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Hitoshi watches Bakugo put someone in their place, his voice cutting and angry, his eyes sparking almost just as much as his hands, and he doesn't like the warmth that starts in his chest and then pools low in his stomach.
That is not good at all, Hitoshi thinks, and he's proven right when Bakugo whirls around to him and narrows his eyes.
"The fuck are you still doing here, eyebags? You want to get yelled at, too?" he almost growls out and for one, horrible, embarrassing moment he wants to blurt out "Yes" before he clams down on the urge.
Hitoshi knows Bakugo. They have been something like friends for years at this point, something neither of them ever cared to define because it just works and not once, in all this time, has looking at him made Hitoshi's stomach feel like that.
He seems to take too long with his answer, because Bakugo's eyebrow quirks up in question, and again, Hitoshi wants to say yes. Wants to have him yell at him, wants to see those bright, sparkling eyes up front, wants to see that anger wash over Bakugo's face, wants to be his sole point of focus, and the realisation is horrifying enough to jolt Hitoshi out of it.
Still, lying about it is one of the hardest things he's ever done and so his "No" comes out shaky and unsteady and going by the clear surprise on Bakugo's face he damn well noticed it.
"I have to go, actually," Hitoshi manages to get out, much more steady than the damning no, and he flees before Bakugo can come to whatever conclusion he's looking for, going by that concentrated look on his face.
Hitoshi can't be in love with Bakugo, that's just not a thing that can happen, and he very desperately tries to push that feeling down, to snuff out every single one of the butterflies in his stomach, but it doesn't work and by the time he arrives at the diner he's supposed to meet Neito at, he's just as much in love as he was half an hour ago.
"You're late," Neito says without taking his eyes off the menu, as if he even still needs to decide what he wants.
They’ve been coming here once a week for a year at least now.
"Sorry," Hitoshi wheezes out as he slides into the booth opposite of Neito and then he tenses in anticipation when Neito does look at him, clearly alerted to the fact that something is wrong by his voice.
"You look as if you've seen a ghost. What's going on?" he demands to know, always demanding, never asking, because he knows better than to give Hitoshi a choice.
"I've done something stupid," Hitoshi admits and promptly drops his head on the table, uncaring of the way it's sticky and probably gross as fuck.
"That's always a given with you," Neito says without mercy and bops him with the menu. "Spill."
"I have feelings for Bakugo," Hitoshi admits, and it almost makes it worse, admitting it out loud.
There's a long, long silence from Neito, one that makes Hitoshi want to crawl into a hole in the ground and vanish forever, before Neito lets out a long, measured breath.
"You and your fucking blondes," he finally mutters out. "You really have a problem, you know that?"
Hitoshi blinks at that, because he didn't even realise.
Fuck, he really does have a thing for blondes, and loud ones at that. There was his stupid crush on Kaminari during all of school. There was the ill-advised five seconds where he and Neito danced around each other and shared one horrible, no good kiss before they decided they are good as friends and nothing more.
And now there's Bakugo.
"I blame Aizawa," Hitoshi groans out, as if his adopted father's taste in men could be something he caught from him and Neito snorts out a laugh.
"Please do tell him that," he says, clearly not at all understanding Hitoshi's plight and Hitoshi gets out his phone.
This is all your fault, he types out and sends off without a second thought, because it is. It has to be.
There is no other explanation for Hitoshi's taste in men otherwise.
"Oh, you're really in deep," Neito says, clearly surprised and Hitoshi groans. "What made you realise it?"
"He yelled at someone."
"And? He does that all the time."
Which is true, and that makes this all the worse because Hitoshi could have realised his stupid crush ages ago, and instead it had to hit him out of nowhere today.
"I wanted him to yell at me, too," he admits, and just the thought makes that warm, molten feeling in his gut reappear.
"Gross," Neito decides, wrinkling his nose and Hitoshi has to agree.
It is gross and stupid and probably inappropriate as hell to want one of his closest friends to yell at him like that and Hitoshi buries his face in his arms again.
"What am I going to do?" he groans out and just in that moment, his phone chimes.
And then does it again, which is unusual enough that Hitoshi picks his head out of the table.
One message is from Aizawa, simply saying ? in all of Aizawa's coherent glory but the other is from Bakugo.
"Oh gods," Hitoshi whines out, dropping the phone as if it could burn him but Neito has no such worries, because he swipes the phone from right under his hand and clicks into the message.
When he almost sneers at the screen Hitoshi knows that it's bad.
"You two are disgusting," he decides and then reads "You okay? You were weirder than you normally are. How can he tell? Why does he know your baseline weird?"
"Neeeeeitoooooo," Hitoshi groans and steals his phone back. "You know we're friends."
"Friends, right. And can the broccoli tell when you're weirder than you normally are? Can your electric guy?"
"You can," Hitoshi grumbles and Neito snorts out a laugh.
"That's because we're soulmates in the most platonic way possible. So of course I can. I can feel it across the city when you're up to something dumb. Your dad can, too, because he has a Hitoshi-is-doing-something-stupid sense. Why can blasty tell?"
"I don't know," Hitoshi finally admits because he has no fucking clue.
Usually his resting bitch face is enough to throw people off about his moods and thoughts, but Bakugo has always been exceptional at reading him anyway and he has a knack for cutting through all of Hitoshi's bullshit and getting right to the juicy stuff.
Bakugo can always tell what mood Hitoshi is in, no matter how much he tries to cover it up, how much he pretends.
"I said it before and I say it again: gross," Neito decides and pokes Hitoshi's forehead. "Maybe you're on to something by being in love with him, though," he then muses and just the thought that it's love what he feels for Bakugo makes Hitoshi's stomach swoop dangerously.
"Don't say that," he begs, because he barely can accept that he has a crush. There's no way he can stomach anything else right now.
"But it's true, isn't it?" Neito mercilessly says. "You've always had a thing for loud blondes and he's the loudest blonde there is. And you've always been weird about your thing with him."
"I haven't been—" Hitoshi starts to refute but one look from Neito silences him and Hitoshi has to admit that maybe he has always been a little bit weird about his thing with Bakugo.
He's been possessive of him in a way he has never been with any of his other friends, he doesn't like it when other people budge into their time, doesn't like it when other people touch Bakugo or when they claim that they know him better than Hitoshi, doesn't like it when someone steals Bakugo's attention away from him.
"Fuuuuuuck," Hitoshi groans out and Neito has the audacity to laugh at him.
"That's what I thought. So. Confess or forever hold your tongue?" he then wants to know and despite how annoying Neito is being right now Hitoshi appreciates that he doesn't make fun of him for his mushy feelings.
That will probably come later, but right now Neito seems down to help him sort this mess out and Hitoshi will have to treat him to dinner one of these days.
Neito will certainly demand it, once he deems this emotional crisis sufficiently dealt with so Hitoshi best get ahead of that.
"Ugh," Hitoshi says with feeling and Neito laughs in his face.
"Confessing it is, wonderful. Off you go then," he says and has the audacity to shoo at Hitoshi as if he's an annoying critter.
"I didn't even say anything," Hitoshi argues because there's no way Neito figured his thoughts on that matter out before he himself did but Neito only looks at him with something that's almost akin to pity in his eyes.
"Please. You're so goddamn obvious, you idiot. Now go, before I change my mind and keep you trapped here until you're begging me to let you go."
"You like it when they beg," Hitoshi grumbles and Neito lets out a surprised laugh.
"Sure do, but not from you. Chop chop, Toshi, before I sic Aizawa on you."
"You wouldn't," Hitoshi breathes out, even as he struggles to get back into his jacket.
"Sure would," Neito gives back and there's no hesitation to his words, because he really would.
"Fine, fine, I'm going. I'll text you later."
"You'll call me later, to give me a play-by-play of your embarrassing confession," Neito decides and Hitoshi sighs, because yeah, that's exactly what he's going to do.
Possibly with Bakugo still present, but whatever. Neito doesn't need to know that he's right, his ego is big enough as it is.
"Thanks, Neito," Hitoshi says right before he slips away and Neito calls a very sarcastic "You're welcome!" after him, that makes Hitoshi smile.
He really does have the best friends, he thinks, even as his stomach erupts into new butterflies at the thought of what he's about to do.
But, no time like the present, Hitoshi thinks, and he believes Neito when he says he's going to sic Aizawa on him, which is an absolute no go.
Hitoshi doesn't need his dad to meddle in this and if his dad is involved, his papa will be too and that might even be worse.
No, thank you, he can bag his own loud blonde all by himself.
And with that empowering thought running through his head, he makes his way straight over to Bakugo's agency, certain that he's still there, catching up on his paperwork and just like expected Bakugo is hunched over his desk when Hitoshi steps into his office.
Where he can just walk in like that because everyone at the agency knows him and doesn't bat an eye at his presence.
Maybe that should be a clue that he spends way too much time with Bakugo but that's a thought for later.
Possibly for when he's being rejected by Bakugo, but Hitoshi doesn't allow himself to think like that right now.
Bakugo looks up, sharp reprimand clearly already on his tongue but he falls silent when he realises that it's just Hitoshi.
"You," he almost accusingly says. "You've been weird. Explain yourself."
Hitoshi huffs out a soft laugh because trust Bakugo to cut straight to the chase.
"You yelled at that intern," Hitoshi starts and of course Bakugo almost immediately interrupts him.
"You've seen me yell at them dozens of times and never once took offence. What's different about today?"
Always so fucking smart, Hitoshi almost dreamily thinks and then sneers at himself because how dare that fluttery feeling in his chest make him into a hopeless softie.
He takes a deep breath because here goes nothing and then he holds Bakugo's gaze as he speaks, so that he can drive his point home.
"It was hot. I wanted you to yell at me, too."
To his credit, Bakugo only takes a second to digest that before his gaze gets more intense than it has ever been.
"I yell at you all the time."
"Yeah, and maybe you should to it again," Hitoshi says, more flirtatious than he's really comfortable with because he doesn't do shit like this but Bakugo smirks at him with that cutting, dangerous smile he has and Hitoshi finds himself swallowing heavily.
It doesn’t help that Bakugo tracks that motion with the same focus only villains get from him.
"Take me out for dinner and maybe I will," he gives back and seems entirely too self-satisfied when Hitoshi shudders at his words.
"You make the prettiest promises. Better not hold out on me, later," he gives back, wondering when the fuck he became so daring but Bakugo's face lights up before he forces his expression into something more neutral again.
"You're being awfully bold," he says. "How long?" Bakugo then wants to know and Hitoshi doesn't need him to elaborate on that.
"Realised it when you yelled at that intern," he honestly admits and Bakugo snorts out a laugh.
"Always so fucking oblivious. Best underground hero, my ass," he mutters and Hitoshi burns with the need to know how long Bakugo might have wanted this.
Because that he does is undeniable.
"You?" he gives right back and Bakugo tilts his head in consideration.
"That's more of a third date kind of topic," he decides and Hitoshi barks out a surprised laugh.
"Deal. Tonight? I pick you up."
"And you pay," Bakugo says, already concentrated on his paperwork again but he looks back up when Hitoshi doesn't move. "Anything else?"
"I really fucking like you," Hitoshi blurts out and Bakugo blinks at him, once, twice, before he goes a pretty shade of pink.
"Fuck off, troll doll," he mutters and Hitoshi happily turns around on his heels because this was a complete and utter success in his opinion.
"I like you too, I guess," he hears Bakugo call after him right before the door closes behind him and Hitoshi's opinion was wrong.
This is a victory on all accounts and he can't wait for tonight.
But for now, he gets out his phone and dials Neito's number. He has a best friend to torture with a play-by-play of what happened after all.