Archive of Our Own ^beta

Hitoshi was comfortable enough with both his masculinity and sexuality to readily admit that he was a bit of a slut.

There’s nothing wrong with sleeping around. He’s always careful and always uses protection and he makes sure to get tested regularly. He’s also pretty confident that, should the night go sour, his quirk can get him out of any major problems. That’s his absolute last resort though, and he only ever had to actually use it once. Some asshole that couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that sometimes people change their mind about having sex and that just because they took you back to their place and then said no, does not mean you can just “take what was promised”.

He’d been forced to brainwash the guy into leaving and it had been all Hitoshi could do not to force the creep to walk straight into moving traffic.

But, that little incident hadn’t stopped Hitoshi from going out the next Saturday night and picking up a hot blond with a stretching quirk. Now that had been a fun night. Hitoshi almost broke his “no repeats, no numbers, no dates” rule for that guy, that’s how fun it was.

But alas, there can be no exceptions to the rule. Hitoshi did not date. He did not get attached. He couldn’t, it just wasn’t feasible. Working as an underground hero meant he couldn’t get familiar with anyone, especially romantically.

Honestly, the only reason he even still had friends was because Denki had latched onto him during high school and simply refused to let go. It was easier with him though because, as a pro hero himself, Denki knew not to ask questions about whatever job Hitoshi had to just drop off the face of the earth for this time. He also knew to never acknowledge Hitoshi in public, lest he blow whatever possible cover Hitoshi might be in at the moment. It wasn’t easy to maintain a friendship with someone like that and Hitoshi knew it, but his best friend had never complained. Just smiled and told him not to worry - so long as Hitoshi called after every mission to let him know he was safe.

Seeing how difficult it was to keep just one friendship going, there was no way a relationship of any kind would ever work out. He wouldn’t be able tell his partner about what he did for a living, or explain why he wouldn’t be contacting them for possible months during undercover missions. And hell, that’s just the work side of things. The second the person he was dating found out that he could literally brainwash them into doing anything he wanted, there’s no way they would want to stick around to make a relationship work.

So, rather than sitting around on his ass and sulking over how he’ll never get a boyfriend, Hitoshi had perfected the art of one night stands.

It was a perfect system for him really, all the fun stuff and none of the difficult emotional stuff. Every weekend he wasn’t working, Hitoshi would go out to a club, pick up a hot guy – normally one that looked like an asshole so there was no chance of them wanting to get his number afterwards. Plus, good-looking assholes were just sort of his type anyway. Then he’d take them back to his place and let all the stress and horrors he had to deal with in his job get fucked out of him by a random stranger.

It was always his place though, never theirs – one of his rules. Hitoshi changed his address enough that he wasn’t too concerned about letting someone know where he lived and he didn’t like the idea of a possible ambush from an enemy waiting for him at the other guy’s place if it all turned out to be an elaborate trick.

That had happened once, as a revenge act for taking down the leader of an underground crime syndicate. They were waiting for him at the guys apartment and Hitoshi had been forced to fight a whole room of gangsters with a hard on. Let it never be said that Shinsou Hitoshi doesn’t learn from his mistakes.

Thankfully, it seemed tonight was blessedly, ambush free. Luckily for Hitoshi, because he had gotten just a little drunker than usual and he honestly wasn’t sure if he could beat the giant mountain of muscle he managed to snag tonight if the guy turned out to be an enemy in disguise.

As it was, the gorgeous blond didn’t seem all too interested in ambushes or tricks – too busy hammering Hitoshi so hard against the wall, he feared he might actually break through it and end up in his bedroom the hard way. Not that Hitoshi would have noticed if he did. At the moment, the only things going through his head were “holy shit” and “yes, yes, yes more”.

Apparently he had been saying those things out loud too, because the blond growled in approval and quickened his pace.

“Oh fuck, yes baby right there.” Hitoshi moaned when the blond hit him at just the right angle, sending a burst of pleasure shooting up his spine.

The blond growled again, but this time, he didn’t sound pleased.

“Katsuki.”

“Hmm?” Hitoshi’s question morphed into a moan as the other man kept up his relentless pace.

“I ain’t your baby.” The man growled against Hitoshi’s neck, his voice rough and his mouth even rougher. “Call me Katsuki.”

“K-Katsuki.” Hitoshi panted as he leaned his head back to allow Katsuki more access. “You can call me whatever you want.”

That must’ve been the right answer because immediately afterwards, Hitoshi was rewarded with an absolutely sinful twist of Katsuki’s wrist, paired with a bite to the neck and a hard thrust that sent him sailing over the edge screaming the blond’s name. It only took a few more pumps for Katsuki to follow him over.

They hadn’t even made it past the hallway.

“Shit.” Hitoshi breathed resting his head against the wall behind him. He could already feel some bruises starting to form where Katsuki had gripped his thighs earlier.

“Yeah.” Katsuki huffed into Hitoshi’s shoulder.

“I haven’t came that quickly since I was a teenager, dude.” Hitoshi laughed. He was already starting to feel that hazy afterglow and he allowed his tired eyes to close.

“Don’t tell me you’ve only got one round in you?” Katsuki teased.

Hitoshi cracked one eye open and raised a brow at the smirking blond.

“What did you have in mind?”

Hitoshi really shouldn’t have found that near-manic grin so sexy.

“Which way’s the bedroom?”

Katsuki managaed to pull four more incredible rounds out of Hitoshi before they both collapsed on the bed, sweaty, sticky and panting.

“Holy shit.” Hitoshi sighed against the pillow. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to move tomorrow but it was so worth it.

“Yeah, you said that already.” Katsuki huffed with a smirk on his face, clearly proud of himself. “A few times actually.”

“And I meant it.” Hitoshi twisted so that he was on his stomach and facing Katsuki. The other man was stretched out on his back, pillowing his head in his hands and looking just as blissed out as Hitoshi felt. “I’m pretty sure that was the best sex I’ve ever had.”

“Hmph.” Katsuki was looking very proud of himself now, “Fuck yeah it was.”

Hitoshi was then graced with the sight of the naked man stretching his arms above his head and groaning at the feeling of his joints popping. His eyes closed and his eyebrows pulled down in a satisfied expression that Hitoshi had become pretty familiar with throughout the night. Satisfaction was a good look on him.

No, stop it. Down boy. Hitoshi told himself. There was no way he was up for going at it again. Already he could feel the beginnings of sleep creeping up on him and he was reminded of the pathetic two hours of sleep he had gotten the night before. Mixed with the fun yet truly exhausting workout he just went through and Hitoshi was ready to collapse and not wake up for at least a week.

“Where’s your bathroom?” Katsuki jostled him from his thoughts of sweet, sweet sleep.

“Mmm, out the door on your left.” Hitoshi hummed into his pillow.

“ ‘S cool if I take a shower?” Katsuki asked, already moving out of the bed.

“You wanna take one now? Can’t it wait a while?” Hitoshi frowned in confusion. Wasn’t he tired too?

“No, it can’t.” Katsuki said, “It’s a quirk thing. You should probably wash up too.”

“Too tired. Can’t move.” Hitoshi mumbled, he was almost asleep already.

“Well you’re gonna have to. My sweat’s explosive and you’re fucking covered in it.” Katsuki said from above his head, “Plus it’s fucking nasty to sleep with cum all over you.”

“Mmm don’t care.” Explosive sweat? Hitoshi was pretty sure he knew of someone with a quirk similar to that but his tired brain couldn’t be bothered trying to think thoughts. He was pretty sure it was someone from high school. Possibly another pro hero then? It didn’t matter.

“Jesus.” Katsuki rolled his eyes. “You’re a decent fuck or whatever but I didn’t think you’d be so fucking lazy afterwards.”

“’S your fault.” Hitoshi called out to Katsuki’s retreating form, “You’ve turned my entire body to jelly.”

There might have been a response to that but if there was, Katsuki was either too far away or Hitoshi was simply too out of it to hear what it was.

He wasn’t sure how long Katsuki took in the shower, but when he came back he was holding a wet wash cloth and what looked to be Hitoshi’s hairbrush.

“C’mere.” Katsuki sat down on the bed beside him, leaning with his back to the headboard, and tugged Hitoshi up until his back was flush against his chest.

Cleaning him down was done with a methodical sort of professionalism, as though Katsuki were afraid to miss any spots. Even so, when he swiped the warm cloth over Hitoshi’s dick to clean it, there was no mistaking the twitch of interest digging into Hitoshi’s backside.

“Seriously?” Hitoshi looked back over his shoulder incredulously, “How can you still be able for more after all that?”

“Shut up.” They had fucked for literal hours and only now was Katsuki blushing.

“Oh I’m not judging.” Hitoshi laughed, “If anything, I’m impressed.”

Katsuki grunted in reply and threw the washcloth on the floor to join the scattered piles of clothes, apparently satisfied with his work. Then he reached for the hair brush. He must have noticed Hitoshi’s confusion because he said, “You’re hair’s a fucking mess from me grabbing at it earlier.”

“Eh, I wouldn’t take all the blame if I were you.” Hitoshi shrugged, “It’s a fucking mess no matter what I do with it.”

He still allowed Katsuki to gently guide him back against his chest so he could start to run the brush through the ends of his hair. It was weirdly way more intimate than the sex and Hitoshi wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Most one night stands either got themselves clean and cleared out or fell straight asleep to deal with the aftermath in the morning. This felt oddly domestic and a little voice in the back of his head was telling him he needed to shut it down right now.

But then Katsuki threaded his fingers through a particularly tricky knot and Hitoshi forgot all about feeling awkward.

“Hmmm…s’good.” He mumbled, closing his eyes and angling his head so Katsuki could keep working on his hair while he rested his cheek on a firm, warm chest.

He hadn’t even realised that he’d fallen asleep until he was waking up the next morning.

There was a heavy arm draped across his waist and it took Hitoshi a moment to remember the blond from the night before. Oh that’s right, he’d gotten his brains fucked out multiple times and then he’d passed out getting his scalp massaged by a blond, more muscled, Adonis.

Given the impromptu hair-brushing session last night, Hitoshi wasn’t all too surprised by the fact that this Katsuki guy was a cuddler and, given the size of his arms, he also wasn’t surprised by how difficult it was to slither out of the man’s grasp. But he made it out of the bed eventually – after one very close call where Katsuki almost woke up, only to hum into Hitoshi’s shoulder and nose his neck a little.

Hitoshi took a second to admire the man sprawled out naked on his bed. Fuck, he was hot. He looked kind of familiar too but then again, Hitoshi did have a type and muscled blonds that looked like they could snap him like a twig were absolutely it.

The man started to stir then, so Hitoshi booked it to the bathroom before he could wake up and catch him standing over him and staring like a creep.

Much like his perfected art of picking up one night stands, Hitoshi also had a fine-tuned and scientifically proven method of avoiding the awkward morning-after talk and giving the other guy enough time to find all his clothes and sneak out; Long showers. It helped that the guys he picked up were always assholes so they were nearly always guaranteed to be the type to bolt the moment they woke up.

It also just felt really nice to have a long, hot shower after a night of, quite frankly, mind-blowing sex.

This was another reason why the one night stand lifestyle worked so well for Hitsohi. Because when else would he make the time in his busy week to completely exfoliate his entire face and body, do a hair mask and a face mask? After one incident of walking out into his hallway and accidentally bumping into the guy struggling to put his shoes on the right feet, Hitsohi had added applying moisturiser and body lotion to his routine to waste even more time. His skin was infinitely thankful for the routine and Hitoshi had never looked better, if he did say so himself.

He took one last look at his bruised and marked body in the mirror, before shrugging on the soft sweatpants he had brought into the bathroom with him. Katsuki had really done a number on him. His entire neck and collarbone was practically more hickey than skin, and there were some suspiciously finger-shaped bruises on and above his hips. At least Hitoshi wasn’t the only one looking like the aftermath of an over exaggerated porno. He knew for a fact that he had left some pretty significant nail marks on the other man’s back.

When Hitoshi finally exited the bathroom, a quick look at the time told him he had been in there for close to two hours. Plenty of time for last night’s bed partner to make a swift and silent escape. Hitoshi congratulated himself on a perfectly executed plan, as always.

With all the messy stuff taken care of, Hitoshi figured it was high time he did something about his growling stomach. He was so hungry that he didn’t even bother going back to his bedroom for a shirt, opting instead to just cook his breakfast shirtless. He was thinking pancakes today.

There’s just something about cooking pancakes for yourself on a lazy Sunday morning after getting dicked down by a hot guy the night before that made you forget all about any other stress in your life. Not even the residual soreness in Hitoshi’s backside could bring down this good mood.

He grabbed his phone and put on one of those old English songs that Denki had introduced to him. It was an old jazz song from the 1940’s and, though he’d never admit it to Denki, Hitoshi found himself searching for similar music to listen to almost every day off he had. Something about the smooth, romantic lyrics that he didn’t quite fully understand and the way the rich, slow music seemed to tug on the soul never failed to have Hitoshi swaying back and forth in his kitchen, eyes closed and a soft, oblivious smile on his face.

His brief and blissful moment of quiet, however, was quickly shattered to pieces when a voice that was not his own reached Hitoshi’s ears.

“What smells so good?”

“JESUS!” Hitoshi whipped around to the stranger standing in the doorway, brandishing a spatula as a weapon against any oncoming attacks.

Katsuki crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, an eyebrow raised almost judgingly.

Upon realising who it was and deciding that he probably wasn’t a threat, Hitoshi lowered his weapon. So, apparently the guy hadn’t taken off while Hitoshi was in the shower like he was supposed to. Hitoshi made a note to always check the bedroom first in the future.

“Uh, hey.” Hitoshi said, awkwardly. See, this is why he usually tries to avoid talking the next morning, he never knew what to say. Was he supposed to thank the guy for last night? Or could he just tell him to fuck off so Hitoshi could enjoy his pancakes in peace.

“Hi.” The other man smirked at him, looking like he was both amused by Hitoshi and mocking him at the same time.

That shit-eating grin really was starting to look familiar to Hitoshi…maybe they’d hooked up before? That would certainly explain the itching in the back of his mind trying to remind him of something he just couldn’t think of. Although, he highly doubted he could’ve ever forgotten sleeping with this god of a man before him, so perhaps he had just seen him around in the club a few times.

“You plan on sharing any of those?” Katsuki nodded to the, admittedly rather tall, stack of pancakes on the counter.

No, he hadn’t planned on sharing them. But he couldn’t exactly say that now, could he?

“Help yourself.” Hitoshi worked to get his expression back to something resembling not-panicking.

So the guy was the stay-for-breakfast type, nothing wrong with that. They’d probably just sit and eat their food, make some small talk, and then he’d leave. Maybe, if Hitoshi was lucky, they might even have a quick morning-after fuck before he left. Considering the man’s impressive libido last night, Hitoshi reckoned he’d probably be up for it.

“Oi, Mindfuck, you’re burning that one.” Katsuki said around a mouthful of pancake, frowning down at the frying pan Hitoshi was standing over.

Hitoshi froze. The pancake was burning, true. But that’s not what concerned him at the moment.

“What did you just call me?” He said slowly, his spatula was back in his hand and his quirk was ready, just waiting for a response to activate it.

Katsuki looked almost sheepish all of a sudden. Was this a trap? Was he undercover and just blew it by revealing that he knew what Hitoshi’s quirk is?

“Sorry, do you…not like that?” There was a shocking flush of colour high on Katsuki’s cheek, “Do you prefer Hitoshi?”

Hitoshi felt his quirk snap to attention, ready to be utilised, but Katsuki’s reaction gave him pause. He knew his name and yet his reaction wasn’t one of a villain that just got found out. In fact, Katsuki didn’t seem to think there was anything strange about knowing who Hitoshi was at all, just that he might have called him something he was uncomfortable with.

It was as though he thought it was normal for him to know who he was. Oh god, had he really slept with him before and forgot?

“No, it’s okay.” Hitoshi said slowly, he had to be smart about this. Figure out the details without letting on just how fucking clueless he was. “Hitoshi’s fine. I just – I didn’t realise you knew what my quirk was.”

“Oh.” That looked like relief on Katsuki’s face. Then he was scoffing and returning his focus to his food. “Well, I know I was a bit of twat back in school with the whole calling-people-extras and all, but I still made a point of noticing powerful quirks. Plus, fucking Pikachu never shuts the fuck up about you so it’s kinda hard to forget about what you can do.”

And just like that, all the puzzle pieces fell into place to reveal a big neon sign in Hitoshi’s brain that read “You Fucking Dumbass”.

School. Pikachu – surely he meant Denki? He looked so familiar to Hitoshi, almost like he knew him from somewhere. Explosive sweat. He even fucking told him his name was Katsuki.

Sweet All Might on a stick, Hitoshi had just fucked Ground Fucking Zero.

He was frozen in shock for almost a full minute, just standing there. Luckily, it seemed Katsuki was pretty focused on eating now so he hadn’t noticed Hitoshi’s internal screaming.

How could this happen? How did you just forget a whole person that you shared a school with for literal years?

Okay, to be fair, it’s been years since high school and they’ve both changed physically. Not to mention, Hitoshi rarely kept up with other pro heroes. He was vaguely aware that there a was a ranking war going on with Deku and Ground Zero constantly switching to number 1 and 2 heroes almost every other month, but honestly, he just hadn’t really cared enough to take any note of them. He was an underground hero, most effective very much out of the spotlight, he tried his best to stay away from other heroes most of the time.

So, he didn’t recognise Katsuki – Ground Zero? Wait should he call him Bakugou now? – immediately, he knew now and nothing else had changed. They had a great time last night and now they were having some nice breakfast before Katsuki took off. Fine, that’s totally fine.

Hitoshi wondered if it would get back to Katsuki if he were to call Denki later to freak out about all of this. Honestly, knowing his best friend? It probably would.

“Oi, you okay?” Katsuki seemed to finally notice the awkward way Hitoshi was standing beside a now empty frying pan and staring off into space.

“Y-yeah.” Hitoshi plastered what he hoped was a casual smile on his face and sat down to join the blond at the small table. “Just thinking about some stuff I gotta do today.”

Katsuki nodded in understanding, then his gaze turn sly and he eyed Hitoshi.

“This stuff got a deadline or you got time for something else first?” The way his eyes slid down Hitoshi’s bare chest made it pretty clear what exactly something else was.

Hitoshi allowed himself a lingering look at the blond before him. He may be a top pro hero and Hitoshi may be an idiot for not realising it sooner, but at the moment all Hitoshi could see was the man that had nibbled on his ear last night and told him he sounded hot when he came.

“Definitely have time for something else.”

The blond grinned at that and slowly lifted himself off his chair, keeping eye contact the entire time. He stalked over to Hitoshi and didn’t stop until he was standing directly above him and Hitoshi had to crane his neck to meet his eyes. The look he was giving him right now had Hitoshi swallowing hard.

“You finished with your food yet?” He asked with a knowing smirk.

“Yes.” Hitoshi croaked out, sounding like a dying man in a desert being asked if he’d like a sip of water. He hadn’t even eaten a mouthful of the food on his plate, let alone finished it.

“Good.” Katsuki growled, grinning.

Before Hitoshi could even register what was happening, he suddenly found himself becoming weightless, then the next thing he knew he was sitting on the counter beside the sink with Katsuki standing between his legs and their faces so close that their noses touched.

“Fuck,you’re hot.” Katsuki grunted, dipping his face to Hitoshi’s neck. “Wanted to do this for so fucking long.”

Something in that sentence should have worried Hitoshi. His guilt sensors were going off for some reason, telling him he needed to stop this and talk about whatever it was in that sentence that set them off. Unfortunately for Hitoshi’s common sense, Katsuki picked that exact moment to sink his teeth into one of the spots he had spent quite a lot of time on the night before and all coherent thought went rushing out of Hitoshi with a pleasured sigh. Katsuki still had his hands on Hitoshi’s thighs from lifting him and he gave them a hard squeeze, before trailing feather-light fingers up the thin material of Hitoshi’s tracksuit – he showed no sign of stopping.

“B-bedroom. Now.” Hitoshi wasn’t even sure if he managed to say it loud enough to be heard but nevertheless, in the next second Katsuki had him in the air again and was making their way back to the bedroom, his mouth remained latched onto Hitoshi’s neck the whole way there.

When they reached the bedroom, Hitoshi expected to be thrown onto the bed roughly, in that way that said ‘I’m so hot for you that I’m gonna throw you down here, fuck you, and you’re going to take it and like it’. Honestly, he was kind of hoping for it – as he had seen last night, a feral Bakugou Katsuki was very sexy.

That’s not what happened, however. Instead of dumping Hitoshi on the bed, Katsuki kept his arms tightly wrapped around him and gently bent forward on the bed until Hitoshi’s back touched the mattress with a soft thud. All the while, Katsuki kept his head tucked into the crook of Hitoshi’s neck, mouthing, almost lovingly, against him.

This was so different than the roughness of the night before. Katsuki was being so…careful with him. He was softly gliding his hands up and down Hitoshi’s bare torso as though Hitoshi was something…important.

It felt – really good actually but it also left something foul tasting in his mouth. Here Katsuki was, having just given Hitoshi the best night of his entire life, kissing him and holding him like last night had actually meant something to him, and meanwhile, Hitoshi hadn’t even had a clue who he was up until ten minutes ago.

Hitoshi stared up at the ceiling, the guilt was taking over his mind. He had to explain things to Katsuki before they went any further while sober.

“K-Katsuki.” Hitoshi said, placing his hands on either side of Katsuki’s face to pull him up to eye level.

“Fuck, I like hearing my name in your mouth.” Katsuki moved to start kissing up Hitoshi’s jaw. “You’d barely even look at me back at UA and look at you now.”

Alarm bells started going off in Hitoshi’s head. He couldn’t help the feeling that he was missing something here and the guilt of knowing that Katsuki seemed to think this was all something much more than it was had Hitoshi pulling away.

“Katsuki.” He said again, then firmer, “Bakugou.”

That had blond whipping his head up. This close to him, Hitoshi could see the concern in the other man’s eyes clear as day.

“Shit.” Katsuki muttered, leaning away from Hitoshi and sitting up. “I’ve fucked up somehow haven’t I?”

“Wh- no!” Hitoshi pulled himself up so that he was sitting up straight against the headboard. “No, you’ve been – great. It’s me.”

Katsuki gave him such a glare that Hitoshi had to wonder how in the world he hadn’t recognised the man sooner. He looked exactly how he had in school when he frowned like that, just older.

“Don’t give me that ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ bullshit.” He growled, “I’m a big boy, I can handle the truth.”

Hitoshi thought back to the loud, prideful boy he had avoided as a teenager. It’s not that he hadn’t liked him. It’s just that the blond had always been so vocal about his goals to be number one and the centre of attention all the time and, by then, Hitoshi had already begun forming his own goals to be a more discreet hero like his dad. It was only natural that Hitoshi had kept his distance from the other.

Judging by the little Hitoshi knew of the pro hero, Katsuki was still fighting for the same goal of being number one and he had to wonder how much else hadn’t changed. Would his pride truly handle the truth, that he had been forgotten?

Hitoshi sighed. No matter the outcome, he deserved the truth nonetheless.

“Look, Katsuki, the truth is,” Hitoshi began softly, “I was pretty drunk last night and…”

He trailed off, looking for the right words.

A look akin to horror dawned on Katsuki’s face.

“Fuck, and you didn’t actually want to-“

“Oh god, no!” Hitoshi rushed to reassure him, resting a hand on the blond’s cheek and lifting his face up so he could see the sincerity in his eyes. “I definitely wanted to. You didn’t force me to do anything I didn’t already want, trust me. I meant it last night when I said that was the best sex of my life.”

“Then,” Relief and confusion flashed across Katsuki’s eyes, “what?”

“Um.” Hitoshi lowered his hand, nervous again. “Well, the thing is, while I absolutely wanted to go home with you last night – I didn’t…necessarily know who you were..?”

There was a pause.

“You mean, you were so drunk you didn’t recognise me?” Katsuki said slowly. He furrowed his brows. “So, you thought you were just hooking up with some random stranger?”

“Kind of.” Hitsohi said. He lowered his head, embarrassed. “To be fair, it’s been years since I’ve seen any pro hero other than Denki and I’m not sure I would have even recognised Midoriya I was so drunk last night - and he and I were actually friends back in high school.”

Mentioning Midoriya seemed to have been the wrong thing to say. He could see that now.

“So you’re saying you would have fucked Deku?”  There was something ugly in the blond’s face and he started backing away from Hitoshi, almost out of the bed now.

“What? No, I wouldn’t fuck Midoriya, are you kidding me?” Hitoshi let out what he hoped was a well-humoured laugh. Perhaps if he could lighten the mood, he could prevent whatever argument he could feel coming his way. “No, I fucked you because I found you ridiculously attractive and you are very much my type.”

“But that’s it? It was just about having a good fuck?” Katsuki was frowning down at him and Hitoshi heard those little alarm bells again, telling him he was missing something incredibly obvious.

He suddenly felt the need to word his next response very carefully.

“Well -” He began, but was cut off.

“Just tell me one thing.” Katsuki had a hard look on his face, as though he was bracing himself to hear some bad news he already knew was coming. “Do you remember what happened at our graduation?”

…What? What had graduation to do with what happened last night?

Hitoshi’s utter bafflement must have been evident on his face because after a moment of studying him, Katsuki nodded as if confirming something terrible, and then removed himself from the bed fully.

“Wait,” Hitoshi said once he realised that Katsuki had begun collecting his clothes. “What’s graduation got to do with any of this?”

Katsuki turned to look at him then, half bent over to pick up a sock, and the expression on his face was unreadable. Something about the way he looked at him though, it made Hitoshi want to pull him into a hug and apologise over and over again.

“Just forget it.” Said Katsuki, “We’re both adults with busy lives and last night was just a one-time thing - doesn’t have to mean anything.”

Why did it sound like he was telling himself that more than he was telling Hitoshi?

“Katsuki, wait.” Hitoshi climbed out of bed quickly and placed himself between the blond and the door. “Look, I’m so sorry for not realising who you were sooner, I feel like a complete asshole for that, honestly.  But, you know what it’s like being a hero and trying to have a personal life – it’s just not possible, especially as an underground hero. I’m sorry if I lead you on, Katsuki, I really am. It was never my intention to hurt you.”

Katsuki stood there for a moment, not saying anything.

“Don’t sweat it.” He finally said, voice gruff. “You didn’t lead on shit. Last night was no different than any other random hook up, right? Let’s just leave it at that.”

With that, Katsuki maneuvered himself around Hitoshi and was out the door before the other man could even think of a response.

No different than any other hook up? He highly doubted that.

Hitoshi stood there for another minute, trying desperately to figure out what it was that he was missing and what on earth Katsuki could have meant when he asked about graduation.

Two months later found Hitoshi at one of his usual go-to clubs, backed up against a, no doubt filthy, wall with some random blond shoving their tongue down his throat.

However, much like every other time he had tried to hook up with anyone since a certain someone that shall not be mentioned, Hitoshi found himself shoving a hand against the guy’s chest to push him away.

“Sorry, just not feeling it tonight, man.” Or any night apparently.

To the guy’s credit, he simply nodded understandingly.

“I get that.” He said, “Happens to us all, dude, no sweat.”

Hitoshi nodded his thanks.

“You wanna talk about it?” The blond – Haru – said. Hitoshi had made a point these last few weeks to get the name of the guy before he went home with them, even if he never actually managed to go home with any of them in the end.

Hitoshi shrugged.

“Not much to tell.” He answered anyway, “Slept with a guy that went to high school with me, told him I didn’t remember him the next morning, he left and I haven’t stopped thinking about him since. Doesn’t help that my only friend is one of his best friends and for some reason, he keeps coming up in the stories my friend tells me. It’s like, now that I’m aware of him, he’s everywhere I look.”

Hitoshi omitted the bit about how, since the man in question is the current number one hero, he’s having even more trouble avoiding hearing things about him. For the first time in his life, Hitoshi has been listening to the hero news in his free time. Last week, he actually stooped so low as to look up Ground Zero’s official instagram – he had to put a stop to that after a post of Katsuki training in the gym, sweating and wearing a tank top that hid absolutely nothing, reminded him of Katsuki doing other activities with him.

Haru winced in sympathy.

“Yeah, it always goes like that.” Haru nodded, “You can go years without bumping into someone and suddenly, now that you have, you realise you work in the same building or take the same route home or something. Feels like there’s no escaping them.”

Hitoshi huffed a laugh at that work comment. Oh you have no idea.

“Were you close?”Haru asks, “In high school, I mean. You said your friend was one of his best friends, did you guys not talk?”

Hitoshi considered the question.

“We were…aware of each other. I was in a different class to him and kind of a loner, and he was like a magnet for attention and trouble so I sorta, I don’t know, kept my distance I guess? I used to run into him every now and then at night though.”

At Haru’s confused look, Hitoshi chuckled and explained.

“It was a boarding school and I was a bit of an insomniac. Not sure what his deal was but I used to see him jogging sometimes when I was getting some fresh air. We never really talked though. First time we ever even properly interacted was the night I slept with him.”

Hitoshi wasn’t sure why that last part tasted like a lie in his mouth. As far as he knew, it was the truth? But he found himself wondering, not for the first time, about what Katsuki had said about graduation.

To be honest, Hitoshi couldn’t really remember much about graduation, other than the crazy after-party and getting smashed with Denki and Monoma. Had something happened between them that night that he’d forgotten?

“Maybe he had a distant crush on you.” Haru interrupted his thoughts. “It’s not totally crazy to think that the guy that liked you enough to sleep with you now could’ve liked you a few years ago.”

Hitoshi hummed, considering. He thought back to the way Katsuki had looked at him that morning, the way he had handled him so gently on the bed before Hitoshi had fucked it all up, and came to a decision.

He needed to figure out what happened at graduation.

“I think I need to talk to my friend and ask him a few things.” Hitoshi told the blond. “Thanks for this and sorry for…”

Haru smiled.

“Don’t apologise.” He shook his head, “We’ve all been there. I hope you guys figure things out.”

“Thanks.” Hitoshi gave a small, unsure smile but genuinely meant what he said.

“Toshi, dude! What’s up man? You haven’t called in like two weeks, I thought you were on a job or something. I’ve got so much to catch you up on!” Kaminari Denki sounded as cheerful as ever and Hitoshi couldn’t help the smile from overtaking his face as he listened to his friend over the phone.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to worry you.” Hitoshi said, “I actually called to ask you about something kinda random…”

“Oh? What’s up, dude?”

Hitoshi took a deep breath. There was no going back if he did this. He loved Denki with all his heart but the poor boy couldn’t keep a secret to save his life. He would have to handle this carefully.

“Do you remember graduation?” Hitoshi was careful to keep his usual indifferent tone in check.

“Ah, not much of it.” Denki laughed, “I remember getting into a drinking competition with you and Monoma and things got pretty hazy from there.”

“Yeah,” Hitoshi hummed in agreement, “Same here.”

“Although,” Denki began, conspiratorially, and Hitoshi felt his heart rate rise to the point where he was actually kind of worried for it. Did he know something about him and Katsuki? “If you’re finally asking about what went down with me and Monoma, then yes. We totally made out in the bathroom and gave each blow jobs.”

Hitoshi’s heart was fine.

He sighed.

“It was my first time giving head and I was pretty nervous. Obviously, it was before I figured out how to manage my quirk while doing stuff like that.” Denki continued, completely oblivious to Hitoshi’s inner turmoil. “Pretty lucky that it was with Monoma because he was able to copy my quirk so when I accidentally shocked him, he was fine. Actually he was more than fine, if you know what I mean -”

“Right.” Hitoshi cut in before Denki could regale him with any more details he absolutely did not want to hear. “While I’m glad you didn’t end up shocking Monoma’s dick off, I was actually wondering if you knew anything about what happened…to me during graduation?”

There was a pause in which Hitoshi was pretty sure he heard Denki gasp.

“Holy shit, dude, are we finally gonna talk about it?” Denki asked, excitedly. “I never brought it up because I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything, and you never mentioned it, but Kiri told me the whole story like an hour after Bakubro told him!”

Hitoshi paused.

“So something did happen between us?”

“What? Dude, of course – wait, why are you asking me if something happened? You know more about it than I do.”

“Denks,” Hitoshi gripped his phone tightly, “I don’t remember anything from graduation after getting drunk with you and Monoma.”

“…Oh.”

“Oh? What does that mean? What happened?”

“N-nothing!” Denki rushed out. He sounded weird. “It’s just that – well, it kind of all makes sense now. To be honest, I was pretty pissed with you for a while afterwards because I thought you were just being a dick and avoiding the situation but – you really don’t remember?”

“Remember what?! Denki, can you please just tell me if you know what happened?” Hitoshi was starting to get pretty frustrated now – and pretty nervous.

“Okay, okay.” Denki began, and proceeded to tell him the whole story.

When he finally finished, Hitoshi’s phone was hot against his ear and his knuckles were white from the tight grip he had on it.

“I -” Hitoshi stammered, “I have to go.”

“Yeah, dude,” He couldn’t see him but it felt like Denki was nodding. “I get it. Tell me how it goes after?”

“Yeah.” Hitoshi mumbled, not really hearing what the other man was actually saying. “See you.”

***

“Yo! Bakubro!” Kirishima slammed into Katsuki’s side a little too hard and he was forced to wrap his arm around his friend’s torso to steady him. For someone so hard headed, the guy sure was a lightweight. "I just walked in on Kami giving Monoma a blow job!”

Katsuki winced at the volume that Kirishima said that with.

“Monoma was totally into it too! They didn’t even notice me walk in and dude – I know I’m pretty trashed right now but. I am 90% sure I saw sparks coming from Kami’s mouth!” At least Shitty Hair had the decency to whisper that part. “What would that even feel like do you think?”

“How should I know, asshole?!” Katsuki shoved his friend off of him. He really didn’t want to think about his idiot friend like that.

Kirishima was quietly muttering theories about the possible benefits to a quirk like that in bed to himself - Christ, he sounded like Deku. Katsuki wasn’t drunk enough to deal with this conversation.

He noticed Sero talking to that class-b girl with the vines for hair, sitting on a couch nearby, and headed towards them, Kirishima in tow.

“Here.” He deposited Kirishima down on the couch in between Sero and the green one. “He’s your problem now.”

“Dude.” Sero hissed, clearly unhappy about being cockblocked. Whatever. Everyone except Sero himself knew that IcyHot had a thing for him since that time Sero bought him the newest issue of his favourite manga without being asked - two years ago. It was about time Sero stopped fucking around with other classmates and actually opened his eyes.

“Shut up.” Katsuki huffed. “You’re making IcyHot jealous.”

Sero looked up at him, confused. The vine bitch seemed to have forgotten about any attempts at flirting and was now mothering a drunken Kirishima. Katsuki turned his attention back on Sero.

“You realise you won’t be seeing him every day now that we’ve graduated, right?” He said, gruffly. “When are you going to get your head out of your ass and see that he’s just as fucking pathetic as you are?”

At his last question, Katsuki nodded roughly towards the table that Deku and Friends were chatting away at.

Sero followed his gaze, just in time to see Todoroki glaring holes into the green girl beside Sero. When he noticed Katsuki and Sero looking, the IcyHot bastard blushed a deep red and turned back to his friends as though he was listening to them all along – his face remained pretty impassive but the fact that the glass in his hand was frozen solid and yet he was still attempting to drink from it didn’t exactly help his case.

Sero turned back to Katsuki, eyes a little glazed over and cheeks flushed pink. Finally, realisation.

“Idiot.” Katsuki rolled his eyes and walked away.

With his friends taken care of – he’d found Kirishima a babysitter, Sero might finally get over himself and kiss IcyHot before it was too late, and Kaminari was off being horny as usual – Katsuki decided he could finally ditch this party and go to sleep.

He made it all the way to the elevator that lead to the dorm rooms before his plans of sleep were ruined.

“Oi, Mindfuck.” He said to the purple-haired asshole that was leaning on the elevator doors, looking even more zombie-like than usual. “The fuck you doing trying to get into class-a dorms? You know you don’t have access.”

The decision to have specific access cards for each dorm’s elevator was made during their second year, after a certain villain-turned-annoyance managed to bypass the school’s security and “kidnap” Todoroki from his dorm room to have a “fun brother’s day out”. Now only a class-a student could access the class-a dorms and vice versa with class-b.

“I’m pretty sure my friends are making out in the bathroom.” Shinsou replied, lazily slumping against the door of the elevator. “ M’already moved out of my dorm and I’m supposed to sleep here tonight. But I can’t get iiin.”

“They’re doing more than that.” Katsuki muttered to himself, then shoved Shinosu’s arm out of the way so that he could swipe his access card to open the elevator doors.

The purple idiot must’ve been drunker than he thought because despite the fact the elevator doors open pretty slowly, he still ended up falling backwards when he lost his backrest.

Katsuki would’ve laughed but it was sort of his fault for not warning the guy so instead, he lurched forward, wrapping an arm around Shinsou so that he was supported by a hand on his back and caught him just before his head hit the floor of the elevator.

Shinsou looked dazed for a moment, staring up into Katsuki’s eyes for long enough that Katsuki started to feel his face heating up.

“Dude.” Shinosu said, eyes wide and still leaning backwards into Katsuki’s arms. “You just saved my life.”

“Shut up, Mindfuck, I didn’t do shit.” Katsuki scoffed as he carefully got the other boy standing upright.

Something he said made Shinsou frown.

“My name’s not Mindfuck.” He said sternly, “It’s Hitoshi.”

It was a little difficult to take him seriously when he was pouting and wobbling in place.

“Fine.” Katsuki smirked, “Hitoshi. You mind getting out of the way so I can go to bed.”

Katsuki side-stepped him and pressed the button for his floor.

“And you’re Bakugou.” The purple-haired freak was somehow fast enough in his drunken state to jump into the elevator just before the doors closed. “Bakugou Katsuki.”

Katsuki sighed.

“Yeah.” He huffed, resigning himself to at least another minute with the guy.

He normally didn’t seem so annoying. Katsuki had seen him outside some nights when he couldn’t sleep and decided to do some late night training. He never bothered him or tried to talk to him, and as far as Katsuki knew, he’d never ratted him out for doing extra training when he should be sleeping. But, Katsuki supposed, everyone was annoying when they were drunk.

“Kaatsuki.” Shinsou tested out the name and Katsuki side-eyed him.

“I like it.” Shinosu smiled approvingly, as if he had just come up with some amazing idea. “Katsuki. It suits you.”

“Thanks.” Katsuki was not blushing.

“You know, Katsuki,” Shinsou leaned against the wall of the elevator, his whole body now facing Katsuki. “You’re going to be one hell of a hero.”

Katsuki felt his pride preen at the comment and his chest puffed out a bit.

“Obviously.” He fought to keep the frown on his face, “I’m going to be number one.”

Shinsou smiled at that and, weirdly enough, Katsuki didn’t feel like he was doing it in a mocking way. Wasn’t that the guy’s whole shtick? Mock, antagonise, do whatever you can to get the enemy to answer you? But, the way he was smiling at Katsuki now, it felt more…fond.

“You’re cute when you’re being complimented.”

So he was mocking him.

“The fuck did you say you mindfuck bastard?!”

The sparking palm in his face didn’t even seem to phase Shinsou.

“Hitoshi.” He corrected, still smiling that lazy smile, then put a cold, slender hand around Katsuki’s wrist to lower the threatening hand. “And I was being serious. You’re hot on a normal day but I bet you’d look pretty fucking stunning when you’re genuinely happy.”

Katsuki didn’t know what to say to that.

“I think,” Shinsou hummed to himself, studying Katsuki carefully. “I think I’d like to see that.”

Katsuki was saved from having to respond by the elevator doors opening on to his floor.

He was quick to shove his hands in his pockets and exit the elevator. Hopefully the darkness of the hallway would conceal the flush on the back of his neck.

“Can I stay with you tonight?” Shinsou sounded behind him, apparently following him. “I can’t remember what floor Denki’s on and I really don’t want to stay there if he brings Monoma back with him.”

Katsuki cringed sympathetically at the thought but he still wasn’t going to let the dude sleep in his room.

“Stay in one of the empty dorms.” He said instead, “There’s one right beside mine.”

“Okay.” Shinsou said, seemingly unbothered by the rejection.

Katsuki showed him to the empty room beside his own. Since no one occupied it, the doors were always left unlocked. It was fully furnished with a bed and all but Katsuki noticed that there wasn’t anything on the bed, just a dusty looking mattress.

“Wait here.” He told Shinsou and popped into his room to grab a few things.

When he returned with a pillow and blanket off his own bed, he found Shinsou already lying on the bed, half asleep.

“Oi, Mi- Hitoshi,” He nudged the other boy’s shoulder until he agreed to sit up, grumbling the whole time.

“Here.” He shoved the pillow in behind his back against the headboard and laid the blanket over his legs. With another glance down at his legs, Katsuki huffed a sigh and got to work undoing the laces on the other boy’s shoes.

One shoe off and Katsuki chanced a glance up. Shinsou was looking down at him, thoughtfully.

“You’re actually really nice, you know that?”

Katsuki scowled and refocused on untying the second shoe.

“Whatever.” He huffed, “I’m just used to dealing with those other idiots when they’re like this.”

“That just proves my point.” Shinosu grinned like he’d just won something. He…had a nice smile – when he wasn’t looking like a downgrade Aizawa-sensei, that is.

They sat in silence while Katsuki took off Shinsou’s other shoe and once it was off, Katsuki found himself just sort of hovering over the other boy, not sure what else to say. That probably meant it was time for him to leave.

“Well, goodnight or whatev-”

“Hey, Katsuki.” Shinosu cut him off and sat up so that his legs were dangling off the bed and he was looking straight up at Katsuki.

“Hm?” He wasn’t sure why, but for some reason Katsuki was having troubling looking away from those purple eyes.

“Can I kiss you?”

“H-hah?!” He sputtered out. His cheeks were definitely on fire now and he had to clench his fists to supress his sparking palms when Hitoshi stood from the bed and was now looking down at him. Why was the fucker so tall?

“I won’t if you don’t want to.” Hitoshi was saying, seriously. “But, I probably won’t be seeing you again after we leave and you become a big hero. Aizawa said that, since I’m going to be an underground hero, I probably won’t be able to see any of you guys much. I – I think I’d like to kiss you before you go.”

Katsuki said nothing for a moment. He didn’t know what to say.

It seemed he would have to say something eventually though because, while Hitoshi had moved so that his hands were resting on Katsuki’s forearms, it seemed he refused to move any closer until Katsuki gave the go ahead.

Katsuki looked into those purple eyes, searching for any sign of trickery. When he didn’t find any, he nodded.

“Okay.” It came out more hushed than he had intended but Hitoshi heard him regardless.

Hitoshi took his time closing the distance between them and when his lips finally grazed Katsuki’s, the anticipation alone had him tingling with energy.

The kiss itself on the other hand? Well.

Katsuki had kissed people before. Once with Kirishima, when they were first years and both trying to figure out whether they were gay or not – for someone that loved manly things so much, Kirishima was pretty surprised to find that he didn’t actually love kissing men. After that, he had a brief thing with Deku during their second year, after a particularly close call with a villain scared them both into thinking they nearly lost each other. That had lasted long enough for them to realise that, while they would both always care about each other, they were definitely better off as rivals and, perhaps more importantly, friends.

The point was, Katsuki wasn’t unfamiliar with kissing another guy.

He was, however, very unfamiliar with the sudden light-headedness he felt as he latched on to Hitoshi. Kissing him was so different to anything else he had ever experienced. It all felt so gentle and soft yet impossibly urgent. Like if he didn’t get as close to this boy as possible right now he would die.

He had to full on bite back a moan when Hitoshi gripped onto his lower back and pulled him in closer, as though he was having the same dilemma as Katsuki and he needed the space between them to be gone.

He’s not sure how long the kiss lasted – long enough for them both to pull away breathless afterwards, their chests heaving in tandem.

Hitoshi looked at Katsuki and smiled that strange, beautiful smile again.

“If you still remember me when you’re the number one hero,” Hitoshi said, gliding his hands down Katsuki’s arms, only stopping when they reached his hands. “I’d like to do that again. If you want.”

Katsuki looked at him speechless for a long time, then cleared his throat.

“Yeah.” His voice still sounded croaky and his hand shot up to scratch at the back of his neck in embarrassment, before he forced it back down again. “Yeah, sure.”

The next day, Katsuki woke to the memory of lips brushing his cheek softly in farewell, and purple eyes.

Did that really happen last night?

He scarcely got even a second to think about it before his door was wrenched open and Kirishima was bounding in.

“Dude! You missed so much last night, oh my god, just wait until I tell you!” Kirishima jumped onto his bed like a twelve year old girl getting ready to gossip with her friends.

“Can you at least give me a second to wake up first, Shitty Hair?” Katsuki grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

“So, Kami got with Monoma last night.” Kirishima powered through Katsuki’s grumbling as though he didn’t even hear it. “Can you believe it? I mean, c’mon, Kami can do waaay better than that guy. And it turns out Shiozaki – ya know, the girl from class-b with vines for hair? – is super manly. She totally helped me out when I was getting sick in the bathroom room last night and then this morning, she was waiting downstairs in the kitchen for me with water and painkillers. She said she wanted to make sure I was feeling alright after last night before she left to finish moving out of her dorm. So manly.”

At this point Kirishima had what his friends had dubbed ‘the manly tears’ in his eyes and Katsuki coughed and looked at him pointedly until he noticed.

“Oh, right, sorry. But anyway that’s not even the biggest news I’ve got for you!”

For a brief moment of panic, Katsuki thought Kirishima was going to tell him that he somehow knew about what happened with him and Hitoshi last night.

“Sero and Todoroki finally got together!” Kirishima exclaimed and Katsuki sighed in relief. He was safe for now.

Kirishima seemed to interpret his sigh of relief as relating to Sero and Todoroki because he grinned and said,

“Yeah, I know, it’s about time right? Apparently, Sero walked right up to Todoroki’s table last night, stole Iida’s drink, downed it in one go, and then – without breaking eye contact – told Todoroki that he’s the most beautiful creature he’s ever seen and would he please be the Shoujo to his Manga?”

Katsuki stopped and looked up at Kirishima.

“…Seriously?”

Kirishima laughed and scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, not exactly the pick-up line I would’ve gone for after three years of pining for the guy but hey, it worked didn’t it?”

“What did IcyHot say?” Katsuki was absolutely not getting invested in the story. Nope.

“That’s the best part.” Kirishima grinned down at Katsuki.

“Better than ‘be the shoujo to my manga’?”

“Yep.” Kirishima popped the ‘p’. “According to Uraraka, Todoroki just looked up with a straight face the whole time, said something that sounded like ‘heeem’ and then set himself on fire!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. Of course he did. That idiot.

“I’m not really sure what happened after that,” Kirishima continued, “But when I met Shiozaki downstairs this morning, Sero was curled up on the couch with Todoroki and they were watching anime together, so I guess it worked out.”

Katsuki allowed himself a small smile for his friend. Honestly, he had been planning on straight up grabbing IcyHot by the collar and throwing him at Tapeface if they didn’t do something about their ridiculous pining before they all left UA.

Speaking of leaving UA…

Katsuki shot up out of bed, ignoring Kirishima’s startled questions and, before he could talk himself out of it, knocked on the door beside his.

He didn’t know exactly what he was going to say to the other boy, but it was their last day at UA, he couldn’t just leave it the way they had after a kiss like that.

“Uh, Bakubro?”

Why wasn’t he answering the door?

“Dude, you do know nobody lives in that room, right?”

“Shut up, I know.” Katsuki turned to face his friend, “Where’s Hi- Shinsou?”

“Oh.” Kirishima brightened in understanding, “I saw him leave for Aizawa-sensei’s house this morning. Were you the one that let him sleep up here last night? Hella manly of you, bro.”

“So,” Katsuki frowned at the floor, “So he’s gone already?”

Kirishima’s smile slipped off his face upon seeing his friend’s displeasure.

“Uh, yeah, he is. What’s this about bro?”

Katsuki sighed. So that’s it? No final words or, like…an exchange of numbers or something?

Katsuki thought about what Hitoshi had said to him after the kiss the night before.

“If you still remember me when you’re the number one hero, I’d like to do that again. If you want.”

Oh, he’d remember him all right.

Katsuki would be lying if he said he didn’t think about the purple-haired hero over the years.

It’s not like he was pathetically waiting on the guy the whole time. He’d been with others since becoming a top hero. Lots of others, in fact.

It’s just that, well, none of them ever really seemed to stick. He was always comparing them to one half-tipsy night that he was pretty sure he’d built up in his head to be better than it actually was.

Knowing that it probably wasn’t as magical as he remembered didn’t stop his heart from jumping out of his chest every time Kaminari mentioned Hitoshi though. To make matters worse, his friends all knew about what happened – because he was an idiot and told Kirishima that day – so it was a point of endless teasing for him.

Kaminari had offered to arrange a meet up on more than one occasion but he turned him down.

What if that kiss hadn’t meant what it had to him for Hitoshi? What if, to him, it was just some random drunken kiss from his high school days?

He’d think Katsuki was some kind of weirdo if he asked Kaminari to set them up now.

Not to mention, Kaminari claims that Hitoshi’s never even spoken about that night to him. Maybe he was ashamed. Or worse, maybe he just didn’t think it was important enough to mention.

Katsuki had fully convinced himself that Hitoshi didn’t give a shit about him by this point. So imagine his surprise when the man himself, strolls right up to him in a club one night, and starts hitting on him.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Katsuki blurts out in reply to Hitoshi’s “Hey, handsome.”

Hitsohi gave him a slow, meaningful once over.

“Looking for you, apparently.”

He’s not entirely sure what happened after that.

There was a lot of flirting, some dancing around the subject when Katsuki asked about how work was going – he got the message that it was something he didn’t want to talk about and stopped asking. Katsuki had those days too, after all. Sometimes you just needed to forget you were a hero for a while. He figured that happened even more often for underground heroes.

“Hey,” Hitoshi looked over his drink at Katsuki. They had found an empty booth to sit in while they talked and Katsuki jumped when he felt a hand slid up his thigh. “Do you wanna get out of here?”

Would Katsuki be disappointed if it wasn’t as good as he remembered? Hitoshi was clearly still interested but what if it was a let-down?

“Sure.” He said anyway, because Hitoshi’s hand was getting very far up his thigh now and, whether or not it lived up to the memories, Katsuki was still just a horny gay.

They didn’t say much to each other after that, beyond establishing that they should go to Hitoshi’s place. Katsuki was absolutely fine with that considering his place had recently been blown up in a villain attack and he didn’t want to admit that he was crashing at Deku’s until he found a new place.

When they finally entered the apartment, Hitoshi closed the door behind him and immediately closed the distance between them.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you all night.” He said, his arms wrapping around Katsuki’s neck and shoulders, his face so close to his own that Katsuki could feel his breath. “Can I?”

“I think I’d like to kiss you before you go.”

Katsuki swallowed hard. His heart felt like it was trying to punch a hole through his chest.

“Okay.” He whispered against Hitoshi’s lips and closed his eyes.

He saw fireworks. Or maybe he’d accidentally set off his quirk.

Katsuki cracked one eye open and brought a hand to his face. Nope, he’s good. It was fireworks.

He lowered his hand and then, last minute, changed its course to rest on Hitoshi’s hips. He seemed to like that because he tightened his grip around Katsuki’s shoulders and deepened the kiss.

Before he could even comprehend, Katsuki had gone from kissing Hitoshi sweetly against the door, to fucking him relentlessly into the wall.

It was rough, and feral, and Hitoshi moaned so perfectly it was like a dream. He damn near came the second he heard his own name on Hitoshi’s lips the first time and then did, when Hitoshi was screaming it during his own orgasm.

Shit, he could fuck this man all night. In fact, that’s exactly what he did.

When he woke the next morning, Hitsohi wasn’t in bed. There was a moment of panic where he worried that he’d fucked up and Hitoshi was gone, just like he had disappeared all those years ago. Katsuki would be damned if he’d have to wait another five years before he got to see the man again.

Then he remembered he was still in the other man’s apartment so he couldn’t have just bolted.

Katsuki stretched as he got up out of bed, pulling on some pants as he went. When he entered the hallway, he could hear some soft music playing somewhere in the apartment. Following the noise brought him to one of the most beautiful fucking sights he’d ever seen.

Hitoshi in nothing but sweatpants, swaying back and forth to the soft jazz music tinkling in the background, eyes closed and a soft smile on his face. The morning light from the kitchen window cast a golden glow on his face, setting his indigo hair off in a stunning clash of colours. He looked so carefree and at peace that Katsuki wanted to just stay in that moment forever, watching this beautiful man dance for the rest of his life.

Of course, he had to interrupt him eventually because he was not going to get caught staring at the guy like an obsessed creep after their first night together.

The hilarious sight of Hitoshi brandishing a spatula as a weapon against Japan’s top hero was almost worth putting a stop to the dancing.

All in all, Katsuki thought he was doing pretty well. Hitoshi was being a bit weird at first but he figured he was just the type to get awkward after sleeping with someone.

He’d thought the beginnings of some stellar morning sex was going pretty well too, until he opened his big mouth and said something about Hitoshi never looking at him when they were at UA. That’s where it all went to shit.

Turns out what he thought had been a long-awaited reunion had just been a random hook up with someone Hitoshi didn’t even know, and that magical night that had destroyed any hope of a successful relationship for Katsuki had simply been a drunken, forgotten blip in Hitoshi’s past.

Fuck, he felt like such an idiot.

When he finally got back to Deku’s apartment, he made a beeline to his gym-turned-bedroom and, in a fit of mortified rage, blasted the old punching bag that hung from the ceiling to smithereens.

“Kacchan?!”

Fuck. He should’ve checked to see if Deku was home before blowing his shit up.

“Kacchan..?”Deku peeked his head through the door, took one look at the maimed punching bag, and sighed.

“Is everything okay, Kacchan?” Deku asked, walking further into the room and sitting down on the edge of the bed. “It’s been a while since you felt the need to destroy something like that.”

Katsuki took a deep breath in an effort to calm down.

“Yeah,” Katsuki rubbed a hand down his face and joined Deku on the bed. “Sorry about that.”

Deku grinned his usual sunshine smile.

“Don’t worry, Kacchan! That was one of my old ones anyway, that’s why I didn’t mind risking it being in your room.”

“Right.” Katsuki huffed a laugh at his childhood friend/ex-boyfriend/rival/roommate/possible actual best friend in the world. Their relationship was a weird one but it was one he wouldn’t change for the world.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Deku asked.

He didn’t want to talk about it, and he knew if he said no, Deku would leave him alone and not ask again. But, he wasn’t really sure if that’s what he wanted either.

Katsuki sighed deeply.

“I kissed Shinsou on our last day at UA.”

“I know.”

Katsuki looked at his friend, then huffed. Of course he knew. He wasn’t sure which of his idiot friends to blame for blabbing but he supposed it didn’t really matter now.

“I also know,” Deku began a bit more hesitantly this time, “that he’s quite possibly the reason none of your other relationships have ever worked out.”

Katsuki turned to look at his friend, astonished.

“How’d you figure that?” He raised an eyebrow sceptically. It was true of course, but there should be no way that Deku knew that.

Deku shrugged, his cheeks tinged pink slightly.

“I’ve always paid attention to you Kacchan, you know that.” He shuffled in his spot on the bed to get more comfortable, curling a leg up and turning to face the blond more head-on. “I didn’t notice it at first, but after your fourth relationship I picked up on the pattern; they all resembled Shinsou in some way. Thinking back on it, that first guy should’ve been the most obvious, since it was so soon after leaving UA. You know, the tall one with the lilac hair? If I remember correctly, you said you dumped him because he was too needy – you said you needed someone that could function independently of you because of your career.”

Katsuki widened his eyes in thought as Deku continued.

“Then there was the guy who’s quirk was No Sleep – looked really tired all the time but you said he was always way too upbeat for a guy that never slept. After that was that really sarcastic guy with the purple eyes. I believe his problem was that he was – and I quote – a boring fuck.”

Deku blushed furiously at that part but powered on.

“It wasn’t until you started dating that person with purple hair and the emotion-manipulating quirk that it finally clicked with me. They were almost perfect; dry humour, didn’t care that you were a famous hero - they even sort of made similar expressions as Shinsou. But when I asked why you broke up, you just shrugged and said they just weren’t what you were looking for. That’s when I realised you were actually looking for something specific – someone specific.”

Katsuki looked down at his hands, lost in thought.

“I – I never noticed.” He said to Deku after a pause. “I mean, I know I’ve always sort of…compared them but – I never realised I was dating those people because I thought they were similar to him…”

What was wrong with him?

The guy kissed him once and he was drunk at the time, but apparently that was enough for Katsuki to search for him in every other person he’d ever been with since then?

Deku seemed to pick up on his frustration and was quick to edge closer to Katsuki and put a grounding hand on his shoulder. It was something they’d started doing shortly after their own break-up, when Deku had voiced his fears of losing the reassuring closeness they had established after getting together. It was their way of showing each other that “yes, I’m here. I’m real and so are you. We’ll be okay”.

Katsuki instantly felt it’s calming effect and forced himself to voice his concerns to Deku – that was also something they did now, healthy communication and shit.

“I slept with him.” He blurted.

Deku widened his eyes in shock. He opened his mouth to say something, then seemed to see something in Katsuki’s face and shut it again, waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it were.

Katsuki sucked in a mouthful of air, and then pushed it out of his lungs in one long, slow breath.

“I slept with him because he’s been the only person I’ve been able to think about for years and he slept with me because he was drunk and thought I was just a random hot stranger to fuck once and never think about again.”

Deku’s eyebrows crinkled in confusion so Katsuki forced himself to elaborate.

“He didn’t recognise me, Deku. Thinking back on it now, I’m pretty sure I can pinpoint the exact moment he realised he’d fucked up and slept with another pro hero. I made a damn fucking fool out of myself, thinking it was anything other than just a casual fuck. I thought – I thought we were going to try what we missed out on in high school.”

Katsuki was furious with the pathetic wet tone in his gruff voice but there was no stopping it now.

“He told me that night that if I remembered him when I was the number one hero that he’d like to try it again. I thought that meant he’d want to try fucking being with me or some shit, but he didn’t even fucking remember anything happening the night of graduation! I feel like a fucking moron.”

“Oh, Kacchan.” He could tell by the warring expressions on his face that Deku wanted to pull him into a hug but was restraining himself because he knew that would only make Katsuki feel worse. “You’re not a moron. From what I heard, anyone would’ve thought the same.”

Katsuki had nothing to say in response to that and it seemed Deku was unsure of how to comfort him further so they just sat in silence for a while, Deku letting his mere presence alone be the comfort that Katsuki needed. Damn it, he really was a good fucking hero.

After a while, when he could tell that Katsuki had calmed down, Deku chanced a curious glance at his friend. Obviously the nerd was itching for more information – fucking gossip.

“So,” He began carefully, “What did Shinsou say when you told him about what happened at graduation?”

“Didn’t tell ‘em.” Katsuki shrugged, “I figured out what the deal was and left before I made a bigger fool of myself.”

“Wait.” Deku turned towards the blond again, “So, you didn’t tell him anything?”

Katsuki shook his head.

“But then how do you know he wasn’t willing to try something with you?”

“Because he had obviously just planned on a one-night stand and nothing more, dumbass.”

“But if he didn’t remember anything then he had no way of knowing that you’ve been secretly pining for him for years. Kacchan, you could’ve just played it cool and asked him out for coffee afterwards.”

Katsuki glared at his best friend and, recognising the signs that he was about to get an explosion to the face if he didn’t shut his mouth, Deku raised his hands in mock surrender.

“Sorry, sorry. Shutting up now.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes but it was obvious his irritation was mostly put on.

“Whatever.” He said dismissively, “C’mon get up, I’m hungry and you’re going to make me food.”

“Am I now?” Deku raised a challenging brow. “That’s funny, I thought the deal was the number two hero treated number one to dinner.”

“Exactly.” Katsuki glared at him, “I’m number one right now.”

“Nuh uh.” Deku raised his chin higher in the air, smug. “New rankings went up today. That makes me voted as number one three times more than you now, Kacchan. I’d like katsudon for dinner today, please.”

“You little shit.” Katsuki got up and followed the new top hero out into the kitchen. “Aren’t you supposed to be nice to people after they’ve been heartbroken and shit? Besides this is your house, I’m just a guest. Make your own dinner.”

“Kacchan, you do this every time you get voted out of first! I never complain when I have to cook dinner.”

They continued to bicker over the fact that Katsuki was the guest here and he should be treated as such – Deku clapping back that he was the one paying rent and that Katsuki was just a freeloader.

Half an hour later, Deku was placing a bowl of way too spicy noodles down on the table, stating that this was just a one-time thing because Katsuki had a bad day and that he expected his katsudon tomorrow when he got home.

If Katsuki happened to leave a cup of Deku’s favourite tea on the coffee table beside the new number one hero later that evening, then it wasn’t anybody’s business so fuck off.

Two months had passed and Katsuki found himself constantly replaying that morning over and over in his head, thinking about what he could have done differently.

He could have pretended to not be offended that Hitoshi didn’t recognise him and not asked him if he remembered that night years ago. They probably would’ve had sex again, and in the afterglow, Katsuki would have asked Shinsou if he wanted to do this again sometime to blow off steam from the stress of their jobs. They would keep things casual for a while, strictly friends-with-benefits since they were both busy with their respective hero work, until eventually one of them would realise that they were practically living at the other’s apartment anyway and they would just decide to make it official.

Or maybe, when Shinsou had asked him what he meant when he asked about graduation, Katsuki could have told him the things Shinsou had said to him and the kiss they had shared instead of walking out. He would tell him that it was something he always wondered about, if Shinsou hadn’t already moved out of the dorms the day before graduation and was still there packing the next morning, would they have talked about it and maybe tried dating?

Shinsou would obviously be confused since he didn’t remember any of that night, and maybe a little freaked because he seemed like the type that was afraid to commit, and Katsuki would tell him that it’s okay, that he didn’t want to force him to feel something that wasn’t there but if he wanted to try something, it didn’t have to be serious.

They would start slow, coffee dates between patrol shifts, dinner dates on their days off. Just getting to know each other to see if they actually clicked, if this thing was worth putting in the effort. They would hold off from having sex again, both agreeing that they should wait until they were absolutely sure they wanted to do this thing (after all, relationships between heroes could get complicated if you weren’t in it one hundred percent), until eventually the sexual tension would become too much to ignore and they would break. After another night of what Katsuki now knew for certain would be mind-blowing sex, they would both wonder what they were waiting around for and decide to just stop wasting time and be together.

It was on perhaps the sixth what-if scenario that Katsuki realised he was probably a little bit in love with the man.

Not like there was much he could do about that now though, was there?

He shook his head free of thoughts of Hitoshi, and adjusted his tie. He hated wearing suits but tonight he made an exception. After all, it was one of his best friend’s engagement party.

“Bro, you done yet?” Kaminari’s voice sounded from the other side of the bathroom door. “They’re about to start the speeches.”

Katsuki gave himself one last once-over in the bathroom mirror, sighed and prepared to go back out to having other people’s love and happy lives shoved down his throat.

That was unfair of him, he knew. Kirishima and Shiozaki deserved all the happiness in the world and it was bitter of him to be jealous of that. Besides, he truly was happy for his friends.

Knowing that and being happy for them didn’t stop him from feeling like absolute shit during the speeches though. While Kirishima recalled with fondness, the night his loving and kind fiancé had cared for his dumb, drunk self, subsequently sparking their whole relationship, Katsuki had sat fuming over the fact that that very same night, he had failed to spark anything with Hitoshi.

Then, during Shiozaki’s speech, she revealed that the couple actually had Katsuki to thank for everything, since he was the one that had quite literally dumped Kirishima in her lap that night. The crowd had laughed and his friends turned around to smile at Katsuki and he had felt sick to his stomach.

The first chance he got, he made some excuse of needing some air and headed to the door.

“Oh, I’ll come too!” Kaminari said, cheerfully hopping over to the volatile blond, clearly not picking up on his current mood.

Katsuki merely grunted. He had planned on straight up leaving the hotel the party was being held at the second he got out the door (Kiri would understand, he had given him a less detailed account than Deku had gotten but still enough) but now his plans were foiled.

“Man,”Kaminari drawled happily as they walked to the door, “Can you just imagine what their kids are gonna be like? I swear that kid will be the friendliest saint of a person in the entire world with parents like those two!”

Kaminari laughed and Katsuki couldn’t help agreeing with him.

He tuned out after Kaminari started talking about how hot so-and-so looked in their suit or how this girl looked great in that style dress, but tuned back in once he noticed his friend had stopped talking. They had just reached the main door to the steps outside and Kaminari was staring a little distractedly out of one of the glass panels.

“Ah, you know what,” He said abruptly, pulling Katsuki’s attention back to him just before he could follow his gaze to whatever was outside. “I just remembered I meant to go congratulate Hanta on making it into the top ten rankings this month. You go on ahead of me.”

Katsuki watched quizzically as his friend practically ran back to the party. Fucking weirdo.

He stepped out the door alone and relished the cold gust of air that hit his face. Then he saw what had sent Kaminari running. Shit.

Shinsou Hitoshi was pacing slightly at the base of the steps, as though contemplating whether or not he should actually go inside. Katsuki was aware that Shiozaki had invited her old classmate but it was still a shock to see him here. Shinsou never attended events with other pro heroes, especially ones with very public heroes, and this party had almost the entire top twenty ranked heroes at it.

What should he do? Hitoshi clearly hadn’t seen him yet, he could quietly sneak back inside. But then if Hitoshi decided to go inside himself, he would have to see him with the added trouble of being surrounded by his friends that knew all what happened between them. Katsuki squared his shoulders, he was no coward.

“Oi.” Smooth.

Hitoshi jerked his head up and Katsuki didn’t miss the way his eyes widened at the sight of him.

“Oh, Kats- ahem, ah hey. Sorry, didn’t see you there.”

They stood there for a moment in awkward silence.

He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Katsuki since noticing him and it was irritating the man to no end, because obviously he couldn’t back down but all he wanted to do was avert his gaze and maybe run away.

“What are you doing out here?” He asked instead of running away. Like he said, he ain’t no fucking coward.

“Trying to work up the courage to walk into a room full of people I haven’t seen in years and not worry over the fact that this might very well have just been a courtesy invite and no one actually expected me to come.” Hitoshi answered honestly.

He was still standing at the base of the steps and, from Katsuki’s spot at the top, he looked so very vulnerable. Despite the fact that Katsuki himself had been surprised by the fact Hitoshi actually came, he suddenly felt the need to reassure the man that of course he was wanted here, how could anybody not want him?

“I may also have been,” Hitsohi carried on, still looking up at him. “Well. I knew you’d be here.”

How exactly was Katsuki supposed to interpret that?

“Um,” Finally, Hitoshi broke the eye contact, looking down at the step in front of him, and Katsuki could breathe again. “Do you think we could talk for a minute?”

“We are talking.” Katsuki said gruffly, shoving his hands into his suit pockets.

That actually got a small scoff out of Hitoshi. His shoulders seemed to lose some of the tension that was in them.

“Right.” The smile he gave Katsuki was almost fond. “Do you think we could talk about what happened that night…and morning – and I guess that other night? After the graduation party?”

Katsuki was on edge. He slowly made his way down a few of the steps, stopping so that he was two steps above Hitoshi.

“What about it do you want to talk about?” He inquired cautiously. Did he suddenly remember? Or was he asking Katsuki to tell him what happened?

“Well,” Hitsohi began, “I may have talked to Denki about it and-” That motherfucker, he’d kill him. “I think I heard most of what happened that night and – Katsuki, I just wanted to apologise to you.”

Oh. Oh, fuck that hurt. That hurt a lot.

“You didn’t deserve any of that. Me practically throwing myself at you, only to disappear the next day and not remember – that was really shitty of me.”

“S’fine.” Katsuki shrugged. Come on, he was the number two hero, he could take rejection and not sulk about it.

“No, it’s not.” Hitoshi implored. He raised himself to the next step so that there was only one step between them and Hitoshi was looking up at Katsuki, an unreadable look in his eyes. “I should’ve remembered, and I shouldn’t have picked you up in that club like you were just another average guy because, honestly, there is nothing average about you, Bakugou Katsuki.”

This was a very strange rejection. Then again, Katsuki had never been rejected before so maybe this was just how they go?

“Look,” Hitoshi scrubbed his face, like he was struggling to get the right words out. “The point I’m trying to make is that – I like blonds.”

…The fuck?

“Okay…?” Katsuki furrowed his brow, “Am I supposed to like, congratulate you or something?”

“Shit. No, wait – that came out wrong.” Hitoshi flushed red and shook his head. “What I’m trying to say is that – every guy I’ve ever been with – they’ve all been blonds, and buff and kind of assholes but in a good way?”

Katsuki was even more confused now.

“And,” Hitoshi stumbled on, “I’m pretty sure that the reason for that, at least subconsciously, is because of you.”

“What?” Katsuki was really beginning to question the other man’s rejection strategies.

The purple-haired hero paused for a moment, closed his eyes and just breathed. When he opened them, it looked as though he had finally found his words.

“I – I’ve come to a bit of a realisation in the past two months that I have a very specific type.” Hitoshi said, staring up intently at the blond. “And you, Katsuki, are that type. I’ve tried to get with other people since you and every time I even kissed another man it just didn’t feel…right. Not like how it felt with you. I can’t explain it but with you something just…”

He trailed off. Katsuki could barely hear him over the sound of his heart thundering in his ears.

Was this what he thought it was?

“Clicked?” He said, half terrified that he was barking up the wrong tree completely.

But then Hitoshi sighed in relief and looked up into his eyes.

“Yes.” He breathed, “I can’t stop thinking about you and I’m pretty sure I’ve never felt this way about anyone, only I’m also pretty sure that I’ve actually felt this way for a lot longer than I even realised.”

Katsuki was speechless.

They both stood there for a moment, just looking at each other. However, the longer he said nothing in reply, he could see the beginnings of doubt starting to creep into Hitoshi’s expression.

Thinking that he must have misread the blond’s intentions, Hitoshi started to draw back and when Katsuki noticed, he took action.

“It’s fucking terrifying, isn’t it?” He said, taking the last step down and moved closer to the man he was pretty sure he was in love with.

Hitoshi looked up at him, a terrible mix of hope and utter terror in his eyes.

“I’m fucking petrified.” He admitted in a whisper. “I don’t know how to do any of this. I’m not even sure if I can do this.”

“It’s okay.” Katsuki put a supportive hand around his forearm, “We don’t have to jump into anything neither of us are ready for – or even capable of right now.”

“Then, what do you suggest we do?” Hitoshi looked up at him, all hope and fear and a little mix of something else and holy fuck, Katsuki wanted to kiss him so bad.

Instead, he gave him an uncharacteristic smile and said,

“How about dinner?”

***

Hitoshi stood by what he said about there being no better way to de-stress than pancakes and jazz music after a night of fantastic sex.

The only alteration he might make is that it feels even better when it was fantastic sex with the man you are hopelessly head over heels in love with.

He had just finished cooking the last pancake and turned off the heat under the pan, when he jumped at the feeling of two arms snaking around is middle from behind.

“You gonna try attack me with the spatula again?” Even after two years of being together, the husky, just-woke-up sound of Katsuki’s voice never failed to send shivers down his spine.

“I’m sorry…” Hitoshi smirked as he shifted to look over his shoulder at the blond, “Do I know you?”

Katsuki gave an evil grin and tugged Hitoshi even closer.

“You little shit.” He growled into the back of his neck but there was no malice in his tone.

Hitoshi groaned at the sensation of a hot mouth on the side of his neck.

“How hungry are you, really?” Katsuki said against pale skin.

“Katsuki,” Hitoshi sighed, leaning his weight into the warm support behind him. “You can’t keep doing this right before I’m about to eat my breakfast.”

“You really saying you’re going to sit at that table and eat breakfast with a semi?” Katsuki teased.

“I don’t have a – oh shit, Katsuki”

“Leave the food.” He growled into Hitoshi’s ear.

“Y-yeah. Yeah, okay.”

An hour later, Hitoshi was lying in his bed, sweaty and happy, yet mourning his now cold pancakes all the same.

“Did you have to go for second time?” He panted against his lover’s chest. “Now there’s no way I can even reheat them and still have them taste good.”

Hitoshi felt the deep rumble of a laugh against his ear.

“Are you really complaining?”

Hitoshi looked up into blood red eyes, the same colour as the passion he felt for the man before him, and he was so overcome with happiness that he couldn’t stop himself from saying,

“I fucking love you.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened at the abrupt confession.

They’d said variations of the sort to each other since the very first day they got together but, for two whole years now, they’d never once actually uttered the word love.

Hitoshi looked almost worried that he had broken some kind of unspoken agreement but Katsuki simply smiled softly down at him.

“Yeah, I fucking love you too, asshole.”