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Now how did Denki get into this position? One moment, he’s playing games with one of his best friends (who he most definitely had a crush on but was doing well in ignoring it) and the next, he was kissing said best friend.
Denki had never kissed anyone before, I mean sure he loved the idea of it but also the thought of doing it made him want to actually die.
So instead of addressing those emotions, he covered them up with pretending to be head over heels with every person he meets. Which is not true at all. That’s not to say he didn’t have crushes, he knew he did, 100%, if Kirishima and Bakugo had anything to say about it.
He had also dated people in the past too! Well, that depends on whether you count fake dating someone to help them with their homophobic parents. (Before the dorms, Jirou had come out to him and asked him to come to her parents house to ‘prove her straightness’. Since the dorms however, she had come out to her friends and was happily dating Yaoyorozu).
Which, the more that he thinks about it, the more he thought that that probably didn’t count.
Anyways, back to the original topic, Denki kissing Kirishima.
They were playing Minecraft on Kirishima’s Xbox (with the split screen, it was very nostalgic), before one thing led to another and it happened. They kissed.
Denki felt confused. And slightly upset.
This wasn’t because he hated Kirishima or he wasn’t a willing participant in the kissing, he was, it just felt wrong. Kissing felt wrong. As soon as it happened, he bolted. Denki left as soon as he could, claiming he had math homework, knowing full well that he, Kirishima and Bakugo got through it all earlier that day.
He couldn’t bear being in the same room as Kiri for any longer, leaving before he could see his best friend’s face which he knew was crestfallen.
He felt sick, and the moment he made it to his room, he threw up in his toilet, crying.
Denki sat down on the cold, bathroom floor. He was so confused, he thought he wanted this? To kiss and have a relationship? Was this not everything that he had talked and dreamt about? He should be happy. Happy that his crush liked him back. Happy that said crush wanted to kiss. Happy that he could finally have all he ever talked about. But no, he’s crying on his bathroom floor and trying not to think about the disgusting taste in his mouth.
It was only a short fifteen minutes afterwards that he received a text.
Kirishima: Hey man, im sorry if i freaked you out, i thought it was okay but i should have asked explicitly. Im really sorry.
This just made Denki sob even harder.
It was consensual. He did want it.. At the time.
He couldn’t even come up with a coherent reply and instead left him on read, feeling even more awful than before. He got up, flushing the toilet, brushing his teeth and then collapsing onto his bed, not bothering to change out his jeans and shirt.
At least it was a Sunday tomorrow, he supposes.
…
Denki wakes up in an almost good mood.
For about 2 seconds.
He remembers the events from the day prior, any remnant of his happy feeling leaving him instantly. He got up from his bed, checking his phone. It was dead, he forgot to put it on charge last night. Denki put it on charge before getting changed and washing his face.
He had no idea what he was planning to do with his day.
He didn’t want to leave his room if he was being completely honest with himself but he was also incredibly hungry.
Sighing, Denki leaves his room hoping to avoid any social interaction altogether, let alone bump into a certain red-head. He reaches the common room, avoiding everyone there and enters the kitchen, planning to just grab a few snacks to survive the day and then leave again.
The time on the stove catches his eye. It reads ‘2:15pm’.
He only went to sleep at around 8pm the night before, did he really sleep for almost 19 hours? Denki didn’t even realise that was possible.
He takes a few bags of chips, some skittles and starts to make himself some instant ramen, boiling water.
He almost succeeded too until Bakugo came in.
“Oi, dunceface.” He says.
Denki sighs, he knows Bakugo and Kirishima are close so he has a feeling he might know why Bakugo wants to talk to him.
Regardless, if he acts super cheerful and happy as ever, maybe he could bypass this conversation.
“Not even a hello, Bakugo? You’re so mean to me.” Denki doesn’t turn around, if he catches his friend’s eyes, he might start crying again and he did way too much of that yesterday.
“I want to talk with you, dumbass.” Denki can practically hear the rolling of Bakugo’s eyes.
“Hm, well I’d love to but I’m sorta busy at the moment.” He motions towards his ramen even though he wasn’t sure Bakugo could see his arms.
“It’s okay, I can wait.”
Well, shit.
“Right, okay…”
It was an awkward five minutes for the both of them. Denki felt sick to his stomach and this time it wasn’t from hunger.
“My room. Now.”
Denki was going to have a panic attack. Why does he feel like he’s about to be interrogated?
“Can I bring my food with me?” He asks.
Bakugo had already turned around and started walking off. “I don’t give a fuck, just hurry up.”
That was basically Bakugo language for ‘yes’.
Denki picked up his things and started to speed walk over to where Bakugo was standing by the elevator.
“Oh hey, Kami, can we-” Ashido couldn’t even finish her sentence before Bakugo cut her off.
“He’s busy.”
Ashido blinks, slightly confused. “Oh okay, we can talk later then.” She smiles warmly at Denki before turning around on the common room couch and continuing her previous conversation with Uraraka and Tsu.
If the wait for Denki’s ramen was awkward, this was 100x worse.
Denki could literally hear the silent air with how quiet it was. It was mortifyingly uncomfortable, only broken up by his slurping of noodles every few seconds.
Thankfully it was over within a few minutes.
The doors open and the two teens walk to Bakugo’s dorm room.
Denki starts to suddenly feel even more sick than before.
“Look does this have to be right now? I have a really busy day planned.” He was lying out of his teeth at this point but he didnt care. He would do anything to not have this conversation right now.
Bakugo ignored him, opening his door and walking him, expecting Denki to walk in behind him.
Denki sighs, on the verge of tears again.
He walks in, closing the door with his foot behind him.
Bakugo is sitting on his bed, criss-cross applesauce essentially glaring at Denki. He couldn’t tell if this was intentional or not.
It’s a gamble to sit on Bakugo’s bed on the best of days without being explodo-punched off, especially with food and on today of all days so Denki sits on the floor.
“What are you doing on the floor?” Bakugo says as if Denki is a dumbass.
He blinks, staring up at Bakugo. “Sitting..?”
“Just sit on the bed, sparky.” Bakugo rolls his eyes.
Denki’s eyes widen. This is a privilege he rarely gets. Sure he gets it more than say, Ashido or Sero but still. It’s wild that he gets to today, all considered.
He scrambles up, careful not to spill his ramen, and picks up his snacks, sitting on bakugo’s bed.
The tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. And not like, a butter knife, a full on meat cleaver.
Denki swallows out of nervousness, feeling Bakugo’s on-going glare.
“Uhm.. so, what did you want to talk about?”
Bakugo frowns (more than before, it seems like he’s always frowning just at this moment, it was more than usual).
“What the fuck is going on?”
Denki laughs uncomfortably, “Whatever do you mean, Bakugo?” He can feel himself starting to hyperventilate and decides to focus on eating his ramen, which is almost finished.
“Don’t play fucking dumb, you know exactly what I’m talking about! Why did shitty hair come to my room at 9pm last night, while I was sleeping, to cry about the fact that you and him fucking kissed or some shit?” Bakugo raises his voice slightly louder than usual but not enough to be considered yelling.
“I-I’m sorry.” If Bakugo noticed the embarrassing voice crack at the beginning of that sentence, he didn’t mention it. “I didn’t mean to make him cry.” Denki could feel his eyes starting to water.
“Well, you fucking did. He was crying so much I couldn’t even understand what he was saying properly at first.” Bakugo says, his voice slightly calmer than before. “Care to explain what happened there?” He says in a tone that means, ‘tell me now’.
“I mean, i-it’s not like I don’t like him or anything, I do! I definitely do, it was just the kissing that freaked me out.” He failed to mention that he also likes Bakugo, but he was definitely too scared to tell that to the guy with explosions and anger issues.
“Right, so you just don’t like kissing? Or you don’t like kissing him.” Bakugo says.
“I don’t know. That was my first time. Like, I really liked the idea of kissing but the thought of doing it and actually doing it makes me feel really sick.” Denki puts his ramen remnants in the mini trash can underneath Bakugo’s desk.
“I really like him, and I really didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. And to make things very clear, it was a completely consensual kiss, I just- I don’t know, I started to panic and felt like I was going to cry so I had to leave.” Denki starts to full-on cry now, trying to wipe away the tears quicker than they came.
“Okay.” Bakugo says, with a sense of finality in his voice.
“Okay?” Denki finally decides to look Bakugo in the eyes. He looked surprisingly calm, looking back at Denki with a neutral, if not comforting, expression.
“Yeah, okay, dumbass.” Bakugo sighs, looking at the floor next to them. “Look, do you know what aroace is? Asexual in particular?”
Denki looks at him, slightly confused.
If he was being honest, he wasn’t too educated on lgbtq+ matters and terms.
He knew gay and lesbian of course. Bisexual because that’s what he is and pansexual because Sero explained to him what it is but not too much after that, excluding some transgender terms.
Denki shook his head, indicating that he didn’t.
Bakugo sighs, “How the fuck do I know more about this than you, the bisexual who’s loud and proud about it.”
Denki smiles a bit, embarrassed. “Sorry, man.” He sniffles a bit, his tears stopping.
“Okay look, asexual is where you’re fucking sex avoidant or whatever. It’s obviously all dependent on the person, like how bisexuality can be someone with or without a preference or two, three or however many genders. Aromantic is basically that but instead of sex shit, it's with romance. Like dating and stuff. Demisexual and/or demiromantic is basically where you need a connection for you to want to do that stuff or you only want to do at certain times or some shit.” He pauses, looking at Denki as if to make sure he’s still listening.
Denki nods for him to go on, so he starts speaking again. “Aroace is basically the combined word for asexual and aromantic. There’s obviously a lot of shit I haven’t talked about but I’m not a fucking walking dictionary, you can look it up for yourself. After you talk to shitty hair, obviously.” He says.
Denki groans, “I know I should, I’m just scared, y’know? I don’t know, I mean some of that stuff sounds like it could describe some of my feelings but like- I don’t know man, it’s all so confusing and to be honest, I’m embarrassed and a little scared.”
Bakugo hums a little, “Well you just gotta do it. Sometimes you have to do shit you don’t like to do, that’s part of being a hero. Actually fuck that, that’s a part of just being a decent fucking human being.”
Denki sighs, “I know… Do you think he’s mad at me?”
“Actually I think he thinks you’re mad at him. He’s really scared that you hate him and the fact that you haven’t been answering your phone probably doesn’t fucking help.” Bakugo says.
“I’m sorry! I saw his first message yesterday and didn’t know how to respond and then I slept for like 19 hours without my phone being charged. It’s still on charge now.” Denki replies.
“Whatever, you still need to talk to him as soon as possible. He’s really fucking upset and hasn’t left his room all day.”
Well that makes Denki feel even shittier than before.
“Okay yeah, you’re right, I’ll go now.” He stuffs his snacks into his pockets and gets up to leave Bakugo’s room.
“Thank you, by the way.” He says, looking back at the other.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
…
Considering how close Kirishima’s room is to Bakugo’s, Denki didn’t really have much time to prepare what to say.
Not that he had any ideas.
His best idea to explain everything was to say, “Hey, I like you but I don’t like kissing or anything past that, oh and also I really like one of our best friend’s as well so I'm actually really confused, sorry.” But something tells him that that is probably not the best idea.
He stopped outside Kirishima’s door, building up the confidence to open it, which was considerably harder than what he thought it would be.
He sighs, bringing up his fist to the door, still hesitating.
What seriously led him to this moment, it felt like everything went so wrong so quickly and he hated it.
Denki stood there for a few seconds, fist blindly in the air before the door suddenly opened.
“Kami.” Kirishima says, almost dead tone but with a hint of sadness.
To be completely frank, Kirishima looked like shit.
His hair was knotted and not in its usual updo. His face and eyes were red and he had a sad expression pulling on his lips. He clearly had only just got out of bed and was in the same clothes he had on the day before.
“Hi.” Denki felt like he had so much to say yet no words to say it. He felt almost blind-sided despite knowing exactly what he was walking into.
“Bakugo told me you were coming but I wasn’t sure you were actually going to when you didn’t knock on the door within the first few minutes.” He says, looking at the ground.
Denki felt terrible, watching his crush and best friend’s lips tremble, “I’m sorry. I was about to but you sorta cut me off.”
Kirishima nods and they both fall to silence.
“...Can I come in?” Denki asks.
“Oh yeah, of course man, sorry. I’m a bit out of it..” Denki nods but Kirishima had already turned around, walking towards his bed.
He follows, closing the door behind him gently.
“Uhm, if you’re comfortable, you can sit on my bed with me, otherwise you can grab a beanbag.” He motions towards the three beanbags that lay in the same place they were yesterday.
Denki sits on Kirishima’s bed, bringing his legs to his face.
“Look, I’m really sorry, man.” Kirishima says, “I really should have asked for explicit permission, I thought it was implied but it was super unmanly of me not to ask. And the fact I thought there was implied consent, is not an excuse. I-” He pauses as if the thing he was about to say hurt him greatly. “I understand if you don’t want to be around me.”
Denki almost breaks into tears again.
“No! No not at all! Okay look, I’m sorry I didn’t answer you yesterday, I was super confused and sort of scared and uhh yeah. I still am but I want to make it super-duper clear that the kiss was consensual. I think- I think I might be on the ace spectrum.”
Kirishima looks up at him, looking confused. “Oh.” He looks back down at his bed, blinking.
“Yeah. I didn’t even know what that was until a few minutes ago. Bakugo explained to me what it was and it sounds about right but I have to do more research before I decide anything, of course.” Denki explains.
It felt like a weight off of his chest. There might have been a reason for how he felt yesterday. It wasn’t that something was wrong with him or that he was broken or anything of the sort! There’s a reasonable explanation for it.
“That would- That would make a lot of sense… Wait, so you were okay with the kiss when it happened, it just made you feel awful because you hated the feeling?” Kirishima asks.
“Yeah. But I had no way of describing the feeling, I just started panicking and I needed to leave. I’m sorry I didn’t message you or anything.” Denki feels really guilty. He knew Kirishima had messaged him and he completely ghosted him.
“I saw your message but I had no idea how to explain what was going on. I still shouldn’t have left you on read like that though, I’m really sorry. And then I didn’t charge my phone during the night so it’s currently dead and on charge.” He adds.
Kirishima looks up again, meeting Denki’s eyes, “No, man! You shouldn’t apologise, it’s okay! You were confused and scared, it’s alright. Just don’t be surprised when you next check your phone and find 30 new messages and 20 missed calls…” He smiles sheepishly.
Denki laughed a bit, smiling for the first time in quite a while, “Well yeah, that may be the reason why, it still doesn’t really excuse it, I’m still sorry. And don’t worry about blowing up my phone, I almost always have my notifications off.”
Kirishima nods and they fall to silence yet again.
“I like you. I really do! I think you're awesome and manly and everything, of course I do! I mean, who wouldn’t? I’m just confused. I don’t know how I feel about everything just yet. Like, I know I like hugging and holding hands and doing all that cute romantic stuff, I just don’t like kissing and I really don’t like the idea of sex and that stuff.” Denki tries to explain how he feels, he hopes Kirishima understands what he means.
“That’s okay. I like you too! And all that stuff you mentioned is fine. But, I do have to talk to you about something before we even discuss that anymore.” Kirishima pauses, grabbing his phone from his bedside table.
Denki frowns. What could he have to say that requires him to go on his phone?
There was a few seconds of quietness before a loud bang was heard from behind Denki.
He jumps in his seat, not expecting the loud noise.
“I’m here. Did you fuckers talk it out?” It was Bakugo, who else would loudly enter someone else’s room without knocking. If anything, Denki was surprised they didn’t hear Bakugo’s door slam from outside Kirishima’s room.
“Hey, uhh yeah, we talked to a certain extent and figured out what happened but I texted you when we spoke about well, y’know…” He trails off looking to the side.
Denki blinks, looking between Bakugo and Kirishima. “I’m sorry, am I supposed to know what’s going on? I am very confused and to be completely honest, I have had too much confusion recently for my small brain to handle.”
Bakugo ignores him and sits down next to Kirishima.
“We are dating.” Kirishima says.
Well, out of all the things he was expecting Kirishima to say, that was at the bottom of the list.
He felt even more confused than before. What the fuck.
“I’m sorry?”
“Okay, what the dumbass meant to say is that yes, we are dating but we also both fucking like you as well or some shit.” Bakugo responds.
“Huh?”
Bakugo sighs, “Are you deaf? We fucking like you or whatver.”
Kirishima throws a disappointed look towards Bakugo before saying, “Okay, have you heard of polyamory?”
Denki shakes his head, no.
“Of course he doesn’t! He didn’t even know what fucking asexual was, how’d you expect him to know what polyamory is.”
“Shh, don’t be mean.”
“That’s like telling a puppy to not be cute, you can’t, it’s just the way they are.”
“Awe, you think puppies are cute? I didn’t think you could find anything cute!”
“Who the fuck doesn’t think puppies are cute? It’s a fucking puppy! Dumbass!”
“I’m sorry,” Denki cuts in, “I’m still very confused, if not more than before, can someone please explain what's going on.”
Kirishima jumps, “Oh yeah! Sorry. Okay uhm, how do I start this?”
“Do you like both of us?” Bakugo interrupted his apparent boyfriend.
“I-I mean yeah but like, how does that work? How do three people date at once? That’s not a thing..?” Denki says.
“It actually is a thing. Polyamory is the opposite of monogamous. That means three or more people are in a consensual relationship with each other. Like every other queer label, there’s a lot of subsections and everything but what we’re looking for in particular is an exclusive relationship with each other, if that makes sense.” Kirishima explains.
Denki’s jaw drops. “Wait like, I date you and Bakugo and then you and Bakugo date each other??” He exclaims.
“Yeah, Ei isn’t actually terrible at explaining things.” Bakugo says.
“Wait, that’s allowed?? You can do that!? That’s awesome!” Denki grins. He had no idea that was a thing.
He can’t believe that that is something you can do! And that both of his crushes want that!
“Yeah!! It’s amazing, right?” Kirishima starts to smile too.
“Oh my gosh!! I’m so happy! I had no idea that was a thing!” Denki felt like he could run a marathon with the amount of excitement he was feeling.
“You’re both so stupid.” Bakugo says, but no matter what he said, he couldn’t hide the slight happiness in his tone of voice or the small smile that graced his lips.
“Wait, so you both want that? With me?” Denki says, calming down a touch.
“Yeah!” Kirishima says.
“Oh my god, that’s awesome! I’m so happy.” He felt the overwhelming urge to yippee. “So, does that mean.. We’re all boyfriends?”
“If that’s what you want?” Kirishima says unsurely.
“Yeah, I do want.” Denki says, smiling.
Bakugo scoffs, “Then that’s what is happening.”
Denki could not wipe the grin that was on his face. “Could I maybe.. Call you both by your first names?” He asks, looking between them.
“Of course! If we can call you by yours.” Eijirou says and Denki nods in reply.
“Can we cuddle now?” Denki asks.
“Whatever.”
That’s Katsuki language for ‘yes, of course’.
And so once they were all comfortable, with Denki in the middle, Katsuki on the left and Eijirou on the right, they knew that they were all very loved.
They all had a lot of talking to do. Understanding each other’s boundaries, knowing what’s okay and what isn’t. But that didn’t matter now, all that matters is that Denki and Eijirou made sure Katsuki didn’t fall off of Eijirou’s bed.
They were warned that if that happened, he would be leaving and that was probably the worst case scenario right now for them.
So even if they did have a lot to talk about, they all knew everything was going to be okay.
And, just before Eijirou and Katsuki fell asleep, Denki let out a small, barely heard, “Yippee.”