Work Text:
Eijirou was a very giving person. It was in his genes, some might say. His Mums had always been gift givers, and he’d received many amazing presents over the course of his childhood, so it was only natural that the habit would evolve into his own love language. However, he didn’t always have the money to provide, so he went with the next best thing. Eijirou created.
Mind you, Eijirou wasn’t the best with his hands, in the sense his quirk was meant to destroy and defend, not create. Nonetheless, he took to craft like a chicken to water. Admittedly, he drowned in confusion and thrashed against the miles of string and glue that refused to stay where he wanted it, but he put his whole heart into it, and that’s what mattered.
First it was random pebbles he’d found while out on trips with the squad, which he stuck googly eyes to and painted mimics of his friends’ hair on.
Then it was little badges, which he wrote compliments on. He designed and pressed them himself. But only stuck with that hobby for a grand total of two days before handing off his creations and tucking the equipment under his dorm bed, never to be seen again.
Today Eijirou was knitting. He’d noticed the squad were a bit down because of a test Aizawa had given them the week before and needed a pick me up by yours truly.
Unfortunately, good intentions didn’t immediately make him a master craftsman. Everything went wrong. The bees all turned out different sizes with wonky stitching and buttons for eyes that were way too big to be taken seriously. He could not give these to anyone. They were an eyesore. Even Mina, who was proud of everything he did, would cringe at the sight of the bright pink bee he’d made for her.
Eijirou’s ears burned as he looked at the four monstrosities strewn across his bedroom floor, which were staring back at him with dead eyed expressions. If he was honest with himself, they looked a little creepy.
WIth a sigh, Eijirou began to pack away. It didn’t matter if he’d spent two days knitting and sewing, he could not be caught dead giving these to anyone. There was ‘awe my friend made it for me’ and then there was this.
At least he tried.
Packing up the spare wool in a carrier bag, he shoved that under his dorm bed with everything else before distracting himself with picking up the off cuts that he’d managed to get everywhere. All the while, the tiny bees watched him. Staring curiously, as he gnawed on his lip and cleaned up.
Maybe it was the fact he’d spent so much time on them that kept him from throwing them away. Maybe it was the severe lack of room to stash them until he made new ones. But somehow, Eijirou decided he would give them to his friends, but he wouldn’t let them know it was him who’d made them. Instead, he was going to be super stealthy.
>_<
Eijirou promised himself he would distribute the bees soon. He did. But he chickened out every, single, time. The thought of being caught and laughed at had him freezing up and stuffing the bees further into his pockets. Shame colouring his face dark enough to match his hair.
After several days of back and forth, Eijirou came up with a compromise.
Using his super, stealthy hero training, he began deploying the bees.
During Hero Training, he held back in the changing rooms long enough to tuck Denki’s black and yellow bee into the pocket of his uniform blazer. He made sure to fluff the wings and push the bee down far enough that it wouldn’t be noticed immediately. Eijirou knew his poker face was useless, and the last thing he wanted was his abomination of a bee being associated with him in broad daylight.
By next period, Denki had threaded a key ring between the bee’s wings and attached it to the zip of his rucksack where it could flop around uselessly for all to see. It took a great deal of effort on Eijirou’s part to keep from grinning like an idiot every time he saw the little guy hanging out on Denki’s bag.
On the same day, he waited for Mina to turn her back to her desk, engrossed in a heated debate with Uraraka, before shoving her pink bee into her pencil case. Zipping it closed before anyone could notice, he quickly injected himself into the conversation to cover up his sudden silence. It took her a little longer than Denki to discover it, but by lunch she had loudly noticed the bee’s presence and demanded for the presenter to step forward. Although Eijirou had very obviously shrunk in his seat, he miraculously wasn’t found out. And to his surprise Mina had let it go quite quickly and put the bee in her breast pocket, adjusting it so it’s stupid face was peering out.
For Sero, Eijirou snuck into his room while he was getting dinner and taped the bee to the ceiling above the door on a string. He turned the fan on low to give the bee the impression of flying around the room - he was extra like that. Then sprinted for the elevator.
Later, the bee had found a new home tucked in the crook of Sero’s hammock among the pillows and blankets he kept in there to make it extremely comfortable. Eijirou had noticed he tended to squeeze it when he was thinking during their hang outs together in Sero’s room. With Sero lazing in the hammock and Eijirou lazing on his bed. It made his heart flutter every time.
The last bee however, had to be placed delicately. Bakugou was the meanest out of his friends and the most likely to publicly expose him for something as stupid as a derpy bee, so Eijirou had to tread carefully. For that reason, he kept Bakugou’s bee for a little longer than the other. Some might even argue he’d grown attached to the tiny fella. Nonetheless, Eijirou was determined to give everyone a bee, even if his pride was on the line.
So he waited for his weekly tutoring sessions with Bakugou to ‘give’ the blond his. Really, Eijirou just whipped the bee out of his hoodie pocket, and crammed it between the pages of the chemistry textbook Bakugou had leant him. It was his worst hiding spot yet, but Bakugou doesn’t seem to notice. Or at least he didn’t pull the redhead up on it and allowed the study session to continue as normal.
The next time Eijirou went into the blond’s dorm for their weekly study session, he noticed the tiny orange and black bee sitting proudly upon the neat stack of textbooks on Katsuki’s desk, right next to the angry looking pebble he’d sharpied a scowl onto.
That was all the confirmation he needed to know his gifts had been well received.
