The memes are back!

ALSO I LOVE THIS CHAPTER OKAY BYE

---

Kirishima

If there was one thing Kirishima had learned about Bakugou over spring break, it was that the dude could get super cuddly and affectionate when he was sleepy, even if he was grumpy, too.

Kirishima would be the first to admit it was hard trying to sleep in a bed alone after a week of having the privilege of sleeping next to his boyfriend every night. But they tried—they did, and he was pretty sure that was part of the reason they both felt so damn exhausted for the first few days going back to school. Even though this bed was smaller than the one at home, it felt so big and empty without someone lying there next to him... too cold, though the room was relatively warm. In the end he kept waking up, tossing and turning until his alarm went off and he was forced to get up, feeling less rested than when he'd gone to sleep.

For the first couple of nights he chalked it up to the bed being less comfortable than the one he had at home and the fact that he was anxious about the end of the school year, but in the back of his mind he knew that was bullshit. Not once in the past had he ever a problem with transferring between beds, and because it was senior year the workload he had for finals was lower than ever.

That's why, on the third night, he couldn't have been happier to slide over to the edge of his bed and fling his blankets back when Bakugou came over, nudged him, and said, "Hey. Move over."

That night, he slept completely soundly, not waking up until his alarm went off and feeling better than he had in two days. Bakugou seemed the same when he blinked his semi-irritated eyes open after being shaken gently awake. He'd grumbled about going back to sleep, but once Kirishima got him out of bed he even put real pants on for the first time in a few days, which proved he'd slept better.

The night following that, they'd gone to their own beds again and, as much as Kirishima wanted to ask Bakugou to come sleep next to him or climb into the other's bed himself, he knew he had to figure out how to sleep on his own again at some point. So he kept his mouth shut and tried to suppress the disappointment while he scrolled through his phone for one last time that day.

That was, of course, until a message popped up on the top of the screen alerting him of a message from Bakugou.

And... okay, he couldn't say no to that. With a smile on his face, he slipped out of his bed, took a second to shut his light off, and crossed the space between their beds. Before he could even think about sitting, though, his wrist was grabbed and he was yanked down into the bed. With a yelp he scrambled to catch himself, ending up half-lying on his boyfriend with his face heating up. Just as he opened his mouth to mumble some sort of apology, another set of lips crashed right into his mouth and earned another muffled yelp of surprise.

"Why're you so nervous?" Bakugou mumbled against him. "'S just me."

"Ah... sorry," Kirishima laughed. "I just wasn't expecting you to pull me down so fast."

"Hmph... you should blush like this more." Bakugou said into his next kiss. "'S fucking cute."

"Wh-what? I'm not blushing," he denied.

"You're as red as your fucking hair, moron."

Kirishima had really been hoping the stupid heat wasn't making itself known on his skin all this time, and up until then he didn't think it had been. The fact that it probably had, and that Bakugou had called him cute, only made him grow warmer.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he grumbled, pulling his face away to hide in the pillow behind Bakugou's head.

"'Cause I knew you'd hide like you are right now, idiot."

"You suck," Kirishima groaned.

"I wasn't plannin' to but shit, I can if you want."

"Dude!" Kirishima shot upward, and holy crap he was pretty sure his head was going to explode (or get a nosebleed, at the very least) from how damn hot and flustered he was! "What the fuck!"

And then a real, genuine, not-so-cocky and rough laugh came from Bakugou's mouth, and Kirishima was seriously starting to wonder if it was too damn soon to be falling so freaking hard.

"I was kidding, Dumb Hair. Calm your shit," he said, still grinning.

With a frown that still gave away his flusteredness, Kirishima started to back off the bed. "'M going back to my bed," he muttered.

"Don't you fucking dare," Bakugou growled, tugging him back by the arm again. "Not after it took me half a fucking hour to grow the balls to get your ass to come over here."

Just like that, Kirishima relaxed. "What? Half an hour? If you wanted me here, why didn't you just ask?!"

It seemed Bakugou's turn to blush, though it didn't show on his face right away. His eyes cut to the right and his hand loosened around the other's wrist. "'Cause I suck at saying shit, Ei. You fucking know that."

"Aww, babe," Kirishima laughed, slinging an arm over his shoulder. "S'okay. Next time just wave me over or somethin'. I mean, do you really think I wouldn't come?"

"How the hell was I s'posed to know that?!"

"Guess you weren't," Kirishima told him with a half-shrug. "But now you do."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

All Kirishima could do was laugh and press a not-so-soft kiss to his temple.

⚜️

From then on, they unspokenly switched off whose bed they slept in each night. Even when it was getting too warm, they elected to keep the blankets off rather than stay separated. Most nights they didn't exactly cuddle up, at least not for the whole night, but it was still so much easier to sleep knowing the other was there.

On top of that, though it took him a few days to catch on, Kirishima found Bakugou was doing things to try and get him to blush, though fortunately it was only when they were alone together or through the usage of memes.

Before long, Kirishima was 'fighting' back until it became some sort of unspoken competition to see who could make the other the most flustered. Fortunately, Kirishima felt he had the advantage in the meme department due to still having so many saved up from before they started dating—ones the others had sent him to send to Bakugou that were a little too suggestive or even aggressive in terms of flirting for him to feel even remotely comfortable sending them to him while they were still only friends.

There were simple ones, such as:

And there there were the ones more along the line of suggestiveness that, even now, a couple of months into their relationship and more than half a year of being close to Bakugou, Kirishima was still a bit nervous to send. But for the sake of winning (and feeling strangely competitive, unlike usual), he took the risk.

Of course, that only made Bakugou go on to tease him about having a hair pulling kink, which had him putting his backpack up on the table in his art class to hide his face behind because he just knew he was wildly blushing while he discreetly read the messages beneath the table.

On top of the fact that Bakugou seemed to have easily found his buttons and was taking the liberty to push them, his meme game was seriously strong, and left Kirishima reeling.

With the last one, Kirishima found he wasn't as good as Bakugou on the teasing front when he tried to use the other's idea to do just that about Bakugou having a role playing kink, and in the end he was sure he was the one who ended up more flustered—and frustrated, because he could feel himself losing this little war.

Even so, he sure as hell wasn't about to give up. When he got Bakugou to admit defeat and won, he knew his reward would be seeing that adorable grumpy look on Bakugou's face when he was playing his Sore Loser role, and he'd definitely take the liberty to kiss those pouty lips of his into submission.

Unfortunately, Kirishima didn't have quite the amount of fight in him as he thought because in the end, he was the one to declare defeat. It came while they were in their room on a Saturday evening, having declined hanging out with the others so they could be alone (and unspokenly continue their little war). But in the midst of kissing—a lot of kissing—he'd practically forgotten about the war. He'd just been so focused on Bakugou, on the feeling being with him like this gave him, that his mind was too preoccupied to remember for the moment.

He'd pushed Bakugou down on his back and was hovering over him without disconnecting their mouths or letting his hands disconnect from the other's skin where his arms were pushed up underneath his shirt when Bakugou mumbled a soft "fuck" against his lips.

"What?" he mumbled, not wanting to open his eyes or let even an inch of space get between them.

"It's just..." His warm breath brushed across Kirishima's face, prompting to crack his eyelids open just a touch. "...it's so fucking manly when you push me down like that."

In that second, had Kirishima been standing, he was almost sure he'd have crumpled to the floor. Bakugou's hooded eyes and the tiniest half-grin sported on his lips was enough to make Kirishima feel like he was going to melt into a puddle. But no—Bakugou had to go and say that, and if he didn't know better Kirishima would've thought his whole head went up in flames.

"Ah, hell..." he mumbled, sitting up while still straddling the other and pressing his face into both of his hands, shaking his head back and forth.

"What?" Bakugou asked, a hand wrapping around one of Kirishima's wrists to try and pull his hand away. "The fuck did I say?"

"I give," Kirishima mumbled through his hands, not letting Bakugou pull them away. As soon as he said it, though, the other stopped. "You win."

"Wait, are you fuckin' serious?"

Kirishima didn't have to see Bakugou's face to know he was grinning triumphantly, he could hear it in his voice. "Yeah 'm fuckin' serious!" Kirishima told him.

Again Bakugou tugged as Kirishima felt him sit up. "So what, bein' called 'manly' is your ultimate weakness?" God, the cockiness in that voice of his was gonna kill Kirishima! "You're joking, right?"

"Does it look like I'm joking," Kirishima grumbled, peeking an eye through his fingers. And—yup. There the grin was, somehow cocky and casual at the same time. Teasing, too. It was one of the many moments where Kirishima wondered how in the hell he was still alive because of Bakugou.

"You're a fucking moron, Ei. Now lemme see your face before I start tickling you or someshit."

With a newfound smile of his own, Kirishima just let Bakugou finally tug his hands away and kiss him again.

⚜️

"Hey, Mina!"

"Oh heyy, Kiri!" Mina called after she turned around, stopping to wait as Kirishima caught up to her in a jog as she was on her way to the mess hall.

"Hey," he huffed when he slowed to a walk beside her. "I have a favor to ask you. I can't ask at dinner though, 'cause it's a surprise for Bakugou."

"Oh yeah?" she asked with a wiggle in her brow. "You got a birthday surprise planned for him or something?"

"Something like that," he admitted. They'd all been in on Bakugou's birthday coming up toward the end of the month since just after spring break when Kirishima told them about it. He knew Bakugou probably wasn't too big on surprises, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted to give them time to get something for him if they wanted and then throw a small party-like thing, just with their group, at a nearby park with some food, presents, and video games (and another extra-special surprise he had up his sleeve). And because it was a surprise, Bakugou couldn't say no.

"What can I do for ya?" Mina asked, playfully nudging her elbow toward his ribs, which he quickly dodged.

"You're in home ec, right?" he asked.

"Sure am."

"D'you think there's a way you could talk your teacher into letting me use the room to bake something sometime this week, like after school or something?"

It was no surprise when her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really? You're gonna bake him something?" she asked, grinning widely.

"Yep. Chocolate cake. That is, if I can use the room. I'd really rather make it than buy it. 'S more sentimental and meaningful that way, ya know?"

"Of course!" she said enthusiastically. "Come with me to the home ec room tomorrow during lunch and we'll talk to my teacher, okay? I doubt she'll say no as long as everything gets cleaned up and all that."

"Awesome! Thanks, Mina."

"No problem, lover boy," she said with a giggle, blowing him a kiss as she stepped into the mess hall, something he could only playfully roll his eyes at.

⚜️

Operation Bakugou's Birthday Cake was a go from the second Mina opened her mouth to ask the home ec teacher for a favor. She didn't particularly seem like the type of teacher that would go for just anything like that, but it was clear she liked Mina (though, Kirishima had to be honest—despite her sometimes overwhelming energy and slight-obsessiveness, Mina was really hard not to like; even Bakugou had admitted that once during one of their long conversations).

The following Friday, Kirishima made the excuse that he was helping a teacher with Mina after school in order to get time away from Bakugou to make the cake. He'd already tasked Kami, Jirou, and Sero with keeping Bakugou occupied on the off chance he might go looking for him if for some reason baking took too long. He responded to any texts he could in the middle of baking with Mina (who insisted upon taking selfies with him when they ended up with flour and such on their clothes and faces—pictures she promised not to post anywhere until after Sunday).

Once they were done and allowed to store the cake in one of the big refrigerators in the back room of the home ec classroom, they both stopped by their rooms to take quick showers to make sure every trace of flour and baking was erased before they joined the others in the game room.

"The fuck? Did you shower in the middle of the day?" Bakugou asked when he arrived—before Mina, of course, because she always took her sweet time with showers.

"Yeah. I got kinda sweaty and wanted to wash up," Kirishima responded with a casual shrug.

It wasn't totally a lie, either—the home ec room was on the top floor of the building, and with the fact that heat rises, the weather was already warming up considerably, and the fact that he'd been around a hot oven for a good half hour, he had been sweating.

Bakugou bought the excuse easily and didn't question him further.

⚜️

The closer to Sunday it got, the more excited Kirishima could feel himself getting and he was having a harder time than expected hiding that excitement from Bakugou. The other kept glancing at him suspiciously from time to time throughout the day on Saturday.

"What's with you?" he asked on one occasion.

"Nothin'," Kirishima told him too quickly. "I'm just... excited that it's your birthday tomorrow. That's all."

Bakugou accepted that, too, but the suspicious glances never stopped. When they were lying in bed together that night, occupied by YouTube because neither of them were tired enough to sleep just yet, he was questioned again.

"Why're you so damn excited, anyway? 'S just a stupid birthday."

"So I'm not allowed to be excited for my own boyfriend's birthday?"

Kirishima always loved the way the word 'boyfriend' made Bakugou stiffen a bit, and sometimes hide his face in slight embarrassment.

"That's all, Katsuki," he said with a grin, hooking his arm around Bakugou's neck. "Promise."

"'Kay, but if you're planning shit, I'll kill you."

"Ha! You wouldn't," Kirishima laughed before sloppily pressing a kiss to Bakugou's cheek, earning a disgusted snort in the process.

Bakugou

Sunday morning, the cursed day of his shitty birthday, Bakugou was woken up by a pair of smooth lips and a soft, familiar voice.

"Katsukiii," the voice sang, and though it was his favorite voice in the whole damn world, all he wanted to do was roll over and go the fuck back to sleep until tomorrow came. Of course, a secure, warm set of arms didn't allow that and he grumbled incoherently, burying his face in the thing closest to it, which happened to be a warm sturdy shoulder.

"C'mon, man, wake up," Kirishima said, a sickening amount of gleefulness in his tone. "Wake up so I can kiss you happy birthday."

"Shut up, Dumb Hair," he muttered back. "Lemme sleep."

"Awh, but 's already close to noon."

"Don't care."

"But Baku—"

"Sshhh. Lemme sleep. 'S my birthday so I get to do whatever the fuck I want."

A laugh rumbled next to his ear. "Fine, fine. You're right. But only for a little while longer, 'kay? I have stuff for you."

Bakugou'd been expecting that, as much as he fucking hated it. He didn't want anything for his birthday, least of all from Kirishima who he didn't deserve anything from. In fact, he'd secretly been hoping Dumb Hair had forgotten what day it was on and could just fly under the radar for the day. But Kirishima was too damn good of a boyfriend—and a person—to forget something like that.

As much as Bakugou wanted to tell him to throw whatever it was he had for him out, he didn't have the heart, so he pretended not to hear him as he let himself drift the fuck back to sleep.

When he woke again, the bed beside him was empty and the room was quiet. The clock on his phone told him it was already an hour past noon and he groaned lightly, seriously disappointed that he hadn't actually slept all damn day and into the next. There were a few missed calls from his mom, too, and before she called again to chew him out for not answering, he called back.

The phone was shuffled around between both of his parents as they wished him a happy birthday and all that bullshit, to which he replied with a few disgruntled 'thank you's and the usual argumentative banter between him and his mom. Halfway through the call, Dumb Hair emerged from the bathroom with his hair done up and completely dressed, a big, dumb smile on his face when he sat in front of Bakugou to wait for him to finish the phone call.

As soon as he did, Kirishima tackled him back into his pillows, planting his mouth right smack into Bakugou's with a vigor even Bakugou couldn't really keep up with. He reeled, gently pushing the idiot off by the shoulders and scowling.

"Happy birthday, Bakubabe!" Kirishima said, completely unfazed by the small shove.

"Yeah, we'll fuckin' see," Bakugou muttered, sitting back up.

Immediately, Shitty Hair's face fell and regret stabbed Bakugou right in the chest. "Huh?" Kirishima mumbled.

"Nothin'. Thanks, Dumb Hair. Now move 'cause I gotta piss."

"But no, wait—what did you say?" Kirishima asked, gently taking hold of Bakugou's wrist before he could kick his legs over the edge of the bed and escape into the bathroom. Fuck.

"I said nothing, Kiri," he insisted.

"What do you mean by 'we'll see'?"

Fuck, Bakugou thought again. There was no getting out of this now. "Nothing," he said again. "'M just not a big fan of my birthday."

"How come?"

Jesus hell, if Kirishima didn't sound so suddenly dejected—desperate, almost—Bakugou would've yanked his wrist away, snapped at him to fucking drop it, and go to the damn bathroom like he needed to. But of course, this little fucker knew his weak spots—no, he was his weak spot, and he couldn't just leave him sitting there like that, as much as he didn't want to fucking talk about it or answer any of the shitty questions that were probably about to come up.

"'Cause bad shit always happens on this day," he mumbled, running a sleepy hand down his face. "So 's better to just ignore it."

"What do you mean, though? What kind of bad stuff?"

With an inward sigh, Bakugou ran his hand back up through his hair. "...remember some of the shit I've told you? Like about my dad's friend's bike accident, and my mom's car accident, and the fire in our house like ten years ago?" Kirishima nodded, wide eyed in clear understanding, as Bakugou went on, "All that shit happened on one or another of my birthdays. Same with my dad losing his job a few years ago, and my sister almost fuckin' losing the twins before they were born."

"Dude..." Kirishima mumbled, evidently stunned. "Are you serious?"

"You think this is someshit I'd make up? Yes, I'm fucking serious. Don't know why the hell it all keeps happening on my goddamn birthday, but it does. I've had like three, maybe four birthdays in my entire life that didn't turn out to be complete shit shows. 'S like the day is cursed or whatever."

"Hey, s'okay, man," Kirishima said softly. "I understand. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"I know you didn't. I didn't tell you 'cause I fucking hate talking about it, and it's not like it matters that much, anyway."

"It does, though, Katsuki. It matters to me."

"Hmph. Of course it does."

"So are you saying that if it was reversed and it was my birthday that was shitty, you wouldn't care?"

"Of course I would fucking care, you idiot. That's—" Bakugou's teeth came together hard the second he realized what Kirishima was getting at, and he blew a long breath out through his nose. "'S fine, Ei. Seriously, though, I gotta piss."

"Ah... right." Kirishima released his wrist and he stood up. Just before he went into the bathroom, though, he said, "Well, hey... if you wanna just hang out in here for the day, that's cool. There's just something I gotta—" A knock sounded at the door and he glanced over quickly before looking back. "—do first."

"Who the fuck is that?"

Kirishima reached up to rub the back of his neck. "Nobody. Go ahead and go to the bathroom, I'll be right back."

Though suspicious, Bakugou mumbled a "kay..." before stepping into the bathroom. Before he shut the door, though, he heard the main door of their room click open and then something he couldn't understand said in a whisper. Just after that, Kirishima murmured, "Sorry, guys. The plan's off."

"Whaaat?" came a voice that was clearly Pinky's.

"I was just talking to Ba—" The door shut, cutting off what Bakugou could hear.

But then he was too damn curious and already had a stupid knot in his stomach, so he tiptoed back out into the room and pressed his ear against the door. The voices on the other side were muffled, but still intelligible.

"...said his birthday's usually pretty shitty so he doesn't like to celebrate."

"Shitty how?" Kaminari's voice asked.

"...just... a lot of stuff has happened in the past. I don't really wanna spill all his business. I don't think it's a good idea to do what we had planned, though."

"But what about the cake?" Mina asked. "And are we not even allowed to give him the stuff we got him?"

"I guess we can just give the cake to somebody else. I haven't written anything on it yet. And about the gifts... I'll have to get back to you on that one. I'm not sure how he feels about it yet."

"He doesn't know if something bad is gonna happen today, though," said Sero. "You can't talk him into it at all?"

There was hesitation, and then, "...I wanna, but it doesn't really feel right, ya know? To make him do something he doesn't wanna do, especially on his birthday?"

"That's fair," Jirou was the one to say.

"I'm really sorry, guys."

Bakugou stopped listening at that point and went back to the bathroom. Fuck, he sucked. He definitely wasn't surprised Kirishima got him something for his birthday, and he wasn't even really surprised that he—or they—had planned to do something for him today. But still, put that on top of the fact that they got him a freaking cake, and the rest of the losers probably went out of their way to get him shit, he felt more guilty than he had in fucking years. Which sucked, because guilt was a rare thing he experienced.

Kirishima was just slipping back into the room when Bakugou finished up in the bathroom, and the smile he was greeted with was so forced it hit him right in the gut. Kirishima started to say something, too, but Bakugou cut him off.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised you were planning stuff," he said, flopping onto his bed with his arms crossed.

"You heard, huh?"

"The door's not exactly sound proof." But no way was he gonna admit to pressing his ear to it.

"Sorry, babe. If I'd known I wouldn't have planned anything..."

"Hmph. Please. Yes you would've. You'd have done it to try and make me feel better or whatever, and don't pretend like you wouldn't."

"...yeah, you're probably right. But still—"

Suddenly, Bakugou lurched to his feet. "Shut up. Let's go."

"Huh? Go where?"

"Go... and do whatever it was you guys were planning, obviously. Going out and at least trying to have some fucking fun is better than sitting around this shithole all day, and I hate how you look when you're all sad and shit like that."

"But—ah... are you sure?" Kirishima asked with raised brows. "It's really okay, you don't have to do this just for me—"

"I'm not," Bakugou said, though it was a half-lie. He'd meant it when he said trying to have fun was better than sitting around, but he was mostly doing it because he really did fucking hate how dejected Kirishima's face looked, how lackluster his eyes had become from just that one little thing. At that point, he didn't even much care what it was; he'd do just about anything to make the idiot smile again. And right now what it took was whatever the fuck the Loser Squad had come up with. So he'd do it.

⚜️

Turned out the plan was a trip to a nearby park off campus. It was a warmer day so there were a few people mulling about, but it wasn't enough to make Bakugou want to turn tail straight back to campus to avoid them.

The rest of the group had been stupidly happy when they found out they were going ahead with this plan, anyway. Mina had already volunteered to grab the cake while Pikachu and Sero ran off to get the presents where they'd supposedly been hidden in Sero's room.

To his relief it only turned out to be the six of them. He was afraid that with his luck on this shitty day, Kirishima would've invited Deku and Half-and-Half along or someshit, forcing him to be nice to them or whatever—one thing he fucking hated about birthdays and parties. But when they sat down at a table beneath what looked like some sort of metal canopy, it was just the six of them. No Deku or anyone else. Already this shit was shaping up to be better than anticipated.

"Before you assholes start whatever the fuck it is you have planned," he said before anyone could speak up, "No fucking singing. And don't act like it's some huge fucking thing or whatever. Got it?"

"Aye aye," Sero said.

"Don't worry, Baku, we weren't even planning on singing. I figured you'd hate it to begin with," Kirishima told him.

"Except we brought these, for when it gets dark," Kaminari said, hefting one of the plastic grocery bags he'd been carrying up onto the table.

"If it's cool with you, anyway," Jirou jumped in.

Inside the bag, of course, were fucking fireworks. He couldn't help but snort and look over at Kirishima. "Don't you remember the last time you snuck fireworks off campus?" he asked, jerking his chin upward to indicate the scar on the other's eyelid.

"'Course I remember. This is different, though. I won't be the one lighting them, and we won't get in trouble. Fireworks are legal in this park as long as we put 'em in one of those concrete pits and only light one at a time. Good with you?"

Hell yeah, it was cool with him! Bakugou fucking loved fireworks. No damn way was he gonna let all of those go to waste.

Already the day was shaping up to be good, surprisingly enough. The losers brought a couple of pizzas and some breadsticks from Bakugou's favorite nearby pizza place—the one he and Kirishima had gone on one of their first dates to—and he was more than happy to eat half of one all by himself. When they teased him about it, his prompt response was, "Shut the fuck up, 's my birthday," around a large bite.

The cake they'd been talking about before was chocolate, and not only that, but fucking dark chocolate. With chocolate frosting. And some sort of white chocolate drizzle across it. On the top, written in orange, it said 'Happy Birthday Baku' in a sort of messy script that Kirishima almost immediately apologized for.

"It was gonna say 'Bakubro' but I kinda ran outta room."

Bakugou didn't give a fuck. There were no candles, either, and no singing. He let them cut into it and was given the first slice, insisted upon by none other than Pinky. And goddamn did that first bite taste good. Halfway through he mumbled—through a mouthful—"This cake is fucking delicious."

"Think so?" Kirishima asked. His smile was back, which somehow only made the cake taste sweeter.

"Fuck yeah. Where'd you get it?"

"Uh... actually, Mina and I made it."

Bakugou nearly dropped his fork. "...you fucking made this shit?! When?"

"Friday after school. When we were, uh... 'helping a teacher'."

Bakugou'd be fucking damned. He had a boyfriend who was sweeter than fucking syrup, who was thoughtful as shit, a talented-as-fuck artist, kinder than anybody he'd ever known, could actually cook some decent meals, didn't invade his space or privacy, was a perfect fucking gentleman by holding doors and asking for permission before holding his hand or kissing him, and he could make the best goddamn chocolate cake Bakugou had ever had the pleasure of stuffing his face with.

He couldn't help but reach over, take Kirishima by the jaw, and plant his kiss right to his lips despite the other just having taken a bite. He stiffened for a split second and then relaxed, kissing back as best he could with cake in his mouth, and laughed quietly.

"You're welcome," he said.

"You guys are too damn cute," Mina sighed from where she sat on the end of the table.

"Hurry up and eat your cake, guys. I wanna get to the presents," Sero said.

Bakugou hated opening presents—always had. It wasn't that he didn't like getting shit, but he hated being the center of attention, hated having cameras and shit pointed at him and people beckoning him to look at them while he was in the middle of ripping open wrapping paper or tearing into some sort of bag. Fortunately, this wasn't exactly like that. Everything was in one big birthday bag, wrapped in different pieces of tissue paper that he had zero trouble getting into.

He got everything from a new video game (from Sero) to new piercing jewelry (from Jirou, which explained why Dumb Hair was asking him what sizes he wore a couple of weeks back), to waterproof eyeliner (from Mina, who insisted, "It's actually waterproof. Promise. I wear it while dancing all the time and never sweat it off.") and a gift card that could be used anywhere along with a birthday card with a stupid joke inside from Kaminari. Jirou immediately gave him shit for it, saying, "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you to get your gift on your own."

"What?" he said defensively. "The card's funny, and he can get whatever he wants now!"

Kirishima's little wrapped up tissue paper was by far the smallest, but of course the one he was most excited to open. He was careful with it, too, unlike the way he'd been with the others', until he unraveled it enough to discover a beaded necklace chain, the beads only on the lower half being long and black with small silver spheres in between. They were thin and delicate, hanging off of a black cord tied into two knots at the end. Hanging from the other side was something triangular, sort of off-white and pointed, only a little shorter than his thumb and slightly grooved on two of its edges.

As he was studying it carefully, Kirishima said, "It's a shark tooth. And I put the beads on the necklace myself since I couldn't find any sort of chain that suited you at the store."

Of course you did, you thoughtful little shit, Bakugou was thinking as Kirishima went on, "It's kinda to match mine." He lifted up the dog tag from where it always hung over his chest. "But 's not exact 'cause I didn't think you'd wanna match all the time."

"Why're there two knots?" Bakugou mumbled, fiddling with said knots.

"Oh, here! Lemme show you."

Bakugou willingly handed the necklace over to his boyfriend, under the eyes of all the others, and let him put it on over his head. Once there he tugged a bit on each knot and it tightened until it was more or less a choker with the shark tooth hanging right in the center of his collarbone.

"It's adjustable," Kirishima explained as he did so. "You just pull on the knots to tighten or loosen it."

Bakugou reached up to thumb the tooth that was surprisingly smooth. "Shit," he mumbled. "It fits perfectly like this."

"Ya like it?"

"Obviously."

"I think it suits you very well," Mina said in that weird, gushy way she sometimes did. "Especially 'cause it's something Kiri made."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Kirishima said, grabbing his phone from the table. "That's only half of my present. The other's this..." He navigated his way somewhere until he found what he was looking for and held the phone out. On the screen was what could only be a gift certificate of—shit, a fucking tattoo parlor. It was worth $200 and was from the shop they'd stumbled across over spring break; Bakugou had checked out the art and had been dying to go there ever since.

"Are you fucking serious?" he asked, taking the phone.

"What is it?!" Mina half-gasped, as the other four jumped up to crowd around them and see the screen.

"Leave it to Kirishima to one-up all of us," Jirou said.

"Hey, I didn't mean—" Kirishima began.

"He's s'posed to do better than you guys 'cause he's my fucking boyfriend, morons," Bakugou interrupted. "And 's not like I don't like the other shit."

"Awh, that's sweet, Bakubro," Sero cooed jokingly. "We love you, too."

"Shut up!"

"Guys, guys, calm down!" Kirishima laughed. "It wasn't a competition. 'Sides, I think it's dark enough to start fireworks."

"Hell yeah!" Sero shouted.

Kirishima only laughed at the scowl Bakugou sported as the others moved away to get the fireworks.

They left Jirou and Mina in charge of lighting the fireworks, seeing as Kirishima wanted to sit back with Bakugou and Sero and Kaminari weren't trusted to do it responsibly.

In the end they weren't much, but Bakugou had to admit they were nice while they lasted and while he'd never say it out loud, he appreciated that these losers went out of their way to do this shit for him. He found he was looking more at Kirishima than the fireworks, anyway, who was grinning the whole time as he watched them with a stupidly adorable expression of awe on his face.

As they were headed back to campus soon after, Kirishima and Bakugou hung back from the others, strolling along the sidewalk hand in hand. They were in no hurry, which was good—it gave Bakugou time to figure out a way to thank Dumb Hair.

"So did ya have a good birthday?" Kirishima asked before he could think of something.

"For once, yeah."

"Awesome. I met my goal, then."

"Hmph. You're too damn much sometimes."

"Am I?"

"...no. Yes. Whatever. Thanks."

"Wait, what? I'm confused."

"I'm... fucking thanking you, Hair for Brains. For doing all this shit."

"Of course, man. It's no big deal at all."

"To me it is."

"Hey," Kirishima said with a shrug, "if you're happy, I'm happy. That's all that matters, right."

"...whatever, Shitty Hair. Would you just fucking kiss me already?"

"My pleasure."

And that Kirishima did.

---

I'm deadass blown away by how fast this story has grown, like holy shit. I never imagined it'd get this many reads and stuff?? You guys are a m a z i n g, thank you so much ToT <3