Work Text:
Bakugou Katsuki was an idiot.
That was it.
He let out a shaky breath, trying not to clench his muscles as he sat there leaning his head over on top the pitiful coffee table in his tiny apartment. The blond buried his head in his arms, hoping and trying his best not to look at just how stupid the decision he happened to be making was. Still, he sat shirtless in front of his roommate, awaiting his inherent stupidity to set in.
For context, Bakugou was a healthy twenty year old. He went through some rough shit in middle school, so maybe this was his punishment or something for what a major asshole he was. Of course, like any sensible person, he regretted his middle school years. Hell, he looked back on them with disdain almost from the very minute he entered high school.
Even so, he changed- for the better, as most people do when they aren’t in middle school.
Naturally, it took him some time to grow up, even when he was surrounded by a better crowd, and, of course, he made some shitty decisions here and there. However, by the end of high school he was a changed man… or well boy. He could hardly call his eighteen year old self a ‘man’... it was more like a wannabe in need of a good belt to keep up his ever falling pants.
Bakugou would shutter at recalling his past.
At times, he could be snappy. Quite a bit he could be annoying. He still had the same exterior demeanor, and he had some lingering issues saying what he meant. He still had the same swearing habit and way of holding himself. However, he undeniably changed.
“Sources said I should have paper towels on hand to wipe away the excess fluids…” his roommate spoke up, voice unsure as he looked down at his phone and then back to Bakugou.
“Okay, and? That’s for you to fucking know!” the ash blond snapped back, trying to steady his breath as he felt that inherent discomfort settling in his chest. It wasn’t as if he was scared, really, but the fact of the matter was that he was that his body didn’t exactly care about how “logically” he knew that he would be okay.
“I’m sorry! I just figured you might want to know… I mean it is your body that’s… you know…”
Bakugou rolled his eyes, biting his lip and silently thanking the fact that his roommate couldn’t see the embarrassed flush over his face. He appreciated the warning, yes, but he was getting more and more antsy the longer he waited, “Just get on with it!”
All that aside, Bakugou was a regular worker with a full time job; he was a normal twenty year old, renting a shitty apartment with a guy he had never met prior to sharing the same room. Both of them got along rather well- if they didn’t, there was no way Bakugou would have been letting this happen. Still on the more yellow end of blond- compared to Bakugou’s ash blond- his roommate was none other than Kaminari Denki, an art student at the local college.
“Okay, okay, okay…” he told himself, letting out a sigh from behind Bakugou.
“Is it?” the explosive blond turned around to look at worried citrine eyes.
“Yes! It is okay! I’m just… a bit nervous…” he sat, looking at Bakugou’s exposed back and biting his lip, “It’s okay. I’m going to do just fine. It’s okay…” he repeated, much to Bakugou’s displeasure.
“Well, yer making ME nervous! Just!” he hissed, rolling his garnet eyes and turning around, biting his cheek to keep from backing down, “Hurry up! Don’t make me say it again.”
“If you’re sure,” Kaminari sighed once more before getting closer to Bakugou once more. He picked up the pen- the normal pen at first, and started to press the ink into the blond’s skin. Kaminari gripped his roommates’ bicep and kept sketching, “You really don’t care what I put?”
“I don’t fucking care! How many times do I have to say it?” Bakugou snapped.
He was letting Kaminari give him a tattoo. Any tattoo.
In his defense, the art student had been talking about it for a long time, constantly worrying himself stupid over the pros and cons of a job as a tattoo artist as a long term career. Kaminari, really, he just didn’t have the spoons or motivation to go into business-type art jobs; he was a drawer, filling sketchbook upon sketchbook of needless doodles. The blond worried about his skills as an animator- or more like in an animation field. He wasn’t confident in his skills enough to be in advertisement or a graphics designer.
Overall, it was just hard for him to see himself thriving in an art-based job where he had to monetize his work and his hobbies or get thrown to the wolves and perish.
That being said, he also wanted to have an art based job to challenge himself! Which was why Bakugou had to listen to an almost familiar mumbling from the other blond who was running himself ragged trying to think of art-based jobs and ultimately talking himself out of why he would be good at them. Bakugou, understandably, was sick of it, so, when Kaminari started finally thinking about becoming a tattoo artist, Bakugou leaned into it wholeheartedly.
And… maybe there were other reasons that Bakugou agreed to be his roommate’s human canvas, carrying the blond’s art on his skin permanently throughout his life, but that was his business, okay?
It had nothing to do with lingering looks sent in Kaminari’s direction, or the fact that Bakugou made time for him above all else. It had nothing to do with the fact that he constantly thought about his roommate or how he wanted their moments together to linger on for eternity. It had nothing to do with the way he felt… complete around Kaminari.
Both of them, despite the way it felt like they were so different, were good friends- great friends, even. Of course, that was also because they lived together and saw each other constantly. Neither of them were really in a good place when meeting, and they ended up a bit reliant on one another- but still, the fact was they could rely on each other. They could lift each other up during those bad times. Even when things got worse, they could always lean on each other.
It didn’t matter if they lived together or not; they cared for each other- beyond the shitty three year lease their landlord stuck them in.
Sometimes they fought or took their anger out on each other or hid in their room for days at a time. Sometimes they avoided each other or struggled to adapt to the other’s daily habits. Sometimes their love languages didn’t add up, or they made the other uncomfortable showing or, sometimes not showing, their affection. Sometimes there were misunderstandings and incidents and things that got swept under the rug. Sometimes they were annoying or overbearing or forgetful or neglectful, and sometimes they had issues!
But they had each other.
It wasn’t something that either of the two would change, and, no matter what name it went by, that worked for them.
“Are you sure about this?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life, Sparky. Get on with it,” Bakugou rolled his eyes, not that it mattered in the darkness between his crossed arms. He couldn’t even see the table five inches in front of his face, but, yeah, he was in love with Kaminari Denki. Plus, at the very least, the electric blond was not drawing a dick on him- Bakugou couldn’t quite tell what was being sketched, but it was not a dick, at the very least.
Kaminari let out a sigh, scooting closer to thicken the pen lines on his canvas’ back, “Huh, man you’re really hairless… there’s not even like- any peach fuzz or anything…” the electric blond spoke absent-mindendly, splaying his fingers outward and running his hand aimlessly over Bakugou’s shoulder.
The explosive male shivered at the touch, whipping his head around to yell, “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?” in reasonable embarrassment.
“Ah! Well, it says that you’re supposed to disinfect the surface and remove any hairs in the area! But, like, you don’t have any hairs, so there’s nothing to remove!” Kaminari chirped awkwardly, defending himself, “Ah, I’m still going to disinfect your shoulder though… just to be sure-”
“I don’t need a run down, play-by-play explanation. This is YOUR career, not MINE,” Bakugou emphasized the words ‘your’ and ‘mine’ as he settled back down, looking forward instead of trying to side eye the artist who was looking between his phone, the tattooing equipment, and Bakugou’s exposed shoulder. The ash blond spoke up before laying his head back down, “It’s good to get in that fuckin habit, I guess,” he grumbled, “Especially when you don’t know who it is yer working with.”
“Aw, thanks, Blasty!”
“If you put ‘Blasty’ on my fucking skin permanently, I’m strangling you in your sleep, ya got that?”
Kaminari burst out laughing for a moment, “What if I did an explosion?” he tested the waters, still giggling.
“In black and white?” Bakugou demanded, almost turning back around to look at the artist and possibly stretch his skin to see the pen art, “And there is no way that was a fucking explosion!”
He went quiet before speaking up, but Kaminari surely answered “It’s, uh, it’s not that… I promise…” Citrine eyes looked away for a moment, unsure of himself as he bit his lip- not that Bakugou saw his hestiance. He did hear it, though, but he took it as more of impostor syndrome and less of ‘I have a big secret that I want to tell you…’
“Just get on with it. It can’t be the worst shit out there-” Bakugou reassured him… in his own way at least.
Letting out another sigh, Kaminari almost doubted that, but he nodded, again as if Bakugou could see, “Yeah… Well I’m gonna cut the machine on, do you want to put on some music? It’ll at least help ya distract from the pain a bit-”
Bakugou huffed, but he couldn’t fight back… that was a good idea… so he put both hands on the table and grabbed his phone, cutting it on and flipping through the options, “It doesn’t matter what I play, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Kaminari echoed, “Just make it loud, because this thing is noisey.”
Pressing play, Bakugou put on one of the blonds’ shared playlists and settled back in, trying not to be unnerved by the whirling of the home tattoo machine that he had hunted down for Kaminari- it was nearly professional grade… or it was supposed to be at the very least. Now, the blond didn’t have enough to be the artist’s Sugar Daddy or anything like that; seeing as they were living in the same pitiful little apartment for a reason, but Bakugou did have enough savings to make the immediate purchase with the promise of a gradual payback.
He just hoped that he wouldn’t need anything for medical bills because that might get messy- regardless of how anal he was about his finances, he wouldn’t have enough to cover any too lengthy hospital stays, at least not if they put him out of work. Either way, the blond wasn’t going to be caught hesitating in front of his cr- roommate, so he kept quiet, trying ignore the dread settling deep in his chest.
Kaminari pressed the blade to Bakugou’s back and the blond winced, but it wasn’t quite as bad as he was expecting. The artist pulled the tip back immediately afterwards, fretting even though he had only left a tiny line. “Shit, are you okay?” he debated cutting off the machine, but he decided against it, instead hovering both hands over Bakugou’s back as if that did anything except for making him look weirdly threatening.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s gonna fuckin hurt- it’ll just take me a bit to get used to,” he snapped. Obviously, he was happy that his pain was worrisome for the object of his affection, but it still hurt his pride to be doted on in such a way. Not to mention, he had known it was going to be painful, and the whole constant stopping was getting to be annoying. “If it hurts too much, I’ll fucking tell you, alright? Until then keep fucking going, Dunce Face.”
“Okay, okay,” Kaminari mumbled, barely heard over the machine’s whirling before he spoke a bit louder, “Oh! But tell me if you get dizzy or nauseous! Apparently, it’s rare, but that is a sign you might pass out and I really don’t want that, man…”
“Fine, fine,” Bakugou drawled, rolling his eyes, but he committed it to memory, remind himself to breathe slowly and deeply.
Kaminari bit hit lip before lowering the blade back down towards Bakugou. He watched the needle carefully, making sure that he wasn’t putting too much pressure onto it, but he still couldn’t keep it very steady, seeing as he had never worked with a vibrating pen before.
“Ugh, I don’t think this is gonna work out. I can’t keep the pen still!”
“And that’s why your practicing, dipshit! Just make the art small or something! I’m not gonna be stuck with some tiny ass line while you dip out of another career choice because you’re not painting Starry Night your first fuckin’ go!”
“Well!”
“Hah? Well what? It’s my fuckin’ body, and I have already made peace with the fact that it’s gonna look like shit, so it’s time that you made that same fuckin’ peace, too!”
Chuckling, Kaminari rolled his eyes, “Fine, fine, I’ll finish it…” he mumbled, only heard because of how his face was closer to Bakugou’s ear than the pen he was straightening out the wire for, flicking it a bit uselessly before giving up.
Returning to focus, he started lowering the blade, putting the side of his hand against Bakugou’s skin to help steady his linage. He started with little strokes, like he would a paper sketch; tiny overlapping marks, just so that the vibrating wouldn’t actually show up on his canvas. He took note of how Bakugou hummed in response; although he didn’t actually notice the way that the ash blond had to remind himself to breathe.
Truth be told, it didn’t hurt as much as he expected. The vibrations seemed to almost- but not quite- numb his skin. It sort of felt like one of those home-massagers, but painful. Rather than being a pin-point kind of pain, it was spread out through the area which the needle mostly encompassed.
Still, Bakugou found himself holding his breath, which made the experience far worse. He had to actively remind himself to breathe in and to breathe out, which certainly helped to make him less uncomfortable.
Kaminari held the blade almost still… at least he tried. His lineart was sort of garbage- even he had to admit that, but he didn't really have a choice but to keep going. He carefully set down the gun to pull out a paper towel and wipe down the line he made. "It's better than I thought…" he mumbled, but Bakugou still heard him, resisting the urge to laugh at that.
It wasn't particularly funny, actually, but it just reminded him that love made him stupid… and he was going to live with that on his skin for the rest of his life.
Naturally, he would admit, having the music helped as Kaminari lowered the blade once more, gently poking through his skin and leaving behind the trail of ink. The pain of the blade was something that he could honestly almost forget with a minimal distraction- it was quite like being pinched, but in an area that was already sore from having been pinched before. Of course, there were certain spots where it did hurt like a stinging zap!, but those didn't happen very often.
Until Kaminari decided to make a longer line, dragging the needle over Bakugou's skin for, reasonably, a longer time than usual, "Stick with the shorter lines-" he sat up to chastise the artists, noting how the blade hurt more the longer it was wedged into his skin. His voice felt weird to use, but not in a way that was worryingly so.
"Ah, my bad," Kaminari leaned back a little, "It's just not inking right…"
"Did you refill the ink cartridge?" thankfully, the ash headed blond had remembered his roommate pointing that out prior to their whole tattooing experience.
"Right!" he exclaimed, "You're a genius, man!"
"Only to an idiot," Bakugou rolled his eyes fondly, tensing and untensing his shoulder to grow accustomed to the pain. It felt weird- like talking for the first time. Even if it wasn't painful or anything to fret over, flexing his muscles made him acutely aware of how tired they were.
"Hey!" Kaminari pouted, "Remember who has the blade- I wield power over something going permanently on your skin!" He threatened, but it didn't really have any weight over the music and the fact that Bakugou knew him better.
Still, something about the explosive boy saying, "Yeah, I'll never forget it," made his heart skip a beat and his nervousness increase a bit.
Lowering the refilled pen, Kaminari traced the lines he had in pen with short, choppy strokes, slowly getting a better and better handle on the pen as he stopped to gently wipe away the excess ink.
Bakugou had to remind himself to breathe a few times after reminding himself not to hold his breath. It was a bit of a work in progress, but he found that most of the time, when the pain got worse, it was because he had forgotten to breathe in.
Of course, that didn't last forever, seeing as he fell into the rhythm of the sketch like strokes and the paper towel pressing down on his skin. It was like a pattern- one that, even if it didn't quite fall in line with the music, it was easy enough for his breathing to jump into.
They sat like that for a while… neither could really tell the time when it all blurred together. The music, the buzzing, the pain, those moments when the pain almost phased out because he just wasn't thinking about it enough.
After a while, Kaminari sat back, finally putting the gun down and wiping away the ink, leaning forward as he spoke, "I finished with the lineart. Do you want me to color it in or leave it as it is?"
"What do you mean color it in?" Bakugou raised his head, looking back at his roommate draped across the front of the couch.
"Ah, you know, we don't have any of those removable shading tips, but I can still blackout most of this-" he pointed at the drawing, as if Bakugou could tell what it was, rather than just feeling it as a vague spot of pain.
"If it makes your lineart look less shitty, I'm down," Bakugou joked, laughing shortly.
"Oh come on! It's not that bad!" Kaminari defended, "But, this site says that sometimes longer projects use numbing gel to color things in, and I don't have any of that…"
"It'll be fuckin' fine. I can take it."
Another line that was so natural to the ash blond, but it made the artist's heart soar just a bit. He was glad that his friend couldn't see the lopsided grin that he was fighting back.
Regardless, he repeated the process, carefully filling in each little self imposed section.
If Kaminari had started off with the coloring, then it probably would have hurt like a bitch, but, by the time he finished the lineart, Bakugou was already used to the feeling.
Once again, they stayed in their own little world, absent of time, listening to the music bump against the vibrating machine that was all but white noise. It was almost funny- the less Bakugou heard the machine, the less pain he felt in his shoulder… but maybe that was because he was zoning out during those moments.
It wasn't until Kaminari burst the bubble, wiping away the ink one last time before he fell back with a relieved sigh. Naturally, Bakugou sat up, a tad disoriented from not doing that for so long, but the feeling faded away rather quickly as he turned around. Despite wincing a bit as he felt his muscles push against the tender skin, he wasn't feeling too much pain from the applied area. It was still pretty tender, overall, but he couldn't complain. It was better than he expected.
"I'm going to wipe it down, put some Vaseline on it, and then we're supposed to cover it for anywhere from one to two hours, alright?" Kaminari grinned, cutting off the tattoo machine as he pulled out a small alcohol wipe.
Bakugou nodded, mumbling, "Whatever," as he turned back forward. The cool, wet wipe felt a lot better than he expected- he was waiting for the sting that usually came with alcohol wipes on an open wound, but it never came. He almost wanted to lean into the touch, but he had more dignity than that.
Unaware of his roommate's internal gay monologue, Kaminari dipped his fingers into the Vaseline, rubbing a small amount over the work of art before putting a bit patch over it. Securing that with tape, the electric blond laid back, letting his head thump against the couch, "So, wanna order some pizza?" he asked nonchalantly.
"Yeah, sure. Half and half," Bakugou responded, standing up and stretching his tired legs.
"Aw, but why?" Kaminari whined, hoping to each get their own pizza.
Scarlet eyes rolled in their sockets as the ash blond started walking around to regain the feeling in his legs, "Because neither of us need pizza, and we do have a budget."
"Oh, come on… you're no fun," the electric blond deflated.
"I literally just let you carve some unknown rune into my fucking shoulder. There's no incantation I need to fucking avoid, is there? If I fucking summon some shitt demon, I'm going to haunt you," garnet eyes rolled in their sockets, barely resisting the urge to run a hand over the bandage- not that he could feel anything below that.
"Ah… yeah…" Kaminari looked away, letting out a nervous laugh, suddenly feeling self conscious about his work.
Bakugou, however, was none the wiser. He couldn't even see Kaminari's face. Instead, he stretched as much as he could without disturbing the artwork, and let out a yawn, "Are you gonna order the shit or do you want me to?"
Cleaning up his station, Kaminari shook his head, "You can order it! I'm, uh, I'm gonna clean up the… you know… all of this-" he gestured to the tattooing equipment, "I'm gonna put this baby"- he pointed to the machine, "Back in the closet."
"Be fuckin careful with it," Bakugou called over his shoulder, walking around their makeshift kitchen, mumbling about how he wanted to make pizza, but he couldn't move his stupid shoulder more than necessary.
Which was a real shame. He could have whipped up an amazing pizza- even if they did have the cheapest oven known to man.
Bakugou was quite the chef; he could have gone the culinary arts route. Of course, he could have done so if he was willing to face scrutiny for his every fucking move under the thumb of a manipulative- yet somehow still neglectful- household.
He enjoyed cooking; it was rather therapeutic. It wasn't his passion, thankfully; although even if it was, nothing could have stopped him from breaking out of that household as soon as possible… with its half-assed "care" and all those empty promises.
Nah, even if it was kind of run down or whatever, there wasn't any place he'd rather be. The electric blond popping around the corner with a grin and, "So? When's pizza gonna be here?"
Bakugou couldn't help but find himself smiling. Seeing that face just made his doubts wash away- was he going to admit that? Absolutely not. "Not fuckin' tellin. You're just gonna fuckin bother me about it every five minutes," he rolled his eyes, "Come on, don't you have a sketch peice that you need to finish before class?"
"Shit! You're right!" Kaminari bolted off to his room, footsteps thumping loudly for the short period of time it took for him to cross the house. Bakugou let out a huff of laughter at the display, rolling his eyes and laying chest down on the couch. He didn't want to risk anything rubbing against his tattoo.
Kaminari couldn't even complain, rushing out into the living room and seeing Bakugou shirtless, lounging nonchalantly. His creamy skin contrasted the couch and made the art student's throat fuzzy. He stood for a moment, biting his lip… Bakugou wouldn't mind if he sketched the scene up… would he?
Of course, he didn't right away, but, once he dumped his stuff onto the coffee table, he may have added a new page to his sketchbook. Leaning against the coffee table with his legs crossed on the floor, he may have been sneaking glances whenever Bakugou was the most occupied with his phone.
Pencil scratches and the occasional 'buzz' of a phone filled the air, filling the soft air with a fluffy atmosphere. Well, until the gentle, comfortable silence between the two blonds was broken by a "Ding!"
Of course, being the one that was the most dressed, Kaminari jumped up, "I'll get it!" He felt himself skip, giddy- a feeling he would definitely blame on the pizza as he jumped up, torn from his art.
"Money's on the counter. Don't forget to fuckin tip!" Bakugou called back, almost missing the way the artist had left his sketchbook open to the sketch marks carefully encompassing the ash blond, lounging wordlessly on an awkwardly drawn couch-
In his defense, large furniture was annoying to get right, and his main focus wasn't exactly the folds on the couch…
Hiding behind his phone, however, Bakugou refused to let the drawing go to his head, not wanting to get excited over an art student… making art.
"Pizza!" Kaminari cheered, holding the box over top of his head and giving Bakugou a grin.
"So, thirty minutes till I can take this shit off?" the ash blond pointed vaguely at the bandage on his shoulder.
"Or an hour and a half!" the electric blond would have waved, had he not been holding a box of pizza. The more he thought about the design, the more nervous he got.
Thankfully, he didn't realize that his sketchbook- with the picture of Bakugou in immense detail lounging on the couch- was open clear as day. Not that he could have really done anything, but he would have been internally dying instead of happily stuffing his mouth with pizza.
Desperately trying to think of ways to keep Bakugou from peeling off his band-aid, Kaminari stealthily looked around as he shoved his first slice of pizza into his mouth, buffalo sauce slipping out the corner of his mouth. Citrine eyes lit up as he saw the tv behind him, "Hey we could stall for time playing some games!" he chimed like bells, picking up a piece of sausage that fell off his slice and popping it into his mouth.
"That mean I gotta fucking move?" Bakugou drawled lazily, picking up a peice of plain cheese pizza from his side. Despite complaining, he was already moving to sit up against the armrest, where nothing was touching his back.
Kaminari may or may not have taken great pleasure in watching Bakugou sit up, licking his lips as he glanced at the ash blond's exposed torso. He wouldn't admit to his mouth watering a bit at the sight, but he forced the feeling down with another mouthful of pizza.
"Oi, what ever happened to your homework?" ever the nerd, even if it was former, garnet gems flickered over to Kaminari's closed sketchbook. Bakugou would be lying if he said he didn't desperately want to know why the object of his affection was drawing him, but he wasn't about to admit to snooping.
"Huh? Oh, I can just start it later tonight," the art student waved, "It's not like we're going to be playing for that long."
Start it…
Bakugou paused for a moment, realizing that the sketch Kaminari did of hin wasn't homework… but then… what was it?
Still, he was easily sucked in by the electric blond babbling on about the game he had chosen for them both to play, so Bakugou was very naturally pulled out of his intellectual gay mode and into mushy gay mode.
Honestly, it was so easy for them to get swept up in each other's company that time became lost. They leaned to fight better and cheered when something good happened to them, and they laughed, bursting with joy; Kaminari with a dopey grin and Bakugou with a mischievous smirk, they were reminded of just how easy it was to get lost in being together.
Of course, it was again broken by a timer buzzing mid round. Naturally, the two finished off the round: Bakugou yelling triumphantly as he cleared the board in first place.
Kaminari let out an exaggerated sigh, grumbling about how it was 'unfair' and all of the classic excuses. Still, he was smiling all the same…
"'at was the fuckin' timer for the tat. It's time to take this bandage off-"
Until he realized that it was time to uncover his secret...
Bakugou stood up, making his way to the bathroom so that they could wipe the area off, "Almost forgot about it for a bit there, damn." He mumbled to himself, fumbling with the bandage the best he could, seeing as it was in such an awkward area.
Standing alone in the bathroom, the normally explosive ash blond was quiet, doing his best to peel off the bandage on his shoulder blade. He was fumbling quite a bit, but that was only because Kaminari had purposefully lagged behind, feeling rather nauseous as he realized how little he could hide.
"Are ya fuckin' coming or not!" Bakugou yelled over his shoulder. Even if he got the bandage off, he couldn't wash off the area or reapply the lotion like he needed to.
"Right, right! Sorry!" Kaminari called down the hallway, pushing himself up off the couch and stepping quietly down the makeshift hallway to the bathroom. As if to save his ass, the electric blond called out, "You called?"
"Fuck yeah, I fucking called ya'. Dunce Face, you realize I can't see the shit you did, right?"
Yeah, and Kaminari wanted so badly to keep it that way.
"We"- he wouldn't lie that part made his heart skip a beat- "gotta clean off the area and shit. Then I want to see just what you put on my skin, permanently."
Bakugou's voice may have been gruff and rude, but it still made Kaminari melt a little bit. Of course, he didn't have any choice but to obey, stepping forward with a, "Yeah! Right! Use a light, scentless soap, and a gentle lotion with no fragrance!" he repeated to himself.
Dampening a paper towel and running it over Bakugou's skin, he felt the explosive blond hiss at the touch, "Ah, sorry," he repeated on instinct.
"Just get on with it," Bakugou barked.
The touch felt painful and nice at the same time; he wanted to lean into the contact and jerk away from it, so, of course, he settled for staying still. He felt his breaths becoming sharper as Kaminari cleaned the area.
"It's gonna be tender for a while…" the artist repeated, trying his best not to be distracted by the way Bakugou's muscles tensed and relaxed; although, the display was quite mesmerizing. He resigned himself to being glad to just touch the built male's strong shoulders and carried on.
Again, forgetting about the things he planned on hiding, Kaminari let out a cheerful, "Done!" once he finished wiping up and soaping down the area. All they had left was the lotion, which Bakugou was holding.
"Great. Lemme see it."
"Ah, yeah…" Kaminari trailed off, "Do you want me to get another mirror or take a picture or…?"
He mumbled, half hoping that Bakugou wouldn't hear him- mostly hoping that the ash blond would send him on some goose chase that Kaminari could purposefully fuck up.
Unfortunately, Bakugou was ready for that, handing the electric boy a handheld mirror with a, "Here."
Kaminari angled the mirror perfectly, watching their bathroom mirror carefully. He essentially gave up on trying to fool his roommate; Bakugou was going to find out about it evenetually- both the tattoo and the meaning behind it.
"Does that say…" Bakugou paused, reaching his hand around to touch the edges. Naturally he couldn't make out the picture without seeing it, but he could still feel the deepness of the lines, "[Ai]"
It was the character for [Love]. Kaminari Denki was in love with Bakugou Katsuki.
"Why the fuck does it say [Love]?" his expression darkened into something unreadable. Bakugou refused to get his hopes up- there were a million reasons why Kaminari could have done that.
The electric blond, however, found himself falling apart, "Look, I know it's weird- you can ignore this! Pretend it never happened! Whatever- I, I can come up with some other meaning or whatever, but I just- I just…" he fumbled with his words, feeling tears prick his eyes as he mumbled, "Fuck…"
"Denki."
Bakugou's eyes narrowed as they made eye contact in the mirror.
"Why is it [Love]?"
Kaminari chose to just let it out, feeling tears roll down his cheeks, "Because I'm in love with you."
Citrine gems immediately moved away in shame and he shrunk into himself. He opened up his mouth again to apologize, but Bakugou whipped around, grabbing Kaminari by the collar and pulling him in for a kiss.
For a moment, they forgot about everything, melting into each other's touch. Bakugou's hand settled on Kaminari's waist, and Kaminari responded by placing a hand on Bakugou's side.
It was pure bliss, serene silence- until Kaminari accidentally moved his hand too far up and brushed Bakugou's still sensitive tattoo. The blond broke their kiss, hissing in pain, but citrine and garnet met in awe.
They couldn't help but burst out into laughter.
Bakugou put a hand on Kaminari's cheek, not meeting his eyes and mumbled, "I'm in love with you, too, dumbass… that is as long as this isn't some fucking prank."
Kaminari leaned into the touch, until he realized what the ash blond had said, "Why the fuck would I do that?" his eyes jerked up. "That's a really fucked up thing to do… and it's stupid… I was kind of expecting you to slug me, man…"
"We're both a little fuckin' helpless, huh?" Bakugou chuckled, watching Kaminai giggle before looking up, "I guess we are, huh?"