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Bakugou never understood why people celebrated birthdays. He stopped having birthday parties when he was six because why have a party with a bunch of extras that he didn’t care about? Having to sit there awkwardly as they sang happy birthday to him. It was always so boring, especially since most of the kids invited were only there because his parents worked with their parents. If he was honest, Deku was the only one that had come to one of his parties that he had actually considered a friend at some point.
After his birthday party at six, it was mostly dinner with his parents to celebrate. Usually, a fancy place that required him to dress up. It was fucking annoying, but at least the cake was always good. Also, spending time with his parents wasn’t always that bad. It just felt like it was nothing special.
Once he arrived at UA and found himself a group of friends, real friends, that were annoying as fuck but actually cared about him. Part of him thought that maybe… spending time with them for his birthday that was drawing near wouldn’t be too bad. That was, of course, before a literal war broke out. There is no time to think about birthdays when you are in the middle of a war zone and just hoping that no one dies by the end of the day.
He had completely forgotten it was his birthday until Kirishima reminded him. Leave it up to the redhead to find a fucking cupcake somewhere in a destroyed city and a candle to top it with.
Kirishima presented the cupcake to him with a shy grin, “Happy Birthday, man!”
“Where the hell did you get that?” Bakugou said with a raised eyebrow, but he couldn’t help but smile slightly.
“I got my ways,” Kirishima chuckled, “but eat it fast. I could only grab one and everyone else is going to want some.”
Bakugou snorted in response, taking the cupcake in hand, “You couldn’t light the candle?”
“Hey! I went out of my way for this and that’s all you say?” Kirishima told him with a dramatic pout.
Bakugou laughed, “What the fuck for?”
“I couldn’t let such an important day go by unnoticed,” Kirishima said with a shrug. "Sorry I didn't get you a present though."
Bakugou blinked before looking down at his cupcake, his heart was beating against his chest like crazy. He rolled his eyes, tearing the cupcake in half with his hands. “Here, you can have some,” he said as he extended half of the cupcake towards Kirishima, and if it was the bigger half… well it was only slightly bigger.
Kirishima’s eyes went wide, “Wait… Bakugou, that was meant for you.”
“And I’m fucking saying you can have half of it,” Bakugou grumbled.
Kirishima smiled as he took the other half, “Happy Birthday, Bakugou.”
*
A year after the cupcake, Bakugou was sitting in his dorm room by himself. It was just after two am, officially his birthday, and he had woken up due to a fucking nightmare. He thought they had been getting better, hoped more than anything, but there he was again. Wide awake in the middle of the night as he tried to fight back a panic attack.
There was a light knock on the door and he felt tensed up because only one person ever came to his room. “Go away,” he tried to yell but his voice was weak.
“Bakugou, it’s me, please open up,” Kirishima’s voice came from the other side of the door.
“I know it’s you, now leave,” Bakugou shouted back.
“I’m just here to wish you a happy birthday,” Kirishima explained.
It was bullshit, Bakugou knew it. Kirishima had comforted him one too many nights for him to know that. He had done the same for his best friend countless times. Bakugou hesitated, it was still hard to ask for help sometimes.
After debating it for a couple of seconds, he went to open his dorm room door, finding Kirishima standing there, worried eyes clear even in the dark but waiting for Bakugou to give him the okay to get close. “Happy birthday?” he tried.
“Get the fuck in here,” Bakugou told him.
Kirishima grinned before stepping inside. It didn’t take them long to find their way onto Bakugou’s bed. Not needing to talk as Bakugou’s head found its way onto Kirishima’s chest and felt himself relax against the redhead.
“Hey,” Kirishima broke the silence as his hand found its way to Bakugou’s hair.
“What?” Bakugou replied but there was no harshness in his voice.
“Can I take you to dinner tonight?” Kirishima asked shily.
Bakugou pulled away with a raised eyebrow, “Why?”
“It’s your birthday, first of all,” Kirishima explained with a shrug, “also, you didn’t hear it from me… but the rest of the class may be planning a small surprise party for you that is turning into an excuse to have a party with everyone that attends UA. Which I’m pretty sure will get busted and everyone involved will get detention.”
Bakugou grimace at the thought, “What fucking idiot thought that was a good idea?”
Kirishima blushed slightly, “Okay, don’t get mad, I had the initial idea… but then…”
“It was Raccoon eyes wasn’t it,” Bakugou didn’t even ask, he knew which one of his friends was party obsessed after all.
“She has the best intentions, I swear,” Kirishima told him, “I just know you don’t like that type of thing so… dinner on me?”
Bakugou took a moment to consider it, “Sure, but it better be spicy.”
Kirishima smiled, “Will do.”
They curled up around each other once more, and within no time, Bakugou was fast asleep once more as he thought about how this was the second good birthday in a row.
That evening they skipped the party and went to dinner together. It was also the night that they first held hands without it being a life or death situation or trying to keep each other steady. Kirishima got Bakugou a small cake for both of them to share, this time making sure the candle was lit.
It was the night that all of their classmates ended up getting detention for a month for throwing an unapproved party and trashing most of their dorm. Everyone claimed it was in honor of Bakugou’s birthday, but with him nowhere in sight, they got their sentence doubled.
It was also the night that Bakugou found out what Kirishima tasted like. As they walked back hand in hand, the redhead stopped suddenly in the middle of the park they decided to cut across just to make their time alone longer. The cherry blossoms were still in bloom, but Kirishima’s eyes were too busy looking at Bakugou’s lips until there was no distance between them and his own.
**
Bakugou never understood birthdays, that is until he started spending them with Kirishima. It was like his husband knew exactly how he wanted to spend his birthday without him saying a word. There was always some kind of cake, even if it was just a cupcake. Wide pointy teeth smile as he heard the most important person in his life wishing him a happy day.
No matter how old he got, he just felt lucky that Kirishima Eijirou was at his side. That was honestly the best present he could ever get.