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right next to me (is where you belong)

Summary:

Bakugou had somehow made his way over to Shouto's futon and was currently draped over him, with his arm around Shouto's torso and his head resting on his shoulder. A slight shift of his leg and the resulting tightening around it told Shouto that his leg had been captured by Bakugou too.

 

The very same Bakugou who had thrown a fit when Shouto "invaded his damn space!" because he had entered a 5-foot radius around him for a team exercise that had required him to.
 

or, it's the five times shouto had to convince katsuki to sleep next to him and the one time he didn't (because katsuki slept next to him unprompted)

Notes:

ok sorry this is literally just me brainrotting. i just saw that tweet from @crowtdbkroll on twt and i Could not stop myself i literally got possessed i think

it was only meant to be like 5k words or less but idk what happened tbh

basically tdrk sleeps next to bkg once (1), gets cuddled and decides to forever sleep next to him on every field trip ever and that "yeah I'm the only one allowed to do this now"

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

1. 

The first time Shouto decided to sleep next to Bakugou was on a 2 day, 1 night field trip to Kyoto sometime in the winter. The boys had been dumped in one large room, and the girls in another. Shouto, for his part, was one of the last to enter and set up his futon, having gotten lost on his way back from the communal showers. 

He sighed forlornly. He'd even assured and reassured Midoriya and Iida to go first since he wouldn't get lost, and he somehow still did. 

He scanned the room for Midoriya and Iida and began to walk towards them as soon as he had found them. Midoriya had already set up his futon to the right of Iida and the spot to the left of Iida was being taken up by Aoyama, which unfortunately meant that Shouto would have to sleep next to Midoriya. 

Obviously, Shouto didn't have anything against Midoriya. In fact, he even considered him to be one of his closest friends. The problem lay in the fact that Midoriya… was Midoriya, and that meant that Shouto would have to wear ear plugs to block out the sound of his incessant sleep-rambles. 

As Shouto walked towards his friends, he dug through his bag for his ear plugs before he came to a sudden halt. He became more frantic in his rummaging when he realised he couldn't find them. 

Had he forgotten to pack them? That had to be the worst possible outcome. Without them, Shouto wasn't sure if he would even be able to sleep next to Midoriya at all, let alone have a good sleep. 

Normally, he might have asked Iida to swap with him so that he wouldn't have to sleep next to Midoriya, but he was talking with Aoyama about something so enthusiastically that Shouto would feel bad separating them. Not to mention, but Aoyama was sleeping in the corner next to the wall so Shouto couldn't sleep there.

His eyes darted around the room for anywhere else he could sleep. There was Sato, Tokoyami, and Shoji, but Shouto wasn't that close with them as of yet, and it might have made it an incredibly awkward experience. There was Mineta too, but Shouto feared the topic of his ramblings more than he did Midoriya's incoherent but still slightly disturbing ones. 

Kirishima's group was a maybe, but Shouto could have sworn he had heard them talking about how they were going to stay up all night while they were on the way here. 

Was that it? Shouto despaired, did that mean he would have to lay next to Midoriya and suffer a sleepless night–?

That pessimistic train of thought was quickly broken when Shouto noticed Bakugou in the corner on his own. He was loud, yes, but Shouto thought that they had become good friends over the course of their remedial classes, though he was certain Bakugou did not see it similarly. 

And, he had a strict sleeping schedule. Shouto didn't find it likely that Bakugou would ruin that just to spite Shouto. 

With his heart free of burden and his sleep secured, Shouto walked over to Bakugou and rolled his futon out next to his without a word. Bakugou halted setting up his own futon to turn ever so slowly and glare at Shouto. 

"Oi." Bakugou growled. Shouto idly wondered if he used gravel as mouthwash. "What the fuck are you doing."

"I'm setting up my futon." Shouto answered. "Do you want to help–?"

Bakugou's eyes twitched minutely. "I can fucking see that. Why the fuck are you sleeping here and not with your gang of dumbass nerds?!" He snarled. "You blind or something? I came here to sleep alone."

Shouto privately thought that he was being unfairly accused. "I can't sleep next to Iida." He began, and was immediately cut off by Bakugou. 

"The fuck does that have to do with sleeping here?!"

"I didn't bring my ear plugs." Shouto ignored him and continued his tragic tale. "I don't think it's possible for anyone to sleep next to Midoriya unless you have a pair of them."

Bakugou barked out a startled laugh that was more like a snort than anything else, and Shouto blinked at him slowly. "Did you–?" Shouto tried. Just laugh, Shouto wanted to finish.

"Shut up. Fuck off. Just die already." Bakugou snapped in response, though he turned to continue setting up his futon. "Keep talking and I'll fucking throw you and your futon back to that shit nerd."

Shouto thought it a little funny – despite all of his crude words and insults, he hadn't exactly said no. Had even given his acceptance in his own roundabout way. 

Shouto brightened, asking just to clarify. "So I can sleep here?"

Bakugou gave him a dirty look, as if Shouto was less than an insect. "Shut up already, you half-and-half dumbass."

Shouto continued setting up his futon and though his expression remained unchanged, the aura surrounding him had changed drastically. The satisfaction that he was feeling in that moment was nearly suffocating. 

So he does, albeit somewhat reluctantly, see me as a friend. Shouto thought, inanely pleased. I don't know whether I should be happy or not. 

Soon after Shouto had finished setting up and settling into his futon, Aizawa had walked in and grouchily announced that it was curfew. Within just 2 minutes, everyone else had quickly settled into their futons after Aizawa gave them a glare. Shouto always privately thought that the way he commanded attention and respect was rather impressive. 

At least, in comparison to his own father's attempts… 

Shouto shifted in his futon, trying to get comfortable. He tossed and turned for a few minutes, before settling on his side and facing Bakugou. "...Bakugou." He whispered. "I can't sleep. Let's talk for a while. That's what people do at sleepovers, right–?"

Bakugou's response was incredibly blunt. He very decisively flipped onto his side from where he was just sprawled out on his back and faced the wall. Shouto sighed sadly, flipping onto his back. 

He clasped his hands together and rested them on his torso as he stared up at the ceiling. Shouto tried "counting sheep" as Iida had advised once, but he couldn't understand how counting would make anyone sleepy. Instead, he decided to run through all the things he'd have to do tomorrow in his mind – exercising once he woke up, preparing himself breakfast, practicing his use of his quirks (unfortunately, his fire quirk happened to be included), going through another unknown evaluation…


Shouto groaned softly when he awoke. His throat felt immensely parched and he instinctively reached out to grasp the water bottle he'd left beside his futon blindly. 

Very quickly, he blinked rapidly to get his eyes adjusted to the darkness when he felt a strange… heftiness. Although, normally, it wasn't uncommon for him to feel heavy when waking up, especially after a rough training, the strange pressure and external warmth that wasn't coming from him that was only against his left arms, torso, and left leg weren't. 

As soon as he was decently adjusted to the dark, he squinted down at that weight and nearly had a heart attack. 

… Bakugou? Shouto thought blearily, blinking a few more times for good measure, just in case he was seeing things. He wondered if he was still asleep and this was all a dream, but the roughness of his throat and the numbness of his arm and leg felt too realistic. 

Bakugou had somehow made his way over to Shouto's futon and was currently draped over him, with his arm around Shouto's torso and his head resting on his shoulder. A slight shift of his leg and the resulting tightening around it told Shouto that his leg had been captured by Bakugou too. 

The very same Bakugou who had thrown a fit when Shouto "invaded his damn space!" because he had entered a 5-foot radius around him for a team exercise that had required him to.

Shouto felt a little disconcerted by it. Should I wake Bakugou up? He wondered. But if I did, wouldn't I get yelled at by him even though I didn't do anything?

He sighed quietly to himself. It's definite anger if I work him up. He had a sudden stroke of genius. … If he woke up on his own, then he couldn't blame me for anything, right?

He didn't even realise that his own hand was creeping up to lightly brush some of Bakugou's hair out of his face. The first thing he learnt was that Bakugou's hair was much softer than it looked. Don't judge a book by its cover, or however that saying went, Shouto supposed. 

The second was that the Bakugou now was a stark contrast to daytime Bakugou. That grouchy expression that was synonymous to 'Bakugou Katsuki' was nowhere to be seen, leaving only a strangely calm and serene expression. 

He's really pretty, Shouto realised suddenly, noticing how long Bakugou's eyelashes were when he was this close, when he's neither angry nor in a pissy mood. 

Bakugou shifted, a soft "Mn" escaping his lips before settling against Shouto even more snugly. The endeared smile tugging at his lips was something he couldn't stop even if he tried. He brushed his hand over Bakugou's cheek and was severely tempted to just fall asleep like that. 

Unfortunately, Shouto knew that he would have been yelled at to hell and back if he did once Bakugou woke up. So, very reluctantly, he let his hand drop back down onto his torso and closed his eyes. Perhaps he could still go back to sleep after this and feign ignorance… 

He does manage to do so, as evidenced by the empty space where Bakugou had been and presumably untangled himself from Shouto. Shouto, strangely enough, found that he was incredibly displeased to see that Bakugou had slipped away without a word. 

Throughout the day, he expected some sort of acknowledgement about what Bakugou had done last night, but nothing came. He'd even acted as if nothing had happened at all, treating Shouto exactly the same as he had before they slept together. 

Though he did seem to have had a good night's rest, which Shouto was rather pleased with that discovery. He did not, unfortunately, have any time to dwell on why exactly he did, considering that the training seemed twice as brutal, but that feeling was certainly present throughout the day whenever he looked at Bakugou. 

 

2. 

"–Maybe it would have been better if we managed to–" Izuku muttered to himself and Shouto. He nodded emphatically, carefully jotting down notes in his mind on what he could have done better for this exercise. 

As soon as they walked into the room where they were going to sleep, however, Shouto found his eyes wandering over to Bakugou's futon, easily recognizable by its army green colour. Once again, his futon was in the corner, though this time, there was a futon with a lightning bolt patterned blanket right on top of it. Kaminari's, Shouto guessed. 

For some reason, the idea of Bakugou clinging onto Kaminari, or perhaps just someone else, while he was sleeping made his stomach churn unpleasantly. His lips turned downward at the corner subconsciously as he stared straight at Kaminari's futon.

If I stared hard enough at it, Shouto pondered to himself, would my quirk be able to set his futon on fire? That would have been useful in that exercise–

"Um… You okay, Shouto?" Izuku asked him, waving his hand in front of his face. 

Shouto blinked in surprise. "Sorry, Izuku. I wasn't listening." He said bluntly. 

"I can tell…" Izuku laughed nervously.  "Anything on your mind? You can tell me if you'd like… Or not… If you don't want to…"

Izuku was a good friend, Shouto decided. Even if he had very blatantly not been listening to whatever Izuku was talking about, he was still willing to listen to Shouto's troubles. Sometime, Shouto ought to ask how he could be a better friend. 

This time, however, Shouto hummed thoughtfully instead. "What would you do if you didn't want something to happen?" He asked. "As in, someone was going to do something that you wouldn't want to happen."

"Er… You could try talking it out with them?" Izuku offered uncertainly. It sounded like sound advice, but they were talking about Bakugou here (though Izuku was unaware of that), and he definitely wouldn't listen. In fact, he might even do it just to spite Shouto. 

"It wouldn't work." Shouto said. Izuku frowned at the floor thoughtfully. "Is it… A bad thing? That thing that you don't want someone to do."

Shouto thought about it earnestly. Bakugou, sleeping and cuddling up to someone else… His gaze unconsciously hardened. "Definitely." He said flatly. "It might be the worst thing they could do."

"Then maybe you could try taking it into your own hands and stopping them before they could do it?" Izuku said with a helpless shrug. "Like they say, "It's always better to ask for forgiveness than permission." or something like that, y'know? Sorry, I'm not good with these things, maybe it'd be better to ask Tsuyu or Iida instead–"

Shouto blinked, cutting him off before he could dissolve into an unstoppable ramble. "Yes. That would work. Thank you, Izuku." He nodded, both to himself and to Izuku. 

"Ah, you're welcome?!" Izuku responded, his voice pitching up at the end. "Um… Good luck?" He offered. 

"Thank you." Shouto said, pushing himself off of his futon where he was sitting and walking towards Bakugou's futon. "Shouto?! What are you doing?!" Izuku squawked. 

"Don't worry about it." Shouto reassured Izuku. Ignoring his dumbfounded expression, he carefully pulled Bakugou's futon away from Kaminari before dragging it over to his. 

Shouto gently smoothed out the covers to the futon and fluffed Bakugou's pillow to destroy any evidence of him tampering with it. There, Shouto thought, satisfied with his work, that should be fine, right?

When Bakugou and his friends walked in a few minutes later, he paused and frowned at the empty space where his futon had been. His eye twitched minutely and he looked like he was about 10 seconds away from blowing up, so Shouto quickly intervened. 

"Bakugou." Shouto called out, trying and failing horrifically at keeping a bland tone. "I'm not sure how, but your futon's over here now. I think it's a sign from God. Perhaps, he intended for you to sleep here."

Bakugou's eye twitched once again as he stormed straight over to Shouto. 

"You think I'm stupid, Icy Hot?! You calling yourself "God", hah?! Don't just fucking pull my shit around however you please!" He sneered, grabbing the end of his futon to pull it back to where it originally was. 

Instinctively, Shouto grabbed the futon too, to stop Bakugou from moving away. "Bakugou." Shouto pleaded, heartbroken. "I didn't do anything–" He cut himself off when he saw the murderous look on Bakugou's face. 

"... Wrong. I didn't do anything wrong." He finished, gripping the futon fighter. 

"Just let go of my fucking futon, you damn annoying Icy Hot dumbass–"

Bakugou was cut off by the sound of the door sliding open. "Lights out." Aizawa-sensei drawled. "Everyone in their futons. If I catch any one of you still awake–" He paused to give Kaminari, Sero and Kirishima a blank stare. "I'm making you write a 10,000 word essay."

Shouto let go of the futon miserably, cursing Aizawa in his head. If he had only a few more minutes, he might have been able to convince Bakugou to sleep there. He sighed despairingly. Bakugou grinned at him victoriously. 

"Bakugou, I said it's lights out. Curfew. Get in your futon." Aizawa said tiredly. 

"Let me move my futon first–"

Aizawa raised a single, unimpressed eyebrow. "And what's wrong with sleeping there?"

"I'm not sleeping next to Icy Hot." He said, looking affronted and spitting Shouto's nickname out like an insult. Shouto stared at him, crestfallen. Was what they had not special? Shouto thought, a little depressed. 

"I don't care." Aizawa said slowly. "Either get in and go to sleep or write the essay." 

Bakugou opened his mouth, presumably to argue against that, but Aizawa beat him to it. "The more you talk, the more it sounds like you really want to write that essay." He said flatly. 

Bakugou grumbled, but he did as he was told. Shouto stared at Aizawa with a newfound appreciation. I've severely misjudged you, Aizawa-sensei. That was my mistake. Shouto apologized internally, even going so far as to nod at him in place of an apologetic bow. 

Aizawa gave him an odd look before it quickly smoothed out into a reluctant understanding. "Don't do anything." He warned with a vague grimace. "I'm placing my trust in you."

Shouto wanted to ask why he was looking straight at him or what he had done but Aizawa had already turned to leave. Instead he turned around to look at Bakugou, but before he could even have the chance to speak, he was beaten to it. 

"Wipe that disgusting fucking look off your face and do me a favour, don't even look at me ever again." Bakugou sneered, turning his back to Shouto and facing the wall.  

Shouto turned back to Izuku, feeling remarkably like he had his own nonexistent dog be kicked. "...Carry on with your story…"

"It's curfew, so I'd better not…" Izuku laughed nervously when the lights turned off and he settled into his futon comfortably, or rather uncomfortably depending on how one saw it. "Good night, Shouto…"

"I'm not going to have a good night…" Shouto muttered under his breath before flopping into his futon and turning to face Bakugou. He didn't know how long he spent staring at Bakugou before he finally flopped over and clung onto Shouto like an octopus.  

"You're so mean. I thought you weren't going to cling onto me today." Shouto quietly admonished, pinching his cheeks softly. Unfortunately, that definitely woke him up, though he didn't seem to be fully awake seeing as he only made vague sounds of annoyance. Shouto wondered if he should just let him go back to sleep. 

"Bakugou," Shouto whispered instead, running a hand through his soft hair. Bakugou gave a sleepy hum in acknowledgement and pressed even closer against Shouto's side. Shouto thought that he looked incredibly adorable like this. "Can I call you Katsuki?"

He had recently been given express permission to call his friends by their given names and not their family names, and he and Bakugou seemed close enough to do so now. Especially if Bakugou kept clinging onto him like that. 

"... Do wha'ever the fuck you wan'..." Baku – No, Shouto had just been given the privilege of calling him by his given name – Katsuki slurred out. "Jus' shu' the fuck up and lemme sleep…"

He brushed some hair out of Katsuki's face, his heart clenching when he pressed into the touch, as if asking for more. Like a cat, Shouto thought to himself. He's really cute. 

"Okay," Shouto agreed fondly. Shouto was certain that if Katsuki had asked him to kill someone in that sleepy and mildly annoyed murmur, he wasn't sure he could confidently say no. Without thinking too much about it, he kissed Katsuki's forehead gently, the way his sister used to do when he was younger. 

Katsuki gave another sleepy hum, this one more reminiscent of a cat, and fell asleep, softly snoring. Shouto smiled at the sight gently, closing his eyes and letting himself drift off into sleep. 


"Shouto!" Somebody hissed, shaking him awake. Shouto blinked up at the figure– Izuku. "You'll be late if you don't get up soon." 

Shouto startled awake, stumbling off towards the bathroom after he thanked Izuku. Sleeping with Katsuki is no good for my sleep schedule. Shouto thought to himself. Despite that being true, he couldn't bring himself to regret it, though. 

Speak of the devil. 

Katsuki had stormed towards him, and for a brief moment Shouto thought that he'd done something wrong. However, he only shoved a bento into Shouto's hands before instantly turning to walk away. Shouto blinked, and opened the box curiously. 

It was a simple meal, consisting of some rice balls, rolled omelettes and even some pickled vegetables and seaweed to wrap his rice balls in on the side, but it was obviously well thought out to ensure that it was both quick to eat and nutritious.  

Katsuki is a really good friend. Shouto thought. 

"Thank you for making this for me, Katsuki." Shouto said, bowing gratefully. "I'm glad you're acknowledging us as friends now." Katsuki stopped in his tracks and spun around to face Shouto. 

"Shut up! I didn't make it for you, okay?!" Katsuki yelled. "I just accidentally made too much and I don't fucking waste food! We're not friends, okay?! Don't be a moron! Just drop dead already!"

With that, he stomped back outside grumpily without another glance behind, slouching very delinquent-like. Shouto smiled down at the bento gently and covered it back up to continue getting ready for training. 

As he did, he idly wondered what had changed in their relationship, to make them close enough to give bentos to each other. Tenya and Izuku had never given him a bento, although they were arguably closer to Shouto than Katsuki was. Was it the fact that they had slept together? That was probably it, seeing as he had never slept with either of them before. 

And then he thought about it some more, and realised he couldn't even imagine sleeping with Izuku, even though he was one of Shouto's best friends. He mumbled too much for that. Nor could he imagine sleeping with Tenya, who was also one of Shouto's best friends and very blessedly did not mumble. 

In the end, he decided to just leave it as "Katsuki is a very, very good friend" and not dwell on it anymore, because if he did, he would have been late. Shouto hurried out of the bathroom before that could happen. 

Later, during lunch, he pulled out his bento while his friends went to buy food at the canteen. When they came back, he opened it and gave a quick thanks. 

"Shouto, I didn't know you could cook, kero." Tsuyu piped up, peering over at his bento curiously. Tenya nodded in agreement, chopping the air robotically "It's very impressive to be able to make such a nutritious meal at our age!"

Shouto, at that moment, was more interested in finding out if it tasted as good as it looked. He picked up a rice ball and wrapped it in seaweed before taking a bite. Pickled plum,  he noted. He's really good at cooking. 

"I didn't make it." He said leisurely after he had finished his rice ball. 

"Oh? Then who did? A secret admirer?" Ochako asked, wiggling her eyebrows. Shouto reached for another and took a bite. Tuna mayo, he thought. I wonder what filling is Katsuki's favourite. 

"A friend made it for me." He answered. He was certain that if Katsuki had heard that, Shouto would have been blown up on the spot. Shouto peeked over towards Bakugou and his friends. He was eating his own rice balls while watching his friends' shenanigans distastefully. 

"You have a good friend." Momo remarked. Shouto let a small smile grace his face before he turned back to his bento. He was doing a lot more smiling today than he'd done in the past 6 months, he thought. "Yes, I think so too."

 

3. 

From that point on, it became customary for Shouto to sleep beside Katsuki during camps. It was their thing. It was proof of their good friendship. It was– it was tradition. One that Shouto considered to be very sacred and should not be disturbed at all costs. 

Or, it should have been solely their thing, but Kaminari and Kirishima didn't seem to get the message. Kirishima, Shouto could have forgiven. It was his first time committing such an atrocity, and Shouto did know how to be understanding. 

But Kaminari? He should have already known that Shouto always slept next to Katsuki on school trips. Shouto had already dragged his futon away from Kaminari's once!

It was absolutely unforgivable, and the height of any transgression he could have ever done, in Shouto's humble and correct opinion. 

Today, Katsuki's group had unfortunately gotten Midnight as their "villain", resulting in them having fallen asleep. Katsuki was certainly impressive though, managing to take Midnight down before he succumbed to her quirk. Still, he and the rest of his team, were currently passed out on their respective futon, after having been brought in by Shouji and a cheerful Kirishima.  

To his left was Kirishima's futon, and to his right was Kaminari's. Shouto racked his brain to figure out a plan to sleep next to Katsuki. Moving Kirishima's futon was out, because that was just rude, and he couldn't ask him either, since he was outside. Instead, Shouto walked calmly over to his target – Kaminari. 

Shouto was certain he could probably take back that sacred spot that Kaminari had so rudely stolen from him. 

"Kaminari," Shouto greeted as warmly as he was capable. "How are you?"

After all, one always needed to know the enemy to prepare a viable strategy. Some, Shouto included, might even say that this was a life or death scenario. This was no different to facing off against a villain.

Kaminari blinked, looking a little lost for a moment. Which, Shouto supposed was fair seeing as while they weren't not friends per say, they didn't exactly chat much unless their friend groups were hanging out together. 

Thankfully, Kaminari was… not the brightest, and did not find it all that suspicious. "Yo! Todoroki. What's up?" He grinned cheerfully. "Need something?"

Oh. Maybe he was smarter than Shouto was giving him credit for. 

Shouto decided to drop all pretenses. "I'll sleep next to Ka– Bakugou." He said. Then, an afterthought, since it was always good to be polite. "Please."

"Aww, c'mon, bro!" Kaminari jeered playfully. "You've been hogging the spot next to Bakugou for so long already! Let the rest of us have a chance–"

"Kaminari." Shouto cut him off, his tone as polite as it was when he was speaking with his father. "I said I was going to sleep next to Bakugou."

"Kami–" Sero called out, before he cut himself off with a nervous whistle. "Oh, damn. What did you do to Todoroki, Kaminari?! He looks like he's about to set you on fire!"

Shouto blinked. He hadn't even realised he was doing that. He patted his left shoulder unconsciously in case he was actually setting fire to something. Perhaps it was a subconscious defense mechanism to ensure that he always got to have the spot next to Katsuki?

Instincts were scary, Shouto concluded. 

"Sorry, Kaminari, Sero." Shouto apologized sincerely. "I didn't mean to do that."

He looked down at Kaminari's futon and then back at him, hoping that he would take the hint and just move so that Shouto could occupy his spot. It was either that or Shouto would somehow accidentally find himself setting Kaminari's futon on fire. 

He wasn't sure where exactly these sudden pyromaniac-esque tendencies were coming from when he wasn't even a fan of using his fire quirk during sparring sessions, but he simply chalked it up to instincts once again. 

Thankfully, Kaminari did indeed pick up his futon, messily hefting it up into his arms. He turned his nose up flippantly, sniffing in faux superiority. 

"You win this time, Todoroki…" Kaminari said ominously, in the impression of a villainous voice, though the effect was certainly ruined by the futon still in his arms and his pikachu-patterned pyjamas. "Don't be mistaken though, victory will not come to you so easily next time…"

Next time? That wasn't right either, Shouto had to put a stop to it before Kaminari could even think about it. He stepped closer, and clasped his hand over Kaminari's shoulder. "Thank you, Kaminari." He said sincerely. 

Kaminari laughed and waved it off with an easy smile. "It's cool, bro–"

Shouto cut him off after a furtive glance at a bewildered Sero. "Unfortunately, there will be no next time." He said quietly, tightening his hold on Kaminari's shoulder. He hoped that his steadily heating up hand would serve as a gentle reminder to Kaminari. 

"Oh. Y– Yeah, I got it…" Kaminari squeaked. Shouto smiled and nodded at him once, squeezing his shoulder one last time as a display of camaraderie. "I'm glad we got that settled." Shouto said, letting go and taking a step back. 

Without another word, Shouto rolled his futon out next to Katsuki's. Quietly, he climbed in and looked over at Katsuki, who was sleeping soundly. 

Ah, Shouto thought, as he carefully adjusted Katsuki's blanket to cover him again, Midnight's sleeping gas was more effective than he had thought.  

Shouto yawned and closed his eyes. The exercise today had worn him out, and tomorrow would be just as harsh, so he couldn't afford to wait up all night staring at Katsuki until he clung onto him. 


That was a lie. Shouto hadn't been able to sleep at all, knowing that Katsuki hadn't curled up with him yet. It was as if his body wouldn't let him go to sleep when Katsuki was right next to him but not clinging onto him like always. 

Shouto peered over at him. Katsuki was unconsciously inching closer to Kirishima and Shouto thought that was absolutely unacceptable, because what was the point of going through all that effort just to find out that Katsuki had still cuddled up to someone else?

He cautiously wrapped his hand around Katsuki's bicep and pulled him closer, staring intently at him with every tug to ensure he was still asleep. When he was a decent distance away from Katsuki, he let go and activated his left side just a bit so that it would be warmer. 

Just as Shouto had planned, Katsuki had already wrapped himself around him within 10 minutes. Shouto stifled a laugh. He really seeks out warmth with the determination of a cat. Shouto thought, amused. 

He caught sight of Kaminari sleeping peacefully, and he wondered if it would be childish to stick his tongue out at him. It's fine, Shouto dismissed the thought, closing his eyes with a yawn, it's enough for me to know I've won. I shouldn't brag about it to my opponent.

Shouto dropped his head down and kissed the tip of Katsuki's head sleepily, because that was probably routine now and Shouto had never broken his routines. Unless they were routines forced upon him by his father, in which case Shouto was very pleased to break them.


Shouto was awoken by Katsuki slipping out of his futon and he turned to look at him with tired, half lidded eyes. He was quietly shoving his things into a bag. 

"Where are you going?" Shouto asked, yawning tiredly and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Katsuki looked startled, as if he hadn't known that Shouto had woken up too before he gave him a dirty look. 

"Running. 'Cause I'm not a lazy fuck like the rest of you nerds." Katsuki sneered, slinging his bag over his shoulder and readying himself to wash up. 

"I'll go with you." Shouto murmured, nonplussed, pushing himself up. Katsuki was yelling at him as he did, but Shouto was too tired to listen, and eventually Katsuki settled on glowering at Shouto like he'd killed his family as they washed up. 

They sat down side by side on the steps as they pulled their running shoes on, with the only notable thing being Katsuki tying his shoelaces quickly and efficiently. Shouto took note of that; perhaps he could ask Katsuki how he did so later. He'd always had to use the "bunny ears" method. 

"Keep up with me." Katsuki grumbled, and began running. 

Running with Katsuki was pleasant. He didn't go at an overly fast pace like Tenya, nor did he go at a strangely inconsistent pace like Izuku did. Shouto didn't even need to bring in running with his father. 

Except, the problem was with his hair, that kept falling into his eyes and obscuring his vision. He kept blowing it out of his face, but every few minutes it would fall back down. Finally, after one too many puffs of air from Shouto, Katsuki snapped, rounding on Shouto viciously. 

"Am I running too fucking fast for you or what? Aren't you supposed to be the second best–"

"I'm not tired. My hair keeps falling into my face." Shouto defended himself. Katsuki gave him a look, as if he thought he was stupid. 

"Tie your fucking hair up, then." 

"I don't have a hair tie–" He started, before nearly getting shot in the face by something Katsuki had launched at him, only managing to catch it with his trained reflexes. A hair tie. That was new, Shouto didn't know Katsuki carried hair ties around when he ran. 

"Oh, thank you." He stretched the band out, preparing to tie his hair up – then realised that he didn't know how to tie hair at all.

"I don't know how to tie hair." Shouto said sadly, holding the hair tie uselessly. 

"You don't know how to do anything." Katsuki scoffed, but snatched the hair tie from his hands anyway. He tiptoed, and Shouto got the feeling that he probably should have bent down, but he was far too distracted by the sight of Katsuki looking at him, utterly engrossed in his task of tying Shouto's hair. 

He'd seen Katsuki's face up close so many times, but he'd never seen his eyes this close. They were far prettier than Shouto thought. Shouto had always thought them to be a bloody red that matched his bloodthirsty personality, but up close they resembled more like rubies. 

Shouto swallowed nervously, feeling the full weight of Katsuki's intense carmine eyes on him alone. They had that effect of making one doubt themselves to the moon and back. Katsuki fiddled with his hair one last time before taking a step back. 

He took a good look at Shouto and laughed, bright and cheerful and with absolutely no malicious intent, but Shouto was already spiraling into a pit of self consciousness. Oh, Shouto thought dazedly. My scar. 

There wasn't anything that was covering it now, leaving it completely exposed and on display. It felt like– it felt like baring his soul to Katsuki. Like letting Katsuki observe and examine every crack and blemish on Shouto at his own leisure. 

Katsuki was looking at him tentatively now. "I was laughing 'cause your hair looks like a palm tree." Katsuki said carefully – an explanation , Shouto distantly realised. "Looks stupid."

"Not my–" Shouto's throat closed on him. Not my scar? He wanted to ask. Katsuki shook his head gently.

Katsuki took a step closer once more and traced the edges of his scar with the rough pads of his fingers gently, peering into his eyes like he was asking for permission. Shouto hoped that whatever he found there wouldn't make him stop. 

"I think," Katsuki said quietly, as if the words were for Katsuki himself and no one else. "You look fine like this."

Shouto leaned in a bit closer – he was close enough now that he could count each one of Katsuki's thick eyelashes easily without having to squint. "Really?" He whispered. 

"Do I look like someone who'd fucking lie?"

"I think you're pretty too." Shouto said earnestly. Just like that, Shouto had ruined the moment. Katsuki snatched his hand back swiftly, as if he had been burned, and glared at him indignantly. 

"Fuck off! Stop making up random bullshit! I never said that! Just shut up already." Katsuki snapped, stomping off before he continued his run. "Stupid useless asshole ruining my fucking morning run…" 

The tips of Katsuki's ears burned pink and Shouto smiled fondly, running after him. His smile got a little wider when he didn't feel his hair brushing against his eyes and obscuring his vision. Katsuki was a very good friend. 

Although, it seemed that Shouto was still lacking in his own social abilities, especially "reading the room". Perhaps he could buy them matching hair clips to keep their hair out of their faces the next time they ran together as an apology. 

Oh, there were those cat hair clips that Shouto had wanted. That would be a good start. 

 

4. 

Shouto hurried into the designated sleeping quarters. Already, most of the boys had already set up their futons, barring Shouto's group. They'd been unlucky enough to draw the short end of the stick, resulting in them having to stay back and clean up. 

He scanned the room quickly for Katsuki's futon and sighed unconsciously at the sight of Kaminari once again taking up that prized position next to Katsuki. He looked down at him impassively. 

"Don't sigh at me like I'm less than a worm to you!" Kaminari weeped. "I'm not sleeping here out of my own free will… I know better now…"

Shouto felt a little bad at that, so he turned to Katsuki. Let's not antagonize him anymore, Shouto thought to himself, at least he's learnt his lesson. 

"Katsuki–"

"No." Katsuki sneered at him. Shouto frowned – he hadn't even gotten the chance to ask him yet. 

"Why not?"

"What, do I have to sleep next to you every time we go on a field trip?" Katsuki sniffed haughtily. 

Shouto cocked his head to the side. "Yes? I thought it was tradition at this point…"

"Well it's not!" Katsuki hissed, hackles raising. "I'm not gonna fucking move, so go back already, Half-and-half moron!"

If Katsuki wouldn't move, then that was fine, because Shouto could move. He turned to look at Kaminari, having already forgotten his own promise to himself to not antagonize him today. "Kaminari–"

"I'm going!" He squeaked, hastening to get out of his futon. Shouto's heart warmed as he watched him. So he did take my advice to heart. 

Katsuki, however, did not share his sentiments. "Why the fuck should he have to move for you?" Katsuki sneered haughtily. "Your Royal Highness demands it so the world should bend over backwards for it, is that so?"

"Is this how I die…? Getting caught between two overpowered heroes in training's love spat…?" Kaminari sobbed to himself, though neither of them were paying him any attention. 

Shouto frowned at him. "Why won't you sleep next to me?" He asked persistently. 

"Because I don't fucking want to?" Katsuki hissed defensively in response. "What other fucking reason do I need?"

"I thought you said it was because you didn't want to move–"

"Don't just make up things I never said! I just said that I wasn't gonna move!" Katsuki hollered. The onslaught of insulting words towards Shouto hadn't stopped, but Shouto quickly stopped paying attention after his second sentence. If Katsuki wouldn't move on his own, then Shouto would just have to do it for him. 

He leans down with a sigh and begins the irritating task of dragging Katsuki and his futon over to his. Katsuki goes quiet for one blissful second, his mouth dropping in his shock at Shouto's sheer audacity before he begins screeching. 

"What the fuck are you doing?!"

"I'm dragging you and your futon so we can sleep next to each other." Shouto answered honestly. Katsuki didn't seem to be a fan of that, seeing as he started yelling again. "Let go, asshole! Why the hell did you decide this was the next best option?!"

"You said you didn't want to move." He answered, feeling wrongfully accused. "So I'm moving you. You're not moving at all, right?"

"Is there something wrong with your fucking head?! What's with that stupid thought process?!" Katsuki snarled, grappling with Shouto's hands in an attempt to get him to let go. 

"You're being rude." Shouto responded, matter-of-factly. 

"Get your fucking hands off my damn futon, you half-and-half, dumbass, moron!" He hissed, still trying to pull Shouto's hands off. Unfortunately for him, Shouto was not any physically weaker than Katsuki, so he simply carried on dragging Katsuki's futon and as a byproduct, Katsuki himself, across the room. 

They gained a lot of confused stares from their classmates, but Shouto was too preoccupied with dragging Katsuki over to his futon to care. "Katsuki," Shouto stressed, "Don't make this more difficult than it has to be–"

"Then stop fucking pulling me around!" 

Kirishima did walk over to talk to them for a while to play peacemaker, despite Kaminari's furious head shakes. "Yo, Todoroki!" Kirishima called out cheerfully. "Maybe you should drop it, y'know? Don't want Katsuki here to go supernova on you–"

Katsuki stopped in his furious defiance to snarl at Kirishima. "Don't fucking come here and play Knight in shining armor! I don't need you to save me, Shitty Hair!"

At the same time, Shouto frowned, a little ticked off, but also slightly, very slightly, guilty at snapping at their resident sunshine number two. "This is between me and Bakugou. Thank you, but your intervention is unnecessary."

With that, Kirishima blinked, incredibly startled. He nodded once, slowly, and walked away backwards with his hands up non threateningly, as if both Katsuki and Shouto would have gone for him the second he turned his back. But finally, after a few more minutes of struggling and despite Katsuki's best efforts, he still ended up next to Shouto. 

He refused to even look in Shouto's direction, very determinedly facing the opposite direction sullenly. Shouto let him be because he was certain that Katsuki would end up cuddling up next to him as always. 

Shouto turned to Izuku and nodded, prompting him to spiral into an analysis of the quirk exercise that they had taken part in earlier that day after a quick glance at Katsuki. Who was still pretending as though neither of them even existed at all. 

Once curfew hit half an hour later, Shouto flopped into his back and stared up at the ceiling while waiting for Katsuki to curl up next to him. One hour passed and still nothing had happened, prompting Shouto to look over at him and figure out what was the problem. At a glance, he could already tell what it was. 

Katsuki had tucked himself in so securely with his blanket that he was almost reminiscent of a sushi roll. It was as if he had made a promise with himself to not cling onto Shouto, and he intended to keep it. Shouto cautiously tugged the blanket loose to expose Katsuki to the cold and wrapped a hand around his arm gently, intending to pull him closer. 

Unfortunately, Katsuki threw a wrench in his plan. He drowsily shook Shouto's arm off his bicep, letting out an annoyed "Mmph" as he shuffled around to curl up into a smaller ball. Shouto smiled a little at his adorable behaviour. Feeling too bad to disturb him by pulling him, he activated his left side slightly to coerce a sleepy Katsuki to come curl up with him instead. 

Another half an hour passed, and Katsuki still hadn't moved, even though he was already fast asleep and should have already been snuggled up to Shouto. He, personally, did not think that was fair in any way, shape, or form, since he had been waiting very patiently for nearly 2 hours already. He sighed, aggravated. 

Never mind, time for a new plan. Improvise, adapt, and overcome as they say. 

Shouto scooched closer to him. Once he was able to throw his arm over Katsuki's waist, he tugged him closer until his back was against his torso. Oh, his waist is tiny, Shouto noted. You really learn something new about Katsuki everyday.

Shouto wasn't sure about this position, considering that he was always the one who was cuddled up to in the past, but he certainly felt like he could get used to it. He could feel the slow and steady beats of Katsuki's heart, and the soft rises and falls of his chests with every breath.

Shouto closed his eyes again, tightening the arm around Katsuki's waist and tugging him a little closer. Katsuki's waist was not only tiny, but it also felt like it had belonged in Shouto's hands. Yes, he couldn't kiss Katsuki on his forehead as was customary, but he could kiss the back of his neck and that was surely fine too. 

Yes, Shouto thought sleepily, brushing his lips against  Katsuki's nape and drawing lazy circles on the warm and soft skin of his exposed waist, this was nice too. 

That morning, he was woken up much more rudely, with Katsuki scrambling out of Shouto's arms and the futon with much less grace and cautiousness than he had the other times, nearly tripping twice on his way out. 

He was only able to catch a glimpse of Katsuki's face, but it was enough for him to want to sear it into his memory. 

His cheeks had lit up in the most beautiful blush, and as he hurriedly walked-ran out of the room, Shouto was able to see how red the tips of his ears were, that blush even spreading down to the back of his neck where he'd laid his lips upon just last night. 

It would be nice if I could see that every morning, Shouto thought as he lazily stretched out on his futon, I might as well get up now– 

…Oh.

Shouto blinked, and then his cheeks were heating up furiously. He suddenly understood why exactly Katsuki had slipped out so chaotically. Morning wood. He thought, mortified, as his brain supplied a name for it from who knows where.  

(Probably Kaminari or Mineta, he would recall in the distant future when he was not so ashamed.)

Shouto was somewhere in between being in a daze and in complete shame. I had morning wood…? And Katsuki was pressed up against that for who knows how long…?

He barely even registered himself accidentally stepping on someone and their resulting pained groan in his frenzied dash to the washroom. Thankfully, the bathroom he'd chosen was one that Katsuki hadn't gone to, and he walked in with the intent of taking a very cold shower. 

Instead, and Shouto himself doesn't even know how that happened until it was over, he had somehow gotten himself off with the image of a blushing Katsuki at the forefront of his mind and the taste of his name on the tip of his tongue.

 

5. 

Shouto hadn't even known that he was capable of such a thing when even watching porn – straight or gay – didn't do it for him. That had been… a harrowing experience to say the least, and Shouto had promised himself to never try it again. 

So what made Katsuki so different? Katsuki was obviously pretty, that was one point to him. He was kind too, though he hid it beneath layers of aggression and insults, that was another point. He seemed like the "perfect guy" that some of the girls in their class would squeal over. 

Maybe the boys had too. He wasn't sure, he'd never been very interested in joining in on those "boys nights", but if they too were raving about Katsuki, he'd probably join more often. 

Yes, Katsuki's perfect so anyone else would have done the same if they were in my position. He concluded, nodding to himself satisfactorily. With that, he very quickly came to terms with it and filed that piece of information away because it seemed less important to him than making peace with Katsuki. 

They still had one more night before this trip came to a close, and if Shouto didn't get to sleep with Katsuki then this wouldn't have been a good trip at all. Perhaps it would have been the worst one if Katsuki never wanted to sleep with him again. 

So, throughout the day, he attempted to reconcile with Katsuki. Always to no avail. He did his best to talk with Katsuki to apologize, but everytime, Katsuki would always manage to either slip away or steer the conversation away from him. He couldn't even get the chance to talk to him one on one! 

Shouto got the impression that he was being avoided.  

By the time evening had rolled around, even learning that dinner was cold soba couldn't cheer him up. His eyes unconsciously drifted to where Katsuki was sitting with his friends, swearing at them colourfully. 

Shouto sighed, shoveling cold soba into his mouth dejectedly. Ochako leaned over to Izuku, resulting in him flushing a deep red, and whispered. Or, perhaps it wasn't meant to be a whisper, considering that even Shouto could hear her. 

"I've never seen Shouto this lifeless when eating his favourite food before."  She said, looking at him sympathetically and Shouto sighed once more – to really hammer in the fact that he was miserable.  

"What happened?" Momo asked, looking concerned. 

"I just ruined something that was very good." Shouto said lifelessly. 

Ochako leaned in to hear better. "What did you ruin?"

Shouto sighed, looking between the two of them. Both of them were girls; they didn't have the misfortune of accidentally getting an erection while cuddling. Or at least Shouto thought they didn't, if his vague recollection of SexEd served him correctly. 

"You wouldn't get it." He said miserably, and shoveled more cold soba into his mouth to drown his sorrows. Ochako and Momo exchanged mystified glances before Ochako leaned over to pat his shoulder comfortingly. 

"We're here for you if you ever want to talk about it." Momo said solemnly. 

"Thank you." Shouto said expressionlessly, and stood up to get a second helping of soba because one wasn't going to be enough if he even wanted to cheer up. He distantly wondered if this was what it was like to be an alcoholic. 

He went through the motions of his nightly routine robotically, before he walked into their sleeping quarters, dragging his feet the whole way. Shouto's eyes scanned the room hopefully, but Katsuki hadn't even entered yet, let alone set up his futon. 

Shouto sighed and rolled his futon out near the corner, leaving enough room between his futon and the wall for Katsuki to roll out his futon if he decided he wanted to carry on with their tradition. He laid down and folded his hands over his torso as he stared up at the ceiling blankly. 

He saw someone unrolling their futon where he'd left a gap, and he swiftly snapped his head to the side. Disappointingly, it was Tenya. "I heard from the girls that you were upset, so I can't leave you to stew on it on your own." Tenya said assertively. 

Shouto didn't protest since it seemed like Katsuki wouldn't be sleeping next to him. He continued staring at the ceiling while vaguely listening to Tenya's speech on the problems isolating oneself could cause. 

"Oi, Four-Eyes." Katsuki cut his speech off, and Shouto nearly gave himself whiplash while turning to look at him. "Fuck off, I'm sleeping here."

Shouto perked up and stared at him hopefully. Tenya, on the other hand, startled. "What? Why?" He asked, gearing up for another lecture. "It's incredibly rude to come up to someone and just tell them to leave–

Shouto could sense Katsuki about to go on a swearing-rampage and he quickly butt in. "Tenya, would you mind swapping with Katsuki so he can sleep here?"

Tenya's face pinched, as if he was debating the merits of leaving a supposedly depressed Shouto on his own with Katsuki, but he was thankfully broken out of it by Kaminari. 

"Iida!" Kaminari hissed from across the room. "Remember yesterday! It's not worth it!"

Tenya blinked, and turned to Katsuki. "Bakugou! I'm glad you're getting along with our classmates." Tenya said sincerely, before quickly walking off with his futon in hand. 

Katsuki didn't look at him once while he was setting up his futon, but that was fine. Probably. He'd get over it once Katsuki clung onto him again. 


It was not fine. Shouto couldn't even convince himself that being ignored by Katsuki could ever be fine. It was like Katsuki's attention was a drug, and Shouto was hooked on it. Having it be taken away for what Shouto deemed to be a small matter seemed wholly unreasonable. 

"Katsuki," Shouto whispered, wounded. "Stop ignoring me."

Katsuki was very determinedly attempting to ignore him once again, but Shouto wouldn't let it happen. He shifted closer and spoke again. 

"Kats– Oh. Hello." He greeted dumbly when Katsuki abruptly flipped around and faced him. They were now face to face, so close that Shouto could smell the smoky yet sweet scent of Katsuki's shampoo. 

Shouto blinked at him a few times, and Katsuki merely raised an eyebrow at him. Shouto, because he'd always been told that he had a death wish, cautiously draped his arm over Katsuki's waist. Katsuki rolled his eyes with a "tsk" and a "Clingy bastard…", but didn't protest so Shouto took it as acceptance and pulled him closer. 

"Well? I've stopped ignoring you." Katsuki said expectantly. "Say your piece or forever hold your silence."

Shouto slipped his hand under Katsuki's shirt to stroke his waist for his own comfort. He felt Katsuki tense up under his hands before relaxing just a moment later. He caressed him once more because Katsuki blushed and shivered a little when he did. 

Pretty, Shouto affirmed his thoughts. 

"Why were you ignoring me today?" He asked sadly. "Was it really because of this morning?"

Katsuki's face flushed red, and he glared at Shouto, hissing like a feral cat. "You're asking me that?"

Shouto sighed, melancholic and depressed. "So it was my erection–"

Katsuki slapped his hands over Shouto's mouth before he could continue. "Shut up! Don't even mention it! You're the one who should be getting embarrassed here, not me, dumbass!"

"I was. Then I wasn't because I didn't get an ere– one because of you." Shouto said honestly, his voice muffled behind Katsuki's warm hands. "Or, at least I think I didn't."

Then, after blinking and scrutinizing Katsuki, he added bluntly. "I imagined you while I was getting rid of it, though." 

Katsuki's mouth dropped open, looking affronted. "You calling me ugly, Half-and-half?!" He asked, sorely offended. Shouto wondered what was the correlation. 

"I was calling you pretty." Shouto said frankly. "I was– what was the word… Oh. "Jacking off" to you–"

"... Don't ever speak again." Katsuki said ominously, but his cheeks were heating up and turning just as red as they did that morning. "What kind of moron just admits that?"

"Are you… unhappy with it?" Shouto asks curiously. "If you were, then I'd stop."

"You're admitting that you'd do it again?!" 

"Yes." Shouto said, both honestly and confidently. "Only if you don't mind it–"

Katsuki cut him off. "Icy Hot." The serious tone he'd taken on made Shouto pause. "You… Do you like me?"

"Yes," Shouto answered swiftly. Katsuki gave him a careful look. "... Enough for you to date me?" He asked again. 

Shouto blinked. That had never crossed his mind. Would he want to date Katsuki? He'd slept with Katsuki tons of times, enjoyed his company, kissed him, was upset when he was being ignored, had even gotten himself off with the thought of Katsuki and– Oh. 

That did mean he liked Katsuki, didn't it? He couldn't imagine himself doing any of those things with any of his other friends, only Katsuki. Nor could he even imagine doing any of those with some faceless boy or girl. 

Just Katsuki. Katsuki, who was beginning to look rather nervous and embarrassed as Shouto let the minutes tick by without a word. 

"Never mind. Ignore that, stupid question–"

"Yeah." Shouto whispers, his voice more honest than he'd ever heard it. "I like you a lot, Katsuki. Enough to date you."

"Oh." Katsuki whispered, his voice just as soft as Shouto's. He found that he rather liked the sound of it. "That mean we're dating now, Icy Hot?"

He looked so shy and bashful that Shouto couldn't help but want to tease him a little. You really did learn something new about yourself everyday, Shouto thought. 

"I don't know." Shouto cocked his head to the side, faux contemplatively. "What's the difference between our relationship now and dating?" 

Katsuki stared at him. Then, without any sort of warning, he tilted his head up to kiss Shouto on the lips chastely. Shouto startled, going still for just a moment before he reciprocated. 

Katsuki's lips, unlike Shouto's own, were soft from chapstick and they tasted a little like a mix of the caramel sweets Katsuki liked but would never admit and his minty toothpaste. 

The kiss only lasted a few seconds, and when they pulled away, Shouto already missed the feeling of it. He subconsciously chased after them as they were pulling away. 

Shouto distantly wondered how he ever managed to go about his life without having done this before. 

"Well." Katsuki said. "We could do that if we were dating."

Katsuki's tone of voice and expression stayed bored and nonchalant, but the erratic ba-thump-thump-ba-thumps of his heart and rapid tap-tap-taps of his fingers against Shouto's torso betrayed his nervousness. Shouto's heart clenched. Was it possible for him to get any cuter?

"Katsuki, we should have started dating earlier." Shouto said seriously. Katsuki snorted, plastering himself against Shouto's torso comfortably. Shouto squeezed his waist on instinct. "Whatever. Dumbass." Katsuki huffed. 

"I've never been a boyfriend before, but I'll do my best." Shouto promised. Katsuki let out a severely aggrieved sigh. "Just shut up and be a good body pillow."

"Okay." Shouto said agreeably. 

"Shut up."

"Sorry–"

"Shut up!"

 

1

Not much had changed in their relationship after that, but Shouto did get to kiss Katsuki and would sometimes be allowed to sneak into Katsuki's dorm through his balcony to sleep together. They'd run together in the mornings and Shouto would, very rarely, manage to convince Katsuki to put on matching headbands or hair clips. 

Katsuki made him breakfast or bentos, and every so often they'd go out on, as Katsuki called them, "embarrassingly cringy ass dates", that he still insisted that they go on because he "had to be the best fucking boyfriend, got that, Icy Hot?!". 

All in all, Shouto was very, very, very happy with this change. Dating Katsuki had to be Fate's apology for giving Shouto Endeavor as a father. 

As was the rest of his class. Lately, they started doing these "class bonding activities" at the end of every term to improve "relations among our fellow class members". 

They ranged from movie nights to videogame competitions, most of which Shouto was playing for the first time. Thankfully, he was usually paired with some of the better "gamers" in their class such as Jirou, Izuku, and much to Kaminari's despair, Katsuki. 

Kaminari thought it was unfair that Katsuki was good at everything, but Shouto personally couldn't care less – so long as he got to play with Katsuki, he was happy. 

This time was different, though. It was the first time they were having class bonding after their final year exams, so Tenya and Momo had come up with a special plan. They'd go through a movie marathon, and then they'd all have a sleepover in the common room. 

Mineta was the only one who wasn't allowed to go, having been securely trapped in his room by Tenya, Sero and Shouto himself after being deemed as a "liability". Shouto didn't feel any sympathy for him at all. 

So, Shouto was there. He'd come early specifically to set up his futon in a good spot where he could see everything that was going on. As his classmates filed in, he decided that he did choose a good spot. When Izuku spotted him, he brightened up and trotted over to Shouto. 

"Shouto! Can I set up my–" Izuku began. Shouto cut him off somewhat rudely. "No. I'm saving this spot for Katsuki." 

"Sorry." Shouto added, an afterthought. Izuku, the great friend that he was, waved his apology off cheerfully. "It's fine, Shouto! It's nice of you to save a spot for Katsu– Kacchan!?" He shrieked out of nowhere. 

"Yes." Shouto said slowly. "That's what I said."

Izuku looked nearly delirious. "Oh. Is that so…? Don't… Don't go too overboard… Remember that the rest of us are here too…"

Shouto didn't even get to ask what he was talking about before he was setting his futon up somewhere in front of him. Maybe Izuku was sick, Shouto decided.


Half an hour had passed, and a movie was already decided upon and being played yet Shouto had seen no sign of Katsuki.

Shouto turned to Yaoyozoru, wanting advice, but she was busy holding hands and cuddling with Jirou, so he couldn't bother them. He sighed to himself. If Katsuki were here we could do that too. He thought sulkily. 

He pulled out his phone and sent a few messages to Katsuki, because that was another privilege he'd been granted with dating Katsuki; the ability to text him at all hours and (usually) expect a response back. 

 

Shouto: Katsuki, are you really not coming down? Sad face.

Shouto: I'd like to sleep with you. Sad face.

Shouto: Sad face.

Sent 7.59PM

 

Shouto dropped his phone onto his lap and stared at the movie blankly. It was supposedly some horror film, but he didn't have the energy to even attempt to feign fear, though some of his classmates were obviously terrified.

He sighed again, long and drawn out when the rest of the class screamed at the jumpscare, clutching each other in fear. Where was Katsuki at such a perfect time like this? Shouto thought desolately. 

His phone vibrated, and he fumbled to turn it on and check his notifications. 

 

Katsuki: …Why the hell are you still typing out sad face?!

Katsuki: Can't you be a normal fucking human being and use emojis like the rest of us??

Katsuki: Moron.

Sent 8.05PM

 

Shouto: Sorry, I don't know how to.

Shouto: It's really confusing to text. Sad face.

Shouto: Can you come down and teach me? Smile.

Sent 8.05PM

 

Katsuki: You're an idiot if you think that'll work. 

Katsuku: Go ask your nerd friends how to use emojis, dumbass. 

Sent 8.06PM

 

Shouto: They're busy watching a horror movie.

Sent 8.06PM

 

Shouto blinked, a lightbulb going off in his head. 

 

Shouto: It's really scary. Can you come down and comfort me?

Shouto: Everyone else has someone to hold onto when the movie gets to the scary parts.

Sent 8.07PM

 

Katsuki: You don't even get scared, Halfie. 

Sent 8.07PM

 

Shouto: This one's really scary. Sad face. 

Sent 8.07PM

 

Katsuki: Pussy. 

Sent 8.08PM

 

Shouto: Please? Smile.

Sent 8.08PM

 

Shouto drooped sadly as the minutes ticked by with not a single response from Katsuki. It was starting to hit him that Katsuki might not actually be coming down. 

Fortunately, this action of his gained the attention of Ashido who was busy trying to convince Iida to pick her choice of movie next. "What's wrong, Todoroki?" She asked, looking at him with concern. "Don't like the movie?"

Shouto took a look at the screen which showed an incredibly gruesome and gory scene. He sighed. "No, it's not the movie…" He said sadly. "It's just… How would you get someone to sleep with you?"

Ashido sputtered at that, staring at him with wide eyes. "He usually initiates it, but this time he doesn't want to…" He carried on, thinking it entirely unfair. 

Shouto could see the cogs in Ashido's head turn, before she smiled mischievously. Shouto wondered if it was too late to back out now. "Isn't it obvious?" She said, "You just have to seduce him."

Seduce? That… didn't sound right in the context that Shouto was asking, but if that was what would get Katsuki to come down, then he'd do it. 

"How?" Shouto asked. Ashido stared at him calculatingly. 

"You're handsome, so it'll be easy. You just need to take a hot selfie and send it to 'em. Maybe throw in a voicemail asking him nicely." She responded, grinning slyly. 

"No one can resist a handsome face and a smokin' hot voice!" She added cheerfully. Shouto nodded seriously, carefully noting down everything she had said in his mind. 

"Thank you." Shouto said gratefully. Ashido giggled, giving him a wink and a thumbs up. "Go get your man!" She cheered. 

"I'll do my best." He said solemnly. Ashido nodded at him in solidarity, before she turned back around to plead her case with Iida. Shouto tapped his phone screen until he somehow made it to the camera app. 

He frowned in slight confusion when it only showed Izuku's back. How did anyone take a picture of themselves on their own if it only showed what was in front of them?

Shouto wondered if he should have asked Ashido to help take a picture, but she had already given him such good advice that it felt like he was asking for too much. He looked at Izuku. 

He, disappointingly, was too invested in predicting who was the killer. Since Shouto obviously couldn't rely on his friend in his time of need, he sighed begrudgingly as he fell back onto his futon. 

He turned his phone around so that the camera would hopefully face him and blindly tapped where the "Capture Picture" button should be. After taking what he deemed to be enough pictures, he turned his phone around and started scrolling through them. 

As he was expecting, a majority of the pictures had turned out to be blurry and of poor quality, but there was one that seemed to be good enough, though he was mid-blink. Somewhat reluctantly, he chose that picture and sent it to Katsuki. 

 

Shouto: [Shouto.IMG: The picture depicts a somewhat blurry but clear enough image of Shouto with his hair splayed out on his pillow around his head. His eyes are half-lidded and the corner of his mouth is slightly turned down in a displeased frown.]

Sent 8.14PM

 

Shouto watches his picture turn from "Received" to "Seen" nearly as soon as he sends it and eagerly waits for Katsuki to respond. He kept typing then stopping every other second, which he thought a little strange. 

 

Katsuki: What the fuck are you doing?

Sent 8.16PM

 

Shouto: Seducing you.

Shouto: Is it working?

Sent 8.17PM

 

Katsuki: Why the fuck are you seducing me. 

Sent 8.17PM

 

Shouto: I'd like us to sleep together.

Sent 8.18PM

 

Katsuki: No.

Katsuki: Stop texting me.

Sent 8.20PM

 

Shouto frowned. Maybe he needed another nudge in the right direction? He brought his phone near his mouth and recorded a message. 

 

Shouto: [Voicemail.MP3: The audio is a 7 second clip. His voice is low and raspy in an attempt to whisper so that he wouldn't disturb anyone around him; "Please come down, Katsuki. I really want to sleep with you. I promise I'll keep you warm." End of audio.]

Sent 8.20PM

 

It's a long time before Katsuki responds. With his own voice message, Shouto's pleased to find. 

 

Katsuki: [Voicemail.MP3: The audio is a 5 second clip. His voice sounds mildly peeved; "Fucking dumbass." Slight rustling of sheets. "Gimme 5." End of audio.]

 

Shouto blinked, comfortably settling down into his futon. Ashido's advice is really good. He took note, in case he would need to use it on Katsuki again. 5 minutes felt far too long in Shouto's opinion, but he kept quiet since he was afraid that if he complained, Katsuki would never come down. 

He monitored the clock closely, watching it slowly count every second until Katsuki would be here. At 4 minutes and 37 seconds, he heard the unmistakable sounds of Katsuki stomping down.  Kirishima, being the closest, was, infuriatingly enough, the first person to see him. 

"Katsuki!" He cheered. Then, his enthusiasm dropped for seemingly no reason. "Katsuki!" Kirishima wailed. "It's class bonding! You have to take part in this! We're like a family, dude!"

"I am." Katsuki hissed. Shouto brightened at the sight of his spiky blonde hair, sitting up so that Katsuki would notice him and put his futon beside his. 

"This doesn't count! You didn't bring your futon down!" Kaminari cried out. "You're not gonna have a sleepover with us! You're just going to leave after we watch movies, aren't you?!"

He didn't… bring his futon down? Shouto thought, distraught. He let himself flop back onto his futon and he laid there, staring at the ceiling contemplatively. Was it even worth it to stay here? Should I also just go back upstairs?

"Who the fuck said that?!" Katsuki snapped. 

No, it wasn't even worth it to live anymore. Shouto brooded. I should just return to the earth and the soil and be reborn–

Katsuki's face blocked the ceiling. "Oi, Half-and-Half." Katsuki said. Shouto turned to look at him, anguished. "Move over."

"What's the point?" Shouto lamented, sinking into his futon and hoping it would swallow him whole. "You didn't bring your futon down."

"Why the fuck," Katsuki stressed. "Would I need a futon when I'm just going to end up in yours. Move over so I can sleep here, you Icy Hot idiot."

"Oh." Shouto said, his demeanor suddenly brightening. "Okay."

He moved to the right to make some room for Katsuki before he lifted the blanket and patted the futon, staring at him expectantly. Katsuki rolled his eyes, but still dropped into the offered spot easily enough. Shouto smiled, pleased, and threw an arm around his waist and buried his face in Katsuki's hair. 

Almost instantly, chaos erupted around them. More than a dozen voices began to clamor for their attention, screaming hysterically. 

"Shouto, you're too bold… In front of everyone? Will Kacchan kill us for just being here…" Izuku mumbled rapidly under his breath. Shouto could already imagine the disgusted look gracing Katsuki's face and he couldn't stop himself from smiling fondly. 

"Ha! Losers, I already knew about it–" Kaminari bragged.

"You're dating?!" Ashido screeched, shoving Kaminari out of the way. "Since when?! Why didn't I know about it?! I just helped Todoroki seduce Blasty!"

"Couple weeks ago." Katsuki answered Ashido's question leisurely. 

"Wait, you all saw that, right?! Didn't it look like something straight out of a romance novel?!" Toru shrieked, clinging onto Yaoyozoru's arm. 

Yaoyozoru nodded frantically, pressing her hands to her cheeks. Asui leaned over to them to add her thoughts. "It was a lot cuter than I would have expected out of the both of them, kero. It almost makes you want to write a romance novel with that sort of scene, kero."

One voice stood out from the rest. "So you've been sleeping together without dating?!" Kaminari shrieked. "You?! And Todoroki?!"

Katsuki glared at him, hackles raising. Shouto thought that he looked so much like an angered kitty that he squeezed his waist again, overwhelmed with affection. 

"So!?" He snarled. "You and the other idiots sleep together without dating, how is it any different when it's me and this Icy Hot dumbass?!"

Would Katsuki let me kiss him now, Shouto pondered, having not paid any attention at all, or would he start yelling at me too?  

"We're just sleeping!" Kaminari screeched. "It's not like that, bro!"

But he's talking with Kaminari. Shouto thought as he reluctantly zoned back into the conversation, as I thought before, I should just get rid of him now. 

Kaminari seemed to have completely lost steam now. "Wait, you were talking about sleeping? Not sleeping sleeping?"

"The fuck's the difference?!" Katsuki snapped, frowning at him severely, as if he could kill him with sheer willpower. Kaminari whistled innocently, snapping his head away and staring into thin air. 

Shouto blinked, suddenly connecting the dots in his head. "Oh, they're talking about sex." He told Katsuki, who just gaped at him. 

"He thought we were having sex." Shouto said again, in case Katsuki didn't get it. "As in, he thought we were making love–"

"You don't have to say it thrice, you fucking moron! I got it the first time you said it!" Katsuki roared, yanking the collar of his shirt. "Who the fuck even says "making love" anymore?! Shit! You really are a moron, aren't you?!"

Shouto quickly stopped paying attention when, in spite of those insulting words, Katsuki's cheeks flushed the prettiest hue Shouto had ever seen. That lovely pink crept up from his neck and reached all the way up to the tips of his ears. 

Shouto couldn't stop himself from leaning over and kissing him again. Once Katsuki was silent, docile, and very decidedly adorable in the way he glared at Shouto, he spoke. 

"Your body is more honest than you are." Shouto said truthfully. Then, he added, as an afterthought. "Katsuki, can I make love to you someday?" 

Katsuki made some incoherent noise of pure rage and embarrassment before he hid his face in the crook of Shouto's shoulder. 

"I don't think it's fair if you act so cute then hide your face so I can't kiss you." Shouto complained though he ran his hand through that spikey poof of hair, utterly charmed. Katsuki elbowed him in the stomach, hard. Shouto winced. 

"Ow." He said. He must not have sounded convincing enough, seeing as Katsuki elbowed him again. 

"Is this from the R18 sequel to that book, Asui?" Jirou asked, looking vastly entertained. 

"Just pick a fucking movie already!" Katsuki screeched and his voice reached a truly impressive volume. Ashido sighed wistfully, staring at them enviously. 

"I want to watch a romance movie," She declared, "I need something to cheer me up after seeing Blasty get some before me."

Katsuki sneered at her, as though he would've jumped her had he not been held by Shouto. Shouto made sure to tighten his grip on him, just in case. "Jealous that my boyfriend's the best, Pinky?" 

"Yes?!"

Shouto blinked, feeling more than a little lost. "Shouldn't you be more jealous of me? Katsuki's pretty, he can cook really well, and he's good in bed–"

Kaminari and Sero loudly wolf whistled simultaneously, and the rest of the class either begin hooting at them or blushing madly. Katsuki, for his part, yanked the collar of Shouto's shirt to berate him mercilessly. 

"Can you use your fucking brain before you speak?!" He snapped. "Is your head just there to look pretty–"

"You still think I'm pretty?" Shouto practically beamed. Katsuki turned bright red and sputtered uselessly, but Shouto had already stopped paying attention. "I like you a lot." Shouto whispered in the midst of the chaos he had unknowingly set off, just for Katsuki's ears. 

"Dumbass." Katsuki grumbled. Then, very, very quietly he added. "I guess I like you too…"

Shouto's heart sang



Notes:

so yeah that's the first fic I've ever posted

to the 5 of u reading i want u to know that shouto's texting habits r based of my friend's bc i need u to clown on them a lil

also pls comment and give me kudos bc I crave validation and also bc I have a 4k deity tdrk and sacrifice witch bkg smut and an 10k age gap tdbk (both of which I dropped bc I brainrotted on this too hard teehee) to offer soon maybe ?