Chapter Text
“Shouto!” Endeavor snapped at him. From his tone of voice, Shouto could tell it wasn’t the first time he’d said his son’s name.
Shouto flinched. He’d been thinking of the gentle press of lips on his cheek and in his hair. For the past five days, Ei had greeted him with a kiss to the cheek and a hug. He didn’t hover over Shouto or make him feel pressured. Ei would send a sunny smile his way across the classroom, and every time he did, Shouto would feel his cheeks heat up.
Now, though, he felt stupid to have been daydreaming when Endeavor was lecturing the himself, Izuku, and Bakugo on community relationships, which Shouto figured was akin to a fish being told how to swim by a bird. Even with Endeavor’s attempted redemption, he sucked at fan service. Shouto wasn’t a huge fan of it—sometimes people touched him, and he didn’t like that at all.
“Tell me about the mission I’m taking you on. I was just explaining it,” Endeavor’s blue eyes flashed with fire.
Shouto pulled himself up to his full height, which was still over a head shorter than his father and said, “I apologize. I was worried about a test we have coming up in Math.”
There wasn’t a test, but telling his father he was distracted by school was one thing. Getting distracted by a boy he liked was unacceptable. He was grateful for his friends, who played along.
“Told you I could tutor you tomorrow,” Bakugo muttered.
“Or I could help you tonight!” Izuku smile sunnily.
“Now that that’s settled,” Endeavor snapped, “perhaps we could get back to a discussion of the patrol?”
The patrol was largely quiet. Endeavor let Bakugo foil a mugging, and Izuku stopped an attempted assault. Shouto knew this area overlapped with Fat Gum’s patrol routes. He was distracted, keeping an eye out for red, spiky hair, but when he was ordered to foil a bank robbery with Bakugo and Izuku, he was able to be professional.
When he got back to the dorms, Eijirou was on the couch in the common room, icing his shoulder. Shouto sat down next to him and kissed his cheek. “What happened?”
Ei shook his head. “I didn’t go hard when I should’ve and took a few punches. I’ll be fine in the morning. I should get a new ice bag.”
“Or ask your boyfriend, who has an ice quirk, to help you.” Shouto raised an eyebrow.
Eijirou’s smile was sweet and a little shy. “Sho, will you help me ice my shoulder?”
“Of course,” Shouto said it with a smile. “and other times, I can use my warm side to be a heating pack as well.”
“Something to keep in mind.” Eijirou went to the kitchen then sat by Shouto. “Do you need me to do anything for you to do the ice thing?”
“No.”
Shouto placed a hand over Eiji’s deltoid, carefully keeping away from his chest. He didn’t want to make either of them uncomfortable, although he had dreamt of falling asleep with his head on Eijirou’s pecs. He gently massaged the sore area, feeling Eijirou hiss and tense up. Shouto would calm him with gentle touches, and a kiss or three on the cheek. After the third cycle, the muscle seemed to be less sore. After the fifth, Ei sagged and put his head on Shouto’s chest.
“You’re amazing, Sho, thank you.”
Shouto draped his other arm behind Kirishima and hugged him. Eijirou, for his part rested his head on Shouto’s shoulder, and wrapped his arms around Shouto. Shouto stiffened, but the unfamiliar sensation was welcome, and he melted slowly under the hug. So this was snuggling. The weight on Eijirou’s head on his shoulder and the warmth of his body grounded Shouto in a way he never had felt. They watched a movie like that—safe, comfortable and real in a way that Shouto’s fantasies hadn’t prepared him for.
Shouto tried to pay attention to the movie, but his eyes and mind were focused on Ei’s lips. Would he like to kiss him on the lips? It was maybe fifty/fifty, but Shouto found himself contemplating scenarios where they’d kiss. His lips were a deep rose, with a full lower lip. They were chapped, a bit, probably from his quirk. What would it feel like to feel those lips on his own?
He should ask Eijirou to be his boyfriend for real. He would. Any day now.
A week later, Shouto was surprised to see Eijirou with Amijiki and Fat Gum, and Nejire with Uraraka and Ryukyu at Endeavor’s agency. They were escorted to a conference room. There was no time to talk to his classmates as Endeavor pulled a picture up on the screen.
“This is Okada Akira. Even though he’s only twenty-seven, he has been running this yakuza group since his father retired, approximately five years ago. They’ve started blackmailing local businesses, promising protection or threatening damage. The ten of us will raid the headquarters with police support.”
Eijirou seemed excited, beaming a sharp smile at the table, and took lots of notes. Endeavor walked them through the blueprints of the house, where they expected trouble, and who the top five villains in the group were, and their quirks.
“Red Riot,” Endeavor said. Ei’s head snapped up, and his eyes darted to Shouto’s before he nodded and raised his hand at the same time. “We need you at the front of the team going after Okada. We’re splitting into four teams of two inside, and one outside. Ryukyu, we’re going to want you in dragon form.” She nodded. “Suneater, you’ll be my other person on the outside. Keep Chimera Kraken ready for any rats who escape outside. You’ll have police support, of course. We learned from the Shie Hassaikai raid that having Red Riot and Deku at the front of the team gives us the elements of surprise, and that any inconvenient walls can be dealt with. After that, Red Riot, I want you with FrostFire. Protect him and guard his back.”
“Yes, sir!” Eijirou offered him a sweet smile. “You can count on me.”
Endeavor looked irritated. “FrostFire—take the east side of the house on the first floor. Deku and Nejire-chan take the second floor. In theory it’s only a few rooms, but that includes one of the potential armories. Dynamight, the basement with me—I had Claire use Voyance and there are no secret tunnels like there were with the Shie Hassaikai. But there are panic rooms that our quirks will neutralize.” Shouto saw Katsuki smile. The one that meant pain for villains. He’d seen it a ton of times. “Uravity and Fat Gum take the west side of the first floor, including the kitchen. While they are a protection racket first and foremost, we can’t ignore that they might be trying to cook up some Trigger or other street drugs in the kitchen.”
They spent four hours making plans as a group before Shouto and Eijirou were sent to a small conference room with Deku and Nejire so each pair could discuss the potential villains and combined attacks they could use to guard each other’s backs.
“You should have your quirk active for most of the time. I don’t want to accidentally burn you,” Shouto said.
“I was thinking the same. And we can keep unbreakable in our back pocket. I don’t think we have a good match for a combo attack, though. We’ve never been paired like that in class.”
Which, now that Shouto thought about it, it was odd. Then he thought. “If I would be better off flying, I need you to toss me up. I have trouble lifting off with my fire, but once I’m in the air, I can maintain my altitude. Can we try that, make sure it works?”
The quirks gym was full of their colleagues. Eijirou engaged his quirk. They practiced him grabbing Shouto by the waist and throwing him in the air. It worked but required them to take their eyes off the villains, and gave Shouto a painful wedgie. They tried several approaches, finally landing on a method where Shoto would run at Ei, whose knee would be bent. Shouto would kick off Ei’s knee and engage his fire. It took a few hours before it felt natural and they were able to pay attention to the villains around them. But by the end of the day, they had it down.
The raid would be in two days. Eijirou and Shouto trained together during hero studies and after school. Which led to some overtired muscles. Shouto was rubbing his calf the night before the raid with his warm hand when the phone rang.
“Hi Tou-nii.”
“Hey Sho-chan—asked the Todobroki guy to be your boyfriend for real yet or are you still wimping out?”
“It wasn’t wimpy to not push on his birthday or when he met Crimson Riot.”
That was three weeks ago, something Touya immediately reminded him of. “What’s your excuse this week?”
“We’re going on a raid in two days. He’s my partner. I can’t risk personal feelings getting in the way of the mission. I’ll ask him when we’re back.” Shouto looked at his uncertain reflection in the mirror.
“Shouto—is this guy worth it?”
Shouto recoiled. “Is he worth it? Touya he’s amazing. Every time he kisses my cheek I feel butterflies. He’s so kind, and not just to me. To everyone. He’s—this is going to sound dumb—he’s like a ray of sunshine.”
“So pretend I’m the devil on your shoulder telling you not to, needling you over him if that will help.”
“What if he only wants me as a friend and this is just a huge kindness on his part?”
“And after only two months, or are you at two and a half—whatever, time is fucked up in here—I think we have finally found the real reason,” Touya’s smoke damaged vocal cords made his voice low and gravelly. But despite that, he was able to convey a softness few would every think he was capable of apart from his family (minus Endeavor) and Hawks. “Why do you think he would, Sho?”
Shouto had been asking that question of himself for far too long. “Why wouldn’t he? I’m a barely functional robot with a designer quirk—that’s what the rumors say. Incapable of emoting.” A tear splashed onto his hand. He wiped the tears away, angry that gossip could affect him so deeply. “I mean they wouldn’t say it without it being at least partially the truth.”
A harsh bark of laughter traveled down the line. “I may have left school as a middle schooler, but even then I knew some kids are just assholes and they’ll say whatever they need to to feel power over you. Would a barely functional robot be capable of making friends, especially including that angry blond? And before you say pity—,” Touya cut Shouto off before he could get the word “pity” out of his mouth. “—the blond one doesn’t seem the type to do pity. Am I wrong?”
“No.”
“Listen to your older, wiser nii-san—are you less socialized than some of your peers? Yes. But you found friends—and you’re on good terms with almost everyone in class, right? Except for the serial sexual advances guy? And the overly aggressive invisible one? Robots can’t do that, Sho. Those things are lies. And I hate that all those years you were subject to the fiery asshole make you think those things are possible. But he was abusive and he was wrong. Fuck, Sho, why are you still doing work studies at Endeavor Agency? Why continue to get abused?”
Shouto swallowed. “Because I can’t dethrone him if I don’t know his power moves and how to do them better. He doesn’t deserve to be Number One. If your boyfriend can’t dethrone him, it’s up to me, Deku, and Dynamight to do it. I’d gladly let Deku or Dynamight take Number One. As long as one of us does it.”
The line was silent for a moment. Then Touya spoke, his tone urgent. “You do not have to be Number One. You need to know that. You will be an amazing hero no matter your rank.”
“Yes, but I also really want to take it away from him. And I know that’s petty, but…”
“Shouto, if anyone is allowed to be petty, it’s you.” Touya said. “Just don’t make yourself sick because you won’t stop. And know that Hawks would give you a job any time you want one. Your quirk isn’t his usual, but he’s happy to give you the experience of learning how an agency is run. Still plan on opening The Big Three Agency with Broccoli and Blasty?”
“Yes, we are.” Shouto rolled his eyes at the nicknames.
“Keigo wouldn’t mind metaphorically flipping Enji off by stealing his masterpiece out from under him.” Shouto could hear the smirk on Touya’s face.
“I’ll take it into consideration.”
When he’d hung up, he laid back on his futon, and closed his eyes. His heart felt lighter in his chest, as if he could breathe more easily. He wouldn’t go back on his word to himself this time. After this mission, he would learn the truth one way or another—did Ei like him back for real? The last time he’d mentioned that he needed a boyfriend lesson, he’d thought he’d been wrong, but he thought he saw Eijirou wince. He’d watched Eijirou’s pupils dilate until they were rings of ruby around blown out pupils, and how they’d started taking tiny steps towards a real kiss. Last night when they got back to Shouto’s room from Coldstone Creamery Eijirou placed four kisses along his jaw, sending gooseflesh over Shouto’s body like a tidal wave. A whimper had slipped free before Shouto’d given it permission to. He’d responded to Eijirou by kissing a path down his cheek to barely not touching Ei’s lips. Ei had let out a little moan, and Shouto felt his blood singing in his veins. That was as close as he dared go, worried that he might blurt out something like I’ve been fantasizing about kissing you nearly to the point of making an idiot of myself or Please be my boyfriend? Pretty please?
In the morning he got up a little earlier than he usually did to text Eijirou to see if he was awake.
Me: Ei? If you’re up, can I come down to your room?
Ei: Yeah, I’m up. But we still need to eat.
Me: It will be fast.
Eijirou met Shouto with his hair unbrushed. There were creases in his cheek from the pillow he’d been sleeping on. “Hey Sho. Everything okay?”
“I can’t do it at the agency, so I thought maybe we could hug for good luck?”
A smile crossed his face like sunrise. “Can I push my luck and get kisses?”
Shouto pulled Eijirou into his arms and kissed along his cheek. “Be safe today.”
Ei’s breath was warm on his ear and Shouto couldn’t repress the shiver when Ei’s lips almost brushed his ear as he said, “You be safe, too.” His kisses ended a whisper away from Shouto’s lips. He felt an urge inside him scream kiss him, only to feel Eijirou pull back. Later, he promised himself. Later.
When Shouto next saw Ei, he was in his costume and eating the oatmeal Bakugo had made for them. Shouto got a serving and took a seat across from Bakugo, next to Izuku.
“You better come back in one piece or I’ll kick your ass,” Bakugo said in greeting.
“Good morning.” Shouto said in response, fairly conversant in Bakugo-speak now. Bakugo wouldn’t say that if he wasn’t worried. He took a spoon of brown sugar and sprinkled it over his oatmeal. After a bite, Shouto offered a small smile and the only acceptable reassurance. “Thank you for the oatmeal. It’s really good.”
“Tch,” The tips of Bakugo’s ears turned pink.
They ate largely in silence. Uraraka joined them, and gratefully accepted a bowl of oatmeal. When the clock turned seven, the five work-study students left for the raid.
The raid started smoothly. Deku and Red Riot broke down the door, catching the gang members off guard. When the heroes poured into the building, the yakuza either fled out the back door to be caught by Suneater and Ryukuu, down to the basement, or up the stairs. Shouto wondered if there were two armories and wished Nejire and Deku luck. He caught Red Riots eye and nodded his head East. Red Riot nodded, and they slowly made their way in that direction, disarming and cuffing gang members as they went.
They made their way through the rooms. The gang members weren’t much of an impediment given their combined quirks. They reached the final room—what seemed to be a library, but instead of books, there were boxes. One box lay open, with a misty apparition above it.
“Get behind me,” Red Riot ordered.
“I can ice it,” Shouto replied, extending his arm.
Before Shouto’s ice released, the apparition screamed and dove at him. Red Riot shoved him to the ground and took the hit, his skin hard. But not hard enough. Blood dripped from where the apparition—ghost?—had scored Red Riot’s skin.
A laugh came from behind them as a villain stepped out of the shadows with another box. Shouto moved, creating a room ringed with ice, coming between the villain and his…support items? Shouto also iced the box closed so the villain couldn’t open it.
Shouto heard a thud and glanced back. “Eijirou!” He was always able to think of his friends as their hero names when doing something like this, but he’d never run into this sort of danger or injury on the raids and missions he’d been on. Was it a ghost? How could he stop it? Red Riot—Eijirou, his Eijirou—had fallen to the ground, and his quirk had deactivated. The apparition looked up at Shouto, its mouth(?) red from feeding.
It lunged toward Shouto, who released fire, causing it to scream. The villain made a wince of pain. Shouto burned the ghost or whatever it was, and turned to the villain, who was crying—his quirk must control the ghosts, so the pain was referred back. Shouto didn’t feel remorse when he snapped quirk suppressant cuffs on the man.
Shouto melted the ice over the door, and seeing the police, called out, “I need an ambulance! My hero partner is down! And I have one villain in quirk suppressant cuffs.”
He watched in fear as Eijirou was loaded into an ambulance. He’d lost consciousness when he’d fallen.
What if he doesn’t make it and I never get to tell him?
The doctors at Musutafu general were excellent, but what if they weren’t good enough? Shouto was still standing there, frozen, watching the ambulance leave until he couldn’t see it anymore. Ryukuu, back in human form, put a hand on his shoulder. Fat Gum joined them, followed by the other heroes, absent Endeavor.
Endeavor stepped away from the police. “We’ll get a status update on Red Riot later. He was our only injury. Everyone into the cars I’ve ordered. We’ll start the paperwork back at the agency.”
Shouto swallowed. “I’m going to the hospital, Endeavor.”
His father looked briefly worried. “You seem unharmed.”
“He’s my boyfriend.” Shouto wasn’t sure where the courage to defy his father in public was coming from—almost as if the spirit of Touya inhabited his body for a moment. “And I’m going to the hospital.”
“So are we,” Bakugo grabbed Izuku’s arm and pulled him forward a step.
“I’m his mentor, I should be there, too. Paperwork can wait, Endeavor.” Fat Gum crossed his arms.
Endeavor glared at the four of them. “Fine, Dismissed.”
Shouto and Fat Gum shared a car. Fat Gum tried to console him, reassure him that Kirishima was healthy and strong. Shouto knew that already, and it wasn’t a consolation. Even someone healthy and strong could bleed out. If Eijirou hadn’t shoved him, it would be him dying of blood loss.
They reached the hospital shortly, Shouto’s heart in his throat, pounding the blood through his veins. Eijirou was still unconscious, so only two people were allowed in the room at a time. Bakugo and Shouto were the first in.
“Shitty hair, you fucking promised to be careful! Dumbass!” Bakugo clutched Eijirou’s hand. Despite the lecture he was administering, Bakugo looked scared and his eyes were wet. Shouto sat next to Bakugo, calmly waiting his turn. Eventually Bakugo seemed to remember he was there. “Anyways, now the asshole you saved has something to say to you.” Bakugo stood, and his hand fell on Shouto’s shoulder, giving him the smallest, fastest squeeze. One that could almost be dismissed as an accident, but Shouto knew it was no accident. “I’ll be with the others.”
As he sat, watching Eijirou, all the feelings Shouto dismissed away came rushing back and before he knew it, Shouto was crying.
He heard a groan and the hand beneath his twitched. Shouto gasped. “Eijirou?”
Eijirou’s eye’s flutter open. His voice comes out as a croak, and Shouto hastily poured him some water. He held it to Eijirou’s lips. After a few sips, Eijirou tries to speak again. “Shouto? Are you okay?”
“Am I okay? Eijirou, you’ve been unconscious for hours, even after they gave you a blood transfusion to replace what you lost. We’ve been—I’ve been—so worried.”
Shouto pulled Eijirou’s hand to him as he pressed kisses all over Ei’s hand. Then he stopped. “Ei, can I kiss you?”
“You know you can,” Eijirou wiped away some of Shouto’s tears.
“Really kiss you. On your lips,” Shouto said.
“A-are you sure? Not because of what happened—you don’t owe me. I don’t want you to do something you don’t—” Shouto pressed a finger to Eijirou’s lips.
“I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. Trying to get up the courage,” Shouto said.
“Then my answer is ‘yes,’ Sho,” he whispered.
Shouto leaned forward and initiated a kiss. He’d been kissed, but this was unlike any of them. He brushed his lips against Ei’s, first quietly, then more firmly. Sensations flooded his body, overloading his brain. He liked kissing Eijirou. A lot. Every part of his body except his lips were on fire, and he had to open his eyes long enough to confirm that he wasn’t literally on fire. Having confirmed it, his eyes fluttered closed. He felt the tip of Eijirou’s tongue touch his lips tentatively, and he opened his mouth. Feeling Ei’s tongue stroke his sent a soft moan into the room. Bravely, he sucked on it, causing a moan in return.
“Well, you’re awake,” A cheerful voice said from behind Shouto, causing them to pull apart, faces scarlet. The doctor continued talking. “Heart rate is a little elevated, but the cause is obvious. Let’s look you over.”
Shouto excused him and stopped in the bathroom on the way back to the waiting room. Which was good. His hair was a bit disheveled, and he smoothed it back until the red and white sides were distinct from one other before heading the waiting room. Everyone cheered at the good news. Fat Gum said he’d head home after he saw Eijirou and could update his moms.
Shouto pulled Izuku to the other side of the room. “I think I’m in love with Eijirou.”
“Shouto, that’s great!” Izuku gave him a sunny smile.
“But how do I know?”
“How does he make you feel?”
“He…” Shouto looked at Izuku, “confused, hopeful, happy, terrified?”
“Unless this is the origin of the epic throwdown by Red Riot and Frostfire, sounds like it’s either like with a capital “L” or love,” Izuku said. “I have been in love with Kacchan for years, but there was this day, second year when we all went to the beach and even though Kacchan lives for swimming, he sat with me and made a sandcastle.” Izuku chuckled. “That was it. That silly sandcastle—which I didn’t even take a picture of—and the amount of work he put in to make me happy was like a battering ram to my chest and I couldn’t not fall all the rest of the way in love with him.”
Shouto bit his lip. “I think I’ve been fighting it hard since he met Crimson Riot, but yesterday, when we just snuggled and watched the second All Might movie, he gave me this smile that just…I don’t know, it was as if he punched me while in his unbreakable form? Is that love?”
“If you got good news, who would you call first? If you needed a second opinion? If you needed to spill a secret? If you got bad news, who could console you?” Izuku asked. “Obviously some of this is hypothetical and depending on who or what the news was about or what have you, you might make other choices, but if—"
“Izuku.”
“Sorry, right so if you’re in love with him—” Izuku began.
Bakugo said from behind him “Then it’s about damn time. I swear to god if I had a yen for every time he raved about you, I’d be rich enough to buy your damn estate, Half-n-half. He’s asking for you. Deku, we’re going to go to the café and see if there’s anything I’d consider edible. Icyhot, you good?”
“Check if they have soba. If not, then whatever seems most edible.” Shouto lingered in the waiting room as he pulled together his courage once more. Momentarily he wished he was close enough to Fuyumi or Natsuo to call them to get encouragement. But telling Fuyumi would be like telling his mother, and Natsuo would tease him. Only Touya really “got” him, and Touya was unreachable.
Is this guy worth it? rang in his head. He remembered how he’d defended Eijirou’s honor, and all the compliments he’d offered in his defense. Shouto swallowed and walked back down the hall. Eijirou would be kept overnight. Aizawa had sent the same text to Shouto, Izuku, and Bakugo that he’d pick them up at midnight. Shouto glanced at the clock and saw he had less than an hour. Resolute, he went back to Eijirou’s room.
“Sho,” Eijirou offered him a smile that grew a little devilish when Shouto closed the curtains.
Shouto sat down and took Eijirou’s hands in his. “Ei—I can’t do this anymore.”
Ei’s expression did a one-eighty, smile falling away. He bit his lip. “Can’t—”
“I’m saying it wrong. As fucking usual,” Shouto said. “I don’t want to be your pretend boyfriend anymore. No more work-study. No more lessons.”
Now Ei looked pale. He looked down at their joined hands “But you— Earlier, we—”
“Exactly. I can’t play pretend anymore. Not when I’ve fallen in love with you.” Shouto blinked away tears.
Eijirou’s eyes widened in shock. “Sho? You love me?”
Shouto gave a small nod.
Eijirou gave him a sunrise of a smile from the barest hint of light to a blazing sun. “Shouto. I have actually liked you for a while. I think you’re super manly. And I fell for you the first time you kissed my cheek.”
Shouto wasn’t sure who leaned in first, but the kiss they shared was sweet and yet passionate enough that he was breathing a little heavily when they parted.
“Will you be my one hundred percent real boyfriend?” Eijirou panted.
Shouto offered him a quick kiss on the nose. He rested his forehead against Eijirou’s. “That was my line. But yes, I will. Will you?”
“Yes.”
Their lips met and they whispered “I love you’s” in between the kisses until Shouto had to run to be on time for Aizawa’s pick up.