Chapter Text
Eijirou wakes up. It's 7:00 on a Tuesday, and he's in his bed in his room. His clock is ticking quietly on the wall, the air smells fresh through the slightly-opened window, and the curtains flutter gently as he sits up to scrape his sleep-ruffled hair out of his face and mouth.
The bed on the other side of the room is empty, neatly made with the sheet turned back at the top. The Edgeshot, All Might and Eraserhead plushies sit in their neat little row against the wall, with the Red Riot one in its place of honor on the pillow. Eijirou smiles at it like he does every time he sees it; he still can't believe Bakugou's kept it for so long.
Unlike the other plushies, it's not official merch—Momo made it after Kamino so Bakugou could have someone with him while he talked to the police. Eijirou almost cried when she asked him who he wanted and instead of All Might or Aizawa or an actual hero he'd glanced over at Eijirou under still-damp lashes and whispered "Riot."
Eijirou pads across the room to lean over and inspect the doll, with its toothy grin and slightly-wonky mask. It's one of those ones with the weights in the bottom that sit up when you set them down. He lifts one of the arms between his fingers and runs his thumb along the careful embroidery that Bakugou spent hours on, painstakingly recreating every jagged line that scarred into Eijirou's arms after his fight with Rappa. It'd been the first time Eijirou had seen him go quiet.
He hadn't said a word when Eijirou got back from the hospital, just took his hand and led him up to his room, sat him on the bed and looked.
It's still one of Eijirou's strongest memories from the dorms; spending the afternoon just sitting there on Bakugou's bed talking about anything and everything that passed through his head while Bakugou sewed scars onto his doll, reaching over every so often to turn Eijirou's arm for a different angle. He likes to think it helped, somehow.
Another yawn rumbles out of Eijirou's throat and he moves back over to his side of the room, rummaging around for some kind of shirt. He'll have to do laundry soon, but there's a black one that definitely used to be Bakugou's that seems clean so he pulls it on and tries to figure out what to do about his hair. He could do it himself, but if he brings his brush downstairs and acts droopy Bakugou will come over and yank it out of his hands to do it himself. He's always more hands-on in the morning.
Completely unrelated to that fact, Eijirou likes mornings.
Yeah. Yeah, hands in his hair sounds good right now. Bakugou's always been good at that. A quick glance at the clock shows that the spiciest resident of the nice little two-story-and-basement (Kaminari's term, he's weirdly particular about it) is probably in the kitchen right now, getting started on breakfast prep.
Eijirou stretches his arms out and makes his way downstairs, doing his best to stay quiet. Their house isn't tiny like the matchbox apartment he'd lived in for a few months before Denki suggested the idea, but it's not that big either—made smaller by the belongings and general existence of its residents.
Officially the place belongs to Bakugou, whose name is on the lease and who chipped in the majority of the down payment. Even if they're all pretty successful these days, he'd had the most forethought when it came to money.
Unofficially, the permanent residents are Bakugou, Eijirou, Jirou, Mina, Denki and Sero, who share the three bedrooms in the upstairs, plus Shinsou, who showed up on the couch one day a few months back and never left.
Bakugou had grumbled about space requirements and occupancy limits, but Eijirou had spotted him plotting out how to convert his office into another bedroom.
As he'd suspected, Bakugou is standing at the stove, wearing the bright orange quirk-proof gloves he uses to avoid contaminating communal items with nitroglycerin. Eijirou smiles at the sight; Mina'd saved up for them to give as a Christmas present, and nearly bawled her eyes out when she realized Bakugou'd gotten her a pair too.
Deliberately making his footsteps louder to signal his approach while mentally apologizing to Shinsou (who despite popular belief does actually sleep), Eijirou slips up to Bakugou's back and leans down to plant his chin on Bakugou's shoulder. "Mornin', buttercup."
Bakugou sighs. "Go add another mark to the fail board."
"Awww, but that was a good one!" Eijirou whines. Bakugou elbows him in the gut to get him to move, but he's hiding his smile behind his hair so he's not actually upset. Eijirou scrounges around for a marker ("There's a basket for them for a reason, guys, quit leaving them in random places!!") and adds another tally under his name on the board.
The fail board, as it's come to be called, is a magnetic whiteboard on the fridge door with 'Nicknames for Bakugou!!!' in pink cursive across the top. Underneath are everyone's names and two columns: 'Rejected' and 'Accepted'.
...The 'Rejected' columns are considerably more populated than the 'Accepted' ones.
Still! Eijirou's in the lead when it comes to acceptable nicknames; that old soft spot from high school hasn't gotten any smaller since it formed in the first place. Eijirou smiles. It feels nice to be the favorite person of someone like Bakugou.
"I'll get you to like a nickname eventually." Eijirou hums, returning to his position as weighted blanket.
"You already have. You just don't use it." Bakugou says flatly, adding some sort of neatly-cut vegetable to the egg mixture already in the pan.
"So you keep saying, but I can't think of anything I've called you that I don't say all the time!"
Bakugou's skin is warm beneath Eijirou's arms as he wraps them around Bakugou's shoulders, carefully avoiding pulling on his braids and resting their heads together as he sighs. "We're really starting to run dry here, man. I mean, unless you want us to call you sweetheart or darling or something, but I really can't see that and I'm actually pretty sure you'd murder Denki if he even thought about it-"
"Eijirou."
That's another thing Eijirou likes about mornings. Bakugou may be more of a last-name person even amongst friends who've long since become more like family, but here in the silence before everyone else wakes, when it's just the two of them, he lets that go for a bit. It's an honor all Eijirou's to see him like this, all warm and light and soft around the edges. It makes Eijirou want to hold on to him and never let go. Spirit him away to some cave somewhere and hide him away from the rest of the world like a dragon and its hoard.
"You'd make good treasure." Eijirou mumbles. Bakugou fails to hide the silent laughter shaking his shoulders as he checks the heat.
"What are you on about now, Riot?"
"Mmh. I'd hoard you, if I were a dragon."
"Yeah?" Bakugou hums. "I think that counts as kidnapping."
Eijirou nuzzles closer to him, inhaling the soft scent of yesterday's shampoo. "Like anyone could pull that off again."
"Mm, you're right." Bakugou nods. He reaches up to scratch absently at Eijirou's scalp with his free hand while he adjusts the pan. Eijirou's brain sings with success. Hands in his hair. Fuck yeah. "I'd have had to go willingly. But you know, people don't take kindly to dragons making off with handsome princes."
"Oh, a prince are you?" Eijirou whispers to the strands of blonde tickling at his skin.
"Of course I am. What do you take me for?"
"You're right, you're right. I'm sorry. What happens when the army comes to take you back, then?"
"I blast them all away, obviously."
Eijirou giggles. "Not me? I'm the dragon."
"And I won't let anyone harm you." Bakugou says, so easily it makes that warm spot in Eijirou's chest ache. "Like you said, I'm there by choice. I wouldn't let anybody ruin it for us."
"Mm." The fingers in his hair turn gentle, stroking rather than scratching, and still. Not retreating, not leaving. Just being. "What happens to the dragon and the prince in the end?"
"They live happily ever after all by themselves, without anybody coming to bother them again."
Eijirou takes the hand in his hair and tangles their fingers together, pressing the back of it gently to his lips. "I like that ending."
"Of course you do, you big sap." Bakugou takes the pan off the heat and turns around in Eijirou's hold, making use of the slight height difference that's slowly built up over the years to press a kiss right over Eijirou's sternum. "You're all heart. Always have been."
That little warm spot in Eijirou's chest swells to bursting, and like he always does when it feels like this, he relieves the pressure. "I love you."
"I know." Bakugou smiles. "I love you too."
He brushes a kiss against Eijirou's jaw and turns back to the stove. "Now go sit down so I can finish making breakfast, cause my guess is that in about 10 seconds you're going to wake up the rest of the way and be all stomach."
The moment's broken. Eijirou laughs and backs off, not mourning the loss as he obediently takes his place at the table. Those soft edges are still there if one only knows how to look for them.
The others filter into the kitchen on their own time, but are all at the table by eight on the dot, the rule for a breakfast made and subsequently ruthlessly enforced by Bakugou.
Even if a few of them are more asleep than awake at the moment.
"Blasty, can you peel this for me?" Mina asks, holding up an orange. Bakugou nods and dishes up a slice of the quiche he'd made onto her plate in the meantime.
"Morning."
"Woah, dude. You look like someone died." Denki hisses at Shinsou's state. Shinsou drops into his chair with a tired glower and would have dropped his head onto the table if a laden plate hadn't been set in front of him before he could.
"Yeah, if he was the somebody." says Jirou, stabbing a bite of her breakfast. "You have the graveyard shift last night or something?"
"Actually I went to bed at eleven," Shinsou frowns at them all, "but thanks so much for the concern."
"Not our fault you look like microwaved death, man." Sero shrugs. "Melatonin not working for you?"
Shinsou sighs. "It knocked me out for nine hours and now I'm over-tired. I told you I should've just pulled an all-nighter to reset."
"Yeah and we told you that's a shitty fucking idea." snaps Bakugou, though it's undermined a bit by him actively peeling an orange with gloves on.
"Why don't you come with me later when I go on my run?" Eijirou offers. "Juice?"
"Coffee? And there is no way you're gonna make me get up before eight in the morning to go running on purpose."
"Dude. You're literally a pro hero." Denki says through a mouthful of toast. "How do you not work out?"
"I work out. I just have enough braincells not to like it." Shinsou hisses.
"Oi."
"Rude."
Bakugou and Mina, as they've all learned from experience over the years, are the most terrifying duo to be around when they start moving in sync. As such, Shinsou immediately pauses for a second, then winces. "Shit. Sorry, that was mean."
"There anything coming up?" Eijirou asks, returning from the counter with the coffee pot. "I thought I heard about somebody having a live event soon or something."
"Wow, very specific." deadpans Sero.
"No coffee for you."
"Noooo!! Kiri please I love you you're the manliest man to ever man!"
Eijirou laughs and relents, filling his friend's cup. He leans over and drops an exaggerated, cartoony kiss to Sero's hair. "Love you too bro. Muah!"
"I'll check," says Mina, unphased by typical morning shenanigans. "If there's not, we can always plan something."
"Shin, I promise you, nobody's gonna take your coffee." Eijirou sighs, making his way down the line. "You don't have to hold it like that."
Shinsou moves his arms so his mug is actually visible and Eijirou pours him his drink, bro-patting him on the shoulder a few times before moving around the end of the table to Jirou.
"Thanks, Kiri."
"No prob, Jack."
Bakugou's already got a steaming mug in front of him and Denki and Mina don't drink coffee, so that's all he needs to pour for now. Eijirou returns the pot to the machine and takes his seat again to find that a large pile of sausage and potato chunks has been added to his plate. He flashes a grin at Bakugou, who just rolls his eyes and refocuses on getting every single bit of pith off Mina's orange.
"Ooh, fun." Mina hums. "Yuuga's looking for some extra royalty for his drag show next month, any takers?"
"I'd be down." Jirou yawns. Denki looks across the table, shit-eating grin firmly in place.
"Hey Bakugou-"
"Not a chance in hell, Dunce-Face." Bakugou replies, not looking up from his hands. "Not after last time."
"Why, what happened last time?" Eijirou asks. He'd been out of the country at the time, accompanying Fat to an international conference in Moscow.
"It's a funny story, actually!" Denki grins. "So Yuuga had Bakugou all dolled up and everything, right, the show went great and everything, and Bakugou's looking hot as hell-"
"I looked like my fucking mom, shithead, don't call my mom hot!"
"It seriously wasn't that bad, man."
"My dad called me honey!" Bakugou screeches. "I'm gonna have nightmares about that for the rest of my life!"
"Not the kidnapping? Or literally dying?" Shinsou mutters. "Should've known."
Eijirou stares at Bakugou. "You're joking."
"Do I look like I'm joking to you?!" Bakugou snaps, reaching across the table with a much gentler tone to hand over the now peeled orange. "Here, Mina."
"Thanks babes. Yeah, Ei, I was like ten feet away. It was crazy! So Masaru had just gotten there to pick up Mama Mitsuki right, but she was in the bathroom so when he walks in he just sees Bakugou still all dressed up."
"Hey, honey, you look great!" Sero calls, setting his hand against Denki's back.
"Dad, gross! What the fuck!!" shrieks Denki, swatting him away. Eijirou laughs. The sparks crackling from his hands really sell the impression.
"Katsuki?!" Sero squawks. "What—I thought you were your mother!"
"Ew!" Mina, Denki and Sero chorus. "Fucking EW!!"
"Anyway his mom came back around then and told him to take it as a compliment since he 'clearly makes a hot-ass lady' and then they left. I think it took Midoriya ten minutes to stop laughing."
"Oh yeah how's he doing?" Jirou asks. "I feel like we haven't seen him in a while. He's graduating soon, right?"
"Heh. Nerd." Bakugou smirks. Another slice of quiche mysteriously makes it onto Eijirou's plate as a gloved finger taps twice on the back of his fork hand. "Eat."
"Dude, you have a degree in physics and fashion history." Mina says flatly, popping another slice of orange into her mouth. "You have no room to talk."
"Takes one to know one, Bubblegum Bitch."
"Ohh, very original. I'm so impressed. Everyone, see how impressed I am?"
Mina flicks one of her jellyfish braids over her shoulder with a roll of her eyes. Bakugou copies her more aggressively with a mocking look on his face.
"Anyway," Jirou calls over the sound of their two fashion buffs bickering, "I'm gonna text the Big Chat and see who's free to get together this weekend. Maybe Saturday?"
Eijirou frowns. "I don't think I'm free that day."
"You are." Bakugou replies.
"Really? Thanks, bro."
Shinsou raises an eyebrow. Bakugou glares. "We have the same schedule, Mindfuck."
"It's Mindjack, actually, but you're getting closer."
Impressively, Bakugou doesn't take the bait. "Elbows you gotta eat faster, you're supposed to be out the door in fifteen minutes."
"Oh, fuck-"
It all dissolves into chaos after that, as usual. Pretty soon everyone who's on-duty that day bolts out the door (Sero) or filters back to their rooms to get ready to head out.
"Kirishima."
Eijirou jumps, not having noticed Bakugou behind him. "Wah! Yeah, what's up?"
"Need anything from the store? I'm making a run in a minute."
"Umm...some of those snacks I like? And I'm running low on stuff for my smoothies."
"Got it. I'll get you some of those drinks you like too."
"Aww, thanks bro! You're the best." Eijirou reels Bakugou in to plop an exaggerated kiss to the crown of his head and is rewarded with a loving delivery of explosions directly to the face.
"Fuck off!"
"Love you too!" Eijirou calls as Bakugou stomps out of the kitchen/dining area to the living room. From his seat at the table Denki lets out a low whistle.
"Wow. If you were anyone else that would've been a murder."
Eijirou laughs and adds another plate to the stack he's gathering for washing. "Come on, he's harmless. I don't even use my quirk half the time."
"Harmless." Denki repeats. "Harmless, he says. The guy who's blasted through mountains and come back from the dead to nuke the most dangerous villain in history out of existence. Harmless."
"Well yeah, you gotta treat him a bit like a shelter cat. Have you not noticed how often he touches us since Mina got him those gloves?"
"I did, actually. Freaks me out a bit to be honest. I'm not used to the idea of Bakugou being touchy." Denki pauses, and then cocks his head, amending his statement. "Well, touchy with anyone besides you."
"Cause he knows he can't hurt me." Eijirou dismisses. He sets the dishes down at the left side of the sink for washing and starts sorting them all into their color-coded sets. White with sharks: himself. Dark purple with white edges: Jirou. "You know how he gets about the whole nitroglycerin thing. He just needs to make sure people are safe." Black and orange plaid: Bakugou. Pink with little green aliens: Mina.
"I know." Denki sighs. "It was one time, though, I don't know why he's still so strict about it."
"Denks, you ended up in the hospital with nitroglycerin poisoning. I think a bit of concern is warranted." Novelty mummy-wrappings-patterned bowl with "TAPE" written on the side from when Mina got drunk that one time: Sero. Pikachu face: Denki.
"And I was fine! I learned my lesson didn't I? When have I ever touched his food without permission since then?"
"I think it's more that it happened in the first place."
Black with little Espeons: Shinsou. Yeah, he'd definitely moved in at this point, there's just no excusing that for a houseguest. "You know how he is, he just worries and won't admit it."
"Hey!" Mina calls from the living room. "Bitches! That old sci-fi show Kouda likes is on TV!"
Naturally, they all wind up draped over each other on the couch rather than everyone taking their own individual seat. Mina plops herself sideways in Eijirou's lap and lays her legs on Denki, who's elected to take the other couch cushion to curl up on in a way that can't be good for his joints but does speak to his bisexuality.
A starship flies through space while the theme song and opening credits play; Eijirou recognizes some of the names from history textbooks and the excited infodumps they'd managed to coax out of Kouda during the superglue-group-bonding era after the war.
"Oh, this is the original series." Denki notes. "You can tell ‘cause of the narration."
"That's definitely not the only way, but go on." says Mina. "How'd you come to that?"
Eijirou bites back his smile. They've been playing this game for years, after Denki had said something completely insane during class one day and a bewildered Aizawa had stared at him for a moment before simply asking 'And how did you come to that exactly?'. It's a simple game on the surface, but following anybody's train of thought backwards is pretty entertaining.
"It's not anything fun." Denki shrugs. "It's just that this is the era of Captain Dramatic Pauses."
"Captain Dramatic Pauses?"
The two of them eye Denki, amused. He nods. "Yeah. He adds, like, ellipses between his...words."
"Ohhh. Yeah he does do that, doesn't he." Eijirou hums. Onscreen, Captain Dramatic Pauses and First Officer Eyebrows finish their lovers' aside and go to actually do their jobs.
"Oh god, having to deal with coworkers like that must be awful." Eijirou grimaces. “Can you imagine?”
Mina and Denki share a Look he can't decipher.
"All too well." Mina sighs.
Denki nods while somebody gets beamed aboard the ship onscreen. "It's like, actually painful to be around you and Kacchan sometimes."
"What?" Eijirou scoffs. "Bakugou and I aren't anything like that."
Twin raised eyebrows are all he gets in return.
“Did you or did you not tell him what to get at the store earlier without actually naming a single item?”
"Just watch the show."
The image shifts to show a woman in soft focus and a sparkly dress, looking out from under long lashes. Mina giggles.
"That's how Ei sees Bakugou."
Denki snorts. "Oh for sure. Sparkles too."
"Oh, fuck you." Eijirou huffs. They aren't...totally wrong, though. While neither of them really fits the same character types as Dramatic Pauses and Commander Eyebrows, he can relate to the implicit trust the characters display in every episode. He would and has followed Bakugou into hell, even if he wishes he wouldn't go there.
"Hey." Mina says quietly, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. "You know we love you, okay? And that it's okay if you love him a little differently than how you love us?"
"Yeah, obviously." He's genuinely never worried about anything like that the whole time he's known them. "But I love all of you. We're family."
Mina shares a look with Denki, a kind of resignation in their faces.
"Alright, if you're sure. But just...keep it in mind?"
Eijirou nods and Mina leans up to kiss his cheek, leaving a sticky lipstick mark behind. "Love you, babe."
"Love you too."
"So why are these girls here anyway?" Denki asks, and the odd little moment is over as Mina and Eijirou try to figure out where Denki got lost in the five minutes or so since the beginning of the episode.
It's Thursday afternoon, and everyone but Bakugou is posted up on the floor in Sero and Denki's room teaching Shinsou to play Go Fish Uno.
"Got any threes?"
"Sorry, bro, go fish."
Eijirou winces. Shinsou's hand is impressively large to not have any matches.
"Uhh....ok." Shinsou counts under his breath as he draws, wilting further and further with each card pulled. Jirou frowns, and sets down her hand to lean over to him.
"Okay, there's actually no way you don't have a match. Lemme see."
She peers at the cards he tilts towards her and nods. "I see what went wrong. You can make matches out of cards of different colors, they don't have to match that way too."
"Ohhh." Shinsou tugs a good handful of cards out of his deck and sets them down in front of him. "Thanks, that makes way more sense."
"No problem."
With that cleared up, Shinsou plays a green four and the game continues.
A door opens and closes downstairs and a moment later Bakugou's voice echoes up to the second floor.
"Oi, fuckfaces! Momo's hosting a charity gala for Kouda's shelters next weekend! You'd all better fucking go!"
"We don't have anything to wear!" Mina hollers down to him. "You remember what happened to our nice clothes at the last gala, right?"
Eijirou sighs, thinking wistfully of the suit he'd been wearing when the villains burst in. It had been brand new, too, he'd felt so bad telling Aunt Mitsuki what had happened to it.
"Yeah you fucking do," Bakugou shouts, growing louder as he climbs the stairs, "Creati's making us all outfits."
"You sure that's a great idea?" grimaces Jirou. "I mean, she has a personal stylist for a reason."
"You think I'd let her dress you fucks? Get a grip." snaps Bakugou, appearing from the hallway to lean on the frame of the door.
"Awww, Blasty, you designed outfits for us?" Denki coos.
"Hang on, how'd you get our measurements?" asks Jirou.
"Me." Eijirou shrugs. "Y'all know I'm good at judging size."
Bakugou glares at him. "Shut up, Kirishima."
"You looooove us." Shinsou teases, and wow, his smile is way too similar to Aizawa's for comfort.
"Whatever I did to give you that impression, I take it back. You're all fucking annoying." Bakugou shoves off the doorframe and stomps off down the hall towards their room. "Except for Kirishima!" he calls. A door slams shut, earning a few moments of silence before Shinsou lets out a sharp breath.
"He hasn't pretended to hate us for ages. What did Momo say to him?"
Eijirou shakes his head. "He’s just tired. He'll chill out once he lies down for a while and then he'll feel guilty for snapping and make way more food than necessary."
Shinsou stares at him, curiosity furrowing his brows. "Kirishima, you don't happen to have some kind of telepathy quirk affecting you?"
Denki and Mina giggle. Sero shakes his head and pats Shinsou on the shoulder a couple times. "Welcome to our world, buddy. They've been like this since high school."
"If you guys just paid attention you'd pick up on this stuff too." Eijirou huffs. "It's really not that difficult."
"Can we get back to the game already?" Jirou groans. "Honestly, it's like herding cats trying to get any of you to stay focused."
"Gee," Denki deadpans, "I wonder why that could be."
As he speaks, he unzips his hoodie to reveal the design on his shirt—"ADHD" in the font of the AC/DC logo. Jirou shoves his arm to knock him over into Sero, but she can't even hold an angry face long enough to finish doing so and is laughing by the time Denki connects with Sero's knees. He's quickly readjusted to lay his head on Sero's thigh and his legs over Mina's, and picks up his cards despite them now being entirely visible to everyone else.
Eijirou sticks around until the game eventually ends as Shinsou's win (+10 points to Jirou's teaching stat) and then excuses himself to go check on Bakugou. The rest of the group wave him off while Jirou shuffles for round 2, all of them but the rapidly-adjusting Shinsou used to the routine by now.
Eijirou and Bakugou's room is the furthest down the hall next to the closet where the extra bedding is stored. Out of habit, Eijirou checks the closet and nods to himself when he finds the heavy weighted blanket Shouto gave him for Christmas a few years ago missing from its shelf. Overstimulated too, then.
He heads down the stairs to fill one of Bakugou's tall, clear glasses with cool water before making his way back to the room.
Tap tap pause. Tap tap tap.
"Mm." Bakugou grunts from the other side. Eijirou opens the door slowly to prevent it from making too much noise and slips inside. As per usual the lights are off and Bakugou has curled up in a nest of blankets and pillows on his bed. The Red Riot stuffy isn't visible, but Eijirou knows that just means it's tucked up in Bakugou's arms under the blankets.
"Brought you some water." Eijirou says quietly, setting the glass down on the nightstand coaster. "You don't have to drink it yet if you don't want to."
Bakugou pushes himself up and tugs Eijirou down to sit next to him. Used to this, Eijirou goes easily, scooting himself into the corner where the headboard met the wall and letting Bakugou clamber into his lap with his blanket and mini-Riot. He's changed since he got home, one of Eijirou's shirts and the Uravity pj pants he wears when he's not pretending they're rivals.
"Talking?"
Bakugou nods. Eijirou wraps his arms around Bakugou's back and hums, thinking of where to start. "I mostly just hung around the house today. Didn't do my full workout cause I was feeling lazy, but I did find a really neat recipe for a potato/cheese pancake kind of thing that might be fun to try out sometime, and I saw a cute dog on my run! Then I updated some paperwork for hero stuff, corrected a couple trainee reports, that kind of thing. The partnership declaration finally went through, so we should be getting our first official duo mission in the next few days. I think we're getting sent on an away mission, something about possible villain activity up in the mountains? You probably got that email too though so we can look it over together later. Umm let's see, what else did I do? Oh! I did laundry, but your white tank top is pink now cause Mina left one of those super bright bras in there and I didn't notice in time. Everything else seemed fine though, and she says she'll buy you a new one."
"'S fine, I don't mind pink." Bakugou mutters.
"That's what I said, but she insisted, so heads-up there. What's the dress code for this gala thing anyway? Cause like—you remember what happened the last time."
"Yeah, you wouldn't stop apologizing to my mom even though she told you it was okay like a million times and then you just walked around the rest of the night with your tits out. Pretty hard to forget."
"What else was I supposed to do?" Eijirou protests. "It's not like I bring extra clothes with me everywhere."
"You should." Bakugou huffs. His breath is warm against Eijirou's chest. "You fucking ruin enough of it."
"Which means that you get to choose more for me." Eijirou reminds him with a poke to the forehead. "Since you don't let me pick anything by myself anymore."
"And yet you still dress bad! I don't understand it, everything in your closet should work together in at least some way but you still somehow manage to make the most godawful clashing outfits out of it!"
Yeah, because you get all cute and huffy when I do, and then spend the next twenty minutes fussing while you come up with something better.
Obviously he doesn't say that out loud. Bakugou's got a thing about weaponized incompetence.
"You should just wear my clothes, I swear to fucking Aizawa-"
Eijirou snorts. "And be murdered for stretching it all out? Naw. My Blasty's-favorite privileges only go so far and I'm not gonna try to force that limit."
"You're six inches taller than me, dumbass, we're not that different in size."
"Maybe," Eijirou concedes, "since you wear everything oversized anyway, but you gotta take our styles into account. I'm just gonna keep bulking up to make my quirk stronger and stronger, and you're gonna be leaner and lighter for your maneuverability. So it's not a sustainable plan long-term."
Bakugou shifts in his lap, tugging at Eijirou's head to get him to look at him. "So I'll just dress you myself then, is that what you want?"
"You don't have to go that far!" laughs Eijirou, but really? He wouldn't mind it. Bakugou touches people a lot more these days, but he's a lot more physical when he's telling Eijirou what to wear. He doesn't even wear his gloves.
Truth be told, Eijirou thinks he might be a little addicted to the feel of Bakugou's skin on his.
There's a deep sigh, and Eijirou steadies Bakugou as he shimmies around to face him better with admirable dedication towards not leaving Eijirou's lap. Red eyes stare into his own, close enough Eijirou can count the mascara-darkened lashes around them.
"It's you, Eijirou. I'd go farther for less."
Then he's clambering to his feet and tugging Eijirou up with him. "Now come on, gotta get started on dinner before the rest of the idiots starve."
"Want help?"
"Why else would I tell you to come with?"
Eijirou shrugs. "You like an audience?"
Bakugou's jaw drops, face flaming redder than his shirt. "What?"
"When you cook!" Eijirou stammers, "You like when someone's around so you can explain what you're doing and why! Or when you're practicing your aerial stuff! That's what I meant!"
Now he's the red one. Bakugou lets out a sharp exhale and shakes his head, trying not to laugh. "Fucking hell, man."
"Shut up."
Somebody knocks on the door, just a tad too loudly. Eijirou sighs.
"What is it, Denks?"
"Mina says to tell you guys that the location's been decided for Saturday, and that everybody but Mineta had their schedule free so it's gonna be packed and Bakugou should be prepared to sit on your lap again."
"Go lick an outlet, Sparkplug."
"Swallow a cactus, Katsuki!"
Eijirou's not sure any of the three of them have ever moved so quickly as Denki running away from Bakugou's incandescent rage and Eijirou running after them. Whether it’s to hold Bakugou back, act as a shield or recover the body he doesn't know, but it's gonna be one of those options.