Work Text:
It started like any other day.
It was after school, the class back in the dorms and milling about as they settled their plans for the rest of the evening and figured out what they were going to make for dinner. It was a little after 6, which was the time that had unofficially been deemed Bakugou’s time in the kitchen, so the space was mostly deserted as the blond worked at the stove, creating something that smelled heavenly from where Eijirou was sitting at the couches chatting with Mina.
He did say the kitchen was mostly deserted though.
Kaminari and Sero were in there with him, all teasing smiles and snark as they poked at Bakugou as he cooked. If Eijirou could guess, they were trying to convince him to let them have a portion of what he was making. If the glares and shouts Bakugou was sending their way were anything to go by he wasn’t going to budge anytime soon, but Eijirou watched, a frown growing on his face, as his friend continued to get riled up, the other two continuing to jab at him, and Eijirou could see the smallest explosions starting to pop along the handle of the wooden spoon clutched tightly in his grasp.
Eijirou was moving before he’d even thought through what he was doing, just barely giving Mina a half-assed excuse before he was making his way over to Bakugou’s side and grabbing his shoulder. “Vibe check!” he chirped, and he spun his friend around toward him, ignoring the confused and questioning furrow of his brow as Eijirou pressed his lips to Bakugou’s.
It was a quick kiss, a little chaste peck, chapped lips on chapped lips, but it was enough for Bakugou’s face to be completely red by the time Eijirou pulled back, all traces of anger effectively wiped from his expression as he stared at him with wide eyes, frozen in place.
Eijirou hummed, then smiled, satisfied. “Looks like it was a success! We’ll see you later man!” He let Bakugou go with one last pat to his shoulder, smacked Kaminari’s hand away from where he was reaching to snag a piece of meat from the hot skillet on the stove, and he herded him and Sero out of the kitchen and back to the couches where Mina was watching them with more confusion than she had during Mic’s English lessons.
“Dude, what the hell was that?!” Kaminari hissed once they were out of range of a particularly fiery death.
And, well. Eijirou didn’t really know the answer to that. He glanced back toward the kitchen. Bakugou was still staring after him, still in the same spot. As soon as their eyes met he blinked, his hand shakily going up to touch his lips with his fingertips, and his face darkened even more somehow before he was spinning around to swipe up the spoon he had dropped in his shock and continue cooking. But, he didn’t seem mad anymore. Furious blush aside, he seemed back to his normal broody self.
So Eijirou turned back to Kaminari with a smile, his chest warming up as he responded, “It was just a vibe check, bro.”
It became a thing after that.
Whenever Bakugou got angry or agitated, whenever something or someone around him annoyed him to the point that he exploded, Eijirou would swoop in with the loud announcement of a vibe check before he’d kiss his friend.
After that first time he didn’t always go for the lips. Sometimes he’d go for his cheek, his forehead, his shoulder, or swipe up a hand and press his lips onto the backs of his knuckles. Anywhere he could reach, Eijirou kissed, and without fail Bakugou was instantly mollified, chilling out like a stick of dynamite plunged into water, and whatever had been aggravating him was quickly forgotten as a blush bloomed across pale cheeks. After the first few times of this Eijirou even saw Bakugou calm down before he was kissed, the tension dropping from his shoulders as soon as he announced his presence.
And it was strange, how well Eijirou’s vibe check kisses worked. He knew that when it came to Bakugou he could get away with more than other people—contrary to what Bakugou said he wasn’t an idiot, he noticed things, and Kaminari never spared a moment to point out the special treatment—but even he should hit a limit at some point. Being sneak-attacked by kisses at least once a day should definitely be blowing past it.
But Bakugou never said anything. He’d get flustered, and now that he’d come to expect them he’d roll his eyes and grumble a “fuckin’ Shitty Hair,” but he never pushed Eijirou away or explicitly told him to stop. So it must be fine. Why it was fine was a reason Eijirou couldn’t answer, but maybe he wouldn’t question it. Bakugou wouldn’t be as mad, and Eijirou could indulge in all the kisses he’s wanted to give his crush for who knows how long.
He just never expected his little system to be turned around against him.
They were in Bakugou’s dorm, notes and textbooks spread out across the blond’s bed as he tried to help Eijirou with his homework. Emphasis on try. Bakugou had broken down the day’s algebra lesson better than Ectoplasm had, but the problem set they had been assigned still made no sense. Letters and numbers floated through Eijirou’s head in a tangled mess, and he groaned as he wadded up yet another sheet of scratch paper and tossed it in the vague direction of Bakugou’s trash can before copying the problem onto a fresh sheet.
He had to start by sorting out the variables first- but wait, some of them were constants, right? Which ones were it again? Why did variables even need to be constant, why did there even need to be more than one variable-?
“Oi, Kiri.”
“Hmm?” Eijirou was only half-paying attention to what Bakugou had to say as he erased another mistake. He started scribbling down his next attempt, only to freeze when warm calloused fingers gripped his chin, and they gently turned his head to meet Bakugou’s gaze. His usual resting scowl was wiped away, his expression calculating as his eyes jumped across Eijirou’s face, but he didn’t have time to question it before Bakugou was muttering, “Vibe check,” and pressing his lips against Eijirou’s.
Just like that first kiss in the kitchen all those weeks ago, it was short and chaste, but it was enough to wipe away every single thought from Eijirou’s mind. He could only gape when Bakugou pulled away, his face feeling like it was on fire and his mouth opening and closing with no sound escaping as he stared at the smirk growing on his friend’s lips. Bakugou then nodded down at the work still sitting loosely in Eijirou’s grasp. “How do you do that problem again?”
“Uh-” Eijirou wasn’t sure he could do a single ounce of homework after quite literally having his mind blown, but he looked back at the scratch paper anyway, and his brows immediately furrowed as everything clicked into place. “Wait, that’s not right…” Crossing out his entire progress he started fresh, working through the problem with his tongue stuck between his teeth. He had to backtrack a couple times, but he finished in only a few minutes before showing it to Bakugou. “Is that it?”
Red eyes swept the page, and his smirk got even wider as he looked back up at Eijirou. “Yep.”
A wide smile grew on Eijirou’s face to match—he actually did well! And it didn’t take forever!—and all the while, his heart pounded in his chest, butterflies kicking up a storm in his stomach for a totally different reason.
Eijirou wasn’t surprised by the shift between them after that night, but at the same time, he wasn’t complaining about it either.
He continued with his vibe check kisses like he had before, but Bakugou had as well. Bakugou didn’t do them as often as Eijirou did, however. Where Eijirou’s first and many more had been out in the open in front of the class, they had gotten used to the spontaneous affection attacks, the teasing from their own squad of friends even dimming down to the occasional jab and smile.
Bakugou never gave them a chance to become accustomed to him reciprocating the vibe checks. While they were in public, he had his own tactics to get Eijirou’s attention back where he wanted it. A flick of sparking fingers onto his forehead when he was zoning out and staring out the library window rather than listening to Bakugou’s rendition of the latest Hero History lesson. A hard pinch to the inside of his elbow when he wasn’t quite focused on Aizawa’s instructions for training that day. Bakugou had even full-on bit him once, when he’d finally indulged Eijirou in a cooking lesson one weekend when most of the class was out of the dorms for the day, and Eijirou’s progress wasn’t meeting the insanely high standards of master chef Bakugou Katsuki.
The bite felt petty more than anything, if Eijirou was honest. Less of a focus up and more of a get on my level, bitch. But it still worked, Eijirou paying better attention to Bakugou’s instructions, and he’d even made a passable fried rice.
(He couldn’t get the thought of the bite out of his head for days. Just the thought of Bakugou’s incisors—crazy sharp ones, Eijirou wasn’t the only one with shark teeth apparently—sinking into the skin of his bare shoulder, threatening to break through flesh, and the satisfied smirk Bakugou wore at his flustered reaction, had Eijirou waving away any concerned classmates nearby as his face flamed in record time.)
Bakugou’s own kisses, rare as they were, were reserved for when it was just the two of them in one of their dorms, when there wasn’t the threat of being spotted by prying eyes. Even so, Bakugou still seemed afraid. Some kisses delivered to his cheek were so fast they didn’t even register as a kiss, just a brief yet forceful touch of face to face before the explosive blond was quickly backing away. Others were like he was giving them in slow motion, his breath across Eijirou’s skin preceding the lightest peck, the hand touching his face or arm minutely shaking. Eijirou would just smile, ignoring his racing heart as he pressed a kiss to Bakugou’s forehead, his own silent hey, it’s okay, and his friend would steady, the tension in his shoulders dropping, and he’d nudge Eijirou on to the next homework problem.
Like Eijirou, Bakugou didn’t go for a kiss on the lips again after that first vibe check. Eijirou didn’t blame him; if the blond was being so skittish over non-lip kisses, he was sure Bakugou would explode if he tried to give a proper one. Eijirou probably wouldn’t fair much better.
The time they spent together decreased as work studies started back up, as did the vibe check kisses—Eijirou tried not to miss them too much, it wouldn’t be good to lose focus because of the thing that helped him focus!—but he didn’t have to miss Bakugou for long as an operation was organized to take down a villain group, with Fatgum’s and Endeavor’s agencies being called in as part of the collaboration.
Eijirou grinned as Bakugou returned the fist bump the morning of the mission. They already rocked training together, working together in the field would be a piece of cake.
Figures everything turned into a shit show.
Eijirou wasn’t sure where it went wrong. Incorrect intelligence on the heroes’ part, the villains anticipating the operation and calling in extra reinforcements, something. Whatever it was, the entire block that the villains’ hideout had been on had been turned into a battlefield; the evacuation of civilians in the area fortunately had already started before the heroes stormed the place, so civilian casualties were lower than they could’ve been as they rushed everybody else to safety.
That had been the easy part. Getting control of the whole situation was its own giant barrel of worms.
Eijirou had quickly been separated from Bakugou and just about every other hero called in not long after everything began. He could hear Bakugou’s explosions in the distance, saw glimpses of green lightning from Midoriya and flickers of flame from somebody he couldn’t pinpoint, but he couldn’t pay much attention to them as he tangled with his own villain.
He was a heavy hitter, all big muscles and tall stature that had Eijirou’s heart beating a little faster, memories of the raid and lightning-fast fists flashing through his mind, but he pushed them all away. He wasn’t gonna freeze, wasn’t gonna break, not this time. This guy wasn’t even that bad, just strong and fast enough to be a challenge but not impossible. There was even a chance Eijirou could take him down without backup.
He dodged a punch, countered another with a punch of his own, the villain laughing like this was all a game and every surrounding business wasn’t wrecked. “C’mon kid, you can hit harder than that! Heard you had a fancy debut, what happened to that spunk?”
This guy knew him? Eijirou wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or not. “I’m just warming up!” He charged forward for another punch, blocking another attack from the villain, and he delivered a Red Counter that made the guy stumble back and pride burn in his chest.
At that moment the comm in his ear crackled to life, and the compressed voice of his best friend filtered through. “‘Might to Red, what’s your status?”
“Still waiting for backup.” Eijirou grunted as he blocked another hit. “Got a villain here, he’s not that tough but he’s a pain. Give me a hand to take him out?”
“Roger, be there in two.” The connection died, and Eijirou could hear explosions kicking up in the distance again.
“Aw, you needed to call for help? But we were just having fun!” The next punch the villain threw had Eijirou sliding across the ruined pavement when he blocked, and his arms throbbed from the impact.
But he didn’t break. Didn’t even crack, his hardening still in place. Good. He could keep going until Bakugou got here, then-
“Help, please…!”
Eijirou’s head whipped to look in the direction of the voice. From one of the more wrecked storefronts, so bad he couldn’t even tell what it used to be, a girl stumbled out, probably no older than Eijirou himself, injured and looking scared out of her mind.
Eijirou pivoted to help her, there was no way she could stay here with all the battles going on, especially in her state, she needed to get to the evacuation zone. But then there was movement in his periphery, and he only had time to harden and shield himself before he was being punched into one of the other damaged buildings, his body hitting some of the supports before he crashed into the back wall. The building groaned, Eijirou’s heart stopping as he watched cracks form in the ceiling, and a second after he threw hardened arms up over his head the building collapsed on top of him.
“...Red…rou…Eijirou…! Eijirou I swear to fuck if you’re dead I’m gonna bring your ass back and kill you myself!”
Eijirou blinked against the sudden light that filtered into the little pocket he’d managed to create, the brightness making his headache flare even worse. He felt dizzy, his vision blurring. A concussion? Did he pass out? He remembered the building collapsing, but he had no clue how much time had passed.
A head of spiky hair blocked out the light, and Eijirou squinted, trying to make his vision focus. Blond hair and explosion fins, a black hero mask, and wide red eyes staring down at him in worry. “Bakugou…?”
Air rushed out of Bakugou as he sagged with relief; maybe it was just Eijirou’s vision still being bad, but Bakugou’s eyes looked slightly glassy. “Fuck you, you fucking asshole.” Gloved hands grabbed Eijirou’s face, and his own eyes were widening as he was tugged into a rough kiss.
Bakugou’s own eyes were scrunched closed, his hands gripping Eijirou’s face so tight his fingers were digging into his cheeks through the gloves, and Eijirou could feel Bakugou’s teeth pressing against his own through their lips, he was kissing so hard. His lips weren’t moving, like he was trying to meld into Eijirou, and Eijirou didn’t get a chance to move to kiss back before Bakugou was yanking back, what Eijirou could see of the blond’s cheeks around his hero mask a bright red to match his ears. They gaped at each other in silence, the sounds of battle still echoing in the distance, and as Eijirou opened his mouth to speak Bakugou blurted, “Vibe check.”
“Huh?”
“The, the kiss,” Bakugou stuttered—stuttered, Eijirou’s never heard the guy stutter ever. “It was a vibe check.”
“Oh.” Eijirou blinked, definitely feeling more aware, more present than he had when he’d regained consciousness, but as his own face burned, his heart threatening to pound its way out of his chest, he knew his brain was focusing on all the wrong things. “Um. I’m good. I’m here.”
Bakugou stumbled back on the pile of rubble Eijirou had been buried under as the latter pushed himself up to a sitting position. His head immediately swam at the motion, and he moaned as he rubbed his forehead. Yep, definitely a concussion.
Warm hands came up to Eijirou’s shoulders to steady him; the blush on Bakugou’s face had died some, and through his usual scowl concern was peeking through his gaze. “Sit tight. I’ll take care of the shithead, then we’ll get you to a medic.”
“I can still fight, and it’ll be easier if we work together,” Eijirou insisted, before his eyes widened. “There was a girl! A civilian, she-”
“Already taken care of. Got her out of here before coming to you.”
Eijirou sighed, relieved she was okay, and staggered to his feet. Bakugou reached out to catch him but Eijirou was steadying in no time. He looked over his body for any other injuries; a few bumps and scrapes, but his hardening protected him from the worst. “I’m good, man.” He even flashed Bakugou a grin as he pounded his fists together. “Bet we can take that guy out in five minutes tops.”
Bakugou glared at him for a long moment in silence, his expression otherwise unreadable, and it was long enough for Eijirou’s confidence to waver. Was Bakugou still going to force him to stay back? But then the blond scoffed as he turned to walk down the pile of rubble that had been the business Eijirou crashed into. “You’re underselling yourself, Red. You know we can take that fucker out faster than that.”
Eijirou’s grin widened, his confidence resurging, and he hurried after Bakugou. “Hell yeah!”
True to Bakugou’s judgment, the villain didn’t stand a chance against both of them working together, the guy swearing up a storm as Eijirou snapped quirk-canceling cuffs onto his wrists not much later. The rest of the villain group was taken care of by the other heroes, and there were minimal civilian casualties, no fatalities, so the mission was a success, damage notwithstanding. Everything worked out.
Almost, anyway.
Eijirou and Bakugou stayed together to give their statements of their fight before splitting off with their respective mentors to go back to their agencies, but when they saw each other again at the dorms later that day, with the dust of the fight settled and the kiss able to take up the forefront of both of their minds…Eijirou couldn’t blame either of them for being awkward around each other if he was honest.
Bakugou especially was. He couldn’t look Eijirou in the eye, and the red tint to his ears may as well have been a permanent fixture.
And it lasted for days. Every interaction they had was awkward, every conversation stilted, and the vibe check kisses had completely stopped. Most of their interactions all together had stopped; no studying together, no hanging out after school in one of their dorms, and any conversations were kept to the bare minimum, anything longer eventually trailing off to an awkward silence. Eijirou itched to help whenever Bakugou got angry or annoyed during those days, but as soon as he’d take a step toward his friend he’d remember the kiss in the ruined building and the feel of Bakugou’s lips on his, and he’d stop in his tracks, letting the blond rage as his face warmed.
He knew the class noticed the shift; Eijirou kissing Bakugou was a daily occurrence, sometimes multiple times a day, so him stopping cold turkey definitely caught other people’s attention. Kaminari had even asked him if Bakugou had finally gotten mad about the vibe checks and forced him to stop. Eijirou had denied it, but there was no way he could reveal everything that was going on, not without turning into a flustered mess.
Because even if Bakugou had said that kiss was just a vibe check, it sure didn’t feel like one. The pressure, the length, the pure desperation in the act made Eijirou feel like Bakugou was doing it for more than just getting Eijirou’s head back in the game to finish the mission, and that possibility flustered him even more.
He had never thought that his feelings for Bakugou were reciprocated. Whenever he kissed Bakugou, outside of those first few times, he never really reacted beyond the smallest blushes. He’d just act normally, like he didn’t mind them that much. But during the mission, it was like Bakugou had been scared that Eijirou had been hurt worse than he could imagine and all he could do—whether to help or just out of sheer relief that Eijirou was fine—was kiss him.
The thought made Eijirou feel warm on the inside as well, his heart fluttering in his chest, and he wanted so badly to confirm his hunch, that Bakugou liked him just as much as he liked Bakugou. But the awkwardness, the anticipation, it still buzzed between them, thick enough to cloud whatever awaited them on the other side like a dense fog, and Eijirou hated it. But he was a man who lived without regrets, and a man who liked his best friend way more than he could convey. If he wanted to know what was on the other side, he’d have to traverse that fog himself.
So after a week had passed since the mission, Eijirou worked up the courage to approach Bakugou’s desk at the end of their last class with a smile that he hoped didn’t look too nervous. “Hey man! I didn’t really get Ectoplasm’s lesson today, you think you could help me go over it again?”
Bakugou looked up from packing his bag, his eyes lingering for the briefest moment at Eijirou’s smile before continuing up to meet his gaze. The red was back on his ears, as well as a faint brush of pink across his nose, but he still shrugged, quickly looking away. “Sure, whatever.”
“Sweet, thanks Bakugou!” Step one completed without a hitch.
The walk back to the dorms was silent between them. Eijirou didn’t have a clue what to say to break it, and Bakugou didn’t look like he was even going to try, looking resolutely forward. It gave a good view of his red ear peeking between strands of blond. Eijirou’s hand twitched with the urge to reach other and touch it, to feel if it was as warm as it looked, but instead he put it in his pocket and looked forward as well, ignoring the warmth growing at his face and the back of his neck.
They split off at their rooms so Eijirou could change out of his uniform, and by the time he got to Bakugou’s dorm, he was changed as well and waiting at his little table set up in the middle of the room.
The tutoring session felt like it normally did, the discussion not as stilted as Bakugou broke down exponentials. Maybe he felt more comfortable talking nerd stuff rather than the elephant in the room. Eijirou was just kind of mad that it took math to bring them back to some semblance of normalcy. He dutifully followed along with what Bakugou was saying, writing new notes under his original ones that were admittedly sparse and answering questions when prompted, but part of his brain was more focused on step two: bringing up the kiss. Should he just ask why Bakugou did it? Be sly and start a conversation and slip it in? How would he even segue into talking about it-?
The soft pops of explosions was all the warning Eijirou got, and he hardened his forehead against the flick of sparking fingers, meeting Bakugou’s glare behind them. “You wanted me to help you and now you’re zoning out? You better not be trying to waste my fucking time.”
Somehow, it was the flick, done in a space that would warrant a kiss, that was the key to unlocking what Eijirou needed to do. Turns out the vibe checks still worked even after a week without them. “It didn’t work.”
Bakugou’s brows furrowed further. “Hah?”
“The vibe check.” Eijirou gestured to his forehead. “You gotta try again.”
Bakugou scoffed, and Eijirou hardened against an even bigger explosion as Bakugou practically smacked his head. “What, you want me to rattle your brain back into place?”
Eijirou coughed around the smoke as he fanned it away, but it was soon turning into laughter as he met Bakugou’s glare again. “Nah, man, you gotta be gentler with it.”
Bakugou’s angry scowl turned into one of confusion, and Eijirou saw the moment it all clicked when his eyes widened, his cheeks turning a pretty red, and Eijirou almost thought he’d gone about this all wrong until Bakugou shifted closer to him, and calloused hands cupped Eijirou’s cheeks, just like during the mission but a lot gentler. Warm breath brushed across his face, and with a whispered, “Vibe check,” the softest kiss was pressed to Eijirou’s forehead. Bakugou’s lips lingered for just a moment longer than necessary, his hands lightly squeezing Eijirou’s cheeks, before he pulled back. “Better?”
Eijirou couldn’t stop his growing smile, his heart doing somersaults against his ribcage. He was sure his face was just as red. “Mm, think you got the wrong spot. Try a little lower?”
Rolled eyes, another muttered “vibe check,” and chapped lips brushed his cheek. “There?”
“Not there.”
“Fuckin’-” Bakugou was fighting back his own grin as he pecked the tip of Eijirou’s nose. “You’ve gotta have more focus than Ponytail at this point.”
“I don’t know, I’m still feeling kinda spacey. Try one more time?”
Bakugou’s hands squeezed his cheeks harder when his hands cupped his face this time, almost too hard. There was a light in those red eyes, challenging and so fond that Eijirou’s heart tumbled mid-flip. “Vibe check, you cheeky motherfucker.” And as lips captured Eijirou’s with the same ferocity Bakugou did everything, the only thought in Eijirou’s mind as he hummed and kissed back was, Finally.
Perfect, as hands slid into falling spikes, as fingers gripped a skull t-shirt and the waist underneath, pulling them flush together, a fire originating from their lips and warming them head to toe.
Eijirou felt dazed when Bakugou pulled away all too soon for air, and he held onto him tighter to keep from swaying. He felt like if he let go he’d float straight into the stratosphere, he was so happy. His eyes fluttered open, taking in Bakugou’s flushed cheeks, his tender gaze (so tender, holy shit, Eijirou couldn’t handle this) and a delirious smile grew on his lips. “I think I might need another one, bro.”
Bakugou’s face fell flat, unimpressed. “You’re a greedy bitch, you know that?”
Eijirou just laughed, the sound swallowed up by another kiss that he returned easily, their previous tutoring session completely forgotten.