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It shouldn’t surprise Eijirou that Bakugou thinks their plans for studying together (“that’s not what’s happening here, Shitty Hair, I’m tutoring you, you’re being tutored, and you’re gonna like it”) will happen unchanged no matter what. Even if the tutoring falls on Valentine’s Day and Eijirou desperately wants to have other plans. Also with Bakugou, but still.
Everybody else has plans. Todoroki has Valentine’s plans with Midoriya (cat cafe, then ice cream sundaes, Eijirou’s in the know). Kaminari has Valentine’s plans with Sero and Shinsou. Yaoyorozu has plans with Jirou. Tokoyami doesn’t vibe right with Valentine’s day, but even he has not-Valentine’s day plans with Shouji. The list goes on, really.
The thing is, Eijirou knows that Bakugou likes routine, that he likes making plans and keeping them. That’s fine and all. Except…Eijirou likes a bit of spontaneity now and again. He thinks it’s manly to mix things up. Bakugou hates mixing things up. So there’s bound to be a bit of conflict between friends. Which is also, generally, fine.
Eijirou is okay to stick to Bakugou’s comfort level there. He just wants to get some time away from hero work and studying to spend time with him, maybe ask him out on a real date.
Unfortunately, Bakugou isn’t budging. “What the hell? You don’t wanna study with me anymore?”
“It’s just a bad time. I mean, wouldn’t you rather be doing something else that day?” Eijirou asks, hoping Bakugou will get the hint.
“Nah. I wouldn’t,” Bakugou gets out a notebook from his backpack and opens it to a page (Eijirou cranes his neck to try and see it, but Bakugou keeps moving it. “I got a plan.”
“I know, I know, your list of textbook chapters. I promise, I’ll catch up another day. Just not the fourteenth,” Eijirou insists.
“What’s so special about the fourteenth?”
“Come on, you know what’s special about the fourteenth.”
“Do I?” Bakugou raises an eyebrow.
He’s smirking.
He’s actually really cute when he’s smirking, but sometimes it’s just annoying. Especially when Eijirou knows that Bakugou already knows what Eijirou’s trying to tell him. It’s like he wants to get Eijirou all impassioned about something, not that it’s particularly hard to do. Eijirou just can’t figure out why Bakugou would work to get that kind of reaction.
He only puts in the work when it’s something he cares about. Why is he invested in getting Eijirou’s blood pumping?
“Come on. Come on. It’s Valentine’s Day,” Eijirou implores. “We’re supposed to be celebrating love, not differential equations.”
“Your differentiation ain’t nothing to celebrate about,” Bakugou frowns. “Do you have plans?”
“Plans?” Eijirou asks.
“With someone else,” Bakugou says, voice suddenly tight.
“No,” Eijirou says. “No, of course not.”
Maybe he’s imagining things, but does Bakugou actually look relieved? It’s not manly to hope your bro doesn’t have a date, and Bakugou is very manly, maybe he’s just that dead set on tutoring Eijirou no matter what happens.
He can be so determined sometimes. It’s one of Eijirou’s absolute favorite things about him.
“What do you mean of course not?” Bakugou asks, moving onto the next step of what’s apparently a cross-examination where Eijirou is the main witness.
“I just mean…we’re best friends, if I had a date for Valentine’s day, you would know before anybody. I tell you everything.”
“Oh,” Bakugou says. “Huh.”
“You would tell me if you had a date, right?” Eijirou asks, suddenly wondering if he’s missing something.
Panicking at the idea of Bakugou out with some faceless, hypothetical date.
“Why would I have a date?” Bakugou asks, as if the idea itself is a weird or disgusting thing.
“Why not? You’re smart. You’re funny. You look…good. Plenty of currently single people would wanna go out with you.”
(Good is kind of an understatement.)
“Okay,” Bakugou sighs. “Why would I wanna go out with them?”
“Don’t you wanna be with someone?” Eijirou asks. “It’s okay if you don’t.”
“What do you mean be with someone?” Bakugou asks.
He sounds genuine. Like he really, truly wants to understand.
“Like, be with them. Sit with them and talk. Get to know each other a bit. Do an activity you’re both into. Maybe kiss. Don’t you wanna do that with someone?”
Bakugou frowns. “Yes.”
That was unexpected. “Great. So we can do tutoring some other day?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because. Because I wanna be with your dumb ass on fucking Valentine’s day, okay?” Bakugou says, defiant.
His face is all scrunched up. He looks upset.
Eijirou can’t stand to see him like that. Suddenly, he regrets ever wanting to do something different on Valentine’s Day at all. What was he even thinking? Bakugou is the one that he wants. He’d rather spend the day with him doing math than alone, or with anyone else doing something romantic.
“Then that’s what you’re gonna get,” Eijirou smiles. “You won’t be able to get rid of me even if you want to.”
Bakugou’s expression immediately clears up, but not completely. “If you wanna go ask out someone else, I won’t hold you to our study date.”
He’s never called it a study date before.
“I don’t wanna ask out anybody else,” Eijirou explains, finally putting his cards on the table. “Honestly, if things had turned out the way I’d hoped, the only person I’d be asking out on the fourteenth would be you.”
“That’s just stupid,” Bakugou says, and Eijirou’s heart sinks, before he continues. “I don’t believe in waiting for an arbitrary day to go after what you want. Ask me what you wanna ask me right now.”
He’s so, so cute when he’s being demanding. Or, maybe Eijirou’s started to think he’s cute all the time. It’s just his face. His eyes. The Bakugou of it all.
Eijirou had a carefully rehearsed speech about asking Bakugou out. With good, logical reasons why Bakugou should say yes and go out with him. He doesn’t remember how any of it goes. Maybe it wasn’t as carefully rehearsed as he thought.
Now all he has are feelings.
“I like you. A lot. Do you wanna go out on a date with me sometime?” he asks, taking a tentative step closer to where Bakugou’s standing in front of him, notebook in hand.
“So fucking formal,” Bakugou complains, but his cheeks turn a bright, peachy red, his ears too.
Cute, cute, cute.
“That’s not a yes,” Eijirou points out.
“Look,” Bakugou turns the notebook around, showing Eijirou the page he was staring at.
It’s a recipe for something Eijirou doesn’t exactly recognize. Chocolate seems like it’s involved. Orange too. Caramel-orange chocolates are Eijirou’s favorite. He loved it as a kid.
“That was my plan, I was gonna give it to you when you came over to study with me,” Bakugou admits.
It’s basically a confession. Eijirou’s jaw drops. He can’t believe it. The Bakugou Katsuki was going to make him love confession chocolates.
“You were gonna make chocolates for me?”
The book comes down on his head with a smack. “Who else?”
“Sorry,” Eijirou says. “It’s just…those are my favorites.”
“I know.”
“You’re my favorite too, you know,” Eijirou adds, thinking he’s going to like the reaction.
Bakugou’s cheeks redden again. “Shut the fuck up.”
Oh. Oh wow. Bakugou is shy.
“I wanted to kiss you on Valentine’s day. Is that something I should do right now too?” Eijirou asks, knowing that it’s possible that he’s pushing his luck.
Bakugou takes a moment to think, making the same face he does when he’s solving a homework problem in his head. “Yeah. But you’ll have to show me.”
“So I’ll be your tutor for once,” Eijirou says softly, before gently turning Bakugou’s face in towards him.
“I guess,” Bakugou confirms, equally quiet.
Eijirou can’t believe they’re just gonna do it. Really, actually kiss. Right here in the hallway.
“You’re supposed to close your eyes,” Eijirou says. “But it’s totally cool with me if you don’t!”
“I know,” Bakugou insists.
He closes his own eyes right away, either trusting that Eijirou will do the same, or just not caring whether Eijirou looks at him like this, eyes tightly shut, waiting to be kissed. That’s so manly, Eijirou almost wants to just keep staring at him like this. He totally would if he didn’t wanna kiss him so bad.
“What are you waiting for?” Bakugou demands, eyes still closed.
“Nothing, just. I really like you.”
Just as Eijirou closes his eyes, Bakugou sighs. “Fuck this.”
Then Bakugou practically crashes into him. It’s a bit too forceful at first to be a kiss, but Eijirou adjusts, hopefully quick enough for Bakugou, and then his mouth is right on Bakugou’s soft, plush lips. Slightly open and so warm. He holds it there for a second, and holds Bakugou against him (that’s almost the best part).
He backs his face away after, just a little, and Bakugou’s eyes snap open.
“How was that?” Eijirou asks, cautious.
“Good,” Bakugou softly confirms.
They don’t have to talk as loud now, with their faces so close together. It’s nice.
“So. Did you like it too?” Bakugou asks.
He’s sensitive to criticism, but he also demands honesty. It can be difficult to appease both, sometimes, but not now.
“I liked it,” Eijirou whispers. Then pops a spontaneous kiss on Bakugou’s nose.
“The fuck?”
“Nothing, man,” Eijirou says, and he knows he’s going to pay for this, possibly very soon. “You’re just cute.”