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Maybe it’s cliché, but Kirishima’s day doesn’t start terribly. They’re a quarter of the way through their third year at UA, and after so long living with each other Class 3-A knows everyone else’s habits as well as they’ll ever know anyone’s. Bakugou and Midoriya are the first to rise, almost as if they enjoy making it a competition just to see who can reach the kitchen, and breakfast, the fastest. This is true whether it’s a weekday or a weekend. On Saturdays, like today, Kirishima is one of the last ones down, Fatgum’s agency being closer than most allowing him to sleep in.
Once downstairs, already dressed in his hero uniform, he greets the other slow goers—Ashido, Uraraka, and Aoyama have similarly close internships, and Shinsou’s hours run later as an underground hero, though he’s not always up by now.
“Morning, Red Riot!” Uraraka says. Like him, she’s already in uniform, her helmet at the end of the table as she eats.
“Morning, Uravity!” Kirishima pokes his head into the fridge and grabs a covered plate with a sticky note on it. It reads RR, all you other extras BACK OFF, and Kirishima can’t help but grin when he sees it.
“Someone’s got a crush,” Aoyama teases, smiling. He’s at the table with Uraraka, right across from Ashido. Shinsou is the only one missing of their group, likely still sleeping.
Kirishima’s grin only widens; he and Bakugou have been dating since they were second years. “That’s been established, are we still making the same jokes?”
Ashido cackles and throws a grape at him, and Kirishima catches it in his mouth, laughing, before pulling the saran wrap off the plate and starting in on his food.
Their small group doesn’t separate till the train station, Ashido and Uraraka heading off together while Aoyama and Kirishima go solo. When Kirishima finally arrives at Fatgum’s agency he finds the place in organized chaos. Fatgum waves him over with a grim smile, already leading the group out the door, and Kirishima falls in place next to Suneater.
“We’re teaming up with Miruko and The Lurkers,” Fatgum explains. “There’s been a series of heists at high-end labs recently that Kamui Woods got a lead on, and we’re going in on what we believe to be their hideout.”
Kirishima nods, bouncing a little on his toes as he walks. It’s been awhile since he participated in a large hero team-up, and with Bakugou with Miruko and Kaminari and Sero both with The Lurkers, it will also be one of the first times he works as a hero with so many of his best friends at once. And, like the beginning of his day, the start of the raid goes well. The group of thieves are hidden out in a large, bunker style building with multiple corridors and places to get lost, so the pro-heroes separate everyone off into groups to search the place. As third years they’re allowed a bit more leniency and trust, and Kaminari and Sero go off together while Kirishima joins Bakugou.
They take the back half of the second floor, Fatgum and Edgeshot in the front. Kirishima knows they’re staying close by on the off chance there’s trouble but, despite the fact that The Lurkers had reported their information with utter confidence, they don’t see much of anyone besides the dark grey halls and even darker doorways. Bakugou fiddles with one of his bracers, and Kirishima repeatedly switches his quirk on and off.
“Just our luck no one will show, huh?” Bakugou says, scowling.
Kirishima just smiles at him. “C’mon, Blasty, it’s not so bad. We can’t be the ones to save the day every day, after all.”
“Course we can,” Bakugou scoffs. His lips are twitching, though, like he wants to smile but won’t, and Kirishima bumps shoulders with him, grinning.
He turns, going to check the next room, and finds himself face to face with someone he’s only seen in the packet Fatgum gave him that very afternoon. Stunned, Kirishima lets out a shout and barges into the room. He’s just activating his quirk when something sharp pierces his neck and he reels back, one hand clamped over the puncture wound. Bakugou roars by him, obviously pissed, and Kirishima stumbles to a halt with his back to the corridor wall. He still has the perfect view of the room inside, of Bakugou fighting amidst his explosions, of the villain answering back with some sort of scale quirk. Kirishima gets a glimpse of claws, and teeth, and from there it’s easy to guess that the guy shares a bit more in common with alligators than the average person.
A syringe drops from the tussle and rolls to a stop in the doorway—empty.
Kirishima stares at it. Much like the alligator quirk, it’s not hard to connect the dots. Whatever was in the syringe is now running through Kirishima’s veins, and whatever it is can’t be anything good. He tests his quirk, just in case, and his heart sinks when his skin doesn’t harden. But all he can do now is hope it’s not permanent, and Bakugou needs his help, so he gets to his feet ready to dive back into the fray.
A gun answers him.
“My luck is terrible today,” Kirishima says, staring at the guy behind the gun. Like alligator-quirk-guy, he’s scaly, but his tongue flicks out, forked, obviously belonging to a snake.
“C’mon, then,” Snake says. He flicks the gun briefly, pointing Kirishima back to the room with Bakugou. Alligator is almost down, and Kirishima winces, knowing Bakugou would normally win this fight. But the gun presses at his forehead, cold, and there’s not a lot he can do.
Bakugou doesn’t stop fighting when he steps into the room, or when the gun follows. Kirishima wishes he could see Snake’s face, or at least wait for Bakugou to take down Alligator, but the gun presses harder against his head, forcing him to either catch Bakugou’s attention or wait for the gun to actually go off. And as much as he trusts his quirk to catch most of the damage of a bullet, he’s not very fond of the idea of trying it out without his quirk.
“Ground Zero,” he says, and Bakugou stops, deflecting one last blow from Alligator and then turning. His gaze flicks from Kirishima, to the gun, to Alligator, Snake, and then Kirishima again. Kirishima tries to smile, but judging by the way Bakugou’s hands start to set off mini explosions, he’s not entirely successful.
“Shitty Hair,” Bakugou answers.
The gun shoves against Kirishima’s head, jolting him forward a bit.
“Red here has something to say,” Snake sneers.
Kirishima swallows. “They took away my quirk.”
Bakugou’s gaze goes to the syringe, his skin paling, and Kirishima hates that he’s done this, that he’s reduced Bakugou to some chess piece to be moved around. But with Snake so focused on him, there’s not a lot either of them can do.
“We’ll be going now,” Snake says. “If either of you try anything, I blow Red’s brains out.”
“It’s Red Riot, jackass,” Bakugou snaps. In the next moment he’s moving, though, walking past Snake all while shooting the crook a dirty look.
They go down the hall in a line, Bakugou and then Kirishima, Snake with the gun at Kirishima’s head, and finally Alligator. This is where the villains made a mistake, though, because the second Kirishima spots Fatgum at the end of the corridor he stops being complicit.
He shoves himself forward, taking Bakugou to the floor with him. As he goes there’s a loud bang behind him, a burst of pain above one ear, and Bakugou howls his outrage. Kirishima doesn’t really see where the bullet goes, isn’t sure if it lodges in a wall or ceiling or if Fatgum catches it, harmless, but he and Bakugou are still alive and he counts that as a win, especially with Fatgum storming their way, Edgeshot on his heels, and Bakugou rolling to his feet.
Kirishima doesn’t even bother getting up; he throws himself at Snake’s ankles, taking him out like an American football player. Even without his quirk, even with his head pounding and ears ringing and blood dripping hot to his neck, it’s incredibly satisfying to kick the gun away and restrain Snake. When he looks up Edgeshot is already securing Alligator and Bakugou looks angry about not getting one last hit in.
“Riot,” Fatgum says, and Kirishima turns to look at him, grinning even as he wobbles.
“Hey, Fat. We got ‘em.”
Fatgum’s returning smile is strained, but he claps Kirishima on the shoulder. “Give Edgeshot your man, you should go get checked out. Ground Zero and I will finish up here.”
Bakugou gives Fatgum an angry look, probably not happy about being separated from Kirishima, but even Bakugou knows by now that he shouldn’t let a fellow hero go off alone. Kirishima’s kind of proud of him for that.
“I’ll see you outside, bro, promise,” Kirishima says. He holds out his hand for a fist-bump, still doing his best to smile.
Bakugou rolls his eyes. “Stop calling me bro, Shitty Hair,” he grumbles, but he bumps his fist against Kirishima’s and Kirishima knows the real complaint here is not “we’re not bros,” but “why are you calling me bro when we’re dating,” which he can kind of understand. But—
“Never,” he says, and Bakugou’s lips curve just slightly upward.
In the end there’s not a lot else to do; the other three villains in the heist crew are secured on the first and third floor, and Bakugou fusses over Kirishima all the way to the hospital, not that Bakugou would ever admit to it. But he holds Kirishima’s hand tighter than he normally would, and refuses to leave his side again, not even once. And, after the bullet graze has already been healed by a doctor’s quirk and he asks, something full in his chest, if Bakugou will kiss it better, Bakugou only rolls his eyes once before pressing his lips to the new scar.
“How does it look?” Kirishima asks.
Bakugou hums, squeezes his hand. “Badass. Just like you.”
And hey. He’s stuck in yet another hospital bed, but maybe Kirishima’s day doesn’t end terribly, either.