Chapter Text
Kirishima had just moved the last box from his car into Bakugou's new apartment when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Stupid hair.”
"Hm?"
"Move in with me."
It wasn't exactly how Kirishima had planned it to be. He had always planned it this way: help Bakugou move, hang out in his place a few times, lure him to a romantic night out, then confess all of his feelings; just dump everything at once and hope Bakugou wouldn't reject him.
But now that entire plan was in the bin because Bakugou decided to skip all the extra steps. And to be so blunt and abrupt about it! Kirishima simply didn't see this coming from miles away. Living with Katsuki! He was exhilarated, but anxious too.
"I... I'd love to," he replied, when his brain had regained the ability to form sentences. "I mean, yeah, that would be awesome," he could feel his cheeks burning, "I mean, moving in to this apartment, with you, but, why?"
Bakugou didn't reply. Instead, he pushed a box around with his foot. "I don't have any particular reason," he finally said. "I just like your company better than most people's."
Kirishima gulped. He didn't expect that.
"When can you start moving your stuffs here?" Bakugou said nonchalantly.
"I... I gotta tell Sero and Kami I'm moving out first," Kirishima replied, voice cracking mid-sentence like he was in middle school again. “I think… I think I can move in by the start of the new month, which is about a week from now.”
"Alright. Thanks for helping me out today."
"Yeah, uh, no problem," Kirishima smiled nervously. Bakugou raised his fist for a fist bump, but didn’t smile back.
Sero was lounging on the living room sofa, playing a mobile game, while Kaminari was doing the dishes when Kirishima barged in through the front door of their apartment.
"Help Katsuki just asked me to move in with him and I said yes and I don't know what to do now so what should I do?!"
Clang! Kaminari dropped a saucepan to the kitchen floor. Sero looked up in shock, eyes bulging out like he'd just seen a ghost.
"You did what?!" Sero yelled a few awkward beats later.
Kaminari ran to the living room, hands still covered in suds. “Tell me everything now," he demanded, sudsy hands on his hips.
Kirishima just stood there. His housemates didn't seem real. Nothing seemed real. Even the whole drive home before this didn't seem real. "Katsuki wants me to move in with him," he reiterated.
"So... Are you guys like, dating now?" Sero asked.
"No... He didn't say anything else. He just wanted me to move in with him and I said yes. I don't know what more to tell you guys."
"You'll be leaving us?" Kaminari said, making an exaggerated puppy-eyed expression.
"I... I think so. Yeah,” Kirishima said, steadying himself even though his head felt like a million tons.
Sero rose from the sofa and walked up to the still frozen Kirishima. "Congratulations," he said, holding a hand out, "on finally getting to date Kacchan!"
"We're not dating," Kirishima said, though he still took Sero's hand and shook it limply. "I don't know what we are now."
"Hey, it's him we're talking about. He's practically proposing to you already, if that's the case," Kaminari grinned.
"I don't know how to feel about that. I thought I'd be happy, y'know? But instead I feel... It’s unreal. I still can't believe it."
"You've been pining for him since high school! It's what you want, right?" Sero asked. Kirishima blushed instantly.
"Group hug!" Kaminari went in and gave both Sero and Kirishima a hug. "Ew, your hands are all wet," Sero mumbled. Kaminari hugged them tighter.
"I'm so happy for you I could cry," Kaminari said, "but I hate that you're leaving. How are we gonna make rent now?"
Kirishima couldn’t sleep that night. He tossed and turned and flipped himself like a patty but all he could do was think about Bakugou Katsuki. That damned Bakugou, all washboard abs and fluffy blond hair and sparkling red eyes; that incubus! That damned Katsuki, who graduated high school and started a solo career instead of working at any of the hundred-something agencies who wanted to hire him.
Meanwhile there was him, Kirishima Eijirou, who admired Katsuki so much he decided to skip agencies too and debut on his own. How he followed him like a moth to a flame. How he adored him like the birds loved to sing. His poor lovestruck soul! He never wanted to scream so badly in his life, and he would if it wouldn’t wake his housemates. Instead he bit his own pillow until his sharp teeth left holes in the pillow case.
The strange thought that Katsuki could ever feel the same way is too much.
Kirishima steadied his hitching breath. He felt his eyelids getting heavier with each inhale and exhale; each breath spelling Ka-tsu-ki-Ba-ku-gou, over and over again. Eventually, he drifted to sleep.
Days went by and none of them passed without Kirishima ruminating over Bakugou’s offer. Despite that, he was only half ready when the day eventually came. Yet he decided to follow through with the offer.
“That’s everything. Thanks so much for helping, guys,” Kirishima said after Kaminari and Sero had finished loading all of his things into his car.
“No problem,” Sero smiled. “Good luck now.”
“Oh, and don’t forget us just because you have a boyfriend,” Kaminari said.
“He’s not my—“
“Shh, semantics. Lover, partner, whatever you call him, we don’t care. We’ll hang out every weekend, yeah?” Kaminari said.
“Duh. You guys are the best.”
Kirishima entered his car and started the engine. He waved at his buddies before driving to Bakugou’s apartment. There was a slight pain in his chest when he turned and lost sight of his former house.
The traffic was killing him, and throughout the way his anxiety started eating him up from the inside. If other people could feel butterflies in their stomach, Kirishima felt like a grenade had detonated inside his guts; Bakugou’s grenade. “Easy now, boy,” he talked to himself as he drove nearer and nearer to Bakugou’s apartment complex. “What’s the worst that can happen?” he chuckled nervously.
When he arrived at the apartment complex, Bakugou was already waiting outside the lobby. It was summer, so he was wearing his signature black tank tops with a pair of khaki shorts and sandals.
“Hey, you,” Kirishima said as he got off his car, “We match today.” Kirishima was wearing Crimson Riot tank tops with matching shorts and his favourite pair of red Crocs.
What an awful conversation starter, he thought.
“Nah, your Crocs kinda threw it off,” Bakugou replied.
"Ahaha… So, you're gonna help me move my stuffs in, or…?"
"Why else am I hanging around here waiting for you?"
"Right, right," Kirishima blushed as he went to open his car’s doors for Bakugou.
“Don’t mind the stuffs in the trunk,” he said while unloading two boxes from the front seat at once, “That’s all my hero stuffs. You know, rescue gears and all.”
A voice inside Kirishima’s head said what the fuck are you talking about? So he stopped talking.
“That’s cool. Cars are practical. It’s good that my roomie has one,” Bakugou replied, unloading the biggest box from Kirishima’s car.
Kirishima paused mid-walk. “You know, since we’re ‘roomies’ now, you can use my car anytime you want.”
“Sounds like a deal,” Bakugou smiled slightly. Kirishima instinctively smiled back.
Maybe this isn’t so bad, he thought. It’s gonna be okay.