, sidekicks, fans, possible interns come into the office and out. Kirishima is glad, as he is able to do all the talking while Bakugou continues to file our paperwork. It keeps him occupied, while with the paperwork he’s unable to focus on it for a certain amount of time.
They finished the paperwork very early into the afternoon (Bakugou did most, Kirishima will get a scolding later) and were about to get geared up for some patrolling. It seemed like their normal day of hero work, everyday things.
Until it wasn’t.
While in the locker rooms putting on their hero outfits, Bakugou’s phone began to ring. He pulled it out and quirked an eyebrow up after seeing the caller ID on his phone. Deku never calls unless it’s-
Bakugou picked up immediately.
“Kacchan, we need backup now! I sent my location, the League of Villains is-“
The line went dead.
Kirishima heard the whole conversation in the quiet room and quickly put on the rest of his gear, Bakugou following suit. They burst out of the locker room and sprinted out the building and headed as fast as they could to the location Midoriya sent.
//
It wasn’t the perfect time for a class 1A reunion.
Many of the now pro heroes who were in 1A were present at the scene, either fighting the villains and helping the injured.
When Kirishima and Bakugou arrived, Uraraka was the first one they noticed. She was tending to Oijiro’s wounds, who was lying unconscious on the floor.
Kirishima yelled out, “Uravity!” Uraraka threw her head in the direction of her name, her eyes dark with anger. The usual bubbly cheerful girl was fueled with rage.
“Go to Deku and Shouto! They’re dealing with Shigaraki by themselves! And take this!” Uraraka’s voice boomed, ordering the two men to go like there was no choice. She threw both of them earpieces to be able to communicate with everyone. Uraraka pressed a cloth into one of Oijiro’s open wounds, trying to stop the blood flow. “If anything happens, come back here, it’s the safe point.” She mumbled. Instantly, the two shoved them in their ear and rushed off, heading in the direction where they noticed Midoriya’s green lighting and Todoroki’s ice.
Before they were at a far enough distance, Uraraka screamed out, “Stay safe!”
The explosions and overall noise level were getting louder the closer Bakugou and Kirishima got. Bakugou presses a finger into his earpiece, “Deku! Keep ‘em fucking going! We’re around the corner!”
Right when they were about to round the corner, the building to the left of them exploded with sound, a gigantic, tree tall like monster with jagged, spiky rock hair and a portable radio around his neck, ran at Kirishima full speed.
In an instant, Kirishima went unbreakable and crossed his arms as the monster slammed into him with incredible force, crashing them both into the building at the right.
Bakugou stalled, eyes wide as he stepped back, about to burst into action alongside Kirishima as they normally do.
“Red-“
“Go!”
Kirishima yanked an arm back, his body creaking from unbreakable and landed a punch on the monster's stomach, sending him flying a couple of feet. Kirishima slid into a fighting stance and sent a quirk stern glance in Bakugou’s direction.
I’ve got this. Go.
Don’t you do anything fucking reckless.
All they need to communicate with each other is their eyes. Bakugou smirked before stalking up, using his explosions to reach Midoriya and Todoroki faster.
Looking back, Bakugou wished he stayed.
//
The fight was tough, it was long, drawn-out between Bakugou, Midoriya, and Todoroki. In the end, the trio prevailed and Shigaraki lay unconscious on the floor. Breathing heavily, Bakugou sat down on the ground and pressed his earpiece while Todoroki and Midoriya kept Shigaraki down.
“We did it. He’s fucking down.” Bakugou gulped as he tried to catch his breath, his sweat becoming too much for him. Ashido, who was also present, chirped back on the earpiece first.
“You got him under control? Need backup? Uravity and I are finishing up treating the wounded.” She also sounded breathless, most likely exhausted from fighting and then running around treating people. Bakugou nodded before remembering they can’t see him. He pressed into the earpiece again.
“We’re fine, does anyone else need backup before I pass the fuck out?” Bakugou stood up from the ground to get a closer look at the objects Midoriya and Todoroki were clicking onto Shigaraki’s hands to contain his quirk. Bakugou heard bright laughter in the earpiece from Kaminari, who showed up as well, but at the last minute as he was across the whole city.
“I think we did it! Cellophane and I are heading back to the safe point now.” Kaminari sighed. Bakugou helped Midoriya and Todoroki lift Shigaraki up to his feet before he stopped in his tracks. Midoriya, who had Todoroki holding up Shigaraki as well, looked back at Bakugou with concern. “Ground Zero?”
Bakugou fell to the ground and pressed a finger to the earpiece, swearing on his life he won’t let go until he heard something.
“Red Riot?” He usually says something by now. “Red? Where are you? Are you ok?”
Silence. Bakugou felt all of the breath leave his lungs.
“I repeat, Red Riot, where are you? Red— Kirishima, please. Please, are you ok?”
Bakugou couldn’t focus on anything else, didn’t hear all of the new sounds around him. Didn’t hear Midoriya run over and fall to the ground next to him, yelling his name instead of his hero name. Didn’t see Todoroki’s eyes fill with fear. Didn’t feel himself carve his head into the destroyed road from the fight, pushing his head to try and ease the other pain he was currently feeling. Didn’t feel his eyes slowly sting with tears.
After a long period of silence, Ashido breathed out, “Fuck.”
Bakugou broke out of his curled up ball and whipped his head up, eyes wide with fear. His tears were silent but loud to others around him.
Midoriya began shaking Bakugou’s shoulders, still trying to reach him. Bakugou couldn’t hear him still, could only hear the rushing thoughts to his head. Kirishima. Kirishima. Kirishima. He’s ok. He’s ok. He’s—
Explosions emitted from Bakugou’s palms, startling Midoriya and Todoroki. He suddenly blasted hundreds of feet into the air and into the direction he last saw Kirishima in.
Please be okay.
//
When Bakugou arrived he almost froze in place at the sight in front of him.
The gigantic monster that later they would learn would be named Gigantomachia, was completely destroyed. He was passed out, unconscious with hundreds of debris surrounding him from the building collapsing. But Bakugou didn’t care about him, not one bit.
Across from Gigantomachia lay Kirishima.
Bakugou’s never sprinted faster in his life.
He skidded on the ground and leaned over Kirishima to inspect the damage. He had one large stab wound right in the center on his chest. Blood was continuing to splurge out even after Kirishima tried to apply pressure with his hands. The pool of blood around him showed Bakugou he’d been at this for a while.
Kirishima’s eyes were skidded, barely open. He was clinging onto life. Bakugou didn’t want to admit it, but it’d look like he’d be dead within minutes.
“Oi, can you fucking hear me? I’m here, it’ll be fine. You fucking kicked ass.” Bakugou pleaded, his voice wavering. He ripped off a piece of his costume to push onto the open wound, applying pressure with one hand while he cupped Kirishima’s face with the other. Bakugou leaned down and put his ear to Kirishima’s mouth. He was barely breathing.
“Hey, hey, I’m right here ok? Keep fighting this, stay awake.” Tears slowly pricked at Bakugou’s eyes again, but he ignored it, applying more pressure to the wound and locking eyes with Kirishima once he finally was able to open them properly again. His eyes softened but did not allow his hands to stop giving pressure.
“Hey, you’re alive. You’re going to be ok. Keep breathing for me.” Bakugou looked around and quickly pressed into his earpiece and mumbled, “We need medical assistance now,” before he felt a warm hand on his cheek, prompting for him to snap his eyes back to Kirishima.
His eyes were still partly open, but still looked soft and comforting, as if the situation around them was not happening. Kirishima removed one of his hands from applying pressure to cup Bakugou’s cheek. He gently rubbed a thumb under Bakugou’s eyes, trying to stop the tears that were coming out.
“It’s ok.” Kirishima barely whispered. If Bakugou weren’t so close, he would’ve not been able to hear him. Hearing this, Bakugou started to hiccup more, the attack already hitting him. Kirishima had the strength to crack a small smile.
“It’s ok, Katsuki. As long as he’s down and you're safe.”
Bakugou broke down hearing his given name slide off of Kirishima’s lips. He leaned in closer, continuing to apply pressure. He heard sirens, knowing help should arrive any second. Please.
“Kiri- Eijirou, you can’t do this. You have to hold on longer. Look at me, focus on me.” Bakugou started to whisper sweet nothings, trying to get Kirishima to focus on the sound of his voice and not the amount of blood he was losing. A couple of tears fell down Kirishima’s eyes as well.
Bakugou and Kirishima’s foreheads we’re together at this point, still cupping each other’s cheeks with their unoccupied hand while their tears collided. Kirishima tried his best to move to brush his lips against Katsuki’s nose and smiled slightly.
“I need to tell you something—“
“No, you don’t need to tell me fucking anything because you’re going to live and can tell me all about it tomorrow.”
“Katsuki, please. I— I need to.”
Kirishima’s tears came out faster, which meant his blood started coming out faster. Bakugou widened his eyes, about to say something before Kirishima cut him off saying something Bakugou never expected.
“I love you. I love you so much, I have since first year. I know you’ll be an awesome hero. Fulfill your dreams. Become number one. You’re amazing, Katsuki.”
“Ei— no, listen to me, listen to my voice. Stop, stop it. I’m right here. Stop. Don’t fucking do this. Stop. Why did you do this now? Don’t you fucking dare, Eijirou— No—“
Kirishima’s hand slowly started to lose his grip against Bakugou’s face, and slowly started to slide down his arm. Bakugou’s eyes flew open.
Suddenly Bakugou got yanked off Kirishima and flew to the side. Shocked, Bakugou looked around to discover the first responders. Pro heroes, doctors, police officers were all around him. He didn’t even hear them approaching.
Bakugou scrambled to his feet, racing back to Kirishima, screaming at the top of his lungs before familiar arms wrapped around both his shoulders, under his armpits to hold him back.
Midoriya started apologizing profusely with tears streaming down his cheeks as he began to walk away from the scene to get Bakugou himself checked out. Bakugou began kicking, yelling out even louder after Kirishima as he watched more and more doctors surround him before they realized how urgent the recovery needed to be and hauled him into an ambulance.
Bakugou doesn’t know how long he was crying. It was only when the ambulance they took Kirishima in was out of sight that Bakugou freed himself from Midoriya’s grip and fell to the ground, hard. He began repeatedly slamming his fist into the ground with his head flat on the road, letting all of his sobs and cries out into the world.
He didn’t know when his friends joined him, sitting next to him or being in his presence. He didn’t know when Ashido got there and started petting his hair. He didn’t know when Kaminari got there and leaned against his side so he could feel a weight. He didn’t know when Sero got there and gently rubbed his hand up and down Bakugou’s arm. He didn’t know when Midoriya started to hug him with tears still on his face and when Todoroki sat down next to him and began to pray.
He doesn’t know if he’ll ever see, hear, or touch Kirishima again.
//
Bakugou doesn’t remember blacking out. It was probably all of the exhaustion from defeating Shigaraki and draining all of his energy afterwards crying.
The next time he woke up, he was in a hospital bed.
Bakugou’s eyes sluggishly opened. It took his eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the light of the room before he slowly sat up to take a good look around.
His room was empty, but had tons of flowers and cards on his side stand from what looked to be his family, friends, and even fans. The small smile that started to appear on his face disappeared in an instant once he remembered he doesn’t know the state in which Kirishima is in.
Frantically, Bakugou scrambled out of his hospital bed. Once his bare feet touched the cold floor, the door burst open to reveal Midoriya. His eyes widened at the sight of Bakugou out of his hospital bed. He ran over to lightly push him towards the bed.
“Kacchan, get back in your hospital bed—“
“You know damn well what I’m trying to do so don’t fucking stop me!”
Bakugou shoved Midoriya away and began to walk towards the door before Midoriya gripped his shoulder and turned him around forcibly.
“Will you knock it off!”
“Fuck you, Deku! I need to fucking see him, now—“
“He’s been in surgery for six hours!”
Bakugou stopped in his tracks, hands that were about to push Midoriya going limp at his sides. Midoriya took a deep breath before setting his hands on Bakugou’s shoulders, looking him dead in the eye.
“When they got to the hospital, he was already dead. They were about to announce him dead before a doctor was able to get his pulse pumping again. He’s been in and out of multiple surgeries for the past couple of hours, Kacchan. Kirishima is alive.”
Midoriya’s voice was calm, like he didn’t want to anger or upset the bear in front of him. Over time, his grip got tighter before Bakugou softly grabbed his wrists and shoved his hands away, looking down at the ground.
Midoriya was expecting an immediate response, a comment of relief, a, ‘I knew that fucker was fine,’ but not this.
Not Bakugou bringing his hands to his eyes and trying to silently sob.
Bakugou rubbed his eyes before bringing one of his hands to hold onto his mouth to hold back his sobs of happiness that Kirishima was alive.
Bakugou won’t admit that he let Deku hold onto him as he drained himself of all his tears.
//
Bakugou couldn’t visit Kirishima until about a day later, after all of his surgeries.
Bakugou was released from the hospital quickly, as he didn’t have any major injuries whatsoever. All he cared about was seeing Kirishima again.
When Bakugou burst into Kirishima’s hospital room, he was still sound asleep with machines hooked to him.
The sight almost froze him to the spot, after experiencing what he did two days ago.
He slowly walked over to the left edge of Kirishima’s bed before grabbing a chair and sliding it closer to him. Bakugou sat down without taking his eyes off the man in front of him, sleeping peacefully with even breaths.
Bakugou reached out to his hand and almost sighed out in relief at how warm and alive it felt.
He gently slid in his fingers between Kirishima’s hand and held on as tight as he could. Bakugou put his head down on the mattress and stared at their conjoined hands.
“I can’t believe you scared the shit out of time this fucking badly.”
“Sorry, man.”
Bakugou flinched, roughly removing his hand while sitting up in his seat and backing up. His eyes went wide once he made eye contact with a now smiling Kirishima. The redhead raised his right hand slowly and offered a small wave.
“I’m sorry I worried you.”
Bakugou’s shock turned into anger quickly as he scooted forward and gripped Kirishima’s left hand with both of his. He sent a harsh glare in Kirishima’s direction.
“You can’t pull that shit! You can’t just almost die on me before I could even fucking respond and tell you I like you too!”
“Hey! That villain hit me hard! I’m better off than— wait, what did you just say?”
Bakugou released his hands that were on top of Kirishima’s. His face tinted with pink once he realized what he just accidentally blurted out.
Kirishima sat up in his bed and brightly grinned, “Did you just say you like me too?”
“I didn’t say fucking shit!”
Kirishima began laughing before stopping abruptly to clutch at his side. “Ah, I guess I should still be careful...” Bakugou widened his eyes and was about to call for a nurse before Kirishima grabbed his hands.
“I’m fine, Bakugou.”
Bakugou quirked his head to the side, “Katsuki.”
“What?”
“You called me Katsuki. You can keep doing that.”
Kirishima smiled, “You can keep Eijirou then.”
Silence developed over them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It never was between them. It was always warm, inviting, and comfortable. Bakugou appreciated the warmth that arrived when Kirishima slipped his fingers between Bakugou’s. Kirishima felt Bakugou squeeze his hand, and when he looked over, Bakugou was gazing at him with softness in his eyes.
“You really... fuck— You scared the fuck out of me back there. I really thought I lost you in front of me. I was a fucking mess.”
Embarrassed at the admission, Bakugou suddenly found the corner of the room interesting as his gaze flickered away from Kirishima’s face. His cheeks tinted pink while Kirishima gave his hand a firm squeeze back.
“Part of it’s my fault, for a second I really didn’t think I’d make it, so I had to tell you. But man, looking back, a hit like that won’t take me down that easy!”
Kirishima brought Bakugou’s hand to his lips and gently kissed the back of his palm. Bakugou returned his gaze to see Kirishima’s eyes filled with pure fondness and love. The redheads own cheeks and ears blushing red.
“After all, we’re a team, I’ll never leave you behind like that, Katsuki.”
Despite the bright blush on his face, Bakugou returned the gesture by bringing Kirishima’s hand to his lips and kissing his knuckles gently.
“Yeah, a team, Eijirou.”
Even throughout the struggles, a team never falters or loses hope.