Chapter Text
He stood there, in front of his apartment, one hand filled with groceries, the other just barely managing to open the door. Of course, he could put some of those bags down, but that's kind of like a cop out. Like admitting a sack of potatoes is too much for you. And losing to a sack of potatoes was just about the last thing Katsuki ‘winner’ Bakugou was about to do. He was so concentrated on the door, he didn’t even notice the strange sounds coming from his apartment—that is, until he was already inside. Moaning. For fuck’s sake, the last thing Katsuki wanted to do after a long day at the lab was deal with his shitty roommate’s light night guests . No warning this time either. Not even a text saying “you know who is gonna come over to do you know what so maybe don’t come home, thanks.” Nothing. Now he was standing at the entrance of his shared apartment debating whether to leave or stomp over to his bed as loudly as possible out of pure spite, shame be damned. Though the ladder was tempting, Katsuki was far too sober for that. Plus he really didn’t know what exactly he’d be walking in on, and some deep-rooted survival instinct told him he didn’t want to find out.
He placed his grocery bags on the kitchen floor and left as quickly as possible. That, however, didn’t stop him from making his presence known in other ways. Digging into his pocket, he took out his phone to send his roommate some colourfully worded text messages.
Katsuki:
i swear to god if yall go anywhere near my room, there's gonna be one more bodily fluid you’ll need to worry abt
since u’ve proven ur too fucking stupid to understand, allow me to explain
that was a threat
i'm talking abt blood
your blood
Sure, Eijiro was dumb, but certainly not stupid enough to check his phone right now , so he couldn’t count on him having a change of heart and kicking Denki out so that Katsuki could sleep in his own bed like originally intended. Right now, however, where he would sleep wasn’t actually his main concern.
As a chemical engineering student, he had his fair share of relatively late-night labs and had to learn to adapt. Still, he by no means wanted to stay up till 3 am, but it wasn’t his fault his lab partners were incompetent pricks. If he had to do it all on his own and it took 3 hours to do a good job, so be it. In order to keep himself semi-functional past 11 pm, he’d drank an absurd amount of energy drink. But all that liquid had to go somewhere, and Katsuki sure as hell wasn’t going back into his apartment.
He considered walking to the convenience store and asking to do to the washroom there, but who knows if Katsuki would make it in time. Instead, he begrudgingly knocked on his neighbour's door not really expecting him to answer at this hour. To his surprise, the door creaked open and a man with red and white hair emerged almost immediately.
“Who the fuck are you?” Katsuki questioned. The only person that should be living here is his annoying as fuck childhood friend, Deku.
“Awfully rude way to greet someone. And I could be asking you the same question.”
“Right um… where the shitty nerd that lives here? We’re neighbours.”
The man eyed him suspiciously. “Deku’s staying at his girlfriend's house tonight. Do you need to speak to him?”
“Ah— no, shit… I'm getting off track. I need to use your bathroom.”
“You said we’re neighbours, right? Can’t you use your own?” he responded, clearly suspicious of the dishevelled stranger asking to enter his home at 4 am.
“You’re seriously telling me you can’t hear that? The walls are pretty fucking thin around here.”
He paused, “...oh."
“Well… are you gonna let me in or just wait until I piss myself.” Katsuki was growing increasingly annoyed despite the fact he thought the man's reluctance was perfectly reasonable. Hell, Kasuki’d probably slam the door in his face if the reverse were to happen.
“Right… sorry.” The man stepped aside letting Katsuki in.
…
Once Katsuki had relieved himself, he exited the washroom to find the boy had made tea and was pouring it into two mugs on the coffee table.
“Hey, what are you doing. I ain’t here to have a fucking tea party.”
“Oh… well I thought this is what people usually do when someone comes over.” The other man’s expressions were incredibly hard to read, but, as far as Katsuki could tell, he seemed genuinely confused.
“Yea, when they come over because they were invited for a party or some shit. Not when they just wanna use the fucking washroom.”
“Right, I see.” He seemed mildly embarrassed though it was hard to tell if his facial expression actually changed or if Katsuki was just imagining it.
He walked over to the table and grabbed the teacup. The man looks at him expectantly as he took a sip.
“Not bad. Definitely had worse, that’s for sure.” Katsuki turned to look at him, eyes narrowing. “Anyway, what the fuck are you even doing in Deku’s apartment when he’s not around?”
“I'm his new roommate… at least temporarily… until I find my own place. The sooner I leave the better actually. Deku has been wanting to move in with his girlfriend for a while now but…”
“I see,” Katsuki cut in before chugging the rest of his tea. It seemed the man felt quite guilty about inconveniencing Deku but he’d rather not hear that story right now. Especially since the other seemed uncomfortable enough as it is. “I’m Katsuki.”
“Shoto Todoroki, nice to meet you Katsuki.”
“You too I guess. Aight, I’ll be off then.”
“Off…? Where are you going? Isn’t your apartment… um…. occupied.”
“I'm obviously not going back there dipshit. I’m just gonna sleep on the couch in the lobby.”
“Are you allowed to do that?”
“I already pay plenty for this overpriced piece of shit. They better let me sleep there.”
“Can’t you call a friend or something?”
“What fucking time do you think it is? 4 am. If some dipshit called me that early, I definitely wouldn’t respond. I’m surprised you answered the door so quick.”
“Hmm, I see… well you could stay here I suppose,” he responded quietly.
“Hah—”
“You are friends with Deku, right? I'm sure he wouldn’t mind considering he’s already letting me stay here. And to be honest, I can’t really sleep in an empty house.”
Katsuki paused. He couldn’t believe he was actually considering this, but he was both physically and mentally exhausted and on the verge of a caffeine crash. “Ok, fine.”
“I have a futon in my room. You can sleep there.” Shoto guided him towards his bedroom, and Katsuki was too tired to argue for once in his life. He simply followed Shoto and drifted off to sleep on the floor beside his bed.