Chapter Text
Eijirou feels his phone vibrate from where it’s pressed against his leg in the inner pocket of his hero costume.
(11:52 pm) From: Katsuki
Hey, shitbird, what are you doing for lunch today
(11:54 pm) To: Katsuki
Nothing, dude! Wanna hang? Not tired of me yet?
(11:55 pm) From: Katsuki
Obviously not. Don’t bring food. See you in 10
Eijirou slips his phone back into the pocket and smiles, shaking his head fondly. Katsuki even took the time to type out an insult. What a dork.
They’ve been working together on a gang surveillance project for the last 4 weeks, so Eijirou is a little surprised that Katsuki specifically asked to meet up with him today, but he heads to their usual spot with a spring in his step. His patrol has been slow so far anyways, so he can afford a longer lunch break.
When Eijirou reaches the rooftop, puffing a little bit for breath (because 25 flights of stairs is a lot, okay), Katsuki is already there waiting, sitting on the raised cement structure they usually use for a bench, a small bag sitting next to him. He doesn’t look remotely out of breath, so he must have flown up here... Eijirou only feels a fleeting pang of jealousy, mostly drowned out by happiness at seeing his friend.
“Hey, bro!”
“Hey,” Katsuki grunts, and then immediately shoves something into Eijirou’s hands.
“Aw, homemade bento, sweet! Thanks man!” Eijirou beams at him, flopping down beside his friend and opening the lunch box. “Oohh, you made beef yaki-niku again, yesss, yours is the best!”
“Tch, hell yeah it is.” Katsuki’s cocky smirk is normal, but he looks away while he talks, and is that a flush on his face…? Nah, must be the wind, he’s probably been sitting up here for a while.
Eijirou turns his full attention on his lunch, and Katsuki does the same to his own, only yelling at him once for “making weird fucking noises, holy shit”. He can’t help it, Katsuki’s cooking is so good and he was starving.
“Thanks for lunch, man. If I could eat your cooking every day, I would,” Eijirou says dreamily, setting his empty lunch box to the side.
“Cooking isn’t fucking hard, y’know, you could just learn to do it yourself,” He mutters.
“Yeah, but then I wouldn’t have an excuse for you to cook for me all the time,” He says to Katsuki with a wink.
Katsuki scowls at him, then turns to the opposite side and starts rifling through his bag. He comes up with another box, this one wrapped in shiny red paper.
“Fuckin’…we’ve been stuck with each other for the past fucking month working non-stop on that case, so I figured you might…I dunno, here, fuck.” He shoves the box onto Eijirou’s lap roughly and recoils, like it’s too hot for him to keep holding.
Eijirou blinks, picking up the box and unwrapping it carefully. Inside, he finds chocolates, all adorably decorated like different characters from one of the video games Eijirou has loved since he was a child. They’re clearly homemade, like the ones people give each other on…
“Oh shit! Is it Valentine’s day?! Wow, I completely forgot…” Eijirou says. “You…wait, did you make these? For me?”
“Yeah, fuck, I thought you might, I dunno, you like stupid shit like this, and you probably haven’t seen a fuckin’ girl in forever besides Black Eyes who’s definitely giving her shitty chocolates to-”
“Thank you, dude.” Eijirou can feel tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, because it’s manly to cry when a bro does incredibly touching gestures for another bro. “They look so professional!”
The girl thing isn’t exactly true, he’d seen Uraraka and Hagakure a few days ago, but the agency he works for is mostly made of men by coincidence anyways. Katsuki is always so thoughtful.
Katsuki freezes for a moment, like he’s waiting for Eijirou to say something else, then mumbles, “You’re fucking welcome, or whatever.”
Eijirou quickly blinks the tears away, then stuffs a chocolate into his mouth and smiles widely at Katsuki, who is blushing a brilliant red now and trying his hardest to avoid Eijirou’s eyes.
“These are so good, bro!”
“They fucking better be!” Katsuki snaps.
Eijirou laughs. He has the greatest best friend in the whole world.
Eijirou’s certain that the last of the civilians have been evacuated, so he turns to leave the building. And then he hears the footsteps.
The boy isn’t making any other sound, he’s just running towards Eijirou. And he’s too far away.
The crumbling building gives a final heaving shudder, and then gives, raining concrete slabs and debris into the car port.
Eijirou started sprinting as soon as he saw the boy, and he makes it to him just in time. He screams “GET DOWN!” and then takes a stance over him, his elbows braced on his knees, Unbreakable. He feels the weight crushing him, more and more as the building falls, but he holds it.
The dust finally clears, and he sees the kid, crouching between his legs, unharmed.
Thank god. That was close.
He looks up and sees a path. It’s pretty far, but there’s daylight at the end of it.
He shouts “RUN!”, his voice strangled with effort. The boy looks up at Eijirou, hardened and straining, holding everything alone. Something like concern cuts through his panicked expression for a moment, and it seems to snap him out of his frozen fear. He gets up and runs towards the light. Eijirou watches him disappear to safety with relief.
Then he realizes he’s stuck. He’s now the sole load-bearing pillar for the path out of the rubble, and if he moves, everything will collapse.
He’s pretty sure the entire building is on top of him now, and he can’t release Unbreakable even for a moment. But if he doesn’t move, he’ll run out of stamina, and it’ll collapse on him anyways. Either way, he’s trapped.
The other heroes are undoubtedly busy with the rest of the rescue operations, and they don’t know exactly where he is. They won’t be able to reach him in time.
He can feel the weight of the concrete, crushing him, sending spiderweb cracks through his armour, and he knows he doesn’t have much time left. Panic wells up inside him, threatens to smother him. He doesn’t want to die yet, he’s not ready, not like this, he’s-
Eijirou takes as deep of a breath as he can, given the circumstances. Then another few. Then he slowly brings his hands together, careful not to move too much, reaches into his sleeve, and pulls out a laminated photograph.
He thinks Katsuki would probably be angry if he found out he had this photo. He also thinks that anger would probably be a cover for confusion and embarrassment, because that’s just how his best friend is.
The photo is a candid shot of Katsuki’s face from the side, looking out over the ocean, lit by the orange light of a sunset. His face is serene. Well, as serene as Katsuki gets, anyways, his eyebrows barely furrowed.
Eijirou took the photo himself, when a few of them had gone on a beach day trip during the summer break of 3rd year at UA. Mina had insisted, gathering her closest friends and telling them they needed to make more memories together before they all graduated. Mina, Hanta, Jirou, Denki, Eijirou, and Katsuki went. A bunch of the others were invited too, but they’d been busy.
Eijirou had raised his phone, snapped the photo without really thinking about it, and then shoved Katsuki’s arm and told him to come play frisbee with them.
They’d ridden the city bus home. Katsuki had fallen asleep on Eijirou’s shoulder, which was pretty normal for him even back then. Eijirou had pulled out his phone and started looking through the pictures he’d taken that day, when he’d gotten to the sunset one.
He’d stared at it for a long time. The sun had mostly set by then, the bus lights still off, keeping everything peaceful in twilight. He could hear the others talking quietly in the seats behind them. Katsuki’s head started to slide down his shoulder as he fell deeper into sleep. Eijirou wanted to trap what he was feeling in that moment and keep it with him forever.
So, he printed out the photo, laminated it, and kept it in his hero costume. He’s had it on him every day he’s worked as a hero for the last 3 years. He’s not entirely sure why. Probably in preparation for a moment like this, He thinks, a little bitterly.
The building shifts again, and he knows his time is up. Unbreakable cracks audibly. He’s ready now. He tucks the photograph into a hardened fist, and closes his eyes.
Through the sounds of the shifting concrete, he imagines he hears Katsuki’s voice shouting his name.
“Riot! Red Riot! Eijirou!”
That’s a good little dream to have, to hear his best friend’s voice one last time.
Although he sounds a little…panicked. That’s not quite right…
“You fuck, where are you!? The fuck is the point of your shitty-ass hair if I can’t even use it to find you!”
It’s the last thing he hears before Unbreakable gives, burying him in concrete.
Eijirou wakes up. Which is kind of surprising, considering…
What?
He cracks open his eyes to a white ceiling. Slowly turning his head to the side, he sees…
Mina and Denki. Playing cards on a picnic blanket spread out on the hospital room floor. It’s Mina’s pink leopard print blanket, the same one she brought to the beach that day in 3rd year…
He feels like his thoughts are crawling through molasses. He’s kind of disappointed that Katsuki’s not there too.
He opens his mouth and tries to greet his friends, a simple “hey”, but all that comes out is a weird croaking sound.
As soon as the sound leaves his mouth, their heads swivel towards him as one. They scramble off the blanket in a tangle of limbs, sending cards skittering across the floor.
“Dude! Oh my god, thank god, you’re awake-” Denki cries, tears immediately welling up in his eyes.
“Eiji, don’t you ever go and worry me like that again, young man!” Mina’s voice is shaky, and her tears have already started to overflow, running down her face.
He clears his throat and tries his voice again. “’m sorry…” It’s slurred, but it seems right.
“Oh-don’t, you saved that kid, dude, it’s fine, it’s what heroes are supposed to do, it’s just…we almost lost you…” Denki splutters, gently reaching out to take Eijirou’s hand.
“Yeah… Hanta almost flew home from Thailand when we told him, but we convinced him that we can look after you,” Mina says, gently running her hand through his hair.
The rest of his body is bandaged, his foggy mind realizes, so he’d been hurt really bad when the building fell…but he doesn’t feel any pain…oh. Drugs, right. Could also explain the molasses fuzz in his brain…
“Mmm…m’pretty high, aren’t I?” His lips aren’t cooperating.
Mina laughs through her tears. “Yeah, you are, honey.” She strokes his cheek, gently, and he whines because he’s worried about her. She looks sad still.
“Shh, it’s okay. You’re gonna be okay, now.” Mina keeps stroking his cheek, and Denki holds his hand, and Eijirou lets his eyes close again, sighing contentedly, until…
“What the-I leave for five fucking minutes to take a piss and now you decide to wake up?”
Eijirou pries his eyes back open just in time to see Katsuki stomp into the room, hands shoved in his pockets, his face grumpy and scowling. Mmm…he’s so glad Katsuki is here now. He missed him.
“Ka’sski…missed you,” He slurs. Perfect delivery.
“He’s been sitting here with you for 2 days straight, minus the time you were in surgery,” Mina stage-whispers in his ear. “The nurses said he threatened to blow up the hospital if they didn’t let him stay with you overnight.”
“Tch, like I actually would have…” Katsuki rolls his eyes, and then walks around Eijirou’s bed to slump into a chair.
His chair, Eijirou’s drugged brain supplies, because Mina and Denki had definitely not been sitting in it.
Katsuki looks upset, so Eijirou reaches out his hand to cup his cheek. That should make him feel better, because when Mina did it to him it felt nice.
Katsuki freezes at the contact, and his face turns red, which is kinda funny, so Eijirou laughs a little.
“Iss’okay, bro, m’okay now.” Eijirou tries to put on his best ‘okay’ voice. He thinks he nailed it.
“Yeah, I fuckin’…I know that, dumbass.” His voice is shaking, but he doesn’t look away from Eijirou’s face.
Mina and Denki give each other a pointed, knowing look, and then Denki says, “Let’s go get drinks for everyone, shall we, Mina?” And Mina nods enthusiastically, bounding after him.
When they’re gone, Katsuki takes a deep breath, and then he seems to steady again.
“You saved me…didn’ you. Thank you…thought w’s g’nna…” Eijirou mumbles, then a bad thought suddenly occurs to him. “Wait…’m I dead?”
“No, asshole. You’re very much alive,” Katsuki says gruffly, with the barest huff of something that could have been a laugh. “And it wasn’t just me, Round Face and Deku helped. A little.”
“Mmm’kay good. And I know y’know her name, dude, don’t pretend.”
Katsuki just makes a “tch” noise and looks away.
Eijirou smiles, and almost closes his heavy eyes again, but Katsuki seems like he wants to say something more. He has that weird, constipated look on his face. “You okay, man? Y’can tell me anything, y’know.”
Katsuki hesitates for a moment.
“No. I’m fine. Now shut up and go back to sleep, you sound drunk,” he snaps, but it’s like…a gentle snap. Katsuki’s version of caring.
“Hmm. Okay then.” Eijirou knows Katsuki’s burying some kind of feelings right now, but he’s too sleepy to bother them out of him. That’s okay, he’ll do it later. He closes his eyes with a deep sigh, and lets himself rest again.
Eijirou wakes up again, this time to daylight streaming through the window of his hospital room, painting everything in gold. He feels a lot less fuzzy in the brain, and he’s alone with Katsuki now, who’s sitting in his chair and reading a book. He has deep purple shadows under his eyes, and he looks kind of…dazed, like he’s not really reading what’s on the page, his eyelids heavy.
“Hey,” Eijirou says gently.
His eyes flick up to meet Eijirou’s. “Hey. Was wonderin’ when you were gonna wake up…snoring so fuckin’ loud I could barely concentrate,” He puts his book away and sighs tiredly, his back cracking a little as he straightens up.
“Aw, was I?” Eijirou says, his voice still croaky from disuse.
“Psh, yeah, like a damn chainsaw,” Katsuki grumbles, grinning crookedly at him. Eijirou can’t help but return the smile.
“Heh, sorry. I’ve always told you to just push my face whenever it bothers you.” Eijirou shrugs.
Katsuki huffs indignantly, “Your stupid skin is greasy enough without my hands all over it.”
“Rude!” Eijirou laughs. “Still on about my skin care, huh?”
“Because it fucking sucks!”
After a while, quiet stretches out between them, and suddenly the peaceful atmosphere feels kind of…awkward. Eijirou shifts in his bed a little bit, pulling himself up into a sitting position.
“Hey, uh…thanks. You know, for coming to get me out. And staying here with me. I really thought…” He trails off.
“You’re-fuckin’-you’re my best fucking friend Eijirou, of course I’d-” Katsuki sounds like he’s choking. He’s looking pointedly away from Eijirou, cheeks and neck flushed with red.
“You’re mine too, you know,” Eijirou says gently. Katsuki just grunts in reply.
“You’re wearing a different shirt,” Eijirou says after a while, mostly to distract him from his feelings for a moment. He can tell Katsuki’s still upset.
Katsuki makes a little growling sound under his breath. “Deku was here earlier.”
“Aw, that was nice of him.”
Katsuki just grunts again, and Eijirou smiles.
The healers come back again a few hours later to give him his final session, and then tell him to rest for a bit to gain back some stamina before he’s discharged. By the time they leave the room, Katsuki is smothering constant yawns behind his hand.
“Stop doing that, man, you’re making…me do it too,” Eijirou whines, interrupted mid-sentence by a yawn of his own.
“I’m fucking beat, haven’t slept in a bed in three days.” He’s deadpan, and he really does look like a wreck.
“You don’t have to stay here with me you know, Midoriya and Uraraka just texted and said they’re coming to get me with their car in a few hours. Go rest, dude.”
“Fuck off,” He snaps. “I’m staying.”
“Well then, if you’re gonna be stubborn about it, just get in,” Eijirou says, shifting over on the bed to make room.
Katsuki blinks at him. “…What?”
“Get in, bro! Not like we haven’t shared a bed before.” Eijirou pats the newly opened spot beside him. “It’s waaaay more comfy than the chair.”
Katsuki makes various indistinct growling sounds while he slowly heaves himself out of the chair, then he flops facedown onto the bed with probably a little more force than necessary. He groans dramatically.
“Fuck. Lying down is the fuckin’ shit.” His voice is muffled and he already sounds half-asleep, his face pressed into the mattress.
“Haha, roll over man, you’re gonna suffocate.”
“Mm’fuckyou’n y’r sh’tty h’r…” Katsuki grumbles sleepily, but he complies, rolling over onto his side with his back to Eijirou.
Eijirou rolls over too, putting his back against Katsuki’s and letting the warmth of his best friend beside him pull him back down into sleep.
Ochako snorts out a strangled laugh, and Deku shush’s her, clearly holding in laughter of his own.
They’re standing in the doorway of Kirishima’s hospital room, where Bakugou and Kirishima are fast asleep on a bed that’s much too small for two fully grown young adult men. Especially when one of them is as muscular and bulky as Kirishima is.
Ochako has to admit it’s probably one of the most adorable things she’s ever seen.
Kirishima is on his back, snoring deafeningly loudly, one arm and one leg hanging off the side of the bed. Bakugou is spread out on his stomach like a starfish, one of his arms flopped over Kirishima’s chest, the other tangled up underneath him somewhere. One of his legs is hanging off of the other side of the bed and the other is draped over Kirishima. His face is smushed in between Kirishima’s shoulder and the bed, and Ochako is amazed that he can even breathe like that.
“Do you think they’ll ever realize?” Ochako quietly whispers to Deku, pulling out her phone to take a quick picture.
Deku sighs. “No idea. But I found this in Kirishima’s hand when we rescued him. I’m going to slip it back into his hero outfit when I get the chance.” He pulls out a slightly bent and dusty laminated photograph of…Bakugou. Looking stylish and peaceful in a sunset candid shot.
“Oh.” She raises her eyebrows at Deku, and they share a knowing look.